Aug. 1859. CAPTAIN YOUNG'S JOURNEY. 295 



betwixt land and sea. To the north-east of this terminal 

 cape the sea was covered with level floe formed in the foil 

 of last year, whilst all to the northwestward of the same 

 cape was pack consisting of heavy ice-masses, formed per- 

 haps years ago in far distant and wider seas. 



Young attempted to cross the channel ' which he dis- 

 covered between Prince of Wales' Island and Victoria Land, 

 but, from the rugged nature of the ice, found it quite imprac- 

 ticable with the means and time remaining at his disposal. 

 Young expresses his firm conviction that this channel is so 

 constantly choked up with unusually heavy ice as to be 

 quite unnavigable ; it is, in fact, a continuous ice-stream from 

 the N.W. . His opinion coincides with my own, and with 

 those of Captains Ommanney and Osborn, when these 

 officers explored the north-western shores of Prince of 

 Wales' Land in 1851; and also with the opinion formed 

 by Captain R. Collinson, C.B., when that officer discovered 

 Gateshead Island, which lies near its southern shore, and at 

 the N.E. extreme of Victoria Land. 



Fearing that his provisions might run short, he sent back 

 one sledge with four men, and continued his march with 

 only one man and the dogs for forty days ! They were 

 obliged to build a snow-hut each night to sleep in, as the 

 tent was sent back with the men ; but latterly, when the 

 weather became more mild, they preferred sleeping on 

 the sledge, as the construction of a snow-hut usually occu- 

 pied them for two hours. Young completed the exploration 

 of this coast beyond the point marked upon the charts as 

 Osborn's farthest, up nearly to lat. 73 N., but no cairn was 

 found. Young, however, recognised the remarkably shaped 

 conical hills noticed by Osborn when at his farthest in 1851 

 he struck off-shore to the westward. 



The coast-line throughout was extremely low ; and in the 



1 M'Clintock Channel ; see Preface, p. xiv. 



