348 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



brought them the succor they had so long been waiting for. The eagerness 

 with which they feasted on dried meat and excellent tongues may well be im- 

 agined ; but severe pains in the stomach soon warned them that after so long 

 an abstinence they must be exceedingly careful in the quantity of food taken. 

 In a fortnight's time they had sufficiently recruited their strength to be able to 

 join Back at Moose Deer Island, and in the following year they returned to 

 England. 



Parry's second voyage of discovery (1821-1823) was undertaken for the 

 purpose of ascertaining whether a communication might be found between Re- 

 gent's Inlet and Rowe's Welcome, or through Repulse Bay and thence to the 

 north-western shores of America. The first summer (1821) was spent in the 

 vain attempt of forcing a way through Frozen Strait, Repulse Bay, the large 

 masses of ice in these waters holding the ships helplessly in their grasp, and 

 often carrying them back in a few days to the very spot which they had left a 

 month before. Owing to these rebuffs, the season came to an end while their 

 enterprise was yet scarcely begun, and the ships took up their quarters in an 

 open roadstead at Winter Island to the south of Melville Peninsula. Besides 

 the winter amusements and occupations of the first voyage, the monotony of 

 the winter was pleasantly broken during February by friendly visits from a 

 party of Esquimaux. Among these a young woman, Iligliuk, distinguished her- 

 self by her talents. Her love for music amounted to a passion, and her quick- 

 ness of comprehension was such that she soon became an established inter- 

 preter between her own people and the English. The nature of a map having 

 been explained to her, she readily sketched with chalk upon the deck the out- 

 lines of the adjoining coast, and continuing it farther, delineated the whole 

 eastern shore of Melville Peninsula, rounding its northern extremity by a large 

 island and a strait of sufficient magnitude to afford a safe passage for the ships. 

 This information greatly encouraged the whole party, whose sanguine anticipa- 

 tions already fancied the worst part of their voyage overcome, and its truth 

 was eagerly tested as soon as the ships could once more be set afloat, which 

 was not till July 2. 



After running the greatest dangers from the ice, they at length reached the 

 small island of Igloolik, near the entrance of the channel, the situation of which 

 had been accurately laid down by the Esquimaux woman. But all their efforts 

 to force a passage through the narrow strait proved vain, for after struggling 

 sixty-five days to get forward, they had only in that time reached forty miles 

 to the westward of Igloolik. The vessels were therefore again placed in win- 

 ter-quarters in a channel between Igloolik and the land ; but having ascertained 

 by boat excursions the termination of the strait. Parry thought it so promising 

 for the ensuing summer that he at once named it the " Hecla and Fury Strait." 

 But his hopes were once more doomed to disappointment by the ice-obstructed 

 channel, and he found it utterly impossible to pass through it with his ships. 

 His return to England with his crews in health, after two winters in the high 

 latitudes, was another triumph of judgment and discipline. 



In the following year two new expeditions set sail for Polar America. Cap- 

 tain Lyon was sent out in the " Griper," with orders to land at Wager River 



