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BARNES & CQ C I N C I N N A T I' i I \ t V: i I b>- J DEDICATION. ■♦♦»- A CCEPT, 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 " san^ peur et sans reproclie^^ 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 exer- tions, that zeal which has never wavered, •fe^ . a«.a»M.^ ■i 6 DEDICATIOX. that liope so steadfast, since it is that of an Englisli woman for her ]iusl)and, that patience under misconstruction, that forgiveness for the sneer of jealousy, and that j^ity for the mali- cious, which you have so pre-eminently dis- played, may yet, hy God's helji, one day reap its reward in the accomplishment of your wishes, is the fervent prayer of SIIERARD OSBORN. I \ I \ PREFACE. -»♦♦" T FEAll witli the many of my clotli, my crime -*- iu Avriting a book will be an unpardonable one ; tlie more so, tliat I cannot conscientiously declare, that it has been at the ure^ent desire of my friends, tfec, 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 de- scrii^-tion of incident.^ in the late search for Sir John Franklin, to jiterest 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 .,ui.,# ,il 11 V- -J: '. V 8 PREFACE. 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 obhgation 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 1 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 1 PREFACE. 9 tlie tlie my )zen hey oke 1 ■•'s. I 111" 4X1 31 \ J. -1 was once on their side ; and if I do not love their 6luj}^ at any rate I liked tJie?)i. 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 com- panionship. To those who may accuse me of egotism in confining my remarks so much to the achieve- ments 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 lal)our ; 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 in- separably connected with our Arctic discoveries ; so likewise I have to ofler my thanks, heartfelt as they are sincere, to those who, like Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort and Captain Hamilton of 1* It ! II 10 PREFACE. the Admiralty, bade me speed, when sincerity and zeal Avas 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. lii w. i»t ; I ■I 1 1' 'lit iJl ' i STKAY LEAVES FROM AN AECTIC 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 Squad- ron ; and a general feeling of joy at our departure prevailed amongst us, when, one fine morning, we broke ground from Greenhilhe. llie " liesolute" and " Assistance" had a couple of steam- ers to attend upon them ; whilst we, the " Pioneer" and " In- trepid," screwed and sailed, as requisite to keep company. By dark of the 4th of May, 1850, wo 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 indiffer- ^ iT ilil III 1'! Ill ii; I l|lt ■ii 'Ii it ffi" i^li !?! PI I 12 ABCTIO JOURNAL. ence 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 — •' "NVc sailed by Fairlfc, by Bcachoy, and Dunscness, Until the North Foreland light we did see" — gives a very good idea of our progress from beacon to light- house, 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 Frith of Forth. Hitherto, " all had been pleasant as a mar- riage bell ;" the weather had been fine ; and we already cal- culated our days of arrival at different points, as if the calm vas to last for ever. The Cheviot Hills glittered in tho 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 rovgh "nor'- wester," — and away wo went. "Not all the kind's horses" could have kept the expedition together. The " Kesolute" and " Assistance," hauled dead on a wind, under olosp-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-atl canvas, drew away vapidly to windward and ahead, and in spite of all we could do, a few hours of darkness edectually succeeded in dispersing ns. Accident again brought the " Pioneer" in sight of the vessels for a few hours; but the "Intrepid" found herself in Stromness Har- 1 1 i ^1.; Xv' i DEPARTURE. 18 t •A hour, with a degree of celerity which gave rise to a racing disposition on the part of my gaUant colloaguo, '• Intrepid," vcraus ''Pioneer," which it took a great many days of com- petition to decide. They who want excitement had better go and beat a ves- sel up the Pcnthmd 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 tristc 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 nuiidens with golden locks ; and the purser's wholesale order for beef threatened to create a fam- ine 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 drunk«»»mess, 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 real I V fresh eggs. As a description of this part of the world is no part of iry task, I will pass over our long and crooked walk about Stronniess ; 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 neighbouiiiood. Above the town of Stromness rises a conical-shaped hill; omnc mmo it has, 1 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 sliipmate walked out one cvejiing to make our pilgrimage to u spot hallowed b) the visit of the gallant and 1 rue hearted ill Ii{ 111 iii 1; !|i n; f if • m. if!'-' t ^ ■:i- 14 ARCTIC JOURKAL. 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-Jamcs ! en- terprising 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 trouljled ; aflir to seaward the breakers broke and lashed themselves against the firm foundation of the old Head of Ilay, which loomed through mist and squall, whilst over- head the scream of sea-fowl, flying for shelter, told that the west wind would hold wild revelry that night. " II. 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 bon- nie craft; and then, strolling homeward, discussed the proba- ble chances of the existence of the said " North Star ;" the conclusion arrived at being that there was more cau'-e for anxiety on her account than for Franklin's Expedition, she having gone out totally unprepared for wintering, and with strict injiuictions not to be detained : '"riiomme propose, et Dieu dispose." I could have hugged the snufly old postmaster for a packet of letters he gave me. I rushed on board to a cabin wliich proved, as the First Lord had sagaciously remarked, into how small a space a Lieutenant Comnumding could bo packed ; and, in spite of an unpaid tailor's bill, revelled in sweet and pleasant dreams. The " Intrepid"' and " Pioneer" rejoined the ships at Long- Hope; and my gallant comrade and I made a ncck-and-neck race of it, showing that in steaming, at any rate, there would be little to choose between us ; and, on May L'')th, the Arctic squadron weighed, and, passing out of the Pentlaud Firtii, tlio § I |i!ii f i PL Ay OF SEAR en. 15 I ■4 " Dasher" and " Lightning" cheered us, took our letters, — and the Searching Expedition was alone steering for Green- land. 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 ex- citement 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 glim- mered and danced in the east, until lost in some passing squall. Now for the Northwest! we cxclaimeJ, — 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 accom- plished 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, mc will take a retrospective view of what is now — 1850 — going to be done fjr the relief of Franklin. Capt. CoUlnson, with two ships, has gone to l»ehrlng's Straits wiih tlic "Plover" as a depot, in Kotzebue Sound, to fall back upon in case of disaster. Tie steers direct for Melville Island, along the coast of North America. Capt. I'uUen, having successfully searched the coast from Point IJarrow to the Mackenzie liiver, is endeavouring now to push from thence, in a northerly direction, for Bank's Land. Dr. Kue is to do tlie same from the Coppermine Kiver. Capt. t!! i iii; I' il h, t.. 11,}'' ,iir' Ill' T'l, !|Im il-M .I'I Id ARCTIC JOURI^'AL. Penny, a first-ratc whaling captain, with two fast brigs, is now ahead of us, hoping to make an early passage across the middle ice of Baffin's Day. 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 pen- dant, and two land parties are directed, by dilferent 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 lioss, 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 ! Happi- ly the majority of Englishmen have, however, decided other- wise; and behold, this noble eciuipment ! this magnificent outlay of men and material ! Wc will not dwell on the pleasures or annoyances of the cruise across the Atlantic, beyond stating the fact that our bliifi-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 wc of the screws found our steam vessels all we could wish, somewhat o'er lively, mayhap, — a frisky tendency to lireak every breakable article on board. But there was a saucy swagger in them, as they bov.led along the hollow of a western sea, wliich showed they had good blood in them ; and we soon felt confident of disap- "iS il'li THE A TLAXTIC.—GREEXLAXD. 17 the our our ater lund lic'Je hey hey sap- 1 ^1 ■'i pointing those I^olar seers, who had foretold shipwreck and di:sastcr as their tate. Tile appearance of numerous sea-birds, — the Tern espe- cialJy, which do not fly far from land, — warned us, on Sun- day 2r)th May, of our fast approach to Greenland, and on the the morrow we esf)ied the picturesque shores about Cape Farewell. Which of all the numerous headlands we saw was the i(k*ntical 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 re- placed our English clothing. Distant as we were from Greenland, our view of its southern extremity was fleeting, but suflicient 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 {)leased 1^'ovidence 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 sec there. True, Greenland has no deep historical interest, but the North has always had its charm ft)r me. Scandi- navia, and her deeds, — the skill and intrepidity of her bold Vikings, — their colonies in Snteland, our Iceland, — their dis- covery of Greenland, — and the legend of the pirate IJiarni, who forestalled even the great Columbus in his discovery, — wer<' all associated with ^lie region through which we were now sailing. Without compass, without chart, full three centuries bo- fore 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 18 ARCTW JOURXAL. '•I ■; ■^. Avc 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, methouirht me of the mighty glacier, creeping on like Tirne, silently, yet cease- lessly ; the deep and picturesque fiord pent up between preci- pices, huge, bleak, and barren; the iceberg! alone a miracle; then the great central desert of black lava and glittering ico, gloomy and unknown but to the fleet rein-deer, who seeks fur siieltcr in a region ac whose horrors the hardy natives tremble ; and last, but not least, the ruins of the Scandi- navian 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 fu'st ice we saw, it soon appeared that the training of the uninitiated, like pnppies, 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 " liesokite" and the trans|)ort (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. We did as our forefathers in anclioring at the Whale Fish Islands, but would stroniji-lv recommend those who visit this neighborhood to go to Godhaab rather. Its an- chorage is good, communication with Europe a certainty, and the hospitality of the Danish residents, few though tliey 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 mc to stav, that I arrived at this our first staijc in the journey to the Nor'- West, in far from good humour. Wo had been twenty-f )ur days from Grcenhithe to Cape Fare- 1 II 'HA L E-FISII ISL AMjS. 19 throws oreover, edly her 2 of the :!t ceaae- 211 preci- miracle ; iring ico, ho seeks natives Scandi- ; race of ivho sees ired that e a verv nirnense cntually X'ciinou of rocky Danish Whale )se \vhc Its aii- rtainty, ^'h they so who, )0 but c ill the r. Wo Fare- 1 well, and sixteen days from the latter point to our anchor- age ; hurry being out of the question when a thing like the "Emma Eugenia"' was pounding the water in a trial of speed \vith perfect snutl-boxes, like the "liesolute" and "Assist- ance." 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 chang- ing, under a system he called "Trock," sundries (with which the Dansko K«eing had intrusted him) into blubber and seal- oil. After a day of coal-dust, I landed with some others to see what was lo l)e 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 trockinri of the Gov- ernor, as he was facetiously styled. The said individual soon appeared, and In spite of copious lil)ations of Ifer Britannic Majesty's "Pure Jamaica," of which he had partaken, was most polite and hospitable. From him I discovered that ho and a cooper were the only Danes residing" here, and thev, together with a cross-breed who did the douljle duty of j)riest and schoolmaster, constituted the olFicials of Cron-Prin's Islands. The native population amounted perhaps to one hundred souls: and it was in supplying their wants, and in atlbrding 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 in- t!!''!j !■ i if Ml ijjl! . lit''' '•■I'l; JlIlM t f' ■ 'iH.'i M lll'lM r}|;i! If"; I 20 ARCTIC JOURNAL. junctions 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 ni^.u 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 deci- dedly well adapted to aftbrd 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, al- though 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 off 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 pr.,duce, 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 THE ESQUIMAUX. 21 r private ubber in to niga lestroyed ry of the ill to do, ved for a ittle else 3. They cf souls mited by ly. The red deci- e of pure »e spared that, al- e oil and ocure it, res of a gar, tea, jhtness ; )ced and aft of a of both y thing ind and :in, and 31es of ews of animals. "We gladly purchased all we could obtain of their clothing. livery one has heard of the horrors of an Esquimaux existence, — sucking blubber instead of roast beef, train-oil heir usual beverage, and a seal their bonne-bouchc ; the long gloomy \vinter spent in pestiferous hovels, lighted and \varnied with whale-oil lamps ; the narrow gallery for an en- trance, along which the occupant creeps for ingress and egress. This and much more has been told us ; yet, now that 1 have seen it all, — the Esquimaux's home, the Esquimuux's mode of living, and the Esquimaux himself, — I see nothing so hor- rible 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 13ushmen or Hotten- tots of South Africa, the miserable Patanies of Malayia, the Fueglans 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 Grcenlander, 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 E»]uimaux m Hi il!" III i! . I'liit m ti" t'M. i-n^ m ■t 'ifi 'Di km m [iilii'i; 22 ARCTIC JOURNAL. child sends up its prayers and thanksgiving, in the words taught us by our Saviour, as earnestly and confidently as the educated oflspring of Englishmen. An old man, \vhom 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 1 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 pas- sage, on cither 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. AB. Gallery. B c. Section of house. E. Heel and seats. u. Cook-houso 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 fe- male'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 :i ■:» ;I THE rSQCIMAUX. 23 e words y as tho 1 pilot to wife was ake care ecllrifj in which ho •a sposa" ho usual ■row pas- ok-house lartment, f sloping el. le place, nded for ch ; for ill lamp, naux fe- tle stick n accord le was a i i 4 conipoimd, which the suflerer told us was medicine for her complaint, — the rheumatism, a very prevalent one amongst the«e people. Leaving the kind Doctor to do the part of a good Samaritan, I amused myself with looking over the strange home into Mhich I had got. The man took much pride in showing me his faniily, — consisting of a girl and three fine boys, Ilis 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 heing at least ten years older. They had nuirried when she was twenty, — the usual age for marriage, as he told me. Ilis 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 Wool- wich ; and could that kind friend have seen the joyful counte- nance of the Esquimaux child, she would indeed have been richly remunerated for her thoughtt'ul little addition to my stock of presents. To fmish my Esr|uimaux 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 mo 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 overlavinG; 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, JiOO or 400 feet elevation, with a gradual dip to the north-east, as if their creation had been brought about by some submarine I" it,. Ill iiii'l ! 1 1 /III 111 'ill! I. :•{( li. 'ii :r': :. I! lilli 'Ii ^"!ii !!: ■|!li '"iMi II ll' :vil[> 1 '!-■■' I \i tl!! i|f u ARCTIC JOURNAL. agency upheaving the primary rock, witli an irregular force frora the north-east. The tallest cliirs 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 lis efiect, were strewn with the wreck of the adja- cent precipices, and 2)rogress 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 walk- ing over them became barely possible. June 18^/i, 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. 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. '^■ J J Ay ARCTIC xionr. 25 ar force id frost- by rintli, together 1 bights lavy sea the adja- le sliore, Oil the quite as ndering : ished by itil walk- jasc with and new [ bathed degrees lat \ve did li love of groping )ed from Ic of my pillow, ^int, and and cap tncessant lid have quietly Lherwise. # air i 4 The novelty of constant daylight, and tlie cfToct which it always has upon tl»e system, until accustomed to it, of depriving one of the inclination to go to roost at regular hours, told upon us, and often hare I found myself returning from five hnurs' work, chasing, shooting, and pulling a boat, just as the boatswain's mates were pii'ing " stow hammocks !" That I was not singular, a constant discharge of guns throughout the night well proved, and unhappy nights must the ducks and doVL'kit's have spent dining our stay. Not to shoot became, in the Arctic squadron, tantaiT.ount to folly, although the proceeds of great consumption of pow- der were but small ; r.evertheless, 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, arc 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 mi>rning 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 whoso 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, 2 '« il! hi" jlinl!! 11; II! ;!' Ill III in iriiii ill "i,i 'i,;« ' • '1 •il' ■ M ■lilt 11 *'; '! ii: iiir * :.|| •hi 2(5 ARCTIG JOUIiXAL. 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 I.and of Lively." From thence round to the east, in the far horizon, swept the shores of Green- land, its glaciers, peaks, and headlands, all tortured by mi- rage 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 fi'lt licr presence by its spell of might, Stoop o'er mo 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 offinij commenced to break up. A fearful plunge of some largo mass would clothe the spot in spray and foam ; a dull /everberating echo pealed on ; and then, merely from the concussion of the still air, piece after piece detached itself from icebergs fir and near, and the work of demolition was most rapid : truly did BafTin boast, that he had laid open one of Nature's most won- derful laboratories; and I thought with Longfellow, in his Hyperion, — .1 GODIIAAB. 21 -coloured .'Iv -tinted The sun, ' altitude, of Disco, naturally m thence of Grccn- 2d by mi- ic Nature ;wecn this , rich with azure tint Aving with break it I utl echoed len, to my bninienced I ass would lating echo i.f the still s fiir and truly did uost won- w, in his an( "The va>t cathedral of nature is full of ht ralhedral comes the human soul secliing its Creator, and the universal sik-iice is changed to sound, and tlu^ sound is harmonious and has a meaning, and is comprLhciided and felt.'' After many dilliculties, which called lor some obstinacy on my pa rt to master, 1 was allowed to co to Disco, and Captain < )mman('V, Ikarinijj of mv intention, kindlv made up f a party. Taking one of our boats, we shi[)})ed an ]:^s(|ui- maux pilot, i-alicil " Fri'dfrifk,"' and started on June 21st, at 2 o'clock in tlu; morning. To all our iiKpiiries about Disco, Fredeiick had but one rcplv, — "hv and bv vou see." lie ^ liked rum and biscuit, and was only to be animated by the I conversation tuiniiig upon scivis^ ov jjonssirs, an the nativus I call them. 'J'hen inileed Frt'derick's face was wreathed in smiles, ur rather its (tlcaginous coat of dirt (Macked in divers I directions, his tinv eves twinkled, and he descanted, in his "f. broken jargon, upon the delight of jmnssci/ with far more unction than an alderman Nvould upon turtle. After thread- ing the islets we struck to north-east by conij^ass, from the ;- northernmost rock of the grouji, which our guide assured us ^ would sink below the hori/on the moment of our arrival off II (todhaab. He was perfectly right, lor after four hours' pull- ing 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 [lerfeetlj landlocked basin: in it ro(I(^ a eoupb' of Danish brigs, just arrived from Coj)enhagen, with stores f)r the settlement; and on the shores of this basin, tiie Danish settlement of (ludhaab was situated, a few stores, and the ri-sidence of two or thieo ollicials, — gentlemen who superintended the commercial mo- IF ijii'iiii illt'llii;: I'i:. ! ipjii till'- m I'll, -,'• I'll 1 'iriliiii :;*' III 28 ARCTIC JOURNAL. nopoly 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 unladen! ng boats, we found ourselves amongst a rambling collection of wooden houses, built in Dano-Esquimaux style, with some twenty native lorJges intermixed. Very few persons were to be seen moving a])Out : 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 Scandina- vian race was advantac-eouslv 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. Ills mansion was of wood, painted black, with a red bor- der 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 ITerr Agar smoking a cigar, and gaily attired to receive us. The " TIerr" spoke but little English ; we no Danish : however, the quiet and reserved manner of the good northern did not conceal a cer- tain kindness of which he soon gave us hospitable proof; for, on acceding to his oiler of a little coffee, we were surprised to see a nice tidy lady — his wife, as he informed us — spread a breakfast fit tor a Viking, and then with gentle grace she ably did tiie honours of her board. Tlang me, when 1 looked at the snow-white linen, the home-made cleanly cheer, the sweet wife all kindness and anxiety, I half eiivied the worthy Dane the peace and contentment of his secluded lot, and it needed not a glass of excellent Coj^cnhngen gchiedam to throw a ,\- IIERR AGAR. 29 i some natives rsclves milt in lof3ges moving OS were te boys on, and :andina- D , he early- red bor- ed for a )leasing. narrow found oUing a ' spoke iet and al a cer- )of; for, riscd to prcad a he ably uked at le sweet V Dane , needed throw a "coulour do rose" about tliis Ultima Thule of dear woman's domjjiion. The morning pull had given a keenness to our appetites, and I have a general recollection of rye bread, Danish caJvc, excellent Zothuid 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 Ilerr Agar and Matlame Agar (I hate that horrid word Frau) Motdd only borrow our last shilling, we were ready to lond it. A broken conversation ensued, a little English and much Danish, when Dr. ]) fortunately produced Cai)tain Wa>hington's Ksrjuiniaux vocabulary, and, aided by the little son of our host, we soon twisted out all the news Ilerr Agar had to give. Captain Penny had only stayey, and at least appeared as well at home in the dreary reirion which had become their adopted country, as we could expect, or their husl)ands desire. Conversation soon flagged; the missionary gave it up in despair; the " Ilerr" smoked in silence; and but for the ladies we should have been soon dumb. Happily forme (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 (piite animated. Watching my opportunity, I told him of my desire to pur- chase seal-skins for trowsers for my men ; lie immediately informed Ilerr Agar, who gave him u yah! and walked me off by the arm t(j his storerooms, followed by his good lady ; lifliug a bundle of beautiful seal-skins, the II»'rr made me an offer of them. I commenced fumbling foi- my purse, and at last product^l some gold, making signs that various ollicers intended to have ^eal-^kiu fro\ssers. Nay! nay! exi-lalmed tiie good ladv, thrusting baek niv moiuv, whilst tlii^ Ilerr I LKAVH DISCO. 31 evince 3cnlaiid nature man so- ft's not opt our irclc of : at the [oravian Jacob's ppeared ne their s desire, t up in lor the lie (for one of <; both mated, to pur- liately 1 me lady ; me an and at ullii'rrs claimrd llerr (.'I at Kl l)i'gaii loading me with skins. Oil! the horror of that mo- ment : I f 'It as if I hai] been beufiinir, and must have looked very like it, for Mrs. Agar, with a look of sudden inspiration, as if she perfectlv understood me, ran ofi' to her husband's wardrobe, and produced a pair of trowsers, of perfect Dutch diiiu'iisions, and, with the most innocent smile, made signs of liow I should pull them on, I smiled, for they would have made a suit of elothes fn' me. 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 j)()ssible, and with a thousand thanks walked back t«) the drawing-room, with llerr Agar's " whis- jxTables"' on one arm and a couple of seal-skins on the other, my fue burning, and my conseience smiting. Time j)resscd, and we bid our kind friends good-bye. Ib'rr Agar fired a salute of three guns, which we returned with tliiet! cheers ; and, after taking a stirrup cup on board the "'Peru," started for Whale-Fish Islands, which we reaehed at eleven o'eloek at night, much pleased with our excursion. l\!very 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 tiiere he ]iaIead guilty to associating Greenland and the deeds of Scan- dinavian lieroes with llerr 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 fake the shijts in low, and start. This being done, 1 came «iii)i!'tJ! lli'l! 33 ARCTIC JOURNAL. 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 hiughed 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, ind 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 flrst antici- pated. 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 vital- ity from two little engines of tlilrty-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. 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 jiushed the water before it than passed through it. The re- mark 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 ... I,' THE SHIPS. 33 I was solute," ite had to ask ^nd we i man. ?k Land er hour, tons — it anticl- iggerhig 3r" was )f about eh fully ng vital- h caused 'ts of the haracter ent, and ,g ships Y to tlie ting the ugh the [mgainly rather The re- iniongst aching isolutc" litity of i. wood tlicy are putting into thcyn ships, that the dock-yard niaties LeiieveJ they could stop the Almighty from moving the floes in Dafliu'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 can- not pass through the ship it will go over it." Internully the fittings of the ships were most perfect: nothing had been spared to render them the most comfort- altl(' vessels that ever went out avowedly to winter in the Polar ice. Ilcjt air was dL^tributed by means of an ingenious apparatus throughout lower deck and cabins. Double bulk- heads and doors prevented the ingress of unnecessary cold air. A cooking battery, as the French say, promised al)un- dance 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 vovage before them. A Ions tier of cabins on either side showed how large a proportion of ufllcers 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 lijht. A large captain's cabin, with a gunroom capable of con- taining all the ofliccrs when met together for their meals, completed the accommodation. The crews consisted of sixty souls each, of which a fourth were oOicers. The vessels chosen to be the first to carry the novel agent, steam, ii lo 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 5i* \f ' m m mm- '"'ill'' Mi{: ■! !'!!!; ■ •M.ri ■•':■,; m -ft,;, '■ Mi ,t !i" ftili-'l 111 f . , 34 ARCTIC JOURS AL. the whole of their original frames, tough planking called d(jubling \\-as 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 ren- dered 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 hap- pily been retained, the timber strengthenings being thrown into them at that point within, and not without ; they were, tlierefore, 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." 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 oft' by the much-talked-of horj'ic ! — 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 200 tons being origi- nally carried from England, which we increased to 300 tons at • " THE SCREWS. 35 and 'i V 1 M % the Whale Islands. This, at an average consumption of seven tons 1^0' diem., would enable us to tow the ships 3000 miles, or, steam alo)ie, 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 cxccu .ve officers ; an assistant sur- geon, who zealously undertooic the superintendence of the eommisf^ariat, both public and private, and two engineers, to looii 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 mc 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 ungratitied, 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 suftering 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 wero called heroes long before we had earned our laurels. Lastly, the Admiralty put into the liands of the ofticers 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 %uch power to act as circumstances might render necessary. I f , III' ■,!!!;!:„ III''! im : ...ii'iij'l .."I'l;; ■ .;.'■' . t Ill :. ;;,'''ii ni;!!ill'l'' ih II til ■' ■•■!i>i Ill I'll .if i III'' •dm. Mil 36 ARCTIC JOURNAL. '% we felt confident of deserving, if wo could not demand, success. June 24:th, BaffitCs 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 delight- ful 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 descrll)es 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 < lifts 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 bcv.''s his head. The ship drove i'ast — loud roared the blast, And northtcard aye we fled — Until we all suddenly haulcd-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 run- ning 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 •^ '••;f. 1M|. '>y ESSA VIK. 87 mass. ' righte irchant ■ m tended to increase our gi 'j^rapJ, Jcal knowledge ; and the Hope's lofty crest pierced iirough t'' : clouds which drovo athwart its breast, and lool ifur to *e " wh 'flier the Lord of the Earth came not." Un u. t W .'I I'll . ■t'.U.t'h' -■ , iiliC'lL.;., ""I'i .,. ' -I n hi <,"■:■'■ ii*i8i*, •Iff' lilt,; 38 ARCTIO JOURXAL. June 26^^, 1850. — My rough notes arc 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. II. M. S. " Assistance" is ordered to communicate. We haul to the wind. I visit the "Keso- lute." Learn that we altered course last night because the floes were seen extending across ahead. The wkiler turns out to be the " Abram," Captain Gravill. lie 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 slip- ping 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. lie said, furthermore, "that there would be no passage across the bay, this year, for the whalers, because the water would not make sufliciently 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." Tlib report wound up with the discouraging statement that the whale- men agreed that the floes, this season, were unusually ex- tensive, 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 con- sequence, 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," r'^iir' il't A QHECK. 39 Mr. G (though not a friend of Penny's) told us that Penny Mas working day and night to get ahead, and had already run no small risk, and undergone extraordinary labour. Poor Peiuiy ! I felt that llite had been against him! He deserved better than to be overtaken by us, after the energy displayed in the equipment of his squad- ron. In the first wateh the brigs "Lady Franklin" and '"So- phia" were seen by us, fast between loose floe pieces, to sea- ward 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 stulf around our positi. .., I al- j'eady foresaw a fresh era in arctic history, and that the fnie bows would soon beat the antediluvian " blulfs" out of the field. Thnraday^ %lth 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 fiist in what is called " Land water," ready to take the lu'st opening. The barometer falling, we wore ordered to make fast to icebergs, every one choosing iiis 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 pos- sible. The bergs, from their enormous depth, are usually aground, except at spring-tides, and the seanuui thus succeeds in an- choring his vessel in 200 fm. water, without any other trouble than digging a hole in the iceberg, placing an anchor in it f Ml 'i!ir' i»ii? .; 1 '"'"'!('' 1 !»!!•:, t>i> I in M' : III..'. , -v ■lit »J 40 ARCTIC JOURNAL, called an ice-anchor, which one man can lift, and, with a whaledinc, his ship rides out nndcr the lee of this natural l)reak\vatcr, in severe gales, and often escapes being beset in a lee pack. Fastening to a berg has its risks and dangers; sometimes the Hrst stroke of the man setting the ice-anchor, by its concussiur. causes the iceberg to break up, and the people so em- ployed 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 in- jure materially the vessel and spars ; and, again, the pro- JDCting masses, called tongues (which form under water the base of the berg), have been known to break olT, and strike a vessel so severely as to sink her: all these risks arc duly detailed by every arctic navigator, and the object always is, in fastening to an iceberg, to look for a side which is 1*'■ TO ]ViyG THE SHIPS. 41 noso 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 num- ber of parcels which, by great good luck, had not been landed at rppernavik, Capt. Stewart returned to his chief, some eight miles northward of us, and we remained to watch progress. Saturday^ June 2dlh, 1850. — Monddi/, Juhj 1a7, 1850. — At last the hoped-for signal, " take ships in tow," was made ; and, with a leaping heart, we entered the lead, having the " Kosolute" fist by the nose with a six-inch hawser. What hjoked impassable at ten miles' distance was an open lead when close to. ])ilHculties vanish when they are faced ; and the very calm which ren- deued the whalers unable to take advantage of a loose pack, was just the thing fur steamers. Away we went! past berg, past floe, wimling in and out (piietly, yet steadily! — and the whalers were soon astern. I'emiy, 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 ease, that the i)ack-edge is always the tightest part of it. Several wliale-boats from the vessels astern were l)usy taking ducks' eggs from the islands, which seem to abound along the coast. When passing one of these islands that ap- peared remarkably st^^cp, I was disagreeably surprised to feel the " I'ioneer" strike against a sunken rock with some violence; she slipped olf it, and then the " llesolnte" gave herself a blow, which seemed to make every thing ijuiver again. Capt. Penny had a signal up warning us of the dan- ' Il ll I P it I III ■ 'illl' • t > , 'I l\\ , , ■ » ^ .. .■IS' : dr 42 ARCTIC JOURXAL. ger ; but wc were too busy to sec it until afterwards, and then the want of wind prevented our ascertainiiifj what was meant. After this accident wo went very cautiously until the evening hour, when, having nearcd Cape Shackleton, and some thin ice showing itself, through which, at reduced speed, we could not tow the broad-bowed. " liosolute," she was cast oflf, and made fast to some land ice, and I proceeded on alono in the " Pioneer" to see what the prospect was further on. Cutting throuirh 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 fur as the next headland, called Ilorse's-head. Picking up a boat be- longing to the "Chieftain" whaler, which had been shooting and egging, I returned towards the " liesolute" with my in- telligence, giving Cape Shackleton a close shave to avoid the ice which was setting against it from the westward, the whalemen whom 1 had on board expressing no small as- tonishmont and delight at the wav in which we screwed through the broken ice of nine-inch thickness. On reaching the stpiadron, I found it made fast for the night, and parties of officers preparing to start in dillerent 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 1, with others of the " Pio- ncer," consigned what wc llattered ourselves were our last letters, thiiiking that, now the steamers had got ahead, it was not likely the whalers would again be given an oppor- tunity of communicating or overtaking us. There is something in last letters painful and choking; and I remember that 1 hardly knew which feeling most pre- dominated in my breast, — sorrow and regret for those friends 1 had left beliind me, or hope and joyful anticipation of meeting those before us in tlu' " ICrebiis and Terror." I CA VE SUA L 'KLKTOX. 43 " Pio. 11* hist ul, it .king; pre- [lU'iids •11 of At any rate, I gave vent to thciu by cliinbijig the rocky Blip. unit of Cape Shackleton, and throwing oil" my jacket, let the co' 1 breeze alhiv the excitement of mv mind. Nothing strikes the traveller in the north more strongly than the perceptible repose of Nature, although the sun is still ilhunining the heavens, during those hours termed night. A\ e, 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 rcgidarity as is done in more southern climes; and the subdued tints of the heavens, as well as the heavy banking of clouds iii the neighbourhood of the sun, gives to the arc- tic sumuu' ■ night a (juietude as marked as it is pleasant. Across UairnTs Bav there was ice! ice! ice! on everv side, small faint streaks of water here and there in the distance, with one cheering stri[) of it winding snakedike along the coast as llir as I'ye could reach. "To-morrow !" 1 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 oHicer of the watch visiting the ice-anchors to see all was right. "That fellow, IV'uny, is no sluggard!" we nuittered, "and will yet give the screws a liard tussle to beat him." A couple of hours rest, and having taken the siiip in tow, we again proceeded, and at abt>ut seven oV'lock on tiie morning of the "M of »)uly passed the "JSophia," and shortly afterwards, the " Ladv Franklin. Al Alas : poor J eini} I'einiy, he had a light contrary wind to work against. 1 do \u)i think my memory can recall in the cour.>e of my wanderings anv thing more novel or striking than tiie scenes through wiiich we steamed this forenoon. 'Ww land of Greenland, so Ixdd, so stoei>, and in places so grim, with 5^ -if ■ ■ ' ii .,.1 ■i)i. :••! '■■)ir-i' . I llii ■. .11 ¥ ■^^ J.'' ... i; 44 ARCTIC JOURNAL. the long fields of Nvhlte glittering ice floating about on the cold blue sea, and our little ves.sels (for we looked pigmies bc.si ice. how- ever, bh'eiJing all over, l)Ut not sevci'dv iiijuri'il ; ami whilst the bear was endeavoiiriiiir to ijjot on the floe, a spii-itod contest ensued between hi in and Old Abbot, the latter trv- ing to beeomc possessor of a skin, whieh the former gallantly defended. Ammunition expended, and nothing but boat-hooks and stretehers left as defensive weap(jns, there seemed some chance of the tables beiug reversed, and the boat's crew very properly obliged the captain of the forecastle U) beat a retreat; the bear, equally w(dl pleased to bo rid of such visitors, made off. " Old Abbot," as he was stvled. always, however, asserted, thpt if he had had his way, the bear would have been brought on board the " Pioneer," and tamed 1o do a good deal of the dragging work of the sledges ; and when- ever 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 mutteriuir, " Ah ! if vou had taken mv advice, we'd have had that 'ere bear to do this work for us !" ilf-* July Sd, 1850. — Penny, hy taking another route, gave us the " go by," and in the afl:ernoon 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 ])etween them. With the " Pioneer's" sharp bow, we broke through the Hrst of these barriers, and carried the " Kesolute" into " a hole of water," as it is called. The next bar being broader, I attempted to force it by charg- ing 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 ARCTIC SPORTIXG. 47 g.avG ,?' much liaving to be learnt upon tiie feasibility of the ditVorcnt modes of applying stcam-posvcr against ice. 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. Ilcrc. the paucity of men on board the steam vessels was severely felt: for until the " Resolute" was properly secured I could expect no assist- ance 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. hi a short time, the prospect of liberating the " Pioneer" was seen to be Aircical, and all the oflicers and men from the " Kesolute" returned to their ship, although parties of novices would walk down constantly to sec the first vessel beset in the ice. A few birds playing about induced myself and seme 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: n bird called a " Burgomaster" flew over his head to seaward, and he started in the direction it had gone. I and another bhouted to warn him of the ice being in rapid motion and very thir. ; he halted for a moment, and then ran on, leaping from piece to piece. The foir at this moment lifted a little. 1^ ^:>AJ mrfr- •;iM I f IS ,■ Hill!'!: Ill: ■ •■' , ' It 1 ;^| li ^;. •! It I r. ■ii '■'■\ ,":!' i, :t ' i u m 48 ARCTIC JOURNAL. and most providentially so, fur suddt,'nly 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 re- traced my steps to the " Pioneer," and with a couple of men, a long hand-lino, and boarding-pikes, started olf in the direc- tion ^I was in. I could tell my route pretty well by my companion's voice, which in rich IMilesian was giving utterance to encour- aging 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 ! — Iloy ! 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 V 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 casing off rapidly with the turn of tide. At 1 a. m. we were all free, and a lane of water extending itself ahead. MELVILLE BAT. 49 i Juhj 4t/>. — At 1 p. M. \vc started again, towing the ships, the whaling fleet from the southward under every stitch of canvas threatening to reach the Duck Islands before our- selves, and Captain Penny's scpiadron 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 oil" r A cruise about under sail, all the vessels rejoining us that we had passed some days ago off the Women's Isles. llie 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 COO or 800 feet eleva- tion, and is known as the southern boundary of Melville Bay, round whose dreary circuit, year after year, the fisher- men 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 won- dered at that Melville Bav has been the grave of manv 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 recov- ered. No good reason was adduced for taking this route, beyond the argument, founded upon experience, that the ear- liest passages were always to be made by Melville Bay ; this I perfectly imderstood, 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. Tho 3 til" ' ,ji; : •' ■"■ <>\ ■■>. :r, •h "'••1 '1;.;: 50 ARCTIO JOURNAL. whole wciglit of the ' Atlantic would be forced up Davis's Straits, and ]\Ielville Bay become '"a dead lec-shorc." 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 olf sooner or later into the west water, in about the latitude of Uppernavik, lo^ 30' N. However, this is what amongst the experienced is styled theory ; and as any thing was better than standing still, 1 was heartily glad to see the " Chieftain,"' a bonnic Scotch whaler, show us the road Ijy 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 " Truelovc"' and others. But steam came to the rescue, and after twelve hours' hard struggle we got the pendants again ahead of our enterprising and ener- getic countrymen. 'ill-; jiii. ..'I' sii;; i;i t- Saturdcuj, Jnbj (jth. — By G a. m. we were alongside of Penny's squadron, which was })laced 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 Abcrdonians move their vessels up into the very " nip." In the course of the day the whalers again caught us up, and a long lino of masts and hulls dotted the floe- edge. The ice was white and hard, afibrding 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. A present of 170 duok-eggs from Captain Stewart of the .;'^-;!i: • if : AY OLD WlfALKMAX. 51 "Joseph (ilreeir' wliaKi-, sliowci] in what j^rofusion thoso Lirds breed, {iiid I was uM hy ("aptiiiu IViiuy that one of the islets passed by hiiu on the 2d was literally alive with ducks, and that several boat-loads of eirns initdit have been taken olV it, — interesting proofs of the extraordinary abun- dance of animal life in these northern regions. Our Saturday evening was passed listening to stirring tales of Melville 15ay an d tl le whale (isherv anc severa I proph to the iccies , 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 liowever rang, and having a very intelli- gent gentleman who commands a whaler as a guest, we wcro much interested in listening to his description of the strange life led by men, like himself, engaged in the adventurous pur- suit 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, wliether around Spitzbergen or in IJafhn's 15ay : lie evidently felt a pride and satisfaction in his past career, and it had still fevveet 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. '• NVe are the only people," ho said, " who follow the whale, m il'i' i i'-i Si'"- ' •r % .•I iH' • •1 m •'■ii ^^' 52 ARCTIC JOURNAL. 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 press- ing together. Two whalers were already nipped severely, and their people were getting the boats and clothing out ready for an accident. " 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 lean 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 fost 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 .^., ■W iiti til! T!' 'I'!, In; ^^i^r^^^j^'R^^XxVu^^OH*** the ice, were manned. A hundred songs from hoarse throats resounded through the gale ; tlio sharp chipping of the saws DOCKIXCr JX Till-: ICE. 53 tokl that the work was living; aii;! thi; Ituid hiuirh or broad witticisms of the crews mingled wiili tlic words of command and encouragement to exertion given by the oflicers. The pencil of a Wilivie cuuld hardly convey the ciiaracter- istics of such a scene, and it is far beyond my humble pen to tell of the stirring animation exliibited l)y some twenty ships' companies, who knew that on their own exertions depended the safety of their vessels and ihe success of their voyage, llie ice was of an average thickness of three feet, and to cut this saws often feet long were used, ^'\e 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 wiiich the ollicers of our ves- sels 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, har4 ice, every cubic yard of vvhich 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 fbars, and being driven into the water, he was shot from the boat of one of the whalers which had perseve- ringly followed him. The brute was of no great size — not more than five feet in ^l f#3ffl *l l^ra m W§M M'^m ^Sl^* £^fll fi 1 Ww4 tfiM^ \M fejj '^ sPi*^ 'uM r^^ ■H^ n^y Ik^t^ ' .£m ig^ftS Wm ^^' iK*' ar^jj jl w^ §i:l (PS ^1 '\ ' ■■■' jT le to do so, although tho wind against her hardly amounted to a cat's paw; tho consequence was, that until tho steam vessels got hold, she was fast v..i'opping astern of tho whalers, and, as was usually tho case, every one's temper was going wrong, 'i'ho run was not a very long one, and in tho heart of a fleet of icebergs we again "hrouglit up: one whaler, " Tho T' nelove,'' having turned back in despair of a passage north-about to Pond's Viny. ^■ ,|.. rnACKixcr AS I) towixg. 55 From our position a good view of ^Melville Bay was to 1)C had, and a more melancholy one, eye never rested upon. Surrounded as we were with bergs, we had to climb a neigh- bouring mass to obtain a clear horizon ; the prospect to sea- ward was not cheering ; and from the Devil's Thumb north- ward, one huge glacier spread itself. The Hrst 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 cliir protruded, black and bare, from the edge of the mer-de- ffhice, 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 an turn struck the ice with 'omc force ; the eonsccpicnce was, the steamer would turn short off, and save the risk of getting athwart m iP; ■ -lit- :;. : m r4:^^"i! IV' iff; ll'l- 66 ARCTIC JOURNAL. " 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 floc-pieccs of all sizes, but too small to heave through by means of ico-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 di'tour round its edge : nteam however was able to do it ; and wilh our knifo-likc bows, aided by the propeller, we soon wedged a road through for ourselves and the '• IJesolute." Detentions in the ice were amoiiiT.st the most trviufj mo- ments of our life in the North ; and from the composition of our s(^uadron, namely, two fast vessels, and two slow ones, the constant waiting lor one another put me much in mind of the old doggerel : — "The Earl of Cliatham with sword drawn, "Was waitini^ for Sir liichard Strachan; Sir Kicliard lon^iiicf to br at 'cm, Was waiting for the Earl of Chatham." Tiic risk of detention in such a region can be understood by all ; but few, perhaps, will appreciate the foding 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, jind tlio chances of it remaining so were but slight. A few hours wo all knew had often made the ditllrence of a passage across Melville Bay without detention, or of a long, laborious voyage —hero wo were waiting fur our consorts. On the lOlh, a short tow; and in company with a portion of tlie whalers, for several had retreated, we again had to dock, to escape ni])ping froni the ice, and on the morrow, a FA VOURABLE PROSrECT. 57 similar scene of hurry and excitement toolc place when libera- tion came. Thursday^ Wth. — 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 " mo^ iVordre ;''"' and it vented itself in a number of dinners and the winding-up n from the whalers would soon arrive. They all were dolightcd 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. Ca})tain Penny, likewise, can- didly at'knuwledi^cd that he never thouij-ht thev 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, duriug every day of which period they had witnessed it working elleetually under every circumstance ; they had seen the crews of tlie 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 hencefortii in([uirie« 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 nigl»t the bar opened, and giving the ''Lady Franklin'* a jerk into the water beyond, the '• hitrepiil" and " I'ioneer" rattled away with the ships iu 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, wo could liave gone five ; 8* ;l; '>> ' I)" ''I,. ,1 ifti ■lltM ' ,1,;.! hi:!' 58 ARCTIC JOUIiXAL. making in a day's work the dilTerence between seventy-two and cue luindrcd and twenty miles. By two o\'l(K'k in the morning wc had outrun both Penny and liic wiialers; and, could wc only have gone faster, as- suredly the pas^sage of Melville Bay would have been that day elfeeted. The land-flue was still fast, reaching twenty- five or thirty miles oil" shore, and the pack had drifted off some ten or fifteen miles; between the two we were steam- ing at five o'clock in the morning of the 12ih of July, and all was promising — a headland called Cape Walker and Melville Monument opening fast to view. The (piarter-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 sliort sleep — a south wind had sprung up. W^c were under sail. The pack was coming in fast, and the signal "Prepare to take the ice," flying from the Commo- dore'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 "IMoncer" 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, j Melville Bay S(picczo. 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 peifect cradle under their bottoms. We, of course, were passive spectators, beyond taking the ]M"ecautlon 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, liowevcr, and, in a short XAR WJLiLES. 59 time, the pressure transferred itself elsewhere. Next day showed all of Ilcr Majesty's squadron beset in ^lelville 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 " reetV' in the neiifhbour- hood of Devil's Thumb, denoting either a bank or shoal water in that direction. 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 flicetiousness arose out of the droll appearance of some in- dividuals, — utility, and not beauty, was, however, gcnt'raliy 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 cnal)led 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 arc called " holes of water," and in these we soon observed a shoal of nar- whales, or unicorn fish, to be blowing and enjoying them- selves. By extraordinary luck, one of the oflicers of the "Intrepid," in fning at them, happened to hit one in a vital jtart, and the brute was captured ; his horn forming a hand- some trophy for the sportsman. The rcs\ilt of this was, that the untbrtunatc 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 VS. . It; '. i Lt.iit. ,' ll'l ll'U ' 60 ARCTIC JOURNAL. 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 Avhalers, and some of our crews partook of the ex- tremely greasy-looking substance, — one man vowing it was very like chestnuts ! (?) I did not attempt to judge for my- self; but I have no doubt it would form good food to a really hungry person. The narwhales vary in size, ranging some- times, 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 ofience, 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 flsh, 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 kranr/, 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 j)ieco of ice or snow, it recpiired a practised eye to detect them. Not so the voracious and impertinent mollies — the l^rocellaria of naturalists. Their very ugliness appeared to give them security, and they are, in the Nortli, 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 ANXIETY AXD HOPE. 61 M sorely was our patience taxed. In-shoro of us, a firm un- broken 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* broke the general monotony of the aspect. The striking mass of rock, known as ^Melville's ^Nlonu- mcnt, was clear of snow, because it was too steep for ioe to adhere ; but every where else huge domes of white showed wl Greenland lay, except where Cape Walker thrust its blaciv Iff through tlie ^' vicr to scowl upon us. Tantalus never longed for water more than wo 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, endeavour- ing 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, tliat the lucky day is passed or close at hand ; whilst wiser ones con- sole themselves with exclaiming, "That, at any rate, we are, as yet, before Sir James lloss's expedition, — lioth in lime and position." The lOth of July showed more flivourable symptoms, and Captain Penny was seen working for a lane of water, a long way in-shorc 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, «• it*. and • Is the term applied to half-thawed ice or snow. .-'*• ■♦•' ' J •■ ■ ■'■'■• II',' ■ t V 4 li'^^iij "I" ■ 11 i 4 62 ARCTIC JOURNAL. firmly imbedded in a mass of ice, many miles in circumfer ence, 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 un- avoidable, 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 "In- trepid" with her screw, and the " Pioneer" with gunpowder, which, for the first time, was now applied, shook the frag- ments 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, tum- bling into a peifect 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. lie 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. 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 il,- DISSOLUTION OF AX ICEBERG. 63 league In- a 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 {igitated, to destroy any vessel that had been amongst it ; and they con- gratulated 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 " Ilesolute'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 ioe" to hold on by; and, as he remarked, " We can do nothing but push for it ; — it's all broken ico, 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 indiflferent 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 oflicer ; 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 m "itm if':,.i.' i. »P Ml'," iJr,. t:. "1, 1 ■■t>. y^ ti' lit)- ■.'sr.': :■:»• '!H '"S ■?• !l, ^ ■i >;^, ^;- - .(•' ' ! s- A fe 1 .'1 i 1 't %-^ ■ :?■'■ •• .'■ Mr; « 1 1 • » '■■ i 64 ARCTIG JOURNAL. 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 suflering from great pressure. ]SIy own senses soon made it evident; every timber and plank was cracking and si'oaninjf, 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 scup- per-pieces were turning up out of the mortices, and a quiver of agony wrung my craft's frame from stem to talTrail, 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 after- wards learnt, brought their clothes on deck, ready to save their little property, stood in knots, waiting fjr directions from the ofiicers, who, with anxious eye, watched the (loe- edgc 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, — tlieir 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 doubt- ing, considerably, the prospect of reaching Lancaster Sound by a noithern passage; and Capt. Penny decided, if the 1^' ' ' PIONEER " NIPPED. 05 right water approachcJ him from the south, to strike to the westward in a lower hititudo. The ships — generally tlie 'vKesolute" — kept the lead in our heaving and warping operation through tlie pack; antl, leaving a small portion of tiie crews to keep the other vessels close up under her stern, the majority of the oflieers and men laboured at the headmost ship, to move her through the ice. ]Ieaving ahead with stout hawsers, blasting with gunpowder, cutting with iee-saws, and clipping with ieo-chisels, was per- severiugly carried on ; hut the progress fell far short of the labour expended, and the blulf bow slipped away from the nip instead of wedging it open. War])ing tiie '" liesolute" 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 icarnt 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. 1 often thought how proud our countrymen would be of their seamen, could they have looked on the scene of bu^y 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 lesolu- tion and new resources ; a wide horizon of ic-e, no sea in sight, }et every foot gained to the northward was talked of with satisfaction and delight ; men and officers vicing with «eii III m IJuBBlJ t' VhI 1 •■© * ■'!;:■ ■' 'li-l . .:l''i^ ■ s <"). 66 ARCTIC JOURNAL. one another in laborious duties, llie 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-dock 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 sutlered 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 ma- jority 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 clap- ping 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 Solo- mons 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 Air 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 (Tamour by \ '%: LIEUT. IIALKETT'S MOAT. G7 »" were one to liis Lotrotliccl ; to a sister bv another : a third in- tended to open tlic purse-strings of a hard-hoarted parent by sncii a proof of regard ; and not a few were to go to the First Lord with it, in exehangc for a piece of parchment, if ho would n(»t object to tlie arrangement. 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 01" twelve of them at a shot when settled to feed, was not considered as derogatory to the character of a Ximrod, where the question was a purely ga^^tronomic one. I found in my shooting excursions an India-rubber boat, constructed upon a plan of my dear friend i?eter TTalkett, to be extremely con- venient; in it I floated down the cracks of water, landed oi; floe-pieces, crossed them drag^'-ing mv boat, and again launched into water in search of my fei. hered friends. At the Whale-Fish Islands, much to the deiglt of my Esquimaux friends, I had paddled about in *;;, inflated boa., and its por- tability seemed fully to be appi .ciaied by them, though they found fault with the want of speed, in which it fell far short of their own fairv craft. The separation of the squadron, occasioned by either mis- take 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 crafi, h. ! been seen far to the southward ; they were now rapidly closijig, and we made them out to be the "Felix," Sir J. Iloss, with his boat towing astern, and the " Prince Albert,'' belonging to Lady Franklin, in charge of Commander 1 orsyth. &t ^rm ^m§ m w u August 6th. — Plenty of water. The " Assistance" re- ^1, 08 AIU.'TKJ JOURXAL. ceivcd orders to proceed (when her consort the '• Intrepid" joined her) to tlie north sliorc of Lanciister Sound, examine it and Wcllinifton Ciiannel, and liaving assured themselves tliat Franklin had not gone up by that route to tlie N. W., to meet us between Capo Ilothani and Cape AVallvcr. I re- gretted tiiat tho shore upon which the lirst tra*'es would undoubtedly be found, sliouhl have fallen to another's share: iiowever, as there seemed a prospect of separation, and by doing so, progress, I was t{>e 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 ' Mas towed by the "lutrepid"' in fifteen minutes, a distance which it took the " IJesolute," 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, suc- ceeded in accomjdishing the same distance in three hours and a half, namely, from 7 i*. m. to 10 JiO r. m., ])y which timo the ice had closed ahead, and we iiad to make fast. Auffust i\fh andlth. — Very little progress: and a squadron of blank faces showed that there were many taking a deep and anxious interest in ti»e state of alVairs. The remark that Sir James lloss's expetlition was by tiiis time, in iSlS, in a better position tlian ourselves, and only foiuid time to secure winter quarters at Leopold Island, was constantly heard : r^'. CUARGIXG THE ICE. C9 I there was, in flict, but one hope loft, — we had steam, and there was yet thirty. days of open navigation. Frit^iy the 9th of August at last arrived. Captain Penny's squadroii was gone out of sight in a lane of water towards Cape York. Tiie schooner and ketch were passing us : cau- tion 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 lon<; weary davs. 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 ic..-breaking which will doubtless, in future Arctic voyages, be carried out w ith great success. For instance, a piece of a floe, two or three hundred yards broad, and three feet thick, prevented our prtigress : the weakest and narrowest part being ascer- tained, the ships were secured as close as possible without obstructing the steam vessels, the major part of the crews ])eing despatched to the line wiiere the cut was t«j be made, with tools and gunpowder for blasting, and plenty of short handdines and claws. The " I'ioneer'" and "Intrei)id," then, in turn rushed at the lloe, breaking their way through it until the impetus gained in the o|)en water was lost by the resistance of the ice. The word " Stop he ' IJack turn, easy !" was then given, and the screw went astern, carrying with her ti>ns of ice, by means of numerous lines which the blue-jackets, who attended on the f(»recastle, and others on broken pieces of the floe, held on by. As the one ves^-sel wont astern, the other (lew ahead to her work. The ()j»eratioii was, moreover, aided by the ex- plosions of powder ; and altogether the scene was a iiighiy U 111!!-'- • : 'i.' ■-"rj !?■'■ • ' Ml . t ;■■( .Ir /! '•» '1 ,1 ■ '^ 1. . • 1 1 ■^ 70 ARCTIC JOrNVAL. interostiiiif and iiistni'tivt^ wise. The dates from lOngland were a month latrr 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 bav-ice* was forming' fast, and did not all melt during the day. The birds had finished breeding; and, with the fresh millions that had b(>en ndilcd to their numbers, were feeding up preparatory to their • First winter ice, or yotnig ice, is called bay-ice, from nn old Yorkshire word btn/, to bend. — Author. DETENTION OFF CAPE YORK. 1 • rinin;^ .'Ml old departure south. The sun was swcopino;, nighthj^ nearer and nearer to the northern horizon. Niirht once set in, wo knew full well the winter would ef)ine with iiiaiit stride: l\ish on, good screw!" was on every one's li|>; and anxiety was seen on every brow, if by accident, or fur any purptjse, the ])ropeller ceased to move, " What's the matter ? All ri/^ht, I hope !" Then a chuckle of satisfaction at l)eing told that "nothitiir was amiss !*' did not alK I verilv beli 'ht have ime ciia not allow us, or i verily helievc we migut killed tons of birds between Cape Walker and Cape York, principally little auks i^Aha (tile); — they actually blackened the etlge of the flue fur nules. I had seen, (>n the coast of Peru, near the great (luanu mines, what I thought was an inconceivable number of birds congregated together; but thcv were as nothinjj compared with the mvriads that wo disturbed In our passage, and their stupid tameness would have enabled us to kill as many as we pleased. On August loth. Cape York being well in sight, Penny's brigs were again in view; anil whilst the '"Intrepid" and '•Assistance," with the "Prince Albert," commnnieated with the natives of Cape York, the "I'loncer'' pushed on, and soon })assed the brigs, who, although they knew full well that the late arrivals from Kngland had letters for them, were to bo seen pushing tooth and nail, to get to the west- ward. Slow — as slow ns possible — we steamed all day alon^, iho *' Crimson Clills of I'everlev." The interview with the natives of Cape York, alas! was to cost us much. My iVame of mind at the time was tar from heavenly; fur '* Large Water" was ahead, oiir squadron many a long mile from its work ; and I was neither inti-restcd, at the time, in Arctic Highlanders or "Crimson Snow!" hi the evening the "Assistance" joined us J and I was told that "important information had been ym if ' • ^ /?v^^ 70 ARCTIC JOURNAL. gained." Wc were to turn biick ; 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 Becli — may he be branded for a liar! — succeeded, this day, in misleading a large number of Her Majesty's oflicers (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 ^Ir. Petersen, Adam Beck, and our new shipmate, the f^squimaux from Cape York, could fail to per- ceive that Mr. P. and the Cape York native understood one another much better than the latter could the vile Adam 15eck ; and had I had any doubts upon the subject, they would have been removed when I learnt that l*etersen 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 Greenhuid. The fact of the "Nortii Star" having wintered last year in Wolstenholme Sound, or " Pctowack," was elicited, and that the natives had been on l)oard of lier. The " Assistance" and "Intrepid," therefore, remained to visit that neighbour- hood, whilst wc proceeded to the south shore of Lanwister Sound, touching, as liad been pre-arranged, at Pond's Bay and Cape Possession. Steaming along the Crimson ClifTs for a second time, wc left the "Lady Franklin" and "Sophia," in a stark calm, to <-'l TILE WEST WATER. 73 do their best. Fewer ships, the faster progress ; and heartily did all cheer when, at luiduight, wc 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, doul.)tless, remembered by many with far from pleasant feelings; and some who have been "gulled" in England may thaniv ^Ir. Petersen that a carrier-pigeon freighted with a cock-and-bull story of blood, iire, wreck, and nmrd^r, was not despatched on that memorable day. The 15th wc 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 oceai\ of water without one piece of floe-ice, and very few icebergs. The chanire was wonderful — incredible. Here was nothing but water; and wc were almost within sight, as we steered to the S. W., of the spot where, for forty-seven days, wc had had nothing but ice ! ice ! ice ! TiCt us hurry on. The West Water (as usual with the water at this season of the year) was covered with f )g : in it wc steered. The " Pesolute," as a capital joke, in return for the long weary miles we had towed her, set, on one occasion, all studsaiU, and gave us a tow ft)r four hours. When olf the mouth of Lancaster Sound, the " Prince Albert" was cast ofl*; and she departed to carry out, as I then thought, a i)art 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 niuht 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 bav, or ascertaining whether cairns or other marks had been erected on the coast. '?i .1 t 1 fl'r 1 ■■■} : fs 1 1 • i ' ■I' 1 1 74 ARCTIC JOriiXAL. The 21st of August came before we had a change of weather : happily it then took place ; and tlie " 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 'his side of Baffin's Bay is called, strikes all seamen, after struggling through the icy region of Melville Bay, as l)eing 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 liorizon, showed pretty plainly that Pond's Bay, like a good many more miscalled bays of this region, was nothing more tlian the bdl-shaped mouth to some long fiord or strait. One of my ice-quartiMMnastcrs, a highly intelligent seaman, assured mo he had been in a whale-boat up this very inlet, until they conjectured themselves to be fast approaching Ad- miralty Inlet ; the country there improved much in appear- ance, 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 arc in the habit of doing every season when the land i• iifl - i .'■-■J! ;ii''"' 1" 1" -1- > •^i 'i5 .•;.' i- 76 ARCTIC JOURNAL. The great gateway, within whose portals -we were now fast entering, has much in it that is interesting in its associa- tions 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 000 miles. To complete the re- maining 000 miles of unknown region, -ir 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 j\[artln Moun- tains 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 s^liore of Lancaster Sound ; and on August 25th we were off Croker Bay, a deep indentation between Cape AVarrender and Cape Home. The clouds hung too heavily about the land, distant as we were, to see more than tiie 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 sea- board 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 recogniz-ed the various headlands; the north shore being now alone in view; and indeed, except the mountains in the interior, we saw nothing ii: ICEBERGS AXD GLACIERS. \ more of the south shore of Lancaster Sound after leaving Possession Bay. 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, remark- ably 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-liiiu" 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 manv years is carried to the warmer regions of the south, to assist Nature in preserving her great laws of equi- librium 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 hy- pothesis fur 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 be- lieved, towered aloft in the cold heavens of the poles, suddenly launching towards the equator, melting, and bringing about a second deluge. w *iWi £ fefii p ^ i ii^ i ^P m. Wki jHM ®*B''/ 1st ff?^;!! 0p F'-'jif ' "! i^jfe pi*^3 J 1 ^Px*!« •'K Tl» 78 ARCTIC JOURXAL. iiitfv. 4 f--: Had the iininortal Cook been awiire of the ccrtauUy of land being ch.>se to him, when, in the Antaretlc regions, he found himself amongst no less than one hundred and eighty- six icebergs in December, 1773; he who, from the deck of a cf)llier, had rist^i to be the Columbus of England, might have then plucked the laurel which Sir James Koss 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 iSouth Sea, the seaman meets icebergs. Not so in the north, hi the "MM) degrees of longitude, which intersects the jtarallel of 70 degrees north (about which parallel the coasts of America, Eurojte, and Asia will be found to lie), icebergs are only found over an extent of some 55 degrees of lonuitude, and this is immediatelv in and aboat Greenland and IJaflin's Bav. \n fict. for 1375 miles of ,'ongitude we have icebergs, and then for 7<)o5 geographical miies none arc met with. This interesting fact is, in my opinion, most cheering, and points strongly to the possibility that no exten- sive land exists about our northern pole, — a supposition which is borne out l)y the fact, that the vast ice-fields off Spitzbergen show^ no symptoms of ever having been in con- tact with land or gravel. Of course, the more firmly we can bring ourselves to believe in the existence of an ocean road leading to IJehring'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 Ciiuse of such a jtlienomenon. Whilst this digression upon Icebergs has taken place, the kind reader will suppose the calm to have ceased, and the A GALE AV BARROW'S STRAIT. 70 "Resolute" and ••Pioneer," under sail before a westerly wiml, to be running from the table-land on the north shore of Lancaster Sound, in a diagonal direction towards Leopold Island. On the 2(jth of August, Cape York gleamed through an angry sky, and as liegent'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 niij-ht — for ni«:;liL was now of some two hours' du- ration — the wind ))iped merrily, and we rolled most cruelly ; the long and narrow '• l*ioncer"' threatening to pitch every spar over the side, and refusing all the manoiuvring upon the part of her beshaken ollieers and men to comfort and (|uict her. A ]ioet, vvho had not boon fourteen hours in the cold, and whose body was not racked bv constant cvmnastic exertion to preserve his bones from fracture, might have given a beautiful description of the lifting of a fierce sky at about halfpast one in the morning, and a disagreeable glimpse through snow-storm and squall of a Ijold and precipitous coast not many miles off, and ahead of us. I cannot under- take to do so, for I remember feeling far from poetical, as, with a jerk and a r ii%--'m. 4." J ^^H 1 Wj^mA \* %f^^ m : ml ^- L ^*'' ^'- ARCTIC JOURNAL. passing Cape Farewell on the 28th of May) was cheerfully accepted as a substitute, when the report of a boat being seen from the inast-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 " Ilesoluto," and, shortly afterwards, the interesting intelligence they then comminiicated was made known to nie. It was this, — the " Assi-;trinco " and " Intrepid," after they left us, had visited Wolstenholinc Sound, and discov- ered ihc winter quarters of II. ^M. S. " North Star," but nothing to lead them to j»lacc any faith in Adam Heck's tale : from thence they had examined the north shore of Lancasti^r Sound as t'ar as Cape Kiley, without discovering anything; on landliig there, however, numerous traces of English seamen having visited the sjjot were discovered in Rundr} pieces of rag, rope, broken bottles, and a long-iian- dled instrument intended to rake up things from the bottom of the sea; marks (jf a tent-j)lacc were likewise visible. A cairn was next seen on Beechey Island ; to this the " Intrepid" proceeded, and, as rather an odd incident comieclcd wltli 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. The steamer having approached close under the island, a boat-full of ollieers and men proceeded on shore : on landing, some relics of European visitors were found ; and we can picture the anxiety with which the sleep was scaled and 'ho cairn torii down, every stone tunu>d over, the ground inider- neath dug up a little, and yet, alasl no document or record found. Meanwhile an Arctic adventure, natural, but novel to one portion of the actors, was takitig place. The boat TRACES OF SIR JOHX FRAXKLIX. 83 had left the " hilrepid" witliout arms of any description, and tlic people on the top of the clifT saw, to their dismay, a hirge white bear advancing rapidly in the direction of tho boat, wliich, by the deliberate way the brute stopped and raised his head as if in the act of smelling, appeared to dis- turb his olfactory nerves. Tiie two men left in charge of the ])oat happily caught sight of Bruin before he caught hold of them, and launching the boat they hurried oil" to tho steamer, whilst the observers left on the clilT were not sorry to see the bear chase the boat a short way and then turn towards the packed ice in the ofTing. 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 8h'[>s, that what they had found must be the traces of a retreat- ing or shii)wrecked ]>arty from the " Erebus" and "Terror," A short distance within Cape Iviley, another tent-place was found ; and tlu'n, after a look at the coast up as far as Capo Innis, the two vesst-ls proceeded across towards Ca[ie llo- tham, on the opposite side of Wellington Channel, having in the lirst place erected a cairn at the base of Cape Kiley, and in it deposited a document. Whilst the "Assistance" and "Intrepid" were so em- ployed, the American squadron, and that under Captain I'enny, were fast approaehing. The Anu-ricans lirst com- municated with Captain Ummanney's division, and heanl of- the discovery of the lirst 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 I'eimy then rtLurned — as he figuratively m W^^.u^. '.'."•r* '-.,- "I "■ ■ 84 ARCTIC JOURNAL. expressed it — " to take up the search from Capo 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, }ed him to imaarlow Inlet on the opj)osite shore), liieut. do llaveu despatched parties on loot to follow these sK'dge nuirks, whilsl IV-miy's s(j\iadron returned to re-examine Beeehey Island. The American ollicers ImuikI the sledge tracts very distinet for some miles, but Ijefore they iiad got as far as Capo Howden, tlie trail ceased, and one empty bottle and a piece of newspaper were the last things fbiMi. "We, therefore, now hail ascertained the first winter quarters of Sir John Franklin! Here fell t'> the ground all the evil forclxnlings of those who had. iji England, con- signed his ex[)edition to the depths of IJaifin's IJay, on its outward voyage. Our first prayer had beeti granted by a beneficent I'rovidence ; and we liad 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 iiis boat to search tho coast-line towards Gascoi;rne Inlet and CasneH's Tower. We continued to steam o\. ■ oCC Capo Ililey a Ixtat was despatched to examine i.e n* -rd Irfl by tho " Assistan<'e ;" and, from her, I heard that the " Prince Albert," which ha ■'\' 86 ARCTIC JOURNAL. people on tho 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 last to the land ice in Union Bay ; and, as we had been in the habit of almost scraping the clifls in Baffin's Bay, I, forgetting the difference between the ap- proach to a granite and a limestone cliff, and desirous to avoid the stream of ice now ])ouring out of Wellington Chan- nel, went too close to the shore, and eventually ran aground; the " Kcsohite"' just saved herself by slipping the tow-rope, aiid letting go an anchor. A rapidly-falling tide soon show^ed me that I must be patient and wait until next day, and, as the '' IJesoliite" was in the course of the night worked into the bay, and secured, we " j^iped down" for awhile. W('(l/(cs 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; fu" my position was far from a pleas- ant 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 Clianncl and r»arrc»w's Strait, with about anoth"r week of the "open season" left. All arrangements having l)een matle to try and float tho stiamer at high water, I had time to ask Captain Penny his news ; the best part of which was, that as yet nothing had FRAXKLIN'S WINTER QUARTER!^. 81 been found in our neighl)ourhood to lead to the inference that any juirty in distress luid retreated from tlio " Erebus" and '"Terror." lie considered the iiarbour chosen by Frank- lin for his winter quarters was an excellent one. Captain Penny gave no very cheering account of the pros- pect of a much farther advance fur ourselves: Wellington Channel was blocked up with a very heavy floe, and Harrow's Strait to the westward was choked with packed ice ; the *' AssistaiiCe" and " Intrepid" w rre to be seen off I3arlo\v Inlet, but their position was far from a secure one; and, lastlv, Pennv told me he intended, after the result of a fresh search for a record on Bccchey 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 Jlotham. (Jn the 21)ili of August, the "Pioneer," much to my joy, was again afloat, ajul fast to the ice in company with the other vessels; and, althoMijh mv ofllcers and crew were well 7 7 ~ •* fagged out with forty-eight hours' hard labour, parties of them, myself amongst the nund)er, were to bo seen trudg- ing across the ice of Union Bay towards Franklin's winter (piartcrs. It needed not a dark wintrv skv nor a iiloomv day to throw a sombre shade aniund mv feelings as I landi-d on Beeciiey .sland .»nd looked down upon the bnv, on whose bosom, once had ridden Her Majesty's ships " Knd)us" and "Terror;" there was a sickening anxiety (»f the heart as one involuntarily clutched at every relic they of l^'ranklirrs '^rjua.' m: a U"*lvJ,'i :r ^ ';?*•# *; 88 ARCTIC JOURXAL. eye involuntarily but keenly sought for something niore 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 inlbr- mation, which my observation proved to be true, that the seareh had been close and careful, but that nothing was to be found in tiie shape of written record. On the eastern slope of the ridge of Beechey Island, a renuiant of a garden (for remnant it now only was, having been dug up in the search) told an interesting tale : its neat- ly-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 : — North side, 61 { fout long. <>9<-TfrrioNa KrT.59 |§1fii^~ A B. B D. ^ K rifir ' • bnnkmonls. nbout four f.-cl UiidukIi at llic busi; and flvo foot A r. K r. i li, i.i vhicli po^ln liiul Imm-ii >. !• : :: -I- 90 AUijriG JOURNAL, for a handful of shavings, an old coal-bag, or a washing-tub. This I f/oni 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 Bcechcy Island ap- pears to have ])cen intended as a meridian mark, and, if so, Franklin's scpiadron undoubtedly lay where I would place it, far and eillictually removed from all risk of being swept out of the bay, which, by the bye, from the flict of the enclosed area beinjjj manv times broader than the entrance of " Erebus and Terror 15ay," was about as probable as any stout gentle- man beinhs, or the doggerel of a lower-deck Jjoet, and the tliroH inscriptions were as follows : — " Sacred to the memory of J. Torrington, who dej^arted this life. January 1st, 1840, on board of II. M. S. 'Terror,' aged 20 years." "Sacred to the memory of Wm. Braine, r. m., of If, M. S. 'Erebus;' died April 3d, 1840, aged Vyl years. " ' Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.' — Josh, xxiv. 15."' "Sacred to the memory of J. Hartwell, a. b., of II. M. S. 'Erebus;' died January 4th, 184(3, aged '25 years. " 'Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways.' — Ilaagai i. 7." 1 thought I traced in the e[utai)hs over the graves of the men from tho " Erebus," the manly and Christian spirit of Franklin. In tho true spirit of chivalry, he, their captain and leader, led them amidst dangers and unknown dillicidties with iron will stamped upon his brow, but the words of meekness, gentleness, and truth, were his device. We have seen his career and wc know his deeds ! ttm*\ " Why hliould their praise in verse be sung ? Tho n;ime 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 tho table-land, on whuso southern verge, a cairn of stones, to which 1 have before re- ,i^ J. r^' ."•■HP I '1 ^' ^: 92 ARCTIC JOURNAL. fciTcd, was pla(*C(l ; it li.aJ Loon several times pulled down by diOerciit 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 Harrow'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, wit- nessed the [teculiar clearness, combined with I'cfraction, of the atmosphere in Polar climes, I should bear in mind the French adage, — '' La verite n'est pa> toujours le vraisem- blable," and hold my jicacc. To the west, the land of Cornwallis Island stretched up Wellington Chamiel for many miles, and Cape Ilothani 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 .^ipread itself until termi- nated in the steep wall-like clitls of Cape Clarence and Leo- pold Island. This latter spot, so interesting from having been the win- ter quarters of the late relieving squadron under Sir James Ross, looked ridiculously close, — to use a seaman's term, it appeared as if a bisenit 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 fortv 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 wend- ing their way and returning; but around the whole island there were abundant proofs of the missing expedition hav- ini; been no sluctrards ; for there was hardiv a foot of the beaeh-liiie which did not show signs of their having been there before us, either in shooting excursions or other pur- DKKCIIFA' ISLAM). 03 !ssels suits, and usually in the sliapc (»f a prcservcd-mcat tin, a piece of rope, or a jstrip of canvas or rag. On i\w eastern extreme of Hecchcy Island, and under a beetling elilV which formed the entrance to the bay, a very neatly-paved piece of ground deiloted a tent-place; much pains had Ijcen bestowed upon it, and a j'igmy terrace had been formed around their abode, the nuirgin of which was decorated with moss and pf>ppy ]'lants: in an adjacent gully a shooting-gallery had been established, as appeared by the stones j)Iaccd at proper distances, and a large tin marked "Soup and liouilli," which, j>erforated with balls, liad served for a tai'iiet. I careful' \ scanned the (lat slabs of slatv li; .^- stone, of which the ovi ''igi"g elilfs were formed, in hopes of seeing some name, r date, scratched upon the smfiec ; some clue, mayhap, to the information we so dearly longed for, — ihe route taken by I'ranklin on sailing hence, wliether to Capo AValker or up Wellington Channel. But, no ; tiic silent clitT bore no mark; by some fatality, the jirDVcrbial love for marking their names, or telling their tales, on every object, which 1 have ever found in seamen, was here an ex- ception, and 1 turned to my vessel, after thiee unprofitable walks on Beechey Island, with the sad conviction on my mind, that, instead of being aide to concentrate the wonderful re- sources we had now at hand about Beechey Island in one line of search, we should be obliged to take up tlic three routes which it was probable Frauklin might have taken in 1840 ; viz.. S. \V. by Cape Walker, N. W. by Wellington Chan- nel, 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 we pecul able. ague reports of some o f Capti un 'ennv s dco pie h avmff 1 . ," .1 ami. ".,-*■ seen sleduld 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 Mas not apparent, we found the site of a circular tent, unquestionably that of a shooting-party from the "Ere- bus" 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 \\^11 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 slodg'^-jnarks consisted of two paraiitl 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 ,/■ I ;k;-?'; I- % ■»■ ■ I- I - ' - J ••»:: V,, :'.Im ' '111 •r^ -i: .'I I '■;ll| "I ..I. . I 96 ARCTIC JOURNAL. over such ground, and under such circumstances, must have been great, and, between the choice of evils, the sledge-partlcs 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 Gascoignc 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 walk- ing 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, llie 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 get- ting 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 stal- wart strokes of Captain Stewart's oar, we soon reached the WELLINGTON CHANNEL. 97 "Pioneer," and enjoyed our dinner with more than the usually keen appetite of Arctic seamen. 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 Baflin'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 Amer- icans, 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 crafl up an angle of water north of Point Innis; his second, Mr. Griffm, in the " Ivescue," was hard at work obtaining angles, by which to ascertain the fact of Wellinoton Channel beins a, channel or a fiord, a point as yet undecided, for there was a break in tlie 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 ^^ith 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 dilbculty 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 Frank- lin." Through him we learnt that Cape Ilotham and the ncigh- ;:.f"'A \ ■II ' *, If''". ■ ■ ?^. ..•■'■ f) 1 < r» -« *-y. ' ■•iii„; • .-Jim ■*'!''•!. 102 ARCTIC JOURNAL. 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 sec 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 blow- ing over its surflice, and our poor barks, in its cruel embrace, sweeping out of Wellington Channel, and then towards Leo- pold 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 pros- pect. A calm and frosty morning ushered in the 9th of Septem- ber. The pack was fast re-knitting itself, and we were drift- ing 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, ALL THE FIJSii'ELS MEET. 103 the " Pioneer," lik^ 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 Gov- ernment 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. Next day, in succession, we all came up to the " Assist- ance" and "Intrepid," fast at a floe edge, between Capo 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 " Intrep- id " 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." ,"-'.-l'r-^ . .,.1 Sit'* ' *' '■ ' ^ '■ .\ .. ;L;^"i>::> It til ■A M i\.. " ■■ •'■ '!!I1h , ■ • m\ » . ,1111 1|; I ■','^.f ■will ' r: ■ III; ;.'!!! 104 Ali CTIO JO URNAL. Of course, the " croakers" say, if the floe had pressed a little more — if the ship had risen a little less — in fact, if Provi- dence had been a little less watchful — disasters must have overtalccn our ships ; but when I hear these " dismal Jem- mies" 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 Wolsten- holme 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 Wol- stenholme Sound, the cairns erected by the "North Star" were discovered and visited, and, whilst speakinfc of her, it "will be as well for me to note, that Captain Penny, on his way up Lancaster Sound, met the " North Star" otf Admi- ralty 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 hlri 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, THE COMIXG OX OF WIXTER. 105 about ten miles higher up than we did ; the ice breaking away, it will be remembered, and drifting with the " Reso- lute" and " Pioneer" to the south. From a headland about twelve miles north of Barlow Inlet, '^aptain 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." ITow this water came there ? what was beyond it 1 were questions which naturally arose ; but it was not until the following year that the mystery was ex- plained, and we learned, what was only then suspected, that wo had overshot our mark. Sept. Wth^ 1850. — The W'inter 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 crafts, the wind chopped round to the N. W. ; and a falling tempera- ture, 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 be- tween Cape Hotham and Martyr, on the south side of Corn- wallis 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 5* • >A *- '. ■ -"If i:. i» 1 It Ml IB' 11^ 1', 106 AROTIG JOURNAL. secure all directions — viz. to the south-west, — north-west and, lastly, west being provided for. Sept. VMh. — Found the four vessels of our squadron, and one of the American brigs, — the " Advance" under Lieuten- ant 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 disap- peared in the darkness and snow-drift. For her, as well as Her Majesty's brigs under Captain Penny, much anxiety was ent^^rtained. 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 travel- ling-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 re- turn 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 fiir, oflfered 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 suffi- ciently damped in us to desire to avail ourselves of the prof- fered exchange ; both were declined, and it was said that Lieutenant Do Haven was told by our leader, if he could land any thing for us in Kadstock 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 THE AMERICAN SQUADRON. 107 breeze, we cast off together, and worked to the northward, towards Griffith's Island. Rubbing sides almost with the " Advance," who cour- teously awaited with the "Pioneer" the heavy-heeled gam- bols 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 consid- erable 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 na- ture 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 con- nection 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 influ- enced 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 ves- sels, one of 140 tons, the " Advance," the other 90 tons, the " Rescue," and, having strengthened provisionccl, and equipped them, Mr. Grinnell then placed them under the control of his Government, in order that they might be commanded X '■ '■ ■ -4'" • ' ''1> ■:■ 'l^ J" 108 ARCTIC JOURNAL. v« . ■^ >'• V )• ,^ ,. u -V •». ' ■■**:. , 1 :i? \ ».,, , 1 ■k» ■«!''! * « i I' I". ^ I irr by naval ofTicors and sail under naval discipline. The Amer- ican 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. (iriffin, 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 m j worthy friend " Ilerr 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 Digues ! (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 oH* Possession Bay, the American squadron was in a severe gale in Lancaster Sound ; and on the 25th ^Vugust, after visiting Leopold Island, the gallant Americans reached Cape Iiiley close on the heels of the " Assistance" and " lu- trepid." From that time we have shown that they lost no oppor- tunity of pushing ahead ; and if progress depended alone upon skill and intrepidity, our go-ahead Iricnds 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 ofllcers, 1 was charmed to hear that before sailing from America they had signed a bond not to claim, under any circumstances, the £20,000 reward the British Govern- ment had offered for Franklin's rescue; wo, I am sorry to say, had acted ditferontiy. America had plucked a rose from our brows ; but in such generous enterprise, we for the most GO INTO WIXTER QUARTERS. 109 part felt that no narrow-minded national prejudices could enter, and I gloried in the thought that the men \vho had so nobly borne themselves, as well r^. 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 fjr ; it must have been a second open season in 1850, — a sanguine dis- position, no doubt brought about by a break in the weather, not unlike the Indian summer described by American writers. September lAth. — 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 c' frost, and, seeing ice where the others had seen water, asserted most confidently that the first were cxaggerators ! At any rate, September passed ; winter and frost had un- doubted dominion over earth and sea; already the slopes of Griffith's Island, and the land north of us, were covered with ,. r-, •£•' ■' Vl id" iS.'' •«'•■"■ '■U ti '(I 7-'" TV, t • . ; ' :ir- ■,' ij ■ii. ir I' f f:'; 110 ARCTIC JOURNAL. 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 2(7, 1850. — Lieutenant M'Clintock had very prop- erly 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 Somervillo Island on the way. Lieutenant Mecham was likewise sent to examine Corn- wallis 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 occur- ring, 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 I I :fl' LIEUTENANT MECHAWS ADVENTURE. Ill tent, formed a complete covering to our upper decks, afibrded great comfort and shelter from the cold bleak wind without. On the 5th, Lieutenant Aldrich returned from his journey ; he had not been able to go beyrnd 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 cross- ing the entrance of a bay, since named Resolute Bay, ho observed a bear amongst some hummocks, evidently breaking the young ice by a sort of jumping motion ; and he then saw that ho 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. 1,1. 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 ob- served 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. -u -■ ■■•■ #-l ' iiil October dth. — Lieutenant M'Cllntock returned ; he had placed his depot forty miles in advance, towards Melville -"* ;^ ■ '■ir'l ^ * i' hP; >«»;♦' i;*. i' ' >l ' « fs;. * 1 '*!' t ' .■A«!i t y , '»f -.* ' ■ , Htu n^ ■''• , * <,.;>i ' 'I''- *'vH; ''"!»;!>.■ 1 1 ■* ^M ' '■ ^>.V . I'.- ■'' il.r' ■ %■:- 1 >■ • '^ ;7- • 112 ARCTIC JOURN'AL. Island, — three clays' 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. Tliis 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 Griflith's Island bn^ken 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 travellinor difters, in some measure, from that of the spring. I will, therefore, give the indulgent reader an account of a short excursion 1 made for the purpose of con- necting the search from where Lieutenant Mecham left the coast, to the point at which Lieutenant M'Cliutock had again taken it up ; in iact, a bay, facetiously christened by the sea- men (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' pro- visions. The four seamen and our two selves tackled to the drag-ropes, and, with the temperature at C° above zero, soon walked ourselves into a state of warmth and comfort. 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 ncighl)ouring headlands. I shall not easily cfiace from my memory the melancholy impression left by this, my first walk on tho desolate shores of Cornwallis our soon liiriXS ON CORNWALLIS ISLAND. 113 Island. Like other things, in time the mind became ac- customed to it ; and, hy comparison, one soon learned to see beauties even in the sterility of the North. Casting off from the sledge, I had taken a short stroll by myself along one of the terraces Avhich, with almost artificial regularity, swept around the base of the higher ground l>ehind, 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 hi supposing it to have been any thing constructed so recently / ;5.»— * g Horizontal Section, 20 foot circumfuronce. Vprticfil Section, 5 feet 6 inches high. ■■if"'.-' *.A\i >« :':}■■ >^ %' .1. •:^'i h It 1 I i' i 114 ARCTIG JOURNAL. 1! r \\- b < 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 pre- served 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 conjec- tured 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 cachis, 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 A WINTER'S EVENING. 115 f' ■■ then boiled in the open air, the process was not an expedi- tious 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. 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, un- meaning valleys, were of one uniform colour, cither 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 awa- kened in the wanderer's bosom by the lone scenes, be it even by the cursed waters of Judea, or afllicted 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 ; 1 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 '■e;f...-. ",' ''-•"'■,' '- rj^' "•; 't^ •'''I ;",fi) I ■i **"' ',' , ■' ■•♦•J* * • ■■■■' ■»•..■■ '1 116 ARCTIC JOURNAL. ■f ■ would pall on moderate taste or hunger. Tradition said that it was composed of the best rump-steaks and suet, and cost Is. 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 nourishm(;nt, 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 aloni; 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 A CTLWLXAL TEA V EL LING. 117 as those only enjoy %vho drag a sledge all day, with the tem- perature 30° below freezing point. Friday morning, at seven o'clock, we rolled up our beds, or rather sleeping-bags, stowod the sledge, dranlc 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 spicule against our faces, causing both pain and annoyance. Two mock suns for the first time were seen to-dav. 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 tlie 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 vitoe 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 winter- ing 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 Penn} J* * V .. . mmi;*' . .. ;f ■ ■M.'''i- '^^••:: .#<• •i ^^^ ., ' 'if. "•! •*< 'I , '* :'^- '■»,!*,«« . LP* - *■ I ^^:^: ^^^j .<••>'> i m ;i^::-i. : :^ f.. !>!*< ^»!-,'. '¥'^- 1, , 1", '". ; ■ / - - . r '' ' , ' /■.■'» . ) ■ ■'( ■ i It 1 • r '■ Vi ' , ''^'' »■..; ;' " * v;i N^ ■'■ ill' :;.:'f .' .^' ■;■■ 'H- 118 ARCTIC JOITRNAL. came over from Assistance Ilarhoiir. lie had happily de- cided 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. W^ith 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 ; arrange- ments 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, »■•(:■: < pily de- al ; and Id carry ', whilst listance 3 south- icrican3 ice of a ;lv after tion wc he time nd snug A'ithin a to have ir upper )paratus ir taken ,^eathcr ; of posts r-storms sea, to arrange- s, and a in such oyage," 5 at first a great People e pretty s, vases, Ay ARCTIO PRAYER. 119 cannon, and, lastly, a stately Britannia, looking to the west- ward, 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 11 r our little community. 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^ degrees of north latitude ; and light-hearted and con- fident 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 oiler up a heartfelt prayer that returning day and returning sum- mer 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. "0 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, not ■ .'1 ; " •--f :Sil •••I ■-' t.^ '> -I 1,' ll r 111. 120 ARCTIC JOi'RNAL. 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 remem- brance ; 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 protec- tion, 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, wo 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 afllictcd with cold and hunger. Bestow upon them Thy rich mercies, according to their several wants and ne- cessities, and deliver them out of their distress. Thev 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 fa- vour, 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 fuially we may come unto Thy everlasting king- dom. Grant this, for Thy dear Son's sake, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." J- 1* While touching on a religious point connected with our expedition, I must say, that as yet we have not in the Navy WINTER OCCUPATIONS. 121 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 1 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. A theatre, a casino, and a saloon, two Arctic newspapers, one of them an illustrated one, evening-schools, and instruc- tive 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 em- ployed. Decorators and statuaries produced effects which, with such limited means, were imily astounding; vocalists and musicians practised and pciseverod 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 ffags serving in lieu of a supply frorji the milliner's; ahd, with wonderful ingenuity, a fancy dres?j 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 ■'.'■ •?. •'.. 'A •trails '■ fa.! ! ■fe' # J ■ * % 122 ARCTIC JOURNAL, French ingenuity, in saying their say without "bringing them- selves within the gnisp of the censors; here, rough contribu- tors, whose hands, more accustomed to the tar-brush than the pen, turned flowing sentences by the aid of old mis- cellanies 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 fust lieutenant of the " Kesolute," my much-loved, faithful friend ; ho 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 suflcrings, 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 even- ing saw that sailor audience gather around him whom they know to be the " gallant and true," to share in his feelingn and borrow from his enthusiasm. For some time after the sun had censed 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 ing them- con tii bu- rn sh than old mis- )n wooden urious and f cane and ing " pot- ;d on their ■c, such as, ; this 'ere )ar. Then •eciting his ^vhilst a instructor , or sealed the clilfs of Griflith's Island, or, maybe, occasionally hunted a beai, com- pleted the scene. Charmed as we wore with the evanescent colouring of our sky on a ^ma 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, sil- very 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, stiiding out u])on the floe, enjoy to the utniost the elasticity of health and spirits with which we were l)lest 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 re- warded us for our isolation from the world of our fellow- men ; and general enthusiasm had its full sway as, from the heights of Griflith's Island, we looked down on our s»• ^■"l|{^^"• . ,lf- '1 if J'' '■- t. *T'k I'i* " • '^'^ ■ 124 ARCTIC JOlfRNAL. 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 ♦^he moonlight with an exceeding brilliancy, whilst the strong shadow oi 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 ciff" 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 glimjise 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 OPEN WATERS IN BAIiROW'S STRAIT. 125 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." As late as the 18th of November, water, m a broad lane, was seen to the S. E. from the extreme of Grillith'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 dis- appeared ; 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 neigh- bourhood, 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 Ilotham out of Wellington Channel : could that have been open so long after the sea in our neighbourhood was closed 1 However, to return to the bears. Whenever an unlucky IS seen, the severe c brute ipeti possess his skin, entailed no small risk of life upon the hunt- ers as well as the proprietor of the coveted prize ; and crossing tlie line of fire was recklessly performed, in a man- ner to have shocked an " Excellent" gunner or a Woolwich artilleryman. Discretion v.as the better part of Ursine 4'. r.'|^ .•. , ■,■■'■4, > i, "^ « ', '» .. . v;.-i*;^- . . "■' ■ ■*'*: ■ ■ ■■ ■ t. . . '1 ■ .' ••;*■'*' I, . JM*r. , 126 ARCTIC JOURNAL. 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, whleh, happily for them, on this occasion, missed its mark; and one day, a respectable individual, trottinjj amonn; the snow ridires, was horrified to see on a piece of canvas, in large letters, "Beware of spring-guns!" Picture to oneself the person's feelings. IIow 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 ofiicers with guns : of the three barrels only one went off, wounding the cub, which, with its mother, made for Grilllth's Island. I chased, followed bv some of the men, the foremost of whom was my ancient mariner, who kept close to my heels, urging mo on by declaring we were fast catching the brutes. We decidedly had dor^ so. By the time I reached the island, and both bears were within CHKL^TAIAS-DAY ON BOARD. 127 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 !" Thev consisted of Old Abbot, armed with a snow-knife, and some men who ran, because they saw others doing so. Now, a snow-knife con- sists 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. Christmas-day was, of course, not forgotten, and our best, though humble flire 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-burn- ings, and quarter-deck etiquette, were forgotten and laid aside. A liberal and pleasant host made merry guests ; and amongst the many ways ui 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 ordi- nary clothing worn, as yet, by officers and men : the tem- perature ranging often as low as 35° below zero, with strong ;•:■ 4";"- i '' if »..•■, •■•, -H ,4d it:,n ■i. ■ '! ' ' J*. ,i.\ -.* :^*f« ;■ :::- %i 128 ARCTIC JOURNAL. ■•;i' iU..: " .Tiff ■' -■"in- ■:■' «■■ ■ In . , . ..■'It I. I,!l* '^m: Additional for walking. Box-cloth pea jacket. "Welsh wig. Seal-skill cap. Beaver-skin mitts. Shawl or comfortable. Men with tender faces re- quired a cloth face-cover in the wind. Clothing ichen 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. 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 oflScers, made a point of fiicing 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 lit requiem for the departing year. TJ Mm' AURORAS AND CLOUDLESS SKIES. 129 After one of these gales, walking on the floe was a work of much duTiciilty, in consequence of the irregular surface it presented to the foot. The snow-ridges, called sastrugi by the Russians, run (where unobstructed by obsta js 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 em- ployed 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 van- ished, 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 . 6* <:. -t:. if mf<^' \MM '■ ■ *> ■■* ■T^V' — • 'f ', %. ■««H.-- \ •v^ ■^;r* i-^^' ■*- «> .' rb i J "7 ■ . k ¥. ■1 -ii^ "jf!*'*..''' ' wi^.i' 130 ARCTIC JOURNAL. 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 day- light, 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 accu- mulation. The " Pioneer" and " hitrepid" laying across the wind, the counter-current caused a larger deposition around us than elsewhere. On the first occasion, after the wind sub- sided, 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 low * t 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 " Pio- neer," 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 WINTER EMPLOYMEym. 131 broken in, by placing props of planks and '^r i ' o suj ort the superincumbent weight. We had actuui.j to dig »ur 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 serie" of loud reports awakened me, and the quarter-master ac 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-cur rents of warm water, reduced itself to the ordinary thickness of the adjoining floe. 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 sei 'ling up a dense vapour, which, in addition to the breath of so many souls, fills the space between decks with mist and fog. Should you go on deck (and remember you go from 50® above zero to 40° below it, in eight short steps), a column of smoke will be seen rising through certain apertures called I Jlk(ll*t ■■?•■• ■■ • ■ iW t. ,_ " .A ' ■>*^- *'■■ ■,-'- S^•l.,.■.* -;' :' 1 ^hiM : I, ,u. V C ' '.• ■^•«-^^-' . ■ ' ^■■i'' '(^ ^' ti^*- '} ' '; ,) 'U ^' ■., ■ "ft*^' ' *■♦■ «►■! < I ^. ■ ■<-■'■ ■!»■. i .■til.* 133 ARCTIO JOURNAL. ■■•■ '■• .'¥■ ■w 1 ■■(., ■ ,'' •*' ..'V'o- i fS" L > 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, dis- cussed 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 can- dle-light, and cards, chess, or draughts, combined with con- versation, and an evening's glass of grog, and a cigar or pipe, served to bring round bed-time again. Monotony was our enemy, and to kill time our endeav- our: 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 dis- agreeable part of our wintering at Griffith's Island. Some MASK BALLS. 133 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 tiiidency to tallc 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 at- tached brothers, had found their way into the Arctic expedi- tions. 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. ' -* ■' J 'Jm *v1 ■ >': -•« 'ii '•t^ • ^ I >••.'■ ..1 Capt. Austin . Oramanney Lieut. Aldrich . Cator . M'CHntock Osborn . Bro^\^l . Mecham Dr. Donnet Bradford . Ward Mr. King Rearse May . Hamilton . Eds . Markham . Cheyne M'Dougall Lewis Old Chairs to mend. 3Iayor of Griffith! s Island, Fancy dress. Old English Gentleman. Blue Demon. Blach Domino. Bed Devil. Blue and White Domino. A Lady, then a Friar, A Capuchin. A Beadle. Jocliey. Smuggler. Roman Soldier. A Spinster, Spanish Dancing Girl, As Allegory. 3fiss Maria. Vivandiere. Farmer Wapstraw, w% ■'•'■ ■■* . ■ ■.■■"■4 'T '^ mi .%^ '^. 4:.i^ 11 <«. * . *. ■ ■ »,*' ^ ► ' t • t • ,. » > > I . 1 134 ARCTIC JOURNAL. Mr. Allard . Mahomet AIL Webb . Bedouin Arab. Ilarwood . . Jliss Tahitha 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 noth- ing that labour or ingenuity could devise towards the suc- cessful accomplishment of our mission was wanting. Some turned their attention to obtaining information foi the general good, upon all that related to travelling in frozen regions ; others plodded through many a volume, for mete- orological 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 eflect ; in proof of which, signals wore 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. The balloons, however, as a more novel attempt for dis- tant signalizing, or, rather, intercommunication, were a sub- ject 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 posi- E CKETS.—BALL ONS. 135 tion of the due to ISEr. Shopperd, xrching parties, beii 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 l)urnt, 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 west- ward. 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 south- ward and south-west. On two occasions I idly 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 Mi'^ miles. The " Assistance" despatched ' -i I : ' y- j(i'*?'.> ■i. .Mr: .,'^''.1, , .if t . ^*%.!!' <- ■V- -:'f '1 •i[-'>r. -. > '1, Ilk 1 , 'i(.i. > • t ymyuiU i^r. 136 ARCTIC JOURNAL, some from near Barlow Inlet, which were picked up on the opposite side cf 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 expedi- tion 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 halfmoulted state, I heard it pro- posed to despatch them from Beechey Island, in 7^ degrees N. and 1)2 degrees W., to the meridian of Greenwich and 50 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 0th 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 olT Griffith's Island heard of tho departure of tho mail, the opinion prevalent was, the birds CARRIER-FIGEONS.— KITES. 137 ,-■■ --I • 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 iiad ori<,nnally 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 tl e gale in which the balloon was carried along. 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, afibrded 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, how- ever, 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 suflicient to keep a strain on the string, and so keep the kite alofV, 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 fix- ture, whilst a little too little, or a sudden flaw of wind, would topple the kite over and bring it to the earth. As a moans of signalizing l)etween ships when stationary, the flying of kites of diflereut colours, sizes, or numbers, attached one to 1' f '■■ '^ i"li'*t« ".' ..." ■'*■.' ' '■■■'I' " •!,••-.,' Ji- S V n:-*a^ 138 AUCTIC JOimJTAL. the other, would, I am sure, in the clear atmosphere of tho 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 sug- gested itself to the people of Sir James Ross's expedition when wintering in Leopold Harbour in 1848-49, that of en- closing information in a collar, secured to the necks of the Arctic foxes, caught in traps, and ther* 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 par- taken 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 unaccount- ably 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 mer- riment : all hands, from the captain to the cook, we e out to DESULTORY OCOUPATIOys. 139 •» M chase the fox, who, half frightened out of its wits, seemed to doubt which way to run ; whilst loud shouts and roars (jf 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 fur more for robust health than for tuneful melody. 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 inditfercnce. I remember well on the loth January seeing mercury, in a solid mass, with a temperature of 40° below zero, and being one of a good many who had taken three hours hard walking for mere pleasure. We joked not a little at the fireside stories at home, of bitter cold nights, and being frozen to death on some English heath ; it seemed to us so incredible that people should be frost-bitten, because the air was below freezing point ; whilst we should have hailed with delight the thermometer standing at zero, and indeed looked forward to such a state of our climate, as people in the temperate zone would to May sunshine and Howers. With the increasing twilight, many an anxious eye was cast frt)m the top of (iriilith's island, to see the prospect of good foot-travelling olfered by the floe: it caiuiot have been said to be cheering, for broken and hummocky ice met the eye whichever way one looked, with here and there a small ■i ■> .'T • i ' • ■ .'4 1 .. * I/*! 140 ARCTIC JOURNAL. >*-■■' ■...(!*&,. •i ,<. ■ T •4. ,» 1. r .!»'' • ■ smooth space ; and if it looked so from the heights, we knew full well that when actually amongst those hummocks, the travellinjT would be arduous indeed. There was some time yet, however, to elapse before the tussle commenced ; and manv a snow-storm had time meanwhile to ra2je. 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 alto- gether," 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 ^hat 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. i- • '1 in • \1^ ■■■ . February Ith^ 1851. — The stentorian lungs of the " Reso- lute'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. ♦ Preparations for spring travelling were now hastened ; daily committees of officers met, by order, to discuss every PREPARATIONS FOR TRAVELLIXQ. 141 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 scai'ch, 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 train- ing" did not come out until afterwards,) commenced to " harden up" for the labour before them. Zealous individ- uals might be daily seen trying all sorts of patents. Out of their hard-earned waives some of the men bought and made sails of peculiar cut for their sledges ; others, after the " working hours" were over, constructed water-bottles, velo- cipedes, cooking-tins ; in tllct, 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 commu- nication. His vessels had got through the winter equally well with ourselves, and he, in like manner, was bard at work, preparing for the foot journeys; and, as no sledges or other equipment had been brought by him from England, in consequence of his hurried departure, every nerve had to be strained, and every resource called into existence, to enable him to overcome his difficulties in lack of material. On the 8th of March, at 11 a.m., the temperature in the shade having been a couple of hours previously at 41-' below zero, and mercury solid in the open air, we were delighted to see a solitary drop of water trickle down the black paint of the " Pioneer's" side : at that moment, oddly enough, the temperature in the shadj was 30° — , and in the sun the thermometer only rose to 2° below zero ! Water, however, it undoubtedly was, and as such we cheerfully hailed it, to .*'■<.( W I ft.';'' %'.■■:■.: ^^; :■. . • <. . ** ■■ L •-A li ■ ''. . • . .•-• ■ <; '!|!> . ; ! ^i-'.-A. tut,.' >L :' 142 ARCTIC JOURXAL. prove the increasing lieatof the sun, and to promise a coining summer. All March was a scene of constant business, diver- sified witli sledge parades and amusing miiitarv evolutions, recalling to our minds unpleasant recollection-, of sweiteriDg field-days and grand parades. Having briefly touched upon the leading Incidents con nected with our winter, and brought events up to the pre- parations for a search on foot, it may not here be out of place to give a brief sketch of the causes wdiich had brought about the necessity for so many Englishmen to be sojourning in these inclement rcijrions, as well as occasioned the vovMoro of that distinguished navigator whose squadron we hoped to rescue. The seamen of Northern Europe, the Norsemen nnd Scandinavians, seem, from the earliest records extant, to have sought for the glory attendant upon braving the perils of Polar Seas. From a. d. 800 to 9S-2, 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 North- land warriors, appear to have multiplied; for, in a. d. 1400, a flourishing colony stood on this threshold of the new world ; converted to Chiistianitv. 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 col(>nies were known under the general terms of East and West BygJ (Bight), and numbered in all sixteen parishes, and two hundred and eighty flirms, numerously populated. acotniM" .>>s, diver- volutions, i\ve;terii!g cuts con ) the pre- )e out of 1 brought ojourning he voyage ! hoped to ^incn and extant, to the perils B sea-rover d Hand's" her wreck, I march of i a century is honours, n the new the North- A. D. 1400, new world ; I had been it to have n bishops ; of East and m parishes, opuLatod. KORTn- WEST DISCO VER Y. 143 Strict commercial monopoly, and the naturally secbided position of the Scandinavian colony in Greenland, seoniee, as traditions tell us, a sudden hostile inroad of the Escpiiniaux swept off the isohued Europeans : from either cause there remained, atl:er the lar . of two centuries, but the moss- covered ruins of a few churches, some liunic inscri[»tions, 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 didicult 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 Clpango, 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, 1570, with three craft, whose united burden only amounted to seventy- jive tons, — this " proud admiral" sighted the east coast of Greenland, in 01° north latitude. Unable to aj>proach 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 03° north latitude, and landing in Frobisher's Straits. He extricated his vessels with difiiculty, 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 ■ 1 » i k^ '".^'^il'-'d *• . « W'.ip, :[ v-' s./M 1'^ ' 7M -.nik* •^i^- 11.-'- 144 ARCTIC JOURNAL, north-west discovery for a while; until, in 1535, "clivers woruhipful 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* shore, and y" irksome noyse of y* yce," " y® stinking fogs and cruelle windes" of Desolation Land — the seamen of that day seemed each to have deter- mined to see and judge for himself, and ably were they sup- ported 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 Wolstanholme, Digges, Jones, and others, soaied far above Smithfield nuisances and committees on sewers. Af- ter Davis we see Waymouth, then Hudson, who perished amid the scenes of his hardships and honours. O'ptains 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 flime, showed us of the present day the high-road to the west ; and did more ; for he saw more of that coast than "sve 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. A lull then took place, perhaps occasioned by the granting of a charter to certain noblemen and merchants in 1608, un- der 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 perse- vered in by them. During a century, they accomplished, by H EXGLISH K W. DISCOVERIES. 145 their servants, " Ilcarne and Mackenzie," — the former in 1771, and the latter in 1780, — the tracing of the Copper-mine and the Maclvenzie rivers to their embouchures into an arctic sea in the 70° parallel of north latitude ; whilst a temporary interest, on the part of Great Britain, during the reign of George the Third, occasioned two names, dear to every sea- man'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 177G, failed to round the American continent by coming to the eastward from Behrincr's Straits. At the commencement of the current ccnturv, our knowl- edge 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, Hud- son's and Baffin's Bay formed the limit of our geographical kno'A'ledge ; except at two points, where the sea had been seen by Ilearne 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 atten- tion 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, con- vincing 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 Ad- miraltv, Viscoinit Melville, Sir J«.)hn Barrow himself has 7 I. k .•>•/' ■■•■ - ' f «■ r '■ir^> V .■ «'':■ : I ' • - » > I ■» I.- u ' :r^ 140 ARCTia JOURNAL. told, in the able volumes which imperishably chronicle the deeds of ancient and modern explorei-s 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 mag- nificent 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 hun- dred and eighty miles of coast-line to our Polar charts. Is this nothing] If the mere quid jn-o 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-wai ; 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 jour- neys. The calm, heroic sufferings of Franklin, — always suc- cessful, let the price be v>^hat it would ; the iron resolution of Richardson ; Back's fearful winter march to save his com- rades ; 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 in- domitable 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 NORTH- WEST DISCOVERT. 147 ronicle the ir regions, rst voyage, led to our \ that mag- ipleted by , Simpson, well-spent eographical nd six hun- charts. Is d of public ir repaid to her hands lie through •f-\vai ; and s fame and nstances of 5 and jour- always suc- solution of '•e his com- le be, could o help him, ; an Arctic ho knew so iron frame, ;ion and in- bled him to of Victoria alrous men, jedience to their Queen and country, into the unknown regions between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, to execute their mission or fall in the attempt. 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 thom 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; wc had seen his look- out posts, and the trail of his explorations. They all said. Onward ! To be sure, wc 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 believ- ing one particular route to be the true one. The majority — indeed all those who gave the subject any consideration — be- lieved 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 dragjjlng 200 lbs., "O yes, sir, and Sir John Franklin too, wlien we fuid him." Increasing light, decreasing cold, plenty to do, and certain anticipations upon each man's part, that he would be the for- tunate 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 uhe sledges to have started W^ : z^> • -4 I .... r.- 1 148 ARCTIC JOURNAL. lit :,.-t V , ■■ - jr , .. ' ' .'■■ v) ►'1»'k£^''" 'L^ uw ''' on the different routes laid down by our commodore on the 8th of April ; but a fall of temperature on the Gth 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 novel- ty. The rattling pace of the dogs, their intelligence in choos- ing 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 conversa- tion 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, aff.)rded constant amusement; apart from Petersen's convenation, 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 inter- preter with Penny in the search for Franklin, he brouglit 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 Es([uimaux dog lives on little when not worked ; and, with a little oatmeal on the , altered jpon. 1 Captain )g-sledge vessel at ban dog- 5spocially of novel- in choos- Dbedlence Y elect as id leader ; convcrsa- who well ! Foxcy! 1 constant which was me of the d by the B had not )niplishing )ly thrown ,'c as inter- 011 gilt with tercd, and serviceable )art of the had told niaux dog le oatirieul ADVAM'AGB OF WIXTERINQ IX HARBOUR. 149 and grease, they had all outlived the severe season ; and some bear's flesh having been luclvily 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. 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 refresh- ing to one who had always a mile to walk during the winter to reach Griflith's Island, or remain satisfied with the mo- notony 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 oil" for sledge-parties, — whereas our squadron would have some sixty men and ofllcers left behind to take care of them, exposed as they were to bo swept into Barrow's Strait, or farther, by any sudden disrup- tion 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. llic oldest English oflTicer who had ever wintered within the Arctic circle on a voyage of discovery, Sir John Koss, was nc^t likely to !)e forgotten by me ; and I sincerely congratulated the veteran on his escape from sickness during the past winter : and, though a wonderful in- stance of physical endurance, I, with others, could not but feel regret that a Naval ofTii-er so advanced in years, and who had served so long, should bo necessitated to * 1 . '' \ -^ 4 i ' ^S * .'''" ^* ' w( ♦ M „ '* -i "y »^y:- ,-f ■'■<^ '»-Lk>^- TT^'m*^. ^^',i ¥a '4 ^'"l': •> % •••., ' r 1 *■ m m th ■:■■ $ m fee . ''"^ ■ *«■■■» u ,■'■:< ^ ■■ .'»f ■-, 1 ..' 1- ■ •i* ■ ^, »'., ;*?; '''I'^X.i 150 ARCTIC JOURNAL. undergo privations, of which those who did not witness them can form no conception. Time enabkd me to do little more than admire the per- severance displayed by Capt. Penny, his oflicers and men, in their preparations {ov travelling. Sledges, cooking appara- tuses, 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 Wel- lington Channel, there to part into two divisions. — Capt. Stewart, of the " Sophia," taking the one side of the Channel, whilst Capt. Penny, Mith two extra dog-sledges, would direct the search in general. Delighted with all the arrangements, and erpially so with the high spirit of chival- rous 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, ^Ir. 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 quartei-s, the thermometer had occasionally for the past week ranged above it, and on the day before I left showed 11° in the shade. This dlHerence of temperature was, doubtless, occasioned by the radiation of heat from the land, V)y which they were, unlike ourselves, surrounded. During my absence, I was told that Mr. M'Dougal, of the " Kesoluto," who had been despatched as early as the 4th April to inspect the depots formed in the autunm, had returned to the ships, and brought accounts of a whole- SLEDQE EQUIPMENT. 151 sale destruction of the one on Somerville Island, by boars. Hunger and mischlevousness seemod 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. It is now time to describe the sledges and their equip- ment, upon the completeness of which the lives of our trav- ellers so entirely depended. The sledges, constructed of tough and well-seasoned wood, had been carefully constructed in Woolwich Dockyard. Thev were shod with iron, and the cross-bars or battens which connected the two runners, and formed the floor upon which the load was placcJ, were lashed in their places by us when required for use. At the four corners of the sledges li \^ iron stanchions dropped into sockets, and formed the I ♦ irt for the sides of a species of tray or boat, capable of serving to ferry the sledge crew across water in an emer- gency, 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 ; — Ibi. And, together with the sledge and drag-ropes, wliich were made of horse-hair, to prevent their becoming hard and brittle from frost, weighed Two fur blankets and spare blanket, two weighed Nine blankct-ba{;s for sleeping in A tent of oblong form, made of a species of brown holland, supported by four boarding-pikes, and a lino which served as a ridgc-rope, and was set up to any licavy thing that came to hand Mackintosh floor-cloth to spread over the snow or gravel . A shovel to dig out snow for banking-up with . •?1 m r ■ J ■>', >■ •1 4 .f' •-4 .-. ■ I -'■ 120 40 ■""v:' 42 4 ' 1 • " • -ft .•■ 'V:^ ' . -■ »• /■-< k"^ 55 ■ <\* fi 12 ► * 9 J- 5i ^^^'i^ '^4' '' ^'|J Estfvr R'V; •* 152 ARCTIO JOURNAL. w>','. ■■V . '.^ J > ^•■: i*> 5:^ w A cooking apparatus, invented by Lieutenant M'Clintock, capable of cooking a pint apiece of tea, cocoa, or pem- mican, with a spirit lamp, tallow lamp, and spare kettle Sextant, 1 gun, and gear A bag containing 5 tin pannikins and 5 spoons A knapsack for each man, containing 1 flannel shirt, 1 Guernsey frock, 1 serge frock, 1 pair of drawers, flan- nel, 1 pair of boot liose, 1 pair of stockings, 2 pairs of blanket-socks, 1 towel, 1 comb, 1 lb. soap . Spare boots, and thick Guernsey frocks for sleeping in A tin case, containing pepper, salt, herbs dried, lucifcr matches, grog-measure, calico and flannel bandages, plaster adhesive, lint, liniment, eye-wash, pills, simple ointment, glycerine, lancet, tinctm'e of opium, pins, needles, and thread 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 Sparc ammunition, cleaning rods, and wrench . Xites and string Ibfl. 17 10 6 48 86 16 11 14 Dead weight, lbs. 440 Such were the weights of the sledge equipmei t 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, bo hardly any ligliter at the end of the journey; and as about 200 lbs. was judged to be as much as a man could dr;g, there only remained 172 lbs. per man availal)Ie for provision and paciinge. The daily scale of provision, as ordered by Capt. Austin, during the journeys, was to be as follows: — 'v^d "At SCALE OF PEO VISION. 153 '» d s 11 • 14 • 12i Pcmmican Boiled pork Biscuit Rum, concentrated . . • Tobacco Biscuit dust Tea and sugar .... Chocolate and sugar (alternate days) Lime-juice (for 10 days) lib. 6 oz. 12 oz. f gill. \ oz. 1 oz. f oz. Ifoz. \ oz. ty of seven men, its of wine, or one The fuel allowed to cook this, for a pari amounted to one pint and one gill of spiri 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. »■ ■\ ■■''. ( u ■i ll '\ u ■i. « . t W f -..1 :■ It'-'* u ' rl ib«. Total dead weight . . . .440 Pcmmican 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 Siuidries, tins, &c. . 45 Number of men to drag •, 7 . 1408 201 lbs. per man. ■\',f>;. ^ , ^.. ' ;•;)'«■ 7* 154 ARCTIC JOURNAL. ■^« »!•;■ ' I. - ■. r" , ' .».■* fj*- ."• ,• „ ' 4, if- ; « * 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 march- ing order, and sledges ladencd, — an arrangement which was highly beneficial ; and from the way the sledges went over the floe, they gave us high hopes of answering our expecta- tions 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. W, CAPTAIN OMMANNErS COMMAND. 155 -t »j s- b I—" rt- O <-t- O & rt- s- 03 I O *i c-»- e erg en »— ' o 9> cr? o ,■ . i' - •> ^^1' 3 ■ -. ; 'J .f; o rt) (» OB o o & 03 re -^ c P i 73 to B o c »— • o I" I O 5/3 H o 05 P P- I id p OQ o a ;? • o w rt) K- og on »n o • -1 ^ n ^ (3 P o o 5 5 o d n e P o o i en o S s O o 3 o rt> P 3 b Si. s o P r^ o p. o 5 O B p 3 B s • ' t\ '.•'. .M ■ft : ' ( '■■^''%i h 41 ^^ *^>^ It?! "•■':•> 156 ARCTIC JOURNAL. To the highly important direction northward up the un. known channel of Byum Martin Island, and which, as Lieut. Aldrich very properly thought, would hitercept 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 : — S^>' «'.■ • f ■ fa '■■:■ -jt; ^ '■■■riV «' Mm M %'\- kit' Long-party sledge |- Lady Franldin < ■i Supportmg ) , , >• Hotspur . sledge . ) * Faithful and firm. In Uco con fide . :( Lieut. K. D. Al- drich, 7 men. Mr.ll.Il.Pcarse (mate), 7 men. Lastly to Melville Islard, 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 be- yond Winter Harbour : — Lonff-party ) _ ( Persevere to ) 11 y Perseverance i ^, , >■ sledge . ) ( the etia . ) Do. Resolute Supporting ) jj^^^jj^^^^ Bledge . ) Persevere to ) Lieut. M'Clintock, G men r St. George " and merry England > Dr. Bradford, 6 men. Onward to the rescue^ :Mr. W. May (mate), 6 men. j liespice, ) * ] prosj)icc f j Faithful & ) Mr. Shellabcar (2d * ( intrepid ) master), 6 men. _ _. ( Endeavour ) Mr. Che^'ne (mate), Do. Parry . • i ^ , h ^ "^ ^ ' •' ( to deserve ) 7 Do. Dasher . men. Mr. M'Dougal, I have before said, started during the first week of April with his sledge, the " Beaufort," — •">"■ DIVISIOXS OF SLEDGES. 157 That future pilj^rims of the wave may be Secure from doubt, from every danger free. He had to replenish the depot formed for Lieut. M'Clin- tock, and then to connect the search round a deep buy, which connected Bathurst and Cornwallis Lands, for separate islands they were proved by him no longer to be. 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. K. 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 pro- vision. 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 re- turn 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 tiiat 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 arc concerned. We will, for the sake of clearness, cause these six sledges to divide into three divisions, of two each, viz., a long-party ■ • . i • I*! ..? .M ■"•■.■ ;■>.,- .'■T hv 158 ARCTIC JOURNAL. • ti. sledge and a support : in each case the support can feed the long party for ten days, and then, formhig a depot of pro- visions equal to ten days more, have sufficient left to reach back to Walivcr, 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° 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 Griffitli'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-si miles of our own, were racing about, entangling themselves, howling for assist- ance, or else running between the men's legs and capsizing them on the snow, amidst shouts of laughter, and sly witti- cisms 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, 0'm: ■ \'-'J%. SLEDGES READY TO START. 159 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. The inspection over, we trudged back to our ships, Sun- day 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. Mon- day was no day for a start ; but on the evening of the i5th April the breeze slackened, and the temperature only some 14° 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 i)oint 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, r, hasty cup of tea and a mouthful of biscuit were partaken of, a prayer oftered up, beseeching His mercy and guidar.ce whose kind providence we all knew could alone support us in the hazardous journey we were about to under- take ; 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 fur the darkness of a snow-storm from the S. W., and we had almost to feel our road through the broken ice off the blufls 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 « V .■t .-•K ■I ^' ':H ,1 ■ -M* "J ,4.^ J ti^.j^y.-'-A"'' Hi' ! ;;-it. V ■■ r ■■• .-' -■«■'■ ■^ *■ ('"''ill' ;* ^^ *-'%** ■ ' > -V-"' v. ■• ^ ■ 160 ARCTIC JOURNAL. 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 hig blanket-bag, and dreamed of a fme day and finding Sir John Franklin. In the evenlnjT the weather was still thick as pea-soup, with a double-reef topsail breeze blowing in our teeth; but detention was impossible, so wo again packed up after a meal of chocolate and biscuit, and facing towards Capo Walker, we carried the hummocks by storm. Ignorance was bliss. Straight ahead, over and through every thing, was the only vray ; and, fresh, hearty, and strong, we sur- mounted tier after tier, which more light and a clearer vieN/ 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 ; ofllicers 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 difllculty 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 TRAVELLING BY NIGHT. 101 A hand Jog- where floe and sky were of one uniform colour, vane was found the best guide, for of course it was impos- sible to keep a compass constantly in hand ; and the ofhecrs forming in a line ahead, so. as just to keep a good sight of one another, were followed by the sledges, the ci-ows 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 ofiicers, the foremost sledge was changed every half hou' or hour, ac( ording to their will. It will be seen that we travelled by night, and hoped by such means to avoid the glare of the sun, und co'' eque;it snow-blindness. It entailed, however, at this eaH^ season of the year, great suffering in the shape of cold, the peop^o being exposed to the weather during the seven st part of tae day. From the 15th to the 19th the M'eather 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 iu summer, — a mistake for which we afterwards suflTered bit- terly, the men having, from the ease with which they kept themselves warm, become careless of their clothing, and heed- less 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 sam on the sledges, and kites likewise when the wind served, the division hurried on for Gipe Walker, which loomed now and then through the snow-drift ahead of us. The rapidity of the pace at which we now ad- vanced — thanks to the help afforded by the sails — threw all ..;^ '1 :■ t '■' ^ ♦!-■ 'i'.* ' '^'i Ni,|jj^ '"il^ia^ ' ■*v'mS f] '^M ■„■- 162 ARCTIG JOURNAL. \. ' -'■ 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 tho 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 pre- pared tho morning meal. ^lore than \isual diOiculty was found in pulling on our stillly-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 l)riskly was now the only safety, and in double-quick time tents were down and sledjjjes moving. A nor'-wester was fast turniiiff up, and as the night of lilaster Monday dosed around us, the cold increased with alarming rapidity. One of ihoso magnificent conglomeratitms of halos and parhelia common to these regions lit up the northern heavens, and, by tho brilliancy of colouring and startling number of false suns, seemed as if to be mocking the sullerings of our gallant fel- lows, who, with faces averted and Ijended bodies, strained every nerve to reach the land, in hoj)es of obtr.lning nioro shelter than the naked floe alVorded. from the nipping eOects of tlie cutting gale. Every moment some fresh case of frost- bite would occur, which tlie watch^'ul care of the oflicers would immediately detect. The man would fall out from his sledgo, restore the circulation of the atrected }>art, gen- erally tho face, and then hasten bark u his post. Constant questions of "How arc your feetl'' wore heard on all sides, ^■>. « ♦ -! ''i 1 ti COLD AXD FROST-BITES. 163 with the geneml response, " Oh ! I hope they arc all i iglit ; but I've not felt them since I pulled inv boots on." One halt was made to remove and clianrrc all leather booLS, 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 iloc around the dills of Cape Walker was reached. t^'oM and hunsrv as we were, it must have been a heavy barrier indrcd to have stopped our men from taking their sledges to the land ; and i>iled 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 ns, as if to dispute our right to intrude on its dominion. Hastily securing the tt-nts, wc hurried in to change our boots, and to see whether our feet were frost-bitten or not; for it was only by ocidar proof tiiat one could be satisfied of tlu-ir safety, sensation having a[>pa- rently long ceased. 1 shall not easily forget my painful feelings, when one gallant fellow of my party, the captain of the sledge, exclaimed, " l)oth feet gone, sir !" and sure enough they were, white as two lumps of ice, and equally cold ; for as wc of the tent l>arty anxiously in turn placed our warm hands on the frostdjitten feet, the heat was extracted in a marvellously short time, and oin* half-frozen hands had to bo succeeded by fresh ones as quickly as possible. With re- turning circulation the poor felk)w's agonies must liave been intense; and some hoii . afterwards large l)listers formed over the frost-bitten parts, a's if the feet had been severely scalded. Sadly cramped as wo 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 pos- sible rf)mpass, and try to thiidv of something else than tho cold, wiiieh pierced to tho very marrow in one's bones, was our only resource. .. |7 • -W * ... I ) ■ I I 'I '•* ■ '\ l^.h fi.'t •■ " ■ if,,-' , 164 ARCria JOURXAL. /a« 1* J..'' «•.. ... ■} ^ I »1 •y Next day, Tuesday, '^^d April, wind N. "W. blowing hard, and tcnii)craturu at 44° below freezing-point, parties left the encampment under Lieutenants Browne and ^Eecham, to look around for cairns, vVe., and report u})on the trend of the land, whilst the rer>t of us secured a depot of Ilalkett's boats, and built a cairn as a record of our visit. As it is not my intention to ^^ive 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 with- out further comment give them, leaving to the curious in the mitmtite of the journeys the amusement of readiiig in the Ad- miralty Blue Books the details of when we eat, dranic, 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 sand- stone 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 believo down to the American continent, and thence to Behring's Straits), by which Franklin might have attemj)ted to i)ass, Captain Ommanney, very properly despatched Lieutenant Browne to examine the coast of Cai)e Walker Land, down the channel to the southward ; and then, the "Success"' sledgo having previously departed with invalids, the five remaining sledges, on the evening of the 24th of April, marched to tho westward, rrevlous to that date it had been impossible to move, on account of a strong gale in our faces, together with a severe temperature. JXJURY TO THE EYES. 1G5 .1 .«j Every mile that we advanced sliowcd us that the coaNt was one which could only bo approachable by ships at extra- ordinary seasons: the ice appeared the accunuilation of many years, and bore, tor 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, lui- tangled 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 u lengthened joiu'ney 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 amoiig the hummocks ; a fuie clear evening had given us the full cllccts of a powerful sunlight upon the j>ure virgin- snow : the painful ellect, those alone can conceive who have witnessed it. All was white, brilliant, and dazzling ; tlu; 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 })ower, and the sun, being ex- actly 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 encun»branco one had become to others, who, CuA knows, had troubles and labour enough of their cnvn. (Grad- ually the fdni spread itself, objei'ts became dimmer and dimmer, and at \\x< all was darkness, with an intense horror ■i .". .■^■ ■ .'", ; ■ • •/ < f'',\ 166 ARCTIC JOUIiXAL. •v*!"*^ ••r-l' ^^v.-l^lf *Wi; ■:>*',■■ '•■■ t M k: I 1 «^ , • of the slightest ray of sunlight. In tliis 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° W. long. Unable to advance in consequence of a severe gale, which raged for six-and-thirty hours, we fuiuid, on the 1st of May, that sixteen men and one oflicer 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-hollanc tent, with the thermometer in it at 18° below zero, the snow for a bed, your very breath forming into a small snow called " barber," which penetrated into your very innermost gar- ments, 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 oflicer of a sledge-party, or, in default of him, upon some kind volunteer amongst the men. IJappily, 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 sce- nery was incapable of such wild revelry as it liad been on- joying ; and again wc 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, clifl', or mountain : as far as the i)My. 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 inulination, some three miles in length ; ravines ZEAL OF TUB MEN. 107 iiariy of s all, in " at the 0, wliich of Mav, is, snow- It of the place is iiu; tent, >no\v for w called ost gar- hirst of illcd for maritan had now fault of Jappily, ! cove red lie blew like sce- boon on- oni the we had 1 a ri'd !ry iiiilo 'ke<] by f which of hills, •ed to it ravines became more and more scarce ; and after passing the bay, in 100° 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. The broken and rujriicd nature of the floes obliujed us to fro o 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 knowl- edge of the bays or indentations woidd 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 ^fr. Webb of the " Pioneer," (who sooner than be lel't behind had vi>luntarily taken his place as one of the sledge-crew,) were the only three (-llicers; we were consequently thrown much into the society of the men, and I feel assured I am not singular in saying that that inter- course 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 cheer- fulness and sanguine hopefulness of a successful issue to our enterprise, without which, of course, energy would soon have flagged. Gallant fellows ! th«'y met our commiseration with a smile, and a vow that they could do far mure. They spoke of cold as "Jack Frost," a real tangible foe, with whom they could combat and would master. Hunger was met with a 'Vl <•• v.: J • - at'! • ' ■• v. .«■' i. •» ' '' «!. ' ;, ..,.-^v # ^ '< * ?«■"■■ ■£■ J u • • *■ 1G8 ARCTIC JOURNAL. laugh, and a chuckle at some future feast or jolly recollections told, in rough terms, of by-gone good cheer ; and often, stand- ing 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 !" We had our moments of })leasurc 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, may- hap, telling a giddy lamby of a seaman to take his advice and never to be more than a simple private ; for, as he phil- osophically argued, " whilst you're that, do you see, you have to tliink of nothing : there arc petty oflicers, ofllcers, 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 bo two people in England to cry about liim, — the one, the captain of his company, who liked him because he was the talK'st 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 h-arned disquisi- ■4 .»■< PLEASING DEEAMS. 1G9 lections I, staiid- horizou urafj-'inii; p Step ! there's Keep f them, I honest he time il rawing ind, and id after ition, in. than ill ;, which ic, may- ; advieo he phil- ee, vou oHlcers, ] taking enmity, iin, and ngland ; God, ho cople ill L of his man in pay for iS, whieh disqiiisi- v^ tion on raising the devil, which one of the party declared ho had seen done, one Sunday afternoon, for the purpose of borrowing some c*'ish to play skittK'^s with. In fact, caro and thought ^vel•e thrown to the winds; and, tired as wo were, sleep often overtook us, still laughing at the men's witticisms. And then such d.-cams, — thev seemed as if an angel had sent them to reward us fur 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 returuet.i 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 tlie land, looking like a channel, and some heights to the S. W. ap- peared to mark the op})Osite 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 gmve : 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 8 >4. %f' ''i? '.' Vtt* ^ '■; ^ '• W}^-A ^-;'r. l.C* f ) J ■ ^-' ■■■*?«•,.: I. ■V K'- 1 i, f .' • no AECTIG JOURNAL. fii'st and only ones we liad seen, and, together with like traces of reindeer, a short distance from Cape Walker, was the sum total of the realizalion 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 sports- men, except at Cape Walker, where many w ~t 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 ]irovisions left to enable them to advance for a further period of five days ; Captain Om- manney 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 bav. 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 tho 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, wo nifain closed the land, when another severe storm, on the 21st of May, obliged us to take t *-\ CONCLUSION OF JOURNEY. 171 h llko ,'us the nations lurnev. r seen, ray I'ox tracks 5S were sports- ;ccn by as if it c Polar west of e Blue" ale tlicin aiii Oin- le search channel bay. I trend to direction en days' ork; but it on tho s would progress d in the ed miles )uld have ly party, n another to take c? shelter in our tent, and remain there until it was time to return. The journey homeward was light work : the sledges were now half emptied; the weather had become mild, being only a little below freezing-point ; wo 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 Cjuk-kly recovered ; and the two sledges, again rej(jining, reached by the night of the 4th of June a depot formed at Snow-blind Pay. Here we met Lieutenant !Mecham. lie 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 xvater — open loater — early in ^Lay. 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 enter- tained lest our long parties should not beat those of the "Lady Franklin" and "Sophia" in time and distance; a piece of eaprit-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 l)e backed against tho field like a Whitechapcl game-cock. AVhilst Captain Onimanncy went to Cajtc Walker for some observations, we pulled foot (with forced marches) straiiiht across the floe for (Jriflitlvs Island. Every hour M'asted in tlic return journey was a crime, we felt, towards those wh(Hn we had come here to save. The fast increasing heat told that the open season was at hand : and even if we . ' VM .- ■ » y I - y '. ■ ../Hi ' 'I y . «. '4. I •'^ 4. t I » ■ m M 172 A R VTIO JO UliNAL. .,•■1/' . • ■* '•■• could not get our sliip to the water, we had Ijvought out a number of beautiful boats, built expressly, at a great ex- pense ; our foot journeys in the spring had been new and successful, what might we not yet expect fi-om boat expedi- tions when the floes were in motion "? On reaching that part of the frozen strait which was evi- dently covered with only one season's ice, namely, that uf about three feet in thickness, symptoms of a speedy disrup- tion were very apparent ; long narrow cracks extended con- tinuously for miles; the snow from the surface ha»l all melted, and, running through, served to render the ice-fields porous and spongy : the joyful signs hurried us on, though n(jt with- out sufierhig from the lack of pure snow, with Mhich to pro- cure water for drinking. At last (jiriillth'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 Tith June, after a journey of five hun- dred miles in direct lines, in fifty-eight days. We were 2^unished for our last forced march by having five out of the sledge-crew laid up with another severe attack of snow- blindness. pjght-and-forty hours afterward-^, Captain Oinmanney arrived; he had crossed some of the cracks in the floe with difliculty, aided by a bridge of boarding-pikes ; and Lieut. Mechani, 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 Griflith'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 LIEVTEXAyr M'CLIXTOCK JUCTCRXS. 173 t out a cat ex- GW and expcdl- rt\is evl- that of ■ disrup- led cou- iiieltcd, s porous lot with- i to pro- se above us to it, arried us ivc hun- V'e were jt of the of snow- amanney the floe ?w^i V k/ •• 176 \RCrir. JOURXAL. In (Icfiiult of IVnny's arrival, I was mncli intorestod in a jcuruey, u{)Oii Avliich Mr. .John Stuart, siirijcon of the " Lady i^ rank! in," had boi-n despatched to follow the traces of some of Franklin's sledges, towards ( aswelTs Tower, and to re-cx- aniinc the traces found in 18r)0. The sledge tracts, which I have elsewhere alluded to, as existing on the east side of " Erebus and Terror Bay," ^Ir. Stuart found, as wc conjec- tured, to have been those of sonic ex[)loring party, sent from Beeehev Island to Caswell's Tower, in IJadstoek liav : for at the base of the said tower — a remarkable detached ma-^s of limestone — two carefullv-constructed cairns were found, but no record in them ; ])eyond this, no f irther signs of th(^ missing navigators were found — nothing whatever that eouM indicate a retreating »artv. That these cairns were placed to attract attention, appep.rs certain ; the most conspicuous =5 have been chosen for them; po 7 fully built, evidently not the mere work of an idle hour. Failing Pennv, and his intelligence, 1 contented mvself with visiting the neighbourhood of Assistance Harbour, and with observing the various phenomena connected with tiie 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 ft.)rmcd, during the previous fortnight, into large lakes of 'lOUS water, sometimes of acres in extent an( I tl len, in one mo- ment, the barriers which had pent np the ravines gave way, and, with irresistible force, the v.aters rushed over every ob. stacle to the sea. Three large ravines broke open whiUt I was ill Assistance iTarboiir, and the tluuidering sound of the ice, water, and shingle, which swej)t down, aiul soon cut a broad channel for many yards through the (loe in the bay, was a cheering tune to the gallan! fellows who were looking foiwai'd to being released from their winter imprisonment. r \i^ ' § ^ ASSISTANCE H ARBOUR. 177 ed in a " Lady f some ^ ro-cx- Ahich I side of con] ce- lt from d mass fi)iind, 5 of the it eouM ])!aeed iplcuous 1(1 Ciire- ur. luvself )nr, and ^•ilh the. 1; and, \ out of M inter, akes of \\K\ mo- ve way, .cry o!i- \vliil>t I 1 of the n cut a he WaN', looking [jnmeiit. Within twcnty-foiir hours the body of water in these ravines would release itself, and an almost dry water-eourse be left. Nothing in the bhape of a river seemed to exist in this island — rather a remarkable fact, considering its size, and the im- mense quantity of snow annually thawed in its interior val- leys and plahis. A beautiful lake existed about two miles inland ; and, having been discovered by one of Captain Peiuiy's peojile on the anniversary of the battle of Trafjdgar, was very appro- priately called 'J'rafaJgar 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, sor- rel and scuivy-grass grew in abundance. 1 need hardly say \SQ. eat of it voraciously, for the appetite delighted in any thing like vegetable food. Occasionally eider and j>ln-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 lirst week (»f my stay in Assistance Harbour, immense llights of wild fowl were to bo seen amongst the loose ice in Harrow's Strait; but when the ])ack had dis- persed, 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 bo found in the Arctic regions, thr.n in large or open water, — a rule ccpialiy aj)plicable to the whale, seal, and bear, all of which aro to be found at the floe-edge, or in loosely- packed ice. A galo 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 Ifar- bour, unablj to dejiy the existence of water along (In- n(»rth b* J', 178 ARCTIC JOURNAL. 4^y: ♦^ ' f. shore of Barrow's Strait, consoled themselves by declaring that the floe had merely formed itself into pack, and was now IvinfT alonii 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 Assist- ance Harbour ; yet no pack came, nor floe-pieces cither, and thus was placed beyond all doubt tlie fart that, at any rate, as fur west as Griflith's Island, Barrow's Strait was clear of ice. In an angle f>rmed between Leopold Island and North Somerset, there was evidently a pack ; for an ice-blink, which moved dailv 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 pain- ful to all but those whose age and prudence seemed to justify in conffratulatini; ihemselves on bcina: vet frozen in ; and try- ing as iiad been many disappointments we experienced in the Arctic regions, there was none that [)aincd us more than the ill luck which had consigned our squadron, and its 180 men, to inactivity, in an icy prison under Griflidi's Island, \\hilst so nnjch might have been done during the thirty days that the waters of Barrow's Strait, and God onlv knows how much more ])i'side, were dear 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 bo despatched, I suppose, becuu.ie the ships might at any time in July have been swept by the ice whither it phased, and the junction of boats and ships rendered uncertain. Future expeditions Mill, however, hit this nail on the head, and three distinct periods for Arctic exploration will })e found to exist, viz. : — I'he spring, tVom April to Juno 25th, for foot journeys; from Juno 25th to BARRO W\S STRAIT CLEAR OF ICE. 179 the first week in August, for boat expeditions ; and then six weeks (for steam vessels) of navigable season. Unable to remain with satisfaction away from our squad- ron, 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 ofticers 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 con- cur ; and a large cairn was therefore afterwards erected upon the low land, in such a josition 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 Gritlith's Island. Towards the westward, on the 2r>th of July, all was water, and a water skv. About Somerville Island, and Hrown Island, a patch of fixed ice, similar to that we were in, con- nected itself with the Cornwall is Island shore ; but between that and us the water was fast making ; indeed, it every day became a[>parent that we should bo released from the north- ward^ and not from the southward. One olficer saw Lowther Island in a sea of water ; and thus early, if not earlier, I had the firmest conviction on my inind 'hat a ship might have been carried in a lead of water, v«.ry similar to that I'arry found in 1829, into Winter Il'irboi'i , Mc'viile Island ; or, what, in view of our object, would have been moro desirable, up to the north-west, by Byam j\r,vrlin Chai'u-l. Griflilirs Island had, by Jul" '^lo^h, put on its gayest sum- mer aspect — the ravines had emptied themselves — the snow had disappeared from the skqies — a uniform dull brown spread from one end of the island to the t)thcr — on its shel- tered terraces, poppies, saxifrage, and sorrel in full flower, 180 ARGTW JOUIiXAL. L-f'« f^f I interniiiiglcd '.vith lidicns and mo.sses of every hue and de- scripti(jn ; and wo, poor mortals, congratulated ourselves upon verdur(^, which was only charming by comj>arison. The great body of melted snow that had Ijcen on top of the floe, had now nearly all escaped through it in numerous Assures and Ijoles, and they were rapidly connecting themselves one with the other. Canals, which had been formed in the floe, for the purpose of cnalding the squadron to get out, should the walcr make exactly in the same way it did last year, now spread snake-like over the iloe, 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 disapj)ointing intelligence, that l^enny, who returned to Assistance Harbour on the 25th, had not been able, owing to the constant preva- lencc of contrary winds setting in from the N. W., and his want of provisions, to make much progress in Wellington Channel. Indeed, he luid, 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 ofihig ; the islands, however, were tho- roughly searched for traces ; a small piece of fresh Jt^nglish elm was found on one of them, which I'enny believed tc have been thrown overboard from the "Erebus" and ''Terror;" also a bit of charred pine, which Sir John Jiichardson believes to have been burnt by a party belonging to the same ships. Hut the most important result of Penny's etHjrts was the verification of the existence of a great body of open water, norlh-west, and beyond the barrier of ice which still existed in Wellington Channel. I will not bore the reader with some days of liard labour, in which we cut to the southward into the ice, whilst the water was trying hard to get to us from the north j it evcn- r STEAMIXCr FOR ASSISTAXCE H ARBOUR. 181 tually caught us, and (.SiituRlay, August 8th.) wo wore all afloat ill open water, with a barrier of ioo still snul/urard toivards Harrow'' s t^trail. The '" lntri'pl(.r' had been si'ut early in the week to look round the north end of (Jrillitirs Island, and reported a narrow neck of lee from the N. W. bluffs towards Somerville Island. Eastward, and not west- ward, was, however, to be our course, and wi^ therefore re- mained where we were. On tne Utii and lOlh, a general disruption of the little remaining ice took jthue : we nuulo 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 fuiriy round on a pivot. We were at sea because we could not help it, and the navigable season was proclaimed to have commenced. Taking, like another Sinbad, our " Resolute" old burden behind us, the " Pioneer" steamed away for Assistance Har- bour, from whence, as we had been given to understand some days previously, Jones's Sound was to be our destination ; a plan to whieh 1 the more gladly submitted, as I felt confident, fi-oni all 1 had heard and seen of its geography or of that of the neighbouring land, that it would be fomid to connect itself with Penny's North \\ ater ; once in it wc felt failure of our object to be iuipossible ; we had still three years' pro visions, and nearly tour years of many things. One man had died, perhaps luilf-a-dozen more were invalids, but the rest ■si-ero strong and hearty ; to be sure, wc all lacked much of that sanguineness whieh had animated us hitherto. Kepeated disapp()intment, long journeys in the wrong direction (as it had proved), over regions whieh had, of course, shown no trace of those we had hoped to rescue — had all combined to damp our feel niLrs. The morning fog broke, and u day, beautiful, serene, and 1/ ?1 18Ji ARCTIC JOURNAL. ,v - •?^-^ im; 1 *• i§' 'A i t'^ ft r' 1 >f.. -f'i. fl^ ; ' , ^ ^ .^ . ., '^ sunny, welcomed us into Assisttance 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 "licsolute," to hear the news, her first lieutenant having been in Assistance Harbour (Captain Penny's quarters) \ip to the moment of our arrival. I then learned that Penny was going to volun- teer to proceed up Wellington Channel, if it cleared out, in one of our steamers; and my gallant friend, the first, lieuten- ant, 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 ])e found an easier road into the o{)en sea seen by Captain Penny than Wellington Channel ap- peared to be. Captain Penny soon joincu us, and there, as well as afterwards on board the " T.ady Franklin," I heard of his proposal above alluded to, which liad been declined. Failing in his (jfler of cooperation, which was for one reason not to be wondered at, — insomuch that our large and elfu'ient squadron needed no assistance either in men or material to do the work alone, — Captain Penny had decided on returning home, believing tliat 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 185*^. * >k m It * It Next morning. .- f ..r o'clock, we were all bound to the eastward. A few ri'uongst thos' f our squadron still hoped by Jones's Sound u^ reach that sea of whose existence, at any rate, we had no longer any doub«- whatever might be its DEPARTURE FOR JONES'S SOUXD. 183 difficulty of access. Oft' Capo Ilotham we found a loose pack: it extended about half way across Wellington ("han- nel, and then a clear sea spread itself eastward and northward along the shores otf North Devon to Cape Bowden. From a strong ice-blink up Wellington Channel there was reason to think the barrier*^ still atlnvart it; we did not, however, go to ascertain whether it was so, but, fivourod 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; tlie news would be unsatisfactory, and, unless Jones's Sound was an open sea, and we could nut therelbre help entering it, there was a moral certainty of all being in England within a short time of one another. And so it proved. Leaving the "Assistance" and "Reso- lute" to join us olT Cape Dudley Diggos, the steamers pro- ceeded, under Captain Austin, with three months' provisions, on the night of the 14th of August, for Jones's Sound. Next mornini; l)rou■,, 186 ARCTIC JOURXAL. '''& V *?" •■^!^-^- ■■ El Sound, N. E. by compass [westicardhj true), for fourteen hours, when, seeing some ice aground, we hauled to. " The next day, being fnie weatlier, we proceeded farther up, and seeing no ice or fish {wh((lcs), a boat was sent on shore. She, returning, reported not Ijaving seen any thing but veri/ high land and deep imter close to rocks on the south shore. " Wo tacked ship, and stood to the N. E. compass (lY. W. tntc); saw some ice aground on a sand-bank, with only six feet water on it at low water, but standiiiL^ on the N. E. compass (iV. W. (rue), found deep water from five to eight miles across from the sand to the north shore. When past the sand, open water as fiir as we could see from the mast- head, and extending from about JV. L\ to N. aV. IF. comjmss (N. W. to W. S. W. true). We then returned, being fine and clear, and could not sec what we were in search of (whales). " Leaving the north land, a long, low point, running up to a table-top mountain^ ive came across to the south side, which was bold land rhjlU out of the sound. " We saw the Pinnacle Rocks at the end of that sound {^Princess Charlottc^s MonunuPt) ; 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 wo 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) Ror ..rt Moore, "Ice quarter-master, II. M. S. 'Pioneer.' "To Lieut. Sherard Osborn." Tlie italics in the abovo letter servo to show how cor- B 9-' :> ERECTION OF A CAlllK. 187 3 which wo rectly these observations of my quarter-master agreed with the sound wo were up ; and taking this, together with the description of the land seen by ( aptain Stewart and Dr. Sutherland, during thoir late journey up tiie eastern side of Wellington Ciianncl, I believe that a vcrv narrow inter- venlng belt of low land divides Jones's Sound from llaring Bay, in Wellington Channel, and that, turning to the north- ward, this sound eventually opens into the same great Polar Sea which washes the northern shores of the Parry group. Unable to advance, we returned, upon our wake, to tlie conical island on tiic north -Ide of the sound ; and a boat, with two otiicers In it, was to erect a cairn. They re- turned next morning, haviu:; .ound. what interested me very much, numerous Esquimaux traces, though of very ancient date, and shot several birds — ;i seasonalde increase to our stock for table-consumption. One of the sportsmen assured me that, in spite of the increased number of ghiciers around us, and other appearances ol'a more severe climate tlian we had been in the liabit of seeing in Barrow's Strait, he. was of opinion that there was much more vegetation in our neigh- bourhood than in the more southern latitude of Cornwallis Island. The specimens of plants brought oif in the boat, such as poppies, saxit'rage, and moss, were all fmer 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 nmcli broken and rent by the agency of frost and water. [Monday, the ISth of August, we proceeded along the northern shore, towards another entrance whieh had shown itself on the north side of Leopold Ishmd, — the Jones's Sound ', retty screw-scjiooncrs thrashing away in gallant style, mitil a dead calm again lelt us to steam our best; indeed, all night of tiie lS)th was a constant heavy tussle with a pack, in which tin- old floe-j>ieces were being EASTERX SIDE OF EAFFLVS BA Y. 189 glued together by young ice, varyiug from two to five inches in thickness; patclies of water, perhaps each an acre in extent, were to he seen from the crow's nest, and frotn one to the other of these we had to work oiu' wav. l)v- and-hy the Cary Isles showed themselves to the northward, and then the flat-topped land between Cape York and Dudley Digiics. (.>ur last hope of doing any service this season lay in the expectation that open water would be found along tiie north- east side of Baflin's Bay ; but this expectation was darnj^od bv the disaixreeable knowledge that oui provisions (jn board the steamers were too scanty to allow us to follow up any opening wo 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. AVe rattled on for Wolstcnholme Island, reached under its lee bv the evening, and edged away to the nortli, (piickly opening out Cape Stair, and fuiding it to be an islaiul, as the Cape York Esquimaux, on board the "Assistance," had lc(l us to believe. Passing sonu:; strikingdooking land, which, although like that of the more soutl\eru parts of ( Jri'cidand, was l)old and j»re- cipitous, intersected with deep valh-ys, yet comparatively free from glaciers, wc saw the I'cxjth Sound of Sir .bdui Ros?, and shortly afterwards sighti'd what j)roved afterwards to be the southern blulf of \Vliale Sound. We could not approach it, however, and, choosing un iceberg, wc anchored our steamers to await an opening. On Thursday, the 21st of August, I started in a boat with Mr. MacDougal. to sec if wc could get as far as \Vhab; Sound. The baydce, in which we could neither pull nor sail, whilst it was too thin to stand u[ton. or track tlio boat through, materially cheeked our progress. Bythe afteni(»on I I- tj<- ^■'-. jiji,. I 190 ARCTIC JOURNAL. w*.t. ," 4 -I Jf li'i 'I", --'d ■ ■ r .:--!»,i »^»^"- V * i we reached a close pack-edge, which defied farther progress ; but, on landing, wc found ourselves to be at the entiance of a magnificent inlet, still filled with ice, which extended to the eastward for some fifteen miles, having in its centre a j)ecii- liarly-shaped rock, which the seamen immediately chiistrncd " Prince Albert's Hat," from its resemblance to a marine's shako. The numerous traces here of Esr^uimaux weie [)er- fectly startling ; their tent-places, winter abodes, caches, and graves, covered every prominent point about ns. 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 tlie 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 an- tiscorbutic 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-dc-roche, besides ]>lenty of turf, which, with very little trouble, would have served for fuel, — and this in latitude 70° 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 VISIT FROM ESQUIMAUX. 191 rogross ; ranee of •J to the .' a ])ecu- iristi-ncd marine's vci'c pcr- I'hes, and Of what ere said, ct on the of which graves, I al of the ,hcre was was seen ns of the I flat shib mass of ives were thy of a ne on the 2\\ to lift, other an- as found on-pride, ■aij;o, and (TV little latitude re (Iviniij d uttered kies, and plalaropes, in small numbers, gave occasional exercise for our guns. The coast was all of granitic formati(.)n : and if one might judge from the specimens of iron pyrites and coj>per ore found here and there, the existence of minerals in large quan- tities, as is the case about Uppernavikj 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 Baftin'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 2()th 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 ! accom- panied by a loud, hoarse laugh. Some of our crew answered them, and then they appeared delighted, laughing most im- moderately. 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 wore fine-looking, wolfish animals, and eitlier white or tan colour. The well- fed appearance of the natives astonished us all ; Nvithout being tall (averaging about 5 ft. 5 in.), ti»ey were brawny-looking fellows, deep-chested, and large-lind)ed, with 'J'artar beards and moustachios, and a breadth of shoulder which di-noted more than ordinary strength. Their clothing consisted of a ■ ( 193 ARCTIC JOURNAL. [, iff' : ' V ■ ■ 'I iw ••i^-'' IV I . !' •■•>,.■ '4 '♦>'!■■' ' dressed seal-skin frock, with a hood which serve a for a cap when it w\as too cold to trust to a thick head of jet-black hair for w^armth. A pair of bear-skin trowsors reaching to the knee, and walrus-hide boots, completed their attire. Know- ing how perfectly isolated these people were from the rest of the world, — indeed, they are said with some degree of prol)ability to have believed themselves to be the only peo- ple in the -world, — I was not a little delighted to sec how well necessity had taught them to clothe Lhemselves ; and the skill of the women was apparent in the sewing, and in oiic 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 pjesented 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 M\as evidently with them a scarce article ; thev 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 shuflling 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 'All GALE IX THE PACK. 193 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 ob- served the remnants of some old oil-cask staves, which once had been in an Euglish whaler. Aur/ust 2Gth, 1851. — Beset against a floe, which is in mo- tion, owing to the pressure of bergs upon its southern face ; and as it slowly coaclnvheels (as the whalers term it) round upon an iceberg to seaward of us, we employ ourselves heav- ing clear of the danger. A gale fast rising, and things look- ing very ugly. The " Intrepid," who had changed her berth from the " inshore" to the " ofishore" side of the " Pioneer," through some accident of ice-anchors slipping, was caught between the floe and the iceberg, and in a minute inextri- cably, 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 por- tion of our crew to keep launching her boats ahead during the night, w^ 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 im- possible — 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 9 y ' * 5 - l IH •':i 194 ARCTIC JOURNAL 'y%. • 'ion they had been placed in trying circumstances by a gale from the southward amongst the packed ice, the extraordinary disap- pearance of which to the northward, was only to be accounted for by supposing the ice of Baflin'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 00° N., to Jones's Sound, in latitude 76° N., a distance of 900 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 con- tinents, where no one has dared to penetrate to see whether there be such or not, and block up natural outlets without cause or reason. 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. ESQ UUfA UX TEA CES. 197 Strange and ancient signs were found by us in almost every sheltered nook on the scalioard of tliis sad and solitary land, — signs indubituhly of a race liaving once existed, ^vllo have cither decayed away, or else, more probably, migrated to more hospitable portions of the Arctic zone. That all these traces were thc^se of the houses, caches, hunting-posts, and graves of the Esquimaux, or hmuit, 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 Es(|uimaux vocabulary, say, that they are one " of the most widely-spread nations of the globe." The scat of this race (arguing from traditions extant du- ring 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 ruinedclrclesof stone, betokening the fonner 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 dillcrent dialects), habits, and disposition. Supposing, then, that from the east of Asia these people first migrated to the American continent, and thence, even- tually 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 ; . .fff 1 ■ w ■?1 198 ARCTIC JOURNAL. liS ^^^ the southern side they were comparatively scarce; and how the natives residiMir in tlic norlhc-n portion of Baflin's Hay should have been ignorant that their i)rcthren dwelt in great numhers southward of the glaciers of Melville Bay. Sonic amongst us — and I was of this number — objected to the theorv Kumniarilv 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 in- creased severity of climate or dimiiuition of the means of subsistence. Our ol)jections 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 Itlver, the Esquimaux traces are less numerous than on the north shore of 13arrow's Strait. To assert that the Esqui maux have travelled from the American continent to the bleak shores of Bathurst Island, is to suppose a savage capa- ble of voluntarily quitting a land of plenty for one of gaimt 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 huge number of the Innuit, Skrailing, 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 to2vards the south, not from the south towards the north, or, what may yet one day be laid open to ESQ LIMA UX TRA CES. 199 the worlJ, reached a liigli nortlieni latitude, in Nvliloh a deep and uncongcah'blc 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 Esqui- maux emigration, as I believe it to have taken place in the north-east of Asia. The Tchuktches, the only independent tribe in Siberia, arc seen to assume, amongst that portiun of them residing on the sea-coast, habits closely analogous to those of the Esqnimaux. 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 nor(h-cast 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, thcv, headed bv 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 exten- sive land" in the very direction the Siberian fishermen declared it to exist. Il is not my purpose to enter into a disquisition upon the causes M'hich 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 favom-ed lands for this grave of Nature '?" Choice it coidd 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 ./-> '^H 200 ARCTIC JOURNAL. m : Jt •*. .J ' »' ' 'I attempt, and the Indian hunter was iinaLle 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 alon<^ the mari>in of the Polar Sea, to confine itself purely to the sea-coast ; and although vast tracts, such as the barren grounds between longitudes 99*^ and 109" W., arc at the present day almost untenanted, still a suflicient population remains to show that an emigra- tion of these tribes had taken place there at a remote period. These people reached, in time, the shores ol' Davis's Straits and the Atlantic Ocean; and, in a line parallel to them, others of their l)rethren who reached the land lately re-discovered, northward of Behring's Straits, may have likewise wandered along the Parry Group to Lancaster Sound. hi order to have done this, land must be presumed to extend from the meridian of Behring's Straits to ^lelville Island, — a point upon which few who study the geogi'a[>hy of that region can have now a doubt; and eminent men havo long supposed it to be the case,* from various phenomena, such as the shallow nature of the sea between the ^Mackenzie lliver and Bchring's Straits, and the non-appearance of heavy ice in that direction — all indicating that a barrier lay north- ward of the American continent. The gallant squadron, under Captains Collinson and ^MTlun^, will, doubtless, solvo this problem, and connect, either by a continent or a chain of islands, the ruined yourts of Capo Jakan with the time- worn stone huts of ^Melville Island. * The present talented hydrogrni)licr of the navy, Sir F. Beau- fort, foretold to llio author, a year before it was discovered, tho exihtcnco of land north of Behrin{^'s Straits. ESQ riJIA rX TRA CES. 201 Hcau- Situated as these places arc, under the same degree of latitude, the savage, guided by the length of his seasons and the periodical arrival of bird and l)east, 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 Ibllowed, as we find to be the case w ith our hunters, sealers, and whalers of the present day. As the northern Es(|uimnux travelled to the east, oflshoots fi'om 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 lioss spoke of their fathers having fished and lived in more northern lands. Thev described the shores of North Somerset sufiiciently to show that they knew that it was only by rounding Cape Bunny, that lioss 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 184S, 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 local- ities were found to abound with ruins: — The gulf })etwcen Bathurst and Cornwallis Land, the whole soutinTU shore of Cornwallis Island, Wellington Channel, Cape Spenser, and Cape Riley ; Radstock Bay, Ommanney Harbour, neai Cape 9* Hi r t ^ .r- 202 ARCTIC JOURNAL. Warrcnder, where the "Intrepid" discovered numerous well- fiiiishcd graves, bearing the marks of a comjxirativehj more recent date. Passing Cape Warrcnder, I supposed tho remnant of the northern emigration from Asia to have stiil 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.) Tiie Arctic IJighlander, 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 skeiv-h of one, and said that thev were spoken of by his brethren : with a pencil he cuuld sketch the coast-line northward oi where he embarked, Cape York, as far as Whale Sound, or even farther, by tradition ; but souUiwurd 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 High- landers, t)r Northern Esquimaux, the stock is not yet extinct. Every whaler who has visited the coast northward of Capo 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 foimd the same thing. The " Inlrepid's" j^eople found in the luits of the natives which were situated dose 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 fioni them. Poor York, who, amongst tho dead, recognized his own brother, described the malady of which they died as one of the chest or lungs: nt any rate, the mortality was groat. ESQ LIMA UX TRA CES. 203 Where did the supply of human life come from ? Not from the south, for then the Northern and Southern Esqui. maux 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 nortlicrn 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 land- ward 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 memorv of livinir men ; but I deny that it would ever be a voluntary act, and there- fore unlikely to have led to the population ^j'l South Green- land. A single hunter of seals, or more, might have been caught in the ice and been drifted across, or u boat's load of women may have been similarly obliged to perform a voyage which would have been very disfnsteful to an Esquimaux ; but such accidents do not populate i-ouiitries. 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 cafit side of Greenland. The Danish surveyors (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 t.hat from the neighbourhood of Smith's Soiuid 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 204 ARCTIC JOURXAL. h » !'.»■ % of spots visited by us in Baffin's Strait, — for V)ay it is not, even if it had no other outlets into the Polar Sea than Lan- caster, Jones's, and Smith's Sound. Revenons a nos moutons ! The 2d, 3d, and 4th of Sep- tenfiber 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 : wo 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 cjuestionable friends; but its crowning triumph was vet to come : the. shtffh sfeamo' Ola. »' was, alone, unaided, to penetrate the pack and seek her miss- ing mate. Find her, if she could; if not, winter, and seek with foot parties, both this autumn and next spring. There was a momentary pang of regret on the morning of the 5th Se])tember, when I first learned that the "Pioneer" was to return into Wolstenholmc Sound with provisions suffi- cient for herself and the " Intrepid"' to meet two winters more ; but [)ride 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 givo them the means of subsistence, to spend the winter with them, and, please (jlt)d, escape next season, if not before, from the disagreeable position into which our summer tour in '<,' SEARCH FOR THE " IXTREPWr 205 ikU isiilli- uters and iii'cn as an givo with Baffin's Bay had carried us : and furthermore, the screws, helpless babes ! were to winter alone, alone to find tlieir way in and out of the ice, and alone make their way iiome, whilst the huge incubi that had ridden us like niglitmaros du- ring the search for Franklin would be (I). 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, receiv- ing abundance of public and private stores, bidding good-bye to our dear brother officers in the squadron, and frien50 miles in the pack of Lancaster. \Vhat say tiiese barrier-builders to the winter drift of the American schooners under Lieu- tenant Dc Haven? Does his marvellous cruise teach us nothing? Between the 1st of November. 1850, and the (5th of June, lvS51, his squadron was swept in one vast field of ice from the upper part of Wellington Channel to the south- ward of Cape Walsinghain, in Davis's Straits, through a tor- tuous route of full 1000 miles ! Yes, reader, tl ic 1 les- cue"' and "Advance" were beset in vounu bav-ice in and about Wellington Channel ; but during the winter, amidst the darkness, air.idst fierce gales, when the God of storms alone could and did shi
id" on the slope of an iceberg, high and dry : yet all arc safe and sound in Woolwich dockyard: the brigs, " Kes- cue" and '-Advance," beset fur 2GT davs, driftinjj 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, lieing 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 sou;id. The " North Star," the " Enter- prise," 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 country- men, 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 sup- pose 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 indiflerence 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 214 ARCTIC JOURXAL. II 1 1 that heroic band, be assured, l)y one who knew many of them intimately and dearly, will despair not, but, tiustiui^f in their God, their Queen, and eountry, they will cling to hope with life's latest breath. They have done their dutv : let us not l)e wnntini; in ours. The rescue of Franklin's s(iuadioii, or the solution of their fate, entails no extraoidinary 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 ellected in the various insurance ofliccs in London with a lighter premium than is demanded for the Bights of Benin or Ben- gal. This is a pretty good test, and a sound practical one, too, of the much-talkcd-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 explo- ration. No loss of life ; (for Franklin it will be time enough to mourn when we know he is not of the living ;) the won- derful proofs lately acquired of a Polar sea ; the undoubted existence of animal life in regions which were previously supposed to bo incapable of supporting animal life ; the result of the deeply philosophical inquiries of the talented geographer, ^Ir. 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 hititude in Baflin'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 noMtiern region, — some krra incor/niia, yet to be visited by us, — encourages us, aye, urges us not to halt in our explo- ration. Humanity and science are united in tiie cause : CHANCES OF FUTURE SUCCESS. 215 ■ yofir ; and so as to llUM'OUS Island, hilhoin VIS. — l'X[>lo- k'uusc : where one falters, let a love for the other encourage us to persevere. Franklin and hU matchless followers need no culoiiv from me ; the sufferings they must have undergone, the mys- tery that hangs over them, are on every tonu;uo in evtrv civilized land. The blooming child lisps Franklin's name, as with glis- tening eye and greedy car it hears of the wonuredly to be found, of their manly struggle, luider hardships and dilficulties, in achieving that \orth-west Pas- sage, in the execution (;f which they liad laid down lliilr lives] and to l)ring back to their surviving relatives and friends those last kind messages ot' love, wliiih show tint sincere alfection and stern sense of duty sprang from one source in their gallant and generous hearts \ Yes, of course it would. Tlien, and not till then — taking this, the gloomiest view of the subject — shall we have done tl6 ARCTIC JOURy-AL. I 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 thoiigh the warrior's sun has set, Its light shall linger round us yet, Bright, radiant, blest!" f/i . ;^i THE END. f Her id not