BOAT EXPEDITION FITTED OUT. 423 



our own complement. "While this was going on. Captain Kellett went with 

 Commander Moore, and his acting ice-master, to examine the different bays 

 on the east side of Chloris Peninsula, for a wintering station for the 

 ' Plover.' " In the course of the search the party landed on Chamisso 

 Island, and the boat's crew were set to work digging for a cask of flour 

 that had been buried here by Captain Beechey twenty-three years before. 

 The exact position of the cache was indicated by directions cut in the 

 rocks on the shore, and in a short time the cask was found and disinterred. 

 The sand around it was frozen so hard that at every blow of the pick-axe it 

 emitted sparks. " The cask itself," writes Seemann, " was perfectly sound, 

 and the hoops good. Out of the 336 lbs. of flour which it contained, 175 

 lbs. were as sweet and well tasted as any we had on board ; indeed, after- 

 wards Captain Kellet gave a dinner-party, at which all the pies and puddings 

 were made of this flour." 



On the 18th July the vessels left their anchorage and stood away to the 

 north-west round the coast, the " Plover " leading under all sail, and the 

 " Herald," accompanied by the " Nancy Dawson," following. On the 20th 

 they passed Cape Lisburne, and on the 25th, they entered off" the entrance of 

 Wainwright Inlet, from which Captain Kellett had arranged the boat expe- 

 dition, for the examination of the Arctic shores eastward to the Mackenzie, 

 should be cast off. All hands were now set to work hoisting out, equipping, 

 and provisioning the boats. By midnight all preparations had been made, 

 and the boats, under the command of Lieutenant (now Kear- Admiral) PuUen, 

 shoved off under three hearty cheers from the ships, to which a cordial 

 response was given. " This little expedition," writes Seemann, " consisted 

 of twenty-five persons and four boats, as follows : Lieutenant PuUen, com- 

 manding the ' Herald's ' thirty=feet pinnace, fitted on board with the greatest 

 care, thoroughly decked, schooner-rigged, and called the ' Owen,' furnished 

 with pumps, spare rudder, and a strengthening piece of two-inch plank above 

 her water-line ; two twenty-seven feet whale-boats, covered in abaft as far as 

 the backboard, but without either boxes or cases, the provisions being stowed, 

 the bread in painted bags, and the preserved meats between tarpaulins — ^the 

 men's clothes were in haversacks, capable of removal in a moment ; the ' Plo- 

 ver's ' pinnace, a half-decked boat, with cases for her provisions, etc., so placed 

 as to resist pressure from the ice, There were in the boats seventy days' 

 preserved meats for the whole party, all other articles, except bread, being, 

 like the meat, soldered up in tins. In addition to these, the ' Owen ' had on 

 board eight men's allowance of the regular ship's provisions. After she was 

 stowed with this proportion, every corner that would hold a case of preserved 

 meat was filled. Each of the two larger carried five cases of pemmican for 

 the special use of Sir John Franklin's party." The boats went away by the 

 light of the midnight sun on the 25th, and the ships weighed and followed 



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