so heavy and closely packed that they were obliged to take shelter in a deep and narrow inlet that opportunely presented itself, where they were closed up two days. On the 22nd the party reached the most southerly opening of Wager River or Bay, but were detained the whole day by the immense quantities of heavy ice driving in and out with the flood and ebb of the tide, which ran at the rate of eight miles an hour, forcing up the ice and grinding it against the rocks with a noise like thunder. On the night of the 24th the boats anchored at the head of Repulse Bay. The following day they anchored in Gibson's Cove, on the banks of which they met with a small party of Esquimaux; several of the women wore beads round their wrists, which they had obtained from Captain Parry's ships when at Igloolik and Winter Island. But they had neither heard nor seen anything of Sir John Franklin. Learning from a chart drawn by one of the natives, that the isthmus of Melville Peninsula was only about forty miles across, and that of this, owing to a number of large lakes, but five miles of land would have to be passed over, Dr. Rae determined to make his way over this neck in preference to proceeding by Fox's Channel through the Fury and Hecla Strait. One boat was therefore laid up with her cargo in security, and with the other the party set out, assisted by three Esquimaux. After traversing several large lakes, and crossing over six" portages," on the 2nd of August they got into the salt water, in Committee Bay, but being able to make but little progress to the north-west, in consequence of heavy gales and closely packed ice, he returned to his starting point, and made preparations for wintering, it being found impossible to proceed with the survey at that time. The other boat was brought across the isthmus, and all hands were set to work in making preparations for a long and cold winter. As no wood was to be had, stones were collected to build a house, which was finished by the 2nd of September. Its dimensions were twenty feet by fourteen, and about eight feet high. The roof was formed of oil-cloths and morse-skin coverings, the masts and oars of the boats serving as rafters, while the door was made of parchment skins stretched over a wooden frame. The deer had already commenced migrating southward, but whenever he had leisure, Dr. Rae shouldered his rifle, and had frequently good success, shooting on one day seven deer within two miles of their encampment. On the 16th of October, the thermometer fell to zero, and the greater part of the reindeer had passed; but the party had by this time shot 130, and during the remainder of October, and in November, thirty-two more were killed, so that with 200 partridges and a few salmon, their snowbuilt larder was pretty well stocked. Sufficient fuel had been collected to last, with economy, for cooking, until the spring; and a couple of seals which had been shot produced oil enough for their lamps. By nets set in the lakes under the ice, a few salmon were also caught. After passing a very stormy winter, with the temperature occasionally 47° below freezing point, and often an allowance of but one meal a day, towards the end of February preparations for resuming their surveys in the spring were made. Sleds, similar to those used by the natives, were constructed. In the beginning of March the reindeer began to migrate northward, but were very shy. One was shot on the lith. Dr. Rae set out on the 5th of April, in company with three men and two Esquimaux as interpreters, their provisions and bedding being drawn on sleds by four dogs. Nothing worthy of notice occurs in this exploratory trip, till on the 18th Rae came in sight of Lord Mayor's Bay, and the group of islands with which it is studded. The isthmus which connects the land to the northward with Boothia, he found to be only about a mile broad. On their return the party fortunately fell in with four Esquimaux, from whom they obtained a quantity of seal's blubber for fuel and dogs' food, and some of the flesh and blood for their own use, enough to maintain them for six days on half allowance. All the party were more or less affected with snow blindness, but arrived at their winter quarters in Repulse Bay on the 5th of May, all safe and well, but as black as negroes, from the combined effects of frost-bites and oil smoke. On the evening of the 13th May, Dr. Rae again started with a chosen party of four men, to trace the west shore of Melville Peninsula. Each of the men carried about 70 lbs. weight. Being unable to obtain a drop of water of nature's thawing, and fuel being rather a scarce article, they were obliged to take small kettles of snow under the blankets with them, to thaw by the heat of the body. Having reached to about 69° 42' N. lat., and 85° 8' long., and their provisions being nearly exhausted, they were obliged, much to their disappointment, to turn back, when only within a few miles of the Hecla and Fury Strait. Early on the morning of the 30th of May, the party arrived at their snow hut on Cape Thomas Simpson. The men they had left there were well, but very thin, as they had neither caught nor shot anything eatable, except two marmots, and they were preparing to cook a piece of parchment skin for their supper. "Our journey," says Dr. Rae, "hitherto had been the most fatiguing I had ever experienced; the severe exercise, with a limited allowance of food, had reduced the whole party very much. However, we marched merrily on, tightening our belts,-mine came in six inches,-the men vowing that when they got on full allowance, they would make up for lost time." On the morning of the 9th of June, they arrived at their encampment in Repulse Bay, after being absent twentyseven days. The whole party then set actively to work procuring food, collecting fuel, and preparing the boats for sea; and the ice in the bay having broken up on the 11th of August, on the 12th they left their dreary winter quarters, and after encountering head winds and stormy weather, reached Churchill River on the 31st of August. A gratuity of 4007. was awarded to Mr. Rae, by the Hudson's Bay Company, for the important services he had thus rendered to the cause of science. CAPTAIN SIR JOHN FRANKLIN'S LAST EXPEDITION, 1845-1851. THAT Sir John Franklin, now nearly six years absent, is alive, we dare not affirm; but that his ships should be so utterly annihilated that no trace of them can be discovered, or if they have been so entirely lost, that not a single life should have been saved to relate the disaster, and that no traces of the crew or vessels should have been met with by the Esquimaux, or the exploring parties who have visited and investigated those coasts, and bays, and inlets to so considerable an extent, is a most extraordinary circumstance. It is the general belief of those officers who have served in the former Arctic expeditions, that whatever accident may have befallen the Erebus and Terror, they cannot wholly have disappeared from those seas, and that some traces of their fate, if not some living remnant of their crews, must eventually reward the search of the diligent investigator. It is possible that they may be found in quarters the least expected. There is still reason, then, for hope, and for the great and honourable exertions which that divine spark in the soul has prompted and still keeps alive. "There is something," says the Athenæum, "intensely interesting in the picture of those dreary seas amid whose strange and unspeakable solitudes our lost countrymen are, or have been, somewhere imprisoned for so many years, swarming with the human life that is risked to set them free. No hunt was ever so exciting so full of a wild grandeur and a profound pathos-as that which has just aroused the Arctic echoes; that wherein their brothers and companions have been beating for the track by which they may rescue the lost mariners from the icy grasp of the Genius of the North. Fancy these men in their adamantine prison, wherever it may be,-chained up by the Polar Spirit whom they had dared,-lingering through years of cold and darkness on the stinted ration that scarcely feeds the blood, and the feeble hope that scarcely sustains the heart,-and then imagine the rush of emotions to greet the first cry from that wild hunting-ground which should reach their ears! Through many summers has that cry been listened for, no doubt. Something like an expectation of the rescue which it should announce has revived with each returning season of comparative light, to die of its own baffled intensity as the long dark months once more settled down upon their dreary prisonhouse.— There is scarcely a doubt that the track being now struck, these long pining hearts may be traced to their lair. But what to the anxious questioning which has year by year gone forth in search of their fate, will be the answer now revealed? The trail is found,-but what of the weary feet that made it? We are not willing needlessly to alarm the public sympathies, which have been so generously stirred on behalf of the missing men, but we are bound to warn our readers against too sanguine an entertainment of the hope which the first tidings of the recent discovery is calculated to suggest. It is scarcely possible that the provisions which were sufficient for three years, and adaptable for four, can by any economy which implies less than starvation have been spread over five,—and scarcely probable that they can have been made to do so by the help of any accidents which the place of confinement supplied. We cannot hear of this sudden discovery of traces of the vanished crews as living men, without a wish which comes like a pang that it had been two years ago-or even last year. It makes the heart sore to think how close relief may have been to their hiding-place in former years when it turned away. There is scarcely reason to doubt that had the present circumstances of the search occurred two years ago-last year perhaps the wanderers would have been restored. Another year makes a frightful difference in the odds:-and we do not think the public will ever feel satisfied with what has been done in this matter if the oracle so long questioned, and silent so long, shall speak at last-and the answer shall be, It is too late."" In the prosecution of the noble enterprise on which all eyes are now turned, it is not merely scientific research and geographical discovery that are at present occupying the attention of the commanders of vessels sent out; the lives of human beings are at stake, and above all, the lives of men who have nobly perilled everything in the cause of national-nay, of universal progress and knowledge;-of men who have evinced on this and other expeditions the most dauntless bravery that any men can evince, Who can think of the probable fate of these gallant adventurers without a shudder? Alas! how truthfully has Montgomery depicted the fatal imprisonment of vessels in these regions: There lies a vessel in that realm of frost, Not wrecked, not stranded, yet for ever lost; The transverse ropes with pearls enormous strung, Wrapt in the topmast shrouds there rests a boy, Sprung from a race of rovers, ocean born, Nursed at the helm, he trod dry land with scorn; He ne'er shall know in his Northumbrian cot, The peopled-deck, and full-rigg'd masts shall grow |