dreary, miserable, and uninteresting portions of sea-coast that can perhaps be found in any part of the world; and in all that space not a harbor exists in which a ship could find shelter.

On the 21st of September the party reached Fort Franklin, after a voyage of two thousand and forty-eight miles. Here they had the happiness of meeting all their friends in safety; the eastern detachment had arrived on the 1st of September, after a most successful voyage.

Richardson's party had been generally favored with fine weather. On one occasion a storm compelled them to take shelter in Refuge Cove, in lat. 69° 29′, which they left the following day. At their halting-place on the 13th July, the doctor says: "Myriads of mosquitos, which reposed among the grass, rose in clouds when disturbed, and gave us much annoyance. Many snowbirds were hatching on the point; and we saw swans, Canada geese, cider, king, Arctic, and surf ducks ; several glaucous, silvery, black-headed, and ivory gulls, together with terns and northern divers. Some laughing geese passed to the northward in the evening, which may be considered as a sure in

dication of land in

that direction." On

the 14th the party

EIDER DUCK.

took shelter from the fog and a heavy gale in a cove called Browell Cove, in latitude 70°, longitude 130° 19′. With some interruptions, their sail of five hundred

miles, or nine hundred and two by the coast-line, from one river to another, afforded a pleasant voyage, during which they added somewhat to the stores of natural history, botany, and geology.

A second winter passed at the fort. The cold was intense, the thermometer at one time standing at 58° below zero; but such a temperature even as this may be defied, with a weather-tight dwelling, plenty of provisions, and congenial companions. A series of magnetic observations was commenced; and, as the locality lay on the opposite side of the magnetic pole to that along which Parry had sailed in his voyages, some interesting results were arrived at. "It appears," says Franklin, "that for the same months, at the interval of only one year, Captain Parry and myself were making hourly observations on two needles, the north ends of which pointed almost directly towards each other, though our actual distance did not exceed eight hundred and fifty-five geographical miles; and while the needle of Port Bowen was increasing its westerly direction, ours was increasing its easterly, and the contrary -the variation being west at Port Bowen, and east at Fort Franklin a beautiful and satisfactory proof of the solar influence on the daily variation."

In addition to magnetism, observations of the aurora borealis were also recorded, and the fact established that no disturbance of the needle (in that locality, at least) takes place during the play of the phenomenon. A course of lectures, too, on practical geology, was delivered by Richardson an eminently useful subject in a new district. And, as an instance of what a love for science may accomplish, when animated by a persevering and self-reliant spirit, we must not omit to mention Mr. Drummond, one of the party, who passed the winter alone at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, in a

small hut erected by himself, where he collected fifteen hundred specimens of plants, and two hundred birds and quadrupeds, besides insects. These, though points of minor interest, when compared with the grand objects of the expeditions, serve, nevertheless to connect the individuals whose names they distinguish, by many links of sympathy and esteem, with unobtrusive thousands who can admire where they cannot imitate.

MUSK OX.

WHILE Parry, under the auspices of the British government, was engaged in his second attempt to effect the north-west passage, a private adventurer, Mr. Scoresby, was making a voyage towards the north pole, which must not be passed without notice. As early as 1806, this gentleman, who was bred a practical whaleman, had, in the pursuit of his calling, penetrated to latitude 81° 30′, being a degree higher than Phipps had attained, and only five hundred geographical miles from the pole. In 1817 he also made an excursion on Jan Mayen's Island. He had, on both occasions, made observations and explorations with an intelligent and scientific eye, very unusual among those who pursue a calling so rough and dangerous as whaling.

At Mitre Cape he ascended to the summit of the singular cliff of which it consists, and which is estimated to be three thousand feet above the level of the ocean. The view is described as sublime: on the east were two finely-sheltered bays; the sea formed an immense. unruffled expanse to the west, the icebergs rearing their fantastic forms, glittering in the sunshine; the valleys

were enamelled with beds of snow and ice, and in the interior mountains rose beyond mountains, till they melted in the distant horizon. The beach of this cape

sought to defend them against the predatory tribes. which hovered round.

But the most important discoveries made by Scoresby were in 1822, when he sailed in the ship Baffin, of three hundred and twenty-one tons, and fifty men, for the whale fishery. In search of a better fishing-ground, he was led to the eastern coast of Greenland-a tract absolutely unknown, unless at a few points which the Dutch had approached; and it formed a continuous line with the shore on which the colonies of old Greenland, the subject of much controversy, were supposed to have been situated.

On the 8th of June, in 74° 6′ north latitude, the coast was discovered, extending from north to south about ninety miles; and of which the most northerly point was concluded to be that named on the charts Gale Hamkes's Land, while the most southerly appeared to be Hudson's Hold-with-Hope. Scoresby's ambition, however, to mount some of its crags, which no European