continuous ice; but it left an open passage, and they hoped to find it merely a detached stream.

A little space onwards, however, they discovered, with deep dismay, that this ice was joined to a compact and impenetrable body of floes, which completely crossed the channel, and joined the western point of Maxwell Bay. It behoved them, therefore, immediately to draw back, to avoid being embayed in the ice, along the edges of which a violent surf was then beating. The officers began to amuse themselves with fruitless attempts to catch white whales, when the weather cleared, and they saw, to the south, an open sea, with a dark water-sky. Parry, hoping that this might lead to an unencumbered passage in a lower latitude, steered in this direction, and found himself at the mouth of a great inlet, ten leagues broad, with no visible termination; and to the two capes at its entrance he gave the names of Clarence and Seppings.

The mariners, finding the western shore of this inlet greatly obstructed with ice, moved across to the eastern, where they entered a broad and open channel. The coast was the most dreary and desolate they had ever beheld, even in the Arctic world, presenting scarcely a semblance either of animal or vegetable life. Navigation was rendered more arduous, from the entire irregularity of the compass, now evidently approaching to the magnetic pole, and showing an excess of variation which they vainly attempted to measure, so that the binnacles were laid aside as useless lumber.

They sailed a hundred and twenty miles up this inlet, and its augmenting width inspired them with corresponding hopes; when, with extreme consternation, they suddenly perceived the ice to diverge from its parallel course, running close in with a point of land which appeared to form the southern extremity of the eastern

shore. To this foreland they gave the name of Cape Kater. The western horizon also appeared covered with heavy and extensive floes, a bright and dazzling ice-blink extending from right to left. The name of the Prince Regent was given to this spacious inlet, which Parry strongly suspected must have a communication with Hudson's Bay. He now determined to return to the old station, and watch the opportunity when the relenting ice would allow the ships to proceed westward. That point was reached, not without some difficulty, amid ice and fog.

At Prince Leopold's Islands, on the 15th, the barrier was as impenetrable as ever, with a bright blink; and from the top of a high hill there was no water to be seen; luckily, also, there was no land. On the 18th, on getting once more close to the northern shore, the navigators began to make a little way, and some showers of rain and snow, accompanied with heavy wind, produced such an effect, that on the 21st the whole ice had disappeared, and they could scarcely believe it to be the same sea which had just before been covered with floes upon floes, as far as the eye could reach.

Parry now crowded all sail to the westward, and, though detained by want of wind, he passed Radstock Bay, Capes Hurd and Hotham, and Beechey Island; after which he discovered a fine and broad inlet leading to the north, which he called Wellington. The sea at the mouth being perfectly open, he would not have hesitated to ascend it, had there not been before him, along the southern side of an island named Cornwallis, an open channel leading due west. Wellington Inlet was now considered by the officers, so high were their hopes, as forming the western boundary of the land stretching from Baffin's Bay to the Polar Sea, into which they had little doubt they were entering. For

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this reason, Lieutenant Parry did not hesitate to give to the great channel, which was understood to effect so desirable a junction, the merited appellation of Barrow's Strait, after the much-esteemed promoter of the expedition. A favorable breeze now sprang up, and the adventurers passed gayly and triumphantly along the extensive shore of Cornwallis Island, then coasted a larger island, named Bathurst, and next a smaller one, called Byam Martin. At this last place they judged, by some experiments, that they had passed the magnetic meridian, situated, probably, in about 100° west longitude, and where the compass would have pointed due south instead of due north.

The navigation now became extremely difficult, in consequence of thick fogs, which not only froze on the shrouds, but, as the compass was also useless, took away all means of knowing the direction in which they sailed. They were obliged to trust that the land and ice would preserve the same line, and sometimes employed the oddest expedients for ascertaining the precise point. They encountered, also, a compact floe, through which they were obliged to bore their way by main force.

Notwithstanding all these obstacles, they reached the coast of an island larger than any before discovered, to which they gave the name of Melville. The wind now failed, and they moved slowly forward by towing.. and warping, till, on the 4th September, the lieutenant could announce to his joyful crew that, having reached the longitude of 110° west, they were become entitled to the reward of five thousand pounds promised by Parliament to the first ship's company who should attain that meridian. They still pushed forward with redoubled ardor, but soon found their course arrested by an impenetrable barrier of ice. They waited nearly a fort

night, in hopes of overcoming it, till, about the 20th, their situation became alarming. The young ice began rapidly to form on the surface of the waters, retarded only by winds and swells, so that the commanding officer was convinced that, in the event of a single hour's calm, he would be frozen up in the midst of the sea.

No option was therefore left but to return, and to choose between two apparently good harbors, which had been recently passed on Melville Island. Not without difficulty he reached this place on the 24th, and decided in favor of the more western haven, as affording the fullest security; but it was necessary to cut his way two miles through a large floe with which it was encumbered. To effect this arduous operation, the seamen marked with boarding-pikes two parallel lines, at the distance of somewhat more than the breadth of the larger ship. They sawed, in the first place, along the path tracked out, and then, by cross-sawings, detached large pieces, which were separated diagonally, in order to be floated out; and sometimes boat-sails were fastened to them, to take the advantage of a favorable breeze. On the 26th the ships were established in five fathoms water, at about a cable's length from the beach. For some time the ice was daily cleared round them; but this was soon found an endless and useless labor, and they were allowed to be regularly frozen in for the winter.

Parry then applied himself to name the varied group of islands along which he had passed. He called them, at first, New Georgia; but, recollecting that this appellation was preöccupied by one in the Pacific, he gave the title of the "North Georgian Islands," in honor of his majesty George III., whose reign had been so eminently distinguished by the extension of nautical and geographical knowledge.