BEECHEY'S VOYAGE 137 



have given up the obviously hopeless attempt and left 

 for a more genial climate, in which he would at least 

 have had a chance of longer life ; but, remaining at 

 his duty, he died at sea on the 22nd of August, and 

 was buried at Petropaulovsk. 



Captain Beechey, in H.M.S. Blossom, passed through 

 the strait in 1826 when sent north from the Pacific 

 with a view of meeting with his old commander, 

 Franklin, then on his second land journey. Beechey 

 took the ship to Icy Cape, whence on the 17th of 

 August he despatched the barge under the master, 

 Thomas Elson, to survey the coast to the north-east- 

 ward as far as he could go in three weeks, there and 

 back. Elson reached his farthest on the 25th at a spit 

 of land jutting out several miles from the more regular 

 coast-line, the width of the neck not exceeding a mile 

 and a half, broadest at its extremity, with several 

 frozen lakes on it, and a village, whose natives proved 

 so troublesome that it was thought unsafe to land. 

 This was Point Barrow, in 71 23' 31", longitude 

 156 21' 30", the northernmost land on the western 

 half of the American continent. To the eastward 

 curved a wide bay named Elson Bay by Beechey- 

 the shore-line of which joined on to the ice pack that 

 encircled the horizon. Here he was within a hundred 

 and sixty miles of where Franklin had turned back a 

 week before. Though Beechey did not meet Franklin 

 he did most useful work in these parts, for by him the 

 whole coast was surveyed between Point Barrow and 

 Point Rodney, to the south of Prince of Wales Cape. 



Franklin was also the cause of the appearance of 

 the next British expedition in the strait. This was in 



