proach to the breakers only left us the alternative of either permitting the ships to be drifted broadside against the ice, and so to take their chance, or of endeavouring to force fairly into it by putting before the wind. At length, the hopeless state of a vessel placed broadside against so formidable a body became apparent to all, and we resolved to attempt the latter expedient."

Eagerly, but in vain, was the general line of the pack scanned, to find one place more open than the other. ~ All parts appeared to be equally impenetrable, and to present one unbroken line of furious breakers, in which immense pieces of ice were heaving and subsiding with the waves, and dashing together with a violence which nothing apparently but a solid body could withstand, occasioning such a noise that it was with the greatest difficulty the officers could make their orders heard by the crew.

The fearful aspect of this appalling scene is thus sketched off by Captain Beechey :

No language, I am convinced, can convey an adequate idea of the terrific grandeur of the effect now produced by the collision of the ice and the tempestuous ocean. The sea, violently agitated and rolling its mountainous waves against an opposing body, is at all times a sublime and awful sight; but when, in addition, it encounters immense masses, which it has set in motion with a violence equal to its own, its effect is prodigiously increased. At one moment it bursts upon these icy fragments and buries them many feet beneath its wave, and the next, as the buoyancy of the depressed body struggles for reascendancy, the water rushes in foaming cataracts over its edges; whilst every individual mass, rocking and labouring in its bed, grinds against and contends with its opponent, until one is either split with the shock or upheaved upon the surface of the other. Nor is this collision confined to any particular spot; it is going on as far as the sight can reach; and when from this convulsive scene below, the eye is turned to the extraordinary appearance of the blink in the sky above, where the unnatural clearness of a calm and silvery atmosphere presents itself, bounded by a dark hard line of stormy clouds, such as at this moment lowered over our masts, as if to mark the confines within which the efforts of man would be of no avail. The reader may imagine the sensation of awe which must accompany that of grandeur in the mind of the beholder."

"If ever," continues the narrator, "the fortitude of seamen was fairly tried, it was assuredly not less so on this occasion; and I will not conceal the pride I felt in wit

nessing the bold and decisive tone in which the orders were issued by the commander (the present Captain Sir John Franklin) of our little vessel, and the promptitude and steadiness with which they were executed by the

crew."

As the labouring vessel flew before the gale, she soon neared the scene of danger.

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Each person instinctively secured his own hold, and with his eyes fixed upon the masts, awaited in breathless anxiety the moment of concussion.

It soon arrived,-the brig (Trent) cutting her way through the light ice, came in violent contact with the main body. In an instant we all lost our footing; the masts bent with the impetus, and the cracking timbers from below bespoke a pressure which was calculated to awaken our serious apprehensions. The vessel staggered under the shock, and for a moment seemed to recoil; but the next wave, curling up under her counter, drove her about her own length within the margin of the ice, where she gave one roll, and was immediately thrown broadside to the wind by the succeeding wave, which beat furiously against her stern, and brought her lee-side in contact with the main body, leaving her weather-side exposed at the same time to a piece of ice about twice her own dimensions. This unfortunate occurrence prevented the vessel penetrating sufficiently far into the ice to escape the effect of the gale, and placed her in a situation where she was assailed on all sides by battering-rams, if I may use the expression, every one of which contested the small space which she occupied, and dealt such unrelenting blows, that there appeared to be scarcely any possibility of saving her from foundering. Literally tossed from piece to piece, we had nothing left but patiently to abide the issue; for we could scarcely keep our feet, much less render any assistance to the vessel. The motion, indeed, was so great, that the ship's bell, which in the heaviest gale of wind had never struck of itself, now tolled so continually, that it was ordered to be muffled, for the purpose of escaping the unpleasant association it was calculated to produce.

"In anticipation of the worst, we determined to attempt placing the launch upon the ice under the lee, and hurried into her such provisions and stores as could at the moment be got at. Serious doubts were reasonably entertained of the boat being able to live amongst the confused mass by which we were encompassed; yet as this appeared to be our only refuge, we clung to it with all the eagerness of a last resource.'

From the injury the vessel repeatedly received, it became very evident that if subjected to this concussion for any time, she could not hold together long; the only chance of escape, therefore, appeared to depend upon getting before the wind, and penetrating further into the

ice.

To effect this with any probability of success, it became necessary to set more head-sail, though at the risk of the masts, already tottering with the pressure of that which was spread. By the expertness of the seamen, more sail was spread, and under this additional pressure of canvass, the ship came into the desired position, and with the aid of an enormous mass under the stern, she split a small field of ice, fourteen feet in thickness, which had hitherto impeded her progress, and effected a passage for herself between the pieces.

In this improved position, by carefully placing the protecting fenders between the ice and the ship's sides, the strokes were much diminished, and she managed to weather out the gale, but lost sight of her consort in the clouds of spray which were tossed about, and the huge intervening masses of ice among which they were embayed. On the gale moderating, the ships were fortunately got once more into an open sea, although both disabled, and one at least, the Dorothea, which had sustained the heavy shocks, in a foundering condition. For the main object of the expedition they were now useless, and, both being in a leaky state, they bore up for Fair Haven, in Spitzbergen. In approaching the anchorage in South Gat, the Trent bounded over a sunken rock, and struck hard, but this, after their recent danger, was thought comparatively light of.

On examining the hulls of the vessels, it was found they had sustained frightful injuries. The intermediate lining of felt between the timbers and planks seems to have aided greatly in enabling the vessels to sustain the repeated powerful shocks they had encountered. Upon consulting with his officers, Captain Buchan came to the opinion that the most prudent course was to patch up the vessels for their return voyage. Lieutenant Franklin preferred an urgent request that he might be allowed to proceed in his own vessel upon the interesting service still unexecuted; but this could not be complied with, in consequence of the hazard to the crew of proceeding home singly in a vessel so shattered and unsafe as the Dorothea. After refitting, they put to sea at the end of August, and reached England by the middle of October.

31

IN 1819, on the recommendation of the Lords of the Admiralty, Capt. Franklin was appointed to command an overland expedition from Hudson's Bay to the northern shores of America, for the purpose of determining the latitudes and longitudes, and exploring the coast of the continent eastward from the Coppermine River. Dr. John Richardson, R.N., and two Admiralty midshipmen, Mr. George Back, (who had been out on the Polar expedition in the previous year in H. M. S. Trent,) and Mr. Robert Hood, were placed under his orders. Previous to his departure from London, Capt. Franklin obtained all the information and advice possible from Sir Alex. Mackenzie, one of the only two persons who had yet explored those shores. On the 23rd of May, the party embarked at Gravesend, in the Prince of Wales, belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, which immediately got under weigh in company with her consorts, the Eddystone and Wear. Mr. Back, who was left on shore by accident in Yarmouth, succeeded in catching the ship at Stromness. On the 4th of August, in lat. 59° 58' N., and long. 59° 53′ W., they first fell in with large icebergs. On the following day, the height of one was ascertained to be 149 feet. After a stormy and perilous voyage they reached the anchorage at York Flats on the 30th of August.

On the 9th of September, Capt. Franklin and his party left York Factory in a boat by the way of the rivers and lakes for Cumberland House, another of the Company's posts, which they reached on the 22nd of October.

On the 19th of January, Franklin set out in company with Mr. Back, and a seaman named Hepburn, with provisions for fifteen days stowed in two sledges, on their journey to Fort Chipewyan. Dr. Richardson, Mr. Hood, and Mr. Connolly, accompanied them a short distance. After touching at different posts of the Company, they reached their destination safely on the 26th of March, after a winter's journey of 857 miles. The greatest difficulty experienced by the travellers was the labour of walking in snow shoes, a weight of between two and three pounds being constantly attached to galled feet and swelled ankles.

On the 13th of July, they were joined by Dr. Richardson and Mr. Hood, who had made a very expeditious journey from Cumberland House; they had only one day's provisions left, the pemmican they had received at the posts

being so mouldy that they were obliged to leave it behind. Arrangements were now made for their journey northward. Sixteen Canadian voyageurs were engaged, and a Chipewyan woman and two interpreters were to be taken on from Great Slave Lake. The whole stock of provision they could obtain before starting was only sufficient for one day's supply, exclusive of two barrels of flour, three cases of preserved meats, some chocolate, arrow-root, and portable soup, which had been brought from England, and were kept as a reserve for the journey to the coast in the following season; seventy pounds of deer's flesh and a little barley were all that the Company's officers could give them. The provisions were distributed among three canoes, and the party set off in good spirits on the 18th of July. They had to make an inroad very soon on their preserved meats, for they were unfortunate in their fishing. On the 24th of July, however, they were successful in shooting a buffalo in the Salt River, after giving him fourteen balls. At Moose Deer Island they got supplies from the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies' officers, and on the 27th set out again on their journey, reaching Fort Providence by the 29th.

Shortly after they had an interview with a celebrated and influential Indian chief, named Akaitcho, who was to furnish them with guides. Another Canadian voyageur was here engaged, and the party now consisted of the officers already named, Mr. Fred. Wentzel, clerk of the N. W. Fur Company, who joined them here, John Hepburn the English seaman, seventeen Canadian voyageurs, (one of whom, named Michel, was an Iroquois,) and three Indian interpreters, besides the wives of three of the voyageurs who had been brought on for the purpose of making clothes and shoes for the men at the winter establishment. The whole number were twenty-nine, exclusive of three children. I give the list of those whose names occur most frequently in the narrative: J. B. Belanger, Peltier, Solomon Belanger, Samandre, Benoit, Perrault, Antonio Fontano, Beauparlant, Vaillant, Credit, Adam St. Germain, interpreter; Augustus, and Junius, Esquimaux interpreters. They had provisions for ten days' consumption, besides a little chocolate and tea, viz., two casks of flour, 200 dried rein-deer tongues, some dried moose meat, portable soup, and a little arrow-root. A small extra canoe was provided for the women, and the journey for the Coppermine River was commenced on the 2nd of August. The party met with many hardships-were placed on short diet-and some of the Canadians broke out into open