mainder with the hope of extricating the vessel during the summer of 1853; or, failing that, to proceed with sledges in 1854 by Port Leopold, our provisions admitting of no other arrangement. 66 Although we had already been twelve months upon two thirds allowance, it was necessary to make preparations for meeting eighteen months more; a very severe deprivation and constitutional test, but one which the service we were employed upon called for, the vessel being as sound as the day she entered the ice; it would, therefore, be discreditable to desert her in 1853, when a favorable season would run her through the straits and admit of reaching England in safety, where the successful achievement of the long-sought-for and almost hopeless discovery of the north-west passage would be received with a satisfaction that would amply compensate for the sacrifices made and hardships endured. in its most trying and tedious accomplishment. This statement was well received, and its execution will, I hope, be carried out without difficulty." It is due to Captain M'Clure to reproduce one passage in the dispatch which he had prepared to send home with the land parties he was about to forward in the spring of 1853. "Should any of her majesty's ships be sent for our relief, and we have quitted Port Leopold, a notice, containing information of our route, will be left on the door of the house at Whalers' Point, or on some conspicuous position. If, however, no intimation should be found of our having been there, it may at once be surmised that some fatal catastrophe has happened, either from our being carried into the Polar Sea, or smashed in Barrow's Strait, and no survivors left. If such be the case, —which, however, I will not anticipate, it will then be quite unnecessary to penetrate further to the west ward for our relief, as, by the period that any vessel could reach that port, we must, from want of provisions, all have perished. In such a case, I would submit that the officers may be directed to return, and by no means incur the danger of losing other lives in quest of those who will then be no more." The ship was banked up with snow and housed over on the 18th of November, and every preparation made for spending a third winter in this region of icy desolation. The spirits of the crew, however, did not flag. Resort was again had to the hunting expeditions which had occupied and cheered them so much in previous years, and their larder was kept well stocked with provisions. The wolves so harassed the deer, that the latter poor creatures actually fled to the ship for protection. “The hares and ptarmigan," writes M'Clure, "have descended from the high ground to the sea ridges, so that a supply of game has been kept up during the winter, which has enabled a fresh meal to be issued twice weekly, and the usual Christmas festivities to pass off with the greatest cheerfulness. As it was to be our last, the crew were determined to make it memorable, and their exertions were completely successful; each mess was gayly illuminated and decorated with original paintings by our lower-deck artists, exhibiting the ship in her perilous positions during the transit of the Polar Sea, and divers other subjects; but the grand features of the day were the enormous plum-puddings (some weighing twenty-six pounds), haunches of venison, hares roasted, and soup made of the same, with ptarmigan and sea pies. Such dainties in such profusion I should imagine never before graced a ship's lower-deck ; any stranger, to have witnessed this scene, could but faintly imagine that he saw a crew which had passed upwards of two years in these dreary regions, and three entirely upon their own resources, enjoying such excellent health-so joyful, so happy: indeed, such a mirthful assemblage, under any circumstances, would be most gratifying to any officer; but, in this lonely situation, I could not but feel deeply impressed, as I contemplated the gay and plenteous sight, with the many and great mercies which a kind and beneficent Providence had extended toward us, to whom alone is due the heartfelt praises and thanksgivings of all for the great blessings which we have hitherto experienced in positions the most desolate which can be conceived." So another winter passed. The spring again returned, and the season rapidly approached when the crew was to divide, and the travelling parties were to set out on their long and perilous journeys: the one to return home by the way of the Mackenzie River and Canada; the other to proceed to Cape Spencer (where a boat and provisions had been deposited), and thence by Barrow's Strait to make their way to the nearest inhabited coast. That these journeys would prove long and dangerous in the extreme, could not be doubted; for the return parties were composed of the most weakly hands, thirty of the healthiest men being retained to stand by the ship with the captain, and brave the rigors of another Arctic winter. But, while M'Clure and his gallant comrades were thus about to resort to their last desperate expedient for communicating with the civilized world, relief was at hand of which they had little expectation. Providential circumstances interposed to do away with the necessity of committing their forlorn hopes to the snow and ice deserts of the polar regions. These extraordinary circumstances will be narrated in another chapter. CHAPTER XVII. VOYAGE OF THE RESOLUTE AND INTREPID. — ARRIVAL AT DEALY ISLAND. - RETURN TO THE RESOLUTE. MORE DEATHS REPORTED. ABANDONMENT OF THE CRESSWELL SENT WITH DISINVESTIGATOR. A WEARY SUMMER. — PATCHES.-INCIDENTS IN THE VOYAGE OF THE PHOENIX, LOSS OF THE BREDALBANE TRANSPORT. -DEATH OF BELLOT. HIS AMIABLE CHARACTER. THE PHOENIX AND TALBOT SENT OUT. A PARENT'S solicitude for his son saved the crew of the Investigator. We must now again take up the story of Sir Edward Belcher's expedition, which we left at Beechey Island on the 15th of August, 1852, just separating into two divisions, one to proceed north, the other west. It is the westward division with which we have now to do. It was suggested to the British Admiralty by Mr. Cresswell, who had a son with M'Clure, that that part of Belcher's expedition which was destined for Wellington Channel should be directed upon Melville Island, as it was the opinion of General Sabine and Captain Kellett that if Captains Collinson and M'Clure were unable to reach that island with their ships, still they would push in there with their sledges. The senior lord of the Admiralty saw the soundness of Mr. Cresswell's views; and the Resolute and Intrepid, under Captains Kellett and M'Clintock, were ordered to proceed to Melville Island. In nearing Assistance Bay, only thirty miles from Beechey Island, at which point Captain Kellett was to leave a dépôt, the Resolute grounded, was left with but seven feet of water, thrown over on her starboard bilge, and almost lost. At midnight, however, she was got off, leaving sixty feet of her false keel behind. Kellett forged on in her, leaving dépôts here and there as he proceeded; and at the end of the summer had reached Melville Island, the westernmost point attained by Parry in 1820. Kellett's associate, Capt. M'Clintock, of the Intrepid, had commanded the only party which had been here since Parry, having come over with sledges from Austin's squadron, in 1851, as the reader will remember. The Resolute and Intrepid came to anchor off Dealy Island, the place selected for their winter quarters; and then Capt. Kellett and his officers, with great spirit, began to prepare for the extended searching parties of the next spring. Officers were already assigned to the proposed lines of search; and in order to extend the searches as much as possible, and to prepare the men for the work when it should come, sledge-parties were sent forward to make advanced dépôts, in the autumn, under the charge of the gentlemen who would have to use them in the spring. One of these parties-the "South line of Melville Island" party was under a spirited young officer, Mr. Mecham, who had seen service in the last expedition. He had two sledges, the Discovery and the Fearless, a dépôt of twenty days' provision to be used in the spring, and enough for twenty-five days' present use. All the sledges had little flags, made by some young lady friends of Sir Edward Belcher's. Mr. Mecham's bore an armed hand and sword on a white ground, with the motto, "Per mare, per terram, per glaciem." Over mud, land, snow, and ice, they carried their burden; and were nearly back, when, on the 12th of October, 1852, Mr. Mecham visited "Parry's Sand |