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diff --git a/24891.txt b/24891.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..62da080 --- /dev/null +++ b/24891.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7092 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal;, by Sherard Osborn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal; + or, Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, in Search of Sir + John Franklin's Expedition, in the Years 1850-51 + +Author: Sherard Osborn + +Release Date: March 21, 2008 [EBook #24891] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRAY LEAVES FROM ARCTIC JOURNAL *** + + + + +Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: In the line + + "We sailed by Fairl[=e]e, by Beach[=e]y, and Dung[)e]ness," + +[=e] represents the letter "e" with a macron above it and [)e] +represents an "e" with a breve above it. + +The symbol "^" in y^e indicates that the "e" is printed as a +superscript. + + + + +STRAY LEAVES + +FROM + +AN ARCTIC JOURNAL; + +OR, + +Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, + +IN SEARCH OF + +SIR JOHN FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION, + +IN THE YEARS 1850-51. + + + +BY LIEUT. SHERARD OSBORN, + +COMMANDING H.M.S. VESSEL, "PIONEER." + + + +_DEDICATED TO LADY FRANKLIN._ + + + +New York: + +GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 10 PARK PLACE + +M. DCCC. LII. + + + + +DEDICATION. + + +Accept, my dear Lady Franklin, these few pages, as the warm and honest +tribute of deserved admiration for yourself and estimable niece, Miss +Sophia Cracroft--admiration, which I delight in, in common with +thousands, that such as you are Englishwomen; and pride, that a +sailor's wife should so nobly have fulfilled her duty; for, if, on the +one hand, the name of Sir John Franklin, that chief "_sans peur et sans +reproche_," is dearly associated with our recollections of the honours +won in the ice-bound regions of the Pole, your names are not the less +so, with the noble efforts made to rescue, or solve the fate of our +missing countrymen. + +That those sacrifices, those untiring exertions, that zeal which has +never wavered, that hope so steadfast, since it is that of an +Englishwoman for her husband, that patience under misconstruction, that +forgiveness for the sneer of jealousy, and that pity for the malicious, +which you have so pre-eminently displayed, may yet, by God's help, one +day reap its reward in the accomplishment of your wishes, is the +fervent prayer of + +SHERARD OSBORN. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +I fear with the many of my cloth, my crime in writing a book will be an +unpardonable one; the more so, that I cannot conscientiously declare, +that it has been at the urgent desire of my friends, &c., that I have +thus made my debut. + +My motive is twofold: to tell of the doings of a screw steam-vessel, +the first ever tried in the Polar regions, and by a light, readable +description of incidents in the late search for Sir John Franklin, to +interest the general reader and the community at large upon that +subject. Without fear, favour, or affection, I have told facts as they +have occurred; and I trust have, in doing so, injured no man. A journal +must necessarily be, for the most, a dry narration of facts; I have, +therefore, thrown in here and there general observations and remarks +founded upon such facts, rather than a dry repetition of them. + +To the officers and men serving under my command, I can offer no higher +compliment than in having thus placed their severe and zealous labours +before the public; and no professional reader who reads these "Stray +Leaves," can fail, I am certain, to perceive how heavily must have +fallen the labours here recounted upon the men and officers of the +steam tenders, and how deep an obligation I their commander must be +under to them for their untiring exertions, by which this, the first +and severe trial of steam in the Arctic regions, was brought to a +successful issue. + +The "Resolutes," no doubt, will object to the round terms in which I +have growled at the bluff-bowed vessel it was my fate and now my pride +to have towed so many miles in the Frozen Zone; but on second thoughts, +I doubt not they will acquit me, for they will remember the joke was +once on their side; and if I do not love their _ship_, at any rate I +liked _them_. + +To Lieutenant W. May and Mr. M'Dougal, I am much indebted for their +faithful sketches. I fear my letter-press is unworthy of the +companionship. + +To those who may accuse me of egotism in confining my remarks so much +to the achievements of my own vessel, I have merely to say, that in +doing so, I was best able to be truthful; but that I am fully aware +that to the other screw steamer, the "Intrepid," and my gallant friend +and colleague, Commander J. B. Cator, there fell an equal amount of +labour; and that to all, ships as well as screws, there was an equal +proportion of hardship, danger, and privation. I should indeed be +forgetful as well as ungrateful, did I here fail to acknowledge the +more than kindness and assistance I have ever experienced from my +friend Mr. Barrow, a name past and present inseparably connected with +our Arctic discoveries; so likewise I have to offer my thanks, +heartfelt as they are sincere, to those who, like Admiral Sir Francis +Beaufort and Captain Hamilton of the Admiralty, bade me speed, when +sincerity and zeal was all I had to boast, and who dared to overlook +the crime of youth, and granted to "seven-and-twenty" the deference +which "five-and-fifty" alone can claim. + +RICHMOND, _Feb. 15, 1852_. + + + + +STRAY LEAVES +FROM +AN ARCTIC JOURNAL. + + +The evils attendant on a hurried outfit and departure, as is the usual +man-of-war custom, were in no wise mitigated in the case of the Royal +Naval Expedition, fitted out at Woolwich, in 1850, to search for Sir +John Franklin's Squadron; and a general feeling of joy at our departure +prevailed amongst us, when, one fine morning, we broke ground from +Greenhithe. + +The "Resolute" and "Assistance" had a couple of steamers to attend upon +them; whilst we, the "Pioneer" and "Intrepid," screwed and sailed, as +requisite to keep company. By dark of the 4th of May, 1850, we all +reached an anchorage near Yarmouth; and the first stage of our outward +journey was over. + +No better proof of the good feeling which animated our crews can be +adduced than the unusual fact of not a man being missing amongst those +who had originally entered,--not a desertion had taken place,--not a +soul had attempted to quit the vessels, after six months' advance had +been paid. + +Here and there amongst the seamen a half-sleepy indifference to their +work was observable. This I imputed to the reaction after highly +sentimental "farewells" in which, like other excesses, Jack delights; +the women having, as usual, done all they could, by crying alongside, +to make the men believe they were running greater risks than had ever +been before undergone by Arctic navigators. + +The old seamen's ditty of-- + + "We sailed by Fairl[=e]e, by Beach[=e]y, and Dung[)e]ness, + Until the North Foreland light we did see"-- + +gives a very good idea of our progress from beacon to lighthouse, and +lighthouse to headland, until the lofty coast of Yorkshire sunk under +the lee; and by the 8th of May the squadron was making slow progress +across the mouth of the Firth of Forth. Hitherto, "all had been +pleasant as a marriage bell;" the weather had been fine; and we already +calculated our days of arrival at different points, as if the calm was +to last for ever. The Cheviot Hills glittered in the west; it was the +kind good-bye of our own dear England. Hundreds of white sails dotted a +summer sea: all was joyous and sparkling. Scotland greeted us with a +rough "nor'wester,"--and away we went. "Not all the king's horses" +could have kept the expedition together. + +[Headnote: _DEPARTURE._] + +The "Resolute" and "Assistance," hauled dead on a wind, under +close-reefed topsails, performed a stationary movement, called +"pile-driving" by sailors, which, as the pilot suggested, would, if the +breeze lasted, carry them to the coast of Holland. The two steam +vessels, under fore-and-aft canvas, drew away rapidly to windward and +ahead, and in spite of all we could do, a few hours of darkness +effectually succeeded in dispersing us. Accident again brought the +"Pioneer" in sight of the vessels for a few hours; but the "Intrepid" +found herself in Stromness Harbour, with a degree of celerity which +gave rise to a racing disposition on the part of my gallant colleague, +"Intrepid," _versus_ "Pioneer," which it took a great many days of +competition to decide. + +They who want excitement had better go and beat a vessel up the +Pentland Firth, against both wind and tide. I tried it, but shall not +repeat the experiment; and, after a thorough good shaking in the North +Sea, was not sorry to find myself at anchor in Stromness. + +The very proper and triste Sabbath of the North was followed by a busy +Monday. The arrival of so many gold cap-bands, and profusion of gilt +buttons, interfered, I fear materially, with the proper delivery of the +morning milk and butter by sundry maidens with golden locks; and the +purser's wholesale order for beef threatened to create a famine in the +Orkneys. The cheapness of whiskey appeared likely to be the cause of +our going to sea with a crew in a lamentable state of drunkenness, and +rather prejudiced me against Stromness; but if it had no other +redeeming quality, all its faults would be forgotten in the astounding +fact that _there_ may be found a landlady with moderate prices and +really fresh eggs. + +As a description of this part of the world is no part of my task, I +will pass over our long and crooked walk about Stromness; and the +failure of the good folk there to induce us to trust ourselves on their +ponies for a ride to Kirkwall, naturally limited our knowledge of the +neighbourhood. + +Above the town of Stromness rises a conical-shaped hill; it has, I +believe, been immortalized by Scott in his "Pirate:" it had yet deeper +interest for me, for I was told that up it had toiled dear friends now +missing with Franklin. I and a kind shipmate walked out one evening to +make our pilgrimage to a spot hallowed by the visit of the gallant and +true-hearted that had gone before us--and, as amid wind and drizzle we +scrambled up the hill, I pictured to myself how, five short years +before, those we were now in search of had done the same. Good and +gallant Gore! chivalrous Fitz-James! enterprising Fairholme! +lion-hearted Hodgson! dear De Vaux!--Oh! that ye knew help was nigh! + +We surmounted the hill--the Atlantic was before us, fierce and +troubled; afar to seaward the breakers broke and lashed themselves +against the firm foundation of the old Head of Hay, which loomed +through mist and squall, whilst overhead the scream of sea-fowl, flying +for shelter, told that the west wind would hold wild revelry that +night. + +"H.M.S. North Star," carved on the turf, showed where some of her +people had chosen this spot for a record of their visit to Orkney; we +did likewise, in honour of our own bonnie craft; and then, strolling +homeward, discussed the probable chances of the existence of the said +"North Star;" the conclusion arrived at being that there was more cause +for anxiety on her account than for Franklin's Expedition, she having +gone out totally unprepared for wintering, and with strict injunctions +not to be detained: "l'homme propose, et Dieu dispose." + +I could have hugged the snuffy old postmaster for a packet of letters +he gave me. I rushed on board to a cabin which proved, as the First +Lord had sagaciously remarked, into how small a space a Lieutenant +Commanding could be packed; and, in spite of an unpaid tailor's bill, +revelled in sweet and pleasant dreams. + +[Headnote: _PLAN OF SEARCH._] + +The "Intrepid" and "Pioneer" rejoined the ships at Long-Hope; and my +gallant comrade and I made a neck-and-neck race of it, showing that in +steaming, at any rate, there would be little to choose between us; and, +on May 15th, the Arctic squadron weighed, and, passing out of the +Pentland Firth, the "Dasher" and "Lightning" cheered us, took our +letters,--and the Searching Expedition was alone steering for +Greenland. Night threw her mantle around us; the lonely light of Cape +Wrath alone indicating where lay our homes. I like losing sight of Old +England by night. It is pleasant to go to rest with a sweet +recollection of some quiet scene you have just dwelt upon with delight, +the spirit yearning for the excitement and novelty ahead. You rise in +the morning, old Ocean is around you: there is, to the seamen, a +lullaby, say what they may, in his hoarse song; and they of the middle +watch tell how the friendly light of some distant cape glimmered and +danced in the east, until lost in some passing squall. + +Now for the Northwest! we exclaimed,--its much talked of dangers,--its +chapter of horrors! As gallant Frobisher says, "it is _still_ the +only thing left undone, whereby a notable mind might be made famous and +remarkable." As it was in Frobisher's day, so it is now, unless +Franklin has accomplished it, and lies beset off Cape Jakan--and why +may it not be so? + +Whilst the squadron progresses slowly towards Cape Farewell, the ships +under topsails, and the steamers under jury-masts and sails, we will +take a retrospective view of what is now--1850--going to be done for +the relief of Franklin. + +Capt. Collinson, with two ships, has gone to Behring's Straits with the +"Plover" as a depot, in Kotzebue Sound, to fall back upon in case of +disaster. He steers direct for Melville Island, along the coast of +North America. Capt. Pullen, having successfully searched the coast +from Point Barrow to the Mackenzie River, is endeavouring now to push +from thence, in a northerly direction, for Bank's Land. Dr. Rae is to +do the same from the Coppermine River. Capt. Penny, a first-rate +whaling captain, with two fast brigs, is now ahead of us, hoping to +make an early passage across the middle ice of Baffin's Bay. He goes to +Jones's Sound and Wellington Channel, to reach the Parry Isles by a +northern route. + +We go with two sailing ships and two steam vessels, so as to form +separate divisions of two vessels each, to examine Barrow's Straits +south-westerly to Cape Walker, westerly towards Melville Island, and +north-westerly up Wellington Channel. Thus no less than eight fine +ships flying the pendant, and two land parties are directed, by +different routes, on Melville Island. Besides these, an American +expedition, fitted out by that prince of merchants, Mr. Grinnell, +leaves shortly for the same destination; and in Lady Franklin's own +vessel, the "Prince Albert," as well as a craft under Sir John Ross, we +find two more assistants in the plan of search. + +And yet, gentle reader, if you turn to the papers of the fall of 1849, +you will find some asserting that Sir John Franklin had perished in +Baffin's Bay, because Sir James Ross had found nothing of him in +Lancaster Sound! Happily the majority of Englishmen have, however, +decided otherwise; and behold, this noble equipment! this magnificent +outlay of men and material! + +We will not dwell on the pleasures or annoyances of the cruise across +the Atlantic, beyond stating the fact that our bluff-bowed worse-halfs, +the sailing ships, nigh broke our hearts, as well as our hawsers, in +dragging their breakwater frames along in the calms; and that we of the +screws found our steam vessels all we could wish, somewhat o'er lively, +mayhap,--a frisky tendency to break every breakable article on board. +But there was a saucy swagger in them, as they bowled along the hollow +of a western sea, which showed they had good blood in them; and we soon +felt confident of disappointing those Polar seers, who had foretold +shipwreck and disaster as their fate. + +[Headnote: _THE ATLANTIC.--GREENLAND._] + +The appearance of numerous sea-birds,--the Tern especially, which do +not fly far from land,--warned us, on Sunday 26th May, of our fast +approach to Greenland, and on the morrow we espied the picturesque +shores about Cape Farewell. Which of all the numerous headlands we saw +was the identical cape, I do not pretend to say; but we chose, as _our_ +Cape Farewell, a remarkable-looking peak, with a mass of rock perched +like a pillar upon its crest. The temperature began to fall as we +advanced, and warmer coats quickly replaced our English clothing. + +Distant as we were from Greenland, our view of its southern extremity +was fleeting, but sufficient to show that it fully realized in +appearance the most striking accumulation of ice and land that the mind +could picture,--a land of gaunt famine and misery; but which +nevertheless, for some good purpose, it had pleased Providence in a +measure to people. + +Had we not had an urgent duty to perform, I should have regretted thus +hurrying past the land; for there is much to see there. True, Greenland +has no deep historical interest, but the North has always had its charm +for me. Scandinavia, and her deeds,--the skill and intrepidity of her +bold Vikings,--their colonies in Snaeland, our Iceland,--their discovery +of Greenland,--and the legend of the pirate Biarni, who forestalled +even the great Columbus in his discovery,--were all associated with the +region through which we were now sailing. + +Without compass, without chart, full three centuries before the Genoese +crossed the Atlantic, the Norsemen, in frail and open barks, braved the +dark and angry sea (which was so sorely tossing even our proud +vessels); and, unchecked by tempest, by ice, or hardship, penetrated +probably as far as we could in the present day. This, and much more, +throws a halo of ancient renown around this lonely land; moreover, I +had long loved Nature's handiworks, and here assuredly her wonders +reward the traveller. Here, methought me of the mighty glacier, +creeping on like Time, silently, yet ceaselessly; the deep and +picturesque fiord pent up between precipices, huge, bleak, and barren; +the iceberg! alone a miracle; then the great central desert of black +lava and glittering ice, gloomy and unknown but to the fleet rein-deer, +who seeks for shelter in a region at whose horrors the hardy natives +tremble; and last, but not least, the ruins of the Scandinavian +inhabitants, and the present fast disappearing race of "the Innuit," or +Esquimaux. Dullard must he be who sees not abundance here to interest +him. + +Flirting with the first ice we saw, it soon appeared that the training +of the uninitiated, like puppies, was to be a very formal and lengthy +piece of business. Thanks to an immense deal of water, and very little +ice, the steamers eventually towed the "Resolute" and the transport (a +lively specimen of the genus), into the Whale-Fish Islands,--a group of +rocky islets, some twenty miles distant from the excellent Danish +harbour of Godhaab on the Island of Disco. + +[Headnote: _WHALE-FISH ISLANDS._] + +We did as our forefathers in anchoring at the Whale-Fish Islands, but +would strongly recommend those who visit this neighborhood to go to +Godhaab rather. Its anchorage is good, communication with Europe a +certainty, and the hospitality of the Danish residents, few though they +be, cheering and pleasant to ship-sick wanderers. + +Having thus expressed my total dissent from those who, with steam +vessels, go to Whale-Fish Isles, it will be but fair for me to stay, +that I arrived at this our first stage in the journey to the Nor'-West, +in far from good humour. We had been twenty-four days from Greenhithe +to Cape Farewell, and sixteen days from the latter point to our +anchorage; hurry being out of the question when a _thing_ like the +"Emma Eugenia" was pounding the water in a trial of speed with perfect +snuff-boxes, like the "Resolute" and "Assistance." Patience and a +four-day tow had at last finished the work: and to all our anxious +inquiries about the prospect of the season, as to where Penny was, and +whether any intelligence had reached the settlements? not an answer was +to be obtained from a besotted Danish carpenter, whose knowledge +appeared to be limited to a keen idea of changing, under a system he +called "Trock," sundries (with which the Danske Koeing had intrusted +him) into blubber and seal-oil. + +After a day of coal-dust, I landed with some others to see what was to +be seen, and to load, as we were taught to believe, a boat with wild +fowl. The principal settlement having been pointed out, we landed on +the slope of one of the islands, on which a coarse rank vegetation +existed amongst the numerous relics of departed seals, sacrificed to +the appetites of the Esquimaux and the _trocking_ of the Governor, as +he was facetiously styled. The said individual soon appeared, and in +spite of copious libations of Her Britannic Majesty's "Pure Jamaica," +of which he had partaken, was most polite and hospitable. From him I +discovered that he and a cooper were the only Danes residing here, and +they, together with a cross-breed who did the double duty of priest and +schoolmaster, constituted the officials of Cron-Prin's Islands. The +native population amounted perhaps to one hundred souls: and it was in +supplying their wants, and in affording a market for their superfluous +skins and blubber, that the Danes derived a profit, under a strict +system of monopoly; no foreigners being allowed to trade with the +Esquimaux, and they, on the other hand, having strict injunctions to +lodge every thing they do not require for private use, in the public +store. The quantity of seal-blubber in store, which was equal to as +much oil, amounted to nigh upon 100 tons; the number of seals annually +destroyed must be enormous: this says much for the industry of the +natives. + +The Esquimaux appeared all comfortable and well to do, well clad, +cleanly, and fat. Most of them had moved for a while into their summer +lodges, which consist of little else than a seal-skin tent, clumsily +supported with sticks. They were more than sufficiently warm; and the +number of souls inhabiting one of these lodges appeared only to be +limited by the circle of friends and connections forming a family. The +winter abode--formed almost underground--appeared decidedly well +adapted to afford warmth, and some degree of pure ventilation, in so +severe a climate, where fuel can be spared only for culinary purposes; +and I was glad to see that, although necessity obliges the Esquimaux to +eat of the oil and flesh of the seal and naorwhal, yet, when they could +procure it, they seemed fully alive to the gastronomic pleasures of a +good wholesome meal of fish, birds' eggs, bread, sugar, tea, and +coffee. + +Their canoes are perfect models of beauty and lightness; in no part of +the world do we see them excelled in speed and portability--two very +important qualities in the craft of a savage; and in ornamental +workmanship, the skill of both men and women is tastefully displayed. + +The clothing of the natives is vastly superior to any thing we could +produce, both in lightness of material, and wind and water-tight +qualities;--the material, seal and deer skin, and entrails, +manufactured by the women; their needles of Danish manufacture; their +thread, the delicate sinews of animals. We gladly purchased all we +could obtain of their clothing. + +[Headnote: _THE ESQUIMAUX._] + +Every one has heard of the horrors of an Esquimaux existence,--sucking +blubber instead of roast beef, train-oil their usual beverage, and a +seal their bonne-bouche; the long gloomy winter spent in pestiferous +hovels, lighted and warmed with whale-oil lamps; the narrow gallery for +an entrance, along which the occupant creeps for ingress and egress. +This and much more has been told us; yet, now that I have seen it +all,--the Esquimaux's home, the Esquimaux's mode of living, and the +Esquimaux himself,--I see nothing so horrible in one or the other. + +The whaler, from bonnie Scotia, or busy Hull, fresh from the +recollection of his land and home, no doubt shudders at the comparative +misery and barbarity of these poor people; but those who have seen the +degraded Bushmen or Hottentots of South Africa, the miserable Patanies +of Malayia, the Fuegians or Australians of our southern hemisphere, and +remember the comparative blessings afforded by nature to those +melancholy specimens of the human family, will, I think, exclaim with +me, that the Esquimaux of Greenland are as superior to them in mental +capacity, manual dexterity, physical enterprise, and social virtues, as +the Englishman is to the Esquimaux. + +The strongest--indeed, I am assured, the only--symptom of the advantage +of religious instruction perceptible in the Greenlander, over his North +American brethren, is in the respect they show for the marriage tie, +and strong affection for their children. The missionary, with this +race, appears to have few difficulties to contend with: naturally +gentle, and without any strong superstitious prejudices, they receive +without resistance the simple creed of Reformed religion, which he has +spread amongst them; and the poor Esquimaux child sends up its prayers +and thanksgiving, in the words taught us by our Saviour, as earnestly +and confidently as the educated offspring of Englishmen. + +An old man, whom I pressed to accompany me as pilot to the Island of +Disco, declined, under the plea that his wife was very ill, and that +there was no one but himself to take care of the "piccaninny." +Interested from such proper feeling in the man, Dr. P---- and I entered +his winter abode, which he apologized for taking us to,--the illness of +his "cara sposa" having prevented him changing his residence for the +usual summer tent. Crawling on all fours through a narrow passage, on +either side of which a dog-kennel and a cook-house had been +constructed, we found ourselves in an apartment, the highest side of +which faced us, the roof gradually sloping down to the ground. + +[Illustration: + +A B. Gallery. +B C. Section of house. +E. Bed and seats. +H. Cook-house and kennel.] + +The above section will give some idea of the place. Along one side of +the abode a sort of bed-place extended for its whole length, forming +evidently the family couch; for on one end of it, with her head close +to a large seal-oil lamp, was the sick woman. She was at the usual +Esquimaux female's employment of feeding the flame with a little stick +from a supply of oil, which would not rise of its own accord up the +coarse and ill-constructed wick; over the flame was a compound, which +the sufferer told us was medicine for her complaint,--the rheumatism, a +very prevalent one amongst these people. Leaving the kind Doctor to do +the part of a good Samaritan, I amused myself with looking over the +strange home into which I had got. The man took much pride in showing +me his family,--consisting of a girl and three fine boys. His wife, he +assured me, was only twenty-eight years of age: she looked at least +six-and-thirty; and he likewise, though only thirty-four, had the +appearance of being at least ten years older. They had married when she +was twenty,--the usual age for marriage, as he told me. His daughter, +rather a pretty and slight-made girl, was very busy making shoes for +her brothers out of cured skin. I rewarded the youthful sempstress by +giving her one of a number of dolls kindly sent me for the purpose by +Mrs. W. of Woolwich; and could that kind friend have seen the joyful +countenance of the Esquimaux child, she would indeed have been richly +remunerated for her thoughtful little addition to my stock of presents. +To finish my Esquimaux tale, I was next day not a little surprised at +the father coming on board, and giving me a small pouch which his child +had sewn for me in return for my present. This proved at least that +Esquimaux children can appreciate kindness as well as others. + +The Whale-Fish group consist of a congery of islets, of various shapes +and sizes, with deep water channels between; the whole of granitic +formation, with broad veins of quartz and masses of gneiss overlaying +in various directions. Those I visited exhibited proof of constant and, +I might say, rapid destruction from the action of water and frost. The +southern and south-west sides of the larger islands were of, may be, +300 or 400 feet elevation, with a gradual dip to the north-east, as if +their creation had been brought about by some submarine agency +upheaving the primary rock, with an irregular force from the +north-east. + +The tallest cliffs were rent from crown to base, and frost-cracks +intersected one another in such a perfect labyrinth, that the whole +mass appeared as if merely hanging together from its stupendous weight. +The narrow bays and bights with a southern aspect, where the concussion +of a heavy sea had had its effect, were strewn with the wreck of the +adjacent precipices, and progress for sportsmen along the shore, in +pursuit of wild fowl, was extremely difficult. On the northern sides, +these islands showed other features quite as peculiar to the glacial +region upon which we were wandering: there the low projecting ledges of +granite were polished by the constant attrition of oceanic ice and +icebergs, until walking over them became barely possible. + + +_June 18th, 1850._--I am much amused at the ease with which we +assimilate ourselves to new climates and new habits. Yesterday, my +friend Dr. P---- and I bathed within fifty yards of an iceberg, the +water only two degrees above freezing point; candour must acknowledge +that we did not stay long; and to-night, though no Highlander in love +of hardship, I found myself at midnight in the water groping for lost +gun-gear, an experiment which, having escaped from without rheumatism, +I promise not to repeat. One of my crew slept last night on deck with +his arm for a pillow, although the temperature was below freezing +point, and every one complains of heat and throws aside jacket and cap +when making the slightest exertion. + +[Headnote: _AN ARCTIC NIGHT._] + +Coal-dust every where and on every thing. Incessant work from 4, A.M., +to 8 or 9 o'clock, P.M., one would have supposed, would have induced +rational beings to go quietly to bed when the day's work was over. It +was far otherwise. + +The novelty of constant daylight, and the effect which it always has +upon the system, until accustomed to it, of depriving one of the +inclination to go to roost at regular hours, told upon us, and often +have I found myself returning from five hours' work, chasing, shooting, +and pulling a boat, just as the boatswain's mates were piping "stow +hammocks!" That I was not singular, a constant discharge of guns +throughout the night well proved, and unhappy nights must the ducks and +dovekies have spent during our stay. + +Not to shoot became, in the Arctic squadron, tantamount to folly, +although the proceeds of great consumption of powder were but small; +nevertheless, stout men, who had not buttoned a gaiter since their +youth, were to be seen rivalling chamois-hunters in the activity with +which they stalked down the lady ducks on their nests. Apoplexy was +forgotten, the tender wife's last injunction on the subject of dry feet +pitched to the winds, and rash men of five-and-forty pulled and shot +little birds, in leaky punts, with all the energy of boys of fifteen. + +Cold fingers, and a load of Flushing cloth on one's back, are vile +realities; otherwise I could have given fancy her swing, and spent many +an hour in the "blest ideal," at the beautiful and novel scene which +lay around me on a lovely morning at one o'clock. I had just crossed to +the north side of an island which faces Greenland, and passed a quiet +and secluded bay, at whose head the remains of a deserted ruin told of +the by-gone location of some Esquimaux fishermen, whose present home +was shown by here and there a grave carefully piled over with stones to +ward off dog and bear. All was silent, except the plaintive mew of the +Arctic sea-swallow as it wheeled over my head, or the gentle echo made +by mother ocean as she rippled under some projecting ledge of ice. The +snow, as it melted amongst the rocks behind, stole quietly on to the +sea through a mass of dark-coloured moss; whilst a scanty distribution +of pale or delicately-tinted flowers showed the humble flora of the +north. The sun, sweeping along the heavens opposite, at a very low +altitude, gilded as it rose the snowy crests of the mountains of Disco, +and served to show, more grim and picturesque, the naturally dark face +of the "Black Land of Lively." From thence round to the east, in the +far horizon, swept the shores of Greenland, its glaciers, peaks, and +headlands, all tortured by mirage into a thousand fantastic shapes, as +if Dame Nature had risen from her couch in frolicsome mood. Between +this scene and my feet, icebergs of every size and shape, rich with +fretting of silvery icicle, and showing the deepest azure tint or +richest emerald, strewed a mirror-like sea, glowing with the pale pink +of morning. + +The awful silence was impressive: unwilling to break it I sat me down. + + "I felt her presence by its spell of might, + Stoop o'er me from above-- + The calm majestic presence of the night, + As of the one I love." + +Suddenly a distant roar boomed along the water and echoed amongst the +rocks: again and again I heard it, when, to my astonishment, several +huge icebergs in the offing commenced to break up. A fearful plunge of +some large mass would clothe the spot in spray and foam; a dull +reverberating echo pealed on; and then, merely from the concussion of +the still air, piece after piece detached itself from icebergs far and +near, and the work of demolition was most rapid: truly did Baffin +boast, that he had laid open one of Nature's most wonderful +laboratories; and I thought with Longfellow, in his Hyperion,-- + + "The vast cathedral of nature is full of holy scriptures and shapes + of deep mysterious meaning: all is solitary and silent there. Into + this vast cathedral comes the human soul seeking its Creator, and + the universal silence is changed to sound, and the sound is + harmonious and has a meaning, and is comprehended and felt." + +[Headnote: _GODHAAB._] + +After many difficulties, which called for some obstinacy on my part to +master, I was allowed to go to Disco, and Captain Ommaney, hearing of +my intention, kindly made up a party. Taking one of our boats, we +shipped an Esquimaux pilot, called "Frederick," and started on June +21st, at 2 o'clock in the morning. To all our inquiries about Disco, +Frederick had but one reply,--"by and by you see." He liked rum and +biscuit, and was only to be animated by the conversation turning upon +seals, or _poussies_, as the natives call them. Then indeed Frederick's +face was wreathed in smiles, or rather its oleaginous coat of dirt +cracked in divers directions, his tiny eyes twinkled, and he descanted, +in his broken jargon, upon the delight of _poussey_ with far more +unction than an alderman would upon turtle. After threading the islets +we struck to north-east by compass, from the northernmost rock of the +group, which our guide assured us would sink below the horizon the +moment of our arrival off Godhaab. He was perfectly right, for after +four hours' pulling and sailing we found ourselves under a small +look-out house, and the islets of our departure had dipped. + +Entering a long and secure harbour, we reached a perfectly landlocked +basin: in it rode a couple of Danish brigs, just arrived from +Copenhagen, with stores for the settlement; and on the shores of this +basin, the Danish settlement of Godhaab was situated, a few stores, and +the residence of two or three officials,--gentlemen who superintended +the commercial monopoly to which I have before referred: a flag-staff +and some half-dozen guns formed the sum total. + +Landing at a narrow wooden quay, close to which natives and sailors +were busy unladening boats, we found ourselves amongst a rambling +collection of wooden houses, built in Dano-Esquimaux style, with some +twenty native lodges intermixed. Very few persons were to be seen +moving about: we heard afterwards that the body of natives were +seal-catching to the northward. A troop of half-caste boys and girls +served, however, to represent the population, and in them the odd +mixture of the Mongolian with the Scandinavian race was advantageously +seen. + +A Danish seaman conducted Captain O----, Dr. D----, and self, to the +residence of the chief official, and, at the early hour of six, we made +a formal visit. + +His mansion was of wood, painted black, with a red border to the +windows and roof: no doubt, so decorated for a good purpose; but the +effect was more striking than pleasing. A low porch with double doors, +two sharp turns in a narrow dark passage,--to baffle draughts, no +doubt,--and we found ourselves in a comfortable room with Herr Agar +smoking a cigar, and gaily attired to receive us. The "Herr" spoke but +little English; we no Danish: however, the quiet and reserved manner of +the good northern did not conceal a certain kindness of which he soon +gave us hospitable proof; for, on acceding to his offer of a little +coffee, we were surprised to see a nice tidy lady--his wife, as he +informed us--spread a breakfast fit for a Viking, and then with gentle +grace she ably did the honours of her board. Hang me, when I looked at +the snow-white linen, the home-made cleanly cheer, the sweet wife all +kindness and anxiety, I half envied the worthy Dane the peace and +contentment of his secluded lot, and it needed not a glass of excellent +Copenhagen schiedam to throw a "couleur de rose" about this Ultima +Thule of dear woman's dominion. + +[Headnote: _HERR AGAR._] + +The morning pull had given a keenness to our appetites, and I have a +general recollection of rye bread, Danish cake, excellent Zetland +butter, Dutch cheese, luscious ham, boiled potatoes, and Greenland +trout fresh from the stream. Could sailors ask for or need more? I can +only say that we all felt that, if Herr Agar and Madame Agar (I hate +that horrid word Frau) would only borrow our last shilling, we were +ready to lend it. + +A broken conversation ensued, a little English and much Danish, when +Dr. D---- fortunately produced Captain Washington's Esquimaux +vocabulary, and, aided by the little son of our host, we soon twisted +out all the news Herr Agar had to give. + +Captain Penny had only stayed a short time. He arrived on May the 4th. +The prospect of an early season was most cheering, and then the worthy +Herr produced a piece of paper directed to myself by my gallant friend +Penny. He wrote in haste to say his squadron had arrived, all well, +after a splendid run from Aberdeen: he was again off, and sent kind +remembrances, dated May 4th. + +This, at any rate, was joyful intelligence, and worth my journey to +Disco; my heart leaped with joy, and I thought, at any rate, if we were +late, he was full early. + +After a long chat, we went for a stroll, in which a tree--yes! as I +live, a tree--was discovered. Be not envious, ye men of Orkney, it +stood full thirteen inches high, and was indigenous, being the dwarf +birch-tree, the monarch of an arctic forest! Stumbling upon the +churchyard I should have indulged my taste for old tombstones, had not +the musquitoes forbidden it; and, with a hurried glance at the names of +old hunters of fish and departed Danes and Dutchmen, I ran for the +beach, remarking that, whereas we in Europe evince respect for those +who have preceded us to that bourne-- + + "Where life's long journey turns to sleep, + Nor weary pilgrim wakes to weep--" + +by placing stones around their last homes, in Greenland pieces of soft +and ugly wood are substituted, although nature has strewn on every side +masses of granite fit to form mausoleums for Pharaohs. Bad taste! I +exclaimed; but that's not confined to Disco. + +Having promised to return to say good-bye, we kept our word most +willingly, and found "Herr Agar" had a circle of friends to meet us; +and my astonishment was great at the sight of _two more petticoats_. +One was the wife of a Moravian missionary, and the other the wife of a +gentleman at Jacob's Sound. They looked perfectly happy, and at least +appeared as well at home in the dreary region which had become their +adopted country, as we could expect, or their husbands desire. +Conversation soon flagged; the missionary gave it up in despair; the +"Herr" smoked in silence; and but for the ladies we should have been +soon dumb. Happily for me (for I wanted to purchase some seal-skins), a +captain of one of the brigs came in at the moment, and, understanding +both English and Danish, conversation became quite animated. Watching +my opportunity, I told him of my desire to purchase seal-skins for +trowsers for my men; he immediately informed Herr Agar, who gave him a +yah! and walked me off by the arm to his storerooms, followed by his +good lady; lifting a bundle of beautiful seal-skins, the Herr made me +an offer of them. I commenced fumbling for my purse, and at last +produced some gold, making signs that various officers intended to have +seal-skin trowsers. Nay! nay! exclaimed the good lady, thrusting back +my money, whilst the Herr began loading me with skins. Oh! the horror +of that moment: I felt as if I had been begging, and must have looked +very like it, for Mrs. Agar, with a look of sudden inspiration, as if +she perfectly understood me, ran off to her husband's wardrobe, and +produced a pair of trowsers, of perfect Dutch dimensions, and, with the +most innocent smile, made signs of how I should pull them on. I smiled, +for they would have made a suit of clothes for me. + +[Headnote: _LEAVE DISCO._] + +Seeing no way of getting out of the scrape my ignorance of Danish and +their generosity had led me into, I determined to take as little as +possible, and with a thousand thanks walked back to the drawing-room, +with Herr Agar's "whisperables" on one arm and a couple of seal-skins +on the other, my face burning, and my conscience smiting. + +Time pressed, and we bid our kind friends good-bye. Herr Agar fired a +salute of three guns, which we returned with three cheers; and, after +taking a stirrup cup on board the "Peru," started for Whale-Fish +Islands, which we reached at eleven o'clock at night, much pleased with +our excursion. + +Every one likes a souvenir of some pleasant by-gone scene or event: +these souvenirs are often odd ones. A messmate of mine used to tell of +Greece, her temples and ruins: "he had had many a pleasant snooze +amongst them!" Another dwelt on the scenes of Montezuma's sorrows, for +it was there he had partaken of most savoury wild fowl,--and yet +another hero knew but of Peru and Pizarro's triumphs, by the markets +producing very good prawns; whilst I must plead guilty to associating +Greenland and the deeds of Scandinavian heroes with Herr Agar's +seal-skin trowsers. + +Amidst a last flourish of coals and dust, which left us filled to +repletion,--indeed we were just awash,--we were ordered to take the +ships in tow, and start. This being done, I came to a virtuous +resolution in my own mind, after what I was going through in dragging +my "fat friend," the "Resolute," about, to think twice ere I laughed at +those whom fate had shackled to a mountain of flesh. When I had time to +ask the day and date, it was Sunday, 28th June, 1850, and we had turned +our back on the last trace of civilized man. Vogue-la-galere. + +The night was serenely calm. We skirted the Black Land of Lively, +making an average speed of three miles per hour, so that our fearful +load of coal--full three hundred tons--did not diminish the speed +nearly as much as I at first anticipated. Although I could not but feel +from our staggering motion and bad steerage that the poor "Pioneer" was +severely taxed in carrying her own dead weight of about five hundred +tons, and towing a clumsy craft, which fully equalled another seven +hundred tons, all this receiving vitality from two little engines of +thirty-horse power each. + +Whilst a sudden and rattling breeze from the south caused us to make +sail and run merrily past the striking clifts of the Waigat and Jacob's +Sound, I will briefly refer to the character of the vessels composing +our squadron, their equipment, and general efficiency. + +[Headnote: _THE SHIPS._] + +The "Resolute" and "Assistance" were sailing ships rigged as barks; +their hulls strengthened according to the most orthodox arctic rules, +until, instead of presenting the appearances of a body intended for +progress through the water, they resembled nothing so much as very +ungainly snuff-boxes; and their bows formed a buttress which rather +pushed the water before it than passed through it. The remark made by +an old seaman who had grown gray amongst the ice was often recalled to +my mind, as with an aching heart for many a long mile I dragged the +clumsy "Resolute" about. "Lord, sir! you would think by the quantity of +wood they are putting into _them_ ships, that the dock-yard maties +believed they could stop the Almighty from moving the floes in Baffin's +Bay! Every pound of African oak they put into them the less likely they +are to rise to pressure; and you must in the ice either rise or sink. +If the floe cannot pass through the ship it will go over it." + +Internally the fittings of the ships were most perfect: nothing had +been spared to render them the most comfortable vessels that ever went +out avowedly to winter in the Polar ice. Hot air was distributed by +means of an ingenious apparatus throughout lower deck and cabins. +Double bulkheads and doors prevented the ingress of unnecessary cold +air. A cooking battery, as the French say, promised abundance of room +for roasting, boiling, baking, and thawing snow to make water for daily +consumption. The mess places of the crew were neatly fitted in +man-of-war style; and the well-laden shelves of crockery and hardware +showed that Jack, as well as jolly marine, had spent a portion of his +money in securing his comfort in the long voyage before them. A long +tier of cabins on either side showed how large a proportion of officers +these vessels carried; but it was so far satisfactory, as it proved +that the division of labour, consequent upon numbers, would make arctic +labours comparatively light. + +A large captain's cabin, with a gunroom capable of containing all the +officers when met together for their meals, completed the +accommodation. The crews consisted of sixty souls each, of which a +fourth were officers. + +The vessels chosen to be the first to carry the novel agent, steam, +into hyperborean climes, were the "Pioneer" and "Intrepid," sister +vessels, belonging, originally, to the cattle conveyance company; they +were propelled by screws, and were of sixty-horse power each, about 150 +feet long, of 400 tons burden, and rigged as three-masted schooners. +Over the whole of their original frames, tough planking called doubling +was placed, varying from three to six inches in thickness. The decks +were likewise doubled; and, as may be supposed, from such numerous +fastenings passing through the original timbers of a merchantman, every +timber was perforated with so many holes as to be weakened and rendered +useless; indeed, the vessels may have at last been considered as what +is termed "bread-and-butter built," the two layers of planking +constituting with the decks the actual strength of the vessels. At the +bow, the fine form had happily been retained, the timber strengthenings +being thrown into them at that point within, and not without; they +were, therefore, at the fore end somewhat like a strong wedge. Many an +oracle had shaken his head at this novelty; and when I talked of +cutting and breaking ice with an iron stem, the lip curled in derision +and pity, and I saw that they thought of me as Joe Stag, the Plymouth +boatman, did of the Brazilian frigate when she ran the breakwater down +in a fog,--"Happy beggar, he knows nothing, and he fears nothing." + +[Headnote: _THE SCREWS._] + +A few catastrophe-lovers in England having consigned Franklin to death +because he had steam-engines and screws, every precaution was taken to +secure the "Pioneer" and "Intrepid" in such a way that screw, rudder, +and sternpost might be torn off by the much-talked-of _bogie_!--the +ice,--and the vessels still be left fit to swim. In the internal +arrangements for meeting an arctic climate, we were on somewhat a +similar plan to the ships,--some difficulties being presented by the +large mass of cold iron machinery, which, of course, acted as a rapid +refrigerator. For the voyage out, the men were confined to a little +place in the bows of the vessel, and from thence to the cabins of the +officers, all was coal: a dead weight of 260 tons being originally +carried from England, which we increased to 300 tons at the Whale +Islands. This, at an average consumption of seven tons _per diem_, +would enable us _to tow the ships 3000 miles_, or, _steam alone, full +5000 miles_, carrying twelve or eighteen months' provision. The crew +consisted of thirty souls, all told, of which five were officers,--namely, +a lieutenant in command and a second master, as executive officers; an +assistant surgeon, who zealously undertook the superintendence of the +commissariat, both public and private, and two engineers, to look after +the steam department. These occupied the smallest conceivable space in +the after-end of the steamers; and, with separate cabins, had a common +mess-place. + +Such were the arctic screws: it only remains for me to say, that they +were very handsome, smart-sailing vessels, and those embarked in them +partook of none of the anxieties and croakings, which declared +opponents and doubtful allies entertained as to their success in what +was styled a great experiment. They had but one wish ungratified, which +was, that they had been sent alone and fully provisioned, instead of +carrying an inadequate proportion of food, so that, in the event of +being separated from the ships by accident, they might have wintered +without suffering and hardship. + +All the crews had been carefully chosen for health and efficiency; and +they, as well as the officers, were actuated by the loftiest feelings +of enterprise and humanity; and that feeling was fostered and +strengthened by the knowledge they had, of the high confidence placed +in the squadron by their country, speaking through the press. In fact, +we were called heroes long before we had earned our laurels. Lastly, +the Admiralty put into the hands of the officers the orders they had +given the leader of this noble squadron; and there was but one opinion +as to these orders, that more liberal, discretionary ones never were +penned!--and with such power to act as circumstances might render +necessary, we felt confident of deserving, if we could not demand, +success. + + +_June 24th, Baffin's Bay._--The squadron was flying north, in an open +sea, over which bergs of every size and shape floated in wild +magnificence. The excitement, as we dashed through the storm, in +steering clear of them, was delightful from its novelty. Hard a +starboard! Steady! Port! Port! you may!--and we flew past some huge +mass, over which the green seas were fruitlessly trying to dash +themselves. Coleridge describes the scene around us too well for me to +degrade it with my prose. I will give his version:-- + + "And now there came both mist and snow, + And it grew wondrous cold, + And ice, mast high, came floating by + As green as emerald. + Through the drifts, the snowy clifts + Did send a dismal sheen; + Nor shapes of men, or beasts we ken, + The ice was all between. + With sloping masts, and dipping prow, + As who pursued with yell and blow, + Still treads the shadow of his foe, + And forward bends his head. + The ship drove fast--loud roared the blast, + And _northward_ aye we fled"-- + +Until we all suddenly hauled-in for the land of Greenland, in order to +visit the settlement of Uppernavik. Passing into a channel, some four +miles in width, we found ourselves running past the remarkable and +lofty cliffs of "Sanderson his Hope," a quaint name given to this point +by the "righte worthie Master Davis," in honour of his patron, a +merchant of Bristol. Well worthy was it of one whose liberality had +tended to increase our geographical knowledge; and the Hope's lofty +crest pierced through the clouds which drove athwart its breast, and +looked afar to see "whether the Lord of the Earth came not." + +Under its lee, the water was a sheet of foam and spray, from the fierce +gusts which swept down ravine and over headland; and against the base +of the rocks, flights of wild fowl marked a spot famous amongst arctic +voyagers as abounding in fresh food,--a charming variety to salt horse +and Hambro' pork. + +[Headnote: _UPPERNAVIK._] + +On rounding an inner islet of the Women's Group, as it is called, a +straggling assemblage of Esquimaux huts, with a black and red +storehouse or two, as at Disco, denoted the northernmost of the present +Danish settlements, as well as the site of an ancient Scandinavian +port,--a fact assured by the recent discovery of a stone pillar on one +of the adjacent islands bearing the following inscription:-- + + "Elling Sigvatson, Bjame Thordason, and Endride Oddson, erected + these memorial stones and cleared this place on Saturday before + Gagndag (25th April), in the year 1135." + +Exactly four hundred and fifty-two years before the place was +rediscovered by our countryman, Davis. + +The "Intrepid" having the honour of carrying-in the two post-captains, +we box-hauled about in the offing until she returned with the +disagreeable intelligence that all the English whalers were blocked up +by ice, some thirty miles to the northward. Capt. Penny had been unable +to advance, and the season was far from a promising one! Squaring our +yards, we again bore up for the northward. In a few hours, a strong +reflected light to the westward and northward showed we were fast +approaching the ice-fields or floes of Baffin's Bay. A whaler, cruising +about, shortly showed herself. + + +_June 26th, 1850._--My rough notes are as follows:--A.M. Standing in +for the land, northward of "Women's Isles," saw several whalers fast to +the ice, inshore. Observe one of them standing out. H.M.S. "Assistance" +is ordered to communicate. We haul to the wind. I visit the "Resolute." +Learn that we altered course last night because the floes were seen +extending across ahead. The whaler turns out to be the "Abram," Captain +Gravill. He reports:--"Fourteen whalers stopped by the ice; Captain +Penny, with his ships, after incurring great risk, and going through +much severe labour, was watching the floes with the hope of slipping +past them into the north water." + +Mr. Gravill had lately ranged along the Pack edge as far south as +Disco, and found not a single opening except the bight, up which we had +been steering last night. He said, furthermore, "that there would be no +passage across the bay, this year, for the whalers, because the water +would not make sufficiently early to enable them to reach the +fishing-ground in Pond's Bay by the first week in August; after which +date, the whales travel southward towards Labrador." The report wound +up with the discouraging statement that the whale-men agreed that the +floes, this season, were unusually extensive, that the leads or cracks +of water were few, and icebergs more numerous than they had been for +some years. + +It appears that a northerly gale has been blowing, with but slight +intermission, for the last month; and that, in consequence, there is a +large body of water to the north, the ice from which has been forced +into the throat of Davis' Straits. All we have to pray for is, a +continuation of the same breeze, for otherwise southerly winds will jam +the whole body of it up in Melville Bay, and make what is called a +"closed season." + +[Headnote: _A CHECK._] + +Mr. G---- (though not a friend of Penny's) told us that Penny was +working day and night to get ahead, and had already run no small risk, +and undergone extraordinary labour. Poor Penny! I felt that fate had +been against him! He deserved better than to be overtaken by us, after +the energy displayed in the equipment of his squadron. + +In the first watch the brigs "Lady Franklin" and "Sophia" were seen by +us, fast between loose floe pieces, to seaward of which we continued to +flirt. The "Intrepid" and "Pioneer" were now to be seen slyly trying +their bows upon every bit of ice we could get near, without getting +into a scrape with the commodore; and, from the ease with which they +cut through the rotten stuff around our position, I already foresaw a +fresh era in arctic history, and that the fine bows would soon beat the +antediluvian "bluffs" out of the field. + + +_Thursday, 27th June, 1850_, found us still cruising about under +canvas; northward and westward a body of dirty ice, fast decaying under +a fierce sunlight, bergs in hundreds in every direction; and, dotted +along the Greenland shore, a number of whalers fast in what is called +"Land water," ready to take the first opening. The barometer falling, +we were ordered to make fast to icebergs, every one choosing his own. +This operation is a very useful one in arctic regions, and saves much +unnecessary wear and tear of men and vessel, when progress in the +required direction is no longer possible. + +The bergs, from their enormous depth, are usually aground, except at +spring-tides, and the seaman thus succeeds in anchoring his vessel in +200 fm. water, without any other trouble than digging a hole in the +iceberg, placing an anchor in it called an ice-anchor, which one man +can lift, and, with a whale-line, his ship rides out under the lee of +this natural breakwater, in severe gales, and often escapes being beset +in a lee pack. + +[Illustration] + +Fastening to a berg has its risks and dangers; sometimes the first +stroke of the man setting the ice-anchor, by its concussion causes the +iceberg to break up, and the people so employed run great risk of being +injured; at another time, vessels obliged to make fast under the steep +side of a berg, have had pieces detach themselves from overhead, and +injure materially the vessel and spars; and, again, the projecting +masses, called tongues (which form under water the base of the berg), +have been known to break off, and strike a vessel so severely as to +sink her: all these risks are duly detailed by every arctic navigator, +and the object always is, in fastening to an iceberg, to look for a +side which is low and sloping, without any tongues under water. To such +an one the Intrepid and Pioneer made fast, although the boat's crew +that first reached it, in making a hole, were wetted by a projecting +mass detaching itself with the first blow of the seaman's crowbar. A +gale sprang up almost immediately, and during the night the Assistance +blew adrift. Next day it abated, and the ice to the northward looked +open. + +In the evening one of Penny's vessels, the Sophia, joined us, and from +her commander we soon heard of their hopes and disappointment. Directly +after leaving Disco they fell in with the ice, and had fought their way +the whole distance to their present position. The season was not +promising, but forty-eight hours of a N.E. wind would do wonders, and I +cordially partook of his opinion, that "keeping the vessel's nose to +the crack" was the only way to get ahead in the arctic regions. The +crews of the brigs were in rattling health and spirits. Having +delivered him some letters and a number of parcels which, by great good +luck, had not been landed at Uppernavik, Capt. Stewart returned to his +chief, some eight miles northward of us, and we remained to watch +progress. + +[Headnote: _TOWING THE SHIPS._] + + +_Saturday, June 29th, 1850._-- + + +_Monday, July 1st, 1850._--At last the hoped-for signal, "take ships in +tow," was made; and, with a leaping heart, we entered the lead, having +the "Resolute" fast by the nose with a six-inch hawser. What looked +impassable at ten miles' distance was an open lead when close to. +Difficulties vanish when they are faced; and the very calm which +rendered the whalers unable to take advantage of a loose pack, was just +the thing for steamers. Away we went! past berg, past floe, winding in +and out quietly, yet steadily!--and the whalers were soon astern. +Penny, indefatigable, was seen struggling along the shore, with his +boats ahead, towing, and every stitch of sail set to catch the lightest +cat's paw: him too, however, we soon passed. The water ahead increased +as we advanced, and we found, as is well known to be the case, that the +pack-edge is always the tightest part of it. + +Several whale-boats from the vessels astern were busy taking ducks' +eggs from the islands, which seem to abound along the coast. When +passing one of these islands that appeared remarkably steep, I was +disagreeably surprised to feel the "Pioneer" strike against a sunken +rock with some violence; she slipped off it, and then the "Resolute" +gave herself a blow, which seemed to make every thing quiver again. +Capt. Penny had a signal up warning us of the danger; but we were too +busy to see it until afterwards, and then the want of wind prevented +our ascertaining what was meant. After this accident we went very +cautiously until the evening hour, when, having neared Cape Shackleton, +and some thin ice showing itself, through which, at reduced speed, we +could not tow the broad-bowed "Resolute," she was cast off, and made +fast to some land ice, and I proceeded on alone in the "Pioneer" to see +what the prospect was further on. + +Cutting through some rotten ice of about six inches in thickness, we +reached water beyond it, and saw a belt of water, of no great width, +extending along shore as far as the next headland, called Horse's-head. +Picking up a boat belonging to the "Chieftain" whaler, which had been +shooting and egging, I returned towards the "Resolute" with my +intelligence, giving Cape Shackleton a close shave to avoid the ice +which was setting against it from the westward, the whalemen whom I had +on board expressing no small astonishment and delight at the way in +which we screwed through the broken ice of nine-inch thickness. On +reaching the squadron, I found it made fast for the night, and parties +of officers preparing to start in different directions to shoot, and +see what was to be seen, for, of course, our night was as light as the +day of any other region. + +To the "Chieftain's" doctor I, with others of the "Pioneer," consigned +what we flattered ourselves were our last letters, thinking that, now +the steamers had got ahead, it was not likely the whalers would again +be given an opportunity of communicating or overtaking us. + +There is something in last letters painful and choking; and I remember +that I hardly knew which feeling most predominated in my +breast,--sorrow and regret for those friends I had left behind me, or +hope and joyful anticipation of meeting those before us in the "Erebus +and Terror." + +[Headnote: _CAPE SHACKLETON._] + +At any rate, I gave vent to them by climbing the rocky summit of Cape +Shackleton, and throwing off my jacket, let the cold breeze allay the +excitement of my mind. + +Nothing strikes the traveller in the north more strongly than the +perceptible repose of Nature, although the sun is still illumining the +heavens, during those hours termed night. We, of course, who were +unaccustomed to the constant light, were restless and unable to sleep; +but the inhabitants of these regions, as well as the animals, retire to +rest with as much regularity as is done in more southern climes; and +the subdued tints of the heavens, as well as the heavy banking of +clouds in the neighbourhood of the sun, gives to the arctic summer +night a quietude as marked as it is pleasant. Across Baffin's Bay there +was ice! ice! ice! on every side, small faint streaks of water here and +there in the distance, with one cheering strip of it winding snake-like +along the coast as far as eye could reach. "To-morrow!" I exclaimed, +"we will be there." "Yes!" replied a friend, "but if the breeze +freshens, Penny will reach it to-night!" And there, sure enough, were +Penny's brigs sailing past our squadron, which showed no sign of +vitality beyond that of the officer of the watch visiting the +ice-anchors to see all was right. "That fellow, Penny, is no sluggard!" +we muttered, "and will yet give the screws a hard tussle to beat him." + +A couple of hours rest, and having taken the ship in tow, we again +proceeded, and at about seven o'clock on the morning of the 2d of July +passed the "Sophia," and shortly afterwards, the "Lady Franklin." Alas! +poor Penny, he had a light contrary wind to work against. + +I do not think my memory can recall in the course of my wanderings any +thing more novel or striking than the scenes through which we steamed +this forenoon. The land of Greenland, so bold, so steep, and in places +so grim, with the long fields of white glittering ice floating about on +the cold blue sea, and our little vessels (for we looked pigmies beside +the huge objects around us, whether cliff, berg, or glacier) stealing +on so silently and quickly; the leadsman's song or the flap of wild +fowl the only sounds to break the general stillness. One of the cliffs +we skirted along was actually teeming with birds called "loons:" they +might have been shot in tens of hundreds had we required them or time +not pressed: they are considered remarkably good eating, and about the +size and weight of an ordinary duck: to naturalists they are known by +the name of guillemot, and were christened "loons" by the early Dutch +navigators, in consequence of their stupidity. Numerous seals lay on +the ice in the offing, and their great size astonished us. + +As we advanced, a peculiarly conical island, in a broad and +ice-encumbered bay, showed itself: it was "the Sugar-Loaf Island" of +the whalers; and told us that, on rounding the farther headland, we +should see the far-famed Devil's Thumb, the boundary of Melville Bay. + +A block of ice brought us up after a tow of some twenty-five or thirty +miles, and, each vessel picking up a convenient iceberg, we made fast +to await an opening. + +I landed to obtain a view from a small islet close to the "Pioneer," +and was rewarded by observing that the Duck Islands, a group some +fifteen miles to seaward of us, had evidently a large space of open +water around them, and broad _lanes_ extended from these in divers +directions towards us, although, without retracing our steps, there was +at present no direct road for us into this water. + +Captain Penny, however, being astern, had struck to seaward, and was +fast passing our position. + +On the islands there were recent traces of both reindeer and bears; and +I amused myself picking some pretty arctic flowers, such as anemones, +poppies, and saxifrage, which grew in sheltered nooks amongst the +rocks. + +[Headnote: _A BEAR HUNT._] + +Before leaving the vessel, a boat had been despatched to the headland +where so many "loons" had been seen, to shoot for the ship's company's +use: the other ships did likewise: they returned at about four o'clock +next morning, and I was annoyed at being informed, without any birds, +although all the powder and shot had been expended. + +I sent for the captain of the forecastle, who had been away in charge +of the sportsmen, and, with astonishment, asked how he had contrived to +fire away one pound of powder and four of small shot, without bringing +home some loons? Hanging his head, and looking uncommonly bashful, he +answered, "If you please, sir, we fired it all into a bear!" "Into a +bear?" I exclaimed, "what! shoot a bear with No. 4 shot?" "Yes, sir," +replied Abbot; "and if it hadn't have been for two or three who were +afeard of him, we would have brought him aboard, too." Sending my +bear-hunting friend about his business for neglecting my orders to +obtain fresh food for the crew, I afterward found out that on passing a +small island between the "Pioneer" and the Loon Head, as the cliff was +called, my boat's crew had observed a bear watching some seals, and it +was voted immediately, that to be the first to bring a bear home, would +immortalize the "Pioneer." + +A determined onslaught was therefore made on Bruin: No. 4 shot being +poured into him most ruthlessly, he growled and snapped his teeth, +trotted round the island, and was still followed and fired at, until, +finding the fun all on one side, the brute plunged into the water, and +swam for some broken-up ice; my heroes followed, and, for lack of ball, +fired at him a waistcoat button and the blade of a knife, which, by +great ingenuity, they had contrived to cram down one of their muskets; +this very naturally, as they described it, "made the beast jump again!" +he reached the ice, however, bleeding all over, but not severely +injured; and whilst the bear was endeavouring to get on the floe, a +spirited contest ensued between him and Old Abbot, the latter trying to +become possessor of a skin, which the former gallantly defended. + +Ammunition expended, and nothing but boat-hooks and stretchers left as +defensive weapons, there seemed some chance of the tables being +reversed, and the boat's crew very properly obliged the captain of the +forecastle to beat a retreat; the bear, equally well pleased to be rid +of such visitors, made off. "Old Abbot," as he was styled, always, +however, asserted, that if he had had his way, the bear would have been +brought on board the "Pioneer," and tamed to do a good deal of the +dragging work of the sledges; and whenever he heard, in the winter, any +of the young hands growling at the labour of sledging away snow or ice, +he created a roar of laughter, by muttering, "Ah! if you had taken my +advice, we'd have had that 'ere bear to do this work for us!" + + +_July 3d, 1850._--Penny, by taking another route, gave us the "go +by," and in the afternoon we started, taking an in-shore lane of water. +The wind, however, had freshened up from the westward, and as we +advanced, the ice was rapidly closing, the points of the floe-pieces +forming "bars," with holes of water between them. With the "Pioneer's" +sharp bow, we broke through the first of these barriers, and carried +the "Resolute" into "a hole of water," as it is called. The next bar +being broader, I attempted to force it by charging with the steamer, +and after breaking up a portion of it, backed astern to allow the +broken pieces to be removed; this being the first time this operation +was performed, and much having to be learnt upon the feasibility of the +different modes of applying steam-power against ice. + +[Headnote: _ARCTIC SPORTING._] + +We soon found ourselves surrounded with broken masses, which, owing to +the want of men to remove it away into the open water astern, rendered +advance or retreat, without injury to the propeller, almost impossible. +Here, the paucity of men on board the steam vessels was severely felt: +for until the "Resolute" was properly secured I could expect no +assistance from her; and the "Pioneer," therefore, had to do her best +with half the number of men, although she was fifty feet longer than +the ship. Unable to move, the closing floes fast beset the steamer, and +then the large parties of men that joined from the squadron to assist +were useless, beyond some practice, which all seemed willing to +undertake, in the use of ice-tools, consisting of chisels, poles with +iron points, claws, lines, &c. + +In a short time, the prospect of liberating the "Pioneer" was seen to +be farcical, and all the officers and men from the "Resolute" returned +to their ship, although parties of novices would walk down constantly +to see the first vessel beset in the ice. + +A few birds playing about induced myself and some others to go out +shooting, a foggy night promising to be favourable to our larders. The +ice, however, was full of holes, and very decayed; in addition to which +it was in rapid motion in many places, from the action of wind and +tide. The risk of such sporting was well evinced in my gallant friend +M----'s case. He was on one side of a lane of water, and I on the +other: a bird called a "Burgomaster" flew over his head to seaward, and +he started in the direction it had gone. I and another shouted to warn +him of the ice being in rapid motion and very thin; he halted for a +moment, and then ran on, leaping from piece to piece. The fog at this +moment lifted a little, and most providentially so, for suddenly I saw +M---- make a leap and disappear--the ice had given way!--he soon rose, +but without his gun, and I then saw him scramble upon a piece of ice, +and on watching it, observed with a shudder that both he and it were +drifting to the northward, and away from us. Leaving my remaining +companion to keep sight of M----, and thus to point out the way on my +return, I retraced my steps to the "Pioneer," and with a couple of men, +a long hand-line, and boarding-pikes, started off in the direction +M---- was in. + +I could tell my route pretty well by my companion's voice, which in +rich Milesian was giving utterance to encouraging exclamations of the +most original nature--"Keep up your courage, my boy!--Why don't you +come back?--Faith, I suppose it's water that won't let you!--There will +be some one there directly!--Hoy! hoy! ahoy! don't be down-hearted +anyway!" I laughed as I ran. My party placed themselves about ten yards +apart, the last man carrying the line, ready to heave, in case of the +leader breaking through. So weak was the ice that we had to keep at a +sharp trot to prevent the weight of our own bodies resting long on any +one spot; and when we sighted our friend M---- on his little piece of +firm ice, the very natural exclamation of one of my men was, "I wonder +how he ever reached it, sir?" M---- assisted us to approach him by +pointing out his own route; and by extending our line, and holding on +to it, we at last got near enough to take him off the piece of detached +ice on which he had providentially scrambled. I never think of the +occurrence without a sickening sensation, mixed with a comic +recollection of K----'s ejaculations. Whilst walking back with my +half-frozen friend, the ice showed itself to be easing off rapidly with +the turn of tide. At 1 A.M. we were all free, and a lane of water +extending itself ahead. + +[Headnote: _MELVILLE BAY._] + + +_July 4th._--At 1 P.M. we started again, towing the ships, the whaling +fleet from the southward under every stitch of canvas threatening to +reach the Duck Islands before ourselves, and Captain Penny's squadron +out of sight to the north-west. By dint of hard steaming we contrived +to reach the islands before the whalers, and at midnight got orders to +cast off and cruise about under sail, all the vessels rejoining us that +we had passed some days ago off the Women's Isles. + +The much talked of, by whalemen, "Devil's Thumb," was now open; it +appears to be a huge mass of granite or basalt, which rears itself on a +cliff of some 600 or 800 feet elevation, and is known as the southern +boundary of Melville Bay, round whose dreary circuit, year after year, +the fishermen work their way to reach the large body of water about the +entrance of Lancaster Sound and Pond's Bay. Facing to the south-west, +from whence the worst gales of wind at this season of the year arise, +it is not to be wondered at that Melville Bay has been the grave of +many a goodly craft, and in one disastrous year the whaling fleet was +diminished by no less than twenty-eight sail (without the loss of life, +however), a blow from which it never has recovered. No good reason was +adduced for taking this route, beyond the argument, founded upon +experience, that the earliest passages were always to be made by +Melville Bay; this I perfectly understood, for early in the season, +when northerly winds do prevail, the coast of Melville Bay is a +weather-shore, and the ice, acted upon by wind and current, would +detach itself and form between the land-ice and the pack-ice a safe +high-road to the westward. It was far otherwise in 1850. The prospect +of an early passage, viz., from the first to the third week of June, +had long vanished. Southerly winds, after so long a prevalence of +northerly ones (vide Captain Gravill's information), were to be +expected. The whole weight of the Atlantic would be forced up Davis's +Straits, and Melville Bay become "a dead lee-shore." I should therefore +not have taken the ice, or attempted to work my way round Melville Bay, +and would instead have gone to the westward and struck off sooner or +later into the west water, in about the latitude of Uppernavik, 73 deg. 30' +N. + +However, this is what amongst the experienced is styled theory; and as +any thing was better than standing still, I was heartily glad to see +the "Chieftain," a bonnie Scotch whaler, show us the road by entering a +lead of water, and away we all went, working to windward. The sailing +qualities of the naval Arctic ships threatened to be sadly eclipsed by +queer-looking craft, like the "Truelove" and others. But steam came to +the rescue, and after twelve hours' hard struggle we got the pendants +again ahead of our enterprising and energetic countrymen. + + +_Saturday, July 6th._--By 6 A.M. we were alongside of Penny's squadron, +which was placed at the head of the lane of water, up which we had also +advanced; and so keen was he not to lose the post of honour, that as we +closed, I smiled to see the Aberdonians move their vessels up into the +very "nip." In the course of the day the whalers again caught us up, +and a long line of masts and hulls dotted the floe-edge. + +The ice was white and hard, affording good exercise for pedestrians, +and to novices, of whom there were many amongst us, the idea of walking +about on the frozen surface of the sea was not a little charming. In +all directions groups of three and four persons were seen trudging +about, and the constant puffs of smoke which rose in the clear +atmosphere, showed that shooting for the table was kept carefully in +view. + +[Headnote: _AN OLD WHALEMAN._] + +A present of 170 duck-eggs from Captain Stewart of the "Joseph Green" +whaler, showed in what profusion these birds breed, and I was told by +Captain Penny that one of the islets passed by him on the 2d was +literally alive with ducks, and that several boat-loads of eggs might +have been taken off it,--interesting proofs of the extraordinary +abundance of animal life in these northern regions. Our Saturday +evening was passed listening to stirring tales of Melville Bay and the +whale fishery, and several prophecies as to the chances of a very bad +season, the number of icebergs and extent of the ice-fields, inducing +many to believe that more than usual risk would be run in the bay this +year. Sunday forenoon passed quietly and according to law, though a +falling barometer made us watch anxiously a heavy bank of black clouds +which rested in the southern heavens. + +The dinner-bell however rang, and having a very intelligent gentleman +who commands a whaler as a guest, we were much interested in listening +to his description of the strange life led by men, like himself, +engaged in the adventurous pursuit of the whale; Mr. S. assured us that +he had not seen corn grow, or eaten fresh gooseberries for thirty +years! although he had been at home every winter. Though now advanced +in years, with a large family, one of whom was the commander of Her +Majesty's brig the "Sophia," then in company, still he spoke with +enthusiasm of the excitement and risks of his own profession; it had +its charms for the old sailor, whose skill and enterprise had been +excited for so many years in braving the dangers of ice-encumbered +seas, whether around Spitzbergen or in Baffin's Bay: he evidently felt +a pride and satisfaction in his past career, and it had still sweet +reminiscences for him. I felt a pride in seeing such a man a +brother-seaman,--one who loved the North because it had hardships--one +who delighted to battle with a noble foe. "We are the only people," he +said, "who follow the whale, and kill him in spite of the ice and +cold." There was the true sportsman in such feelings. He and the whale +were at war,--not even the ice could save his prey. + +A report from deck, that the ice was coming in before a southerly gale, +finished our dinner very abruptly, and the alteration that had taken +place in a couple of hours was striking. A blue sky had changed to one +of a dusky colour,--a moaning gale sent before it a low brown vapour, +under which the ice gleamed fiercely,--the floes were rapidly pressing +together. Two whalers were already nipped severely, and their people +were getting the boats and clothing out ready for an accident. + +[Illustration] + +[Headnote: _DOCKING IN THE ICE._] + +"The sooner we are all in dock the better," said Captain S., as he +hurried away to get his own vessel into safety, and, almost as quickly +as I can tell it, a scene of exciting interest commenced--that of +cutting docks in the fixed ice, called land-floe, so as to avoid the +pressure which would occur at its edge by the body of ice to seaward +being forced against it by the fast rising gale. Smart things are done +in the Navy, but I do not think any thing could excel the alacrity with +which the floe was suddenly peopled by about 500 men, triangles rigged, +and the long saws (called ice-saws) used for cutting the ice, were +manned. A hundred songs from hoarse throats resounded through the gale; +the sharp chipping of the saws told that the work was flying; and the +loud laugh or broad witticisms of the crews mingled with the words of +command and encouragement to exertion given by the officers. + +The pencil of a Wilkie could hardly convey the characteristics of such +a scene, and it is far beyond my humble pen to tell of the stirring +animation exhibited by some twenty ships' companies, who knew that on +their own exertions depended the safety of their vessels and the +success of their voyage. The ice was of an average thickness of three +feet, and to cut this saws of ten feet long were used, the length of +stroke being about as far as the men directing the saw could reach up +and down. A little powder was used to break up the pieces that were +cut, so as to get them easily out of the mouth of the dock, an +operation which the officers of our vessels performed whilst the men +cut away with the saws. In a very short time all the vessels were in +safety, the pressure of the pack expending itself on a chain of bergs +some ten miles north of our present position. The unequal contest +between floe and iceberg exhibited itself there in a fearful manner; +for the former pressing onward against the huge grounded masses was +torn into shreds, and thrown back piecemeal, layer on layer of many +feet in elevation, as if mere shreds of some flimsy material, instead +of solid, hard ice, every cubic yard of which weighed nearly a ton. + +The smell of our numerous fires brought a bear in sight; Nimrods +without number issued out to slay him, the weapons being as varied as +the individuals were numerous. The chase would, however, have been a +fruitless one, had not the bear in his retreat fallen in with and +killed a seal; his voracity overcame his fears, and being driven into +the water, he was shot from the boat of one of the whalers which had +perseveringly followed him. + +The brute was of no great size--not more than five feet in length. The +coat, instead of being white, was turned to a dingy yellow, much +resembling in colour decayed ice; a resemblance which enabled the +animal, no doubt, to approach the seals with greater facility. + +By midnight all fears for the safety of the vessels had ceased; indeed, +as far as our searching ships had been concerned, there never had been +much cause for fear, the operation of docking having been carried out +by us more for the sake of practice than from necessity. We were +tightly beset until the following evening, when the ice as suddenly +moved off as it had come together; and then a scene of joyful +excitement took place, such as is only to be seen in the arctic +regions--every ship striving to be foremost in her escape from +imprisonment, and to lead ahead. Want of wind obliged the whalers and +Penny's brigs to be tracked along the floe-edge by the crews--a +laborious operation, which is done on our English canals by horses; +here, however, the powerful crews of fishermen, mustering from +thirty-five to fifty hands, fastened on by their track-belts to a +whale-line, and, with loud songs, made their vessels slip through the +water at an astonishing pace. + +An odd proof of the unhandiness of such vessels as the "Resolute" and +"Assistance" was given to-day: the former endeavoured to tow herself +ahead by the aid of all her boats, a distance of about three or four +hundred yards, and was quite unable to do so, although the wind against +her hardly amounted to a cat's paw; the consequence was, that until the +steam vessels got hold, she was fast dropping astern of the whalers, +and, as was usually the case, every one's temper was going wrong. The +run was not a very long one, and in the heart of a fleet of icebergs we +again brought up: one whaler, "The Truelove," having turned back in +despair of a passage north-about to Pond's Bay. + +[Headnote: _TRACKING AND TOWING._] + +From our position a good view of Melville Bay was to be had, and a more +melancholy one, eye never rested upon. Surrounded as we were with +bergs, we had to climb a neighbouring mass to obtain a clear horizon; +the prospect to seaward was not cheering; and from the Devil's Thumb +northward, one huge glacier spread itself. The first sensation we felt +was that of pity for the poor land--pressed down and smothered under so +deadly a weight: here and there, a strip of cliff protruded, black and +bare, from the edge of the _mer-de-glace_, whose surface, rough and +unpleasing, was of a sombre yellowish tint, with occasional masses of +basalt protruding through it, like the uplifted hands of drowning men: +it seemed Earth's prayer for light and life; but the ice, shroud-like, +enveloped it, and would not give up the dead. + + +_July 9th._--Every day taught us something: we had learned that the ice +went off as rapidly, if not more so, than it came in; and when an +opening occurred to-day, the "Pioneer," with the "Resolute" again in +tow, was ahead of the whalers, and close on Penny's heels. + +The ice to-day lay much across, forming very tortuous channels; and the +performance of the screws, in twisting themselves and their tail-pieces +(the ships) round floe-pieces and bergs, was as interesting as it was +satisfactory. In some places we had to adopt a plan, styled by us +"making a cannon!" from its resemblance to the same feat in billiards. +This generally occurred at sharp and intricate turns, where the breadth +of water was considerably less than the length of the vessels; we then, +in order to get the vessel's stem in the proper direction, used to +steer her in such a way, that the bow on the opposite side to which we +wanted her to turn struck the ice with some force; the consequence was, +the steamer would turn short off, and save the risk of getting athwart +"the lead," and aid in checking the ship round at the same time. + +Another novel application of steam took place to-day. We came to a bar +of ice, formed of loose floe-pieces of all sizes, but too small to +heave through by means of ice-anchors and lines; Penny stood close up +to it, but he could neither sail through it, nor warp; he had therefore +to make a long detour round its edge: _steam_ however was able to do +it; and with our knife-like bows, aided by the propeller, we soon +wedged a road through for ourselves and the "Resolute." + +Detentions in the ice were amongst the most trying moments of our life +in the North; and from the composition of our squadron, namely, two +fast vessels, and two slow ones, the constant waiting for one another +put me much in mind of the old doggerel:-- + + "The Earl of Chatham with sword drawn, + Was waiting for Sir Richard Strachan; + Sir Richard longing to be at 'em, + Was waiting for the Earl of Chatham." + +The risk of detention in such a region can be understood by all; but +few, perhaps, will appreciate the feeling of mingled passion and regret +with which the leading vessel in such a mission as we had in hand found +herself obliged to wait to close her consort, when all was water ahead, +and the chances of it remaining so were but slight. A few hours we all +knew had often made the difference of a passage across Melville Bay +without detention, or of a long, laborious voyage--here we were waiting +for our consorts. + + +On the 10th, a short tow; and in company with a portion of the whalers, +for several had retreated, we again had to dock, to escape nipping from +the ice, and on the morrow, a similar scene of hurry and excitement +took place when liberation came. + +[Headnote: _FAVOURABLE PROSPECT._] + + +_Thursday, 11th._--Seven of the most enterprising whalers still hung on +our heels, and to-day found us all at a bar beyond which there was a +sea of water. Patience! was the "_mot d'ordre_;" and it vented itself +in a number of dinners and the winding-up of letters; for we all felt +that the hour of separation from the whalers would soon arrive. They +all were delighted with the performance of the steam vessels in the +ice, and quizzed our crews for sitting at their ease, whilst they had +to drag like horses. Captain Penny, likewise, candidly acknowledged +that he never thought they could have answered so well; and regretted +that he had not had a steam vessel. Our seamen fully appreciated the +good service the screws had done them: they had now been eleven days in +the ice, during every day of which period they had witnessed it working +effectually under every circumstance; they had seen the crews of the +whalers labouring at the track-line, at the oar, and in making and +shortening sail, both by day and by night; whilst our crews had nothing +to do beyond taking the ships in tow and casting them off again; +already I observed a really sincere anxiety upon all their parts for +the safety of the "screw." I heard from henceforth inquiries amongst +them, whenever a shock took place, "Whether _she_ was all right?" or +to my orders, a ready response--"All right, sir! she is all free of the +ice!" + +At night the bar opened, and giving the "Lady Franklin" a jerk into the +water beyond, the "Intrepid" and "Pioneer" rattled away with the ships +in tow, as hard as steam could take them. Oh, for one run of ninety +miles! There was open water ahead; but, alas! we could only get three +miles an hour out of our vessel--alone, we could have gone five; making +in a day's work the difference between seventy-two and one hundred and +twenty miles. + +By two o'clock in the morning we had outrun both Penny and the whalers; +and, could we only have gone faster, assuredly the passage of Melville +Bay would have been that day effected. The land-floe was still fast, +reaching twenty-five or thirty miles off shore, and the pack had +drifted off some ten or fifteen miles; between the two we were steaming +at five o'clock in the morning of the 12th of July, and all was +promising--a headland called Cape Walker and Melville Monument opening +fast to view. The quarter-master grinned, as he made his report, that +he was sure we were in what was a fair lead into the North Water! + +Hope is not prophecy! and so they will find who labour in the North; +for how changed was the prospect when I went on deck after a short +sleep--a south wind had sprung up. We were under sail. The pack was +coming in fast, and the signal "Prepare to take the ice," flying from +the Commodore's mast-head. We did take it, as the pack came against the +land-floe, with Cape Walker about abreast of us; and, in a few hours, +the "nip" took place. The "Intrepid" and "Pioneer" having gone into a +natural dock together, were secure enough until the projecting points +of the land-floe gave way, when the weight of the pressure came on the +vessels, and then we felt, for the first time, a Melville Bay squeeze. +The vessels, lifted by the floes, shot alternately ahead of one +another, and rode down the floe for some fifty yards, until firmly +imbedded in ice, which, in many layers, formed a perfect cradle under +their bottoms. We, of course, were passive spectators, beyond taking +the precaution to have a few men following the vessels over the ice +with two or three of the boats, in case of a fatal squeeze. The "Sweet +little Cherub" watched over the steamers, however, and, in a short +time, the pressure transferred itself elsewhere. Next day showed all of +Her Majesty's squadron beset in Melville Bay. The gale had abated, but +an immense body of ice had come in from the S.W. To the N.W. a dark +haze showed a water sky, but from it we must have been at least forty +miles. Between us and the shore, a land-floe, of some thirty miles in +width, followed the sinuosities of the coast-line. Bergs here and there +strewed its surface; but the major part of them formed what is called a +"reef," in the neighbourhood of Devil's Thumb, denoting either a bank +or shoal water in that direction. + +[Headnote: _NARWHALES._] + +A powerful sunlight obliged spectacles of every shade, size, and +description to be brought into use; and, as we walked about from ship +to ship, a great deal of joking and facetiousness arose out of the +droll appearance of some individuals,--utility, and not beauty, was, +however, generally voted the great essential in our bachelor community; +and good looks, by general consent, put away for a future day. Great +reflection, as well as refraction, existed for the time we remained +beset in this position; and the refraction on one occasion enabled us +to detect Captain Penny's brigs as well as the whalers, although they +must have been nearly thirty miles distant. + +The ice slackening a little formed what are called "holes of water," +and in these we soon observed a shoal of narwhales, or unicorn fish, to +be blowing and enjoying themselves. By extraordinary luck, one of the +officers of the "Intrepid," in firing at them, happened to hit one in a +vital part, and the brute was captured; his horn forming a handsome +trophy for the sportsman. The result of this was, that the unfortunate +narwhales got no peace; directly they showed themselves, a shower of +balls was poured into them. + +This fish is found throughout the fishing-ground of Baffin's Bay, but +is not particularly sought for by our people. The Esquimaux kill it +with ease, and its flesh and skin are eaten as luxuries; the latter +especially, as an anti-scorbutic, even by the whalers, and some of our +crews partook of the extremely greasy-looking substance,--one man +vowing it was very like chestnuts! (?) I did not attempt to judge for +myself; but I have no doubt it would form good food to a really hungry +person. The narwhales vary in size, ranging sometimes, I am told, to +fourteen feet; the horns, of which I saw a great many at Whale-Fish +Isles, were from three feet to seven feet in length. The use of this +horn is a matter of controversy amongst the fishermen: it is almost too +blunt for offence, and its point, for about four inches, is always +found well polished, whilst the remainder of it is usually covered with +slime and greenish sea-weed. Some maintain that it roots up food from +the bottom of the sea with this horn; others, that it probes the clefts +and fissures of the floating ice with it, to drive out the small fish, +which are said to be its prey, and which instinctively take shelter +there from their pursuers. The body of the narwhale is covered with a +layer of blubber, of about two inches in thickness. This was removed, +and carefully boiled down to make oil; and the _krang_, or carcass, was +left as a decoy to molliemauks and ivory-gulls,--these latter birds +having for the first time been seen by me to-day. They are decidedly +the most graceful of sea-birds; and, from the exquisite purity of their +plumage when settled on a piece of ice or snow, it required a practised +eye to detect them. Not so the voracious and impertinent mollies--the +Procellaria of naturalists. Their very ugliness appeared to give them +security, and they are, in the North, what the vulture and carrion crow +are in more pleasant climes--Nature's scavengers. + +The 14th and 15th of July found us still firmly beset, and sorely was +our patience taxed. In-shore of us, a firm unbroken sheet of ice +extended to the land, some fifteen miles distant. Across it, in various +directions, like hedge-rows in an English landscape, ran long lines of +piled-up hummocks, formed during the winter by some great pressure; and +on the surface, pools of water and sludge[1] broke the general monotony +of the aspect. + + [1] Is the term applied to half-thawed ice or snow. + +[Headnote: _ANXIETY AND HOPE._] + +The striking mass of rock, known as Melville's Monument, was clear of +snow, because it was too steep for ice to adhere; but every where else +huge domes of white showed where Greenland lay, except where Cape +Walker thrust its black cliff through the glacier to scowl upon us. + +Tantalus never longed for water more than we did. Those who have been +so beset can alone tell of the watchfulness and headaching for water. +Now to the mast-head with straining eyes,--then arguing and inferring, +from the direction of wind and tide, that water must come. Others +strolling over to a hole, and with fragments of wood, or a measure, +endeavouring to detect that movement in the floes by which liberation +was to be brought about. Some sage in uniform, perhaps, tries to prove, +by the experience of former voyages, that the lucky day is passed or +close at hand; whilst wiser ones console themselves with exclaiming, +"That, at any rate, we are, as yet, before Sir James Ross's +expedition,--both in time and position." + +The 16th of July showed more favourable symptoms, and Captain Penny was +seen working for a lane of water, a long way in-shore of us. In the +night, a general disruption of the fixed ice was taking place in the +most marvellous manner; and, by the next morning, there was nearly as +much water as there had before been ice. The two steamers, firmly +imbedded in a mass of ice, many miles in circumference, were drifting +rapidly to the southward, whilst the two ships, afloat in a large space +of water and fastened to the floe, awaited our liberation. + +The prospect of a separation from the ships, when unavoidable, in no +wise depressed the spirits of my colleague of the "Intrepid," nor +myself. Like the man who lost a scolding wife, we felt if it must be +so, it was for the best, and we were resigned. But it was not to be; +the "Intrepid" with her screw, and the "Pioneer" with gunpowder, which, +for the first time, was now applied, shook the fragments apart in which +we were beset, and again we laid hold of our mentors. A thick fog +immediately enveloped us, and in it we got perfectly puzzled, took a +wrong lead, and, tumbling into a perfect _cul de sac_, made fast, to +await a break in the weather. The 18th of July, from the same cause, a +dense fog, was a lost day, and next day Penny again caught us up. He +reported the whalers to have given up all idea of a Northern fishery +this season. Alas! for the many friends who will be disappointed in not +receiving letters! and alas! for the desponding, who will croak and +sigh at the whalers failing to get across the bay, believing, +therefore, that _we_ shall fail likewise. + +Penny had passed a long way inside of the spot the steamers had been +beset and nipped in; and he witnessed a sight which, although +constantly taking place, is seldom seen--the entire dissolution of an +enormous iceberg. + +[Headnote: _DISSOLUTION OF AN ICEBERG._] + +This iceberg had been observed by our squadron, and remarked for its +huge size and massiveness, giving good promise of resisting a century +of sun and thaw. All on board the "Lady Franklin" described as a most +wonderful spectacle this iceberg, without any warning, falling, as it +were, to pieces; the sea around it resembled a seething caldron, from +the violent plunging of the masses, as they broke and rebroke in a +thousand pieces! The floes, torn up for a distance of ten miles by the +violent action of the rollers, threatened, by the manner the ice was +agitated, to destroy any vessel that had been amongst it; and they +congratulated themselves, on being sufficiently removed from the scene +of danger, to see without incurring any immediate risk. + +The fog again lifted for a short time. Penny went in my "crow's nest," +as well as into the "Resolute's," and soon gave us the disagreeable +intelligence, that the land-floe had broken up, and we were in the +pack, instead of having, as we had fancied, "fast ice" to hold on by; +and, as he remarked, "We can do nothing but push for it;--it's all +broken ice, and push we must, in-shore, or else away we go with the +loose floes!" + +With this feeling the six vessels started in the night, in an +indifferent and cross lead, we towing the "Resolute" and "Lady +Franklin,"--the "Intrepid," with "Assistance" and "Sophia," astern. +Breaking through two light barriers of ice, the prospect was improving; +and, as they said from the "crow's nest," that eight miles of water was +beyond a neck of ice ahead, I cast off the vessel in tow to charge the +ice; at first she did well, but the floe was nearly six feet thick, +hard and sound, and a pressure on it besides. The "Pioneer" was again +caught, and the squadron anchored to the floe to await an opening. A +few hours afterwards we were liberated, and, moving the vessel as far +astern as we could, the fact was duly reported to the senior officer; +but, as the road ahead was not open, no change of position could be +made. On the morning of the 20th we were again beset, and a south gale +threatened to increase the pressure; escape was, however, impossible, +and "Fear not, but trust in Providence" is a necessary motto for Arctic +seamen. My faith in this axiom was soon put to the proof. After a short +sleep I was called on deck, as the vessel was suffering from great +pressure. My own senses soon made it evident; every timber and plank +was cracking and groaning, the vessel was thrown considerably over on +her side, and lifted bodily, the bulkheads cracking, and treenails and +bolts breaking with small reports. On reaching the deck, I saw indeed +that the poor "Pioneer" was in sad peril; the deck was arching with the +pressure on her sides, the scupper-pieces were turning up out of the +mortices, and a quiver of agony wrung my craft's frame from stem to +taffrail, whilst the floe, as if impatient to overwhelm its victim, had +piled up as high as the bulwark in many places. + +The men who, whaler-fashion, had, without orders I afterwards learnt, +brought their clothes on deck, ready to save their little property, +stood in knots, waiting for directions from the officers, who, with +anxious eye, watched the floe-edge as its ground passed the side, to +see whether the strain was easing; suddenly it did so, and we were +safe! But a deep dent in the "Pioneer's" side, extending for some forty +feet, and the fact, as we afterwards learnt, of twenty-one timbers +being broken upon one side, proved that her trial had been a severe +one. + +Again had the ice come in upon us from the S.W., and nothing but a +steady, watchful progress through the pack was left to our squadron, as +well as Penny's. But I shall not weary the reader with the dry detail +of our every-day labours,--their success or futility. Keenly and +anxiously did we take advantage of every move in the ice, between the +20th and 31st July, yet, not seven miles in the right direction was +made good; the first of August found us doubting, considerably, the +prospect of reaching Lancaster Sound by a northern passage; and Capt. +Penny decided, if the water approached him from the south, to strike to +the westward in a lower latitude. + +[Headnote: _"PIONEER" NIPPED._] + +The ships--generally the "Resolute"--kept the lead in our heaving and +warping operation through the pack; and, leaving a small portion of the +crews to keep the other vessels close up under her stern, the majority +of the officers and men laboured at the headmost ship, to move her +through the ice. Heaving ahead with stout hawsers, blasting with +gunpowder, cutting with ice-saws, and clipping with ice-chisels, was +perseveringly carried on; but the progress fell far short of the labour +expended, and the bluff bow slipped away from the nip instead of +wedging it open. Warping the "Resolute" through a barrier of ice by +lines out of her hawse-holes, put me in mind of trying to do the same +with a cask, by a line through the bung-hole: she slid and swerved +every way but the right one, ahead; I often saw her bring dead up, as +if a wall had stopped her. After a search, some one would exclaim, +"Here is the piece that jams her!" and a knock with a two-pound chisel +would bring up a piece of ice two or three inches thick! In short, all, +or nearly all, of us soon learnt to see, that the fine bow was the one +to get ahead in these regions; and the daily increasing advantage which +Penny had over us, was a proof which the most obstinate could not +dispute. + +I often thought how proud our countrymen would be of their seamen, +could they have looked on the scene of busy energy and activity +displayed in the solitude of Melville Bay:--the hearty song, the merry +laugh, and zealous labours of the crew; day after day the same +difficulties to contend with, yet day after day met with fresh +resolution and new resources; a wide horizon of ice, no sea in sight, +yet every foot gained to the northward was talked of with satisfaction +and delight; men and officers vieing with one another in laborious +duties, the latter especially, finding amongst a body of seamen, +actuated by such noble and enthusiastic feelings, no necessity to fear +an infringement of their dignity. The etiquette of the quarter-deck was +thrown on one side for the good of the common cause; and on every side, +whether at the capstan, at the track-line, hauling, heaving, or +cutting, the officer worked as hard as the seamen,--each was proud of +the other, and discipline suffered nought, indeed improved: for here +Jack had both precept and example. + +If we had our labours, it is not to be wondered at that we had also our +leisure and amusements, usually at night,--a polar night robed in +light,--then, indeed, boys fresh from school never tossed care more to +the winds than did the majority of us. Games, which men in any other +class of society would vote childish, were entered into with a zest +which neither gray hairs nor stout bodies in any degree had damped. +Shouts of laughter! roars of "Not fair, not fair! run again!" "Well +done, well done!" from individuals leaping and clapping their hands +with excitement, arose from many a merry ring, in which "rounders," +with a cruelly hard ball, was being played. In other directions the +fiddle and clarionet were hard at work, keeping pace with heels which +seemed likely never to cease dancing, evincing more activity than +grace. Here a sober few were heaving quoits, there a knot of Solomons +talked of the past, and argued as to the future, whilst in the distance +the sentimental ones strolled about, thinking no doubt of some one's +goodness and beauty, in honour of whom, like true knights, they had +come thus far to win bright honour from the "Giant of the North." + +Sometimes a bear would come in sight, and then his risk of being shot +was not small, for twenty keen hands were out after the skin: it had +been promised as a _gage d'amour_ by one to his betrothed; to a sister +by another; a third intended to open the purse-strings of a +hard-hearted parent by such a proof of regard; and not a few were to go +to the First Lord with it, in exchange for a piece of parchment, if he +would not object to the arrangement. + +[Headnote: _LIEUT. HALKETT'S BOAT._] + +Every day our sportsmen brought home a fair proportion of loons and +little auks, the latter bird flying in immense flocks to all the +neighbouring pools of water, and to kill ten or twelve of them at a +shot when settled to feed, was not considered as derogatory to the +character of a Nimrod, where the question was a purely gastronomic one. +I found in my shooting excursions an India-rubber boat, constructed +upon a plan of my dear friend Peter Halkett, to be extremely +convenient; in it I floated down the cracks of water, landed on +floe-pieces, crossed them dragging my boat, and again launched into +water in search of my feathered friends. At the Whale-Fish Islands, +much to the delight of my Esquimaux friends, I had paddled about in the +inflated boat, and its portability seemed fully to be appreciated by +them, though they found fault with the want of speed, in which it fell +far short of their own fairy craft. + +The separation of the squadron, occasioned by either mistake or +accident, detained us for a few days in the beginning of August, in +order that junction might again take place. Penny, by dint of hard +tracking and heaving, gained seven miles upon us. For several days a +schooner, a ketch, and a single-masted craft, had been seen far to the +southward; they were now rapidly closing, and we made them out to be +the "Felix," Sir J. Ross, with his boat towing astern, and the "Prince +Albert," belonging to Lady Franklin, in charge of Commander Forsyth. + + +_August 5th._--Plenty of water. The "Assistance" received orders to +proceed (when her consort the "Intrepid" joined her) to the north shore +of Lancaster Sound, examine it and Wellington Channel, and having +assured themselves that Franklin had not gone up by that route to the +N.W., to meet us between Cape Hotham and Cape Walker. I regretted that +the shore upon which the first traces would undoubtedly be found, +should have fallen to another's share: however, as there seemed a +prospect of separation, and by doing so, progress, I was too rejoiced +to give it a second thought; and that the "Assistance" would do her +work well, was apparent to all who witnessed the zeal and skill +displayed by her people in the most ordinary duty. + +Taking in our ice-anchors, and getting hold of the "Resolute," I bid my +friends of the "Assistance" good-bye, thinking that advance was now +likely: this hope soon failed me, for again we made fast, and again we +all waited for one another. + +Amongst many notes of the superiority of steam over manual labour in +the ice, I will extract two made to-day. + +The "Assistance" was towed by the "Intrepid" in fifteen minutes, a +distance which it took the "Resolute," followed by the "Pioneer," from +10 A.M. to 3 P.M. to track and warp. + +The "Intrepid" steamed to a berg in ten minutes, and got past it. The +rest of the squadron, by manual labour, succeeded in accomplishing the +same distance in three hours and a half, namely, from 7 P.M. to 10 30 +P.M., by which time the ice had closed ahead, and we had to make fast. + + +_August 6th and 7th._--Very little progress: and a squadron of +blank faces showed that there were many taking a deep and anxious +interest in the state of affairs. The remark that Sir James Ross's +expedition was by this time, in 1848, in a better position than +ourselves, and only found time to secure winter quarters at Leopold +Island, was constantly heard: there was, in fact, but one hope +left,--we had steam, and there was yet thirty days of open navigation. + +[Headnote: _CHARGING THE ICE._] + +Friday the 9th of August at last arrived. Captain Penny's squadron was +gone out of sight in a lane of water towards Cape York. The schooner +and ketch were passing us: caution yielded to the grim necessity of a +push for our very honour's sake: the ship was dropped out of the nip, +the "Pioneer" again allowed to put her wedge-bow, aided by steam, to +the crack. In one hour we were past a barrier which had checked our +advance for three long weary days. All was joy and excitement: the +steamers themselves seemed to feel and know their work, and exceeded +even our sanguine expectations; and, to every one's delight, we were +this evening allowed to carry on a system of ice-breaking which will +doubtless, in future Arctic voyages, be carried out with great success. +For instance, a piece of a floe, two or three hundred yards broad, and +three feet thick, prevented our progress: the weakest and narrowest +part being ascertained, the ships were secured as close as possible +without obstructing the steam vessels, the major part of the crews +being despatched to the line where the cut was to be made, with tools +and gunpowder for blasting, and plenty of short hand-lines and claws. + +The "Pioneer" and "Intrepid," then, in turn rushed at the floe, +breaking their way through it until the impetus gained in the open +water was lost by the resistance of the ice. The word "Stop her! Back +turn, easy!" was then given, and the screw went astern, carrying with +her tons of ice, by means of numerous lines which the blue-jackets, who +attended on the forecastle, and others on broken pieces of the floe, +held on by. As the one vessel went astern, the other flew ahead to her +work. The operation was, moreover, aided by the explosions of powder; +and altogether the scene was a highly interesting and instructive one: +it was a fresh laurel in the screw's wreath; and the gallant "Intrepid" +gave a _coup-de-grace_ to the mass, which sent it coach-wheeling +round, as it is termed; and the whole of the squadron taking the nip, +as Arctic ships should do, we were next morning in the true lead, and +our troubles in Melville Bay were at an end. + +It was now the 10th of August. By heavens! I shall never forget the +light-heartedness of that day. Forty days had we been beset in the ice, +and one day of fair application of steam, powder, and men, and the +much-talked-of bay was mastered. There was, however, no time to be +lost. The air was calm, the water was smooth; the land-floe (for we had +again reached it) lay on the one hand--on the other the pack, from +whose grip we had just escaped, still threatened us. Penny had been out +of sight some time, and the "Felix" and "Prince Albert" were nearly ten +miles ahead! + +Gentle Reader, I'll bore you no longer! We had calm water and +steam,--the ships in tow,--our progress rapid,--the "Albert" and +"Felix" were caught,--their news joyfully received,--and they taken in +tow likewise. The dates from England were a month later than our own: +all our friends were well,--all hopeful; and, putting those last dear +letters away, to be read and re-read during the coming winter, we +pushed on, and there was no time to be lost. Several nights before we +escaped from the pack the frost had been intense, and good sliding was +to be had on the pools formed by summer heat on the floes. The +bay-ice[2] was forming fast, and did not all melt during the day. The +birds had finished breeding; and, with the fresh millions that had been +added to their numbers, were feeding up preparatory to their departure +south. The sun was sweeping, _nightly_, nearer and nearer to the +northern horizon. Night once set in, we knew full well the winter would +come with giant strides. "Push on, good screw!" was on every one's lip; +and anxiety was seen on every brow, if by accident, or for any purpose, +the propeller ceased to move. "What's the matter? All right, I hope!" +Then a chuckle of satisfaction at being told that "nothing was amiss!" + + [2] First winter ice, or young ice, is called bay-ice, from an + old Yorkshire word _bay_, to bend.--_Author._ + +[Headnote: _DETENTION OFF CAPE YORK._] + +Time did not allow us, or I verily believe we might have killed tons of +birds between Cape Walker and Cape York, principally little auks (_Alca +alle_);--they actually blackened the edge of the floe for miles. I had +seen, on the coast of Peru, near the great Guano mines, what I thought +was an inconceivable number of birds congregated together; but they +were as nothing compared with the myriads that we disturbed in our +passage, and their stupid tameness would have enabled us to kill as +many as we pleased. + +On August 13th, Cape York being well in sight, Penny's brigs were again +in view; and whilst the "Intrepid" and "Assistance," with the "Prince +Albert," communicated with the natives of Cape York, the "Pioneer" +pushed on, and soon passed the brigs, who, although they knew full well +that the late arrivals from England had letters for them, were to be +seen pushing tooth and nail, to get to the westward. + +Slow--as slow as possible--we steamed all day along the "Crimson Cliffs +of Beverley." The interview with the natives of Cape York, alas! was to +cost us much. My frame of mind at the time was far from heavenly; for +"Large Water" was ahead, our squadron many a long mile from its work; +and I was neither interested, at the time, in Arctic Highlanders or +"Crimson Snow!" In the evening the "Assistance" joined us; and I was +told that "important information had been gained." We were to turn +back; and the "Intrepid" went in chase of Penny, to get the aid of his +interpreter, Mr. Petersen. + +I remember being awoke at six o'clock on the morning of the 14th of +August, and being told a hobgoblin story, which made me rub my eyes, +and doubt my own hearing. What I thought of it is neither here nor +there. Suffice it that Adam Beck--may he be branded for a +liar!--succeeded, this day, in misleading a large number of Her +Majesty's officers (as his attested document proves), and in detaining, +for two days, the squadrons in search of Franklin. No one with common +perception, who witnessed the interview on our deck between Mr. +Petersen, Adam Beck, and our new shipmate, the Esquimaux from Cape +York, could fail to perceive that Mr. P. and the Cape York native +understood one another much better than the latter could the vile Adam +Beck; and had I had any doubts upon the subject, they would have been +removed when I learnt that Petersen had seen and communicated with +these very natives before our squadron came up, and that no such bloody +tale had been told him; in fact, it was the pure coinage of Adam Beck's +brain, cunningly devised to keep, at any rate, his own ship on a coast +whither he could escape to the neighbourhood of his home in South +Greenland. + +The fact of the "North Star" having wintered last year in Wolstenholme +Sound, or "Petowack," was elicited, and that the natives had been on +board of her. The "Assistance" and "Intrepid," therefore, remained to +visit that neighbourhood, whilst we proceeded to the south shore of +Lancaster Sound, touching, as had been pre-arranged, at Pond's Bay and +Cape Possession. + +Steaming along the Crimson Cliffs for a second time, we left the "Lady +Franklin" and "Sophia," in a stark calm, to do their best. Fewer ships, +the faster progress; and heartily did all cheer when, at midnight, we +turned to the N.W., leaving the second division to do their work in +Wolstenholme Sound. So ended the memorable 14th of August: it will be, +doubtless, remembered by many with far from pleasant feelings; and some +who have been "gulled" in England may thank Mr. Petersen that a +carrier-pigeon freighted with a cock-and-bull story of blood, fire, +wreck, and murder, was not despatched on that memorable day. + +[Headnote: _THE WEST WATER._] + +The 15th we struck westward, that is, the "Pioneer," with "Resolute" +and "Prince Albert" in tow. After four hours of very intricate +navigation, called "reeving through the pack," we reached the West +Water,--a wide ocean of water without one piece of floe-ice, and very +few icebergs. The change was wonderful--incredible. Here was nothing +but water; and we were almost within sight, as we steered to the S.W., +of the spot where, for forty-seven days, we had had nothing but ice! +ice! ice! Let us hurry on. The West Water (as usual with the water at +this season of the year) was covered with fog: in it we steered. The +"Resolute," as a capital joke, in return for the long weary miles we +had towed her, set, on one occasion, all studsails, and gave us a tow +for four hours. When off the mouth of Lancaster Sound, the "Prince +Albert" was cast off; and she departed to carry out, as I then thought, +a part of the grand scheme of land travelling next year, into which it +became almost daily apparent the search for Franklin would resolve +itself. Already had night commenced; next came winter. + +Touching at Pond's Bay was made a longer proceeding than was ever +calculated upon, for a succession of thick fogs and strong gales +prevented the "Pioneer" running into the bay, or ascertaining whether +cairns or other marks had been erected on the coast. + +The 21st of August came before we had a change of weather: happily it +then took place; and the "Pioneer" (having some days before left the +"Resolute," to cruise off Possession Bay) entered Pond's Bay, running +up the northern shore towards a place called Button Point. + +The "West Land," as this side of Baffin's Bay is called, strikes all +seamen, after struggling through the icy region of Melville Bay, as +being verdant and comparatively genial. We all thought so, and feasted +our eyes on valleys, which, in our now humbled taste, were voted +beautiful,--at any rate there were signs and symptoms of verdure; and +as we steered close along the coast, green and russet colours were +detected and pointed out with delight. The bay was calm and glassy, and +the sun to the west, sweeping along a water horizon, showed pretty +plainly that Pond's Bay, like a good many more miscalled bays of this +region, was nothing more than the bell-shaped mouth to some long fiord +or strait. + +One of my ice-quartermasters, a highly intelligent seaman, assured me +he had been in a whale-boat up this very inlet, until they conjectured +themselves to be fast approaching Admiralty Inlet; the country there +improved much in appearance, and in one place they found abundance of +natives, deer, and grass as high as his knees. I landed with a boat's +crew on Button Point. The natives had retired into the interior to kill +deer and salmon: this they are in the habit of doing every season when +the land ice breaks up. Numerous unroofed winter habitations and +carefully secured _caches_ of seal-blubber proved that they had been +here in some numbers, and would return to winter after the ice had +again formed in the bay, and the seals began to appear, upon which the +existence of the Esquimaux depends. + +On first landing we had been startled by observing numerous cairns, +standing generally in pairs: these we pulled down one after the other, +and examined without finding any thing in them; and it was only the +accidental discovery by one of the men of a seal-blubber _cache_, +which showed that the cairns were merely marks by which the Esquimaux, +on their return in the winter, could detect their stores. + +[Headnote: _LANCASTER SOUND._] + +The winter abode of these Esquimaux appeared to be sunk from three to +four feet below the level of the ground: a ring of stones, a few feet +high, were all the vestiges we saw. No doubt they completed the +habitation by building a house of snow of the usual dome shape over the +stones and sunken floor. Having no wood, whale-bones had been here +substituted for rafters, as is usual along the whole breadth of the +American coast-line from Behring's Straits; but many of the hovels had +no rafters. On the whole the impression was, that the natives here +lived in a state of much greater barbarity and discomfort than those we +had seen about the Danish settlements on the opposite shore. + +A cairn was erected by us; a record and some letters deposited for the +natives to put on board whalers at a future season; and having placed a +number of presents for the poor creatures in the different huts, and on +the _caches_, we hurried on board and made the best of our way to +Possession Bay, and rejoined the "Resolute," from whom we learnt that +the "North Star" had placed a record there, to say, that after having +failed to cross Baffin's Bay in 1849, she had done so in 1850, and had +gone up Lancaster Sound to seek the "Enterprise" and "Investigator," +under Sir James Ross, they having, as we knew, meanwhile, gone home, +been paid off, recommissioned, and were now, please God, in the Arctic +Ocean, by way of Behring's Straits. + + +_August 22d, 1850._--The "Resolute" in company, and steering a course +up Lancaster Sound. + +The great gateway, within whose portals we were now fast entering, has +much in it that is interesting in its associations to an English +seaman. Across its mouth, the bold navigator Baffin, 200 years before, +had steered, pronounced it a sound, and named it after the Duke of +Lancaster. About thirty-five years ago it was converted into a bay by +Sir John Ross; and within eighteen months afterwards, Parry, the prince +of Arctic navigators, sailed through this very bay, and discovered new +lands extending half of the distance towards Behring's Straits, or +about 600 miles. To complete the remaining 600 miles of unknown region, +Sir John Franklin and his 140 gallant followers had devoted +themselves,--with what resolution, with what devotion, is best told by +their long absence and our anxiety. + +The high and towering ranges of the Byam Martin Mountains looked down +upon us from the southern sky, between fast-passing fog-banks and +fitful gusts of wind, which soon sobbed themselves into a calm, and +steam, as usual, became our friend: with it the "Pioneer," towing the +"Resolute" astern, steered for the north shore of Lancaster Sound; and +on August 25th we were off Croker Bay, a deep indentation between Cape +Warrender and Cape Home. The clouds hung too heavily about the land, +distant as we were, to see more than the bare outline, but its broken +configuration gave good hope of numerous harbours, fiords, and creeks. +From Cape Home, we entered on a new and peculiar region of limestone +formation, lofty and tabular, offering to the seaboard cliffs steep and +escarped as the imagination can picture to be possible. By the +beautiful sketches of Parry's officers, made on his first voyage, we +easily recognized the various headlands; the north shore being now +alone in view; and indeed, except the mountains in the interior, we saw +nothing more of the south shore of Lancaster Sound after leaving +Possession Bay. + +[Headnote: _ICEBERGS AND GLACIERS._] + +Of Powell Inlet we saw an extensive glacier extending into the sound, +and a few loose 'berg pieces floating about. This glacier was regarded +with some interest; for, remarkably enough, it is the last one met with +in sailing westward to Melville Island. + +The iceberg, as it is well known, is the creation of the glacier; and +where land of a nature to form the latter does not exist, the former is +not met with. + +The region we had just left behind us is the true home of the iceberg +in the northern hemisphere. There, in Baffin's Bay, where the steep +cliffs of cold granitic formation frown over waters where the ordinary +"deep sea lead-line" fails to find bottom, the monarch of glacial +formations floats slowly from the ravine which has been its +birth-place, until fairly launched in the profound waters of the +Atlantic, and in the course of many years is carried to the warmer +regions of the south, to assist Nature in preserving her great laws of +equilibrium of temperature of the air and water. + +At one period--and not a very distant one either--savans, and, amongst +others, the French philosopher St. Pierre, believed icebergs to be the +accumulated snow and ice of ages, which, forming at the poles, detached +themselves from the parent mass: this, as they then thought, had no +reference to the existence of land or water. Such an hypothesis for +some time gave rise to ingenious and startling theories as to the +effect which an incessant accumulation of ice would have on the globe +itself; and St. Pierre hinted at the possibility of the huge cupolas of +ice, which, as he believed, towered aloft in the cold heavens of the +poles, suddenly launching towards the equator, melting, and bringing +about a second deluge. + +Had the immortal Cook been aware of the certainty of land being close +to him, when, in the Antarctic regions, he found himself amongst no +less than one hundred and eighty-six icebergs in December, 1773; he +who, from the deck of a collier, had risen to be the Columbus of +England, might have then plucked the laurel which Sir James Ross so +gallantly won in the discovery of the circumpolar continent of Queen +Victoria's Land. + +On every side of the southern pole, on every meridian of the great +South Sea, the seaman meets icebergs. Not so in the north. In the 360 +degrees of longitude, which intersects the parallel of 70 degrees north +(about which parallel the coasts of America, Europe, and Asia will be +found to lie), icebergs are only found over an extent of some 55 +degrees of longitude, and this is immediately in and about Greenland +and Baffin's Bay. In fact, for 1375 miles of longitude we have +icebergs, and then for 7635 geographical miles none are met with. This +interesting fact is, in my opinion, most cheering, and points strongly +to the possibility that no extensive land exists about our northern +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 verite 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 depot, +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 L20,000 +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 depots 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 depot 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 +depot 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 deg. 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] + +[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 _caches_, 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 vitae 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 deg. 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 spiculae 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 +vitae 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 deg. 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 spiculae, 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 deg. above zero to +40 deg. 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 deg. +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 deg. 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 deg.--, and in the sun +the thermometer only rose to 2 deg. 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 deg. 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 deg. 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 deg. 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 +intelligence in choosing the road through the broken ice; the strict +obedience paid by the team to one powerful dog whom they elect as +leader; the arbitrary exercise of authority by the said leader; the +constant use of the whip, and a sort of running conversation kept up by +the driver with the different dogs, who well knew their names, as in +turn Sampson! Caniche! Foxey! Terror! &c., &c., were duly +anathematized, afforded constant amusement; apart from Petersen's +conversation, which was replete with interest, and the information he +gave me of the distances accomplished on the coast of Greenland by the +Danes with dog-sledges, made me regret much we had not provided +ourselves with a team or two for accomplishing any necessarily rapid +journey. + +When Mr. Petersen, at Uppernavik, had so nobly thrown up an appointment +under the Danish crown to serve as interpreter with Penny in the search +for Franklin, he brought with him a sledge and a few dogs: these had +twice littered, and the numerous puppies were already grown into +serviceable dogs, forming two efficient teams. The major part of the +winter, scarcity of food, such as seal and bear, had told severely upon +the poor creatures; but an Esquimaux dog lives on little when not +worked; and, with a little oatmeal and grease, they had all outlived +the severe season; and some bear's flesh having been luckily procured, +there was every probability of good service being rendered by them. Our +rate of travelling was over five miles per hour, and though making a +considerable detour to avoid broken ice, I was shaking Penny by the +hand four hours after leaving the "Pioneer:" the distance between the +squadrons being about twenty miles in a straight line. + +[Headnote: _ADVANTAGE OF WINTERING IN HARBOUR._] + +I was much struck with the great advantage of wintering in harbour, and +near the shore, over a position, such as our squadron's, in the midst +of the floe. There was a cheerfulness in the vicinity of the land, +barren though it was, quite refreshing to one who had always a mile to +walk during the winter to reach Griffith's Island, or remain satisfied +with the monotony of the ice-field around the "Pioneer." Besides being +snug in harbour, Captain Penny, satisfied of the security of his +vessels, intended to leave only one man in each of them,--every other +soul being told off for sledge-parties,--whereas our squadron would +have some sixty men and officers left behind to take care of them, +exposed as they were to be swept into Barrow's Strait, or farther, by +any sudden disruption of the ice. I, therefore, mentally gave my +adhesion to the opinion expressed by authorities at home, to secure +winter quarters in some bay or harbour, and not to winter in the pack, +unless it is unavoidable. + +The oldest English officer who had ever wintered within the Arctic +circle on a voyage of discovery, Sir John Ross, was not likely to be +forgotten by me; and I sincerely congratulated the veteran on his +escape from sickness during the past winter: and, though a wonderful +instance of physical endurance, I, with others, could not but feel +regret that a Naval officer so advanced in years, and who had served so +long, should be necessitated to undergo privations, of which those who +did not witness them can form no conception. + +Time enabled me to do little more than admire the perseverance +displayed by Capt. Penny, his officers and men, in their preparations +for travelling. Sledges, cooking apparatuses, tents, in short, every +thing was ready, having been made by themselves in the course of the +winter; and, on the 13th April, six sledges, drawn by seamen, with an +officer to each, and provisioned for forty days, would start for +Wellington Channel, there to part into two divisions,--Capt. Stewart, +of the "Sophia," taking the one side of the Channel, whilst Capt. +Penny, with two extra dog-sledges, would direct the search in general. +Delighted with all the arrangements, and equally so with the high +spirit of chivalrous devotion apparent in every word and action of +these our gallant coadjutors in the purest of enterprises, my heart was +full as I said "Good-bye" to my hospitable friend Penny, on the 11th of +April; and a rapid drive by Mr. Petersen carried me to the "Pioneer" in +less than three hours. After a short halt, Mr. P. returned to +Assistance Harbour, doing full forty miles, within twelve hours, on his +dog-sledge. + +I was astonished to find, on my return, that as yet the temperature at +our winter quarters had not been registered as being above zero; +whereas, in Assistance Harbour, Capt. Penny's quarters, the thermometer +had occasionally for the past week ranged above it, and on the day +before I left showed 11 deg. in the shade. This difference of temperature +was, doubtless, occasioned by the radiation of heat from the land, by +which they were, unlike ourselves, surrounded. + +During my absence, I was told that Mr. M'Dougal, of the "Resolute," who +had been despatched as early as the 4th April to inspect the depots +formed in the autumn, had returned to the ships, and brought accounts +of a wholesale destruction of the one on Somerville Island, by bears. +Hunger and mischievousness seemed alike to have induced the brutes to +break and tear to pieces what they could not possibly eat--such as tins +of patent chocolate, some of which were fairly bitten through. This +information induced us all to take extra precautions in securing the +provisions, of which depots during the march were to be formed. + +[Headnote: _SLEDGE EQUIPMENT._] + +It is now time to describe the sledges and their equipment, upon the +completeness of which the lives of our travellers so entirely depended. + +The sledges, constructed of tough and well-seasoned wood, had been +carefully constructed in Woolwich Dockyard. They were shod with iron, +and the cross-bars or battens which connected the two runners, and +formed the floor upon which the load was placed, were lashed in their +places by us when required for use. At the four corners of the sledges +light iron stanchions dropped into sockets, and formed the support for +the sides of a species of tray or boat, capable of serving to ferry the +sledge crew across water in an emergency, as well as to keep the +provisions and clothing in it dry. This boat was made in some cases of +gutta-percha, in others of oiled canvas;-- + + lbs. + + And, together with the sledge and drag-ropes, which + were made of horse-hair, to prevent their becoming + hard and brittle from frost, weighed 120 + + Two fur blankets and spare blanket, two weighed 40 + + Nine blanket-bags for sleeping in 42 + + A tent of oblong form, made of a species of + brown holland, supported by four boarding-pikes, + and a line which served as a ridge-rope, and was + set up to any heavy thing that came to hand 55 + + Mackintosh floor-cloth to spread over the snow + or gravel 12 + + A shovel to dig out snow for banking-up with 5-1/2 + + A cooking apparatus, invented by Lieutenant M'Clintock, + capable of cooking a pint apiece of tea, cocoa, or + pemmican, with a spirit lamp, tallow lamp, and spare + kettle 17 + + Sextant, 1 gun, and gear 10 + + A bag containing 5 tin pannikins and 5 spoons 5 + + A knapsack for each man, containing 1 flannel shirt, + 1 Guernsey frock, 1 serge frock, 1 pair of drawers, + flannel, 1 pair of boot hose, 1 pair of stockings, + 2 pairs of blanket-socks, 1 towel, 1 comb, 1 lb. soap 48 + + Spare boots, and thick Guernsey frocks for sleeping in 36 + + A tin case, containing pepper, salt, herbs dried, + lucifer matches, grog-measure, calico and flannel + bandages, plaster adhesive, lint, liniment, eye-wash, + pills, simple ointment, glycerine, lancet, tincture + of opium, pins, needles, and thread 16 + + Store-bag, containing broom or brush for sweeping the + tent down with, spare boot-soles, wax, bristles, twine, + shoe-tacks, crape awls, slow-match, nettle stuff, and + strips of hide, cylinders for documents, printed + records 11 + + Spare ammunition, cleaning rods, and wrench 14 + + Kites and string 12-1/2 + ________ + + Dead weight, lbs. 440 + ________ + +Such were the weights of the sledge equipment in the case of one of +those intended for a long journey. Nothing, it will be seen, was +forgotten, and there was nothing superfluous; yet, as the 440 lbs. had +to be dragged by six men, there was already 73 lbs. per man, which +would, from its nature, be hardly any lighter at the end of the +journey; and as about 200 lbs. was judged to be as much as a man could +drag, there only remained 172 lbs. per man available for provision and +package. + +[Headnote: _SCALE OF PROVISION._] + +The daily scale of provision, as ordered by Capt. Austin, during the +journeys, was to be as follows:-- + + Pemmican 1 lb. + Boiled pork 6 oz. + Biscuit 12 oz. + Rum, concentrated 3/4 gill. + Tobacco 1/2 oz. + Biscuit dust 1 oz. + Tea and sugar 3/4 oz. + Chocolate and sugar (alternate days) 1-3/4 oz. + Lime-juice (for 10 days) 1/2 oz. + +The fuel allowed to cook this, for a party of seven men, amounted to +one pint and one gill of spirits of wine, or one pound eight ounces of +tallow. + +A little calculation soon showed that about forty days' provision was +as much as any one sledge could take with it, or for an outward journey +of about twenty days; which, at an average distance of ten miles per +diem, would only give an extent of coast-line examined by any one +sledge of two hundred miles. + +Before I endeavour to show how, by a system of depots and relays, +greater distances were achieved, the complete load of a long-party +sledge may as well be shown. + + lbs. + Total dead weight 440 + Pemmican and cases 330 + Biscuit and dust, &c. 278 + Pork and packages 123 + Tea, sugar, chocolate, tobacco, &c., in a case 47 + Lime-juice and rum 67 + Spirits of wine and tallow 78 + Sundries, tins, &c. 45 + _____ + Number of men to drag, 7 1408 + _____ + 201 lbs. per man. + +The officer's load consisted of a gun, powder and ball, telescope, +compass, and note-book; and as all the party, in anticipation of cold +weather, had to be heavily clad, it may be supposed that the total +weight to be dragged through snow and over rough ice was quite as much +as the stoutest physical powers were capable of. Several days previous +to departure we had travelled short journeys, in perfect marching +order, and sledges ladened,--an arrangement which was highly +beneficial; and from the way the sledges went over the floe, they gave +us high hopes of answering our expectations in the forthcoming march. + +From head-quarters the following arrangement of sledges was made +public:-- + +Capt. Erasmus Ommanney was to cross Barrow's Strait to Cape Walker, +with the following sledges and officers under his orders: he there was +to use his own judgment as to the disposal of the force, it being +required, in the event of two routes showing themselves, viz., one to +the S.W., and the other W., that Lieut. Sherard Osborn was to be +ordered to take up the latter. + +[Headnote: _GRAND SOUTHERN SEARCH._] + + _CAPTAIN OMMANNEY'S COMMAND._ + ++-------------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------------+ +| Long-party sledge |Reliance | _Domine dirige nos_ |Captain Ommancy, | +| | | |six men. | ++-------------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------------+ +| Ditto ditto |True Blue | _Nil desperandum_ |Lieutenant | +| | | |Osborn, seven | +| |men. | ++-------------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------------+ +| Supporting sledge |Succour | _Sequor juvare_ |Lieut. G. F. | +| | | |Mecham, six men. | ++-------------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------------+ +| | | Gaze where some | | +| | | distant speck | | +| Ditto ditto |Enterprise | a sail implies, |Lieut. W. H. | +| | | With all the |Browne, six men. | +| | | thirsting gaze | | +| | | of enterprise. | | ++-------------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------------+ +| Ditto ditto }| | Nothing adventure, |Mr. Vesey | +| to Lieutenant }|Adventure | Nothing win |Hamilton (mate), | +| Osborne |seven men. | ++-------------------------------+---------------------+-----------------+ +| Ditto ditto |Inflexible | _Respice finem_ |Mr. Charles | +| | | |Ede (assist. | +| | | |surg.), six men. | ++-------------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------------+ +| Ditto ditto |Success | One and all |Mr. F. S. Crabbe | +| | | |(2d master), | +| | | |seven men. | ++-------------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------------+ + +To the highly important direction northward up the unknown channel of +Byam Martin Island, and which, as Lieut. Aldrich very properly thought, +would intercept the course of Franklin, should he, from Wellington +Channel, have sailed north about for Behring's Straits, two sledges +were told off under that officer:-- + ++-------------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------------+ +| Long-party sledge |Lady | Faithful and firm |Lieut. R. D. | +| |Franklin | |Aldrich, 7 men. | ++-------------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------------+ +| Supporting sledge |Hotspur | In Deo confide |Mr. R. R. Pearse | +| | | |(mate), 7 men. | ++-------------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------------+ + +Lastly to Melville Island, on which route a depot, forty miles in +advance, had already been placed in the autumn, and renewed in the +spring, the following party was appointed: Lieut. M'Clintock, on his +reaching the said island, acting as he should judge fit as to +despatching Mr. Bradford along the northern shores, whilst he +prosecuted the search to and beyond Winter Harbour:-- + ++-------------------+--------------+------------------+-----------------+ +| Long-party sledge |Perseverance | _Persevere to |Lieut. | +| | | the end_ |M'Clintock, | +| | | |6 men. | ++-------------------+--------------+------------------+-----------------+ +| | | St. George and | | +| | | merry England |Dr. Bradford, | +| Do. |Resolute | Onward to |6 men. | +| | | the rescue | | ++-------------------+--------------+------------------+-----------------+ +| Supporting sledge |Excellent | Respice, |Mr. W. May | +| | | prospice |(mate), 6 men. | ++-------------------+--------------+------------------+-----------------+ +| Do. |Dasher | Faithful & |Mr. Shellabear | +| | | intrepid. |(2d master), | + |6 men. | ++-------------------+--------------+------------------+-----------------+ +| Do. |Parry | Endeavour |Mr. Cheyne | +| | | to deserve |(mate), 7 men. | ++-------------------+--------------+------------------+-----------------+ + +Mr. M'Dougal, I have before said, started during the first week of +April with his sledge, the "Beaufort,"-- + + That future pilgrims of the wave may be + Secure from doubt, from every danger free. + +He had to replenish the depot formed for Lieut. M'Clintock, and then to +connect the search round a deep bay, which connected Bathurst and +Cornwallis Lands, for separate islands they were proved by him no +longer to be. + +[Headnote: _DIVISIONS OF SLEDGES._] + +Thus fifteen sledges, manned by one hundred and five men and officers, +were equipped for the search, leaving on board the four vessels of the +squadron, seventy-five souls, which number was afterwards further +reduced by Mr. R. C. Allen being sent to search the islands to the +westward with the sledge "Grinnell" and seven men. + +It now only remains for me to show in what manner it was proposed to +enable the supporting sledges to apply their resources, so that the +long-parties should reach far beyond the two hundred miles, or twenty +days' journey, of which they were alone capable when dependent on their +own provision. + +The plan proposed in the southern division will give the best idea. The +supporting sledge "Success" was capable of feeding all the division for +five days, by which time we hoped to be at Cape Walker, and then have +sufficient to return back to the squadron, where it could again +replenish, and, returning to the same point at which we had separated +from it, form such a depot that each of the sledges in return would +find five days' provisions to carry them home. By this means six out of +the seven sledges in the southern search will be seen to reach a point +fifty miles from their original starting-point in perfect condition so +far as their provisions are concerned. + +We will, for the sake of clearness, cause these six sledges to divide +into three divisions, of two each, viz., a long-party sledge and a +support: in each case the support can feed the long party for ten days, +and then, forming a depot of provisions equal to ten days more, have +sufficient left to reach back to Walker, and thence home. The long +party are now still complete, after receiving two supports, equal to +fifteen days, or 150 miles; and two depots stand in their rear, the one +for ten days, the other for five days. The long party now starts, +consuming its own provision (forming its own depots for the returning +march), advances for twenty days, and accomplishes 200 miles; which, +with that done whilst supported, makes in all a journey outward of +thirty-five days, or 350 miles from the ships. Of course, with an +increased number of supports, this distance and time may be carried on +as long as the strength of the men will endure, or the travelling +season admit of. + +On the 12th of April, the day calm and cold, some 50 deg. below +freezing-point, a scene of bustle and merriment showed that the sledges +were mustering previous to being taken to the starting-point, under the +north-west bluff of Griffith's Island, to which they marched with due +military pomp in two columns, directed by our chiefs. Our sense of +decorum was constantly overthrown by the gambols of divers dogs, given +to us by Captain Penny, with small sledges attached to them, on which, +their food duly marked and weighed, with flags, mottoes, &c., in fact, +perfect fac-similes of our own, were racing about, entangling +themselves, howling for assistance, or else running between the men's +legs and capsizing them on the snow, amidst shouts of laughter, and sly +witticisms at the _tenders_, as they were termed. Reaching the +halting-place, tents were pitched, luncheon served out, and all of us +inspected, approved of, ordered to fall in, a speech made, which, as +was afterwards remarked, buttered us all up admirably; the thanks of +our leader given to Mr. M'Clintock, to whose foresight, whilst in +England, and whose valuable information collated during his travelling +experience under Sir James Ross, we were so entirely indebted for the +perfect equipment we now had with us. + +[Headnote: _SLEDGES READY TO START._] + +The inspection over, we trudged back to our ships, Sunday being spent +by the men in cooking and eating, knowing as they did that there were a +good many banian days ahead, packing up and putting away their kits, +and making little arrangements in the event of accidents to themselves. +Monday was no day for a start; but on the evening of the 15th April the +breeze slackened, and the temperature only some 14 deg. below +freezing-point, we donned our marching attire, girded up our loins, and +all hands proceeded to the sledges. + +As we shut in our wooden homes with a projecting point of Griffith's +Island, the weather suddenly changed, and a fast increasing breeze +enveloped us in snow-drift. Reaching the sledges, and shaking them +clear from the snow of the last two days, a hasty cup of tea and a +mouthful of biscuit were partaken of, a prayer offered up, beseeching +His mercy and guidance whose kind providence we all knew could alone +support us in the hazardous journey we were about to undertake; hearty +farewells, in which rough jokes covered many a kindly wish towards one +another; and then, grasping their tracking lines, a hundred hoarse +voices joined in loud cheers, and the divisions of sledges, diverging +on their different routes, were soon lost to one another in snow and +mist. + +An April night, with its gray twilight, was no match for the darkness +of a snow-storm from the S.W., and we had almost to feel our road +through the broken ice off the bluffs of Griffith's Island. + +At two o'clock in the morning we reached much piled-up ice; and in the +hope of clearer weather in the evening, the word to halt and pitch the +tents was given. The seven sledges of the division, picking out the +smoothest spots, were soon secured. The tents fluttering in the breeze, +a little tea cooked, short orders given, and then each man got into his +blanket-bag, and dreamed of a fine day and finding Sir John Franklin. + +In the evening the weather was still thick as pea-soup, with a +double-reef topsail breeze blowing in our teeth; but detention was +impossible, so we again packed up after a meal of chocolate and +biscuit, and facing towards Cape Walker, we carried the hummocks by +storm. Ignorance was bliss. Straight ahead, over and through every +thing, was the only way; and, fresh, hearty, and strong, we surmounted +tier after tier, which more light and a clearer view might only have +frightened us from attempting. Here, a loud cheer told where a sledge +had scaled the pile in its path, or shot in safety down the slope of +some huge hummock. There, the cry, one! two! three! haul! of a party, +and quizzical jokes upon name, flag, or motto, betokened that "Success" +or "True Blue" had floundered into a snow-wreath, above which the top +of the sledge-load was only to be seen, whilst seven red-faced mortals, +grinning, and up to their waists in snow, were perseveringly +endeavouring to extricate it; officers encouraging, and showing the +way; the men labouring and laughing. A wilder or more spirit-stirring +scene cannot be imagined. + +A hard night's toil cleared all obstacles, and nothing but a fair, +smooth floe was before us, sweeping with a curve to the base of Cape +Walker; but a fresh difficulty was then met with, in the total absence +of hummock or berg-piece, by which to preserve a course in the thick, +foggy weather, that lasted whilst the warm south wind blew. Imagine, +kind reader, a grayish haze, with fast-falling snow, a constant wind in +the face, and yourself trying to steer a straight course where floe and +sky were of one uniform colour. A hand dog-vane was found the best +guide, for of course it was impossible to keep a compass constantly in +hand; and the officers forming in a line ahead, so as just to keep a +good sight of one another, were followed by the sledges, the crews of +which soon learned that the easiest mode of travelling, and most equal +division of labour, consisted in marching directly after one another; +and as the leading sledge had the extra work of forming the road +through the snow, and straining the men's eyes in keeping sight of the +officers, the foremost sledge was changed every half hour or hour, +according to their will. + +[Headnote: _TRAVELLING BY NIGHT._] + +It will be seen that we travelled by night, and hoped by such means to +avoid the glare of the sun, and consequent snow-blindness. It entailed, +however, at this early season of the year, great suffering in the shape +of cold, the people being exposed to the weather during the severest +part of the day. From the 15th to the 19th the weather was of the same +nature,--constant gales of wind in our faces, snow-storms, and heavy +drift; against which we struggled, helped by a rising temperature, that +we flattered ourselves would end in summer,--a mistake for which we +afterwards suffered bitterly, the men having, from the ease with which +they kept themselves warm, become careless of their clothing, and +heedless of those precautions against frost-bite which a winter's +experience had taught them. + +Easter Sunday came in gloomily, with a wind inclined to veer to the +northward, and with every appearance of bad weather. Setting our sails +on the sledges, and kites likewise when the wind served, the division +hurried on for Cape Walker, which loomed now and then through the +snow-drift ahead of us. The rapidity of the pace at which we now +advanced--thanks to the help afforded by the sails--threw all into a +profuse perspiration, especially the seamen, who really looked as if +toiling under a tropical sun rather than in an arctic night, with the +temperature below freezing-point. Fatigue obliged us to halt short of +the land, and postpone for another day's march the landing on the +unvisited shores of Cape Walker. + +During the sleeping hours, the increased attention to the fur covering, +and the carefully closed door, told us that the temperature was +falling; and the poor cook, with a rueful countenance, announced that +it was below zero, as he prepared the morning meal. More than usual +difficulty was found in pulling on our stiffly-frozen boots, stockings, +and outer garments; and when the men went out of the tent they soon +found their clothing becoming perfectly hard, from the action of the +intense cold on what had been for several days saturated with +perspiration. To start and march briskly was now the only safety, and +in double-quick time tents were down and sledges moving. A nor'-wester +was fast turning up, and as the night of Easter Monday closed around +us, the cold increased with alarming rapidity. One of those magnificent +conglomerations of halos and parhelia common to these regions lit up +the northern heavens, and, by the brilliancy of colouring and startling +number of false suns, seemed as if to be mocking the sufferings of our +gallant fellows, who, with faces averted and bended bodies, strained +every nerve to reach the land, in hopes of obtaining more shelter than +the naked floe afforded from the nipping effects of the cutting gale. +Every moment some fresh case of frost-bite would occur, which the +watchful care of the officers would immediately detect. The man would +fall out from his sledge, restore the circulation of the affected part, +generally the face, and then hasten back to his post. Constant +questions of "How are your feet?" were heard on all sides, with the +general response, "Oh! I hope they are all right; but I've not felt +them since I pulled my boots on." + +[Headnote: _COLD AND FROST-BITES._] + +One halt was made to remove and change all leather boots, which, in +consequence of our late warm weather, had been taken into use, but were +now no longer safe; and then, with a rally, the piled-up floe around +the cliffs of Cape Walker was reached. Cold and hungry as we were, it +must have been a heavy barrier indeed to have stopped our men from +taking their sledges to the land; and piled as the floe was against the +Cape, full fifty feet high, we carried our craft over it in safety, and +just in time too, for the north-west wind rushed down upon us, as if to +dispute our right to intrude on its dominion. Hastily securing the +tents, we hurried in to change our boots, and to see whether our feet +were frost-bitten or not; for it was only by ocular proof that one +could be satisfied of their safety, sensation having apparently long +ceased. I shall not easily forget my painful feelings, when one gallant +fellow of my party, the captain of the sledge, exclaimed, "Both feet +gone, sir!" and sure enough they were, white as two lumps of ice, and +equally cold; for as we of the tent party anxiously in turn placed our +warm hands on the frost-bitten feet, the heat was extracted in a +marvellously short time, and our half-frozen hands had to be succeeded +by fresh ones as quickly as possible. With returning circulation the +poor fellow's agonies must have been intense; and some hours afterwards +large blisters formed over the frost-bitten parts, as if the feet had +been severely scalded. Sadly cramped as we were for room, much worse +was it when a sick man was amongst our number. Sleep was out of the +question; and to roll up in the smallest possible compass, and try to +think of something else than the cold, which pierced to the very marrow +in one's bones, was our only resource. + +Next day, Tuesday, 22d April, wind N.W. blowing hard, and temperature +at 44 deg. below freezing-point, parties left the encampment under +Lieutenants Browne and Mecham, to look around for cairns, &c., and +report upon the trend of the land, whilst the rest of us secured a +depot of Halkett's boats, and built a cairn as a record of our visit. + +As it is not my intention to give a detailed account of the operations +of the Southern Division, but merely to tell of those events which will +convey to the reader a general idea of the incidents connected with +Arctic travelling, I shall without further comment give them, leaving +to the curious in the minutiae of the journeys the amusement of reading +in the Admiralty Blue Books the details of when we eat, drank, slept, +or marched. + +Cape Walker was found to form the eastern and most lofty extreme of a +land-trending to the south-west on its northern coast, and to the south +on its eastern shore. The cape itself, full 1000 feet in altitude, was +formed of red sandstone and conglomerate, very abrupt to the eastward, +but dipping with an undulating outline to the west. + +In its immediate neighbourhood no traces of Franklin having visited it +were to be seen, and, as a broad channel ran to the southward (there +was every reason to believe down to the American continent, and thence +to Behring's Straits), by which Franklin might have attempted to pass, +Captain Ommanney, very properly despatched Lieutenant Browne to examine +the coast of Cape Walker Land, down the channel to the southward; and +then, the "Success" sledge having previously departed with invalids, +the five remaining sledges, on the evening of the 24th of April, +marched to the westward. Previous to that date it had been impossible +to move, on account of a strong gale in our faces, together with a +severe temperature. + +[Headnote: _INJURY TO THE EYES._] + +Every mile that we advanced showed us that the coast was one which +could only be approachable by ships at extraordinary seasons: the ice +appeared the accumulation of many years, and bore, for some forty +miles, a quiet, undisturbed look. Then we passed into a region with +still more aged features: there the inequalities on the surface, +occasioned by the repeated snows of winter and thaws of summer, gave it +the appearance of a constant succession of hill and dale. Entangled +amongst it, our men laboured with untiring energy, up steep acclivities +and through pigmy ravines, in which the loose snow caused them to sink +deeply, and sadly increased their toil. To avoid this description of +ice, amongst which a lengthened journey became perfectly hopeless, we +struck in for the land, preferring the heavy snow that encumbered the +beach to such a heart-breaking struggle as that on the floe. The injury +had, however, been done during our last day's labour among the +hummocks; a fine clear evening had given us the full effects of a +powerful sunlight upon the pure virgin-snow: the painful effect, those +alone can conceive who have witnessed it. All was white, brilliant, and +dazzling; the eye in vain turned from earth to heaven for rest or +shade,--there was none; an unclouded sunlight poured through the calm +and frosty air with merciless power, and the sun, being exactly in our +faces, increased the intensity of its effects. + +That day several complained of a dull aching sensation in the eyeball, +as if it had been overstrained, and on the morrow blindness was rapidly +coming on. From experience, I can speak of the mental anxiety which +must have likewise, with others, supervened, at the thought of one's +entire helplessness, and the encumbrance one had become to others, who, +God knows, had troubles and labour enough of their own. Gradually the +film spread itself, objects became dimmer and dimmer, and at last all +was darkness, with an intense horror of the slightest ray of sunlight. +In this condition, many of the four sledge-parties reached a place +called by us all, in commemoration of the event, "Snow-blind Point," at +the entrance of a bay in 100 deg. W. long. + +Unable to advance in consequence of a severe gale, which raged for +six-and-thirty hours, we found, on the 1st of May, that sixteen men and +one officer were, more or less, snow-blind and otherwise unwell; a +large proportion out of the entire number of thirty souls. To be ill in +any place is trying enough; but such an hospital as a brown-holland +tent, with the thermometer in it at 18 deg. below zero, the snow for a bed, +your very breath forming into a small snow called "barber," which +penetrated into your very innermost garments, and no water to be +procured to assuage the thirst of fever until snow had been melted for +the purpose, called for much patience on the part of the patients, and +true Samaritan feelings on the part of the "doctors,"--a duty which had +now devolved on each officer of a sledge-party, or, in default of him, +upon some kind volunteer amongst the men. Happily, the effects of +snow-blindness are not lasting, for we recovered as suddenly as we had +been struck down. The gale blew itself out, leaving all calm and still, +as if the death-like scenery was incapable of such wild revelry as it +had been enjoying; and again we plodded onwards, parting from the last +supporting sledge on the 6th of May. + +Since leaving Cape Walker on the 24th of April, we had gradually +passed, in a distance of sixty miles, from a red sandstone to a +limestone region; the scenery at every mile becoming more and more +monotonous, and less marked by bold outline, cliff, or mountain: as far +as the bay, of which Snow-blind Point formed one extreme, a long range +of hills, soft and rounded in _contour_, faced the sea, and sloped +to it with a gradual inclination, some three miles in length; ravines +became more and more scarce; and after passing the bay, in 100 deg. long. +W., none of any size were to be seen. Drearily monotonous as all Arctic +scenery must naturally be, when one universal mantle of snow makes +earth and water alike, such a tame region as this was, if possible, +more so; and walking along the weary terraces, which in endless +succession swept far into the interior, and then only rose in +diminutive heights of maybe 500 feet, I recalled to memory the like +melancholy aspect of the Arctic shores of Asia as described by Baron +Wrangell. + +[Headnote: _ZEAL OF THE MEN._] + +The broken and rugged nature of the floes obliged us to keep creeping +along the coast-line, whilst our ignorance of the land ahead, its trend +or direction, occasioned, together with the endless thick weather that +we had until the 14th May, many a weary mile to be trodden over, which +a knowledge of the bays or indentations would have saved us. It was +under such unprofitable labour that the sterling value of our men the +more conspicuously showed itself. Captain Ommanney, myself, and Mr. +Webb of the "Pioneer," (who sooner than be left behind had voluntarily +taken his place as one of the sledge-crew,) were the only three +officers; we were consequently thrown much into the society of the men, +and I feel assured I am not singular in saying that that intercourse +served much to raise our opinion of the character and indomitable +spirit of our seamen and marines. On them fell the hard labour, to us +fell the honours of the enterprise, and to our chief the reward; yet +none equalled the men in cheerfulness and sanguine hopefulness of a +successful issue to our enterprise, without which, of course, energy +would soon have flagged. Gallant fellows! they met our commiseration +with a smile, and a vow that they could do far more. They spoke of cold +as "Jack Frost," a real tangible foe, with whom they could combat and +would master. Hunger was met with a laugh, and a chuckle at some future +feast or jolly recollections told, in rough terms, of by-gone good +cheer; and often, standing on some neighbouring pile of ice, and +scanning the horizon for those we sought, have I heard a rough voice +encouraging the sledge-crew by saying, "Keep step, boys! keep step! she +(the sledge) is coming along almost by herself: there's the 'Erebus's' +masts showing over the point ahead! Keep step, boys! keep step!" + +[Headnote: _PLEASING DREAMS._] + +We had our moments of pleasure too,--plenty of them, in spite of the +cold, in spite of fatigue. There was an honest congratulation after a +good day's work; there was the time after the pemmican had been eaten, +and each one, drawing up his blanket-bag around him, sat, pannikin in +hand, and received from the cook the half-gill of grog; and after +drinking it, there was sometimes an hour's conversation, in which there +was more hearty merriment, I trow, than in many a palace,--dry +witticisms, or caustic remarks, which made one's sides ache with +laughter. An old marine, mayhap, telling a giddy lamby of a seaman to +take his advice and never to be more than a simple private; for, as he +philosophically argued, "whilst you're that, do you see, you have to +think of nothing: there are petty officers, officers, captains, and +admirals paid for looking after you and taking care of you!" or perhaps +some scamp, with mock solemnity, wondering whether his mother was +thinking of him, and whether she would cry if he never returned to +England; on which a six-foot marine remarks, that "thank God, he has +got no friends; and there would only be two people in England to cry +about him,--the one, the captain of his company, who liked him because +he was the tallest man in it, and the canteen sergeant, whom he had +forgot to pay for some beer." Now a joke about our flags and mottoes, +which one vowed to be mere jack-acting; then a learned disquisition on +raising the devil, which one of the party declared he had seen done, +one Sunday afternoon, for the purpose of borrowing some cash to play +skittles with. In fact, care and thought were thrown to the winds; and, +tired as we were, sleep often overtook us, still laughing at the men's +witticisms. And then such dreams,--they seemed as if an angel had sent +them to reward us for the hard realities of the day: we revelled in a +sweet elysium; home was around us,--friends, kind, good friends, plenty +smiled on every side; we eat, drank, and were merry; we visited old +scenes with by-gone shipmates; even those who had long gone to that +bourne whence traveller returneth not, came back to cheer our sleeping +hours; and many a one, nigh forgot amongst the up-hill struggles of +life, returned to gladden us with their smiles: and as we awoke to the +morning meal, many a regret would be heard that so pleasant a delusion +as the night had been spent in should be dispelled: each succeeding +night, however, brought again "the cherub that watcheth over poor +Jack," to throw sunny thoughts around the mind, and thus relieve our +wayworn bodies. + +On the 14th of May, the "Reliance" and "True Blue" sledges reached a +wide break in the continuation of the land, looking like a channel, and +some heights to the S.W. appeared to mark the opposite shore of a +channel full twenty-five miles wide. Captain Ommanney and myself +ascended an elevated mass of table-land, and looked upon the +wide-spread wintry scene. Landward, to the south, and far over the +rugged and frozen sea, all was death-like and silent as the grave: we +felt we might have been the first since "creation's morn" to have +looked upon it; the very hills were still clothed in their winter's +livery, and the eye could not detect the line of demarkation between +land and sea. The frozen foot-prints of a musk-ox excited our +curiosity, as being the first and only ones we had seen, and, together +with like traces of reindeer, a short distance from Cape Walker, was +the sum total of the realization of all our once rosy anticipations of +beef and venison to be found during the southern journey. + +Ptarmigan, in small numbers, were occasionally seen, and about four +brace shot; and now and then a stray fox was espied, watching us, +although their numerous tracks showed them to be pretty plentiful: +traces of hares were very numerous, but none were fallen in with by our +sportsmen, except at Cape Walker, where many were seen by later +visitors, and several shot; indeed, it appeared as if it was the limit, +in this direction, of animal life: the Polar bears, and _ergo_ the +seals, not showing themselves west of the same headland in our route. + +On the 17th May the "Reliance" and "True Blue" parted company, each +having provisions left to enable them to advance for a further period +of five days; Captain Ommanney generously allowing me, his junior, to +take the search up in a westerly direction, whilst he went down the +channel to the southward, which after all ended in a blind bay. I went +some fifty miles farther, and, finding the coast trend to the south, +endeavoured to march in a westerly direction across the floe. The +sledge was light, with only ten days' provision, and the men were well +inured to their work; but I saw, that from the severe strains that were +brought on the fastenings of the sledge, that wood, iron, and lashings +would not long stand it; and as every foot we advanced, progress became +more laborious, and risk greater, I desisted in the attempt; for, +situated as we were, nigh three hundred miles from our ship, the +breaking down of the sledge would have entailed fearful misery, if not +destruction, to my party. Turning southward, we again closed the land, +when another severe storm, on the 21st of May, obliged us to take +shelter in our tent, and remain there until it was time to return. + +[Headnote: _CONCLUSION OF JOURNEY._] + +The journey homeward was light work: the sledges were now half emptied; +the weather had become mild, being only a little below freezing-point; +we knew the ground, and could make short cuts, and by forced marches we +succeeded in making two days' journey in one, thereby giving ourselves +a double quantity of food to consume. Lost flesh was quickly recovered; +and the two sledges, again rejoining, reached by the night of the 4th +of June a depot formed at Snow-blind Bay. + +Here we met Lieutenant Mecham. He informed us that neither by our +parties, or those of Penny's, had intelligence of Franklin been brought +back by the supporting sledges. There was, however, hope yet: the long +parties had not yet come in; and Captain Penny had been stopped by +_water_--_open water_--early in May. He had again gone out with a boat; +and all attention was directed to Wellington Channel, for every one +felt that on no other route was there a chance of Franklin being heard +of. Lastly, great fears were entertained lest our long parties should +not beat those of the "Lady Franklin" and "Sophia" in time and +distance; a piece of _esprit-de-corps_ highly commendable, no doubt, +but which, I blush to say, I took no interest in, having gone to the +Arctic regions for other motives and purposes than to run races for a +Newmarket cup, or to be backed against the field like a Whitechapel +game-cock. + +Whilst Captain Ommanney went to Cape Walker for some observations, we +pulled foot (with forced marches) straight across the floe for +Griffith's Island. Every hour wasted in the return journey was a crime, +we felt, towards those whom we had come here to save. The fast +increasing heat told that the open season was at hand: and even if we +could not get our ship to the water, we had brought out a number of +beautiful boats, built expressly, at a great expense; our foot journeys +in the spring had been new and successful, what might we not yet expect +from boat expeditions when the floes were in motion? + +On reaching that part of the frozen strait which was evidently covered +with only one season's ice, namely, that of about three feet in +thickness, symptoms of a speedy disruption were very apparent; long +narrow cracks extended continuously for miles; the snow from the +surface had all melted, and, running through, served to render the +ice-fields porous and spongy: the joyful signs hurried us on, though +not without suffering from the lack of pure snow, with which to procure +water for drinking. At last Griffith's Island rose above the horizon; a +five-and-twenty-mile march brought us to it, and another heavy drag +through the melting snow carried us to our ships, on the 12th June, +after a journey of five hundred miles in direct lines, in fifty-eight +days. We were punished for our last forced march by having five out of +the sledge-crew laid up with another severe attack of snow-blindness. + +Eight-and-forty hours afterwards, Captain Ommanney arrived; he had +crossed some of the cracks in the floe with difficulty, aided by a +bridge of boarding-pikes; and Lieut. Mecham, with the sledge "Russell," +coming from Cape Walker, on the 17th of June, was obliged to desert his +sledge, and wade through water and sludge to Griffith's Island, and +thence to the ships: showing how remarkably the breaking up of the ice +in Barrow's Strait promised to coincide in date with the time it was +first seen to be in motion, by Sir E. Parry's squadron, in 1820. + +All the parties were now in, except three sledges and twenty-one men, +towards Melville Island; the supports in that direction had suffered in +about the same ratio as ourselves to the southward; the progress, +however, as might be expected where the coast-line was known, was more +rapid. The total number of accidents from frost-bites amounted to +eighteen, and amongst them were several cases in which portions of +injured feet had to be amputated; only one man had fallen, John +Malcolm, a seaman of the "Resolute;" he, poor fellow, appears to have +been delicate from the outset, having fainted on his road to the place +of inspection and departure, in April, 1851. + +[Headnote: _LIEUTENANT M'CLINTOCK RETURNS._] + +After an absence of sixty-two days, Lieut. Aldrich, with the "Lady +Franklin" sledge, arrived from Byam Martin Channel. He had searched the +west coast of Bathurst Island, which tended a little westerly of north +until in latitude 76 deg. 15' N. At that point, the channel was still full +twenty miles wide between Bathurst and Melville Islands, and extended +northward as far as could be seen. The only things of note observed, +were reindeer, in the month of _April_, on Bathurst Island, and, with +the temperature at 60 deg. below freezing-point, they were grazing on moss +or lichen; this point placed beyond doubt the fact, which is now +incontestable, that the animals of the Parry group do not migrate to +the American continent in the winter. On his way back, Lieut. A. fell +in with large flocks of wild fowl winging their way _northward_. + +The floes around our ships were entirely covered with the water of the +melted snow, in some places full four feet in depth, eating its way +rapidly through in all directions, when Lieut. M'Clintock's sledge, the +"Perseverance," and the "Resolute" sledge, Dr. Bradford's, hove in +sight, having been out exactly eighty days. Lieut. M'Clintock had been +to Winter Harbour, and visited all the points known to Parry's +squadron, such as Bushman Cove, Cape Dundas, &c.; but of course no +traces of Franklin. He had, however, brought a portion of Parry's last +wheel, used in his journey, and substantial proofs of the extraordinary +abundance of animal life in that remote region, in the hides and heads +of musk-oxen, the meat of which had helped to bring back his crew in +wonderful condition. Eighty head of oxen and reindeer had been counted +by Mr. M'Clintock, and he could have shot as many as he pleased. Dr. +Bradford's journey was not so cheering a one. He had been early knocked +up from a fall,--serious symptoms threatened, and for nearly a month +the gallant officer was dragged upon his sledge; carrying out--thanks +to his own pluck, and the zeal of his men--the object of his +journey,--the search of the eastern side of Melville Island. We were +now all in: Lieut. M'Clintock had fairly won the palm,--"palmam qui +meruit ferat;" in eighty days he had travelled eight hundred miles, and +heartily did we congratulate him on his success. + +The day following, July 7th, I and one of the officers of the "Pioneer" +started to visit Penny's expedition: he was expected back, and we +longed to hear the news; Captain Penny having last been reported to +have reached the water with a sound boat, a good crew, and a month's +provisions. Landing at Cape Martyr, wet up to our necks with splashing +through the pools of water, nowhere less than knee-deep, and often a +mile in extent, we did not willingly leave the dry land again. On +ascending a slope which gave us a view of the south shore of Cornwall's +Island as far as Cape Hotham, and near a point known as that whence the +dog-sledges in the winter used to strike off when communicating with +the ships, our astonishment was great at finding the ice of Barrow's +Strait to have broken up;--the gray light of the morning, and the +perfect calm, prevented us seeing to what extent, but there was plenty +of it, and a sea again gladdened our eyesight. Oh! it was a joyous, +exhilarating sight, after nine months of eternal ice and snow. + +[Headnote: _DISAPPEARANCE OF ICE._] + +The ground flew under our feet as, elevated in spirits, we walked +rapidly into Assistance Bay, and grasped by the hand our old friends of +the "Lady Franklin." We had each our tale to recount, our news to +exchange, our hopes and disappointments to prose over. One thing was +undoubtedly certain,--that, on May 16th, Captain Penny had discovered a +great extent of water northward of Cornwallis Island: that this same +water prevented Captain Stewart, of the "Sophia," from passing some +precipitous cliffs, against which a heavy sea was beating: that this +same sea was clear of all but _sea-washed_ ice, and no floes were to be +seen. Moreover, owing to a _southerly_ breeze, which blew away to +seaward the ice over which Dr. Goodsir had advanced to the westward, +his retreat was nearly endangered by the water obliging him with his +sledge to take to the neighbouring heights: and all this, _a month +before any thing like a disruption had taken place in Barrow's Strait_. +This latter event, it seems, took place about the 25th of June, 1851; +and, on the 28th June, the commander of the "Sophia" had gone in a +whale-boat from the entrance of the harbour to Wellington Channel. + +Three days after our arrival at Assistance Harbour, not a particle of +ice was to be seen, east or west, in Barrow's Strait, looking from the +highland on the east side of the anchorage, except between Griffith's +Island and Cape Martyr, where, some ten miles from the water, and in +the centre of a fixed floe, our unlucky squadron was jammed. Every +where else a clear sea spread itself, sparkling and breaking under a +fresh southerly breeze. Some individuals, who had visited Cape Hotham, +reported the water in Wellington Channel to have made up as high as +Barlow Inlet, beyond which, up to the north water, a floe still +intervened. + +In default of Penny's arrival, I was much interested in a journey, upon +which Mr. John Stuart, surgeon of the "Lady Franklin," had been +despatched to follow the traces of some of Franklin's sledges, towards +Caswell's Tower, and to re-examine the traces found in 1850. The +sledge-tracts, which I have elsewhere alluded to, as existing on the +east side of "Erebus and Terror Bay," Mr. Stuart found, as we +conjectured, to have been those of some exploring party, sent from +Beechey Island to Caswell's Tower, in Radstock Bay; for at the base of +the said tower--a remarkable detached mass of limestone--two +carefully-constructed cairns were found, but no record in them; beyond +this, no farther signs of the missing navigators were found--nothing +whatever that could indicate a retreating party. That these cairns were +placed to attract attention, appears certain; the most conspicuous +points have been chosen for them; they are well and carefully built, +evidently not the mere work of an idle hour. + +Failing Penny, and his intelligence, I contented myself with visiting +the neighbourhood of Assistance Harbour, and with observing the various +phenomena connected with the dissolution of the winter ice and snow +upon the land; and, of these, none was more interesting than the +breaking out of the ravines, which, having filled with snow during the +winter, had formed, during the previous fortnight, into large lakes of +water, sometimes of acres in extent; and then, in one moment, the +barriers which had pent up the ravines gave way, and, with irresistible +force, the waters rushed over every obstacle to the sea. Three large +ravines broke open whilst I was in Assistance Harbour, and the +thundering sound of the ice, water, and shingle, which swept down, and +soon cut a broad channel for many yards through the floe in the bay, +was a cheering tune to the gallant fellows who were looking forward to +being released from their winter imprisonment. Within twenty-four hours +the body of water in these ravines would release itself, and an almost +dry water-course be left. Nothing in the shape of a river seemed to +exist in this island--rather a remarkable fact, considering its size, +and the immense quantity of snow annually thawed in its interior +valleys and plains. + +[Headnote: _ASSISTANCE HARBOUR._] + +A beautiful lake existed about two miles inland; and, having been +discovered by one of Captain Penny's people on the anniversary of the +battle of Trafalgar, was very appropriately called Trafalgar Lake; in +it a small species of trout had been caught occasionally throughout the +winter; and if the ice broke up early, a good haul of fish was +anticipated from the seine-nets: on elevated land around the lake, +sorrel and scurvy-grass grew in abundance. I need hardly say we eat of +it voraciously, for the appetite delighted in any thing like vegetable +food. + +Occasionally eider and pin-tailed duck were shot, as well as a few +brent-geese, but these birds appeared remarkably shy and wary, although +evidently here to breed. + +During the first week of my stay in Assistance Harbour, immense flights +of wild fowl were to be seen amongst the loose ice in Barrow's Strait; +but when the pack had dispersed, and left nothing but an open sea, the +birds appeared to have gone elsewhere for food. Indeed, I always +observed that at the edge of ice more birds were invariably to be found +in the Arctic regions, than in large or open water,--a rule equally +applicable to the whale, seal, and bear, all of which are to be found +at the floe-edge, or in loosely-packed ice. + +A gale of wind from the southward occurred, and I was extremely anxious +to see whether it would bring over the ice from the opposite shore, as +the croakers in Assistance Harbour, unable to deny the existence of +water along the north shore of Barrow's Strait, consoled themselves by +declaring that the floe had merely formed itself into pack, and was now +lying along the coast of North Somerset, ready at an hour's warning to +spread itself over the waters. The southerly gale, however, piped +cheerily. A heavy swell and surf--Oh! most pleasant sound!--beat upon +the fixed ice of Assistance Harbour; yet no pack came, nor floe-pieces +either, and thus was placed beyond all doubt the fact that, at any +rate, as far west as Griffith's Island, Barrow's Strait was clear of +ice. In an angle formed between Leopold Island and North Somerset, +there was evidently a pack; for an ice-blink, which moved daily about +in that direction, showed that the mass was acted upon by the winds; +and at last the southerly wind drove it up into Wellington Channel. To +be condemned to inactivity, with such a body of water close at hand, +was painful to all but those whose age and prudence seemed to justify +in congratulating themselves on being yet frozen in; and trying as had +been many disappointments we experienced in the Arctic regions, there +was none that pained us more than the ill luck which had consigned our +squadron, and its 180 men, to inactivity, in an icy prison under +Griffith's Island, whilst so much might have been done during the +thirty days that the waters of Barrow's Strait, and God only knows how +much more beside, were clear from ice in every shape, and seeming to +beckon us on to the north-westward. + +It was now we felt the full evil result of our winter quarters. Boats +could not be despatched, I suppose, because the ships might at any time +in July have been swept by the ice whither it pleased, and the junction +of boats and ships rendered uncertain. Future expeditions will, +however, hit this nail on the head, and three distinct periods for +Arctic exploration will be found to exist, viz.:--The spring, from +April to June 25th, for foot journeys; from June 25th to the first week +in August, for boat expeditions; and then six weeks (for steam vessels) +of navigable season. + +[Headnote: _BARROW'S STRAIT CLEAR OF ICE._] + +Unable to remain with satisfaction away from our squadron, to be daily +tantalized with looking at a sea which might as well not have existed +for us, we returned to the "Pioneer," calling the attention of the +officers of Penny's squadron to the possibility of a vessel from +England, sent to communicate with the squadrons, actually running past +us all, and reaching Melville Island, mayhap, without detecting our +winter quarters; an opinion in which all seemed to concur; and a large +cairn was therefore afterwards erected upon the low land, in such a +position as to attract the attention of a craft bound westward. + +On our return to the Naval squadron, we found them still seven miles +from the water to the southward from Griffith's Island. Towards the +westward, on the 25th of July, all was water, and a water sky. About +Somerville Island, and Brown Island, a patch of fixed ice, similar to +that we were in, connected itself with the Cornwallis Island shore; but +between that and us the water was fast making; indeed, it every day +became apparent that we should be released from the _northward_, and +not from the southward. One officer saw Lowther Island in a sea of +water; and thus early, if not earlier, I had the firmest conviction on +my mind that a ship might have been carried in a lead of water, very +similar to that Parry found in 1829, into Winter Harbour, Melville +Island; or, what, in view of our object, would have been more +desirable, up to the north-west, by Byam Martin Channel. + +Griffith's Island had, by July 25th, put on its gayest summer +aspect--the ravines had emptied themselves--the snow had disappeared +from the slopes--a uniform dull brown spread from one end of the island +to the other--on its sheltered terraces, poppies, saxifrage, and sorrel +in full flower, intermingled with lichens and mosses of every hue and +description; and we, poor mortals, congratulated ourselves upon +verdure, which was only charming by comparison. The great body of +melted snow that had been on top of the floe, had now nearly all +escaped through it in numerous fissures and holes, and they were +rapidly connecting themselves one with the other. Canals, which had +been formed in the floe, for the purpose of enabling the squadron to +get out, should the water make exactly in the same way it did last +year, now spread snake-like over the floe, and the waters of Barrow's +Strait had approached to within a distance of four miles. Thus closed +the month of July, with the additional disappointing intelligence, that +Penny, who returned to Assistance Harbour on the 25th, had not been +able, owing to the constant prevalence of contrary winds setting in +from the N.W., and his want of provisions, to make much progress in +Wellington Channel. Indeed, he had, from all accounts, found his boat +but ill-adapted to contend with the strong breezes, heavy sea, and +rapid tides into which he had launched between the islands north of +Cornwallis Island, and never succeeded in obtaining a desirable offing; +the islands, however, were thoroughly searched for traces; a small +piece of fresh English elm was found on one of them, which Penny +believed to have been thrown overboard from the "Erebus" and "Terror;" +also a bit of charred pine, which Sir John Richardson believes to have +been burnt by a party belonging to the same ships. But the most +important result of Penny's efforts was the verification of the +existence of a great body of open water, north-west, and beyond the +barrier of ice which still existed in Wellington Channel. + +I will not bore the reader with some days of hard labour, in which we +cut to the southward into the ice, whilst the water was trying hard to +get to us from the north; it eventually caught us, and (Saturday, +August 8th,) we were all afloat in open water, with a barrier of ice +_still southward towards Barrow's Strait_. The "Intrepid" had been +sent early in the week to look round the north end of Griffith's +Island, and reported a narrow neck of ice from the N.W. bluffs towards +Somerville Island. Eastward, and not westward, was, however, to be our +course, and we therefore remained where we were. On the 9th and 10th, a +general disruption of the little remaining ice took place: we made +gentle and very cautious moves towards Barrow's Strait; and, at last, +on August 11th, the ice, as if heartily tired of us, shot us out into +Barrow's Strait, by turning itself fairly round on a pivot. We were at +sea because we could not help it, and the navigable season was +proclaimed to have commenced. + +[Headnote: _STEAMING FOR ASSISTANCE HARBOUR._] + +Taking, like another Sinbad, our "Resolute" old burden behind us, the +"Pioneer" steamed away for Assistance Harbour, from whence, as we had +been given to understand some days previously, Jones's Sound was to be +our destination; a plan to which I the more gladly submitted, as I felt +confident, from all I had heard and seen of its geography or of that of +the neighbouring land, that it would be found to connect itself with +Penny's North Water: once in it we felt failure of our object to be +impossible; we had still three years' provisions, and nearly four years +of many things. One man had died, perhaps half-a-dozen more were +invalids, but the rest were strong and hearty: to be sure, we all +lacked much of that sanguineness which had animated us hitherto. +Repeated disappointment, long journeys in the wrong direction (as it +had proved), over regions which had, of course, shown no trace of those +we had hoped to rescue--had all combined to damp our feelings. + +The morning fog broke, and a day, beautiful, serene, and sunny, +welcomed us into Assistance Harbour, which we found had just cleared +out of ice; and the "Lady Franklin," "Sophia," and "Felix," with +anchors down, rode all ready for sea. As we towed the "Resolute" up to +her anchorage, Captain Penny pulled past in his gig, evidently going to +make an official visit to our leader. Directly after the "Pioneer" was +secured, I went on board the "Resolute," to hear the news, her first +lieutenant having been in Assistance Harbour (Captain Penny's quarters) +up to the moment of our arrival. I then learned that Penny was going to +volunteer to proceed up Wellington Channel, if it cleared out, in one +of our steamers; and my gallant friend, the first lieutenant, spoke +strongly upon the necessity of still trying to reach the North Water by +the said route, whilst I maintained that, until we had visited Jones's +Sound, it was impossible to say whether it would not be found an easier +road into the open sea seen by Captain Penny than Wellington Channel +appeared to be. Captain Penny soon joined us, and there, as well as +afterwards on board the "Lady Franklin," I heard of his proposal above +alluded to, which had been declined. Failing in his offer of +cooeperation, which was for one reason not to be wondered at,--insomuch +that our large and efficient squadron needed no assistance either in +men or material to do the work alone,--Captain Penny had decided on +returning home, believing that Franklin was so far to the N.W. as to +be beyond his reach, and also looking to the tenor of his instructions, +which strictly enjoined him to return to England in 1852. + + * * * * * + +[Headnote: _DEPARTURE FOR JONES'S SOUND._] + +Next morning, by four o'clock, we were all bound to the eastward. A few +amongst those of our squadron still hoped by Jones's Sound to reach +that sea of whose existence, at any rate, we had no longer any doubt, +whatever might be its difficulty of access. Off Cape Hotham we found a +loose pack; it extended about half way across Wellington Channel, and +then a clear sea spread itself eastward and northward along the shores +off North Devon to Cape Bowden. From a strong ice-blink up Wellington +Channel there was reason to think the barrier[4] still athwart it; we +did not, however, go to ascertain whether it was so, but, favoured by a +fair wind, steamed, sailed, and towed the "Resolute," as fast as +possible past Beechey Island. The form of sending letters to England +had been duly enacted, but few were in a humour to write; the news +would be unsatisfactory, and, unless Jones's Sound was an open sea, and +we could not therefore help entering it, there was a moral certainty of +all being in England within a short time of one another. + + [4] Had we but happily known at that time of the perfect + description of the Wellington Channel ice subsequent to our + passage across in 1850, as shown by the tract of the American + Expedition and Lieutenant De Haven's admirable report, we should + not then have fallen into the error of believing _barriers_ + of ice to be permanent in deep-water channels, a fallacy which it + is to be hoped has exploded with many other misconceptions as to + the fixed nature of ice, and the constant accumulation of it in + Polar regions. + +And so it proved. Leaving the "Assistance" and "Resolute" to join us +off Cape Dudley Digges, the steamers proceeded, under Captain Austin, +with three months' provisions, on the night of the 14th of August, for +Jones's Sound. + +Next morning brought the steamers close in with the shore between Capes +Horsburgh and Osborn, along which we steered towards Jones's Sound. +Glacier and iceberg again abounded, and the comparatively tame scenery +of Barrow's Strait was changed for bold and picturesque mountains and +headlands. As the evening of the 15th drew in, Jones's Sound gradually +opened itself in the Coburg Bay of the charts, and, in spite of a +strong head-wind, we drew up to and commenced working up it under sail +and steam. During the night, Cape Leopold showed to be an island, +dividing the sound into two entrances; and the exhilarating effect of a +fine broad expanse of water leading to the westward, up which we were +thrashing under a press of canvas, was only marred by the unpleasant +fact that we had parted from the ships containing our main stock of +provisions, without the means of following up any traces, should we be +happy enough to discover them, of the poor missing expedition. + + * * * * * + +_Saturday, August 16th, 1851._--The sound is evidently narrowest about +the entrance; from a point to the N.W. of us it evidently increases in +width; loose patches of ice are occasionally met with, and the tides +seem somewhat strong, judging by the set of the vessel. The scenery is +magnificent, especially on the south shore, where some ten miles in the +interior a huge dome of pure white snow envelopes land some 3000 or +4000 feet high, which Captain Austin has named the Trenter Mountains, +in compliment to the family of Sir John Barrow (that being the maiden +name of the Dowager Lady Barrow). From this range long winding glaciers +pour down the valleys, and project, through the ravines, into the +deep-blue waters of this magnificent strait. Northward of us the land +is peculiar, lofty table-land, having here and there a sudden dip, or +thrown up in a semi-peak. The draught of the wind has blown constantly +down the strait. Such are my rough notes made during the day, as the +"Pioneer" and "Intrepid" worked to the westward; but as evening drew +on, the increasing smoothness of the water, and a hard icy blink to the +west, prepared us for a report which came from the crow's nest about +midnight, that there was very much ice to the windward of us. + +[Headnote: _STOPPED BY ICE-FIELDS._] + +Next day, 17th, after a fog which caused some delay had cleared off, +the disagreeable truth revealed itself: from a little beyond a +conical-shaped island on the north shore, the sound was still barred +with floes, although at this point it increased at least twelve miles +more in breadth. Going up to the floe-edge, the steamers crossed to the +S.W., following the ice carefully along until it impinged upon the +southern shore. The night was beautifully serene and clear; and, as if +to add to our regret, four points and a half of the compass, or 54 deg. of +bearing to the westward, showed no symptom of land. The northern side +of the sound trended away to the west, preserving its lofty and marked +character; whilst on the south the land ended abruptly some fifteen +miles farther on, and then, beyond a small break, one of those +wedge-shaped hills peculiar to the limestone lands of Barrow's Strait +showed itself at a great distance; and the natural suggestion to my own +mind was, that the opening between the said wedge-shaped hill and the +land on our southern hand would have been found to connect itself with +the deep fiords running to the northward from Croker Bay, in Lancaster +Sound; and for an opinion as to the direction of Jones's Sound, whose +frozen surface forbade us to advance with our vessels, I was, from what +I saw, fully willing to believe in the report of my ice quarter-master, +Robert Moore, a clever, observant seaman, as the annexed report will +show:-- + + "SIR, + + "It was in 1848 that I was with Captain Lee in the 'Prince of + Wales,' when we ran up Jones's Sound. The wind was from the S.S.E. + compass (_E.N.E. true_), thick weather, with a strong breeze. We + steered up Jones's Sound, N.E. by compass (_westwardly true_), for + fourteen hours, when, seeing some ice aground, we hauled to. + + "The next day, being fine weather, we proceeded farther up, and + seeing no ice or fish (_whales_), a boat was sent on shore. She, + returning, reported not having seen any thing but _very high land_ + and _deep water close to_ rocks on the south shore. + + "We tacked ship, and stood to the N.E. compass (_N.W. true_); saw + some ice aground on a sand-bank, with only six feet water on it at + low water, but standing on the N.E. compass (_N.W. true_), found + deep water from five to eight miles across from the sand to the + north shore. When past the sand, open water as far as we could see + from the masthead, and extending from about _N.E. to N.N.W. + compass_ (N.W. to W.S.W. true). We then returned, being fine and + clear, and could not see what we were in search of (whales). + + "Leaving the north land, a long, low point, running up to a + _table-top mountain, we came across to the south side, which was + bold land right out of the sound_. + + "We saw the _Pinnacle Rocks at the end of that sound_ (_Princess + Charlotte's Monument_); and _this and the low land between that + sound_ and _Lancaster Sound_, as we were running to the S.E., makes + me confident is the same place which we were up in the 'Pioneer.' + + "The distance we ran up the sound in the 'Prince of Wales,' I + think, to the best of my judgment, was about a hundred and fifty or + sixty miles, &c. + + "(Signed) ROBERT MOORE, + + "Ice quarter-master, H.M.S. 'Pioneer.' + + "To Lieut. Sherard Osborn." + +The italics in the above letter serve to show how correctly these +observations of my quarter-master agreed with the sound we were up; and +taking this, together with the description of the land seen by Captain +Stewart and Dr. Sutherland, during their late journey up the eastern +side of Wellington Channel, I believe that a very narrow intervening +belt of low land divides Jones's Sound from Baring Bay, in Wellington +Channel, and that, turning to the northward, this sound eventually +opens into the same great Polar Sea which washes the northern shores of +the Parry group. + +[Headnote: _ERECTION OF A CAIRN._] + +Unable to advance, we returned, upon our wake, to the conical island on +the north side of the sound; and a boat, with two officers in it, was +sent to erect a cairn. They returned next morning, having found, what +interested me very much, numerous Esquimaux traces, though of very +ancient date, and shot several birds--a seasonable increase to our +stock for table-consumption. One of the sportsmen assured me that, in +spite of the increased number of glaciers around us, and other +appearances of a more severe climate than we had been in the habit of +seeing in Barrow's Strait, he was of opinion that there was much more +vegetation in our neighbourhood than in the more southern latitude of +Cornwallis Island. The specimens of plants brought off in the boat, +such as poppies, saxifrage, and moss, were all finer than we had seen +elsewhere; and reindeer horns, near the Esquimaux ruins, showed that +these animals were to be found. + +The island was a mass of gray-coloured granite, with some dark masses +of ferruginous-coloured rock intermixed, the whole much broken and rent +by the agency of frost and water. + +Monday, the 18th of August, we proceeded along the northern shore, +towards another entrance which had shown itself on the north side of +Leopold Island,--the Jones's Sound of the old charts,--which we now +proved not to have been blocked up by either land or glaciers. + +The land about Cape Hardwicke was little else, in my opinion, than a +group of islands,--an impression in which I became the more confirmed +when the ice obliged us to strike off directly to the eastward; and +Cape Clarence stood out bold and clear, with a midnight sun behind it: +and the light streamed through the different ice-choked channels +between Capes Hardwicke and Clarence, throwing up the land, _where +there was land_, in strong and dark relief. + +Beyond Cape Clarence I saw no symptom of land, nor did any one else +either. It is said to recede; very possibly it may; but as neither we, +nor the "Resolute" and "Assistance," (who all reached a higher latitude +than any discovery-ships have been since Baffin's memorable voyage,) +ever saw land north of Cape Clarence, I trust, for the sake of +geography, that the beautifully-indented line which now joins the land +about Smith's Sound to that of Clarence Head, in our charts, may be +altered into a dotted one, as denoting that the said coast exists +rather in the imagination of channel-closing voyagers than actually in +the north-west corner of Baffin's Bay. + +A multitude of grounded icebergs showed a shoal, which appears to bar +the northern entrance to Jones's Sound; and, during the night, a sudden +gale from the north, together with high water in the tides, set them +all floating and dancing around us in a very exciting style. Edging +constantly along large floe-pieces, we were eventually carried next day +into the packed ice, through which our way had to be found under +double-reefed sails, the two pretty screw-schooners thrashing away in +gallant style, until a dead calm again left us to steam our best; +indeed, all night of the 19th was a constant heavy tussle with a pack, +in which the old floe-pieces were being glued together by young ice, +varying from two to five inches in thickness; patches of water, perhaps +each an acre in extent, were to be seen from the crow's nest, and from +one to the other of these we had to work our way. By-and-by the Cary +Isles showed themselves to the northward, and then the flat-topped land +between Cape York and Dudley Digges. + +[Headnote: _EASTERN SIDE OF BAFFIN'S BAY._] + +Our last hope of doing any service this season lay in the expectation +that open water would be found along the northeast side of Baffin's +Bay; but this expectation was damped by the disagreeable knowledge that +our provisions on board the steamers were too scanty to allow us to +follow up any opening we should have found. + +On the afternoon of the 28th of August, a strong water-sky and heavy +bank showed the sea to be close at hand to the south, as well as a +strong breeze behind it. We rattled on for Wolstenholme Island, reached +under its lee by the evening, and edged away to the north, quickly +opening out Cape Stair, and finding it to be an island, as the Cape +York Esquimaux, on board the "Assistance," had led us to believe. +Passing some striking-looking land, which, although like that of the +more southern parts of Greenland, was bold and precipitous, intersected +with deep valleys, yet comparatively free from glaciers, we saw the +Booth Sound of Sir John Ross, and shortly afterwards sighted what +proved afterwards to be the southern bluff of Whale Sound. We could not +approach it, however, and, choosing an iceberg, we anchored our +steamers to await an opening. + +On Thursday, the 21st of August, I started in a boat with Mr. +MacDougal, to see if we could get as far as Whale Sound. The bay-ice, +in which we could neither pull nor sail, whilst it was too thin to +stand upon, or track the boat through, materially checked our progress. +By the afternoon we reached a close pack-edge, which defied farther +progress; but, on landing, we found ourselves to be at the entrance of +a magnificent inlet, still filled with ice, which extended to the +eastward for some fifteen miles, having in its centre a +peculiarly-shaped rock, which the seamen immediately christened "Prince +Albert's Hat," from its resemblance to a marine's shako. The numerous +traces here of Esquimaux were perfectly startling; their tent-places, +winter abodes, caches, and graves, covered every prominent point about +us. Of what date they were, it was impossible, as I have elsewhere +said, to form a correct idea. The enamel was still perfect on the bones +of the seals which strewed the rocks, the flesh of which had been used +for food. On opening one of the graves, I found the skeleton of an old +man, with a good deal of the cartilage adhering to the bones, and in +the skull there was still symptoms of decaying flesh; nothing, however, +was seen to denote a recent visit of these interesting denizens of the +north. Each cache, or rather, circle of stones, had a flat slab for a +cover, with a cairn near it, or else an upright mass of stone, to +denote its position; and some of the graves were constructed with a +degree of care and labour worthy of a more civilized people: several +had huge slabs of stone on the top, which it must have required a great +many men to lift, and some ingenuity to secure. + +Scurvy-grass in great abundance, as well as another antiscorbutic +plant, bearing a small white flower, was found wherever we landed; and +I likewise observed London-pride, poppies, sorrel, dwarf willow, +crow-feet grass, saxifrage, and tripe-de-roche, besides plenty of turf, +which, with very little trouble, would have served for fuel,--and this +in latitude 76 deg. 52' N. Large flocks of geese and ducks were flying +about; the great northern diver passed overhead, and uttered its shrill +warning cry to its mate, and loons, dovekies, and plalaropes, in small +numbers, gave occasional exercise for our guns. + +[Headnote: _VISIT FROM ESQUIMAUX._] + +The coast was all of granitic formation: and if one might judge from +the specimens of iron pyrites and copper ore found here and there, the +existence of minerals in large quantities, as is the case about +Uppernavik, may be taken for granted. + +The 22d, 23d, 24th, and 25th of August passed without a favourable +change taking place; indeed, by this time our retreat, as well as +advance, had been barred by the pack. Pressed up from Baffin's Bay by +the southerly gales of this season of the year, the broken floes seemed +to have been seeking an outlet by the north-west. The winter was fast +setting in, temperature falling thus early, and the birds every day +more scarce. + +About one o'clock on the morning of the 26th August, I was aroused and +told that Esquimaux were coming off on dog-sledges. All hands turned +out voluntarily to witness the arrival of our visitors. They were five +in number, each man having a single sledge. As they approached, they +uttered an expression very like Tima! or rather Timouh! accompanied by +a loud, hoarse laugh. Some of our crew answered them, and then they +appeared delighted, laughing most immoderately. + +The sledges were entirely constructed of bone, and were small, +neat-looking vehicles: no sledge had more than five dogs; some had only +three. The dogs were fine-looking, wolfish animals, and either white or +tan colour. The well-fed appearance of the natives astonished us all; +without being tall (averaging about 5 ft. 5 in.), they were +brawny-looking fellows, deep-chested, and large-limbed, with Tartar +beards and moustachios, and a breadth of shoulder which denoted more +than ordinary strength. Their clothing consisted of a dressed seal-skin +frock, with a hood which served for a cap when it was too cold to trust +to a thick head of jet-black hair for warmth. A pair of bear-skin +trowsers reaching to the knee, and walrus-hide boots, completed their +attire. Knowing how perfectly isolated these people were from the rest +of the world,--indeed, they are said with some degree of probability to +have believed themselves to be the only people in the world,--I was not +a little delighted to see how well necessity had taught them to clothe +themselves; and the skill of the women was apparent in the sewing, and +in one case tasteful ornamental work of their habiliments. + +I need hardly say that we loaded them with presents: their ecstacy +exceeded all bounds when each was presented with a boat-hook staff, a +piece of wood some twelve feet long. They danced, shouted, and laughed +again with astonishment at possessing such a prize. Wood was evidently +with them a scarce article; they had it not even to construct sledges +with. York, the interpreter, had before told us they had no canoes for +want of it; and they seemed perfectly incapable of understanding that +our ships and masts were altogether made of wood. The intelligence +shown by these people was very gratifying; and from having evidently +been kindly treated on board the "North Star," during her sojourn in +this neighbourhood, they were confident of good treatment, and went +about fearlessly. On seeing a gun, they laughed, and said, "Pooh! +pooh!" to imitate its sound. One man danced, and was evidently anxious +to repeat some nautical shuffling of the feet to the time of a fiddle, +of which he had agreeable recollections, whilst another described how +we slept in hammocks. After some time, a document was given them, to +show any ship they might visit hereafter; and they were sent away in +high spirits. The course they had taken, both coming and going, proved +them to be from Wolstenholme Sound; and, as well as we could +understand, they had lately been to the northward, looking for pousies +(seals), and no doubt were the natives whose recent traces had been +seen by some of the officers near Booth Inlet, who had likewise +observed the remnants of some old oil-cask staves, which once had been +in an English whaler. + +[Headnote: _GALE IN THE PACK._] + + +_August 26th, 1851._--Beset against a floe, which is in motion, owing +to the pressure of bergs upon its southern face; and as it slowly +_coachwheels_ (as the whalers term it) round upon an iceberg to +seaward of us, we employ ourselves heaving clear of the danger. A +gale--fast rising, and things looking very ugly. The "Intrepid," who +had changed her berth from the "inshore" to the "offshore" side of the +"Pioneer," through some accident of ice-anchors slipping, was caught +between the floe and the iceberg, and in a minute inextricably, as far +as human power was concerned, surrounded with ice; and as the floe, +acted upon by the pressure of bergs and ice driving before the gale, +forced more and more upon the berg, we were glad to see the vessel rise +up the inclined plane formed by the tongue of the iceberg under her +bottom. Had she not done so, she must have sunk. Sending a portion of +our crew to keep launching her boats ahead during the night, we watched +with anxiety the fast-moving floes and icebergs around us. A wilder +scene than that of this night and the next morning it would be +impossible to conceive. Our forced inactivity--for escape or reciprocal +help was impossible--rendered it the more trying. + +Lieutenant Cator has himself told the trials to which the "Intrepid's" +qualities were subjected that night and day; how she was pushed up the +iceberg high and dry; and how the bonnie screw came down again right +and tight. We meanwhile drifted away, cradled in floe-pieces, and +perfectly helpless, shaving past icebergs, in close proximity, but +safely, until the gale as suddenly abated, and we found ourselves some +six miles north of the "Intrepid," and off the Sound, which, for want +of a name, we will call "Hat Sound." Steaming and sailing up a head of +water back towards our consort, we soon saw that she was all right and +afloat again, though beset in the pack. We therefore took advantage of +an opening in the ice to run to the northward alone. About midnight, +the Whale Sound of Baffin being then open to our view, but filled with +broken ice, and our farther progress impeded by the pack, we again made +fast at this, the farthest northern latitude reached by any of our +squadron, viz., 77 deg. north latitude. + + * * * * * + +_Friday, August 29th._--Finding progress in this direction hopeless, we +rejoined the "Intrepid" as close as the ice would allow us, and learnt +that she had injured her rudder and screw-framing. It was now decided +to rejoin the "Resolute" and "Assistance" at their rendezvous off Cape +Dudley Digges; and as the winter snow was fast covering the land, and +pancake-ice forming on the sea, there was little time to be lost in +doing so. + +The 30th and 31st, the "Pioneer" made fruitless attempts to reach the +"Intrepid." The leads of water were evidently separating us more and +more: she was working in for Wolstenholme Sound, whilst we were obliged +to edge to the westward. + +September 1st, 1851, came in on us. From the crow's nest one +interminable barrier of ice spread itself around; and as the +imprisonment of our vessels would have entailed starvation upon us, it +was necessary to make a push, and endeavour, by one of us at any rate +reaching supplies, to secure the means of rescue to both. + +[Headnote: _FORCING THROUGH THE PACK._] + +A lucky slackening of the ice encouraged us to enter the pack, and we +entered it. It was a long and tough struggle, sometimes for an hour not +making a ship's length of headway, then bursting into a crack of water, +which seemed an ocean by comparison. Screwing and heaving, my gallant +crew working like Britons, now over the stern, booming off pieces from +the screw as she went astern for a fresh rush at some obstinate bar; +now over the bows, coaxing her sharp stem into the crack which had to +be wedged open until the hull could pass; now leaping from piece to +piece of the broken ice, clearing the lines, resetting the anchors, +then rushing for the ladders, as the vessel cleared the obstacles, to +prevent being left behind,--light-hearted, obedient, and zealous, if my +heartfelt admiration of them could have lightened their labours, I +should have been glad indeed. Late in the evening, the "Intrepid" was +seen working inside of Wolstenholme Island: we made fast to a lofty +iceberg, to obtain a good view, for the most promising lead of water; +and the experienced eye of a quarter-master, Joseph Organ, enabled him +to detect the glisten of open water on the horizon to the westward. For +it we accordingly struck through the pack. Never were screw and steam +more taxed. To stop was to be beset for the winter, and be starved and +drifted Heaven knows where. An iron stem and a good engine did the +work,--I will not bore the non-professional reader how. A little before +midnight the "Resolute" and "Assistance" were seen, and by four o'clock +on the morning of the 2d September we were alongside of them. Shortly +afterwards our amateurs and visitors left us, and the three vessels +cruised about, waiting for the "Intrepid," it being generally +understood that when she rejoined the squadron we were to return to +England. + +We learned that the ships had been in open water as high as the Cary +Islands: _they had seen no land on the west side, north of Cape +Clarence_. On Cary Islands they had found traces of the remote visits +of whalers, and had shot immense numbers (about 700) of birds, loons +especially. On one occasion they had been placed in trying +circumstances by a gale from the southward amongst the packed ice, the +extraordinary disappearance of which to the northward, was only to be +accounted for by supposing the ice of Baffin's Bay to have been blown +through Smith's Sound into the Polar Sea, a small gateway for so much +ice to escape by. In my opinion, however, the disappearance of the ice, +which a fortnight earlier had spread over the whole sea between the +Arctic Highlands and Jones's Sound, under the influence of southerly +gales, confirmed me the more strongly in my belief that the north-west +portion of Baffin's Bay is open, and forms no _cul-de-sac_ there any +more than it does in Jones's Sound, Lancaster Sound, or Pond's Bay. + +From Hudson's Straits, in latitude 60 deg. N., to Jones's Sound, in +latitude 76 deg. N., a distance of 960 miles, we find on the western hand a +mass of islands, of every conceivable shape and size, with long and +tortuous channels intersecting the land in every direction; yet vain +men, anxious to put barriers in the way of future navigators, draw +large continents, where no one has dared to penetrate to see whether +there be such or not, and block up natural outlets without cause or +reason. + +[Headnote: _ESQUIMAUX TRACES._] + +I will now, with the reader's permission, carry him back to a subject +that here and there has been cursorily alluded to throughout these +pages--the Esquimaux traces and ruins, every where found by us, and the +extraordinary chain of evidence which, commencing in Melville Island, +our farthest west, carries us, link by link, to the isolated +inhabitants of North Greenland, yclept Arctic Highlands. + +Strange and ancient signs were found by us in almost every sheltered +nook on the seaboard of this sad and solitary land,--signs indubitably +of a race having once existed, who have either decayed away, or else, +more probably, migrated to more hospitable portions of the Arctic zone. +That all these traces were those of the houses, caches, hunting-posts, +and graves of the Esquimaux, or Innuit, there could be on our minds no +doubt; and looking to the immense extent of land over which this +extraordinary race of fishermen have been, and are to be found, well +might Captain Washington, the talented compiler of the Esquimaux +vocabulary, say, that they are one "of the most widely-spread nations +of the globe." + +The seat of this race (arguing from traditions extant during Baron +Wrangell's travels in Siberia) might be placed in the north-east +extreme of Asia, the western boundary being ill defined; for on the +dreary banks of the Lena and Indigirka, along the whole extent of the +frozen _Tundra_, which faces the Polar Sea, and in the distant isles of +New Siberia, rarely visited by even the bold seekers of fossil ivory, +the same ruined circles of stone, betokening the former abode of human +beings, the same whalebone rafters, the same stone axes, the same +implements of the chase, are to be found as to this day are used, and +only used, by the Tchuktches of Behring's Straits, the Innuit of North +America, or the Esquimaux of Hudson's Straits and Greenland,--a people +identical in language (of which they all speak different dialects), +habits, and disposition. + +Supposing, then, that from the east of Asia these people first migrated +to the American continent, and thence, eventually wandered to the +eastern shores of Greenland, it became an interesting question to us, +how the lands upon our northern hand, in our passage to the west up +Barrow's Strait, should bear such numerous marks of human location, +whereas upon the southern side they were comparatively scarce; and how +the natives residing in the northern portion of Baffin's Bay should +have been ignorant that their brethren dwelt in great numbers southward +of the glaciers of Melville Bay. + +Some amongst us--and I was of this number--objected to the theory +summarily advanced, that at a remote period these northern lands had +been peopled from the south, and that the population had perished or +wasted away from increased severity of climate or diminution of the +means of subsistence. Our objections were argued on the following +grounds:--If the Parry group had been colonized from the American +continent, that continent, their nursery, would have shown signs of a +large population at points immediately in juxtaposition, which it does +not do. + +From the estuary of the Coppermine to the Great Fish River, the +Esquimaux traces are less numerous than on the north shore of Barrow's +Strait. To assert that the Esquimaux have travelled from the American +continent to the bleak shores of Bathurst Island, is to suppose a +savage capable of voluntarily quitting a land of plenty for one of +gaunt famine: on the other hand, it seems unreasonable to attribute +these signs of a by-gone people's existence to some convulsion of +nature, or some awful increase of cold, since no similar catastrophe +has occurred in any other part of the world. Contrary to such opinions, +we opined that the traces were those of a vast and prolonged +emigration, and that it could be shown, on very fair premises, that a +large number of the Innuit, Skraeling, or Esquimaux--call them what you +please--had travelled from Asia to the eastward along a much higher +parallel of latitude than the American continent, and, in their very +natural search for the most hospitable region, had gone from the _north +towards the south, not from the south towards the north_, or, what may +yet one day be laid open to the world, reached a high northern +latitude, in which a deep and uncongealable sea gives rise to a milder +climate and an increased amount of the capabilities of subsistence. + +I will now lightly sketch the probable route of the Esquimaux +emigration, as I believe it to have taken place in the north-east of +Asia. The Tchuktches, the only independent tribe in Siberia, are seen +to assume, amongst that portion of them residing on the sea-coast, +habits closely analogous to those of the Esquimaux. The hunters of +Siberia tell how a similar race, the Omoki, "whose hearths were once +more numerous on the banks of the Lena than the stars of an Arctic +night," are gone, none know whither. The natives now living in the +neighbourhood of Cape Chelajskoi, in Siberia, aver that emigration to a +land in the _north-east_ had occurred within the memory of their +fathers; and amongst other cases we find them telling Wrangell, that +the Onkillon tribe had once occupied that land, but, being attacked by +the Tchuktches, they, headed by a chief called Krachnoi, had taken +shelter in the land visible northward from Cape Jakan. + +This land, Wrangell and others did not then believe in. British seamen +have, however, proved the assertion to be a fact; and Captains Kellett +and Moore have found "an extensive land" in the very direction the +Siberian fishermen declared it to exist. It is not my purpose to enter +into a disquisition upon the causes which brought about this +emigration. Sad and bitter necessity alone it must have been which +thrust these poor members of the human family into localities which, +even in Asia, caused the Russians to exclaim, "What could have led men +to forsake more favoured lands for this grave of Nature?" Choice it +could not have been, for, in America, we see that the Esquimaux has +struggled hard to reach southern and genial climes. In the Aleutian +Isles, and on the coast of Labrador, local circumstances favoured the +attempt, and the Indian hunter was unable to subsist in lands which +were, comparatively, overflowing with subsistence for the Arctic +fishermen; but elsewhere the bloodthirsty races of North America +obliged the human tide, which for some wise cause was made to roll +along the margin of the Polar Sea, to confine itself purely to the +sea-coast; and although vast tracts, such as the barren grounds between +longitudes 99 deg. and 109 deg. W., are at the present day almost untenanted, +still a sufficient population remains to show that an emigration of +these tribes had taken place there at a remote period. + +These people reached, in time, the shores of Davis's Straits and the +Atlantic Ocean; and, in a line parallel to them, others of their +brethren who reached the land lately re-discovered, northward of +Behring's Straits, may have likewise wandered along the Parry Group to +Lancaster Sound. + +In order to have done this, land must be presumed to extend from the +meridian of Behring's Straits to Melville Island,--a point upon which +few who study the geography of that region can have now a doubt; and +eminent men have long supposed it to be the case,[5] from various +phenomena, such as the shallow nature of the sea between the Mackenzie +River and Behring's Straits, and the non-appearance of heavy ice in +that direction--all indicating that a barrier lay northward of the +American continent. The gallant squadron, under Captains Collinson and +M'Clure, will, doubtless, solve this problem, and connect, either by a +continent or a chain of islands, the ruined _yourts_ of Cape Jakan with +the time-worn stone huts of Melville Island. + + [5] The present talented hydrographer of the navy, Sir F. + Beaufort, foretold to the author, a year before it was + discovered, the existence of land north of Behring's Straits. + +Situated as these places are, under the same degree of latitude, the +savage, guided by the length of his seasons and the periodical arrival +of bird and beast, would fearlessly progress along the north shore of +the great strait, which may be said to extend from Lancaster Sound to +the Straits of Behring. This progress was, doubtless, a work of +centuries, but gradual, constant, and imperative. The seal, the +rein-deer, and the whale, all desert or avoid places where man or beast +wages war on them whilst multiplying their species, and have to be +followed, as we find to be the case with our hunters, sealers, and +whalers of the present day. + +As the northern Esquimaux travelled to the east, offshoots from the +main body no doubt struck to the southward. For instance, there is +every reason to believe Boothia to have been originally peopled from +the north. The natives seen there by Sir John Ross spoke of their +fathers having fished and lived in more northern lands. They described +the shores of North Somerset sufficiently to show that they knew that +it was only by rounding Cape Bunny, that Ross could carry his vessel +into that western sea, from whose waters an isthmus barred him: and +this knowledge, traditional as I believe it to have been, has since +been proved to be correct by those who wintered in Leopold Harbour +finding Esquimaux traces about that neighbourhood, and by the foot +journey of Sir James Ross, in 1848, round Cape Bunny towards the +Magnetic Pole. + +In corroboration of my idea that these inhabitants of the Arctic zone +were once very numerous along the north shore of Barrow's Strait and +Lancaster Sound, the following localities were found to abound with +ruins:--The gulf between Bathurst and Cornwallis Land, the whole +southern shore of Cornwallis Island, Wellington Channel, Cape Spenser, +and Cape Riley; Radstock Bay, Ommanney Harbour, near Cape Warrender, +where the "Intrepid" discovered numerous well-finished graves, bearing +the marks of a _comparatively_ more recent date. Passing Cape +Warrender, I supposed the remnant of the northern emigration from Asia +to have still travelled round the coast; the more so, as at Jones's +Sound, the only spot one of our officers happened to land upon, +Esquimaux had evidently once lived. (_Vide_ page 173.) The Arctic +Highlander, Erasmus York, who was serving in our squadron, seemed to +believe his mother to have dwelt about Smith's Sound: all his ideas of +things that he had heard of, but not seen, referred to places +northward. He knew a musk-ox when shown a sketch of one, and said that +they were spoken of by his brethren: with a pencil he could sketch the +coast-line _northward_ of where he embarked, Cape York, as far as Whale +Sound, or even farther, by tradition; but _southward_ he knew of nothing. + +Old whale-fishermen say that, when in former days their pursuit carried +them into the head of Baffin's Bay, they found the natives numerous; +and it is undoubted that, in spite of an apparently severe mortality +amongst these Arctic Highlanders, or Northern Esquimaux, the stock is +not yet extinct. Every whaler who has visited the coast northward of +Cape York, during late years, reports deserted villages and dead +bodies, as if some sudden epidemic had cut down men and women suddenly +and in their prime. Our squadron found the same thing. The "Intrepid's" +people found in the huts of the natives which were situated close to +the winter quarters of the "North Star," in Wolstenholme Sound, +numerous corpses, unburied, indeed, as if the poor creatures had been +suddenly cut off, and their brethren had fled from them. Poor York, +who, amongst the dead, recognized his own brother, described the malady +of which they died as one of the chest or lungs: at any rate, the +mortality was great. + +Where did the supply of human life come from? Not from the south, for +then the Northern and Southern Esquimaux would have known of each +other's existence. Yet the Southern Esquimaux have faint traditions of +the head of Baffin's Bay and Lancaster Sound; and Egede and Crantz tell +us of their belief in a northern origin, and of their tales of remote +regions where beacons on hills had been erected to denote the way. +Surely all this points to the long and landward route pursued by this +extraordinary people. + +It may be quite possible that a portion of the Esquimaux crossed +Davis's Straits by accident from the west to the east: such things have +occurred within the memory of living men; but I deny that it would ever +be a voluntary act, and therefore unlikely to have led to the +population of South Greenland. A single hunter of seals, or more, might +have been caught in the ice and been drifted across, or a boat's load +of women may have been similarly obliged to perform a voyage which +would have been very distasteful to an Esquimaux; but such accidents do +not populate countries. + +Lastly, before I quit this subject, it would be as well to call the +attention of those interested in such questions to the extraordinary +fact of the existence of a constantly starving race upon the _east_ +side of Greenland. The Danish surveyor's (Capt. Graah) remarks lead me +to the opinion that these people come from more northern parts of their +own side of Greenland; and it would be a curious circumstance if future +geographical discoveries should give us grounds to believe that from +the neighbourhood of Smith's Sound the Esquimaux migration divided, and +the one branch of it followed down the shores of Baffin's Bay and +Davis's Straits, whilst the other, tracing the northern coasts of +Greenland, eventually descended by the eastern seaboard to Cape +Farewell. The nursery, the hot-bed of this race, I believe to exist +northward of spots visited by us in Baffin's Strait,--for bay it is +not, even if it had no other outlets into the Polar Sea than Lancaster, +Jones's, and Smith's Sound. + +_Revenons a nos moutons!_ The 2d, 3d, and 4th of September passed with +much anxiety; the signals thrown out by our leader, "Where do you think +the 'Intrepid' is gone?" and on another occasion, "Do you think the +'Intrepid' is to leeward of the pack?" denoting how much he was +thinking of the missing steamer. We of the sister screw had little +anxiety as to her safety or capability of escaping through any pack; +especially when alone and unhampered by having to keep company. A +knowledge of the screw, its power, and handiness, gave us a confidence +in it, which we had never reason to regret. At first we had been +pitied, as men doomed to be cast away: we had since learned to pity +others, and to be envied in our safe vessels. The "great experiment," +as it was called, had succeeded, in spite of the forebodings of the +ignorant and the half-measured doubts of questionable friends; but its +crowning triumph was yet to come: the _single steamer_ was, alone, +unaided, to penetrate the pack and seek her missing mate. Find her, if +she could; if not, winter, and seek with foot parties, both this autumn +and next spring. + +[Headnote: _SEARCH FOR THE "INTREPID."_] + +There was a momentary pang of regret on the morning of the 5th +September, when I first learned that the "Pioneer" was to return into +Wolstenholme Sound with provisions sufficient for herself and the +"Intrepid" to meet _two_ winters more; but pride soon, both with myself +and my officers and men, came to the rescue. The "Intrepid" might have +been caught, and unable to extricate herself. Of course it was an +honourable mission to go to the aid of our comrades, to give them the +means of subsistence, to spend the winter with them, and, please God, +escape next season, if not before, from the disagreeable position into +which our summer tour in Baffin's Bay had carried us: and furthermore, +the screws, helpless babes! were to winter alone, alone to find their +way in and out of the ice, and alone make their way home, whilst the +huge incubi that had ridden us like nightmares during the search for +Franklin would be (D.V.) safely lashed in Woolwich dockyard. + +The 5th was spent in sending away all our sickly or weak hands, +increasing the complement of seamen by four, receiving abundance of +public and private stores, bidding good-bye to our dear brother +officers in the squadron, and friends, who generously pressed upon us +every thing they had to spare, in which they were not more generous +than our leader, who put, with the utmost liberality, both his kit and +storeroom at our disposal. The "Pioneer" was by midnight as deep as a +sand-barge. Next morning the commodore came on board, gave me highly +flattering orders, and, having read prayers, made a speech, in which he +took an affectionate farewell of the "Pioneers," and struck with happy +effect the two strongest chords in our hearts, thus:--"You hold," said +he, "Pioneers, the honour of the squadron in your hands. I thank you +all for the alacrity and spirit with which you have prepared yourselves +to re-enter the ice. You shall be no losers by it; and on my arrival in +England I will take care to insure that you are not forgotten in +rewards: indeed, I shall consider that you have the first claim, +provided your commander, on his arrival in England, reports favourably +on your conduct." At eight o'clock we parted company, and, under sail +and steam, steered direct for Wolstenholme Island. + +A little after ten o'clock we broke through a neck of ice, and had just +put the helm up to run down a lead, when, happening to look over my +shoulder at the "Resolute," now hull down to the westward, I was +astonished to see what appeared the smoke of a gun, and soon afterwards +another, and another. The general recall at the mast-head was next +seen, and the "Assistance," under all sail, pressing to the south, +showed that the "Intrepid" had been caught sight of. Joy was strongly +marked on every countenance as we turned on our heel, and one +exclamation--"Thank God for our escape from a second winter," was on +every tongue. It would have been indeed an unprofitable detention to +have been caught in Wolstenholme Sound by the pack, as we undoubtedly +should have been, whilst the vessel we went to relieve was safe without +it. However, the evil was now averted; the whole squadron was united, +my provisions, men, and stores again taken out, and a memorandum +issued, the purport of which was that we were to go to Woolwich. At +eight o'clock the yards were squared, sails spread, and homeward we +steered. + +Fresh and fair gales, a sea entirely clear of all but stray icebergs, +and here and there a patch of broken ice, gave us nothing to do but +endeavour to reduce our speed sufficiently under canvas to insure not +outrunning our consorts. In eight days we reached the latitude of Cape +Farewell. Once in the Atlantic, strong gales and dark nights rendered +it impossible for such ill-matched consorts to keep company, and we +found ourselves alone, sighting the Orkneys fourteen days after bearing +up from the latitude of Wolstenholme Island in Baffin's Bay, and +anchored at Grimsby in the river Humber, exactly three weeks from the +commencement of our homeward-bound voyage. The rest of the squadron +followed us to Woolwich, where all were paid off safe and sound, with +the exception of one man, the only one missing out of the original one +hundred and eighty officers and men who had sailed in 1850, under +Captain Horatio T. Austin, C.B., to rescue or solve the fate of the +expedition commanded by Captain Sir John Franklin. + +[Headnote: _OPINION OF FRIENDS AND THE PUBLIC._] + +Our self-importance as Arctic heroes of the first water received a sad +downfall when we were first asked by a kind friend, what the deuce we +came home for? We had a good many _becauses_ ready, but he overturned +them altogether; so we had resort to the usual resource of men in such +a position: we said, "There was a barrier of ice across Wellington +Channel in 1850." Our friend said, "I deny it was a permanent one, for +the Americans drifted through it!" "Indeed!" we exclaimed, "at any rate +there was one there in 1851." "Yes, granted, on the 12th of August; but +you know there was a month of open season left: and, like an honest +man, say how long it would take for that barrier, fifteen or twenty +miles wide, to disperse." "As many hours!" was our reply: "and we have +forsworn in future barriers of ice as well as barriers of land." + +What the deuce we came home for? and why we deserted Franklin? were +pleasant questions; and at first we felt inclined to be angry. Those, +however, who asked them had cause and reason for doing so. We were in +the dark as to much that had been arrived at in England. We knew but of +our own limited personal experience, and had had neither time nor +opportunity to compare notes with others. The public at home sat down +with the accumulated evidence of two British expeditions and an +American one. They passed a verdict that Franklin had gone up +Wellington Channel, and that, having gone up there, in obedience to his +country's orders, it was the duty of that country to send after him, +save him, or solve his fate. I for one knew I had done my duty in the +sphere allotted to me, although feeling at first that the public +verdict reflected somewhat upon me as well as others. But "Vox populi, +vox Dei." I bowed tacitly to its decision, until attempts were made to +damp the hopes of the more sanguine,--in fact, to save our credit at +the expense of Franklin's existence. It was time then to reconsider in +all its points the subject of farther search, to compare my own recent +impression of things with facts that were now before the world, and +then to judge for myself whether any one had a right to declaim against +farther efforts to save Franklin's expedition. + +Need I say I found none. On comparing the information, the phenomena +observed in our own squadron with those of Captain Penny's, and the +Americans under Lieutenant De Haven, I saw more and more clearly that a +northern sea, an open water, must have been close to us in 1850 and +1851, when we were about Wellington Channel; that that sea was _not_ +blocked with ice in 1850, as we had ignorantly supposed; and that as +assuredly as it was proved that Sir John Franklin had not gone to Cape +Walker, nor disobeyed his orders by going to Melville Island, so +certain did it now become that up Wellington Channel he had steered to +that open sea, which, whether limited or encircling the Pole, it was +his object to enter. It was water and an open sea that Franklin wanted +to achieve the North-west Passage; and there it was before him. Can any +one suppose him, accuse him, capable of hesitating to enter it? + +Those who will not admit this, have recourse to two infallible Arctic +solutions for the dilemma in which they are placed; it must be either +an impenetrable barrier of ice in Wellington Channel, or the ships must +have been beset in the pack, and have perished, without God's +providence helping them, as it has helped all others similarly placed, +without leaving a single survivor or a vestige of any description. No +such wholesale calamity is on record. + +[Headnote: _CHANCES OF FUTURE SUCCESS._] + +Let us inquire into this barrier of ice in Wellington Channel. Twice +had Parry seen the channel, in 1819 and 1820; he saw no barrier then. +We reached it in the fall of 1850, after a very backward and severe +summer, with winter fast closing in upon us. We saw long flights of +birds retreating from their summer breeding-places somewhere beyond the +broad fields of ice that lay athwart its channel. We wondered at the +numerous shoals of white whale passing, from some unknown northern +region, southward to more genial climes. We talked of fixed ice, yet in +one day twelve miles of it came away, and nearly beset us amongst its +fragments. We heard Captain Penny's report that there was water to be +seen north of the remaining belt, of about ten miles in width. We were +like deaf adders; we were obstinate, and went into winter quarters +under Griffith's Island, believing that nothing more could be done, +because a barrier of fixed ice extended across Wellington Channel! We +were miserably mistaken. + +The expedition under Lieutenant De Haven was then drifting slowly over +the place where we, in our ignorance, had placed fixed ice in our +charts; and to them likewise the wisdom of an all-merciful Providence +revealed the fact of a northern sea of open water, that they might be +additional witnesses in the hour of need. We cannot do better than read +the plain unvarnished tale of the gallant American--a tale of calm +heroism under no ordinary trials, which stamps the document as the +truthful narration of a gentleman and a sailor. He says, after +describing the being beset by young ice in the mouth of Wellington +Channel, and drifting northward, owing to southerly winds,-- + +"On the 18th September we were above Cape Bowden.... To account for +this drift, the fixed ice of Wellington Channel, which we had observed +in passing to the _westward_, must have been broken up, and driven to +the southward by the heavy gale the 12th (September). + +"We continued to drift slowly to the N.N.W. until the 22d, when our +progress appeared to be arrested by a small low island, which was +discovered about seven miles distant. + + * * * * * + +"_Between Cornwallis Island and some distant high land visible in the +north, appeared a wide channel, leading to the westward._ A dark, +misty-looking cloud which hung over it (technically termed frost-smoke) +was indicative of much open water in that direction. + +"Nor was the open water the only indication that presented itself in +confirmation of theoretical conjecture as to a milder climate in that +direction. As we entered Wellington Channel the signs of animal life +became more abundant." + +So much, then, for the barrier of ice in Wellington Channel in 1850. +Let us now speak of what was there in 1851. On the 11th of August about +as much fixed floe was remaining in Wellington Channel as had been +found by us on the previous year, _a month later in the season_. On +that occasion, late as it was, we have the evidence of Lieutenant De +Haven to prove the channel opened: why should we doubt it doing so in +1851? An open sea existed on both sides of a belt of ice, rotten, full +of holes, unfit to travel over (as Penny's officers reported it), full +thirty days before the winter set in; is there an Arctic navigator +hardy enough to say he believes that that belt would have been found +there on the next spring-tide after our squadron was liberated from +Griffith's Island? Then, I repeat, if it is allowed that Wellington +Channel was open in 1819, 1820, 1850, and 1851, it is natural to infer +that it was open when Franklin wished to pass through it in 1846, and +that, under such circumstances, he would, in obedience to his orders, +have gone by it to the N.W. + +The day has not long passed by when it was tried to be proved, on +_undoubted testimony_, that Barrow's Strait was barred with the +accumulated ice of years,--and this in the face of an autumnal drift of +a naval squadron for 350 miles in the pack of Lancaster. What say these +barrier-builders to the winter drift of the American schooners under +Lieutenant De Haven? Does his marvellous cruise teach us nothing? +Between the 1st of November, 1850, and the 6th of June, 1851, his +squadron was swept in one vast field of ice from the upper part of +Wellington Channel to the southward of Cape Walsingham, in Davis's +Straits, through a tortuous route of full 1000 miles! Yes, reader, the +"Rescue" and "Advance" were beset in young bay-ice in and about +Wellington Channel; but during the winter, amidst the darkness, amidst +fierce gales, when the God of storms alone could and did shield those +brave barks, they and _the ice_ in _which they had been beset_, moved, +with few pauses, steadily and slowly to the Atlantic Ocean, and reached +it by the summer of the following year. + +It is true, our expedition was prevented, by ice, from advancing to the +west of Griffith's Island. But let it not be supposed that we came, in +that direction, upon any _fixed_ bar of ice or interminable floe-edge: +far otherwise; for when, as I have elsewhere said, Lieutenant Aldrich +was sent, a few days after our arrival at winter quarters, to travel on +foot to Lowther Island, he found the task a hopeless one, as _water_, +bay-ice, and a broken pack, lay between Somerville Island and it. We, +likewise, in our spring journeys, found ice, smooth as glass, formed, +evidently during the past winter, surrounding Lowther Island. It was +traced by Lieutenant M'Clintock, leading, in exactly the form of the +lead of water found in 1819 and 1820 by Sir E. Parry, in his voyage to +Winter Island; and there can be little doubt, that, beyond the +floe-pieces which choked the channel between Griffith's Island and Cape +Bunny, we should, in 1850, have found water leading us to Winter +Harbour, and up the noble channel north of Byam Martin Island. + +Enough of icy barriers. I do not believe in Nature having placed such +fixtures on the "vasty deep;" but I am ready to allow that there are +places in which accumulations of ice naturally exist, and where the ice +moves away less rapidly than in other parts. By looking at the chart, +and taking into consideration the geographical conformation of such +spots, the cause will at once appear. + +In a line across the head of Davis's Straits, the pack hangs, because +it is there met, in its downward course, by the whole weight of the +Atlantic Sea, and strong southerly gales blowing up that funnel-shaped +strait. About Leopold Island the pack hangs, for it is acted upon by +the cross-tides of Wellington Channel and Regent's Inlet running +athwart those of Barrow's Strait, and forming a sort of eddy, or still +water. This occurs again in the _elbow_ of Wellington Channel, and +between Griffith's Island and Cape Bunny, where a narrowing strait, and +the cross-tide of the channel towards the American coast, tie up the +broad floes formed in the great water-space west of that point; and +lastly, a similar choke takes place, apparently off the S.W. extreme of +Melville Island. + +Failing in barriers, these Job's comforters dismiss the subject by +swallowing up the "Erebus" and "Terror," hull, masts, sails, and crew, +in some especially infernal tempest or convulsion executed for the +occasion: they--the Job's comforters--have no similar case to adduce in +proof of such a catastrophe. Every body who goes to the frozen regions +tells of the hairbreadth escapes and imminent dangers attendant on +Arctic navigation. I am free to acknowledge, I have "piled the agony" +to make my work sell. Behold the "Pioneer" in a nip in Melville Bay; +the "Resolute" thumping the pack off Griffith's Island; the +"Assistance" holding on to a floe-edge with a moving one threatening to +sink her; and the "Intrepid" on the slope of an iceberg, high and dry: +yet all are safe and sound in Woolwich dockyard: the brigs, "Rescue" +and "Advance," beset for 267 days, drifting during a Polar winter 1150 +miles, enduring all possible hardship and risk, yet both vessels and +men are safe and sound. Captain Penny's two vessels, the "Lady +Franklin" and "Sophia," if their figure-heads could speak, would "a +tale unfold." Not the most extraordinary part of their adventures was, +being caught in a gale in a bay on the coast of Greenland, and being +forced by a moving iceberg through a field of ice full three feet +thick, the vessels rearing and plunging through it; yet they are all +safe and sound. The "North Star," the "Enterprise," and "Investigator," +and farther back, the "Terror," farther still, the "Dorothea" and +"Trent," have, with many more we could enumerate, seen no ordinary +Arctic dangers; but, thanks to a merciful Providence, unattended with +loss of life. Why, therefore, in the name of charity, consign those who +are dear to us, as relatives, friends, or countrymen, to sudden death +in the dark waters of Lancaster Sound or Baffin's Bay. No one who knew +the men of that gallant squadron would so libel the leader, or his +officers, as to suppose them to have turned back when at the threshold +of their labours: if he does so, he does them foul injustice. And +against such I appeal, in the name of that humanity which was never +invoked in vain in a Christian land. + +Give the lost ones the benefit of the doubt, if there is one on your +minds. Let not selfish indifference to your fellow-creatures' fate +induce you to dismiss the question by adopting any of the horrible +opinions to which unfeeling men have given utterance. True it is, they +are in sad peril; true it is, they have suffered long and much; true it +is, that many may have fallen by the way: but the remnant, however +small, of that heroic band, be assured, by one who knew many of them +intimately and dearly, will despair not, but, trusting in their God, +their Queen, and country, they will cling to hope with life's latest +breath. + +They have done their duty: let us not be wanting in ours. The rescue of +Franklin's squadron, or the solution of their fate, entails no +extraordinary risk of life upon the part of those employed in the +search. Insurances to any amount--and I speak from a knowledge of the +fact--may be effected in the various insurance offices in London with a +lighter premium than is demanded for the Bights of Benin or Bengal. +This is a pretty good test, and a sound practical one, too, of the +much-talked-of dangers of Polar navigation. Ships are often lost; but +the very floe which by its pressure sinks the vessel saves the crew. + +In short, we have every thing to stimulate Arctic exploration. No loss +of life; (for Franklin it will be time enough to mourn when we know he +is not of the living,) the wonderful proofs lately acquired of a Polar +sea; the undoubted existence of animal life in regions which were +previously supposed to be incapable of supporting animal life; the +result of the deeply philosophical inquiries of the talented +geographer, Mr. Peterman, which seem to establish the fact of an open +Polar sea during the severest season of the year; and lastly, the +existence of Esquimaux in a high northern latitude in Baffin's Bay, who +appear to be so isolated, and so unconnected with their brethren of +South Greenland, as to justify us in connecting them rather with the +numerous ruined habitations found westward as far as Melville Island, +and lead the mind to speculate upon some more northern region,--some +_terra incognita_, yet to be visited by us,--encourages us, aye, urges +us not to halt in our exploration. Humanity and science are united in +the cause: where one falters, let a love for the other encourage us to +persevere. + +Franklin and his matchless followers need no eulogy from me; the +sufferings they must have undergone, the mystery that hangs over them, +are on every tongue in every civilized land. + +The blooming child lisps Franklin's name, as with glistening eye and +greedy ear it hears of the wonders of the North, and the brave deeds +there done. Youth's bosom glows with generous emotion to emulate the +fame of him who has gone where none as yet have followed. And who +amongst us does not feel his heart throb faster in recalling to +recollection the calm heroism of the veteran leader, who, when about to +enter the unknown regions of which Wellington Channel is the portal, +addressed his crews in those solemn and emphatic words of Holy +Writ,--his motto, doubtless,--"Choose ye this day whom you will serve;" +and found in that blissful choice his strength and his endurance. + +To rescue even one life were surely well worthy our best endeavours; +but if it so please an all-merciful Providence that aid should reach +Franklin's ships too late to save even that one, yet would we have +fulfilled a high and imperative duty: and would it be no holy +satisfaction to trace the last resting-place of those gallant spirits? +to recover the records, there assuredly to be found, of their manly +struggle, under hardships and difficulties, in achieving that +North-west Passage, in the execution of which they had laid down their +lives? and to bring back to their surviving relatives and friends those +last kind messages of love, which show that sincere affection and stern +sense of duty sprang from one source in their gallant and generous +hearts? + +Yes, of course it would. Then, and not till then--taking this, the +gloomiest view of the subject--shall we have done our duty towards the +captains, officers, and crews of Her Majesty's ships "Erebus" and +"Terror;" and then, and not until then, of their honoured leader we may +safely say:-- + + "His soul to Him who gave it rose; + God led its long repose, + Its glorious rest! + And though the warrior's sun has set, + Its light shall linger round us yet, + Bright, radiant, blest!" + + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal;, by +Sherard Osborn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRAY LEAVES FROM ARCTIC JOURNAL *** + +***** This file should be named 24891.txt or 24891.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/8/9/24891/ + +Produced by Julia Miller and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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