Entering Lancaster Sound, Parry found a strait not blocked by mountains but thirty miles broad leading into a region up to then unknown, except—so it is said—to the Norsemen. On the 12th of August Prince Regent Inlet was discovered and named, it being George IV's birthday. Then North Somerset was sighted and the course laid across Barrow Strait to North Devon and its south-western peninsula known as Beechey Island; then Wellington Channel was descried, and then Cornwallis Island. Griffith Island was discovered on the 23rd of August, Bathurst Island on the 25th, Byam Martin Island on the 27th, where Sabine, the astronomer of the expedition, found they had passed north of the magnetic north pole. Then the south side of Melville Island was coasted along, Dealy Island being found on the 4th of September at noon, and, at a quarter past nine at night, just after passing Bounty Cape (named in honour of the event), the _Hecla_ crossed the 110th meridian west, and became entitled to the Government grant of £5000 for doing so—which Parry shared between the ships. [Illustration: H.M.S. "HECLA" AND "GRIPER" IN WINTER HARBOUR] Soon the ice became difficult and the ships had to anchor, but, the conditions improving, the westerly voyage was resumed. Cape Providence was passed and Cape Hay sighted, but the ships could get no further than about half-way between these capes, and they had to return to Winter Harbour, where, on the 26th of September, they were warped to their quarters through a channel cut in the ice. The _Hecla_, sending down all her upper masts except the main topmast, and the _Griper_, housing her fore and main topmasts, used the spars to support a roof which completely enclosed their upper decks and made them both snug for the winter, which did not seem so long owing to the efforts of the officers to keep every one amused and on the move. Parry, a host in himself, was well seconded by his lieutenant, Beechey, late of the _Trent_, James Clark Ross, one of his midshipmen, Captain Sabine, and Lieutenant Liddon, the commander of the _Griper_, who was almost disabled with rheumatism, and Lieutenant Hoppner, also of the _Griper_. A couple of books of plays on board proved a real treasure; owing to them the Royal Arctic Theatre was started, the pioneer of so many amateur theatrical ventures in the Polar seas, and the _North Georgia Gazette_ and _Winter Chronicle_ came into existence, the first of ship newspapers. On Christmas Day there was a dinner of roast beef which had been on board since May, the condition of which, as Parry said, was an excellent testimony to the antiseptic properties of a cold atmosphere; and the food generally was good and abundant, and the management and supplies far better than on many subsequent expeditions. In the spring, game was found in fair quantity, nearly four thousand pounds of musk ox, deer, hares, geese, ducks, and ptarmigan being brought on board.