Sept. 1858. PLANS FOR FUTURE SLEDGING. 173 



In this way I trust we shall complete the Franklin search 

 and the geographical discovery of arctic America, both left 

 unfinished by the former expeditions ; and in so doing we 

 can hardly fail to obtain some trace, some relic, or, it may 

 be, important records of those whose mysterious fate it is 

 the great object of our labours to discover. But previous 

 to setting forth upon these important journeys, I must com- 

 municate with the Boothians, if possible, either upon the 

 west or east coast, in November or February. Sir John 

 Ross's ' Narrative ' informs us that they sometimes winter as 

 far north upon the east coast as the Agnew River ; and we 

 know that upon the west, at the magnetic pole, their aban- 

 doned snow huts were occupied in June by Sir James Ross. 



19///. — Yesterday we steamed once more through Bellot 

 Strait, and took up our former position at the ice-edge, off 

 its western entrance ; the ice, hemmed in by islets, has not 

 moved. 



From the summit of Cape Bird I had a very extensive 

 view this morning; there is now much water in the offing, 

 only separated from us by the belt of islet-girt ice scarcely 

 four miles in width 1 My conviction is that a strong east 

 wind would remove this remaining barrier ; it is not yet too 

 late. The water runs parallel to this coast, and is four 

 or five miles broad ; beyond it there is ice, but it appears to 

 be all broken up. 



Yesterday Young went upon a dog-sledge to the nearest 

 south-western island, distant 7 or 8 miles. He reports the 

 intervening ice cracked and weak in some places, but prac- 

 ticable for loaded sledges ; the far side of the island is 

 washed by a clear sea, and a bear which he shot plunged 

 into it, and, drifting away, was lost ; Young is in favour of 

 carrying out the depot provisions to or beyond this island 

 by boat; but as the temperature fell to 18 last night, and 

 new ice forms whenever it is calm, I prefer the safer, although 



