M’Clintock had completed his immortal work. For ten years he had devoted all his energies and all the powers of his mind, first to the rescue of the lost explorers, then to ascertain their fate. Success had now crowned his efforts and the mystery of the sad fate of Franklin’s expedition was at last made clear to the world. M’Clintock and his party had marched round King William Island. They returned to the ship on June 19th after an absence of 76 days, having travelled over 920 miles and discovered 800 miles of new coast line, and the only navigable North West Passage. Allen Young commenced his journey on April 7th, with old Harvey as captain of his sledge, Hobday and Haselton seamen, and Florance, a stoker, as crew. He also took a dog-sledge. Crossing the Franklin Channel, so named by M’Clintock, he landed at Cape Eyre on Prince of Wales Island and proceeded to explore the low and desolate southern coast. Finding that he had not sufficient provisions to reach Osborn’s furthest and so complete the exploration of the great island with all his men, he sent back the rest with the sledge, in charge of Harvey, to Cape Eyre. He and Hobday went on with the dog-sledge, and on May 7th reached the table-topped hills seen by Sherard Osborn in 1851, and so completed the discovery. Young then made a gallant attempt to cross the channel to Victoria Island, but this was impossible, it being a mass of stupendous hummocks with deep fissures between them, and a retreat was therefore made to the sledge at Cape Eyre. He then completed the discovery of the eastern shore of Prince of Wales Island as far as Browne’s furthest in 1851. Next he crossed the channel to Ross’s furthest, and completed the discovery of the west side of North Somerset thence to Bellot Strait, taking frequent observations for latitude and longitude. He and his men were nearly worn out by the long period of hardships when they were met by M’Clintock on June 27th. It was a splendid journey, rich in geographical discovery. The _Fox_ was now got ready to return. The engines had been taken to pieces for the winter, the engineer had died, and the stokers knew nothing about the machinery. So M’Clintock tucked up his sleeves, went down into the engine room, and got the engines into working order with his own hands. There was no one else on board who could have done it. On August 10th, 1859, the _Fox_ was freed from winter quarters, M’Clintock working the engines himself for several days, until the vessel was got under sail. She arrived in the Thames and was taken into the dock at Blackwall on September 23rd.