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.