The New York herald., 1875-10-31


We climb to the foretop, then to the cross
trees, and see before us plain of ice extend
ing to the horizon and jammed up against
the mouth Of Bellot's Straits II is old foe
ice, from five to twenty feet thick, covered
with little hills and hummocks, jammed
closely together and as solid as rock.
Within two hours after we have been betting
high on the probabilities of passing through
Behring's Straits we have suddenly come to
THE END OF OUR VOYAGE.
We wait patiently, or impatiently, for tina
change, cruising along the edge Of the pack,
occasionally making fast to it when stopped
by the fog, which envelopes us from time to
time, but no change comes.
The ice never moves. Toward evening
we land on the island, whose summit is
about two hundred feet above the level Of the
sea, but are greeted by no signs of open
water Ice, nothing but ice, and the higher
we get, the better view we obtain, the moro
formidable becomes the prospect.
Captain Young was here close to his former
encampment when travelling in 1859. The
islands coast and ice appeared familiar to
him, and he recognized and pointed out all
the points of interest engraved on his mem
ory while wading in water up to their waists
on the dreadful sledge journey when they
passed here, scarcely able to drag one leg
after the other, worn out with the fatigue of
three months continuous travel on the ice,
and, barely reaching the Fox. they wintered
in the east end Of Bellot's Strait before
breaking down altogether.
There was
A SOLITARY ICEBERG
distant about ten miles, embedded in the
pack, for which it was difficult to account, as
it was certainly foreign to these straits, and
must have either driven down from Barrow
Strait or through McClintocks Channel from
the northwest. This berg is important as
bearing on the movements Of the ice. For
three days we kept moving continually
moving back and forth, avoiding the loose
drift ice which more than once showed q
disposition to jam US against the pack.
On the Sd of September there came
change which was, however, anything but
favorable. The ice, under the impression OF
a southerly wind, commenced moving north,
and it soon began to creep on either shore as
if to cut off our retreat. 1t now became ne
cessary to consider what we were going to do
and whittier we were about to winter, for il
we fingered much longer it would no longer
remain in our power to choose.
There was still the chance that the ice
might break up if we waited, and let us
through, although that now seemed scarcely
probable; but if it did not we would be newt
ably caught in place where there could be no
possible objection in wintering AS we wera
still too far from King Williams Land to
attempt reaching it this summer, and spring
or winter search could not be expected to
produce any further results after the journey
of McClintock and Hobson, Captain Young
went ashore again on Roquette Island to have
one more look at the prospect, but there was
NO MORE CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.
Away to the southeast, on the shore OF
Somerset, we could see the huge, lowering,
perpendicular cliffs OF rock that form the
monster gateway to Bellot's Strait, and
beyond the coast of Boothia Felix, bending
away to the southwest, high promontory
just on the horizon, the southeastern ex-
tremity of the Prince of Wales Land all
between this and Boothia, in the direction Of
King Williams Land, an unbroken plain OF
rugged hummock ice.
1t was with sad faces we took our last look
south over this ghostly plain, against
whose Dead heavy, silent inertia all our high
hopes, all our fiery enthusiasm, all our rose-
colored expectations broke in melancholy
gloom. We were only 100 miles from King
Williams Land. We almost imagined wa
could see it, and if we could only get there
we thought we might be sure of making the
Northwest Passage.
This pack is probably no more than fifty
miles, and yet nearly 5000 miles between
Southampton and San Francisco. There was
only this one little obstacle-this mere cur
tain as it were-to stop us, but it was as
effectual q barrier to a ship as fifty miles Of
granite. Reluctantly Captain Young decided
to turn his ships
HEAD TO THE NORTH.
There could be no possible use in winters
ing here. 1t would be far better to return
to England, and come back next year with
crew fresh and healthy to try it again, and
this is what he decided to do
cAIRN BUILT.
We built cairn on the island and left u
record, and then returned to the ship. The
ice had now already crept far up both shores,
as though trying to surprise and cut us off,
The berg we had observed at first, ten miles
of, was slowly coming toward Roquetto
Island AS the pack moved north there
was channel in the middle of the Strait
still open, and through this we hastily made
our escape. The race through Peel Sound
proved to be close one, ice following from
south and also coming down from the north.
Next day we were nearly jammed between
them. Just off Cape Pennell the fog lifted.