CONCLUSION OF VOYAGE. 515 



ing and rending. We again turned in beneath our covering, but little sleep 

 was obtained, for every one was peeping beneath the housing-cloth" 



What need further to chronicle a search that was fruitless — a cruise that 

 consisted only of successive attempts to penetrate westward, rendered 

 abortive by head-winds and drifting ice 1 Captain Penny had, in the autumn 

 of 1850, discovered what were indubitably the first winter quarters of the 

 " Erebus " and " Terror ;" and in his boat expedition up Wellington Channel, 

 he had examined and surveyed the upper reaches of that passage, had dis- 

 covered and named Hamilton and Baring Islands and Queen Victoria 

 Channel, extending away westward from Wellington Channel, and having 

 Albert Land on its north-east, and Queen's Land on its south-west sides. 

 But here the success of the boat expedition ended. Every coast visited was 

 carefully examined and surveyed with approximate accuracy ; but no cairn 

 or other trace of the missing expedition was seen. Every day Penny and 

 his men heroically struggled on in the " imminent deadly breach " between 

 battling floes, or between the churning drift-ice and the cliffs of the shores; 

 but to no avail. It was now the 20th July, and the party had only a week's 

 provisions left. Would it be prudent to continue the voyage— to proceed 

 further, and exhaust the supplies that already were too scanty to keep his 

 men up to working power on the return jourtiey to the ships 1 There could 

 only be one answer ; so, on the morning of the 20th, after worship, the party 

 set out on their return to winter quarters. On the 22d, the boat, which was 

 felt to be a terrible encumbrance, was abandoned, and the men started 

 to travel along the coast of Cornwallis Island to Assistance Harbour — a 

 distance of upwards of 100 miles. With infinite labour and suffering this 

 journey was accomplished by midnight of the 25th July. 



On the 11th August, Captain Penny and Captain Austin held a consulta- 

 tion as to what ought now to be done. Penny believed that the " Erebus " and 

 " Terror " had taken the route up Wellington Channel, and he declared him- 

 self ready to propose a " continuance of the search by means of one of Cap- 

 tain Austin's steamers and the ' Sophia' through Wellington Channel, as soon 

 as the ice in that channel should open." On the other hand. Captain Austin 

 stated that had he done exactly what Captain Penny's expedition had done, 

 and were he placed in Captain Penny's position, he should not hesitate to 

 conclude at once that the search for the missing ships need not be prosecuted 

 to the north-west of their winter quarters at Beechey Island — a direction 

 Vhich he believed they had never taken. The result of the consultation 

 is recorded in Sutherland's journal as follows : "After the heads of the 

 expeditions had considered matters fully, we were given to understand that 

 little remained to be done but to proceed to England. Captain Austin was 

 satisfied that the missing expedition need not be searched for to the due 

 west or north-west ; and Mr Penny, uncertain whether they had proceeded 



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