I have never seen a stronger or more touching instance of the devotion of mother to its young, among dumb animals, and it came from a quarter wholly unexpected. Having leisure while the snow-storm lasted, I went up to Cairn Point to see how the ice appeared from that place. After waiting there for a day, the atmosphere cleared up, and I could see with much distinctness to Cape Isabella. The line of the solid ice extended in a somewhat irregular curve up the Sound from that cape to a few miles above Cairn Point. The sea thence down into the North Water was filled with a loose pack. [Sidenote: AT CAPE ISABELLA.] The day after my return we put to sea. The pack being now much scattered, we entered it and penetrated to the margin of the fast ice without difficulty. In two days we reached the coast near Gale Point, about ten miles below Cape Isabella. Thence to the cape I went in a whale-boat; but the cape itself could not be passed; so we hauled into the first convenient bight, and climbed the hill. The view convinced me, if I was not convinced already, of the folly of attempting any thing further with the schooner. I no longer hesitated, even in thought. My opinions were thus recorded at the time:-- "I am fully persuaded, if there still remained a lingering doubt, of the correctness of my decision to return home, and come out next year strengthened and refitted with steam. If my impulses lead me to try conclusions once more with the ice, my judgment convinces me that it would be at the risk of every thing. As well use a Hudson-river steamboat for a battering-ram as this schooner, with her weakened bows, to encounter the Smith Sound ice. "I have secured the following important advantages for the future, and, with these I must, perforce, rest satisfied, for the present:-- [Sidenote: RESULTS OF THE VOYAGE.] "1. I have brought my party through without sickness, and have thus shown that the Arctic winter of itself breeds neither scurvy nor discontent. "2. I have shown that men may subsist themselves in Smith Sound independent of support from home. "3. That a self-sustaining colony may be established at Port Foulke, and be made the basis of an extended exploration. "4. That the exploration of this entire region is practicable from Port Foulke,--having from that starting-point pushed my discoveries much beyond those of my predecessors, without any second party in the field to coöperate with me, and under the most adverse circumstances. "5. That, with a reasonable degree of certainty, it is shown that, with a strong vessel, Smith Sound may be navigated and the open sea reached beyond it. "6. I have shown that the open sea exists. [Sidenote: RESOURCES OF PORT FOULKE.]