460 BELCHER'S EXPEDITION. 



search having- been made for a record, though in all 

 probability this was not neglected ; yet the absence of 

 any cairn would seem to render it unlikely that such a 

 document existed. 



The explorations led to the discovery of various lands, 

 to the most extensive of which the name of North Corn- 

 wall was given, and of several islands washed by a sea 

 open to the north, which Belcher regarded as the polar 

 basin. The name of Victoria Archipelago was given to 

 a group of islands in 78 10' ; and the easternmost, form- 

 ing the channel which communicates with the Polar Sea, 

 was named North Kent. 



On the 2d of May, 1853, the north-east division of the 

 sledging-parties left the ship, and soon reached the limit 

 of their discoveries of the previous year. 



During this journey Belcher pushed toward North 

 Cornwall and Jones's Strait ; but was unexpectedly 

 stopped beyond Cape Disraeli, about the end of th 

 month on which he set out, by the early disruption of 

 the ice. 



" The sight which I obtained from this cape/' says 

 he, " elevated six hundred and eighty feet above the 

 sea, led me to hope for better success due east. On 

 that course we proceeded three days on a smooth floe, 

 making thirty-six miles, when we reached, on the 18th, 

 the entrance of a splendid channel. Fog had for 

 some time worried us with indistinct glimpses of the 

 approaches ; but, as it now cleared off, and the sun 

 enlivened the scene, we were regaled with such a mag- 

 nificent view of successive beetling headlands on either 

 side of the channel, and extending for about twenty 

 miles, that it really became a puzzling matter to find 

 names for them. Of one thing I felt quite convinced 

 namely, that we were now really in Jones's Channel. 

 The latitude, the direction, the limit in longitude to 



