small cairn of stones built by Mr. McClintock the year before.  Mecham examined this, and to his surprise a copper cylinder rolled out from under a spirit tin.  “On opening it, I drew out a roll folded in a bladder, which, being frozen, broke and crumbled.  From its dilapidated appearance, I thought at the moment it must be some record of Sir Edward Parry, and, fearing I might damage it, laid it down with the intention of lighting the fire to thaw it.  My curiosity, however, overcame my prudence, and on opening it carefully with my knife, I came to a roll of cartridge paper with the impression fresh upon the seals.  My astonishment may be conceived on finding it contained an account of the proceedings of H.M. ship ‘Investigator’ since parting company with the “Herald” [Captain Kellett’s old ship] in August, 1850, in Behring’s Straits.  Also a chart which disclosed to view not only the long-sought Northwest Passage, but the completion of the survey of Banks and Wollaston lands.  Opened and indorsed Commander McClintock’s despatch; found it contained the following additions:—­

    “’Opened and copied by his old friend and messmate upon this date,
    April 28, 1852.  ROBERT McCLURE

    “‘Party all well and return to Investigator to-day.’”

A great discovery indeed to flash across one in a minute.  The “Investigator” had not been heard from for more than two years.  Here was news of her not yet six months old.  The Northwest Passage had been dreamed of for three centuries and more.  Here was news of its discovery,—­news that had been known to Captain McClure for two years.  McClure and McClintock were lieutenants together in the “Enterprise” when she was sent after Sir John Franklin in 1848, and wintered together at Port Leopold the next winter.  Now, from different hemispheres, they had come so near meeting at this old block of sandstone.  Mr. Mecham bade his mate build a new cairn, to put the record of the story in, and hurried on to the “Resolute” with his great news,—­news of almost everybody but Sir John Franklin.  Strangely enough, the other expedition, Captain Collinson’s, had had a party in that neighborhood, between the other two, under Mr. Parks; but it was his extreme point possible, and he could not reach the Sandstone, though he saw the ruts of McClure’s sleigh.  This was not known till long afterwards.

The “Investigator,” as it appeared from this despatch of Captain McClure’s, had been frozen up in the Bay of Mercy of Banks Land:  Banks Land having been for thirty years at once an Ultima Thule and Terra Incognita, put down on the maps where Captain Parry saw it across thirty miles of ice and water in 1819.  Perhaps she was still in that same bay:  these old friends wintering there, while the “Resolute” and “Intrepid” were lying under Dealy Island, and only one hundred and seventy miles between.  It must have been tantalizing to all parties to wait the winter through, and not even get a message across.  But until winter made it too cold and dark to travel, the ice in the strait was so broken up that it was impossible to attempt to traverse it, even with a light boat, for the lanes of water.  So the different autumn parties came in, the last on the last of October, and the officers and men entered on their winter’s work and play, to push off the winter days as quickly as they could.