winter or spring; in this, however, you will exercise your own discretion, and be guided by circumstances.
"9. It is exceedingly desirable, however, that you should return by open water, so as to pass the winter at the establishment to be formed at the north-east end of Great Bear Lake, in order to make the necessary preparations for another voyage of discovery, to the eastward, at the opening of the navigation in the summer of 1838.
"10. The object of that voyage is to trace the coast, from Franklin's Point Turnagain, eastward, to the entrance of Back's Great Fish River. To that end, you will haul your boat across from the north-eastern extremity of Great Bear Lake to the Coppermine River before the winter breaks up, and at the opening of the navigation proceed to the sea, and make as accurate a survey of the coast as possible, touching at Point Turnagain, and proceeding to Back's Great Fish River, if the strait or passage exists, which that officer represents as separating the main land from Ross's Boothia Felix; but should it turn out, on examination, that no such strait exists, and that Captain Ross is correct in his statement that it is a peninsula, not an island, you will in that case leave your boat and cross the isthmus on
