Pushing boldly through the middle ice, the passage through Melville Bay was safely accomplished and the North Water reached without incident. Arriving off the Gary Islands on the morning of the 27th, a cache of provisions was landed sufficient to sustain sixty men for two months. Other depots were cached at Cape Hawkes and Cape Lincoln. By the 28th of July both ships came to anchor at Port Foulke, the winter quarters of Dr. Hayes in 1860. An excursion from this point was taken by Captain Nares and Commander Markham to Life-boat Cove, the winter quarters of the remnant of the _Polaris_ crew in 1872-1873. Traces of that expedition were immediately found upon landing; various relics such as a trunk, an old basket lined with tin, boxes, stores, pieces of wood, gun-barrels, and odds and ends lay strewn about. A collection was made of such articles as were of any value for the purpose of returning them to the United States. Nares and Markham now proceeded to Littleton Island in the hopes of finding an iron boat left there by Dr. Hayes in 1860. Though a careful search was made, no traces of it were discovered. After erecting a cairn at the southwest end of the island on a hill some five or six hundred feet above sea level, from which point Cape Sabine and Cape Fraser could be seen, the intervening distance navigable open water, Captain Nares and Commander Markham congratulated themselves on the prospect of rapid progress. A few hours after the return to the ship the favourable conditions suddenly changed, and from that time on the two ships battled with the ice-pack. Hugging the west shore, and keeping free from the main pack after leaving Cape Sabine, Captain Nares hardly left the crow’s-nest in his heroic efforts to take advantage of every lead and opening. “Little rest was enjoyed by any on these days during which we were subjected to the wayward will of the pack,” writes Commander Markham. On the 19th of August, he says, “During the last three weeks we had advanced exactly ninety miles, or at the rate of about four and a quarter a day. This cannot be considered a rapid rate of travelling, yet to accomplish even this necessitated a constant and vigilant lookout.” Pushing their way steadily onward, they passed Cape Lieber and crossed Lady Franklin Bay. On the 25th of August, while threading among the ice-floes that bordered the coast, a herd of musk-oxen were seen browsing on an adjacent hill. A shooting party was sent ashore, which separated into three parties upon landing and advanced cautiously toward the spot where the animals were seen grazing. So successful was the hunt that twenty-one hundred and twenty-four pounds of fresh meat was the result of the “morning’s bag.”