386 KENNEDY'S JOURNEY. 



The country over which they travelled was generally 

 very flat, rendering it a matter of no small difficulty to 

 keep their westerly course, the compasses being of lit- 

 tle use in such close proximity to the magnetic pole. 

 Their great hope in travelling westward was, that they 

 should meet with a sea which would conduct them 

 northward to Cape Walker, and so enable them to 

 ascertain whether or not there was any promising west- 

 ern channel or strait through which Franklin might have 

 penetrated. After thirteen days' marching, however, 

 they reached the hundredth degree of west longitude 

 without meeting with the wished-for o?e?n ; so it was 

 resolved to turn their steps northward. 



"Being now satisfied," says Kennedy, "that Sir 

 James Ross had, in his land journey along the western 

 shore of North Somerset, in 1849, mistaken the very 

 low and level land over which we had been travelling 

 for a western sea, I felt no longer justified in continuing 

 a western course. Whatever passage might exist to 

 the south-west of Cape Walker, I felt assured must now 

 be on our north. I determined, therefore, from this time 

 forward, to direct our course northward, until we should 

 fall upon some channel which we knew must exist not 

 far from us, in this direction, by which Franklin might 

 have passed to the south-west/ 3 



The weather still continued boisterous and change- 

 able. The channel of which they were in search was 

 nowhere to be found. Scurvy, too, began to show itself 

 among the men ; so it was resolved to turn eastward 

 again, and proceed towards the channel laid down to 

 the east of Cape Bunny, which they resolved to follow 

 up to Cape Walker. 



During the march they met several herds of deer, and 

 succeeded in shooting a few brace of ptarmigan. As 

 they had no means of cooking them, hwever, they 



