s" or "Terror." The stones used for
keeping down the canvas lay around; three or four large ones, well
blackened by smoke, had been the fire-place; a porter-bottle or two,
several meat-tins, pieces of paper, birds' feathers, and scraps of the
fur of Arctic hares, were strewed about. Eagerly did we run from one
object to the other, in the hope of finding some stray note or record,
to say whether all had been well with them, and whither they had gone.
No, not a line was to be found. Disappointed, but not beaten, we turned
to follow up the trail.

The sledge-marks consisted of two parallel lines, about two feet apart,
and sometimes three or four inches deep into the gravel, or broken
limestone, of which the whole plain seemed to be formed. The difficulty
of dragging a sledge over such ground, and under such circumstances,
must have been great, and, between the choice of evils, the
sledge-parties appeared at last to have preferred taking to the slope
of the hills, as being easier travelling than the stony plain. A
fast-rising gale, immediately in our faces, with thick, driving snow
and drift, suddenly obscured the land about us, and rendered our
progress difficult and hazardous.

After edging to the northward for some time, as if to strike the head
of Gascoigne Inlet, the trail struck suddenly down upon the plain: we
did the same, and as suddenly lost our clue, though there was no doubt
on any of our minds, but that the sledge had gone towards Caswell's
Tower; for us to go there was, however, now impossible, having no
compass, and the snow-storm preventing us seeing more than a few
hundred yards ahead. We therefore turned back walking across the higher
grounds direct for the head of Union Bay, a route which gave us
considerable insight into the ravine-rent condition of this limestone
country, at much cost of bodily fatigue to ourselves. The glaciers in
the valleys, or ravines, hardly deserved the name, after the monsters
we had seen in Baffin's Bay, and, I should think, in extraordinary
seasons, they often melted away altogether, for, in spite of so severe
a one as the present year had been, there was but little ice remaining.

The gale raged fiercely as the day drew on, and, on getting sight of
Wellington Channel, the wild havoc amongst the ice made us talk
anxiously of that portion of our squadron which was now on the opposite
or lee side of the channel, as well as the American squadron that had
pushed up to the edge o