The Sun.
London, England, 1825-10-29 00:00:00

NORTH POLE EXPEDITION.

Yesterday a steam-boat was dispatched to.
Northfleet, for the purpose of towing up the Heeler, which
had anchored there on the previous day. It was intend-.
en yesterday to have brought her up to Deptford, but as Capt.
Panne- had not at four o'clock in the afternoon returned on.
board from a visit to the Admiral at Chatham, to whom he had
gone on business the night before, it was understood that the
Hecin would not leave Northfleet until this day.—Upon her
casting anchor on Thursday, Mr. Barlow, the inventor of the.
ingenious plan for neutralizing the local attraction of the ship
on the compass, repaired on board, and with Captain Parry,
the Astronomer who sailed with him, and one or two other
scientific gentlemen, proved the utility of Iris invention
(which. had, we understand, already been found most use-
ful during the voyage), by the action of the compass, dur-
ing the swinging of the vessel upon her moorings seve-
ral successive times. If the benefit, be demonstrated in the
manner we have heard, the plan deserves to be sfJl further
recommended on account of the extreme simplicity of its con-
struction : for it consists merely in placing two thin plates of
iron, a little exceeding the compass in diameter, with an inter-
vening slip of wood at the same, (all fastened together), in a
vertical position, within two feet of the compass; to the lower
wood-work or supporter of which these plates are attached by
small iron clasps or springs, capable of being regulated by a
screw, according to the ordinary mechanical process. This, it
is said, so preserves the due hearings of the compass as to pre-
vent altogether, or nearly so, the needle being diverted by the
local attraction of the ship.—The Heats is in eery good condi-
tion, considering the severe service to which she has been ex-
posed, and the crew, who are all in excellent health, and only
suffered the casualties we have already mentioned, display the
wonted characteristic of British seamen, for they are ready to
repeat the experirnena of the voyage, notwithstanding all the.
very discouraging circumstances which from first to last at-
tended it, and are still suite full of a North-west passage.
The expedition, it will be recollected, sailed in 3:ay, 1824,
and very soon encountered the mortifying obstacle of being
embayed within mountains of ice crossing Baffin's-hay : they
were 80 days encircled within this icy barrier, and the occur.
renece took place during our summer months of June, July,
and August. They were only 12 days extricated from this.
petition, when the state of the weather, and frozen obstruction
of every object around them, rendered it absolutely necessary
they should seek winter-quarters, which they did, as we have al-,
ready mentioned. in a small inlet called Port Bowen, on the Ist
of Sept. 1824.—1 n this situation the crews of the Ilecla and
Fury remained nearly ten months, during which time they
were left entirely upon their own resources, fmottot a single nae
tive visited thern in their winter-quarters, nor was the shore
which they occupied stocked with the same quantity of game,
or indeed animals, of any description in the same numbers as in
that where the fernier expedition had wintered. The specimens
brought home by the sailors arc merely of the common sea-fowl
—they had only two of the arctic fixes ; they saw none of the
native dogs; the white bears, however, abounded, tad afforded
occasional sport on the ice. ft was quite impossible to penetrate
the shore any distance in land, the surface being entirely come
posed of conical heaps of ice, with deep ravines intervening ;
and the short expeditions which were made by Captain
Hoppner and Lieutenant Sherer, were made by coasting
on the ice, and skirting the land to the southward and north.
ward. With the exception of these little excursions, in
which the ships' crews were indulged as far as was,
consistent with their safety, the time was spent in gymnastic
exercises, in dramatic representations, anti in masquerades in
each ship on .alternate fortnights, in which it would seem a
good deal of spirit and character was infused. The ordinary
dress of the seamen, wrapped up as they were during the win-
ter in their fleecy clothing, as a protection from the nipping
severity of the weather, was in itself sufficiently grotesque; but
when to this was superadded the more fantastic and gayer
variations of costume of the officers, a very decent set of masks
appear to have been got up. The business, however, at length
got monotonous and tiresome, notwithstanding the praise-.
worthy and considerate attention of the officers, and the cone
stant supply of every thing which could administer to the
health and comfort Qt their crews and the return of summer
in the present year, which detaches the blockading masses of
ice, was hailed with the most lively satisfaction by all hands.
The ships got under weigh or. the 'morning of the 29th of last
July ; but two days after were driven back to Lancaster Sound
by adverse weather, which drifted immense icebergs against
their track. At this time it blew very fresh, but on the 24th they
succeeded in working down the western shore, which they were
exploring, when they ageia encountered heavy floating masses
of ice, and the Hecla was thrown very nearly on her beam-ends.
—These impadiments enntillneti with morn nr loer &lona*, until
the Ist August, when the fury was driven on skore with great
force by the impulse of the ice, and in such a situation that a
bold perpendicular craggy clifeout-topped her mast-head more
than sor 600 feet. She was, however, with great difficulty, by
the united exertions of both crews, remo'ed a little fermi her
situation of imminent peril, and hove dpwn for repair in a more
convenient spot ; but on the 19th August the situation of the
Hecla herself became so critical, that it was absolutely necessary
to change her position, or else she must have likewise drifted
ashore ; and the only alternative was to abandon the Fury to
her fate, after removing her crew, stores, &c. At this time the
sea was getting tolerably clear, but Captain Parry, under the
circumstances of the shipwreck of the Fury, and the consequent
alteration in the condition of the means of prosecuting his ori-
ginal object, determined upon steering northward, and return-
ing to England without further delay. On the Ist of Septem-
ber the homeward voyage began, and the necessity of this was
the regretted, because for a day or two before the ice was get-
ting more detached, and there was in the distance, and between
icebergs, a very clear prospect of comparatively safe sea-room,
with (as the sailors say) a perceptible current setting in, which
in their judgment denoted the proximity of an open ocean.
The distant view in this direction was studded with small
islands, the position and shape of which exactly resembled
that given by Captain Franklin of the sea view he obtained,
in die extreme point of his severe land journey front Ilud-
son's Bay. Though there were no natives seen by our seamen
during this expedition, there were abundant tracks to show
that the inlet at Port Bowen was occasionally the resort or -
human beings, for the remains of artificial caverns were found
lin the snow and fragments of culinary veseels of rude construe:
dom. Places were -also explored which they conjectured were
cemeteries, from their shape, and the decayed bones that were
thinly scattered on the spot. We have not, however, been able
to learn that either in the scientific or nautical pursuits of the
expedition any new discoveries have been made. The speci-
mens of natural history brought over, we have already said, are
quite of an ordinary character, and without the variety, such as
it was, of those brpught by the preceding Polar Navigators.—,
(Timer.)