Chap. VI. CAPTAIN PARRY'S SECOND VOYAGE. 155 



channels occur, among which such rapid tides 

 hurling large masses of ice about, as to carry the 

 ships every moment into imminent danger. And 

 when they had in some measure got through this 

 labyrinth, after long, anxious, and toilsome labour, 

 a fresh gale from the northward, on the 3rd of Sep- 

 tember, drifted the large floe of ice, to which the 

 ships were attached, to a greater distance than " I 

 ever remember," says Parry, " to have happened 

 before in the same time under any circum stances." 

 But the most mortifying of all was the discovery 

 that, after all their toil, they had been driven back 

 past Baffin Island towards the two remarkable hills 

 on Southampton Island, from which they were at 

 noon not more than seven or eight leagues distant. 

 " Thus," says Parry, " after a laborious investiga- 

 tion, which occupied one month, we had, by a con- 

 currence of unavoidable circumstances, returned to 

 nearly the same spot as that on which we had been 

 on the 6th of August. This untoward event may 

 serve to show the value of even the smallest geogra- 

 phical information, in seas where not an hour must 

 be thrown away or unprofltably employed." 



The whole of this voyage, from the first entrance 

 of Hudson's Strait to the point now reached, has 

 proved so harassing, so unproductive, and so dan- 

 gerous withal, as to have required from him who 

 had the conducting of it a more than ordinary 

 share of patience, perseverance, and equanimity, 



