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Kellett and Moore in Behring Strait.

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the inner harbour did not break up until the 22nd of May, however, and even then a channel two thousand yards long had to be cut before the vessel could be towed out. This was a task of twenty-two days, during many of which snow fell heavily. Calms and contrary winds then delayed the vessel until the 1st of July, when she at length got out to sea, but was compelled to heave-to on the south side of Cape Chaplin. On the following day they endeavoured to weather East Cape, but again the bad sailing qualities of the brig baffled the efforts of her commander; and it was not until the 11th, when a south-westerly breeze favoured them, that they managed to cross the strait.

They anchored off Chamisso Island on the 13th, and were joined on the following day by Captain Kellett. On the 17th the two vessels sailed to the northward in company, and on the 25th anchored in Wainwright Inlet. Lieutenant Pullen then began exploring the coast in a boat, and the ships sailed northward. The boat party made slow progress, owing to ice and rough weather, and found no trace of the Franklin expedition. Point Barrow was reached on the 8th of August, and they landed to shoot deer, should any be seen, and to search for indications of the missing explorers. A party of Esquimaux, whose huts were on the headland, regarded their arms as evidence of hostility, and hastily concealing their women and children, assumed a threatening attitude. Lieutenant Pullen then desired the men to carry their muskets to the boat, and return without them. The Esquimaux, regarding this movement as satisfactory evidence of pacific intentions, began to dance and sing. The boat did not proceed beyond this point, and on the 24th was met by Captain Kellett near Point Hope.

The ships had encountered a barrier of ice on the 26th of July, to the north-west of Icy Cape, and sailed along its edge

to the north-west for several days, the ice extending many leagues in a dense and impenetrable body. On the 17th of August, while they were still running along the edge of the ice, land was reported, and proved to be a group of small islands, beyond which an extensive line of elevated land, like distant mountains, was visible. "There was," says Captain Kellett, "a fine, clear atmosphere (such as can only be seen in this climate), except in the direction of this extended land, where the clouds rolled in numerous immense masses, occasionally leaving very lofty peaks uncapped, where could be distinctly seen columns very much broken, which is very characteristic of the higher headlands in this sea-East Cape and Cape Lisburne, for example. With the exception of the north-eastern and south-eastern extremities, none of the lower land could be seen, unless, indeed, what I took at first for a small group of isles within the pack edge was part of this great land. This island or point was distant twenty-five miles from the ship's track; the higher parts of the land seemed not less than sixty miles. When we hove-to off the first land seen, the northern extremity of the great land showed out eastward for a moment, and so clear as to cause some who had doubts before to cry out, There, sir, is land quite plain.""

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Running down to the nearest island, Captain Kellett landed, and found it a precipitous mass of granite, four miles and a half long, two miles and a half broad, and rising in the interior to the height of about 1400 feet above the sea. The situation of the group, which received the name of Herald Islands, from that of Captain Kellett's ship, is lat. 71° 20′, long. 175° 16′ w. The distant mountainous land beyond appeared extensive, and Captain Kellett considered it "more than probable that the peaks are a continuation of the range of mountains seen by the

Two Winters in Kotzebue Sound.

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natives of Cape Jakan (coast of Asia), mentioned by Wrangell in his polar voyages."

On the 1st of September, both vessels anchored in Kotzebue Sound, and a continuance of fine, mild weather afforded an opportunity for the exploration of Buckland River. On the 29th, Captain Kellett sailed to the southward, to cruise during the winter in the Pacific, while Commander Moore wintered in the sound, in order to be prepared to succour the Franklin expedition in the event of its reaching the western outlet of the Polar Ocean.

Captain Kellett returned to the rendezvous on the 10th of July, 1850, and both vessels again sailed to the northward. On meeting with the icy barrier which had been encountered in the previous summer, they separated, Captain Kellett returning to Kotzebue Sound, and Commander Moore sailing to the eastward. The coast was again carefully examined by boat parties for traces of the Franklin expedition, but none were found. The boats' crews suffered very much from exposure to the cold, but did not desist from their search until they had explored all the coast between Icy Cape and Point Barrow.

Captain Kellett made a second cruise to the northward, and met Commander Moore off Cape Lisburne on the 13th of August. They then sailed in company to Kotzebue Sound, whence Captain Kellett returned to England. Commander Moore wintered once more in the sound, and in the following summer, after another unsuccessful search, sailed homeward.

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VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN COLLINSON-DISCOVERY OF PRINCE OF WALES STRAIT-WINTER ON PRINCE ALBERT LAND- EXPLORATION OF THE COAST-JOURNEYS ON THE ICE-DISCOVERY OF PRINCE ALBERT SOUND-WINTER IN CAMDEN BAY - EXPLORATIONS OF COMMANDER MACLURE-DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE-TWO WINTERS IN THE ICE.

OON after the return of Sir James Ross, the two vessels with which he had navigated the Arctic Seas in search of the missing Franklin expedition were refitted, and again despatched on the same quest, under the command of Captain Collinson. The junior command was given to Commander Maclure, who had served as mate under Sir George Back, and afterwards as first lieutenant under Sir James Ross. The expedition sailed from Plymouth on the 20th of January, 1850, and, sailing round Cape Horn, reached the Sandwich Islands at the end ▷f June, and remained there five days. Running thence to the north-west with a fair breeze, they were off the Aleutian Islands on the 29th of July; but the wind then became light, so that they did not get to northward of the group until the 29th. On the 4th of August, Commander Maclure, whose vessel sailed faster than her heavier consort, ran ahead, and was soon lost sight of.

Captain Collinson was not off the island of St. Lawrence until a week afterwards. He then ran through Behring Strait,

Collinson in Behring Strait.

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expecting to meet with Captain Kellett or Commander Moore, and learn the results of their search in that direction; but seeing nothing of either vessel, ran on to Cape Lisburne. On the 15th of August he fell in with both vessels, sailing in company, on their return to Kotzebue Sound, and learned that no trace of the Franklin expedition had been found on the coast of the American continent. He thereupon stood to the northward, and on the following day encountered the barrier of ice in lat. 72° 40'. In seeking an opening, the vessel became entangled amongst loose masses of ice, but was extricated on the 19th, when Captain Collinson, finding the barrier impenetrable, sailed along its edge in a south-easterly direction. On the following day, an opening was seen twenty-eight miles northward of Point Barrow, and the voyagers sailed in; but, on the 21st, found themselves confronted again with a formidable barrier of ice, the proximity of which was rendered doubly dangerous by a thick fog.

After seeking an opening northward without success, they stood to the southward, and then to the eastward, running between heavy floes, without discovering an opening in either direction. The evening found them thirty miles from the land, but separated from it by a ridge of closely packed ice. The weather was now clear, and they put the ship about, and steered westward, following the edge of the ice, which was much broken. On the morning of the 27th, they were in lat. 73° 20'. The ice trending to the west, and afterwards to the south, they stood off, and, after another ineffectual attempt to penetrate to the eastward, bore up for Point Hope, full of anxiety for Commander Maclure and his crew, whose vessel had not been seen since they parted at the entrance of Behring Strait. Point Hope was reached on the 31st, and a bottle found, which had been left by Captain Kellett, containing

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