174 THE PARRY ISLANDS 



in 74 north latitude, a similar one being in Prince 

 Patrick Island, on the other side of Banks Strait. 



After one or two narrow escapes the Investigator 

 entered her last home at the Bay of Mercy, well 

 within the strait, near Cape Hamilton, the most 

 prominent of the three capes discovered from the 

 Dundas Peninsula by Parry's lieutenant, Beechey, 

 thirty-one years before. The winter passed, and on 

 the llth of April M'Clure left the ship on a sledge 

 journey across to Parry's old quarters at Winter 

 Harbour, which were reached on the 28th, to find 

 nothing but a notice of M'Clintock's having been there 

 in the previous June. Noticing Parry's inscription 

 rock, M'Clure judiciously left on it a statement that 

 the Investigator was in want of relief at Mercy Bay. 

 But all through that year no news from the outside 

 came to Banks Land, and matters became serious 

 owing to the appearance of scurvy, notwithstanding 

 the abundance of fresh meat, for even in January a 

 herd of reindeer trotted by. 



Another winter went wearily, each month with a 

 gloomier outlook than the last, and on the 5th of April 

 the first of the scurvy patients died. Next morning 

 M'Clure and Haswell were walking near the ship dis- 

 cussing how they could dig a grave in the frozen 

 ground, when they noticed a man hurriedly approach- 

 ing from the entrance of the bay, throwing up his 

 arms and shouting at the top of his voice, his face as 

 black as ebony. When he came within talking range 

 the dark-faced stranger called out, " I am Lieutenant 

 Pirn, late of the Herald and now in the Resolute; 

 Captain Kellett is in her at Dealy Island." And soon 



