ements to refit, and at Pond's Bay, the
little _Fox_, narrowly escaping destruction, at length reached Beechey
Island on the 11th of August. Here a tablet was erected to the memory
of Sir John Franklin and his officers and crew, and the _Fox_, having
filled up with stores and coals from the depot there, left again on the
16th.

On the 18th she had run twenty-five miles down Peel's Straits, the hopes
of all raised to the utmost, when a pack of ice appeared, barring their
farther progress. Putting about, she visited the depot at Port Leopold,
where boats and an abundant supply of all sorts of articles were found,
which, in case of the destruction of their own vessel, would afford the
explorers a fair prospect of escape.

Far different was the condition of Arctic explorers now, than it had
been when Franklin sailed on his fatal expedition. Then they had to
depend entirely on their own resources; now, through the sagacity and
forethought of those who sent them forth, depots of provisions and boats
and sledges, and even huts, had been provided, to afford every possible
means of escape should any disaster overtake their ships.

Captain McClintock, on leaving Leopold Harbour, sailed north down Prince
Regent's Inlet, but in vain attempted to force a passage through any
channel to the east. At last he returned some way north to Bellot's
Straits, discovered by Mr Kennedy, and called after his unfortunate
companion, Lieutenant Bellot, of the French navy, who lost his life when
belonging to Sir Edward Belcher's expedition. He passed some distance
through Bellot's Straits, and the _Fox_ was finally beset, on the 28th
September, in a beautiful little harbour in them, to which the name of
Kennedy Harbour was given.

Depots were now established by travelling parties to the north-east,
some eighty miles or more from the ship, and all preparations made for
prosecuting their interesting search in the spring. This commenced the
winter of 1858-59, the second passed by the _Fox_ in the ice.

On the 17th February, Captain McClintock started with Mr Petersen and
one man, Thompson, on a long pedestrian expedition, with two sledges
drawn by dogs. Lieutenant Hobson set off about the same time, as did
also Captain Young,--all three expeditions in different directions,
towards the south; the first two accomplished several hundred miles to
King William's Island.

Great indeed were the trials and hardships they underwent in these
expedi