ch. xvi] PVilliam Baffin 
by Gemma Frisius in 1545. But Baffin's observation is 
the first recorded attempt to take a lunar at sea. Baffin 
obtained the time of the moon being on the meridian 
at London from Searle's ephemeris, and at Wittenberg 
from that of Origanus 1 . He took another observation 
for longitude by the method previously adopted by 
him in Cockayne Sound. Sir Edward Parry, when 
passing up the strait in 182 1, was much interested in 
these very remarkable observations by Baffin. Sir 
Edward had seen the account in Purchas but not the 
manuscript, where the result given is still more accurate. 
As regards the study and practice of nautical astronomy, 
Baffin was undoubtedly a genius. 
Having completed the survey of the north side of 
the Hudson Strait, the Discovery stood over to the 
eastern coast of Southampton Island, reaching a point 
which was given the name of Cape Comfort. Here the 
various signs were again watched for any evidence of a 
passage by the ice-laden sea to the north-west. Baffin's 
conclusion that there is no passage by what is now called 
Frozen Strait was based on the increased quantity of 
ice, the water becoming less deep, and the sight of land 
bearing N.E. by E., circumstances which led him to 
suppose that he was at the entrance of a wide bay. He, 
therefore, relinquished the enterprise so far as this route 
was concerned. Sir Edward Parry felt a warm sympathy 
for the efforts of his distinguished predecessor, and in 
182 1 he named an island Baffin Island near Cape Comfort, 
" out of respect to the memory of that able and en- 
terprising navigator/' He also named a headland on 
Southampton Island Cape Bylot, as being probably the 
westernmost point seen from the Discovery in that July 
of 1615. 
On the 29th July the Discovery was anchored off 
Cape Digges, and the men succeeded in killing 70 birds 
<( which are called willocks " (looms), for there are such 
numbers that " in few places else the like is to be seen/' 
1 John Searle, a licensed surgeon, published his ephemeris in 1609. 
It was from 1609 to 1617, and the book also contained a correction of 
time in respect of several meridians, a list of places with latitude and 
longitude in time, and a table for converting degrees and minutes into 
time. David Origanus was the author of an ephemeris for the years from 
J 595 to 1650. His meridian was Wittenberg. 
