PROGRESS OF THE EXPEDITION. 309 



put the surviving crew upon two-thirds allowance. 

 She got out of Wolstenholme Sound on the 1st of August, 

 1850, passed through "the middle ice " in the centre 

 of Ross's Bay, reached Possession Bay on the evening 

 of the 8th, left despatches there, and arrived at Leopold 

 on the 13th. She found that harbor full of ice, and was 

 not able to land stores at it, and with great difficulty 

 communicated with the shore by boat, to leave a notice 

 of her visit. She next went toward Port Bowen, but 

 found that place entirely blocked with ice ; and then 

 stretched across out of the inlet, and spoke first the 

 Lady Franklin, and afterwards the Felix, and got intel- 

 ligence from them of the great searching operations of 

 that season. She next proceeded to Navy Board Inlet, 

 and there, on the mainland, behind Wollaston Island, 

 she put ashore her surplus stores of fuel and provisions. 

 She had suddenly to scud away before a gale ; and, run- 

 ning out of the mid-channel of Lancaster Sound, on the 

 28th of September she arrived in Scotland. 



The several expeditions of 1850 up Baffin's Bay en- 

 countered enormous difficulties from "the middle ice 7 

 and the Melville Bay barrier. Though the ships sailed 

 from widely different points at widely different periods, 

 they nearly all got into view of one another, and most 

 were for some time closely in company. All were at 

 several times arrested or beset ; and the best and largest 

 spent five weeks in effecting a northward distance of 

 thirty miles. The perils which they braved were only 

 a degree or two less terrible than those of the Terror in 

 Hudson's Bay in 1836. The crews of the smaller ves- 

 sels were repeatedly all prepared, with their bundles 

 and loose stores, to leap on the ice from expected ship- 

 wreck, and to betake themselves to sledging or foot- 

 travelling for escape to the land. The environment, by 

 massive towering icebergs, was sometimes so complete 



