romontory which separates the Peel and the Mackenzie, there is a case of pemmican (80 lbs.) buried, ten feet distant from a tree, which has its middle branches lopped off, and is marked on the trunk with a broad arrow in black paint. A fire was made over the pit in which the case is concealed, and the remains of the charcoal will point out the exact spot. This hoard was visited last year by a party from Fort Macpherson, Peel's River, when all was safe.

Eight bags of pemmican, weighing 90 lbs. each, were deposited at Fort Good Hope in 1848, and would remain there last summer for the use of any boat parties that might ascend the river in 1849; but it is probable that part, or the whole, may have been used by the Company by next year.

"A boat party should be furnished with a small seine and a short herring net, by the use of which a good supply of fish may often be procured in the eddies or sandy bays of the Mackenzie. They should also be provided with a good supply of buck-shot, swanshot, duck-shot, and gunpowder. The Loucheux and Hare Indians will readily give such provisions as they may happen to have, in exchange for ammunition. They will expect to receive tobacco gratuitously, as they are accustomed to do from the traders.

"The Mackenzie is the only water-way by which any of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts can be reached from the Arctic Sea. There is a post on the Peel River which enters the delta of the Mackenzie, but no supplies can be procured there. To the eastward of the Mackenzie no ship-party would have a chance of reaching a trading post, the nearest to the sea being Fort Resolution, on Great Slave Lake, situated on the 61st parallel of latitude, and the intervening hilly country, intersected by numerous lakes and rapid rivers, could not be crossed by such a party in less than an entire summer, even could they depen on their guns for a supply of food. Neither would be advisable for a party from the ships to attempt to reach the posts on the Mackenzie by way of the Cop

permine River and Fort Confidence; as, in the absence of means of transport across Great Bear Lake, the journey round that irregular sheet of water, would be long and hazardous. Bear Lake River is more than fifty miles long, and Fort Norman, the nearest post on the Mackenzie, is thirty miles above its mouth. Mr. Rae was instructed to engage an Indian family or two to hunt on the tract of country between the Coppermine and Great Bear Lake in the summer of 1850; but no great reliance can be placed on these Indians remaining long there, as they desert their hunting quarters on very slight alarms, being in continual dread of enemies, real or imaginary.

"A case of pemmican was buried on the summit of the bank, about four or five miles from the summit of Cape Bathurst, the spot being marked by a pole planted in the earth, and the exact locality of the deposit by a fire of drift-wood, much of which would remain unconsumed.

"Another case was deposited in the cleft of a rock, on a small battlemented cliff, which forms the extreme part of Cape Parry. The case was covered with loose stones; and a pile of stones painted red and white, was erected immediately in front of it. This cliff resembles a cocked-hat in some points of view, and projects like a tongue from the base of a rounded hill, which is 500 or 600 feet high.

"Several cases of pemmican were left exposed on a ledge of rocks in latitude 68° 35' N., opposite Lambert Island, in Dolphin and Union Strait, and in a bay to the westward of Cape Krusenstern, a small boat and ten pieces of pemmican were deposited under a high cliff, above high water mark, without concealment. The Esquimaux on this part of the coast are not numerous, and from the position of this hoard, it may escape discovery by them; but I have every reason to believe that the locality has been visited by Mr. Rae in the past summer. A deposit of larger size, near Cape Kendall, has been more certainly visited by Mr. Rae.” Captain Sir J. C. Ross writes from Haslar, 11th of February, 1850,

"With respect to the probable position of the Erebus and Terror, I consider that it is hardly possible they Ι can be anywhere to the eastward of Melville Island, or within 300 miles of Leopold Island, for if that were the case, they would assuredly, during the last spring, have made their way to that point, with the hope of receiving assistance from the whale-ships which, for several years previous to the departure of that expedition from England, had been in the habit of visiting. Prince Regent Inlet in pursuit of whales; and in that case they must have been met with, or marks of their encampments have been found by some of the numerOns parties detached from the Enterprise and Investigator along the shores of that vicinity during the only period of the season in which traveling is practicable in those regions.

"It is probable, therefore, that during their first summer, which was remarkably favorable for the navigation of those seas, they have been enabled (in obedience to their orders) to push the ships to the westward of Banks' land, and have there become involved in the heavy pack of ice which was observed from Melville Island always to be setting past its westernmost point in a southeast direction, and from which pack they may not have been able to extricate their ships.

"From such a position, retreat to the eastward would be next to impossible, while the journey to the Mackenzie River, of comparatively easy accomplishment, together with Sir John Franklin's knowledge of the resources in the way and of its practicability, would strengthen the belief that this measure will have been adopted by them during the last spring.

"If this be assumed as the present position of the Erebus and Terror, it would manifestly be far more easy and safe to afford them relief by means of an expedition entering Behring's Straits, than from any other direction, as it would not be necessary for the ships to depart so far from the coast of North America as to preclude their keeping up a regular communication with the Russian settlements on the River Colville, or

those of the Hudson's Bay Company near the mouth of the Mackenzie, while the whole space between any position in which the ships might winter, and Banks' Land could be thoroughly examined by traveling parties early in the spring, or by boats or steam launches at a more advanced period of the following season."

Mr. W. Snow, in a letter from New York, dated 7th of January, 1850, suggests a plan for a well organized expedition of as many men as could be fitted out from private funds. "For instance, let a party of 100 picked men, well disciplined and officered, as on board a ship, and accompanied with all the necessary food, scientific instruments, and every thing useful on such expeditions. proceed immediately, by the shortest and most available routes, to the lands in the neighborhood of the unexplored regions. If possible, I would suggest that they should proceed first to Moose Fort, on the south ern part of Hudson's Bay, and thence by small craft to Chesterfield Inlet, or otherwise by land reach that quarter, so as to arrive there at the opening of summer. From this neighborhood let the party, minus ten men, be divided into three separate detachments, each with specific instructions to extend their researches in a northerly and northwesterly direction. The westernmost party to proceed as near as possible in a direct course to the easternmost limits of discovery yet made from Behring's Straits, and on no account to deviate from that course on the western side of it, but, if necessary, to the eastward. Let the central party shape a course as near as possible to the position of the Mag netic Pole; and the easternmost division direct to Prince Regent Inlet, or the westernmost point of discovery from the east, and not to deviate from that course easterly. Let each of these detachments be formed again into three divisions, each division thus consisting of ten men. Let the first division of each detachment pioneer the way, followed on the same track by the second and the third, at stated intervals of time. Or the route, let the pioneers, at every spot necessary, leave distinguishing marks to denote the way, and also to