Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/708

 672 ARCTIC DISCOVERY bergen, whence they were to be dragged or sailed as ice or water presented itself. It was June 20, 1827, before Parry started with his boats, which contained 71 days' provisions. They met with many difficulties from the out- setthin ice, rough ice, short tracts of water interspersed with shorter tracts of ice, and snow- blindness among the crews. The last evil they obviated by travelling altogether at night, completely reversing the usual order of living, and for many days sleeping regularly by day and pushing forward by night. In five days of unremitting exertions, from June 24 to 29, they made but 10 in. due north. The ice on which they travelled moved to the south in a body about as fast as they could move north- ward, and on reaching 82 45' they gave up their attempt to reach the pole. They were then by observation distant from the Ilecla 172 m. To attain this distance they had actually passed over 292 m. of ice and water ; and having to make several of their days' journey over three or four times on account of the moving ice, it was calculated that they really travelled 668 m. They returned from this most discouraging and laborious expedi- tion Aug. 21. The object of the expedition fitted out by Sir Felix Booth, and commanded by Capt. Ross and his nephew, Commander (Sir James) Ross, in the Victory, a vessel fitted to use steam in calm weather, was to find a northwest passage by some opening leading out of Prince Regent inlet. The Victory sailed in May, 1829, entered Prince Regent inlet Aug. 9, made the scene of the Fury's wreck on the 12th, and on the 15th reached the furthest point achieved by Parry. During the months of August and September the explorers worked their way along 300 m. of hitherto undis- covered coast, and finally reached a point only about 200 in. distant from the extreme point reached by Franklin on his last expedition from the westward. On Oct. 7 they went into win- ter quarters at a place they named Felix harbor. Sept. 17, 1830, they once more got under way. After making 3 m. they again entered winter quarters, where they remained till Aug. 28, 1831. After making 4m. (which consumed a month's time) they again, Sept. 27, went into winter quarters. It was during April, 1831, that Capt. Ross, on a sledging expedition, for the first time reached and fixed the position of the true magnetic pole. The spot was in lat. 70 6' 17", and Ion. 96 46' 46" W. Scurvy appearing among the crew, it was finally deemed best to abandon the ship, and with the boats on sledges to make for the place of the Fury's former wreck. After almost incredible hardships they reached this spot July 1, 1832, having left their ship April 23. Here, on Fury beach, they were obliged fa P ass another winter 1832-'3. The men suffered much, and several died. They started again for the open sea July 8, 1833, and on Aug. 6 descried a vessel, which took them on board. The cap- tain refused at first to believe that Capt Ross and his crew stood before him. They had been given up for dead for two years past. On Sept. 30, 1833, they reached the Orkneys, hav- ing been absent since May, 1829. In Feb- ruary, 1833, Back, with Dr. King, a naturalist and surgeon, left England for an overland ex- pedition in search of Ross's party. They reached Fort Resolution, on the Great Slave lake, Aug. 8, passed on to the north and east, but re- turned to winter at Fort Reliance, where they suffered terribly from scarcity of food and a temperature of 102 below the freezing point. On April 25, when they were preparing to start for the seacoast to the north and east, they received news of the safety of Ross and his party. On June 28 they launched their boats on the Thlew-ee-choh or Great Fish (after- ward called Back) river, which they hoped would take them to the polar sea. After a diffi- cult navigation of 530 m. they reached the ocean, at lat. 67 11' N. and Ion. 94 30' W., and pushed on along shore ; but they met with constant impediments, and were finally, Aug. 14, obliged to turn back. The extreme point they reached was in lat. 68 13' N". and Ion. 94 58' W. Back returned to England in Sep- tember, 1835, and in June, 1836, set out in the Terror to complete the exploration of the sup- posed water connection between Ross's winter harbor, in Prince Regent inlet, and Point Turn- again, which Ross had so vainly attempted to reach. They were unfortunate from the first, and accomplished nothing. Simultaneously with this expedition, the Hudson Bay company sent out two men, Dease and Simpson, to de- scend the Mackenzie river to the sea, and fol- low the coast to the west, as far as the point from which Beechey turned back to go out of Behring strait. This would complete the survey of all that part of the American shores. They reached Return Reef, Franklin's furthest point (August, 1826), in July, 1837. Beyond this no one had ev.er been. They reached Point Barrow, the extreme point at- tained by Beechey in 1826, Aug. 4, and thus completed their task. They discovered on the way two large rivers, which they called the Garry and the Colville. Returning to winter quarters on Great Bear lake, they started on another expedition to explore to the eastward, in June, 1838. Reaching the coast by way of the Coppermine, and finding their progress stopped by the ice, a portion of the party set out to the eastward on an overland expedition. Passing Franklin's Point Turnagain, the fur- thest point hitherto reached from the west, they discovered an ice-encumbered strait (Dease strait), and at its eastern extremity a large headland. To the north lay an extensive tract of land, now first seen, and which they called Victoria land. Surmounting the ice- bound cape, the explorers, to their surprise, found the sea beyond entirely free of ice, Vic- toria land stretching for 40 m. to the E. N. E., and the American coast trending to the S. E. This was the limit of their explorations in