52 RETURNS TO CAPE LADY FRANKLIN, \_0cfo6cf, 



interest. He is about to encamp near the Rendezvous 

 Bluff: "We had our choice of ground tonight, either 

 soft snow or soft clay ; we chose the latter, as being a 

 novelty, and as reminding us of the approach to a pig- 

 stye in England of a November day." 



Saw deer, but the men were too much reduced to care 

 about killing them. Vegetation here was more luxuriant ; 

 but the wild sorrel, seen for the first time, even a rarity, 

 Everything very backward ; this too on the 24th of June ! 

 He observes : " There is much more vegetation however 

 on this side of the Strait than on the other ; indeed, 

 there would seem to be a well-defined line of sterility on 

 the north-east side of Melville Island, which appears to 

 extend thirty miles to the southward, and nearly as far 

 to the westward of the north-east extreme." " It is re- 

 markable too that no animals, or traces of them, were 

 seen on that corner. I can only account for it by the 

 force of the north-west wind telling constantly there." 



Why the Hudson's Bay guns should burst, in prefer- 

 ence to all others, I know not, but in both Expeditions 

 we have had very narrow escapes. Who makes them ? 



On the 10th of July, having reached Cape Lady 

 Franklin, he met with the tent, and two men, left by 

 Lieutenant Osborn, gone southerly ; he is also surprised 

 by meeting with Mr. Loney, sent to relieve him. He 

 observes, as he is obtaining sights, " I saw two people 

 coming over the hill, which I took to be Lieutenant Os- 

 born and one of his party ; but, to my great surprise, on 

 coming nearer, one turned out to be Mr. Loney, from 

 Northumberland Sound, who had been sent with a cutter 

 to recall me, if I should have arrived, and help to carry 



