TEASE AND SIMPSON'S DISCOVERIES. 245 



time for returning had arrived ere any real work had 

 been accomplished. At length, on the 20th of August, 

 Mr. Simpson started with seven men for a ten days 7 

 walk to the eastward, on the first of which they passed 

 Point Turnagain, the limit of Franklin's survey in 1821. 

 By the 23d they had toiled onwards to an elevated cape, 

 rising from a sea beset with ice ; and, the land closing all 

 round to the northwards, further progress seemed to 

 be impossible. " With bitter disappointment, 77 writes 

 Mr. Simpson, " I ascended the height, from whence a 

 vast and splendid prospect burst suddenly upon me. 

 The sea, as if transformed by enchantment, rolled its 

 free waves at my feet, and beyond the reach of vision 

 to the eastward. Islands of various shape and size 

 overspread its surface, and the northern land terminated 

 to the eye in a bold and lofty cape, bearing east-north- 

 east, thirty or forty miles distant, while the continental 

 coast trended away south-east. I stood, in fact, on a 

 remarkable headland, at the eastern outlet of an ice- 

 obstructed strait. On the extensive land to the north- 

 ward I bestowed the name of our most gracious sover- 

 eign, Queen Victoria. Its eastern visible extremity I 

 called Cape Pelly, in compliment to the governor of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company/ 3 



In 1839 they were more successful, and, favored with 

 mild weather and an open sea, they sailed through the 

 narrow strait that separates Victoria Land from the 

 main. On the 13th of August they doubled Point Ogle, 

 the furthest point of Back's journey in 1834 ; an event 

 which terminated the long-pursued inquiry concerning 

 the coast-line. They had thus ascertained that the 

 American continent is separated from Boothia to the 

 westward of Back's Estuary. The survey was now 

 complete. A day or two later, the party, with flags 

 * crossed to Montreal Island, in Back's Estuary, 



