A committee of the House of Commons took up the case of Captain Ross early in the session of 1834, and on their recommendation 5,000l. was granted him as a remuneration for his pecuniary outlay and privations. A baronetcy, on the recommendation of the same committee, was also conferred by his Majesty William IV. on Mr. Felix Booth.

In looking back on the results of this voyage, no impartial inquirer can deny to Captain Ross the merit of having effected much good by tracing and surveying the whole of the long western coast of Regent Inlet, proving Boothia to be a peninsula, and setting at rest the probability of any navigable outlet being discovered from this inlet to the Polar Sea. The lakes, rivers and islands which were examined, proved with sufficient accuracy the correctness of the information furnished to Parry by the Esquimaux.

To Commander James Ross is due the credit of resolving many important scientific questions, such as the combination of light with magnetism, fixing the exact position of the magnetic pole. He was also the only person in the expedition competent to make observations in geology, natural history and botany. Out of about 700 miles of new land explored, Commander Ross, in the expeditions which he planned and conducted, discovered nearly 500. He had, up to this time, passed fourteen summers and eight winters in these seas.

The late Sir John Barrow, in his "Narrative of Voyages of Discovery and Research," p. 518, in opposition to Ross's opinion, asserted that Boothia was not joined to the continent, but that they were "completely divided by a navigable strait, ten miles wide and upward, leading past Back's Estuary, and into the Gulf (of Boothia,) of which the proper name is Akkolee, not Boothia; and moreover, that the two seas flow as freely into each other as Lancaster Sound does into the Polar Sea." This assumption has since been shown to be incorrect. Capt. Ross asserts there is a difference in the level of these two seas.

I may here fitly take a review of Captain Ross's ser vices. He entered the navy in 1790, served fifteen years as a midshipman, seven as a lieutenant, and seven as a commander, and was posted on the 7th of December, 1818, and appointed to the command of the first arctic expedition of this century. On his return he received many marks of favor from continental sovereigns, was knighted and made a Companion of the Bath on the 24th of December, 1834; made a Commander of the Sword of Sweden, a Knight of the Second Class of St. Anne of Prussia (in diamonds,) Second Class of the Legion of Honor, and of the Red Eagle of Prussia, and of Leopold of Belgium. Received the royal premium from the Geographical Society of London, in 1833, fo his discoveries in the arctic regions; also gold medal from the Geographical Society of Paris, and the Royal Societies of Sweden, Austria, and Denmark. The freedom of the cities of London, Liverpool, and Bristol; six gold snuff-boxes from Russia, Holland, Denmark Austria, London and Baden; a sword valued at 100 guineas from the Patriotic Fund, for his sufferings, hav ing been wounded thirteen times in three different actions during the war; and one of the value of 2007. from the King of Sweden, for service in the Baltic and the White Sea. On the 8th of March, 1839, he was appointed to the lucrative post of British consul at Stockholm, which he held for six years.

CAPTAIN BACK'S LAND JOURNEY, 1833-35.

FOUR years having elapsed without any tidings being received of Capt. Ross and his crew, it began to be generally feared in England that they had been added to the number of former sufferers, in the prosecution of their arduous undertaking.

Dr. Richardson, who had himself undergone such frightful perils in the arctic regions with Franklin, was the first to call public attention to the subject, in a letter to the Geographical Society, in which he suggested a project for relieving them, if still alive and to be found;

and at the same time volunteered his services to the Colonial Secretary of the day, to conduct an exploring party.

Although the expedition of Capt. Ross was not undertaken under the auspices of government, it became a national concern to ascertain the ultimate fate of it, and to make some effort for the relief of the party, whose home at that time might be the boisterous sea, or whose shelter the snow hut or the floating iceberg. Dr. Richardson proposed to proceed from Hudson's Bay, in a northwest direction to Coronation Gulf, where he was to commence his search in an easterly direction. Passing to the north, along the eastern side of this gulf, he would arrive at Point Turnagain, the eastern point of his own former discovery. Having accomplished this, he would continue his search toward the eastward until he reached Melville Island, thus perfecting geographical discovery in that quarter, and a continued coast line might be laid down from the Fury and Hecla Strait to Beechey Point, leaving only the small space between Franklin's discovery and that of the Blossom unexplored. The proposal was favorably received; but owing to the political state of the country at the time, the offer was not accepted.

A meeting was held in November, 1832, at the rooms of the Horticultural Society, in Regent street, to obtain funds, and arrange for fitting out a private relief expedition, as the Admiralty and Government were unable to do this officially, in consequence of Captain Ross's expedition not being a public one. Sir George Cockburn took the chair, and justly observed that those officers who devoted their time to the service of science, and braved in its pursuit the dangers of unknown and ungenial climates, demanded the sympathy and assistance of all. Great Britain had taken the lead in geographical discovery, and there was not one in this country who did not feel pride and honor in the fame she had attained by the expeditions of Parry and Franklin ; but if we wished to create future Parrys and Franklins, if we wished to encourage British enterprise and cour

age, we must prove that the officer who is out of sight of his countrymen is not forgotten; that there is consideration for his sufferings, and appreciation of his spirit. This reflection will cheer him in the hour of trial, and will permit him, when surrounded by dangers and privations, to indulge in hope, the greatest blessing of man. Captain George Back, R. N., who was in Italy when the subject was first mooted, hastened to England, and offered to lead the party, and his services were accepted. A subscription was entered into, to defray the necessary expenses, and upward of 60007. was raised; of this sum, at the recommendation of Lord Goderich, the then Secretary of State, the Treasury contributed 20007.

After an interview with the king at Brighton, to which he was specially summoned, Captain Back made preparations for his journey, and laid down his plan of operations. In order to facilitate his views, and give him greater authority over his men, special instructions and authority were issued by the Colonial Office, and the Hudson's Bay Company granted him a commission in their service, and placed every assistance at his disposal throughout their territory in North America.

Every thing being definitely arranged, Capt. Back, accompanied by Dr. Richard King as surgeon and natu ralist, with three men who had been on the expedition with Franklin, left Liverpool on the 17th of February, 1833, in one of the New York packet ships, and arrived in America after a stormy passage of thirty-five days. He proceeded on to Montreal, where he had great difficulty in preventing two of the men from leaving him, as their hearts began to fail them at the prospect of the severe journey with its attendant difficulties, which they had to encounter.

Four volunteers from the Royal Artillery corps here joined him, and some voyageurs having been engaged, the party left, in two canoes, on the 25th of April. Two of his party deserted from him in the Ottawa river.

On the 28th of June, having obtained his complement of men, he may be said to have commenced his

journey. They suffered dreadfully from myriads of sand-flies and musquitoes, being so disfigured by their attacks that their features could scarcely be recognized. Horse-flies, appropriately styled "bull-dogs," were another dreadful pest, which pertinaciously gorged themselves, like the leech, until they seemed ready to burst. "It is in vain to attempt to defend yourself against these puny bloodsuckers; though you crush thousands of them, tens of thousands arise to avenge the death of their companions, and you very soon discover that the conflict which you are waging is one in which you are sure to be defeated. So great at last are the pains and fatigue in buffeting away this attacking force, that in despair you throw yourself, half suffocated, in a blanket, with your face upon the ground, and snatch a few minutes of sleepless rest." Capt. Back adds that the vigorous and unintermitting assaults of these tormenting pests conveyed the moral lesson of man's helplessness, since, with all our boasted strength, we are unable to repel these feeble atoms of creation. "How," he says, "can I possibly give an idea of the torment we endured from the sand-flies? As we divided into the confined and suffocating chasms, or waded through the close swamps, they rose in clouds, actually darkening the air; to see or to speak was equally difficult, for they rushed at every undefended part, and fixed their poisonous fangs in an instant. Our faces streamed with blood, as if leeches had been applied, and there was a burning and irritating pain, followed by immediate inflammation, and producing giddiness, which almost drove us mad, and caused us to moan with pain and agony.

At the Pine portage, Captain Back engaged the services of A. R. McLeod, in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, and who had been fixed upon by Governor Simpson, to aid the expedition. He was accompanied by his wife, three children, and a servant; and had just returned from the Mackenzie River, with a large cargo of furs. The whole family were attached to the party, and after some detentions of a general and unimportant character they arrived at