Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by

GEO. H. DERBY AND CO.

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Northern District of New York.

Stereotyped by

BEADLE & BROTHER,

BUFFALO.

то

HENRY GRINNELL, ESQ.,

THIS FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

OF

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN AND THE ARCTIO REGIONS,

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

BY HIS

HUMBLE SERVANTS,

THE PUBLISHERS.

PUBLISHERS' NOTICE

The explorations of the Arctic Regions, made during the last three centuries, have been prompted by the most commendable spirit, and have called into requisition, and strikingly developed, traits of character of a high order. The Arctic navigators have usually been men of extreme daring, wonderful perseverance and sublime fortitude; and a digest of their heroic toils in the path of geographical discovery, abounds with scientific facts, and examples of manly courage and exalted virtues, potential in their nature, and highly salutary in their tendency.

These considerations have impressed us with the importance of republishing this work. But as the English edition contains but slight reference to American enterprise and zeal in the search for the long absent ships, under the command of Si John Franklin, we have deemed it proper to add an account of the expedition sent out under the patronage of Henry Grinnell Esq., who is doing more than any other man in our country to entitle modern merchants to the appellation given to those of Tyre, in her best days-"the honorable of the earth." The account of the expedition which he sent out, is copied from Lossing's article, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine. The other additional matter will, we trust, be found pertinent, entertaining, and valuable. The work, in its present form, must, we feel assured, meet the approval of a discriminating public.

INTRODUCTION.

THE interest aroused both in this country and Europe, in regard to Sir John Franklin and his associates, has in no degree diminished by the failure of the various Exploring Expeditions, to ascertain the fate of the great navigator. His well known intrepidity, his great experience and knowledge of the Arctic regions, the abundant supplies with which he was furnished, the various casualties which may have excluded him from the observation of subsequent navigators, and above all, the traces which have been discovered of him, have kept alive hopes, which, under other circumstances, in the long lapse of time would have been utterly extinguished. The

heroic woman, whose devotion to her gallant husband has made her name a household word in two continents, whose appeals in his behalf have touched all hearts, and filled all eyes with tears, whose conduct has added another illustration of conjugal affection, of indomitable perseverance and courage, to the long list of examples of woman's faith and woman's fortitude, the wife of the lost Franklin still hopes. Sho cannot believe that the sea has swallowed the gallant company under the guidance of her husband, or that the frosts of the Pole have benumbed their energies; no mounds of snow and ice are seen by her, as marking the place where they await the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God; before the vision of her mind, the frost-bound voyagers still appear, watching for some friendly sail in the open channels of the frozen seas, still husbanding their resources, still hoping against hope. She beholds them manfully struggling with the difficulties of their position, seeking, during the short summer of the high latitudes, an avenue of escape, and engaged in the winter in protecting themselves from the cold, by walls of snow, and renewing their clothing with the spoils of the shaggy monarch of those solitudes, the polar bear, whose capture stimulates their energies and