ing to the northward, and they were in consequence reluctantly compelled to abandon their project and return to their ship, which they succeeded in reaching after an absence of sixty-one days. Although before turning back the party had traveled over 202 miles of ground, their greatest distance from the ship was only 172 miles, so much had the set drifted them to the southward. Notwithstanding these obstacles, and the enormous weight which each man had to drag, the latitude attained by Parry on this occasion has never been reached by known man. The experience gained during this enterprise has shown us a great deal. It proved that the allowance of provisions for the amount of work required, and for the hardships endured, was insufficient; that the sledges were too cumbrous and heavy, and the weight that each man was required to drag was far in excess of his capabilities, and that the season was so far advanced as to cause not only the ice to be broken up, and thereby affected by the current, but the mild temperature had so rotted and thawed the surface of the floes on which they traveled, that the greater part of their journey was performed walking through sludge and water. As during his former sledge-journey in 1820, Parry preferred traveling by night, and resting during the glare and warmth of the mid-day sun.
The next authentic accounts of sledge-traveling we hear of are those parties organized by Sir James Ross in 1849 for the relief of Sir John Franklin, in which Sir Leopold McClintock, then a lieutenant, received his first initiation in that important branch of arctic work, which through his means has reached such an admirable state of perfection. But to what consequences did these pioneer expeditions lead? Experience had to be gained, and the privations and sufferings endured by those engaged in these early expeditions are now compensated by the lessons they have taught us. They started with two sledges, each drawn by six men, carrying with them their tent and thirty days' provisions. Other parties with more provisions followed on their route. They were away forty days, having accomplished a search over 500 miles of unknown country, but we are told that out of the twelve men that started, seven only returned in comparative health, the remaining five having quite broken down under fatigue. The party suffered severely from hunger, frost-bites, blistered feet, and rheumatic pains, caused by their continually walking through water on the ice and deep soft snow. Two of them, being unable to walk, were brought back on the sledges. Sir Leopold himself acknowledges that, after his return to the ship, he did not lose the sensation of constant hunger for a fortnight.
During the next expedition, that of Captain Austin, in 1851, from the experience which he had already gained in sledge-traveling. Sir Leopold McClintock, by adopting a system of fatigue-parties, was enabled to prolong his absence from the ship to eighty days, and to extend his journey to a distance of 900 miles. During this journey,
