CAPTAIN PARRY'S EXPEDITION.
(Abridged from the Literary Gazette.)
On Saturday, September 29th, Captain Parry from his Arctic, and Captain Franklin from his North-American expedition, arrived at the Admiralty within half an hour of each other![3]
Captain Parry may himself be taken as a specimen of the health of his crew; he looks as well as when he set out on his bold undertaking.
The sum of the intelligence which has transpired is, that the Hecla having arrived at Hamerfest, took in the rein-deer for dragging the boats, snow-shoes, &c. for the journey over the ice. Having reached the coast of Spitzbergen, a heavy gale drove the ship among packed ice, where she was entangled for several weeks, to the 6th of June. Here the first effort to proceed in the manner projected was tried on two boats commanded by Captain Parry and Lieut. Ross; but the ice broke up, and it was speedily relinquished. The Hecla then wrought to the north as far as Seven Islands, where finding no harbour, she put back. By the 19th of June, however, having cut through a formidable barrier, to the Wratskel of Van Henloopen, a second attempt to get forward in the ice-boats was strenuously made. Unfortunately the ice was what is called rotten, and so irregular as to render success impossible. Nothing could exceed the fatigues and difficulties of transport; the boats had to be loaded and unloaded many times in the course of a few hours; and no field-ice was met with, to any extent, over which they might glide on their way. The party at last attained the latitude of 82 deg., and three quarters N.; or to between four and five hundred miles of the Pole. Heavy rains prevailed, and the ice over which they were travelling so laboriously towards the north, was itself drifting more rapidly to the south than the distances which they could accomplish. Thus, the last three days having been spent in this disheartening and fruitless toil,—half the provisions being exhausted,—some of the men falling sick, and being reported unfit for exertion,—the scurvy threatening them,—and no hope of any favourable change remaining—our brave countrymen were compelled to abandon their impracticable design. They accordingly returned to the Hecla, and on the 24th of September put into Longhope, in the Orkneys, without having experienced any loss by death. The whole period occupied in these exertions on the ice is stated to have been sixty-one days.
The highest latitude to which the Hecla reached was 81 deg. 6 min. believed to be the farthest north that ever a ship made her way; so that all that was made in the boats was 1 deg. 39 min. At the farthest point north, no barrier of ice was seen, so that the idea of such a barrier always existing may now be dismissed. The ice found by the present expedition was of a very chaotic form. For about a mile, perhaps, it might be tolerably smooth; but at every interval huge ridges were crushed up by the action of tides and currents. No sooner was this obstacle over, and one of these rugged and precipitous masses overcome, than another appeared. There was plenty of fresh water on the surface, but towards the end of the attempt, when the rains fell, the ridges separated, and between them the salt sea flowed like so many canals. It was found impossible to make any use of the rein-deer in dragging the boats; and as there were no means of feeding dogs (as once proposed,) the whole work was performed by personal labour. Officers and men, twenty-eight in number, were alike harnessed to the tackle, and wrought in common at the exhausting toil. Their time for stalling in the morning (their morning being the beginning of the night,) was chosen when the light was least injurious to the eyes; for though the sun shone upon them during the whole period, and there was no darkness, yet when that luminary was lowest in the horizon, the reflection from the bright white surface of snow was more endurable. They could not, however, bear up under the fatigue. During their whole march they were soaking wet to the knees, and benumbed by a temperature always at or near the freezing point. At the close of twelve or fourteen hours thus occupied, when they came to seek rest by lying down, the change of their wet for dry stockings and fur boots caused such a reaction, that the tingling and smart were insufferable.
When Captain Parry found that the men could not support their toils on the allowance, (of about nineteen ounces per twenty-four hours, of pemecan and biscuit-powder.) he added, by way of luxury, a pint of hot water at night. This was found to be very restorative, warming the system; and if a little of the dinner food had been saved, it made a broth of great relish and value. Spirits were not drank; and the reason why even hot water was scarce, was, that it took so large a stock of their spirits of wine to boil it and the cocoa, that the quantity consumed could not safely be increased.
The ice itself was drifting faster to the south than they could make their way over it to the north: thus, during the last three days of their struggle, instead of gaining a higher latitude, they were actually two miles farther south than when they set out. This put an end to the expedition where everything which human energy and perseverance could do, was done so fruitlessly.
While the boats were away, the Hecla was not exempt from dangers. She had been wrought into a snug birth near the shore. A-head there were about three miles of ice; and a heavy gale coming on, detached this prodigious mass, and drove it with terrible violence against the ship. The cables were cut asunder, the anchors lost, and the poor Hecla forced high and dry upon the coast, by the irresistible pressure. Having got her again to the water, however, they proceeded to Weygatt Straits.
It is vexatious to be forced to the conviction that any attempt to reach the North Pole is but too likely to end in disappointment; but every fresh enterprise seems to lead to this conclusion.