196 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. VI. 



but apparently somewhat less intellectual. Parry 

 now, however, had but one great object at heart, 

 which was to attempt the navigation of the strait. 

 The ships made several ineffectual endeavours, but 

 the whole entrance, up to the narrowest part, was so 

 blocked up with old ice not likely to remove, and 

 the middle of August having arrived, he deter- 

 mined at least to satisfy his mind as to its commu- 

 nication with the Polar Sea. 



It will readily be believed that " every hour's 

 delay added an indescribable weight to his anxiety ;" 

 and " stopped," he says, " as we had now been, at 

 the very threshold of the North-west passage for 

 nearly four weeks, without advancing twice as 

 many miles to the westward, suspense at such a 

 crisis was scarcely the less painful because we knew 

 it to be inevitable." He therefore determined on 

 attempting a journey to the westward, endeavouring 

 first to reach some of the islands lying in that di- 

 rection, and by passing from one to the other, at 

 length to gain the main land, from whence it 

 might not perhaps be difficult to travel to the strait 

 itself, and " thus to end every doubt as well as every 

 conjecture respecting it." 



Accordingly on the 14th of August he set out, 

 on the 17th crossed the Bouverie Islands, and on 

 the following day arrived at a peninsula, which he 

 examined, and proceeded to its extreme northern 

 point, which was found to overlook the narrowest 



