414 DR JOHN RAE'S EXPLORATIONS— 18iQ-4:7. 



again, at midniglit. Following tlie line of coasts he discovered and named 

 Cape Chapman on the 26th ; and on the 29th, after making the circuit of the 

 peninsula, he discovered and named the Clouston Points. Point Anderson 

 and Cape Barclay were passed on the 30th, and on the morning of the 1st 

 May the party encamped opposite Cape Beaufort. " The whole of the coast 

 which we had traced during the last seven days, as far as Cape Barclay," 

 writes Eae, " was low and flat, with neither rock nor hill to interrupt the 

 sameness of the landscape. It — ^the promontory round which the party had 

 been travelling — was named Simpson's Peninsula, after Sir George Simpson," 

 who had projected and planned the expedition. 



On the 1st May, Eae arrived at the spot where, on the 9th April, he 

 had buried a quantity of provisions. Having dug up this hidden store, he 

 was glad to have a change from seals' flesh and blood, on which the whole 

 party had lived for eight days, to pemmican and flour. " It is true," writes 

 Rae, " that during these eight days we had supped on a few dried salmon, 

 which were so old and mouldy that the water in which they were boiled 

 became quite green. Such, however, is the advantage of hard work and 

 short commons, that we enjoyed that change of food as much as if it had 

 been one of the greatest delicacies. Both the salmon and the water in which 

 they were cooked were used to the last morsel and drop, although I firmly 

 believe that a moderately well-fed dog would not have tasted either." 



Arrived at the extreme south shores of Committee Bay, the explorers lost 

 no time in crossing Eae Isthmus and making their way to Fort Hope on 

 Eepulse Bay, where they arrived on the 5th May. After all their perils and 

 hardships, the travellers were able to report themselves " all well, but so 

 black and scarred on the face from the combined effects of oil, smoke, and 

 frost-bites," that their friends would not beheve but that they had suffered 

 from some explosion of gunpowder. " Thus successfully terminated a journey 

 little short of 600 Enghsh miles, the longest, I believe," writes Eae, " ever 

 made on foot along the Arctic coast." 



But the purpose of the expedition was now no more than half accom- 

 plished. Eae had discovered, and had several times traversed, the isthmus 

 that bears his name ; had reached the southern shores, previously unknown 

 of Boothia Gulf; and had connected his survey of the west coasts of that 

 gulf with those of Sir John Eoss ; and had demonstrated that no navi- 

 gable passage led westward from the gulf to the Arctic Sea south X)f lat. 

 69° 30' N., and that consequently no "North-West Passage" was to be 

 looked for south of that parallel. The west shores of Boothia Gulf were thus 

 brought within the sphere of geographical knowledge, but the east shores, 

 south of Fury and Hecla Strait, had never yet been visited by civiUsed man. 

 The survey of this east shore fell within the scope of Eae's instructions, and 

 after a rest of only a few days at Fort Hope, this indefatigable explorer 



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