460 THEOUGH THE MACKEi^ZIE BASIN. 



Gfeneral Greely, U.S.A. (a renowned Arctic traveller), 

 considers Collinson's referred-to voyage as one of the most 

 remarkable and successful on record. With a sailing ship 

 he navigated the Arctic, forward and back, through 180 (6i 

 one way) degrees of longitude, a feat only excelled by the 

 steamer " Vega;" but he also sailed the " Enterprise " more 

 than ten degrees of longitude through the narrow straits along 

 the northern shores of continental America, which never be- 

 fore nor since have been navigated, save by small boats and 

 with excessive difficulty. Of all Government naval expedi- 

 tions searching for Franklin he (elsewhere mentioned) came 

 nearest the goal. Admiral Kichards has also characterized 

 Collinson's Arctic Journal as a " record of patience, endur- 

 ance, and unflagging perseverance, under difficulties which 

 have perhaps never been surpassed." 



Captain Kennedy and Lieutenant Bellot wintered in 

 Batty Bay, Kegent Inlet, and from there made a journey of 

 great importance of eleven hundred miles in ninety-seven 

 days. They discovered that the Brentford Bay of Sir John 

 Eoss was a strait (now known as Bellot Strait, after that 

 lamented Freeh officer), which they passed, unconscious that 

 it was the most northerly point of North America. Alto- 

 gether the Kennedy search, in Greely' s opinion, was one of 

 the best conducted and most promising of all, i-elative to the 

 end in view. 



Again General Greely observes that as Dr. Eae was com- 

 pelled to hunt and explore on foot without dogs or native 

 Eskimo assistance, it should not be considered surprising that 

 he did not examine all of West Boothia on the occasion of 

 his hearing of Franklin's fate, while he believed that his 

 eleven hundred mile journey of exploration with two men in 

 the spring of 1851 is one of the most remarkable on record. 



Readers of the narrative of the northern coast discov- 

 eries of Dease and Simpson, in the years 1837, 1838, 1839, 

 under the auspices, and at the expense, of the Hudson's Bay 



