179 
Voyage of Discovery to the Arctic Regions. 
an extra lining of oak plank, from three to four inches thick, 
and a number of beams and additional timbers were put into the 
holds, in order to resist the pressure of approaching floes of ice. 
Their bows were also defended from the impulse of floating 
masses, by strong plates of iron. Standing bed-places were sub- 
stituted in place of cots * ; — and planks, tarpaulins and Russian 
mats, were provided for housing the ships during winter. The 
ballast consisted of 70 chaldron of coals in the Hecla, and 34 in 
the Griper. The men were also furnished by Government with 
a suit of warm clothes, and a wolfskin blanket. In order to 
preserve the health of the ships’ crews, a large quantity of Messrs 
Donkins and Gamble’s preserved meats and soups was supplied ; 
— antiscorbutics of different kinds were provided, and articles of 
utility and ornament were carried out to secure the friendship 
of the Indians or Esquimaux, or to purchase any supplies which 
the expedition might require. 
Equipped with these substantial accommodations, and sup- 
plied with scientific instruments of every kind, the expedition 
set sail from Deptford on the 4th May 1819. It passed the Ork- 
ney Islands on the 20th, and on the 15th June it descried 
Cape Farewell, at the great distance of 40 leagues. On the 3d 
July it crossed the Arctic Circle, and advanced among the ice 
on the west coast of Greenland, as high nearly as the 73d de- 
gree of latitude, without being able to observe a single opening. 
Unwilling to proceed to the north of Lancaster Sound, Cap- 
tain Parry resolved to force his way through this apparently 
interminable barrier, and after six days of laborious warping 
through the ice, in which much skill and courage was display- 
ed, he succeeded on the 28th in bringing the vessels into an 
open sea, and, in three days more, a favourable breeze carried him 
across Baffin’s Bay, and enabled him to land at Possession Bay, 
(See our chart of Captain Parry’s Discoveries, forming Plate V. 
of vol iv.), for the purpose of making magnetic observations. 
Mr Fisher, with two men, was directed to proceed up a stream 
which flows through the valley, and which is about thirty-five 
or forty yards wide at its mouth, for the purpose of observing 
* The hammocks were afterwards resumed, as being much more comfortable 
than the cots. 
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