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Australian Colonies is not to be advocated. | The outlay incurred during the early operations in New Zealand may aim to be regarded as a contingency, beyond the ordinary estimates of expenditure; but leaving these aside, we may instance some of the current and ordinary items which have fallen under our notice. For the relief of the garrison of Norfolk Island, and the conveyance of the relieved detatchment to New Zealand, involving a service of two months, two small trading schooners, very ill-calculated for the purpose, were chartered at £1300 for the trip-for freight only. Contrast this with the contract price for conveying troops from London to the East Indies, which may be taken at £9 10s. per head, including both freight and victualling for a four months' voyage. Again, a merchant vessel is chartered for two trips, to carry convicts between Norfolk Island and Tasman's Peninsula at £800 for each trip, an engagement which might occupy altogether about twelve weeks. In another instance, a vessel is taken up to transport troops between different

stations in this command, and eventually to proceed to India, at the rate of £1200 per month. Without reference to the rate, the system of hiring vessels by the month is manifestly expensive and objectionable, as offering a premi um upon dilatoriness.

It may be observed here, that when moving troops across Van Dieman's Land, as between Hobart Town and Launceston, the northern capital, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles, the intermediate stages are mere villages of such limited capacity for billeting soldiers, that a detachment of fifty men is marched on two or three divisions on successive days. Thus large bodies are sent by water, and tonnage must be provided at rates of which we have already furnished a sample. It would be scrupulous to dilate further upon the insufficiency of the Colonial Marine, or on the advantage of placing suitable steam power at the disposal of the local government. vessels only are wanted; fuel can be abundantly supplied by the Colony.-United Service Magazine.

The

THE ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS.

Of the numerous exploring expeditions which have left the British shores, from the days of Cook to the present time, few, if any, have excited so much interest as that now shrouded from our view by the icy curtain which clings for the greater part of the year around the North Pole.

Behind that curtain, Sir John Franklin, and the gallant party under his command, disappeared on the 26th July, 1845; since which period no authentic intelligence of them has been received, nor indeed any account at all beyond the rumors of boats, filled with white people, having been seen by Esquimaux in the summer of 1846, to the east of the mouth of the Mackenzie river.

Availing ourselves of the official documents relating to the Arctic expeditions, which have recently been published by the Admiralty, and of information derived from authentic sources, we purpose in this article to notice in the first instance the expedition under Sir John Franklin, and secondly, those lately despatched to his relief, with the view of bringing succintly and clearly before our readers the machinery, if we may so express ourselves, now at work in the Polar seas, for the purpose of exploring and making discoveries.

The existence of a North-West Passage has been a favorite dream for centuries. The hope of discovering a shorter passage to India the original pursuit of Columbus himself. may be regarded as the first incitement to the attempts to navigate westward of the north of America; and we find sovereigns and merchants, time after time, bestowing their patronage and money on attempts to pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In 1585, the merchants of London being, they say, "satisfyed of the likelyhood of the discoverie of the North-west Passage," sent out an expedi tion with this object in view; and, although the ships returned unsuccessful, other expeditions followed in rapid succession.

It would be impossible to find a stronger example of the undaunted courage, moral as well as physical, which animates British seamen, than is presented to us by these Polar expeditions. Here, indeed, is one of their chief glories; for it is evident that the fearful rigors of winters spent in the regions of thickribbed ice, are unable to quench that intellectual fire which has animated, from the first, the leaders and participators in our Arctic and Antarctic voyages.

In December, 1844, Sir John Barrow,

then one of the secretaries to the Admiral

ty, submitted a proposition to the council of the Royal Society, for the discovery of the North-west Passage, in which he strongly urged the equipment of an expedition which should endeavor to pass from Melville Island to Behring's Strait, a distance of about nine hundred miles, keeping midway between the supposed Bank's Land and the coast of America. Sir John Barrow conceived that, although Parry saw from Melville Island something that looked like the looming of land to the southward, which is marked on the Polar chart as Bank's Land, yet, even were it so, it would not in any way interfere with the direct track between Behring's Strait and Cape Walker (the last land on the south of Barrow's strait, which leads to Melville Island); and the ground on which he assumed that in this track no land intervenes, is, that the whole north coast of America has been traversed by various persons by land, and in boats by water; that nothing like land could be discovered from the high coast between the meridians of Cape Walker and Behring's Strait;

and that little or no ice was observable.

Sir John Barrow adds:

"The Utilitarians were at all times ready enough to ask, Qui bono? but Elizabeth and her ministers, with their enlightened minds, sought for knowledge,' the result of which they needed not to be told was power.' Observe what followed; the knowledge gained by the Arctic voyagers was not thrown away. Sir Humphry Gilbert, by his grant of the Island of Newfoundland, made his voyage thither, in which he nobly perished, but his knowledge did not perish with him; on the contrary, it laid the foundation of the valuable cod-fishery, which still exists. Davis, by the discovery of the strait that bears his name, opened the way to the whale-fishery, still carried on; and Frobisher pointed out the strait which conducted Hudson to the bay that bears his name, and which gave rise to the establishment of a company of merchants under the name of the Hudson's Bay Company, whose concerns are of that extensive nature as to be carried on across the whole continent of America, and to the very shores of the Polar Sea.

"Lastly, the discovery of Baffin, which pointed out, among others, the great opening of Lancaster Sound on the eastern coast of that bay which bears his name, has in our time been found to lead into the Polar Sea, through which the North-west Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific will one day be accomplished, and for the execution of which we

are now contending; and which, if left to be performed by some other power, England, by her neglect of it, after having opened the east and west doors, would be laughed at by all the world for having hesitated to pass the thresholds.

"It should not be overlooked that there are in the Pacific, at this moment, two fleets of the only two naval powers likely to undertake the enterprise in question; it is extremely probable some of their ships will make trial of this nearest passage home when they leave the Pacific station.

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If expense be the only objection, it may be met by observing that one season only would suffice for its decision, and the cost not more than one-third of that of the late Antarctic expedition under Sir James Ross, while one of the objects would be precisely the same as that of the other, namely, obser vations on terrestrial magnetism, — considered of such importance, that magnetic observatories have been established, through the infuence of England, in almost every other part of the globe.'

Sir John Barrow further stated, that the ships Erebus and Terror, which had recently returned from the Antarctic expedition under Sir James Ross, were in such good order as to be ready to be made available for immedi ate employment in the Arctic seas, and that there was no want of officers well used to the ice, who were ready and willing to embark on an expedition for completing the North-west Passage.

It was understood that Sir John Barrow's proposition had been approved by Lord Haddington, then First Lord of the Admiralty, and the other lords commissioners; and the reader will be prepared to hear that the council of the Royal Society gave their support to the proposed expedition, not only as likely to increase geographical knowledge, but as a help to the progress of the science of terrestrial magnetism, which they have for many years been most zealous in advancing.

Accordingly, Government resolved on making one more attempt to solve the problem of a North-west Passage; and in the early part of 1845 it became known that the intrepid, and we may add, veteran Sir John Franklin, who had but recently returned from an ardu ous and anxious service at the Antipodes, as Governor of Van Diemen's Land, had been nominated by the Admiralty to command an expedition for the above object. Little time elapsed before the ships were ready for sailing. They were the Erebus and the Terror, commanded, officered, and manned as follows:

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The fitting up of the above vessels differed in one respect from that of all ships previously sent out on Arctic expeditions. This consisted in their being furnished with a small steamengine and archimedian screw. But in the experimental trip made by the Erebus, to test the power of the screw, the utmost speed which could be attained scarcely amounted to three knots an hour, although every means, as we ourselves can attest, were taken to increase this rate. The ships were supplied with fuel for twelve days—a quantity manifestly insufficient for their probable wants, but still as much as they could afford to stow away, having to carry provisions for three years. When the small speed producible by the steam-power is considered, coupled with the great inconvenience likely to result from the most valuable part of the ship being occupied by the boiler and machinery, not to mention the great probability of the screw being nipped by the ice, we shall be quite prepared to hear that this part of the equipment has turned out a failure, and that the steam machinery has been thrown overboard, as happened in the case of the Vic

very

tory, commanded by Sir John Ross, in his expedition undertaken in 1818.

It is scarcely necessary to state, that the ships were provided with the most improved magnetical and meteorological instruments, and with everything which the experience of repeated Arctic expeditions could suggest.

On the 26th May, 1845, the expedition departed.

We shall now give a résumé of Sir John Franklin's official instructions.

They set forth, in the first instance, the expediency of making another attempt for the accomplishment of a North-west Passage, and then direct Sir John Franklin to proceed with the greatest possible despatch to Davis' Strait, taking the transport as far up that Strait as he can, without allowing her to be beset by ice, or exposed to any violent contact with it. The transport is then to be cleared of the provisions and stores with which she is charged for the use of the expedition, and to be sent back to England. Sir John Franklin is next ordered to proceed into Baffin's Bay, and to enter Lancaster Sound with as little delay as possible.

Lancaster Sound, and its continuation through Barrow's Strait, having been four times navigated without any impediment by Sir Edward Parry, and since frequently by whaling ships, will probably be found without any impediment from ice or island; and Sir Edward Parry having also proceeded from the latter in a straight course to Melville Island, and returned without experiencing any, or very little, difficulty, it is hoped that the remaining portion of the passage, about nine hundred miles, to Behring's Strait, may also be found equally free from obstruction; and in proceeding to the westward, therefore, you will not stop to examine any openings either to the northward or southward in that Strait, but continue to push to the westward without loss of time, in the latitude of about 74°1-4, till you have reached the longitude of that portion of land on which Cape Walker is situated, or about 98° west. From that point we desire that every effort be used to endeavor to penetrate to the southward and westward, in a course as direct towards Behring's Strait as the position and extent of the ice, or the existence of land, at present unknown, may admit.

We direct you to this particular part of the Polar Sea as affording the best prospect of accomplishing the passage to the Pacific, in consequence of the unusual magnitude and apparently fixed state of the barrier of ice observed by the Hecla and Griper, in the year 1820, off Cape Dundas, the south-western extremity of Melville Island; and we, therefore, consider that loss of time would be incurred in renewing the

attempt in that direction: but should your progress in the direction before ordered be arrested by ice of a permanent appearance, and that, when passing the mouth of the Strait between Devon and Cornwallis Islands, had you observed that it was open and clear of ice; we desire that you will duly consider, with reference to the time already consumed, as well as to the symptoms of a late or early close of the season, whether that channel might not offer a more practicable outlet from the Archipelago, and a more ready access to the open sea, where there would be neither islands nor banks to

arrest and fix the floating masses of ice. And if you should have advanced too far to the south-westward to render it expedient to adopt this new course before the end of the present season, and if, therefore, you should have determined to winter in that neighborhood, it will be a matter for your mature deliberation whether in the ensuing season you would proceed by the above-mentioned Strait, or whether you would persevere to the south-westward, according to the former directions.

In case of Sir John Franklin being so fortunate as to make the passage, he is ordered to proceed to the Sandwich Islands, to refit the ships and refresh the crews; and, should opportunity offer, an officer is to be sent with despatches to England by Panama: but in the event of no such opportunity offering during his stay at the Sandwich Islands, he is, on quitting them, to proceed with the two ships to Panama, there to land an officer with despatch es for England; after which, no time is to be lost in returning to England by way of Cape

Horn.

Considerable discretionary power is, how ever, given, as will be seen by the following extract from the instructions :

"In an undertaking of this description, much must always be left to the discretion of the commanding-officer; and as the objects of this expedition have been fully explained to you, and you have already had much experience on service of this nature, we are convinced we cannot do better than leave it to your judg ment, in the event of your not making a passage this season, either to winter on the coast, with the view of following up next season any hopes or expectations which your observations this year may lead you to entertain, or to return to England to report to us the result of such observations, always recollecting our anxiety for the health, comfort, and safety of yourself, your officers, and men; and you will duly weigh how far the advantage of starting next season from an advanced position may be counterbalanced by what may be suffered dur

ing the winter, and by the want of such refreshment and refitting as would be afforded by your return to England.

Although effecting a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific is distinctly stated to be the main object of the expedition, yet, ascertaining the true geographical position of capes, coasts, &c., the set of the currents in the Arctic seas, and the collection of specimens in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, are specified as objects of high interest and importance.

For the purpose of ascertaining the set of the currents, as well as of affording more frequent chances of hearing of the progress of the expedition, Sir John Franklin is directed after passing the latitude of 65° north, to― once every day, when in an ascertained current throw overboard a bottle or copper cylinder, closely sealed, containing a paper stating the for this purpose each ship was supplied with date and position at which it is launched; and i papers, on which was printed in several languages a request that, whoever should find it, would take measures for transmitting it to the Admiralty.

In the case of an irreparable accident hap pening to either of the two ships, the officers and crew of the disabled ship are to be removed into the other; and with her, singly, Sir John Franklin is authorized to proceed in prosecution of the voyage. In case of any fatal accident happening to the latter, the command is given to Captain Crozier, who is to act upon the instructions to the best of his ability.

It will be seen by the foregoing, that great latitude is given to Sir John Franklin, both as to the means he may employ to accomplish the great object of the expedition, and the time which he may devote to the task. It is well known by his relatives and friends, who conversed with him on the subject immediately before he sailed, that he did not calculate that the passage could be affected in one season. lands, under the date of July 9, 1845, he Writing to Col. Sabine from Whalefish Is

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be over anxious if we should not return by the I hope my dear wife and daughter will not time they have fixed upon; and I must beg of you to give them the benefit of your advice and experience when that arrives, for you well, that even after the second winter, without success in our object, we should wish to try sions and the health of the crews justify it." some other channel if the state of our provi

As we have stated, the last accounts received of the expedition bore the date of July 26, 1845, when Captain Dannett, of the Prince

of Wales whaler, fell in with the discovery ships | procure no information respecting Sir John in Melville Bay, in 74° 48′ N. lat. and 66° 13′ | Franklin, who, I think, must have attained a W. long. A boat, with seven officers, boarded very high longitude. The Saint Andrew left the whaler; and Captain Dannett was to have Cumberland Strait, off Baffin, on the 15th of dined on board Sir John Franklin's ship the October, where we had been at anchor for six following day, but the wind favoring him he weeks. No other ships attained a higher longisailed during the night, and was, therefore, tude this season in Sound. unable to be the bearer of letters which would Yours. &c. otherwise have been sent by him. Captain Dannett states that the officers whom he saw, but of whose names (with the exception of Cap. tain Fitzjames) he is ignorant, were all well and in high spirits. He represents the ice as being at the time very heavy, but loose; the officers, he adds, expressed good hopes of soon completing the expedition.

(Signed) John Barrow, Esq.

WM. PENNY."

above letter speaks of a quantity of ice as havIt is worthy of notice that, although the ing come out of Barrow's Strait during the previous season, there was no trace or any vestige of the expedition, which might be expected when we are told of a current setting No intelligence whatever was gleaned of the from the west, and remember that Sir John Erebus and Terror during the summer of 1846. Franklin's instructions were to throw a bottle That summer is reported by the whale-ships to or copper cylinder, containing a paper stating have been unusually severe. The thermome- his position, overboard daily after passing the ter was above freezing-point only twenty days, latitude of 65° north. A striking instance of and the north ice remained unbroken. None the direction of the current to the south and of the whalers appear to have approached Lan-east from Barrow's Strait has been recently afcaster Sound during this season.

The summer of 1847 was equally barren of information, although, as will be seen by the annexed letter from the captain of a whaler, a much higher latitude was reached than during the previous year:

86

64

Aberdeen, 17th November, 1847. Sir, in answer to your questions I respectfully beg to state, the Saint Andrew crossed Baffin's Bay from Cape York in lat. 76°, long. 67°, to Pond's Bay, our usual fishing ground, in lat. 72° 45', long. 76°, July 23d. The whales having disappeared, I determined to proceed to Lancaster Sound, both with a view to the capture of whales and in search of her majesty's ships. I contended for a week against an adverse wind and a strong swell down the Sound: we attained no higher longitude than 78°, August 5th; no appearance of ice in the Sound, and none but detached streams within 100 miles of it to the

east.

forded us by the Prince of Wales whaler having picked up, on the 2d of October last, in latitude 68° 10' N. and longitude €4° 30' W., from the Investigator on the 28th of August, a cask containing a paper, which was thrown 1848, in latitude 73° 50′ N., and longitude 78° 6' W. This cask was, therefore, diifted 5° 40′ southward, and 14o 3C' eastward.

The captain of the Lady Jane whaler attained the latitude of 76°, and the longitude of 80°. He represents the ice during the whole of the fishing-season in 1847 as bei g unusually thick and heavy, and adds.

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"In places where it has been generally found six feet thick, this year it was ten feet; and this the natives accounted for to me ly the wind having prevailed so much from the south-east all the winter, which pressed the ice upon the west land.

My ship was the only one in Sir James Lancaster's Sound as far as Navy Board Inlet; and in the middle of that Sound there was nothing to be seen to the westward In consequence of a very mild winter, there will be very little ice left in Davis' Strait but a few pieces of small ice. I was most this season; the last two winters were the mild- anxious to obtain some information about her est the Danes have experienced for a great landing on both sides of the Sound; but the majesty's ships, and endeavored to affect a number of years at their settlement of Oper-ice was so heavy and packed on the coast that navick, in lat. 72° 45′ N., long. 56°. The Saint Andrew re-crossed the Strait in lat. 720 travelling was quite impossible." 15', in August; not more than 40 miles of ice, and very light. In lat. 70° N. fell in with very heavy ice, which continued so to lat. 64° 55'; that ice must have come out of Barrow's Strait the previous season.

"Being a little acquainted with the Esquimaux language, I made every inquiry of the various tribes I met at Pond's Bay, but could

So closed the year 1847, and the public began to feel like the king and princes who watched the third disappearance of Schiller's diver; for three years had nearly elapsed without receiving any intelligence of the expedition.

It should be observed, too, that the Hudson's Bay Company, with their usual energy,

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