860 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



parties tvere sent out to deposit provisions at various points of the coast, for tiie 

 sledge parties in the ensuing spring. 



The difficulties of transport over the broken surface of the desert when de- 

 fluded of snow may be estimated from the fact, that though the distance from 

 the north to the south coast of Melville Island is no more than thirty-six miles 

 in a direct line, Lieutenant M'Ciintock required no less than nineteen days to 

 reach the Hecla and Griper Gulf. Similar difficulties awaited Lieutenant 

 Mechan on his way to Liddon Gulf, but he was amply rewarded by finding at 

 Winter Harbor dispatches from M'Clure, showing that, in April, 1851, the "In- 

 vestigator " was lying in Mercy Bay, on the opposite side of Banks's Strait^ and 

 that consequently the north-west passage, the object of so many heroic efforts, 

 was at last discovered. 



On March 9, 1853, the Resolute " opened her spring campaign with Lieu- 

 tenant Pym's sledge journey to Mercy Bay, to bring assistance to M'Clure, or 

 to follow his traces in case he should no longer be there. 



A month later three other sledge expeditions left the ship. The one under 

 M'Clintock proceeded from the Hecla and Griper Gulf to the west, and return- 

 ed after one hundred and six days, having explored 1200 miles of coast — a 

 sledge journey without a parallel m the history of Arctic research, though near- 

 ly equalled by the second party under Lieutenant Mecham, which likewise start- 

 ed to the west from Liddon Gulf, and travelled over a thousand miles in nine- 

 ty-three days. The third party, under Lieutenant Llamilton, which proceeded 

 to the north-east towards the rendezvous appointed by Sir Edward Belcher the 

 preceding summer, was the first that returned to the ship, but before its arrival 

 another party had found its way to the "Resolute" — pale, worn, emaciated 

 figures, slowly creeping along over the uneven ice. A stranger might have 

 been surprised at the thundering hurrahs which hailed the ragged troop from 

 a distance, or at the warm and cordial greetings which welcomed them on deck, 

 but no wonder that M'Clure and his heroic crew were thus received by their 

 fellow-seamen after a three years' imprisonment in the ice of the Polar Sea. 



On August 1, 1850, the "Investigator," long since separated from her con- 

 sort, the " Enterprise," had met the " Herald " and " Plover '"^ at Cape Lisburne, 

 beyond Bering's Straits, and now plunged alone into the unknoAvn wildernesses 

 of the Arctic Ocean. She reached the coast of Banks's Land on September 6, 

 discovered Prince Albert Land on the 9th, and then sailed up Prince of Wales* 

 Strait, where, on October 9, she froze in for the winter. In the same month, 

 however, a sledge expedition was sent to the northern extremity of the strait, 

 which established the fact of its communication with Parry Sound and Barrow's 

 Strait. In the following July the " Investigator," though set free, was prevent- 

 ed from penetrating into the sound by impassable barriers of ice. Nothing 

 now remained but to return to the southern extremity of the strait, and then to 

 advance along the west coast of Banks's Land to the north. This course was fol- 

 lowed with tolerable ease till August 20, when the ship was driven between the 

 ice and the beach a little north of Prince Albert Cape. Here she lay in compar- 



* These two vessels had been sent in the year 1847 to the Polar Sea beyond Bering's Straits, when 

 they discovered the "Herald" and "Plover" Islands. 



