14< PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 



winter abroad. If such should, unfortunately, be 

 the issue of all your best exertions to comply 

 with our order to return home, you will en- 

 deavour to provide, in the most effectual man- 

 ner, for the safety of his Majesty's ship, and for 

 the health and comfort of your crew, and you 

 will continually and sedulously employ all the 

 scientific means at your disposal, in rendering 

 your long winter as beneficial as circumstances 

 will permit. 



"In the same spirit, when the days become 

 sufficiently long, you will, by short and well-pre- 

 pared expeditions, add as much as you can to 

 our knowledge of the adjacent regions. In the 

 case supposed, when the ice opens in the ensuing 

 summer, you may devote a short season to such 

 pursuits, and in such directions as you may 

 consider most conducive to the general objects 

 contained in these instructions, but you will take 

 such timely measures as may prevent the pos- 

 sibility of a second year's detention. 



" On your arrival in England, you are imme- 

 diately to repair to this office, to lay before us a 

 full account of your proceedings ; and you will 

 demand from the officers, and from all other 

 persons under your command, the logs and 

 journals they may have kept, together with any 

 charts or drawings they may have made, all 

 which are to be sealed up, in order to their being 



