ders_, as they were termed. Reaching the
halting-place, tents were pitched, luncheon served out, and all of us
inspected, approved of, ordered to fall in, a speech made, which, as
was afterwards remarked, buttered us all up admirably; the thanks of
our leader given to Mr. M'Clintock, to whose foresight, whilst in
England, and whose valuable information collated during his travelling
experience under Sir James Ross, we were so entirely indebted for the
perfect equipment we now had with us.

[Headnote: _SLEDGES READY TO START._]

The inspection over, we trudged back to our ships, Sunday being spent
by the men in cooking and eating, knowing as they did that there were a
good many banian days ahead, packing up and putting away their kits,
and making little arrangements in the event of accidents to themselves.
Monday was no day for a start; but on the evening of the 15th April the
breeze slackened, and the temperature only some 14 deg. below
freezing-point, we donned our marching attire, girded up our loins, and
all hands proceeded to the sledges.

As we shut in our wooden homes with a projecting point of Griffith's
Island, the weather suddenly changed, and a fast increasing breeze
enveloped us in snow-drift. Reaching the sledges, and shaking them
clear from the snow of the last two days, a hasty cup of tea and a
mouthful of biscuit were partaken of, a prayer offered up, beseeching
His mercy and guidance whose kind providence we all knew could alone
support us in the hazardous journey we were about to undertake; hearty
farewells, in which rough jokes covered many a kindly wish towards one
another; and then, grasping their tracking lines, a hundred hoarse
voices joined in loud cheers, and the divisions of sledges, diverging
on their different routes, were soon lost to one another in snow and
mist.

An April night, with its gray twilight, was no match for the darkness
of a snow-storm from the S.W., and we had almost to feel our road
through the broken ice off the bluffs of Griffith's Island.

At two o'clock in the morning we reached much piled-up ice; and in the
hope of clearer weather in the evening, the word to halt and pitch the
tents was given. The seven sledges of the division, picking out the
smoothest spots, were soon secured. The tents fluttering in the breeze,
a little tea cooked, short orders given, and then each man got into his
blanket-bag, and dreamed of a fine day and finding Sir John Franklin.

In the eve