e 6th of August, about four hundred yards of ice were sawn through,
leaving a broad canal, eleven hundred yards in length. By this and the
disruption of the floe on the 8th of August, the _Fury_ floated once
more in open water, and was followed on the 12th by the _Hecla_.

Captain Parry had come to the resolution of sending the _Hecla_ home,
and by taking such stores and provisions as could be spared from her on
board the _Fury_, with her alone to brave a third winter in the polar
regions; but on desiring the medical officers to furnish him with their
opinions as to the probable effect that a third winter passed in these
regions would produce on the health of the ship's company, they
expressed it very strongly to the effect that it would be dangerous in
the extreme. Captain Lyon fully agreed with this, and the ships,
therefore, stood out eastward. The current rapidly hurried them along
to the southward, their drift being twenty-one miles in twenty-four
hours, though closely beset, without a single pool of water in sight the
whole time. As they approached a headland, they were whirled round it
at the rate of two or three knots an hour, and on passing Barrow River
were drifted nine or ten miles off land by the current setting out of
it.

On the 17th of September, a strong westerly breeze clearing them from
the ice, enabled them to shape their course for Trinity Islands in a
perfectly open sea, from whence they ran down Hudson's Straits, without
meeting with any obstruction. The favourable wind still continued, and
on the 10th of October they anchored in Brassa Sound, off Lerwick, where
they enjoyed their first sight of civilised man, after an absence of
seven and twenty months.

They were received by the people of Lerwick in the warmest manner. The
bells were set ringing, the town was illuminated, and people flocked in
from all parts of the country, to express their joy at their unexpected
return.

On the 18th Captain Parry arrived at the Admiralty, and the ships were
paid off on the 16th of November.

The idea being entertained that the passage westward into the Pacific
might be made through Prince Regent's Inlet, Captain Parry was appointed
to the command of another expedition for the purpose of ascertaining if
this could be done. The _Hecla_ was re-commissioned, he taking command
of her, while Commander Hoppner was appointed to the _Fury_, with
Horatio Thomas Austin and James Clark Ross as his lieutenants.