416 M'CLURE'S EXPLORATIONS. 



broke down before they had proceeded far, and they had 

 to send to the ship for another. It did not reach them 

 till the next day. After some difficulty in crossing 

 ridges of broken ice, they reached vast fields of smooth 

 ice of the present season's formation ; and here a new 

 obstacle awaited them. The autumnal snow had accu- 

 mulated upon the surface of these young ice-fields, and, 

 weighing them down, caused the sea-water to flow 

 through sufficiently to render the under part of the 

 snow almost, as tenacious as clay. The fatigue of haul- 

 ing two hundred pounds apiece over such a road was 

 excessive. Unfortunately, no water could be had, and 

 the crew suffered much from thirst ; for every handful 

 of snow which they thrust into their parched mouths 

 augmented rather than assuaged their sufferings, as it 

 contained more or less of the salts of the sea-water. 



On the 24th a cape was seen at what appeared a dis- 

 tance of twelve miles, and every man now dragged with 

 a will, in the hope of reaching that night the end of his 

 iourney ; but, after seven hours' labor, the cape still 

 retained its original position, and they seemed not a 

 mile nearer to it. M'Clure then saw that he had been 

 much deceived in its apparent distance, owing to the 

 clearness of the atmosphere, and that thirty miles was 

 a nearer estimate than twelve of the probable length 

 of their march. After a night's rest, and another hard 

 day's work, they were still two miles off the cape, when 

 night closed in, obliging them to halt and encamp. 

 Though disappointed in not sighting Barrow's Strait on 

 the 25th, they were all much cheered by the multiply- 

 ing proofs around them of its close proxiinit} 7 '. Away to 

 the north-east they already saw that wonderful oceanic 

 ice described by Sir Edward Parry in his voyage to 

 Melville Island, in 1819. The latitude was now 73 25' N. 



The morning of the 26th October, 1850, was fine and 



