SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 281 



getting through it, and entered the harbor of Port Leo- 

 pold on the llth September ; and, had they not got in 

 on that day, they would not have got in at all ; for, on 

 the following night, the main pack came close home 

 to the land, and completely sealed the mouth of the 

 harbor. 



They were happy in having reached Port Leopold, 

 both for their own sake and for the sake of their mis- 

 sion. They had doubted whether the anchorage would 

 be good ; but they found it excellent, and saw at once^ 

 that there could not be a better wintering place for the 

 Investigator. Nor could there have been a fitter local- 

 ity for making a grand deposit of provisions, and 

 preparing a temporary retreat for any of Sir John 

 Franklin's company who might be entangled among the 

 intricacies of the archipelago. Port Leopold is situ 

 ated at the junction of the four great channels of Lan- 

 caster Sound, Bairow's Strait, Wellington Channel, and 

 Prince Regent's Inlet, and lies closely adjacent to any 

 route which Sir John Franklin could have been likely to 

 pursue in the event of his having had to retrogress from 

 the vicinity of Cape Walker ; so that a lodgment in it 

 by the present expedition could scarcely escape the 

 notice of any of Sir John's company who might happen 

 to be proceeding from any part whatever of the archi- 

 pelago toward Baffin's Bay. 



An effort was made to bring the Enterprise out, with 

 the view of her going westward to some harbor nearer 

 Cape Walker. But she was irretrievably ice-bo? nd. 

 The pack which closed the harbor's mouth never once 

 afforded a chance for the egress of even a boat ; and 

 across the isthmus, as far as could be discerned from the 

 neighboring heights, the same extensive mass of heavy 

 hummocky ice, which repelled and limited the expedi- 

 tion's movements before entering, remained immovable, 



