Although there are now no new continents left to discover, our intrepid British adventurers are but too eager to achieve the bubble reputation, to hand down their names to future ages for patient endurance, zeal, and enterprise, by explorations of the hidden mysteries of "the frigid zone, Where, for relentless months, continual night by undergoing perils, and enduring privations and dangers which the mind, in its reflective moments, shudders to contemplate. It is fair to conjecture that, so intense is the cold, and so limited the summer, and consequently so short the time allowed for a transit within the Arctic circle, from Baffin's Bay to Behring's Straits, that a passage, even if discovered, will never be of any use as a channel. It is not likely that these expeditions would ever have been persevered in with so much obstinacy, had the prospects now opening on the world of more prac ticable connections with the East been known forty years ago. Hereafter, when the sacred demands of humanity have been answered, very little more will be heard about the northwest passage to Asia; which, if ever found, must be always hazardous and protracted, when a short and quick one can be accomplished by railroads through America, or canals across the Isthmus. A thorough knowledge of the relative boundaries of land and ocean on this our globe has, in all ages and by all countries, been considered one of the most important desiderata, and one of the chief features of popular information. But to no country is this knowledge of such practical utility and of such essential importance, as to a maritime nation like Great Britain, whose mercantile marine visits every port, whose insular position renders her completely dependent upon distant quarters for half the necessary supplies, whether of food or luxury, which her native population consume, or which the arts and manufactures, of which she is the emporium, require. With a vast and yearly increasing dominion, covering almost every region of the habitable globe, - the chart of our colonies being a chart of the world in outline, for we sweep the globe and touch every shore,— it becomes necessary that we should keep pace with the progress of colonization, by enlarging, wherever possible, our maritime discoveries, completing and verifying our nautical surveys, improving our meteorological researches, opening up new and speedier perodical pathways over the oceans which were formerly traversed with so much danger, doubt, and difficulty, and maintaining our superiority as the greatest of maritime nations, by sustaining that high and distinguished rank for naval eminence which has ever attached to the British name. The arduous achievements, however, of our nautical discoverers have seldom been appreciated or rewarded as they deserved. We load our naval and military heroes the men who guard our wooden walls and successfully fight our battles with titles and pensions; we heap upon these, and deservedly so, princely remuneration and all manner of distinctions; but for the heroes whose patient toil and protracted endurance far surpass the turmoil of war, who peril their lives in the cause of science, many of whom fall victims to pestilential climates, famine, and the host of dangers which environ the voyager and traveler in unexplored lands and unknown seas, we have only a place in the niche of fame. What honors did England, as a maritime nation, confer on Cook, the foremost of her naval heroes, a man whose life was sacrificed for his country? His widow had an annuity of 2007., and his surviving children 251. each per annum. And this is the reward paid to the most eminent of our naval discoverers, before whom Cabot, Drake, Frobisher, Magellan, Anson, and although the arctic adventurers, Hudson and Baffin, all eminent for their discoveries and the important services they rendered to the cause of nautical science, sink into insignificance! If we glance at the results of Cook's voyages we find that to him we are indebted for the innumerable discoveries of islands and colonies planted in the Pacific; that he determined the conformation, and surveyed the numerous bays and inlets, of New Holland; established the geographical position of the north western shores of America; ascertained the trending of the ice and frozen shores to the north of Behring's Straits; approached nearer the South Pole, and made more discoveries in the Australian regions, than all the navigators who had preceded him. On the very shores of their vast empire, at the extremity of Kamtschatka, his active genius first taught the Russians to examine the devious trendings of the lands which border the Frozen Ocean, in the neighborhood of the Arctic circle. He explored both the eastern and western coasts above Behring's Straits to so high a latitude as to decide, beyond doubt, the question as to the existence of a passage round the two continents. He showed the Russians how to navigate the dangerous seas between the old and the new world; for, as Coxe has remarked, "before his time, every thing was uncertain and confused, and though they had undoubtedly reached the continent of America, yet they had not ascertained the line of coast, nor the separation or vicinity of the two continents of Asia and America." Coxe, certainly, does no more than justice to his illustrious countryman when he adds, "the solution of this important problem was reserved for our great navigator, and every Englishman must exult that the discoveries of Cook were extended further in a single expedition, and at the distance of half the globe, than the Russians accomplished in a long series of years, and in a region contiguous to their own empire." Look at Weddell, again, a private trader in sealskins, who, in a frail bark of 160 tons, made important discoveries in the Antarctic circle, and a voyage of greater length and peril, through a thousand miles of ice, than had previously been performed by any navigator, paving the way for the more expensively fitted expedition under Sir James Ross. Was Weddell remunerated on a scale commensurate with his important services? Half a century ago the celebrated Bruce of Kinnaird, by a series of soundings and observations taken in the Red Sea, now the great highway of overland eastern traffic, rendered its navigation more secure and punctual. How was he rewarded by the then existing ministry? Take a more recent instance in the indefatigable energy of Lieutenant Waghorn, R. N., the enterprising pioneer of the overland route to India. What does not the commerce, the character, the reputation, of this country owe to his indefatigable exertions, in bringing the metropolis into closer connection with our vast and important Indian empire? And what was the reward he received for the sacrifices he made of time, money, health and life? A paltry annuity to himself of 100%., and a pension to his widow of 257. per annum ! Is it creditable to us, as the first naval power of the world, that we should thus dole out miserable pittances, or entirely overlook the successful patriotic exertions and scientific enterprises and discoveries of private adventurers, or public commanders? The attractions of a summer voyage along the bays and seas where the sun shines for four months at a time, exploring the bare rocks and everlasting ice, with no companion but the white bear or the Arctic fox, may be all very romantic at a distance; but the mere thought of a winter residence there, frozen fast in some solid ocean, with snow a dozen feet deep, the thermometer ranging from 40° to 50° below zero, and not a glimpse of the blessed sun from November to February, is enough to give a chill to all adventurous notions. But the officers and men engaged in the searching expeditions after Sir John Franklin have calmly weighed all these difficulties, and boldly gone forth to encounter the perils and dangers of these icy seas for the sake of their noble fellow-sailor, whose fate has been so long a painful mystery to the world. It has been truly observed, that "this is a service for which all officers, however brave and intelligent they may be, are not equally qualified; it requires a peculiar tact, an inquisitive and persevering pursuit after details of fact, not always interesting, a contempt of danger, and an enthusiasm not to be damped by ordinary difficulties." The records which I shall have to give in these pages of voyages and travels, unparalleled in their perils, their duration, and the protracted sufferings which many of them entailed on the adventurers, will bring out in bold relief the prominent characters who have figured in Arctic Discovery, and whose names will descend to posterity, emblazoned on the scroll of fame, for their bravery, their patient endurance, their skill, and, above all, their firm trust and reliance on that Almighty Being who, although He may have tried them sorely, has never utterly forsaken them. CAPT. JOHN Ross's VOYAGE, 1818. IN 1818, His Royal Highness the Prince Regent having signified his pleasure that an attempt should be made to find a passage by sea between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty were pleased to fit out four vessels to proceed toward the North Pole, under the command of Captain John Ross. No former expedition had been fitted out on so extensive a scale, or so completely equipped in every respect as this one. The circumstance which mainly led to the sending out of these vessels, was the open character of the bays and seas in those regions, it having been observed for the previous three years that very unusual quantities of the polar ice had floated down into the Atlantic. In the |