pole,--a supposition which is borne out by the fact, that the vast
ice-fields off Spitzbergen show no symptoms of ever having been in
contact with land or gravel. Of course, the more firmly we can bring
ourselves to believe in the existence of an ocean road leading to
Behring's Straits, the better heart we shall feel in searching the
various tortuous channels and different islands with which, doubtless,
Franklin's route has been beset. It was not, therefore, without deep
interest that I passed the boundary which Nature had set in the west to
the existence of icebergs, and endeavoured to form a correct idea of
the cause of such a phenomenon.

[Headnote: _A GALE IN BARROW'S STRAIT._]

Whilst this digression upon icebergs has taken place, the kind reader
will suppose the calm to have ceased, and the "Resolute" and "Pioneer,"
under sail before a westerly wind, to be running from the table-land on
the north shore of Lancaster Sound, in a diagonal direction towards
Leopold Island. On the 26th of August, Cape York gleamed through an
angry sky, and as Regent's Inlet opened to the southward, there was
little doubt but we should soon be caught in an Arctic gale: we,
however, cared little, provided there was plenty of water ahead, though
of that there appeared strong reasons for entertaining doubts, as both
the temperature of the air and water was fast falling.

That night--for night was now of some two hours' duration--the wind
piped merrily, and we rolled most cruelly; the long and narrow
"Pioneer" threatening to pitch every spar over the side, and refusing
all the manoeuvring upon the part of her beshaken officers and men to
comfort and quiet her.

A poet, who had not been fourteen hours in the cold, and whose body was
not racked by constant gymnastic exertion to preserve his bones from
fracture, might have given a beautiful description of the lifting of a
fierce sky at about half-past one in the morning, and a disagreeable
glimpse through snow-storm and squall of a bold and precipitous coast
not many miles off, and ahead of us. I cannot undertake to do so, for I
remember feeling far from poetical, as, with a jerk and a roll, the
"Pioneer," under fore and aft canvas, came to the wind. Fast increasing
daylight showed us to have been thrown considerably to the northward;
and as we sailed to the south the ice showed itself in far from
pleasing proximity under the lee--_boiling_, for so the edge of a pack
appears to do in a gale of wind. It was a wild sight; but we felt that,
at any rate, it was optional with a screw steamer whether she ran into
the pack or kept the sea, for her clawing-to-windward power astonished
us who had fought in the teeth of hard gales elsewhere in flying
Symondite brigs. Not so, however, thought a tough old Hull quarter-master
whose weather-beaten face peered anxiously over the lee, and watched
the "Resolute" beating Cromer-a-lee, for I heard him growl out, "Wull,
if they are off a strait lee-pack edge, the sooner they make up their
minds to run into it the better!" "Why so, Hall?" I inquired. "Because,
sir," replied the old man, "that ship is going two feet to leeward for
one she is going ahead, and she would _never_ work off _nothing!_"

"Pleasant!" I mentally ejaculated; but, willing to hear more from my
dry old friend, who was quite a character in his way,--"Perhaps," I
said, "you have occasionally been caught in worse vessels off such a
pack as you describe, or a lee shore, and still not been lost?"

"Oh! Lord, sir! we have some rum craft in the whaling ships, but I
don't think any thing so sluggish as the Resolute.' Howsomdever, they
gets put to it now and then. Why, it was only last year, we were down
on the south-west fishing-ground: about the 10th of October, it came on
to blow, sir, from the southward, and sent in a sea upon us, which
nearly drowned us: we tried to keep an offing, but it was no use; we
couldn't show a rag; every thing was blown away, and it was perishing
cold; but our captain was a smart man, and he said,--'Well, boys, we
must run for Hangman's Cove,[3] altho' it's late in the day; if we
don't, I won't answer where we'll be in the morning."

      [3] Hangman's Cove, a small harbour on the west side of Davis's
      Straits.

"So up we put the helm, sir, to run for a place like a hole in a wall,
with nothing but a close-reefed topsail set, and the sky as thick as
pea-soup. It looked a bad job, I do assure you, sir. Just as it was
dark, we found ourselves right up against the cliffs, and we did not
know whether we were lost or saved until by good luck we shot into dead
smooth water in a little cove, and let go our anchor. Next day a calm
set in, and the young ice made round the ship: we couldn't cut it, and
we couldn't tow the vessel through it. We had not three months'
provisions, and we made certain sure of being starved to death; when
the wind came strong off the land, and, by working for our lives, we
escaped, and went home directly out of the country."

"A cheering tale, this, of the Hangman's Cove," I thought, as I turned
from my Job's comforter; and, satisfying myself that the pack precluded
all chance of reaching Leopold Island for the present, I retired to
rest.

[Headnote: _STEAMING UP BARROWS STRAIT._]

Next day, the 27th of August, found us steering past Cape Hurd, off
which the pack lay at a distance of some ten miles, and, as we ran
westward, and the breadth of clear water gradually diminished, the wind
failed us; although, astern in Lancaster Sound, there was still a dark
and angry sky betokening a war of the elements, whereas where we were
off Radstock Bay--all was calm, cold, and arctic.

"Up steam, and take in tow!" was again the cry; and as the pack, acted
on by the tide, commenced to travel quickly in upon Cape Ricketts, we
slipped past it, and reached an elbow formed between that headland and
Beechey Island. The peculiar patch of broken table-land, called
Caswell's Tower, as well as the striking cliffs of slaty limestone
along whose base we were rapidly steaming, claimed much of our
attention; and we were pained to see, from the strong ice-blink to the
S.W., that a body of packed ice had been driven up the straits by the
late gales.

The sun was fast dipping behind North Devon, and a beautiful moon (the
first we had found any use for since passing Cape Farewell on the 28th
of May) was cheerfully accepted as a substitute, when the report of a
boat being seen from the mast-head startled us and excited general
anxiety. We were then off Gascoigne Inlet, the "Resolute" in tow. The
boat proved to be the "Sophia's," and in her Captain Stewart and Dr.
Sutherland; they went on board the "Resolute," and, shortly afterwards,
the interesting intelligence they then communicated was made known to
me.

It was this,--the "Assistance" and "Intrepid," after they left us, had
visited Wolstenholme Sound, and discovered the winter quarters of
H.M.S. "North Star," but nothing to lead them to place any faith in
Adam Beck's tale: from thence they had examined the north shore of
Lancaster Sound as far as Cape Riley, without discovering any thing; on
landing there, however, numerous traces of English seamen having
visited the spot were discovered in sundry pieces of rag, rope, broken
bottles, and a long-handled instrument intended to rake up things from
the bottom of the sea; marks of a tent-place were likewise visible. A
cairn was next seen on Beechey Island; to this the "Intrepid"
proceeded, and, as rather an odd incident connected with her search of
this spot took place, I shall here mention it, although it was not
until afterwards that the circumstance came to my knowledge.

[Headnote: _TRACES OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN._]

The steamer having approached close under the island, a boat-full of
officers and men proceeded on shore: on landing, some relics of
European visitors were found; and we can picture the anxiety with which
the steep was scaled and the cairn torn down, every stone turned over,
the ground underneath dug up a little, and yet, alas! no document or
record found. Meanwhile an Arctic adventure, natural, but novel to one
portion of the actors, was taking place. The boat had left the
"Intrepid" without arms of any description, and the people on the top
of the cliff saw, to their dismay, a large white bear advancing rapidly
in the direction of the boat, which, by the deliberate way the brute
stopped and raised his head as if in the act of smelling, appeared to
disturb his olfactory nerves. The two men left in charge of the boat
happily caught sight of Bruin before he caught hold of them, and
launching the boat they hurried off to the steamer, whilst the
observers left on the cliff were not sorry to see the bear chase the
boat a short way and then turn towards the packed ice in the offing.
This event, together with some risk of the ice separating the two
vessels, induced the party to return on board, where a general (though,
as was afterwards proved, erroneous) impression had been created on the
minds of the people belonging to the two ships, that what they had
found must be the traces of a retreating or shipwrecked party from the
"Erebus" and "Terror." A short distance within Cape Riley, another
tent-place was found; and then, after a look at the coast up as far as
Cape Innis, the two vessels proceeded across towards Cape Hotham, on
the opposite side of Wellington Channel, having in the first place
erected a cairn at the base of Cape Riley, and in it deposited a
document.

Whilst the "Assistance" and "Intrepid" were so employed, the American
squadron, and that under Captain Penny, were fast approaching. The
Americans first communicated with Captain Ommanney's division, and
heard of the discovery of the first traces of Sir John Franklin. The
Americans then informed Penny, who was pushing for Wellington Channel;
and he, after some trouble, succeeded in catching the "Assistance,"
and, on going on board of her, learnt all they had to tell him, and saw
what traces they had discovered. Captain Penny then returned--as he
figuratively expressed it--"to take up the search from Cape Riley like
a blood-hound," and richly was he rewarded for doing so.

At Cape Spencer he discovered the ground-plan of a tent, the floor of
which was neatly and carefully paved with small smooth stones. Around
the tent a number of bird's bones, as well as remnants of
meat-canisters, led him to imagine that it had been inhabited for some
time as a shooting station and a look-out place, for which latter
purpose it was admirably chosen, commanding a good view of Barrow's
Strait and Wellington Channel; this opinion was confirmed by the
discovery of a piece of paper, on which was written, "to be
called,"--evidently the fragments of an officer's night orders.

Some sledge marks pointed northward from this neighbourhood; and, the
American squadron being unable to advance up the strait (in consequence
of the ice resting firmly against the land close to Cape Innis, and
across to Barlow Inlet on the opposite shore), Lieut. de Haven
despatched parties on foot to follow these sledge marks, whilst Penny's
squadron returned to re-examine Beechey Island. The American officers
found the sledge tracts very distinct for some miles, but before they
had got as far as Cape Bowden, the trail ceased, and one empty bottle
and a piece of newspaper were the last things found in that direction.

Not so Captain Penny's squadron:--making fast to the ice between
Beechey Island and Cape Spencer, in what is now called Union Bay, and
in which they found the "Felix" schooner to be likewise lying, parties
from the "Lady Franklin" and "Sophia" started towards Beechey Island.

[Headnote: _TRACES OF THE LOST EXPEDITION._]

A long point of land slopes gradually from the southern bluffs of this
now deeply interesting island, until it almost connects itself with the
land of North Devon, forming, on either side of it, two good and
commodious bays. On this slope, a multitude of preserved meat-tins were
strewed about, and near them, and on the ridge of the slope, a
carefully constructed cairn was discovered: it consisted of layers of
meat-tins filled with gravel, and placed to form a solid foundation.
Beyond this, and along the northern shore of Beechey Island, the
following traces were then quickly discovered:--the embankment of a
house with carpenter and armourer's working-places, washing-tubs,
coal-bags, pieces of old clothing, rope, and, lastly, the graves of
three of the crew of the "Erebus" and "Terror,"--placing it beyond all
doubt, that the missing ships had indeed been there, and bearing date
of the winter of 1845-46.

We, therefore, now had ascertained the first winter quarters of Sir
John Franklin! Here fell to the ground all the evil forebodings of
those who had, in England, consigned his expedition to the depths of
Baffin's Bay, on its outward voyage. Our first prayer had been granted
by a beneficent Providence; and we had now risen, from doubt and hope,
to a certain assurance of Franklin having reached thus far without
shipwreck or disaster.

Leaving us in high spirits at the receipt of such glorious
intelligence, Captain Stewart proceeded in his boat to search the
coast-line towards Gascoigne Inlet and Caswell's Tower. We continued to
steam on; off Cape Riley a boat was despatched to examine the record
left by the "Assistance;" and, from her, I heard that the "Prince
Albert," which had been ordered by Lady Franklin down Regent's Inlet to
Brentford Bay, had visited the said cairn, deposited a document to say
so, and was gone, I now felt certain, home.

As the "Pioneer" slowly steamed through the loose ice which lay off
Beechey Island, the cairn erected by Franklin's people on the height
above us was an object of deep interest and conversation; and, placed
so conspicuously as it was, it seemed to say to the beating heart,
"Follow them that erected me!"

On rounding the western point, three brigs and a schooner were seen to
be fast to the land ice in Union Bay; and, as we had been in the habit
of almost scraping the cliffs in Baffin's Bay, I, forgetting the
difference between the approach to a granite and a limestone cliff, and
desirous to avoid the stream of ice now pouring out of Wellington
Channel, went too close to the shore, and eventually ran aground; the
"Resolute" just saved herself by slipping the tow-rope, and letting go
an anchor. A rapidly-falling tide soon showed me that I must be patient
and wait until next day, and, as the "Resolute" was in the course of
the night worked into the bay, and secured, we "piped down" for awhile.

_Wednesday, 28th August._--I was awoke by a hearty shake, and Captain
Penny's warm "Good-morning;" he had come out to me towing the "Mary," a
launch belonging to Sir John Ross, in order that I might lighten the
"Pioneer," and offered me the "Sophia" brig, to receive a portion of my
stores, if I would only say it was necessary.

"A friend in need is a friend indeed," and such Captain Penny proved
himself; for my position was far from a pleasant one,--on a hard spit
of limestone, in which no anchor could find holding ground, and, at low
water, five feet less than the draught of the "Pioneer," exposed to all
the set of the ice of the Wellington Channel and Barrow's Strait, with
about another week of the "open season" left.

[Headnote: _FRANKLIN'S WINTER QUARTERS_]

All arrangements having been made to try and float the steamer at high
water, I had time to ask Captain Penny his news; the best part of which
was, that as yet nothing had been found in our neighbourhood to lead to
the inference that any party in distress had retreated from the
"Erebus" and "Terror." He considered the harbour chosen by Franklin for
his winter quarters was an excellent one.

Captain Penny gave no very cheering account of the prospect of a much
farther advance for ourselves: Wellington Channel was blocked up with a
very heavy floe, and Barrow's Strait to the westward was choked with
packed ice; the "Assistance" and "Intrepid" were to be seen off Barlow
Inlet, but their position was far from a secure one; and, lastly, Penny
told me he intended, after the result of a fresh search for a record on
Beechey Island was known, to communicate with the "Assistance," in
order that Captain Ommanney might be fully informed of all that had
been discovered, and that we might learn whether any thing had been
found at Cape Hotham.

On the 29th of August, the "Pioneer," much to my joy, was again afloat,
and fast to the ice in company with the other vessels; and, although my
officers and crew were well fagged out with forty-eight hours' hard
labour, parties of them, myself amongst the number, were to be seen
trudging across the ice of Union Bay towards Franklin's winter
quarters.

It needed not a dark wintry sky nor a gloomy day to throw a sombre
shade around my feelings as I landed on Beechey Island and looked down
upon the bay, on whose bosom once had ridden Her Majesty's ships
"Erebus" and "Terror;" there was a sickening anxiety of the heart as
one involuntarily clutched at every relic they of Franklin's squadron
had left behind, in the vain hope that some clue as to the route they
had taken hence might be found.

From the cairn to the long and curving beach, from the frozen surface
of the bay to the tops of the distant cliffs, the eye involuntarily but
keenly sought for something more than had yet been found.

But, no; as sharp eyes, as anxious hearts, had already been there, and
I was obliged to be content with the information, which my observation
proved to be true, that the search had been close and careful, but that
nothing was to be found in the shape of written record.

On the eastern slope of the ridge of Beechey Island, a remnant of a
garden (for remnant it now only was, having been dug up in the search)
told an interesting tale: its neatly-shaped oval outline, the border
carefully formed of moss, lichen, poppies, and anemones, transplanted
from some more genial part of this dreary region, contrived still to
show symptoms of vitality; but the seeds which doubtless they had sown
in the garden had decayed away. A few hundred yards lower down, a
mound, the foundation of a storehouse, was next to be seen; the
ground-plan was somewhat thus:--

[Illustration: North side, 61-1/2 feet long.

A B. B D.     } Exterior embankments, about four feet through at the
A C. E F.     } base and five feet high, in which posts had been sunk.

K L.          } An interior embankment of same description enclosing
              } a space, supposed store; had marks of posts in it
              } likewise.

C E. and F D. } The doorways.

H.            } Evidently a carpenter's workshop, from the shavings,
                &c.]

It consisted of an exterior and interior embankment, into which, from
the remnants left, we saw that oak and elm scantling had been struck as
props to the roofing; in one part of the enclosed space some coal-sacks
were found, and in another part numerous wood-shavings proved the
ship's artificers to have been working here. The generally received
opinion as to the object of this storehouse was, that Franklin had
constructed it to shelter a portion of his superabundant provisions and
stores, with which it was well known his decks were lumbered on leaving
Whale-Fish Islands.

Nearer to the beach, a heap of cinders and scraps of iron showed the
armourer's working-place; and along an old water-course, now chained up
by frost, several tubs, constructed of the ends of salt-meat casks,
left no doubt as to the washing-places of the men of Franklin's
squadron: happening to cross a level piece of ground, which as yet no
one had lighted upon, I was pleased to see a pair of Cashmere gloves
laid out to dry, with two small stones on the palms to prevent their
blowing away; they had been there since 1846. I took them up carefully,
as melancholy mementoes of my missing friends. In another spot a
flannel was discovered: and this, together with some things lying
about, would, in my ignorance of wintering in the Arctic Regions, have
led me to suppose that there was considerable haste displayed in the
departure of the "Erebus" and "Terror" from this spot, had not Captain
Austin assured me that there was nothing to ground such a belief upon;
and that, from experience, he could vouch for these being nothing more
than the ordinary traces of a winter station, and this opinion was
fully borne out by those officers who had in the previous year wintered
at Port Leopold, one of them asserting that people left winter quarters
too well pleased to escape to care much for a handful of shavings, an
old coal-bag, or a washing-tub. This I from experience now know to be
true.

Looking at the spot on which Penny had discovered a boarding-pike, and
comparing it with a projecting point on the opposite side, where a
similar article had been found with a finger nailed on it as a
direction-post, I concluded that, in a line between these two
boarding-pikes, one or both of the ships had been at anchor, and this
conjecture was much borne out by the relative positions of the other
traces found; and besides this, a small cairn on the crest of Beechey
Island appears to have been intended as a meridian mark, and, if so,
Franklin's squadron undoubtedly lay where I would place it, far and
effectually removed from all risk of being swept out of the bay, which,
by the bye, from the fact of the enclosed area being many times broader
than the entrance of "Erebus and Terror Bay," was about as probable as
any stout gentleman being blown out of a house through the keyhole. In
the one case the stout individual would have to be cut up small, in the
other case the ice would have to be well broken up; and if so, it was
not likely Franklin would allow himself to be taken out of harbour,
_nolens volens_, whilst he had anchors to hook the ground with, and
ice-saws, with which his crews could have cut through _a mile of ice
three feet thick in twenty-four hours_.

[Headnote: _GRAVES OF SEAMEN._]

The graves next attracted our attention; they, like all that English
seamen construct, were scrupulously neat. Go where you will over the
globe's surface, afar in the East, or afar in the West, down amongst
the coral-girded isles of the South Sea, or here where the grim North
frowns on the sailor's grave, you will always find it alike; it is the
monument raised by rough hands, but affectionate hearts, over the last
home of their messmate; it breathes of the quiet church-yard in some of
England's many nooks, where each had formed his idea of what was due to
departed worth; and the ornaments that Nature decks herself with, even
in the desolation of the Frozen Zone, were carefully culled to mark the
dead seamen's home. The good taste of the officers had prevented the
general simplicity of an oaken head and foot-board to each of the three
graves being marred by any long and childish epitaphs, or the doggerel
of a lower-deck poet, and the three inscriptions were as follows:--

    "Sacred to the memory of J. Torrington, who departed this life,
    January 1st, 1846, on board of H.M.S. 'Terror,' aged 20 years."

    "Sacred to the memory of Wm. Braine, R.M., of H.M.S. 'Erebus;' died
    April 3d, 1846, aged 32 years.

    "'Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.'--Josh. xxiv. 15."

    "Sacred to the memory of J. Hartwell, A.B., of H.M.S. 'Erebus;'
    died January 4th, 1846, aged 25 years.

    "'Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways.'--Haggai i. 7."

I thought I traced in the epitaphs over the graves of the men from the
"Erebus," the manly and Christian spirit of Franklin. In the true
spirit of chivalry, he, their captain and leader, led them amidst
dangers and unknown difficulties with iron will stamped upon his brow,
but the words of meekness, gentleness, and truth, were his device. We
have seen his career and we know his deeds!

    "Why should their praise in verse be sung?
    The name that dwells on every tongue
    No minstrel needs."

From the graves, a tedious ascent up the long northern slope of Beechey
Island carried us to the table-land, on whose southern verge, a cairn
of stones, to which I have before referred, was placed; it had been
several times pulled down by different searchers, and dug up
underneath, but carefully replaced. The position was an admirable one,
and appeared as if intentionally chosen to attract the attention of
vessels coming up Barrow's Strait: from it, on the day I was up, the
view was so extensive, that, did I not feel certain of being supported
by all those who have, like myself, witnessed the peculiar clearness,
combined with refraction, of the atmosphere in Polar climes, I should
bear in mind the French adage,--"La verité n'est pas toujours le
vraisemblable," and hold my peace.

To the west, the land of Cornwallis Island stretched up Wellington
Channel for many miles, and Cape Hotham locked with Griffith's Island.
In the south-west a dark mass of land showed Cape Walker, and from Cape
Bunny, the southern shore of Barrow's Strait spread itself until
terminated in the steep wall-like cliffs of Cape Clarence and Leopold
Island.

This latter spot, so interesting from having been the winter quarters
of the late relieving squadron under Sir James Ross, looked
ridiculously close,--to use a seaman's term, it appeared as if a
biscuit might have been tossed upon it; and the thought involuntarily
rose to one's mind,--Would to God that, in 1848, Sir James Ross had
known that within forty miles of him Franklin had wintered.

I have now nearly enumerated all the important points, to which, at all
hours of the day and night, parties from the eight vessels assembled in
Union Bay were constantly wending their way and returning; but around
the whole island there were abundant proofs of the missing expedition
having been no sluggards; for there was hardly a foot of the beach-line
which did not show signs of their having been there before us, either
in shooting excursions or other pursuits, and usually in the shape of a
preserved-meat tin, a piece of rope, or a strip of canvas or rag.

[Headnote: _BEECHEY ISLAND._]

On the eastern extreme of Beechey Island, and under a beetling cliff
which formed the entrance to the bay, a very neatly-paved piece of
ground denoted a tent-place; much pains had been bestowed upon it, and
a pigmy terrace had been formed around their abode, the margin of which
was decorated with moss and poppy plants: in an adjacent gully a
shooting-gallery had been established, as appeared by the stones placed
at proper distances, and a large tin marked "Soup and Bouilli," which,
perforated with balls, had served for a target. I carefully scanned the
flat slabs of slaty limestone, of which the over-hanging cliffs were
formed, in hopes of seeing some name, or date, scratched upon the
surface; some clue, mayhap, to the information we so dearly longed
for,--the route taken by Franklin on sailing hence, whether to Cape
Walker or up Wellington Channel. But, no; the silent cliff bore no
mark; by some fatality, the proverbial love for marking their names, or
telling their tales, on every object, which I have ever found in
seamen, was here an exception, and I turned to my vessel, after three
unprofitable walks on Beechey Island, with the sad conviction on my
mind, that, instead of being able to concentrate the wonderful
resources we had now at hand about Beechey Island in one line of
search, we should be obliged to take up the three routes which it was
probable Franklin might have taken in 1846; viz., S.W. by Cape Walker,
N.W. by Wellington Channel, or W. by Melville Island,--a division of
force tending to weaken the chance of reaching Franklin as quickly as
we could wish, unless circumstances were peculiarly favourable.

Vague reports of some of Captain Penny's people having seen
sledge-marks on the eastern shores of "Erebus and Terror Bay," induced
one of the officers of the "Pioneer" and myself to arrange with Captain
Penny to take a walk in that direction.

Landing on the north shore of Union Bay, at the base of the cliffs of
Cape Spencer, we were soon pointed out a deep sledge-mark, which had
cut through the edge of one of the ancient tide-marks, or terraces, and
pointed in a direct line from the cairn of meat-tins erected by
Franklin, on the northern spur of Beechey Island, to a valley which led
towards the bay between Capes Innis and Bowden. I conceived the trail
to be that of an outward-bound sledge, on account of its depth, which
denoted a heavily-ladened one.

Proceeding onward, our party were all much struck with the
extraordinary regularity of the terraces, which, with almost artificial
parallelism, swept round the base of the limestone cliffs and hills of
North Devon. That they were ancient tidal-marks, now raised to a
considerable elevation above the sea by the upheaval of the land, I was
the more inclined to believe, from the numerous fossil shells,
crustacea, and corallines which strewed the ground. The latter
witnesses to a once more genial condition of climate in these now
inclement regions, carried us back to the sun-blest climes, where the
blue Pacific lashes the coral-guarded isles of sweet Otaheite, and I
must plead guilty to a recreant sigh for past recollections and dear
friends, all summoned up by the contemplation of a fragment of
fossil-coral.

[Headnote: _SLEDGE TRAILS._]

The steep abutment of the cliffs on the north of "Erebus and Terror
Bay," obliged us to descend to the floe, along the surface of which we
rapidly progressed, passing the point on which the pike used by
Franklin's people as a direction-post had been found. At a point where
these said cliffs receded to the N.E., and towards the head of
Gascoigne Inlet, leaving a long strip of low land, which, connecting
itself with the bluffs of Cape Riley, forms the division between
Gascoigne Inlet and "Erebus and Terror Bay," a perfect congery of
sledge-marks showed the spot used for the landing-place, or rendezvous,
of Franklin's sledges.

Some of these sledge-marks swept towards Cape Riley, doubtless towards
the traces found by the "Assistance;" others, and those of
heavily-ladened sledges, ran northward, into a gorge through the hills,
whilst the remainder pointed towards Caswell's Tower, a remarkable mass
of limestone, which, isolated at the bottom of Radstock Bay, forms a
conspicuous object to a vessel approaching this neighbourhood from the
eastward or westward.

Deciding to follow the latter trail, we separated the party in such a
manner, that, if one lost the sledge-marks, others would pick them up.

Arriving at the margin of a lake, which was only one of a series, and
tasted decidedly brackish, though its connection with the sea was not
apparent, we found the site of a circular tent, unquestionably that of
a shooting-party from the "Erebus" or "Terror." The stones used for
keeping down the canvas lay around; three or four large ones, well
blackened by smoke, had been the fire-place; a porter-bottle or two,
several meat-tins, pieces of paper, birds' feathers, and scraps of the
fur of Arctic hares, were strewed about. Eagerly did we run from one
object to the other, in the hope of finding some stray note or record,
to say whether all had been well with them, and whither they had gone.
No, not a line was to be found. Disappointed, but not beaten, we turned
to follow up the trail.

The sledge-marks consisted of two parallel lines, about two feet apart,
and sometimes three or four inches deep into the gravel, or broken
limestone, of which the whole plain seemed to be formed. The difficulty
of dragging a sledge over such ground, and under such circumstances,
must have been great, and, between the choice of evils, the
sledge-parties appeared at last to have preferred taking to the slope
of the hills, as being easier travelling than the stony plain. A
fast-rising gale, immediately in our faces, with thick, driving snow
and drift, suddenly obscured the land about us, and rendered our
progress difficult and hazardous.

After edging to the northward for some time, as if to strike the head
of Gascoigne Inlet, the trail struck suddenly down upon the plain: we
did the same, and as suddenly lost our clue, though there was no doubt
on any of our minds, but that the sledge had gone towards Caswell's
Tower; for us to go there was, however, now impossible, having no
compass, and the snow-storm preventing us seeing more than a few
hundred yards ahead. We therefore turned back walking across the higher
grounds direct for the head of Union Bay, a route which gave us
considerable insight into the ravine-rent condition of this limestone
country, at much cost of bodily fatigue to ourselves. The glaciers in
the valleys, or ravines, hardly deserved the name, after the monsters
we had seen in Baffin's Bay, and, I should think, in extraordinary
seasons, they often melted away altogether, for, in spite of so severe
a one as the present year had been, there was but little ice remaining.

The gale raged fiercely as the day drew on, and, on getting sight of
Wellington Channel, the wild havoc amongst the ice made us talk
anxiously of that portion of our squadron which was now on the opposite
or lee side of the channel, as well as the American squadron that had
pushed up to the edge of the fixed ice beyond Point Innis.

Seven hours' hard walking left us pretty well done up by the time we
tumbled into our boat, and, thanks to the stalwart strokes of Captain
Stewart's oar, we soon reached the "Pioneer," and enjoyed our dinner
with more than the usually keen appetite of Arctic seamen.

[Headnote: _WELLINGTON CHANNEL._]

Such were the traces found in and about Franklin's winter quarters: one
good result had arisen from, their discovery,--the safe passage of
Franklin across the dangers of Baffin's Bay was no longer a question;
this was a certainty, and it only remained for us to ascertain which
route he had taken, and then to follow him.

Wellington Channel engrossed much attention; the Americans, with true
go-ahead spirit, watched the ice in it most keenly. The gallant
commander of their expedition, De Haven, had already more than once
pushed his craft up an angle of water north of Point Innis; his second,
Mr. Griffin, in the "Rescue," was hard at work obtaining angles, by
which to ascertain the fact of Wellington Channel being a channel or a
fiord, a point as yet undecided, for there was a break in the land to
the N.W. which left the question still at issue.

Captain Penny, with his vessels, got under weigh one day, and ran over
towards the "Assistance," as far as the pack would allow him, and then
despatched an officer with a boat to communicate our intelligence as
well as his own; a sudden change of weather obliged Penny to return,
and the boat's crew of the "Lady Franklin," on their way back, under
Mr. John Stuart, underwent no small risk and labour. They left the
"Assistance" to walk to their boat, which had been hauled on the ice; a
thick fog came on; the direction was with difficulty maintained; no
less than eleven bears were seen prowling around the party; the boat
was found by mere accident, and, after fourteen hours' incessant
walking and pulling, Mr. Stuart succeeded in reaching the "Lady
Franklin."

Through him we learnt that Cape Hotham and the neighbourhood of Barlow
Inlet showed no sign of having been visited by Franklin, that the pack
was close home against the land, and that the "Assistance" and
"Intrepid" had been subject to some pressure, but were all safe and
sound.

Almost every hour during our detention in Union Bay, large flights of
wild fowl, principally geese and eider ducks, flew past us, as if they
had come down Wellington Channel, and were making away to the
southward; this certain indication of approaching winter was not to be
mistaken, and we anxiously counted the hours which kept flitting past,
whilst we were chained up in Union Bay.

South-easterly winds forced the pack tighter and tighter in Wellington
Channel, and once or twice it threatened to beset us even in Union Bay;
and on the 31st of August our position was still the same, the
Americans being a little in advance, off Point Innis.

From the 1st to the 4th of September, we lay wishing for an opening,
the Americans working gallantly along the edge of the fixed ice of
Wellington Channel, towards Barlow Inlet.

September the 5th brought the wished-for change. A lead of water.
Hurrah! up steam! take in tow! every one's spirits up to the
high-top-gallant of their joy; long streaks of water showing across
Wellington Channel, out of which broad floe-pieces were slowly sailing,
whilst a hard, cold appearance in the northern sky betokened a
northerly breeze.

[Headnote: _THE WHITE WHALE._]

With the "Resolute" fast astern, the "Pioneer" slipped round an
extensive field of ice; as it ran aground off Cape Spencer, shutting
off in our rear Captain Penny's brigs and the "Felix," another mass of
ice at the same time caught on Point Innis, and, unable to get past it,
we again made fast, sending a boat to watch the moment the ice should
float, and leave us a passage to the westward. Whilst thus secured, we
had abundant amusement and occupation in observing the movements of
shoals of white whales. They were what the fishermen on board called
"running" south, a term used to express the steady and rapid passage of
the fish from one feeding-ground to the other. From the mast-head, the
water about us appeared filled with them, whilst they constantly rose
and blew, and hurried on, like the birds we had lately seen, to better
regions in the south. That they had been north to breed was undoubted,
by the number of young "calves" in every shoal. The affection between
mother and young was very evident; for occasionally some stately white
whale would loiter on her course, as if to scrutinize the new and
strange objects now floating in these unploughed waters, whilst the
calf, all gambols, rubbed against the mother's side, or played about
her. The proverbial shyness of these fish was proved by our fishermen
and sportsmen to be an undoubted fact, for neither with harpoon nor
rifle-ball could they succeed in capturing any of them.

It was a subject of deep interest and wonder to see this migration of
animal life, and I determined, directly leisure would enable me, to
search the numerous books with which we were well stored, to endeavour
to satisfy my mind with some reasonable theory, founded upon the
movements of bird and fish, as to the existence of a Polar ocean or a
Polar continent.

A sudden turn of tide, which floated the ice that had for some hours
been aground on Point Innis and Cape Spencer, and carried it out of
Wellington Channel, which favourable tide I therefore conjectured to be
the flood, enabled the "Pioneer" and "Resolute" to start across
Wellington Channel, towards Barlow Inlet.

Northward of us, ran, almost in a straight line, east and west, the
southern edge of a body of ice, which we then imagined, in our
ignorance, to be _fixed_, extending northward,--aye, to the very pole;
for in the rumour of it being a mere fiord, or gulf, I had no belief,
nor any one else who crossed it in our ships. The day was beautifully
clear, and a cold, hard sky enabled us to see the land of North
Somerset most distinctly, though thirty to forty miles distant; and yet
nothing appeared resembling land in the northern part of Wellington
Channel. More than one of us regretted the prospect of this yet
unsearched route remaining so, and the racing mania for Melville Island
and Cape Walker bore for all of us this day its fruit--unavailing
regret.

A fresh and favourable gale from the northward raised our spirits and
hopes, late as it now was in the season, and already, with the
adventurous feelings of seamen, we began to calculate what distance
might yet be achieved, should the breeze but last for two or three
days. The space to be traversed, even to Behring's Straits, was a mere
nothing; and all our disappointments, all our foiled anticipations,
were forgotten, in the light-heartedness brought about by a day of open
water and a few hours of a fair wind. As we rattled along the lane of
blue water which wound gracefully ahead to the westward, the shores of
Cornwallis Island rapidly revealed themselves, and offered little that
was striking or picturesque. One uniform tint of russet-brown clothed
the land, as the sun at eight in the evening sunk behind the ice-bound
horizon of Wellington Channel.

Novel and striking as were the colours thrown athwart the cold, hard
sky by the setting orb, I thought with a sigh of those gay and
flickering shades which beautify the heavens in the tropics, when the
fierce sun sinks to his western rest. No gleams of purple and gold lit
up the hill-tops; no fiery streaks of sunlight streamed across the
water, or glittered on the wave. No! all was cold and silent as the
grave. In heaven alone there appeared sunshine and vitality:--it was
rightly so. Frost was fast claiming its dominion, for, with declining
sunlight, the space of water between the pack and the floe became a
sheet of young ice, about the one-eighth of an inch in thickness.

[Headnote: _CROSSING WELLINGTON CHANNEL._]

The "Assistance" and "Intrepid" were gone, it was very evident; but the
American squadron was observed in Barlow Inlet. As we approached them,
at two o'clock in the morning, they were to be seen firing muskets. We
therefore put our helms down, and performed, by the help of the screw,
figures of eight in the young ice, until a boat had communicated with
Commander De Haven, from whom we learned that one of his vessels was
aground in the inlet, and that it was no place for us to go into,
unless we wanted to remain there. The passage to the westward, round
Cape Hotham, was likewise blocked up, and no alternative remained but
to make fast to the floe to the north of us. This was done, and just in
time; for a smart breeze from the S.E. brought up a great deal of ice,
and progress in any direction was impossible.

I had now time to observe that the floe of Wellington Channel, instead
of consisting of a mass of ice (as was currently reported) about eight
feet in thickness, did not in average depth exceed that of the floes of
Melville Bay, although a great deal of old ice was mixed up with it, as
if a pack had been re-cemented by a winter's frost; in which case, of
course, there would be ice of various ages mixed up in the body; and
much of the ice was lying crosswise and edgeways, so that a person
desirous of looking at the Wellington Channel floe, as the accumulation
of many years of continued frost, might have some grounds upon which to
base his supposition. A year's observation, however, has shown me the
fallacy of supposing that in deep-water channels floes continue to
increase in thickness from year to year; and to that subject I will
return in a future chapter, when treating of Wellington Channel.

The closing chapter of accidents, by which the navigation of 1850 was
brought to a close by the squadrons in search of Sir John Franklin, is
soon told.

The "Resolute" and "Pioneer" remained, unable to move, in Wellington
Channel; a northerly gale came on, after a short breeze from the S.E.;
and imagine, kind reader, our dismay, in finding the vast expanse, over
which the eye had in vain strained to see its limit--imagine this field
suddenly breaking itself across in all directions, from some unseen
cause, farther than (as appeared to us) a northerly gale blowing over
its surface, and our poor barks, in its cruel embrace, sweeping out of
Wellington Channel, and then towards Leopold Island. At one time, the
probability of reaching the Atlantic, as Sir James Ross did, stared us
disagreeably in the face, and blank indeed did we all look at such a
prospect.

A calm and frosty morning ushered in the 9th of September. The pack was
fast re-knitting itself, and we were drifting with it, one mile per
hour, to the S.E., when Penny's brigs, that had been seen the day
before crossing to the northward of us, were observed to be running
down along the western shore, with the American squadron ahead of them,
the latter having just escaped from an imprisonment in Barlow Inlet.
About the same time, a temporary opening of the pack enabled the
steam-power again to be brought to bear, and never was it more useful.
The pack was too small and broken for a vessel to warp or heave
through, there was no wind "to bore" through it, and the young ice in
some places, by pressure, was nigh upon six inches thick; towing with
boats was, therefore, out of the question.

The "Resolute" fast astern, with a long scope of hawser, the "Pioneer,"
like a prize-fighter, settled to her work, and went in and won. The
struggle was a hard one,--now through sludge and young ice, which
gradually checked her headway, impeded as she was with a huge vessel
astern--now in a strip of open water, mending her pace to rush at a bar
of broken-up pack, which surged and sailed away as her fine bow forced
through it--now cautiously approaching a nip between two heavy floe
pieces, which time and the screw wedged slowly apart--and then the
subdued cheer with which our crews witnessed all obstacles overcome,
and the Naval expedition again in open water, and close ahead of the
Government one under Penny, and Commander De Haven's gallant vessels,
who, under a press of canvas, were just hauling round Cape Hotham. A
light air and bay-ice gave us every advantage.

[Headnote: _ALL THE VESSELS MEET._]

Next day, in succession, we all came up to the "Assistance" and
"Intrepid," fast at a floe edge, between Cape Bunny and Griffith's
Island. That this floe was not a fixed one we were assured, as the
"Intrepid" had been between it and Griffith's Island, nearly as far as
Somerville Island; but, unhappily, it barred our road as effectually as
if it were so. Penny, with his squadron, failed in passing southward
towards Cape Walker; and Lieutenant Cator, in the "Intrepid," was
equally unsuccessful.

I was much interested in the account of the gallant struggle of the
"Assistance" and "Intrepid" in rounding Cape Hotham. They fairly fought
their way against the ice, which at every east-going tide was sweeping
out of Barrow's Strait, and grinding along the shore. It is most
satisfactory to see that all risks may be run, and yet neither ships
nor crews be lost; and it is but fair to suppose, that, if our ships
incurred such dangers unscathed, the "sweet cherub" will not a jot the
less have watched over the "Erebus" and "Terror." Of course, the
"croakers" say, if the floe had pressed a _little_ more--if the ship
had risen a _little_ less--in fact, if Providence had been a _little_
less watchful--disasters must have overtaken our ships; but when I hear
these "dismal Jemmies" croak, it puts me much in mind of the
midshipman, who, describing to his grandmamma the attack on Jean
d'Acre, after recounting his prowess and narrow escapes, assured the
old lady that Tom Tough, the boatswain's mate, had asserted with an
oath, which put the fact beyond all doubt, that if one of those shot
from the enemy had struck him, he never would have lived to tell the
tale.

From my gallant comrade of the "Intrepid," we heard of the search that
had been made in Wolstenholme Sound, and along the north shore of
Lancaster Sound. In both places numerous traces of Esquimaux had been
seen, at Wolstenholme Sound especially. These were numerous and recent,
and the "Intrepid's" people were shocked, on entering the huts, to find
many dead bodies; the friends, evidently, of our Arctic Highlander,
Erasmus York, who, as I before said, had shipped as interpreter on
board the "Assistance." In Wolstenholme Sound, the cairns erected by
the "North Star" were discovered and visited, and, whilst speaking of
her, it will be as well for me to note, that Captain Penny, on his way
up Lancaster Sound, met the "North Star" off Admiralty Inlet, August
21st, gave Mr. Saunders his orders from England, and told him of the
number of ships sent out to resume the search for Franklin. Captain
Penny left Mr. Saunders under an impression that he was going to Disco,
to land his provisions.

There was one remarkable piece of information, which I noted at the
time, and much wondered at; it was derived from Captain Penny, and the
officers of the "Lady Franklin" and "Sophia." It appears they crossed
Wellington Channel, about ten miles higher up than we did; the ice
breaking away, it will be remembered, and drifting with the "Resolute"
and "Pioneer" to the south. From a headland about twelve miles north of
Barlow Inlet, Captain Penny observed with astonishment that there was
only about ten miles more of ice to the north of his vessels, and then,
to use his own words, "Water! water! large water! as far as I could
see! to the N.W." How this water came there? what was beyond it? were
questions which naturally arose; but it was not until the following
year that the mystery was explained, and we learned, what was only then
suspected, that we had overshot our mark.

[Headnote: _THE COMING ON OF WINTER._]

_Sept. 11th, 1850._--The winter of the Arctic Regions came on us, in
its natural character of darkness, gale, cold, and snow. First, the
wind from the S.E., with a heavy sea, which sent us careering against
the floe-edge, and gave all hands a hard night's work to keep the
anchors in the firm floe, as the edge rapidly broke up, under the
combined effects of sea and shocks from our vessels; then, with a gust
or two, which threatened to blow the sticks out of our craft, the wind
chopped round to the N.W.; and a falling temperature, which Arctic
statistics told us would not, at this season, ever recover itself, said
plainly, that winter quarters alone remained for us.

Happily, the "Intrepid" had discovered a harbour between Cape Hotham
and Martyr, on the south side of Cornwallis Island. This place, and
Union Bay, in Beechey Island, offered two snug positions, from which
operations in the spring with travelling parties could be well and
effectually carried out. Action, action now alone remained for us; and
earnestly did we pray that our leader's judgment might now decide upon
such positions being taken up as would secure all directions--viz. to
the south-west,--north-west and, lastly, west being provided for.

_Sept. 13th._--Found the four vessels of our squadron, and one of
the American brigs,--the "Advance" under Lieutenant De Haven,--all safe
at the floe-edge. The floe had drifted during the gale considerably
towards the shores of North Somerset; and the wedge-shaped island,
called Cape Bunny, was distinctly visible: the other of the American
brigs had, in the height of the gale, blown adrift and disappeared in
the darkness and snow-drift. For her, as well as Her Majesty's brigs
under Captain Penny, much anxiety was entertained. The American leader
of the expedition, I heard, finding farther progress hopeless,
intended, in obedience to his orders, to return to New York. This he
was the more justified in doing, as no preparation or equipment for
travelling-parties had been made by them, and their fittings for
wintering in the Arctic Regions were, compared with ours, very
deficient. The gallant Yankees, however, could not return without
generously offering us provisions, fuel, and stores; and the officers,
with a chivalrous feeling worthy of themselves and the cause for which
they had come thus far, offered to remain out or exchange with any of
"ours" who wanted to return home. We had no space in stowage to profit
by the first offer, nor had enthusiasm yet become sufficiently damped
in us to desire to avail ourselves of the proffered exchange; both were
declined, and it was said that Lieutenant De Haven was told by our
leader, if he could land any thing for us in Radstock Bay as a dépôt,
he might render good service.

Letters were therefore hurriedly closed, letter-bags made up, and
pleasant thoughts of those at home served to cheer us, as, with the
temperature at about zero, and with a fresh breeze, we cast off
together, and worked to the northward, towards Griffith's Island.

[Headnote: _THE AMERICAN SQUADRON._]

Rubbing sides almost with the "Advance," who courteously awaited with
the "Pioneer" the heavy-heeled gambols of the "Resolute," day was
drawing on before the squadron reached Griffith's Island, from the lee
of which the missing American schooner was descried to be approaching.
Lieutenant De Haven now hoisted his colours for home, and backed his
topsail. We did the same; and after a considerable time he bore up with
his squadron for New York, doubtless supposing, from no letters being
sent, that we had none.

It was far otherwise; and throughout the winter many a growl took
place, as a huge pile of undespatched letters would pass before our
sight, and blessings of a doubtful nature were showered on our ill
luck.

To the ice, which extended unbroken from Griffith's Island to Cape
Martyr, we will leave the Naval expedition secured, whilst we briefly
recount the most striking points in connection with the American
expedition that had now left us on its voyage home.

In 1849, Mr. Henry Grinnell, a merchant of the United States, actuated
by the purest philanthropy that ever influenced the heart of man,
determined to devote a portion of his well-deserved wealth to the noble
purpose of relieving Sir John Franklin, who, it was much to be feared,
from the desponding tone of a portion of the English press on Sir James
Ross's failure, was likely to be left unsought for in 1850. He
therefore, at his sole expense, purchased two vessels, one of 140 tons,
the "Advance," the other 90 tons, the "Rescue," and, having
strengthened, provisioned, and equipped them, Mr. Grinnell then placed
them under the control of his Government, in order that they might be
commanded by naval officers and sail under naval discipline. The
American Congress passed the necessary acts, and Lieutenant E. De
Haven, who had seen service in the Antarctic seas, took command of the
"Advance," as the leader of the expedition, and another distinguished
officer, Mr. Griffin, hoisted his pendant in the "Rescue." On the 23d
May, 1850, the two vessels sailed from New York, touching at Disco,
where I am sorry to say they found my worthy friend "Herr Agar" to have
died shortly after my visit; they reached the pack of Melville Bay on
the 7th July, and, tightly beset until the 23d, they did not reach Cape
York until early in August.

The 7th August they reached Cape Dudley Digges! (at that time we were
still beset off Cape Walker in Melville Bay), thence they stood to the
south-west, until they reached the West Water.

On the 18th August, when we had a thick fog and almost a calm off
Possession Bay, the American squadron was in a severe gale in Lancaster
Sound; and on the 25th August, after visiting Leopold Island, the
gallant Americans reached Cape Riley close on the heels of the
"Assistance" and "Intrepid."

From that time we have shown that they lost no opportunity of pushing
ahead; and if progress depended alone upon skill and intrepidity, our
go-ahead friends would have given us a hard tussle for the laurels to
be won in the Arctic regions.

As a proof of the disinterestedness of their motives, men as well as
officers, I was charmed to hear that before sailing from America they
had signed a bond not to claim, under any circumstances, the £20,000
reward the British Government had offered for Franklin's rescue; we, I
am sorry to say, had acted differently. America had plucked a rose from
our brows; but in such generous enterprise, we for the most part felt
that no narrow-minded national prejudices could enter, and I gloried in
the thought that the men who had so nobly borne themselves, as well as
he, the princely merchant who had done his best to assist the widow and
orphan to recover those for whom they had so long hoped and wept, were
men who spoke our language, and came from one parent-stock--a race
whose home is on the great waters.

Looking at my rough notes for the following week, I am now puzzled to
know what we were hoping for; it must have been a second open season in
1850,--a sanguine disposition, no doubt brought about by a break in the
weather, not unlike the Indian summer described by American writers.

[Headnote: _GO INTO WINTER QUARTERS._]

_September 14th._--I went in the "Pioneer," with some others, to see if
the floe had opened a road to the south of Griffith's Island; it had
not, nor did it appear likely to do so this season, though there was
water seen some fifteen miles or so to the westward.

One day the "Assistance" and "Intrepid" started for Assistance Harbour,
to winter there, but came back again, for winter had barred the route
to the eastward as well as westward. One day after this, or rather,
many days, we amused ourselves, with powder, blowing open a canal
astern of the "Resolute," which froze over as quickly as we did it. At
other times, some people would go on the top of the island, and see
oceans of water, where no ship could possibly get to it, and then
others would visit the same spot after a night or two of frost, and,
seeing ice where the others had seen water, asserted most confidently
that the first were exaggerators!

At any rate, September passed; winter and frost had undoubted dominion
over earth and sea; already the slopes of Griffith's Island, and the
land north of us, were covered with snow; the water in sight was like a
thread, and occasionally disappeared altogether. Fires all day, and
candles for long nights, were in general requisition. Some cross-fire
in the different messes was taking place as the individuals suffered
more or less from the cold. Plethoric ones, who became red-hot with a
run up the ladder, exclaimed against fires, and called zero charming
weather; the long and lethargic talked of cold draughts and Sir Hugh
Willoughby's fate; the testy and whimsical bemoaned the impure
ventilation. A fox or two was occasionally seen scenting around the
ships, and a fox-hunt enlivened the floe with men and officers, who
chased the unlucky brute as if they had all come to Griffith's Island
especially for fox-skins; and the last of the feathered tribe, in the
shape of a wounded "burgomaster," shivered, half frozen, as it came for
its daily food.

_October 2d, 1850._--Lieutenant M'Clintock had very properly urged
the necessity of sending travelling parties to forward dépôts of
provisions upon the intended routes of the different parties in 1851:
these were this morning despatched,--Lieutenant M'Clintock, with Dr.
Bradford, carrying out a dépôt towards Melville Island; Lieutenant
Aldrich taking one to Lowther Island, touching at Somerville Island on
the way.

Lieutenant Mecham was likewise sent to examine Cornwallis Island,
between Assistance Harbour and Cape Martyr, for traces of Franklin.

We, who were left behind, felt not a little anxious about these parties
whilst absent, for winter was coming on with giant strides; on the 4th,
frost-bites were constantly occurring, and the sun, pale and bleary,
afforded more light than warmth. Our preparations for winter were
hurried on as expeditiously as possible; and the housing, which, like a
tent, formed a complete covering to our upper decks, afforded great
comfort and shelter from the cold bleak wind without.

[Headnote: _LIEUTENANT MECHAM'S ADVENTURE._]

On the 5th, Lieutenant Aldrich returned from his journey; he had not
been able to go beyond Somerville Island--the sea between it and
Lowther Island being covered with _broken packed ice, half-frozen
sludge, and young ice_. On the 7th, Lieutenant Mecham arrived with
the intelligence that the "Lady Franklin" and "Sophia" were, with the
"Felix," safe in Assistance Harbour. Captain Penny, after his failure
in reaching Cape Walker, had a narrow escape of being beset on the
shores of North Somerset; but by carrying on through the pack, in the
gale of the 11th September, he had happily secured his ships in
excellent winter quarters.

Lieutenant Mecham had an adventure on his outward route, which had some
interesting features: as he was crossing the entrance of a bay, since
named Resolute Bay, he observed a bear amongst some hummocks, evidently
breaking the young ice by a sort of jumping motion; and he then saw
that he and his party had unconsciously left the old ice, and were
travelling over bay-ice, which was bending with the weight of the men
and sledge. Bruin's sagacity here served the seamen in good stead, and
the sledge was expeditiously taken to firmer ice, whilst Mr. M. went in
chase of the bear; having mortally wounded it, the brute rushed to
seaward, and the sportsman only desisted from the pursuit when he
observed the bear fall, and in doing so break through the ice, which
was too weak to sustain its weight.

Captain Penny, on the following day, sent over his dog-sledge to secure
the flesh for his dogs, by which time the unlucky bear was frozen to a
hard and solid mass.

_October 9th._--Lieutenant M'Clintock returned; he had placed his
dépôt forty miles in advance, towards Melville Island,--three days'
imprisonment by bad weather, in the tents, having foiled his hopes of
reaching Bedford Bay in Bathurst Island, where he originally intended
to have reached. This party had, likewise, met water to the westward,
and there was now but little doubt on our minds, that, had the large
field of ice which was blocking the way between Cape Bunny and
Griffith's Island broken up or drifted away, our squadron would have
reached, in all probability, as far as Parry did in '20; but now, the
utmost we could hope to attain in the following year was Melville
Island, which would be our _goal_, instead of our _starting_ point.

Autumn travelling differs, in some measure, from that of the spring. I
will, therefore, give the indulgent reader an account of a short
excursion I made for the purpose of connecting the search from where
Lieutenant Mecham left the coast, to the point at which Lieutenant
M'Clintock had again taken it up; in fact, a bay, facetiously
christened by the seamen (who had learned that newly-discovered places
were forbidden to be named), "Bay, Oh! no we never mention it!" and
"Cape No Name."

My kind friend, Mr. May of the "Resolute," volunteered to accompany me,
and on Thursday, the 10th of October, we started with our tent, a
runner-sledge, and five days' provisions. The four seamen and our two
selves tackled to the drag-ropes, and, with the temperature at 6° above
zero, soon walked ourselves into a state of warmth and comfort.

[Headnote: _RUINS ON CORNWALLIS ISLAND._]

Three hours' sharp dragging brought us to Cape Martyr; ascending the
beach until we had reached a ledge of smooth ice which fringed the
coast within the broken line of the tide-marks, we turned to the
westward, and commenced searching the beach and neighbouring headlands.
I shall not easily efface from my memory the melancholy impression left
by this, my first walk on the desolate shores of Cornwallis Island.
Like other things, in time the mind became accustomed to it; and, by
comparison, one soon learned to see beauties even in the sterility of
the North.

[Illustration: Horizontal Section, 20 feet circumference.]

[Illustration: Vertical Section, 5 feet 6 inches high.]

Casting off from the sledge, I had taken a short stroll by myself along
one of the terraces which, with almost artificial regularity, swept
around the base of the higher ground behind, when, to my astonishment,
a mass of stone-work, and what at first looked exactly like a cairn,
came in view; it required no spur to make me hasten to it, and to
discover I was mistaken in supposing it to have been any thing
constructed so recently as Franklin's visit. The ruin proved to be a
conical-shaped building, the apex of which had fallen in. Its
circumference, at the base, was about twenty feet, and the height of
the remaining wall was five feet six inches. Those who had constructed
it appeared well acquainted with the strength of an arched roof to
withstand the pressure of the heavy falls of snow of these regions; and
much skill and nicety was displayed in the arrangement of the slabs of
slaty limestone, in order that the conical form of the building might
be preserved throughout.

We removed the stones that had fallen into the building, but found
nothing to repay our labour; indeed, from the quantity of moss adhering
to the walls, and filling up the interstices of the masses which formed
the edifice, I conjectured it was many years since it was constructed,
though it would be impossible to guess when it was last inhabited; for,
at Pond's Bay, I observed the remains of the native habitations to have
the appearance of extreme old age and long abandonment, although, from
the fresh seal-blubber _cachés_, there was not a doubt of the Esquimaux
having been there the previous winter.

A mile beyond this ruin we halted for the night. Four of us (for, in
Arctic travelling, officer and man are united by the common bond of
labour) erected the tent over a space which we had cleared of the
larger and rougher pieces of limestone, leaving what was called a soft
spot as our castle and bedroom. One man, who dubbed himself cook for
the day, with a mate, whose turn it would be to superintend the kitchen
on the morrow, proceeded to cook the dinner. The cooking apparatus was
a boat's stove, eighteen inches long, and nine inches broad, in which
lignum vitæ was used as fuel.

Water having first to be made from ice and snow, and then boiled in the
open air, the process was not an expeditious one, and I took my gun and
struck inland; whilst Mr. May, in an opposite direction, made for a
point of land to the westward.

[Headnote: _A WINTER'S EVENING._]

No pen can tell of the unredeemed loneliness of an October evening in
this part of the polar world: the monotonous, rounded outline of the
adjacent hills, as well as the flat, unmeaning valleys, were of one
uniform colour, either deadly white with snow or striped with brown
where too steep for the winter mantle as yet to find a holding ground.
You felt pity for the shivering blade of grass, which, at your feet,
was already drooping under the cold and icy hand that would press it
down to mother earth for nine long months. Talk of "antres vast and
deserts idle,"--talk of the sadness awakened in the wanderer's bosom by
the lone scenes, be it even by the cursed waters of Judea, or afflicted
lands of Assyria,--give me, I say, death in any one of them, with the
good sun and a bright heaven to whisper hope, rather than the solitary
horrors of such scenes as these. The very wind scorned courtesy to such
a repulsive landscape, and as the stones rattled down the slope of a
ravine before the blast, it only recalled dead men's bones, and motion
in a catacomb. A truce, however, to such thoughts--May's merry
recognition breaks the stillness of the frosty air. He has been to the
point, and finds it an island; he says--and I vow he means what he
says--that May Island is a beautiful spot! it has grass and moss upon
it, and traces of game: next year he intends to bag many a hare there.
Sanguine feelings are infectious; I forget my own impressions, adopt
his rosy ones, and we walk back to our tent, guided by the smoke,
plotting plans for shooting excursions in 1851!

"Pemmican is all ready, sir!" reports our Soyer. In troth, appetite
need wait on one, for the greasy compound would pall on moderate taste
or hunger. Tradition said that it was composed of the best rump-steaks
and suet, and cost 1s. 6d. per pound, but we generally voted it
composed of broken-down horses and Russian tallow. If not sweet in
savour, it was strong in nourishment, and after six table-spoonfuls,
the most ravenous feeder might have cried, hold! enough!

Frozen pork, which had been boiled on board the ship, was quite a
treat, and decidedly better than cold, thawed pork could have been;
this, with plenty of biscuit and a "jolly hot" basin of tea, and, as
one of the seamen observed, "an invitation to Windsor would have been
declined." The meal done, the tent was carefully swept out, the last
careful arrangement of the pebbles, termed "picking the feathers," was
made, and then a water-proof sheet spread, to prevent our warm bodies,
during the night, melting the frozen ground and wetting us through.
Then every man his blanket bag, a general popping thereinto of the legs
and body, in order that the operation of undressing might be decently
performed, the jacket and wet boots carefully arranged for a pillow;
the wolf-skin robes,--Oh, that the contractor may be haunted by the
aroma of the said robes for his life-time!--brought along both over and
under the party, who lie down alternately, head and feet in a row,
across the tent. Pipes are lighted, the evening's glass of grog served
out; and whilst the cook is washing up, and preparing his things ready
for the morning meal, as well as securing the food on the sledges from
foxes, or a hungry bear, many a tough yarn is told, or joke made, which
keep all hands laughing until the cook reports all right, comes in,
hooks up the door, tucks in the fur robe; and seven jolly mortals, with
a brown-holland tent over their heads, and a winter's gale without, try
to nestle their sides amongst the softest stones, and at last drop into
such a sleep as those only enjoy who drag a sledge all day, with the
temperature 30° below freezing point.

[Headnote: _AUTUMNAL TRAVELLING._]

Friday morning, at seven o'clock, we rolled up our beds, or rather
sleeping-bags, stowed the sledge, drank boiling hot chocolate, and
gnawed cheerily at frozen pork and biscuit; the weather beautiful,
calm, and very cold, below zero, we started, skirting round the bay. By
noon a gale sprung up, sending a body of icy spiculæ against our faces,
causing both pain and annoyance. Two mock suns for the first time were
seen to-day. At noon we sat down under the lee of our sledge, and
partook of a mouthful of grog and biscuit, and again marched rapidly
towards "Cape No Name!" By the evening we had marched fourteen miles,
the entire circuit of the bay, without observing any trace of Franklin
having visited the neighbourhood; and as frost-bites began to attack
our faces, we erected our tent as expeditiously as possible, and in it
took shelter from the wind and cold. The pungent smoke of the lignum
vitæ kept us weeping, as long as the cooking went on; and between the
annoyance of it, the cold, and fatigue, we all dropped off to sleep,
indifferent to a falling temperature, prowling bears, or a violent
gale, which threatened to blow us from the beach on which we had
pitched our fluttering tent.

Next day, my work being done, we struck homeward for the squadron, and
reached it the same evening, the said 12th of October being the last
autumnal travelling of our squadron.

The following week the temperature rallied a little, and the weather
was generally finer; our preparations for wintering were nearly
completed, and the poor sickly sun barely for two hours a day rose
above the heights of Griffith's Island.

To our great joy, on the 17th of October, Captain Penny came over from
Assistance Harbour. He had happily decided on taking up the search of
Wellington Channel; and an understanding was come to, that his squadron
should carry out the travelling operations next spring on that route,
whilst our squadron accomplished the farthest possible distance towards
Melville Island, and from Cape Walker to the south-west.

Captain P. expressed it as his opinion that the Americans had not
escaped out of Barrow's Strait, in consequence of a sudden gale
springing up from the southward, shortly after they had passed his
winter quarters. This supposition we of course afterwards found to be
true, although at the time we all used to speak of the Americans as
being safe and snug in New York, instead of drifting about in the ice,
within a few miles of us, as was really the case.

With Penny's return to his vessels, may be said to have closed all the
Arctic operations of the year 1850. Our upper decks were now covered
in; stoves and warming apparatus set at work; boats secured on the ice;
all the lumber taken off the upper decks, to clear them for exercise in
bad weather; masts and yards made as snug as possible; rows of posts
placed to show the road in the darkness and snow-storms from ship to
ship; holes cut through the ice into the sea, to secure a ready supply
of water, in the event of fire; arrangements made to insure cleanliness
of ships and crews, and a winter routine entered upon, which those
curious in such matters may find fully detailed in Parry's "First
Voyage," or Ross's "Four Years in Boothia."

The building of snow-walls, posts, houses, &c., was at first a source
of amusement to the men, and gave them a great field in which to
exercise their skill and ingenuity. People at home would, I think, have
been delighted to see the pretty and tasteful things cut out of snow:
obelisks, sphinxes, vases, cannon, and, lastly, a stately Britannia,
looking to the westward, enlivened the floe, and gave voluntary
occupation to the crews of the vessels. These, however, only served for
a while; and as the arctic night of months closed in, every one's wits
were exerted to the utmost to invent occupation and entertainment for
our little community.

[Headnote: _AN ARCTIC PRAYER._]

On November the 8th, two officers ascended the heights of Griffith's
Island, and at noontide caught the last glimpse of the sun, as it
happened to be thrown up by refraction, though in reality it was
seventeen miles below our horizon. We were now fairly about to undergo
a dark, arctic winter, in 74-1/2 degrees of north latitude; and
light-hearted and confident as we felt in our resources of every
description, one could not, when looking around the dreary scene which
spread around us on every side, but feel how much our lives were in His
hands who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb; and wanting must he have
been in feeling who did not offer up a heartfelt prayer that returning
day and returning summer might find him able and fit to undergo the
hardship and fatigue of journeys on foot, to seek for his long-lost
fellow-seamen. On leaving England, amongst the many kind, thoughtful
presents, both public and private, none struck me as being more
appropriate than the following form of prayer:--

    A PRAYER FOR THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

    "O Lord God, our Heavenly Father, who teachest man knowledge, and
    givest him skill and power to accomplish his designs, we desire
    continually to wait, and call, and depend upon Thee. Thy way is in
    the sea, and Thy paths in the great waters. Thou rulest and
    commandest all things. We therefore draw nigh unto Thee for help in
    the great work which we now have to do.

    "Leave us not, we beseech Thee, to our own counsel, nor to the
    imaginations of our own foolish and deceitful hearts: but lead us
    by the way wherein we should go, that discretion may preserve us,
    and understanding may keep us. Do Thou, O Lord, make our way
    prosperous, and give us Thy blessing and good success. Bring all
    needful things to our remembrance; and where we have not the
    presence of mind, nor the ability, to perform Thy will, magnify Thy
    power in our weakness. Let Thy good providence be our aid and
    protection, and Thy Holy Spirit our Guide and Comforter, that we
    may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body,
    and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul.
    Endue us with such strength and patience as may carry us through
    every toil and danger, whether by sea or land; and, if it be Thy
    good pleasure, vouchsafe to us a safe return to our families and
    homes.

    "And, as Thy Holy Word teaches us to pray for others, as well as
    for ourselves, we most humbly beseech Thee, of Thy goodness, O
    Lord, to comfort and succour all those who are in trouble, sorrow,
    need, sickness, or any other adversity, especially such as may now
    be exposed to the dangers of the deep, or afflicted with cold and
    hunger. Bestow upon them Thy rich mercies, according to their
    several wants and necessities, and deliver them out of their
    distress. They are known to Thee by name, let them be known of Thee
    as the children of Thy grace and love. Bless us all with Thy
    favour, in which is life, and with all spiritual blessings in
    Christ Jesus; and grant us so to pass the waves of this troublesome
    world, that finally we may come unto Thy everlasting kingdom. Grant
    this, for Thy dear Son's sake, Jesus Christ our Lord. _Amen._"

While touching on a religious point connected with our expedition, I
must say, that as yet we have not in the Navy a single good set of
sermons adapted to interest and instruct the seamen. The commander, or
commanding officer, of a man-of-war usually reads, in the absence of
the chaplain, the Divine Service on Sundays. We, of course, did not
fail to do so; but I never saw an English sailor who would sit down and
listen attentively to the discussion of some knotty text, exhibiting
far more ingenuity on the part of some learned commentator, than
simplicity and clearness adapted to plain, uninformed minds: in a
future expedition, and, indeed, in the Navy generally, it is to be
hoped this deficiency will be remedied. Sermons in the pure and
Christianlike tone of Porteus's Lent Lectures, I would humbly recommend
as a guide for those who may be inclined to take the good work in hand.

[Headnote: _WINTER OCCUPATIONS._]

A theatre, a casino, and a saloon, two Arctic newspapers, one of them
an illustrated one, evening-schools, and instructive lectures, gave no
one an excuse for being idle. The officers and men voluntarily imposed
on themselves various duties in connection with the different
departments; one was scene-painter, and under his talented pencil the
canvas glowed with pictures one almost grieved to see thus employed.
Decorators and statuaries produced effects which, with such limited
means, were really astounding; vocalists and musicians practised and
persevered until an instrumental band and glee-club were formed, to our
general delight; officers and men sung who never sang before, and
maybe, except under similar circumstances, will never sing again;
maskers had to construct their own masks, and sew their own dresses,
the signal flags serving in lieu of a supply from the milliner's; and,
with wonderful ingenuity, a fancy dress ball was got up, which, in
variety and tastefulness of costume, would have borne comparison with
any one in Europe.

Here, editors floundered through a leader, exhibiting French ingenuity,
in saying their say without bringing themselves within the grasp of the
censors; here, rough contributors, whose hands, more accustomed to the
tar-brush than the pen, turned flowing sentences by the aid of old
miscellanies and well-thumbed dictionaries. There, on wooden stools,
leaning over long tables, were a row of serious and anxious faces,
which put one in mind of the days of cane and birch,--an Arctic school.
Tough old marines curving "pot-hooks and hangers," as if their very
lives depended on their performances, with an occasional burst of
petulance, such as, "D---- the pen, it won't write! I beg pardon, sir;
this 'ere pen will splutter!" which set the scholars in a roar. Then
some big-whiskered top-man, with slate in hand, reciting his
multiplication-table, and grinning at approval; whilst a "scholar," as
the cleverest were termed, gave the instructor a hard task to preserve
his learned superiority.

In an adjoining place, an observer might notice a tier of attentive,
upturned faces, listening, like children to some nursery-tale. It was
the first lieutenant of the "Resolute," my much-loved, faithful friend;
he was telling them of the deeds of their forefathers in these regions.
Parry's glorious pages open by his side, he told those stern men with
tender hearts, of the sufferings, the enterprise, the courage, and the
reward of imperishable renown exhibited and won by others. The
glistening eye and compressed lip showed how the good seed had taken
root in the listeners around, and every evening saw that sailor
audience gather around him whom they knew to be the "gallant and true,"
to share in his feelings and borrow from his enthusiasm.

[Headnote: _WINTER SCENERY._]

For some time after the sun had ceased to visit our heavens, the
southern side of the horizon, for a few hours at noon, was strongly
illumined, the sky being shaded, from deep and rosy red through all the
most delicate tints of pink and blue, until, in the north, a cold
bluish-black scowled angrily over the pale mountains, who, in widowed
loneliness, had drawn their cowls of snow around, and, uncheered by the
roseate kiss of the bridegroom sun, seemed to mourn over the silence
and darkness at their feet. Such was a fine day in November, and
through the gray twilight the dark forms of our people, as they
traversed the floe, or scaled the cliffs of Griffith's Island, or,
maybe, occasionally hunted a bear, completed the scene.

Charmed as we were with the evanescent colouring of our sky on a fine
day, it was in loveliness far surpassed by the exceeding beauty of
Arctic moonlight. Daylight but served to show the bleakness of frozen
sea and land; but a full, silvery moon, wheeling around the zenith for
several days and nights, threw a poetry over every thing, which reached
and glowed in the heart, in spite of intense frost and biting breeze.
At such a time we were wont to pull on our warm jackets and seal-skin
caps, and, striding out upon the floe, enjoy to the utmost the
elasticity of health and spirits with which we were blest under so
bracing a climate. There, with one's friend, the mutual recognition of
Nature's beauties and congratulations, at being there to witness it,
richly rewarded us for our isolation from the world of our fellow-men;
and general enthusiasm had its full sway as, from the heights of
Griffith's Island, we looked down on our squadron, whose masts alone
pierced the broad white expanse over Barrow's Strait, and threw long
shadows across the floe. The noble mission for which they had been sent
into the north was ever present to us, and away instinctively flew our
thoughts to our gallant friends in the "Erebus" and "Terror:" thus
alternately elated and saddened, we enjoyed, with earnest feelings, the
wondrous scene around us.

Imagine yourself, dear reader, on the edge of a lofty table-land,
which, dipping suddenly at your feet, sloped again to the sea of ice,
at a distance of some 500 feet below; fancy a vast plain of ice and
snow, diversified by tiers of broken-up ice and snow-wreaths, which,
glistening on the one side, reflected back the moonlight with an
exceeding brilliancy, whilst the strong shadow on the farther side of
the masses threw them out in strong relief; four lone barks, atoms in
the extensive landscape,--the observers' home,--and beyond them, on the
horizon, sweeping in many a bay, valley, and headland, the coast of
Cornwallis Island, now bursting upon the eye in startling distinctness,
then receding into shadow and gloom, and then anon diversified with
flickering shades, like an autumnal landscape in our own dear land, as
the fleecy clouds sailed slowly across the moon,--she the while riding
through a heaven of deepest blue, richly illuminated by the
constellations of the northern hemisphere, wheeling around the Polar
Star like armies in review,--and say if the North has not its charms
for him who can appreciate such novel aspects of Nature.

If you still doubt it, let us descend the adjacent ravine, formed as if
some giant hand had rent the firm cliff from crown to basement; stand
we now at its upper entrance, where it slopes away to the table-land
behind,--didst ever see a sight more wildly beautiful? The grim and
frowning buttresses on either hand, too steep for even the snow-flake
to rest upon, whilst over its brow a pigmy glacier topples with
graceful curve, or droops in many an icy wreath and spray, threatening
us with destruction as we slide down the sharp declivity. Now, with
many a graceful curve, the gorge winds down to the frozen sea, a
glimpse of which forms the background to the lower entrance. Observe
how the snow, which, by wintry gales, has been swept into the ravine,
has hardened into masses, resembling naught so much as a fierce rapid
suddenly congealed; and then look overhead, to a deep blue sky,
spangled with a million spheres; if thou couldst have seen this, and
much more than pen or tongues can tell, and not admire it, then I say,

            "God help thee,
    Thou hast reason to be sad."

[Headnote: _OPEN WATERS IN BARROW'S STRAIT._]

As late as the 18th of November, water, in a broad lane, was seen to
the S.E. from the extreme of Griffith's Island, showing the pack to be
in motion in Barrow's Strait, a belief we otherwise arrived at from the
frequent appearance of a water-sky in the same direction, especially
after spring-tides or strong N.W. gales. A few bears, perhaps eight in
all, visited our ships during the closing period of 1850, showing they
did not hibernate immediately the sun disappeared; indeed, so long as
there was water near us, they would find seal, their usual, perhaps
their only, food. And, apart from the appearance of water in our
immediate neighbourhood, we were convinced that Lancaster Sound was
still open, from the sudden rise of the temperature of the air,
whenever the wind drew to that quarter; and, what was more
extraordinary still, whenever the wind was from the northward, a black
vapour, a certain indication of water, was seen to be rolling past Cape
Hotham out of Wellington Channel: could that have been open so long
after the sea in our neighbourhood was closed?

However, to return to the bears. Whenever an unlucky brute was seen,
the severe competition as to who should possess his skin, entailed no
small risk of life upon the hunters as well as the proprietor of the
coveted prize; and crossing the line of fire was recklessly performed,
in a manner to have shocked an "Excellent" gunner or a Woolwich
artilleryman. Discretion was the better part of Ursine valour, and one
brute was alone bagged, although a good many were very much frightened;
the frequent chases, and constant failures, giving rise to much
quizzing on the part of the unsportsmanlike, and learned dissertations
by the Nimrods upon the rules to be observed in bear-shooting. As
instances of what risks the community ran, whilst the furor for skins
was at its height, I will merely say, that two unconscious mortals who
had got on a hummock to see around, were mistaken in the twilight for
bears, and stood fire from a rifle, which, happily for them, on this
occasion, missed its mark; and one day, a respectable individual,
trotting among the snow ridges, was horrified to see on a piece of
canvas, in large letters, "Beware of spring-guns!" Picture to oneself
the person's feelings. How was he to escape? The next tread of his
foot, and, maybe, off into his body might be discharged the murderous
barrel secreted for a bear. Fate decreed otherwise; the alarmed seaman
escaped; and the spring-gun was banished to some lonely ravine, from
which the proprietor daily anticipated a dead bear, and I, a dead
shipmate; some of whom, pining for forlorn damsels at home, were led to
sentimentalize in retired places.

My captain of the forecastle, whose sporting propensities I have
elsewhere noted, cured me of a momentary mania for trophies of the
chase, thus: a large bear and cub, after coming towards the "Pioneer,"
for some time halted, and were fired at by three officers with guns: of
the three barrels only one went off, wounding the cub, which, with its
mother, made for Griffith's Island. I chased, followed by some of the
men, the foremost of whom was my ancient mariner, who kept close to my
heels, urging me on by declaring we were fast catching the brutes. We
decidedly had done so. By the time I reached the island, and both bears
were within shot, climbing up, with cat-like agility, the steep face of
the cliffs, again and again I failed to get my gun off; and as the
she-bear looked at one time inclined to come down and see who the
bipeds were that had chased her, I looked round at my supporters, who
were vehemently exclaiming that "we should have her in a minute!" They
consisted of Old Abbot, armed with a snow-knife, and some men who ran,
because they saw others doing so. Now, a snow-knife consists of nothing
more than a piece of old iron beaten out on an anvil so as to cut snow,
having an edge, which, when I anxiously asked if it was sharp, I was
figuratively told, "The owner, John Abbot, could have ridden to the
devil upon it without injury to his person." Yet, with this, I verily
believe, the old seaman would have entered the list against the teeth
and talons of Mistress Bruin. I objected, however, and allowed her to
escape with becoming thankfulness.

[Headnote: _CHRISTMAS-DAY ON BOARD._]

Christmas-day was, of course, not forgotten, and our best, though
humble fare was displayed in each of the vessels. Hospitality and
good-fellowship, however, were not confined to this day alone; and had
not the bond of friendship, which knit the officers and men of the
squadron together, taught them the necessity of sharing the little they
had, the open-handed liberality of our hospitable leader would have
done so. At his table, petty differences, professional heart-burnings,
and quarter-deck etiquette, were forgotten and laid aside. A liberal
and pleasant host made merry guests; and amongst the many ways in which
we strove to beguile the winter of 1850-51, none have more agreeable
recollections than his dinner-parties.

It may not here be out of place to describe the ordinary clothing worn,
as yet, by officers and men: the temperature ranging often as low as
35° below zero, with strong gales:--

    _Clothing when indoors._

    1 Flannel shirt with sleeves.
    1 Cotton        ditto.
    1 Waistcoat with sleeves, lined with flannel.
    1 Drawers flannel.
    1 Pair trowsers, box-cloth, lined with flannel.
    1 Pair thick stockings.
    1 Do. thin ditto.
    1 Horse-hair sole.
    1 Pair carpet boots.

    _Additional for walking_.

    Box-cloth pea jacket.
    Welsh wig.
    Seal-skin cap.
    Beaver-skin mitts.
    Shawl or comfortable.
    Men with tender faces required a cloth face-cover in the wind.

_January, 1851._--That we were all paler, was perceptible to every one;
but only a few had lost flesh. A very little exercise was found to tire
one very soon, and appetites were generally on the decrease. For four
hours a-day, we all, men and officers, made a point of facing the
external air, let the temperature be what it would; and this rule was
carefully adhered to, until the return of the sun naturally induced us
to lengthen our excursions. Only on three occasions was the weather too
severe for communication between the vessels, and the first of these
occurred in the close of December and commencement of January. To show
one's face outboard, was then an impossibility; the gale swept before
it a body of snow higher than our trucks, and hid every thing a few
yards off from sight. The "Resolute," three hundred yards off, was
invisible; and the accumulation of snow upon our housing, threatened to
burst it in. The floe seemed to tremble as the gale shrieked over its
surface, and tore up the old snow-drifts and deposited them afresh. A
wilder scene man never saw: it was worthy of the Arctic regions, and a
fit requiem for the departing year.

[Headnote: _AURORAS AND CLOUDLESS SKIES._]

After one of these gales, walking on the floe was a work of much
difficulty, in consequence of the irregular surface it presented to the
foot. The snow-ridges, called sastrugi by the Russians, run (where
unobstructed by obstacles which caused a counter-current) in parallel
lines, waving and winding together, and so close and hard on the edges,
that the foot, huge and clumsy as it was with warm clothing and thick
soles, slipped about most helplessly; and we, therefore, had to wait
until a change of wind had, by a cross drift, filled up the ridges thus
formed, before we took long walks; and on the road between the vessels
parties were usually employed mending the roads.

With one portion of the phenomena of the North Sea, we were
particularly disappointed--and this was the aurora. The colours, in all
cases, were vastly inferior to those seen by us in far southern
latitudes, a pale golden or straw colour being the prevailing hue; the
most striking part of it was its apparent proximity to the earth. Once
or twice the auroral coruscations accompanied a moon in its last
quarter, and generally previous to bad weather. On one occasion, in
Christmas-week, the light played about the edge of a low vapour which
hung at a very small altitude over us; it never, on this occasion, lit
up the whole under-surface of the said clouds, but formed a series of
concentric semicircles of light, with dark spaces between, which waved,
glistened, and vanished, like moonlight upon a heaving, but unbroken
sea.

At other times, a stream of the same coloured vapour would span the
heavens through the zenith, and from it would shoot sprays of pale
orange colour for many hours; and then the mysterious light would again
as suddenly vanish.

Clouds may have been said to have absented themselves from our sky for
at least two months of the winter; the heavens, the stars, and moon,
were often obscured, but it invariably appeared to be from snow-drift
rather than from a cloudy sky. Snow fell incessantly, even on the
clearest day, consisting of minute spiculæ, hardly perceptible to the
eye, but which accumulated rapidly, and soon covered any thing left in
the open air for a few minutes. With returning daylight, and the
promise of the sun, clouds again dotted the southern heavens, and
mottled with beautiful mackerel skies the dome above us.

The immense quantity of snow which in a gale is kept suspended in the
air by the action of the wind, and is termed drift, quite astounded us;
and on two occasions, with north-westerly gales, we had a good
opportunity of noting its accumulation. The "Pioneer" and "Intrepid"
laying across the wind, the counter-current caused a larger deposition
around us than elsewhere. On the first occasion, after the wind
subsided, we found a snow-wreath along the weather-side of the vessel
for a length of one hundred and eighty feet, about eleven feet deep in
the deepest part, and sloping gradually away for one hundred yards.
After weighing a cubic foot of the snow, I calculated that, at the
lowest computation, the mass thus deposited in twenty-four hours was
not less than four hundred tons in weight! How the floe bore the
pressure seemed unaccountable to me; but it did around the "Pioneer,"
although that near the "Intrepid" broke down, and the water flowed up
above the snow, forming it rapidly into ice.

Much later in the winter--indeed in the month of March--a succession of
furious gales quite smothered us; the drift piled up as high as the top
of the winter housing, which was fifteen feet above the deck, and then
blew over to leeward, filling up on that side likewise; whilst we,
unable to face the storm without, could only prevent the housing from
being broken in, by placing props of planks and spars to support the
superincumbent weight. We had actually to dig our way out of the
vessel; and I know not how we should have freed the poor smothered
craft, had not Nature assisted us, by the breaking down of the floe.
This at first threatened to injure and strain the "Pioneer," for,
firmly held as she was all round, the vessel was immersed some two feet
deeper than she ought to have been by the subsiding ice. We set to
work, however, to try and liberate her, when one night a series of loud
reports awakened me, and the quarter-master at the same time ran down
to say, in his quaint phraseology, that "she was a going off!" a fact
of which there was no doubt, as, with sudden surges, the "Pioneer"
overcame the hold the floe had taken of her poor sides, and after some
time she floated again at her true water-line; while the mountain of
snow around us had sunk to the level of the floe, and at first formed
enormously thick ice; but this in time, by the action of the
under-currents of warm water, reduced itself to the ordinary thickness
of the adjoining floe.

[Headnote: _WINTER EMPLOYMENTS._]

Before we enter upon the subject of returning spring, and the new
occupations and excitement which it called forth, let me try to convey
an idea of a day spent in total darkness, as far as the sun was
concerned.

Fancy the lower deck and cabins of a ship, lighted entirely by candles
and oil lamps; every aperture by which external air could enter, unless
under control, carefully secured, and all doors doubled, to prevent
draughts. It is breakfast-time, and reeking hot cocoa from every
mess-table is sending up a dense vapour, which, in addition to the
breath of so many souls, fills the space between decks with mist and
fog. Should you go on deck (and remember you go from 50° above zero to
40° below it, in eight short steps), a column of smoke will be seen
rising through certain apertures called ventilators, whilst others are
supplying a current of pure air. Breakfast done,--and, from the jokes
and merriment, it has been a good one,--there is a general pulling on
of warm clothing, and the major part of the officers and men go on
deck. A few remain, to clean and clear up, arrange for the dinner, and
remove any damp or ice that may have formed in holes or corners during
the sleeping hours. This done, a muster of all hands, called
"divisions," took place. Officers inspected the men, and every part of
the ship, to see both were clean, and then they dispersed to their
several duties, which at this severe season were very light; indeed,
confined mainly to supply the cook with snow to melt for water, keeping
the fire-hole in the floe open, and sweeping the decks. Knots of two or
three would, if there was not a strong gale blowing, be seen taking
exercise at a distance from the vessels; and others, strolling under
the lee, discussed the past and prophesied as to the future. At noon,
soups, preserved meats, or salt horse, formed the seamen's dinner, with
the addition of preserved potatoes, a treat which the gallant fellows
duly appreciated. The officers dined somewhat later--2 P.M. A little
afternoon exercise was then taken, and the evening meal, of tea, next
partaken of. If it was school night, the voluntary pupils went to their
tasks, the masters to their posts; reading men producing their books,
writing men their desks, artists painted by candle-light, and cards,
chess, or draughts, combined with conversation, and an evening's glass
of grog, and a cigar or pipe, served to bring round bed-time again.

[Headnote: _MASK BALLS._]

Monotony was our enemy, and to kill time our endeavour: hardships there
was none: for all we underwent in winter quarters, in the shape of
cold, hunger, or danger, was voluntary. Monotony, as I again repeat,
was the only disagreeable part of our wintering at Griffith's Island.
Some men amongst us seemed in their temperament to be much better able
to endure this monotony than others: and others who had no source of
amusement--such as reading, writing, or drawing--were much to be
pitied. Nothing struck one more than the strong tendency to talk of
home, and England: it became quite a disease. We, for the most part,
spoke as if all the most affectionate husbands, dutiful sons, and
attached brothers, had found their way into the Arctic expeditions.
From these maudlins, to which the most strong-minded occasionally gave
way, we gladly sought refuge in amusements,--such as theatres and
balls. To give an idea of the zest with which all entered these
gayeties, I will recount a list of the characters assumed by the
officers, at the first fancy dress ball.

    Capt. Austin       _Old Chairs to mend._
          Ommanney     _Mayor of Griffith's Island._
    Lieut. Aldrich     _Fancy dress._
           Cator       _Old English Gentleman._
           M'Clintock  _Blue Demon._
           Osborn      _Black Domino._
           Brown       _Red Devil._
           Mecham      _Blue and White Domino._
    Dr. Donnet         _A Lady, then a Friar._
        Bradford       _A Capuchin._
        Ward           _A Beadle._
    Mr. King           _Jockey._
        Rearse         _Smuggler._
        May            _Roman Soldier._
        Hamilton       _A Spinster._
        Eds            _Spanish Dancing Girl._
        Markham        _As Allegory._
        Cheyne         _Miss Maria._
        M'Dougall      _Vivandiere._
        Lewis          _Farmer Wapstraw._
    Mr. Allard         _Mahomet Ali._
        Webb           _Bedouin Arab._
        Harwood        _Miss Tabitha Flick._
        Allen          _Greenwich Pensioner._
        Brooman        _Punch._
        Crabbe         _Sir Charles Grandison._
        Richards       _A Scot._

Whilst pirates, Turks, gipsies, and ghosts, without number, chequered
the ball-room.

These our amusements; but the main object of our coming to the North
was kept constantly in view, and nothing that labour or ingenuity could
devise towards the successful accomplishment of our mission was
wanting.

Some turned their attention to obtaining information for the general
good, upon all that related to travelling in frozen regions; others
plodded through many a volume, for meteorological information upon
which to arrange a safe period of departure for the travellers in the
spring; others tried to found some reasonable theory as to the
geography of the unexplored regions around us; whilst a portion more
actively employed themselves in bringing into action divers practical
means of communicating with our missing country-men which had been
supplied to us in England.

Rockets, in the calm evenings of early winter, were fired with great
effect; in proof of which, signals were several times exchanged, both
in the autumn and spring, between Assistance Harbour and our squadron,
by the aid of these useful projectiles, although the distance was
twenty miles.

[Headnote: _ROCKETS.--BALLOONS._]

The balloons, however, as a more novel attempt for distant signalizing,
or, rather, intercommunication, were a subject of deep interest. The
plan was simple, and ingenious; the merit of the idea, as applicable to
the relief of Sir John Franklin, by communicating to him intelligence
of the position of the searching parties, being due to Mr. Shepperd,
C.E. It was as follows: a balloon of oiled silk, capable of raising
about a pound weight when inflated, was filled with hydrogen evolved
from a strong cask, fitted with a valve, in which, when required for
the purpose, a certain quantity of zinc filings and sulphuric acid had
been introduced. To the base of the balloon, when inflated, a piece of
slow match, five feet long, was attached, its lower end being lighted.
Along this match, at certain intervals, pieces of coloured paper and
silk were secured with thread, and on them the information as to our
position and intended lines of search were printed. The balloon, when
liberated, sailed rapidly along, rising withal, and, as the match
burnt, the papers were gradually detached, and, falling, spread
themselves on the snow, where their glaring colours would soon attract
notice, should they happily fall near the poor fellows in the "Erebus"
and "Terror."

Every care was taken to despatch these balloons with winds from the
southward and south-east, so that the papers might be distributed to
the north and north-west, and westward. Fire-balloons, of which there
were a few, were likewise despatched; but the impression in my own mind
is, that the majority of the balloons despatched by us, after rising to
some height, were carried by counter-currents--always the most
prevalent ones at the cold season of the year--to the southward and
south-west. On two occasions I distinctly saw the balloons, when
started with S.E. winds, pass for a while to the N.W., and then, at a
great altitude, alter their course under the influence of a contrary
current, and pass as rapidly to the S.E., in the teeth of the light
airs we had on the floe.

The farthest distance from the point of departure at which any of these
papers were found, as far as I know, appears to have been within fifty
miles. The "Assistance" despatched some from near Barlow Inlet, which
were picked up on the opposite side of Wellington Channel north of Port
Innis. Neither this, however, nor our non-discovery of any papers
during our travelling in 1851, can be adduced as a proof against their
possible utility and success; and the balloons may still be considered
a most useful auxiliary.

Next--indeed we should say before the balloons--as a means of
communication, came carrier-pigeons. When first proposed, in 1850, many
laughed at the idea of a bird doing any service in such a cause; and,
maybe, might have laughed yet, had not a carrier-pigeon, despatched by
Capt. Sir John Ross, from his winter quarters in 1850, actually reached
its home, near Ayr, in Scotland, in five days. In our expedition none
of these birds had been taken; but on board the "Felix" Sir John Ross
had a couple of brace. I plead guilty, myself, to having joined in the
laugh at the poor creatures, when, with feathers in a half-moulted
state, I heard it proposed to despatch them from Beechey Island, in 74
degrees N. and 92 degrees W., to the meridian of Greenwich and 56
degrees N. latitude, even though they were slung to a balloon for a
part of the journey. At any rate it was done, I think, on the 6th
October, 1850, from Assistance Harbour. Two birds, duly freighted with
intelligence, and notes from the married men, were put in a basket,
which was attached to a balloon in such a manner, that, after
combustion of a certain quantity of match, the carrier-pigeons would be
launched into the air to commence their flight. The idea being that
they would fetch some of the whaling vessels about the mouth of
Hudson's Straits; at least so I heard. The wind was then blowing fresh
from the north-west, and the temperature below zero.

When we in the squadron off Griffith's Island heard of the departure of
the mail, the opinion prevalent was, the birds would be frozen to
death. We were mistaken; for, in about one hundred and twenty hours,
one of these birds, as verified by the lady to whom it had originally
belonged, reached her house, and flew to the nest in which it had been
hatched in the pigeon-house. It had, however, by some means or other,
shaken itself clear of the packet entrusted to its charge. This
marvellous flight of three thousand miles is the longest on record;
but, of course, we are unable to say for what portion of the distance
the bird was carried by the balloon, and when or where liberated; that
depending upon the strength and direction of the gale in which the
balloon was carried along.

[Headnote: _CARRIER-PIGEONS.--KITES._]

Kites, which the kind Mr. Benjamin Smith had supplied me with, both as
a tractile power to assist us in dragging sledges, as well as a means
of signalizing between parties, afforded much interest, and the success
of our experiments in applying them to dragging weights was so great,
that all those I was able to supply gladly provided themselves with so
useful an auxiliary to foot-travellers. Experience, however, taught us
how impossible it was to command a fair wind, without which they were
useless weight, and in severe weather there was some danger, when
handling or coiling up the lines, of having to expose the hands and
being frost-bitten.

My attempts failed to despatch the kites with a weight attached
sufficient to keep a strain on the string, and so keep the kite aloft,
whilst at the same time it was enabled to proceed through the air in
any direction I chose; for, as may be conceived, a little too much
weight made the kite a fixture, whilst a little too little, or a sudden
flaw of wind, would topple the kite over and bring it to the earth. As
a means of signalizing between ships when stationary, the flying of
kites of different colours, sizes, or numbers, attached one to the
other, would, I am sure, in the clear atmosphere of the Arctic regions,
be found wonderfully efficacious.

Lastly, we carried out, more I believe from amusement than from any
idea of being useful, a plan which had suggested itself to the people
of Sir James Ross's expedition when wintering in Leopold Harbour in
1848-49, that of enclosing information in a collar, secured to the
necks of the Arctic foxes, caught in traps, and then liberated. Several
animals thus entrusted with despatches or records were liberated by
different ships; but, as the truth must be told, I fear in many cases
the next night saw the poor "postman," as Jack facetiously termed him,
in another trap, out of which he would be taken, killed, the skin taken
off, and packed away, to ornament, at some future day, the neck of some
fair Dulcinea. As a "sub," I was admitted into this secret mystery, or
otherwise, I with others might have accounted for the disappearance of
the collared foxes by believing them busy on their honourable mission.
In order that the crime of killing the "postmen" may be recognized in
its true light, it is but fair that I should say, that the brutes,
having partaken once of the good cheer on board or around the ships,
seldom seemed satisfied with the mere empty honours of a copper collar,
and returned to be caught over and over again. Strict laws were laid
down for their safety, such as an edict that no fox taken alive in a
trap was to be killed: of course no fox was after this taken alive;
they were all unaccountably dead, unless it was some fortunate wight
whose brush and coat were worthless: in such case he lived either to
drag about a quantity of information in a copper collar for the rest of
his days, or else to die a slow death, as being intended for Lord
Derby's menagerie.

The departure of a postman was a scene of no small merriment: all
hands, from the captain to the cook, were out to chase the fox, who,
half frightened out of its wits, seemed to doubt which way to run;
whilst loud shouts and roars of laughter, breaking the cold, frosty
air, were heard from ship to ship, as the fox-hunters swelled in
numbers from all sides, and those that could not run mounted some
neighbouring hummock of ice, and gave a view halloo, which said far
more for robust health than for tuneful melody.

[Headnote: _DESULTORY OCCUPATIONS._]

During the darker period of the winter, and when the uncertainty of the
weather was such that, from a perfect calm and clear weather, a few
hours would change the scene to a howling tempest and thick drift, in
which, if one had been caught, death must inevitably have followed,
great care was necessary in taking our walks, to prevent being so
overtaken; but, nevertheless, walks of seven or eight miles from the
vessels were, on several occasions, performed, and a severe temperature
faced and mastered with perfect indifference. I remember well on the
13th January seeing mercury, in a solid mass, with a temperature of 40°
below zero, and being one of a good many who had taken three hours hard
walking for mere pleasure.

We joked not a little at the fireside stories at home, of bitter cold
nights, and being frozen to death on some English heath: it seemed to
us so incredible that people should be frost-bitten, because the air
was below freezing point; whilst we should have hailed with delight the
thermometer standing at zero, and indeed looked forward to such a state
of our climate, as people in the temperate zone would to May sunshine
and flowers.

With the increasing twilight, many an anxious eye was cast from the top
of Griffith's Island, to see the prospect of good foot-travelling
offered by the floe: it cannot have been said to be cheering, for
broken and hummocky ice met the eye whichever way one looked, with here
and there a small smooth space; and if it looked so from the heights,
we knew full well that when actually amongst those hummocks, the
travelling would be arduous indeed. There was some time yet, however,
to elapse before the tussle commenced; and many a snow-storm had time
meanwhile to rage. With seamen's sanguineness, we trusted that they
would fill up the hollows, and help to smooth over the broken pack; any
way, we all knew "a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether,"
would master more difficulties than as yet had shown themselves in the
Arctic regions.

Such were our occupations, such the amusements, such the hopes and
fears of our winter quarters off Griffith's Island; and looking back
now at that period, we happily forget its dreariness, and recollect
only its brighter moments--the fast friendship there formed for many,
the respect and admiration for all.

_February 7th, 1851._--The stentorian lungs of the "Resolute's"
boatswain hailed, to say the sun was in sight from the mast-head; and
in all the vessels the rigging was soon manned to get the first glimpse
of the returning god of day. Slowly it rose, and loud and hearty cheers
greeted the return of an orb whom the world, without the frozen zone,
does not half appreciate, because he is always with them. For
ninety-six days it had not gladdened us, and now its return put fresh
life into our night-wearied bodies. For a whole hour we feasted
ourselves with admiring the sphere of fire, which illumined without
warming us; and, indeed, the cold now increased rather than otherwise,
and our lowest temperature and severest weather did not occur until
March.

[Headnote: _PREPARATIONS FOR TRAVELLING._]

Preparations for spring travelling were now hastened; daily committees
of officers met, by order, to discuss every point, and receive,
approve, or reject proposals and plans. Every soul, high and low,
exerted his ingenuity and abilities to invent articles, portable and
useful for travellers; whilst others sent in to the leader of the
expedition schemes of search, in which distances, directions, weights,
and material were duly considered. Hopes rose high, as every one felt
that the field was thrown open to individual ability and skill. Every
one, naturally, (for orders "to put the men in training" did not come
out until afterwards,) commenced to "harden up" for the labour before
them. Zealous individuals might be daily seen trying all sorts of
patents. Out of their hard-earned wages some of the men bought and made
sails of peculiar cut for their sledges; others, after the "working
hours" were over, constructed water-bottles, velocipedes, cooking-tins;
in fact, neither pains nor trouble were spared--officers and men vying
in zeal.

Early in March an interchange of visits between our squadron and that
under Captain Penny opened the communication. His vessels had got
through the winter equally well with ourselves, and he, in like manner,
was hard at work, preparing for the foot journeys; and, as no sledges
or other equipment had been brought by him from England, in consequence
of his hurried departure, every nerve had to be strained, and every
resource called into existence, to enable him to overcome his
difficulties in lack of material.

On the 8th of March, at 11 A.M., the temperature in the shade having
been a couple of hours previously at 41° below zero, and mercury solid
in the open air, we were delighted to see a solitary drop of water
trickle down the black paint of the "Pioneer's" side: at that moment,
oddly enough, the temperature in the shade was 36°--, and in the sun
the thermometer only rose to 2° below zero! Water, however, it
undoubtedly was, and as such we cheerfully hailed it, to prove the
increasing heat of the sun, and to promise a coming summer. All March
was a scene of constant business, diversified with sledge parades and
amusing military evolutions, recalling to our minds unpleasant
recollections of sweltering field-days and grand parades.

Having briefly touched upon the leading incidents connected with our
winter, and brought events up to the preparations for a search on foot,
it may not here be out of place to give a brief sketch of the causes
which had brought about the necessity for so many Englishmen to be
sojourning in these inclement regions, as well as occasioned the voyage
of that distinguished navigator whose squadron we hoped to rescue.

The seamen of Northern Europe, the Norsemen and Scandinavians, seem,
from the earliest records extant, to have sought for the glory
attendant upon braving the perils of Polar Seas. From A.D. 860 to 982,
from the sea-rover Naddod's discovery of Iceland, to Eirek "of the Red
Hand's" landing on Greenland, near Hergolf's Ness, neither wreck,
disaster, nor tempest, checked the steady, onward march of their
explorations; robbing, as they eventually did a century afterwards, the
immortal Genoese of one half his honours, by actually landing, under
the pirate Biarni, on the new continent south of the river St.
Lawrence.

In Greenland, a hardy race, the descendants of the Northland warriors,
appear to have multiplied; for, in A.D. 1400, a flourishing colony
stood on this threshold of the new world; converted to Christianity,
the cathedral of Garda had been constructed, and the archives in
Iceland proved it to have been successively held by no less than
seventeen bishops; the colonies were known under the general terms of
East and West Bygd (Bight), and numbered in all sixteen parishes, and
two hundred and eighty farms, numerously populated.

[Headnote: _NORTH-WEST DISCOVERY._]

Strict commercial monopoly, and the naturally secluded position of the
Scandinavian colony in Greenland, seemed to have occasioned its perfect
decadence, or, otherwise, as traditions tell us, a sudden hostile
inroad of the Esquimaux swept off the isolated Europeans: from either
cause there remained, after the lapse of two centuries, but the
moss-covered ruins of a few churches, some Runic inscriptions, and the
legends of the Esquimaux, who talked of a tall, fair-haired race, their
giants of old.

The heirloom of the northern pirates, the dominion of the sea, passed,
however, into England's hands, and with it that same daring love of the
difficult and unknown, which had led the Viking from conquest to
conquest: and whilst southern Europe sought for the wealth of the
Indies in the more genial regions of the south, English seamen pushed
their barks to the west, in the boisterous seas of high northern
latitudes. Confining myself purely to those who essayed the passage to
Cathay Cipango, and the Indies, by the north-west, first on the
glorious scroll stands Frobisher. That sturdy seaman of Elizabeth's
gallant navy, on the 11th of July, 1576, with three craft, whose united
burden only amounted to _seventy-five tons_,--this "proud admiral"
sighted the east coast of Greenland, in 61° north latitude. Unable to
approach it for ice, which then, as now, hampers the whole of that
coast, he was next blown by a gale far to the south-west on to the
coast of Labrador, reaching eventually to 63° north latitude, and
landing in Frobisher's Straits. He extricated his vessels with
difficulty, and returned home, carrying a quantity of mica, which was
mistaken for gold; and awakening the cupidity of the court, nobles, and
merchants, three more expeditions sailed, exhibiting laudable courage
and skill, but adding little to our geographical knowledge.

Such a succession of miscarriages damped the ardour for north-west
discovery for a while; until, in 1535, "divers worshipful merchants of
London, and the West country, moved by the desire of advancing God's
glory, and the good of their native land," equipped "John Davis" for a
voyage of discovery to the unknown regions of the north-west.

Piteous as were his hardships--doleful as were his tales of the "lothsome
view of y^e shore, and y^e irksome noyse of y^e yce," "y^e stinking fogs
and cruelle windes" of Desolation Land--the seamen of that day seemed
each to have determined to see and judge for himself, and ably were they
supported by the open-handed liberality of wealthy private individuals,
and the corporation of London merchants; whose minds, if we may judge of
them by such men as Sir John Wolstenholme, Digges, Jones, and others,
soared far above Smithfield nuisances and committees on sewers. After
Davis we see Waymouth, then Hudson, who perished amid the scenes of his
hardships and honours. Captains Button and Bylot, followed by the ablest,
the first of Arctic navigators--Baffin,--he sweeping, in one short
season, round the great bay which records his fame, showed us of the
present day the high-road to the west; and did more; for he saw more of
that coast than we modern seamen have yet been able to accomplish.
Lastly, in that olden time, we have the sagacious and quaint Nor-West
Fox, carrying our flag to the head of Hudson's Bay; whilst James's
fearful sufferings in the southern extreme of the same locality,
completed, for a while, the labours of British seamen in these regions.

[Headnote: _ENGLISH N.W. DISCOVERIES._]

A lull then took place, perhaps occasioned by the granting of a charter
to certain noblemen and merchants in 1668, under the title of "Governor
and Company of Adventurers of England," trading into Hudson's Bay, with
the understanding that the discovery of a north-west passage was to be
persevered in by them. During a century, they accomplished, by their
servants, "Hearne and Mackenzie,"--the former in 1771, and the latter
in 1789,--the tracing of the Copper-mine and the Mackenzie rivers to
their embouchures into an arctic sea in the 70° parallel of north
latitude; whilst a temporary interest, on the part of Great Britain,
during the reign of George the Third, occasioned two names, dear to
every seaman's recollection, to be associated with the accomplishment
of geographical discovery in the same direction: the one was Nelson,
who served with Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, in his
attempt to pass over the Pole; and the other, the greatest of English
navigators--Cook, who, in 1776, failed to round the American continent
by coming to the eastward from Behring's Straits.

At the commencement of the current century, our knowledge of the
northern coast of the American continent amounted to a mere fraction.
On the west, Cook had hardly penetrated beyond Behring's Straits; and
on the east, Hudson's and Baffin's Bay formed the limit of our
geographical knowledge; except at two points, where the sea had been
seen by Hearne and Mackenzie.

Shortly after the Peace, one whose genius and ability were only to be
equalled by his perseverance, the late Sir John Barrow, Secretary of
the Admiralty, turned his attention to Arctic discovery, and especially
the north-west passage. He had himself been to Spitzbergen, and as far
north as the 80th parallel of latitude. Combating the prejudiced,
convincing the doubtful, and teaching the ignorant, he awakened
national pride and professional enterprise in a cause in which English
seamen had already won high honours, and Great Britain's glory was
especially involved. What difficulties he mastered, and how well he was
seconded by others, and none more so than by the enlightened First Lord
of the Admiralty, Viscount Melville, Sir John Barrow himself has told,
in the able volumes which imperishably chronicle the deeds of ancient
and modern explorers in Polar regions. Since 1818, with the exception
of Sir John Ross's first voyage, we may have been said to have
constantly added to our knowledge of the north-west.

It was in 1819 that Parry sailed to commence that magnificent series of
discoveries which, since completed by Franklin, Richardson, Beechey,
the Rosses, Back, Simpson, and Rae, have left us, after thirty-five
years of well-spent toil and devotion, in perfect possession of the
geographical features of Arctic America, and added _three thousand
six hundred and eighty miles_ of coast-line to our Polar charts. Is
this nothing? If the mere _quid pro quo_ is required of public
servants, surely the Arctic navigator has far better repaid to his
country the pay and food he has received at her hands than those who,
in a time of universal peace, idle through year after year of foreign
service in her men-of-war; and most assuredly, if we are proud of our
seamen's fame and our naval renown, where can we look for nobler
instances of it than amongst the records of late Arctic voyages and
journeys. The calm, heroic sufferings of Franklin,--always successful,
let the price be what it would; the iron resolution of Richardson;
Back's fearful winter march to save his comrades; the devoted Hepburn,
who, old though he be, could not see his former leader perish without
trying to help him, and, whilst I write these lines, is again braving
an Arctic winter in the little "Prince Albert;" Parry, who knew so well
to lead and yet be loved; James Ross, of iron frame, establishing, by
four consecutive years of privation and indomitable energy, that high
character which enabled him to carry an English squadron to the
unvisited shores of Victoria Land at the southern pole; and lastly, the
chivalrous men, who, again under Franklin, have launched, in obedience
to their Queen and country, into the unknown regions between the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, to execute their mission or fall in the
attempt.

[Headnote: _NORTH-WEST DISCOVERY._]

It was to save these devoted servants, that the spring of 1851 saw full
500 British and American seamen within the frigid zone. That portion of
them that had come by Baffin's Bay had been so far successful in their
mission, that they had dispelled all the visions--gratuitous enough--of
Franklin having perished by shipwreck or other disaster in his passage
across the bay.

We had seen his winter quarters; we had seen his lookout posts, and the
trail of his explorations. They all said, Onward! To be sure, we did
not at once know by which route he had gone onward. The uncertainty,
however, gave a spur to those about to be engaged in the searching
parties, and each man thought there were especial reasons for believing
one particular route to be the true one. The majority--indeed all those
who gave the subject any consideration--believed Franklin to have gone
either by Cape Walker, or to the north-west by Wellington Channel.

Hope, thank God, rode high in every breast, and already did the men
begin to talk of what they would do with their new shipmates from the
"Erebus" and "Terror" when they had them on board their respective
ships: and I have no doubt they would have done as one gallant fellow
replied, when I asked him if he thought himself equal to dragging 200
lbs., "O yes, sir, and Sir John Franklin too, when we find him."

Increasing light, decreasing cold, plenty to do, and certain
anticipations upon each man's part, that he would be the fortunate one
to find and save Franklin, made the month of April come in on us before
we had time to think of it, but not before we were ready.

The original intention was for the sledges to have started on the
different routes laid down by our commodore on the 8th of April; but a
fall of temperature on the 6th altered this plan, and a delay of one
week was decided upon. I therefore availed myself of the occasion to
visit Captain Penny's winter quarters; proceeding there on the
dog-sledge of Mr. Petersen, who happened to be on board our vessel at
the time.

Nothing, I conceive, can be more exhilarating than dog-sledging in the
Arctic regions on a fine day, especially when, as in my case, the whole
affair has the charm of novelty. The rattling pace of the dogs, their