AUSTIN'S EXPEDITION. 303 



Hudson's Bay Company, requiring him, in the event of 

 his explorations of 1849 having been unsuccessful, to 

 organize another expedition for the summer of 1850- 

 This was to penetrate further, to range more widely, 

 and to examine the coasts of Banks's Island, the coasts 

 around Cape Walker, and the north coast of Victoria 

 Land. Two small parties, at the same time, were to 

 proceed westward on the mainland in the direction of 

 Point Barrow ; and one of these was to descend the 

 Mackenzie, and explore the coast to the west of it, 

 while the other was to pass on to the Colville River, 

 and to descend that stream to the sea ; and both were 

 to induce the natives, by rewards and otherwise, to 

 prosecute the search, and spread intelligence in all direc- 

 tions. Dr. Rae was particularly instructed to keep an 

 ample supply of provisions, clothing, ammunition, fish- 

 ing-tackle, and other necessaries, at Fort Good Hope, 

 as that seemed an eminently probable retreat to which 

 parties of the missing adventurers might try to force 

 their way. But in most other matters, and especially 

 in all the details of the expedition, he was left solely to 

 his own discretion. 



The expedition equipped by the British government 

 for renewed search by way of Baffin's Bay and Lancas- 

 ter Sound comprised two strong teak-built ships, the 

 Resolute and the Assistance, and two powerful screw- 

 propelled steam-vessels the Pioneer and the Intrepid. 

 These ships had a tonnage, the former of five hundred, 

 and the latter of four hundred and thirty tons, and were 

 alike strong, commodious, elegant, and admirably ap- 

 purtenanced. The steam-vessels had strength and 

 adaptation not only for towing the ships in open chan- 

 nels, but for conflicting with the perils of the polar seas, 

 and forcing a passage through small floes and thin 

 packs of ice. Captain H. T. Austin was put in com:- 



