84 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. IV- 



remain for an indefinite period idle in the western 

 passage. It was found to be ten leagues wide at 

 the mouth, and no land visible in the line of its 

 southern direction. He stood down an open channel 

 of water on the eastern side along the edge of ice 

 that occupied the middle of the strait ; and hopes 

 were entertained that it might lead them nearer to 

 the coast of America than Barrow's Strait, and if so, 

 to a lower degree of latitude, in which it might be 

 advantageous to make their passage to Behring's 

 Strait. And as the inlet increased in width as they 

 proceeded to the southward, it was calculated to raise 

 their hopes on this score : but, to their great disap- 

 pointment, the disappearance of land to the south- 

 west, and its place supplied by a barrier of ice be- 

 yond which no water was in sight, determined Parry 

 to return to Barrow's Strait. To the inlet he left 

 he gave the name of Prince Regent, having en- 

 tered it on his Royal Highness s birth-day, the 

 12th of August. To a bay on its eastern shore he 

 gave the name of Port Bowen. The latitude of the 

 southernmost point to which he had proceeded was 

 71° 53' 30", longitude 90° 03' 45', and the distance 

 from its entrance about 120 miles. It had been 

 observed that, from the moment they entered Lan- 

 caster Sound, the motion of the compass-needle was 

 very sluggish, and both this and its deviation in- 

 creased as they proceeded to the westward, and con- 

 tinued to do so in descending this inlet. Having 



