names of Beechey and Hoppner. In the course of this tour, which occupied fifteen days, they met with the remains of six Esquimaux’ habitations. On the 14th of July, a boat passed, for the first time, between the Hecla and the shore; and on the following day, the same kind of communication was practicable between her and the Griper. In the night of the 31st, the whole body of ice in Winter Harbour was perceived to be moving slowly out to the south-eastward. On the following day, the ships were once more under sail; and on the morning of the 7th August, Lieutenant Beechey, from the top of a hill near Cape Hay, to which he had been sent for the purpose of ascertaining the state of the ice, discovered land at a considerable distance, its extremes bearing W.S.W. and S.S.W., and the loom of it extending as far round to the left as S.E. “This land, which extends beyond the 117th degree of west longitude, and is the most western yet discovered in the Polar Sea, to the northward of the American continent, was honored with the name of Banks’s Land, out of respect to the late venerable and worthy president of the Royal Society.”
On the 15th, after experiencing “a continued series of vexations, disappointments, and delays,” the ships were completely beset by heavy loose ice, and obliged to be secured within some large masses, lying aground near the beach of Melville Island, where they remained for several days, in a constant state of danger. They were then in lat. 74° 26' 25", and longitude, by chronometers, 113° 54' 43"; the westernmost point to which the navigation of the Polar Sea, to the northward of the American continent, has yet been carried. The direct distance to Icy Cape was then between 800 and 900 miles, while that which the expedition had advanced towards it, since leaving Winter Harbour, fell short of 20 leagues.
On the 23d, there being no appearance whatever of clear water to the westward of their present station. Lieutenant Parry called for the opinions and advice of Lieutenants Liddon, Beechey, and Hoppner, Captain Sabine, and Messrs. Edwards and Hooper, being desirous of profiting by their united judgment and experience, previous to forming his ulti-
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