S96 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles, 



patriotic citizen of London, who, in the most disinterested manner", 

 enabled me to equip this expedition in a superior style. 



"The last winter was in temperature nearly equal to the means of 

 what had been experienced on the four preceding voyages, but the 

 winters of 1830 and 1831 set in with a degree of violence hitherto 

 beyond record j the thermometer sunk to 92° below the freezing 

 point, and the average of the year was 10° below the preceding; but,, 

 notwithstanding the severity of the summer, we travelled across the 

 country to the west sea by a chain of lakes, thirty miles north of the 

 isthmus, when Commander Ross succeeded in surveying fifty miles 

 more* of the coast leading to the N.W., and, by tracing the shore to 

 the northward of our position, it was also fully proved that there 

 could be no passage below the 71st degree. 



" This autumn we succeeded in getting the vessel only fourteen 

 miles to the northward, and as we had not doubled the Eastern Cape, 

 all hope of saving the ship was at an end, and put quite beyond pos- 

 sibility by another very severe winter j and having only provisions to 

 last us to the 1st of June 1833, dispositions were accordingly made 

 to leave the ship in her present port, which (after her) was named 

 Victory Harbour. Provisions and fuel being carried forward in the 

 spring, we left the ship on the 29th of May 1832, for Fury Beach, 

 being the only chance left of saving our lives : owing to the very 

 rugged nature of the ice, we were obliged to keep either upon or 

 close to the land, making the circuit of every bay, thus increasing our 

 distance of 200 miles by nearly one half -, and it was not until the 1st 

 of July that we reached the beach, completely exhausted by hunger 

 and fatigue. 



'• A hut was speedily constructed, and the boats, three of which 

 had been washed off the beach, but providentially driven on shore 

 again, were repaired during this month; but the unusual heavy ap- 

 pearance of the ice afforded us no cheering prospect until the 1st of 

 August, when in three boats we reached the ill-fated spot where the 

 Fury was first driven on shore, and it was not until the 1st of Sep- 

 tember we reached Leopold South Island, now established to be the 

 N.E. point of America, in latitude 73° 56', and longitude 90° west. 

 From the summit of the lofty mountain on the promontory we could 

 see Prince Regent's Inlet, Barrow's Strait, and Lancaster Sound, 

 which presented one impenetrable mass of ice, just as I had seen it 

 in 1818. Here we remained in a state of anxiety and suspense which 

 may be easier imagined than described. All our attempts to push 

 through were vain : at length, being forced by want of provisions and 

 the approach of a very severe winter to return to Fury Beach, where 

 alone there remained wherewith to sustain life, there we arrived on 

 the 7th of October, after a most fatiguing and laborious march, having 

 been obliged to leave our boats at Batty Bay. Our habitation, which 

 consisted of a frame of spars, thirty-two feet by sixteen feet, covered 

 with canvas, was during the month of November inclosed, and the 

 roof covered with snow, from four feet to seven feet thick, which 

 being saturated with water when the temperature was 15° below zero, 



