Chap. IV. PARRY'S FIRST VOYAG& 109 



tion that scarcely the slightest symptoms of thawing 

 had yet appeared, and that in three weeks from this 

 period the sun would again begin to decline to the 

 southward, it must be confessed that the most 

 sanguine and enthusiastic among us had some rea- 

 son to be staggered in the expectation they had 

 formed, of the complete accomplishment of our en- 

 terprise." 



It may here be remarked that the whole of 

 the navigation, hitherto performed, had been from 

 the 1st of August, when Lancaster Sound was en- 

 tered, to the 26th of September, when the ships 

 were anchored on the coast of Melville Island. 

 Lieutenant Parry has elsewhere observed that the 

 month of September is one of the most favourable 

 for navigation among masses of ice ; but the 

 shores of Melville Island, at least, appear to be 

 an exception ; to be, in fact, the recipients of the 

 greatest part of the ice driven to the eastward by 

 the westerly winds about that parallel, this island 

 being the outermost of the Georgian chain, and 

 considered by Parry as by far the worst he ever 

 met with. 



Previous, however, to their departure from this 

 dreary, dismal, and detestable abode, Parry deter- 

 mined to make a journey across Melville Island to 

 the northward, and to return by a different route. 

 He was accompanied by Captain Sabine, Messrs. 

 Fisher, Nias, and Reid, a serjeant of marines, and a 



