Part 23 (1/2)
”You will not per erect
”But these are facts, and it is out of your power to destroy thee
”My friends!” interposed the Doctor; ”pray be cal”
But Hatteras was deaf to reason now, and said angrily--
”I'll tell you the facts, sir”
”And I'll tell you,” retorted the irate American
”Gentlemen,” said Clawbonny, in a firm tone; ”allow me to speak, for I know the facts of the case as well as and perhaps better than you, and I can state them impartially”
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”Yes, yes!” cried Bell and Johnson, who had been anxiously watching the strife
”Well, go on,” said Alta hin of acquiescence, and resuht a chart and spread it out on the table, that his auditors e the merits of McClure for themselves
”It was in 1848,” he said, ”that two vessels, the Herald and the Plover, were sent out in search of Franklin, but their efforts proving ineffectual, two others were despatched to assist theator, in command of McClure, and the Enterprise, in coator arrived first in Behring's Straits, and without waiting for her consort, set out with the declared purpose to find Franklin or the North-West Passage The gallant young officer hoped to push north as far as Melville Sound, but just at the extremity of the Strait, he was stopped by an insur the long, dreary months, however, he and his officers undertook a journey over the ice-field, towith Melville Sound”
”Yes, but he did not get through,” said Altamont
”Stop a bit,” replied Clawbonny; ”as soon as a thaw set in, McClure renewed his atte his shi+p into Melville Sound, and had succeeded in getting within twenty ed her south with irresistible violence This decided the captain to alter his course He detergle with icebergs, he stuck fast in the first of the series of straits
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which end in Baffin's Bay, and was obliged to winter in Mercy Bay
His provisions would only hold out eighteen e, and reached Melville Island, hoping to fall in with some shi+p or other, but all he found in Winter Harbour was a cairn, which contained a docu that Captain Austin's lieutenant, McClintock, had been there the preceding year McClure replaced this docu to England by the North-West Passage he had discovered, by Lancaster Sound and Baffin's Bay, and that in the event of his not being heard of, he ht be looked for north or west of Melville Island Then he went back to Mercy Bay with undaunted courage, to pass a third winter By the beginning of March his stock of provisions was so reduced in consequence of the utter scarcity of gah the severity of the season, that McClure resolved to send half his land, either by Baffin's Bay or by McKenzie River and Hudson's Bay The other half would e to work the vessel to Europe He kept all his best sailors, and selected for departure only those to whoed for their leaving, and the day fixed, when McClure, as out walking with Lieutenant Craswell, observed a esticulating frantically, and on getting nearer recognized him as Lieutenant Prim, officer on board the Herald, one of the shi+ps he had parted with in Behring's Straits two years before
Captain Kellett, the Co McClure's document in the cairn, had dispatched his lieutenant in search of hied with the captain to send hie of these and conveyed the them there he went across the ice four hundred and seventy miles, and arrived at Isle Beechy, where, a few days afterwards, he took passage with twelve men on board the Phoenix, and reached London safely on the 7th of October, 1853, having traversed the whole extent between Behring's Straits and Cape Farewell”
”Well, if arriving on one side and leaving at the other is not going through, I don't knohat is!” said Hatteras
”Yes, but he went four hundred and seventy miles over ice-fields,” objected Altaist of the whole arguh”
”No,” replied Clawbonny, ”for, at the close of the fourth winter, McClure was obliged to leave her a the ice”