r year, however, was not allowed to pass before a further
expedition was entrusted to the command of a talented officer, Sir
Edward Belcher. The _Assistance_ and _Resolute_ were again
commissioned, and, with the _Pioneer_ and _Intrepid_ screw-steamers,
were placed under his orders, many of the officers who before
accompanied Captain Austin volunteering their services. Captain Kellet,
who had returned home in the _Herald_, was appointed to command the
_Resolute_.

They proceeded early in the spring for Wellington Channel, and, favoured
by an open season, part of the squadron entered that mysterious inlet,
with a favourable breeze, in high health, and with buoyant hopes that
they were about to carry succour to their long-lost countrymen--how
soon, like those of many others, to meet with disappointment! Up that
very channel, it has since been ascertained, the expedition under Sir
John Franklin had gone, but had been compelled, as those in search of it
soon were, to return southward.

In the meantime, Commander Inglefield, who had first gone out in the
_Isabel_, commissioned the _Phoenix_ steam-sloop, with the _Lady
Franklin_ as a sailing-tender, and proceeded to Baffin's Bay. Mr
Kennedy again went out in the _Isabel_, and the Americans sent forth the
well-known expedition under Dr Kane, whose narrative must be read with
the deepest interest by all, and his early death, the result of the
hardships he endured on that occasion, sincerely deplored.

While Sir Edward Belcher in the _Assistance_, accompanied by the
_Pioneer_, proceeded up Wellington Channel, Captain Kellet in the
_Resolute_, accompanied by the _Intrepid_, leaving the _North Star_ with
stores at Beechey Island, continued his voyage to Melville Island, which
he reached after encountering many dangers, and where he was frozen up
at Bridport Inlet, on the 11th of September 1852.

We before narrated how the _Enterprise_ and _Investigator_ left England
in January 1850, and, proceeding round Cape Horn, the latter reached the
Sandwich Islands in June, and sailed again for Behring's Straits the day
before the arrival of her consort. The _Investigator_ had a remarkably
quick passage to Behring's Straits; and after communicating with the
_Herald_, Captain Kellet, off Cape Lisbourne, and exchanging signals
with the _Plover_, which vessel wintered in those seas, she pursued her
course easterly along the north coast of North America, and passed Point
Barrow under pre