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ENCLOSED BY ICE.

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good deer-stalkers suffered to go out, there would be a danger of the animals migrating from feedinggrounds on which they were much disturbed. With nets a large quantity of salmon and other fish might be captured in Dolphin and Union Straits, and doubtless also in the various channels separating the islands; with percussion guns we had no difficulty in killing seals, and we might, had we chosen, have slain hundreds, though, as they dive at the flash, the chance of shooting them with a ship's musket having an ordinary lock, would be greatly diminished. Swans, snow geese, brent geese, eiders, king ducks, cacawees, and several other waterfowl, breed in immense numbers on the islands; and the old ones when moulting, and the young before they are fledged, fall an easy prey to a swift runner, and still more surely to a party hemming them in and cutting off their retreat.

To people acquainted with the Eskimo methods of building ice and snow houses, shelter may be raised on the bleakest coast, except in the autumn months; but, unless blubber were used as fuel, there would be a difficulty in maintaining fire for cooking by any one who has not the genius for turning every thing to account which Mr. Rae evinced, when he boldly adventured on wintering on a coast bearing the ominous appellation of Repulse Bay, with no other fuel than the Andromeda tetragona,—an inte

resting and beautiful herb in the eye of a botanist, but giving no promise to an ordinary observer that it could supply warmth to a large party during a long arctic winter. To apply it, or any of the other polar plants, to such a purpose, a large quantity must be stored up near the winter station before the snow falls.

I have thought it right to throw these few observations together in this place, that a reader unacquainted with the natural resources of the country may judge of the probability of the whole or part of the crews of the Erebus and Terror maintaining themselves there, supposing the ships to have been wrecked. Of course, as long as the vessels remained, they would afford shelter and fuel; but the other contingencies would come into consideration if parties went off in various directions in quest of food. One great purpose of the expedition which I conducted along the coast was to afford relief to such detached parties, or to the entire crews, had they directed their way to the continent, and our researches proved at least that none of the party, having gained that coast, were dragging out a miserable existence among the Eskimos, without the means of repairing to the fur posts. In the following summer of 1849 Mr. Rae ascertained that the Eskimo inhabitants of Wollaston Land had seen neither the ships nor white men. The know

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ledge of these facts had an influence with the Admiralty in concentrating the future search in the vicinity of Melville Island; Captain Collinson and Commander Pullen being directed to approach its coasts from the westward, while Captain Austen, and the squadron of hardy navigators in his wake, were to trace the Discovery ships from the eastward. A more ample and noble effort to rescue a lost party was never made by any nation, and it has been humanely seconded from the United States of America. May God bless their endeavours!

CHAP. X.

PREPARING FOR THE MARCH.

SLEEP IN BACK'S INLet. ESKIMO VILLAGE. ESKIMOS FERRY THE PARTY ACROSS RAE RIVER. BASALTIC CLIFFS.- CROSS RICHARDSON'S RIVER. MARCH ALONG THE BANKS OF THE COPPERMINE. GEESE. FIRST CLUMP OF TREES. MUSK-OXEN. COPPER ORES AND

NATIVE COPPER.—KENDALL RIVER.MAKE A RAFT.—FOG. PASS A NIGHT ON A NAKED ROCK WITHOUT FUEL. FINE CLUMP OF SPRUCE FIRS.-DISMAL LAKES. - INDIANS. SEND OFF DESPATCHES

DEASE RIVER. -FORT CONFIDENCE.
AND LETTERS.

On the 1st and 2nd of September we had northerly and north-east winds, with a low temperature, sleet, snow, and occasional fogs. We were all employed in preparing the packages for the march, consisting of thirteen days' provision of pemican, cooking utensils, bedding, snow shoes, astronomical instruments, books, ammunition, fowling-pieces, portable boat, nets, lines, and a parcel of dried plants. These were distributed by lot, each load being calculated to weigh about sixty or seventy pounds. Mr. Rae voluntarily resolved to transport a package nearly equal to the men's in weight; but, distrusting my own powers of march, I made no attempt at carrying such a load as I had done on a former voyage, and restricted myself to a fowling-piece,

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ammunition, a few books, and other things which I thrust into my pockets. Six pieces of pemican were buried under a limestone cliff, together with a boat's magazine full of powder. The tents were left standing near the boats, and a few cooking utensils and hatchets deposited in them for the use of the Eskimos.

After an early breakfast on the morning of Sunday the 3rd of September we read prayers, and then set out at six o'clock. At first we pursued a straight course for the bottom of Back's Inlet, distant about twelve geographical miles; but finding that we were led over the shoulder of a range of hills on which the snow was deep, we held more to the eastward, through an uneven swampy country, where we saw many deer feeding; but made no attempt to pursue them.

The men, with a few exceptions, walked badly, particularly the two senior seamen, and after we had gone a few miles, were glad to lighten their loads by leaving their carbines behind. At half-past three we reached the inlet, about seven miles from the pitch of Cape Kendall, and halted for the night under a cliff of basalt two hundred feet high. The inlet and the sea in the offing were full of ice, and the weather continued cold; but some scraps of drift-wood, chiefly willows, being found on the beach, we managed to cook supper; and, selecting the