1852.] ADMIRALTY INSTRUCTIONS. 7 



the extended search you may have been enabled to make in that 

 quarter, that the missing ships did not proceed in that direction, and 

 if Captain Kellett should have reached Melville Island, as directed by 

 his instructions, and his land expeditious should also have failed in 

 finding any such trace, it does not appear to us that there is any other 

 direction in which a prospect of their discovery can be expected. 

 Every accessible part of the shores of the Polar Seas west of Lancaster 

 Sound will have been visited without finding a trace of the missing 

 ships, except their former station at Beechey Island in 1845 and 18-16. 

 In such a contingency as this, and if such should likewise be your 

 opinion after mature consideration with the senior officers under your 

 command, there appears no other course left but to abandon all further 

 search. 



3. But in case you should have found any trace of the Expedition, 

 it will be your duty to follow up that trace. In doing this you must 

 exercise extreme caution, so as not to lose your means of communi- 

 cation with Beechey Island ; nor are you to incur any hopeless risk by 

 proceeding beyond reasonable limits, for the safety of your own cre\\ s 

 must be your first care. We place every confidence in your zeal and 

 intelligence, and feel assured that you will act with sound judgment in 

 whatever situation you may be placed ; we therefore leave it to you 

 either to abandon the Expedition altogether, if you are of opinion that 

 no further steps can be practicably taken, or to send such of the ships 

 to England as you may not require ; transmitting by them to our 

 Secretary not only a full account of all your proceedings, but charts 

 of all your discoveries, and keeping us informed of your views and 

 intentions, so that, if it should be necessaiy, every requisite aid may be 

 given you in the Summer of 1854. 



4. Before your final departure from the Polar Seas, should you 

 think proper to adopt that course, there appears one very important 

 subject which will require your serious consideration ; and that is the 

 present position of the ships under the command of Captain Collinson 

 and Commander M'Clure, which entered the ice to the north-east of 

 Point Barrow (Behring Straits), the latter in August, 1850, and the 

 former in July, 1851. These officers with their respective crews may 

 have been compelled by circumstances to abandon their ships. If such 

 should be the case, they may probably attempt to reach Melville Island ; 

 and having had this in view when you left England, we directed in 

 your instructions that a depot of provisions and other stores should 

 be formed at that island. From this position they will no doubt 



