Chap. VIII. PARRY'S THIRD VOYAGE. 263 



Prince Regent's Inlet, which was done with scarcely 

 any obstruction from ice, and the Hecla entered 

 Neill's Harbour (a little to the southward of Port 

 Bowen) in order to prepare the ship completely for 

 crossing the Atlantic. Here one man, John Pages, 

 seaman of the Fury, departed this life, having been 

 for several months affected with a scrofulous dis- 

 order, the only case which proved fatal in either 

 ship. 



All being ready, and the sea clear of ice, the 

 Hecla weighed, and stood out to sea on the last day 

 of August. On the 1st September she entered 

 Barrow's Strait, the sea there perfectly open, by 

 which they were enabled to bear away to the east- 

 ward. In crossing Lancaster Sound they observed 

 a more than usual quantity of icebergs, being in 

 proportion of at least four to one that they had 

 ever before observed there. They entered Baffin's 

 Bay, still in an open sea. On the 7th September 

 they had reached the latitude 72° 30', having, in 

 the course of eighty miles, only made a single tack, 

 when they came to the margin of the ice, and got 

 into an open sea, on its eastern side. At this time 

 there were thirty-nine bergs in sight, " and some 

 of them certainly not less than 200 feet in height." 

 On the 10th October they made Mould Head, near 

 the north-west end of Orkney Islands. Captain 

 Parry landed at Peterhead on the 12th, and arrived 

 at the Admiralty on the 16th ; the Hecla at Sheer- 



