then saw
that he and his party had unconsciously left the old ice, and were
travelling over bay-ice, which was bending with the weight of the men
and sledge. Bruin's sagacity here served the seamen in good stead, and
the sledge was expeditiously taken to firmer ice, whilst Mr. M. went in
chase of the bear; having mortally wounded it, the brute rushed to
seaward, and the sportsman only desisted from the pursuit when he
observed the bear fall, and in doing so break through the ice, which
was too weak to sustain its weight.

Captain Penny, on the following day, sent over his dog-sledge to secure
the flesh for his dogs, by which time the unlucky bear was frozen to a
hard and solid mass.

_October 9th._--Lieutenant M'Clintock returned; he had placed his
depot forty miles in advance, towards Melville Island,--three days'
imprisonment by bad weather, in the tents, having foiled his hopes of
reaching Bedford Bay in Bathurst Island, where he originally intended
to have reached. This party had, likewise, met water to the westward,
and there was now but little doubt on our minds, that, had the large
field of ice which was blocking the way between Cape Bunny and
Griffith's Island broken up or drifted away, our squadron would have
reached, in all probability, as far as Parry did in '20; but now, the
utmost we could hope to attain in the following year was Melville
Island, which would be our _goal_, instead of our _starting_ point.

Autumn travelling differs, in some measure, from that of the spring. I
will, therefore, give the indulgent reader an account of a short
excursion I made for the purpose of connecting the search from where
Lieutenant Mecham left the coast, to the point at which Lieutenant
M'Clintock had again taken it up; in fact, a bay, facetiously
christened by the seamen (who had learned that newly-discovered places
were forbidden to be named), "Bay, Oh! no we never mention it!" and
"Cape No Name."

My kind friend, Mr. May of the "Resolute," volunteered to accompany me,
and on Thursday, the 10th of October, we started with our tent, a
runner-sledge, and five days' provisions. The four seamen and our two
selves tackled to the drag-ropes, and, with the temperature at 6 deg. above
zero, soon walked ourselves into a state of warmth and comfort.

[Headnote: _RUINS ON CORNWALLIS ISLAND._]

Three hours' sharp dragging brought us to Cape Martyr; ascending the
beach until we had reached a ledge of smooth ice which fring