'make them spin out seven years;' and he said further, that he would lose no opportunity of killing birds, and whatever else was useful that came in the way, to keep up their stock, and that he had plenty of powder and shot for the purpose. That Sir John also stated that he had already got several casks of birds salted, and had then two shooting parties out-one from each ship. The birds were very numerous; many would fall at a single shot; and the declarant has himself killed forty at a shot with white peas. That the birds are very agreeable food, are in taste and size somewhat like young pigeons, and are called by the sailors roches.* 66 That on the 26th or 28th of the said month of July two parties of Sir John's officers, who had been out shooting, dined with the declarant, on board the Enterprise. There was a boat with six from each ship. Their conversation was to the same effect as Sir John's. They spoke of expecting to be absent four, or five, or perhaps six years. These officers also said that the ships would winter where they could find a convenient place, and in spring push on as far as possible, and so on year after year, as the determination was to push on as far as practicable. "That on the following day an invitation was brought to the declarant, verbally, to dine with Sir John, but the wind shifted, and the Enterprise having cut through the ice about a mile and a half, the declarant was obliged to decline the invitation. That he saw the Erebus and Terror for two days longer; they were still lying at an iceberg, and the Enterprise was moving slowly down the country. That so numerous were the birds mentioned, and so favourable was the weather for shooting them, that a very large number must have been secured during the time the declarant was in sight of the two ships. That from the state of the wind and weather for a period of ten days, during part of which declarant was not in sight of the two ships, the best opportunity was afforded for securing the birds. That the birds described are not to be found at all places on the fishing ground during the whaling season, but are met with in vast numbers every season on certain feeding banks and places for breeding; and it was considered at the time by the declarant a most fortunate circumstance that the Erebus and Terror had fallen in with so many birds, and that the state of the weather was s80 favourable for securing large numbers of them. The declarant has himself had a supply of the same description of birds, which kept fresh and good during three months, at Davis's Straits, and the last were as good as the first of them." In a letter published in the Times, in January of last year, from Mr. Sutherland, surgeon of the Sophia, the tender to the Lady Franklin, Captain Penny, he states, "had Sir John Franklin any wish to increase his stock of provisions by the use of the birds called 'roches,' he could obtain them in thousands where the Enterprise of Peterhead parted with him; and as to stowage, the daily allowance of 138 men would soon make room for a few casks of salted birds. Moreover, he would also learn that sea-fowl will keep in the Arctic regions during the three short months of summer, if they be exposed to the cold and a free current of air. And there is no doubt his ingenuity would suggest to him what the Esquimaux have practised for thousands of years-to wit, preserving masses of animal substances, such as whale's flesh, by means of ice, during the summer months, when it may be easily obtained, for their use during winter." There is probably more danger to be apprehended from the well-known energy and zeal of the explorers than from any other cause. Franklin left our shores feeling that the eyes of the civilized world were on him, and that it was hoped and expected he would accomplish what our most learned hydrographers regard as feasible; although failure has characterized so many attempts to pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, round the north coast of America. Franklin is well aware that if he succeed his fame will be heralded abroad; and he will not abandon his enterprise as long as strength remains. Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise, He will not give up the struggle with mighty icebergs and thick-ribbed ice as long as the smallest chance of obtaining the much-desired prize remains. It is recorded that when attempts were made to dissuade Sir Martin Frobisher from engaging in the discovery of a north-west passage, he answered, "It is the only thing in the world that is left yet undone, whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate." Sir John Franklin, in the narrative of his first Arctic journey, writing then of Sir Edward Parry, uses observations which may be applied with equal force, and but slight alteration, to his own case now: "His task," he observes, "is doubtless an arduous one, and if ultimately successful, may occupy two, and perhaps three seasons; but confiding, as I do, from personal knowledge, in his perseverance and talent for surmounting difficulties, the strength of his ships, and the abundance of provisions with which they are stored, I have very little apprehension of his safety. As I understand his object was to keep the coast of America close on board, he will find in the spring of the year, before the breaking up of the ice can permit him to pursue his voyage, herds of deer flocking in abundance to all parts of the coast, which may be procured without difficulty; and even later in the season, additions to his stock of provisions may be ob tained on many parts of the coast, should circumstances give him leisure to send out hunting parties. With the trawl, or seine-nets, also, he may almost everywhere get abundance of fish, even without retarding his progress. Under these circumstances, I do not conceive that he runs any hazard of wanting provisions, should his voyage be prolonged even beyond the latest period of time which is calculated upon. Drift-wood may be gathered at many places in considerable quantities; and there is a fair prospect of his opening a communication with the Esquimaux, who come down to the coast to kill seals in the spring, previous to the ice breaking up; and from whom, if he succeeds in conciliating their good-will, he may obtain provision, and much useful assistance." In June, 1851, Mr. John Hilton, in an interesting letter, published in the Manchester Guardian, suggested the desirability of trying the route between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla; and the following are extracts from his com munication: "Upon an inspection of the globe, and bearing in mind the foregoing remarks, I think your readers will agree with me in stating that the most favourable route for ascertaining the fate of our missing countrymen is for the ships proceeding north, say between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, and then, as the ice permits, so as to come down towards the southward again in about long. 130° W., sending out boats daily east and west, and finally making their egress by Lancaster Sound or Behring's Straits. It appears, in my opinion, to be an erroneous idea the public entertain of the North Polar Sea being an impenetrable barrier of ice. Perhaps the following statement may as sist in removing much prejudice and doubt of the practicability of a North Polar passage. The idea of a North Polar passage to the East Indies was first suggested in the year 1527, by Robert Thorne, a merchant of Bristol, who, in a letter addressed to Dr. Ley, states:-'It is as probable that the cosmographers should be mistaken in the opinion of the Polar regions being impassable from extreme cold, as it has been found they were in supposing the countries under the line to be uninhabitable from excessive heat.' In the year 1609, Jonas Poole, in the Amity, made an unsuccessful attempt to penetrate to the North Pole, and, in concluding the account of his voyage, states-I assure myself a passage may be attained this way by the Pole, as any unknown way whatsoever, by reason the sun doth give a great heat in this climate, and the ice is nothing so huge as I have seen in lat. 73° N.' In 1615, Fotherby, upon the termination of his voyage, says:- Although I have not attained my desire, yet, forasmuch as it appears not yet to the contrary, but that there is a spacious sea betwixt Groinland and Spitzbergen, although much pestered with ice;' and, with perseverance, he believed a passage might be attained. In the year 1773, the Royal Society made application, through the Earl of Sandwich, to his Majesty King George the Third, for an expedition to try how far navigation was practicable towards the North Pole, and which his Majesty was pleased to direct should be undertaken. Captain C. J. Phipps, afterwards Earl of Mulgrave, had the honour of being entrusted with the conduct of this expedition. Like previous voyagers, they did not attain their object. In 1606, Baffin advanced as high as lat. 81° N. In 1751, Captain M'Cullam attained the lat. 83° 30′ N., where he found an open sea and fair weather. In 1754, Captain Wilson, in the month of June, advanced to lat. 83° N., and as high as 81° found the sea clear of ice as far as he could see. At the same time, Captain Guy, after four days of foggy weather, was carried to the same spot; and Mr. Stevens, a most accurate observer, was driven off Spitzbergen by a southerly wind which blew for several days, and until he reached the latitude 84° 30' N. during the whole of which time he met with very little ice, and did not find the cold excessive. Captain Sir W. E. Parry, in his attempt to reach the North Pole in 1827, found the ice more broken up to the northward than to the southward, and which caused him to abandon the attempt of reaching the Pole by travelling over the ice. "I was informed personally, by a sailor who sailed with Captain Scoresby, senior, that he well remembered their being North of 83°, and at that time there was no ice in sight, and a very heavy swell on. A very distinguished Arctic writer of the present day, relates the case of a whale, har pooned by a Greenland ship, getting away, and being afterwards taken on the east coast of America with the Greenlander's harpoon in her. Sir John Franklin, during his overland route from the Coppermine River towards the eastward, and when in lat. 68° N. and long. 110° W., saw great quantities of driftwood; and the fact of such being found about Spitzbergen and the Greenland coast, not only proves the existence of a North Polar passage, but the certainty of there being an open communication every season, or thereabouts, or how could the wood flow with the current? Would not its progress be staid, supposing the North Polar sea to be an impenetrable barrier of ice? Again, where must the whale abovementioned have obtained fresh air during her passage across, if this impenetrable barrier existed? Captain Sir W. E. Parry states the drift of the ice to be about the rate of four miles per diem towards the southward,-is it reasonable to suppose that sufficient ice can form during the summer months to supply the drift? 66 Taking the above facts into consideration, it cannot be denied that the North Polar route offers the most favourable plan for ascertaining the fate of our unfortunate countrymen; and from personal observations made in 1849, I can assert that, in Davis Straits, we found less ice to the northward than we met towards the southward. This is easily accounted for from the fact of the current in the Greenland sea setting to the S.W., and in Behring's Strait it flows N.E., again proving the existence of a communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by a North Polar passage." In January, 1852, Mr. Augustus Petermann, an eminent geographer, published in the Athenæum his enlarged views on the same subject, which, with some valuable data on the abundance of animal life in the Arctic regions, he has since published in a separate form.* In this pamphlet he states, that a line drawn from Melville Island to the Herald and Plover Islands (north of Behring's Strait) and another from Melville Island to Spitzbergen on the American side, would, with the Siberian coasts and islands on the Asiatic side, include the space in which Franklin must have been arrested, a space of fearful extent, when it is considered that the whole of the regions hitherto explored by the various expeditions sent in search of him, are scarcely one-third of those which remain unexplored. The very fact that no suitable expedition has been sent "The Search for Franklin." Longmans and Co. 1852. ༣ |