Game, fortunately, was plentiful at that time of the year, and the doctor, who was an enthusiastic sportsman and an excellent shot, soon relieved his party of any dread that they might have of death from starvation. The sporting-book for September showed that 63 deer, 5 hares, 1 seal, 172 partridges, and 116 salmon and trout were brought into Fort Hope—the name given to their winter quarters—while in September he accounted for 69 deer. Fuel, however, was exceedingly scarce, and, as bitterly cold weather set in in the middle of October, the party was put to no small inconvenience. At first the frost was hailed as an unmixed blessing, for it hardened the wet clay with which the walls of the house had been dressed, and made the place weatherproof. Anything that was at all damp, however, was instantly frozen solid, and when Rae attempted to open some books which had been lying on a shelf, he found their leaves a solid mass. As fuel grew scarcer, the doctor forbad its use for any purpose except cooking, and a member of the party who wished to dry his wet clothes was obliged to take them to bed with him. The evaporation arising from them always froze on the blankets, which in consequence generally sparkled with hoar frost.

Almost the only form of exercise which the party was able to take was an occasional game of football on the snow. These games were not unattended by difficulties, for the snow was so hard that several pairs of heels were usually to be seen in the air at the same time, while the air was so bitter that the players were obliged to rub their faces continually in order to prevent them from being frost-bitten. A part of the time was also spent by the men in mastering the art of building snow houses after the Eskimo fashion, an accomplishment which proved of inestimable service to them later on when they were engaged in the exploration of Boothia and Melville Peninsula.

At this time the Eskimos of the neighbourhood engaged a good deal of Rae’s attention. They appear to have been an extraordinarily hardy race, who suffered no inconvenience even in the bitterest cold. On one occasion he found a member of the tribe engaged in repairing the runners of his sledge. “The substance used,” he writes, “was a mixture of moss chopped up very fine, and snow soaked in water, lumps of which are firmly pressed on the sledge with the bare hand, and smoothed over so as to have an even surface. The process occupied the man nearly an hour, during the whole of which time he did not put his hands in his mits, nor did he appear to feel the cold much, although the temperature was 30° below zero.” On another occasion he paid a visit to their camp, where he acquired the interesting intelligence that it was their custom to strip off all their clothes before retiring to bed even in the depth of winter. They kept their huts comparatively warm, however, by an ever-burning lamp, and Rae observed with some astonishment that, during the visit in question, his waistcoat thawed. That article of his attire had been frozen solid some time before by the congelation of his breath, and had had no opportunity of returning to its normal condition in his own comfortless quarters.

On April 5 Rae started off on his second journey across the isthmus which now bears his name, his object being to explore the western shores of Committee Bay and to discover whether any waterway led westward from it to the Arctic seas. With the details of the journey we need scarcely concern ourselves, for it was not enlivened by any incident of special interest. It will be sufficient to say that his efforts were attended by complete success, for on April 18 he reached Lord Mayor’s Bay, the most southern point reached by Ross, thus completing the discovery of the southern and western shores of Prince Regent’s Inlet, and proving that Boothia was a peninsula.

Having duly taken possession of the newly-discovered country in the name of the Queen, he set out on the return journey to Fort Hope, which he reached on May 5. The eastern shores of Prince Regent Inlet still remained to be explored, and as the season was early, Rae decided to waste no time in setting about that part of his task. Accordingly he only rested at Fort Hope for a few days, and then, taking with him four men and a good supply of provisions, he set off again. By May 27 they were close to Cape Ellice, which is within ten miles or so of Fury and Hecla Strait. The journey, however, had been exceedingly exhausting and food was running short, so Rae decided that it would be madness to attempt to push his exploration any further. Accordingly the party turned homewards again and arrived at Fort Hope early in June, tired and very thin, but in excellent spirits. They finally reached York Factory on September 6, after a most successful journey, in the course of which they had discovered several hundred miles of unknown coast-line and had considerably reduced the area in which the North-West Passage must be sought.

CHAPTER XIV
THE FRANKLIN SEARCH BEGUN

It was in the summer of 1847 that serious doubts concerning the safety of the Franklin expedition were first entertained and the Government decided to take steps towards its relief. As we have already seen, the Erebus and Terror were last sighted in Lancaster Sound, and there was no means of knowing in what direction they had sailed from that day onwards. Accordingly, it was thought best to send out relief parties from the east, through Lancaster Sound, from the west, through Behring Strait, and from the south, to search the northern shores to America.

The first of these to start was that which was to attempt to meet Franklin by way of Behring Strait. The Herald (Captain Kellett), a survey ship of 500 tons was already near the scene of action, and it was decided to reinforce her with the Plover, a store ship of 213 tons, under Commander Moore, and to send these two ships on a voyage round the North American coast to the Mackenzie River.

The Plover proved herself to be a very poor sailor, and it was not until June 1849 that the two ships met at their appointed rendezvous in Kotzebue Sound. Here they were joined by the Nancy Dawson, a small yacht owned and commanded by Mr Robert Sheddon, who had sailed north with a view to taking part in the search. The three ships sailed north in company, and, on reaching Wainwright Inlet, despatched three boats, filled to the brim with provisions and commanded by Lieutenant Pullen, on the long journey to the Mackenzie River. Mr Sheddon determined to accompany Lieutenant Pullen for a part of his journey, but the Herald and Plover sailed on and explored the waters to the north of Behring Strait. Beyond discovering the two islands which now bear their names, however, they accomplished but little.

By September 2 the two government ships and the Nancy Dawson were all lying in Kotzebue Sound, where it had been decided that the Plover should spend the winter. After supplying the wants of her companion ship, the Herald sailed away south with the Nancy Dawson, reaching Mazatlan, on the coast of Mexico, at the beginning of October. Mr Sheddon, who had been in failing health for some time, did not survive the winter.