IF THEY HAD HAD A STEAMER . 
323 
water for twelve hours out of every four-and twenty, 
I had great reason to be thankful for the excellent 
health in which, upon the whole, we reached the 
ship. 
“ There. is no doubt that we had all become, in a 
certain degree, gradually weaker for some time past; 
but only three men of our party now required medical 
care, two of them, with badly swelled legs and general 
debility, and the other from a bruise ; but even these 
three returned to their duty in a short time.” 
This enforced return of Parry is so interesting in its 
minutest details we have no scruple in our conscience 
in drawing so largely from it. It is only after a care¬ 
ful perusal of its stirring events that we cam com¬ 
prehend the regret this great man must have felt when 
at last compelled to return southwards, more especially 
since he had looked wistfully towards the northern 
sea, and could hardly detect upon its surface a floe 
large enough to float his party and boats upon, and 
the water to the southward of his position was so 
open, their progress home was through long lanes of 
water bounding thin fields of ice, so thin that they 
were incapable of offering support to the boats, and 
over water thinly covered with newly-formed films of 
ice a steamer would have found no difficulty, worthy 
of the name, in forcing a way through. And if it 
