HISTORICAL SUMMARY 93 



provisions thoughtfully housed by Parry were the means of 

 saving the crew from starvation. They at length escaped from 

 the ice in their boats, and were picked up by a whaler in Lan- 

 caster sound. Sir John Ross surveyed the shores adjoining his 

 winter quarters, and named the lower part of Regent inlet the 

 Gulf of Boothia. 



The chief discoveries were made by Lieutenant James Clark 

 Ross, who, by several long sled journeys, traced a part of the 

 shores of King William island, and of the west side of the 

 peninsula of Boothia, up to the Magnetic Pole ; also the shores 

 of Lord Mayors bay and its vicinity in the Gulf of Boothia. 

 During the retreat to Fury beach, Brentford bay was crossed 

 several times without notice being taken of Bellot strait. 



Considerable anxiety was felt in England, after two winters 

 had passed without any tidings of the Victory, and Captain 

 Back was outfitted by public subscription to descend the Great 

 Fish river to its mouth, and there if possible, with the help of 

 natives, succour the crew of the Victory. Back spent the winter 

 of 1834 at Great Slave lake, and the following summer crossed 

 the height-of-land and descended Great Fish river to its mouth 

 in a heavy boat. Having been informed, by an express from 

 England, of the safe return of Ross, he confined himself to geo- 

 graphical work, and traced the estuary of the river to Cape 

 Britannia on the one side and to Point Richardson on the other, 

 leaving only a short distance between his northern termination 

 and the southern point of James Ross' southern sled journey. 

 The result of this journey left only 160 miles to the west of the 

 Mackenzie, and thirteen degrees of longitude between Frank- 

 lin's Point Turnagain and the Gulf of Boothia to complete the 

 northwest passage. 



The Hudson's Bay Company undertook to fill these gaps of 

 unsurveyed coast-line, and sent an expedition under the direc- 

 tion of Peter Warren Dease and Thomas Simpson, an expert 

 surveyor. The western section was first completed in 1837. In 



