156 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. VI. 



possessing a temper not easily to be ruffled; and 

 such an officer was Parry. His great object when 

 in extreme difficulty, he tells us, was to cheer up the 

 spirits of his people, and to keep them constantly 

 on the alert and moving whenever such diffi- 

 culty occurred, even when there was no prospect of 

 the ships stirring ; to keep, in short, both their 

 bodies and minds in a state of activity. Thus he 

 says on the present disheartening occasion, " In the 

 afternoon an attempt was made to move, for the 

 mere sake, it must be confessed, of moving and 

 keeping the people on the alert, rather than with 

 the slightest prospect of gaining any ground.'' 



Indeed throughout the whole of his Arctic Voy- 

 ages of Discovery, the resources of his own mind 

 never failed to supply the means of conveying a 

 happy state of contentment into the minds of those 

 who were serving under him, and of gaining their 

 confidence. The present was a trying moment. 

 The 5th of September had arrived, the navigable 

 season had nearly expired, and they were only at 

 the commencement of their discoveries. By the 

 15th of September, however, they had examined 

 numerous inlets and openings on the American 

 coast ; and among others a very extensive and deep 

 one, to which Parry gave the name of Lyon's 

 Inlet. Various creeks and coves were also exa- 

 mined by the boats ; but the continuity of the land 

 was everywhere determined, and no passage found 



