e_ and the _Investigator_ returned to England and passed
under the command of Collinson and McClure for the purpose of
rejoining Kellett and Moore in Behring's Straits; whilst Collinson
came back to winter at Hong-Kong, McClure made the best of his way
onward, and after being obliged to winter three times--from 1850 to
'51; from 1851 to '52; and from 1852 to '53--he discovered the
North-West passage without learning anything of Franklin's fate.
During 1852 and '53 a new expedition composed of three sailing vessels,
the _Resolute_, the _Assistance_, the _North Star_, and two steamers,
the _Pioneer_ and _Intrepid_, set sail under the command of Sir Edward
Belcher, with Captain Kellett under him; Sir Edward visited
Wellington Channel, wintered in Northumberland Bay, and went over
the coast, whilst Kellett, pushing on to Bridport in Melville Island,
explored, without success, that part of the boreal land. It was at
this time that news was spread in England that two ships, abandoned
in the midst of icebergs, had been descried near the coast of New
Scotland. Lady Franklin immediately had prepared the little screw
_Isabelle_, and Captain Inglefield, after having steamed up Baffin's
Bay as far as Victoria Point on the eightieth parallel, came back
to Beechey Island no more successful than his predecessors. At the
beginning of 1855, Grinnell, an American, fitted up a fresh expedition,
and Captain Kane tried to penetrate to the Pole----"

"But he didn't do it," cried Hatteras violently; "and what he didn't
do we will, with God's help!"

"I know, captain," answered the doctor, "and I mention it because
this expedition is of necessity connected with the search for Franklin.
But it had no result. I was almost forgetting to tell you that the
Admiralty, considering Beechey Island as the general rendezvous of
expeditions, charged Captain Inglefield, who then commanded the
steamer _Phoenix_, to transport provisions there in 1853; Inglefield
set out with Lieutenant Bellot, and lost the brave officer who for
the second time had devoted his services to England; we can have more
precise details upon this catastrophe, as our boatswain, Johnson,
was witness to the misfortune."

"Lieutenant Bellot was a brave Frenchman," said Hatteras, "and his
memory is honoured in England."

"By that time," continued the doctor, "Belcher's fleet began to come
back little by little; not all of it, for Sir Edward had been obliged
to abandon the _Assistanc