582 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



July, being still in Baffin's Bay, they encountered the pack. 

 It was summer-ice, consisting of closely- set but separate floes. 

 They could not make over three miles a day headway through 

 it, — which they considered a useless expenditure of labor. 

 They remained beset for twenty-one days, when the pack 

 opened in various directions. The ships now reached Melville 

 Bay, on the east side of Baffin's Bay, — Lancaster Sound, 

 through which they were to pass, being upon the west. Mel- 

 ville Bay, from the fact that it is always crowded with ice- 

 bergs, and presents in a bird's-eye view all the combined hor- 

 rors and perils of Arctic navigation, has received the appellation 

 of the " Devil's Nip." Across this formidable indentation the 

 two vessels made their weary way, occupying five weeks in the 

 transit. A steam-tug would have towed them across in forty- 

 eight hours. In the middle of August the vessels entered Lan- 

 caster Sound, and, on the morning of the 21st, overhauled the 

 Felix, engaged in the search, under the veteran Sir John Ross. 

 The next day, the Prince Albert, one of Lady Franklin's ships, 

 was seen, and, soon after, the intelligence was received of the 

 discovery of traces of Franklin and his men. The navigators 

 of both nations visited Beechey Island and saw there the evi- 

 dences which we have already mentioned. The Advance and 

 Rescue now strove in vain to urge their way to Wellington 

 Channel. The sun travelled far to the south, and the brief 

 summer was rapidly coming to a close. The cold increased, 

 and the fires were not yet lighted below. On the 12th of Sep- 

 tember the Rescue was swept from her moorings by the ice and 

 partially disabled. The pack in which they were enveloped, 

 though not yet beset, was evidently drifting they knew not 

 whither. The commander, convinced that all westward pro- 

 gress was vain for the season, resolved to return homeward. 

 The vessels' heads were turned eastward, and slowly forced a 

 passage through, the reluctant ice. On the evening of the 14th 

 of September, Dr. Kane was endeavoring, with the thermometer 



