OUTWARD VOYAGE. 503 



kayack, and informed the explorers that no ships had been seen on the coast 

 since the whalers and the Danish vessels had left it last year. On arriving 

 at Uppernavik on June 5th, Captain Penny went on shore and succeeded in 

 engaging Mr Petersen, who was acting in the capacity of assistant governor 

 of the settlement, to accompany the expedition as interpreter. During the 

 month of June, the progress of the vessels northward along the west 

 coast of Greenland toward Melville' Bay was provokingly slow and unen- 

 livened by adventure or noteworthy incident. On July 2d, the "Lady 

 Franklin " and " Sophia " passed the Arctic searching expedition, under the 

 command of Captain Austin, in the neighbourhood of Cape Shakleton. It 

 was not till August 14th that Captain Penny passed Melville Bay, and had 

 steered his vessels close in with the land between Cape York and Cape 

 Dudley Digges. On the 18th, the fog that had prevailed for many days 

 cleared away, the sky brightened, and an east-south-east wind, favourable 

 for crossing over to Lancaster Sound, sprang up. "Our studding-sails 

 were set," writes Surgeon Sutherland, " and as our neat little ships scudded 

 before the increasing breeze, there was nothing to cast the slightest gloom 

 upon our bright prospects of being soon in the spot where our services 

 would be called into requisition." Soon the dark coast from Cape York 

 northwards began to fade in the distance astern, while the Carey Islands rose 

 up from the sea in the distance ahead. " At four o'clock in the evening," 

 continues Sutherland, " as the Carey Islands were sinking rapidly in the 

 eastern horizon, the west side of Baffin Bay, on the north side of Jones 

 Sound, was seen, and for this part our course was shaped with the view of 

 exploring it and of passing through it into the Wellington Channel." At 

 nine o'clock the vessels were within about sixteen miles of the land opposite 

 the entrance into Jones Sound. The inlet, however, was found to be full of 

 heavy ice, which, so far as could seen from the crow's-nest, presented no open- 

 ing leading westward into the sound. The close state of the ice in the inlet, 

 taken in connection with the advanced period of the season, was regarded by 

 Captain Penny as a sufficient reason for altering his plan and steering straight 

 for Lancaster Sound. On the morning of the 19th, two small ships were 

 sighted bearing the American flag. These proved to be the schooners " Ad- 

 vance " and " Eescue " (Commander De Haven), which had been sent out by 

 sympathisers in America to search for Sir John Franklin. On the morning of 

 the 20th, while the vessels, sailing southward along the coast of North 

 Devon, were nearing the entrance to Lancaster Sound, the wind blew from 

 the east with terrific violence. In the afternoon. Captain Penny was obliged 

 to heave to off Admiralty Inlet, a short distance within the entrance and 

 on the south side of the sound. On the following day he sailed north- 

 ward toward the North Devon shore, and had the fortune to fall in with the 

 " North Star " (Commander Saunders). Mr Saunders was beset among the 



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