240 ABCTIC SEAS. 



During the 242 days in which they had been embedded 

 in the ice, they had been carried southwards no less than 

 1,885 miles. 



They now steered for Holsteinborg, a port of Green- 

 land ; and, after a short stay to take in provisions, began 

 again to coast southwards to their old quarters in 

 Melville Bay, which, after more than one hard battle 

 with the ice, and a narrow escape of leaving their vessel 

 an a reef of rocks near Buchan Island, on which she ran 

 aground, they reached on the 19th June, two months 

 earlier than in the previous year. The passage across 

 Baffin's Bay to the mouth of Lancaster Sound was still 

 one of extreme difficulty, in the course of which the 

 imprisonment of last year seemed more than once likely 

 to be their fate again ; but, on the 16th July, they were 

 fairly over, and " dodging about in a tub of water " off 

 Cape Warrender. 



The ice still blocked up the whole of Lancaster Sound, 

 and three weeks were devoted to a visit to Pond's Bay, 

 gome seventy miles farther north, and to a close interro- 

 gation of the Eskimo tribes in the vicinity, as to some 

 rumours of wrecks reported to have taken place in their 

 neighbourhood, but which it was ascertained were 

 unfounded. On the 9th of August, they were again off 

 Lancaster Sound, now comparatively open ; and, two 

 days later, anchored off Beechey Island, where, as already 

 mentioned. Franklin spent his first winter. 



On the 16th. the Fox sailed from Beechey Island for 

 Peel Channel, by which it was hoped that an access 



