DISCOVERY OF SIMPSON STRAIT 169 



perish of starvation, reindeer were seen browsing on the 

 scanty herbage among the shingle. A terrible thunder- 

 storm followed, and then, doubling a very sharp point 

 on the 13th, Simpson landed and saw before him a 

 sandy desert. It was Back's Point Sir C. Ogle that he 

 had at length reached. Away in the distance was the 

 Great Fish River, and three days afterwards the party 

 were encamped on Montreal Island, where McKay led 

 the way to the provisions and gunpowder deposited by 

 Back among the rocks. 



The expedition had performed its allotted task, and 

 the men were consulted as to whether they would con- 

 tinue for a short distance to the eastward. To their 

 honour they all assented without a murmur ; but the 

 cruel north-east wind forbade much progress in that 

 direction, and their farthest east was reached at Castor 

 and Pollux River. From there immediate return was 

 imperative, as not a day could be spared. And so, 

 from latitude 68 28' 23", longitude 94 14', they turned 

 back on the 21st of August, leaving the survey of the 

 north coast of the American mainland practically com- 

 plete from Bering Strait to Boothia. 



Further, on their return journey they crossed to the 

 southern shore of King William Land and traced its coast 

 for nearly sixty miles, discovering and naming Cape 

 Herschel, south-eastward of which, in Simpson Strait, 

 M'Clintock found the remains of one of Franklin's 

 men. They thus linked up with what was to be the 

 route of the Franklin expedition and were the first to 

 find the North-West Passage for the command of 

 which the territory was given by Charles II to the 

 Hudson's Bay Company. 



