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lent health, and were blessed with good spirits, and zeal for the renewal of their arduous exertions in the sum

mer.

No signs of scurvy, the usual plague of such voyages, had occurred, and by the plans of Captain Parry, as carried out on the former voyage, a sufficiency of mustard and cress was raised between decks to afford all hands a salad once, and sometimes twice a week. The cold now became intense. Wine froze in the bottles. Port was congealed into thin pink lamina, which lay loosely, and occupied the whole length of the bottle. White wine, on the contrary, froze into a solid and perfectly transparent mass, resembling amber.

On the 1st of February the monotony of their life was varied by the arrival of a large party of Esquimaux, and an interchange of visits thenceforward took place with this tribe, which, singularly enough, were proverbial for their honesty. Ultimately, however, they began to display some thievish propensities, for on one evening in March a most shocking theft was committed, which was no less than the last piece of English corned beef from the midshipmen's mess. Had it been an 181b. carronade, or even one of the anchors, the thieves would have been welcome to it; but to purloin English beef in such a country was unpardonable.

On the 15th of March Captain Lyon, Lieutenant Palmer, and a party of men, left the ship, with provisions, tents, &c., in a large sledge, for an excursion of three or four days, to examine the land in the neighborhood of the ships.

The first night's encampment was anything but comfortable. Their tent they found so cold, that it was determined to make a cavern in the snow to sleep in ; and digging this afforded so good an opportunity of warming themselves, that the only shovel was lent from one to the other as a particular favor. After digging it of sufficient size to contain them all in a sitting posture, by means of the smoke of a fire they managed to raise the temperature to 20°, and, closing the entrance

with blocks of snow, crept into their blanket bags and tried to sleep, with the pleasant reflection that their roof might fall in and bury them all, and that their one spade was the only means of liberation after a night's drift of snow.

They woke next morning to encounter a heavy gale and drift, and found their sledge so embedded in the snow that they could not get at it, and in the attempt their faces and extremities were most painfully frostbitten. The thermometer was at 32° below zero; they could not, moreover, see a yard of the road; yet to remain appeared worse than to go forward-the last plan was, therefore, decided on. The tent, sledge, and luggage were left behind, and with only a few pounds of bread, a little rum, and a spade, the party again set out; and in order to depict their sufferings, I must take up the narrative as related by the commander himself:

"Not knowing where to go, we wandered among the heavy hummocks of ice, and suffering from cold, fatigue and anxiety, were soon completely bewildered. Several of our party now began to exhibit symptoms of that horrid kind of insensibility which is the prelude to sleep. They all professed extreme willingness to do what they were told in order to keep in exercise, but none obeyed; on the contrary, they reeled about like drunken men. The faces of several were severely frost-bitten, and some had for a considerable time lost sensation in their fingers and toes; yet they made not the slightest exertion to rub the parts affected, and even discontinued their general custom of warming each other on observing a discoloration of the skin. Mr. Palmer employed the people in building a snow wall, ostensibly as a shelter from the wind, but in fact to give them exercise, when standing still must have proved fatal to men in our circumstances. My attention was exclusively directed to Sergeant Speckman, who, having been repeatedly warned that his nose was frozen, had paid no attention to it, owing to the state of stupefaction into which he had fallen. The frostbite had now extended over one side of his face, which

was frozen as hard as a mask; the eyelids were stiff, and one corner of the upper lip so drawn up as to expose the teeth and gums. My hands being still warm, I had the happiness of restoring the circulation, after which I used all my endeavors to keep the poor fellow in motion; but he complained sadly of giddiness and dimness of sight, and was so weak as to be unable to walk without assistance. His case was so alarming, that I expected every moment he would lie down, never to rise again.

"Our prospect now became every moment more gloomy, and it was but too probable that four of our party would be unable to survive another hour. Mr. Palmer, however, endeavored, as well as myself, to cheer the people up, but it was a faint attempt, as we had not a single hope to give them. Every piece of ice, or even of small rock or stone, was now supposed to be the ships, and we had great difficulty in preventing the men from running to the different objects which attracted them, and consequently losing themselves in the drift. In this state, while Mr. Palmer was running round us to warm himself, he suddenly pitched on a new beaten track, and as exercise was indispensable, we determined on following it, wherever it might lead us. Having taken the Sergeant under my coat, he recovered a little, and we moved onward, when to our infinite joy we found that the path led to the ships."

As the result of this exposure, one man had two of his fingers so badly frost-bitten as to lose a good deal of the flesh of the upper ends, and for many days it was feared that he would be obliged to have them amputated. Quarter-master Carr, one of those who had been the most hardy while in the air, fainted twice on getting below, and every one had severe frost-bites in different parts of the body, which recovered after the usual loss of skin in these cases.

One of the Esquimaux females, by name Igloolik, who plays a conspicuous part in the narrative, was a general favorite, being possessed of a large fund of useful information, having a good voice and ear for

music, being an excellent seamstress, and having such a good idea of the hydrography and bearings of the neighboring sea-coasts, as to draw charts which guided Parry much in his future operations, for he found her sketches to be in the main correct. She connected the and from their winter quarters to the northwest sea, rounding and terminating the northern extremity of this part of America, by a large island, and a strait of sufficient magnitude to afford a safe passage for the ships. This little northwest passage, observes Lyon, set us all castle-building, and we already fancied the worst part of our voyage over; or, at all events, that before half the ensuing summer was past, we should arrive at Akkoolee, the Esquimaux settlement on the western shore. Half-way between that coast and Re pulse Bay, Igloolik drew on her chart a lake of considerable size, having small streams running from it to the sea, on each side; and the correctness of this information was fully proved by Rae in his recent expedi tion in 1846.

On the 13th of April their Esquimaux friends took their departure for other quarters; towards the end of the month the crews completed the cutting of trenches round the vessels, in order that they might rise to their proper bearings previous to working in the holds, and the ships floated like corks on their native element, after their long imprisonment of 191 days. As the season appeared to be improving, another land expedition was determined on, and Captain Lyon and Lieutenant Palmer, attended by a party of eight men, set off on the 8th of May, taking with them twenty days' provisions. Each man drew on a sledge 126 lbs., and the officers 95 lbs. a-piece.

"Loaded as we were," says the leader, "it was with the greatest difficulty we made our way among and over the hummocks, ourselves and sledges taking some very unpleasant tumbles. It required two and a half hours to cross the ice, although the distance was not two miles, and we then landed on a small island, where we passed the night."

Several islands and shoals in the strait were named bird's Isles. At noon on the 11th, they camped at the head of a fine bay, to which the name of Blake was given. In spite of all the care which had been taken by using crape shades, and other coverings for the eyes, five of the party became severely afflicted with snow blindness. Before evening two of the sufferers were quite blinded by the inflammation. Their faces, eyes, and even heads, being much swollen, and very red. Bathing would have afforded relief, but the sun did not produce a drop of water, and their stock of fuel being limited, they could only spare enough wood to thaw snow for their midday draught.

As the morning of the 12th brought no change in the invalids, another day was lost. Toward evening, by breaking pieces of ice, and placing them in the full glare of the sun, sufficient water was obtained, both for drinking and for the sick to bathe their faces, which afforded them amazing relief, and on the morrow they were enabled to resume their journey. At noon the sun was sufficiently powerful to afford the travelers a draught of water, without having to thaw it, as had hitherto been the case.

For nearly three days after this, they were imprisoned in their low tent by a snow-storm, but on the morning of the 18th, they were enabled to sally out to stretch their legs, and catch a glimpse of the sun. After examining many bays and indentations of the coast, the party returned to the ships on the evening of the 21st. Ă canal was now cut through the ice, to get the ships to the open water, in length 2400 feet, and varying in breadth from 60 to 197 feet. The average thickness of the ice was four feet, but in some places it was as much as twelve feet. This truly arduous task had occupied the crews for fifteen days, from six in the morning to eight in the evening; but they labored at it with the greatest spirit and good humor, and it was concluded on the 18th of June, when the officers and men began to take leave of their several haunts and promenades, particularly the "garden" of each ship, which had become favorite

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