148 Notice of Captain Parry’s Voyage DiscoiJery, 
ters of the arctic regions ; while the natural historian, embracing 
in his science all the varied productions of the animal, vegetable, 
and mineral kingdoms, felt an intense interest in the success of 
an enterprize, which, under fortunate circumstances of time and 
weather, he was confident would throw so much light, not only 
on the geographical and physical distribution of organized be- 
ings, but on the geognostical structure of unknown regions, and 
which was to furnish him with new views of arctic nature. And 
geographers, although confident that the passage into the Polar 
Sea was about to be effected, and that the expedition under 
Lieutenant Parry was to contribute in an eminent degree to our 
knowledge of the various forms and distributions of the polar 
lands, yet never entertained the visionary and vulgar fancy of a 
commercial passage into the South Sea. 
All the preparations being finished, the ships took their de- 
parture from England on the 11th of May 1819. They reach- 
ed Cape Farewell on the 14th of the succeeding June. On the 
SOth of J une, the ships were in Lat. 64° N. : on the 26th of J une, 
they were beset with the ice, and, after having endeavoured, but 
in vain, to urge their way, were at last glad to get back again. 
Having reached the Lat. of 74° N., they determined to force 
a passage through the barrier of ice, which they found to be 
80 miles broad. Having succeeded in this, they reached Pos- 
session Bay on the 31st of July, where they landed in a rug- 
ged country, composed of granite, gneiss, and other primi- 
tive rocks; and on the 18th of August, entered in safety 
Sir James Lancaster’s Sound, a position now become so dis- 
tinguished in geography, where they found the same open sea 
which had been described in the account of the former expedi- 
tion. They advanced to Long. 89° W. meeting with but little 
obstruction from the ice ; and in Long. 90° W. discovered two 
considerable isles, named, in honour of Prince Leopold, Leopold's 
Isles. But at this point, their progress westward was interrupt- 
ed by a strong barrier of ice, extending quite across from these 
islands to the north coast of what Captain Parry has named 
Barroxds Strait. Being thus arrested by the ice, and forced to 
alter their course, they now entered a great inlet, of 14 leagues 
in breadth, which they found extending to the southward. 
They sailed along its eastern side, landed in different points. 
