276 SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 



long, and capable of an average speed of eleven miles 

 an hour. Captain E. J. Bird was appointed to the com- 

 mand of the Investigator. The ships were instructed 

 to proceed together to the head of Barrow's Strait ; and 

 the Enterprise, if possible, to push on to a wintering- 

 place about Winter Harbor or Banks' Land, while the 

 Investigator should try to find harborage somewhere 

 about Gamier Bay or Cape Rennell. Parties were to 

 go from the Enterprise along respectively the eastern 

 and the western shores of Banks' Land, to cross Sir 

 John Richardson's expedition on the mainland ; and 

 parties from the Investigator were to explore the coasts 

 of North Somerset and Boothia. 



The expedition left the Thames on the 12th of May, 

 1848, and entered Baffin's Bay early in July. A letter 

 was written by Sir James Clarke Ross, from the Danish 

 settlement of Upernavik, on the 12th of July, stating 

 that if, after passing a second winter at or near Port 

 Leopold, he should get no intelligence of Sir John 

 Franklin and his party, he would send the Investigator 

 home to England, and prosecute a further search in the 

 Enterprise alone. The Lords of the Admiralty took 

 alarm at the possible, or even probable, consequences 

 of this excessive heroism, and ordered the North Star 

 store-ship, under command of Mr. James Saunders, to 

 get ready with all speed to take out instructions and 

 supplies to the expedition. Her prime object was to 

 be the replenishing of the expedition's stock of pro- 

 visions, and the enjoining of the Investigator not to 

 return to England in the way Sir James C. Ross had 

 indicated, but to remain in company with the Enter- 

 prise ; and if the North Star should not succeed in 

 promptly fulfilling this object, she was instructed to 

 land the supplies at the furthest prominent point she 

 could readily reach, and by all means to keep herself 



