The most important results of Ross’s expedition, however, were the restitution of Baffin’s good name as a navigator and discoverer, the discovery of the Arctic Highlanders, and the training of several young naval officers in ice navigation. The greatest practical result was that his voyage showed the way to the whalers, and that by reaching the north water of Baffin’s Bay they would find another very lucrative whale fishery. It was another example of the use of Arctic enterprises in furthering the commercial prosperity of the country which encourages them. On the return of Ross’s expedition there was an outcry about the supposed closing of Lancaster Sound, as some of the officers believed it to be a wide channel leading westward. Lieut. Parry was decidedly of that opinion. Sir John Barrow strongly represented the doubt to the Board of Admiralty, and it was decided that another expedition should be despatched in 1819. CHAPTER XXIII PARRY AND HIS SCHOOL Sir Edward Parry was one of the greatest of Arctic discoverers. Without an equal as an organiser and administrator, unsurpassed as a leader of men, he was an accomplished officer and a bold and resolute navigator, knowing when to take risks and when to avoid them. Parry was a very perfect sailor, thoroughly well read in all that concerned his enterprises, thoughtful and levelheaded. While promoting hilarity and good-fellowship, he was, through life, deeply yet unostentatiously religious. He was the beau ideal of an Arctic officer. Parry was the son of a physician at Bath, where he went to school. As a boy he was tall and athletic, very popular, with a good ear for music, a talent for acting, and a habit of doing all he had to do with all his might. Miss Cornwallis, a friend of the family and a near relation of the Admiral then in command of the fleet blockading Brest, obtained an appointment for him. Young Parry could not have entered the service under better auspices. He continued to serve in the Channel, Baltic, and North Sea, always fortunate with his captains and winning their regard, until he attained the rank of Lieutenant. His next service was on the coast of Scotland, and one season his ship was employed to protect the returning whalers, when he made his first acquaintance with pack ice. In these days Parry was devoted to the study of navigation and surveying. He made several useful surveys of harbours in Scotland, which his captain sent to the Hydrographer, and he wrote a little book on nautical astronomy for the use of young officers which his father caused to be printed. It contained useful directions for finding stars in the northern hemisphere.