302 KAE'S INSTRUCTIONS. 



llth of August she reached the island of St. Lawrence ; 

 and on the 16th of August fell in with the ice. But the 

 weather was then so unfavorable, and the ice so thick, 

 that Captain Collinson abandoned a purpose which he 

 had formed to attempt to penetrate that season to Cape 

 Bathurst. After several encounters with the ice, he 

 reached Grantley Harbor, and there found the Plover 

 preparing for winter quarters, and was next day joined 

 by the Herald. On consulting with Captains Kellett 

 and Moore, he determined, instead of wintering in the 

 north, to proceed to Hong Kong, there to replenish his 

 provisions, and not to set out again for the north till at 

 least the first of April, 1851. The Investigator was 

 later in getting through the Pacific than the Enterprise ; 

 and Commander Moore, of the Plover, writing at sea, in 

 latitude 51 26' north, and longitude 172 35' west, on 

 the 20th of July, gave a sketch of his intended opera- 

 tions, and said that no apprehension need be enter- 

 tained about his safety till the autumn of 1854, as he 

 had on board full provisions of every kind for three years 

 after the first of September, and intended to issue, in 

 lieu of the usual rations, whatever food could be obtained 

 by hunting parties from the ship. 



Dr. Rae, it will be remembered, was left by Sir John 

 Richardson to attempt to overtake, in the summer of 

 1849, an unaccomplished part of the objects of the over- 

 land expedition of 1848. This had special reference to 

 the examination of the coasts of Victoria Land and Wol- 

 laston Land ; and now that Sir John Franklin's ships 

 were believed to have certainly gone beyond Cape 

 Walker, and to have probably bored their way south- 

 westward to some position between that place and the 

 mainland, this was deemed to be much more important 

 than before. Early in 1850 instructions were despatched 

 to Dr. Rae, by Governor Sir George Simpson, of the 



