aboo
became the Assistance,--the Ptarmigan became the Resolute, of their
squadrons of Arctic discovery.

Does the reader know that in the desolation of the Arctic shores the
Ptarmigan is the bird most often found? It is the Arctic grouse or
partridge,[O] and often have the ptarmigans of Melville Island furnished
sport and even dinners to the hungry officers of the "Resolute," wholly
unconscious that she had ever been their god-child, and had thrown off
their name only to take that which she now wears.

Early in May, 1850, just at the time we now know that brave Sir John
Franklin and the remnant of his crew were dying of starvation at the
mouth of Back's River, the "Resolute" sailed first for the Arctic seas,
the flag-ship of Commodore Austin, with whose little squadron our own De
Haven and his men had such pleasant intercourse near Beechey Island. In
the course of that expedition she wintered off Cornwallis Island,--and
in autumn of the next year returned to England.

Whenever a squadron or a man or an army returns to England, unless in
the extreme and exceptional case of complete victory over obstacle
invincible, there is always dissatisfaction. This is the English way.
And so there was dissatisfaction when Captain Austin returned with his
ships and men. There was also still a lingering hope that some trace of
Franklin might yet be found, perhaps some of his party. Yet more, there
were two of the searching ships which had entered the Polar seas from
Behring's Straits on the west, the "Enterprise" and "Investigator,"
which might need relief before they came through or returned. Arctic
search became a passion by this time, and at once a new squadron was
fitted out to take the seas in the spring of 1852. This squadron
consisted of the "Assistance" and "Resolute" again, which had been
refitted since their return, of the "Intrepid" and "Pioneer," two
steamships used as tenders to the "Assistance" and "Resolute"
respectively, and of the "North Star," which had also been in those
regions, and now went as a storeship to the rest of the squadron. To the
command of the whole Sir Edward Belcher was appointed, an officer who
had served in some of the earlier Arctic expeditions. Officers and men
volunteered in full numbers for the service, and these five vessels
therefore carried out a body of men who brought more experience of the
Northern seas together than any expedition which had ever visited them.

Of these, Captain Henry