time for returning had arrived ere any real work had been accomplished. At length, on the 20th of August, Mr. Simpson started with seven men for a ten days' walk to the eastward, on the first of which they passed Point Turnagain, the limit of Franklin's survey in 1821. By the 23d they had toiled onwards to an elevated cape, rising from a sea beset with ice; and, the land closing all round to the northwards, further progress seemed to be impossible. "With bitter disappointment," writes Mr. Simpson, "I ascended the height, from whence a vast and splendid prospect burst suddenly upon me. The sea, as if transformed by enchantment, rolled its free waves at my feet, and beyond the reach of vision to the eastward. Islands of various shape and size overspread its surface, and the northern land terminated. to the eye in a bold and lofty cape, bearing east-northeast, thirty or forty miles distant, while the continental coast trended away south-east. I stood, in fact, on a remarkable headland, at the eastern outlet of an iceobstructed strait. On the extensive land to the northward I bestowed the name of our most gracious sovereign, Queen Victoria. Its eastern visible extremity I called Cape Pelly, in compliment to the governor of the Hudson's Bay Company."

In 1839 they were more successful, and, favored with mild weather and an open sea, they sailed through the narrow strait that separates Victoria Land from the main. On the 13th of August they doubled Point Ogle, the furthest point of Back's journey in 1834; an event which terminated the long-pursued inquiry concerning the coast-line. They had thus ascertained that the American continent is separated from Boothia to the westward of Back's Estuary. The survey was now complete. A day or two later, the party, with flags flying, crossed to Montreal Island, in Back's Estuary,

where they discovered a deposit of provisions which Back had left there five years previously. The pemmican was unfit for use; but out of several pounds of chocolate, half decayed, the men contrived to pick sufficient to make a kettle-full of acceptable drink in honor of the occasion. There were also a tin case and a few fish-hooks, of which, observes Mr. Simpson, "Mr. Dease and I took possession, as memorials of our having breakfasted on the identical spot where the tent of our gallant, though less successful precursor, stood that very day five years before."

They had now obeyed their instructions to the letter; the coast-line was determined, and connected with what was previously known to the eastward. It was time to think of returning, but it still remained a question whether some part of Boothia might not be united to the continent on the eastern side of the estuary. Doubling, therefore, its eastern promontory, they passed a point of the continent which they named Cape Britannia, and another called Cape Selkirk, and proceeded toward some islands in the Gulf of Akkolee, so far as to satisfy themselves that they were to the eastward of any part of Boothia. By the 20th of August they had sailed far enough to see the further shore, with its capes, of the Gulf of Boothia, which runs down to within forty miles of Repulse Bay; and they then turned back. On their return, they traced sixty miles of the south coast of Boothia, where at one time they were not more than ninety miles from the site of the magnetic pole, as determined by Sir James Ross. A long extent of Victoria Land was also examined; and, on the 16th of September, they once more happily entered the Coppermine, after a boat voyage of more than sixteen hundred miles, the longest ever performed in the Polar Sea.

CHAPTER XI.

RAE'S LAND EXPEDITION. -SHORES OF HUDSON'S BAY. ESQUIMAUX

CANOES. REPULSE BAY.-GAME IN PLENTY. SLEDGE TRAVELLING. -SNOW-HOUSES.RETURN. RENEWED INTEREST IN THE DISCOVERY OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. THE EREBUS AND TERROR. SIR JOHN FRANKLIN'S LAST VOYAGE. MYSTERY OF HIS FATE.

THE supposed great bay, extending from the furthest point reached by Messrs. Dease and Simpson, eastward to the Fury and Hecla Strait, now became an object of intense interest. The mystery which overhung the north-east corner of the American mainland seemed, at last, to be almost revealed. Let but the coast-line from the mouth of the Castor and Pollux to the eastern extremity of the Gulf of Akkolee be examined, so as to connect the discoveries of Messrs. Dease and Simpson with those of the second voyage of Parry, and those of the second voyage of John Ross, and all would become plain.

steers

In 1846, accordingly, the Hudson's Bay Company fitted out an expedition to effect this object; and Dr. He was John Rae was appointed to the command. just the man for it: he was surgeon, astronomer, man, and leader to the party; had spent several years in the service of the company; and added to his other attainments the not unimportant accomplishments of a first-rate snow-shoe walker and a dead shot.

On the 8th of October, Rae landed at York Factory, after a canoe journey of about two months' duration,

through the interior, from Canada. Here he wintered, and, on the 12th of June, set sail in two boats, with six men to each, along the shores of Hudson's Bay, which are here low, flat, and uninteresting. On the 27th they landed at Churchill. They found the people here engaged in killing white whales, which are often seen rolling their bulky forms up the rivers that flow into the bay. Their flesh is used as food for dogs, the house in which it is kept being called the blubber-house; to find which house, especially in summer, the simple direction, "follow your nose," is sufficient.

Having taken on board Ooligbuck, an Esquimaux interpreter, and the son of Ooligbuck, a sad thief, who had a peculiar fancy for tobacco and buttons, they left Churchill July 5th, 1846. During the day they passed the Pau-a-thau-kis-cow river, where they were overtaken by three Esquimaux, in their kayaks. These little

canoes were propelled by their vigorous occupants so swiftly, that they easily kept up with the boats, while sailing at the rate of four miles an hour. The kayak is about twelve feet in length, and two in breadth, tapering off from the centre to the bow and stern, almost to a mere point. The frame is of wood, covered with sealskin, having an aperture in the centre, which barely admits of the stowage of the nether man. They are used solely for hunting, and, by means of the double paddle, are propelled through the water with the velocity of the dolphin. No land animal can possibly escape when seen in the water; the least exertion is sufficient to keep up with the reindeer when swimming at its utmost speed.

The oomiak, or women's boat, is much clumsier, slower, and safer, more in the form of a boat than a canoe, and is used to convey the female portion of the community and their families from one part of the coast

to another, being propelled by the women, who use small paddles for the purpose.

On the 13th, Chesterfield Inlet was passed. Walruses were here seen. "They were grunting and bellowing," says Rae, "making a noise which I fancy would much resemble a concert of old boars and buffaloes." At the head of Repulse Bay, where they landed on the 25th, they fell in with more Esquimaux, and procured from them some seal-skin boots. When about to put on a pair of these boots, says Rae, one of our female visitors, noticing that the leather of the foot was rather hard, took them out of my hands, and began chewing them with her strong teeth." By this process they were softened for the wearing.

They quitted the head of Repulse Bay, in latitude 66° 32′ north, and succeeded in conveying one of their boats to the southern extremity of the Gulf of Akkolee, in latitude 67° 13′ north. They found a chain of lakes lying across the isthmus, and derived great aid from it in the conveying of the boat. They proceeded along the coast of the Gulf of Akkolee till the 5th of August, and they observed the tides to be, on the average, far higher than in the Polar Sea, but exceedingly irregular, and varying in rise from four to ten feet; and already they began to entertain a strong presumption that Boothia, after all, is a peninsula of the American mainland. But they were utterly baffled in their progress by ice and fogs and northerly winds, and felt obliged to return at about latitude 67° 30′ north, and spend the winter at Repulse Bay. There they built a house, and procured a stock of provisions by hunting and fishing, principally reindeer and salmon; and, excepting what was used for cooking, they had no fuel throughout the winter. The sporting-book for September showed that they had been diligent: sixty-three deers, five hares,