ss of sail on the 5th of August. Thus it will be seen
that several ships as well as land parties were engaged in the search
for the long-lost crews of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ at the same time--
from the east and west as well as from the south.

Since the 5th of August 1850, no tidings had been received of Captain
McClure and the _Investigator_, till the time that Captain Kellet, who
last saw him in the west, had once more made his way into the Arctic
Ocean from the east, and was now commencing his long winter imprisonment
at Bridport Inlet, Melville Island, in September 1852. The only time
that exploring parties can travel is during daylight in the early autumn
or in the spring. The spring is most fitted for crossing the Frozen
Sea, before the ice breaks up and the cold has become less intense. In
the autumn of 1852, Lieutenant Median, of the _Resolute_, was despatched
by Captain Kellet to explore the coast of Melville Island to the west,
and to form depots of provisions, as were other parties in different
directions. On his return, passing through Winter Harbour, in Melville
Island, at no great distance to the west of Bridport Inlet, what was his
surprise and satisfaction to find in a cairn, a record, with a chart of
his discoveries, left by Captain McClure on the previous May, stating
that he should probably be found in Mercy Harbour, Banks' Land, unless
he should be able to push on through Barrow's Straits, which it seemed
very unlikely that he could have done. This was the first evidence to
the new explorers of the actual existence of a continuous channel from
the Atlantic to the Pacific--that there exists a North-West Passage.

Most tantalising was it, however, to them to know that at that season
they could not possibly venture across to meet their countrymen.
Indeed, the gallant McClure expressly forbade them in the document they
had discovered. "Any attempt to send succour will only increase the
evil," were his words. The winter passed rapidly away, but it was not
till March that Captain Kellet considered it prudent to send an
expedition across the Straits to where he supposed the _Investigator_
was to be found.

We will now trace the progress of the _Investigator_, from the time she
was last seen passing Point Barrow under a press of sail.

She made the ice on the 2nd of August, and, more than once being nearly
caught by it, she reached Cape Bathurst by the 30th. Rounding it, she
stood east and nor