Autumn travelling differs, in some measure, from that of the spring. I will, therefore, give the indulgent reader an account of a short excursion I made for the purpose of connecting the search from where Lieutenant Mecham left the coast, to the point at which Lieutenant M'Clintock had again taken it up; in fact, a bay, facetiously christened by the seamen (who had learned that newly-discovered places were forbidden to be named), "Bay, Oh! no we never mention it!" and "Cape No Name." My kind friend, Mr. May of the "Resolute," volunteered to accompany me, and on Thursday, the 10th of October, we started with our tent, a runner-sledge, and five days' provisions. The four seamen and our two selves tackled to the drag-ropes, and, with the temperature at 6 deg. above zero, soon walked ourselves into a state of warmth and comfort. [Headnote: _RUINS ON CORNWALLIS ISLAND._] Three hours' sharp dragging brought us to Cape Martyr; ascending the beach until we had reached a ledge of smooth ice which fringed the coast within the broken line of the tide-marks, we turned to the westward, and commenced searching the beach and neighbouring headlands. I shall not easily efface from my memory the melancholy impression left by this, my first walk on the desolate shores of Cornwallis Island. Like other things, in time the mind became accustomed to it; and, by comparison, one soon learned to see beauties even in the sterility of the North. [Illustration] [Illustration: Horizontal Section, 20 feet circumference.] [Illustration: Vertical Section, 5 feet 6 inches high.] Casting off from the sledge, I had taken a short stroll by myself along one of the terraces which, with almost artificial regularity, swept around the base of the higher ground behind, when, to my astonishment, a mass of stone-work, and what at first looked exactly like a cairn, came in view; it required no spur to make me hasten to it, and to discover I was mistaken in supposing it to have been any thing constructed so recently as Franklin's visit. The ruin proved to be a conical-shaped building, the apex of which had fallen in. Its circumference, at the base, was about twenty feet, and the height of the remaining wall was five feet six inches. Those who had constructed it appeared well acquainted with the strength of an arched roof to withstand the pressure of the heavy falls of snow of these regions; and much skill and nicety was displayed in the arrangement of the slabs of slaty limestone, in order that the conical form of the building might be preserved throughout.