500 TUE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY. 
voyage to England. Franklin volunteered to prosecute the 
enterprise with the “Trent” alone, but the Admiralty Orders 
opposed such a proceeding, and the vessels returned home in 
company. 
Meanwhile Captain John Ross, with the “Isabella” and 
“ Alexander,” had proceeded to Baffin’s Bay, but instead of 
exploring Smith’s, Jones’s, and Lancaster Sounds, which recent 
voyages have proved to be each and all grand open channels to 
the Polar Sea, he contented himself with Baffin’s assertion that 
they were enclosed by land, and, after having thus fruitlessly 
accomplished the circuit of the bay, returned to England. 
With Parry’s first expedition, which took place in the follow- 
ing year (1819), the epoch of modern discoveries in the Arctic 
Ocean, may properly be said to begin. Sailing right through 
Lancaster Sound, he discovered Prince Regent Inlet, Wellington 
Channel, and Melville Island. Willingly would he have proceeded 
farther to the west, but the ice was now rapidly gathering, the 
vessels were soon beset, and, after getting free with great diffi- 
culty, Parry was only too glad to turn back, and settle down in 
Winter Harbour. It was no easy task to attain this dreary port, 
as a canal two miles and a third in length had first to be cut 
through solid ice of seven inches average thickness, yet such was 
the energy of that splendid expedition, that the Herculean 
fabour was accomplished in three days. The two vessels were 
immediately put in winter trim, the decks housed over, heating 
apparatus arranged, and everything done to make the ten 
months’ imprisonment in those Arctic solitudes as comfortable 
as possible, 
It was not before the Ist of August that the ships were able 
to leave Winter Harbour, when Parry once more stood boldly 
for the west, but no amount of skill or patience could penetrate 
the obstinate masses of ice, or insure the safety of the vessels 
under the repeated shocks they sustained. Finding the barriers 
absolutely invincible he gave way, and, steering homeward, 
reached London on Nov. 3, 1820, where, as may well be imagined, 
his reception was most enthusiastic and cordial. 
While this wonderful voyage was performing, Franklin, 
Richardson, and Back, with two English sailors and a troop of 
Canadians and Indians, were penetrating by land to the mouth 
of the Coppermine River, whence they intended to make a 
