http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/1421829

The private journal of Captain G.F. Lyon of H.M.S. Hecla during the recent voyage of discovery under Captain Parry, 1821-1823

This is a vivid account of Arctic exploration in its most classical period. The journal clearly demonstrates the observant, warm-hearted personality of its chronicler, an officer of the Royal Navy, a man of sensibility and courage. Its accurate descriptions and thoughtful understanding of the Eskimo people make it almost unique as an early nineteenth-century document. George Francis Lyon appeared in the Arctic in the 1820's at the very height of the feverish quest for the Northwest Passage to the Orient. For over two centuries before Lyon's first journey in the Arctic on board the Hecla, more than two score of European ships with their daring crews had set out to discover a northern trade route to China. All had been lost or driven back by the power of the moving ice. The expedition of the Fury and Hecla from 1821-1823 was yet another venture that failed to navigate the narrow ice-choked passage to the western sea, but the observations of both Perry and Lyon, the leaders of the expedition, made considerable additions to the geographical and scientific knowledge of the eastern and central Arctic. -- from Introduction.

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