Released on the 5th of August, the _Enterprise_ proceeded to sea, coasting along past Rae's farthest and Cape Baring, and so, where no ship had been, through Coronation Gulf to Cambridge Bay. Here the winter of 1852-3 was spent, and hence the sledges went up Victoria Strait. At Finlayson Islands, what seemed to be a piece of a companion-door was found among the driftwood, which might have been a relic of the lost ships; but that was all. During the return along the northern coast the _Enterprise_ was beset in Camden Bay, and here the third winter was passed, release not coming until the end of the following July, and Bering Strait not being reached until the 21st of August after a voyage, like that of the _Vega_, too well managed to yield much adventure. Like all the other Arctic voyages of this period, it failed in the one object it was undertaken to achieve; but in days to come the first ship to sail the passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was to follow Collinson from Cambridge Bay along the route laboriously completed by the surveyors of the mainland from James Cook to Dease and Simpson. M'Clure claimed and—to have done with the matter—obtained the reward of £10,000 for discovering the North-West Passage through Prince of Wales Strait, though he sailed only half-way up it and, in attempting to get round to Parry's farthest, lost his ship and started sledging on the west side of the pack; while Collinson took his ship much nearer to Parry's course on the east side; and Franklin, by linking up with Dease and Simpson over the ice by way of Victoria Strait, had previously found another of the possible passages, as shown by Collinson's voyage to Cambridge Bay. But surely what was done by M'Clure, and by Collinson in his northerly cruise, was to see where ships could pass when there was no ice in the way, which was no more than had been done by Parry, who had taken his ship within sight of both their farthest, and would have sailed into the Beaufort Sea had not the pack forbidden it. It was Parry, in fact, who discovered the main road, the route by Prince of Wales Strait, like that by Peel Sound taken by Franklin and successfully accomplished by Amundsen, being only one of the many by-roads leading off along his course.