Further Particulars.

About the middle of May 1827, the Hecla, after forcing her way through the barrier of ice which commonly at that season opposes the passage of ships to the northward, reached an open space of clear water, several leagues wide, between the ice and the north end of Charles's Foreland; and sailed round Hakluyt's Headland into the northern entrance of Smerenburg Harbour, which was found closed by one unbroken floe of ice, still firmly attached to the land on every side. To this ice the Hecla was made fast, with the intention of sawing the ship into harbour; a violent gale, however, from the southward, broke away the ice at the margin, and the ship drifted, but was fortunately run into a smooth place which presented itself in the pack or main ice.

Shortly after this, the wind shifted to the northwestward, and the ice closed upon the land, preventing the escape of the Hecla, and drifting her considerably to the eastward, near Red Beach. Here the ship remained beset with ice for several days, at the distance of about five miles from the land, without any clear water in sight.

About the first week in June, a southerly gale drove the ice off the land, and the Hecla got into open water off Waygatz Strait, after being twentyfour days hemmed in. Anxious search was now made for a harbour; but the whole coast was perfectly inaccessible, on account of the ice being firmly attached to the shores in every part.

Captain Parry therefore sailed towards the Seven Islands, hoping to find them more clear from ice, and to discover among them some shelter for the ship; but on arriving at Walden Island, the shores were there also found entirely blocked up by the same obstacle. Captain Parry now proceeded to the northward, among loose and very broken ice, to lat. 81 deg. 5 min. 32 sec., being in long. 19 deg. 34 min. east, and might have advanced some miles farther to the north

ward in the Hecla, but his object was, if possible, to find a safe harbour for her, and he again stood to the southward: no alteration in character, however, was to be perceived, the shores being still locked up by an impenetrable barrier of land ice. A place of shelter was, at last, discovered for the Hecla, in lat. 70 deg. 55 min., long. 16 deg. 54 min. east, which appears to answer to William Toleka Bay' of the old Dutch charts; and here, by sawing a canal for a quarter of a mile through the ice, she was placed in a secure situation.

Captain Parry left the Hecla on the evening of the 21st June, with two boats which had been constructed for the purpose; Dr. Beverley accompanied him: the other boat was under the command of Lieutenant Ross, who was accompanied by Mr. Bird; and each boat had twelve men, with a supply of provisions for seventy-one days. On leaving Table Island there was scarcely any ice in sight: the weather was remarkably fine, and the sea as smooth as a mirror.

After proceeding about ten miles, they came to a body of ice, through which, however, they sailed some distance to the northward, but were stopped by it at noon on the 24th of June, being in lat. 81 deg. 12 min. 51 sec., from which time their journey over the ice commenced. The ice across which they proceeded to the northward consisted entirely of small detached masses, sometimes just so far separated as to render it necessary to launch the boats and haul them up again-at other times, close enough for them to cross from one to the other by making bridges of the boats-occasionally joined together, so as to enable them to step across, though generally with great risk to their provisions, and in all cases requiring the most laborious exertions to allow them to make any progress. The surface of the ice also was so irregular, and so covered with deep snow, that, even when they did meet with a mass of somewhat longer extent than usual, the boats were moved with diffi

culty, and it always required two, and often three or four journeys to transport their baggage; and these journeys were by so indirect a route, that they had often to walk two miles to make good one mile of northward way. Such, indeed, were the difficulties of this travelling, that, notwithstanding the most strenuous exertions of the officers and men for eleven hours daily, their progress to the northward did not, at first, exceed two or three miles a day. Captain Parry, however, persevered, in the hope of soon reaching the main or field ice, which has always been spoken of as occurring to the north of Spitzbergen, and which Phipps (Lord Mulgrave) upon the same meridian, and even in a latitude thirty miles to the southward, described as 'flat and unbroken.'

As Captain Parry proceeded to the northward, he occasionally met with a small floe, and likewise with a few narrow holes of open water; but the greater part of his journey was over loose and rugged masses, only a few yards in extent, requiring the boats to be constantly launched and hauled up, which consumed considerable time, and proved very exhausting to the men. The quantity of fresh water on the ice was so great, that they were almost always wading through it, and their feet were consequently wet with snowwater for twelve hours out of every four and twenty, by which exposure the men suffered much from chilblains, &c. In addition, they experienced a great deal of rain, more having fallen in the course of two or three days only, than during the whole of eight previous summers which Captain Parry had passed in the polar regions,-by which their clothes, boats, and provision bags, were constantly kept in a wet state.

They soon found, that, notwithstanding the prevalence, at first, of southerly winds, the ice had so decided a tendency to drift to the southward, that they sometimes lost nearly as much while they were resting as they had gained by the preceding day's labour.

In consequence of these united obstructions, they had, on the 10th of July, only reached the latitude of 82 deg., being then in the meridian of 234 deg. east of Greenwich. Even such discouraging cir cumstances as these did not damp the zeal of Captain Parry and his party, and they still used every exertion to push to the northward, in the confident hope of at length meeting with the field ice, and of then making progress in some degree proportioned to their exertions; for although it became but too evident that the attainment of his whole object was no longer within the scope of his resources, Captain Parry had determined to reach the highest latitude which his means would allow, and, if possible, to extend his journey beyond the eighty-third degree. As they proceeded, scarcely any improvement was found in the nature of the ice: indeed, some of the lightest and most broken which was met with during their progress, occurred in lat. 82 deg. 40 min. In this parcel, as far as the eye could reach, nothing at one time could be seen but detatched pieces of bay ice, so thin and decayed as to render it extremely dangerous to trust the provisions upon them. In passing from piece to piece of this ice, only one man could be allowed to venture near the edge at a time, for fear of breaking it; and although every care was taken, there was a constant but unavoidable risk of losing their provisions, it being often necessary to leave, for a time, their whole means of existence on a surface of ice quite full of holes, and so thin and decayed, that the smallest motion among the surrounding masses would, in an instant, have broken it up, and sent the provisions to the bottom. On one occasion, the ice over which the boats and sledges were travelling, gave way under them, by which accident they narrowly escaped the loss of all their meat, and also some lives;-one of the men was saved only by his drag-belt being attached to the sledge.

On the 22d of July, the northerly wind, from which they had been hitherto remarkably free, prevailed for several days together, giving the ice so increased a drift to the southward, that they could make little or no advance, even under circumstances, in other respects, favourable for travelling. In more than one instance Captain Parry found, by observation, that, after ten hours' labour in travelling northward, he had scarcely gained, or rather had not retained, a mile, and had sometimes even lost ground. From the 21st to the 26th of July, they had only gained one mile of northing, though they had, at least, travelled twenty-three miles in that direction; so that a southerly set, exceeding four miles a-day, had prevailed during that interval.

Under such circumstances, it was evidently in vain to struggle any longer to so little purpose; and therefore, on the 26th of July, having travelled northward thirty-five days, Captain Parry came to the conclusion, that it would be only incurring useless fatigue to the party under his command to persevere any longer in the attempt, which, on such ice as they had met, was altogether hopeless.

The highest latitude reached by Captain Parry was 82 deg. 45 min. 15 sec. upon the meridian of 20 deg. east of Greenwich; to attain which, he and his party had traversed 292 miles; but taking into account the number of times they had to return for the boats and baggage in the course of every journey over the ice, in consequence of its broken and rugged surface, the computation of their actual travelling up to this point is 580 geographical, or 668 statute miles. If the ice had been of the nature anticipated, they could • easily have accomplished the average of fifteen miles a-day.

In returning, the party experienced precisely the same kind of travelling as in proceeding northwards; but they now not merely retained whatever distance