plan that should possess the charm of novelty to recommend it." A happy idea was, however, hit upon by Commander Hoppner, at whose suggestion a monthly bal masque was held, to the great diversion of both officers and men, to the number of 120. The popular commander entered gayly into their recreations, and thus speaks of these polar masquerades :

"It is impossible that any idea could have proved more happy, or more exactly suited to our situation. Admirably dressed characters of various descriptions readily took their parts, and many of these were supported with a degree of spirit and genuine good humor which would not have disgraced a more refined assembly; while the latter might not have been disgraced by copying the good order, decorum, and inoffensive cheerfulness which our humble masquerades presented. It does especial credit to the dispositions and good sense of our men, that though all the officers entered fully into the spirit of these amusements, which took place once a month alternately on board of each ship, no instance occurred of any thing that could interfere with the regular discipline, or at all weaken the respect of the men toward their superiors. Ours were mas querades without licentiousness carnivals without

excess.

Exploring parties were sent out in several directions. Commander Hoppner and his party went inland, and after a fortnight's fatiguing journey over a mountainous, barren, and desolate country, where precipitous ravines 500 feet deep obstructed their passage, traveled a degree and three-quarters to the latitude of 73° 19′, but saw no appearance of sea from thence.

Lieutenant Sherer, with four men, proceeded to the southward, and made a careful survey of the coast as far as 7219, but had not provisions sufficient to go. round Cape Kater, the southernmost point observed in their former voyage.

Lieutenant J. C. Ross, with a similar party, traveled to the northward, along the coast of the Inlet, and from the hills about Cape York, observed that the sea was

perfectly open and free from ice at the distance of twenty-two miles from the ships.

After an imprisonment of about ten months, by great exertions the ships were got clear from the ice, and on the 20th of July, 1825, upon the separation of the floe across the harbor, towed out to sea. Parry then made for the western shore of the Inlet, being desirous of examining the coast of North Somerset for any channel. that might occur, a probability which later discoveries in that quarter have proved to be without foundation. On the 28th, when well in with the western shore, the Hecla, in spite of every exertion, was beset by floating ice, and after breaking two large ice anchors in endeavoring to heave in shore, was obliged to give up the effort and drift with the ice until the 30th. On the following day, a heavy gale came on, in which the Hecla carried away three hawsers, while the Fury was driven on shore, but was hove off at high water. Both ships were now drifted by the body of the ice down the Inlet, and took the ground, the Fury being so nipped and strained that she leaked a great deal, and four pumps kept constantly at work did not keep her clear of water. They were floated off at high water, but, late on the 2nd of August, the huge masses of ice once more forced the Fury on shore, and the Hecla narrowly escaped. On examining her and getting her off, it was found that she must be hove down and repaired ; a basin was therefore formed for her reception and completed by the 16th, a mile further to the southward, within three icebergs grounded, where there were three or four fathoms of water. Into this basin she was taken on the 18th, and her stores and provisions being removed, she was hove down, but a gale of wind coming on and destroying the masses of ice which sheltered her, it became necessary to re-embark the stores, &c., and once more put to sea; but the unfortunate vessel had hardly got out of her harbor before, on the 21st, she was again driven on shore. After a careful survey and examination, it was found necessary to abandon her Parry's opinion being thus expressed —

"Every endeavor of ours to get her off, or if got off, to float her to any known place of safety, would be at once utterly hopeless in itself, and productive of extreme risk to our remaining ship."

The loss of this ship, and the crowded state of the remaining vessel, made it impossible to think of continuing the voyage for the purposes of discovery.

"The incessant labor, the constant state of anxiety, and the frequent and imminent danger into which the surviving ship was thrown, in the attempts to save her comrade, which were continued for twenty-five days, destroyed every reasonable expectation hitherto cherished of the ultimate accomplishment of this object." Taking advantage of a northerly wind, on the 27th the Hecla stretched across the Inlet for the eastern coast, meeting with little obstruction from the ice, and anchored in Neill's Harbor, a short distance to the southward of their winter quarters, Port Bowen, where the ship was got ready for crossing the Atlantic.

The Hecla put to sea on the 31st of August, and entering Barrow's Strait on the 1st of September, found it perfectly clear of ice. In Lancaster Sound, a very large number of bergs were seen; but they found an open sea in Baffin's Bay, till, on the 7th of September, when in latitude 75° 30', they came to the margin of the ice, and soon entered a clear channel on its eastern side. From thirty to forty large icebergs, not less than 200 feet in height, were sighted.

On the 12th of October, Captain Parry landed at Peterhead, and the Hecla arrived at Sheerness on the 20th. But one man died during this voyage John Page, a seaman of the Fury-who died of scurvy, in Neill's Harbor, on the 29th of August.

This voyage cannot but be considered the most unsuccessful of the three made by Parry, whether as regards the information gleaned on the subject of a northwest passage, or the extension of our store of geographical or scientific knowledge. The shores of this inlet were more naked, barren, and desolate than even Melville Island. With the exception of some hundreds of white

whales, seen sporting about the southernmost part of the Inlet that was visited, few other species of animals

were seen.

66

'We have scarcely," says Parry, "ever visited a coast on which so little of animal life occurs. For days together only one or two seals, a single sea-horse, and now and then a flock of ducks were seen."

He still clings to the accomplishment of the great object of a northwest passage. At page 184 of his official narrative, he says:

"I feel confident that the undertaking, if it be deemed advisable at any future time to pursue it, will one day or other be accomplished; for setting aside the accidents to which, from their very nature, such attempts must be liable, as well as other unfavorable circumstances which human foresight can never guard against, or human power control-I cannot but believe it to be an enterprise well within the reasonable limits of practicability. It may be tried often and fail, for several favorable and fortunate circumstances must be combined for its accomplishment; but I believe, nevertheless, that it will ultimately be accomplished."

"I am much mistaken, indeed," he adds, "if the northwest passage ever becomes the business of a single summer; nay, I believe that nothing but a concurrence of very favorable circumstances is likely ever to make a single winter in the ice sufficient for its accomplishment. But there is no argument against the possibility of final success; for we know that a winter in the ice may be passed not only in safety, but in health and comfort."

Not one winter alone, but two and three have been passed with health and safety in these seas, under a wise and careful commander.

FRANKLIN'S SECOND EXPEDITION, 1825-26.

UNDAUNTED by the hardships and sufferings he had encountered in his previous travels with a noble spirit of ardor and enthusiasm, Captain Franklin determined

to prosecute the chain of his former discoveries from the Coppermine river to the most western point of the Arctic regions. A sea expedition, under the command of Captain Beechey was at the same time sent round Cape Horn to Behring's Straits, to co-operate with Parry and Franklin, so as to furnish provisions to the former, and a conveyance home to the latter.

Captain Franklin's offer was therefore accepted by the government, and leaving Liverpool in February, 1825, he arrived at New York about the middle of March. The officers under his orders were his old and tried companions and fellow sufferers in the former journey Dr. Richardson and Lieutenant Back, with Mr. E. N. Kendal, a mate in the navy, who had been out in the Griper with Capt. Lyon, and Mr. T. Drummond, naturalist. Four boats, specially prepared for the purposes of the expedition, were sent out by the Hudson's Bay Company's ship.

In July, 1825, the party arrived at Fort Chipewyan. It is unnecessary to go over the ground and follow them in their northern journey; suffice it to say, they reached Great Bear Lake in safety, and erected a winter dwelling on its western shore, to which the name of Fort Franklin was given. To Back and Mr. Dease, an officer in the Hudson's Bay Company's service, were intrusted the arrangements for their winter quarters.

From here a small party set out with Franklin down the Mackenzie to examine the state of the Polar Sea. On the 5th of September they got back to their companions, and prepared to pass the long winter of seven or eight months.

On the 28th of June, 1826, the season being sufficiently advanced, and all their preparations completed, the whole party got away in four boats to descend the Mackenzie to the Polar Sea. Where the river branches off into several channels, the party separated on the 3d of July, Captain Franklin and Lieutenant Back, with two boats and fourteen men, having with them the faithful Esquimaux interpreter, Augustus, who had been with them on the former expedition, proceeded to