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THREE VOYAGES FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTHWEST PASSAGE FROM THE ATLANTIC
TO THE PACIFIC, AND NARRATIVE OF AN ATTEMPT TO REACH THE NORTH POLE,
VOLUME II

by

SIR W. E. PARRY, CAPT. R.N., F.R.S.

In Two Volumes.

1844

New-York:
Harper & Brothers, 82 Cliff-Street.









CONTENTS

OF

THE SECOND VOLUME.





SECOND VOYAGE

CONTINUED.





CHAPTER X.

Departure from Winter Island.--Meet with some Esquimaux travelling
to the Northward.--Obstruction and Danger from the Ice and
Tides.--Discovery of the Barrow River, and its Fall.--Favourable
Passage to the Northward.--Arrival off the Strait of the Fury and
Hecla.--Progress opposed by a fixed barrier of Ice.--Communicate
with the Natives of Igloolik.--Unsuccessful Attempt to get between
the Ice and the Land.--Land upon the Calthorpe Islands.--The Fury
drifted by the Ice between two Islands.--Account of a Journey
performed in Sledges up an Inlet to the Westward.


CHAPTER XI.

A Whale killed.--Other Charts drawn by the Esquimaux.--Account of a
Journey to the Narrows of the Strait.--Discovery of the Sea to the
Westward.--Total Disruption of the Ice at the Eastern Entrance of
the Strait.--Instance of local Attraction on the Compasses.--Sail
through the Narrows, and again stopped by fixed Ice.--Account of
several Land Journeys and Boat Excursions.--Observations on the
Tides.--Continued Obstacles from fixed Ice.


CHAPTER XII.

A Journey performed along the South Shore of Cockburn
Island.--Confirmation of an Outlet to the Polar Sea.--Partial
Disruption of the Old Ice, and formation of New.--Return through
the Narrows to the Eastward.--Proceed to examine the Coast to the
Northeastward.--Fury's Anchor broken.--Stand over to Igloolik to
look for Winter-quarters.--Excursion to the Head of Quilliam
Creek.--Ships forced to the Westward by Gales of Wind.--A Canal
sawed through the Ice, and the Ships secured in their Winter
Station.--Continued Visits of the Esquimaux, and Arrival of some of
the Winter Island Tribe.--Proposed Plan of Operations in the ensuing
Spring.


CHAPTER XIII.

Preparations for the Winter.--Various Meteorological Phenomena to
the close of the year 1822.--Sickness among the
Esquimaux.--Meteorological Phenomena to the end of March.


CHAPTER XIV.

Various Journeys to the Esquimaux Stations.--Preparations for the
Hecla's Return to England.--Remarkable Halos, &c.--Shooting Parties
stationed at Arlagnuk.--Journeys to Quilliam Creek.--Arrival of
Esquimaux from the Northward.--Account of a Journey to the Westward
for the purpose of reaching the Polar Sea.--The Esquimaux report two
Fishing-ships having been Wrecked.--A Journey performed to Cockburn
Island.--Discovery of Murray Maxwell Inlet


CHAPTER XV.

Extraordinary Disruption of Ice in Quilliam Creek.--Some Appearance
of Scurvy among the Seamen and Marines--Discovery of Gifford
River.--Commence cutting the Ice outside the Ships to release them
from their Winter-quarters.--Considerations respecting the Return of
the Expedition to England.--Unfavourable State of the Ice at the
Eastern Entrance of the Strait.--Proceed to the Southward.--Ships
beset and drifted up Lyon Inlet.--Decease of Mr. George Fife.--Final
Release from the Ice, and Arrival in England.--Remarks upon the
practicability of a Northwest Passage.






THIRD VOYAGE


INTRODUCTION


CHAPTER I.

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.


CHAPTER II.

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.


CHAPTER III.

Winter Arrangements.--Improvements in Warming and Ventilating the
Ships.--Masquerades adopted as an Amusement to the
Men.--Establishment of Schools.--Astronomical
Observations.--Meteorological Phenomena


CHAPTER IV.

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.


CHAPTER V.

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.

CHAPTER VI.

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.


CHAPTER VII.

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.--Temperature of the Sea.--Arrival
in England.






ACCOUNT OF THE ESQUIMAUX

NARRATIVE OF AN ATTEMPT TO REACH THE NORTH POLE IN BOATS




[Illustration]







SECOND VOYAGE

FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A

NORTHWEST PASSAGE.

CONTINUED.








CHAPTER X.

Departure from Winter Island.--Meet with some Esquimaux travelling
to the Northward.--Obstruction and Danger from the Ice and
Tides.--Discovery of the Barrow River, and its Fall.--Favourable
Passage to the Northward.--Arrival off the Strait of the Fury and
Hecla.--Progress opposed by a fixed barrier of Ice.--Communicate
with the Natives of Igloolik.--Unsuccessful Attempt to get between
the Ice and the Land--Land upon the Calthorpe Islands.--The Fury
drifted by the Ice between two Islands.--Account of a Journey
performed in Sledges up an Inlet to the westward.




The gale, which had for some time been blowing from the northward,
veered to the N.W.b.W., and increased in strength on the 1st of July,
which soon began to produce the effect of drifting the ice off the land.
At six o'clock on the 2d, the report from the hill being favourable, and
the wind and weather now also sufficiently so, we moved out of our
winter's dock, which was, indeed, in part broken to pieces by the swell
that had lately set into the bay. At seven we made sail, with a fresh
breeze from W.N.W., and having cleared the rocks at the entrance of the
bay, ran quickly to the northward and eastward. The ice in the offing
was of the "hummocky" kind, and drifting rapidly about with the tides,
leaving us a navigable channel varying in width from two miles to three
or four hundred yards.

The closeness of the ice again obliging us to make fast on the 3d, we
soon after perceived a party of people with a sledge upon the land-floe.
I therefore sent Mr. Bushnan, with some of our men, to meet them and to
bring them on board, being desirous of ascertaining whereabout,
according to their geography, we now were. We found the party to
consist, as we expected, of those who had taken leave of us forty days
before on their departure to the northward, and who now readily
accompanied our people to the ships; leaving only Togolat's idiot-boy by
the sledge, tying him to a dog and the dog to the ice. As soon as they
came under the bows, they halted in a line, and, according to their
former promise, gave three cheers, which salutation a few of us on the
forecastle did not fail to return. As soon as they got on board they
expressed extreme joy at seeing us again, repeated each of our names
with great earnestness, and were, indeed, much gratified by this
unexpected encounter. Ewerat being now mounted on the plank which goes
across the gunwales of our ships for conning them conveniently among the
ice, explained, in a very clear and pilot-like manner, that the island
which we observed to lie off Cape Wilson was that marked by Iligliuk in
one of her charts, and there called _Awlikteewik_, pronounced by Ewerat
_Ow-l=itt~ee-week_. On asking how many days' journey it was still to
Amitioke, they all agreed in saying ten; and back to Winter Island
_oon=o=oktoot_ (a great many), so that we had good reason to hope we
were not far from the former place. I may at once remark, however, that
great caution is requisite in judging of the information these people
give of the distances from one place to another, as expressed by the
number of _se=eniks_ (sleeps) or days' journeys, to which, in other
countries, a definite value is affixed. No two Esquimaux will give the
same account in this respect, though each is equally desirous of
furnishing correct information; for, besides their deficiency as
arithmeticians, which renders the enumeration of ten a labour, and of
fifteen almost an impossibility to many of them, each individual forms
his idea of the distance according to the season of the year, and,
consequently, the mode of travelling in which his own journey has been
performed. Instances of this kind will be observed in the charts of the
Esquimaux, in which they not only differ from each other in this
respect, but the same individual differs from himself at different
times. It is only, therefore, by a careful comparison of the various
accounts, and by making allowances for the different circumstances under
which the journeys have been made, that these apparent inconsistencies
can be reconciled, and an approximation to the truth obtained.

Many of our officers and men cordially greeted these poor people as old
acquaintances they were glad to see again, and they were loaded, as
usual, with numerous presents, of which the only danger to be
apprehended was lest they should go mad on account of them. The women
screamed in a convulsive manner at everything they received, and cried
for five minutes together with the excess of their joy; and to the
honour of "John Bull" be it recorded, he sent by one of the men as he
left the ship a piece of sealskin, as a present to _Parree_, being the
first offering of real gratitude, and without any expectation of return,
that I had ever received from any of them. I never saw them express more
surprise than on being assured that we had left Winter Island only a
single day; a circumstance which might well excite their wonder,
considering that they had themselves been above forty in reaching our
present station. They had obtained one reindeer, and had now a large
seal on their sledge, to which we added a quantity of bread-dust, that
seemed acceptable enough to them. As our way lay in the same direction
as theirs, I would gladly have taken their whole establishment on board
the ships to convey them to Amitioke, but for the uncertain nature of
this navigation, which might eventually have put it out of my power to
land them at the precise place of their destination. The ice again
opening, we were now obliged to dismiss them, after half an hour's
visit, when, having run to the Hecla's bows to see Captain Lyon and his
people, they returned to their sledge as fast as their loads of presents
would allow them.

We continued our progress northward, contending with the flood-tide and
the drifting masses of ice; and the difficulties of such a navigation
may be conceived from the following description of what happened to us
on the 9th.

At half past eight on the morning of the 9th, a considerable space of
open water being left to the northward of us by the ice that had broken
off the preceding night, I left the Fury in a boat for the purpose of
sounding along the shore in that direction, in readiness for moving
whenever the Hecla should be enabled to rejoin us. I found the soundings
regular in almost every part, and had just landed to obtain a view from
an eminence, when I was recalled by a signal from the Fury, appointed to
inform me of the approach of any ice. On my return, I found the external
body once more in rapid motion to the southward with the flood-tide, and
assuming its usual threatening appearance. For an hour or two the Fury
was continually grazed, and sometimes heeled over by a degree of
pressure which, under any other circumstances, would not have been
considered a moderate one, but which the last two or three days'
navigation had taught us to disregard, when compared with what we had
reason almost every moment to expect. A little before noon a heavy floe,
some miles in length, being probably a part of that lately detached from
the shore, came driving down fast towards us, giving us serious reason
to apprehend some more fatal catastrophe than any we had yet
encountered. In a few minutes it came in contact, at the rate of a mile
and a half an hour, with a point of the land-ice left the preceding
night by its own separation, breaking it up with a tremendous crash, and
forcing numberless immense masses, perhaps many tons in weight, to the
height of fifty or sixty feet, from whence they again rolled down on the
inner or land side, and were quickly succeeded by a fresh supply. While
we were obliged to be quiet spectators of this grand but terrific
sight, being within five or six hundred yards of the point, the danger
to ourselves was twofold; first, lest the floe should now swing in, and
serve us much in the same manner; and, secondly, lest its pressure
should detach the land-ice to which we were secured, and thus set us
adrift and at the mercy of the tides. Happily, however, neither of these
occurred, the floe remaining stationary for the rest of the tide, and
setting off with the ebb which made soon after. In the mean while the
Hecla had been enabled to get under sail, and was making considerable
progress towards us, which determined me to move the Fury as soon as
possible from her present situation into the bight I had sounded in the
morning, where we made fast in five and a half fathoms alongside some
very heavy grounded ice, one third of a mile from a point of land lying
next to the northward of Cape Wilson, and which is low for a short
distance next the sea. At nine o'clock a large mass of ice fell off the
land-floe and struck our stern; and a "calf" lying under it, having lost
its superincumbent weight, rose to the surface with considerable force,
lifting our rudder violently in its passage, but doing no material
injury.

On the 12th, observing an opening in the land like a river, I left the
ship in a boat to examine the soundings of the coast. On approaching the
opening, we found so strong a current setting out of it as to induce me
to taste the water, which proved scarcely brackish; and a little closer
in, perfectly fresh, though the depth was from fourteen to fifteen
fathoms. As this stream was a sufficient security against any ice coming
in, I determined to anchor the ships somewhere in its neighbourhood;
and, having laid down a buoy in twelve fathoms, off the north point of
the entrance, returned on board, when I found all the boats ahead
endeavouring to tow the ships in-shore. This could be effected, however,
only by getting them across the stream of the inlet to the northern
shore; and here, finding some land-ice, the ships were secured late at
night, after several hours of extreme labour to the people in the boats.

On the morning of the 13th, the ice being still close in with the land
just to the northward of us, I determined on examining the supposed
river in the boats, and, at the same time, to try our luck with the
seines, as the place appeared a likely one for salmon. Immediately on
opening the inlet we encountered a rapid current setting outward, and,
after rowing a mile and a half to the N.W.b.W., the breadth of the
stream varying from one third of a mile to four or five hundred yards,
came to some shoal water extending quite across. Landing on the south
shore and hauling the boats up above high-water mark, we rambled up the
banks of the stream, which are low next the water, but rise almost
immediately to the height of about two hundred feet. As we proceeded we
gradually heard the noise of a fall of water; and being presently
obliged to strike more inland, as the bank became more precipitous, soon
obtained a fresh view of the stream running on a much higher level than
before, and dashing with great impetuosity down two small cataracts.
Just below this, however, where the river turns almost at a right angle,
we perceived a much greater spray, as well as a louder sound; and,
having walked a short distance down the bank, suddenly came upon the
principal fall, of whose magnificence I am at a loss to give any
adequate description. At the head of the fall, or where it commences its
principal descent, the river is contracted to about one hundred and
fifty feet in breadth, the channel being hollowed out through a solid
rock of gneiss.

After falling about fifteen feet at angle of 30 deg. with a vertical line,
the width of the stream is still narrowed to about forty yards, and
then, as if mustering its whole force previous to its final descent, is
precipitated, in one vast, continuous sheet of water, almost
perpendicular for ninety feet more. The dashing of the water from such a
height produced the usual accompaniment of a cloud of spray broad
columns of which were constantly forced up like the successive rushes of
smoke from a vast furnace, and on this, near the top, a vivid _iris_ or
rainbow was occasionally formed by the bright rays of an unclouded sun.
The basin that receives the water at the foot of the fall is nearly of a
circular form, and about four hundred yards in diameter, being rather
wider than the river immediately below it.

After remaining nearly an hour, fixed, as it were, to the spot by the
novelty and magnificence of the scene before us, we continued our walk
upward along the banks; and after passing the two smaller cataracts,
found the river again increased in width to above two hundred yards,
winding in the most romantic manner imaginable among the hills, and
preserving, a smooth and unruffled surface for a distance of three or
four miles that we traced it to the southwest above the fall. What
added extremely to the beauty of this picturesque river, which Captain
Lyon and myself named after our friend Mr. BARROW, Secretary to the
Admiralty, was the richness of the vegetation on its banks, the
enlivening brilliancy of a cloudless sky, and the animation given to the
scene by several reindeer that were grazing beside the stream. Our
sportsmen were fortunate in obtaining four of these animals; but we had
no success with the seines, the ground proving altogether too rocky to
use them with advantage or safety. We returned on board at thirty
minutes past two P.M., after the most gratifying visit we had ever paid
to the shore in these regions.

We found on our return that a fresh, southerly breeze, which had been
blowing for several hours, had driven the ice to some distance from the
land; so that at four P.M., as soon as the flood-tide had slackened, we
cast off and made all possible sail to the northward, steering for a
headland, remarkable for having a patch of land towards the sea, that
appeared insular in sailing along shore. As we approached this headland,
which I named after my friend Mr. PENRHYN, the prospect became more and
more enlivening; for the sea was found to be navigable in a degree very
seldom experienced in these regions, and, the land trending two or three
points to the westward of north, gave us reason to hope we should now be
enabled to take a decided and final turn in that anxiously desired
direction. As we rounded Cape Penrhyn at seven P.M., we began gradually
to lose sight of the external body of ice, sailing close along that
which was still attached in very heavy floes to this part of the coast.
Both wind and tide being favourable, our progress was rapid, and
unobstructed, and nothing could exceed the interest and delight with
which so unusual an event was hailed by us. Before midnight the wind
came more off the land, and then became light and variable, after which
it settled in the northwest, with thick weather for several hours.

In the course of this day the walruses became more and more numerous
every hour, lying in large herds upon the loose pieces of drift-ice; and
it having fallen calm at one P.M., we despatched our boats to kill some
for the sake of the oil which they afford. On approaching the ice, our
people found them huddled close to, and even lying upon, one another, in
separate droves of from twelve to thirty, the whole number near the
boats being perhaps about two hundred..Most of them waited quietly to be
fired at: and even after one or two discharges did not seem to be
greatly disturbed, but allowed the people to land on the ice near them,
and, when approached, showed an evident disposition to give battle.
After they had got into the water, three were struck with harpoons and
killed from the boats. When first wounded they became quite furious, and
one, which had been struck from Captain Lyon's boat, made a resolute
attack upon her and injured several of the planks with its enormous
tusks. A number of the others came round them, also repeatedly striking
the wounded animals with their tusks, with the intention either of
getting them away, or else of joining in the attack upon them. Many of
these animals had young ones, which, when assaulted, they either took
between their fore-flippers to carry off, or bore away on their backs.
Both of those killed by the Fury's boats were females, and the weight of
the largest was fifteen hundred and two quarters nearly; but it was by
no means remarkable for the largeness of its dimensions. The peculiar
barking noise made by the walrus when irritated, may be heard, on a calm
day, with great distinctness at the distance of two miles at least. We
found musket-balls the most certain and expeditious way of despatching
them after they had been once struck with the harpoon, the thickness of
their skin being such that whale-lances generally bend without
penetrating it. One of these creatures being accidentally touched by one
of the oars in Lieutenant Nias's boat, took hold of it between its
flippers, and, forcibly twisting it out of the man's hand, snapped it in
two. They produced us very little oil, the blubber being thin and poor
at this season, but were welcomed in a way that had not been
anticipated; for some quarters of this "marine beef," as Captain Cook
has called it, being hung up for steaks, the meat was not only eaten,
but eagerly sought after on this and every other occasion throughout the
voyage, by all those among us who could overcome the prejudice arising
chiefly from the dark colour of the flesh. In no other respect that I
could ever discover, is the meat of the walrus, when fresh-killed, in
the slightest degree unpalatable. The heart and liver are indeed
excellent.

After an unobstructed night's run, during which we met with no ice
except in some loose "streams," the water became so much shoaler as to
make it necessary to proceed with greater caution. About this time,
also, a great deal of high land came in sight to the northward and
eastward, which, on the first inspection of the Esquimaux charts, we
took to be the large portion of land called _Ke=iyuk-tar-ruoke_,[001]
between which and the continent the promised strait lay that was to lead
us to the westward. So far all was satisfactory; but, after sailing a
few miles farther, it is impossible to describe our disappointment and
mortification in perceiving an unbroken sheet of ice extending
completely across the supposed passage from one land to the other. This
consisted of a floe so level and continuous, that a single glance was
sufficient to assure us of the disagreeable fact, that it was the ice
formed in its present situation during the winter, and still firmly
attached to the land on every side. It was certain, from its continuous
appearance for some miles that we ran along its edge, that it had
suffered no disruption this season, which circumstance involved the
necessity of our awaiting that operation, which nature seemed scarcely
yet to have commenced in this neighbourhood, before we could hope to
sail round the northeastern point of the American continent.

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