ENTERING LANCASTER SOUND. 



559 



tons' weight of congealed fog. The passage to Lancaster Sound 

 was laborious, and was only effected by the most persevering 

 efforts on the part of all. 



An entrance into the sound was effected on the 1st of August ; 

 and Parry felt, as did the officers and men, that this was the 

 point of the voyage which was to determine the success or 

 failure of the expedition. Reports, all more or less favorable, 

 were constantly passed down from the crow's nest to the quarter- 

 deck. The weather was clear, and the ships sailed in perfect 

 safety through the night. Towards morning all anxiety respect- 

 ing the alleged chain of mountains across the inlet was at an 

 end ; for the two shores were still forty miles apart, at a distance 

 of one hundred and fifty miles from the mouth of the channel. 

 The water was now as free from ice as the Atlantic ; and they 

 began to flatter themselves that they had fairly entered the 

 Polar Sea. A heavy swell and the familiar ocean-like color 

 which was now thought to characterize the water were also 

 encouraging circumstances. The compasses became so sluggish 

 and irregular that the usual observations upon the variation of 

 the needle were abandoned. The singular phenomenon was soon 

 far the first time witnessed of the needle becoming so weak as 

 to be completely controlled by local attraction, so that it really 

 pointed to the north pole of the ship, — that is, to the point 

 where there was the largest quantity of iron. 



Ice for a time prevented the farther western progress of the 

 ressels, and they sailed one hundred and twenty miles to the 

 south, in a sound which they called Prince Regent's Inlet. 

 Parry suspected, though incorrectly, that this inlet communi- 

 cated with Hudson's Bay. Returning to the mouth of the inlet, 

 he found the sea to the westward still encumbered with ice ; but 

 a heavy blow, accompanied with rain, soon broke it up and dis- 

 persed it. They proceeded slowly on, naming every cape and 

 bay which they passed : an inlet of large size they called Wel- 

 lington, "after his Grace the Master of the Ordnance." Being 



