560 HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



now convinced that the passage through which they had thus 

 far ascended was a strait connecting two seas, Parry gave it the 

 name of Barrow's Strait, after Mr. Barrow, Secretary of the 

 Admiralty. The prospects of success during the coming six 

 weeks were now felt by the commander of the expedition to be 

 "truly exhilarating." 



The propriety of using this expression will be more appa- 

 rent, when it is remembered that the party were Englishmen, 

 and that the "exhilaration" arose most probably in a great 

 measure from the excellent chance for hunting which the sea 

 lions swarming in that locality appeared to promise. 



An island — by far the largest Parry had seen in these waters 

 — appeared early in September, and the men worked their 

 arduous way along its southern coast, till, on the 4th, they 

 reached the longitude of 110° west. The two ships then be- 

 came entitled to the sum of £5000, — the reward offered by 

 Parliament to the first of his Majesty's subjects that should 

 penetrate thus far to the westward within the Arctic Circle. 

 The island was called Melville Island, from the First Lord 

 of the Admiralty. In a bay named The Bay of the Hecla and 

 Griper, the anchor was dropped for the first time since leaving 

 England ; the ensigns and pennants were hoisted, and the Bri- 

 tish flag waved in a region believed to be without the pale of the 

 habitable world. 



The summer was now at its close, and it became necessary 

 to make a selection of winter quarters. A harbor was found, 

 a passage-way cut through two miles of ice, and the ships settled 

 in five fathoms' water : they were soon firmly frozen in at a 

 cable' s-length from the shore. Hunting, botanizing, excursions 

 upon the island, experiments in an observatory erected on shore, 

 and amateur theatricals, afforded some relief from the unavoid- 

 able inactivity to which officers and crew were now condemned. 

 Parry had named the group of islands of which Melville is tho 



