220 ARRIVAL OF ' PHOENIX* AXD ' TALBOT.' [August, 



powder-case, every necessary document and information 

 was secured. Behind the house, in the pillar erected to 

 the memory of all who had died on this Expedition, fur- 

 ther information was deposited. 



The crews of the 'Assistance/ ' Resolute/ and ' Inves- 

 tigator ' were now embarked together on board the 

 ' North Star/ and some of our boats being yet absent, 

 we slipped our hawsers and made sail westerly to meet 

 them. 



It was about this period last year that H.M.S. Phoenix 

 quitted for England. Some doubted her escape from the 

 ice in Lancaster Sound, and the prevailing " pressure 

 from without" was, that we had no time to spare. What 

 my own feelings were can be readily imagined, when I 

 found myself with officers and crews crammed together 

 on the chance of one frail bark. 



Some, it is true, had been four winters in the ice; but 

 I consider that the sledge crews of our Squadron were 

 infinitely weaker in constitution. Such then being our 

 preparation to hazard the buffeting of Baffin's Bay, we 

 had fairly taken our departure. The day was cold and 

 gloomy, attended with snow and haze, and I had just 

 taken possession of my cabin, when " a steamer towing 

 a barque" was reported in the direction of Cape Riley. 

 They proved to be the ' Phoenix' and ' Talbot/ with fur- 

 ther supplies, and Instructions from the Admiralty. Most 

 fortunately they reached at this moment, as a few hours 

 later we should probably have missed them, my determi- 

 nation, then taken, being to make for Port Leopold and 

 the southern shore, and hauling across from Admiralty 

 Inlet, to visit Port Dundas. 



