204 A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY 
determined to return to England. Mr. Parry 
therefore, made this determination publicly known 
to the officers and ship’s company this morn- 
ing, and, as he promised in his address to them 
on the 27th instant, full allowance of provi- 
sions is now ordered to be issued; and in the 
afternoon a suit of warm clothes, furnished by 
yvovernment, gratis, was given to every person on 
board. 
Thursday, 31st. — After passing Regent’s Inlet, 
we continued our course to the eastward, keeping 
as near the south side of Barrow’s Straits as the 
ice would allow us. The distance we were from 
the coast, was generally from seven to eight miles, 
and this space was completely filled up with 
ice; however, as the weather was clear, there 
was no necessity for our going any closer, as we 
could see it very plainly. Indeed, the nature of 
the land was such, that it might be seen very dis- 
tinctly at three times the distance we were off, in 
such weather as we had to-day; for the shore on 
the north side was seen as we came along, and that 
opposite to it on the south side of the straits, is 
exactly similar to it in character, and I believe 
also in height, being, I imagine, from eight or nine 
hundred, to a thousand feet high, bold, and com- 
posed of horizontal strata, that looked at a distance 
like gigantic steps rising one above another. The 
land on both sides was completely covered with 
snow, and that on the south side apparently very 
deeply. Between us and the north land there 
appeared to be no ice. From two to four o’clock 
this morning, we were passing the mouth of a 
