PREFACE. xi 



lead us to hope for a successful issue. Above 

 all, we were encouraged by the proofs of the 

 self-possession and calm resolve of M'Clintock, 

 who held steadily to the accomplishment of his 

 original project ; the more so as he had then 

 tested and recognised the value of the services 

 of Lieutenant (now Commander) Hobson, his 

 able second in command ; of Captain Allen 

 Young, his generous volunteer associate ;* and 

 of Dr. Walker, his accomplished Surgeon. 



Despite, however, of these reassuring data, 

 many an advocate of this search was anxiously 

 alive to the chance of the failure of the venture 

 of one unassisted yacht, which after sundry 

 mishaps was again starting to cross Baffin's 

 Bay, with the foreknowledge, that when she 

 reached the opposite coast, the real difficulties of 

 the enterprise were to commence. 



Any such misgivings were happily illusory ; 

 and the reader who follows M'Clintock across 

 the " middle ice" of Baffin's Bay to Pond Inlet, 

 thence to Beechey Island, down a portion of 

 Peel Strait, and then through the hitherto un- 

 navigated waters of Bellot Strait in one summer 



* Captain Allen Young of the merchant marine not only threw 

 his services into this cause, and subscribed 5001. in furtherance of 

 the expedition, hut, abandoning lucrative appointments in com- 

 mand, generously accepted a subordinate post. 



