by CAPT. W. E. PARRY, R.N., F.R.S., and commander of the expedition . CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited : LONDON , PARIS , NEW YORK & MELBOURNE . 1889....

William Edward Parry, the son of a physician, was born at Bath in December, 1790.  At the age of thirteen he was entered as a first-class volunteer on board the flag-ship of the Channel fleet, and after seven years’ service and careful study of his profession he obtained a commission in 1810 as lieutenant in the navy.  He was then at once, aged twenty, sent to the Arctic seas, where he was during two or three years in command of a ship for protection of the British whale fisheries and for revisi

Notwithstanding the want of success of the late Expedition to the Polar Seas, it was resolved to make another attempt to effect a passage by sea, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  The chief attentions in the equipment of the present expedition consisted in the placing of Sylvester’s warming stove in the very bottom of the ship’s hold, in substituting a small quantity of salt beef for a part of the pork, and in furnishing a much larger supply of newly corned beef.  Preserved carrots and p

Passage to the Whale-fish Islands, and Removal of Stores from the Transport—Enter the Ice in Baffin’s Bay—Difficulties of Penetrating to the Westward—Quit the Ice in Baffin’s Bay—Remarks on the Obstructions encountered by the Ships, and on the Severity of the Season. The equipment of the Hecla and Fury , and the loading of the William Harris transport, being completed, we began to move down the river from Deptford on the 8th of May, 1824, and on the 10th, by the assistance of the steamboat, the

Enter Sir James Lancaster’s Sound—Land at Cape Warrender—Meet with young ice—Ships beset and carried near the shore—Driven back to Navy-board Inlet—Run to the westward, and enter Prince Regent’s Inlet—Arrival at Port Bowen. All our past obstacles were in a moment forgotten when we once more saw an open sea before us; but it must be confessed that it was not so easy to forget that the middle of September was already near at hand, without having brought us even to the entrance of Sir James Lancast

Winter Arrangements—Improvements in Warming and Ventilating the Ships—Masquerades adopted as an Amusement to the Men—Establishment of Schools—Astronomical Observations—Meteorological Phenomena. October .—Our present winter arrangements so closely resembled, in general, those before adopted, that a fresh description of them here would prove little more than a repetition of that already contained in the narratives of our former voyages.  On each succeeding occasion, however, some improvements were

Meteorological Phenomena continued—Re-equipment of the Ships—Several Journeys undertaken—Open Water in the Offing—Commence sawing a Canal to liberate the Ships—Disruption of the Ice—Departure from Port Bowen. The height of the land about Port Bowen deprived us longer than usual of the sun’s presence above our horizon.  Some of our gentlemen, indeed, who ascended a high hill for the purpose, caught a glimpse of him on the 2nd of February; on the 15th it became visible at the observatory, but at t

Sail over towards the Western Coast of Prince Regent’s Inlet—Stopped by the Ice—Reach the Shore about Cape Seppings—Favourable Progress along the Land—Fresh and repeated Obstructions from Ice—Both Ships driven on Shore—Fury seriously damaged—Unsuccessful Search for a Harbour for heaving her down to repair. July 20.—On standing out to sea, we sailed with a light southerly wind towards the western shore of Prince Regent’s Inlet, which it was my first wish to gain, on account of the evident advanta

Formation of a Basin for heaving the Fury down—Landing of the Fury’s Stores, and other preparations—The Ships secured within the Basin—Impediments from the pressure of the Ice—Fury hove down—Securities of the Basin destroyed by a Gale of Wind—Preparations to tow the Fury out—Hecla re-equipped, and obliged to put to Sea—Fury again driven on Shore—Rejoin the Fury; and find it necessary finally to abandon her. As there was now no longer room for floating the ice out of our proposed basin, all hands

Some Remarks upon the loss of the Fury—And on the Natural History, &c., of the Coast of North Somerset—Arrive at Neill’s Harbour—Death of John Page—Leave Neill’s Harbour—Recross the Ice in Baffin’s Bay—Heavy Gales—Aurora Borealis—Temperature of the Sea—Arrival in England. The accident which had now befallen the Fury , and which, when its fatal result was finally ascertained, at once put an end to every prospect of success in the main object of this voyage, is not an event which will exci

More particularly of Winter Island and Igloolik. The number of individuals composing the tribe of Esquimaux assembled at Winter Island and Igloolik was two hundred and nineteen, of whom sixty-nine were men, seventy-seven women, and seventy-three children.  Two or three of the men, from their appearance and infirmities, as well as from the age of their children, must have been near seventy; the rest were from twenty to about fifty.  The majority of the women were comparatively young, or from twen