ing
which important discoveries might have resulted, should have been
abruptly quitted.

The reports brought home satisfied most scientific men that an opening
existed through Lancaster Sound. On the following year, therefore, the
Admiralty fitted out an expedition, which was placed under the command
of Lieutenant Parry, who had Mr Beechy as his lieutenant.

As Parry takes the highest rank amongst arctic explorers, it is proposed
to give a sketch of his three voyages to the polar regions in search of
a north-west passage.

The expedition being determined on, two vessels, the _Hecla_, of three
hundred and seventy-five tons, carrying fifty-eight men, and the
_Griper_, a gun brig of one hundred and eighty tons, with thirty-six
persons on board, were forthwith got ready for sea. Both vessels were
strengthened as much as possible, and stored with provisions for two
years, including an ample supply of anti-scorbutics, and everything
which could be thought of to enable the crews to endure the extreme
rigours of a polar winter. Captain Sabine accompanied Lieutenant Parry
as astronomer, and Mr Beechy as lieutenant. Among the midshipmen were
Joseph Nias and James Clark Ross, who became eminent arctic explorers.
The _Griper_ was commanded by Lieutenant Siddon, and his first
lieutenant was Mr Hoppner.

The two vessels sailed from the Nore on the 11th of May, 1819, and
having rounded the Orkneys, stood across the Atlantic. Having contrary
winds, they made but slow progress. On the 18th of June they first fell
in with icebergs, flying amid which were numberless petrels, kittiwakes,
tarns, and other winged inhabitants of the northern regions. Some of
these bergs, of which fifty were seen at a time, were of great size.
The heavy southern swell dashed the loose ice with tremendous force
against them, sometimes raising a cloud of white spray, which broke over
their tops to the height of more than a hundred feet, accompanied by a
loud noise, resembling distant thunder. As the _Hecla_ was drifting on
with a southerly current, she was nearly nipped by a detached floe,
which drove her against a berg aground, one hundred and forty feet high,
where the depth of water was one hundred and twenty fathoms, so that its
whole height must have exceeded eight hundred feet.

Parry at first attempted to force his way north and west, amid the
masses of ice, in the direction of Lancaster Sound; but as the vessels
were sailing on, the floes s