t of the Pole, and were a
necessary part of its ultimate discovery. England hurled expedition
after expedition, manned by the best talent and energy of her navy,
against the ice which seemingly blocked every channel to her ambitions
for an arctic route to the Orient.

In 1819 Parry penetrated many intricate passages and overcame one-half
of the distance between Greenland and Bering Sea, winning a prize of
L5000, offered by Parliament to the first navigator to pass the 110th
meridian west of Greenwich. He was also the first navigator to pass
directly north of the magnetic North Pole, which he located
approximately, and thus the first to report the strange experience of
seeing the compass needle pointing due south.

So great was Parry's success that the British government sent him out in
command of two other expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. In
explorations and discoveries the results of these two later expeditions
were not so rich, but the experience in ice work so obtained gave Parry
conclusions which revolutionized all methods in arctic navigation.

Hitherto all attempts to approach the Pole had been in ships. In 1827
Parry suggested the plan of a dash to the Pole on foot, from a base on
land. He obtained the assistance of the government, which for the fourth
time sent him to the Arctic provided with well-equipped ships and able
officers and men. He carried a number of reindeer with him to his base
in Spitzbergen, purposing to use these animals to drag his sledges. The
scheme proved impracticable, however, and he was compelled to depend on
the muscles of his men to haul his two heavy sledges, which were in
reality boats on steel runners. Leaving Spitzbergen on June 23 with
twenty-eight men, he pushed northward. But the summer sun had broken up
the ice floes, and the party repeatedly found it necessary to take the
runners off their boats in order to ferry across the stretches of open
water. After thirty days' incessant toil Parry had reached 82 deg. 45',
about 150 miles north of his base and 435 geographical miles from the
Pole. Here he found that, while his party rested, the drift of the ice
was carrying him daily back, almost as much as they were able to make in
the day's work. Retreat was therefore begun.

Parry's accomplishments, marking a new era in polar explorations,
created a tremendous sensation. Knighthood was immediately bestowed upon
him by the King, while the British people heaped upon him