Short glimpses of the land on the north side of Lancaster sound were obtained when the fog lifted at intervals during the night. These showed a high country, with many moderately sharp peaks rising in the foreground above the white mantle of ice of the great glaciers of the valleys. Discharging glaciers were particularly numerous along the head of the wide Croker bay.

At eight o’clock in the morning we arrived at the mouth of Cuming creek, a long narrow bay a few miles west of Croker bay. Being short of fresh water, and the weather promising to be bad, we proceeded ten miles up the bay before finding a place sufficiently shallow to drop anchor, but this was finally done on the edge of a bank formed by the material brought down by a small river flowing into the head of the bay. We remained at anchor here until the next evening, the wind during that time blowing strongly from the eastward, accompanied with thick fog and occasional flurries of snow.

The crystalline rocks, which occupy the eastern part of the great island of North Devon, are overlaid by nearly flat-bedded limestones, in the western part commencing on the west side of Croker bay. This change of rock is accompanied by a change in the physical character of the coast as the ragged irregular granite hills of the eastern land are replaced by a flat tableland which rises in nearly perpendicular cliffs directly from the sea to elevations varying from 800 to 1,200 feet. Behind these the land rises in steps to nearly 2,000 feet, where it is lost beneath the ice-cap of the interior. The cliffs of limestone have been deeply sculptured by all the streams of water, great and small, so that the coast resembles on a gigantic scale the banks of a stream flowing through a clay country. This portion of the coast extending to Beechey island at the southwest point of North Devon, is deeply indented with many long narrow bays similar to Cuming creek, in which we were anchored. While there, landings were made to collect plants and fossils, and an attempt was made to reach the tableland, but proved unsuccessful owing to the impossibility of scaling the perpendicular cliff near the summit. The land about the bay was particularly desolate and barren, the little vegetation found being along the courses of the small streams. No trace of land animals was seen. Walruses and seals were observed sporting in the waters of the bay, and a large colony of Burgomaster gulls pointed to the presence of fish.

The anchor was lifted at eight o’clock on the evening of the 14th, and two hours later we were steaming westward close under the cliffs in order to make a survey of the coast. This was completed to Beechey island by eleven o’clock next morning, when the ship again came to anchor.

The cliffs to the westward of Cuming creek gradually become lower, and the crystalline rocks below the limestones soon disappear beneath the sea. A few small glaciers discharge into the sea in the neighbourhood of that place, but as the coast is followed westward the ice-cap retreats inland, and is finally lost sight of, nothing being left to break the monotony of the dirty yellow colour of the limestone except a few patches of struggling vegetation that increase towards the westward where the climate is evidently milder.

As many of the crew as could be spared were allowed to land at Beechey island to visit this historic spot, where the ill-fated and heroic Franklin and the crews of the Erebus and Terror spent their last winter on land, and where the headquarters of the search party was established in subsequent years.

Beechey island is comparatively small, being only a square mile or so in extent. It lies at the southwest end of North Devon, and is connected at low tide by a narrow neck with the larger island, thus forming the good anchorage of Erebus harbour. The southern side of the island is a small hill, from three to four hundred feet high, with steep cliffs facing the water and less abrupt slopes northward, where it falls to the level of the low plain of the rest of the island. A flagstaff crowns the summit of the hill. The lower part of the island rises from the waters of the harbour in a succession of three or four low terraces each a few feet above the one in front, and all covered with small loose limestone shingle, where a few hardy flowers struggle for existence on the dry barren surface.

The ancient settlement was placed on the edge of the plain, close to the foot of the hill, and facing eastward. On the shore are the ice-battered remains of a small sloop, now completely dismantled, and a large mahogany lifeboat badly broken by the ice. On the first terrace, a few yards above the high-water mark, stands the frame of the ancient house, with a low stone wall along its north and west sides. Inside and between the walls are many casks of provisions, all of which have been broken open and the contents spoiled. A small platform cart, showing few signs of its long exposure to the weather, stood beside the house, and was brought home as a souvenir. Scattered in profusion over the terrace and along the shore were the empty tins of the notorious Goldner’s Patent, which had been opened, found rotten and condemned by Franklin, thus reducing his stock of supposed tinned provisions. Old cask staves and hoops were mingled with hundreds of leather boot soles, evidently left by some of the relief expeditions.

On the next terrace, a few yards in rear of the house, a wooden cenotaph surmounted by a round ball and set in a small platform of cemented limestone was erected to the memory of Franklin and his heroic associates by one of the subsequent expeditions, and to-day stands in a fair state of repair. Resting face-downward on the platform, alongside of the cenotaph, was a large marble slab, inscribed, as a tribute to the memory of Franklin and the crews of the Erebus and Terror, by citizens of the United States. A brass plate, affixed to the lower part of the slab, records that it had been brought from Disko to its present resting place by McClintock in the Fox, when he obtained final proof of the total destruction of Franklin’s ill-fated party. The slab was raised and photographed, and then replaced on the ground to avoid the danger of its being broken by the winds. If another expedition visits this place the material for a suitable foundation for the slab should be taken, so that it may be erected as originally intended.

On the barren plain, a few hundred yards from the house, are four graves marked by small wooden crosses, the last resting place of two of Franklin’s crews and two belonging to the search parties.

A sealed tin case was found attached to the cenotaph, and on opening it a record of the Norwegian Magnetic Pole Expedition was found. The record stated that the Gjoa, with the expedition on board, had arrived here in the latter part of August, 1903, after having picked up the provisions left for them at Dalrymple island by one of the Scotch whalers, and were proceeding immediately down Peel sound in order to get their ship as near as possible to the magnetic pole before the sound became frozen over. As this was the last tidings from this expedition the record was taken away, and since our return has been forwarded to the Norwegian government. The Gjoa in which the expedition sailed is a small but stout sloop, with auxiliary power supplied by a gasolene engine. The only danger to the party is in event of the Gjoa being unable to free herself from the ice when the time comes for a return. As the expedition is aware of the whaling and police establishments in the northwestern part of Hudson bay a retreat there may be made without great difficulty, if accompanied by natives.

We were forced to leave Beechey island hurriedly, owing to a large quantity of ice being driven rapidly out of the harbour by a fresh breeze and a falling tide, which threatened to separate us from the ship.

From the island no ice could be seen to the westward or northward in Wellington channel and Barrow strait. Our instructions limited the cruise westward in Lancaster sound to our present position, and the damaged condition of the ship, together with a supply of provisions insufficient for another winter in the ice, all militated against the desire to attempt the Northwest Passage, which under favourable conditions seemed possible in our staunch powerful steamship.

We left Erebus harbour at half-past two in the afternoon, standing southward across Lancaster sound for North Somerset island. At five o’clock some loose stringers of ice were met, and the course was changed to the eastward to avoid them. The north wind freshened to a gale accompanied by fog, and trouble was experienced in making the channel between Leopold island and Cape Clarence, at the mouth of Prince Regent inlet. The cape was passed at ten o’clock. The ship then steamed south, along the high cliffs of limestone, for Port Leopold, where we arrived at midnight. These cliffs rise 1,000 feet perpendicularly, being formed of nearly horizontal beds of limestone of different thicknesses and various shades of yellow, so that the cliff has a marked horizontal banding. The rocks appear to have long been submitted to the action of the weather and of small streams, each of which has cut a more or less marked gully into the face of the cliff, and the whole, taken together, give the appearance of vertical fluting, while the weathered tops have a castellated finish like that of some gigantic fortress. The cliffs fall away abruptly into a long low point of shingle which partly closes the mouth of the spacious and safe harbour of Port Leopold.

Provisions Left for the ‘Gjoa’ at Port Leopold.