Chap. IV. PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. Ill 



who returned to the party left behind and carried 

 them back with him to the spot. The floe was 

 penetrated, and proved to be fourteen feet and four 

 inches in thickness; the water flowed up within 

 fifteen inches of the surface of the ice, and was found 

 to be " not very salt ;" sufficiently so, however, to 

 convince them all that it was the sea on which they 

 were standing. 



On the 9th of June they set out on their return, 

 killed three ptarmigans and saw a pair of ducks ; 

 and two days after, a great number of brent geese, 

 some ptarmigan, and many snow-buntings; the 

 constant and cheerful note of the latter reminded 

 them of a better country — a worse, perhaps, it would 

 be difficult to find,— it reminded them of home, this 

 darling little bird being considered the robin red- 

 breast of the snowy regions.* Arrived at Bushnan's 

 Cove, in Liddon's Gulf, on the western side of Mel- 

 ville Island, the party found " one of the pleasantest 

 and most habitable spots we had yet seen in the 

 Arctic regions, the vegetation being more abundant 

 and forward than in any other place, and the situ- 

 ation sheltered and favourable for game. They 

 found here a good deal of moss, grass, dwarf-willow, 

 and saxifrage, and Captain Sabine met with a ranun- 

 culus in full flower. Thus we see that even in this 

 the most desolate region of the earth the superiority 

 of the western coast predominates. The hunters 



* See Captain Lyon's Voyage regarding this bird. 



