Sir Edward
Parry, and, fearing I might damage it, laid it down with the intention
of lighting the fire to thaw it. My curiosity, however, overcame my
prudence, and on opening it carefully with my knife, I came to a roll of
cartridge paper with the impression fresh upon the seals. My
astonishment may be conceived on finding it contained an account of the
proceedings of H. M. ship 'Investigator' since parting company with the
'Herald' [Captain Kellett's old ship] in August, 1850, in Behring's
Straits. Also a chart which disclosed to view not only the long-sought
Northwest Passage, but the completion of the survey of Banks and
Wollaston lands. Opened and indorsed Commander McClintock's despatch;
found it contained the following additions:--

"'Opened and copied by his old friend and messmate upon this date,
April 28, 1852. ROBERT MCCLURE

"'Party all well and return to Investigator to-day.'"

A great discovery indeed to flash across one in a minute. The
"Investigator" had not been heard from for more than two years. Here was
news of her not yet six months old. The Northwest Passage had been
dreamed of for three centuries and more. Here was news of its
discovery,--news that had been known to Captain McClure for two years.
McClure and McClintock were lieutenants together in the "Enterprise"
when she was sent after Sir John Franklin in 1848, and wintered together
at Port Leopold the next winter. Now, from different hemispheres, they
had come so near meeting at this old block of sandstone. Mr. Mecham bade
his mate build a new cairn, to put the record of the story in, and
hurried on to the "Resolute" with his great news,--news of almost
everybody but Sir John Franklin. Strangely enough, the other expedition,
Captain Collinson's, had had a party in that neighborhood, between the
other two, under Mr. Parks; but it was his extreme point possible, and
he could not reach the Sandstone, though he saw the ruts of McClure's
sleigh. This was not known till long afterwards.

The "Investigator," as it appeared from this despatch of Captain
McClure's, had been frozen up in the Bay of Mercy of Banks Land: Banks
Land having been for thirty years at once an Ultima Thule and Terra
Incognita, put down on the maps where Captain Parry saw it across thirty
miles of ice and water in 1819. Perhaps she was still in that same bay:
these old friends wintering there, while the "Resolute" and "Intrepid"
were lying under Dealy Islan