88 CRUISE OF THE NEPTUNE 
The wars with the American colonies and with France occu- 
pied the undivided attention of the British nation until after 
the final fall of Napoleon, and during this period nothing was 
done to further the renewal of the search for a northwest 
passage, until 1817, when Captain Scoresby published an ac- 
count of the great disruption of the ice in the Greenland seas, 
and pointed to the ease with which explorations might then be 
carried on in the Arctics. He was aided by Sir John Barrow, 
secretary to the Admiralty, who, by his writings and personal 
influence, induced the british government to again undertake a 
series of Arctic explorations. 
Two ships, well equipped for wintering in the north, were 
fitted out to explore the regions westward of Davis strait. The 
Isabella, commanded by Captain John Ross, and the Alexander, 
by Lieutenant William Edward Parry, were selected for this 
undertaking. They sailed on the 3rd of May, and were first 
stopped by ice just north of Disko island on the 17th of June. 
Melville bay was crossed with some difficulty, and a delay of a 
week occurred near Cape York. At midnight on the 19th of 
August the Isabella was in latitude 76 54' !N"., with the cary 
islands bearing southeast; this was the most northerly point 
reached. Ross considered Smith sound a closed bay, and named 
the capes forming each side of it Isabella and Alexander, after 
the ships. He stated that the sound probably extended eighteen 
leagues; sailing down the western side, the mouths of Jones 
and Lancaster sounds were passed, both free from ice, but Ross 
did not enter them. He described Lancaster sound as closed by 
the Crocker mountains. The expedition returned to England in 
October, having practically accomplished nothing beyond con- 
firming the statements of Baffin made many years before. 
The report of Ross was not thought conclusive by the Ad- 
miralty, and in 1819 the hecla and Griper were commissioned 
to explore Lancaster sound. Lieutenant Parry was given com- 
mand in the hecla, with Lieutenant Mathew Liddon in the 
