180 THE PARRY ISLANDS 



as the most convenient rig among ice, though the 

 Griper, a strong, slow gunboat, was rather too small to 

 be so treated, being only about half the tonnage of the 

 Hecla, whose measurement was under four hundred. 

 Had she been a little speedier more work might have 

 been done ; but what was done was magnificent. 



Entering Lancaster Sound, Parry found a strait not 

 blocked by mountains but thirty miles broad leading 

 into a region up to then unknown, except so it is said 

 to the Norsemen. On the 12th of August Prince 

 Regent Inlet was discovered and named, it being 

 George IVs birthday. Then North Somerset was 

 sighted and the course laid across Barrow Strait to 

 North Devon and its south-western peninsula known 

 as Beechey Island ; then Wellington Channel was des- 

 cried, and then Cornwallis Island. Griffith Island was 

 discovered on the 23rd of August, Bathurst Island on 

 the 25th, Byam Martin Island on the 27th, where 

 Sabine, the astronomer of the expedition, found they 

 had passed north of the magnetic north pole. Then 

 the south side of Melville Island was coasted along, 

 Dealy Island being found on the 4th of September at 

 noon, and, at a quarter past nine at night, just after 

 passing Bounty Cape (named in honour of the event), 

 the Hecla crossed the 110th meridian west, and 

 became entitled to the Government grant of 5000 for 

 doing so which Parry shared between the ships. 



Soon the ice became difficult and the ships had to 

 anchor, but, the conditions improving, the westerly 

 voyage was resumed. Cape Providence was passed and 

 Cape Hay sighted, but the ships could get no further 

 than about half-way between these capes, and they had 



