NEW LAND SURVEYED. 367 



pletely covered with ice. The navigation of the shores of Kent Peninsula, 

 round to the vicinity of Point Turnagain, where FrankUn was stopped in 

 1821, was exceedingly slow, laborious, and unpromising. From the 9th to 

 the 19th August the explorers were arrested in the vicinity of Cape Flinders, 

 the western extremity of Kent Peninsula. While thus situated, the sea-ice, 

 which extended before them, remained solid, its frozen rim resting on the 

 sands of the beach. The short summer was now at an end, and the men 

 had resumed their winter clothing. It was evident that little more could be 

 achieved this season. " The period appointed for the return of former expedi- 

 tions," writes Simpson, "was now arrived. Franklin's farthest encampment 

 (Point Turnagain) in 1821, was about three miles to the northward of us ; 

 but on the 16th of August in that year he found here a perfectly open sea." 

 How different was it now only three days later in the season ! Instead of 

 free water a frozen ocean extended around. Simpson, of course, knew that 

 the exceedingly unfavourable character of the present season was due chiefly 

 to the extreme length and severity of the preceding winter. 



The extreme point reached by the boats was the encampment named 

 Boathaven, in lat. 68° 16' 25" N., long. 109° 20' 45" W. ; but in order that 

 this voyage might not prove wholly fruitless, and that Simpson might be 

 able at least to say that he had planted his foot on ground never yet visited 

 by European, that oflftcer proposed to conduct a party of seven men on 

 foot, for ten days, along the coast to the eastward. This was the only 

 means by which he could achieve at least a portion of the discoveries which 

 he had hoped to complete this year, but the completion of which was only 

 to be accomplished the following season. No sooner was his proposal to 

 conduct a short land journey made to the men, than all of them volunteered 

 to accompany him. He selected those of them who had not been with him 

 on the journey from Boat Extreme to Point Barrow, and the necessary 

 arrangements having been made, he set out with them on the morning of 

 the 20th August. Each man's load, at starting, weighed about half-a-hun- 

 dredweight— the stores including a tent, canvas canoe, astronomical instru- 

 ments, copper kettle, two axes, guns, ammunition, and provisions for ten 

 days. ' He describes his plan of march as follows : "We set out at seven or 

 eight A.M., after breakfasting (which lessened the loads) and obtaining obser- 

 vations for longitude, and travelled for ten hours, exclusive of a halt of half- 

 an-hour at noon to procure the latitude and variation." Their daily advance 

 was twenty-three English miles, and about half way on his first day's journey 

 he passed the extreme point to which Sir John Franklin and his officers 

 walked in 1821. After this point every step was on virgin soil. The coast- 

 line, as he advanced on the 20th, continued low, and the land trended north- 

 north-east to the spot which he selected as his first encampment, and 

 which he named Cape Franklin (long. 108° 58' W.). On the 21st he dis- 



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