BESET FOB A YEAR. 343 



and fatal expedition, served as mates. Captain Back's instructions were to 

 proceed to Hudson Strait, thence to make the best of his way to the shores 

 of the American continent, either by the north shore of Southampton Island, 

 and through Frozen Strait, or by rounding the southern shores of the same 

 island, and proceeding up Eowe's Welcome to Wager Eiver or Eepulse Bay. 

 Having arrived at Repulse Bay or its vicinity. Back was instructed first 

 to place the " Terror " in secure quarters for the winter, and then, as soon 

 as the season should permit, to strike across the isthmus (afterwards 

 known as Eae Isthmus) connecting Melville Peninsula with the mainland. 

 It was believed that three days' journey might enable him to cross the 

 isthmus, and this being accomplished, he would find himself on the extreme 

 south shore of Eegent Inlet, whence he should work his way in the whale 

 boats and sledges along the coast westward to Point Turnagain. 



On the morning of the 14th June 1836, the "Terror" was towed down 

 the Thames. American waters were reached towards the close of July, and 

 Davis Strait was crossed under a steady breeze from the south-west on the 

 28th of that month. On the 29th " the day was beautifully fine, and to 

 those who were novices in this sort of navigation, nothing could exceed the 

 interest of the scene — the tall ship with all her sails set threading her 

 graceful way through the masses of ice, upon a sea as smooth as an inland 

 lake." But this halcyon weather was not of long continuance. On the 

 1st August the " Terror " opened up Hudson Strait ; but detained by fog 

 and hampered with ice, she arrived at the western extremity of the strait 

 only on the 14th. Pushing on north-west, on the morning of the 23d Back 

 was heading for Frozen Strait, and heard with gratification the announce- 

 ment of Baffin Island on the N.N.W. with Southampton Island on the west. 

 Already, however, he had suffered much from the ice, and now the frozen 

 barrier seemed to forbid any farther advance. "Had there only been a 

 channel even as wide as a brook," writes Back, " we should soon have got 

 to the strait ; but the scene around us now presented an apparently solid 

 sea of ice, thrown up in many parts to the height of eighteen feet, and so 

 rugged, peaked, and uneven, as to bid defiance to any attempt even to walk 

 over it. . . . Cheerless indeed was the prospect, for, excepting within 

 a few feet of the ship, where the black streaks of water looked like inky 

 lines on a fair sheet of paper, far as the eye could reach all was ice." On 

 the 25th the ice seemed somewhat less compact, and after warping to the 

 edge of the floe where the ice was less pressed together. Back made sail and 

 bored through_ towards the south-west, in the hope of getting nearer to 

 Southampton Island. The light air of wind now fell ofiT, and the " Terror " 

 hung motionless among the ice. Many an anxious glance was now cast 

 upward at the vane on the masthead, and whistling for a wind was almost 

 the only employment of the crew. At this time the weather was lovely, 44° 



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