Chap. IV. PARRY'S FIRST VOYAGE. 83 



longitude of 83° 12', the two shores here, the north 

 and south, were still thirteen leagues apart, without 

 the slightest appearance of any land to the westward 

 of them. They had now advanced to what Parry 

 has called Barrow's Strait ; previous to which, how- 

 ever, he had named a large opening on the northern 

 shore, Croker's Inlet ; " being anxious to seize," 

 says a waggish critic, " as it would seem, the earliest 

 opportunity of making some compensation for hav- 

 ing transformed, as with a touch of Harlequin's 

 wand, the magnificent and insuperable range of 

 mountains, which a former expedition had assigned 

 to one Secretary of the Admiralty, into a broad and 

 uninterrupted passage, bearing the name of the 

 other Secretary." " We now began to flatter our- 

 selves," says Parry, " that we had fairly entered the 

 Polar Sea, and some of the most sanguine among 

 us had even calculated the bearing and distance of 

 Icy Cape, as a matter of no very difficult or impro- 

 bable accomplishment." 



But in an icy sea, and more especially in narrow 

 passages interrupted by islands, great uncertainty 

 must always prevail. Having passed Barrow's 

 Strait, a small island occurred, between which and 

 the shore to the northward a floe of ice was found 

 to extend. As this floe blocked up the passage to 

 the westward, and they here noticed a large opening 

 that appeared on the southern coast, Parry thought 

 it better to proceed to the examination of it than to 



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