256 VOYAGE TO THE 



The discovery of a port so near to Beering's Strait, 

 and one in which it was probable the ship might re- 

 main after circmnstances should oblige her to quit 

 Kotzebue Sound, was of great importance ; and I 

 determined to take an early opportunity of examining 

 it, should the situation of the ice to the northward 

 afford no prospect of our proceeding further than we 

 had done the preceding year. In order that Captain 

 Franklin's party might not be inconvenienced by such 

 an arrangement, the barge was fitted, and placed under 

 the command of Lieutenant Belcher, who was ordered 

 to proceed along the coast as in the preceding year, 

 and to use his best endeavours to communicate with 

 the party under Captain Franklin's command, by 

 penetrating to the eastward as far as he could go with 

 safety to the boat ; but he was on no account to risk 

 being beset in the ice ; and in the event of separation 

 from the ship, he was not to protract his absence from 

 Kotzebue Sound beyond the 1st of September. He 

 was also to examine the shoals off Icy Cape and Cape 

 Krusenstern, and to explore the bay to the northward 

 of Point Hope. 



Having made these arrangements, we endeavoured 

 to put to sea, but calms and fogs detained us at Cha- 

 misso until the 14th, and it was the 16th before we 

 reached the entrance of the sound. The barge, how- 

 ever, got out, and the weather afterwards being very 

 foggy, we did not rejoin for some time. Before we 

 left the island we were visited by several natives 

 whom we remembered to have seen the preceding 

 year. They brought some skins for sale, as usual, but 

 did not find so ready a market for them as on the 

 former occasion, in consequence of the greater part of 

 the furs which had been purchased by the seamen at 



