The grinding of the ice on the shoals along the beach, and the squeezing up which takes place, emit a sound which may well be compared to distant thunder. At 9 P.M. two hares were brought in by the hunting parties.

Wednesday, July 2nd.-The first few hours of morning we had a partial breeze from the eastward, which brought the ice out of the channel. It came tearing along the land at a fearful rate, turning up immense hummocks in its progress. I felt very restless, and could not sleep. The boat began to move a little. I took it into my head that there was a bear outside. My hand was upon my pistol, and all ready for action: I put out my head beneath the lower edge of the covering of the boat, and it was well I did so at the time, for immense hummocks were tumbling over and over, with the pressure within a few yards of us. No one waited to put on his clothes, for each flew to the provisions and conveyed them up to the face of the precipice, and then to the boat to attend to its safety. The ice on which it rested was broken into several pieces, and thrown very much from its level, by the pressure among the hummocks around it. In the middle of the channel it was truly fearful, and could be compared to nothing but an earthquake. Some pieces were rising to a height of twenty feet, and tumbling down with tremendous crashing and rending. again turned in beneath our covering; but little sleep was obtained, for every one was peeping from beneath the housing-cloth. Our situation was rather awkward, I must confess.

We

Oh!

Detained at this point by bad weather, the next few days were spent in hunting and searching. "I do not think," writes Penny, on the 4th of July, "there is a spot of Hamilton Island but has been gone over. for a week of strong easterly winds." At length, on the 11th, he writes: "The weather at last became clear and dry. We launched the boat into the water at the lee end of the island, and shot some birds. Oh! for an easterly wind." On the 12th, a crack opened half across the channel. An attempt was made to get across, but it failed, and they were glad to get back again. On the 14th, the ice again took a favourable turn; they launched the boat; the poor fellows were very active, for they knew the danger, and at noon they reached Margaret Island. The long-seen cairn was now within four miles of them, on the east end of Dundas Island.

Tuesday, July 15th.-After two hours and a half searching without finding any traces, I returned to the party loaded with fossil remains, in which the island is very abundant. Its extent from north to south is about five miles, east to west three miles, and the height of the southern extremity westward from Cape Benjamin Smith is about four hundred feet. From S.E. to N. W. its length is about seven miles, and it slopes away in the latter direction to a low spit. It is divided from Dundas Island by a strait six miles in length, and one and a half in breadth, running N. and by W. I erected a cairn upon it, and left a document. We had some fresh soup for dinner, which was made of birds that had been shot at this bluff. At 3 P.M. we started with a favourable tide, and washed down along the edge of the pushed-up hummocks, which were in parts at least twenty feet high. There was no place where we could have landed, until we reached Dundas Island, at 4 h. 30 m. P.M., and then we had to cut a slip before the boat could be got upon the land terrace. Immediately upon landing I set off, accompanied by one of the men, to examine the cairn-like objects, which had for such a long time danced before our eyes and tantalised us. When I was within one hundred yards of it, I felt so engrossed with what I was to discover, that even then the deception was not detected. It was a disappointment in real earnest, but it was much less felt, owing to the fact that we had been inured to such, ever since I came to Point Surprise, on the 17th of May.

From this object we struck across the land, and after three hours' travelling a channel was discovered, leading W. and by N., and from ten to twelve miles in breadth. This proved the correctness of the ideas I had when this island was named. The channel was named North Channel, to distinguish it from the South Channel, which had been discovered in my first journey. After crossing the island we coasted along two beautiful bays: one of them was about a mile deep from north to south, and it had no pressed-up ice in it along the beach. It would suit well for a winter harbour. The N.W. extremity of this island is seven to eight hundred feet high; it was named Cape Liddell, after the first lieutenant of the "Terror." The opposite, or north-eastern point of the same island, was named Cape Collins, after the second master of the " Erebus." Although it rained hard, it was clear along the horizon, and this made me all the more anxious to push on to have a good look to the westward from the north-west bluff. Just as I was within one hundred yards of the top, the curtain dropped, and everything was obscured. I ascended, thinking it might clear again; but it did not, and rain poured down in torrents. A cairn was erected, and as I and my companion descended, we came out of the fog or mist which rested on the hill-top. We had no difficulty from thick weather in finding our way back to the boat; but, as usual, we were without traces.

They reached the boat at half-past one, A.M., after eight hours and a half hard walking, wet and fatigued alike; but none of the fine hearty fellows ever complained, after eighteen hours' hard labour, and not a dry stitch upon them. The next day was devoted to examining the west side of the island, and in the evening they plied up between Margaret and Dundas Islands with a favourable tide; Queen Victoria's Channel being open as far as the eye could reach. But the ice-floes were carried along with such fearful rapidity, huge blocks turning over and over, and disappearing with such tremendous crashing, that they were glad to bear up and return to Margaret Island.

Thursday, July 17th.-Strong W.N.W. wind. What an extensive search we should have made, had we been but favoured with easterly winds! My hopes of accomplishing one thousand miles with the boat, where were they? I had to submit to this as to a dispensation of Providence. At 10 A.M. we had the slack of the tide; and as there was a partial opening in the ice, an attempt was made to cross the channel obliquely to the west end of Hamilton Island, where water was seen from the top of Margaret Island. Robert Bay was reached, and a landing effected, just as the weather was becoming quite thick. During the passage we had to launch over several floes. Thick weather, strong W. N. W. wind.

Friday, July 18th.-Strong W.N.W. wind, with very thick fog. At 4 A.M. got breakfast, and were ready for a start, watching the state of the ice in the channel. At 8 A.M. a lead was observed in the sailing ice through a partial clear in the fog. Off we started for Baring Island, as the opening in the ice led in that direction. The sail was set most of the time, the wind being from N.W. The course steered was W. and by S. At 5 P.M. we landed on Baring Island. The passage to it occupied nine hours, the distance being about thirty miles. We sailed and pulled occasionally, and also made traverse courses. The above distance is estimated; but it is most probably under the real distance than above it. The moment we landed every one set out to search for traces as well as for ducks' eggs. I calculated that I should have got as many eggs on this island as would last fourteen days; and I believe so we should, had not the continued rains kept the ground so wet and cold, that the ducks could not lay upon it. Their nests were to be seen in hundreds, and they appeared to be in an advanced state of preparation to receive the eggs. Only a dozen were found. These were a little help when our provisions were getting so nearly exhausted. After the half of the

island had been explored without finding any traces, and being wearied, at 8 P.M. we turned into our sleeping-bags.

On the 19th, the search having been fruitless, they started for the north side of Queen Victoria Channel. Their course was N.E., and the distance not less than thirty miles. They had not proceeded far in their passage across, when two sea-horses were observed close to the boat, and thinking there was a change of killing one of them for the sake of fuel, they bore down upon them, and after putting a ball into the mouth of one, they got fast to him with the harpoon and line. A good deal of firing ensued, but they were forced to draw close up and run a lance through him, for the balls took no effect whatever, except to increase his fierceness. The blubber proved of great value as fuel; Penny deemed the fresh flesh a delicacy, and the seamen made mocassins of the hide. After twelve hours' plying at the oars, they reached Cape Becher, Captain Stewart's furthest. At this point, standing at an elevation of six to eight hundred feet, Penny named the more prominent points of land, bays, and islands that lay before him in the open sea; the two most furtherly points visible, one on the north side of the channel after Lady Franklin, the other on the south after Sir John.

At this point of his journey, Penny began to consider the prudence of continuing to proceed further with only one week's provisions. It was, he says, a severe struggle to leave the search, but there was no other course left. That the missing ships had gone beyond their reach, he says he had no doubt; for if they had not, they would have found traces of them about some of the Bird Heads or Duck Islands, which had been surrounded with water ever since the 17th of May-in fact, during the whole winter-for it is Penny's opinion that the ice in Queen Victoria Channel kept in motion all that time. To this view of the subject, it might again be opposed with quite as much appearance of probability, that the absence of all traces of the missing expedition in Queen Victoria Channel were quite as strongly indicative of the expedition never having passed that way, as of their having passed through at a time when an open sea and a favourable wind were of too much importance to have permitted of the delay incurred by erecting a cairn and leaving a notice. Considering that no notice of their proceedings was left at Beechey Island (at least as far as is at present known), it is equally likely that they would not have left notices on the islauds or headlands in Queen Victoria Channel; but considering again the difficult and obstructed navigation of that channel, especially between Baillie Hamilton and Dundas Islands, and the peculiar and novel character of the channel at that part, there really seems little likelihood that the expedition would have passed that way without leaving some memorandum of its passage. We say nothing about the bit of elm picked up by the sanguine navigator. Sir John Richardson has justly remarked that that might have flowed from Beechey Island. The fact is not, however, without interest.

The navigation of Queen Victoria Channel, and the narrative of Captain Stewart, and of Dr. Sutherland's enterprising exploration of the shores of the same remarkable Arctic thoroughfare, are not, however, the sole points of interest in Dr. Sutherland's work. The glances at Arctic life, and the pictures of Arctic scenery, are replete with interest.

Dr. Sutherland found in the same neighbourhood a tremulous, jelly

like plant-a species of Nostoc*-which, he says, possessed far higher recommendations to the hungry palate than the dry tripe de roche which Sir John Franklin, Sir John Richardson, and their companions, used as food for a considerable time.

A group of the characteristic flowers of the Arctic regions, including the yellow poppy, the pretty dryas, sacred to the Dryads, a ranunculus, several variously-coloured saxefrages, and others, are figured in the foreground of a truly polar scene, and so brightly tinted as to appear worthy of figuring in one of Martin's paradises, rather than in regions of gloomy ice and snow.

The Arctic winter breaks up about the end of May and beginning of June, when, instead of the keen, bracing atmosphere, the clear blue sky, and the northerly winds, generally accompanied by low temperatures, there was a densely overcast sky, the clouds were heavy, gloomy, and portentous, and the winds prevailed from the southward, accompanied by a constant falling of soft snow, and comparatively high temperatures. Snow begins to melt on the canvas of the tents, and foreign substances, such as bits of rope, tins, &c., sink into the snow on the floe. At this time, birds-brent, geese, and a species of plover-were observed to have migrated so far north; but ptarmigan and sea-fowl were seen at a much earlier period on the same side of the channel.

In the event of Queen Victoria Channel extending far to the westward, or communicating with an open Arctic sea, of which there seems to be every probability, it becomes an important question, which time is the most suitable for navigating it? Ships, Dr. Sutherland remarks, are not permitted access into it till the end of the season, and then the winds are generally violent, and the weather stormy. Were it possible to get into it, there can be no doubt that, like all other parts where the ice does not close up during winter, the best time for navigation is early in the season. The plan advocated by Mr. Petermann, F.R.G.S., is to set out early in the season, before the ice is reduced to a state of pack, and southerly winds begin to prevail, when ships can be navigated in the "clear vein" of water alluded to above.

This would not obviate the necessity of taking the ships through Wellington Channel into Queen Victoria Channel, and as this can only be done late in the season, the ships, assisted by screw-steamers, under command of Sir Edward Belcher, will be in proper season to undertake this laborious task. They may then pursue their way, as far as they are able, up Queen Victoria Channel, or, failing success there, may winter in that channel; and Penny points out Sir Robert Inglis Bay as a fit and convenient spot for a winter harbour. This accomplished, they may then avail themselves of the very first of the ensuing season for going far away to the westward in search of, we fear, what will prove to be "the relics" of our lost countrymen.

* This plant, which belongs to the same family as the much-talked of "red snow" of the Arctic regions-Nostochina-is supposed by Agandh to change into the genus Collema among the Lichens. It is a roundish or shapeless gelatinous plant, the substance of which is composed of curved moniliform simple filaments, lying irregularly in a gelatinous nidus.

Sept.-VOL. XCVI. NO. CCCLXXXI.

I.

COUNT D'ORSAY.

BEFORE the railway was made from Rouen to Paris, the traveller who wished to expedite his journey to the capital was in the habit, when he left Nantes, of taking the road called Le chemin de Quarante Sous, which subtends a very wide arc, in preference to following the more circuitous route by Meulan. After skirting the Seine, at the deep bend where stands the old town of Poissy, the forest of Saint-Germain appeared on his left hand and that of Marly on his right; but before he passed between the two, a small village on the edge of the first-named forest attracted his attention, not so much on account of the picturesqueness of its situation-though this was not slight-as from the associations to which it gave birth; for that little village, which bears the name of Chambourcy, was once the fief and still belongs to the noble family of De Grammont.

66

on

It is a quiet spot, suggestive of anything but feudal recollections, with its narrow, straggling street, its small, whitewashed houses, its débit de tabac, and its hospitable intimation to the charretiers and graziers of Poissy that, at the sign of the Ecu de Grammont, donne à boire et à manger," and also that " on loge à pied et à cheval" such as are willing to put up with road-side accommodation. The "Ecu de Grammont," and all its quarterings! The rampant azure lion on a field, or, armed and lampassed, gules; the three arrows in pale, or, feathered and armed, argent; the greyhound, gules, coupled and muzzled, azure, within a sable border charged with eight bezants, or; and the escocheon of pretence, bearing quarterly its fasces straight and wavy, argent!

Did the marchands de bœufs of Poissy ever speculate on the signification of these heraldic glories, as they discussed their pot-au-feu, or tossed off their goutte of anisette to the health of "not' bourgeois," in the salle of the "Ecu de Grammont ?" Had they ever heard of the illustrious houses of Aster, and Aure, and Toulongeon; of homage rendered to the Counts of Foix for broad lands in Gascony and Guienne; of letters patent erecting baronies into counties, and counties into duchies, until all the grades of nobility were attained? It is not very likely; for heraldry, and homage, and letters of nobility, were all swept away in the first revolution, before the greater part of them were born.

As little did they know of that Philibert de Grammont, Comte de Guiche, who was killed by a cannon-ball which carried off his arm at the siege of La Fère, in 1580, when he was only twenty-eight years of age; of his wife, Diana, who, with her beauty, conveyed the name of la belle Corisande to the females of the house of Grammont; of their grandson Roger, Comte de Louvigny, who, in a duel fought in Flanders, in 1629, between the Comte de Villerval and the Comte de St. Amour de Bourgogne, was killed-though a second only-by the Sieur de St. Loup, the other second, who also died of his wounds a few days afterwards-so perilous was the honour of being a "friend" in those days!

Even the fame of the celebrated Marshal de Grammont, who fought for so many sovereigns, but rendered his best services to his own country, had never reached the ears of those honest marchands de bœufs. And