arriving, the principal part being brought in by the dogs and the rest
by the men, who tied a thong round their waist and dragged in a portion.
Every lamp was now swimming with oil, the huts exhibited a blaze of
light, and never was there a scene of more joyous festivity than while
the cutting up of the walruses continued." For three solid hours the
Eskimos appeared to be eating walrus flesh. "Indeed, the quantity they
continued to get rid of is almost beyond belief."

It was not till early in July that the ship could be moved out of their
winter's dock to renew their efforts towards a passage. They were not
a little helped by Eskimo charts, but old ice blocked the way, and
it was the middle of August before Parry discovered the Strait he called
after his two ships, "the Strait of the Fury and Hecla," between
Melville Peninsula and Cockburn Island. Confident that the narrow
channel led to the Polar seas, Parry pushed on till "our progress was
once more opposed by a barrier of the same impenetrable and hopeless
ice as before." He organised land expeditions, and reports, "The
opening of the Strait into the Polar sea was now so decided that I
considered the principal object of my journey accomplished."

September had come, and once more the ships were established in their
winter quarters. A second month in among the ice must have been a severe
trial to this little band of English explorers, but cheerfully enough
they built a wall of snow twelve feet high round the _Fury_ to keep
out snowdrifts. The season was long and severe, and it was August before
they could get free of ice. The prospect of a third winter in the ice
could not be safely faced, and Parry resolved to get home. October
found them at the Shetlands, all the bells of Lerwick being set ringing
and the town illuminated with joy at the arrival of men who had been
away from all civilisation for twenty-seven months. On 14th November
1823 the expedition arrived home in England.

Still the restless explorer was longing to be off again; he was still
fascinated by the mysteries of the Arctic regions, but on his third
voyage we need not follow him, for the results were of no great
importance. The _Fury_ was wrecked amid the ice in Prince Regent's
Inlet, and the whole party had to return on board the _Hecla_ in 1825.

CHAPTER LIII

FRANKLIN'S LAND JOURNEY TO THE NORTH

The northern shores of North America were not yet explored, and
Franklin proposed another