Chap. XIII. BACK'S ATTEMPT TO REACH REPULSE BAY. 487 



scarcely venture to hesitate in his decision ; he un- 

 fortunately, though naturally enough, made choice 

 of the former or easy route. Whichsoever of the 

 two bays, Repulse or Wager, he should be able to 

 reach (and neither of them did he reach) the 

 Terror was to be left with an officer, to take charge 

 of her, and to employ himself in making surveys 

 and observations, while the Captain with a large 

 party should cross the intervening land to the east- 

 ern shore of Prince Regent's Inlet, sending one 

 party to the north as far as the Fury and Hecla 

 Strait, and the other to pursue the continental coast 

 line to the mouth or estuary of Back's River, and 

 its continuation as far as the Point Turnagain of 

 Franklin. These were the objects of the voyage, as 

 pointed out by the Geographical Society. 



The details of the instructions are not necessary 

 to be stated, as the object of them failed ; but one 

 remark is made in them, which cannot always, how- 

 ever advisable, be complied with — it is their Lord- 

 ships' full belief that all the service detailed may 

 be fully and faithfully performed in the course of 

 the present season, and " that this Arctic expedi- 

 tion may be distinguished from all others, by the 

 promptitude of its execution, and by escaping from 

 the gloomy and unprofitable waste of eight months' 

 detention : it is therefore our distinct orders that 

 every effort shall be made to return to England in 

 the fall of this vear." The old proverb may here 



