422 THE FRANKLIN SEARCH— 184:8-51. 



tains ; the whole elevated land seemed to be a mass of fire, and the spec- 

 tator remained as it were spell-bound, until the full appearance of daylight 

 dispersed the illusion, and once more restored him to the sober thoughts of 

 life." 



Nothing had been heard or seen of the " Plover " at Petropaulovski ; 

 but Captain. KeUett was not a little surprised to see a Eoyal Thames Yacht 

 Club schooner, named the " Nancy Dawson," riding at anchor in this out of 

 the way harbour. The " Nancy Dawson " was owned and commanded by Mr 

 Robert Sheddon, formerly a mate in the navy, who had sailed into the seas of 

 the far north for the piu-pose of joining the Behring Strait expedition, as 

 a volunteer in the Franklin search. Sheddon's yacht was well stocked with 

 provisions and instruments ; but her crew, consisting chiefly of Americans 

 picked up at Hong-Kong, from which the vessel had last sailed, were a dis- 

 organised and altogether xmsatisfactory set. 



On the 27th June KeUett sailed out of Awachta Bay accompanied by 

 the " Nancy Dawson," and steering through Behring Strait, entered Kotzebue 

 Sound on the 15th July, and had the satisfaction of seeing the " Plover " 

 lying at anchor ofi" Chamisso Island. In this vessel Commander Moore had 

 sailed from the Thames, on the 1st January 1848, to join the " Herald." 

 The brig proved, however, a very slow sailer, and Moore was unable to reach 

 the Sandwich Islands before the close of August. It was now too late in the . 

 season to make for Behring Strait ; accordingly he sailed for the harbour of 

 Anadyr, on the east coast of Eastern Siberia, and wintered there. Leaving 

 his winter station on the 30th June 1849, Moore steered the " Plover " for 

 Behring Strait, entered the Arctic Ocean, and, on the 14th July — the day 

 before the arrival of the " Herald " — anchored off Chamisso Island, in Kot- 

 zebue Sound. Moore's instructions were to search the north-west and north 

 coasts of America eastward to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, at which 

 point the examination of the coast eastward was to be taken up by the over- 

 land expedition, under Richardson and Rae. Not a moment was lost in 

 carrying these instructions into effect; for, on the 15th July, the day after 

 his arrival ^in Kotzebue Sound, he had sent away two boats on the voyage 

 roimd the coast to Mackenzie River. The opportune arrival of the " Herald " 

 on the same day, however, caused Commander Moore to recall his boats. A 

 general consultation was now held. " The new arrival," writes Berthold 

 Seemann, author of the "Narrative of the Voyage of the 'Herald,' 1845-51," 

 " occasioned an entire change in the plan adopted. It was thought more 

 prudent, considering the danger to which boats so heavily laden must be 

 exposed, to despatch them from the highest possible (point) north which the 

 ships, without risking their safety, could attain. We commenced immedi- 

 ately," continues Seemann, " to coal and provision the ' Plover ' — ^removing 

 officers, discharging objectionable men, and filling up their vacancies from 



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