A Brief Narrative of an Unsuccessful Attempt to Reach Repulse Bay

This short work, featuring a number of attractive engravings, traces an abortive expedition to the Canadian Arctic. George Francis Lyon (1795–1832), naval officer and explorer, had accompanied William Parry on a previous expedition in search of the North-West Passage. In 1824 Lyon was instructed to return to Repulse Bay and to explore the mainland. Unfavourable weather conditions forced Lyon to turn back after a few months, and he published this account of the experience the following year. Lyon's text is notable for his descriptions of encounters with Inuit, with whom he spent a great deal of time. The book also includes the text of the official instructions issued by the Admiralty. Chronicling the 1821–3 expedition with Parry, The Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon (1824) is also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection, along with his Journal of a Residence and Tour in the Republic of Mexico (1828).