﻿VARIOUS OPINIONS. 13 



down for him. This point is mooted, because 

 Mr. Hamilton, surgeon in Orkney, states that Sir 

 John, when dining with him on the last day that 

 he passed in Great Britain, mentioned his deter- 

 mination of trying Jones's Sound. But Sir John's 

 communication to Colonel Sabine shows that this 

 could be meant to refer only to the contingency of 

 a full trial by Lancaster Sound proving fruitless. 

 Supposing that, contrary to all former experience, 

 he had found the mouth, of Lancaster Sound so 

 barred by ice as to preclude his entrance, then, 

 after waiting till he had become convinced that it 

 would remain closed for the season, he might have 

 tried to find a way, by Jones's Sound, into Wel- 

 lington Sound ; but in such a case, we may hold it 

 as certain that he would have erected conspicuous 

 cairns, and deposited memoranda of his past pro- 

 ceedings and future intentions, at the entrance of 

 Lancaster Sound. 



Taking it, then, for granted that the expedition 

 entered Lancaster Sound, the most probable con- 

 jecture respecting the direction in which it ad- 

 vanced is that Sir John, literally following his 

 instructions, did not stop to examine any openings 

 either to the northward or southward of Barrow's 

 Strait, but continued to push on to the westward 

 until he reached Cape Walker in longitude 98°, 

 when he inclined to the south-west, and steered as 



