CH, XXIII] 
Parry and his School 
217 
The Arctic ships were accompanied by a transport 
which filled them up at the Whale Fish Islands in Disco 
Bay. Here, on one of the smallest islets, the observatory 
was set up, and Lieut. Foster set to work with his mag- 
netic instruments. Captain Parry and Hoppner went in 
a boat to the Danish settlement of Lievely on Disco 
Island, where they made the acquaintance of Lieut. 
Graah, the explorer of East Greenland. 
On reaching the ice, Parry again resolved to attempt 
the middle pack, but this time he was doomed to dis- 
appointment. The ice was closely packed, and for 
upwards of 40 days they were battling with it. At 
length they reached Lancaster Sound, but it was late 
in September before they entered Prince Regent's Inlet. 
Parry resolved to take up winter quarters on the east 
side, in Port Bowen, which he had discovered in 1819. 
As at Melville Island there was a very well attended 
school under the superintendence of Mr Hooper, the 
Purser, and Captain Parry was convinced that to the 
moral effect it produced on the minds of the men were 
owing their cheerfulness, good order, and in some measure 
the excellent state of health which prevailed through 
the winter. At Captain Hoppner's suggestion there was 
a change in the amusements. Masquerades were sub- 
stituted for theatricals and with great success. In the 
spring there were some travelling parties. Captain 
Hoppner got over some very difficult country inland, 
Ross and Sherer went north and south. But the great 
event was the capture of a a payable ,} whale by these 
two redoubtable young Arctics, who had also achieved 
a similar success during Parry's second voyage. 
Preston, was born in 1796. He was a midshipman in the Conway with 
Captain Basil Hall on the Pacific Station, an excellent school for young 
officers ; then in the Griper with Clavering, Assistant Surveyor in Parry's 
third voyage, and in the voyage of 1827, when he explored Hinlopen Strait. 
His magnetic work was published in the Philosophical Transactions of 
1826, for which he received the Copley Medal of the Royal Society. In 
1827 he became a Commander, and the Duke of Clarence gave him the 
command of a discovery ship owing to his exceptionally high scientific 
attainments. He commissioned the Chanticleer in 1827 with Horatio 
T. Austin as his first Lieutenant. Foster was chiefly engaged in pendulum 
observations, going as far south as the South Shetlands and surveying 
Staten Island. He was drowned in the Chagres river, when engaged in 
determining the meridian distance between Chagres and Panama on 
February 5th, 1833. The polar story would be incomplete without a 
notice of one of the most distinguished of Arctic scientific officers. 
