PARRY'S THIRD VOYAGE. 149 



of his officers, he forthwith began his voyage home- 

 wards. 



The ships were drifted about in a stormy sea, covered 

 with ice, for twenty-four days ; but, being at last favored 

 with a westerly breeze, they crossed the Atlantic, and 

 on the 10th of October, 1823, arrived in Brassa Sound, 

 Shetland. 



Two attempts had thus been made, each to a certain 

 point successful, but both arrested much short of the 

 completion of the grand enterprise. The government 

 at home, however, were not willing to stop short in 

 their spirited career. The western extremity of Mel- 

 ville Island, and the Strait of the Fury and Hecla, ap- 

 peared to be both so blocked up as to afford little hope ; 

 but Prince Regent's Inlet seemed more likely to lead to 

 a prosperous issue. A passage through this channel 

 would bring the ships to the great sea bounding the 

 northern coast of America, that had been seen from the 

 strait mentioned above, and by which there was the 

 fairest prospect of reaching, by the most direct route, 

 the waters of the great Pacific. To follow up these 

 views, Parry was again fitted out in the Hecla ; while, 

 in the accidental absence of Captain Lyon, the Fury 

 was intrusted to Lieutenant, now Captain, Hoppner, 

 who had taken an active part in the operations of the 

 preceding voyage. 



The expedition set sail from Northfleet on the 19th 

 of May, 1824, and was in Davis's Strait by the middle 

 of June. As the season, however, chanced to be pecu- 

 liarly rigorous, it was not till the 10th of September 

 that, after repeated repulses and severe straining, they 

 caught a view of the bold and magnificent shores of 

 Lancaster Sound, in which a few solitary icebergs were 

 floating. After this they thought themselves fortunate 

 when, ])j pushing their way through many miles of 



