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Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont film6s en commen^ant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impressioti ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, seion le cas: le symbols — ► signifie "A SUIVRE ", le symbols V signifie "FIN". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre film^s d des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, 11 est film6 d partir de I'angle supirieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants iliustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 t 2 3 4 5 6 M E M I R S O-F LIEUTENANT JOSEPH RENE BELLOT, CIIEVALIEl! OF TIIK LEGION OF IlOXOUn, MEMBER OK THE GEOGHAnilCAi, SOCIFTTES OF LONMON AND PA1!IS, ETC. WITH HIS JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE IN THE POLAR SEAS, IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. ll 'mif ; >lliB.<] Bv 1 ml ■■* K> . 1 TA ^ 1 '.il 'I ' V i ,lW'ii! Hy l i LONDON: TlTTl^ST AND BLACKETT, PTTELTSTIEKS, 81JCCKSS0RS TO IlENKY COLBURN, l;l, GREAT MARLHOROUGJI S'lRHET. 1855. T\w Encflisl- Copyrifiht «f thi> Work i;; tlic jiroju ity "I the rubli-licrs. A ' / -I ■;■,* 1M«i J- CLAYTON, PRINTKH, 10, CRANK COURT, FLEET sniEtl ' M- . r\ t. Ti pa wl vi( pel of J tha int] seal 1A V ■ (o PREFACE. ■■th The publication of this book is a homage paid to the memory of the gallant officer who, at the age of seven and twenty, fell a victim to his courage and devotedness. The perusal of these simple notes, jotted down day by day amidst the fatigues and anxieties of a perilous expedition, will suffice to prove that Joseph Eene Bellot was not only an intrepid, noble - hearted, and enthusiastic seaman, but also one of those superior men who are raised above the common level of l^ li!! m i 'm m 1 ■ ' \'^- ;i: 1> 1- j ■■ : i A \i"i.. a vi PREFACE. their kind by talent, thought, judgment, and science, us well as by grandeiu' of character and generosity of soul. This journal was not intended for the press, at least in the form given to it in the first instance by the young voyager. It was doubtless to have served him only as a me- mento for the composition of a narrative of his first campaign in the Polar Seas, the beginning of which was actually wi'itten by him, and forms the introduction to the pre- sent volume. Nevertheless we have thought it right to publish the manuscript found among his papers exactly as we have re- ceived it from liis family. Even in this crude form we think the book possesses a strong interest, and is of a nature to cast a vivid light on the toils and perils of the Arctic expeditions. PREFACE. VU Tliis edition iias been revised, with the most minute care, by M. dc la Roquette, Vice-President of the Central Committee of the Geographical Society of Paris, and by the Author of the Memoir. Should some errors, nevertheless, have perchance escaped obser- vation, we shall be glad if the reader will obligingly point them out to us, in order to their correction in subsequtnt editions. "We will likewise receive, with no less gratitude, any notes which may be transmitted to us respecting the services which, in the opinion of everybody, Bellot rendered to the two Polar expeditions in which he was engaged, services the importance of which he himself, in the noble modesty and disinterestedness of his character, often seems disposed to conceal. ). "'■. !((!. •mn^ <^ MEMOIR OP JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. i'i I'-i': 'i- ' .1 \ ' ' \ I" I " In promise I have rarely seen, his equal, and never his superior." — Colonel Saiiine. CILIPTEK I. The more I have studied the life of Bcllot, and the more thorough the insight I have obtained into the nature of his mind, his character, and his heart, by the perusal of his journals and his familiar letters, and by the personal recollections of those who were more or less intimately associated with him in life, the better have I come to understand VOL. I. B ti I'- H' li:-" :i.T I;: ■ r\ k- li ii'.y « ',\ III ■i 4' n |i; 2 MEMOIR OP the cntliusiasin which his iiohlc dcvotodncss excited ill England, tlie keenness of those regrets whi(.'h liis loss hud eunscd, and the warm tc.'sliniunies of syinjKithy which his family has received and is still daily re- ceiving. Bellut, indeed, as will plainly ii]>pear to the reader of this memoir, was not onlv a coiu*a- geous and accomplished officer, exalted to heroism by his passion for science and love of glory; he was a choice si)ecimen of na- ture's workmanship; a being in whom it seems that Providence had \mni pleased to unite the highest qualities of intellect, the noblest sentiments of the heart, nnd the most admirable vii'tucs — virtues become, alas! so rare in this age, which abounds more in great talents than in great consciences. En- dowed with a tender heart, which made him love, before all things, what is good; with an ardent imagination, which prompted him to admire, with enthusiasm, what is beautiful ; with a right reason, which could appreciate what is just; and with that sublime faith, bej !■ f JOSEPH IlENK I3ELL0T. 8 wliich has its source in feeling, and derives light from science und reason ; Bellot, in his lifetime of sev(»n und twenty years, so brief, and yet s(j full, accomplished his task as a man in such a manner as to deserve that ho should he held up as an example to all the youth of his own day, and likewise to pos- terity. Truly, as he himself has said in many of his letters, he has left his brother (and many others besides) a good example to follow. *' Put aside," he says, in a letter to his fomily, written 20th May, 1851, on his departure for his first expedition to the Polar seas, "put aside all the English journals in which I shall be mentioned; they Avill be my patents of nobility; they will defray the education of our Alphonse. In lieu of money I will try to give him a good example." Joseph Rene ]3ellot was born in Paris, on the 18th of March, 182G, a circumstance which did not hinder him from always calling himself a Rochefort man, though he did not begin to reside in that city until the age of five years, in 1831, when his family estab- b2 m .( '!< ■ -la I) % ■^SBP^^H^P 1; ti I , 4 MEMOIR OF lishcd themselves there. Eochefort was for him, indeed, an adoptive mother, kind and beneficent; and if Paris had clain-'ed him, the spirit of his reply would have been, "It is not the city in which I first saw the light, but that which has seen me grow up, which has reared and instructed me, tliat is indeed my true native place." It is thus he would certainly have spoken, inspired by that gra- titude he always manifested towards Eoche- fort, and proofs of which I have found twenty times in his journal and his letters, in his scattered notes, and in the very nature of the reception he gave me when we first met, solely upon the ground of my being a Eoche- fort man. Gratitude is only the sense of what is just, and with that sense was Eellot animated from his tendercst years. Even on the form of the school where he learned to write, he gave signal proofs of that goodness which begins in the child with filial and fraternal affection, to become i]i the man charity towards his fellow-creatures, and devoted zeal for humanity. With what JOSEPH r.£NE BELLOT. delightful emotion have I heard his mother and sisters recount to me, with tearful eyes their recollections of his early years — those charming episodes of a past, so dear to the memory of the family ; but the evocation of which is now so painful to their hearts ! How plain was the promise he then gave of what he was one day to be — the most de- voted of sons, the most affectionate of brothers, the test of men ! And how reli- giously his youth kept the promises of his childhood ! Thus did the mother and sisters express themselves, who cannot, and will not, be comforted, because he is no more, as Scrip- ture says ; thus did they speak with the eloquence which belongs to keen and pro- found sorrows, as they culled before me the most fragrant flowers of their recollections. I am afraid that the recital of those thousand little trivial things, by which the heart of a child reveals itself, would lose, in passing under my pen, all the grace with which they came from the lips of the bereaved mother and ( ; ^l^..- -':■■: si) i\ ?5s-a-j-^SHRS iiPiliiliiiliilPi 6 aCEMOIR OF !l ' sisters. Of all such traits of goodness, I will cite only that one which struck me most forcibly. After Bellot had gone th:'ough his ele- mentary course of instruction, at a school for children, his teacher, ^^I. Eichcr, made such a favourable report of his capacity and pro- gress, that the municipality tliought proper to interest itself in the child, and afford his father, a plain artizan (smith and farrier), and burthoncd with a numerous family, some assistance toAvards procuring for him an education capable of developing faculties of such fair promise. At the instance of the mayor, there was granted to him a demi- burse at the College of Eochefort. The city has never had reason but to congratulate itself on this first favour, since thereby it has been enabled to count for something in the education of a superior man, and has won the right of self-distinction by securing it for one of its childrou ; but it was a favour which entailed pecuniary sacrifices on the Bellot family, since it obliged them to pinch JOSEPH EENE BELLOT. in order to defray the complcmont of the college charges. Inconsiderable as Avas the Sum to be furnished every year, it was still a heavy tax on the resources of M. Bellot, who was alri'ady the father of four children. His son was aware of this, and Avas inces- santly seclving opportunities and pretexts foi* testifying his lively gratitude to his parents. Ardent and assiduous in study, he soon dis- tinguished himself among his fellows, and at the close of every year he repaid the sacrifices of the municipality and of his family by an ample harvest of honorary prizes. During his third collegiate year, there occurred a special circumstance, a little characteristic fact, to prove that the boy's lioart was at least on a par with his intellect. The father of one of his fellow-; students, distressed at the incurable idleness of his son, bethought himself one day of trying upon him a new system of emulation. He thought that if he placed by his son's side an indus- trious and intelligent lad to be his com- panion in study, it might be the means of l-i m ' V s'r^ - -««:- ^r . 8 MEMOIR OF stimulating tlic vanity of the apathetic and indolent collegian. Accordingly, he inquired of the provost of the college if he knew in his establishment a youth who was fit to serve as a model and a spar for his indocile son, and who would consent to undertake that office. The provost immediately thought of Bcllot, and promised to propose to his family an arrangement Avhicli could not fail to he accepted. The consequence Avas, that every day for two or three months Joseph Bellot spent at the house of the student in question the hours intervening between the morning and the evening classes. This system produced to a certain extent the result that had been expected from it. Sti- mulated hj the example of the studious boy, the lazy one made up his mind to work, to learn his lessons, and perform his themes and his versions, and the father had reason to congratulate himself on the result of hi's ingenious plan. When the holidays came, he wished, before he left Eochefort for the country, to testify his gratitude to the indus- JOSEPH REXE BELLOT. \S trious conclisciplc wlio had rendered himself find his son so great a service. He thanked him, kissed him on both cheeks, and put a packet of bon-bons into his hand. Little Joseph, enchanted with the present, warmly thanked his benefactor, and then, without waiting to open the packet, ran home as fast as his legs could cany him, to give it just as it was to his mamma. " "Won't I make the hussies laugh!" he cried gaily, as ho skipped into the house ; " look hero, mamma, see what good M. X has given me !" The children immediatcl}^ gathered round tlie table, and began to disembowel the packet, in order to proceed afterwards to a division of its contents, when behold, to their great surprise, the first bon-bon that fell out was a five-franc piece. " How jolly!" cried Joseph; "here's something to buy pretty ribands for my good little sisters !" The bon-bons then fell out one by one, and were taken up as each one's tiu'n came, with merry noiso and laughter. The last one, which lay at the bottom, was =' ■>^ I 'J 10 MEMOIR OF ■Ml wi'appccl up in paper. "What is this ?" they all cried. Ecllot unfolded it and found a piece of gold — twenty francs : a little for- tune for a boy twelve years old. Bellot gazed on the coin for a moment with grave emotion, then, suddenly starting up, he ran to the worksliop, threw himself into his father's arms, and putting the money into his hand, "Here, papa," said ho, "take this for your journey to Paris." For some months past he had often heard his father say, " I want very much to go to Paris on business ; we must put money by for the journey." I know not wL ^ther I have succeeded in presenting this incident as it strikes myself; but I can aver that when I heard it from the lips of Madame Bellot, I experienced the liveliest emotion : to me it was a complete revelation of a noble and disinterested soul. I am passionately fond of those children of whom their j^arents say, that thc^ have nothing the// call their own. It is good that the fair qualities of the heart should take precedence of those of the intellect, and I JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 11 am dubious — often, alas ! Avith reason — of those infantile prodigies who know at ten years of age what is generally learned not until four-and-twenty ; on the other hand, I greatly admire those whose souls alone are precocious. In truth, precocity of heart ex- poses one to much fewer mistakes than pre- cocity of head. Are not the feelings the flowers of the soid, whilst knowledge and talent arc only the fruits of the brain ? And whereas we generally find little savour in premature fruits, we cannot help loving the flowers that bloom in the prime of the season; they delight the soul no less than the sight. Masters and ])arents beware of repressing in the young such impulses of choice natures, and have no fear for their future ! Experience, the contact of the world, and its examples, will teach them selfishness soon enough. Bellot thus pursued his studies at the college of Eochefort, until, at the age of fifteen years and a-half, he was fit to un- dergo his examination for admission into the '■'u; ,i •a ■ M 12 MEMOIR OF n t Hi m naval school. lie obtained tlio twcntiotli place, and entered the school with the assistance of the city of Eochefort, which was too well satisfied with the first results of its work to leave it unfinished, and again granted him a demi-burse. Ilis parents, with great diffi- culty, completed the cost of their son's main- tenance for two years, during which time he merited the encouragements and praises of the heads of the school and the professors, and left it with his name standing fifth on the list. Meanwhile his moral sentiments had fully kept pace with his intellect ; for I have seen letters of his, written at that period, in which the youth of seventeen, relating to his pa- rents that one of his old comrades, after having been expelled for bad conduct, had been obliged to become a common sailor, adds some verj- sensible and appropriate reflections, to the effect how necessary it is for a man to unite moral with mental cul- ture, and elevated sentiments with the ac- quisition of knowledge. Letters, too, which personal considerations forbid me to speak of JOSEPH RENE 13ELL0T. 13 more precisely, furnished nic witli another proof that Bellot, good-natured and indulg- ent as ho appeared with regard to mere ' faults of weakness or erroneous judgment, could express himself with strong and elo- quent indignation against what appeared to him dishonourable, vicious, and wicked ; and that, as Alccste says, for all that was bad he entertained Ces haiiies vigourcuses Que doit (lonncr Ic \'ice aux amcs vcrtucuscs. Bellot stood fifth on the list for promotion of the pupils of the second class, dated 1st September, 1843, his age then being seven- teen years and a-half. Immediately after his removal from the Borda^ the flag-ship at Brest, he embarked successively in the same port on board the Suffrcn and the Frledlmul, During the six months he thus passed in the port of Brest, the young man, just eman- cipated by his aspirant's aiguillctte, did not lose sight of the situatif»n of his family : out of his first pay, out of that first-earned money which people generally feel so much m : m r; /'I : ' '>■■■ la m I' •f • \ II: Hi iil ,i ■ 14 MEMOIR OF pleasure in spending, he found means to save small sums which he sent to his sisters. If I insist on these traits of generosity and good nature, it is because they appear to me more striking and more characteristic than ever in a lad of that age, and in a time in which it has been said, not withovt some reason, that " selfishness was the spirit of the age." It has been my purpose to follow the developments and the several manifesta- tions of the soul, the reason, and the intellect of Bellot, and to indicate them simultane- ously with the events of his life in this essay, which, if I should accomplish the end I proposed to myself, would be as much a moral study of character as a biographical memoir. ill I .1 JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 15 i :l iii CllAtTj^R II. The first care of the yoimg aspirant, ■\vhcu he obtained the favonr of making his first cruise on hoard the corvette Bcrcraii, was to assign to his family, before his departure for the isle of Bourbon, a sum of twenty francs a-month out of his very slender pay as an eleve de marine. His conscience at rest, he embarked, and quitted France on the 23rd of June, 1844. Let us follow him in this voyage, and in the stay he made on the coast of Africa. Amongst his projects, his dreams of the futui'e, and his plans of conduct, it had been Bellot's intention to keep a journal of each of his voyages, and to note down in it, day by day, not only all outward facts, and all his nautical and ^jcientinc observations, but also his private thoughts and reflections — his confessions, so to speak. \ye shall pre- 41! ill' IG MEMOIR OF l:il; *: I ■!!(ll i:- i^:t scntly SCO how lio fiilfillod this resolution. In this journal, which lie had transcribed and was able to revise at leisure, I find, under the dates of 29tli and 3 1st of October, 1844, the following entries, which he did not think proper to conceal, intending no doubt to leave them, like the rest of his life, by way of example and lesson to his }'oung brother : — " 29tli October. We sail tliis morning from Mayotte ; at four o'clock the decks arc cleared, and wc arc not under sail until eight. The Crocodile starts at the same time as wc do. "My negligence and apathy are extreme; I have not had the courage to write home ; so here is an opportunity lost to me through my own fault. It is the first, but I must keep watch over myself, otherwise I shall fall into the greatest sloth. In spite of all my fine resolutions to work, and my recrimina- tions against the jokes of my companions, I have done nothing yet since our departure from France ; and I am likewise afraid of :,il»' JOSEPH KENIi BEILOT. 17 letting myself give yva^- ^o a fault from which I cannot guard myself too carefully. I am not so blind as not to sc^c all theso things, luid yet I have not the strengh to repress these defects. I ought, however, to assume more firmness in the position in which I stand, and bethink me that I must absolutely arrive at something. The desire of showing gratitude for all that has been done for me, ought of itself to constitute a very sufficient motive for mo. Ought I not also to reflect that I am destined to support a numerous and beloved family, of whom I am the solo hope? I am considered ambitious, I am sure — and it is true ; but is there a nobler aim than that for the ambition of a young man? This laudable feeling, I well know, is not the only one that makes me thus con- template all my projects of glory and ad- vancement ; perhaps even there is too much self-love in all my schemes ; but these two motives together must make me desu-ous of prompt advancement. I must work to win a good reputation, instead of lapping myself VOL. I. ^^ c (< '^. 18 MEMOIR OF i!i: ,' 111 <4' lii if: I to sl(^cp ill case and supinencss, barely tole- rable^ in a j''ounf4,~ man wliosc parents arc wcaltliv. I too often for^jjot what I have been : I do not reflect that my father is a poor workman, with a large family ; that he has made very great sacrifices for me ; that all the money I spend uselessly would be of great help at home. I ought to consider, that in those moments of forgetfulness, in which I lavish my money as if I was habituated to abundance, my poor mother is perhaps at her wit's end to provide for the necessities of the family." # 4)1 # # "I am glad to have scrutinised the state of my heart, to have had the coiu'age to explore its recesses, and put my hand on all the unsound places ; perhaps I shall also have the courage to cure them. I will try, at any rate, and by the end of a certain time I shall perhaps come to enjoy that self-esteem which satisfies and renders one happy in all circum- stances ill wliich a man may be placed," "31st October. I do nothing but think of JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 19 France, my goxl mother, and my sistcis ; and when I am an officer, if it be possible to realise my desires, the portraits of tlu^si* dear friends sliall cover the walls of my cabin ; this will, perhaps, make the distance that d^'vides us seem less to me. I have not yet found the strength to execute my ])ioj(^cts of yesterday. There is one I have already formed, which is to copy the roles of the Jena; I know not if I shall fulfil it ; at all events I will try to do so. I ^\()uld fain work, but all I could undertake disgusts and wearies me beforehand : I have so much to do that I know not at which end t( > begin. Drawing and music, which I was so (l<\sirous of learning, remain still strangers to me. The most useful things to which 1 should apply myself are still unknown to iii' . I see that my good resolutions always mv\t away. I must, however, look well to myself." # # « « " It is plain I do not stand very a\ '11 with the commander; I hardly know wiv, for I have always been conscious of the s\ mpathy c 2 tl^ % I A'. I ii 20 MEMOIR OF liii; iSi: [I iii!! I might inspire in any one ; and tliougli he has ahvay been very polite towards mo, I am sure he ranks me in his affections greatly below X . I am, perhaps, too childish, and attach too much importance to trifles, or tliosc little commonplace reproaches which are addressed to everybody; but, after all, I have more confidence in my instinct than in ni)/ :''oason : the end will prove whether or not I have been mistaken. Be the solu- tion of the (question what it may, I must apply myself steadfastly to doing my duty well, and especially to the assumption of more gravity; for I am conscious that I show myself greatly inferior in reason to all my comrades." # # « # What say you to the frankness and good faith of this examination of conscience, made by a j^oung man of eighteen years and a-half ? Those austere judges who esteem above all the good behaviour that is cold, regular, and persevering, will think, perhaps, that ,i)ili JOSEPH RENE EELLOT 21 these avowals are of a nature to depreciate Beliefs cliaracter ; for my part, I could not resist the iiosire of quoting these curioi ' pages, because they bear Avitness to the struggles which the reason and the will of the young and inexperienced man had to sustain against the tendencies of an easily- excited imagination, and the indolent pro- pensities of a mind disposed to reverie and contemplation. With poetic instincts so much developed, Bellot must have been liable to weaknesses ; he must have needed a will, which drew strength from the living sources of his excellent heart, to enable him to over- come himself, and modify the tendencies of his intellectual faculties, so as to move them towards grave studies, and apply them almost exclusively to the positiAC sciences. As for such lapses as those here confessed, I have but one word to saj : — More glorious and more estimable, to ni)^ thinking, is the re- pentant sinner, who is capable of thus cor- recting himself at the age of eighteen, than the cold and mathematical being who has m w U ( ' V 1* ;, J { ' 1 ■ '- m (t Si ■/ ^ 1 ftj w mm wm 3' % ! 'I '''1!) ill:'' m ii Hi 'i ' ; I iliii. 22 MEMOIR OF never Imcl either waywardnesses of the heart to repro'icli himself with, or dangerous temp- tations to combat. In regard to moral as well as material things, we may say with Yoltairc, tliat to conquer without peril, and above all without combat, is to triumph without ,i-';lory. These' extracts appear to me to contain very fiiu^ lessons, and they may be medi- tated ^\\\h advantage by many a mature man, as a\'c11 as by young people of Eellot's age. The ui\glect of his family, Avitli which the young aspirant so bitterly reproached him- self, was, after all, soon repaired ; for I find, under tin) date of the 23rd of November, a long hotter from him, full of details curiously observed at Bourbon, Madagascar, and ]N^ossi- Be. In this familiarlv-wi'itten and charm- ingly good-humoured relation, I remark a quality A\'hich subsequently developed itself in a singular manner in the studious and pensive young votary of science, namely, a truly French gaiety of spirit. '' Whatever," JOSErn IlEXE BELLOT. 23 he pyrites, " be your love for your sou, good mother, and howcyer highly you may think of mo, I must tell you that the said son has served as a bugbear in several villages, in which I have filled the important part of Old Bogy. The mere sight of my face has been enough sometimes to put a stop to the cries aud dry up the tears of a naughty or squalling brat ; so, my dear mother, you have reason to rejoice at my success in Ma- dagascar society." A member of his family, Madame v r ^ a woman of (^xquisite tact and slu'ewd and enlightened judgment, Avho had opportimity to know him well, said of him to me, '' His character was sad and thoui^litful, his spirit gay." In fact, if Bellot thought and acted like an English- man, if he studied, dreamed, and felt like a German, it must also be said that he talked, laughed, and passionately courted danger like a Frenchman. Ardently loving his family, Bellot could also love and value his friends. See in what terms he speaks of the death of one of his m m m ' '' f . . i'l \f^'^ f^l ri. ':l ,l'!l w ■f' 24 MEMOIR OF 11 I': lift Hi •III I i;:r ; m comrades, M. Maurcau, in a letter of the 4tli of May, 1845, "Nvliicli might deservedly be quoted at fall length, but of which I shall only give the concluding lines — "If there is any possible consolation under so great an affliction," he says, "his family may at least be proud of the noble and cou- rageous conduct he has always displayed in the midst of such great danger : sacrificing till hope of saving himself, all instinct of self-preservation, he remains in the midst of those unfortunate men, not one of whom, perhaps, would have escaped but for his presence of mind and firmness. And this was to be the recompense of so many vir- tues, so much self-denial ! O, my God ! we bless the immutable decrees of thy provi- •dencc ; and without murmuring, we kneel before the hand that smites us, supported by the hope that thou wilt not turn away thine eyes from a life all whose acts emanated from sentiments the most generous, and the most worthy of the Son whom thou hast given us for our imitation. May eulogiums so w^ell JOSEril RENE BELLOT. !^0 m closcrvcd, dear friend, find some echo near the friends thou hast left behind thee, and somewhat assuage the bitterness of their sorrows !" The religious sentiment with which this letter is embued, Avill be found manifesting itself in 13ellot's '' Journal of the Voyage to the Polar Seas." Animated by a holy faith which inspii-ed and sustained his courage, the young naval officer, without being a devotee, possessed that true and enlightened piety which gives confidence in God and love of goodness, and is capable of elevating the soul towards the Creator, independently of the creeds preached and the practices com- manded by this or that sect. After friendship and the religious senti- ment, let us see the development of another virtue, intrepidity. It is in these terms that Bellot announces to his family, in a letter of the 1st of July, 1845, that he had been wounded in the expedition against Tama- tave: — '' I have just passed through a fresh trial, till- ti i>i m Mi \\ ' I 26 MEMOIR OP 'lil : ,M my dear friends, and come off with great good furl lino. I have at last received the baptism of lire. I am afraid that the letters addressed by onr commander to the minis- try may have arrived in Europe before ours, and caused alarm in oiu* families. Make haste, then, to reassiu'e yourselves, and recollect that I have a good star which does not forsake me. I have only paid a slight portion of my debt to the country by sprinkling the hostile soil of Madagascar with a few drops of blood. Yes, my dear friends, I have been wounded, but too slightly to give you any possible cause for imeasincss. I received a ball in the thigh, but the wound is hardly worth mentioning, for the ball was extracted the same day; and in a fortnight, at most, I shall probably be looking for the scar." He then goes on to detail the affair of Tamatave, and dwells particularly on the bravery of his comrades. "When he comes to speak of what concerns himself personally, it is thus he expresses himself: — JOSEril RENE BELLOT. 27 "Having been appointed, under the orders of an officer, to dii'ect the lin^ of our two fiekl pieces, I had succeeded in having them mounted on the outer platform. Almost all the men who worked them were wounded, and therefore I was myself pointing one of them Avhen I was shot in the tliigh hy a man who charged us at the head of sev(^ral others. I was ahlc to rise and fire two pistol-shots at my assailant ; others fired at the same time as I ; which of us made the lucki(v4 shot, I cannot tell; at any rate, the rogue fell, and was immediately sabred. In consetpienco of the inclined position in whuli I was placed, the ball, instead of peneti-ating per- pendicularly, ran parallel with tlie b(3ne, and only pierced the flesh. The oul}- pain I suffered Avas during the extraction of the ball, in consequence of its irregidarities and projections." After enumerating the killed and wounded, he adds — " It was an ordeal from which I think I have come off not amiss. I knew veil that ■'I I -' 4'S v ■ y m '! I 28 MEMOIR OF ii: I 'I i i {iSi bl! in case I i'olt four, iny pritio and souse of duty woidd never have forsaken me ; but I am delighted that I have had the trial." In the part of his journal relative to this affair, Eellot is still more laconic on the suLject of his Avound, and he liardly says a word of it in a charming letter he wrote to M. de Lescure, on the occasion of this attack. Nor do I anywhere find, either in his journal or in his original letters, or in those of which I have copies, any mention of the heroic act he performed in April, 1845, in contributing, during an embarkation, to save, at the risk of his life, a man who had fallen into the sea. Here, however, is what Captain Eomaine Desfosses, commander of the naval station at Bourbon, wrote to the Minister of Marine, when reporting to him Bellot's gallant con- duct on this occasion : — "His post is wherever there is a good example to follow or a danger to brave ; in this case, then, he has or^y done his duty. But, nevertheless, I seize this opportunity to point him out to your Excellency as JOSEPH KENE BELLOT. 29 Mi an elivc entirely worthy of esteem and )) interest I am by no means surprised at Bellot's silence on this subject; it is not only through modesty that he does not speak of it, but it seemed to him so simple and natural a thing to expose his own life to save another's, that he did not think it called for a word of mention — it was a trait of character, and nothing more. As to his conduct in action, it was not less highly appreciated by his superiors, for, at their instance, he was promoted to be an ('Uve of the first class on the 1st of No- vember, 1845, and named chevalier of the Legion of Honour on the 2nd of December of the same year, when he was not yet twenty. Bellot, we have stated, was on board the corvette Bcrceau^ which was destined, alas ! to be totally lost at the end of the campaign. It was not there that our dear and illustrious countryman was to meet his death. God still reserved for him acts of devotedncss to r^iJ 4 \ h i -' ' ' I'l m ,,|'f $m f^K' ''::k 1, .r-^F do MEMOIR OF M !!!' i^l; - "I accompllsli, pcrilh to Irave, and glory to acliic've. lie quitted tlic Bcrccaii Ibr the frigiitt! lif'Uc Fouk, the commodore's ship, in which he was uttuchod to tlio .staff of tho station, clioscu as aide-de-camp by M. Eo- main Desl( )sse,s, and specially charged with the service of the signals. " Though greatly engri ssed hy this service," says M. Chasse- riau, in tlie memoir h? pubished in the Mo- iutcWj "a service requiring the utmost vigil- ance and precision, he found time to give on board the frigate a course of lectures on geo- metry and navigation for all those seamen, who being intended for masters of trading vessels, would have to pass on their return the examination in theory and practice re- quired by the rules and ordinances of the marine." We see that the warnings and reprimands he had given himself in October, 1844, had borne their fruit. His will had definitively triumphed over all temptations, and, thanks to the steadfastness of his resolutions, the young aspirant was become not only an in- JOSEPH RENK LELLOT. ai tropid officor, punctual in tlio disoliargc of his duty, but also u well-iufornuHl, pains- takiug, and distinguisliod man. The letter whicli M. ]k)nnaud(?t addressed on the 25th April, 184C, to M. and Madame Bellot, to express the esteem and affection >vith A\diich their son had inspired him, is really very touching, and proves as much in favour of him who wrote it as of him who was the subject of it. It is only the worthy and the right-miiided who thus apprehend each other's natiu'e when they meet on the road of life, and yield at once, at a word, to the sympathy which mutually attracts them : a word, in fact, is sufficient, when in it is recognised the watchword of the heart. Shall I fui'ther cite the words in which M. Remain Desfosses, in his despatch written on quitting the station to return to France, pointed out Bellot to the attention of the Minister: — "He is the most distinguished eltve on the station, for his high intelligence, his character, and his conduct ; he is good for everything, and full of ardour to do i f ! 1 1 hi 1 ■ 4] % V ' ill ^ ^ f: 'Ml' ( 1 i ii 32 MEMOIR OF k cvcrytliiiig ; superior in all points to his age and his position." BcUot remained but a very short while at Bourhon after his commander's departure, and r<'turned to France to pass his examina- tion, and he promoted idmost immediately (15th ^ovemhc^r, 1847) to the rank of cnsciijne dc vtdsscau. lie was then twenty years and a-half old. It was in tliat capacity that ho shipped at first on hoard the Fandorc^ for some weeks, and then on board the corvette Tt'iomphantc^ which sailed for La Plata and Oceania on 23rd July, 1848. With respect to this cruise, I cannot do better than quote verbatim from M. Chasse- riau's excellent memoir. The journal kept by Bellot at that period was not among the papers I have had in my hands, and the letters addressed to his parents relate exclu- sively to family affairs. " For the first time," says M. Chasseriau, '•'■ he had to act as commanding officer of a watch, that is to say, to sec to the sailing V 1 JOSEPH RENE BLLLOT. 33 of the vessel for a while, in the course ordered by the captain. If his experience was at first defective, he failed not to acquire the complete confidence of his commander^ as well as of the crew, who are always so prompt to judge of the hand that directs and the voice that commands. "During the cruise, Bellot had succes- sively the command of the landing party, and of the corvette's guns. Applying himself with tlie most persevering zeal to the study of everything connected with these important details, he also took the most scrupulous pains to train his subordinates well, so as to be the more certain of being always under- stood and obeyed by them. *' On the 1st January, 1850, Captain Sochet, commanding the Trlomphante^ after praising Bellot's character and conduct, said to the Minister, ' He labours at all matters relating to the navy : he possesses an intel- ligence which already gives promise of a distinguished officer.' *' Admirals Yaillant and Laplace, who suc- VOL. I. 1) I 1 ■ i ■ ■ 11 , ^ v ■ • a ! ■,!■ ,-(' '1 '1 i 1 n ... „ i 34 MEMOIR OF cessively exercised the functions of Maritime Prefect in the third arrondisseineiit (at Eoche- fort), were pleased to give this hopeful young officer the best commendations, which he well deserved. "The Tnomphantc returned to Eochefort on the 2 5 til August, 1850, and on the 20th September, Bellot, having quitted the cor- vette, was attached to the depot company." It was on this homeward V03'age from Montevideo that Bellot found himself in the same ship with M. Xavier Marmier. These two distinguished and enlightened men soon understood each other, and the reader will see further on, from the fragment which M. Marmier has been good enough to communi- cate to me, what sort of recollection the travelled writer retains of his young friend. From the time of his qiutting the Triom- phantc, until his departure for the Polar seas, Bellot was but once afloat ; that was when he was appointed to convey troops to Cherbourg in a little transport vessel, which he commanded for a month. This mission, JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 36 which he accomplished in the most satisfac- , tory manner, and a month's leave of absence, which he spent in Paris, in December, 1850, were the only notable events of his life until the 19th of March, 1851, the date of the letter he "svi'ote to Captain Sochet, begging him to solicit for him of the Minister of Marine permission to take part in the new expedition which Lady Franklin was pre- paring to send out in search of her husband. if ! ft ::i • li?'':^^^l . . 1; ;-;.^.| D (> ^m 1 1 i ii\ : • 1 ■ id i i ■' I i [ 4' !i' 86 MEMOIR OF CHAPTEE III. It was no sudden freak, as might be sup- posed, that made Bellot resolve, after making his first nautical essay in the equatorial re- gions, to go and explore the frozen seas in a little English schooner. A very characteristic letter, which he wrote to one of his most in- timate friends, M. Limeau, some time before taking his fii*st steps in this matter, proves positively that this idea, instead of having ari&en suddenly, must have "" oen long ma- tured in his brain. In that letter he stated that, "with a view to his travels in Arctic countries, he had desii'ed to accustom his body beforehand to endure cold, and that to that end he had slept all the winter without a blanket. IN'or was it his body only that he prepared for this expedition, but his mind also. The observations and extracts con- tained in his joimial prove sufficiently that he had long familiarised himself with the JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 37 Arctic regions by reading many narratives of voyages in the Polar seas, written by Eng- lish navigators, and by the study of maps and charts. There is even every reason to believe that his journey to Paris in December, 1850, had for its object the purchase of books and documents relating to those regions. Several motives combined to determine Bcllot to this course. Certainly the love of glory, a legitimate ambition, a certain con- sciousness of his worth, which was in danger of being overlooked if he contented himself with remaining in his rank and merely doing his duty as an ordinary officer, and that sort of fascination which dangers exercise over certain strongly-tempered souls, to which every peril seems a sort of challenge offered to man by natui-e and the elements; cer- tainly, I say, all these had a groat share in his determination. But, besides circum- stances connected with his family and his position, what contributed most to attract him towards this perilous enterprise, and kindle his enthusiasm for the noble cause of . '•; ' ■I ' .'■-■ ' 'I 4'! rl ' I . /f-^ ■BP 1 38 MEMOIR OF hu7"aiiity which he was about to serve, was his ardent admii-ation of the heroic devoted- ness of Lady Franklin, and the lively sym- pathy he felt for the English people, whose respect for Franklin's scientific glory, and whose grand national feeling and truly Chi'istian philanthropy, were displayed in so many efforts and sacrihccs. It may easily be conceived with what en- thusiasm a man of Beliefs mind and heart must have embraced the idea of following such noble examples, and contributing to so excellent a work, when we think of the life necessarily led at Eochofort by this young man of ardent mind, lively and fertile ima- gination, and a temper as susceptible to the weariness of inoccupation as the zest of peril. Now what can a young unmarried naval officer do who is employed in a port ? When he has finished his day's duty, which generally occupies but a few hours, and partaken of the family meals, he has still a great deal of time on hand, which he may spend in study, or in the salons of some of the townspeople ft; UiMr JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 39 who receive visitors, or in the cerclej or in the cafe. Study had certainly great attrac- tions for Bellot, for whose inquiring mind and quick apprehension nothing was too arduous ; but the calm and dc^liberate study of the known sciences, in the silence and solicitude of the chamber, Avas not suited to the man of imagination, eager for movement, athirst for the unknown; the lukewarm beverage of book lore must have seemed insipid to those glowing lips whose thirst had first been allayed by the raciest draughts of study, drawn from the living sources of nature. How cold must the descriptions of travellers have seemed to him who had seen with his own eyes the wonderful spectacles presented by the skies and the landscapes of Africa and South America. How many secrets did this vast and varied universe still conceal for him ! One pursuit alone could have been possible for Bellot, that of science, to be communicated to his young brother, had the latter been of an age to receive such instruction. In that case there is every it' 1 ill II }M-:.:. 'i hi ;^1 if ' 1 i 1 , ):;r w^^ 1 i: 40 MEMOIR OF reason to bcliovo that, finding in that way full occupation for his leisure and a means of expending his activity, he would not have sought any other employment for his over- flowing vitality. Bellot was not a drawing-room man; he; went but little into society, where, neverthe- less, the charm of his conversation might well have made him acceptable, had people taken the least pains to appreciate it. Dancing was the only pleasure he was passionately fond of; but he did not think himself sufficiently expert in the art ; his small stature seemed to annoy him, as if he was afraid of its being too much marked in a quadrille. Besides, opportunities for dancing were not very nu- merous, and he often let them escape from timidity. For it must be confessed, this man, so intrepid in presence of danger, so bold in thought, so ready of speech, always mani- festing such promptitude and presence of mind before assembled men, was excessively modest in all that concerned his renown, and bashful in the presence of women, for whom 1114 : •t ])ers()n- ally, than it had l)(>eii through their inter- change of letters. Hero is Avhat the (niter- prising voyage^' wrote to one of his fri<'nds, on the 1 0th ^fay, 1851, after two intervicnvs with the \\ ife of tlu^ illustrious navigator : — " I r(>c(n\e from the jvdmiralty, as well as from Tiadv Franklin, the most cordial tokens of good will. They did not reckon upon me, and they heliev^Hl full surely that I was dis- couraged hy the statenunit of the l.'udc of comfort in the Prince Albert. Had I felt the slightest hesitation, and you know how far I was from doing so, the interview with Lady Frtinklin would have irrevocably deternuned me to go. That noble sorrow, so courage- ously supported, that indefatigable ardour in the prosecution of projects Avhich many reg.jrd as desperate, and, lastly, the warmth of the thanks, and the sympathies of which I am the obj(X't, redoidde my enthusiasm and my devotion to this hallowed enterprise." JOSErir llENE BELLOT. 47 It is fidmirjiblo to soc tho roooptlon r;, !^|M M ^ 48 MEMOIR OF m it li Since I am in possession of that rather long letter of the 10 th May, written to a friend, the reader will no doubt permit me to digress a little, in order to quote some passages by way of giving a specimen of Bellot's thoughts and familiar style. Poetic by temperament, the young French officer had carried with him, besides his works of science, some books of literature. lie presents himself at the Custom-house, and here is what bcfals him. Some Custom-house officers," he says, take possession of my baggage, and convey it to the Custom-house to be examined. See- ing my trunk filled more with books and papers than with linen, they no doubt took me for a smuggler of prohibited pamphlets ; for in the twinkling of an eye I saw my poor books passed from hand to hand; words exchanged in whispers made me uneasy, and I fancied that some of my travelling companions had furtively slipped something- contraband among my effects, the more so, as, from a distance, I saw a certain number of my books put aside, whilst the rest were Uiiifl! JOSEPH REN^ BELLOT. 49 laid in a scale. Alas ! the poor Byron I carried with me, to warm me up under the icy zones, had been changed at nurse ; it was guilty of having been printed in Paris, and of thus coming into competition with the legitimate progeny of the British press. I was con vinced, I own, and beaten, but much against my will. In vain I offered to paj^ a suitable fine ; all entreaties were unavailing. As for the rest, mathematics, literature, poetry, they were only French, printed lawfully in France, and were appraised only at the weight of the paper and binding, 7s. Gd., the sum which would have been charged as entrance duty on the same number of volumes of ' Paul de Kock,' the ^ Par fait Cuisitiier^'' ox the ^ Art de la Correspondance.^ " Will you see in another not less charac- teristic fragment, how the young man, happy to find everything in London, as well as in Paris, concur towards the success of his enterprise, manifests in his OAvn way the gratitude with which he is filled, and pre- ludes, by a remarkable trait, those religious VOL. I. E it'. p 'um ^4 1 i.ii.iS :t'| 'nffi!^: I* ' 1 'h m i^li •I iC \ 60 MEMOIR OP exaltations with which he will often delight to fortify his soul during his two perilous expeditions ? ''Everything succeeds with me/' he writes to his friend, " and I run up the gamut of colours towards rosy brightness. Ilel]) yourself, and heaven will help you." Further on he says — " On Sunday I went to the Protestant Church. The officer, who had good natiu'edly made himself my cicerone, said to me with so natiu'al an air, ' What churcli shall we go to ?' that I durst not tell him how long it was since I had left off going to mass ; and I Avent as much to avoid giving him a bad opinion of me as from any real inclination. Besides, an effect, contrary to what is generally observed, takes place in me : under affliction, or mere annoyance, I rebel against the rod that smites me, and revenge myself on my own impotence by protest and denial; happiness, on the con- trary, disposes my soul to salutary impres- sions, and I kiss the hand which has opened." I ll'i'iliii^ JOSEPH EENE BELLOT. 51 How that soul was born for conflict with difiiculties, and what chances it had of van- quishing in the great battle of life ! It sought in religious sentiments not, as so many others do, consolation and resignation, but strength and encouragement. Great and well-constituted are those souls which revolt instead of being dismayed at the idea of chastisement, and grow strong and exalted at the prospect of recompense. Do you know how Bellot ends the letter he wrote on the same day (May 10, 1851,) to his family ? ''I recommend to you cou- rage rather than resignation." The whole man is expressed in that simple line. In another letter, written six weeks later, at sea, on the 28th of June, I find an admir- able commentary on this passage. He is afraid that his family are still too ready to give way to uneasiness, and he addi'e«ses this admirable page to them : — " I begin to have breathing time, my dear friends, and I take advantage of it to chat a little with you ; for, be assured, you are my E 2 .1" um li: iiftii ii ii' ' 1 \:$ I m ii w^ MEiMOIR OF .11' ^- 'i •■-.:,r I '! . !■ H 'riNir:n ' constant thought ; and that happiness I pro- mise inysolf when we meet again is one of the hopes which will sustain me, and give me immense courage imdcr our little diffi- culties. After all, you must not exaggerate auA'thing, hut rightly consider that Avliat I am noAV doing thousands of men have done and still do, not, it is true, with the same object, but certainly having to vanquish and sur- mount the same obstacles. Every year a great number of whalers frequent the seas where we now are ; the allurement of gain makes them even incur, in the pursuit of whales, far greater dangers than those which we shall have to encounter. And will not the feeling of honour, and of some gloiy to be won, give the same energy to me as to them ? Is not labouring for those one loves — at the same time recollecting that the more one loves them the more one ought to be prudent and discreet along with being courageous — is not this the surest of safe-conducts? Do you think that God has already snatched me out of greater perils to let me fall under these ? JOSErU RENE BELLOT. 53 With tlic fiiith and belief with which I am penetrated, I think nothing impossible ; and as I am determined to return to you re- nowned and happy, with the grace of God I shall return. I vv'ish I could possess your minds Avith the truth, and that is, that there woidd be no grounds for serious un- easiness though you should not hear of me for two years." * * * Then, after some details as to the resources which the Arctic regions may oifer, he goes on to say, " I dwell upon this, because I assure you that on the brilliant horizon of this cruise there is but one black spot, that is the thought that you will be uneasy. But Avliat if I tell you that one of the most remarkable men in the English navy. Sir John Eoss, A\ho is there, is seventy-eight years old, and that he was detained in those regions from 1820 to 1833 ? Do you suppose he woidd have en- gaged in the adventure if it were immensel)' perilous?" Let me not be reproached for having dwelt so much on these private details, made 'liii. '1 .' V. 1 1' I 1 t i' t '«: ■ I h u if \'\ n I "ho liad passed the winter and made an exploration in that part of the Polar seas.' " On the 3rd Febrnary, 1852, that is to say, whilst he was traA'orsing the Ai'ctic regions, Bellot, Avho was but an enscigne (midshipman) at the moment of his depar- tiu'e, and whose merit had singularly struck M. Duces, Minister of Marine, was appointed :a lieutenant. This minister, having ex- amined the report addressed to him by Bellot on his return to England, decided that, in order to give him the means of putting his notes in order and completing his work, he should be considered as called on a mission to Paris, from the date of his return to France, and that all the time he had passed on board the Prince Albert should be counted to him as service at sea." It was during this residence in Paris that JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 67 I had an opportunity of makin*^' the acquaint- ance of Bellot, who was introduced to nie hy a common friend, M. Dupre, as a townsman of mine. In subsequently recalling the cir- cumstances and details of our first interview, I clearly comprehended the success he ob- tained wherever he appearcul, and the fa- vourable recollections retained of him by all who have known him. Bellot was one of those frank and amiable natures that at once command sympathy. It was towards the end of October, 1852, we dined together, along with the friend who had introduced us to each other, and the dinner was followed by a promenade, which was continued to a late hour of night. Long after our friend had left us, Bellot and I were pacing the side of the Euc Eivoli, next the gardens of the Tuileries. Like the prince in the '' Thousand and One Nights," I w^ould willingly have passed many another in listen- ing to the narrations of voyages through the midst of ice, and excursions over the per- petual snows of Somerset Land, where the I 4 !<■ ',{ fJi iJ ^r^mm I ilJ: i¥ 58 MEMOIR OF passiiiG^ of !i whito boar, tho flic^lit of a bird, tho trackin.c; of a fox, aro iiicidciits of groat iinportaiH'(\ All this was rolatod with such grace and spirit, and with so little pretension, tliat on(^ iiiiglit hav(* supposed tlu^ matter in (piostion A\'as no more than a party of plea- sur(\ And while he was uiU'rathig thus, I remeinher tliat I attentively consider(»d, by the liii'lit of a very brilliant fidl-moon, the short, but well-formed figure of tlie bravo and resolute navigator; that 1 took pleasui^e in searching for and finding in his spirited and frank (h^portment, and strongly-marked featur(\s, the tokens of enterprising intre- pidity and contempt of danger and hardships. Yes, there was something Avhicli demoted the superior man in that brow, always uplifted, which reminded me of Ovid's lines : " Os homiui sublime dcdit, cochimquc tueri, Jussit, et crcctos ad sidcra tollcre vultus ; ' ' in those black eyes, so full of meaning ; that somewhat large nose, with expanded and mobile nostrils; that mouth, Avith lips thick 'i^^■ JOSEPH RENK BELLOT. 50 I Mr in the middle, but sinij^ularly d(>li(';ito to- wards tlic corners; and tliat voice reniai-kably clear and neat in its tone, tlionj^li thv long use of the En«^lisli language had niadi^ the young office!' of the Prince Albert less familiar with his mother tongue, and his dlfficnlty in finding certain Gallican (expressions, Letrayod itself at times by pauses and h(\sitations. On th(e whole of that physiognomy, lighted up by the glowing fire within, might be read almost at a glance, frankness, daring, forti- tiule, intelligence, spontaneity, A'igorous im- pulse. After two or three nu^etings, observ- ing the gentle expression of his black eyes, and hearing his warm words of admiration for all that is fair, great, and good — of repro- bation for wdiat is bad, low", and ugly; his tender recollections of his early youth, and his frequent sallies, inspired by a sort of English humour, and enlivened by the spark- ling of French esprit^ I found that there might be added to that first inventory of the treasures of his rich nature, probity, dis- interestedness, poetry, tenderness, love of l| it J I' 60 ^lEMOm OF ili'r science, facilityj and variety of talent. And how his words, thoughts, and sentimcj^ts kept hold of those whom his countenance had cap- tivated ! IIow prompt was sympathy Avith liiin to change into friendship ! One day, I remember ''and I have found the same feeling expressed in his journal), in talking with me, he deplored his igno- rance of so many tilings Avhicli, ho said, he ought to have learned. And then recount- ing to me the unsatisfied loi gings of his curiosity, in the presence of a nmltitudo of animals, stones, shells, mineral substances, plants, and physical phenumena, he said, that, in order to be a good traveller one ought to bo acquainted Avith all the physical and natural sciences ; that more than once in his excursions and researches in the Polar re- gions, so impoverished in appearance, he had groaned over his OAvn impotence at finding thousands of beings and objects to Avhicli he Avas not capable CA^en of giA'ing a name ; and then reproaching himself Avith the loss of every minute in his life AA'hich had not been JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 61 employed in study, he added, *' When I felt myself in this mood on ship-board, and Avhen I said to myself that I was scarcely more advanced in the arts, snch as painting and music, than in the sciences, then I shut myself up alone in my cabin, and sought consola- tion in reading Shakespeare and Byron." He had, of course, replaced in London the copy taken from him at the Custom- house. I had spoken of Bellot to one of my col- leagues, a contributor to one of our most im- portant reviews, and the latter applied to him for an article on his Arctic voyage. Bellot was approaching the realization of one of his dearest wishes, for he had said in his journal, " I will write books which will be marriage portions for my sisters ;" and he was about to begin the first pages of those books. To this he was greatly encouraged by Lady Franklin, who, in her letters, predicted the greatest success for the narration of his voyage, and bespoke twelve copies of it for herself. '(' I I ' ,Ui i s^ ! i: !'l 62 MEMOIR OF WliiU* h(^ was working iit llio liydi'ograpliic depot ill Paris, wlu^ro lio was coiisidcr(5d as called on a mission, according to the; terms of the lettei' of tlu^ Minister of Marine, dat(Hl 17th .January, in order, says the des- patch, ''to (Miabh* him to complete the work for which he had collected data during his cruise in tin* northern seas,'' Jiellot was at tlie same tinu» preparing 'Aio materials for a work more (>s])ecially intenihul for the public. The thought, however, of returning to the Arctic r(\gions, the idea of going himself in search of iSir ,Iohu Franklin in latitudes not yet exphuHMl, where he thought h(3 might hope for ix^sults more positive than any yet obtained; above all, the prospect of taking a larger share; in Lady Franklin's noble efforts, such were the objiM'ts of his most constant nuHlitations. If he had refused the proposals nuuh; to him by Captain Kane, the American, to act as his second in com- mand in an t^xpedition destined to examine Smith's Sound, and explore the lands in the vicinity of the North Pole, it was be- JOSKI'It RENE JJKLLO'J'. C3 caus(> lie still hoped tluit iVaiuu; Avould doc'i(l(! oil sending out u ship to tlios(^ lati- tudes, already visited by tlu; English, the Americaus, and tlu; Uussiaiis, and that, of course, lu^ sliould bo called to take part iu it. Since his return to Trance, ho had thrown out, hen^ and tlu^re, s(jiiie words, which ho called his trial balloons ; but ho juid becai n^plied to only in a very evasive manner, and there secnu^d little disposition to second his vi(3WS. So at least it a2)pears from lh(i vci'ii yiivak and conjuknilal letter lie wrot(> to Lady Franklin on the 4th of February, 1853, in which he speaks of the little chance he sees of succeedin,i>" in his cftbrts, and of his fear hist, if he asked cate- gorically to have a French expedition sent to the northern seas, ho sli(juld be accused of ambitious or interested views. There is no need for me to comment on the extreme delicacy of his fcH'ling in that re- spect, or on the superb hij:,h-mindedness of Lady Franklin, who replied t(j him by return of post, on the 7tli of the same month, pro- '1 i' m A HI A nS (^ % 1 'jPJI.I if : '' f 1 i; I* r^ 64 IMllMOIU OF ])(>siii!4' (() liiin l]i<» coininjiml aiid owiicrsliip of ili(^ hdhclld sicamcr, wliicli sli(> was j)r('pur- iiig specially for an cxju'ditiou to IJohrliig'a ^trails. Ill (ho saiiK^ loltci", slu^ aiiiiouncod to lilm thai (*ap(aiii IvoniKMly, tli(» coiri- in:ni(Un- of tho Prince Mhcrl^ was disposed to S(M-v(' undc^r tlio orders of hiiu who had heeii Ids liiniieuant, and a(hls, "you know that the orew of the Vrlncr Albrrl are nnidy lo go Avilh you wh(M'(>ver you ehoos(* to lead Iheiu ; however, you shall Ix* fr(H> t<) choose your own uuMi--aud even, if you like, to takc^ witli you in this (wpedition two or Ihrei^ of your own count rynuni in whom you have conti- deuce." As for tlu^ exp(Mises, the nohle and courageous lady added souu> nMiiains of her fortune to the amount of a suhscription raised hy the colonists of Van Diemen's Land. Bidlot still rt^fused, being afraid, ho said, k^st this extreme confidence reposed in a Frenchman should produce a bad effect in Enghind, and Aveaken the sympathy with which Lady Franklin inspired her country- \i .WV> s. JOSKlMf IJKNK lU;F,Lf)T. G5 iiHMi. Tf was in vain slici insisted, and did all in licr iM>\v('r to dcMnonsti-atc to liim tliat tlic Kinjjjlisli seamen rei!,a!'ded liiin with no jealousy. " "^f^'^W T<',ij;ard you witli equal attaelinient and admiration," slio said, " aud will look upon Avliat F [)ropose, to you as tlie most natural and pi'oper tliiug iu the woi'ld." ^Vt'ter tliesi^ several refnsals, wliieli t(^stify hii^hly to liis delieato modesty and rare dis- interestedness, tlie youncj Fnuioli officer resolved to try the Minister of Marine; oneo more, and addressed ji lett(;r to him on tlie 20th March, wlunxMU lie bi^gs "permission r(\sp(!ctfully to call liis attention to the fol- lowing points : — " 1. The various expeditions hitherto sent out (in search of Franklin) have served only to ascertain th(; plac^es where; Franklin lias not been, and it is only since last year that the direction he has probably taken is known.* ♦ It appears, from a document published a few days ago in the Moniteur de la Flottc, that there has been expended from VOL. I. F t 'Jij' ■ I *^ ii 1* 'U .■ ii 1 1 iS, ■V, ' :i m " s I,i^ !;.: fy !:il. 60 ?in;.M()iu OF ^'2. Tli(^ iinH> wliicii luis elapsed since JiU (Ic^puri'irc^ is not an irrefutable argument against tin* (^xist(^ne(^ of his crews; since there are precedents of tlie same nature, the issue of Avhic]i lias been prosperous. '' 3. It is known that there are in the most nortlKU'U countries material resources of which men of eutn-gy may avail themselves ; the provisions taken out from England Avill, he- sides, ha^'e lasted th(> longer in consequence of the vacanci(^s which death has nt^cessarily made in those numerous crews. '^ Thus the (piestion as regards Franklin and his men reduces itself to knowing where they can be at this moment. Kow, we .are at this day only at tli(^ threshold of the dis- coveries in Avliich he was engaged, and there is an extent of unexplorcnl territory infinitely more considerable than has been traversed to the present time. My own views, which 1815 to 18.j 1 more than uiiictccu inlllious of francs (£700,000) for the expeditious sent in search of Sir John Franklin ; to such a pitcli can the sentiment of humanity rise among a com- mercial and free people. This fact alone would be enough to prove that England is a great nation. ijyiii josErii rem: heli.ot. 67 coincido with Ihoso of Lady Franklin, and arc su})p(n'to(l by tlio opinion of several men of science, are, that the admiral lias made his way into tlu^ Polar hasin, and that nnder f abl( hich have ub- ivouraoie circnmstance scqncntly reenrrcd, Ik* Ikis pcn'haps reached u point to the Avestwiird of IJehring's Straits, and that he linds it impossible to retnrn thence, whether it be that Ills ships have been wrecked, or that they have been irre- mediably sluit in by the northern ice. Experience in those seas, moreover, con- futes the idea of a catastroplie which should have swallowed up everything, Without leaving iit least some ^'estiges. ''There exist three routes for arriving at the Polar basin : that which bifurcates erst and west at Spitzbergen ; Baflin's Bay ; and Eeliring's Straits. Franklin has only been sought for to the north of America, and he is perhaps northward of Asia : what I pro- pose, is to seek for him in the latter direction. '' In an enterprise which interests science f2 I '¥n ■ 'I 'i ! 1 4 i' •l^' m IS m 68 MIIMOIJI OF !l ? (uul liumanity, no efforts ojiii hv without value, if thoy are usefully aud eourap,(M)usly directed, liut as the last rout(^ hiis heeu takcm by oth''s, Straits wonld now am\o there too hxte to hegin its researches and discoveries this year; but it wonklbc easy for it to eniph)y its time us(;fully luitil the favourabh^ epoch, either at Japan or anion;^ the winders. On the (;on- trary, an expedition to advance northward, between Bpit/l)erg(;n and Nova Zenibla, would be ready soon enough in the month of June, and if it succeeded in doubling Cape Sacre, it might make its way out in September or October by Behring's Straits. "Admiral Franklin has right of city among ns, as a member of the Institute, and of the Geographical Society, which bestowed its largo gold medal on him in 1827; and, besides, has our country, ^^•hicll has produced all kinds of glory, and recognises them all^ over inquired of a glorious renown w^iat is its flag ? Yet, of the four great maritime poAvers of the world, we arc the only one j/. m K.-i ! = ri m t I . Hill I I r II!': 70 ilEMDlK OF I ii wliit'li luis not yot sent out iiii expedition in seareli of him. " Kussiti is oxi)loring the nortliwest const of America, and tliat of Siberia. " The United States has s(>nt out two ships, and is fitting out a tliird, of which it has been proposed to me tliat I shoukl be the second in command, to go in the direction of Louis yapokM)n Ishuid. '' Enghnid, Avliich has ciglit ships at this moment in the Arctic regions, is again scnd- ini? out Captain Ini'leiiekl to re-"»"iv.[iial and reinforce tliat sqiuidron. "Lastly, Lady Franklin, gathering toge- ther the remnants of her fortune, offers mo the chief command of the Isabella steamer, in AYhich my friend, and former ca})tain, M. Kennedy, proposes to serve under my orders. " 2VII agree, then, in recognising the neces- sity of new efforts, and certainly the field of search is vast enough for the participation of all civilised nations in an enterprise in wliich there is honour, glory, and profit. In the JOSEPJI JlKNi: HKLLOT 71 cruiso 1 iriiido {iiiioiii!,' tlu^ ]*]iii;lisli ami tli(> AiiU'ricaiis, it was c^asy Ibv me to (lisciTii that wci possess all tlic cloincuts of .success ill that ex(u»ptioual navigation. It was owing only to nnl'ortnnato oircninstancos, tliat aftor tlio discovery of tlui N(nv World, W(5 did not •>,'atli(n', in the way which was opened to ns to the north, nnmerons germs of imiritinio power and comnu^rcial wealth. " I will not allow myself, Monsieur le jVIhiistre, lo insist I'nrllier on the various as- pects of a question which I suhmit to your enlightened appreciation. If the principle of an expedition was onc(> admittcnl, I Avould hold myself in readiness to furnish you with all the information you might do nic the honour to require." Eleven days after the despatch of this letter, Bellot, who was ahsolutely resolved not to let the season of IS-jo pass hy without returning to the Arctic regions, wrote again to the Minister of Marine (31st ]\larch), to request his permission to emhai'k in the Fluvniv^ commanded hy C^q^tani Inglefield. '1 « ^ ^ 1 Tiii \ 1 1 ■" 1 ' ■ . i t - • \ > 1 ,i ' 1 l:il m U m ^pp 1 i 72 Mr.MOlR OF TIo sot out almost ininu'diatcly for liOiidoii, ;niv(»rost privations and hardships, and tho most torrihh^ danu'ors; aftor sooini;- him hooonio familiar with tomporaturos of which wo oun hardly form a concoption, with tho ohaso of tho whit(^ hc^ir, with niarohos ovor ioo, whirlwinds of snow, painful oph- thalmias causod hy rofraotion, and with want of food, thoso who thiidv thoro was some oourago in voluntarily oneountoring those trials whon still uidvuown, will agroo with UK that thoro was actual heroism in goin^' again in search of thom aftor having onco before confronted tlu>m. TIk^ first stop may in strictness bo accounted for by tho ardour of an imagination impassioned for voyages, and 3'oaruing aftor tlu* indvnown ; the second stop, and the pleas willi whicli it was ac- i ) JOSKI'ir ItENi: HEI-LOT. ; l-ii companird, cuii only hv explained by an exalted zeal for a hallowed cause, and by the niOHt landabh^ of all anil)iti(His. O mudoni socii'ties ! O (jivilised nations ! wish that you may bring forth many am- bitious sons of this eharaeter, of this ster- ling metal, Avho, disengaged from all personal views, can with such nobh^ disint(*restcdness devote tlunr lives for the sole good of science and humanity. I ': i ■',; i '. s. f ■ ll I , ■■ .,1 m r- ■\ : 1 i i MEMOIR OF ClIArTEH IV. '■i ■ I: I AM iipproti filing tlio clo;-io of that flue oxisteiico, so sool cut short. JJellot is on board tlic Phoenix^ T«'hi('h bears him away from Europe, to Avhich it \;i\\ never bring liim baek. lie Avrite,-! on tlie 14th June, 1853, to his friend, "vl. lameau, a letter of charming gaiety, the beginning of which, however, dem'es u \i)v\ atfectini*' character from the subsequent event. '' We arc nearly in sight of Ciipo Fare- well," he says, " the southern extremiiy of Greenland ; and I Avill not insult a linguist by explaining that it is the capo of adicnix, and that these are the concern of the moment on board Her Britannic Majesty's ship Plivenix, I beghi then by making my adieux to you, in order to conf(jrm to the custom." Then he relates with admirable modesty and spirit the triumph lie obtained on the day of his presentation to the Geo- josErii HEX!'; bfllot. to f^rapliiciil Society of liOndoii, and tli(> im- pressions left on Lis mind by his recent visit to Ireland. There is sometlung heartrending in the perusal of this letter, one of the last ho was ever to writ(> — a letter so full of present gladness and liope in tho futur(\ It is like the echo of a fi-iend's laughter who is no more. His last letter was addressed to M. Enule dc Bray, cnsciyne do vakseau in the Frcmcli navy, who, in imitation of liellot's example, had asked leave to takc^ part in an expedition to the frozen regions, and Avas on board the Resolute^ an English man-of-war. It is dated from Erebus and Tc^-ror I5ay, August 8. It was from that bay that Bellot .set out on the 12th August, upon the excursion in which he was to perish. Captain Inglefield had left the FJiwnrx U\o days before, to go in search of Captain Tullen, who had been separated for a month from his ship, Nmih S'far, which remained in Erebus and Terror Bay. His intention was, innnc- diately on his return, to devise means for .^'i" ' uM I . Jipni' 76 MEMOIR OF •i !■ forwarding tlio Adinirtilty dospatclies to Sir Edward Bclclier ; tlio transiiiissioii of those despatches was one of the special and urgent objects of the mission of the PJmnlx. Now, Captain Pullcn having re-appeured shortly after Captain Inglefield's d(^parture, Bellot, who knew how important it was that the des- patches should be promptly delivered, and was always ready to encount(>r every danger, thought it his duty to anticipate the com- mander's return, lie conferred with Captain Pullen, whom he left with the two v(\ssels, and set out on the 12th August, accompanied by the quarter-muster of the JVorfh Star and three sailors, and taking with him a sledge and an india-rubber canoe. It was supposed that Sir Edward Belcher Avas in Wellington Channel, in the neigh- bourhood of Cap(^ lielcher. In that direction, therefore, the little troop set out, marching close along the eastern shore of the chamiel. After encamping the first day three miles from Capo Innis, tlii^ live men halted next day, on detached blocks of ice, about three \ ! . JOSEl'K ItENK BKI.LOT. 77 miios from C-apo B(nvdcn. On tlu^ iiii>'lit of the 14tli, on (flitting tluit capo, tliey liad to ci'o.SkS a cleft in tlio ico, four feet Avide, Avliich they effected prospcM-ously enouf^-li. They were three mih^is off land, where Bt.^Uot pro- pos(>d to encamp, and he tried to reach it in tlu; India-rubl/cr canoe ; but being twice driA'cn back by a violent gah^ from the south- east, he determined to have an attempt made ])y two of his companions, Harvey, the fpuirier-master of the North Star, and Mad- den. The attempt succeeded, and once on shore, the two men fixed a pass-rope be- tween the sledge and the coast, by means of which three objects could be transported. A fourth trip Avas about to be undertaken, Avhe.i Madden, who was up to his middle in the water, perceived that the ice was setting itself in motion off shore and to- wards mid-channel. Bcllot shouted to let go the rope ; an effort may yet be made, a hope remains; but the motion of the ice is so rapid that, before any measure can be taken, it is already at an enormous distance from the shore. ^' I then Avent to the top of a hill 1. 1 . i ■\m t 'Mi ^""Tf"*"" 78 MIOMOIK OF to ^vatc'li tlioni," says Madclwi, in his depo- sition, " and sav/ thoni swept awa}' from land towards niid-cliannol. 1 Avatclicd from tliat spot for six hours, hut lost sight of them in two. When they passed out of sight, the men were standing neai- the shnlgc^, M. Ijellot on the top of th(; hnnnnoek. They seemed to bo on a very solid pieci^ gf iee. At that mo- ment the wind was blowing sti'Qngly from the sonth-east, and it was sno^rlng." That moving mass of ice, thns driven northward by a furions gale, carried away the nnfortnnate Bellot and two sailors Avitli him, AVilliam Johnson and David Hook. After vainlv endeavouring to shelter them- sches under the tent with which their sledge was loaded, the three men began to cut a honse for themselves in the ice Avitli their kni\es. lint let Johnson speak; his deposition is pi'eciso, and nevertheless very touching : '' M. Bellot," he says, " sat for half an hour in conversation with ns, talking on the danger of onr position. I told him I was not afraid, and tluit the American Expedition JOSEPK RENi: IJELLOT. 79 wore drawn up and down tliis ciianncl by the iec. llo vcplicd, ' I know ilwy ^\•e^o : and when tlic Lord prrjleets us not a hair of our lioads shall be touched.' I th(ni asked ]\r. l>cllot, wliat time it was. lie said, ' About a quarter past eii^lit A.3r.' (Tliursday the 18th), and then hished up Ids books, and said he wouUl go and see liow the ice was driving, lie had only been gone about four minutes, when 1 went round the same hummock under which we were sheltered to look for him, but could not sec him ; and on returning to our shelter saw his stick on the opposite side of a crack, about five fathoms wide*, and the ice all breaking up. I then called out, ' Mr. Bellot ! ' but no an- swer (at this time blowing very heavy). After this I again searched round, but could SCO nothiuii: of him. I believe that when lie got from the shelter the wind bhnv him into the crack, and his south-wester being tied down he could not rise." David Hook, liellot's other companion, de- posed that before the breach in the ic(^, and the attempt to land, some one liavhig said , I *! ■1 { 1 } ^ p^ I .fli I I (: Im ! i j:ii 80 MKMoiK or that it would 1)(^ iiioro pnulont to keep the middlo of tlio cliuniiel, Bcllot, lieuring these ■words, replied that Captain Pulkni's orders were to keep along the coast to the right within about two miles of it. This last trait, and the whole of this scene, complete the moral portraiture of Bellot, a slave to duty, sacrificing his oAvn safety to it, and incessantly disposed to devote his life, confronting death like a man full of that sublime confidence, that holy faith, which keeps the soul always in readiness to appear before its Creator and its Judge ; that faith which inspired the navigator of the sixteenth century to utter the fine saying, " Heaven is as near by Avater as by land." The reader has seen in the course of this memoir with Avhat sentiments of esteem and affection Bellot inspired all who knew and came near liim. Yet I cannot insist too much on this point, for it is, in my opinion, one of the best eulogies that can be pro- nounced upon a man to say of him, "He was a man to invite sympathy and deserve affection." I am happy, too, to be able to add JOSEPH RENE BELIOT. 81 to my testimony that of ii distinguished writer, M. Xavier Marmier, and to quote, at full-length, a fragment he has devoted to Bellot, in a paper intended for a review, and which he has been good enough to communi- cate to me before hand. " Let me be allowed," he says, " to add a personal reminiscence to the just eulogies which the press of France and that of Eng- land have bestowed on M. Bellot. I knew him in South America, and from the very first he Avon upon me by the affability of his language, the modesty of his character, and the sterling qualities of his mind. "We came back thence together in the Triomjihante ; and during a passage of two months, our inti- macy, begun in Montevideo, drew closer at every degree of latitude, and with every day's intercourse. " Born in a very hunibh^ condition of for- tune, M. Bellot owed to the kind interest of some respectable families of Eochefoi't his fii'st assistance in life, and to himself only his rank in the navy. As a pupil of the VOL. I. a- !h ill ! 'M ■ \A « l^, 1 : H; 1 i ' :' 1 ■,■ f-i : 'i' i 1 i^ .,.j.i. \ 1 A' 82 MEMOIR OF III I Bchool of Brest, he distinguished himself by his eager desire for instruction ; as an en- seigm de vaisseau he gained the cross of the Legion of Honour by a brilliant action. Stationed in La Plata, he employed his leisure on shipboard in useful studies. By his own efforts, without the aid of any master, he had already come to speak Spanish and English perfectly ; and he proposed to learn German in the same way. At the same time he applied himself diligently to geogra- phy and hydrography. He drew plans and maps, one of which he gave me, which is a model of neatness and precision. In the perpetual activity of his mind, he sought repose from one task only by taking up another. His reading hours were his hours of delight. He ransacked with a transport of happiness the collection of books I had made on my way from Quebec to Buenos Ayi'os, and every book he read gave a new impulse to his thoughts, and became for us a new subject of conversation in the long evenings we passed together, carelessly i li:l il JOSEril RENE BELLOT. 83 soatod on i\\i) poop, and fanned l)y tho warm (Mpiatorial Lroozos. I used to say to myself dnring this long course of constant observation, that he was preparing for him- self a brilliant future, and that lie woidd one day do honour to our na\'y. " He AV^as soon to pay for that honour with his life. " We parted at Eochefort, bidding each other a cordial farewell, and exchanged some last tokens of friendship. Three months afterwards he went to Paris, exulting in the resolution he had just adopted. " Condemned by the usage of the navy to remain, pc.'rhaps for a long time, inactive at Eochefort before he could get another ship, \^ wrote to Ladv Franklin to offer her his ser- vices ; and obtained leave from the minister to go out in the vessel which that noble woman was equipping at her own cost for another search after her husband. He de- parted with the glee of a high-souled soldier, who rushes into the thick of the fight to win his spurs at the risk of his life, x^o vulgar g2 :U| ,i ' ■ I ( t ! 1 ■.!} ' ti ]■ '•v'n M \ i' M I 1- 1 ' 1,' l^-l i^lb. I ll^il ii:ii 84 MEMOIR OF calculation sullied his purpo.s(\ He refused the pay which Lady Franklin offered him when confidiug to him the post of s(3Cond officer of the Prince Albert. lie wished to riCprcsent his country worthily among the English by his disinterestedness, as well as by his courage. *' By the gaiety with which he talked to mo of his voyage in prospect, he made it seem attractive to me. Though I knew the dangers of explorations in the Polar seas, having ventured there a little myself, I beheld his departure Avitli confidence, and looked forward to his return in a year or two with the joy of having accomplished an im- posing task. I was never to see him again." Need I here recount all the testimonies of sorrowing sympathy which his family has received since it lost that loved one, who was its pride, and was to have been its fortune, as he was, and would have remained, an honoiu* to the French navy ? But be it well known, that it is not alone the intrepid seaman and scientific officer we should mourn U:i JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 85 in liiin, but still more tlio wariu-liourtcd iiiuii, as generous, disinterested, and good, as he was well read, intelligent, and courageous. Would you know in wliut terms I^ady Franklin has written the funeral oration of this rare being ? "That brave and generous young man, whom I loved as a son, to whom I owe so much, who represented so nobly the honour and chivalry of France, who was loved and respected by our sailors as a brother — alas I he is no more. lie died as he lived, like a hero and a Christian." ]3ellot has not been wept only in France and England. The Esquimaux, on hearing of the death of the young Frenchman, when Captain Inglefield was on his way home, cried out, "PoorBellotI poor Bellot!" and they shed tears. "Would you know what had made them love Bellot ? During the voyage of the Prince Albert ^ the young officer, having seen an Esquimau with a broken leg, dragging himself painfully over the snow, designed a wooden leg, and had it •t i <,,i ^,:l I ' 1 . w i^'tl i J I J ' -I *!^ m ^•■'\n m IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) h^ ^ T // ^,/ ^-^^^^ y 1.0 1.1 ■tiClS 12.5 L2I 114 IJ.6 6" VS V3 V ^>. Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 iV <^ ^ \a «^ >v o^ SI o^ ^Twm 't i- i 86 MEMOIR OF made by the ship's carpontor for the unfor- tunate cripple. The Esquimaux did not forget this act, a very simple one, it is true, but the thought of which could only have occurred to a choice heart. His mind, as exalted as his heaii", from which it seemed to emanate directly, had learned betimes to judge soundly of human affairs ; he kncAV when to lift up and to lower his eyes, to look above and below him; above, to inspire and fructify his noble and legitimate ambition ; below, to compassionate his fellow-creatures, disinherited of corporeal enjojnnents, and the blessings of education; and to consider himself as one of the fortu- nate in this world. lie admired the powerful and the able without envying them ; knew how to be dignified without misplaced haugh- tiness in presence of the rich ; kind and humane, without ostentation, with the poor. These qualities were completed and enhanced by a perfectly natural modesty ; he was devoid even of the justifiable pride of ha\'ing made himself what he was ; he neither con- lii.J JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 87 cealecl nor paraded his origin. And yet he was, and felt himself, capabh^ of placing him- self on a level with all positions, all glories, all fortnnes. His frankness of manners, without rude- ness; his facility of character, without weak- ness or levity ; his amiable and natural freedom, without familiarity; his extreme, but not promiscuous, kindness of heart ; his generosity, his disinterestedness, and his courage, without boa >tfulness, won at once upon the English, who soon came heartily to love the Frenchman whom they had begun by liking ; and we may assert, that it was not only his own opinion, but that of the whole Admiralty — what do I say ? — of all the English seamen, as well as of all those who have known Bellot, which Colonel Sabine, the eminent English natural philosopher, expressed in this phrase, in his letter of con- dolence to M. de la Roquetto, on the death of the young lieutenant, " In promise I have rarely seen his equal, and never his superior." Julien Ij-:mer. m m 1 I ,wm 1 1 u ( I 88 INTRODUCTION. INTllODUCTION.* This expedition, unimportant perhaps as regards the magnitude of its discoveries, is yet interesting in many respects from its at- tendant circumstances. It opens a new era in the series of voyages to tlie Arctic regions, by the manner in which the land journeys were accomplished, at a season of the year in which the preceding expeditions hardly quitted tlieir encampments. It marks an epoch, too, in geographical history, in a national point of view, through the participa- tion of an officer of our navy in the dangers and toils of a complete exploration in the Polar seas. For the first time, a French voyager has braved the rigours of winter in those * We think we cannot do better than prefix to Bellot's journal, of his voyages the report published by him in the Annales Mari'tmcs, which epitomises in a few pages the object and scope of the expedition, of which he is about to relate the details to us. INTRODUCTION. 89 regions, and is able to fui'iiish respecting them information which heretoforo we bor- rowed only from the English or the Russians. A few lines will serve to make known the state of things at the departure of the ex- pedition. Captain (now Admii'al) Franklin had for instruction to go and reconnoitre Cape Walker in Barrow's Straits ; then, shaping his course to the south or south- east, he was to try, without making more westing, to reach the northern coast of Ame- rica. The last news received of his expe- dition arc of the date of the 2Gth July, 1845, at which period he had provisions of all sorts for three years, without reckoning the re- sources which the navigators might find upon their route. The Erebus and the Terror were then in the middle of Baffin's Bay, in latitude 74° 48' and longitude C8° 13' west of Greenwich. In 1848. thi'ce expeditions were sent after Franklin: Sir James Eoss, by Baffin's Bay; Sir J. Richardson, by the Mackenzie River, on the coast of America ; and Captain Moore, by Behring's Straits. : ifSF :« a til ■.. ii n % r 1 If 1 ■ 1 ^(Pi»1^«-^^ »,i jpii mi' I i 90 INTRODUCTION. Ecturnlng without success, these expeditions were succeeded iu 1850 by others, sent in the Siimc directions; besides which, endea- vours were made to stimulate the efforts of individuals by considerable rewards which the (Tovernment and Lady Franklin offered to the whalers, which should seek to obtain, or wliicli should furnish information respect- ing the fate of Franklin's crews. Commo- dore Austin, with four ships, the whaling Captain Penny, with two vessels, joined Captain Sir John Boss, and an American expedition, generously titted out by Mr. Grinnell, a merchant of I^ew York, but commanded by officers of the United States navy. Lady Franklin, whose admirable devotedness has contributed as much as her husband's labours to give celebrity to the name of Franklin, sent at the same time a small vessel, the Prince Albert j to explore Prince Eegent's Gulf. Franklin, obeying his instructions to the letter, had no doubt become inextricably en- tangled in the narrow channels and among 1 , 1 INTRODUCTION. 91 the unknown islands which exist between Banks' Land and A^ictoria and Wolhiston Lands. Admitting th(^ hypotliesis, tliat he had lost his ships, it is possible he may have endeavoured to reach the continent of Boothia in boats ; and this supposition be- comes still more likely, if we recollect that at the time of his departure. Dr. Kae's labours were imkno^vn, and the junction of Prince Ecgent's Straits with those of Dease and Simpson Avas believed in. It was to meet this contingency that the Prince Albert was sent out. Unfortunately that small vessel, after a remarkable navi- gation at the entrance of Prince Regent's and BaiTow's Straits, was obliged to return to England, whither, moreover, it brought back very good news of the progress of the Arctic squadi'on; and some scraps of sails, ropes, and bones picked up at C.ipe Riley. An attentive examination, an analysis to which science furnished some remarkable conclusions, proved that these objects had belonged to civilised men, and even to ships ':R''M '4'>. * : I I ! 92 INTKODUCTION. I 1 'I I"! J ( > III If of war, and that they could not have been left where they were found earlier ihan 1845. The motives which had dictated the sending out of the Prince Albert in 1850 existed still in 1851, and Lady Franklin resolved to continue her sacrifices. The Russian government co-operated with the Behring's Straits' expedition, through its agents on the north-west coast of America ; the United States joined ships of theirs with those of Great Britain; France could not be the only country to hang back. Franklin, besides, had right of city among us by his preceding labours and his glory, and by his title as corresponding member of the Insti- tute and of the Geographical Society, which bestowed its large gold medal on him in 1827 ; accordingly the Government, at the instigation of M. de Chasseloup Laubat, then minister of marine, fully accorded with my wishes, when I asked leave to go and repre- sent the sympathies of the French navy in this new expedition; and in May 1851 1 proceeded to embark in the Prince Albert^ INTRODUCTION. which was preparing for sea at Aberdeen, in Scotland. Before giving an account of operations which I did not direct, I wisli it to be under- stood that to Captain Kennedy alone belong the praises duo to the boldness and intelli- srencc of the measures taken for the aeconi- plishment of our mission ; and that to his incredible activity and the constant care ho took to secure the health and Avelfiu'e of us all, we are indebted for having been able, under the protection of Providence, to do much in a little time, and to return every one of us to the embraces of our friends, without having to regret those frightful mutilations, those losses of limbs, which are often the result of cruises in the icy seas. Wc were all teetotallers, that is to say, we had not on board either Avine, beer, or sjiiri- tuous liquors ; and I do not hesitate to as- cribe in great part to this wise measure the good conduct so steadily maintained by our crew, and the harmony that never ceased to reign in spite of the privations and the lU^J' .,1, m i 'Mi it VII 1 ' 1 ! i I ill I 'r Ml. nil k hi ;,i^ ' 1 ; 'i 94 INTRODUCTION. lack of comfort on board our voss(»l, a little schooner of nin(^ty tons, carrying eighteen men, inclusive! of the captain and the officers. SlK)rtly after passing Cape Farewell, at the southern extremity of Greenland, the Prince Albert entered the ice on the 22nd of June, and began to force a passage through it in the direction of the Danish establish- ment of Uppernavik, where we proposed to buy Esquimaux dogs and sledges. A glance at the map shows, tliat as Baffin's Bay grows narrower towards the south, the masses of ice first set in motion in the middle of the bay by the winds from the north tend to accumulate at this gorge, and to block up Davis's Straits, even when the head of the bay is free. It is only by a series of flux and reflux movements that tlie ice i)asses this bar at last, to be dissolved in the At- lantic ocean. This mobility of the ice, necessary to navi- gation, is the very thing that constitutes its danger; since one finds himself placed be- tween the masses of ice which come from the uiii !l lNTROi)UtTiO.\. 95 quarter wli(^nce the Avind is blowing, and the coast from which tlic solid ico is not yet detached. It is needless to insist on the crushing force possessed by masses often of several square leagues in extent, and which, once in motion, cannot be stopped by any human resistance. The position in which a sailing vessel is placed is so much the more unfavourable, because the wind must blow from that very quarter to which one wants to steer in order to pass betwec^n the masses of ice in that direction. Now, if tlui l)reezc is strong, it is only with difficulty and danger one can beat up against it through the masses of ice which form so nuniy moving rocks ; if it is calm, there is no way of ad- vancing but by a very slow process of haul- age, or by being towed by boats. The application of the screw propeller to steamers has given them a considerable superiority, which would have been partly neutralised by the incumbrance of paddle-wheels, exposed to all the shocks of the icy masses. In consequence of being rolled over and ' :n M\ .m^i- I i '> > f I m INTRODUCTION. over by the storms, which aro far from being so raro beyond the Arctic circle as is gene- rally supposed, the loose ice becomes very irregidar in form. Often, too, it happens that one sees a few hundred yards before him a sheet of water of more or less extent, from which one is parted only by a naiTow tongue of ice. In those cases we strove to make an opening through it, either by running the ship with all possible speed against the narrowest part, or with the help of saws, twenty feet long, worked by a rope and a pulley fixed at the apex of a triangle formed of long spars, or, lastly, by blasting. Wlien the ice is not too compact, the ship is run into the opening so made, on the sides of which it acts like a wedge. Many a time it happens during this operation, that the ice, impelled by currents or by the breeze, closes again, after having perfidiously divided for a while, and the vessel is subjected to a dangerous pressure. Woe to him who does not foresee or sufficiently observe the pre- monitory signs of this accident, which is INTRODUCTION. 97 alinust always atliMulcd with I'atal roiise- qucnccs. Tlic iec, wliicli iiotliiiig can stop, passing iKMicath thn vessel, upsets it, or pusses through it if it resist. I have seen plauis of ice rear themselves erect, so to speak, along the ship's sides, and fall on the deck in blocks, which all the crew made haste to throw overboard on the other side, for fea^' of foundering und(;r the enormous weight of the unwcdcomc intruders. On the; 12 th of Jid}- "we arrived at Upper- navik, the most northern establishment on the western coast of Greenland. Thirty years ago there were still to be seen there stones covered with Eunic inscriptions, which seemed to indicate that the Icelanders and other islanders, to whom the discovery of America has lately been attributed, at least pushed their excursions very far north. This establishment serves as an entrepot for the oil and the furs of animals killed by tlu^ neighbouring Esi|uimaux, and these are fetched away every year by Danish ships. It contains only a few huntbed inhabitants, V ■') ,1 Wi l: '3 A VcL. T. U ? • I in f ill i I . 1 !' ■ I 'i -.11' • I m INTRODUCTION. most of them half-castos, spnmg from the intercourse between tlie natives and the white race. A few warehoases, a little chapel, in which service is performed by a Lutheran minister, and the governor's house, all of them miserable enough and built of wood, form the sumptuous part of the village. The rest is composed of huts of earth, which arc not to be approached without danger thi'ough packs of ravenous starving dogs, reared by the inhabitants for their sledges. Living in a desolate region, where it would be im- possible to find a large quantity of vegetables during the winter, the Esquimaux could not think, like the Laplanders, of domesticating the rein-deer. The doc: renders them the same services, and partakes with his master the animal food which the latter can procure for himself at all seasons of the year. On leaving Uppernavik we fell into the midst of the fleet of whalers which was retiu'ning to t^ e south, in order to pass over to the western coast of Baffin's Bay, having ibund the ice impracticable in the north. INTRODUCTIOX. 99 These v/halers iisod to wind along the out- lines of tlic principal masses of ice, which are the favourite resorts of the whales. It is easy to s(^e that this animal, tracked more and more in all his haunts, has emigrated to more peaceful regions; and the whale fishery, which formerly employed more than from sixty to eighty ships, averaging three hundred and fifty tons, has employed only a score in late years. The whalers had fallen in with the American squadi'on, and we learned with astonishment that the two ships, locked in by the ice in October, 1850, at the mouth of Wellington Channel, had been swept away in spite of themselves during the winter, incurring the most serious dangers, and had only been released in 1851 off Cape Walsingham. Besides the new elements furnished to geographical science by their miraculous adventures, they also supplied very encouraging news as to the searches in hand. The Arctic squadron had found on Beechey Island authentic proofs of Franklin's sojom'u in the bay formed by that h2 ,nii ' ■'' ■PI ( 100 INTRODUCTIOX. 1 1 ! 1 [ ,1' i !| '1 f ,1 ij l> r ! I \ I 1 f M 1 1 1 m ^ 1 1 ! 1 1 1 1, 1 1 ! ! ' 1 1 !>' ''1 J. ■JJl. island aud Cape Eiley during the winter of 1845-G, Three graves, with names and dates inscribed, left no doubt on that score. Two days afterwards we could congratu- late the Americans themselves on theii' happy deliverance, and we sailed in company as far as the entrance of Melville Bay, famous for the disorders ^^hich are there reproduced every year, and which have occasioned the name of the Devil's Thumb to be given to a remarkable peak not far ii'om the coast. On issuing from Disco Bay, we had fallen into the midst of floating mountains of ice, of Avliich A^'e could often count more than two hundred in sight at once, the mean height being from a hundred to a hundi'ed and fifty feet; but some reached a height of two hundred and even two hundred and fifty feet. This bay is, so to speak, the dockyard where these enormous masses arc formed and launched, in consequence of the glaciers with w^hich it is bordered, the float- ing islands being but fragments of the latter detached from them by the action of heat INTRODUCTION. 101 and gravity. The same cause acting on the icebergs often destroys their equilibrium by the alteration of their forms; and many a time we were witnesses to the imposing scene of those masses breaking up with sounds like thunder, and suddenly turning upside down in the midst of the billows, which they threw up to a vast height. After twenty days of toil and anxious expectation, wc had nothing for it but to remove, on the 4th of August, in order to find a passage to the west at a more southerly point. Our American friends persisted in endeavouring to pass northward of the ice, in order to enter Lancaster Straits.* At last we reached Pond's Bay on the 24th of August, and there some Esquimaux came on hoard; but they could give us no tidings either of Franklin's ships or of the squadron sent in search of them. The appearance of these poor creatures, in their fi'ail canoes of skin, enabled us to verify the ethnological * They could not accomplish it, and were compelled, after fruitless efforts, to return to New York. ii ■!'■ '1 ^m 1 ,1 ■'!' 'I ■■ ■- % m 1^ I ^i 111 Jill J..... mn m i^iM:; % 4 102 INlllODUCTION. characters already recognised by preceding navigators. A sketch made by one of them, of the coast with which we were acquainted, once more attested their singular geographi- cal aptitude. We were on our searching ground, in face of the famous Lancaster Straits, wliich we entered with difficulty, in consequence of successive squalls. Our object was to exa- mine carefully the two shores of Ban'ow's Straits, and to advance to Griffith Island, where we expected to find news of Com- modore Austin and the other vessels. But the ice prevented our doing this ; and while waiting for the western winds to clear the passage up to tliat point, wc explored the two coasts of Prince Eegent's Gulf, as far as Fury Beach and Port Neill. The ice, which we fovmd constantly before us, barred our progress in that direction; and after four days passed at Port Bowen we tried to land at Port Leopold, where provisions had been left in 1849 for the use of Franklin and his companions. INTRODUCTION. 103 111 one of these attempts Captain Kennedy left the ship with a boat and five men. Dming the night the ice encompassed us, and we were carried thirty miles away from him, without being able to help ourselves. At last the vessel was moored in Batty Bay, and from that moment our efibrtc had to be concentrated on a task of more immediate urgency than the primary object of our ex- pedition: we had, in the first place, to recover our shipmates and bring them on board. After six weeks of painful efforts, baffled by the weather, I was able, at last, to reach them, and we all retui-ned to the vessel together. The Prince Albert was set fast in the ice, which, thickening daily, gradually formed for it a sort of solid basin, from which it did not issue until August, that is to say, three hunvh'cd and thirty days afterwards. We set about our preparations, therefore, for wintering, and with the more activity, as we had to make up for the time lost through the accident of which I have spoken. The . m 'f ' !, 11 V i '/ \l ; ( .1 1 ; i f ! f l' ' 1 ( t ?; i I ', 1 t ■ 1 : 1 !■•. k if m i\ 104 INTRODUCTION. groatcr part of the provisions were laid on the ice, or in storehouses built of snow, so us to augment the naturally confined space on board a vessel so small as ours, a certain amplitude being necessary for ventilation and strict observance of cleanliness. The vessel was covered above the deck with a woollen tent, and its sides were suiTounded by a thick wall of snow, to hinder the out- ward radiation of the heat, which we could not otherwise have maintained, except by a great consumption of fuel. In the course of January an excursion of some di ys was undertaken, to see if Franklin or any one else had been to the beach where the FuTf/ was lost in 1824, and on wliich a great part of the provisions of that vessel had been landed. This excursion, at a season when the sun had sunk beneath the horizon, not to re-appear until a hundred and^ten days later, enabled us to assure ourselves of the possibility of a journey even at that period of the year, thanks to the able arrangements of Captain Kennedy. We ki". INTRODUCTION. 105 adopted, in fact, for our travels the manner of life and the customs of the Esquimaux and the Indians ; and it was not difficult for us to sec how nature has provided thorn with means far superior to an} which the refinements of civilisation could aiford us. Garments of skin, and mocassins or sealskin boots, formed our accoutrement ; pcmmican* our only food ; sledges, with or without dogs, our means of transport for our provisions and our slender baggage ; and a hut constructed of snow our shelter for the night. I do not mean to say that we found everything easy, or even very agreeable ; but each of us had made up his mind to forego bodily comforts; and assuredly there were no hardships or privations we would not have been ready to brave, and though^- ourselves happy under them, could we succeed in our hallowed mission. After many preliminary trips, in v/hich we formed depots of provisions along the • An Indian preparation of meat, containing a great quantity of nutritive matter in a small bulk. r ' a*! ^\Vn >Jj <;< Wll,l, ^ ; I m c Lu. 106 INTRODUCTION. route wc intended to follow subsequently, we took leave of the vessel about the end of February, not to return to it until June, living in the interval on food carried on sledges, some of which were draAvn by dogs, others by ourselves. Following the line of coast, or crossing the ice in Crcsswell and Brentford Bays and Victoria Straits, we arrived at new lands, which we traversed westward as far as longitude 100° W. (Green- wich); and after visiting Cape Walker we retui'ued to Port Leopold, and finally to our vessel. In the course of the last fom* months we passed out of constant obscurity into per- petual daylight, and were exposed to a tem- perature of 44° below zero, centigrade. The journey produced no bad effect upon any of us, except partial frost-bites, from which we suffered for more or less length of time ; but, in the majority of cases, the application of snow immediately restored the circulation of the blood. I have not leisure to enter into the curious details of our daily life, all of them accompanied mth dangers, quite for- ■PB INTRODUCTION. 107 gotten now that the i)rcs<^rvation of oui* ex- istence leaves in our hearts only gratitude to Him who holds all things in his hands. The honour of geographical discoveries belongs most justly to the leaders of the ex- peditions; theirs was the whole responsi- bihty, and theirs it is to describe the new countries they explored, and assign names to them which shall remain on the maps. We were so exhausted with sciu'vy that after oui* return to oui' vessel we had to. devote our whole care to our ciu'c, which sufficiently occupied the months of June and July. At the same time, we advanced our preparations for sailing out of our icy prison ; and on the 6th of August we quitted Batty Bay, after sawing a channel through the ice. On the 20th of August we met a vessel belonging to Sir Edward Belcher's squadron, sent from England in the beginning of 1852 to explore Wellington Channel, and to go after two vessels that passed through Beh- ring's Straits, and about the fate of which considerable uneasiness began to be felt. Our f ; if I 'hi 11 /< 'f I, II ! >.., !(H > n I ''i|:i1 108 INTRODUCTION. task was completed; wc had demonstrated that Friuiklin could not have passed south of Cape "Walker, since the land extends there where formerly it was supposed that the sea (existed. The expedition of the Prince Albert has, therefore, contributed to contract more and more the circle of the probable directions taken by Franklin, and it now seems demon- strated that he took the route to the north of Wellington Channel. That direction was explored by vessels furnished with all the elements of success ; we returned, therefore, to Scotland, passing through the incidents of a second navigation in the ice. I will prove, by-and-by, that supposing Franklin to have been abandoned to his own means, he may, with his well-known energy, have found new resources, even in those regions. On the strength of this belief, I would gladly set out again in search of him, for I am firmly convinced that we may yet hope to see those daring navigators again. wummr^^^^ 109 JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO THE I' ' ! * «■ POLAR SEAS. CHAPTER I. \i DEPARTURE FROM ABERDEEN. Aberdeen, 22ncl May, 18;31. At last I have reached the summit of my wishes, happier and more favoured by cir- cumstances than I could ever have ventiu'ed to hope. All difficulties are smoothed over ; and, without excess of pride, I may attribute my success to the activity and resolution I have displr,cd, tnd to my self-denial in volunteering to go without being prepared in any respect. ,nt m ■■■"Im^A i^ 110 JOURNAL OF ( I .shall koop u complete^ journal of my •wliol(5 voyage, in ordor that if T dio on this cruise my young brotlun* and my neptiews may follow my example, and learn to devote thems(dves for their families, seience, and humanity. ^uwhifj^ 2t}ih Miif/y 1851. — "VVe moored in the morning in Stromness lioads; about ten o'clock C-aptain Kennedy arrived on board with Mr. Watts, an officer of customs, and Mr. Bcckie, son of a banker of Kirkwall, who come to offer mo their services. At two o'clock we go on shore with the crew, and repair to the Free Clmrcli. In spite of the drowsy and somniferous tone, I no longer i)erccive the broad accent of Aber- deen. Prayers are said for us, and the con- grc>gation are called on to put up vows for our prosperous voyage. Captain Kennedy, who was born in Ilud- son territory, of parents from the Orkneys, was brought up in Stromness; and from being a fellow-countryman, as well as from the nature of our expedition, he is an object - ! ilU JOSKIMI REXK BELLOT. Ill of gonoriil intiTC^ IIo introduoos mo in sevoral houses. I visit Tiiidy Fnmklin, who in(iiiires with interest how I huvo fared on board. She is annoyed at the h)ss of our jih-booni, and begs me to use my influenco on board, so that for the future we may carry h»ss sidl, and carry nothing away. We learn in tlie evening that Mr. Bteinger, a ship-bidkler of Stromness, has made us a present of a new jib-boom. I hear a great deal about the cathedral of Kirkwall, next to that of Glasgow, the oldest and finest in all Scotland, and I propose to visit it. 26?*/^ May. — Torrents of rain in the morning make me give up the idea. About ten the weather clears up; a gig takes us to the Stennies (Druidic monuments or circles) on the borders of a superb lake. No horses to continue the joui*ney ; let us breakfast mean- while. "We enter the best looking house; a gi'eat room, in the middle of which is the hearth, sheltered from the wind of the door by a little wall four feet high ; a hook sus- pended from the rafters supports the pot ; in VW \H if ^ 112 MEMOIR OP ^u\ ' i- l! f (I: one corner a calf and some fowls ; further ou u pig playing with a dog in a manner in- (Ucative of long intimacy ; ducks ; three women. We ask them to give us some break- fast. " We have nothing fit for you." " Give us Avhat you eat youi'selves." Wo fry some ham and eggs Avith our own hands; the smoke escapes with great difficulty through a large hole in the roof over the hreplace, which serves instead of a chimney. For bread they give us barley cakes, which would be eatable if they were not eaten raw. More and more like Bretagne. We eat om* fill of ham and eggs, and give the women some whiskey. '' IIow much do we owe ? " ''A shilling ! " I give tln-ee, and take with mc the blessings of the household. A\ e go out to see the Stennies ; a girl runs after us with a laiifo we had left behind us ; an honest return for our liberality. Two horses are brought us, and Ave set off for Kirkwall. I see the French flag flying from the road, and rejoice in the thought that there is, no doubt, some CO ire yonder, concealed by a point of iH.r JOSEPH RENE LELLOT. 113 land ; we approach and see that it is hoisted on the same haliard as the English flag. This is an act of politeness on the part of Mr. Bcckie, a fresh mark of consideration on the part of Lady Franklin, who would not give me a letter yesterday, and has sent it by Mr. Beckie. The cathedral of St. Magnus is falling to ruin ; it would really be a pity if the Government did not think of pre- serving such a relic of the past. Mr. Eobertson, deputy sheriif of the county, shows me the utmost politeness, and takes me hon\e Avith him ; everybody speaks French ; encomiums on our expedition, good wishes, &c. I am introduced by Lady Franklin to Dr. Wolff, a celebrated traveller in all parts of the world, but chiefly known for a journey to Bokhara, and another in search of the tribes of Israel. What a pity that my friend L , the oriental polyglot, is not here. Dr. Wolff is the same Ave talked of some time ago with reference to that Jewish tribe which, living in the heart of China, has pre- VOL. I. I i ■!)': ,■ ':*? M-i ri !i. *i 1] ;; w :,-!i ■ '.If \\\ i t i:; >li il Jo • i .\ ■ ■:.'' '' ■ I rti 114 JOURNAL OF served its religion and a temple. He made offer of his services to Lady Franklin so long ago as last year. All lie asks is, that a clergyman should be paid to do duty for him, and a few pounds for liis wife. Lady Franklin has transmitted his proposal to the Admiralty, not knowing how to reply to it. I find the doctor smoking after dinner. He expresses to me in French the pleasure he feels at my visit, and presents mo with a copy of his work. He sells it for the benefit of a charitable society. He is very eloquent, they say, and he is to preach this evening; but we cannot remain longer. Sir W. Scott's Pirate is given to me by Mr. Robertson ; in- terview with Mr. Beckie; Kirkwall Bay; tombs in the chui'ch; visit to the five churches ; return to Stromness at midnight. 27th May. — I pass the day on board, harassed with fatigue from my thirty-five miles' ride of j^esterday, and try to work up my correspondence. In the evening we are invited to tea. After some cups, the young people get rid of papa, whose religious JOSEPH REXE BELLOT. 115 opinions do not accord with dancing. There is a little lady just come from a boarding- school in London : I take her for a pui i ner, and the Schottish is danced for the first time at Stromness. Aka jacta est! proli ihicIoyI A grave man, engaged in such an expedition, to dance ! Well, what of that ? Everything has its proper time ; why not forget serious duties for a moment, especially when I am forced to be here? Will that hinder mo fi'om doing my duty at the right moment? Kay, more, I confess that I am not insen- sible to the charms of these young beauties ; and that Miss IL, the white lily, and Miss W., the brilliant rose, have not counted for nothing in the pleasures of this evening; not to mention Miss 1). L., &c. In the first place, an exception was made for our sake from the usagos of the country, which do not admit of dancing at such a season. Why not represent French amiability at the same time as the ardent sympathy of France? My success is my excuse, Avithout presump- tion be it said, for I am complhncnted i2 ! i i !i^ (III IfPii 116 JOURNAL OF : I I" I li i I' i ] on my uatui'alisation, and tlio facility with which I adapt myself to the usages of the country. 28 Ih May. — Usage requires, I am told by Mr. Robertson, that I should pay a visit to all the persons I have dancjecl with. I have no objection to this, for it gives me oppor- tunities for studying the customs of the country ; but I come on board again in the evening, in order to be able to work. I succeec:. much better in drawing than I had expected. I am rallied on account of the astonishment which my (Questions about Stromness betray; and, indeed, nothing is more erroneous than the idea we conceive of these islands. If any ill-bred person had yawned, or opened his mouth a little too wide, when I arrived, perhaps I should have run away, thinking I had to do with canni- bals. Decidedly these people are civilised — highly civilised. I talked Avith Lady Franklin as to what we should do if, for instance, Mr. Kennedy were to die. " Wliy," said she, " I have JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 117 m of coiu'sc left something to your discretion." Captain Kennedy tells me he intends to require it to be specified that I am second in command of the expedition, and conse- quently to succeed him in case anything should happen to him. 29 th Ma/j. — Still detained by these con- founded north-west winds I By way of con- solation, Captain Robertson tells mo he has sometimes seen Russian vessels wind-bound at this time of year for six weeks. If this continues, we shall fall in with the ice too early, and then a part of the work will be rendered more difficult. I cannot escape from the pressing requests of Mr. R., and at four o'clock I go ashore. Lady Franklin talks to me of the letter from Mr. Barrow, who sends a French flag. In that letter Mr. Barrow tells Captain Kennedy, if he discovers any new land, to take possession of it in the name of France ; but I declare that, should we discover anything, it is cer- tainly my earnest wish to signify the pre- sence of a French ofiicer by planting our :-n ,'lf I ' '\n \ .,,iw!i ! 118 JOURX.LL OF i ir wn Hi H flag, and by laying doAvn a map, in which the name of France shall be repeated often enough, and siuTounded by names that are dear to us. I feel moreover the conventional obligations which I must observe on board an English vessel, and I think I ought to consult the English Admiralty on the subject. Lady Franklin jokes with me on what she calls my future discoveries, and asks what names I shall give them. Names dear to my country, think I, and especially the names of those to whom I owe so much gratitude. If I make a map, I will group the French names on one part of it, instead of spreading them over a large extent of territory ; the French portion will thus be more conspicuous. 30^/^ Mai/. — I have received this morning a tricolored flag from the ladies of Strom- ness, and two letters from France !— too good friends who "svi'itc to me ! good and warm friendship ! I kiss these two letters, and with tears in my eyes thank God with an inward emotion fully equivalent to a prayer from the lips. Why no letter from my dear JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 1]9 family? Perhaps to-inorrow. Winds, be contrary to us for some days longer ! I went ashore to take observations, and am pleased with the results. Lady Franklin and Miss C. come on board. Captain Kennedy chooses to go in the customs' yawl ; I do not choose to go ashore. — Fixing the waistclothes. I inform Mr. Barrow that a lamp will be lighted under our chi'onometer. Our flag has been hoisted at the same time as the English flag for Lady Franklin's visit. That is what we may call a real act of taking pos- session. 31 5^ Mafj. — Still the same weather. Yisit from the ladies who sent the flag. I return to the Stennies, to see that perforated stone through which betrothed lovers used to pass their hands in token of solemn attestation. I take Mr. Robertson's pony. After passing Bragiord-bridge, a wild scene, the north-west wind covers the surfaces of the two lakes with foam. A shepherd has a feather in his bonnet. I find myself transported several centuries I'.i ;s\u ! Ill ill! ■PH^^ ^ 1 I flj^if: [ !: ; !■ I i 120 JOURNAL OF backwards ; I repeat to mysi^lf the barbarous nanies of Loch, Stennies, Harray ; and taking a pencil, I try to trace some lines. My Sht^tland pony leaves me in the lurch, and I pursue him ; in vain I call to him and be- seecli him ; he shows me his teeth, but with a jeering air, and but for the help of some shepherds I should be still there. As soon as he saw himself on the point of being caught, he chose to make a virtue of neces- sity, and came back to me with the most •aatural air imaginable. I recommend the pony to the consideration of the analogist Toussenel. The hole in the stone is said to have had the virtue of giving a husband or a wife. I should have liked to handle it,, but that was impossible. The stone has disappeared, worn out, perhaps, by use, like that of St. Guignolet in Bretagne. A bar- barous proprietor wished to pull it down, in order to clear his field, but was induced to desist by the superstitious attachment of the neighbourhood. I should like to see our antiquary, Bourderau, there : what delight ! JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 121 A vast circle, three hundred feet at least, for I counted more than two hundred paces, and my confounded pony, which I was obliged to hold by the bridle on account of his recent prank, made me shorten them. I return imder a tcmble fall of sleet; my whip revenges me for the pony's wicked tricks. "We gallop across turf bogs through the hail ; my poncho makes me look like a brown bear. Night falls. It seems to me that people cross themselves as I pass ; per- haps they take me for the Dwarf of Hoy. 1st June. — As usual, sabbath day. This time I go not to the Free Church, but to the United Presbyterian. At Stromness, a to^vn of twelve hundred inhabitants, there is also a third church. That apparent unity which subsists among us proceeds after all only from the indifier- ence which Lamennais speaks of. If our ministers are charged with being declaimers and actors, the contrary reproach may be ad- dressed to the ministers here. The minister who officiated to-day is a radical, Miss C. \y.h J: It 122 JOUKNAL OF t'i' ' '|s; i,; I 1 tells nic, for ho says that Jesus Christ owed his sanctity to his hibouv. After chui'ch I take a walk witli the ladies. Sup with Mr. B. Bihlo reading and family prayer. The domestics are present at it. Captain Kennedy was brought up in Eng- land by a minister, to which circumstance, no doubt, he owes his excessive piety. "We have passed several hours in dis- cussing what must be done yonder. Lady Franklin says that should we find any very certain indication, we should return to Eng- land, for then the English Government would decide on doing something; we are not to hasten our retui'n for fear of making her spend too much money. Her means allow her to maintain the ship for two years and a half longer, which, for us, makes three winters. The provisions of fresh beef keep three weeks. M. Biot has visited the Shet- land Islands, a fact which is commemorated by a little column. 2nd June. — Mr. Eobertson has insisted so III JOSEPH UENE BELLOT. 123 nmch on his regard for the French, and has been so assiduous in his attentions to me, that I decide on accepting his invitation to go with him to Hoy. M. lUot was a member of a commission which passed some time there about 1820 ; he was the only Frenchman. An ohl minister, Mr. Hamil- ton, was then celebrated there foi' his hos- pitality. At last we arrive at the Dwarf's Stone. I go on before the rest of the party, in order to give free scope to my imagination, and not have my impressions chilled by contact with others. A huge block of stone about twenty feet long, six high, and seventeen wide, with a circular opening two feet mde on the upper surface ; within, two beds. I pass some time in examining the exterior, and Avlien I put my head in at the opening, a horrible shout, magnified by the echo of the cavity, makes me leap back ; it was one of our party who wished to frighten me. Nothing can be wilder than this scene ; in front, the Island of Ramsay (Orkneys), the sea always running W^ 1^ ■I i m w m N ff w 124 JOURNAL OP it' it'- Ik high in the sound; to the right, perpen- dicular cliffs two hundred feet high, consist- ing of long horizontal strata of basalt, the crevices of which are the ordinary refuge of the eagle and the vulture. To the left, a mountain of the same height, its arid sides covered only here and there with a reddish mantle of heath or briars; below, a boggy tract of peat which supplies the neighbour- hood with fuel, and which is too barren even for shepherds to have thought of providing a shelter there for themselves. Undoubtedly it was a hermit whose choice it was to place himself there, face to face with the great works of nature. On my return, a heavy fall of rain and calms, which presage a change of wind. I Mi JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 126 ,rm CHAPTER II. DEPARTURE FROM STROMNESS FOR THE ARCTIC SEAS. ^rdJune. — The wind has actually changed, and in the morning I set to at my corres- pondence; we must depart at last, under penalty of going to sleep amidst the delights of Capua before the victory. At eleven o'clock I pay my farewell visit to Lady Franklin. " Take care of yourself," was all she could say to me, crying. Poor woman ! If you could have read my heart you would have seen how much the somewhat egotistical desire of making an extraordinary voyage has been succeeded in me by a real ardour and genuine passion for the end we aim at. " I must supply your mother's place," you said, as you inquired into the details of my equipment. Well, then, I will be for you a son, and have the inexhaustible de- 1 ! 1 -i A ^ ' m I f \ 1,1 m M i''' 1 ■11 ■,1m f 11 i 126 JOURNAL OF votcdncss of a son who is in search of his father ; and what human strength can do, I will do. W. Millar, one of our men who was on board the Prince of Wales, gives some details not mentioned by Captain Lee. " After having entered a sound, which the captain believed to be Lancaster's, and which the boatswain recognised as Jones's Sound, they retraced their course. About a hun- dred and fifty yards above the entrance they thought tlicj discovered land. A boat was sent ashore to see if it was not icebergs, and found impressions of English shoes, marks of cooking, and a construction in the form of a cone of about four feet. The men tried to demolish it, to see what it was. The boat was recalledj the ship being in danger from the currents that drifted it; and Mr. Lee, jun., reported all this to his father." I go on shore to make my adieux. I visit Mrs.* Eac, the traveller's mother, who charges me with her affectionate remembrances for her son. did^^' JOSEPH RENE £ELLOT. 127 ' ^-Vf! Mr. Leask does not know if he will take a pilot ; he Imows these coasts as Avell as any- body ; bnt M. Biot remarks to him that, as a Shctlander, he cannot dispense with putting it in the way of one of his poor countrymen to earn a guinea. Lady Franklin outweighs that consideration, he says. Our flags sent by the Admiralty have been hoisted. At two o'clock our men all mustered and we weighed. We are saluted from the shore with one cannon, Ave reply Avith our mortar ; and I have barely time to put a date to my letters, amidst the hurrahs of oiu* crew re- sponding to those on shore. One of our pigeons has flown away. The wind is contrary, and we did not get out until the end of the tide. The pilot is for putting back. Perhaps it is because by remaining on board ho Avill gain something more. My opinion is that it would be a bad omen, and that we ought to hold on. We send away the pilot ; fresh hurrahs. Our last linlt with Europe is broken, until M„i 1 ■ ; r : I ;t P M \'" ifN H 128 JOURNAL OF when ? G 0(1 only knows ; but what ho does is well done — blessed be his will ! A mani- fest foretoken of favour: like Noah, at his issuing from the ark, we see the do^'e of peace coming to ns ; that little deserter returns to the fold, and we have needlessly excited Lady Franklin's fears as to our care of the pigeons, to which she attaches import- ance. We tlu'ow into the sea two bottles, which will be earned by the currents to the shores of the Orkneys, for we are still in their vicinity. We see the Old Man of Hoy, a sort of column of rocks, gradually crumbling away ; twenty years ago it resembled the head of a grenadier; it is now shapeless. High cliffs presenting theii* reddened faces, always beaten by the winds. 4:th June. — The Prince Albert pitches frightfully, and will certainly carry away some of her sticks at sea. Light as a bird of the storm, like it she rolls on the crests of the waves; and the more exact the com- parison becomes, the more I find myself out JOSEPH EENE BELLOT. 129 of sorts. I walk the deck ; but am thrown violently against the bulwark. Alas ! in vain I try to conceal it from myself, I am sea-sick. shame ! O despair ! I look round to see who are the witnesses of my dis- honom* ; fortunately I have none but accom- plices. Mr. Leask and Mr. Hepburn, the only two whom this fatal sickness spares, are not present. I wear myself out in efforts to read and write, but can do neither. Yet I have great need of application. Oh, the nothingness of human natui*e ! Be the most remarkable man, the most accomplished savant, be Ai'ago, Lamartinc, put your foot on board a ship, and there you are reduced to nought, not an idea left you. Dii plus grand des hiimains voild ce qui vans rcste ! A sha- dow incapable of pronouncing anything but inarticulate sounds. A smell of whiskey proves to me that all my shipmates are not sick only from the motion of the ship ; and that some of them, before becoming real tee- totallers, have been bidding a last farewell to the powers of this world. VOL. I. K ' ^i- ' ■ '.bjIJ IP iil \ ■ ■ ( ■1 « '■ 1 W.i r!M m - ■ ' ni t ■•:: m m m (.J 'j' '^Jj \ . m i'! (r;!-' ■I >3i :. I '1 '1 130 JOURNAL OF Mi if' i! ■.I i, ir I bctliink me of the pagan practice of invocation of the sea, and offer to Neptune a sacrifice he cannot fail to appreciate at its true worth. I cut off a superb beard, and his wrath is appeased. Quos ego — at last I can admire, at my ease, the northern coasts of Scotland, and the snow-topped mountams reflcctij^g the rays of the sun. bth June. — It is a year to-day since the Prince Albert quitted Aberdeen, on her first expedition. The wind has become a little more favourable to us, and I can begin my severe course of study. Some vessels run the same course Vich us ; but none of them can outsail us. Mr. Hepburn was formerly taken prisoner by an American privateer, which gave him to a French trading vessel. Mr. Ilepbiu'n's honest nature revolts against the atrocities of war. My eyes light on Sii' John Barrow's abstract of Franklin's voy- ages, and I see the flattering testimony born to this excellent servant by Su* John Franklin. ^th June.— 69° 20' N. Captain Kennedy JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 131 hands me a little note, in which Lady Franklin, at the last moment, again begs me not to fail to write to her. Certainly not, poor woman ! I have an aerohydre set up in my cabin. The mercury of our basin barometer has retreated into the top of the tube. Captain Kennedy shakes it, takes it asunder, and pays no heed to my vocifera- tions as to the necessity of being careful with that instrument. Well, he must take the consequences, happen what may. This evening for the first time, the captain feeling a little better, musters all hands to prayer on deck. It is beginning to be cold, but I con- tinue to lie with a single blanket, in order not to spoil myself. 1th June,— '0^3'' 37' — 10° 22'. Fair, but calm. I pass the whole day in making pre- parations for our ir '^teorological observations ; unfortunately we have no hygi'ometer. In- teresting stories of Messrs. Hepburn and Smith respecting the Indians. In the forts thi'ee musket charges are often given as a day's ration. I confess that, for the moment k2 1 ;. ■ ') ; , i.i! 1 >' vr iM i ; » : liUJ T^.w 132 JOURNAL OF I ' is n\ i:i ,i'l I should prefer three quarters of a pound of bread. The brown boars eat the roots of a species of lucerne, the leaves of which are eaten by the bisons. In the large bones of the bisons which the wolves cannot break, excellent marrow is found several months afterwards, enough in one bison to feed five men. Mr. Hepburn describes how the white T,'olves hunt deer. They always choose the largest and fattest of the herd, whether it bo in consequence of its running less swiftly than the rest, or because the wolf is an epicure (Toussencl's Analogic) ; he often gives chase to it. Sir John Franklin and his companions used to watch the chase, and when the exhausted deer was about to fall a prey to its murderer they stepped in, drove away the wolf and took the game. It is worth while to see good Mr. Hepburn describing the piteous air with which the wolf withdraws ; they would take him, too, if he did not get out of the way. The grey wolves, which are much smaller, do not attack men; and at Fort Cumberland they JOSEPH REN^ BELLOT. 133 mention the name of a person who was re- turning from fishing with a sledge full of fish, and with liis hands* behind his back. The wolf gave him a bump with his head ; the man, without turning round, swore an oath, thinking it was the dogs. The woli' returned, threw him down, mauled his side a little, and began to stuff himself with fish, until the Canadians came up at the man's cries, and, having no arms, drove away the wolf with thcii* whips. Mr. Kennedy hums Canadian airs, and J make him sing this sweet melody of the St. Lawrence boatmen. Quand j't'tais chez mon pcre Petit et jeunc ceillet,* M'envoic a, la fontainc Pour rcmplir mon cruchon. Mon cri, era, turlalurette Mon cri, era, turlalura. M'envoie a la fontaine Pour remplir mon cruehon ; La fontaine est profonde, Je me suis coulee au fond. Par ici 11 passe Trois cavaliers barons : I > I ' 1 " * Query, oeill'tonr — Translator. il i I S'^-]^:: ! ■ 'm '11 134 JOURNAL OP — Que donii'rcz vous, la belle, Pour qu'on. vous tir' du fond? — Tire?:, tirez, dit ello ; Apres <;a nous verrons. Quand la bell' fut tiree, S'cn vont l\ la maisou ; S'assit sur la fenetro, Composant la chanson. — Ca n'est pas 9a, la belle, Que nous vous demandons ; C'est vot' p'tit copur en gage, Savoir si nous I'aurons. — Mon petit coeur, dit elle, N'est pas pour un baron, Car mon pore lo garde Pour un joli garden, Un gar^on de la ville, Un pecheur de poisson. — Oh ! dites nous, la belle, Quel poisson y prend on ? — Si Ton prend do la carpe, Si Ton prend I'esturgeon, On n'y voit pas cos filles Qui trompent les gar^ons.* * The merit of this ditty consists almost wholly in that " peculiar perfume" of which Bellot speaks at page 138, and can no more be conveyed in a translation than the odour of a flower can be expressed in painting. The words are " silly sooth, and dally with the innocence of love." Literally thoy run thus : *' When I was at home at my father's, a little young pink, he sent me to the foimtain to fill my pitcher. The fountain was deep, and I fell to the bottom. H 111 JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 135 I copy the instructions given to Mr. Ken- nedy by the ladies; they are mingled, with prayers. I think I can guess their design : they were aware that it was the only way of making the reading of the document attrac- tive for him. m June.— 69° 19' N.— 15° 40' W. To- day, Sunday, according to English usage, nothing to do; which does not hinder me from shutting myself up in my cabin, so that there may be no scandal, and working quite at my ease, leaving it only to attend the prayers which Mr. Kennedy reads on the quarter-deck: he reads a sermon. Took my first watch to-night, from eight o'clock until midnight; I will do the same every day. Up come three mounted barons : AVhat will you give, fair meid, to be pulled out ? — Pull, pull, she said, and afterwards we shall see. When the fair maid was pulled out, away they go to the house. She sat duwni on the window, composing the scng. — That is not what Ave want of you, fair maid ; 'tis your little heart in pledge ; the question is, shall we have it ? — My little heart, raid she, is not for a baron, for my father keeps it for a handsome lad, a lad of the town, a catcher of fish.— Oh! tell us, fair maid, what fish do they catch here? J£ they catch carp, if they catch sturgeon, there are none of those lasses to be seen here who cheat lads." i '.'^'^''i in 4^ il ( I'll T \ I :m< 13G JOURNAL OP I (;liosc that watch, because it leaves me the whole day free. dth June.^bH'' 50'— 10° 21' W. Mr. Kcn^ nedy talks to mo of setting up a pcuduluin and making magnetic observations. I ask him with what? lie tells mo, ''We will arrange that." Some bottles of porter re- main from tlie last voyage. I recollect the story of th(^ parish priest, who excused him- self for having coffee during the continental blockade, by saying that he was burning it ; and I call for the destruction of the pro- hibited licpior ; 1 must wet my first watch. At any rate wo shall thus have finally severed the bonds that connected us with the Sardanapalus-like life of landsmen. 10th Jime.—'oT ir N.— 18° 15' W. De- cidedly our little schooner is the unsteadiest craft I have seen. I complained at first of the scanty dimensions of my cot, yet it is too wide, foi' it is two feet across; and under the inordinate, and even unreasonable move- ments of the Prince Albert I do nothing but roll from one side to the other. Luckily I 'I ^■1 JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 137 have a stanchion lowered, which projects from the ship's side, and comes down to within eight inches of my bed, and I can wedge myself imder it and remain tolerably still. I always get up bruised and aching, for, in order to begin my apprenticeship as a voy- af^or, I have chosen to have a mattrass only eight centimetres thick, just enough to say I do not sleep on the boards, and only a single blanket. Mr. Kennedy is ill, and I read prayers and the Bible this morning to the crew. nihJune.—^^7° 47^—19° 19'. The sea is almost calm ; we make little way ; Mr. Kennedy has begun to read the little book of instructions, but I believe it is the prayers he reads. We talk about what we have to do, and I see it is very probable we shall not return until 1853. — We shall have plenty of things to see on the west coast of Boothia ; and, if God grants me life and strength, I hope that the name of France may figure on several points of the maps. I am greatly afraid of passing the winter away from the if if'. I !;',-« [>'<1 ■fm' 138 JOURNAL or I ! t'i .,: t i 1 !■ I 4 1i iil •i ' I, "il !! : I ':ii!l ^':li! V.Ji 1 ship, which would not suit me, on account of my books. But wo arc not there yet, and I hope, of course, to have my share of in- fluence upon Mr. Kennedy's decision. I am greatly afraid about my eyes, for constant application and observations fatigue me much. I obtain an order to have the ashes put aside. Light's process. 12th Jme.—'oT 48'— 19=^ 34'. Mr. Ken- nedy speaks Canadian French, that is to say, the French of more than a century ago, and I am glad to hei "om time to time some of those old expressions which have a perfume quite peculiar to themselves. It is like plimging into Topffer's diction to listen to him. I was stupid enough to let him know the cause of my pleasure. He considers this privilege a defect, and begs me to correct it. What a misfortune ! God forbid I should think of spoiling him for myself. I am too selfish to deprive myself of this enjoyment, and divest his language of its charming originality. — Mathison, one of our men, reads Othello, and I am astonished to hear "W'-rn' I 5 1 ■, y JOSEPH RENK BELLOT. 139 all the sailors talk to me of Shakespeare; one prefers Macbeth, another Hamlet; I doubt if Molierc is so popular among French sailors. — I am interrupted by shouts, and suppose it is a man overboard, but it is a false alarm ; fortunately it is only the plate- basket. I am preparing a dictionary of the lan- guage of tLe Esquimaux, or rather of the Huskis, for they dislike the former name. Mr. Kcnii ;dy talks to me of a new plan, which consists in entering by Admiralty, in order to gain time, into one of those chan- nels which are laid down on the map from Esquimaux report. I will oppose it with all my might, because nothing is less certain than the prolongation of these canals; be- sides, though sheltered they may be ice- bound, and if the bottom of Regent's Inlet is so, and the channel is not so, one is obliged to winter at Cape Kater. He pro- poses also to be put ashore at Port Leopold, send the vessel to Griffith, go down on foot to Fury Beach to see if there are news of , 'i i N I 1 ■ Jl ^' '.- I*! ! )' « '\-' Tl -:M i|*'l p^ mm 140 JOURNAL OF ( i i 1 1 « 1 1 ! ^ ; ] 1 .' i w t : ■ \: i ^ I f i '( 1 Si'' jL i; Franklin ; the vessel ultimately to return to Port Leopold. This is a plan I cannot approve of; for we may find at Griffith news coming from Cape Eiley or elsewhere, which would induce us to push on to the west or the north ; and, in that case, to return to Port Leopold would be a loss of time. Mr. Hepburn gives me an account of their starvation. Their sufferings were extra- ordinary during the first two or three days ; then followed a state of torpor and somno- lence, in which they dreamed of feasts and good dinners. I am not very well ; the change of food disagrees with me ; absence from wine, espe- cially, makes my digestion difficult ; and the practice I have adopted of sleeping on a hard bed and almost uncovered has made me very thin. I will not take coffee, and the consequence is that I find it very hard to work at the desk, and am exceedingly op- pressed with drowsiness. But I feel I am getting the better of it, and before a week is V i:\ >;: ^i:^^^" JOSEPH BENE BELLOT. 141 over I shall have come right again. For a man of resolution what else is the body than a slave that must obey, and what are physical wants but habit ? IWi June.—6S° 30'— 20° 55'. Passed the greater part of the day in reading over again the letters sent me from Rochefort, and I can only renew my thanks to God for having given me such good and perfect friends. What devotedness ! Wliat purity of affection ! Uth June.—^r 01' — 22° 17'. Winds from the south-cast, accompanied by constant rain. I put on the true sea costume ; boots coming up above the knee, a huge hat of oiled canvas which covers my shoulders, pantaloons and cloak to match. The sea runs in our teeth, and ere long as much water passes over the deck as under it; it is impossible for me to close an eye all night. The cursed schooner rolls, bounds, and twists about in such a way that I am bruised all over. I think of the way in which mice are killed in a trap. L \f t > |i Trnrrwrn uiuu-u-u LUJi i^javw^vv^v^ C { I i 1 1 i 1 ! ' S ill Ij;:, I Ml ■:! */: 142 JOURNAL OF 16th June.—6S° 41' — 26° 40'. Bad weather ; in the morning I read the sermon at the Sunday service; it seems I acquit myself pretty well. Sixth anniversary of Tamatavc. I read in the day Parry's voyage to the North Pole, and already my vagabond imagination suggests to me the idea of soli- citing the Government on my return to establish a fish-guard station at Spitzbergen, and to send a French expedition to the North Pole. This schooner is decidedly ill rigged, for the main-booms are supported by nothing, and I do not care to break a spar which we should not know how to replace. IQth June.—^l'' 46'— 29°. The same weather. Mr. Grate comes to me during my watch and confides to me his doubts as to the scorn with which Judas Iscariot is regarded ; since Jesus Christ was to be be- trayed by somebody, it was God's will! "Oh," says he, " formerly people were not educated as they are now. I should like to know two languages, French and Hebrew." I'l' JOSEPH BJBNE BELLOT. 143 When I ask him why the latter, " In order to make a new translation of the Bible," he replies; "a cable, and not a camel, to pass through the eye of a needle." Vlth June,—m'' 57'— 30° 28'. Fine, calm. Pass my watch in hearing tales of chasing the bear, the narwal, &c., and I see we shall not lack sjwrt. I am sorry to hear that the indefatigable Dr. Rae is again en route, and that we may, \ery possibly, find him at Port Leopold. If he does all our work what can we do ? IS^/iJim^'.— 59°— 33°02'. More stories of deer hunting, but this time in the interior, by Messrs. Kennedy, Smith, and Hepburn. One day Mr. Kennedy had made an enclo- sm'e of more than an acre, at the outlet of a pass (these animals always cross at the full of the moon), the herd entered, and the gates were closed. "Wlien the moose has passed anywhere, the Indian takes off his glove, thrusts his hand into the track, and feels the spot where the hoof-print is, which indicates the direction. Mr. Kennedy has seen a river ,ulH' M ?i^^ i '.r i '-'I \C /!ii L M i :l J f ^1^ 1 : I i c 1 ' i^ I M l!,l i'J i ^i ' ' im 144 JOURNAL OF a mile and a quarter wide, crossed on ice, from twenty to thirty centimetres thick, by a herd which filled its whole width. It is generally an old doe that leads the herd ; and these gentlemen describe the pre- cautions she takes, snuffing and peering to protect her responsibility. If the snow is soft they go one by one. We fall in, for the first time, with that drift-wood which at certain seasons covers the coasts of Iceland, and establishes the existence of a polar current. For the first time, also, I have a long religious discussion with good Mr. Kennedy. In spite of his habitual good nature he is exceedingly intolerant in such matters, and will not admit that the Turks can be saved. Idth June. — 59° 02' — 33° W. Bad weather. After breakfast, great Indian con- versation. Our three travellers highly extol the good faith of the Indians, and declare that the Europeans have almost always been the aggressors. They may be reproached with great improvidence; for when the chase JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 145 has been good they remain a long time without troubling themselves to make fur- ther provision, saying that they choose to enjoy their good luck. When they have lost u cliild, or a wife they love, they remain several days without eating, rend their gar- ments, and break their guns ; thus exposing themselves to die of hunger and cold. Then they aiTive at the forts, and without saying anything, or asking for anything by words, remain there till somebody gives them relief. Mr. Hepburn says, the Indians have brought home meat w^hich they have not touched, though they had been fasting for three days. They make caches^ in which they enclose their provisions, so that the wolves may not cat them. If you are hard pressed they do not take it amiss that you help yourself to what you want, but without picking ; for, as they truly say, a hungry man takes what he finds without choosing. Not to cover the cache again is also considered a proof of bad intent. They beat their wives horribly, especially VOL. I. L I' I 9^P 146 MEMOIR OF 1 i .i '. .,. ! ■ ' 1 ' 1 I- ■. i/:il,: ■ 1. ; : i 'i ir.^ ',!,!.'■ ' 'i.l ; .::i| ■'; ■i!i ^:i| ilir^iil 1 ■.■'■! i iM iii: '.„ when they arc drunk; the women revenge themselves by abusive language. They tele- graph during the chase or war by means of fires, the smoke of which only is seen. ^ An Indian knows the distance by the colour of the smoke. In the woods, branches turned in a certain direction, marks placed in a certain line, indicate caches and routes taken. After dinner a long conversation on Canada. Nothing is so fine, says Mr. Kennedy, as the St. Lawrence, with its forests of great ships on one side ; and on the other the vast quantity of boats and skiff's. Steam detlirones the boats which used formerly to be towed up stream and sail down stream : the rowers sing French songs. 20th June.—6S° 36'— 38° 16'. Sackhouse, the Esquimau of whom Sir John Eoss speaks, was picked up at sea by a vessel which saved his life when he was carried away by his kayak. When he took part in that expedition as interpreter, his friends took him for a ghost ; his sister had died of grief. They asked him what he wanted : in JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 147 le rowers iinc, they would not own him. The doctor who examined him, says Mr. Hepburn, found, from a wound, that an attempt must have been made to murder him. The questions put to him, and the manner in which they were put, furnished him with the idea of the fable, " Plenty powder, plenty killed." I have a long talk with Mr. Kennedy about our projects, and I succeed in making him determine to winter with the ship. It is a guarantee for us, and moreover it will enable our people to pass the winter much better, being more numerous ; for otherwise we should have remained fifteen months without returning on board. At last, to my great satisfaction, it is a settled thing. Mr. Kennedy relates to me what Lady Franklin had already told me of the objections made to me. Those obstacles are now vanished, thanks to the favour in which I stand with our men, who vie with each other in render- ing me those thousand little services for which the familiarity of life afloat offers fre- quent occasions, and which can now no '.'M M'. h mm^ (i / H III ¥ ■t l 1 ' 1:1 ^1 SI 1M ![' i|!|1 •■ i i ; •1 n 1 - it I 1 Lh r I- l:;|;'' Ml !• i« i ' 148 JOURNAL OF longer be ascribed to the desire commonly felt to be agi'eeable to a now comer — a de- sii'e which living together soon extinguishes. When we received your letter, said Mr. Ken- nedy, I thought of those vessels which do their best to destroy each other, and which, at the end of the fight, send out boats to pick up the wounded of the vanquished. 1 rejoiced at the idea of having for a shipmate a man after my own heart. Excellent Ken- nedy ! He left his business in Canada to come voluntarily, without pay, and command this expedition, in spite of the objections of a family which did not understand his dis- interested zeal. 21st June.— ^S° 33'— 41° 21'. We are be- ginning to approach Cape Farewell, for tlie birds are becoming more and more numerous, and at night we watch the icebergs, the whiteness of which is such, they say, as to show itself through the thickest fog. There is one which hus been constantly seen for the last ten years in the same spot. Snow saw the same one as J. Eoss ; it is no !i I JOSEPH EENE BELLOT. 149 doubt aground, which is not surprising, for as icebergs arc two feet under water for every foot they rise above it, those which appear a hundred and sixty or two hundred feet high may be aground in four hundred feet, or eighty fathoms of water. They tell me the story of the old Indian, of whom Sir John Franklin inquired how old ho was, which he could not tell. " How old were you when guns were introduced?" — "Oh, I had long left off hunting when this old man's grandfather Avas alive; I was a man almost before he was born." — " "Well, then, at the time when the whites settled here ? " (thirty years before). " Oh, I was as old as I am now." 22)1(1 June. — Boisterous weather ; W(^ are running under the mizen and foresail. (37° 2', [-] 78'.) At two o'clock we sight Green- land, which I am very glad of on account of my watches — Capo Farewell, the first stage of our voyage, and the last point whence we can look upon the Atlantic, that sea whose waters lave the coasts of old Europe. Farc- ! :'i; ■'■■ y V I ^' '■; , I if' ■:l •^',i ' M ji 1 V: ■! 4 ^iflip ■^ ... uy firi " •'■ ■iwwsff" mmt 150 JOURNAL OF nii rm' I I! ■ t t ■ "iii' ; 'f i !'^ 'n ;i :ij|j well, my friends ! Furcwell ! No sooner have wo doubled than we ah'eady feel tho influence of the coast, and, instead of the tremendous sea of the morning, we en- counter less agitated waves. At six o'clock the weather brightens, and we can clearly distinguish the coast; a series of peaks, which give it a strange aspect, furrowed with wide white bars, which are nothing else than glaciers. We see a seal, that is to say, the nose of a seal, for it is thais they swim with their noses at the surface of the water. When they are on the ice, if you sing as you go up to them, they look at you and do not stir. Mr. Hep- burn tc^lls me of a seal-hunt, in Avhicli a man went up to one after anotlu^r and knocked them on the head with a club, thus passing them all successively in review, singing all the while. 23nl June. — This morning we saw afar off the stream-ice, which is evidenced by a white line of no great breadth, but of a brilliant hue, which contrasts with the pale green of JOSEPH liENE BELLOT. 151 the sea, and the more or less grcyisli-bluo of the sky. At two o'clock we arc Avrapt in a thick fog ; but presently pieces of ice pass close by us, and the dull booming of the sea as it breaks on the principal sheet of ice warns us that it is time to change our course. It is, no doubt, a good token for us to fall in with the ice so low down in the straits ; the break-up must have begun early above. In the morning we are within forty- five miles of the coast, and the stream-ice within about eight miles. The Indians arc the most credulous of be- ings, and the poor creatures are often the sport of the pitiless humour of the whites. Mi*. Hepburn tells me that a Mr. S., who com- manded a fort, annoj' ed at the great number of Indian dogs which starved their masters, told them that God was to cross the river on a certain day, but that he detested dogs. The animals were sacrificed, and the Indians repaired to the spot designated. There was very bad weather that day, which was con- sidered a sufficient excuse for God's want .'■ iH ■P""- ■ i Urn r^^ I i m^m 152 JOURNAL OF i 1 1 1 1 1 , 1 \ J:;M!.| of punctuality. Another time, says Mr. Kenucdy, two liuudrcd Indians engaged in salting the abundant produce of a deer hunt, deserted the ground, being terrified by the aj^parition of a I'ronch cook, masked and grimed, who came towards them with tot- tering steps, and with the appearance of a man all but fainting from weakness. (The evil spirit is always famishing, and comes on earth to eat people.) Mr. McLean, the same who has published his travels, was obliged to come out wdth his pistols and Avith rockets, announcing that ho would force the evil spirit to go away again, which accordingly took place to the great joy of the Indians. 24:th Jime.—Gi)° 14'— 47° 50'. We have been all night on the look out against calves (fragments of icebergs). Wc are Avrapped in a great mantle of fog, contrary to my expectation. Captain Leask tells me that yesterday's stream-ice does not come from the north, but from the neighboimng bays, or sometimes from the east coast of Green- ^i; I ni ■Mi hj :.'[ A , JOSEPH RENK IJELLOT. 153 land, aiitl is driven into the Htruits by the soutli and soutli-wost winds. The northern ices are always on the west coast of Baffin's Bay. For tlic twentieth time I start np from my sleej) at night at a strange noise. I turn out in all haste, and it is not until I am already dressed that I gather from the words I hear that there is not a man over- board, or anything extraordinary ; it is only the quarter-master bawling in a very wild manner, by way of accompaniment to the working of the ship. Decidedly I prefer the whistle of our men-of-war, 25/// Jwir.—iJO' 01—50^ 10'. The al- most incessant glare of light fatigues my eyes, for the sun sets at half-past nine, and we have a rather dazzling twilight. My incessant application to my books and papers also contributes to it a little. We are almost always in smooth water, at least com- paratively speaking. We have been nearly all day in sight of land, in front of Tameac Island, which presents itself to us, when the fog is rent, with its high mountains striped. ;| S •I 'H • ij ■ iiEi w 154 JOURNAL OF \\\l i 1 i ■ 1 ' i ^' i 'flMft' , 1 : i '.' I i :, 'i\ with white. Ahead, a long Lne of stream- ice, with the sea breaking over it. Magni- ficent weather. I had particularly requested that I should have notice of the first iceberg we fall in with, and they did not disappoint me, How fast T ran on deck ! I see only a little Avhite mass, which looks like a light block of ico, and I am disposed to think they have been making game of me. "Wait a while," they say, " we f re ten miles from it yet." Two hours afterwards I at last see that imposing mass, which is but a fragment of a larger mountain, as appears from its rents and fissures, and presently Ave pass within some Imndrcd yards of a floating rock, fifty feet high and about a hundred and fifty in diameter. The lower part, con- tinually washed by the waves, is polished and of a convex form, making it look like those vast basins into which fall the cascades of the Place de la Concorde. A dazzling white ground is veined by some lines of a beautiful blue like that of crystals. One shudders at the thought of being run down M JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 155 by such a mass in the fogs which arc so frequent here. In the evening two whales sport about the ship. They are fiimers; that is to say, they have dorsal fins. 2Wi June. — We pass through a real '' stream-ice," and through the middle of it ; it is a pack (an assemblage of loose masses). Tlie isolated pieces arc far enough apart to allow us to pass between them '.nthout alter- ing our course. Like an army which has passed through a friendly country to meet the enemy, Ave begin to make our prepara- tions: the various instruments, saws, &c., are examined. The thick ice resists the action of the swell; but the thin ice is always broken by it. 21th June. — A thick fo^' almost the whole day. We met with a much greater number of icebergs, or rather of fragments of ice- bergs, larger than all the blocks we have hitherto seen. In the fog they can be dis- cerned, indeed, by their whiteness ; but not at more than two cables' length, in spite of their size ; and I believe it is always neces- i.f^'fi fi i 1 '!| iWW IH* 156 JOURNAL OF ' I * ft • m \ 1 i 1 'I V ! 1 ' 1 r J I i ! i i i sary to keep a good look out, for Mr. Lcask tells me that pieces, even of moderate size, could not be encountered without danger. These pieces, or fragments of icebergs, are fresh-water ice, which are formed on land glaciers, and roll into the sea when they acquire some magnitude. Their form indi- cates their origin. Worthy Mr. Kennedy talked to me of one of his projects, which is to return after our expedition, and form a fishing establishment on the Avest coast of Baffin's Bay, not ^u much for the pecuniary advantages he would de: lvc from it; for, on tho other hand, he would give up his own aifairs in Canada; as for the sake of civilizing the Esquimaux and making the true religion known to them. The temperature is mild, and we have fini* days, though it is very cold in the shade. My whole accoutrement consists of a woollen shirt over one of cotton, except after sunset, about ten o'clock, when I put on a cloak of oiled canvas to preserve myself from thc^ damp which settles especially upon woollen JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 157 stiiffs. Fortunately I recollect the dew theory., All night clear enough to read, as at seven in summer at Eochefort. But for my eyes, the state of which obliges me to wear blue spectacles, I already feel myself perfectly acclimated. Up between seven and eight, I proceed to my ablutions on deck, whatever be the weather, in order not to bring damp into my cabin; I then take ob- servations of the horary angle. At eight, \rhcn the watch is changed, we have prayers, then breakfast, which consists of coffee or tea, and some viands. After a turn on deck, I go back to work until noon, when I take the latitude. Calculating our position occu- pies me until dinner ; about noon soup and meat, with potatoes by way of bread. I pass the afternoon in study : at eiglit, evening prayer, and I begin my Avatch. I do not lie down till about one, after having written up iny journal and thanked God for his mercies. My last thoughts are always of those dear friends I have left behind me ; and after six hours' sleep I wake, strong and hearty, III; --H\ ■ 1 1 ! ■ ' I 1 1 .* 'm. i • . ■ 1 V 1 1 i < {i I :' ,H 158 JOURNAL OF ! i I i thanks to this regular way of life. The several portions of my time being so well tilled, it passes with astonishing rapidity; and I am greatly siu'prised at finding myself nearly at two months' date from my depar- ture from Eochefort. 2Sth and 2^th June. — My eyes suffer more and more, and this greatly distresses me, on account of my fears for the futm-e; but I Avill take many precautions; and with the help of snoAV spectacles, green gauze, &c., I hope to sret round. The cold is begiiming to make itself felt, and I am obliged to put on woollen stockings. As always on Sunday we have divine ser- vice, and, as usual, I read the sermon. It seems I do not pronoimce ill, and especially that my accent is not too bad. The service consists in reading some psalms, a chapter of the Bible, and prayers morning and evening. On Sunday there is, in addition, the reading of a sermon, and then of fragments of nume- rous works which have been given to us. If the piety of our men is not very enlightened. JOSEril RENE BELLOT. 159 at least it appears sincere ; and even were it but a matter of liabit with them, the influ- ence of that habit upon them is excellent. I know no spectacle more suggestive of thought than the sight of those few men singing the praises of the Lord amidst the solitude of the vast ocean ; I think of the convents of the East, Ij'ing like a point amidst the desert. What in fact is our life on board, with its regularity, but the convent minus inactivity, and minus the selfishness of the man who seeks in prayer only his own salvation ? yes ! the exercise of j)rayer is salutary ; it is, above all, useful and indispensable to one who is animated by true piety. I used to think myself religious when I contented myself with recognising the existence of a God. I now understand how much this exercise of prayer facilitates for us the ac- complishment of duties, which without it we are disposed to pass over very lightly. ^Otli June. — With my usual mobility of imagination I pass at once from the golden fields of hope to the gloomy aspects of dis- TTwnfTrr IGO JOURNAL OF J: 1, i ■i ■ 1 i 1 : 1 i !i 1 ! ' : ■ i ; ) ! ! i i ■ i i ■1 i ■ U II M 1 1 '( : ^ t couragemeiit. And tlion the names on the map, Desolation^ Turnagain^ Repulse^ arc they of a nature to inspire ideas of a roseate hue ? 1st Juhj. — About six in the evening wo pass near one of the finest icebergs we have yet seen, at least as to form ; itself no doubt a fragment of some monstrous parent. You would say it was a huge conch, half of which only was above water, the mouth forming a vast cavern, the walls of which reflect the light irregularly. Below are pillars which sustain this vast vault, which, though no doubt very thick, appears frail at this dis- tance. At midnight, just as I am coming off my watch, we meet with another iceberg, in form almost a regular pyramid. We are not more than threescore miles from Holsteinborg. We reckon on catching a good many cod- fish on the reef, which Ave can salt, and by that means economise our provisions. Wo are running before a fine breeze. Alas ! this iiivourable breeze has turned against us : the coast is wrapped in thick fog ; nevertheless .TosErir TtExi: dellot. KU wc can':^.ot forego the advaulagx^ of this pre- cious brcK^zo whieli proinises to drive lis far, although I ratlur think this adviuitagc is none at aU. Do Avhat we may the ice will not open for us until a certain period, and we shall have the longer to wait the earlier we arrive in the north ; however, we know not what may occur ; and at least we shall have nothing to reproach ourselves Avith. Some icebergs only, and at long intervals. The day favours conversation among those ■who are not on duty; and Simpson's journey suggests to me questions respecting the life of the prairie Indians — a perfectly animal life, all the interests of which relate to war and the chase, but yet a life full of emotions. Besides, how is it possible not to Ioa'o those poor creatures, whose salient characteristic is good faith? Should any opportunity occur on my return, though, indeed, they are rare, I may avail myself of the recommendations of my friend llepburn. His father, whom I saw in London, is one of the wealthiest shareliolders in the company, and he is the VOL. T. M m m hf^ •;.!n^ (.*: ! 4 Iw ■■■' ' • -• Hi: ■i.t' 1 1 i •'h: :!!«' ! If; i 1 i|?:S- J't ill Pli>i I I 111 = ilhiil 1 ; • • : ; i, ^lll 1G2 JOURNAL OF nephew of the Earl of S., who was one of the first to send out emigrants. This would smooth down difficulties which the offer to pay all my own expenses coidd not over- come. Mr. Kennedy assures me he has seen Indians bringing in the produce of then' hunting, and exchanging it for a rifle, am- munition, blankets, and at last for a little rum. When once the latter was exhausted, and the natural propensity to drunkenness was aroused, the Indian came and bartered back his rifle; and wandering for several days about the establishments, he stripped himself successively of all his new acqui- sitions in exchange for a small quantity of rum, which he di'ank on the spot; thus depriving his family of subsistence dui'ing the winter, and exposing himself to die of hunger and cold, since he deprived himsoK of the means of contending against those terrible foes to the Indian. The government of Canada every year makes a distribution of ammunition and piece-goods among the Indians, perhaps as a compensation for the JOSEPH llENE 15ELL0T. 163 lauds "Nvliich have been taken from tliem. The majority of them excluingc these gifts for rmn, and the company then trades in them to procure skins. All means are taken, and that, too, with the co-operation of the mother country, to retain the monopoly of skins and furs in the hands of the company, and keep up the prices. When it is seen that the hunting is too productive, it is pro- hibited ; or at least the company refuses to buy of the Indians, which comes to the same thing. %idJidii. — Icy rain; the thermometer at 33°.* The rapid way we make northward, and some isolated blocks of ice make us think that we are not far from the great ice. We steer eastward, in order to approach the land. This morning I perceived, from the steadiness of the vessel, that we must be among the ice ; in fact, we are surrounded on all sides by great masses of ice which shelter us from the sea, which is hardly AVi'inkled, * The thermometer Bellot refers to in this joiurnal is always that of Fahrenheit. m2 1 1 1 II ■i ^ SR • '-:mm 1 ■ V \ ; ,'. it « '■VI '' Mi- i' m 1 i i 1 I I i.' IS ■i 1 1 tiii 1 I 1 if 1 1 1 \u r !|i I ; v. 164 JOURNAL OF very difforoiit from tliat of yesterday evening. It rain^i melted hull. A fog prevents om- seeing far^ and we lie to, giving way from time to time to double an ice-block. At fiv(^ o'clock ]\Ir. Kennedy calls me on deck to show me somcithing, the nature of which ho cannot make out. I run out on the mizeu boom, and am as much puzzled as those below at seeing a blackish block, which at first I take, to be a dead whale. From the form, it seems to me to be stones ; but if it Avere a bank of rocks the sea Avould break upon it. We p.iss along it, and find it is a mass of ice covered with stones and gravel ; it is frozen mud from some creek of a fresh- water ravine. At six o'clock we pass within half a stone's throw of a pretty large stream. The difi'erent pieces composing it are joined together, but they move with the swell, like the parts of a suit of armour, or a metallic tissue. Midnight. I have just come off my watch, after a most disagreeable navigation through exceedingly troublesome ice, the smallest iih. JOSEPH RENK I5ELL0T. 105 pieces of which are many tiinos hirgor than the ship. What increased our difficulties was a thick fog, which did not allov.' us to see our enemy until wo were close upon it. One feels stifled under this thick wrapper. About four o'clock, dull detonations, like cannon-shots, warn us that some iceberg is not far off. I hasten up at the shouts of our men, and perceive that Ave are within scarcely two cables' length of an iceberg twice as high as the vessel. The sea is strewn with fragments ; and the deep clefts with which the iceberg is furrowed, make us dread its vicinity, for if another fall were to take place, some of the fragments might fall upon us ; now, these little pieces are as big as barrels, and if the summit of this sugar- loaf thudts fit to separate from its base, woo to us ! AYe encountered several pieces of fresh-water ice, more dangerous than those of salt water, though they are very small, the largest I have seen being about four metres cube. Once you have seen this ice, it is impos- ^1 am m 11 H IR n » ■ (i r t » ) lOG JOURNAL OF ; t ■ t ■ ■I 1 f 1 1 1 : i t 1 1 :: !, siblo to mistake it for others on account of the difference of form and colour; fresh- water ice liaving the colour and transpa- rency of enormous pieces of crystal, whilst the other is dazzlingly white. It is mid- night, and I can write this in my cabin without the aid of any artificial light. Srd fTulfj. — For the last four days wd have not been able to make any observa- tions ; but we have passed the Arctic circle. Wo are, therefore, completely on our own ground. Formerly there was a ceremony observed at this passage like that of the tropic and the line. It has fallen into disuse, whalers not having time to spare, like the sailors of the south, to think of diverting themselves. This morning wc complete our rigging by setting up the crow's nest. It corresponds nearly to the definition given of the word hime in the dictionary of the Academy in our country, in which nautical terms are so little understood. It is a sort of watch-box, placed at the mast-head to survey the move- JOSEPH llENt: UELLOT. 1G7 mcnls of tlio ice. Its form vtirios according to the sliij), l)ut is more or less like ours, its object being tlie siiiue, to shelter tlu; man on the look-out, avIioso position would be in- tolerable at that height if he was exposed to the wind and the snow. In our ease we have set up a sort of barrel five feet high, at the bottom of whi(;h is a trap-door, op(ming from below upwards like a piston valve. It is reached by rattlings placed across the shrouds. This ladder — climbed by chaps who do not always go to heaven for all that — is called Jacob's ladder on board whalers. As for the etymology of crow's nest, I think it can have no other than the following, in that nautical language which in every nation is so picturesque, and so full of imagery. The place in question is the post of the ice- master, who is every moment giving notice to those on deck of what he perceives, or giving orders for the working of the ship. As this chattering goes on every minute, some forecastle wit, annoyed by these per- petual orders, will have revenged himself 4 1 ■ ; ' m i '^ li mi ■ 1 i ; ij f ; 1 1 , 1, ; 1 i; f ' ' 108 JOURXAL OF by this iiainc. This etymology is not, per- haps, that of the dictionary, but, at least, it answers to something.* About one p.:\[. we pass close by an ice- berg, rising only some scores of feet above water, bn^ half a mile long. Mr. Leask says it is one of the largest he has ever seen. I examine these different masses of ice with a view to d .scover some analogy of structure, some law of formation, but in vain; the variety of forms defies comparison and clas- sification. Sometimes we have a regular table, or a sugar-loaf; sometimes an actual island with its creeks, bays, and promonto- ries ; or an immense tent from which vou would almost expect to see an inhabitant step out and welcome ;ou, or the entrance of a cave opening Avith vast galleries, or a cavern preceded by splendid works of art. * The real cxplimatiou is mii . more direct and obvious. Tlie crow likes to build its nest on the tops of high trees. Bcllot's conjecture is ingenious ; but, as hai)pens commonly enough with etymologists, it is founded on a mistake, for he translates " crow's nest " by the words 7iid cfc pie, thus making the crow a magpie. JOSEPH RE^'E 15ELL0T. 169 Tho stories of our cliildhoocl, the wonders of the ''Arabian Nights" recur unbidden to the nienioiy, and wc wouhl fain cry, " Open Sesame I" and explore the dark profuriditics in which a mysterious Avork is in prepa- ration. We sec perpendicuhu* cliffs, peaked rock?;, with deep cavities in Avhich the waves roll, twist, and bellow, or sliapeless blocks with ragged sides which the sea fills with foam. Who ever beheld a finer scene than that which presents itself to our view ? We are not yet so completely surrounded and pro- tected by ice as to have the sea as still as if it was enclosed within a mole; and Avhen the ship advances rapidly and tortuously amidst those masses, each of A\hi('li threatens its existence, where fog, sea, and ice arc so many perils, we are fortunately Avarned of tlie danger by the noise which the water makes in conflict with that production of its own entrails ; an incessant conflict to which there never is a truce of long diu-ation. The stronger the breeze, the higher the sea rises upon its enemy, over wliicli it spreads .1 1'l 1 ' 'i ■ 1 ^ i i 1 1^ i ! i i:i. •• I ,'vf 1 vi i'i. 170 JOURNAL OF like a tongue of iiamc ; it falls back as if fatigued, and returns to the charge ^Yith unabated fnrv, which augments until a sort of exhaustion compels an armistice. The proud and, as it were, insensible child resists without flinching; sustained by its imposing mass, it braves the impotent efforts of its angry mother. Barely shaken by so many successive shocks, it is some- times seen to oscillate like a drunken man, and folio vf the course of the current ; but like those habitual drunkards to whom a familiar want has imparted the instinct of equilibrium, it always recovers its centre of gra^ ity. Internal decomposition alone effects the dissolution of those enormous masses, and then come stream-ices, or poor little ice-bloclvS that pay for their great parents. The food of the Esquimaux of the western coast of Greenland is derived chiefly from seals, those of the islands have in addition birds and their eggs. But sometimes the cold drives these animals away, and the JOSEni RENE BELLOT. 171 improvidence which chariicterizes that race as well as the Indians, decimates them ter- ribly. By-the-bye, have we a right to re- proach them with this fault ? When I say decimates, I should say devours. Mr. Leask has ser-^. at Cape York a camp of fourteen persons dead of hunger. He who was doubtless the last survivor was a man of very strong and robust build ; his body was whole; but the bones that lay round him quite stripped of flesh showed how he had latterly sustained himself until that resource also failed him. Mr. Kennedy saw on the coast of Labrador an old man, Avho had been forced one winter to cat his ^^ife and his two children, having notliing else left. Gloomy thoughts harassed him, and when- ever those who pitied his misfortunes gave him provisions, big tears rolled down his cheeks^ ho lifted up his head and displayed the most violeiit grief. Oh, disinherited races ! what have 3'ou done to heaven, and what veng(>ance is wreaked upon your heads? In the evening calm and fog. Many sea 1^1 i^' ■f ! 1* i, (, .. XfWiJi? m Ml m I ; 172 JOURNAL OF birds swim round the ship, and catch up fragments of the crew's meals. They grow bokl on seeing that they are not mok^stcd, and enable us to admire their rnpid swim- ming ; it is only when a rather heavy piece of wood is thrown among them that they dive and re-appear a little further off. I counted forty-two seconds whilst one of them was diving. Mr. Goodsir denominates them alca alia. Their form, as far as I could observe it from the deck, is very like that of a teal. Their head, neck, Avings, and back are black, the breast and belly white. They seemed to take pleasure in wheeling round us ; plunging their little heads from time to time under water. A seal has just shown the upper part of his fins; several guns were pointed at him, but he instantly disappeared. 4:th Jul//. — This morning the boats were slung overboard. It is the athlete tucking up his sleeves. The gutta percha boat leaks, which does not surprise me on account of the mortar which was fired beside it, and JOSEPH llENE BELLOT. must, of course, have shaken it. Mr. Ken- nedy is afraid of it, and wishes to exchange it for a whale boat. However, it has been highly recommended, and I will do my best to have it tried. We had sight of Disco* for a moment. About four o'clock we fell in with a pack. I remained for a long time in contemplation of that immense plain of ice, the uniformity of which was broken only by a few hillocks caused by some blocks crushing in between others weaker than themselves. Thermometer 28 . At seven o'clock our rigging is covered witli a layer of ice, which falls u[)on iis in fragments whenever a rope or a spar is moved. I am more and more uneasy about my eyes ; the remedy par excellence is Goulard's lotion, and we have no acetate of lead on * Off Disco Island (Isle de la Baleinc). It was froir. here that Sir John. Franklin -wrote, for the last time, to the Admi- ralty on tlic 12th of July, 1845, and the mind naturally recurs to the horrible privations which that illustrious captain and his unfortunate companions must have gone through. Per- haps God has cast a look of compassion on them ; perhajjs our predecessors have had the happiness to find them. 7f T ^rmf on ni "-f I '5 Tl Mil fi ■1 1 ^ ■ 1 i ■ 1 »p 174 jouiiNAL or ! ; I ■■ 4 ill I I 1. ! 5 :' ! 1 i i i ■ r ' i 1 ! i i 1 1 board. God's will 1)0 done ! But I liave some sad moiiients when I think of the in- capacity to which this may reduce me. 5//i Jul//. — We continue alongside the pack. At ten o'clock wo see almost on the edge of the ice a dirty white mass, which is tak(m to be mud-ice ; but when we approach it, the sound of our run rouses up a great white bear, with two cubs near her. Our sportsmen jump into a boat, in which I cannot have the pleasure of accompanying them, on account of the state of my eyes ; but I watch all their movements Avith interest through the telescope. The bear, which is as big as one of our largest bulls, yawns, and seems to bid the troublesome intruders go to the devil. A little head, issuing from a tuft of long hair of a yellowish tinge, is stretched out in the direction of the boat. A bullet soon tells her the intention of her visitors ; and nothing is so indescribable as the cumbrous agility with which she rims over that moving footing, on which a man could not follow her. The cubs have dis- ''.Jv JOSErPI RENE BELLOT. IK r to appeared, tiiicl the job must be given up for the present. It is very fortunate that she did not take to the water, for there were six in the you-you; and tliese animals swim faster than a four-oared boat, for they some- times catch seals by swimming. Mr. Ken- nedy states that their tracks are thirteen or fourteen inches long; their forelegs are shorter than theu^ hindlegs. AYhen they are wounded in their flight, they turn round and try to bite the body that has struck them. They strike with their paws, supposing there is an enemy behind them ; the sailors say the animal does it in applying a pawful of snow to its wound. This beai* was a very remark- able one indeed ; one of the finest specimens of its kind, according to our sportsnu n. It appeared to me, at first, taller than an ox, which was no doubt an efi'ect of the mirage, for a moment afterwards it seemed smaller, though still of considerable bulk. The sports- men say that their own impressions were similar to mine. In the evening another bear is attacked. It takes to the water, and i; il: ■ P;.. ' ii I MU, 'll'rt^' ' 1' ITG JOURNAL OF I' i escapes from our yoii-j'ou bet wee >n 11 ic icc- hloeks. Wlicn tliis animal takes to the water it dives to the boat, and sets its paws against the sides, which is more dangerous than if it came swnnmmg. 0/^ and 7//t Jul//. — I passed the whoh) of Sunday in bed. Mr. Kennedy came and read prayers to me. At daybreak we are near Waigat, with clear weather. The land fifteen mih^s off, excessively high ; the sun disperses the fog, and we behold a most beautiful scene. In the distance, lofty mountains of reddish bistre tints ; above, white lines of snow ; the summit of several, covered with an eternal wrapper, seems to brave the rays of the sun. Their image reflects itself in the sky, and doubles their elevation. "We are in the midst of a hundred and fifty icebergs of the most various forms. As we are near land, that is to say, near the place of their forma- tion, most of them retain the appearance of fragments of colossal ruins ; T fancy T. have before me, on a tenfold .scaloj the oul skirts JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 177 of Montevideo, a city whose environs exhibit tlic destructive effects of an eiglit years' siege. All is nmtilation; nothing has escaped; here is a wall riddled with balls, tli(>re a loftv minulor toppling to its fall; everywhere ruins. Further on an iceberg, Avith dc^ep clefts, gapes like a ripe pomegranate, or looks like an extinct volcano with a yawning crater, or a prodigious mass of calcareous stone split in all directions. In the afternoon they arc obliged to bleed me. This is the first time I have under- gone the operation, and I remained standing whilst they drew from mo three large plate- fuls of blood. All at once I fall murmuring that beloved name — mother ! Poor mother, if she saw me ! My insensibility was fol- lowed by a delicious languor. That must be a very gentle death which follows a copious bleeding in a bath. Wi July. — Two ships in sight, Fortu- nately I have two letters ready to send by the Pacific^ of Aberdeen, and the Jdnc^ of Bo'ness. I rise, in ordor tiiat th-v;- mav mb VOL. L N li || 1 1 "^^i I ■ I'l 11 178 .TOUHNAL OF :|i| mo, and not be able to say I was very ill. My friends Avoiild believe I was dead. "Wc receive news of sonK^ importance^, if not for their substance, at least bcn-ause tlicy serve 10 tix our ideas. Tlu> Americans liave been carried by the current to the south of Disco, and they give d(>tails as to the traces found at Bc^echey Island and on tlie coast between Cape Eiley and Cape Spencer. Three graves, inscribed Avitli the names of men belonging to the Erebus and Terror^ with the date of April 1846. Other relics prove that Sir John Franklin's expedition wintered there. What is most astonishing to me is that they found no document in- dicating the direction which Sir John has taken. Did they search badly ? That is impossible, once they were on the ground. Did Captain Ommaney find the document ? Evidently he would have spoken of it ; for he cannot have been afraid of bringing too great a number of competitors to the right searching ground; such conduct would he very culpable, whatever were its motives. f'l fi JOSEPH llEXi: IJELLOT. 170 Oil tli« otlicr liuid, how is it possihlo to suppose tluit Sir John woiikl havo thus (U'vi- atcd Iroiii tlio usngcs of voyages of dis- covery ? The fiekl of coiijeoturc is so vast, that instead of losing ourselves in it, we had better, I think, Avait for the intbrniati(jn we shull ohtain at Grithth. The most striking fact is the route which the ice lias forced the Yankees to take, first to the north of WelUngton Channel, further north than it had yet been penetrated; then down again through tlie Straits luid Baffin's Buy. lEerc is the true element which proves the polar current and the existence of the north-west passage. In what direction is that passage ? That's the rub I Since they were earned northward, would it not appear that the jDassage lies between lioothia and Cape "Walker, since the cui'rent abuts against the bottom of Wellington Chnnnel, and de- scends it again ? In any case, I am too partial to Sir James Eoss not to be very well pleased that what happened to the InvestU gator has occurred to others. The Ameri- N 2 im IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) A * A :/. ^ ^ LL 1.25 |4S 1^ 1^ 12.2 2.0 m 1.4 Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 ^ \ '^ ^ ^ %o h i'^ W m 180 JOURNAL OF ) t 5 j I 11 ^. 'J f' €ans, it is said, complain greatly of tlicir crew, which is weak and not very well dis- posed. At one time it was necessary to abandon one of the ships, and the crews of hoth remained on board of one only ; this, however, had its advantage in point of economising fuel. The Pacific has already taken seven whales and a yonng one. The Jane also has seven. Three or four more, and they will have made a very profitable voynge. They arc going south. Our letters will be delivered, if possible, on the Cod Bank ; that is to say, the bar of Holstein- borg. Jnst as wc are parting, the crews of the two ships run up the shrouds, and give us three cheers. I have fortunately obtained some acetate of lead from the surgeon. ^thJuhj. — We continue to run for Upper- navik, through icebergs and streams of light ice. Yesterday's visit has effected a happy diversion of our thoughts. 10th July. — Thick, misty weather. We descry the rocks of Sanderson's Hope. It is by coasting along the island on which that JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 181 point is situated that the establishment is reached, the name of which is erroneously placed on the map. I look with the naked eye towards the spot pointed out to me, and SCO nothing; at last I discover with the telescope a few little houses, which no doubt constitute the town. The schooner lies-to, and Mr. Kennedy and I go ashore, where, after landing amidst ice-blocks and a score of very dirty people, the governor is pointed out to us; and, without being afraid of dero- gating from his dignity, he advances to us, aud receives us very politely. Born at Li^ Ay (island of Disco), he has never quitted the country, and he speaks a few words of English, which ho has learned through his frequent intercourse with the whalers. As wo kno\v neither Danish nor Esquimaux, I try to avail myself of the few Ger- man phrases I have prepared beforehand. Whether it be that I pronounce them badly, or that the Danish accent differs greatly from the German, he does not understand them until I write them down in German >>> \ iji I ? 1 ! I' ■ V. I ,'« ; iiiilf'f! Twr mn/m mw wmmmm I :; ^kr, : r ^M!M! m^ 1 J . . ■ - ■ ■fii^''^ LL.ilA ! 1 182 JOURNAL OF diameters. This establishment, the most northern belonging to Denmark, has also uttaehcd to it a chaplain and some Euro- peans. The rest of the population are Esqui- maux or of mixed race. Three Avooden houses for the governor and the chaplaiu, a chapel, a school, and some warehouses, compose the upper town, the aristocratic quarter. The other officials and the white sailors reside for the most part in huts, which dif ' V in outwiu'd appearance from those of the natives only in having doors and windows. The words governor and establislnnent re- mind mc of those titles of khig and prince so generally conceded to the chiefs of tribes, or sometimes of a handful of savages, and my disappointments as a yoimg voyager Avlien I visited the Indian seas. However, the house of the governor, since a governor there is, is comfortable enough. A complete rack of pipes, Avith long tubes, indicates a German dwelling. Presently Ave are introduced to the Avhole fomily, consisting of the gOA^er- nor's lady, who is of Esquimau race, and JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 183 five little chikli'eu, who are distinguished only from the populace by several European artich^s iu tlioir dress. The cstablishineut traffics with the Esquimaux of the coast iu the skins and fat of seals, a certain number of which animals are also taken by the inliabitants of XJppernavick themselves, who live partly on the flesh of the seals tlu^y kill, and partly on rations furnished to tliem. Oi late years, however, as the Ilolstein war thivatencd to interrupt tlie communications with the mother country, the governor has several times suspended the distribution of European provisions. This year seals had been scarce ; however, between Proven and Ui^pcrnavik they were worth 1000 fi'ancs. A bear-skin is worth 40 Danish dollars in Denmark, a blue fox four, and a white fox two or three. My presence on board the Pylncc Albert greatly surprises the governor ; but I explain the reason of it to him in English and German, and leave him some words in writing, in three languages, which the chaplain will translate for him. P i^ Wm % Is, 1 '■>■ \§M U % r' rtt ,,1 f.-.f- WW 184 JOURNAL OP ii I. i4ii:ii- ' t ' I Hii II n 1, No French ship, he telis mc, has touched at Uppemavik since 1835. Humboldt (Cosmos, p. 234, and note, p. 367, vol. ii., Latin edition) speaks of a Eunic inscription found in one of the islands to the north-west of the group of the Women's Islands, called Kingitoarsuk, which seems to prove that in 1135 adventurers from Green- land and Iceland had preceded Baffin. I had intended to go and see the stones, but the governor told me that they were carried to Denmark in 1824. Six dogs and a siedgc are sold to us for £4 ; but the great difficulty is to raise that sum of money. We reckoned, indeed, on having ail we should require from the natives themselves; but in all the establishments money is no doubt preferred to any kind of goods, and the Danes desire to have a monopol}^ of the latter. As all this occupies us some time, the ship is moored in a little creek, and I land again with some boxes of bon-bons for the governor's family. I am then introduced to Madame Krafg, the wife JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 185 of the chaplain, whom I the more regret not meeting as he speaks German and English, and understands French ; even Latin would pcrhai)s have served me. He lias been a year in the country, and is to remain seven more. His wife and sister accompany him. They understand all I say to them in Ger- man ; the whole family belongs to the Lu- theran persuasion. For a few haudkerchi jfs, rings, and necklaces, I prevail on two women to sit for their portraits, though, indeed, the governor's lady has also to aid me a little with her influence. The type of physio- gnomy in both sexes is the same as I have met with in South America, at least accord- ing to the superficial examination I was able to make : the eyes skin-bound at the inner angles ; long, straight black hau* ; the women wear it fastened up to a chignon on the crown, like the Chinese, but without a tress behind. Double petticoats of seal-skin, placed with the fleshy sides in contact with each other, so that they may be greased, breeches, and a loose coat with a hood — the whole in I I J. ' ' ^ ( t. it " j4 ilfi ' !,Hi i: ' ! i > : i '■ ! • > 1 ■ t .1 . ^*i ■ : ■Ih} r" 1 :• , \ > 186 JOURNAL OF seal-skin — form the accoutrc^meuts of both sexes. The women^s coats are dist'uguished only by a tail falling down before and be- hind ; and their boots, those of the more elegant at least, are of tanned leather, dyed in bright coloui-s, with parti-coloured pieces of skin laid on them. The women cany their children on their backs, in a pouch provided fur that purpose,' in their coats. Large stakes supporting some skiffs, and a pack of dogs on a hillock, directed my atten- tion to a hut, and I begged that it might be asked whether I might enter. Having been ans\v^ered in the affirmative, I looked in vain for a door. " CJilamo I cJiiamo .^" cried one from within; but it was not without the help of one of the bj'-s landers that I could guess that an opening hardly two feet high, and covered with a skin, was the door. Puffs of hot air loaded with fetid emanations reach me ; I feel my courage waver, but at last I make my way in, after crawling a couple of yards through a sort of sewer with damp walls, the foot of which rests in a I ' I JOSEPH RFNE BELLOT. 187 miuUly compost of blood, water, oil, and grease. No ; I shall never forj^eu the im- pression made on me by what I saw, though I thought myself prepared for everything by the numerous descriptions I had read of these miserable hovels. This one, too, is in II place comparatively civilised, where the exauiplc of Europeans must, and does, create wants and notions of comfort unknown to wandering tribes, in an establishment visited every year by an inspector sent by the government of C^openhagen. A rectangular enclosure of stones, covered on the outside with a thick layer of earth, and on the in- terior with three or four j^lanks, forms the body of the hut; at each of ihe doors and at the further end, a sort of trellis, a foot from the ground, and three or four feet wide, serving for bed and table. In the middle space, of about three feet, lies half a seal, from which the fat has been removed, but the bloody flesh, trampled under foot, is there at hand whenever the inmates of the hut feel disposed to eat. i lti Urn ;. . . lu:: H * '. ; i ''J^ i 1, 1 t ■ 1 ':■ ;, \.V: i ' ; Ijl-li ' • |i llNt m * 'I ; ■^ ll^H-!: 'f: 188 JOUIINAL OF On one side of the liut is im old woman, nearly blind, with grisly locks, bare legged and bare armed, sewing skins which she moves abont with her feet and hands. Her red eyelids, contrasting with her bistre skin, seem still more i)rominent from the leanness which is only found in individuals of her race. She looks the image of one of the witches in MachdJi. Near her lies her son, who sits up to do me tlie honours of his house. At the further end a young woman, nearly naked, is suckling a naked infiuit, which she holds with one hand, whilst with the other she snatches up some skins which constitute her garments. Two lamps fed with fetid oil do the double service of lighting and warming the apartment. Har- poons, lances, and rolls of skin hang from the walls, or are laid against it, the lower ends resting in rubbish and offal of all sorts. There is no opening for the escajic of smoke ; a single hole near the entrance, glazed with thin intestinal membranes, alone allows it to be seen that there is an outer world. JOSEl'II IJEXK RKLLOT. 189 H I fo(?l suftoeiitcd ; my iiosr, throat, oycs, all aro afFoctod, but T want to sc(\ I i^vcn try to concoal my soiisations ; and whon an oily lunid is strctcliod out to mo in token of woloomo, I hold out a handkorehiof as a gift, and thus avoid the good-natunnl grasp that threatens me. Some trifling presents soon make friends of these poor disinherited! childi'en of nature ; and, like the diver pre- paring for a long effort, I try to see as much as possible, holding my breath and inhaling as little as I can of that atmosphere. How can human beings live in such con- ditions? It is a problem the solution of which seems impossible until one has seen it. When I had satisfied my curiosity, I again examined the outside, and two ban-els, which announced the prosperity of my new friend. Their contents arc sufficiently in- dicated by the presence of a number of dogs that lick then* greasy sides; they arc the provisions peculiar to the Esquimaux, or rather the Huski. Esquimaux, or eaters of raw fish, is a name given to these poor i 1] > M ."1 II t ^ i = tl , ' ' t ! i \u VM) JOUUXAL 01' tribes 1)V Uic liidijiiis of Norlli AiiKricii, who luive long luiidt' war upon tlicm, imd do so still troin timo to tiiiu*. Tli(»v ('oiisid(>r this u'duw ail insult evt'ii on the coa'^t of GnK'uland, wlioro tho lan.nuap' s])«>k('n on the coast of Labrador is perfeetly luub'rslood. Mr. yniith, our steward, who learned their hiiii;na«40 at Uudsoii's Bay, makes himself very nitellij»'ible to tlunn. Portions of seals are drvin<^ on th(^ cuds of long stakes, and I see a sort of leathov bottles of a reddish colour, the origin of which I in vain inqnirc^ after. They are pannches of dvor killed on the mainland, and contain the blood and intestines, Avhicli are left to macerate for several da}'s. Mr. Hepburn knows all this, and Sir John Franklin nmst mention it in his voyage. All the parts of the seal are turned to use, and the animal ought to be deified by them. At first I thought the governor's house very comfortable, but now it seems to me a sumptuous abode. The Esquimaux have brought on board L M\k 4> ^ J. JOSKI'ir UKNIO liKLI.OT. 191 somo partri(l;j;('s lik(» tliosc I Iwivc seen in Franco; but llicy sell cv(T3'tIiinii,' (U-iir ; and, according to tlio doctor's S(;ot(;li provcrl), they "vvould not soil thoir hens on ii rainy (lay, hocaufso the rain makes them appear tliin. Wo liav(; not Loon al)l(j to lind intorprotors. Tbo governor assiuvs us that none of the Esqnimanx would come "svitli us. No doubt he has ordi'rs Irom liis govennnent to that effect, for Mr. Perry, who took Mr. I'oterson thence, asked the Admiralty to intorced(* with Denmark. On leaving the place, I was near setting my foot on a little flayed seal, and jumped back in a fright, thinking it was a child. About seven o'clock we sail Avith a licjht breeze. At ten a skiff comes alongside with an Esquimau from one of the islands on his way to the establishment. One cannot help shuddering to sec these men venture to any distance in these fi'ail skiffs, the sides of which are hardly four inches above the water when the owner is seated in them. i ) * I .'i , ' 1 1 ', '1 9 ' ' n i M ■|! ' 1 . <•{. 'J. ^- :.t , t« IH: '\m iS'" W:W\ »■ 192 JOURNAL OF I i 1 f^ ' ! h li m i .' . , 1 (, 1 ! ■ f ■ ■ 1 -1 I 1- i • i ! i - ) : ^ ! i i ^ ikiLii\ , 1 1 ! ,1. A skiff or kaf/ak (pronounced Jaf/aqiw, with the Spanish j) 4 or 5 metres long, CO niillo- metrcs "svidc, and 30 or 40 high, is made of skins soAvn together and stretched over a lidit frame of bone. It is covered above, and has a hole in the middle, behind which is a leather thong fastened to the 0A\Tier's harpoon. As there is, in general, no sea- guard, the grand Jifficulty is to know how to preserve one's balance. If the skiff upsets, as the Esquimaux cannot quit it, he is lost, but he makes it come right again with his paddle. To sec them thus en- tangled one with the other, you ask yourself whether it is the skiff that has become a man, or the man that has become a skiff; and if the ancients had secii these beings, half man half boat, they would have made a distinct race of them, with much more reason than they did of the Centaurs. " Troeo .'" shouts our visitor, and I offer him sundry articles for his harpoons. I show him a mirror, and know not hovr to describe the stupid, but hearty and natural, laughter JOSEPH RENE liELLOT. 193 he breaks out with on seeing his own image ; but when I show him a doll, his delight is unbounded. There is intelligence under tlio grossly animal aspect of these people. When this man sees mo, though I am dressed like all tho rest, he says, " CapitanV I shake my head by way of saying " No." " iYo, Gukhi^'^ he says ; " you ''MerkamP Yet nothing has betrayed my nationality to the eyes of tho whalers we have hitherto mot. Will Julij. — Wc arc detained by calms near islands north-west of the Women's Islands, and wc turn the time to good ac- count. A boat is sent several times ashore, and in a very short while it has brought back twenty-three dozen of eider duck eggs i^Anas molUssima). These eggs, which are twice as large as those of our hens, afford abundant refreshment for all hands. The}' are brown or greenish; the latter are of a more marked conical form than ours. Three graves, one dated 1825, that of Mr. Craig, surgeon of the Ramhlcr^ and that of a sea-boy eleven years old, dated VOL. I. k , 1 •li' I^L'' ^1 ' ■ 1 ' ■■' 1 1 ^^ '|: . .|\.:J 1 \ :: ■ m iiiV 194 JOURNAL OF fci 1 \ is ■'Ml' i r 1: ^ 1 niji ! ^ ' t ■:i;l' ! IHii i 1 i1 ■, r 1 i 1 i i ■4 •;i 1 1 '.I i !t| i '■ \ 1 ..ll ■ 1 ' H h I' ■A ' ! t m^i i\« hi ■iJkx 1837, have been found on one of those islands. The weather is magnificent, and it is almost warm. The thermometer is at 55°; we remain motionless or a sea of oil. It is not one of those ocean calms in which there is always a swell that makes the ship roll, and the sails hang heavily down the masts. Everything seems asleep, and the hands are below, because there is nothing to do on deck. But, thanks to those cheering rays that gild the polished surfaces of the ice- bergs, nature is not dead ; life is felt under this complete immobility ; it is the image of repose, and not of death. From time to time a dull detonation announces the result of a decomposition effected, no doubt, by the heat. A rolling noise is heard, like the thunder peals in our autumnal tempests, and we see the head of an iceberg separate from the trunk, and fal] crashing into the sea, throw- ing up clouds of spray to a great height. The monster oscillates several times, as if to recover itself upon its base, or perhaps in sign of salutation to the other icebergs ; for -— ^F" JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 195 who can inteq)rct tbo mysterious language of Nature ? A long swell goes to announce, at a distance of several miles, its entry into the world; a few minutes more, and that which but now was a dependent portion of a larger block, is become itself a member of that family of giants. I have more than once seen the launch of a vessel — that admirable result of man's efforts; I have felt my heart sink at the moment w^licn, the signal being given, it was advancing slowly, making its oaken cradle crack beneath it; and I have clapped my hands on seeing that enormous mass afloat, the setting in motion of which I regarded as the nc plus ultra of the results of mechanism ; but what is that compared with the scene of this day ? men, how little you are in the world ! How slight and mean are your chcfs- (Voeiwre^ compared with the works of that great master who is called Nature ! What arc your pyramids two hundi'cd feet high, your dome of St. Peter's, your Kremlin? Here are mountains eight hundred ibct out 2 . 551 ;-:lr I! 4 ( \"' ■h:, ■ : ' V f.' ^ i ■'vii » ,|ll! R ^l ■■ \ ' '^^■ (I .1 i)s:i^ m '^ ■^ /fflW? w I . . * w^mmmm wmmm I 1 ! i ti I ■ i niMf / 3 i' 1 m^ I lliiii^: Ml ^ i: ■ 1 ' 1 1 ! i 196 JOURNAL OF of the water, and with bases two thousand feet deep ; here are cupolas and domes at a height of four hundred feet ! It is impos- sible to avoid shuddering at the thought, how easily such a mass would pulverise a boat or a ship which might chance to be near them. "We were a mile and a half from the one that fell, and the swell from it rocked us for several minutes. It was not broken by the agitation of waves, which rendered its transmission so much the easier. (This makes me think that the undulatory theory explains the phenomena of sound and light much better than the emissive theory.) Beechey relates that, in the course of his voyage to Spitzbergen, an iceberg having fallen, the Dorothea^ which had been laid on her beam-ends four miles off, was lifted up again, and the long-boat was capsised. Mr. Hepburn confirms the fact to me. Vlili Juhj. — Fine weather. We have ad- vanced a little, and are near Baffin's Island^;. Presently we descry one, then two, and finally ten ships — the whole fleet of -N^'halors, JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 19' stopped in its course to the north, and tack- ing along the ice, in order not to be beset ; two of them, however, could not escape this : the Tniclove, Captain Parker, and the Joseph Preen are icelockcd some miles off. The Americans are a little further — twenty miles to the north; and one of them was aground yesterday on rocks. Guessing that we have letters and journals for them, they send whalers on board ; one of them crosses the ice with his boat to come to us. A fresh notice from Dr. Kane repeats the details of the traces found at Beechey by Parry's men, wherewith the captains are naturally de- lighted. " He was one of us," they say ; "a great man!" The Americans were drifted as far as latitude 65° 30', having thus run a course of one thousand and fifty miles in all. The scene to-day is of the most animated kind — ten ships working in a very limited space, to avoid the ice and not to run foul of each other, spread movement and life around them : it is like bees hunying to and from 1 i* .' ■A- ' 1. 1 'i\M !;" n ll f!^ iMViP illll' |hi:|i ' 1:^ ; ■■ "> :!■•'■ ■ 1 ■ : f'l - , ■, ,. ■ .M ■ i4--iMr 198 JOURNAL OF a hive. The news they give us of the state of the ice, of their successes, and their hopes, occupies several hours. Beside those heavy three-masters of three hundi'cd tons, Avith hirge sides, and covered with swift fishing-boats, our little schooner seems very slight : several persons make the remark. She is like the graceful halcyon mingling in the sports of the massive alba- trosses ; but the rapid grace and the agility of her movements enable us to run through the ice better than they can. Wherever there is an opening the Prince Albert slips into it, and her smail size gives her, in that special navigation, a facility of locomotion not possessed by a vessel of larger dimen- sions. Besides, did not the Baffins, the Hudsons, and the Davises make their dis- coveries in still smaller craft ? Who would think of complaining amidst the relative comforts which we enjoy? Most of these vessels carry a crew of fifty men and a surgeon. The surgeons are for the most part young men, who have at most gone JOSEPH IlENE BELLOT. 199 through some medical trainiug, and arc still too young to thinli of establishing a practice. Many of them boarded us, and they almost all speak with enthusiasm of the exciting incidents of this new life. The whalers always sail in pairs in the icy regions in case of accident. One of the men on the look out at the mast-head signals a whale. Quick, quick, man the boats ! and the swift skiffs, always ready at the ship's sides, are lowered into the sea, theii* harpoons and lines being all carefully prepared beforehand. Stout rowers, let not yom* vigorous arms relax, for the victory is his who has first struck his haii)oon into the whale ; and the boat, like an intelligent coui'ser, seems animated with the common ardour, it cleaves the wave, and leaves behind it a long furrow of foam. The master, on whom the whole business depends, ai'med Avith a long sweep, guides it with intelligence. Standing at the bow is the harpooner, watching the moment when the animal presents any part of its body to him. The harpoon is flimg : a broad reddish sheet • I ■L^^li d I mm ^m TR Hi [ ^1 j ! i ' ■ : ? ■ - 1: 'i i V ' . , 1 ^ ' f if Jl ■ ■i >■ 1 ' ■ , ii 1 I i Jjj^l i4^. 200 JOURNAL OF covers the surface of the water. Hurrah ! well struck ! But attention now, and let us not sleeep on our laurels ; for hitherto there has been no conflict but only attack. Tlie harmless wounded creature plunges do-vvn the abyss, and urged by pain, pursues with frightful speed his frantic way to regions where he thinks to avoid his enemv. From time to time he rises to the surface to breathe, and spouts out floods of foam and blood; fresh harpoons compel him to dive again and renew the race. "With each wound a fresh enemy is fastened to his flanks ; and it is not unusual to see a whale thus dragging three, four, or five boats, for which that moment is full of danger; for such is the rapidity with which they fly over the surface of the sea, that the harpoon lines often take fire, and it is necessary to pour water on them continually. At last, ex- hausted by its efforts, the animal dies, and is towed alongside the ship. On some ships the liarpoon is shot from a gun : there are some even so constructed as to kill the JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 201 animal immediately by means of a few di'ops of prussic acid, a contrivance which renders the strife thencefoiih ignoble. The poor whale, tracked and hunted in every direc- tion, revenges himself by emigrating; and since the beginning of tue fishery, the number has greatly diminished ; they move towards the more temperate regions. Like the noble bull harassed by the incessant attacks of the picador, the whale sometimes mshes blindly on its enemies, and with a single stroke of its tail makes the boats fly in pieces, or baffles their rancorous cupidity by snapping the line with a desperate effort, and going and dying in some unknown corner, but at least Avithout falling into the hands of its enemies. Poor animal ! is not this the fight between the lion and the gnat? Ignominiously cut to pieces, it fills several tons ; the whalebones are taken out of the mouth under clouds of mollymokes and rotches, that are are not scared by the pre- sence of the sailors. In the evening we see the Americans from '%■ m !) .1: ;n;f; *ir ': ' ; ' ■ 1 t , > I jj JW*™— ■T=! ,■..'•■ I 'm ' m... 202 JOURNAL OP i ! \l ;iiT I s I . <-} the mast-head, but without being able to approach them, for before us there is a banier of ice which prevents our passing further uortli. Provisions are brought upon deck to be in readiness in case we should be obliged to quit the ship. ISth July. — About one o'clock in the moiii- ing, the wind, blowing in a south-westerly direction, brings us the floating ice fi*om seaward, and pressing us against that which lies along the coast, catches us thus as in a vice. About five o'clock the breeze aug- ments. We reef the sails, but are still driven amid the ice, and we r.nship the rudder that it may not be broken. There is nothing for it but to Avait; no human effort could get us out of this, and for a beginning we are not badly caught. Every time a change of wind makes us change oiu* direction, I hear from my berth the grinding of the ship against the edges of the ice, and as it is the first time I have heard the sound on board a large vessel, I am not little moved by it. It is the same sensation as one feels in a boat ■) I JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 203 that runs iiground, or pa.s:30S over a reef of rocks. I experieuccd this only in the Bcr- ceau on tlie night when the CoUbrl was lost. About noon a thick snow eiiYf>lofjS us ; the breeze instantly drops, and we are surrounded with ice and made fast, but without danger for the moment. Sufficient fur the day is the evil thereof. To-day we have a victoiy, for which we have reason to rejoice, no doubt, but none to boast. About ten o'clock a bear appears on the ice, but disappears under a fog, through w^hich it would not be prudent to follow it. Twenty years ago the whaler Ladjj Forbes was nipped between two icebergs in the very spot where we now are. The floes which are driven against us by the wind form, as they meet all round us, as far as the eye can see, a vast plain of ice, broken only by some icebergs and hills formed in the fol- lowing manner. When two floes meet and are pressed together, the weaker of the two is broken, and the edges re x' thenaselves up vertically. We are drifting more and more Mi tlj V I . , 1 I 'iMiH il .' ii Ihi,.- WfW- Tzmmtssr "-■■«*<^^— *«.*<^ - ^J^ -x^zTsr 204 JOURNAL OF Jit 'mil 1:1 near tlic islands, hut our small draught of water is here a safeguard. Two seals have boon seen in the distance on the ice. The floes arc three or four feet thick. "Wc are making preparations for leaving the ship; the provisions are hoisted on deck, and wo are packing up. lith Jitlf/. — Fine weather. The sun shows itself a little and melts the crust of ice roimd us. The blocks separate, and though we arc not quite set free, at least they do not press on the sides of the vessel. Wc cast anchor upon one of the largest of them, and we take in water, raising it with buckets from pools formed here and there. In the evening a target is set up at which the marksmen practise. The state of my eyes has obliged me to change my hours of rest. I could hardly distinguish day from night if it were not for our meals, for we hardly have a glimpse of the sun by day, and by night there is a brightness which penetrates every- where, and from which we can with difficulty JosEi'u rem: bellot. 205 screen ourselves in ordcu* to sleep. One of GUI' pigeons has been bitten by u.j dogs unci will not be in a condition to fly this year. Mr. Leusk has been all these days of opi- nion that M'v cannot cross to Melville Bay this year ; in that case we should be obliged to try the piissage by the south. With every difficulty that presents itself to us my tlioughts recur to those wo arc in search of, and to poor Lady Franklin. What woidd be her despair should the Prince Albert return again this year without binng able to accomplish its mission ! 15 /A Jul//. — Fine weather. All the mvu are washing — taking advantage of the fresh water, which they have not far to go for. The conversation at table turns on the kind of food required in cold climates. I could hardly believe that a man could eat eight pounds of meat; that is the ration given by the Hudson's Bay Company, or twelve pounds of fish, or two pounds of pemmican. Mr. Hepburn says, that the fact must be I '1: r! rmr 200 JOURNAL OF ! ' ) : n%'\k \.\ I t 1 i 1 mentioned by Dr. Bichardson and Sir John Franklin. Our dogs are well acclimated on board, and feed on the scraps from our tables, though seal's flesh is their habitual food. They arc so accustomed to bad treatment, that they tremble every time they are ap- proached. They are much more like wolves than dogs, with their pointed ears and bushy tails. Their appearance shows very little intelligence, though they are susceptible of attachment, for at Uppernavik I saw some of them go up to their masters with the usual tokens of joy. In the Hudson's Bay territory thi'cc charges of powder are given for rations ; the women even are good shots, and Mr. Hepbui*n, whose address Sir John Franklin extols, tells me that he was always less successful than Miss Macaulay at Atha- basca. Mr. Smith mentions several instances of the sort. Mr. Hepburn tells me that Sir John Franklin was one day saluted by a volley of ten rifles, fired by the women of m JOSEPH EENE BETLOT. 207 some village or other in the absence of their husbands. Mr. Smith shows me the Esqui- maux' goggles ; they are a kind of half mask, covering the eyes and fitting on the upper part of the nose. Those of the fashionable Esquimaux are made of Avood, handsomely carved, or of morse-tusk ivory. I do not think that snow blindness is caused by the reflection of the sun on the snow, for it is chiefly in spring that tliis malady is most fi-equent, and on hazy days (it is true that the reflection is stronger on such days), which makes me think that the true cause consists in moist vapom-, combined with the glare of the snow. Sir John Eranklin and Mr. Ken- nedy used to wear green gauze veils against snow blindness in winter, and insects in summer. This malady causes very acute pain. The Esquimaux escape from it only by wearing goggles, and the young men among them, who dispense with them out of bravado, are soon blind. The Americans are within six miles of us, behind the most northern island, and we see 1 ^^KHf Iw a ' ■wp 'Pilil !':■ ;3'!i f ■- 1 ' ■ i-: 1 ■■■ 1 1 ■ • {'{' ! j 1 1 til A 1 i .[I i y h ! ■ (, • . " ■ • '1 i i»L« ■t flWm^' : l\^^: n i ! ' > i i 1 ! 1 \ ! * 1 i 1 '. : 208 JOURNAL OF tliem very well from the mast-licad. If wo can be near them, our detention, however long, Avould be the more tolerable ; but it is possible that we may always remain at our present distance apart. So long a march over the ice would perhaps be dangerous, on account not only of the holes into wliicli wo might fall, but also of the fogs, which rise coniixinally and in an unexpected man- ner, and which arc so thick that the use of the compass would by no means be a security to be relied on We have, for the second time to-day, a halo and two parhelia. At eight o'clock a slight breeze from the north opens the ice before us, and we immediately go to work. Ice angles are stretched and fixed bj" means of a hole bored with a great auger, and wc haul ourselves forward, clearing the way before us with gi'eat poles pointed with iron. "We had fortunately made all ready in the course of the day, by clearing the decks, and piling up everything round the masts. In the middle are all the cables for haulage, JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 209 within and without, and for the boats. On the sides of the vessel are ranged in order saws, shears, &c.; in short, it is a general clearage of the decks of the most complete kind. We ship the rudder again, and set sail in an open basin of water of some miles extent. 16th July. — About two o'clock we reach the limit of the open space, and moor upon an iceberg which is aground, some cable lengths behind the most north-western of the northern Baffin Islands. The dogs arc immediately tm*ned out on the ice, and the poor brutes jump, howl, roll, and play, thus testifying their delight at being again on their own element. Protected from the cold by their thick fur, they roll and gambol on the snow with more pleasure than they would do upon the greenest sward. While tacking, we perceive the Americans near land hoisting their topsails, in order no doubt to attract our attention. From the highest point of the island no water is visible to the north. Some men land, and bring VOL. I. p " s. i t \ ■1 i Vr- ■HI A H il i (il "I: . :, ; 1 i ! i 1 210 JOURNAL OF back two fine cider ducks, male and female. In form tlioy arc like our common ducks. The breast and back of tlic male arc white, the belly raven blue, the upper part of the head blue, the rest and the neck white, with some pretty tints of green. The female's plumage is grey, spotted with white. They are both of a size. Four eggs were found in the nest. It is made of eider down which the female plucks from her own body ; the male generally contributes his quota, and thus they are taken with their bellies stripped. At four o'clock Dr. Kane and Mr. Mur- daugh arrive on board in voyager's costume. Ceremony is soon banished with Americans, and especially in such circumstances as ours. " I have seen many things here to surprise me," says the doctor to me ; ^' but what I least expected to find here was a French officer." They have seen twenty-six bears, and captured nine of them ; not twenty-six as we were told by the Advice, Captain Eeid. The doctor asserts that the bear turns round and bites his wound where he can to pluck ■li u. _.U. . U -J J *i female. ducks. white, of the ;e, with female's They bund in bich the he male ad thus pped. tr. Mur- ostume. icricans, as ours. surprise what I French X bears, enty-six in Beid. IS round to pluck JOSEPH llENE BELLOT. 211 out the ball. When pursuing a bear, he picked up a ball with marks of teeth on it. The energy of these animals, he says, is extraordinary ; after being wounded they run and throw themselves into the water, where they swim for a very long time. Their stomachs are often found full of seal's flesh. Ho opened several, the stomachs of which were empty and quite shi-unk. They couple in May, and the female goes with young until December. lie has flayed one, which exceeded by two inches the largest measured by Parry (eight feet nine inches); it must have weighed sixteen hun- dred pounds. Their form behind is some- what like the elephant's. '' The government ships," he says, *' are too comfortable. The officers remain on board, and do not venture out." The doctor studied a year in Paris. Mr. Murdaugh knows almost all the officers of the Samt Louis and the Brandy wine ; he is cousin to Taylor, so that I am among acquaintances. He repeats the observation I have heard Mr. Leask make, that there is p2 j*i I ; i ■ ' : , ( - ■ 1 \ i ; . '1 \ \K i.ll 'mmw^ miti^^m i«M« mm 212 JOUKNAL or ^ib i , I: no land i{!e ; what lias been taken for earth is brokin i(!(>, and this diminishes the cbanco of a passage to Melville Bay. This comes no (k)nbt from the predominance of winds from the sonth-w(*st, bnt not from th(5 cast, from which it would be sheltered by the ele- vation of the land, lie talks to us also of the astonish in «»• efiects, not of the mirage, but of refraction even round the observer iu winter. A person walking thought to set foot on a hillock, and found, on the contrary, that he stepp(}d into a depression. A leap from a hummock that seemed a fcAV feet high, proved to be a descent of ten feet. One day they saw something that appeared to be an exceedingly tall man, eight feet high at least, says Dr. Kane ; they approached, it was a bird. They had distinctly seen the man stretch out his arms and bring them together, as if Avrapping a cloak about him ; it was simply the bird flapping its wings. They appear to be very short of hands; the sailors tell us they will desert at the first land. They are moored near an iceberg two ■ i JOSEril RENK UELLOT. 213 hundrofi and thirty foct high. Noiio of thoin had been on the ice before, exec^pt Mr. de Haven in Wilkie'.s expedition ; but it appear(4 that it is not the same navigation, tlii^y did no- thing then but coast along tlie ice. They are astonished that Snow coidd publisli so big a book about nothing at all ; ihvy regard him as a charlatan. The doctor brings me a pair of boots, and a pair of pantaloons of seal's skin. The land seems broken, not by the wind, but by the swell caused by the sea breezes. The Americans are not pleased at Snow's saying that they have the pay res- pectively of the rank above them, which is untrue. Dr. Kane thinks that justice is not done to the Polar bear by the classification in which ho is considered as one of the least intelligent animals. 17 th /? ivci or nioro of open water betwcnni tliem. Floes of several huiidrcMl feet yield to the pressure nisule })y the vessel, niul open to make* way for iis. Not a moment must he lost in tlu^ i(!e : this is true to the lettc»r ; for the Hoes often close behind us, and unite in sucili a mamun- as would nnider it impossible for a ship to pass whieh was only a lew eabh^ lenp.'ths behind us. At last we see the two Americans ahead of us, but hardly in advance of their former position ; and in the evenintj; we should have reached them but for a iotufuc — that is, a piece of ice lyinu" under watiT beiuuith one Hoe, and si.; ■ •' ' over the adjact^nt iloo. The ice has \)(\ni broken with ax(^s, hand- spikes, and luniviui;' with thi^ capstan on the two iloes, with hawsers runninj;- aft. Wc break one of them ; then the ship is made to heel — that is to say, the whole crew, assembled at one side, ru./h together to the other as fast as possible at the word of com- mand, so as to break the ice by the motion < W . ■ .losr.iMi im;nh mkli.ot. 215 of tlio Hliip. FvvhIi li.'iwsorK roniplc^to tlie job. Tho Amoriciinsi wvw. lo-diiy jit tho foot of an i('('l)(>i'_uj y)Iii('('(l iM'liiiid llioin, and yot threes tiincs Jis lni;li mm tlicir inaslM, which makes at least Iwo hundred and fifty fciot, ahout the lieii^ht of (hal to wliioh they wero moored. To make np for the want of ex(^reiso, I took it into iriv head to m) s/tj/m in a boat for an hour, and 1 am quite fatigued. Wo saw several sc^a-ealves to-day on th(; inc. 1 8/7(5 Jul//. — ^\V(^ ^et into the i(;(; quite close to the Anu^ricaiis, who pay us a visit at niiK^ in tlu^ morning-. Captain d(^ Haven, a man of about six-juid-(hirty years of ago, to judge from his fae(^, took })art in the American expedition to the South Pole. We return Avith them to Iheir vessels. None of them had navigated in tlie ice before this voy- age ; but tlunr rough aj)])rontie(;ship was soon completed. (jIo a-head ! is their cap- tain's maxim. With stout ships and bold resolution they have triumphed over every- thing. Such are the daring pioneers of civi- ' ! .'1 h.i •-*• mm 216 JOURNAL OF lisation amidst the vast plains of America or the sands of California — men who do not know danger, and who brave it less perhaps throngh ignorance than through their cou- rage and self-reliance ; and I believe it is of them indeed that it may be fairly said, that the word impossible is not in their dictionary. They attribute their drifting and that of the ice not to the current, but to the wind, which indeed, as I have myself observed, always pushes the ice before it. We launch one of our pigeons, with a notice in duplicate attached to each leg, and a statement that " authentic traces of Sir John Franklin have been found at Cape Eiley," printed on several of the wing fea- thers. After wheeling several times round the ship, it comes and rests on board : we give it some food, and, after letting it exer- cise a little, put it back into its cage. I think we shall have to make it repeat this exercise several days, and then make it set off in a brisk north wind oy frightening it with musket shots. I went on board '. n • 1.., JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 217 the Americans in my canoe, which goes very well ; it is decidedly a happy invention of Mr. Hepburn. In the evening wo hanl gra- dually into the openings which present them- selves. The sky blackening to the south, we thought we might bo again locked in. At midnight, a gust from the south-oast throws us within about thirty feet of an ice- berg, from which we at last get off Avith the help of the sails. 19th July. — Fine weather. We are in the ice, and hauling through it foot by foot. I go on board the Americans. We are all day in communication through the ice, the dis- tance between us not being more than half a cable's length. The Rescue is a good way astern. Dr. Kane is an almost universal traveller. First he was attached to the China delegation; then he ascended the Mle, visited Nubia, traversed the kingdom of Dahomey, on the coast of Afi'ica ; subse- quently he took part in the war with Mexico, and visited France, Germany, Switzerland, I', {*u A\: lit ^ ii; 218 JOURNAL OP ll and Spain. lie shows mv his collection of observations on i\w, ice. We almost always let onr doj^s loose on the ie(^, and after gambolling abont, they return on board without giving us any trou- ble ; but to-day one of th(>ni obsthiately re- fused to eome, ran away when wc tricnl to catch it, and after many fruitless attempts, we were forced to leavti it behiiul as the brec^ze got up. We hear his howls at the distance of four miles ; and as the fate of the poor brute is but too certain, his plaintive cries sadden our whole evening, lie is seen the whole night fixed to one spot, where he will die of hunger, and it is impossibh^ not to pity him ; but tlu* Anu'ricans astern of us have also tried in vaui to entice him on board. Dr. Kane, hoAvever, has a bitch more intelligent than the other Esquimaux dogs, but he feeds her himself; and I say it to the shame of the species, without being a calum- niator, I am afraid tlie seat of gratitude in the animals is in the stomach and not in the heart. JOSITIl RENE BELLOT. 210 Ourpi^'oou has horn launohod apjaiii to-day, and roturiiod onci^ more. Sir Janu^s lioss sent off two pigeons ; and what tends to prove tliat the one wliich was pjiven to ns as one of the ])air is really what it is sup- posed to be, is, tluit, 1 st, {mother pigeon was with it ; -ndly, it had marks of ji gun-shot, wliich may have struck ()if Sir JauK^s Eoss's despatch ; 3rdly, after having heen caught with ditfieulty hy Miss Dunlop's nuMi, and put into the pigeon-house, it renwved imme- diately to the nest and tlu^. compartment to wliich it had heen used ; 4thly, it seemed to be identitied by its plunuxg(\ I went with Dr. Kane in pursuit of two seals, but they dived too far off. S(^al-hunting is not with- out danger, on account of the ice being often full of pools or chasms covered with snow. It is well to have a stick, or at least to carry one's gun horizontally. We could n(jt ex- amine the holes which arc very curiously made with the teeth of the seals, and always from beneath. They cannot make them from above, and are often caught in that way, the 1 n 1 ■>V'H I. ( , r i 1 '■: ■i . ■, ':i 'i ;I.P mi "■Pii ■f, . ^^ip^ •.■*-s.Trl -'.-rr: 1 ■ j i . :! i. , f .:1 1 'i -■!-»; Niii 5 1 •1 , iliti \ ^ 1 1 i ; : j 1 1 1 iff" . , ii 220 JOURNAL OF ice forming very fast. They bask voluptu- ously in the sun, and the greatest caution is necessary in approaching them. The Esqui- maux, for whom it is not a pleasui'e but a necessity, sometimes pass half a day crawling towards them on their bellies, and remaining motionless when the animal's attention is directed to them. 20th July, — Fine weather. We continue to warp through the ice wherever an opening allows us. "We still hear the bowlings of our poor dog at moie than eight miles dis- tance, and are almost sorry we did not kill him. In this vast solitude, so peopled with icebergs, and so silent, sound is transmitted to still greater distances. I spent part of tho day on board the Americans. Captain de Haven tells me that whales have been found in the Pacific having in them harpoons of the Arctic Seas ; a manifest proof of their passage. If the whalers wintered they would have much better chances, which I had heard before ; " for," says Captain de Haven, "we who were not in search of JOSEPH EENE BELLOT. 221 whales have seen a great number." For the first time I notice in the clashing of two floes a sound like that of the wind roaring through branches of trees, whether caused by the crashing of the under surfaces which come in collision with each other, or by the air which escapes as the opening closes. 21st Julf/. — I have seen on board the Rescue a unicorn's tooth four feet long ; Dr. Kane has one which is nine feet long. The animal has two, but one seems to grow at the expense of the other. Dr. Kane tells mc that M. de Tocqueville's book is considered so exact that it is used as an educational work in the United States, and given to be read to persons of enquiring habits. I find countrymen on board the Americans, the two cooks and the steward. One of the cooks was a tirailleur of Yincennes, and served at the siege of Eome. Decidedly, and though I say it with all respect for those several professions, the world has reason to think that we are a nation of cooks, tailors, and hair- dressers. After all I cannot be too prodigal :^^l; ill « fl >' i\ 1 I -JL.JAULlJ.WWiS i ! i . ' !( ■- \lh ) '■ S ;! I i 222 JOURNAL OF of praise to the skill of oiir artistes^ whose broiled seal and roasted reindeer appear to me delicious. More than three hundred whalers are employed in the southern seas, according to Captain de Haven. We are told of a burlesque theatrical incident which happened during the wintering of the Americans. An actor, who played a woman's part, having taken up a smoothing iron, burst into a roar in the middle of a song ; the smootliing iron had actually burned his fingers by its intense cold. Yesterday, Sunday, we had no prayers, because we were incessantly at work. Captain Kennedy tells the men, that if we were engaged in a com- mercial enterprise he would have stopped the work, but that in a business of charity there must be no delay ; and I am sure that what he says he would have done. For the Irst time we have used the great saw, with a tri- angle like the beam of a bell. Wc are separated for some time from the Americans, and I escort Dr. Kane back to his ship; he is quite grieved at this parting. / JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 223 At two o'clock the sun is 10° or 15° above the horizon, its wai*m rays coloui'ing the summits of the western icebergs. Our crew will doubtless much regret this separation, for since we have been together, we have continually worked in common, day and night helping each other. 22wfl? July. — I am agreeably sui-prised on waking to find the Americans again near us, and helping as usual to clear the way for us between two floes ; services which we reci- procate. In the environs of Point Wilcox and the Sugar Loaf, there are several bays which seem deep; some points of land appear to be islands. These rocks are covered with a polished ice which seems to attach itself by preference to surfaces which have a northern aspect. In the distance and above all lands I have constantly observed from Upper- navik immense plains, which they tell me are glaciers. The warmer south winds dis- perse the snow ; we are surrounded by ice- bergs bigger than ever. I try to count them from the mast-head, and I could give an odd 1 1 1 r ^ W ip i II PMv '■ [ t t' P « ti '/'• Wi i -J'i' i 1 1' I I t. ' , f i ' ( i '■ .In 1 1 . l.fM 'V 'i r' ^^».iii;ii|ip!jn J I i ; i ili:;h. 224 JOURNAL OF number as a proof of my veracity ; but I pre- fer saying that there are more than two hundred in sight. 2^nIJuli/.—0& Devil's Thumb, still in company, we prepare two other pigeons, with the following memorandum on the wing feathers: — "Authentic trace of Sir John Franklin, C. Eilcy;" and we sew the follow- ing despatch to each leg : — illli I im I 1 i ■ 1 1 i ' " Prince Albert, 2Zrd of July, '51— Off- Devil's Thumb, all Avell, in company with the Americans. They were drift by pack ice from Wellington Channel down to Cape Walsingham, now returning to the search- ing ground. The entire squadron wintered at Griffith's Island. Authentic trace of Sir John Franklin's ships found at Cape Eiley ; his first winter quarters were at Beechey Island ; three graves of seamen with three names. — To Lady Franklin, 21, Bedford Place, London. '^ AViLLiAM Kennedy, Commander. " J. Bellot." i/ JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 225 2ith Juhj. — The pigeons wlieelcd round the ship all day, and came for their food ; at night one of them was eaten by the dogs» This morning I had a long conversation with Captain de Haven about the South Polar navigation. Captain Wilkes commanded the PeacocJc^ Vlneennes^ and the Porpoise brig. He communicated his discoveries to Captain James Eoss, who asserted, or at least the newspapers asserted, that he had sailed over the lands of Captain "Wilkes. The ice of the South Pole is not at all like oui'S. This evening the sky is overcast to the south-south-east; the barometer has fallen two degrees ; the icebergs crack and thunder on all sides; the sun is hidden: and we tack between them like a traveller arrived at night in a strange town, picking his way between the marble palaces of an Italian city. We have again used the saw — cut through forty-two feet of ice two feet thick in an lioui*; six men at the ropes, three at the handles, three at the feet. The piece to be cut Avas sixty-four feet across ; the rest is VOL. I. Q %i% i 'I ,1' «;] ; t I W!f "•f^HT 220 .lOl'HNAl, (tF i! It If 11^ hroktMi hv i\V(M»lv mow iunn»iiiu; on it all (o- goduM*. I( s[)li(s in !i slrni,i;lil Iin(\ 1\>lui ;;uv1m(M^ nbotit m I'cclnni'h^ (»!' sixly-lour focj bv (W(Mj(v. 'JAM f//////. 'IMiis inornintj: W(* siiw !i nni- vovu or spotted njirwhiilo : two nnislu^t sliots hit it, bnt it divod and dis!i|»[>(»!n'(Ml nndor tlip ico. ;\ littlo s(^id was kilb^l by Mr. IumukhIv; tho dos^s tiu:lit over tl'.* ollal, and an* covoroil witli bl(H»d. It is V(M'y bard to approach the soals now, bnt in s]>rini;' thoy an^ kilhMl witli- ont ditlicullv: Mr. Loask says that S(»vtMi- toon W(M'o on('(^ takon in tiv(> lionrs. 'Vhv Americans aro scrapml by th(^ ici*, and tlic Ju'sc/tr is (|nito ont of watiM*. Tin* snn S(>t- tiniv in lh(^ oast, or ratluM' niovinu; (eastward at niitbiis^'ht, is a phcMionionon to wliich I am not a('(Mistt>nuHl, and it is inipossibh^ ibr inc to live* roi;-n]arlv on acconnt of mv dnty and tlio briiiiitnc ss oi tl \C \\\iX ht; T am (|uit( worn ont witli the bodily oxiTtion AVi* aro obliged to mak(^ \wvo (piito as nnich as on board ships of war. Many of our naval lions Avould look on (]uii11y perhaps, and pro- JoMKI-ri UKNK IIKl,I,nT. s(>rv(> {\w\r (IccoiMiin ; hiii I know noj il' ii is nossihlc l(» S(M« tiuMi slniiiiini;- nil llirir s(r(Mi,u;tli 111 some work or niiollicr jmd not ii;iv(« IImmh m liiMuk (';i|)liiin ll)ows, or on our liands and knees. I conipr(di(Mid in pers2)iration ; fortunately the ice and snow over M'hich Ave are crawling affords us a beverage, if not very agreeable, at least sufficient to quench our thirst. Besides, a fine seal basks and rolls lazily in the sun, flapping the ice at times with his tail, and turning in our direction. At these moments we must not stir ; but when he seems com- posed, and looks no longer towards us, wc advance slowly, trying to smother the crack- ling sound of the snow. In fine, we are an hour on our bellies; but we forget our fatigue, when suddenly the snow beginning to rustle like withered leaves, the seal sits up on his tail, and, discovering that wc are enemies, dives instantly. I get up exhausted with heat and toil, and ready to take the raven's oath, having run nearly four miles, and crawled a mile and a half. Led away by the ardour of the chase, and deceived by i/ )csminn2; JOSEPH RENK BELLOT. 229 the mirages, one easily mistakes distances ; but the way hack, and especially empty- handed, makes us judge the distance more accurately ; and this may sometimes be dangerous, on account of the fogs that come on all at once. It is good to have a pocket compass Avitli one. A white bear appeared at a distance; but the noise of firearms frightened him aAvay. I too have been mistaken, not for a bear, but for a seal. Fortunately the distance preserved me from any attack. It is noAV six years since any direct news has been received from Sir John Franklin. 21th Juhj. — During my watch the floes open, and we warp along nearly two miles ; but at four o'clock we come before a barrier, or rather a barricade, of icebergs ; and Mr. Leask, after examining the land-floe from aloft, declares that he does not think it pos- sible to pass that Avay, and that we shall have to try and pass by the pack. We are surrounded on all sides, and our position Itt!' '' ' ' , 1 1 1 ji m ■ 1 l^^i'^' ! 1 . ( 1 1 t t * If > t , ;i 230 JOURNAL OF limy bo thus summocl up : icebergs a-lioad and a-storn — icoborgs to starboard and to larboard. Our nuni arc not so well disposed to li(dp tlic Americans as at tirst, because they do nothing themselves, and have themselves told our sailors that, come what may, unless the ships should get under sail, they will not haul, so afraid are tliey of having to pass another Avinter yundc>r. The officers are greatly annoyed at not being able to reckon uj)on their crews, and I believe that this contributes to make them Avish to return. One of the things complained of by the American sailors is, that they only get ordi- nary pay, whilst all the other ships have double pay. IVIr. Leask is decidedly for giving uj) the nortlu^rn passage, and trying that by the south, or rather by the west. Captain do Haven tells me that he is shaken. Had he been alone, he would not have been in the least doubt, for on his own pi. t he sees no cause to despair, since no good reasons are given him, and ho is resolved to persist. Mr. Leask consents to prolong the /i JOSliPII liENE liELLOT. 231 experinieiit, and wo cuter a passage in wliicli wo are soon stuppod. Our day is spent in sad leav(5-takings, and lu prc^panitions for separating, wliicli to nio are painful. Alas ! it is indeed a distressing tiling to become acipiainted only to part, and, like Tantalus, to see all vanish on stretching out the hand. C^aptain Kenni^dy remonstrates with me, because, he says, I ought to be thankful for the pleasure I have had, and not mur- mur at the privation. That is very true; assuredly if I had not had the; pleasure of the meeting, I should not regret the absence of my new friends. That argument may do for the head, but what does it avail against the heart ? What a capricious thing is this ice ! This morning, no appearance of a passage; at two o'clock we are running before the wind; then a fresh barrier stops us. The Ixescue and the Advance^ not being able to pass where we had gone through five minutes before them, are nipped and squeezed in heavy ice. The Aveather becomes foul ; we unship the rudder. A bear creeps round lli i/i ll ^^'^HfWW^ 232 JOURNAL OF ! ( I 1 1 ^ ■ ■ ■ i ■ I #11 and round a seal stretched out on tlio ice, narrowing the circle continually ; but when it makes a rush, the seal has disappeared. Several American officers came to divino service on board us this morning, with some of their men. Poor Captain Kennedy was quite affected when he prayed to God for the safety of those from whom we are about to part, perhaps for ever. Is not this one of the good sides of their religion, that every man of character may officiate without having taken holy orders? All testi' ^he highest respect for him. At eleven in the evening we are ourselves completely nipped; and what half an hour ago was a verj^ wide extent of open water, is now a great field of ice. The outer floe is driven against the land floe by the sea breeze ; the two meet ; the weaker, crushed by the other, seems to fold back on itself. Wliat was horizontal, rears itself erect like a struck serpent, and its fragments, tumbling down like a house of cards, form a long embankment wherever the action took place ; then between the two JOSEPH rem: dellot. 233 ! WO SCO tlicso fragments iiceimiulato aroimd us, and rise, rise, until wliou? 28M Jul}). — When I take tlic watch again ut four in the morning, it is no k)nger th(? Rescue but the Advance tliat is cntangh^d : she lies about throe cables off from us. llor men have been employed on the ice during the wliolc watch, from uiidnight to four, for the purpose, no doubt, of cutting it round them. As for us, wc have hoisted in the cutter to le^vard, in ordoi not to have to do it amidst loose ice, and that we may have it more under our hands. We are fortunatelj- at a good distance from the icebergs, and the floes are not very heavy. To-day there is an eclipse of the sun, which we are unable to see in consequence of continual rain and thick fog. Fatigued by last night's watches, I lay down for awhile in my berth, and was soon dreaming of France, dear France ! In my dream I ask myself, am I really in France? and the fact is at once put beyond all doubt by my hearing wcll-knoAvn sounds; it is the air so often I ,' I I \ 1 ; ■. I x M ,■ ?fT, .-f*! "--/" 234 JOniNAL OF in ^ ) '1 Hi j ; . i * I i I mm 1 m. ' 1! 1 i ■ : i ■ U ■ \ r defiled hj the mud of the streets — it is tiie " Marseillaise ! " Beyond all question I am actually in France, and the sounds that fall on my sleeping ear are interpreted at the will of that organising faculty which creates dreams, when, my door opening, a flood of light recalls me to reality, and my vision is explained by the fact that the organ given by Prince Albert has been set ap, and that in compliment to me the " Marseillaise " and the " Parisienne " have been included, along with '' God Save the Queen," in the catalogue of pieces which Mr. Smith has contrived to j)lay with his usual skill, though the instrument is incomplete; for when it was unpacked, and my advice Avas asked, all I could do for the cause of music Avas to apply my feeble no- tions, 1, 3 — 1, 3, 5, Cheve's method, which did not serve to put the organ in gear. 2dth Juhj. — The wind has lulled a little, but we cannot stir. Is it not distracting to find oneself thus locked up, especially Avhen one thinks of the pressing wants of the un- fortunate men to whom we are bringing aid ? i li'i! JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 235 "WTiy have I not wings ? If what wc know now had been known in 1849, the searches made since then might perhaps have been carried along a single line instead of being dispersed over a necessarily very wide range. The proverb, that the daj^s follow, but do not resemble each other, is nowhere more appli- cable than amidst the ice. Yesterday the weather was threatening; this morning it is superb. zVt ten o'clock, when my watch was over, instead of going to sleep, I woke up Mr. Kennedy, and we set off over the ice in pursuit of a herd of narwhales that are in pools between the floes, and make this desert resound with their breath, which is as loud as that of an organ-pipe. The sun is taking his revenge for yesterday's eclipse, and is gilding the mountains of ice that surround us and glitter like a cuirass : it is like a sea of glaciers, as thick and golden as a ripe field of wheat. There is a very peculiar charm in this lustre, almost without heat, for the temperatiu'e is only 35° Fahrenheit. "What a pleasure to run thus over this crust h J ni "i ( ■» 'n ' t , i A mmr 1 ¥ • I I i 1^ I 236 JOURNAL OF II of ico, which cracks under our steps, and may open beneath them ! There is more poetry in this than in the burning lava crust of a vok'ano. What pencil could reproduco the thousand beauties of the sun playing amid the ice ? Is it not an hnpracticable challenge given by Nature to the powers of man ? What pen could describe the thou- sand sensations experienced by the intellect and the heart, especially when they have been dipped in tar ? IIow Pegasus is ham- pered, especially for a poor wight more used to the speaking-trumpet than to the trumpet of the muses, and how I regret my o^vn impotence every day in this ocean of im- pressions ! Examine this spectacle in detail as carefully as you will, and there is always matter before you for fresh examination. In the course of the day we go and sco how the Americans are getting on. The floes, but lately so even, smooth, and flat, are cracked in all directions, and here and there covered with hummocks ; but it is near the two brigs, especially at the place where the JOSEPH REN': BELLOT. felt, tlltlt th 237 squeeze is most leit, riuit tiie Imiumocks have taken the most singular form, just like the streets of an insurgent town — actual bar- ricades, only the paving-stones arc as big as puncheons. The two vessels have been completely lightened. The blocks of ice climbing up their sides, as if to board them, destroy everything round them. The crews were obliged, during the first night, to push these strange assailants back, to avoid being boarded by them. Their rails were broken down in several places, and bolts were twisted. I really know not if the Prince Albert would have stood it out, but the Americans are used to this, and they think uo more about it. audacious race of tlie sons of Japhet ! Z^th Jail/. — The breeze blows very strongly again this morning from the north-east. The barometer has fallen to 29° 50', and wo are threatened with a fresh trial. After all, it is not for us that it is most terrible, for the ieo wliicli threatens us is also our resource in case of danger ; and it rarely happens that ''Hi fIKi ill 11 ifliiyr Im :' -'JP i'^^^H flkMr; frmm mm mmmm >/ i, 1 : i i 1 'r| ■ , 1 ^ l: i , \ ;■ ■ Ml *s -.d ' 1 ' i. I; I [ i 238 JOUllNAL OF the man who does not despair, docs not save himself. But I cannot reflect without sorrow, first, on the impossibility to which we should of course be reduced of doing anything for those whom we are going to succoui', and then at the terrible blow this would be to poor Lady Franklin, whose last hope we are. The floes break with a crackling noise against our sides ; it is impossible to close an eye. Eead over Sir John Franklin's voyages again. What admirable simplicity, and what real superiority is apparent in those unpretending phrases, which say only what those emi- nent men have seen in a clear manner, yet poetical withal, for they are faithful painters of nature ! In reading these voyages, as well as tliose of Parry, Ave are possessed with im- plicit confidence ; and, without analysing our feelings, we are instinctively prompted to believe the writers ; and yet they never deal in high-sounding empty phrases, but give Tis liicts in every line. They are painters after Humboldt's manner ; we feel how siib;:;tantial and dignified, how full of JOSEril RENE BELLOT. 239 instructive matter are their narratives, as Ave can tell by the sound of a cask struck with a finger whether it is full or empty. At noon the wind lulls, and after liaving been somewhat disturbed, we get off with nothing worse than a little fright. Our bitch at- taches herself particularly to me, and when I pat her the other dogs growl and seem jea- lous. Like their uncle, the wolf, which they strongly resemble, these dogs are das- tardly and vicious, and punish the bitch by worrying her when my back is turned. 3l5^ July. — The sky, which was clear in the morning, becomes overcast again in the evening, and the wind rises once more ; the barometer is at 29'' 50'. Mr. Leask, and all who have any experience of the ice, talk seriously of the imminent probability of our being detained here all the winter. There is a remarkable depression of temperature. There is no opening to the soutli any more than to the north, iind the only chance now remaining: for us is the southern i^assaQ;e. Mr. Leask predicted this from the first ; ! ( 1 • 1 k '0 ' ' ' 1.] 1 ■| W: f ■' ' 1' ( 1^ 1 i ■ ,,f ' H'U IfPW' "'^ 240 .TOUIiNAL OF H ( : but, if Avo had been stopped ^^ liilst iittompt- iiig a loss usual route tluui the uortlieriij we ishoidd certainly have been bhinied in case of failure. I confess that this prospect is any- thing but agreeable to me, and I should greatly regret to luive to pass our winter unprofitably far IVom the ground of our operations. At eight o'clock a bear ap- proaches us, and we set off in pursuit of him ; but the officers of the Advunce and the liescue have also seen him, and have set off with their dogs. Unfortunately, they are to windward of the annual ; it sits upon its hind-legs, snuifs the air, and as soon as it scents its pursuers, it decamps at a gallop, stopping now and then to have another sniff, and then running oft' again with all its speed. I talk of pursuing it, but they tell mc it is perfectly useless; that even on ice as smooth as this is, it is much swifter than our nim- blest runners. I am a little incredulous, however, on this subject ; but Dr. Kane assures me that he once pursued a bear that Avas wounded in the head and shoulder, ;md ./ JOSKl'll KENi; IJELLOT. 241 tlioiifjjli lie luid thrown olt'llio gnnitcT part of his (dotlies and run very i'ast, lio was (|iii(,'kly distanced. \sl Afit/n-'il. — Tlio same soutliern l)reez(\ Ahout noon a litthi snow falls; at ei^ht we go and walk — Mr. lvenn(Hly, l)r. Kan(», and I. We are soon rcea^ed hy signal, and half- way hack we sec^ the doctor running, and a man linrrying from (lie vessel and making signs to ns, pointing to an iceberg. We gncss there is a bear there. Very fortruiately, we always carry onr gnns and ammunition with us Avhen we go any distance from tlu; ships. We make a circuit round the berg, and, after discovering the animal, Avhich is to windward of us, we divide into two parties, and make the circuit of the berg in opposite directions, in order to have him between two fires. I soon find myself separated from my partner, jumping from block to block, sometimes fall- ing into the water, but hardly minding it in my extreme excitement. I am within a hundred paces; the animal is sitting on its rump looking at our ships, sniffing the scent i I 1 i i I ^■\ ( , I VOL. I. K ! |. I ,|f|'jr^./fi1ffT ! f ,t ti?i I 1^; j .'I ■ : . 'f : 1 ; '1^ il I i\ :- 242 JOURNAL OF from them, and wagging his head in a curi- ous manner. Ma foil I confess that my heart beats, for I find I am very far in ad- vance, and Mr. Kennedy has my powder- flask ; but I make up my mind not to fire but at the shortest range. I advance still ; a shot is fired ; it is Mr. Kennedy on the other side, who, though much farther off than I, but not seeing us, wishes to diive the bear towards us. The animal turns away, and I let fly my ball at all risks. The tAvo guns salute, and the pursuit be- gins. Running by leaps like a greyhound, the beast soon increased his distance from us, though we ran at the top of our speed ; and Ave even had the mortification, on coming up on his tracks, to perceive that he had not hurried himself much, as Ave could judge from the space betAA^een the impressions of his hind and fore feet. When Ave Avere all together again, the rest declared they had seen the bear jump the moment after I fi ed ; tAVO of them eveji saw blood on his flank. At any rate he noAV Avent off limping ; and, [i. ).: :t U JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 243 a curi- iiat my • in ad- powdcr- b to fire ce still; ^ on the L'tlier off to drive tal turns all risks, rsuit be- cyhound, from us, eed; and oming up had not dd judge ssions of were all they had T I fived ; his flank, ng; and, disposed as I was, it needs no great efforts to persuade me that the glory is mine. I am almost inclined to ask the doctor for a certificate affirming the probable chances of the death of the wounded. Kow, then, I am convinced of the speed with which bears can run. This one is very young ; the marks of its paws are nine inches long, exclusive of the claws. We find no marks of blood on the snow ; but, after ob- serving the course he took, we set off after him in spite of a thick fog, against which we were armed with our pocket compass. As for me, I am too much in the vein not to follow this bear to the K'orth Pole. After two hours' pursuit, seeing no more of the animal, we turn our destructivism against the seals. By way of making an experi- ment, we go at them singing and shouting : two seals dive when we are still a long way from them, but a big easy-going fellow waits, and lets us come very near him with- out our taking advantage of the opportunity ill time. The musical instinct, and not the R 2 \V' 111* M' mh I- .U ' :':i i : ,> urn 1 ) 244 JOUKNAL or I ! i I 1()V(» of iioiso, must !)(' very stronpj in tlicsc brutos; and tlio dolpliin of tlio nn(;i(Mits must ]iav(* luMMi a seal on the coast of KuL'liiud Wc .H'ivc^ up tlio pursuit of our hear ; l)iil Hie rc^TrluTation of our shots h'ads us to make (^xporlnuMits on tlu' (*cliocs of the icv- hcrti's, wliicli an^ romarkablo for llicMr ch^iir- noss. Tlu* report of our .u,uns, returned froin tlu* ieeberiijs at a distan('(» of a mile ami more, is repeatint a great nundxT of tiuu>s. Tvur^c retliM'ting surfaces are eminently juhipted for tlu* study both of biminons and acoustic plienomena ; and, afttn* lun ing }dayed like ciiildren with those (M'lK)es, and made tlunii repeat to ns tlio burlosipu^ phrases of ii vsclioolboy in the liolidays, we admire the omcraUl-groen tints of the sunbeams passing throngh the fissnres of the k)fty promontory, tmd we comptiro tlu^m to the warm and rod- dish tints on the vino-loaf in Sept(*mber. To return to the (*ehoes : it is evident that tlioy must bo produced under special conditions, in proportion to the angle whicli the surfiicos of the bergs make with the atmospheric strata. :M '-i JOSEril RENE BELLOT 215 Wliiit wonder in it tliiit tlic jjoor Esquimaux, who have never perliaps lijid an ojjport unity of hearing this reprodiiclion of the Iniinan voic(5, and whose notions in this respeet are limited to tlie distant thunder of tlu^ falliu;^ ber^s — what wonder is it, I say, if they liavc imagined tliat tlu^y peret.'ived in this a token of the jiresenee of spiiitsV Had not all the superstitions of the olden time their origin in that ignoranee of physic^al phenomeiui, to w]ji(^h we are now very proud to oppose a relative science, wliich the future will per- uu})S regard with ('(pud disdain? At last Avc return on hoard, at half-past three in the morning, quite kno(.'ked iq), having walked twenty miles ; ni^vertlieless I cannot close an eye, my laurels, no doubt, hindering me from sleojnng. 2iid Auf/ml. — I dreamed all night of bears, and to day we are to burn a seal's carcase, in order to attract our fugitive, for it is most probably the same we saw on Thursday evening. This morning only I perceive that I have sprained a linger, and somewhat I'l 1 ' J-^ 1 ft' '■n * ■ "III 246 JOURNAL OF tl! 1 1 , 1 J 'i^ I } I > !' ii I a, :■■! isph damaged my ribs in my race amidst tlio hummocks. In the evening, a little breeze having sprung up between north and nortli- east, openings appear southward of us, and we try to reach them ; but we fall in witli uii iceberg, and are obliged to keep the ice before us as fenders. It is a very easy operation to clear the floes when an opening is formed ; at least relatively, for pieces more than tou metres square are thus put in motion. Srd August. — Yesterday evening we wore moving southwards; but this morning we had a little wind from the north-west, which soon veered to the south, and after making a little way we are obliged to drop astern to avoid being caught between the closing floes. Snow falls at four o'clock, and everythhig looks very gloomy for us ; for, if we cannot find a passage in the latitude of Sanderson's Hope, we must either winter in the pack or return to Europe. This is a terrible blow to all our projects, and the pride I felt at om* exceptional good fortune gives w^ay to the gloomiest forebodings. The young ice, or ■fl JOSEPH REXK BELLOT. 247 boy-ico, is beginning to foi-m very rapidly. It is only throe nights since we first ob- served it, and already it is six or eight lines thick, and offers resistance enougli to retard the ship's course in a perceptible manner. Mr. Hepburn tells me this evening that lie is sixty-two, and Sir John Franklin sixty-six or sixty-seven. Poor worthy soul ! What devotedness in his relative position of for- tune, to run after dangers at his time of life ! That, indeed, is what may well bo called self-denial. ^th August. — This morning we distinctly perceive what the whalers call the ivatcr-shj; that is to say, a blackish band, 5° or 6° above the horizon, which indicates water in the parts beneath it. The ice-ski/^ or hlink^ on the contrary, is a brilliant white band of only 2° or 3°, caused, no doubt, by the reflection of the luminous rays from the ice. The Americans are still in sight five or six miles to the north, and I much fear there is a mutiny among them, our renunciation of the northern course having probably p 1 « 1 i i i , 1 .* t 1 "i flii 1 ' , I iii i ■,;] 248 JOURNAL OF I H'ill- nU 1/ excited the apprehensions of their men. What a life is that of officers who are obliged to be armed against their own men, and to keep all their weapons out of their reach ! for they have only guns for the officers, Avhilst each of our men has his own. We are all suiiering more or less from colds, caused unquestionably by our being gene- rally wet-footed ; but when one has to work in the ice, witli water sometimes up to the knee, there is no way of avoiding it. L>tk August. — Another of our pigeons has been eaten by the dogs ; it is one of those that were marked. I do not know if tlic idea of starting them is given up ; they arc so used to the report of fire-arms that it no longer frightens them, but there has not been sufficient perseverance in driving thorn from the ship, especially now that the Ame- ricans are further off. "We set sail, Avarp and haul, and do every- thing in our power to cut our way to the south ; but the sea, wherever it is open, is covered with a crust of ice, some lines thick. JOSEPH KENi: liELLOT. 249 whicli is broken, indeed, by tlie ship, but quite checks its speed. Mr. Letisk declares he has never seen so many icebergs where we now are. I am so fatigued by yesterday's exertions, in which every one had to bear a hand, that I sleep fourteen hours at a stretch, and good Mr. Hepburn would not let me be wakened. In calms, or when making little Avay, and to help the ship, we steer vrith a long sweep. (jth August. — ^Wc are still in the same place, sometimes clear of ice for some yards around us, sometimes caught between the chops of a vice. I begin to feel the mono- tony of this unbroken extent of ice, sprinkled with icebergs, like a huge meadow after mowing, when the hay is heaped in cocks, or hurc/cs^ as they say in our country. The analogy is strildng when the sun, whicli now does not rise high, casts its rich colours and great shadows over that moving scene, to which the first navigators gave the name of " field," doubtless for that reason, and others besides. I practise with the youijou^ \ ^ u ■V'. 1 ' !fT^ fe T^rTTfir 260 JOURNAL OF If i ■ ir ': ■ ^ !-)■ 1 i ) 1 i! I !•■ i i { • ' ' ( Hit ■ '^M Hi. ; 1 nj • 5 1 ,, ^1 li :' 'f: ; I. :t i) : I i I which I now manage as well as any one on board, and a frisking seal plays ronnd me with an assurance Avliich I should have chastised if he were not exactly like a swimming-dog. I now perceive how fitly it is called the sea-dog. Mr. Hopbnrn tells me that at Athabasca the horses are fed on little else than fish, which is the staple food of the inhabitants. Dr. Kane tells me that Captain de Haven was at one moment on the point of turning soutli, but that an opening having appeared in the north, he resumed that course. Dr. Kane would be for the south; Mr. Leask abides by the middle passage, and it is unfortunate that we could not take advantage of a fine sheet of water which we saw a little to the south ; but the floes are held fast by the icebergs, and cannot be moved. 7th August. — The same situation. Fine weather. The Americans come again to sec us ; they, too, are beginning to lose hope. If we are to winter in the pack — which God forbid I — it would be a great comfort and i'i: H' JOSEPH EENE BELLOT. 251 relief to be in company ; but it will be time enough to think of this if the thing happens. The days pass, pass, and already it is evi- dent that in any case we can do little or nothing before winter. Mr. Kennedy and I have thought of a way of turning our winter to good account, if we are not caught in the pack, and if we cannot find a passage across ; this is, to go into Hudson's Bay, and cross by Eepulse Bay to Boothia Felix. Certainly this would accord much better with poor Lady Franklin's interests and wishes. Messrs. Kennedy and Smith say, that in hunting the rein-deer they have often seen the animal's blood drunk. This is almost general in Hudson's Bay; and Mr. Smith, who has done it himself, tells me that in the excitement of the chase he found it very good. Apropos of bears : JMr. Carter assures me that one which had received nine balls, several of them in the head, and liiid one of its legs broken besides, charged its assailants with such force and impetuosity, that they l;til I hi. I i.f '■ m f. . ■i 'pi ',. hk^ RSH 252 JOURNAL OF 1 |i( i ''M ■|iMr were compelled to run away, and finish him by firing from a distance. As my imagination must ahvays be building castles in the air when I am not satisfied with the reality, I add to my plan of a Polar expedition a new one, namely, that of making, in company with Dr. Eae, north of the American coast, the magnetic experiments which Sir John Franklin was to have made. I still think, as from the first, that a screw steamer would be more useful here than any other craft. It should have as high masts as possible, with large light sails to catch the light breezes, which are very elevated. Mr. Hepburn tells me that and had a quarrel one day about an Indian woman, and Avere to fight a duel; but he overheard them, and drew the charges of their pistols at night. Poor had by the same woman a daughter, whom his family have recently sent for. lie thinks that is not very courageous; he is a JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 253 very agreeable man, he says, with those from whom ho expects to get anything. Yesterday morning I saw a flock of a score of eider-ducks flying south, but that prog- nosticates nothing as yet. Mr. Hepburn mentions an incident in their voyage : millions of geese and other birds that filled the air disappeared in the course of one night. Sth Aiigmt. — Mr. Kennedy and I go on board the Americans, sirce there is no chance of the ice opening. They are among loose ice, which makes our excursion pretty difficult. We have to jump from piece to piece, and though we take care to feel our way with our gaifs, the ice gives way under my feet while I am in the act of jumping, and then I am swimmhig in water of 34'' — an honour I should never have sought of my own accord, but which I try to bear as liand- somely as I can, and I am the fii'st to laugli at my own mishap. As we are near the ships, I run towards them to keep myself from freezing, jumping over ev.'^:y thing, and thinking nothing of getting into the n < 'Ik V\\ 'A': ^: ! J i ! 254 JOUEXAL OF ■i i. :? , S! i 1 ! h'U 11 \m ■ 1 i ■ : i .i t.^. ■J water up to inj^ middloj so I can but shorten my way. At last I manage so well that I tumble a second time into a hole, but have more difficulty in getting out of it than the first time, because Dr. Kane has come out to meet us, and I have two persons to help me instead of one. Each of them hooks me with his gaff, and di'aws me towards himself; the consequence being that between the two I remain in the water, cut- ting my fingers against the ice, and swallow- ing some mouthfuls. My large boots filling with water add considerably to the weight of my clothes ; but after all I get out, in spite of the efforts made on my behalf. Stupefaction of Mr. Lowell at seeing me jump mto the water a second time. American hospitality has soon repaired my damages. dtk August. — Eain all day. Appearances of openings present themselves, and we work from eight in the morning to three in the afternoon to reach them; having sawed a length of forty yards, we bloAv up the rest ; but in proportion as we remove the parts i JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 255 which obstruct our ;oassage, the two floes approach each other. This happens very often, and it renders very dc^fective all the means which at a distance from the scene of action are thought so irresistable : it is like Sisyphus, seeing his stone roll down the mountain after ho has succeeded with great toil in rolling it up. Partly at my instance, recourse has been had again to the blasting cylinders, which had been declared ineffec- tual, because, as I suspected, the right way to use them Avas not knoAvii. Cylhiders of three or four pounds split the ice in all directions to a distance of tweniy or thirty feet — the thickness of the ice being two or three feet. In the first trials, they had bored the ice only as deep as the cylinder, but it must be sunk quite beneath it, and put across the hole by means of a rope-yarn, and then the w^ork goes on rapidly. But, alas ! ours is quite useless, and we all go to bed very tired and in bad humour. To fill a tub riddled with holes, or roll up a stone that falls back again, is the only comparison for fm m% 1 S ) ! ^t^: nsttXiKUitgi.; 256 JOURNAL OF the disappointment of people who work eight hours for nothing. In the evening we have a fresh subject of anxiety. Tlic floes close upon us like the blades of scissors, without our being able to do anything to prevent it ; and here we are, waiting, and not knowing whether our situation is to become better or worse. I have somewhere read of a man who was carried off by some cruel jokers, and put upon his trial with all the accustomed formalities for an imaginary crime. Con- demned to death by a mock tribunal, ho passed through all the agonies of a man whose last hour is come, and when the atrocious jest was ended he had ceased to live. I wonder that this is not the conclusion of the incessant menace suspended over our heads. I cannot find hard words enough to say of these icebergs, for which I panted so long at the period of my feverish admiration for the sublime scenes of the north. The sense of its own impotence reacting on the human mind, makes it regard with rage mingled with terror and scorn — with the over our JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 257 refractory temper of the slave under his master's Lash — tliis ignoble triumph of num- ber and of mere physical force. In all other dangers there is a struggle, (nmobled by efforts and combats, rendered more strenuous by the hope of success or the despair of defeat, and inspiriting in all its phases. But here, what is to be done ? How can we resist? Gunpowder, steam — inventions on which mankind pride themselves — all these are nothing. Xever did I so well under- stand the delial of Ajax, sublime in its exaggeration of human pride. And, after all. this hatred and contempt of brute force is one of the fair sides of our nature : among the most dastardly of men who dares to strike a chained enemy? But I^aturc no longer feels her heart beat in the shunber of the north ; she is like the pitiless machinery that cuts off the arm that is caught between the cogs of the wheels — the unintelligent steam-hammer that crushes Avith the same impassibility the iron laid on the anvil, or the head that should chance to rest on it. Moral ■1 ^ 1.1 V ■ t ! VOL. I. S 258 JOURNAL OF i' , (- i I i ill, ■ ■ ) i i 1 ■ nature seems to have abdicated, and nothing remains but a chaos without a purpose, ^'n which everything clashes confusedly and by chance. lOtn August. — -At last a naiTOw passage opens before us to-day, and we hasten to wedge ourselves into it. Ice-anchors, carried out by the gangways on each side, lielp us to clear a way ; and, ^^'ith the help souK^timos of blasting-cylinders, sometimes of the saw, we find, after twelve hours' Uibour, that we have advanced a mile ; but a fine sheet of Avator of several miles' length before us makes m soon forget these fatigues. I never tliouglit that the sight of a few square leagues of meic water could afford so much pleasure. Wo breathe at last, and can return to our projects; we shall be able to accomplish our mission, the constant object of our prayers. In many places the ice is broken by putting on it a boat and six men, who, laying hold of the sides, rock it to and fro. Our cylinders are decidedly very useful. The sky has gained a Avider horizon. JOSEPH RENH BEI-LOT. 250 d nothing irposo, m ly and l^v vv passage hasten to Di's, carried help us ti) inetimcs of ho saw, "sv<' liat we have ct of watov makes us ^er tlioiiglit rues of mere lasurc. Wo )iir projects; ur mission, In many mg on it a lokl of the lindcrs are ler horizon. "We remark, at an ek>vation of 10° to IS'', magnificent orange tints peculiar to the high latitudes, and which lirown lias perfectly re- produced in his designs. In the morning a whale appeared near us, and as we were sur- rounded by ice, several of our sailors con- cluded that there must be open water at no great distance, an inference which the event confirmed. 11th Aiirjiist. — Have we been in too great haste to sing victory ? We spend our whole day in running and examining the edges of the basin which we have got into with so much difficulty, but see no issue through which we may get a little further. The glaciers were never so distinct as they are to-day, and Avith the help of a telescope we can admii*e almost their details. I am no longer astonished at the mistakes I constantly made in the beginning in my calculations of distances, when I read in Scoreby's work on the Polar Eegionswhat he says of Spitzbergen, and which seems also perfectly applicable to the regions in which we now are. It would s 2 Iff ^ ^ 'f Ii:| M 200 .lor UNA L OK not bo (litficnilt lo iiiduci^ a person now (o tlic Arctic r(\ii;ions, liowo\'or oxport lie nii^lil lie in jndi^inti; of disljinoi^s olsc^wlioro, to attciiipl to land in a boat npon a coast twenty miles off, and to persnade him that he was witliiii a h'agMie of it. This explains in some man- ner what happened to the Danisli captain, 3loj;ens llcinson, wlio, finding that lu^ did nut near th(^ sliore, tliongh his ship continned to make way, pnt the helm about in dismay, declaring that he had been held fast by load- stone rocks hiddcui under water. V2fh A uf/Hsf. —l^oon, 74° 33' X. Tlic Americans have been seen ; they appear not to hav(^ moved from the spot. We continu(^ our sterile navigation of yesterday without much more hope. Some seals, ratlicr bolder than the rest, show themselves ; one; of tlieni is killed. This success is some relief to our ATxaticm, and, like the beggar in " Gil]>las,'' we spend part of the day in tin* sunshine, gun in hand, aiminc: at everv litth^ block of ice that stirs. The glaciers never cease thunder- ing and crashing all day. The sun ought to . M JosKPii ki;m: iikllot, 1 scl, insterday, rises and makes a sorry contrast with its pah; red disk; it looks a very pitiidde object. Ma foil in si)it(; of my pc^ttishness of the last few days, J cannot lielj) b(»in<^' reconciled to regions that present such niaj(>stic spectacles. The sun thus traversing tho horizon is really a very striking sci^ne. It seems as if this lumhiary, which we admire so much, condescends at his rising and setting to put himself globe to globe Avith us poor mortals, who have not the gaze of the (uigle to admire him in all his meridian glory. These risnigs and settings of tho sun last more than an hour. The Americans appear to have got free dm'hig the night. Water before us ! and I leave the deck, once more caressed by the thousand joys of hope, until when ? VUh Aurjust. — Light winds and thick U\ ' :H i li; mww r>s:nK3ss INI'J .lOrUNAL OF wciitlior. AV(^ hiwc lUiulc^ soino Wiiy to the siHitli, tliiuiks lo hriH'zt^s t'roin (lie iioiili-(\ist and soiitli-wos(. At (Mi;-lil o'clock \ho ioij; oMig(^s us to sto]> niul moor ;i_i;':niist ;ni ico- hrviX. o\\\vv\\\sc \\c loi^hl mistiiko ilic lead, and become^ inextricably (Mitanc:l(Hl in lli(> boy-ic(^ wliicli i'ornis (ncry ni,ti,bt. 'V\\o sun must bavi^ S(4 c()m]>lct(dv y(»st(M'(lay, but only i'or a !o\v hours. TIk' moon would, no doubt, liaNo 1iind(M'{Ml us from so mucli ro- marking- this chauiAu^ io dark nij;'hts; but tlu> ibi^' makes tlu^ dai'knc^ss at mi(Inii;lit very j;t iv'i\])tibl(\ \Vc have had Ibrty-tivc* voii when we had twi^ity-lbur hourn of daylii>;lit, sb^pt durinij; tJie interval corresponding to the night, though tlie crew wore on deck at all hours alike ; perhaps it wiis moal-tiiucs that awoke them. .M)Si;i'H UKNK MMLI.Or. 203 it ^ ( ■()TiV(M's;ili()ii ;il liil)l(^ ;i1m)u1 \ho H\\i\\'v'\upl)iirn *!ays llial llicir coiisliliilions have Ix'cn in-rpaiahly iujiinMl. Il(> liiid a .sort ol' (li'djisy (»n liis I'chirn; 1h* was all hloalcd, Iiis liaii" pcrislird, iiis nails lirokc, kc. It is iiiipossihic lo dcscrihc tlicir mccl- iiii^ willi Sir ,l(»li!i iM'.inlJiii al'lcr IIkmi* s('[)a- ralioii. Iiiai'licnlalc sounds, issuing- from tli(* nose lik(> ,i;'rnnls, wwo llicir (»nly lucaiis of convci'sation. 'I'lic I'lniiilisli liavc^ a |)ra(!- tical way <>1' lookini;' al things, very diH'cn^nt fronj ours. 'I'lioy call waul of jud^UKnit Ihc udiniraljlc IcuuM'ily of llic man who jicrso- vcrcs in riskin;;- liis lilo in a inannor almost ccrlain. 14/// All just. — The same (lii(;k woalhcr. We iHunain all day moored to un iceberg. At ni<;'lit llic llici-momclcr Calls to '1^°^ the lowest [)oin( it lius yet I'cached. jVl«!Ssrs. Hepburn, Smilh, and Ivenuedy state, that il» iviuter tlit^ wolves prowl about the I'orts, enticing out tlu^ unwary dogs, which are instaully seized by otlier wolves hidiUui. 1| I ' ■( T^ TT ^ f< ] 204 JOIRNAL OF l'urtli(^r off — a fine analoj^'v for Tovissonel ! Mr. iSmitli saAV four liulians scalped by wliit(^ boars. ^ Those animals ahvays striko at lli(^ head witli tlioir hiig(> paws. Tlu> brown and the grisly boars, on the contrary, hug one to death. Mr. Brooks, the boat- swain of the Hc-'H'iie, killed aAvhite bear \>it]i an axe, but he says he will not try it again. The ]']squimaux Avould scorn to shoot a bear ; it is with a loni? knife they kill the animal [)lacing themselves at its side, and aiming hv- hind the shoulder. The white bears climb ii]) almost pcri)endicular ieebergs with great ease. lofk Auc/HHt. — At i.>udnight the fog clears off, and Ave sail in line; moonlight. A light breeze hardl)^ crosses the pools between the large blocks of ice ; a slight surge loi'iiis round the icebergs a narrow silvery crowi , which we do not pa.ss. The vessel glides noiselessly, like a phantom through the windings of a marble labyrinth. Kothiiig but the C'hinese gong, which summons the watch on dock, disturbs the slumbers of tlic retches, which fling their curses at us with JOSErjl KENi: r.KLLOT 2G5 Unit squalling tone peculiar to soa-l)ir(ls. They lly off in Hocks, iViglitcncd at tho hii;ul»i'ious sound of the gong, like owls scared Ly the hig bell ot an old cathedral. Tlie scene is not Avitliout i)oetry ; on(> hardly breathes, as if fearing U> awakc^ tlie male- volent genius of the ic(>, "whose prey id escaping from him. 'lliv snow smiling in the sun ! It is almost a southern scenc> : it is the Arab in his wliite l)urnoos ; it is the white satin nianth> covering the young virgin's ball-dress. ]>ut we arc too ncnir the long days tliat shine "\\'ith a light that warms the heart ; the contrast is too striking hetwecni the golden light of tlio sun and the silver light of the moon. The pale rays arc refl(»cted in vain from those masses of ice ; the dead white, the leaden grey, chill you to the bones, and you seem to inhale a sci>nt of the shroud and the grave. The fog r(>turns in the morning, and at eight o'clock we fancy we see Brovm Islands— that is to say, avo have been carritnl north\\'ard these last few days, further north even than we had yet 'mbI SI^ 1 1 '■Ir' ''' 1 = Hi m i 1 * , 2GG JOURNAL OF I |4> ! I I^M Ii hevn. Ill fuel, tho only wind which opens tho ice lor ns nmst b(> a (contrary wind, whicli tdso occasions a contrary cnrront. () licll of (i(>spair ! Hcvro indoiul wo may oxchnni Avilli J)antt^, " Ldsclale oifni ick. The snow falls, and soon covers the deck. l()//i August.- — Towards night a gaff is picked up, which a])i)(^ars to have belonged to the Americans. At six the sky clears, jind wc find that we have indeed been carried northward, for before us is the Devil's TJiund), straight and stern like a thr(\itening finger. The crashing of the glaciers is like the tlnuider in our Sep- tember storms. Xature makes her artillery heard every time a new son is born to her. Tho young ice was all broken by yesterday's wind ; and while the snow was falling, wo could see pancakes formed. The s !. ■ «, JOSKI'ir KKXH HELLOT. 267 snow, forminii; a little circk^ as biijj as a cherry, spins round and ronnd inocissantly, increasing its dianieti'r till it rc^iclies the length of a yard or iwo. Our kennel has three ni^w innuites, whos(^ birth we hail with glaibioss. N(>xt si)riiig they will be eight months old, the ag(^ when llicy usually begin to hunt ; and thus the loss of our fugitive will be suppliod. Tliosi^ litth^ great events till a large and ini])ortant place in the details of an enter[)ris(> like ours; and it is with the pride of a luaster of a hous(* showing his cattle-yard that each of us Ibi'ins plans for the bringing up of our young (xreenlanders. I learned to-day that Captain Trotter was second officer of the Niger expinlition ; that one, I believe, in which J^ander was a subor- dinate, and whicili prcMUKhul his own on board the Prince Albert steamer. It was on the coast luwv Sugar Loaf Island, and not near Cape York, that Mr. Leask found the Esquimaux dead of hunger. The governor of Uppernavik once passed a whole winter in alarm, expecting to be attacked hU' . ! ! . 1 r 1 ( \ ! i ! i 1 . i 208 .TOURXAL OF by those starving: wn^tohos. In tlio courso of the day we again lose sight of that odious Devil's Thunil), on Avliich I lieartily discharge the aecumnhited wratli of our month's lonji- agony, I'or it was on the 20tli July we first saw it. Again we remark, as wo defile before all these capes, that the north- cast side is covered Avith snow, whilst the south- ern side, warmed by the soutlun*n winds, is free from it. Mr. Leask and 1 )r. Cowic state positively that sharks are often caught in these seas, especially near Frobisher's Straits. Is it indeed the same species as that of the south ? They say it is. 17 fh Auf/usf. — Very fine weather. The ice along shore is almost all gone, and the icebergs out at sea, which were not aground, have been swept away nortliAvard by the wind. Some nation, I forget what — the Arabs, I believe — compare hope to milk, because after some time it turns sour; and so we have found. But, tush ! sufficient for the day is the evil th(u-eof ; and now that our selfish fears are at rest, our thoughts and our wishes JOSEl'II JiENE 15HLL0T. 2G9 tiu'ii to our Aiuoricau friends. It would bo very dangerous I'or tlioin to wintur wlnn'o tlioy arc; for, dislioartoned as tlioir crows arc, thoy would loso many men by scurvy and by want of moral oncu-gy. Jjosidcs, if they do not return to the United States this year, the Avhahn-s will r(^]:)ort that th(y k'ft them aground at om^ of liaftin's Islands: last year tlie hitest news represented them as aground at Cape Kilcy ; this woukl produce a bad effect. Apropos of Baffin's Ishmds : wo have as yet seen only the four principal ones, and I believe tiiat tlu^ other group marked on the map is that of tlio islands of DeviPs Thumb Bay. I bc^licvc there was a fog when Sir J. Eoss determined their latitude. — Perhaps, after all, this nortli wind has set them free, and they will be before us in the Straits. God grant it I ^Ir. Leask tc^Us me he has seen them live or six miles more landwards than Baffin's Islands : they are very low. Going back to the 14tli, I recollect that the whalers gave the Americans many things for whioli they 'i i ( 1^ 1 ; ' \ '11 Kill 1! 'ffff'pT 1 ' ; ■1 1 f 1 ^ - r 1 ■ i 1 . i ■ 1; i 270 JOURNAL OF I 1 refused payment, saying, " What would they think of us at home?" One of these whalers, Mr. Eeid of the Advice, has a brother Avith Sir John Franklin ; the other commanded the Tourvlllc. We skirt along the edge of the pack to try to find an open- ing, having been obliged to retrace our course this morning, after having run five or six miles westward in a sort of ciil de sac. 18 /A August. — We have at last found an opening half a mile, or, in places, a mile wide, but on the whole very irregular in form and direction ; it is not a breach in the pack, but a passage between detached pieces. The whalers who go to the west coast always get as far to the north as the ice will allow them, and then follow its outlines and its movements. I look upon the ultimate results of our cruise somewhat more calmly now that the danger is past : — 1. [N'othing done this year. 2. Impossibility of doing any tiling during six or eight months of next year. o. Xot even the consolation of being in company .JOSEPH REN^ BELLOT. 271 with the Americans 4. In fine, nothing but obscure and in.ujlorious (hingers in return for many tribulations. "We thus lose the opportunity of seeing the '' Crimson C^liffs" of Sir J. Ross; though many of th(^ rooks of the bay betw(^en Baffin's Islands and the land, present, I am told, the same appearance. The rocks, thus named on account of the colour of the snow that clothes them, formerly gave occasion to a discussion among the learned, who did not know whether to ascribe to that colour a vegetable or an animal origin. Dr. Kane, who has brought away a specimen in a bottle, says it is vegc^table. This snow, Avhen melted, is exactly the colour of red ink ; it is like- wise found in the Alps. Dr. Kane tells me that the scurvy ap- pears occasionally among the Esquimaux, or Huskies, or Yacks, as they are still called, in consequence of the little variety in their food. See a passage in Doctor Spencer Wells, on abstinence from spirituous liipiors even in high latitudes. Most of oui' men — iW FF^S w^ wmm 070 .lorrtXAL op nav, all of them — avoiiM soo Avith cxtrc'iiic reu;r(^t any eirciiinstuncos wliicli should Ibreo us to return this year, h(!causo tlioy "would handy have oarnod thoir advances, and they have almost all contracted dehts for their C(j[uipTnent ; besides the season would he lost for th(>m ; they could not procure work in Avint(;r ; almost all the Shetlanders and Orkneymen having trades which they exer- cise in the intervals hotween their voyages. li)th AHf/mf.—^oon, hit. 72° 50'-(;0° 15'. Snow since yesterday, which chills us to t!ic marrow, though the thermometer is only at 28'^. We run through the pack sometimes west, sometimes south, looking in the fog for a real opening. Poor Mr. Kennedy and I are very sad, seehig how time slips away, and hardly knowing what to do ; for it is perhaps too late to think of Iludson's Bay, and we should have to make nearly three hundred leagues only to reach the entrance of the* hay. Mr. Kennedy's profound religious feel- ings support him ; he thinks that, if we do JOSKPir IlENE BKLLOT. 273 not succeed, God has other designs, and tluit everything must be for the best. Our impatiences, after all, is perhaps unn^a- sonable ; and the vivacity of our desires, irritated anew by the shadow cast over our hopes, makes us fret still more against these obstructions. At four in the afternoon we sec three finners. The whalers on board notice this as an augury of the Western Waters. God grant it ! Mr. Leask has said from the first that the direction of the opening in the pack, from north to south, was not a good sign. 20//} Auf/usl. — Still snow ; but it is all the same to us now. We have at last found the passage. After having run into the entrance, which was but badly marked, we came upon a chain of flakes Avhich allow us to ^ct to the other side. This last navigation is difficult enough, and requires a sort of knack only to be acquired by practice, for we move through a fog thickened with snow. It is at such times that the ice-master's duty bov-omes VOL. I. T ii 1 1 '.nv 'd ^. .» ▼^ .0. ^ e IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) I/.. \\ 1.0 I.I 1.25 US M IIIII2.0 its u I- ,. CG ^^v^ > Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 '^ i\ ;\ \ .N^. .!*. \ B> c> 274 JOURNAL OF I ■ i ^M fatiguing: ours has not closed an eye for thirty -six hours, and will hardly be at liberty till to-morrow. It appears that the masters of the Avhalers sometimes pass two or tlu'ee days without rest. Mr. Leask re- grets that he has not a little brandy; and I believe that the exeitement he has need of can only be given by that remedy, at the ex- pense, it is true, of health subsequently. The pack extends on each side of us, some- times pressing us so as hardly to leave a passage, or opening out to a width of two or three miles. As far as the eye can reach from the mast-head — that is to say, nine miles, or three leagues — on every side ex- tends an unbroken sheet of ice, the dazzling whiteness of which contrasts with the slate- blue of the sky. The evenness of this plain is only interrupted by the hummocks or hil- locks made by the collisions of the floes, or by some remote pressure, and by a few ice- bergs, quite stunted in comparison with those we have lost sight of. For the first time this many a day, I am obliged to light a candle JOSEPH REXE BELLOT. 275 in order to read the thermometer. Hitherto the duration of twilight and dawn, between sunset and sunrise, lias given us light enough; but the dark nights are coming on apace. We pass near a track resembling the furrow of a ship that has recently passed, but they tell me that it is the wake of a whale, the oily substance of wiiich thus leaves marks on the surface, and at the same time an odour siil gencrv ; and, in fact, a strong smell oi fyakhin is perceptible. I am informed that it is not only at the rutting season, as I should have sui^posed, that this occiu's, but always : the aii* and the water remain impregnated with it for several hours after these animals have passed. Mr. Kemiedy tells me that some days before the departure, it was known that Captain Collinson had learned, tlu'ougli the Esquimaux, that four white men had gone from the coast to a Ilussian establishment two hundred miles in the interior, and that he had despatched two officers with orders to verify the fact. "We should have liked to T 2 :r'' \'^ if : 1 1 ' ;i'SH if 1 ■ 1 P j , 'i 1 276 JOURNAL OF 1^ touch at Cape Warroiidcr, one of the salient pohits north of Lancaster Straits; but wo cannot lose time on this, for one of the iirst conditions is the safety of the ship. We must go to Griffith's Island, and we can now reach it only with the ship, for the boy-ice would be an insurmountable obstacle for the boats, which it would not bear. To- wards noon the ice seems to close round us. At two the look-out cries, "A sail !" "What news are we about to receive ? for it can only be a ship from the north, and we must be very near the Western Waters : the whalers would not come from the cast so far. At last we shall know what 'vvo have to do, if we cannot touch at Griffith, or if we do not speak any of the ships of the English squadron. At three o'clock an iceberg seen, the first for the last ten hours. At three we force the passage ; that is to say, the ship, with all sails spread, wedges itself as ^ar as pos- sible between the two floes, and with the aid of blasting-cylinders we do the rest. It is JOSEPH RENE BELLOT. 277 not a ship the look-out saw, but some hum- mock. Wo put up the letters we were already preparing. Poor mother ! when shall I be able to write to you ? We end by being stopped, and that because a block of and. 3 a few feet across bars the wa^ while we are in the act of removing ^'' , the floes join at the other end of the opening. 21st August. — At lust, in the evening, we were able to resume oui* course. Mr. Lcask is afraid he has gone a little too much north, because the floes are becoming thicker (four feet). A whale seen. However, in the morning the ice ajijDcars so relaxed and broken that we cheer up again, and a slight swell soon tells us that the open sea is not far off. The sun shows itself a little, and allows us to determine our position. In the afternoon Old Ocean is full in view; our boats are lowered to fight against the calm, our second enemy; and our sailors, who share our gladness, give their songs of glee to the lazy winds. The few miles we have to make are soon passed, thanks to their ■'I '^ ' , ■» t V !'(,■;, (. / \ -i ili^ ^^^m ^m mm mmmmmmmm : i I I w! i H :/' 278 JOURNAL OF augmented efforts; and the little schooner, dear creature, rears herself up in the swell, recognising her own element, as the dog shakes himself when he comes out of tlie water upon the land. Never did the cry of "Land in sight!" give me so much plea- sure as the announcement of water at tliis moment. ?omc bottles of brandy have been shipped as medicine, and for the first time some is served out to our men, whose gaiety it natiirallv increases. We are surrounded by sea-birds of all kinds, and kill some of them. The face of the sky is of a remark- able orange tint, which shows through the humid gauze of the fog. Possession liay being a rendezvous at which almost all ships took in, we make for it, to sec if there is any notice. 22nd August. — The pack, where we passed through it, was nearly tAventy miles wide. After having been tantalised by the vicinity of the sea, we at last take our ease. We throw overboard several bladders, inclosing notes which make known our position ; and JOSEPH ItENE BELLOT. 279 men aro sent to the mast-liou/in.s at the present season ; and we can ass'.re those who are preparinu; for their several tours, tliat the lively ('ai)tMUi will prove u most serviceable and amusin": uuide to them. - l.iti 1(1 n/ iiii:.! Itc, " The excillence of thi> Avork consists ui its style, whicli is both plain and pithy ; and in the wit, keen observation, and fiood humour which are abnndant tliroui;hout tlie vohimes. Captain Chamicr's remarks and memoranda, too, re,t:ardin;j routes, his methods of deal- inj; with the host, the courii'r, or the people— hotel ehar^^es, \:c., will be found full of ])racti( al value; and a larj;-e aniuunt of ])ositive and api)reeiable information is >:;iven with much pleasantry. JIo t\y. T. (ireiiviUe, to tiieir ehk-r hrother, the Jliirquis of l>uekin,i,diain, lor Jiis infuniiiitiun, as to till- politieai eireiinist;uiers of tlie time. In the twoliirmer volumes a j^reat amount ofeurioiis nujsip, and of valuable iutbrmation, was e()ntinn<'d rrlativo to the formation of the Coalitinu .Ministry, the Kind's illness in 17ss, and the early period of the war with revolutionary France. N'olumes ;i and 4 take uj) the ttile where volumes I and 'J had left it; and herein we Inid a toleraldy eonuected narratives of the inaiiy stirriui; historical events which occurred hetvicen bsoo, when Lord (irenville and Talleyrand were in cor- respondence respeetin.u' lUmaparte's proposals for ])eaee, until the return of the Kin;,''s malady in ISld, and the debates in I'arliainent relative to the, I'egency. The present collection is UKjre valualde than the last, inasniiich as Lonl Pirenville, liavinjj; attained hiiilier dignity and exiierienee, is a more (lisp.issionate observer ol' passing; events Whoever would desire to realey; and, linally, the dis- astrous ' Walcheren' allair. There is murh curious matter interpo-ed in the sliajie ^f j:/i'vl.t upon the situation of allairs, writti'ii iVom time to time by Lord (irenville him-elf ; ami perhajis >till more, curious reports made to the Maripiis ol' Dnekinuliam by a certain •, whosi' name remains a mystery, but who seems to h:i\e been toleralily widl ae()uainted with the urcaiKi iinpi r!l at the begiimin,u' of the century. There is nincli in these volumes which well deservoo perusal. There is a ))ortiou of their contents • i ' ' } ! \^\ M I ■:; X; Mi;; COURT AND CABINKTS OF OKOKOK III. VOLS. III. AND IV. Ol'INIONS OF THE PIJKSm. — OONTINrKP. which possesses nearly as high a claim upon our instant and careful con- sifleration as the Jlinutes of the Sebastopol Committee." Fi!OM THK Athkx-kim. — " The present volumes exhibit the same fea- tures as the former portion of the series. The general reader iscntcrtaiucil, and the reader for historical purposes is enlightened. Of their value and importance there cannot he two opinions. There are abundant revelations of interest to arrest attention in many of these papers. On the characters of (u'orge the Fourth and the Duke of Wellington, there are some very valuable letters. In Court scandals, the affairs of the Duke of York and Mrs. Ciarkc are brought under notice; and in what we may designate as public .scandals, the 'horrors of routine' receive ainindant illustrations in the letters about the Walcheren Exjj.^dition, and on the Peninsular War. Our extracts sufliciently show the high interest belonging to these volumes." From thk Examiner. — " These volumes worthily complete an under- taking which will earn for the Duke of Buckingham the thanks of not a few liistoriims. We have before us the secret movements of parties, the motives of individuals, the minute anatomy of every political act and word laid bare. All the town gossip has been ]n-eserved; we have innumerable authentic anecdotes, and full personal details 'bout every person on the jaiblic stage; ami, as for the King and his unhappy i'amily, Ave have their siiyings and doings, their whims and blunders, and every scraji of scandal connected with their domestic affairs, made out for nearly every day in every year." From the Speptator. — " These volumes throw new light on the great subjects of the period. There is a good deal of interest in their connnents, espccinlly on such mutters as the Walcheren Exiicdition — Jlrs. Clarke's exposure of the Duke of York — tlio intrigues of Canning, who comes out biidly — the Ixdiaviour of the Prince of Wales, who comes out selfish, small, and false. The letters of the leading corres])ondeiits are of a high class. The collection is well edited for i)opuiar purposes." Frosi the Standard. — " These volumes comprehend a period the most important in the events relathig to our domestic alfairs and foreign rela- tions to be found in the British annals, told, not only by eye witnesses, but Ijy the very men who ])ut them in motion. The volumes now published innneasurably exceed tlicir predecessors in interest and importance. They nnist fiml a place in the library of every Engli.^h gentleman." From the Ohserver. — " A more valuable addition to the political literature of tlie country has not been produced for some time, than tliese memoirs. They throw li liooil of light upon the policy and conduct of the successive governments of this country during the latter period of the eventful reign of George III. They admit us into the secret arcana of the actions and the motives of the principal actors in the great events whidi took place; and while they afford some glimpses of noble and heroic conduct, they expose a vast mass of that hollowness oi profession, and those selfish motives, which, by turns, animated and infiuenced the conduct, of many of our public men. Tlie opinions e::press':d, as well as the facts stated, may be read with interest by all parties, and studied with peculiar profit by the historian. The noble editor of these interesting volumes deserves the thanks of the public for the ability he has displayed in airanging these valuable contributions to the political hi.story of our country." IIUPST AND BLACKETT, PPLUSHEKS, SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, la, OREAT MARLBOROUdll STREET. OLS. III. AND IV nt and careful con- Jiibit the same fea- •eaderisontertaiiied, Of their value and bundant revelations On the characters here are Sdme very ! Duke of York and G may desiirnate as lant illustrations in lie Peninsular War. g to these volumes." ompleto an under- thanksof notafew parties, the motives act and word laid have iimumerablo .cry jierson on the nily, Ave have their •y sera]) of scandal L-arly every day in h'ght on the great in their connnents, ion— Mrs. Clarke's ig, who comes out i out selfish, small, i-e of a hio-h class. a period the most and foreign rcla- eye vitnesses, but les now published nportancc. Thev in." to the political -' time, than these id conduct of the er ])eriod of tho rot arciuia of tlie [?at events whidi 1(1 heroic conduct, and those selfish duct, of many of :ts stated, may be iar profit by the les deserves the arranging these ry." 1 JS TO HENRY JKET.