140 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



second time, with a view of making further dis- 

 coveries on its western side, and he wished, if pos- 

 sible, to push northward near the meridian of Wickes' 

 Land. But he would on this occasion, as heretofore, 

 have been guided by the state of the ice, using his 

 best endeavours to enter upon new work, in that 

 direction which appeared most open and promising." 



Inquiries instituted during the winter of 1881-82 

 by Sir Henry Gore-Booth amongst those Norwegian 

 walrus-hunters, who, his practical knowledge of the 

 coast of Nova Zemla told him, might possibly have 

 seen and communicated with the Eira, resulted in the 

 information that she was last seen by the schooner 

 Proven. The Proven first fell in with the Eira on 

 June 30th off Matotchkin Sharr in Nova Zemla, and 

 she was then steaming north ; on the 2d July, how- 

 ever, they saw her steaming south, having evidently 

 been turned by the ice ; then, again, they met her off 

 the south-west part of Nova Zemla on the 8th July 

 steaming north, and supposed that Leigh Smith had 

 tried to get round the south point of Nova Zemla, 

 had been stopped by the ice, and was now going to 

 force his way north. 



The above facts and suppositions were carefully 

 formulated and examined by Mr Valentine Smith's 

 committee ; all possible information was obtained as 

 to the state of the ice in 1881-82 in the Barents Sea 

 and on the coasts of Nova Zemla and Spitzbergen, 

 and the opinion of the most eminent Arctic explorers 



