272 the Admiralty to take his departure in the summer of 1850, in his adventurous attempt to reach Melville Island. By the last accounts from Mackenzie's River, we learn that this enterprising officer received his instructions by express, on the 25th of June, being then in Slave River, on his way to York Factory. He immediately turned back, having been supplied with 4,500 lbs. of jerked venison and pemican by Mr. Rae, which he embarked in one of the Plover's boats, and in a barge of the Hudson's Bay Company, being the only available craft. The barge is well adapted for river navigation, but from its flatness unfitted for a sea-voyage, though it may be in some respects improved by the addition of a false keel, which Commander Pullen would probably give it before he descended to the sea. Its weight will render it much less manageable among ice than a lighter boat. No intelligence of this party has reached England since the above date, but we may expect to hear of his proceedings in May or June, 1851, before this volume has passed through the press. * This anticipation has been realised, as has been mentioned in p. 216. Commander Pullen found the sea covered with unbroken ice all the way from the Mackenzie to Cape Bathurst, a small channel only existing in shore, through which he advanced to the vicinity of the cape. Failing in finding a passage out to sea, to the north of Baillie's Islands, he remained within them, until the advance of winter compelled him to return to the Mackenzie. 1848. VOYAGE ALONG THE COAST. 273 CHAP. IX. FRANKLIN BAY. VOYAGE CONTINUED ALONG THE COAST. DRIFT ICE. CROKER'S RIVER. POINT CLIFTON. RIVER. POINT WISE. HOPPNER RIVER.-WOLLASTON LAND. POINT COCKBURN. -A STORM. SALMON.-LAMBERT ISLAND.—LEAVE A BOAT. CAPE KRUSENSTERN. - - RESOURCES OF A PARTY ENCLOSED BY ICE AMONG THE ARCTIC ISLANDS. GENERAL REFLECTIONS. August 11th, 1848.-WE sailed along the coast all day with a light breeze, and in the afternoon eleven Eskimos came off from the shore and sold us some deers' meat. A woman of the party ran for two miles along the beach in the hope of receiving a present, and, when quite exhausted with her exertions, stripped off her boots to barter with us. One of the men in the kaiyaks brought them off, but, as they were too small for any of our crew, we returned them with a present of more than their VOL. I. T value. These men gave us no additional information, but expressed pleasure when told that they might expect to meet other parties of white men. A scull of eleven white whales were seen in the evening. We continued under sail all night, and at three in the afternoon of the 12th, landed in a very shallow bay, to the southward of Point Stivens, to cook a meal which served for both breakfast and dinner. Mr. Rae went in pursuit of some rein-deer which were seen from the boats, but, owing to the extreme flatness of the land, which afforded no cover, he was unable to approach them. The high banks of Cape Bathurst are continued to the bottom of Franklin Bay, where they recede a little from the coast, and are lost in an evenbacked ridge, apparently not exceeding four or five hundred feet in height. These hills are named the Melville Range, and cross the neck of the peninsula of Cape Parry, appearing again behind Darnley Bay. The peninsula is so flat near its isthmus, and so much intersected by water, that I am still in doubt whether it may not be actually a collection of islands. But if this is the case, the channels which separate the islands are intricate and shallow. To the south of Point Stivens the soil was wholly mud, apparently alluvial; to the northward beds of limestone crop out. In the evening. 1848. SELLWOOD BAY. 275 we encamped on Point Stivens, which is a long narrow gravel beach, composed mostly of pieces of limestone, some of which contain corals. Sea-weed is very scarce throughout the whole of the arctic. coast, but we saw on the beach here some rejected masses of decayed Laminaria, probably saccharina; also a stunted white spruce, lying on the beach, still retaining its bark and leaves. Mr. Rae shot a fine trumpeter swan, on which we supped. The only water we could find here for cooking was swampy, and full of very active insects shaped like tadpoles, which were just visible to the naked eye (Apus; Lepidurus, probably Lynceus). The crimson and lake tints of the sky, when the sun set this evening, were most splendid, and such as I have never seen surpassed in any climate. On August the 13th, we embarked at 3 A. M., and at half-past ten landed in Sellwood Bay on some horizontal beds of limestone, which are the first rocks in situ that become visible, in tracing this peninsula from the south. No organic remains were detected in the stone. Many very large slabs, moved but a short way from their parent beds, were piled upon each other within reach of a high surf, and among them lay great boulders of greenstoneporphyry and hornblende rock. To the north of the bay, there are high cliffs of limestone, and also a detached perforated rock, which employed Lieutenant Kendall's pencil on my former voyage. Many white-winged silvery gulls were breeding the various shelves of its cliffs, and their still unfeathered young were running about, alarmed by the clamour of the parent birds. In the evening we anchored in a snug boatharbour, within the westernmost of the two points which terminate Cape Parry. The part of the Cape which will be first visible on approaching from sea, is a hill about five hundred feet high, which far overtops all the neighbouring eminences. From it a comparatively low peninsular point stretched west-north-west about half a mile, being connected to the main by a gravel bank, and terminated on its sea-face by a limestone cliff, which in some points of view resembles a cocked-hat. An indented bay, about three miles across, separates this point from another more to the east, which extends fully as far north. Booth's Islands, five in number, form a range nine miles long, whose extremities bear from the hill north-west and south-west respectively. The channels between the islands vary in width from one to three miles. On the east side of the hill, cliffs of limestone, washed by the waves, have been scooped into caves and arches, which, without much aid from the imagination, recalled many fine architectural forms. A boulder of chert, lying on the |