474 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



partly traveling over the same ground as Sir Edward Parry, he dis- 

 covered the encampment of his predecessor, and found the remains 

 of his broken cart, and the records left by him thirty years before. 

 Even the remains of Parry's last feast, "a sumptuous meal of ptar- 

 migan," lay strewed about in the shape of bones, by no means de- 

 cayed, but merely bleached from exposure. McClintock and his gal- 

 lant party returned to their sliip after this long absence, reduced a 

 little in flesh, but not in health or spirits. They had already bene- 

 fited from tlie experience of former expeditions. 



During the expedition of 1852, the last dispatched by Government 

 in search of our missing countrymen, we find Sir Leopold McClintock 

 in command of the steam-tender Intrepid, acting under the orders 

 of Captain Ivellett. On this occasion. Sir Leopold had, through the 

 assiduous and constant exercise of his inventive talent, so improved 

 on his former knowledge of sledge-traveling, that he was enabled to 

 remain away from his ship for a period of 105 days, during which 

 time he traveled over no less than 1,400 statute miles, and this, too, 

 under no very favorable circumstances, as the ice over which he had 

 to journey was old and unusually rugged, snow lay very deep, and 

 Melville Island had to be crossed and recrossed, in addition to which, 

 owing to the few men from whom he had to select his party, he was 

 obliged to portion out to each man a much heavier load than had ever 

 been attempted before. They were most fortunate in obtaining 

 plenty of game. Musk-oxen, deer, and ptarmigan, were seen in abun- 

 dance, and many shot, the fresh meat from which materially assisted 

 in the preservation of the health of the party. 



The words of Sir Lcojiold McClintock are very true, and very sig- 

 nificant, in epitomizing the results of arctic ice-travel. He says : 

 "Truly may we arctic explorers exclaim, 'Knowledge is power!' It 

 is now a comparatively easy matter to start with six or eight men, 

 and a sledge laden with six or seven weeks' provisions, and to travel 

 some 600 miles across desert wastes and frozen seas, from which no 

 sustenance can be obtained. There is 7ioto no known position, how- 

 ever remote, that a well-equipped crew could not efiect their escape 

 from by their own unaided efibrts. We felt this, and by our ex- 

 perience, gained in a cause more glorious than ever man embarked in, 

 have secured to all future arctic explorers a plan by which they 'may 

 rejoin their fellow-men." 



Before detailing the operations connected with the autumn sledge- 

 traveling, it will be necessary to explain the construction of the 

 sledge, and the amount of provisions and stores that will be required 

 for an extended journey. We projsose, therefore, to give an account 

 of an eight-man sledge, provisioned and stored for a period of eight 

 weeks, copied from Sir Leopold McClintock's notes. The following 

 particulars describe, with considerable exactness, the equipment which 

 is now being prepared in Portsmouth Dock-yard for use in the forth- 

 coming Arctic Expedition : 



