ice, to make sure that
the strait connected with the sound."

"Yes," said Altamont, "but he didn't succeed."

"One moment," said the doctor. "While wintering there, MacClure's
officers explored all the neighboring coasts: Creswell, Baring's Land;
Haswell, Prince Albert's Land, to the south; and Wynniat, Cape Walker,
to the north. In July, at the beginning of the thaw, MacClure tried a
second time to carry the _Investigator_ to Melville Sound; he got
within twenty miles of it, twenty miles only, but the winds carried
him with irresistible force to the south, before he could get through
the obstacle. Then he determined to go back through Prince of Wales
Strait, and go around Banks Land, to try at the west what he could not
do in the east; he put about; the 18th he rounded Cape Kellet; the
19th, Cape Prince Alfred, two degrees higher; then, after a hard
struggle with the icebergs, he was caught in Banks Strait, in the
series of straits leading to Baffin's Bay."

[Illustration: "A hard struggle with the icebergs."]

"But he couldn't get through them," said Altamont.

"Wait a moment, and be as patient as MacClure was. September 26th, he
took his station for the winter in Mercy Bay, and stayed there till
1852. April came; MacClure had supplies for only eighteen months.
Nevertheless, he was unwilling to return; he started, crossing Banks
Strait by sledge, and reached Melville Island. Let us follow him. He
hoped to find here Commander Austin's ships, which were sent to meet
him by Baffin's Bay and Lancaster Sound; April 28th he arrived at
Winter Harbor, at the place where Parry had wintered thirty-three
years previously, but no trace of the ships; only he found in a cairn
a paper, telling him that MacClintock, Austin's lieutenant, had been
there the year before, and gone away. Any one else would have been in
despair, but MacClure was not. He put in the cairn another paper, in
which he announced his intention of returning to England by the
Northwest Passage, which he had discovered by reaching Baffin's Bay
and Lancaster Sound. If he is not heard from again, it will be because
he will have been to the north or west of Melville Island; then he
returned, not discouraged, to Mercy Bay for the third winter,
1852-53."

"I have never doubted his courage," said Altamont, "but his success."

"Let us follow him again," resumed the doctor. "In the month of March,
being on two-thirds rations, at the end of a very severe winter, when