iumphantly along; three
islands they successively passed being named Cornwallis, Bathurst, Byam
Martin. The compass had now become perfectly useless, and they judged
that they had passed the magnetic meridian at about 100 degrees west
latitude, where it would have pointed due south instead of north. The
cold also greatly increased, and thick fogs enveloped them. They had
also to saw a passage through a thick floe.

Still forcing their way on, they discovered a large island, to which the
name of Melville was given. Though the wind failed, by towing and
warping, on the 4th of September they reached the meridian of 110
degrees west from Greenwich, in latitude 74 degrees 44 minutes 20
seconds, and became entitled to a reward of five thousand pounds, voted
by Parliament to the first British ship's company who should obtain that
meridian. To the bluff headland where the observation was made the
appropriate name of Bounty Cape was given.

Encouraged by their success, they continued their course, until it was
crossed by an impenetrable barrier of ice. In vain for a fortnight they
attempted to pierce it, until about the 20th the young ice began to form
rapidly on the surface, and Parry was convinced that a single hour's
calm would be sufficient to freeze up the ships in the midst of the sea.
Reluctantly, therefore, he was compelled to return, not without
encountering great danger and difficulty. On the 24th he got off a
harbour on the western side of Melville Island. A large floe, two miles
wide, guarded its entrance. To get through this floe, it was necessary
to form a channel with the ice-saws. To do this two parallel lines were
first marked with boarding-pikes on the ice, at a distance from each
other of somewhat more than the breadth of the _Hecla_. Having cut
along these lines, large pieces were detached by cross-saws, and then
again cut diagonally, in order to be floated out. Sometimes the boat's
masts and sails were placed on them to hasten their movements. In two
days the channel was cut, and the ships carried in and anchored in five
fathoms of water, about a cable's length from the beach. At first the
ice round them was every morning cleared away, but it was soon found
that the task was useless, and the two ships became frozen up for the
winter. They were immediately unrigged and housed over, snow walls
built round them, and other plans adopted for keeping out the cold.

As they had ample provisions, pr