PARRY'S SECOND NORTH-WEST VOYAGE 191 

 Island towards Cape Comfort. Here, also from tidal 

 observations, he satisfied himself that Repulse Bay 

 afforded no passage to the westward and that Frozen 

 Strait led into Fox Channel. 



His opinions were disputed by those who only knew 

 the coast from his chart, and two vessels were sent out 

 to prove he was wrong. The reports of the captains 

 of these there is no need to mention their names- 

 were embarrassing. Neither had been to Repulse Bay, 

 but both had been to Wager River, and they agreed 

 that it was unmistakably a river and not a strait ; but 

 in every other respect, even in naming the places they 

 had seen, they were at variance. Thus the matter was 

 left in sufficient doubt to encourage some people in 

 believing in a north-west passage through Repulse Bay, 

 just at the Arctic Circle, and to seek this, Parry, on 

 his return from Melville Island, was despatched on his 

 second voyage. 



This time the Hecla was commanded by George 

 Francis Lyon the North African traveller Parry 

 being in the Fury, a sister ship ; both vessels, at Parry's 

 suggestion, being exactly alike so that their gear and 

 fittings were interchangeable. They sailed from the 

 Little Nore on the 8th of May, 1821, and going direct 

 up Frozen Strait, with much trouble from the ice, ran 

 into Repulse Bay on the 22nd of August. Here after 

 a careful examination it was ascertained beyond a doubt 

 that no passage existed through to the westward. 

 " Thus," says Lyon, " the veracity of poor Middleton, 

 as far as regards this bay at least, was now at length 

 established ; and in looking down the strait we had 

 passed, he was fully justified in calling it a frozen strait. 



