1854.] PARTIES REVISIT DEALT ISLAND. 195 



After rebuilding the cairn, depositing charts, and full 

 information concerning our movements, as weU as com- 

 plete notices of all the depots lodged on the Beechey Is- 

 land route, Lieutenant Mecham commenced his return 

 to Melville Island, reached the Princess Royal Islands on 

 the 13th, examined the whale-boat left there, and found 

 her in good condition; deposited the requisite records, 

 provisioned, and having removed some articles found 

 damaged to a higher and less exposed position, he de- 

 spatched his sledge along the southern coast of the 

 Straits, and, accompanied by one man with his Satellite 

 (a small sledge or tender), pursued his examination along 

 the northern coast, deposited records at Cape Russell, 

 rejoining his party on the 17th, ready to start. Having 

 built a cairn, deposited records, and collected sufficient 

 fuel (of which they had none) to last them to Melville 

 Island, they moved forward. 



On the 19th of May they cleared the Straits, steering 

 direct for Cape Providence. 



The ice, extending ten miles off Cape Russell, they 

 found to be that of last year's formation, without a crack. 

 They then crossed a barrier of very heavy old hummocks, 

 reached a lead of old floe, over which they travelled 

 fifteen miles, entered a mixture of heavy hummocks of 

 young pressed-up ice, and small floe-pieces of heavy old 

 ice extending thirty miles. On the 23rd these were 

 cleared about seven miles south by east of Cape Provi- 

 dence. 



On the 27th they reached the depot at Dealy Island, 

 and found orders to return to Beechey Island. They 

 had suffered much from heavy falls of snow, attended by 



o 2 



