402 DR JOHN MAE'S EXPLORATIONS— 18^Q-47. 



hope of having an opportunity of sailing round and surveying its shores. 

 But ice, fog, and storm were arrayed against the explorer, and for the time 

 he was baffled. He succeeded, however, in visiting and naming a few 

 points, inlets, etc., along the southernmost shores of the bay, which may 

 here be enumerated. On the 2d August, having pushed on eight miles 

 along the west shore, he reached and named Point Hargrave, a rugged pro- 

 montory of granite and gneiss, without a blade of grass or a cushion of moss 

 to relieve its bald and grim appearance. Next morning he was completely 

 stopped by ice, and obliged to put ashore, where he found a large wooden 

 sledge, constructed evidently of the planks of some vessel (probably of the 

 " Fury " or " Victory "), as there were augur holes in it. He cut it up for 

 fuel, and he and his men tasted once more the delights of a hot meal, to 

 which, for some time, they had been strangers. A few miles farther on he 

 reached and named Cape Lady Pelly. In travelling along this coast Rae 

 and his companions were much fatigued, as they often sank knee-deep " in a 

 very adhesive mud." It was evident that no material progress was to be 

 made in this direction, and Eae soon resolved to retrace his steps, cross over 

 to the shores of Melville Peninsula, and try to piish on along the east shore 

 of Committee Bay. With great difficulty he reached this shore and discov- 

 ered a headland to which he gave the name Cape Thomas Simpson, in 

 honour of his predecessor in Arctic travel. On the 7th a heavy gale sprang 

 up and drove the boat among the ice off shore. In this situation the party 

 were exposed to constant danger " from the falling, or breaking off of over- 

 hanging masses (some of them 20 feet in height), which were crashing all 

 around us, and under which we had to pass." At night the explorers 

 secured the boat, raised an oil-cloth to keep off the rain that fell in torrents, 

 and having had the usual cheerful supper of pemmican and cold water, lay 

 down to sleep. On the 8th, Eae was reluctantly forced to the conclusion 

 that the whole of the bay was full of ice, and that exploration during the 

 present season was impracticable. If the bay had not been completely packed 

 the gale of the previous day would have cleared it. There was now only 

 one course left — ^to return to the place from which the party had started. 

 " It was with a sad heart," writes Eae, " that I turned the head of the boat 

 towards our starting-point, where I purposed to await some favourable 

 change in the state of the ice, and at the same time learn how the people 

 left at Eepulse Bay were getting on with preparations for wintering." The 

 starting-point was reached on the same day, and on the 9th, Eae, with three 

 of his men, set out to walk back across the isthmus to Eepulse Bay, where 

 they arrived hungry, weary, and foot-sore — for their shoes and socks were 

 entirely worn out long before they reached their destination — on the after- 

 noon of the 10th August. 



At Eepulse Bay, Eae found the men he had left in charge of the 



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