SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION. 283 



ward of Cape Clarence, and southward of Cape Sep- 

 pings. On the 15th May a party of thirteen, headed by 

 Sir James C. Ross, and taking" with them forty days' 

 provision, and a supply of clothes, blankets, and other 

 necessaries, on two sledges, started on an exploratory 

 journey to the south. They were accompanied for five 

 days by a fatigue party of nearly thirty, under Captain 

 Bird. Their object was to penetrate as far as possible 

 in the direction which Sir John Franklin was instructed 

 first to pursue, and to make a close scrutiny of every 

 bay and inlet in which any ships might have found 

 shelter. They got on with difficulty, and did their work 

 with much toil, yet went resolutely forward. 



The north shore of North Somerset trends slightly to 

 the northward of west, till it attains its highest latitude, 

 the highest latitude of continental America, a few miles 

 beyond Cape Rennell ; it thence trends slightly to the 

 southward of west till it rounds Cape Bunny ; and then 

 it suddenly assumes a direction nearly due south. From 

 high land adjacent to Cape Bunny they obtained a very 

 extensive view, and observed that all Wellington Chan- 

 nel on the north, and all the space between Cape Bunny 

 and Cape Walker on the west, were occupied by very 

 heavy hummocky ice ; but that the frozen expanse south- 

 ward, along the west flank of North Somerset, was 

 smoother. They proceeded to the south, tracing all the 

 indentations of the coast, and heroically enduring great 

 exposure and fatigue, but not without the pain and 

 delay of several of their number becoming useless from 

 lameness and debility. They stopped on the 5th of June. 

 They were then too weak to go further, and had con- 

 sumed more than half of their provisions ; and they 

 encamped for a day's rest, preparatory to their return. 



Their brave leader and two of the men, however, 

 went onward to a vantage-ground about eight or nine 



