266 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. VIII. 



to the conclusion, that the northern coast of Ame- 

 rica could be approached by that route ; but 

 neither Parry, at this time, nor indeed any one, 

 being at all aware of what the American coast 

 consisted of, with its sea encumbered with ice 

 aud islands, and navigable only by boats or ca- 

 noes, could have been of a very different opinion. 

 Franklin and Richardson, Dease and Simpson, have 

 now fully acquainted us with the nature of that 

 coast. It is true it is a continuous coast from the 

 bottom of Regent's Inlet, and therefore falls in with 

 the settled opinion of Captain Parry; who says, 

 " he is more than ever impressed with the belief, 

 that the only way in which a ship can, with tolerable 

 certainty, succeed in penetrating any considerable 

 distance, is by watching the openings occasionally 

 jDroduced by winds and tides, between a body of 

 ice, when detached and moveable, and some land 

 continuous in the same direction." 



This passage was written on the second voyage, 

 and remains, he says, wholly unaltered in the 

 present, which is the more remarkable after the 

 constant and imminent danger to the two ships, 

 and the total loss of one of them, while struggling 

 to make way along continuous land, between which 

 and masses of ice, always in motion, the ships were 

 to make their progress. It is difficult to imagine 

 how a ship at anchor, or loose, placed near the 

 shore on which large masses of ice are thrown, 



