204 BOOTHIA 



ingress of water. The forefoot was entirely gone ; 

 numbers of bolts were either loosened or broken ; and 

 when, besides this, the strained and twisted state of the 

 ship's frame was considered, there was not one on board 

 who did not express astonishment that they had ever 

 floated across the Atlantic. 



The next attempt to complete the coast of the 

 American mainland was made from the land, and at 

 the cost of the Hudson's Bay Company. Really it was 

 the expedition proposed by Simpson some five years 

 before, of which he would have been the leader had he 

 not been shot ; and it was entrusted to the capable 

 hands of Dr. John Rae. 



After wintering at York Factory, Rae reached 

 Repulse Bay with two boats, the Magnet and North 

 Pole, on the 25th of July, 1846, and in his usual style 

 started immediately across the chain of lakes and 

 portages which make up the isthmus that now bears 

 his name, launching his boats in the tidal water of 

 Committee Bay on the 1st of August. Stopped by 

 ice on the west side and then on the east he returned 

 to Repulse Bay, where he built Fort Hope of stones 

 and roofed it with sails, and lived in it through the 

 winter on what he could shoot and catch, for many 

 weeks venturing on only one meal a day. Outside the 

 men kept themselves warm chiefly by building snow 

 houses and playing football ; inside, as the only fuel 

 used was for cooking, the only thing they could do was 

 to wrap themselves in furs, and trust to their natural 

 heat in a temperature that ranged about zero. 



In April, with a couple of sledges, eight dogs, and 

 five men, he crossed the isthmus again and went straight- 



