rs
were much longer,--some of them, as has been said, occupying three
months and more.

Lieutenant Pim had been appointed in the autumn to the "Banks Land
search," and had carried out his depots of provisions when the other
officers took theirs. Captain McClure's chart and despatch made it no
longer necessary to have that coast surveyed, but made it all the more
necessary to have some one go and see if he was still there. The chances
were against this, as a whole summer had intervened since he was heard
from. Lieutenant Pim proposed, however, to travel all round Banks Land,
which is an island about the size and shape of Ireland, in search of
him, Collinson, Franklin, or anybody. Captain Kellett, however, told him
not to attempt this with his force, but to return to the ship by the
route he went. First he was to go to the Bay of Mercy; if the
"Investigator" was gone, he was to follow any traces of her, and, if
possible, communicate with her or her consort, the "Enterprise."

Lieutenant Pim started with a sledge and seven men, and a dog-sledge
with two under Dr. Domville, the surgeon, who was to bring back the
earliest news from the Bay of Mercy to the captain. There was a relief
sledge to go part way and return. For the intense cold of this early
season they had even more careful arrangements than those we have
described. Their tent was doubled. They had extra Mackintoshes, and
whatever else could be devised. They had bad luck at starting,--broke
down one sledge and had to send back for another; had bad weather, and
must encamp, once for three days. "Fortunately," says the lieutenant of
this encampment, "the temperature arose from fifty-one below zero to
thirty-six below, and there remained," while the drift accumulated to
such a degree around the tents, that within them the thermometer was
only twenty below, and, when they cooked, rose to zero. A pleasant time
of it they must have had there on the ice, for those three days, in
their bags smoking and sleeping! No wonder that on the fourth day they
found they moved slowly, so cramped and benumbed were they. This morning
a new sledge came to them from the ship; they got out of their bags,
packed, and got under way again. They were still running along shore,
but soon sent back the relief party which had brought the new sled, and
in a few days more set out to cross the strait, some twenty-five to
thirty miles wide, which, when it is open, as no man has ever seen it,
is one