s Bay, forming an impassable barrier, the precipices next
the sea being from one thousand to two thousand feet high."

The ships were sailing slowly past the desolate shores amid these high
icebergs when suddenly several natives appeared on the ice. Now Ross
had brought an Eskimo with him named Sacheuse.

"Come on!" cried Sacheuse to the astonished natives.

"No--no--go away!" they cried. "Go away; we can kill you!"

"What great creatures are these?" they asked, pointing to the ships.
"Do they come from the sun or the moon? Do they give us light by night
or by day?"

Pointing southwards, Sacheuse told them that the strangers had come
from a distant country.

"That cannot be; there is nothing but ice there," was the answer.

Soon the Englishmen made friends with these people, whom they called
Arctic Highlanders, giving the name of the Arctic Highlands to all
the land in the north-east corner of Baffin's Bay. Passing Cape York,
they followed the almost perpendicular coast, even as Baffin had done.
They passed Wolstenholme Sound and Whale Sound; they saw Smith's Sound,
and named the capes on either side Isabella and Alexander after their
two ships. And then Ross gave up all further discovery for the time
being in this direction. "Even if it be imagined that some narrow strait
may exist through these mountains, it is evident that it must for ever
be unnavigable," he says decidedly. "Being thus satisfied that there
could be no further inducement to continue longer in this place, I
shaped my course for the next opening which appeared in view to the
westward." This was the Sound which was afterwards called "Jones
Sound."

"We ran nine miles among very heavy ice, until noon, when, a very thick
fog coming on, we were obliged to take shelter under a large iceberg."
Sailing south, but some way from land, a wide opening appeared which
answered exactly to the Lancaster Sound of Baffin. Lieutenant Parry
and many of his officers felt sure that this was a strait communicating
with the open sea to westward, and were both astonished and dismayed
when Ross, declaring that he was "perfectly satisfied that there was
no passage in this direction," turned back. He brought his expedition
back to England after a seven months' trip. But, though he was certain
enough on the subject, his officers did not agree with him entirely,
and the subject of the North-West Passage was still discussed in
geographical circles.

When young Lieutenant