e_ in 1854, as McClure had done with the
_Investigator_ in 1853. In the meantime, Dr. Rae, in a letter dated
the 29th of July, 1854, and addressed from Repulse Bay, which he had
succeeded in reaching through America, sent word that the Esquimaux
of King William's Land were in possession of different objects taken
from the wrecks of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_; there was then not the
least doubt about the fate of the expedition; the _Phoenix_, the
_North Star_, and Collinson's vessel then came back to England,
leaving the Arctic Seas completely abandoned by English ships. But
if the Government seemed to have lost all hope it was not so with
Lady Franklin, and with the remnants of her fortune she fitted out
the _Fox_, commanded by McClintock, who set sail in 1857, and wintered
in the quarters where you made your apparition; he reached Beechey
Island on the 11th of August, 1858, wintered a second time in Bellot's
Strait, began his search again in February, 1859, and on the 6th of
May found the document which cleared away all doubt about the fate
of the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_, and returned to England at the end
of the year. That is all that has happened for fifteen years in these
fateful countries, and since the return of the _Fox_ not a single
vessel has returned to attempt success in the midst of these dangerous
seas."

"Well," replied Hatteras, "we will attempt it."

CHAPTER XV

THE "FORWARD" DRIVEN BACK SOUTH

The weather cleared up towards evening, and land was clearly
distinguished between Cape Sepping and Cape Clarence, which runs east,
then south, and is joined to the coast on the west by a rather low
neck of land. The sea at the entrance to Regent Strait was free from
ice, with the exception of an impenetrable ice-bank, a little further
than Port Leopold, which threatened to stop the _Forward_ in her
north-westerly course. Hatteras was greatly vexed, but he did not
show it; he was obliged to have recourse to petards in order to force
an entrance to Port Leopold; he reached it on Sunday, the 27th of
May; the brig was solidly anchored to the enormous icebergs, which
were as upright, hard, and solid as rocks.

The captain, followed by the doctor, Johnson, and his dog Dick,
immediately leaped upon the ice, and soon reached land. Dick leaped
with joy, for since he had recognised the captain he had become more
sociable, keeping his grudge against certain men of the crew for whom
his master had no more fri