most; and the length of the profile, in which the ice is exposed to sight, about a musket-shot.' On quitting this inlet, to which was properly given the name of Kotzebue's Sound (on the 15th of August), with a fine open sea, without the least appearance of ice on the water, or snow on the land, and with the thermometer from 8° to 12° of Reaumur (50° to 59° of Fahrenheit), the Rurick stood directly across for the Asiatic coast, 'because,' says Kotzebue, 'I wished to become acquainted with its inhabitants, and to compare them with the Americans.' This comparison had long before been made, and was certainly no object of his voyage. Here were no discoveries to be made. He stood, however, over to East Cape, and, having passed the remainder of the month of August among the Tchukutskoi, made the best of his way to Oonalaska.

The recent expeditions to the North Polar Regions seem first to have been suggested by the remarkable fact of the breaking away of an immense body of ice from the eastern coast of Greenland. It had been observed in the summer months of the year 1815,' says the able writer in the Quarterly Review, who has so constantly kept this subject before the public, and more particularly in those of 1816 and 1817, by ships coming from the West Indies and America, as well as by those going out to Halifax and Newfoundland, that islands of ice, unusual in magnitude and number, occurred in the Atlantic, many of them as far down as the fortieth parallel of latitude. Some of these were detached ice-bergs, from 100 to 130 feet above the surface of the water, and several miles in circumference; others were flat islands of packed ice, presenting so vast an extent of surface that a ship from Boston is said to have been three days entangled in it, near the tail of the Great Bank of Newfoundland. The ship of the Unitas Fratrum, proceeding to the missions on Old Greenland, was, last year, eleven days beset, on the coast of Labrador, with the ice-bergs, many of which had huge rocks upon them, gravel, soil, and pieces of wood. The packet from Halifax passed, in April last, a mountain of ice nearly 200 feet in height, and at least two miles in circumference. By accounts from Newfoundland, Halifax, and other northern ports of America, it would appear that greater quantities of ice were seen in the months of May, June, and July, than had ever been witnessed by the oldest navigators; and that the whole island of Newfoundland was so completely environed with it that the vessels employed in the fishery were unable to get out to sea to follow their usual occupations. The source from which these enormous masses proceeded could not long be concealed. It was well known to the Greenland fishermen that from Staatenhoek, the southern promontory of Old Greenland, an uninterrupted barrier of ice stretched north-easterly, or parallel nearly to the coast, approaching frequently to the very shores of Iceland; and that the small island situated in lat. 71° 11', long. 5° 30′ W., called Jan Mayen's island (a sort of land-mark which those engaged in the seal fishery always endeavour to make), had of late years been completely enveloped in ice; and that from this point it generally took a more easterly direction,

till it became fixed to the shores of Spitzbergen, from 76° to 80° of latitude. The most central parts of this immense area of ice, which occupy the mid-channel between Greenland and Spitzbergen, separate from time to time into large patches, and change their position according to winds and tides; but the general direction in which they move with the current is from northeast to south-west, or directly towards that part of Old Greenland where the Danish colonies were supposed to be established, and which are immediately opposite to Iceland. Here it would seem those masses became a kind of fixed nucleus, round which a succession of floating fields of ice attached themselves, till the accumulated barrier, probably by its own weight and magnitude, and the action of the impeded current, at length burst its fetters, and has been carried away to the southward.'

Mr. Scoresby, junior, an able navigator of the Greenland seas, had actually observed at this period 2000 square leagues (18,000 square miles) of those seas included between the parallels 70° and 80° to be perfectly void of ice, which had disappeared within the last two years.

On the whole the hopes of the country, as to the success of an expedition in search of a northwest passage, were fully revived when an active and spirited administration announced its determination to patronize the attempt. Two distinct expeditions were now therefore prepared; one, which was intended to proceed by the North Pole, as the nearest and probably the most practicable route, to Behring's Strait; the other, to attempt a passage by the openings leading west out of Baffin's Bay. To the expedition destined for the Polar passage were assigned the Dorothea, of 370 tons, commanded by captain David Buchan, and the Trent of 250 tons, by lieutenant John Franklin. To that for the North-west passage, properly so called, the Isabella of 382 tons, commanded by captain John Ross, and the Alexander of 252 tons, by lieutenant William Edward Parry. The results were not flattering. The Polar expedition returned without making a single discovery, through the Dorothea having become disabled by the ice; the other examined Baffiu's Bay, so far as to ascertain that the narrative of that navigator is substantially true; and that the chart appended to the Voyage of the North-West Fox is, in fact, the chart of Baffin, and very correct. Captain Ross, therefore, seems to have done nothing more than confirm the vague account of Baffin's voyage in Purchas's Pilgrim, leaving Sir T. Smith's Sound, Alderman James's Sound, and Lancaster Sound, unexplored with regard to the possibility of their leading to a passage.

nel of ninety miles uninterrupted length, in this direction.

The vessels selected for the new expedition were the Hecla and the Griper. The Hecla was of 375 tons burden, and, having been built as a bomb-vessel in 1815, was well adapted for stowage. She was commanded by lieutenant W. E. Parry, and had on board a ship's company of fifty-eight persons. The Griper, formerly a twelve gun brig of 180 tons, was much smaller than the Hecla; and, though her accommodations were inferior, yet she neither sailed so well as the other ship, nor was she able to carry her own supply of provisions; she was commanded by lieutenant Matthew Liddon, and had a ship's company of thirty-six persons. Both of these vessels had the whole of their outside, from the keel to some height above the water-line, covered with 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 substituted in place of cots; and planks, tarpaulins, and Russian mats, were provided for housing the ships during winter. The ballast consisted of seventy chaldrons of coals in the Hecla, and thirty-four 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 ship's crew 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.

Thus equipped, and supplied with scientific instruments of every kind, the expedition set sail from Deptford on the 4th May 1819. It passed the Orkney Islands on the 20th, and on the 15th June it descried Cape Farewell, at the great distance of forty 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 73° of latitude, without being able to observe a single opening. Unwilling to proceed to the north of Lancaster Sound, captain 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 were displayed, he succeeded on the 28th in bringing the vessels into an open sea, and, in three days more, a favorable breeze carried him across Baffin's Bay, and enabled him to land at Possession Bay, 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 nature and productions of the country; and he here witnessed human tracks in so perfect a state, that had the place been known to be frequented by man,' says Mr. F., "we should have supposed that people had been here only a few days before; but one of the men who were with me, as well as myself, remem

bered that we had been on the very same spot where the tracks were observed last year, gathering plants, so that we had not the smallest doubt of their being the remains of our own footsteps made last year; for, had any Esquimaux been at this place since we were here before, it is more than probable that they would have taken away the pole on the hill; for from what we saw of them nothing could be a greater prize for them than a piece of wood of the size of that in question."

It is

On the 2d of August the expedition was directly opposite Lancaster Sound. On the 34 they had fairly entered it, and, under the influ ence of a favorable breeze, they had, before the 4th, completely crossed the mountainous barrier, which, in a deceitful state of the atmosphere, had appeared to captain Ross to shut up this sound. The decision of this long agitated question created, as might have been expected, much interest on board, and did not fail to excite those hopes of future success which a different result would have in a great measure extinguished. more easy to imagine than to describe the almost breathless anxiety,' says captain Parry, which was now visible in every countenance, while, as the breeze increased to a fresh gale, we ran quickly up the sound. The mast-heads were crowded by the officers and men during the whole afternoon; and an unconcerned observer, if any could have been unconcerned on such an occasion, would have been amused by the eagerness with which the various reports from the crow's-nest were received, all however hitherto favorable to our most sanguine hopes.'-p. 31. The land which they passed on the 4th August, namely, from Brooking Cuming's Inlet to Cape Fellfoot, differed from any that had been previously seen. It appeared like an immense wall in ruins, rising almost perpendicularly from the sea to the height of about 500 feet. The surface of the precipice consisted of horizontal strata, some of which projected farther out than the rest, detaining the debris of the superincumbent rocks, and forming a succession of taluses of different inclinations. The precipices thus assumed a variety of shapes and sizes, and the whole of this bold coast had a very interesting appearance. On the 5th August, when they had nearly reached Prince Leopold's Isles, their progress to the west was completely checked by a compact body of ice, which it was impossible to penetrate. They had, therefore, no choice but to wait for the dissolution of this immense barrier, or to follow the open sea to the southward. They adopted this last alternative, and bent their course into the Prince Regent's Inlet. Here they encountered vast numbers both of the white and black whales, and also several sea-unicorns or narwhals.

The white or Beluga whale, the average length of which was from eighteen to twenty feet, astonished the sailors with a species of music which received the name of the whale song. . Whilst we were pursuing them to-day,' says Mr. Fisher, I noticed a circumstance that appeared to me rather extraordinary at the time, and which I have not indeed been able to account for yet to my satisfaction. The thing alluded to is a sort of whistling noise that these fish made wher

either to return to some secure harhour to the eastward, or to remain fixed during the winter, upon an exposed coast, without a bay or a headland to afford him the smallest shelter. He therefore availed himself of a fine breeze, and returned to Winter Harbour on the 24th, after experiencing very serious obstructions from the driving floes, one of which forced the Griper aground.

Winter Harbour is partly guarded from the violence of the sea by a reef of rocks at the mouth over which there is in some places scarcely a fathom of water, and between that reef and the land there is a bar, with only three fathoms and a half in some places. The harbour itself being about three miles long, it was thought proper that the ships should be stationed about half a mile from the top of it; but, the whole being completely frozen over, it was necessary to cut a canal for their passage through the solid ice.

This operation was performed by first marking out parallel lines, distant from each other a little more than the breadth of the larger ship. Along each of these lines a cut was then made with an ice-saw, and others again at right angles to them, at intervals of from ten to twenty feet; thus dividing the ice into a number of rectangular pieces, which it was again necessary to subdivide diagonally, in order to give room for their being floated out of the canal. To facilitate the latter part of the process, the seamen, who are always fond,' says captain Parry, 'of doing things in their own way, took advantage of a fresh northerly breeze, by setting some boats' sails upon the piece of ice, a contrivance which saved both time and labor. This part of the operation, however, was by far the most troublesome, principally on account of the quantity of young ice. which formed in the canal, and especially about the entrance. At half past seven P. M., we weighed our anchors, and began to warp up the canal, but the northerly wind blew so fresh, and the people were so much fatigued, having been almost constantly at work for nineteen hours, that it was midnight before we reached the termination of our first day's labor. I directed half a pound of fresh meat per man to be issued as an extra allowance, and this was continued daily till the completion of our present undertaking. All hands were again set to work on the morning of the 25th, when it was proposed to sink the pieces of ice as they were cut under the floe, instead of floating them out, the latter mode having now become impracticable, on account of the lower part of the canal through which the ships had passed being hard frozen during the night. To effect this it was necessary for a certain number of men to stand upon one end of the piece of ice which it was intended to sink, while other parties, hauling at the same time upon ropes attached to the opposite end, dragged the block under that part of the floe on which the people stood. The officers of both ships took the lead in this employ, several of them standing up to their knees in water frequently during the day, with the thermometer generally at 12°, and never higher than 16. At 6 P. M. we began to move the ships. The Griper was made fast astern, and the Hecla and the two ships' companies being divided on

each bank of the canal, with ropes from the Hecla's gangways, soon drew the ships along to the end of our second day's work. I should on every account have been glad to make this a day of rest to the officers and men; but the rapidity with which the ice increased in thickness, in proportion as the general temperature of the atmosphere diminished, would have rendered a day's delay of serious importance. I ordered the work, therefore, to be continued at the usual time in the morning, and such was the spirited and cheerful manner in which this order was complied with, as well as the skill which had now been acquired in the art of sawing and sinking the ice, that, although the thermometer was at 6o in the morning, and rose no higher than 9o during the day, we had completed the canal at noon, having effected more in four hours than in either of the two preceding days. The whole length of this canal was 4082 yards, or nearly two miles and one-third, and the average thickness of the ice was seven inches. At half past one P. M. we began to track the ships along in the same manner as before, and at a quarter past three we reached our winter quarters, and hailed the event with three loud and hearty cheers from both ships' companies.'-Captain Parry's Journal, p. 27.

The whole of the masts were now dismantled except the lower ones;-the boats, yards, masts, and rigging, were deposited in a shade erected for them on shore; and a housing raised over deck, as the covering of their winter's habitation. The sun had not entirely deserted the parallel of Winter Harbour. He still shot a few uncertain beams from the southern horizon; but even these were withdrawn on the 4th of November, and our voyagers were left in their dreary exile, with the certainty of losing the light of the sun for nearly three months, and of having only the twilight of an Arctic winter to guide them in their pursuits and amusements.

The arrangements made by captain Parry, to provide occupations for the winter, were of the most judicious description. He ordered the crew to be mustered in divisions at nine o'clock in the morning, and six o'clock in the evening of every day, in order to see that they were all clean and sober, and to afford an opportunity of examining the state of their bed-places. He esta blished a weekly newspaper, called the North Georgia Gazette and Winter Chronicle, and every fortnight the crew were amused with plays, acted by the officers, some of which were written for the occasion, with the view of inspiring a zeal and ardor for accomplishing the objects of the expedition. Frequent hunting parties were arranged, for the double purpose of amusement, and of supplying the crew with fresh provisions; and every thing was done to beguile the tedium of the winter, by keeping both the minds and bodies of the crew in a state of constant occupa tion and excitement. The following is captain Parry's description of the dreariness of external nature in these regions :

The officers were in the habit of occupying near two hours in the middle of the day in rambling on shore, even in our darkest period, except when a fresh wind and a heavy snow-drift confined them within the housing of the ships.