300 COLLINSON AND M'CLURE. 



and his party, and now felt fervid and generous zeal to 

 be useful in the affair of Sir John Franklin. They pro- 

 ceeded in the ordinary manner of a whaling cruise, yet 

 penetrated into Lancaster Sound, and proposed to go as 

 far as Prince Regent's Inlet ; but were stopped, on the 

 4th of August, by a firm, compact barrier, extending 

 quite across, in crescentic outline, from Cape York, on 

 the south, to the vicinity of Bumet's Inlet, on the north. 

 They were only seven days within sight of the shores of 

 Lancaster Sound, and saw few other parts of them than 

 such as had been closely scrutinized by the Enterprise 

 and the Investigator ; yet they searched them with a keen 

 eye, and deposited on them several conspicuous notices. 



The demand for new researches now became pressing. 

 Three great divisions of search were adopted. These 

 corresponded, in general sphere and character, to the 

 three primary searching expeditions of 1848. One was 

 marine, by way of Behring's Strait ; another was over- 

 land, to the central northern coasts ; and the third was 

 marine, by way of Baffin's Bay. 



The ships Enterprise and Investigator were refitted 

 with all possible speed, to go round South America, and 

 up to Behring's Strait. Captain Richard Collinson was 

 put in command of the Enterprise, and Commander 

 M'Clure, who had served as first lieutenant of the Enter- 

 prise in the recent expedition under Sir James C. Ross, 

 was put in command of the Investigator. The ships 

 were provisioned for three years, and supplied with bal- 

 loona, blasting appliances, ice-saws, and many other 

 contrivances for aiding their movements and research. 

 Each, also, was provided with a pointed piece of mech- 

 anism, about fourteen pounds in weight, attached by a 

 tackle to the end of the bowsprit, suited to be worked 

 from the deck, and capable, by means of a series of sud- 

 den falls, to break ice of any ordinary thickness, and 



