504 THE FRANKLIN SEAECff— 1848-51. 



ice on the 30th July 1849 in Melville Bay, and had drifted about in every 

 direction, until, on the 30th September, he got into winter quarters in Wol- 

 stenholme Sound (lat. 76° 33' N., long. 68° 56' W.). Here he remained until 

 the 3d August 1850 (eighteen days before his meeting with Penny), when, strug- 

 gling out of Wolstenholme Sound, he sailed westward with the object of carry- 

 ing out his instructions to search for Franklin's and Sir James Clark Ross's 

 expeditions. Saunders examined Possession Bay, and thence proceeded up 

 Lancaster Sound to Whaler Point. He examined Point Leopold and found 

 that the stores which had been left there by Sir James Eoss were safe. The 

 crew of the " North Star " had suffered much during their long detention in 

 Wolstenholme Soimd — one of the most northerly localities in which any 

 vessel ever wintered. " Some of them appeared to be emaciated," writes 

 Dr Sutherland. " The Arctic winter had taken effect upon them, and had 

 told its tale upon their constitutions. They were one himdred and sixteen 

 days without the sun. The minimum temperature was -63^° (or 95^° below 

 freezing point) on the 24th February — one of the lowest degrees of natural 

 cold ever observed. They seemed to have no objections to their orders to 

 return to England." 



On the 22d August, Captain Penny, sailing westward along the north shore 

 of Barrow Strait, took observations in lat. 74° 27', long. 86° 27'. On the 23d, 

 after standing off for some hours to the south-west to examine the state of the 

 ice in the vicinity of Leopold Island, and having reached to within fifteen 

 miles of the island. Penny encountered a stream of ice, and was obliged to 

 alter his course — ^not, however, until he had obtained a clear view of Corn- 

 wallis Island and Cape Hotham. On the 24th, he plied westward along the 

 north shore of Barrow Strait, passing Cape Hurd, Radstock Bay, and coming 

 within sight of Cape Ricketts, Caswall's Tower, and Gascoyne Inlet on the 

 south-west shores of North Devon. Three ships were observed off Cape 

 Hurd. On the 25th, Cape Riley and Beechey Island were reached. " The 

 Wellington Channel," says Dr Sutherland, " was opening out to our view, 

 and we could see the three ships already alluded to endeavouring to get to 

 the westward. . . . The small ship we had seen on the morning of tha 

 19th belonged to the American expedition. She had parted company with 

 her consort during the gale of the 20th. . . , The ' Lady Franklin ' was 

 visited by a boat from her, to make inqmry whether we had seen her consort 

 coming up the sound, and to report that traces of the missing ships had been 

 found at Cape Riley by the ' Assistance ' and the ' Intrepid ; ' but they were 

 of a very doubtful nature, and it was impossible to arrive at any conclusion 

 with regard to them, except that they proved that the ships of the missing 

 expedition, or parties from them, had been at Cape Riley, and also at 

 Beechey Island. ... At two o'clock Mr Penny went on board H.M.S. 

 ' Assistance,' which by that time was closely beset. On his return to the 



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