Franklin traced the coast in a westerly direction to latitude 70° 24’ N., longitude, 149° 37’ W., and discovered several large rivers. Fogs, gales, rain, and drift ice interrupted their progress, but they were enabled to examine close on 400 miles of a new coast. Dr. Richardson meantime traced the coast eastward from the Mackenzie to the Coppermine River, afterwards travelling by land and river to Fort Franklin. Thanks to the excellent arrangements made, his party endured no great privations, and this second series of journeys to the Polar Sea formed a pleasant sequel to the first, which were marked by so many disasters. CHAPTER XXI. VOYAGE OF THE “TERROR.” Back’s effort to reach Repulse Bay—Nine Months in the Ice—The _Terror_ Nipped and Crushed—A General Disruption—Extreme Peril—Increase of Pressure—Providential Delivery—Another Nip—Bow of the Ship split—Preparations for Emergencies—The Crew—An early break-up—Frozen again—A Tremendous Rush of Ice—The Day of Release. Captain Back was in 1836 appointed to the command of an expedition to the Arctic, partly formed for purposes of survey. He was instructed to proceed to Repulse or Wager Bay, as the case might be; thence he was to take a party across the intervening land to the eastern shore of Prince Regent’s Islet. Among other explorations he was to examine the coast line as far as the Point Turnagain of Franklin. It is unnecessary to go into further details, as the expedition, geographically considered, was a failure. But the voyage is, nevertheless, one of the most interesting on record, and gives us a vivid picture, or series of pictures, of the dangers incurred in the Arctic seas. The now historical _Terror_ was the vessel employed, and the expedition left England on June 14th, 1836, crossing Davis’ Straits six weeks later, where an enormous iceberg, “the perpendicular face of which was not less than 300 feet high,” was sighted. The vessel soon became entangled in the ice-floes, and this was only the forerunner of their subsequent experiences. For nine months they were wedged up with massive ice, and four months of this time were, as Back expresses it, on “an icy cradle,” lifted out of the water. On September 5th there was a calm, and the whole of the officers and men were despatched to the only open water at all near, where with axes, ice-chisels, hand-spikes, and long poles, they began the laborious process of cutting away the “sludge” that bound the broken ice together, and removing them into the clear space. In this service they were frequently obliged to fasten lines to the heavier masses and haul them out, but though slipping and tumbling about, “the light-hearted fellows pulled in unison to a cheerful song, and laughed and joked with the unreflecting merriment of schoolboys. Every now and then some luckless wight broke through the thin ice and plunged up to