during the voyage, and performed six miles of the most difficult navigation he had ever known among ice. Two musk bulls were shot on the 24th by parties who landed, out of a herd of seven which were seen. They were lighter than the first one shot - weighing only about 360 lbs. From the number of skulls and skeletons of these animals met with, and their capabilities of enduring the rigor of the climate, it seems probable that they do not migrate southward, but winter on this island. Attempts were still made to work to the eastward, but on the 25th, from want of wind, and the closeness of the ice, the ships were obliged to make fast again, without having gained above a mile after several hours' labor. A fresh breeze springing up on the 26th opened a passage along shore, and the ships made sail to the eastward, and in the evening were off their old quarters in Winter Harbor. On the following evening, after a fine run, they were off the east end of Melville Island. Lieut. Parry, this day, announced to the officers and crew that after due consideration and consultation, it had been found useless to prosecute their researches farther westward, and therefore endeavors would be made in a more southerly direction, failing in which, the expedition would return to England. Regent Inlet and the southern shores generally, were found so blocked up with ice, that the return to England was on the 30th of August publicly announced. This day, Navy Board and Admiralty Inlets were passed, and on the 1st of September the vessels got clear of Barrow's Strait, and reached Baffin's Bay on the 5th. They fell in with a whaler belonging to Hull, from whom they learned the news of the death of George the Third and the Duke of Kent, and that eleven vessels having been lost in the ice last year, fears were entertained for their safety. The Friendship, another Hull whaler, informed them that in company with the Truelove, she had looked into Smith's Sound that summer. The Alexander, of Aberdeen, one of the ships employed on the former voyage of discovery to these seas, had also entered Lancaster Sound. After touching at Clyde's River, where they met a good-natured tribe of Esquimaux, the ships made the best of their way across the Atlantic, and after a somewhat boisterous passage, Commodore Parry landed at Peterhead on the 30th of October, and, accompanied by Capt. Sabine and Mr. Hooper, posted to London. PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE, 1821— 1823. THE experience which Capt. Parry had formed in his previous voyage, led him to entertain the opinion that a communication might be found between Regent Inlet and Roe's Welcome, or through Repulse Bay, and thence to the northwestern shores. The following are his remarks:-"On an inspection of the charts I think it will also appear probable that a communication will one day be found to exist between this inlet (Prince Regent's) and Hudson's Bay, either through the broad and unexplored channel called Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome, or through Repulse Bay, which has not yet been satisfactorily examined. It is also probable that a channel will be found to exist between the western land and the northern coast of America." Again, in another place, he says: "Of the existence of a northwest passage to the Pacific it is now scarcely possible to doubt, and from the success which attended our efforts in 1819, after passing through Sir James Lancaster's Sound, we were not unreasonable in anticipating its complete accomplishment. But the season in which it is practicable to navigate the Polar Seas does not exceed seven weeks. From all that we observed it seems desirable that ships endeavoring to reach the Pacific Ocean by this route should keep if possible on the coast of America, and the lower in latitude that coast may be found, the more favorable will it prove for the purpose; hence Cumberland Strait, Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome, and Repulse Bay appear to be the points most worthy of attention. I cannot, therefore, but consider that any expedition equipped by Great Britain with this view ought to employ its best energies in attempting to penetrate from the eastern coast of America along its northern shore. In consequence of the partial success which has hitherto attended our attempts, the whalers have already extended their views, and a new field has been opened for one of the most lucrative branches of our commerce, and what is scarcely of less importance, one of the most valuable nurseries for seamen which Great Britain possesses."* Pleased with his former zeal and enterprise, and in order to give him an opportunity of testing the truth of his observations, a few months after he returned home, the Admiralty gave Parry the command of another expedition, with instructions to proceed to Hudson's Strait, and penetrate to the westward, until in Repulse Bay, or on some other part of the shores of Hudson's Bay to the north of Wager River, he should reach the western coast of the continent. Failing in these quarters, he was to keep along the coast, carefully examining every bend or inlet, which should appear likely to afford a practicable passage to the westward. The vessels commissioned, with their officers and crews, were the following. Several of the officers of the former expedition were promoted, and those who had been on the last voyage with Parry I have marked with an asterisk: Commander-*W. E. Parry. Chaplain and Astronomer-Rev. Geo. Fisher, (was in the Dorothea, under Capt. Buchan, in 1818.) Lieutenants *J. Nias and *A. Reid. Surgeon J. Edwards. Purser-*W. H. Hooper. Assistant-Surgeon-J. Skeoch. Midshipmen *J. C. Ross, *J. Bushnan, J. Hender son, F. R. M. Crozier. *Parry's First Voyage, vol. ii, p. 240. Greenland Pilots-*J. Allison, master; G. Crawfurd, mate. 47 Petty Officers, Seamen, &c. Total complement, 60. Hecla. Commander-G. F. Lyon. Lieutenants —*H. P. Hoppner and *C. Palmer. Purser -J. Germain. - Assistant-Surgeon A. M'Laren. Midshipmen *W. N. Griffiths, J. Sherer, C. Richards, E. J. Bird. Greenland Pilots -*G. Fife, master; *A. Elder, mate. 46 Petty Officers, seamen, &c. Total complement, 58. Lieutenant Lyon, the second in command, had ob tained some reputation from his travels in Tripoli, Mourzouk, and other parts of Northern Africa, and was raised to the rank of Commander, on his appointment to the Hecla, and received his promotion as Captain, when the expedition returned. The ships were accompanied as far as the ice by the Nautilus transport, freighted with provisions and stores, which were to be transhipped as soon as room was found for them. The vessels got away from the little Nore early on the 8th of May, 1821, but meeting with strong gales off the Greenland coast, and a boisterous passage, did not fall in with the ice until the middle of June. On the 17th of June, in a heavy gale from the southward, the sea stove and carried away one of the quarter boats of the Hecla. On the following day, in lat. 60° 53′ N., long. 61° 39′ W., they made the pack or main body of ice, having many large bergs in and near it. On the 19th, Resolution Island, at the entrance of Hudson's Strait, was seen distant sixty-four miles. Capt. Lyon states, that during one of the watches, a large fragment was observed to fall from an iceberg near the Hecla, which threw up the water to a great height, sending forth at the same time a noise like the report of a great gun. From this period to the 1st of July, the ships were occupied in clearing the Nautilus of her stores, preparatory to her return home, occasionally made fast to a berg, or driven out to sea by gales. On the 2d, after running through heavy ice, they again made Resolution Island, and shaping their course for the Strait, were soon introduced to the company of some unusually large icebergs. The altitude of one was 258 feet above the surface of the sea; its total height, therefore, allowing one-seventh only to be visible, must have been about 1806 feet! This however, is supposing the base un der water not to spread beyond the mass above water The vessels had scarcely drifted past this floating mountain, when the eddy tide carried them with great rapidity among a cluster of eleven bergs of huge size, and having a beautiful diversity of form. The largest of these was 210 feet above the water. The floe ice was running wildly at the rate of three miles an hour, sweeping the vessels past the bergs, against any one of which, they might have received incalculable injury. An endeavor was made to make the ships fast to one of them, (for all of them were aground,) in order to ride out the tide, but it proved unsuccessful, and the Fury had much difficulty in sending a boat for some men who were on a small berg, making holes for her ice anchors. They were therefore swept past and soon beset. Fifty-four icebergs were counted from the mast-head. On the 3d, they made some progress through very heavy floes; but on the tide turning, the loose ice flew together with such rapidity and noise, that there was barely time to secure the ships in a natural dock, before the two streams met, and even then they received some heavy shocks. Water was procured for use from the pools in the floe to which the ships were made fast; and this being the first time of doing so, |