Mar. 1859. WALKER'S AND YOUNG'S RETURN. 211 



winter, are now tolerably numerous ; foxes appear in greater 

 numbers, probably following up the ptarmigan from the 

 south. The thermometer ranges between zero and — 20 ; 

 it has once been up to -f 1 3 . When exposed to a noon- 

 day sun against the ship's side, it rises 50 higher. The 

 earth-thermometer — placed 2 feet 2 inches beneath the sur- 

 face — which gradually fell until the 10th of this month, has 

 now begun to ascend ; its minimum was -f J°; much snow 

 also lay over it, 6 feet deep at this season. 



On the 25th Dr. Walker and his party returned, not 

 having been able to find the depot. They found a barrel of 

 flour upon the beach a few miles south of Brentford Bay ; it 

 appeared to have lain there for years, just inside a shingle 

 projection, which kept off the ice pressure, so that it had 

 not been forced up high upon the beach ; the ice which bore 

 it there — probably from Port Leopold — had disappeared, 

 and the cask was frozen into the shingle. The heading has 

 been brought on board, but the " scribing " upon it is very 

 indistinct, and unintelligible to us. The flour is of the 

 ordinary description used in the navy, and known as 

 " seconds ; " most of it was good, and a plain pudding made 

 of it for our mess could not be distinguished from fresh 

 flour. A specimen has been preserved with the view of 

 identifying it with the Fury Beach or Port Leopold stores of 

 flour j these stores were landed, the former in 1825 and the 

 latter in 1848. With the exception of a solitary bear, the 

 party saw no living creature. The shore along which they 

 travelled was a very low shingly limestone. 



Last evening I was delighted to see Young and his two 

 dog-sledges heave in sight ; he brought about 8 cwt. of sugar 

 from Fury Beach, but not without much difficulty, owing to 

 the roughness of the pack in Creswell Bay, and also to the 

 breaking down of one of his sledges ; to avoid this pack he 

 found it necessary to travel nearly all round Creswell Bay. 



p 2 



