and, in another situation, rather more to the westward, and about the same parallel, he describes the “main body of the ice to be lying in a line, nearly east and west, quite solid.”
The testimony of Mr. Scoresby, a close and intelligent observer of nature in these regions, is entirely to the same effect. “I once saw,” says he, “a field that was so free from either fissure or hummock, that I imagine, had it been free from snow, a coach might have been driven many leagues over it in a direct line, without obstruction or danger.” Indeed, in a paper upon the subject of the polar ice, presented by him to the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh, and published in the second volume of their memoirs, he enters at considerable length into the arguments in favour of the practicability of this enterprise; and in his “Account of the Arctic Regions,” subsequently published, he repeats his conviction to the same effect. To the respectable authorities already mentioned, we may likewise add the testimony of several experienced and intelligent whalers, whom Captain Parry consulted as to the nature of the ice, with reference to this project; and who, without exception, agreed in considering it as highly favorable for the purpose.
But the hopes Captain Parry had formed of being able to attain this object, and the plan he suggested for putting it into execution, were principally founded on a similar proposition formerly made by Captain (now Sir John) Franklin, who, judging of this enterprise by his own experience, as well as by that of his associates, Captain David Buchan and Lieutenant (now Captain) Beechey, though by no means thinking lightly of the labour and hazard attending it, had drawn up a plan for making the attempt, and himself volunteered to conduct it. This plan was given to Captain Parry by Mr. Barrow, of the Admiralty, soon after his return from the expedition of 1824-5; and following it up in the most essential particulars, two boats were constructed at Woolwich, under his superintendence, after an excellent model suggested by Mr. John Peake, Clerk of the Rope Yard, and nearly resembling what are called “troop-boats,” having great flatness of floor, with the extreme breadth carried well
