From this position Sir James could only send a travelling party in the spring for 80 miles to Fury Beach, to ascertain whether any of Franklin’s people had visited the shore there; while he himself made a more extended journey along the northern and western shores of North Somerset. This journey is specially memorable as the initiation of M’Clintock in that art of sledge travelling which he afterwards brought to such perfection. Sir James Ross arranged for an absence of 40 days, travelling with M’Clintock and two sledges, each dragged by six men. The two tents were 9 feet by 6. They travelled at night, starting after a cup of luke-warm cocoa. Luncheon at midnight consisted of a few mouthfuls of biscuit and frozen meat, with some snow water and half a gill of rum. After the tent was pitched supper consisted of 1 lb. of meat, and 1 lb. of biscuit and the other half gill of rum with lime-juice. But the meat was pork including bone, or preserved meat not weighing nearly what was pretended. It was really less than half a pound of meat, and was quite insufficient. On reaching Cape Bunny, the north-west point of North Somerset, which proved to be an island, they left the coast discovered by Parry in 1819 and, turning south, entered on a previously unknown region. The furthest point to the south in 72° 38′ was reached on June 6th, whence land, seen at a distance of fifty miles, was named Cape Bird. They little knew how near they were to the solution of the Franklin mystery. The sledge travellers reached the _Enterprise_ again on June 23rd. The strength of all the men was much impaired, mainly from insufficiency of food. Four broke down altogether, one having to be carried on the sledge. The return journey had been a period of intense labour, constant exposure, and insufficient food. M’Clintock alone returned well. They had gone over five hundred miles in thirty-nine days. The weight to be dragged per man was too great, and the whole scheme required revision. Still, it was the greatest Arctic sledge journey that had ever been made up to that time. M’Clintock noted everything, down to the minutest detail, and with the eye of genius saw the numerous improvements that might be made, and the great future that sledge travelling had in the work of polar discovery.