the guise of friendship, observing they would attack him when he least expected it. "I am afraid," continued the good old chief, "that I shall never see you again; but should you escape from the great water, take care you are not caught by the winter, and thrown into a situation like that in which you were on your return from the Coppermine, for you are alone, and the Indians cannot assist you." The carpenters, with an Iroquois, not being further required, were dismissed to join Mr. McLeod, and on the 8th of July they proceeded down the river. The boat was now launched and laden with her cargo, which, together with ten persons, she stowed well enough for a smooth river, but not for a lake or sea way. The weight was calculated at 3360 lbs., exclusive of the awning, poles, sails, &c., and the crew.

Their progress to the sea was now one continued succession of dangerous and formidable falls, rapids, and cataracts, which frequently made Back hold his breath, expecting to see the boat dashed to shivers against some protruding rocks amidst the foam and fury at the foot of a rapid. The only wonder is how in their frail leaky boat they ever shot one of the rapids. Rapid after rapid, and fall after fall, were passed, each accompanied with more or less danger; and in one instance the boat was only saved by all hands jumping into the breakers, and keeping her stern up the stream, until she was cleared from a rock that had brought her up. They had hardly time to get into their places again, when they were carried with considerable velocity past a river which joined from the westward. After passing no less than five rapids within the distance of three miles, they came to one long and appalling one, full of rocks and large boulders; the sides hemmed in by a wall of ice, and the current flying with the velocity and force of a torrent. The boat was lightened of her cargo, and Capt. Back placed himself on a high rock, with an anxious desire to see her run the rapid. He had every hope which confidence in the judgment and dexterity of his principal men could inspire, but it was impossible not to feel that one crash would be fatal to the expedition. Away they went with the speed of an arrow, and in a moment the foam and rocks hid them from view. Back at last heard what sounded in his ear like a wild shriek, and he saw Dr. King, who was a hundred yards before him, make a sign with his gun, and then run forward. Back followed with an agitation which may easily be conceived, when to his inexpressible joy he found that the shriek was the triumphant whoop of the crew, who had landed safely in a small bay

below. For nearly 100 miles of the distance they were impeded by these frightful whirlpools, and strong and heavy rapids.

On opening one of their bags of pemmican, the ingenuity of the Indians at pilfering was discovered, successive layers of mixed sand, stones, and green meat having been artfully and cleverly substituted for the dry meat. Fearful that they might be carrying heaps of stone instead of provision, Back had to examine carefully the remainder, which were all found sound and well-tasted. He began to fear, from the inclination of the river at one time towards the south, that it would be found to discharge itself in Chesterfield Inlet, in Hudson's Bay, but subsequently, to his great joy, it took a direct course towards the north, and his hopes of reaching the Polar Sea were revived. The river now led into several large lakes, some studded with islands, which were named successively after Sir H. Pelly, and Mr. Garry, of the Hudson's Bay Company; two others were named Lake Macdougall and Lake Franklin.

On the 28th of July they fell in with a tribe of about thirty-five very friendly Esquimaux, who aided them in transporting their boat over the last long and steep portage, to which his men were utterly unequal, and Back justly remarks, to their kind assistance he is mainly indebted for getting to the sea at all.

It was late when they got away, and while threading their course between some sand-banks with a strong current, they first caught sight of a majestic headland in the extreme distance to the north, which had a coast-like appearance. This important promontory Back subsequently named after our gracious Queen, then Princess Victoria.

"This then," observes Back, "may be considered as the mouth of the Thlew-ee-choh, which after a violent and tortuous course of 530 geographical miles, running through an iron-ribbed country, without a single tree on the whole line of its banks, expanding into five large lakes, with clear horizon, most embarrassing to the navigator, and broken into falls, cascades, and rapids, to the number of eightythree in the whole, pours its water into the Polar Sea, in lat. 67° 11' N., and long. 94° 30' W., that is to say, about thirty-seven miles more south than the Coppermine River, and nineteen miles more south than that of Back's River (of Franklin) at the lower extremity of Bathurst's Inlet. (p. 390.)

For several days Back was able to make but slow progress along the eastern shore, in consequence of the solid body of ärift-ice. A barren, rocky elevation of 800 feet

K

high was named Cape Beaufort, after the present hydrographer to the Admiralty. A bluff point on the eastern side of the estuary, which he considered to be the northern extreme, he named Cape Hay. Dean and Simpson, however, in 1839, traced the shore much beyond this. The difficulties met with here began to dispirit the men. For a week or ten days they had a continuation of wet, chilly, foggy weather, and the only vegetation, fern and moss, was so wet that it would not burn; being thus without fuel, during this time they had but one hot meal. Almost without water, without any means of warmth, or any kind of warm or comforting food, sinking knee-deep, as they proceeded on land, in the soft slush and snow, no wonder that some of the best men, benumbed in their limbs and dispirited by the dreary and unpromising prospect before them, broke out for a moment, in low murmurings, that theirs was a hard and painful duty.

Captain Back found it utterly impossible to proceed, as he had intended, to the Point Turnagain of Franklin, and after vainly essaying a land expedition by three of the best walkers, and these having returned, after making but fifteen miles' way, in consequence of the heavy rains and the swampy nature of the ground, he came to the resolution of returning. Reflecting, he says, on the long and dangerous stream they had to ascend, combining all the bad features of the worst rivers in the country, the hazard of the falls and rapids, and the slender hope which remained of their attaining even a single mile further, he felt he had no choice. Assembling, therefore, the men around him, and unfurling the British flag, which was saluted with three cheers, he announced to them this determination. The latitude of this place was 68° 13′ 57′′ N., and longitude 94° 58′ 1′′ W. The extreme point seen to the northward on the western side of the estuary, in latitude 68° 46' N., longitude 96° 20' W., Back named Cape Richardson. The spirits of many of the men, whose health had suffered greatly for want of warm and nourishing food, now brightened, and they set to work with alacrity to prepare for their return journey. The boat being dragged across, was brought to the place of their former station, after which the crew went back four miles for their baggage. The whole was safely conveyed over before the evening, when the water-casks were broken up to make a fire to warm a kettle of cocoa, the second hot meal they had had for nine days.

On the 15th of August, they managed to raake their way about twenty miles, on their return to the southward,

through a breach in the ice, till they came to open water. The difficulties of the river were doubled in the ascent, from having to proceed against the stream. All the obstacles of rocks, rapids, sandbanks, and long portages had to be faced. In some days as many as sixteen or twenty rapids were ascended. They found, as they proceeded, that many of the deposits of provisions, on which they relied, had been discovered and destroyed by wolves. On the 16th of September they met Mr. McLeod and his party, who had been several days at Sand Hill Bay, waiting for them. On the 24th they reached the Ah-hel-dessy, where they met with some Indians. They were ultimately stopped by one most formidable perpendicular fall, and as it was found impossible to convey the boat further over so rugged and mountainous a country, most of the declivities of which were coated with thin ice, and the whole

hidden by snow, it was here abandoned, and the party proceeded the rest of the journey on foot, each laden with a pack of about 75lbs. weight.

Late on the 27th of September they arrived at their old habitation, Fort Reliance, after being absent nearly four months, wearied indeed, but " truly grateful for the manifold mercies they had experienced in the course of their long and perilous journey." Arrangements were now made to pass the winter as comfortably as their means would permit, and as there was no probability that there would be sufficient food in the house for the consumption of the whole party, all except six were sent with Mr. McLeod to the fisheries. The Indians brought them provisions from time to time, and their friend Akaitcho, with his followers, though not very successful in hunting, was not wanting in his contributions. This old chieftain was, however, no longer the same active and important personage he had been in the days when he rendered such good service to Sir John Franklin. Old age and infirmities were creeping on him and rendering him peevish and fickle.

On the 21st of March following, having left directions with Dr. King to proceed, at the proper season, to the Company's factory at Hudson's Bay, to embark for England in their spring ships, Captain Back set out on his return through Canada, calling at the Fisheries to bid farewell to his esteemed friend, Mr. McLeod, and arriving at Norway House on the 24th of June, where he settled and arranged the accounts due for stores, &c., to the Hudson's Bay Company. He proceeded thence to New York, embarked for England and arrived at Liverpool

on the 8th of September, after an absence of two years and a half. Back was honoured with an audience of his Majesty, who expressed his approbation of his effortsfirst in the cause of humanity, and next in that of geographical and scientific research. He has since been knighted; and in 1835, the Royal Geographical Society awarded him their gold medal (the Royal premium) for his discovery of the Great Fish River and navigating it to the sea on the Arctic coast.

Dr. King, with the remainder of the party, (eight men,) reached England, in the Hudson's Bay Company's ship, in the following month, October.

Of Captain Back's travels it has been justly observed that it is impossible to rise from the perusal of them without being struck with astonishment at the extent of sufferings which the human frame can endure, and at the same time the wondrous display of fortitude which was exhibited under circumstances of so appalling a nature, as to invest the narrative with the character of a romantic fiction, rather than an unexaggerated tale of actual reality. He, however, suffered not despair nor despondency to overcome him, but gallantly and undauntedly pursued his course, until he returned to his native land to add to the number of those noble spirits whose names will be carried to posterity as the brightest ornaments to the country which gave them birth.

CAPTAIN BACK'S VOYAGE OF THE TError.

In the year 1836 Captain Back, who had only returned the previous autumn, at the recommendation of the Geographical Society, undertook a voyage in the Terror up Hudson's Strait.

He was to reach Wager River, or Repulse Bay, and to make an overland journey to examine the bottom of Prince Regent Inlet, sending other parties to the north and west to examine the Strait of the Fury and Hecla, and to reach, if possible, Franklin's Point Turnagain.

Leaving England on the 14th of June, he arrived on the 14th of August, at Salisbury Island, and proceeded up the Frozen Strait; off Cape Comfort the ship got frozen in, and on the breaking up of the ice by one of those frequent convulsions, the vessel was drifted right up the Frozen Channel, grinding large heaps that opposed her progress to powder.

From December to March she was driven about by the fury of the storms and ice, all attempts to release her