the foot of the Rocky Mountains, but a gale, followed by violent squalls, induced him to re-enter the river, and to rejoin Dr. Richardson at Fort Franklin, which he reached on the 5th September. In this solitude they remained during a winter of between eight and nine months, which was spent in the usual manner, in hunting and fishing, in making scientific observations, and in arranging the objects of natural history collected by Dr. Richardson.

Our indefatigable travellers again embarked on the Mackenzie River on the 24th June, and on the 7th July they reached its mouth. Upon an island on the east side of the bay into which the river opened, they descried a crowd of tents with numbers of Esquimaux strolling among them. About 100 boats and nearly 300 men rapidly approached the boats of the Expedition, which had grounded about a mile from the beach. The sight of presents and the hopes of a lucrative trade, held out to them by Augustus, threw them into paroxysms of joy; but during the crowding of the boats, an accident occurred which threatened the most alarming results. The owner of a canoe which had been overset by one of the Lion's oars was plunged into the water and in danger of being drowned; but though he was extricated from danger, taken into the boat, and wrapped up in Augustus's great-coat, he became exceedingly angry, though he soon recovered his temper when he saw around him many bales and articles which he coveted. The fellow asked for every thing he saw, and got angry when they were refused. In the mean time the people tried to get into the boats, and actually dragged the Reliance, which was afloat, to the shore. One of the Lion's men perceived that the native who had been upset had a pistol under his shirt which he had stolen from Lieut. Back, and when the thief saw that it had been noticed, he leapt from the boat, carrying with him Augustus's great-coat in which he had been wrapped. Two of the most powerful men now jumped into the Lion, and seizing Capt. Franklin by the wrists forced him to sit between them, and as he shook them loose two or three times, a third Esquimaux caught his arm whenever he attempted to lift his gun or draw his dagger. The three men, however, soon left him and joined the rest in a regular pillage of the Reliance, drawing their knives and stripping themselves to the waist. After a furious combat in which the Europeans dealt heavy blows with the butt ends of their musket, while the savages cut the clothes of their opponents with their knives, and tried to seize the daggers and short belts of the men, it became necessary to take stronger measures with them. When three of them were trying to disarm Capt. Franklin, Lieut. Back sent a young chief to his aid, who drove his antagonists from the boat; but

A Pause in Arctic Research.

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as this did not succeed, Lieut. Back directed his men to level their muskets at the assailants, when the whole of them fled and hid themselves behind the drift timber and canoes on the beach.

When the boats had again stranded, several of the natives invited Augustus to a conference on shore. The bold interpreter had the courage to give them a lecture on their misconduct, and as if they had repented of what they had done, they offered to restore the articles which they stole, and actually brought back the camp-kettle and the tent which they had taken away. It appeared, however, from subsequent transactions, that no confidence could be placed in them, and that they had organized a plan for massacring the Europeans, and seizing upon their property.

Pursuing their voyage to the west, our travellers reached within one-third of a degree of the 150th parallel of west longitude, and having encountered long continued gales and dense fogs, they set out on their return on the 18th August, and reached Fort Franklin on the 21st of September, having travelled a distance of 2048 statute miles, 610 of which were through regions not previously discovered. Dr. Richardson had returned from his eastern journey on the 1st of September, having, according to his instructions, traced the coast between the Mackenzie and the Copper Mine Rivers. The Expedition was obliged to spend a great part of another winter at Fort Franklin, from which its different chiefs set off in different directions,-Dr. Richardson in December to join Mr. Drummond in collecting plants on the Saskatchawan River, and Capt. Franklin and Commander Back on the 20th February to return to England.

After Captain Franklin's return in September 1827, nearly two years elapsed before any new attempts were made to prosecute the great discoveries that had already been made in the Arctic regions; but this interval was followed by one of the noblest and most successful Expeditions that has ever visited these inhospitable climes. Although many important discoveries had been made by nine preceding Expeditions, yet the leading object which they had in view had not been attained, and Government was no longer willing to devote the public money to the enterprises of science, or to the objects of commercial speculation. Their former zeal for Arctic discovery was apparently turned into hostility; for they not only resolved to repeal the North-West Passage Act, by which a reward of £20,000 was offered for its discovery, but they abolished the Board of Longitude, which had taken such an active part in the promotion of Arctic research. Mr. Barrow's influence over the Admiralty seems to have been now utterly extinguished; and in these acts of the British Government, unworthy of the British name, the lovers of

science mourned over their last hope of developing the mysteries of the Polar Zone. The power of man, however, cannot arrest knowledge in its march. The indifference, and even the hostility of one mind, will chafe the insensibility, or rouse the energy of another; and the liberality of private wealth has often been called forth by the parsimony of the nation. The withdrawal of the prize of £20,000 induced an individual to embark as large a sum in the promotion of Arctic discovery. No sooner had Captain Franklin returned from his second journey in 1827, than Captain John Ross offered to the Duke of Wellington to take the charge of a new Expedition to the Northern Seas. His Grace declined the offer, but, "nothing daunted," the gal lant Captain submitted his plans to Mr. Felix Booth, an opulent merchant, with whose munificence he had occasion to be acquainted. As the Act, however, offering the reward of £20,000 was still in force, Mr. Booth declined to undertake an enterprise which might be denounced as a commercial speculation. Captain Ross, therefore, again submitted to the authorities an improved plan of exploring the Arctic regions, which, as might have been foreseen, was unceremoniously rejected; and as if to crush for ever all such expeditions, the North-West Passage Act was repealed. By this measure Mr. Booth's scruples were removed; and when no other motive could be imputed to him "than the advancement of the honour of his country, the interests of science, and the gratification of the feelings of a friend," he embarked with zeal and ardour in the scheme of Captain Ross. To the £17,000, or £18,000, advanced by Mr. Booth in the equipment of the Expedition, Captain Ross added £5000; and on the 23d May 1829, accompanied by his nephew, Mr. James Clark Ross, as second in command, he set sail in the Victory, a small steampacket of 150 tons, destined to make the most important discoveries that have ever been made, and to endure the greatest hardships that have ever been endured, in the regions of ice and snow. After examining Prince Regent's Inlet, Captain Ross visited the wreck of the Fury, and obtained possession of the valuable provisions and stores which Captain Parry had left with his ill-fated vessel. Thus enriched, he pursued his discoveries along a new line of coast, exposed to all the dangers which disturb the navigation of an icy sea. Having advanced 300 miles farther than any other Expedition, he was stopped by the ice on the 30th September 1829, and found excellent winter-quarters in Felix Harbour. A visit from a party of Esquimaux ushered in the year 1830, and afforded both amusement to the ship's company, and geographical information to Captain Ross. They furnished fresh provisions and articles of dress, and they accompanied Commander Ross in the four highly-interesting journeys

The Magnetic Pole Discovered by Commander Ross. 463

in which he made important additions to our geographical knowledge, and planted the British flag on the Magnetic Pole of the Earth. Relieved from their winter quarters, the Victory put to sea on the 17th September; but they were once more frozen in on the 23d, and cutting their way through ice, they reached Sheriff Harbour, as their winter residence for 1830-1, in the month of October. The Victory was again under sail on the 29th of August; but after advancing only four miles, she was frozen up in Victoria Harbour, to spend the winter of 1831-2. The severity of that winter was unusual. During 136 days the thermometer stood below zero. The health of the crew was affected; the Esquimaux no longer cheered and helped them; and the only hope which they could cherish was to abandon the ship and travel homewards in sledges and boats to Baffin's Bay, in the hope of finding some English whaler to conduct them to their native land. This perilous enterprise commenced on the 23d of April. The snow huts in which they slept were so small that it was impossible to change their position. The cold was 47° below zero. Their frozen meat required a saw to cut it. Their snow huts were often blown up with drift, and the snow storms frequently imprisoned them for whole days in their icy dungeons. Returning to the ship after carrying forward their provisions, they prepared the three boats of the Fury for their voyage to Baffin's Bay, each boat carrying seven men and an officer. Cheered by the first steps of their advance along the coast, they cherished the hope of effecting a passage across Prince Regent's Inlet, but the ice obstructed their march. The cold increased in severity, and the snow storms and freezing winds of September crushed the last of their hopes; and, resigned to the inexorable decision of the elements, our gallant adventurers returned to Fury Beach or Somerset House on the 23d of October, to spend the dreary winter of 1832-3, with less comfort than the three preceding ones, and with more solicitude about the future. Though provisions were still abundant, the health and spirits of the crew began to fail: The carpenter died:-Captain Ross's old wounds became troublesome: -Mr. Thom, the purser, was ill, and two of the seamen far gone in the scurvy. On the 8th June they left their winter-quarters, encumbered with three sick men and several that could scarcely walk. They were detained in Batty Bay till the 15th of August, and on the 17th, after advancing seventy-two miles, they took shelter from a gale twelve miles west of Cape York. On the 19th they were only eighty miles from Possession Bay; and being detained by a gale from the 20th to the 25th, they rowed across Navy Board Inlet, where they found a harbour.

At four in the morning, when all were asleep, the look-out

man, David Wood, reported a sail in the offing. The boats were launched and signals made, yet the ship kept its southward course. Another sail was reported at ten o'clock, but she was fast leaving them, when a calm allowed the boats to gain so rapidly upon the ship, that at eleven she hove to, and lowered a boat, which rowed to their own. It was the boat of the Isabella of Hull, Captain Humphreys, which Captain Ross had once commanded! The mate in command would not believe that he was Captain Ross, who, as he maintained, had been dead two years. His identity, however, was soon proved, and the forlorn crew of the Victory was received on board by Captain Humphreys with a hearty seaman's welcome. We wonder that the artist's pencil has not delineated this interesting scene. Dressed in the rags of wild beasts, and starved to the very bone, the gaunt and grim looks of the unshaven crew formed a strange contrast with the welldressed and well-fed men around them. The contrast, however, was but for a moment. The processes of washing, dressing, shaving, and eating, were all intermingled, amid interminable questions, on the one hand, respecting the adventures and fate of the Victory, and, on the other, respecting the politics and news of England-the interesting events of four long years.

Thus rescued from a snowy grave, Captain Ross reached London on the 19th October,-laid at the foot of the King the British flag that had waved over the magnetic pole, and received £5000 from the House of Commons, and the Order of the Bath and knighthood from a grateful sovereign. Foreign nations added fresh honours to his name, and posterity will retain in its undying memory the deeds of the hero whose wreath of glory no blood has stained, and whose badges of honour have not been steeped in the widow's and the orphan's tears.*

The long detention of Captain Ross in the Arctic regions had naturally led to the belief that he had perished. Captain Back, who was then in Italy, having learned from England that apprehensions were entertained of the safety of his friends, the two Rosses, hastened home in order to offer his services on an Ex

In giving an account of this Expedition, certainly the most interesting on record, Sir John Barrow refuses it the usual title of An Arctic Voyage, and places it alone under the head of Miscellaneous. He "dispenses with any further notice" of Captain Ross's Narrative than by giving the title of it, "with the multifarious personal distinctions, &c.," chiefly because "it was a private speculation, not authorized by any branch of the Government." So careful, indeed, is Sir John not to countenance the work, that he tries to collect its substance from the "Report of a Committee of the House of Commons which preceded its publication," and from this Report he culls a variety of passages, which he assails with the most virulent invective, and the most unmanly and unchristian abuse. If Sir John has a friend interested in his reputation, we would advise him to reprint his book, omitting every passage in which the name of Captain Ross occurs. In the pamphlet No. 8 of our list of books, Sir John Ross has made an able and triumphant reply to this attack.