whole coast-line is one continued series of rocky islets, with channels between them mostly choked with ice, the sea beyond them also covered with ice, in the shape of floes and hummocks; reefs of rocks parallel with the beach, their intermediate channels shallow, and in many places not navigable even by boats; the weather foggy and stormy, with violent gales of wind, so that Franklin says, after dragging his boats 374 miles to the westward of Mackenzie's River, "in all that space not a harbour exists in which a ship could find shelter." Dr. Richardson notices but one spot in the course of 800 miles the strait of the Dolphin and Union-in which there is water for large vessels; but, he says, "the navigation of it would be dangerous to ships, from the many sunken rocks which we observed near the southern shore."

Dease and Simpson held out no encouragement for ship navigation near to the coast, and they found the western portion of it beyond the point to which Franklin advanced, rocky, shallow, and muddy on and near the beach, and the sea generally loaded with heavy ice. Geography and natural history have gained very largely by these expeditions; and to these may be added meteorology in all its aspects, including magnetism and electricity.

CHAPTER XII.

COMMANDER BACK.

1833-34-35.

Journal of a Land Expedition to the Eastern part of the Polar Sea, through North America to the mouth of Back's River.

To those readers, who have made themselves familiar with the extraordinary and painfully interesting adventures of Franklin and Richardson within the Arctic regions of North America, and along the shores of the Polar Sea, the name of Back, the associate and sharer of all their privations and sufferings, must also be familiar. In voluntarily undertaking the present expedition, he was fully aware of what he would probably, nay most certainly, have again to encounter-similar hardships in his progress through the same country. The motive was no less honourable to his heart than the act itself was to his unflinching courage.

Being in Italy, a rumour, he says, reached him from England, that apprehensions were entertained for the safety of the two Ross's, the uncle and nephew, on the hearing of which (with a true chivalrous spirit) he hastened home for the pur

pose of offering his services to Government, for the conduct of an expedition in search of them; and his offer was accepted. He received a letter from Lord Goderich, acquainting him that the Lords of the Admiralty had been pleased to transfer his services to the Colonial Department, to conduct the expedition in question, and he is directed to undertake it; and also to place himself at the disposition of the Governors and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company, who would be desired to furnish him with the requisite resources and supplies.

A medical person being required to take care of the health of the party, Mr. Richard King, in the first instance, volunteered his services, and was subsequently engaged, at a salary, as surgeon and naturalist to the expedition. Three men only (two of whom were a carpenter and a shipwright) were taken from England. These five persons left on the 17th of February, 1833, for Liverpool, to proceed from thence in the packet to New York; thence to Albany and Montreal. As the route usually followed by the Company's servants to the Great Slave Lake is the same as that of Sir A. Mackenzie, Commander Back observes that a detail of his progress so far seems to be unnecessary, that being the point from which, he adds, the discovery properly begins.

He had, however, a long journey before him

from Norway House, where preparations of men and boats and sledges were made under the direction of Governor Simpson, to Slave Lake; and it would be unjust to slur over altogether a fatiguing journey, through one of the most dangerous and detestable countries on the face of the earth-the numerous sufferings from cold and famine, and other hardships of various descriptions-which he knew from former experience he would have to encounter, and all of which he bore with a degree of cheerfulness and good humour peculiar to himself. Guided by the noble example of his former colleagues, Franklin and Richardson, he never shrunk from difficulties, never murmured, never desponded. Like a true British seaman, the greater the danger the more firmly he stuck to the bark, determined to hold on, sink or swim. The praiseworthy object alone which he had in view took full possession of his mind; and when he found at Norway House that no less than twenty men, composed of steersmen, carpenters, artillerymen, &c., had been already collected to accompany him, he gives vent to this generous burst of exultation :

"This was a happy day for me; and as the canoe pushed off from the bank, my heart swelled with hope and joy. Now, for the first time, I saw myself in a condition to verify the kind anticipations of my friends. The preliminary difficulties had been overcome; I was fairly on the way to the accomplishment of the benevolent errand on which I had been commissioned; and the contemplation of an object so

worthy of all exertion, in which I thought myself at length free to indulge, raised my spirits to more than an ordinary pitch of excitement."-pp. 57, 58.

The only disappointment he felt, but at the same time one that amused him, was the loss of two Canadians, former acquaintances, who presented themselves almost breathless with haste, as candidates for the service, were accepted, and their agreements directed to be made out. Their wives, however, took different but equally effectual methods to prevent their completion, and to keep their hus

bands at home :

"The one, a good strapping dame, cuffed her husband's ears with such dexterity and good will, that he was fain to cry peccavi, and seek shelter in a friendly tent; the other, an interesting girl of seventeen, burst into tears, and with piteous sobs clung to the husband of her love, as if she would hold him prisoner in her arms. I had, therefore, to look elsewhere."—p. 55.

He describes the odd assemblage of articles that were huddled together in his tent; "nor was my crew," he says, "less motley than the furniture. It consisted of an Englishman, a man from Stornoway, two Canadians, two métifs, and three Iroquois Indians. Babel itself could not have produced a worse confusion of unharmonious sounds than was the conversation they kept up."

A whole fleet of Indian canoes was met with, whose chief, an intelligent-looking old man, named by the traders "Le Camarade de Mandeville,"