FINDING OF THE RESOLUTE. 533 



at Melville Island, the Assistance and Pioneer in Wel- 

 lington Channel, and the Advance in Smith's Sound, to 

 be added to the Erebus and Terror, which there was 

 reason to believe had been left years before somewhere 

 in the strait of James Ross. The Arctic archipelago 

 WT\S studded with abandoned ships ! 



None could have imagined that any of these gallant 

 ships would ever carry sail again ; or that we might not 

 truly say of each of them, in the words of Dr. Kane, 

 " The ice is round her still. n 



But of one of these vessels there is a further story to 

 tell ; and, as it recounts a kindly interchange of courte- 

 sies between the two nations which vied with each other 

 in heroic, though fruitless efforts, to rescue the missing 

 navigators, it will form a pleasant interlude in our narra- 

 tive. 



In the month of September, 1855, the whaler George 

 Henry, Captain Buddington, of New London, Connecti- 

 cut, was drifting along, beset by the ice, in Baffin's Bay, 

 when one morning the captain, looking through his 

 glass, saw a large ship some fifteen or twenty miles dis- 

 tant, apparently working her way towards him. Day 

 after day, while helplessly imprisoned in the pack, he 

 watched her coming nearer and nearer. On the seventh 

 day, the mate, Mr. Quail, and three men, were sent to 

 find out what she was. 



After a hard day's journey over the ice, jumping 

 from piece to piece, and pushing themselves along on 

 isolated cakes, they were near enough to see that she 

 was lying on her larboard side, firmly imbedded in the 

 ice. They shouted lustily, as soon as they got within 

 hailing distance ; but there was no answer. Not a soul 

 was to be seen. For one moment, as they came along- 

 side, the men faltered, with a superstitious feeling, and 

 hesitated to go on board. A moment after, they had 



