PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 9 



and sea navigation. As far, also, as the season 

 would permit, my visit to the sea might give 

 me an opportunity of communicating with the 

 Esquimaux, and obtaining, if not intelligence 

 of Captain Ross, at least much information for 

 the direction of my course the following sum- 

 mer. Having passed the first winter, it was pro- 

 posed that we should start for the sea the moment 

 the ice broke up ; and, if an opinion should 

 prove correct, which I had been led to entertain 

 from an inspection of the maps traced by the 

 Indians, that the mouth of the river lay between 

 the 68th and 69th parallels of latitude, and the 

 90th and 100th meridians of longitude, we should 

 then be less than three hundred miles from the 

 wreck of the Fury in Regent Inlet. It had formed 

 part of Captain Ross's plan to visit the wreck 

 of the Fury in the first instance, that he might 

 supply himself with coals and such provisions 

 and stores as were available ; and to return and 

 winter beside it, if in the course of the summer 

 he should be unable to penetrate to the westward. 

 It was therefore in Regent Inlet that the search 

 for him was most likely to be successful. If, 

 contrary to our hope, no traces of Captain Ross 

 should be discovered on arriving at the wreck 

 of the Fury, and the season should be far ad- 

 vanced, it would be necessary for us to retrace 

 our way to winter quarters ; and, in so doing, 

 we should embrace every opportunity of erecting 



