COLLINSON AND M'CLURE. 30 1 



open a passage through a floe or light pack. The ships, 

 though dull sailers, were the only ones fit for the ser- 

 vice which could be got promptly ready ; and, in order 

 to expedite their progress, steamers were put in requisi- 

 tion to tow them in more than one part of their voyage, 

 and particularly through the Magellan Strait, the Wel- 

 lington Channel, and on to Valparaiso. 



They sailed from Plymouth Sound on the 20th of Jan- 

 uary, 1850. The captains had minute orders for there 

 guidance on the way to Behring's Strait, and with ref- 

 erence to the previous expeditions of the Herald and the 

 Plover ; and were also furnished with memoranda, sug- 

 gestions, and conditional instructions, for their aid in the 

 polar seas ; but, with the exception of two or three 

 general commands, bearing comprehensively on the 

 grand object of their mission, they were left almost 

 entirely to their own discretion, after they should enter 

 the ice. They were told to reap all the advantage they 

 could from the experience of the Herald and the Plover ; 

 to form a depot, or point of succor, for any party to fall 

 back upon ; to retain the Plover, and get her replen- 

 ished from the Herald, and send her a wintering and 

 cruising on nearly her former ground till the autumn of 

 1853 ; to keep the Enterprise and the Investigator 

 steadily in each other's company, and onward as far as 

 safety would permit to the east ; to cultivate the friend- 

 ship of the Esquimaux, and induce them to carry mes- 

 sages to the Hudson's Bay Company's settlements ; to 

 throw occasionally overboard tin cylinders containing 

 information, and to use every precaution against getting 

 into any position which might possibly hold them fast 

 till their provisions should become exhausted. 



Both ships made a comparatively speedy passage to 

 Behring's Strait. On the 29th of July the Enterprise 

 reached the western end of the Aleutian Chain ; on the 



