216 CAPTAIN COLLINSON'S RELIEF CERTAIN. [August, 



value to the Byarn Martin Strait, easier of approach, and, 

 for every object attainable, more secure than the course 

 by the Wellington Channel." 



" I saw no features from the eastern shores to warrant 

 any passage, nor is it fair to judge, from the very extra- 

 ordinary season of 1852, that successive years would af- 

 ford similar facility. Wlien H.M.S. Assistance escapes 

 out of Wellington Channel, then I may be able to make 

 further remarks; but this I know, that 1853 and 1854 

 offered no invitations to the judicious navigator to try 

 his chance late in the season, merely perhaps to enter 

 the great bay where the 'Assistance' spent her dreary 

 winter." 



" My impression still clings to the escape out of Lan- 

 caster Sound, or to a fatal issue off Cape Riley, and that 

 traces, if ever discovered, must be sought from the Es- 

 quimaux of the southern land (Cape Cockburn)." 



" Having thus dismissed our disappointed hopes of 

 traces where we have sought in vain, I arrive at the dis- 

 covery of the position of H.M.S. Investigator and the 

 present safety of her Captain and crew." 



" However anxious I may be for a similar result to 

 Captain Collinson and party, still I am thankful that the 

 records place him in a region free from the perils of 

 Arctic ice, in which Captain M'Clure considers no ship 

 could endure. He had, at the latest account, two modes 

 of escape, one by the road he came, the other on which 

 I place but little reliance, on account of its difficulties- 

 by the land journey to some of the Hudson Bay posts ; 

 unless indeed he met Dr. Rae, in which case competent 

 guides would materially alter the face of his difficulties." 



