154 
THE PRINCE ALBERT. 
Soon after midnight, the land became visible on the 
north side of the Sound. We had passed Cape Charles 
Yorke and Cape Crawfurd, and were fanning along 
sluggishly with all the sail we could crowd for Port 
Leopold. 
It was the next day, however, before we came in 
sight of the island, and it was nearly spent when we 
found ourselves slowly approaching Whaler Point, the 
seat of the harbor. Our way had been remarkably 
clear of ice for some days, and we were vexed to find, 
therefore, that a firm and rugged barrier extended along 
the western shore of the inlet, and apparently across 
the entrance we were seeking. 
It was a great relief to us to see, at half past six in 
the evening, a top-sail schooner working toward us 
through the ice. She boarded us at ten, and proved 
to be Lady Franklin's own search-vessel, the Prince 
Albert. 
This was a very pleasant meeting. Captain For- 
syth, who commanded the Albert, and Mr. Snow, who 
acted as a sort of adjutant under him, were very agree- 
able gentlemen. They spent some hours with us, 
wliich Mr. Snow has remembered kindly in the journal 
he has published since his return to England. Their 
little vessel was much less perfectly fitted than ours to 
encounter the perils of the ice ; but in one respect at 
least their expedition resembled our own. They had 
to rough it : to use a Western phrase, they had no fan- 
cy fixings — nothing but what a hasty outfit and a lim- 
ited purse could supply. They were now bound for 
Cape Rennell, after which they proposed making a 
sledge excursion over the lower Boothian and Cock- 
burne lands. 
The North Star, they told us, had been caught by 
