35 
of Caswall Tower, is the only spot where the very few straggling wild fowl that 
alight in this barren limestone region, on their way north, are to be met with ; 
and here I have followed Franklin's sledge tracks over the low shingle ridges in 
the direction of the tower, which was doubtless their shooting station. The 
sledges must have passed in the summer season when the soil was plastic enough 
to leave impressions of their tracks behind them. Caswall tower is an isolated 
precipitous mount, between three and four hundred feet in height, rising from 
a plain at the head of Radstock Bay and Gascoigne Cove, which I ascended 
but found nothing whatever on its bare flat top, save a solitary lemming, which 
I captured. At its base are several circular ancient Esquimaux encampments, 
within which the wild flowers flourish more luxuriantly than in any other spot 
I met with. The distance is about ten miles from the ship. 
The greatest mystery of all is, that of no record having been left of their 
sojourn or departure ; so sanguine was I for a time, that something might turn 
up to reward a diligent and persevering search, that I did not rest until I had 
closely examined every foot of ground for miles around ; ascending and descend- 
ing every hill and ravine around the bay, and rambling over the mountain lime- 
stone table land, far inland, till there was not a rock or ravine on the land, or 
hummock of ice on the floe, within a circuit of many miles, that was not as 
familiar to me as " household words." 
From my own experience, throughout a somewhat more severe winter, per- 
haps, than ordinary, I believe that sledge travelling may be continued during an 
Arctic winter, Mdthout much risk or danger being incurred from the lowest 
temperature ; provided care is taken to erect a snow hut, or in cases of emer- 
gency when no time is to be lost, to cut a deep trench in the snow in time to 
secure shelter from an approaching gale and snow drift. It must be kept in 
mind, that the same degree of cold which can be borne without inconvenience 
in a calm cannot be faced without severe frost bites in a strong breeze of wind. 
In thus recording my opinion of the practicability of sledge travelling in the 
winter season, I have the testimony of those enterprizing Arctic travellers 
Kennedy and Bellot, in my favour, who during the " Prince Albert's" voyage 
practised it most successfully in mid-winter. I also have had opportunities of 
fairly testing the effects of a very low temperature on my own person on more 
than one occasion. My customary walk throughout the winter, whatever the 
state of the weather might be, was round Beechey Island, a distance of about 
six miles. This I accomplished once when the therm.ometer Avas 54° below 
zero on the floe, and to that low temperature I was exposed for two hours, 
without feeling any inconvenience from it, but there was little or no wind at 
the time. 
On another, occasion I passed a whole day and night without food, or shelter, 
beyond what the snow-drift afforded, about seven miles from the ship, having 
been overtaken by a dense fog on the open plain when returning from an excur- 
sion to Caswall Tower, accompanied by my friend Dr. Toms, of the " North 
Star," and " Erebus" and " Terror," my two Esquimaux dogs. When over- 
whelmed by the darkness of night blending with the fog, and a gale approach- 
ing, we cut with a hunting knife a trench in the snow-clad plain, about two feet 
deep, and in this truly Arctic bivouac (at all times to be found) we, with our 
canine friends, passed the night, without a tent or other clothing than our usual 
walking dress. 
The gale which swept over us soon forming a white coverlet of snow-drift, 
protected us from the blast, less than an hour's exposure to the inclemency and 
mtensity of cold of which would inevitably have ended in our destruction : not 
even the dogs would have survived it. The thermometer that night fell to 32° 
below zero, or 64° below the freezing point. The fog clearing off sufficiently 
to make out the land, about four o'clock in the morning we started again, and 
reached the ship betAveen six and seven a.m., without having incurred even a frost- 
bite, and after an ablution and breakfast, felt as fresh as excv. 
I am, therefore, led to the conclusion, that Sir John Franklin's travelling 
parties may have commenced their journeys up the Wellington Channel, with 
the first appearance of tlie sun above tlic horizon early in the month of February, 
and after the discover}^ that the strait between the Franklin Capes in the Queen's 
Channel opened into a polar ocean, started with his ships as soon as the bay ice broke 
up, most probably about the first week in September; and if he had an open season 
would, with the aid of his screw-propellers, run iq") the Wellington Clianncl 
within the space of eight-and-forty hours. Then, probably tempted bA- 1 lie broad 
E2 
