On the 21st of July, 1819, the _Hecla_ and _Griper_ were off Sanderson’s Hope, when Parry counted 88 icebergs from the crow’s-nest. He boldly determined not to creep northwards along the land floe of Melville Bay, but to force a passage through the middle pack direct for Lancaster Sound. An older man would have hesitated. But there is no great success without risks, and young men take them. The ice was only 80 miles wide in that most favourable year, and Parry was at the entrance of Lancaster Sound by the 28th July. It would be difficult to imagine a more exhilarating moment than that when the Croker mountains were found to have no existence and the wide channel was discovered, leading into an unknown region. The lofty cliffs, with their scored sides like pillars and buttresses, form a grand portal to the unknown, as Dr Fisher described them, “like an immense wall in ruins, rising almost perpendicular from the sea.” There was a fresh breeze, and the _Hecla_ ran quickly up the channel, with mast-heads and rigging crowded with officers and men eagerly looking westward. Then there was some ice obstructing a westward course, but a wide channel opened to the south. Parry sailed down it for 150 miles, giving it the name of the Prince Regent, while the western land was called North Somerset, after Parry’s own county. A strong ice-blink across the channel induced him to turn north again into the westward channel. Then a wide open channel was discovered to the north and received the name of Wellington, but that was not the way. Westward Ho! was the cry, with new discoveries and new islands in every watch: Cornwallis Island, named after Parry’s first naval patron; Cape Hotham after one of the Lords who signed his instructions; Griffith Island after Admiral Griffith, who was first Lieutenant of the _Culloden_ at the battle of St Vincent. On into the unknown sailed the _Hecla_ and _Griper_. Upwards of 20 islands were discovered and named, the group collectively being called the North Georgian Islands. Pressing westward no landing was effected until an island was reached which was honoured with the name of the Comptroller, Sir Thomas Byam Martin. A more promising land was found, within sight of Melville Island, the Arctic paradise. Without knowing it Parry had passed the barren limestone isles, and his first landing was on the more promising carboniferous region. Sailing along the south coast of Melville Island, so named after the First Lord of the Admiralty, the expedition crossed the 110th meridian and thus became entitled to the bounty of £5000. In September the young ice was forming fast, and the _Hecla_ and _Griper_ were brought into snug quarters by sawing a long channel through the ice. The top-gallant and topmasts were sent down, all but the maintopmast which was left as a guide to returning sportsmen, and waggon-cloth housings were rigged over the upper decks.