252 RAE'S LAND EXPEDITION. 



one seal, one hundred and seventy-two partridges, and 

 one hundred and sixteen salmon and trout, having been 

 brought in. 



On the 5th of April, 1847, six of the party again 

 started north with sledges, drawn by dogs, and travelled 

 along the west shore of the Gulf of Akkolee ; and, on 

 the 18th, they reached the vicinity of Sir John Ross's 

 most southerly discoveries. The question of the sup- 

 posed communication with the Polar Sea was here to be 

 set at rest. They decided now to strike off from the 

 coast across the land as nearly north as possible ; and 

 they had a tiresome march through snow, and across 

 three small lakes ; and, at noon, when near the middle 

 of another lake of about four miles in length, they ascer- 

 tained their latitude to be 69 26' 1" north. They 

 walked three miles more, and came to still another lake ; 

 and, as there was not yet any appearance of the sea, 

 Rae gave orders to the men to prepare their lodgings, 

 and went forth alone to look for the coast. He arrived 

 in twenty minutes at an inlet of not more than a quarter 

 of a mile wide, and traced this westward for upwards 

 of a league, and there found his course once more 

 obstructed by land. 



Some rocky hillocks were near, and, thinking he saw 

 from the top of these some rough ice in the desired 

 direction, he inhaled fresh hope, pushed eagerly on to 

 a rising ground in the distance, and there beheld 

 stretched out before him an ice-covered sea, studded 

 with innumerable islands. But it was the sea of Sir 

 John Ross, the Lord Mayor's Bay of the disastrous 

 voyage of the Victory ; and the islands were those 

 which Sir John had named the Sons of the Clergy of 

 the Church of Scotland. Rae, therefore, had simply 

 crossed a peninsula of the Gulf of Akkolee ; and thus 

 did he ascertain that the shores which witnessed the 



