432 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. XL 



with a strong gale and heavy rain. With con- 

 siderable danger to the boats, after five hours' pull- 

 ing between masses of ice, they succeeded in getting 

 round Cape Sabine, and landed a little to the west 

 of it. Here they observed much wood-coal on the 

 bank. On the 15th they proceeded, having noticed 

 the ice loosened from the land ; and advanced to a 

 river, which they named Babbage, the width near its 

 mouth being about two miles. Here it was observed 

 that the Rocky Mountains run in detached ranges, 

 at unequal distances from the coast. Their lat. was 

 69° 19', long. 138° 101'. 



On the 17th, finding a channel of water between 

 an island they named Herschel and the main, they 

 entered it, and this strait is reported to be " the 

 only place that we had seen since quitting the 

 Mackenzie River, in which a ship could find shel- 

 ter." Its latitude 69° 33J', long. 139° 3' W. The 

 ice and the shallowness of the water beyond it 

 seawards somewhat checked their progress ; and 

 gave time for Franklin to visit Mount Conybeare, 

 one of the rocky ranges he had so named, from 

 whence he had an extensive view of the succession 

 of ranges, to all which he assigns names, that 

 probably are not doomed to go beyond the page 

 that contains them, and certainly not to posterity. 

 On the 23rd, a narrow opening in the ice allowed 

 them to proceed as far as a small stream, which 

 they named Sir Pulteney Malcolm, and which had 



