16 
and adjacent regions, and in 1854 Belcher ordered the abandoning of all tlie four 
ships which were still beset in the ice. All inembers of the rlifferent crews, inclu- 
diug also M'Clure and liis men from the >Investigator», weut home in the »North- 
star», and thus the searching expeditions of the English Government cauie to an end- 
Even if the principal object of the search was not reached, still the work of 
the expeditions was of no small value. Most parts of the Arctic Archipelago were 
mapped, the discoveries of different explorers were connected, only the far north 
was still left miexplored. Many important observations bearing upon the meteoro- 
logy and geology of Arctic America were also brought together, zoology also seems 
to ha ve interested some of the officers, as for instance Belcher's ;.The last of 
Arctic Voyages» contains a comprehensive zoological appendix, but the botanical 
information is restricted to a few stray notes in some of the reports and a short 
appendix in Sutherland'8 Journal. 
Hitherto the expeditions have not been taken mto consideralion, who took up 
the search from another, quarter, viz., from Bering Strait. The ships stationed in 
the neighbourhood of that strait we may pass over, as their explorations were 
restricted to the Continent, but we shall have to enter into some detail about the 
proceedings of two other explorers, who sailed farther to the east and brought 
together important materials for the knowledge of the southwestern islands of the 
Archipelago. The expedition was commanded by Collinson who sailed in the 
»Enterprise» with M'Clure in charge of the other vcssel, the »Investigator». During 
the long voyage through the Pacific the ships, however, became separated, and 
M'CnjRE was the first to reach Bering Strait. Under the impression that the 
Enterprise must have passed into the Polar Sea before him, M'Olure thought the 
only course to adopt, was to sail eastward along the coast of the Continent and 
try to join his commanding officer. Thus the ships never came to meet again, and 
M'Clure had to act independently for the following years. He soon passed the 
mouth of the Mackenzie and sailing south of Banks Land entered what he named 
Prince of Wales Strait in the autumn of 185Q. After wintering here and being 
unable to pass farther to the north in the following summer, he went back again 
and tried to round Banks Land. After a very perilous journey he sueceeded in 
reaching the northern coast opposite to Melville Island, and he took up his 
second winterquarters in a little inlet on the northern coast of Banks Land, called 
Mercy Bay. As the ice did not break up in the following summer, the expedition 
had to stånd the ordeal of two niore winters here, on reduced rations and gradually 
rnore and more weakened and attacked by scurvy. M'Clure had decided on aban- 
doning the ship in the spring and trying to save his men by a retreat, divided in 
several parties and taking different ways, but the plan never was executed, as just 
in the last moment a messenger from Belcher's division, then lying to the east, 
arrived with orders to take refuge in the ships whicli had wintered at Melville 
Island. As these did not ge; out of the ice in the following summer XPClure and 
his men had to spend one more winter in the Arctic Regions and could return 
