extended field of operation than in the channels around the North Pole. To restrain this energy and spirit of adventure within prudent limits is impossible. It will find scope for hazard in some quarter, whether it be in ascending Mont Blanc, penetrating the unknown rivers of Africa, Asia, or America, or exploring the interior of Australia. There are some restless spirits that shine out brightest in danger and daring, and the result of much of this research in distant quarters has certainly been beneficial. Many men have attained to distinguished eminence by their courage, perseverance, and enterprise in accomplishing journeys and voyages of great peril, and attended with immense difficulties. None can read the accounts of the various journeys and voyages by land and sea to determine the question of a North West Passage, and the fate of the expedition under Sir John Franklin, without being impressed with admiration for the spirit of heroism which sustained the explorers through so many perils and privations.
In the following pages I have sought merely to furnish a simple digest of the different voyages and travels in the Arctic Regions, ending with that final but satisfactory expedition of Capt. M'Clintock, which informed us of the fate of Sir John Franklin and his ships, an inquiry that had previously baffled all investigation.
That this little work has reached a ninth edition, and met with so large and extended a sale, is to be attributed more to the general, nay universal, interest which has been felt on the subject itself, than to any credit I can assume for the narrative. Long, however, may the story of Arctic discovery be read and pondered over, whether at the fireside of our quiet English homes, at the mess table of our sailors and soldiers, in the shepherd's hut of Australia, or in the log cabin of America; wherever it may be that England's sons read over the detailed record of those bold deeds and adventurous discoverers, they will participate in the noble spirit of those who have lived and died in their country's service, and have just reason to be proud that they too are Englishmen, and participators in the glory, honour, and renown which have been thus achieved by many through great peril and suffering for the "land that bears a world-wide name."