Three Voyages for the Discovery of a Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Volume Ii Part 4

A thermometer suspended in the middle of the observatory, and exposed to the sun's rays, was observed by Mr. Fisher to stand at 92 at five P.M.

on the 18th.

On the 19th Captain Lyon returned from Quilliam Creek, bringing with him the whole of our party stationed there, the ice being now so broken up in that neighbourhood as to render the fis.h.i.+ng dangerous without proper boats. On this journey, which it took two days to perform, eleven dogs drew a weight of two thousand and fifty pounds, of which six hundred and forty were salmon, and ninety-five venison, procured by our people. The fish had all been caught in the trawl; and treble the quant.i.ty might easily have been taken with a seine, had we known how wide the mouth of the stream was to become. They varied in length from twenty to twenty six inches, and one of the largest, when cleaned, weighed eight pounds and a half; but their average weight in this state did not exceed two pounds and a quarter. The distance of the fis.h.i.+ng-place from the s.h.i.+ps, the dangerous state of the ice, and the soreness of the dogs' feet from travelling on the rough, honey-combed ice, prevented our taking any farther advantage of this very acceptable change of diet.

Nothing worthy of notice occurred till the 29th, when a patch of ice, a mile broad, separated from the outer margin of our barrier and drifted away. The ca.n.a.l formed by laying sand on the ice was now quite through in most places, showing that the plan would, in this lat.i.tude at least, always ensure a s.h.i.+p's escape at an earlier season than by the regular course of nature, provided it could be carried the whole way down to the open water.

I am now under the disagreeable necessity of entering on a subject which I had at one time ventured to hope need scarcely occupy any part of this narrative: I mean that of the scurvy, some slight but unequivocal symptoms of which disease were this day reported to me, by Mr. Edwards, to have appeared among four or five of the Fury's men, rendering it necessary, for the first time during the voyage, to have recourse to antis...o...b..tic treatment among the seamen and marines.

It will, perhaps, be considered a curious and singular fact in the history of sea-scurvy, that during the whole of the preceding part of this voyage, none among us but officers were in the slightest degree affected by it, a circ.u.mstance directly contrary to former experience.

To whatever causes this might be attributed, it could not, however, but be highly gratifying to be thus a.s.sured that the various means employed to preserve the health of the seamen and marines had proved even beyond expectation efficacious.

That a s.h.i.+p's company began to evince symptoms of scurvy after twenty-seven months' entire dependance upon the resources contained within their s.h.i.+p (an experiment hitherto unknown, perhaps, in the annals of navigation, even for one fourth part of that period), could scarcely, indeed, be a subject of wonder, though it was at this particular time a matter of very sincere regret. From the health enjoyed by our people during two successive winters, una.s.sisted as we had been by any supply of _fresh_ antis...o...b..tic plants or other vegetables, I had began to indulge a hope that, with a continued attention to their comforts, cleanliness, and exercise, the same degree of vigour might, humanly speaking, be ensured at least as long as our present liberal resources should last. Present appearances, however, seemed to indicate differently; for, though our sick-list had scarcely a name upon it, and almost every individual was performing his accustomed duty, yet we had at length been impressed with the unpleasant conviction that a strong predisposition to disease existed among us, and that no very powerful exciting cause was wanting to render it more seriously apparent. Such a conviction at the present crisis was peculiarly disagreeable; for I could not but lament any circ.u.mstance tending to weaken the confidence in our strength and resources at a time when more than ordinary exertion was about to be required at our hands.

The 1st of August had now arrived; and yet, incredible as it may appear, the s.h.i.+ps were as securely confined in the ice as in the middle of winter, except that a pool of water, about twice their own length in diameter, was now opened around them. I determined, therefore, notwithstanding the apparent hopelessness of sawing our way through four or five miles of ice, to begin that laborious process; not, indeed, with the hope of cutting a ca.n.a.l sufficiently large to allow the pa.s.sage of the s.h.i.+ps to sea, but with a view to weaken it so much as in some measure to a.s.sist its disruption whenever any swell should set in upon its margin. On this and the following day, therefore, all the gear was carried down for that purpose, and a large tent pitched for the s.h.i.+ps'

companies to dine in, the distance being too great to allow them to return on board to their meals. On the 3d, however, we were saved a great deal of unnecessary labour, by the ice opening out at the crack before mentioned, so that our sawing might now be commenced within a mile of the Fury. After divine service, therefore, all hands were sent from both s.h.i.+ps to bring back the tent and tools to the point of Oongalooyat, and the parties were recalled from the walrus-fishery, except a single boat's crew: these also returned on board a few days after, the whole number of seahorses killed being eight, and one large seal.

On the 4th our sawing work was commenced, with the usual alacrity on the part of the officers and men, and three hundred and fifty yards of ice were got out before night, its thickness varying from one to four feet, but very irregular on account of the numerous pools and holes. An equal length was accomplished on the following day, though not without excessive fatigue and constant wet to the men, several of whom fell into the water by the ice breaking under them.

On the 5th, the register-thermometer, which had been placed in the ground in the winter, was taken up, though, to our astonishment, the ground above and about it had become nearly as hard and compactly frozen as when we dug the hole to put it down. How this came about we were quite at a loss to determine; for the earth had been thrown in quite loosely, whereas its present consolidated state implied its having been thoroughly thawed and frozen again. It occupied two men ten days to extricate it, which, as they approached the thermometer, was done by a chisel and mallet, to avoid injury by jarring. This, however, was not sufficient to prevent mischief, the instrument being so identified with the frozen earth as to render it impossible to strike the ground near it without communicating the shock to the tubes, two of which were in consequence found to be broken. Thus ended our experiment for ascertaining the temperature of the earth during the winter; an experiment which it would seem, from this attempt, scarcely practicable to make in any satisfactory manner without some apparatus constructed expressly for the purpose.

On the 6th the work was continued as before, and about four hundred yards of ice were sawn through and floated out, leaving now a broad ca.n.a.l, eleven hundred yards in length, leading from the open water towards that formed by the gravelled s.p.a.ce.

When the lateness of the season to which the s.h.i.+ps had now been detained in the ice is considered, with reference to the probability of the Fury's effecting anything of importance during the short remainder of the present summer, it will not be wondered at that, coupling this consideration with that of the health of my officers and men, I began to entertain doubts whether it would still be prudent to adopt the intended measure of remaining out in the Fury as a single s.h.i.+p; whether, in short, under existing circ.u.mstances, the probable evil did not far outweigh the possible good. In order to a.s.sist my own judgment on this occasion upon one of the most material points, I requested the medical officers of the Fury to furnish me with their opinions "as to the probable effect that a third winter pa.s.sed in these regions would produce on the health of the officers, seamen, and marines of that s.h.i.+p, taking into consideration every circ.u.mstance connected with our situation." Their answer was decidedly adverse to remaining; and it was fortified with such good reasons, connected with the health of the officers and crews, as scarcely to leave me at liberty to adopt any other course than that of returning to England with both vessels.

Enclosing to Captain Lyon the replies of the medical gentlemen, I now also requested his opinion whether, under existing circ.u.mstances, he still considered it expedient to adopt the measure originally intended, with respect to the separation of the two s.h.i.+ps. I had scarcely despatched a letter to this effect, when, at 10 A.M. on the 8th, the ice about the Fury began to move, the pools breaking up, and the gravelled ca.n.a.l soon entirely closing. A breeze springing up from the northward at this time, all sail was made upon the s.h.i.+p, and the ice gradually driving out as it detached itself from the sh.o.r.e, the Fury got into open water about one P.M. The Hecla, however, still remained in the middle of her winter's floe, which, though it moved a little with the rest at first, did not come out of the bay. In the course of the afternoon, finding her still stationary, I determined to occupy the time in stretching over to the northward, for the purpose of examining the state of the fixed ice at the eastern mouth of the strait; and, arriving at its margin by ten P.M., found it attached to both sh.o.r.es from the northeastern part of Neerlo-naktoo across to Murray Maxwell Inlet. It was the general opinion that this ice was in a more solid state than at the same time and place the preceding year, but its situation did not, I believe, differ half a mile from what it had then been. As the sun went down nearly in the direction of the strait, we obtained from the masthead a distinct and extensive view in that quarter, and it is impossible to conceive a more hopeless prospect than this now presented.

One vast expanse of level solid ice occupied the whole extent of sea visible to the westward, and the eye wearied itself in vain to discover a single break upon its surface.

Having finished this examination, which at once destroyed every hope I had never ceased to indulge of a pa.s.sage through the strait, we returned towards Igloolik to rejoin the Hecla. It was not, however, till the morning of the 9th that we observed her to be moving out of the bay, when at length (for the first time, perhaps, that such an event ever occurred) she drove to sea in the middle of the floe. Thus at the mercy of the ice, she was carried over the shoals off the southeast point of Igloolik in six and a half fathoms, but was then fortunately drifted into deeper water. The swell on the outside was all that was wanting to break up her icy prison, which, separating at seven A.M., finally released her from confinement.

Having soon afterward received Captain Lyon's answer to my communication, it was necessary for me to come to a final determination on the subject therein alluded to. For various reasons, he advised that the Fury and Hecla should return to England together, as soon as such arrangements respecting the removal of stores and provisions, as I might judge proper to make, should be completed.

Under such circ.u.mstances, to which may be added the uncertainty of the Hecla's liberation from the ice to the southward before the close of the season, I no longer considered it prudent or justifiable, upon the slender chance of eventual success now before us, to risk the safety of the officers and men committed to my charge, and whom it was now my first wish to reconduct in good health to their country and their friends. Having communicated my intentions to the officers and s.h.i.+ps'

companies, I directed several additions to be made to their ordinary allowance of provisions, particularly in the various antis...o...b..tics, which had hitherto been reserved for cases of emergency; and then beating up to our winter station, which I named Turton Bay, we anch.o.r.ed there in the afternoon in ten fathoms, and immediately commenced our preparations for lightening the Fury. Seven months' provisions, a bower anchor, and a few other stores, were received by the Hecla, some of her water, before filled as ballast, being started to make room for them; and such other arrangements made as circ.u.mstances would permit for improving the stowage of the Fury's hold. The bay was now entirely clear of ice in every part; and so changed was its appearance in the course of the last four-and-twenty hours, that it was scarcely possible to believe it the same place that we had been accustomed daily to look upon for the ten preceding months.

The conveyance and stowage of the stores had scarcely been completed, when some loose ice drifting into the bay with the tide on the night of the 10th, obliged us hastily to get under way and stand out. On the following morning I ran across to the main land in the Fury, for the purpose of erecting, in compliance with my instructions, a flagstaff fifty-six feet in height, having at its top a ball, made of iron hoops and canva.s.s, ten feet in diameter, and a cylinder buried near its foot, containing a parchment with some account of our visit to this place. In the mean time, I requested Captain Lyon to stand over to the point of Igloolik, where our walruses had been landed, and to bring off these, as well as our boats and tents remaining there. The ice soon after coming in upon the point, it was not without risk of the Hecla's being dangerously beset that Captain Lyon succeeded in bringing off everything but one boat. This was, indeed, no great loss to us, though a great acquisition to the Esquimaux; for, being almost worn out, I had intended to break her up previously to leaving the ice. Besides this, we purposely left our sledges, and a quant.i.ty of wood in pieces of a convenient size for bows, spears, and paddles, distributing them about in several places, that one or two individuals might not make a prize of the whole.

The Hecla rejoining us on the morning of the 12th, we stood out to the eastward, and finally took our departure from Igloolik. In the course of the night the favourable breeze failed us, and on the morning of the 14th was succeeded by a southerly wind, the s.h.i.+ps being close to another island called Ooglit, about twelve leagues to the S.S.W. of the others.

We were here immediately visited by our old acquaintance the Esquimaux, several of whom came off in their canoes in the course of the morning, as if determined to loose no opportunity of profiting by us. Among these was our worthy old friend Nannow, to whom everybody was glad to give something; and, indeed, they all received as many presents as their canoes could safely carry or tow on sh.o.r.e. Their tents, nine in number were pitched on the main land, a little to the northward of Ooglit, at a station they call _Ag-wis-se-=o-wik_, of which we had often heard them speak at Igloolik. They now also pointed out to us Amitioke, at the distance of four or five leagues to the southward and westward, which proved to be the same piece of low land that we had taken for it in first coming up this coast. The Esquimaux told us that a number of their younger men were inland in pursuit of deer, and that the rest had abundant supplies of walrus, which animals we saw in considerable numbers about this place.

We were now for some days all but beset in this neighbourhood, calms or light southerly and easterly breezes constantly prevailing. During this time the main body of ice remained, in most parts, close to the sh.o.r.e, leaving us only a "hole" of water to work about in, and much nearer to the land than on this shoal and shelving coast was altogether safe for the s.h.i.+ps. Notwithstanding this, however, we had soon occasion to observe that they not only kept their ground, but even drew to the southward, owing, no doubt, to the current before found to set in that direction along the coast.

The ice remained close the whole of the 26th; but we continued, as usual, to drift generally to the southward, and the next morning, being off Owlitteeweek, were enabled to cast off and make sail, the ice being rather more open than before. Being favoured by a commanding northerly breeze, we ran a considerable distance to the southward, having, however, only just room to sail between the points of the closely packed ice and a flat, dangerous sh.o.r.e. Without escaping for a moment, from our confined situation, and almost without perceiving any motion of the ma.s.ses of ice among themselves, we had, at noon on the 30th, drifted down within a mile of a small island lying near the northeast point of Winter Island. On the 31st the tide took us through between these, the breadth of the pa.s.sage being three quarters of a mile, in no less than sixteen fathoms water. We then pa.s.sed within a dangerous reef of rocks, lying a full mile from the sh.o.r.e, and having numerous heavy ma.s.ses of grounded ice upon it. After clearing this in a good depth of water, we were, by the evening, carried along sh.o.r.e within a mile of Cape Fisher.

Thus had we, in a most singular manner, once more arrived at our old winter-quarters, with scarcely a single successful exertion on our parts towards effecting that object. The distance from Ooglit to our present station was about one hundred and sixty miles along the coast. Of this we had never _sailed_ above forty, the rest of the distance having been accomplished, while we were immoveably beset, by mere drifting. The interval thus employed having been barely eight days, gives an average drift to the southward of above fifteen miles per day.

In the afternoon of the 6th I was much pained at being informed by telegraph from the Hecla, that Mr. Fife, Greenland master of that s.h.i.+p, had just expired, an event which for some days past there had been but too much reason to apprehend; the scurvy having within the last three weeks continued to increase considerably upon him. It is proper for me, however, both in justice to the medical officers under whose skilful and humane care he was placed, and to the means with which we were in this way so liberally supplied, to state, that during a part of that time Mr.

Fife had taken so great a dislike to the various antis...o...b..tics which were administered to him, that he could seldom be induced to use any of them. The disease, in consequence, reduced him to a state of extreme debility, which at length carried him off almost without pain. The Hecla being at the time closely beset, and in a situation of great danger among the shoals off Winter Island, Captain Lyon caused the remains of the deceased to be committed to the sea with all the solemnity which circ.u.mstances would permit.

In the night of the 6th, the s.h.i.+ps, which had before nearly closed each other, were again separated to the distance of several miles, though no motion was perceptible in the ma.s.ses of ice about them. On the evening of the 11th, however, the wind at length began to freshen from the northwest, when the ice immediately commenced driving down the inlet at the rate of a mile an hour, carrying the Fury with it, and within half a mile of the rocks, the whole way down to Cape Martineau, but keeping her in deep water. In the mean time the Hecla had been swept into much more dangerous situations, pa.s.sing along the east and south sides of Winter Island; and, after driving nearly up to Five-hawser Bay, being carried near some dangerous shoals about Cape Edwards, where Captain Lyon expected every other tide that she would take the ground.

On the 15th, when the s.h.i.+ps had closed each other within a mile, we could see the clear water from the masthead, and the Hecla could now have been easily extricated. Such, however, are the sudden changes that take place in this precarious navigation, that not long afterward the Fury was quite at liberty to sail out of the ice, while the Hecla was now, in her turn, so immoveably fast set, and even cemented between several very heavy ma.s.ses, that no power that could be applied was sufficient to move her an inch. In this situation she remained all the 16th, without our being able to render her any a.s.sistance; and the frost being now rather severe at night, we began to consider it not improbable that we might yet be detained for another winter. We were perhaps, indeed, indebted for our escape to a strong westerly breeze, which blew for several hours on the 17th, when, the ice being sufficiently close to allow our men to walk to the a.s.sistance of the Hecla, we succeeded, after seven hours' hard labour, in forcing her into clear water, when all sail was made to the eastward, and our course shaped for the Trinity Islands in a perfectly open sea.

We thus finally made our escape from the ice after having been almost immoveably beset in it for twenty-four days out of the last twenty-six, in the course of which time the s.h.i.+ps had been taken over no less than one hundred and forty leagues of ground, generally very close to the sh.o.r.e, and always unable to do anything towards effecting their escape from danger.

We made the Trinity Islands on the 18th, and ran down Hudson's Strait with a favourable breeze, reaching the Orkneys on the morning of Oct.

9th. It can scarcely, perhaps, be imagined by those who have not been similarly situated, with what eager interest one or two vessels were this day descried by us, being the first trace of civilized man that we had seen for the s.p.a.ce of seven-and-twenty months. The breeze increasing to a fresh gale from the southward in the course of the night, with a heavy sea from the same quarter, rendering it impossible for us to make any progress in that direction, I determined to put into Lerwick in the Shetland Islands, to procure refreshments, and await a change in our favour. We accordingly bore up for that harbour early on the morning of the 10th, and at thirty minutes past ten A.M. anch.o.r.ed there, where we were immediately visited by a great number of the inhabitants, anxious to greet us on our return to our native country.

I feel it utterly impossible adequately to express, the kindness and attention we received for the three or four days that we were detained in Bressay Sound by a continuance of unfavourable winds. On the first information of our arrival the bells of Lerwick were set ringing, the inhabitants flocked from every part of the country to express their joy at our unexpected return, and the town was at night illuminated, as if each individual had a brother or a son among us.

On the 13th, a breeze springing up from the northward, we took leave of our kind and hospitable friends, deeply sensible of the cordial and affectionate reception we had experienced; and, being still favoured by the wind, were abreast of Buchaness the following evening. On the 16th, being off Whitby, I went on sh.o.r.e there, and, after receiving the cordial greetings of a great number of the worthy inhabitants of Whitby, who had a.s.sembled to meet us on landing, set off for London, and arrived at the Admiralty on the morning of the 18th.

THIRD VOYAGE

FOR THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTHWEST Pa.s.sAGE.

INTRODUCTION.

Notwithstanding the want of success of the late expedition to the Polar Seas, it was resolved to make another attempt to effect a pa.s.sage by sea, between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The chief alterations in the equipment of the present expedition consisted in the placing of Sylvester's warming stove in the very bottom of the s.h.i.+p's hold, in subst.i.tuting a small quant.i.ty of salt beef for a part of the pork, and in furnis.h.i.+ng a much larger supply of newly corned beef. Preserved carrots and parsnips, salmon, cream, pickles of onions, beet-root, cabbage, and, to make the most of our stowage, _split_ peas, instead of whole ones, were supplied. A small quant.i.ty of beef pemmican, made by pounding the meat with a certain portion of fat, as described by Captain Franklin, was also furnished.

CHAPTER I.

Pa.s.sage 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 s.h.i.+ps, and on the Severity of the Season.

The equipment of the Hecla and Fury, and the loading of the William Harris transport, being completed, we began to move down the river from Deptford on the 8th of May, 1824, and on the 10th, by the a.s.sistance of the steamboat, the three s.h.i.+ps had reached Northfleet, where they received their powder and their ordnance stores.

Early on the morning of the 3d of July, the whole of our stores being removed, and Lieutenant Pritchard having received his orders, together with our despatches and letters for England, the William Harris weighed with a light wind from the northward, and was towed out to sea by our boats.