ptain
McClure's, had been frozen up in the Bay of Mercy of Banks Land: Banks
Land having been for thirty years at once an Ultima Thule and Terra
Incognita, put down on the maps where Captain Parry saw it across thirty
miles of ice and water in 1819. Perhaps she was still in that same bay:
these old friends wintering there, while the "Resolute" and "Intrepid"
were lying under Dealy Island, and only one hundred and seventy miles
between. It must have been tantalizing to all parties to wait the winter
through, and not even get a message across. But until winter made it too
cold and dark to travel, the ice in the strait was so broken up that it
was impossible to attempt to traverse it, even with a light boat, for
the lanes of water. So the different autumn parties came in, the last on
the last of October, and the officers and men entered on their winter's
work and play, to push off the winter days as quickly as they could.

The winter was very severe; and it proved that, as the "Resolute" lay,
they were a good deal exposed to the wind. But they kept themselves
busy,--exercised freely,--found game quite abundant within reasonable
distances on shore, whenever the light served,--kept schools for
the men,--delivered scientific lectures to whoever would
listen,--established the theatre for which the ship had been provided at
home,--and gave juggler's exhibitions by way of variety. The recent
system of travelling in the fall and spring cuts in materially to the
length of the Arctic winters as Ross, Parry, and Back used to experience
it, and it was only from the 1st of November to the 10th of March that
they were left to their own resources. Late in October one of the
"Resolute's" men died, and in December one of the "Intrepid's," but,
excepting these cases, they had little sickness, for weeks no one on
the sick-list; indeed, Captain Kellett says cheerfully that a
sufficiency of good provisions, with plenty of work in the open air,
will insure good health in that climate.

As early in the spring as he dared risk a travelling party, namely, on
the 10th of March, 1853, he sent what they all called a forlorn hope
across to the Bay of Mercy, to find any traces of the "Investigator";
for they scarcely ventured to hope that she was still there. This start
was earlier by thirty-five days than the early parties had started on
the preceding expedition. But it was every way essential that, if
Captain McClure had wintered in the Bay of Merc