In 1839, Simpson and Dease made a more successful journey. The ice conditions being better, they sailed through the strait that separates Victoria Land from the mainland. They pushed on to Simpson Strait, which divides Boothia from the mainland, and later doubled Point Ogle. Upon reaching Montreal Island in Back’s Estuary, they found certain provisions left there by Captain Back five years before. On the 25th of August, 1839, they erected a cairn at their farthest point near Cape Herschel. Exploring 150 miles of the shores of Victoria Land as far as Cape Parry and the Bays of Wellington, Cambridge, and Byron, they crossed Coronation Gulf and finally reentered the Coppermine River, after a voyage of more than 1600 miles in the Polar Sea. For his remarkable achievements, Simpson was awarded the Founder’s Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. [Sidenote: _RAE’S OVERLAND JOURNEY_] In 1846, the Hudson Bay Company fitted out another expedition to be sent into the field for the purpose of surveying the northeast corner of the American mainland; the mouth of the Castor and Pollux to the Gulf of Akkolee, so as to link the discoveries of Dease and Simpson and those of the second voyages of Ross and Parry. An employee of the company, Dr. John Rae, was chosen for this purpose and put in command of twelve men. Dr. Rae is described as a man of unusual attainments, a surgeon, astronomer, an able steersman; combining with his abilities for leadership the accomplishments of a first-rate snow-shoe walker and dead shot. After a canoe trip of two months’ duration, the party arrived at York Factory early in October. Here they passed the winter, and, as soon as the weather would permit, set sail in two boats, and skirted the shores of Hudson Bay. At Fort Churchill they found natives engaged in capturing white whales, which make their way to these waters. They secured the services of two Eskimos, father and son, Oolig-buck by name, who accompanied the expedition as interpreters. In passing Chesterfield Inlet, they heard the grunting and bellowing of walruses, “making a noise,” says Rae, “which I fancy would much resemble a concert of old boars and buffaloes.” At Republic Bay they bought sealskin boots from the Eskimos, and of the incident Rae says, “One of our female visitors took them out of my hands, and began chewing them with her strong teeth, for the purpose of softening up the leather.” Proceeding on their toilsome journey, they traced the coast from Lord Mayor Bay to within ten miles of Fury and Hecla Straits, confirming Captain Ross in his statement that Boothia was a peninsula; and not returning to York Factory until September, 1847.