182 Captain Parry and Mr Fisher ’s Journals of a 
to fret near the place where the fish were supposed to be, for the 
purpose of hearing what they called a Whale Song.” — P. 7 3. 
In advancing to the south, along the eastern side of Prince 
Regent's Inlet, they observed that the rise and fall of the tide 
was about 12 or 14 feet, and the ebb was observed to set to the 
southward and westward, which led them to conclude that the 
flood came in that direction, and not through Lancaster Sound *. 
Another compact barrier of ice, extending obliquely from the 
west land to the south-east land, again arrested their progress, 
and they were reduced to the alternative of either waiting for an 
opening in it, or shaping their course to the north, in order to 
avail themselves of any favourable changes that might have taken 
place in the barrier near Prince Leopold's Isles. The last of 
these plans was thought the most advisable, and they accord- 
ingly turned to the north. On the 9th August, to the south 
of Port Bowen , they saw such numbers of the common black 
whales, that the Greenland masters on board were of opinion, 
that the establishment of a factory for killing whales, would be 
likely to turn out a lucrative speculation, as, besides the oil, 
a great quantity of ivory might be procured from the immense 
numbers of narwhals that occur in this inlet. One of these fish, 
which they caught on the 11th, was about 13 feet 5 inches 
long, and had a horn 4 feet 2 inches in length, while the great- 
est circumference of its body was 9 feet. On the 12th, the 
narwhals were seen swimming about at all hours of the day, in 
shoals. On the 16th, a current was observed, whose di- 
rection was NN. W., and which moved at the rate of a quar- 
ter of a mile per hour; and on the 20th, they passed Cape Fell- 
foot^ where the horizontal strata resemble two parallel tiers of 
batteries, placed at regular intervals from the top to the bottom 
of the cliff, affording a grand and imposing appearance. On 
the same day they passed Maxwell Bap, a very noble one, with 
several islands, and many openings in its northern shore, and 
on the 22d, leaving Beechey Island to the north, they crossed 
Wellington Channel, in Long. 93° W. which was “ as open 
and navigable to the utmost extent of their view, as any part of 
* Captain Parry is of opinion, that a communication exists between Prince Re- 
gent’s Inlet and Hudson’s Bay, either through the channel called Sir Thomas 
Rowe’s Welcome or through Repulse Bay.— See p. 41. 
