Chap. VIII. PARRY'S THIRD VOYAGE. 257 



The fourth and last instance of the same kind, 

 " which," says Parry, " I shall mention, is that of 

 Prince Regent's Inlet, and of which the events of 

 this and a former voyage furnish too striking a 

 proof, the ice appearing always to cling to the 

 western shore, in a very remarkable manner, while 

 the opposite coast is comparatively free from it." 



And a fifth, on account of the accumulation of 

 ice, may be added to the list, by mentioning the 

 southern and eastern coast of Melville Island, whose 

 shores appear to be the receptacle of all the ice that 

 is driven eastward from the western sea, of which 

 it is supposed to be the outermost barrier island ; at 

 least Sir John Franklin, from the view he had on 

 the southern coast, thinks it to be so. 



Captain Parry is not a man to act hastily or in- 

 discreetly, and it would appear that the preference 

 given to the western coast was influenced, partly at 

 least, by an ardent desire of acquiring an accession 

 to the geographical knowledge of a strait or inlet, 

 which he had reason to believe would conduct him 

 into the Polar Sea, through which he conceived the 

 sought-for passage to the Pacific could best be made ; 

 for he says, — " It was the general feeling at this 

 period (24th July) among us, that the voyage had 

 but now commenced. The labours of a bad summer, 

 and the tedium of a long winter, were forgotten in 

 a moment, when we found ourselves upon ground 

 not hitherto explored, and with every apparent 



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