﻿VARIOUS OPINIONS. 15 



passage directly to the westward between it and 

 Melville Island ; and, though they are not conclu- 

 sive, they are supported by another remark of Sir 

 Edward Parry's, that he thought there was some 

 peculiar obstruction immediately to the west of 

 that island, which produced a permanent barrier 

 of ice. 



But wherever the opening which we presume to 

 exist may be situated, the channels among the 

 islands are probably not direct, and may be intricate. 

 Vessels, therefore, having pushed into one of them 

 would be exposed to the ice closing in behind and 

 barring all regress. Sir John Ross, whose opinions 

 are first recorded in the parliamentary Blue Book, 

 believes that " Sir John Franklin 2)ut his ships into 

 the drift ice at the western end of Melville Island," 

 and that, " if not totally lost, they must have been 

 carried by the ice, which is known to drift to the 

 southward, on land (Banks's Land) seen at a great 

 distance in that direction, and from which the accu- 

 mulation of ice behind them will," says he, "as in 

 my own case, for ever prevent the return of the 

 ships." 



Sir W. Edward Parry is of opinion that Sir 

 John Franklin would endeavour " to get to the 

 southward and westward before he approached the 

 south-western extremity of Melville Island, that is, 

 between the 100th and 110th degree of longitude: " 



