GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 377 



in the early part of 1850. Capt. Collinson having failed to penetrate 

 the pack ice, parted from Capt. M'Clure, and sailed to Hong Kong, 

 where he -wintered ; but the latter, notwithstanding a signal of recall 

 from Capt. Kellett, of the Herald, who was the chief officer on that 

 station, dashed onwards with a bold determination to force a passage 

 to the northeast, taking on himself all the responsibility of disobey- 

 ing orders. Fortunately, his daring has been crowned with success ; 

 and it is not a little singular that Capt. Kellett, who was the last per- 

 son seen by Capt. M'Clure when he entered the ice on the west, 

 should have been the person to rescue him, at the expiration of three 

 years, on the side of Melville Island on the east. 



It was observed by Sir Edward Parry, in his first voyage, that the 

 current in the Polar Seas ran from West to East, and that the pro- 

 gress of an exploring vessel would be made most easily in that direc- 

 tion. Following this suggestion, Captain Beechy was sent out in the 

 Blossom, in 1825, and entered the Arctic ocean from Behring's Strait, 

 and carried further the line of American coast upon the charts than 

 had been done before. One of his officers advanced to the point 

 marked Boat Extreme. Since that voyage, in consequence of the 

 experience of Sir George Back, in the Terror, 1836-7, in which that 

 vessel never came to anchor, but spent the winter frozen in the ice, 

 and drifting with it, the opinion of Arctic navigators has been, that 

 much time was saved in the spring by such a system of wintering. 

 Sir John Franklin himself expressed his intention to winter in the 

 ice, under certain circumstances; and it was thus that our own coun- 

 trymen, in the Advance and Rescue, spent the winter in their expedi- 

 tion for Sir John's relief. In that case the ice took them bodily back 

 by drifting more than a thousand miles, and left them in the waters of 

 Baffin's Bay, about where they were twelve months before. 



Commander M'Clure has availed himself of this same Arctic cur- 

 rent, flowing from West to East, by wintering in the same manner. 

 That is, he permitted his vessel to be frozen up, without coming to a 

 harbor, in the winter of 1850. As early as the 26th of October of 

 that year, he ascertained that the waters of the strait in which he then 

 was, which he called the Prince of Wales's Strait, communicated with 

 the waters of Barrow's Strait, on the eastern side of the continent. 

 He had therefore made the great discovery, of which we have but 

 now learned, three years ago. This established the existence of a 

 Korthwest Passage ! Had the sea remained open a few days more, 

 the expedition would have made the passage, not only in one sea- 

 son, but in the short space of little more than two months and a half. 



It appears that the Investigator, after rounding Point Barrow, in 

 August, 1850, and being detained by thick fogs and contrary winds 

 in Colville River, reached the mouth of the Mackenzie River and 

 Cape Bathurst. When at Cape Parry, Capt. M'Clure was induced 

 by the sight of open water to push for Banks's Land, and at the dis- 

 tance of sixty miles fell in with an unknown coast, which he named 

 Baring Island. Passing up a strait between this island and a coast 

 called Prince Albert's Land, he reached lat. 73, and was impeded by 



