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Polar sea. Hence the commencement of that series of northern 

 voyages, which have so much redounded to the honour of this 

 country, and which afforded to the subject of our memoir an oppor- 

 tunity for the exercise of those high qualifications for the conduct 

 of an arduous and difficult undertaking, which so conspicuously 

 marked his character. 



The Admiralty having determined upon sending out two expe- 

 ditions to the Arctic seas, one in the direction of Spitzbergen and 

 the other through Baffin's Bay, Lieutenant Parry was selected for 

 this service, and on the 14th of January, 1818, he was appointed to 

 the command of the ' Alexander,' a hired vessel commissioned for the 

 purpose of accompanying Captain, afterwards Sir John, Ross on a 

 voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage by way of Davis's 

 Strait. 



The Expedition quitted England in April 1818, and although un- 

 successful in the accomplishment of the great object of the under- 

 taking, succeeded in circumnavigating Baffin's Bay, and in restoring 

 to that arm of the sea its outline which had been erased from our 

 charts nearly as it had been drawn by the early navigator whose 

 honoured name it so deservedly commemorates. 



The examination, however, of the various sounds which broke 

 the outline of that inland sea had not been made by the Expedition 

 with that care which was necessary to satisfy the inquiring spirit of 

 Parry, more especially with regard to a wide opening in the coast, 

 to which Baffin had assigned the name of Sir John Lancaster's 

 Sound. This opening, which when discovered by our navigators 

 had excited the brightest expectations, and from which Parry and 

 his associates had been compelled to return with the utmost regret, 

 Parry on his arrival in England found to his astonishment repre- 

 sented as closed by a lofty range of mountains bearing the name of 

 the first Secretary of the Admiralty, Mr. Croker, barring all progress 

 to further discovery in that direction. 



The indignation of Parry at this extraordinary misrepresentation 

 may be imagined, and he did not flinch from the responsibility of dis- 

 closing his sentiments to the Admiralty, who immediately determined 

 upon sending another expedition to the same quarter to decide the ques- 

 tion. Accordingly in the spring of 1819 the ' Hecla ' and ' Griper ' 

 were fitted for the purpose, and the command entrusted to Lieu- 



