SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 279 



and they fired guns every half-hour, and closely exam- 

 ined every part of the shore with their glasses, but did 

 not get sight of a single human being. They then went 

 slowly to the northward, and sometimes could not hold 

 their own with the current, and always kept so close to 

 the land that neither boats nor persons could escape 

 their notice, yet still were unsuccessful. 



On the 26th they arrived off Possession Bay, at the 

 south side of the entrance of Lancaster Sound. A party 

 there went ashore to search for traces of Sir John Frank- 

 lin having touched at that general point of rendezvous, 

 but they found nothing except a paper recording the 

 visit of Sir Edward Parry, in 1819. The expedition now 

 sailed along the coast of Lancaster Sound, keeping close 

 in-shore, scrutinizing all the seaboard both from the 

 deck and from the mast-head, and fully expecting every 

 hour to see those of whom they were in search. Every 

 day they threw overboard, from each ship, a cask con- 

 taining papers of information of all their proceedings ; 

 and in every fog they periodically fired guns, in every 

 time of darkness they burned rockets and blue lights, 

 and at ail times they kept the ships under such easy 

 sail that any boat seeing the signals might have reached 

 them. The drift of the information in the casks told the 

 missing adventurers that no assistance could be given 

 them at Pond's Bay, or anywhere else on the west coast 

 of Baffin's Bay ; that the Enterprise and the Investi- 

 gator were on their way to form a depot of provisions 

 at Port Leopold ; and that, if the adventurers would 

 go on to that place, they would either find one of the 

 ships there, or see, along with the provisions, a notice 

 of where she might be found. 



On the 1st of September the expedition arrived off 

 Cape York, at the east side of the entrance of Prince 

 Regent's Inlet. A party was there sent ashore, uader 



