Voyages in Search of the North-West Passage | Page 7

and sunke at the ship's stern with all the poor men's
furniture."
Now, too, as we sail up the strait, explored a few years after these
events by Master John Davis, how proudly we remember him as a right
worthy forerunner of those countrymen of his and ours who since have
sailed over his track. Nor ought we to pass on without calling to mind
the melancholy fate, in 1606, of Master John Knight, driven, in the
Hopewell, among huge masses of ice with a tremendous surf, his
rudder knocked away, his ship half full of water, at the entrance to
these straits. Hoping to find a harbour, he set forth to explore a large
island, and landed, leaving two men to watch the boat, while he, with
three men and the mate, set forth and disappeared over a hill. For
thirteen hours the watchers kept their post; one had his trumpet with
him, for he was a trumpeter, the other had a gun. They trumpeted often

and loudly; they fired, but no answer came. They watched ashore all
night for the return of their captain and his party, "but they came not at
all."
The season is advanced. As we sail on, the sea steams like a line- kiln,
"frost-smoke" covers it. The water, cooled less rapidly, is warmer now
than the surrounding air, and yields this vapour in consequence. By the
time our vessel has reached Baffin's Bay, still coasting along Greenland,
in addition to old floes and bergs, the water is beset with "pancake ice."
That is the young ice when it first begins to cake upon the surface.
Innocent enough it seems, but it is sadly clogging to the ships. It sticks
about their sides like treacle on a fly's wing; collecting unequally, it
destroys all equilibrium, and impedes the efforts of the steersman.
Rocks split on the Greenland coast with loud explosions, and more
icebergs fall. Icebergs we soon shall take our leave of; they are only
found where there is a coast on which glaciers can form; they are good
for nothing but to yield fresh water to the vessels; it will be all field,
pack, and saltwater ice presently.
Now we are in Baffin's Bay, explored in the voyages of Bylot and
Baffin, 1615-16. When, in 1817, a great movement in the Greenland ice
caused many to believe that the northern passages would be found
comparatively clear; and when, in consequence of this impression, Sir
John Barrow succeeded in setting afoot that course of modern Arctic
exploration which has been continued to the present day, Sir John Ross
was the first man sent to find the North-West Passage. Buchan and
Parry were commissioned at the same the to attempt the North Sea
route. Sir John Ross did little more on that occasion than effect a
survey of Baffin's Bay, and prove the accuracy of the ancient pilot. In
the extreme north of the bay there is an inlet or a channel, called by
Baffin Smith's Sound; this Sir John saw, but did not enter. It never yet
has been explored. It may be an inlet only; but it is also very possible
that by this channel ships might get into the Polar Sea and sail by the
north shore of Greenland to Spitzbergen. Turning that corner, and
descending along the western coast of Baffin's Bay, there is another
inlet called Jones' Sound by Baffin, also unexplored. These two inlets,
with their very British titles, Smith and Jones, are of exceeding interest.
Jones' Sound may lead by a back way to Melville Island. South of
Jones' Sound there is a wide break in the shore, a great sound, named

by Baffin, Lancaster's, which Sir John Ross, in that first expedition,
failed also to explore. Like our transatlantic friends at the South Pole,
he laid down a range of clouds as mountains, and considered the way
impervious; so he came home. Parry went out next year, as a lieutenant,
in command of his first and most successful expedition. He sailed up
Lancaster Sound, which was in that year (1819) unusually clear of ice;
and he is the discoverer whose track we now follow in our Phantom
Ship. The whole ground being new, he had to name the points of
country right and left of him. The way was broad and open, due west, a
most prosperous beginning for a North-West Passage. If this continued,
he would soon reach Behring Strait. A broad channel to the right,
directed, that is to say, southward, he entered on the Prince of Wales's
birthday, and so called it the "Prince Regent's Inlet." After exploring
this for some miles, he turned back to resume his western course, for
still there was a broad strait leading westward. This second part of
Lancaster Sound