ad fairly won the palm,--"palmam qui
meruit ferat;" in eighty days he had travelled eight hundred miles, and
heartily did we congratulate him on his success.

The day following, July 7th, I and one of the officers of the "Pioneer"
started to visit Penny's expedition: he was expected back, and we
longed to hear the news; Captain Penny having last been reported to
have reached the water with a sound boat, a good crew, and a month's
provisions. Landing at Cape Martyr, wet up to our necks with splashing
through the pools of water, nowhere less than knee-deep, and often a
mile in extent, we did not willingly leave the dry land again. On
ascending a slope which gave us a view of the south shore of Cornwall's
Island as far as Cape Hotham, and near a point known as that whence the
dog-sledges in the winter used to strike off when communicating with
the ships, our astonishment was great at finding the ice of Barrow's
Strait to have broken up;--the gray light of the morning, and the
perfect calm, prevented us seeing to what extent, but there was plenty
of it, and a sea again gladdened our eyesight. Oh! it was a joyous,
exhilarating sight, after nine months of eternal ice and snow.

[Headnote: _DISAPPEARANCE OF ICE._]

The ground flew under our feet as, elevated in spirits, we walked
rapidly into Assistance Bay, and grasped by the hand our old friends of
the "Lady Franklin." We had each our tale to recount, our news to
exchange, our hopes and disappointments to prose over. One thing was
undoubtedly certain,--that, on May 16th, Captain Penny had discovered a
great extent of water northward of Cornwallis Island: that this same
water prevented Captain Stewart, of the "Sophia," from passing some
precipitous cliffs, against which a heavy sea was beating: that this
same sea was clear of all but _sea-washed_ ice, and no floes were to be
seen. Moreover, owing to a _southerly_ breeze, which blew away to
seaward the ice over which Dr. Goodsir had advanced to the westward,
his retreat was nearly endangered by the water obliging him with his
sledge to take to the neighbouring heights: and all this, _a month
before any thing like a disruption had taken place in Barrow's Strait_.
This latter event, it seems, took place about the 25th of June, 1851;
and, on the 28th June, the commander of the "Sophia" had gone in a
whale-boat from the entrance of the harbour to Wellington Channel.

Three days after our arrival at Assistance Harbour, not a par