d the remainder of the
plumage white, shaded with green; several of them had already their
breasts stripped of that beautiful down with which the male and female
line their nests. The doctor also perceived large seals taking breath
on the surface of the ice, but could not shoot one. In his excursions
he discovered the high water mark, a stone upon which the following
signs are engraved:

(E. I.)
1849,

and which indicate the passage of the _Enterprise_ and
_Investigator_; he pushed forward as far as Cape Clarence to the spot
where John and James Ross, in 1833, waited with so much impatience
for the breaking up of the ice. The land was strewn with skulls and
bones of animals, and traces of Esquimaux habitations could be still
distinguished.

The doctor wanted to raise up a cairn on Port Leopold, and deposit
in it a note indicating the passage of the _Forward_, and the aim
of the expedition. But Hatteras would not hear of it; he did not want
to leave traces behind of which a competitor might take advantage.
In spite of his good motives the doctor was forced to yield to the
captain's will. Shandon blamed the captain's obstinacy, which
prevented any ships following the trace of the _Forward_ in case of
accident. Hatteras would not give way. His lading was finished on
Monday night, and he attempted once more to gain the north by breaking
open the ice-bank; but after dangerous efforts he was forced to resign
himself, and to go down Regent's Channel again; he would not stop
at Port Leopold, which, open to-day, might be closed again to-morrow
by an unexpected displacement of ice-fields, a very frequent
phenomenon in these seas, and which navigators ought particularly
to take into consideration.

If Hatteras did not allow his uneasiness to be outwardly perceived,
it did not prevent him feeling it inwardly. His desire was to push
northward, whilst, on the contrary, he found himself constrained to
put back southward. Where should he get to in that case? Should he
be obliged to put back to Victoria Harbour, in Boothia Gulf, where
Sir John Ross wintered in 1833? Would he find Bellot Strait open at
that epoch, and could he ascend Peel Strait by rounding North
Somerset? Or, again, should he, like his predecessors, find himself
captured during several winters, and be compelled to exhaust his
strength and provisions? These fears were fermenting in his brain;
he mu