TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 129 



■with his energetic officers and crews, defining the north coast of Cornwallis Land 

 I a cluster of islands in the broadest part of the channel; to the north-west of 

 the channel he observed open water leading to the Polar Sea. 



With the end of June sledge-travelling ceased, and with it came disappointment ; 

 no clue of the missing ships had been traced from Beechey Island. A large extent 

 of new ground had been thoroughly searched, yet their fate remained shrouded in 

 mystery. The amount of sledge-travelling was unprecedented (this mode of explo- 

 ration in icy regions was here developed to perfection) ; our great journeys were 

 accomplished without loss or sickness ; the total distance actually travelled over 

 by our crews amounted to 5817 miles, under the severity of Arctic cold. 



The summing up of results and opinions inferred that Franklin had not gone 

 westward, and an examination of Jones Sound, at the head of Baffin's Bay, was 

 made, with no better success, before the expedition returned to England. 



The year 1851 closed replete with matter of great Arctic interest. Extensive 

 exploration had been carried out beyond any that had been effected before. Im- 

 portant additions to science and geography had been obtained. The first wintering 

 quarters of the Franklin Expedition had been discovered ; but regarding the course 

 ifc had taken after it left Beechey Island every effort had failed to ascertain, and the 

 country clamoured for another search. 



The same ships were refitted : Sir Edward Belcher, in the ' Assistance/ had the 

 command of the expedition, Captain II. Kellett was second, in the ' Resolute,' 

 aided by McClintock and Osborn, in the steam tender, with a depot ship to ac- 

 company them ; these vessels left Woolwich, April loth, 1852. 



Search to the north-west up the Wellington Channel, and to Melville Island, was 

 the tenor of the Admiralty instructions. From Beechey Island the Expedition di- 

 vided into two divisions : Belcher was favoured with open water, and attained a 

 wintering' quarter at Northumberland Inlet, in a high northern latitude, nearly 77° 

 IN'., on the north-east coast of the Wellington Channel. Kellet and McClintock 

 reached Melville Island, and were compelled to winter near Dealy Island, about 

 30 miles eastward of Parry's Winter Harbour. At the sandstone bearing the in- 

 scription that Parry wintered there in 1819-20, while laying out provision depots 

 for spring travelling, Lieutenant Mecham, on the 14th of October, found at Winter 

 Harbour the important record deposited by Commander McClure in April 1852, 

 which stated that H.M.S. ' Investigator ' was frozen up in Mercy Bay, Banks's Land, 

 and had completed the North-west Passage. At that period of the year, October, 

 it was impossible to send a party across the straits which separated the two ships 

 ' Resolute' and 'Investigator.' 



Referring back to the proceedings of the ' Investigator,' — the ship entered Behring 

 Strait in 1850, and rounding Point Barrow continued her course eastward, searching 

 the Arctic American coast up to Cape Bathurst, and stretching northward discovered 

 Baring Island ; McClure then proceeded eastward, made the discovery of Prince 

 Albert's Laud, and entered a strait trending to the north-east, with a prospect that 

 it would lead him into Barrow Straits ; but winter arrested his progress, in Prince- 

 of- Wales Straits, where the winter of 1850-51 was passed. An excursion from the 

 ' Investigator ' took McClure through the straits to an open sea, and on 26th October, 

 1851, he pitched his tent upon the shores of Barrow Straits (now called Parry 

 Sound), lat. 70° 31' N., long. 114° 14' W., the land on the north being that put 

 down by Parry, in 1820, as Banks's Land. Thus was established the existence of a 

 passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, denominated the North-west 

 Passage. 



McClure passed the first winter in Prince -of -Wales Straits ; in his spring travelling 

 he had explored Baring Island and the north shores of Prince Albert's Land, embracing 

 800 miles of coast ; but not a vestige of civilized man was seen. With the return 

 of the navigation season his attempts to push through Prince-of-Wales Straits into 

 Barrow Straits failed, from an unbroken body of ice covering the sea beyond these 

 straits; his greatest advance in that direction was lat. 73° 18' N, long; 115° 32' W. 

 Retracing his course through Prince-of-Wales Straits, and rounding Nelson Head, 

 he continued hugging along the coast of Baring Island, trending northward, con- 

 tending with formidable ice and severe pressures, overcoming perils and hazards 

 never surpassed. The ' Investigator ' was navigated round the north of Baring 



