326 SLEDGING PARTIES- 



Btate of preservation, I would have restored it to its 

 lonely position.' 3 



As the weather was misty, M'Clintock did not explore 

 the head of the gulf, but struck directly across the land 

 for Winter Harbor. It was evident that no one had 

 visited the place since Parry's departure, in 1820. 



On the shore, above Winter Harbor, is a large sand- 

 stone bowlder, near the site of Parry's observatory, on 

 the flat face of which Mr. Fisher, his surgeon, had cut 

 this inscription : 



His Britannic Majesty's 

 Ships HECLA and GRIPER, 



Commanded by 



W. E. Parry and Mr. Liddon, 



Wintered in the adjacent 



Harbor 1819-20. 



A. Fisher, Sculpt. 



This inscription, M'Clintock says, appeared quite 

 fresh. A hare, discovered at the foot of this rock, 

 was so tame that she entered the tent, and would almost 

 allow the men to touch her. " I have never seen," 

 he says, " any animal, in its natural state, so perfectly 

 fearless of man ; and there cannot be a more convincing 

 proof that our missing countrymen have not been here. 

 A ptarmigan alighted on the rock, and was shot, without 

 in the least disturbing puss as she sat beneath it." 



M'Clintock carved the figures 1851 on the rock, and 

 left it and the hare. 



On the 6th June he left Winter Harbor, and reached 

 the ships on the 4th of July. The latter part of his 

 journey was fatiguing, from the extensive pools of 

 water in the ice ; but all his men arrived in excellent 

 health and spirits. He was out eighty days, and had 

 travelled seven hundred and seventy miles. Several 

 reindeer, musk-oxen, and bears, were shot, besides 

 numerous birds ; and the food thus obtained was of 



