SLEDGE-PARTIES. 439 



seven feet of water, thrown over on her starboard bilge, 

 and almost lost. At midnight, however, she was got 

 off, leaving sixty feet of her false keel behind. 



Kellett forged on in her, leaving depots here and 

 there as he proceeded ; and at the end of the summer 

 had reached Melville Island, the westernmost point at- 

 tained by Parry in 1820. Kellett's associate, Capt. 

 M'Clintock, of the Intrepid, had commanded the only 

 party which had been here since Parry, having come 

 over with sledges from Austin's squadron, in 1851, as 

 the reader will remember. 



The Resolute and Intrepid came to anchor off Dealy 

 Island, the place selected for their winter quarters ; and 

 then Capt. Kellett and his officers, with great spirit, 

 began to prepare for the extended searching parties of 

 the next spring. Officers were already assigned to the 

 proposed lines of search ; and in order to extend the 

 searches as much as possible, and to prepare the men 

 for the work when it should come, sledge-parties were 

 sent forward to make advanced depots, in the autumn, 

 under the charge of the gentlemen who would have to 

 use them in the spring. 



One of these parties the "South line of Melville 

 Island ' party was under a spirited young officer, 

 Mr. Mecham, who had seen service in the last expedi- 

 tion. He had two sledges, the Discovery and the Fear- 

 less, a depot of twenty days' provision to be used in 

 the spring, and enough for twenty-five days' present 

 use. All the sledges had little flags, made by some 

 young lady friends of Sir Edward Belcher's. Mr. 

 Mecham's bore an armed hand and sword on a white 

 ground, with the motto, "Per mare, per terrain, per 

 glaciem." Over mud, land, snow, and ice, they carried 

 their burden ; and were nearly back, when, on the 12th 

 of October, 1852 ; Mr. Mecham visited "Parry's Sand- 



