Sir William Edward Parry

“ The disgust which our seaman could not help expressing at this sight seemed to create in the Esquimaux the most malicious amusement; and when our people turned away, literally unable to bear the sight without being sick, they would, as a good joke among themselves, run after them, holding out a piece of blubber or raw seal's flesh dripping with oil and filth, as if inviting them to partake of it. ”

“ It is impossible to conceive a more helpless situation than that of a ship thus beset, when all the power that can be applied will not alter the direction of her head a single degree of the compass.
A large black whale, being the first, was seen near the ships. It is usual for these animals to descend head foremost, displaying the broad fork of their enormous tail above the surface of the water; but, on this occasion, the ice was so close as not to admit of this mode of descent, and the fish went down tail foremost, to the great amusement of our Greenland sailors. ”

“ We made little way on the 3d, but being favoured at length by the easterly breeze which was bringing up the Griper, and for which we had long been looking with much impatience, a crowd of sail was set to carry us with all rapidity to the westward. It is more easy to imagine than to describe the almost breathless anxiety which was now visible in every countenance, while, as the breeze continued to a fresh gale, we ran quickly up the sound. ”

“ The day was beautifully clear, the sea open as far as the eye could stretch to the northward, and the "busy hum" of our people's voices could at times be heard mingling with the cheerful though fantastic songs with which the Greenland sailors are accustomed at once to beguile their labour, and to keep the necessary time in the action of sawing the ice. ”

“ Almost all the men were out; and some of them had been led so far to sea upon the floating and detached masses of ice in pursuit of walruses, that Captain Lyon, who observed their situation from the ships, had it in contemplation, in the course of the evening, to launch one of the small boats to go to their assistance. They seemed, however, to entertain no apprehensions themselves, from a confidence, perhaps, that the southeast wind might be depended upon for keeping the ice close home upon the shore. ”

“ So much snowdrift had now collected about the huts, that their external appearance was as much altered as that of the interior, and it was difficult to trace any resemblance to the original village, or even to perceive its present limits. The snow was now as high as the roofs on every side, so that one might walk completely over them, and, but for the round plates of ice composing the windows, without suspecting the little hive of human beings that was comfortably established below. ”

“ Early in the morning the Esquimaux had been observed in motion at the huts; and several sledges, drawn by dogs and heavily laden, went off to the westward. On going out to the village, we found one half of the people had quitted their late habitations, taking with them every article of their property, and had gone over the ice, we knew not where, in quest of more abundant food. The wretched appearance which the interior of the huts now presented baffles all description. ”

“ I calculated upon the sea being navigable for six weeks to come, and probably more, if the state of the ice would permit us to edge away to the southward in our progress westerly: our prospects, indeed, were truly exhilarating; the ships had suffered no injury; we had plenty of provisions; crews in high health and spirits; a sea, if not open, at least navigable; and a zealous and unanimous determination, in both officers and men, to accomplish, by all possible means, the grand object on which we had the happiness to be employed. ”

“ Having arrived off Cape Providence at eleven P.M., the wind became light and baffling, so that we had just got far enough to see that there was a free and open channel beyond the westernmost point visible of Melville Island, when our progress was almost entirely stopped for want of a breeze to enable us to take advantage of it. The anxiety which such a detention occasions in a sea where, without any apparent cause, the ice frequently closes the shore in the most sudden manner, can perhaps only be conceived by those who have experienced it. ”

“ We had before this time communicated to Ayoket and his countrymen our intention of sending a party of our people to the northward in the spring; and Captain Lyon had displayed to him all the charms of a brightly-polished brass kettle, of greater magnitude than had, perhaps, ever entered into an Esquimaux imagination, as an inducement, among various others, for him to accompany the Kabloonas in their excursion. The prospect of such riches was a temptation almost irresistible; but enterprise is not the genius of an Esquimaux ”

“ The wind increasing to a fresh gale from the northward in the afternoon, and the ice still continuing to oppose an impenetrable barrier to our farther progress, I determined to beat up to the northern shore of the bay, and, if a tolerable roadstead could be found, to drop our anchors till some change should take place. ”

“ The weather was beautifully calm and clear on the 13th, when, being near an opening in the eastern shore, I took the opportunity of examining it in a boat. It proved to be a bay, a mile wide at its entrance, and three miles deep in an E.b.S. direction, having a small but snug cove on the north side, formed by an island, between which and the main land is a bar of rocks, which completely shelters the cove from sea or drift ice. We found the water so deep, that in rowing close along the shore we could seldom get bottom with seven fathoms of line. ”

“ The ice to the west and southwest was as solid and compact, to all appearance, as so much land; to which, indeed, the surface of so many fields, from the kind of hill and dale I have before endeavoured to describe, bore no imperfect resemblance. I have no doubt that, had it been our object to circumnavigate Melville Island, or, on the other hand, had the coast continued its westerly direction instead of turning to the northward, we should still have contrived to proceed a little occasionally, as opportunities offered, notwithstanding the increased obstruction which here presented itself ”

“ I was the more inclined to make this attempt, from its having long become evident to us that the navigation of this part of the Polar Sea is only to be performed by watching the occasional openings between the ice and the shore; and that, therefore, a continuity of land is essential, if not absolutely necessary, for this purpose. Such a continuity of land, which was here about to fail us, must necessarily be furnished by the northern coast of America, in whatsoever latitude it may be found ”

“ Impatient and anxious as we were to make the most of the short remainder of the present season, our mortification will easily be imagined at perceiving, on the morning of the 9th, not only that the ice was as close as ever to the westward, but that the floes in our immediate neighbourhood were sensibly approaching the shore. As there was no chance, therefore, of our being enabled to move, I sent a party on shore at daylight to collect what coal they could find, and in the course of the day, nearly two thirds of a bushel, being about equal to the Hecla's daily expenditure, was brought on board. ”

“ The navigable channel, with a beating wind between the ice and the land, was here from one to two, or two miles and a half in width; and this seemed, from the masthead, to continue as far as the eye could reach along shore to the westward.
We found the wind much more westerly after we rounded the point, which made our progress slow and tedious; the more so, as we had every minute to luff for one piece of ice and to bear up for another, by which much ground was unavoidably lost. ”

“ We therefore brought down some of the boats to the ships to repair, put up the forge on the ice, and built a snow house over it, and set about various other jobs, which made the neighbourhood of the ships assume a busy and bustling appearance.
I had to-day a visit from Okotook and Iligliuk, who, with their son, came in upon their sledge from the distant huts. Being desirous of entertaining them well, in return for their late hospitality, we provided abundance to eat, and showed them everything about the ship that we thought likely to amuse them. ”

“ This was, indeed, a most inclement day, the temperature of the atmosphere having for the first time fallen to -27°, accompanied by a fresh wind from the northward and westward.
A great squeezing of the young floes took place at the S.E. point of the island on the 12th. The noise it makes when heard at a distance very much resembles that of a heavy wagon labouring over a deep gravelly road; but, when a nearer approach is made, it is more like the growling of wild animals, for which it was in one or two instances mistaken. ”

“ Wellington Channel, to the northward of us, was as open and navigable to the utmost extent of our view as any part of the Atlantic; but as it lay at right angles to our coarse, and there was still an opening at least ten leagues wide to the southward of Cornwallis Island, I could have no hesitation in deciding which of the two it was our business to pursue. It is impossible to conceive anything more animating than the quick and unobstructed run with which we were favoured, from Beechey Island across to Cape Hotham. ”

“ Small as our actual advance had been towards Behring's Strait, the extent of coast newly discovered and minutely explored in pursuit of our object, in the course of the last eight weeks, amounted to more than two hundred leagues, nearly half of which belonged to the Continent of North America. This service, notwithstanding our constant exposure to the risks which intricate, shoal, and unknown channels, a sea loaded with ice, and a rapid tide concurred in presenting, had providentially been effected without injury to the ships, or suffering to the officers and men ”

“ As we could no longer see a hundred yards around us in any direction, nothing was to be done but to make the ships fast to the largest piece of ice we could find, which we accordingly did at two P.M., in one hundred and fifty-eight fathoms. Just before dark the fog cleared away for a few minutes, when, perceiving that the wind, which was now increasing, was likely to drift us too near the islands, we took advantage of the clear interval to run a mile farther from the land for the night, where we again made fast to a large floe-piece in two hundred fathoms. ”

“ Upon the whole, these people may be considered in possession of every necessary of life, as well as of most of the comforts and conveniences which can be enjoyed in so rude a state of society. In the situation and circumstances in which the Esquimaux of North Greenland are placed, there is much to excite compassion for the low state to which human nature appears to be there reduced; a state in few respects superior to that of the bear or the seal which they kill for their subsistence. ”

“ About noon on the 2d, Captain Lyon observed a considerable body of snow taken up by the wind and whirled round in a spiral form like that of a water-spout, though with us the breeze was quite light at the time. It increased gradually in size till lost behind the southeast point. As a proof of the difficulty which the hares must find in obtaining subsistence during the winter, these animals were at this time in the habit of coming alongside the ships upon the ice to pick up what they could from our rubbish-heaps. ”

“ At six P.M., having beat up within five or six miles of the entrance of the strait, and being anxious to sound the channel, which appeared narrow, but without any ice in it to offer us obstruction, I left the ship in the gig, accompanied by Mr. Ross, for this purpose.
The part of Southampton Island on which we landed is about a thousand feet high, and composed of gneiss. Every here and there along the shore, between the projecting points of rocks, is a small cove or bay, having a beach composed of small pieces of limestone, which make the water almost as white as milk. ”

“ These insects were found to be still as numerous as ever in any hole we made in the ice; and such was the extreme avidity with which they immediately seized upon any meat put overboard, to thaw or soak for the sake of freshness, that Captain Lyon to-day sent me a goose to look at, belonging to the officers of the Hecla, that had been thus deposited within their reach only eight and forty hours, and from which they had eaten every ounce of meat, leaving only a skeleton most delicately cleaned. ”

“ I went away in a boat early on the morning of the 25th, in order to sound the harbour in those parts where the ice would admit the boat, with a view to take advantage of the first favourable change which might present itself. The wind having come round to the southward in the afternoon, caused the separation of a large portion of ice on the northern side of that which now occupied the harbour, and the detached pieces drifting down towards us, rendered it necessary to be on our guard, lest the ships should be forced from their anchorage. ”

“ A quantity of the blubber was put into casks, as a winter's supply of lamp-oil.
A large bear being seen on a piece of ice, near which we were passing on the 10th, a boat was despatched in pursuit, and our people succeeded in killing and towing it on board. As these animals sink immediately on being mortally wounded, some dexterity is requisite to secure them, by first throwing a rope over the neck, at which many of the Greenland seamen are remarkably expert. ”

“ On rounding the reef, on which a quantity of heavy ice was lying aground, we found that a continuous floe, four or five inches in thickness, was formed over the whole harbour, which in every other respect appeared to be fit for our purpose; and that it would be necessary to cut a canal of two miles in length through the ice, in order to get the ships into a secure situation for the winter. We sounded the channel into the harbour about three quarters of a mile, by making holes in the ice and dropping the lead through, and found the depth from five to six fathoms. ”

“ What happened with us was simply this: on the opening of the doors at the top and bottom of our hatchway ladders, the vapour was immediately condensed, by the sudden admission of the cold air, into a visible form, exactly resembling a very thick smoke, which settled on all the panels of the doors and bulkheads, and immediately froze, by which means the latter were covered with a thick coating of ice, which it was necessary frequently to scrape off; but we never, to my knowledge, saw the conversion of the vapour into snow during its fall. ”

“ On the 21st we had nothing to impede our progress but the want of wind, the great opening through, which we had hitherto proceeded from Baffin's Bay being now so perfectly clear of ice, that it was impossible to believe it to be the same part of the sea, which, but a day or two before, had been completely covered with floes to the utmost extent of our view. ”

“ In the forenoon an oomiak also came from the shore, and as no intercourse with them was permitted till after divine service, they became very impatient to barter their commodities, and walked on the ice alongside the ships, with a number of trifling things in their hands, vociferating "pilletay" to such a degree that we could hardly hear ourselves speak. Some more oil was obtained in exchange for pieces of iron hoop, and, at a quarter before noon, the wind coming more to the southward, and the ice being somewhat less close than before, we cast off and made sail up the strait. ”

“ These animals were always very shy of coming near our people; and though evidently suffering much from hunger, never attempted to attack any of them. The white foxes used also to visit the ships at night, and one of these was caught in a trap set under the Griper's bows. The uneasiness displayed by this beautiful little animal during the time of his confinement, whenever he heard the howling of a wolf near the ships, impressed us with the opinion that the latter is in the habit of hunting the fox as his prey. ”

“ When all was ready, and some other valuable presents had been added to their stock by Captain Lyon, they proceeded to the northward, the women assisting to drag the sledge, for they had only one large dog and one puppy. On taking their departure, these good-humoured and ever-cheerful people greeted us with three cheers in the true Kabloona style, a mode of salutation they had observed once or twice among us, and frequently practised for their amusement and ours. ”

“ On returning from the upper part of the harbour, where I had marked out what appeared to be the best situation for our winter-quarters, I found that considerable progress had been made in cutting the canal and in floating the pieces out of it. To facilitate the latter part of the process, the seamen, who are always fond of doing things in their own way, took advantage of a fresh northerly breeze, by setting some boats sails upon the pieces of ice, a contrivance which saved both time and labour. ”

“ When to the ordinary difficulties which the navigation of the Polar Seas presents were superadded the disadvantages of a temperature at or near zero, its necessary concomitant the young ice, and twelve hours of darkness daily, it was impossible any longer to entertain a doubt of the expediency of immediately placing the ships in the best security that could be found for them during the winter, rather than run the risk of being permanently detached from the land by an endeavour to regain the continent. ”