8 ADMIRALTY INSTRUCTIONS. [1852. 



endeavour to make their way to Beeckey Island or Port Leopold. It 

 will therefore be your duty, before returning to England, to be fully 

 satisfied that a proper depot of coals, provisions, etc. had been formed 

 at Melville Island by Captain Kellett, and that clear information had 

 also been left there that similar supplies would be found at Beechey 

 Island. 



5. This depot on Beechey Island is to consist of a full store of coal, 

 provisions, clothes, and other stores, and you will take care to have 

 it most carefully secured against the depredations of bears or other 

 animals ; you are also to leave one of your ships there, with or without 

 a crew, as you may deem most advisable, so that Captain Collinson or 

 Commander M'Clure's parties may find every possible assistance which 

 they may require, and have the means at their command of returning 

 to England ; but should you find it to be practicable to place the ship, 

 or a depot of stores, in a more advanced position, between Melville 

 and Beechey Islands, it might be expedient to do so. This is a point 

 on which you can form a better judgment than we can. Our most 

 anxious wish is to establish the best possible arrangement with the 

 view of giving succour and support to the crews of those ships, should 

 they be compelled to seek refuge in the direction we have pointed out. 



6. Having expressed these general views, which will require your 

 careful consideration, we leave it to you to take such steps as you may 

 consider most expedient for meeting the circumstances of the case. 



7. On the arrival of the transport at Beechey Island, you are im- 

 mediately to hasten her discharge, and despatch her to England with 

 the least possible delay ; and you are not to detain the ' Phoenix ' 

 longer than may be necessary, or to risk her being frozen in, but to 

 send her also to England with intelligence of your proceedings, ex- 

 changing any of her men, and sending invalids, etc. 



Given under our hands this llth day of May, 1853, 



(Signed) J. E. G. GRAHAM. 



HYDE PARKER. 

 M. F. F. BERKELEY. 

 E. S. DTJNDAS. 



To SIR E. BELCHEK, C.B., ALES. MILNE. 



Captain of Her Majesty's Ship Assistance, 



Arctic Seas. 

 By Command of their Lordships, 



(Signed) E. OSBORNE. 



