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 he called a