We before narrated how the _Enterprise_ and _Investigator_ left England in January 1850, and, proceeding round Cape Horn, the latter reached the Sandwich Islands in June, and sailed again for Behring's Straits the day before the arrival of her consort. The _Investigator_ had a remarkably quick passage to Behring's Straits; and after communicating with the _Herald_, Captain Kellet, off Cape Lisbourne, and exchanging signals with the _Plover_, which vessel wintered in those seas, she pursued her course easterly along the north coast of North America, and passed Point Barrow under press of sail on the 5th of August. Thus it will be seen that several ships as well as land parties were engaged in the search for the long-lost crews of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ at the same time-- from the east and west as well as from the south. Since the 5th of August 1850, no tidings had been received of Captain McClure and the _Investigator_, till the time that Captain Kellet, who last saw him in the west, had once more made his way into the Arctic Ocean from the east, and was now commencing his long winter imprisonment at Bridport Inlet, Melville Island, in September 1852. The only time that exploring parties can travel is during daylight in the early autumn or in the spring. The spring is most fitted for crossing the Frozen Sea, before the ice breaks up and the cold has become less intense. In the autumn of 1852, Lieutenant Median, of the _Resolute_, was despatched by Captain Kellet to explore the coast of Melville Island to the west, and to form depots of provisions, as were other parties in different directions. On his return, passing through Winter Harbour, in Melville Island, at no great distance to the west of Bridport Inlet, what was his surprise and satisfaction to find in a cairn, a record, with a chart of his discoveries, left by Captain McClure on the previous May, stating that he should probably be found in Mercy Harbour, Banks' Land, unless he should be able to push on through Barrow's Straits, which it seemed very unlikely that he could have done. This was the first evidence to the new explorers of the actual existence of a continuous channel from the Atlantic to the Pacific--that there exists a North-West Passage. Most tantalising was it, however, to them to know that at that season they could not possibly venture across to meet their countrymen. Indeed, the gallant McClure expressly forbade them in the document they had discovered. "Any attempt to send succour will only increase the evil," were his words. The winter passed rapidly away, but it was not till March that Captain Kellet considered it prudent to send an expedition across the Straits to where he supposed the _Investigator_ was to be found. We will now trace the progress of the _Investigator_, from the time she was last seen passing Point Barrow under a press of sail.