gusting in the extreme. These traits do not appear to have been relieved by one redeeming quality. "Two women alongside the Hecla offered to barter their children for some article of trifling value, beginning very deliberately to strip them of their clothes, which they did not choose to consider as included in the intended bargain."

Continuing his course westward, without any remarkable occurrence, Captain Parry entered an inlet on Southampton Island, which he hoped would have brought him into the welcome passage; but to his disappointment, he found himself embayed in a magnificent harbour, of great extent and security, and which, in any more hospitable climate, would be of the first importance. Having discovered this on the birth-day of the Duke of York, he named it after his Royal Highness, and retraced his course to proceed to the westward; in doing which he entered Repulse Bay before he was fully aware of it, and decided the dispute between Captain Middleton and Secretary Dobbs, in favour of the former. Coasting all round this bay in boats, the continuity of land was ascertained; and on the following day he renewed his voyage through the frozen strait. On the Northern shore a passage seemed to open itself. Captain Lyon, who commanded the Hecla, undertook to explore it with a party in a boat, and performed the service under circumstances of great difficulty, increased by the unfavourable state of the weather. He returned on the 25th, without having found it passable. On the 27th another passage was attempted with better success through a strait which was named Hurd's Channel.

The shores were carefully surveyed by parties in boats, but without any beneficial results, and after proceeding to the North till the 6th of September, they were forced back to Southampton Island by a contrary wind, and a current full of large masses of ice. Thus a month was lost in contending with difficulties, which were found insurmountable.

But the sea was soon cleared of this ice, and they had a fine run to the northward, and entered a bay, which they called Hopper's Inlet. It proved impervious, as did a larger adjoining one, to which they gave the name of Lyon's Inlet. In surveying these and Gore's Inlet, and correcting the survey with the parts of the coast before examined, they spent the remaining portion of open weather, and on the 8th of October they entered a bay on the South side of Winter Island, where they took their station for the winter.

The first summer was thus terminated, and though no success had been obtained as to the object of the undertaking, yet a great deal had been accomplished. They had carefully surveyed more than 200 leagues of coast, and ascertained that no passable strait or opening existed along the whole extent of it, and they had so far shown where the passage did not exist. They had done this under circumstances of great peril and difficulty, and proved themselves fully competent for the arduous service in which they were engaged.

Traces of Esquimaux inhabitants were observed continually, during the whole of this period, by the parties who were on shore. But the people themselves do not appear to have been met with more than once, after they had left Hudson's Straits, up to the period of their arrival at Winter Island. These last differed much from the former, being cleanly in their habits, and displaying much more intelligence and good feeling: they were also simple and honest; only one occurrence of a contrary nature took place, involving two individuals, and which compromised the character of no other. Rein-deer were frequently seen during this period, but they were in

general too shy and too fleet to be secured-other game was plentiful, and morc easily obtained. The supply was sufficient to furnish the party with an agreeable and salutary change of food.

Whilst the ships remained stationary, various methods were employed to pass the time pleasantly, and to prevent that ennui, so fatal to the health, as well as comfort, of persons secluded as they were from all the common resources of society. Government had provided the dresses, scenery, and other "properties," necessary for theatrical exhibitions; and these were employed, as on a former voyage, to the evident comfort and satisfaction of all persons engaged in the Expedition. A kind-hearted and intelligent lady, anticipating the amusement which might be derived from a Phantasmagoria, had presented the party with an excellent apparatus of the kind; and, with a delicacy equal to her liberality, had concealed her name, thus doing good by stealth." It fully answered the expectation of the benevolent donor, and we do not doubt but the effects proved really as serviceable, as the exhibition was agreeable and amusing.

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A school was established on board each ship, and such of the crew as could not read or write, were taught. Captain Parry makes the pleasing report, that at the termination of his voyage, there was not a single individual belonging to either vessel that could not read his Bible.

A room was fitted up on shore for the purpose of making experiments, and an observatory was added to it; but as the latter, for obvious reasons, did not admit of being warmed, the clock was prevented going by the severity of the cold—a circumstance which must have proved very inconvenient to their astronomical observations, but which the number and excellence of their chronometers in a great measure obviated. Attention to these duties, making the requisite calculations, and taking sufficient exercise, occupied all their time tolerably well, and left them no leisure to indulge fanciful wishes or vain regrets. The shortest day arrived. In the preceding voyage this had been the subject of very general and anxious observation, connected with feelings of home, and anticipations of returning thither; but on the present occasion it passed over without exciting any particular notice.

Many useful and important discoveries have been the effect of accidentone such occurred to our countrymen, and they did not fail to take advantage of it. These seas abound with a small shrimp, (Cancer nugart.) It happened that when the meat, previous to being cooked, had been immersed in the sea, for the purpose of thawing, or extracting the salt, the sailors had fancied it to be reduced in quantity. On one occasion a goose was left under water for forty-eight hours, and when drawn up, the cook, to his great astonishment, found only the skeleton remaining, but that was left in the nicest state of preservation. After this, the bodies of those ani mals, whose skeletons were wanted for preservation, were exposed to the depredations of these insects, and thus admirably prepared, with little or no trouble to the student.

Various phenomena were observed during the winter-a double moon, the imaginary one being below the real one ;- —some very brilliant Auroras; --and some very singular effects of refraction, causing uncommon and interesting illusions. For these we must refer to the Journal, as the details would occupy a larger space than we can spare for the purpose.

We cannot pass on without remarking the proper sense entertained by the crew of the Hecla, of the value of religious instruction. Only one

chaplain accompanied the expedition, and of course he was on board the Fury, Captain Parry's ship. After the Expedition had gone into winter quarters, divine service was ordered to be regularly performed every Sunday. We should have expected that, under such circumstances, the crew of each vessel would have been required to attend-that was not the case; but the people belonging to the Hecla were too sensible of the value of the privilege of assembling for divine service, to suffer the opportunity to pass unimproved; they petitioned to be allowed to share in this advantage with their companions of the Fury, and the petition was immediately granted. This is only one of many instances which have come to our knowledge, of the desire felt by our seamen to receive religious instruction. It is a feeling very general among them, though very little known, or expected, by those who have not closely observed the peculiar character of that very peculiar class of our fellow-subjects. If they are generally ignorant of the doctrines of Christianity, and the practice necessarily flowing from a knowledge of, and belief in, those doctrines, it is because they are, by the nature of their calling, too frequently destitute of the means of receiving instruction. When the opportunity of being taught occurs, they uniformly avail themselves of it, with an alacrity which proves how sensible they are of the value of it; and which ought to stimulate those, who have the power of extending these advantages to them, to lose no op portunity of doing it.

In the month of February the ships were visited by another tribe of Esquimaux, whose manners, habits, and intelligence, were far superior to those of either of the parties they had before met with. We defer entering into particulars at present, as we shall have occasion to speak more fully of these people hereafter. They afforded our countrymen a great deal of amusement, which, being wholly unanticipated, was so much the more agreeable. They signified that two or three of them had before seen strangers (Kabloonas,) similar to those they were then talking with, and it was afterwards ascertained that they sometimes wandered so far to the southward, as to have seen some of the Hudson's Bay ships passing to the Factories of that Company. Captain Parry immediately conceived, that if any accident should befal the Expedition, this circumstance might be made available to convey some kind of intelligence home; and for this purpose he distributed amongst them pieces of copper, bearing the inscrip tion, "Hecla and Fury-All Well-1822." The measure was wise, but, happily, it became unnecessary.

During the time they were frozen up in Winter Island, several expeditions were undertaken overland, to investigate the probability of finding an opening to the westward, on the borders of the coast in that direction. These were attended with great hardships, and with no ultimate success. In one they proceeded so far North, as to Point Elizabeth, when they fancied they had reached the farthest point to the eastward; and this being passed, they expected to find the opening, which was to lead to the suc cessful termination of their labours. Their supplies, however, were too far exhausted to allow them to pursue the examination farther at that time; but the expectation cheered their spirits, and therefore was not without its benefit.

We were surprised to find an attempt made to raise vegetables on shore, by the application of means used for forcing them. It failed, as might have been expected.

The longest day was now fast approaching, but no indication could be traced of the return of summer, that of the increased length of day-light excepted. At Melville Island, so much farther to the North, they had found the season much earlier.-There was an increased quantity of open sea visible, but nothing to promise a speedy release. On the 3d of June the ships were 2,300 feet from the nearest opening, and Captain Parry judged it advisable to attempt cutting through this extent of ice, which was generally four, and sometimes ten feet thick, in order to open a passage, for enabling him to avail himself of the first opportunity of resuming operations. This great work was completed, when a change of wind, driving a large quantity of ice against the floe, caused a large extent of the latter to crack, and drive across the opening they had made with so much toil and labour; nor could they remove this new blockade, by the application of any power, to repel it into its former position; but the wind rising from an opposite quarter removed the obstruction, and restored the opening.

After a confinement of nine months' duration, they quitted Winter Island, putting to sea on the 2d of July. The coast of the Mainland was then completely lined with ice, and that extending to a depth of from two to five miles to sea-ward, and apparently firmly attached to the shore. For seven days the ships were exposed to the greatest danger, from the quantity and pressure of the floating ice, but on the 12th they found an opening, which promised them a secure shelter from the perils which threatened them. It proved to be the mouth of a river, to which they gave the name of Barrow's River, after the Secretary to the Admiralty. The following day they landed, and ascended the course of the stream, when a grand water-fall displayed itself to their view. The impression must have been striking under any circumstances, but to Captain Parry and his associates it must have been peculiarly so. The following is the Captain's own

account of it.

"On the morning of the 13th, the ice being still close in with the land, just to the northward of us, I determined on examining the supposed river in the boats, and at the same time try our luck with the seine, as the place seemed a likely one for salmon. Accompanied by several of the Officers, therefore, as well as by Captain Lyon, in his own boat, I left the Fury at half-past eight, A. M., and was soon followed by a second boat from each ship. Immediately on opening the inlet, we encountered a rapid current setting outwards, and after rowing a mile and a half to the N. W. by W., the breadth of the stream varying from one third of a mile to four or five hundred yards, came to some shoal water extending quite across. Landing on the South shore, and hauling the boats above high water-mark, we rambled up the banks of the stream, which are low next the water, but rise almost immediately to the height of about two hundred feet. As we proceeded, we gradually heard the noise of a fall of water; and being presently obliged to strike more inland, as the bank became more precipitous, soon obtained a fresh view of the stream, running on a much higher level than before, and dashing with great impetuosity down two small cataracts. Just below this, however, where the river turns almost at a right angle, we perceived a much greater spray, as well as a louder sound; and having walked a short distance down the bank, suddenly came upon the principal fall, of whose magnificence I am at a loss to give any adequate description.

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At the head of the fall, or where it commences its principal descent, the

the river is contracted to about one hundred and fifty feet in breadth, the channel being hollowed out through a solid rock of gneiss. After falling about fifteen feet at an angle, of 300 with a vertical line, the width of the stream is still narrowed to about forty yards, and then, as if mustering its whole force, previous to its final descent, is precipitated in one vast continuous sheet of water, almost perpendicular, for ninety feet more. So nearly, indeed, is the rock perpendicular, that we were enabled to let down a sounding lead and line, for the purpose of measuring its actual height, while a man descended from crag to crag, with a second line attached to him, to see when the lead touched the water below. The dashing of the water from such a height, produced the usual accompaniment of a cloud of spray, broad columns of which were constantly forced up, like the successive rushes of smoke from a vast furnace, and on this, near the top, a vivid iris, or rainbow, was occasionally formed by the bright rays of an unclouded sun. The roaring of the mountain cataract,' which constitutes a principal feature of the sublime in scenery of this magnificent nature, was here almost deafening, and as we were able to approach the head of the fall, even as close as a single yard, the very rock seemed to suffer a concussion under our feet. The basin, that receives the water at the foot of the fall, is nearly of a circular form, and about four hundred yards in diameter, being rather wider than the river immediately below it. The fall is about three quarters of a mile above our landing-place, or two miles and a quarter from the entrance of the river.

"After remaining nearly an hour, fixed, as it were, to the spot by the novelty and magnificence of the scene before us, we continued our walk along the banks; and after passing the two smaller cataracts, found the river again increased in width to above two hundred yards, winding in the most romantic manner imaginable among the hills, and preserving a smooth and unruffled surface for a distance of three or four miles, that we traced it to the South-west above the fall. What added extremely to the beauty of this picturesque river, which Captain Lyon and myself named after our mutual friend, Mr. BARROW, Secretary to the Admiralty, was the richness of the vegetation on its banks, the enlivening brilliancy of a cloudless sky, and the animation given to the scene, by several rein-deer that were grazing beside the stream. Our sportsmen were fortunate in obtaining four of these animals, but we had no success with the seines, the ground proving altogether too rocky to use them with advantage or safety. The eider-ducks were here tolerably numerous, and we also met with some black-throated divers, golden plovers, and snow-buntings. On first entering the river two birds flew over our heads, appearing larger than eider-ducks, but with much less white on their backs and wings, and without the duckbill. On our return down the river, Captain Lyon landed on the opposite side, for the purpose of making a drawing of the fall in the best point of view; and we then returned on board at thirty minutes past two P. M., after the most gratifying visit we had ever paid to the shore in these regions.

"The entrance of this river lies in lat 67°. 18 min. 05 sec., and in longitude by chronometers, 81°. 25 min. 20 sec. We found at half tide from ten to twelve feet water in mid-channel for a mile below the first shallows, and it then quickly deepens to as many fathoms. The banks of the river had still a good deal of snow cleaving to them in some places, and we narrowly escaped being swamped by a heavy mass falling off into the water, just after we had