no game was to be had, MacClure determined to send back half of his
crew to England, either by Baffin's Bay, or by Mackenzie River and
Hudson's Bay; the other half was to bring the _Investigator_ back. He
chose the weakest men, who could not stand a fourth winter; everything
was ready, and their departure settled for April 15th, when on the
6th, MacClure, who was walking on the ice with his lieutenant,
Creswell, saw a man running northward and gesticulating; it was
Lieutenant Pim of the _Herald_, lieutenant of the same Captain Kellet
whom two years before he had left at Behring Strait, as I said when I
began. Kellet, having reached Winter Harbor, found the paper left
there by MacClure; having heard in that way of his position in Mercy
Bay, he sent Lieutenant Pim to meet the captain. He was followed by a
detachment of the men of the _Herald_, among whom was a midshipman of
a French ship, M. de Bray, who was a volunteer aid of Captain Kellet.
You don't doubt this meeting?"

[Illustration: MacClure saw a man running and gesticulating.]

"Not at all," answered Altamont.

"Well, see what followed, and whether the Northwest Passage was really
made. If you join Parry's discoveries to those of MacClure, you will
see the northern coast of America was rounded."

"But not by a single ship," said Altamont.

"No, but by a single man. Let us go on. MacClure went to see Captain
Kellet at Melville Island; in twelve days he made the one hundred and
seventy miles between Winter Harbor and the island; he agreed with the
commander of the _Herald_ to send him his sick, and returned; many
others would have thought, had they been in MacClure's place, that
they had done enough, but this bold young man determined to try his
fortune again. Then, and please observe this, Lieutenant Creswell,
with the sick and disabled men of the _Investigator_, left Mercy Bay,
reached Winter Harbor, and from there, after a journey of four hundred
and seventy miles on the ice, reached Beechey Island, June 2d, and a
few days later, with twelve of his men, he took passage on board of
the _Phoenix_."

"In which I was at the time," said Johnson, "with Captain Inglefield,
and we returned to England."

"And October 7, 1853," continued the doctor, "Creswell arrived at
London, after having crossed over the whole distance between Behring
Strait and Cape Farewell."

"Well," said Hatteras, "to enter at one end and go out by the other,
isn't that going through?"