312 MOVEMENTS OF THE SHIPS. 



when the little fleet were off Cape Dudley Digges, the 

 Intrepid, the Assistance, and the Felix, parted company 

 to make a search in Wolstenholme Sound. On the 15th 

 the Pioneer, the Resolute, and the Prince Albert, were 

 quite into the " North Water/' away from the ice ; and 

 on the 16th Captain Austin announced his intention to 

 call at Pond's Bay and Possession Bay. He expressed 

 a wish that the Prince Albert would examine the south 

 shore of Lancaster Sound from Cape Hay onward ; and 

 stated that the Intrepid and the Assistance would ex- 

 amine the north shore, and come to a rendezvous with 

 the Resolute somewhere about the mouth of Wellington 

 Channel. 



Early on the 21st of August the Prince Albert arrived 

 off Port Leopold. A landing was effected with great 

 difficulty in a gutta-percha boat, and could not have 

 been effected at all in any ordinary boat. The house 

 constructed by Sir James C. Ross was found much rent 

 in several places on the top and at the sides, but other- 

 wise in excellent order, and quite fit to be a temporary 

 retreat to any forlorn or cast-away Arctic adventurers. 

 The stores were abundant and in prime condition. The 

 steam launch seemed a noble little vessel, in which a 

 brave-hearted party might venture anywhere, and was 

 so placed that she could very easily be run into the sea. 

 But not a trace was found of the visit of any wanderer 

 from the Erebus and the Terror. 



The Prince Albert now stood away down Prince Re- 

 gent's Inlet ; and towards evening, when she was glid- 

 ing past the ice of Batty Bay, her crew were startled 

 for a moment into a thril 1 of hope. The men on deck 

 thought they heard a gun fired on shore ; the officers 

 ran to scrutinize the land through their glasses aloft ; 

 the vessel was steered closer to the bay ; the howitzer 

 was cleared away, and fired ; but not the slightest sign 



