68 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NU. - 



the fauna of Melville Island had been made known i)artially Ijy 

 Parry's first voyage, already mentioned. 



M'Clure. in the Inrestig(itoi\ which mailed in company with the 

 Enterprise, but became separated from it. reached the vicinity of 

 the Mackenzie by way of the Strait of Magellan. Sandwich Islands, 

 and Bering Sea. about the middle of August. 1850. Following the 

 coast eastward to Cape Parry, the In cest '(j>ifnr turned northward and 

 entered Prince of Wales Strait, where it was frozen in near Prince>-. 

 Ro^'al Islands, and wintered. The ship was freed from the ice in 

 July, 1851, but being unable to penetrate to Parry Sound through 

 the strait, M'Clure turned southward and skirting the southern. Ave^t- 

 ern, and northern shores of Banks Land, entered Mercy Bay. where 

 the ship was imprisoned on Sej^tember 23. 1851. Here the party, 

 with the exception of some who left on April 15, 1853, for Dealy 

 Island, remained until June 3, 1853, when the ship was abandoned, 

 and the party taken by sledges to Dealy Island, where the In fi'^ pld 

 and Resolute had wintered, and whence Captain Kellett had sent 

 Lieutenant Pirn to the rescue. Another winter was pa--od in the 

 ice, and the survivors finally reached England on the yor+li Sf,rr, the 

 first party to accomplish the XorthAvest Passage."' Several narratives 

 of this voyage were publi>hed. That of Alexander Arm.-trong. sur- 

 geon on the Investigator, which has been consulted in the present 

 connection, has very full notes on natural history. 



CoUinson in the Enterprise, becoming separated from the Inref<ti- 

 gator and not being aware that that vessel, a slow sailer, had entered 

 the Arctic Ocean, did not push on during the summer of 1850 (the 

 two ships having orders to keep together), and withdrawing from 

 the Arctic to winter, did not reach Mackenzie Bay until Augu-t. 1"^51. 

 a year behind the Investigator. Sailing eastward and northward. 

 Collinson entered Prince of AVales Strait but a few days after 

 M'Cltire left it. and attempted to pass through it. but was stopped by 

 the ice. He then turned back and coasted Banks Land to Point IVIeek. 



" W, E. Parry in 1^2(» failed to accomplisli tlie Xortliwest Passage by only a 

 few miles, and since then many other failures have been scored. Recently the 

 feat has been achieved by Cai)t. Pvoald Amundsen in the (Ti<'(i. This vessel, a 

 sloop 73 feet long and registering 46 tons, sailed from Christiania. Norway, on 

 the night of June 16, 1903, with a crew of seven men. all told. The party 

 reached Beechey Island on August 22. and sailed sotithward throtigh Peel 

 Sotmd to. Petterson Bay, on the southeastern coast of King William Land. They 

 wintered there and spent the spring and summer of l'.'o4 in making scientific 

 observations in that region. Another winter was passed at'the same place, and 

 in the spring and early summer of 1905 the eastern coast of Victoria Land was 

 charted north to latitude 72° 10'. The fljna left Petterson Bay on Ausrnst 13. 

 penetrated through Simpson. Dease. and I>(>lpliin and I^nion straits, and win- 

 tered near Cape Sabine, east of Herschel Island. The westward voyage was 

 resumed in the summer of 1906, and the Gjoa reached San Francisco in the 

 early autumn. 



