ch. xxvn] The Search for Franklin, /. 249 
the Terror, and M'Clintock, greatest of sledge travellers, 
who was then entering upon his glorious Arctic career. 
M'Clintock found a good friend in Sir James, who took 
a great liking for the young lieutenant. Sir James was 
then forty-eight, with an experience of polar work un- 
rivalled by that of any living man, but he was somewhat 
shaken by Antarctic work, and lacked elasticity and the 
qualities of his youth, when he was foremost in keeping 
his shipmates in high spirits and good health. In person 
he was short but powerfully built, and was remarkable 
for his aquiline nose and very piercing black eyes. 
The expedition was unfortunate. It was stopped by 
closely-packed floes across Barrow Strait and across 
Prince Regent's Inlet. There was nothing for it but to 
take refuge for the winter in Port Leopold, at the north- 
east end of North Somerset. 
From this position Sir James could only send a 
travelling party in the spring for 80 miles to Fury Beach, 
to ascertain whether any of Franklin's people had visited 
the shore there ; while he himself made a more extended 
journey along the northern and western shores of North 
Somerset. This journey is specially memorable as the 
initiation of M'Clintock in that art of sledge travelling 
which he afterwards brought to such perfection. 
Sir James Ross arranged for an absence of 40 days, 
travelling with M'Clintock and two sledges, each dragged 
by six men. The two tents were 9 feet by 6. They 
travelled at night, starting after a cup of luke-warm cocoa. 
Luncheon at midnight consisted of a few mouthfuls of 
biscuit and frozen meat, with some snow water and half 
a gill of rum. After the tent was pitched supper con- 
sisted of 1 lb. of meat, and 1 lb. of biscuit and the other 
half gill of rum with lime-juice. But the meat was pork 
including bone, or preserved meat not weighing nearly 
what was pretended. It was really less than half a pound 
of meat, and was quite insufficient. 
On reaching Cape Bunny, the north-west point of 
North Somerset, which proved to be an island, they left 
the coast discovered by Parry in 1819 and, turning south, 
entered on a previously unknown region. The furthest 
point to the south in 72 0 38' was reached on June 6th, 
whence land, seen at a distance of fifty miles, was named 
