age”), from a sketch by Lieutenant Beechey. On the 28th July, they had passed every impediment which obstructed their passage into Lancaster’s Sound, reaching the entrance of it just one month earlier than the Alexander and her consort had done in the preceding year, although those vessels sailed above a fortnight sooner, with the same general object in view. The following extracts of Lieutenant Parry’s published narrative contain a summary of his subsequent proceedings and discoveries:
“We were now about to enter and to explore that great sound or inlet which has obtained a degree of celebrity beyond what it might otherwise have been considered to possess, from the very opposite opinions which have been held with regard to it. To us it was peculiarly interesting, as being the point to which our instructions more particularly directed our attention; and, I may add, what I believe we all felt, it was that point of the voyage which was to determine the success or failure of the expedition, according as one or other of the opposite opinions alluded to should be corroborated. It will readily be conceived, then, how great our anxiety was for a change of the westerly wind and swell, which, on the 1st August, set down Sir James Lancaster’s Sound, and prevented our making much progress. We experienced also another source of anxiety. The relative sailing qualities of the two ships were found to have altered so much, that we were obliged to keep the Hecla under easy sail the whole day, to allow the Griper to keep up with us, although the latter had hitherto kept way with her consort, when sailing by the wind. We stretched to the northward across the entrance of the sound, meeting occasionally with some loose and heavy ‘streams’ of ice, and were at noon in latitude, by observation, 73° 56' 18", and longitude, by the chronometers, 77° 40'. * * * * * *
“The weather being clear in the evening of the 2nd, we had the first distinct view of both sides of the sound, and the difference in the character of the two shores was very apparent, that on the south consisting of high and peaked mountains, completely snow-clad, except on the lower parts, while the northern coast has generally a smoother outline, and had, comparatively with the other, little snow upon it; the difference in this last respect appearing to depend principally on the difference In their absolute height. The sea was open before us, free from ice or land; and the Hecla pitched so much from the westerly swell in the course of the day, as to throw the water once or twice into the stern windows, a circumstance which, together with other appearances, we were willing to attribute to an open sea in the desired direction. More than forty black whales were teen during; the day.
“We made little progress on the 3rd; but being favored
