people, there seems to have been less gaiety than on former occasions. They had learned, however, from the Esquimaux, to add considerably to their comfort by building a high snow wall round the ships, enclosing a large square like a farm-yard; the snow-drift was thus kept out, and a place for exercise was formed sheltered from every wind. By this measure, also, the heat of the ship was increased.

But the presence of a numerous tribe of Esquimaux chiefly contributed to enliven the dulness of the scene. The officers made excursions on both sides of the strait, which captain Parry named the Strait of the Fury and Hecla. In its narrowest part it is two miles across, forming a canal of nearly equal width, and about a league in length. The land on the south or continental side is a great peninsula, named by captain Parry Melville Peninsula. It is a rugged mountainous country, intersected by chains of lakes, and on that account extremely difficult to penetrate. Captain Lyon made an attempt to cross it, but was obliged to desist from the undertaking after having proceeded only seven miles. The land to the north was named Cockburn Island: the Esquimaux informed our voyagers that it was surrounded by water; but they were unable to say whether the channel round it was navigable or not. Some of the officers made an excursion of about sixty miles to the western shore of Cockburn Island, whence they discovered the Polar Sea lying open before them; but round the entrance of the strait the ice was piled up in such vast mountains as left little reason to conclude that a navigable passage could ever be found this way.

The 1st of August, 1823, arrived, and the ships were still shut up within a barrier of ice; but captain Parry, impatient of his confinement, determined to make the utmost exertion to liberate himself, though it appeared necessary for that purpose to saw a canal of four or five miles in length. The laborious process was begun, when, the ice breaking up more completely, the ships once more reached the open water on the 12th of August. It was not doubted that the Strait of the Fury and Hecla communicated with the Polar Sea; and the obstacle which blocked it up, however formidable and even durable it might appear, was evidently of an adventitious nature, and it was physically possible that a mild season, or accidental causes, might disperse it, and open a free passage for the ships. Captain Parry, having reached the threshold which conducted to the fulfilment of his hopes, was unwilling to turn back while there remained the faintest prospect of success. He contemplated, therefore, taking the stores out of the Hecla, and sending home that ship, while he himself remained to continue his efforts for another season. This bold scheme, which might have led to disastrous consequences, calculated to stain the honour of the whole expedition, was happi

ly laid aside from peculiar circumstances. The scurvy had made its appearance in the ships, and the dread of this formida ble disease, with the arguments of captain Lyon, induced captain Parry to renounce his desperate attempt, and to make the best of his way home. They reached Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands, on the 10th of October, seven-and-twenty months having elapsed since they last saw traces of civilized man. The officers and crews returned in high health, only five men out of 118 having died in the course of this laborious voyage, during which they had spent two long winters in the ice, with the mean temperature considerably below zero.

Though this second voyage of captain Parry failed in its main object of finding a passage into the Polar Sea, yet it cannot be denied that it was productive of much important geographical information. When the difficulties to be contended with are taken into account, this voyage, compared with those of former navigators to those frozen seas, will appear eminently successful. Sufficient light had been now thrown on the geography of the north-west, to satisfy the most sceptical that the continent of America does not, in all probability, extend much further north than lat. 70°; and that the Atlantic communicates with the Polar Sea by numerous channels, more or less obstructed with ice, according to the direction of currents and other circumstances. A strong current was found to run through the Strait of the Fury and Hecla, which, carrying down the ice, fixed it firmly in its western mouth, and will, perhaps, always prevent that channel from being open to navigation. The strong current which sets down Fox's Channel, carrying with it so much drift ice, and, turning eastward, obstructs the navigation of Hudson's Strait, proceeds from the Polar Sea through the Strait of the Hecla and Griper. The ice which prevented the progress of captain Parry in his first voyage beyond the south-western extremity of Melville Island seemed also of a permanent nature; but hopes were entertained that the ice which he had seen in Regent's Inlet was one of those accidental accumulations which change of wind might disperse; and that a passage into the Polar Sea might be expected through that inlet, which, running toward the south-west is obliquely opened to the currents running eastward along the northern shores of America. The Hecla and Fury were accordingly again fitted out, and placed under the command of captain Parry and lieutenant Hoppner.

In this, the least successful of Captain Parry's voyages, he was thwarted by that run of ill fortune to which navigators are always liable. His progress through Baffin's Bay was so much impeded by broken ice, that with much difficulty he reached Port Bowen, on the eastern shore of Regent's Inlet, before the season when navigation in that climate would be wholly imprac

ticable. Had he arrived three weeks or a month sooner, he might, in all probability, have passed through the inlet to the open sea, and wintered, perhaps, on the northern coast of America.

The winter spent at Port Bowen resembled those already passed at Melville Island and Igloolik. The men were occupied in a school, and amused with masquerades. Experience had taught our navigators to provide more effectually for their warmth and comfort. By placing the stoves in the very bottom of the hold, and by other arrangements, they were enabled to keep up in the ships a uniform temperature of from 50° to 63°; and the general health of the seamen on this voyage suffered less derangement than on any former occasion. On the 20th of July, 1825, the breaking up of the ice allowed our voyagers to commence their active operations; but perhaps they would have lost nothing by a little prudent delay. They endeavoured to proceed along the western shore of Prince Regent's Inlet, but the immense masses of ice which floated along the middle of the strait gradually approached the ships, and at length forced them on shore. The Fury was so much injured that she could hardly be kept afloat with four pumps at work, and the united exertions of officers and men. An attempt was made to repair her by heaving her down on the ice; but a gale of wind camé on, brought down the ice in large quantities, drove the Fury a second time on shore, and injured her so irreparably that it was deemed necessary to abandon her with all her stores. The officers and men therefore embarked in the Hecla, and the expedition returned home. Captain Parry did not penetrate so far to the south in Regent's Inlet as he had done in his first voyage.

Thus disappointed in his sanguine expectations of a northwest passage, captain (now sir Edward) Parry did not at once abandon his schemes of northern discovery. It appeared to him possible to arrive at the North Pole by employing light boats and sledges, which might be alternately employed according as compact fields of ice or open sea interposed in his route. A plan deemed feasible by such men as Parry, Franklin, and Scoresby, necessarily commanded attentive consideration. The Royal Society recommended it to the Admiralty, who again fitted out the Hecla for the expedition, and placed her under the command of captain Parry. Two boats were constructed, combining in the highest degree the requisite qualities of strength and lightness. They were covered with water-proof canvass, and lined with felt. Runners also were placed under them on each side of the keel, that they might be used for sledges if it were found convenient.

Captain Parry sailed in April, 1827. At Hammerfest, in

Norway, he took on board eight rein-deer to draw his sledges over the ice, with a quantity of moss as their provender. Much time was lost in working the ship to the north: and when the ice was at length reached, it was found thrown into such confusion, and piled so irregularly by violent gales and the commotion of the sea, that it appeared impossible to commence an expedition over it. The dangers to which the ship was exposed in this situation, and the necessity of fixing her in a good harbour before he set forth on his journey, caused still farther delay.

At length, on the 22d of June, our adventurers commenced their extraordinary journey. From the rugged and broken nature of the ice, which was no where seen to extend in compact fields, it was found necessary to relinquish the design of employing rein-deer to draw the sledges. It required a zeal little short of enthusiasm to undergo, voluntarily, the toil of this expedition. When the travellers arrived at a pool of water in the ice, they were then obliged to launch their boats and embark. On reaching the opposite side, their boats were then to be dragged, frequently up steep and dangerous cliffs of ice, their lading being first removed. By this laborious process, persevered in with little intermission, they were able to effect but eight miles in five days. They travelled only during the night, by which means they were less incommoded with snow blindness, they found the ice more firm and consistent, and had the great advantage of lying down to sleep during the warmer portion of the twenty-four hours. Some time after sunset they took their breakfast, then toiling for a few hours they made their chief meal. A little after midnight, towards sunrise, they halted as if for the night; smoked their pipes; looked over the icy desert in the direction in which the journey was to be resumed; and then, wrapping themselves in their furs, lay down to rest. On the 22d of July, they advanced seventeen miles, the greatest distance they had yet been able to effect in one day; but the delays they had already encountered were sufficient to destroy all hopes of being able to reach the Pole, which was still 500 miles distant. They had advanced as far as lat. 82° 40', and now limited their ambition to reaching the parallel of 83°; but just at the time when the state of the ice seemed favourable for their progress, the wind shifted to the north, and drifted them in the opposite direction, so that when, with great labour, they travelled ten or eleven miles over the ice, observations showed that they were four miles to the south of the position which they had occupied on the 22d; so that, the drifting of the snow fields had carried them fourteen miles to the southward. It was obviously vain, under these circumstances, to persist any longer. Our voyagers returned, therefore, and arrived at the ship in Hecla Cove on the 21st of August, after being two

months on the ice, completely foiled in their attempt to reach the Pole, and obliged to rest satisfied with the humble consolation that they had, perhaps, penetrated about a degree farther to the north than any previous expedition of complete authenticity.

CHAP. XV.

JOURNEY OF CAPTAIN FRANKLIN.

Expedition of Captain Franklin to the Mouth of the Coppermine River.-Arrival at York Fort.-Journey to Fort Chepeweyan.-Mode of travelling in Winter. -Its Dangers.-Decrease of the Indian Tribes.-Journey from Chepeweyan commenced.-Difficulties experienced.-Great Exertion of Mr. Back.-Winter Residence at Fort Enterprise.-Intense Cold.-The Trees frozen.-Esquimaux Snow-House:-An Indian Beauty.-The Journey recommenced.-Stratagem of the Wolves.-The Mouth of the Coppermine.-The Party embark.Proceed to the Eastward.-Point Turnagain. They commence their Return over Land.-The Canoes broken.-Means devised to cross the Coppermine. Dreadful Sufferings of the Party.-Mr. Back sent forward to the Fort.-Dr. Richardson remains with the disabled, while Captain Franklin goes on. Mr. Hood murdered by an Indian of the Party.-Resolute Conduct of Dr. Richardson.-He reaches Fort Enterprise.-State in which he found Captain Franklin.-Continuation of their Sufferings.—Relief arrives.

WHILE captain Parry was employed in exploring a passage from Baffin's Bay to the Pacific, another expedition was despatched over land to ascertain the true position of the Coppermine River, and the windings of the shore to the eastward of it. This measure, which had apparently no great difficulties, seemed to promise eminent advantages to geographical science, and might prove serviceable to the intrepid navigator employed to the northward. Lieutenant (now captain) Franklin was selected to command this expedition, accompanied by Dr. Richardson, a gentleman well skilled in natural history; Mr. Hood, and Mr. Back, two midshipmen; and two English seamen.

Captain Franklin and his companions embarked in the end of May, 1819, and arrived in safety at York Factory, on the shores of Hudson's Bay, on the 30th of August. Preparations for their long and difficult journey were immediately commenced, and the information which the local experience of the fur traders could supply them was eagerly collected. On the 9th of September the journey commenced from York Fort, and on the 22d of October our travellers arrived at Cumberland House, a distance of 690 miles. Notwithstanding the lateness of the season, captain Franklin resolved to push forward to Fort Chepeweyan, near the western extremity of Athabasca Lake, in order that he might personally superintend the preparations for the journey of the ensuing summer. He accordingly set out with Mr.