banks and places for brooding, and it appeared at the time by the declarant to be a most fortunate circumstance that the Erebus and Terror had fallen in with so many birds, and that the state of the weather was so favorable for securing large numbers of them. The declarant has himself had a supply of the same description of birds, which kept fresh and good during three months, at Davis' Strait, and the last were as good as the first of them.

Which declaration, above written, is now made conscientiously, believing the same to be true.

ROBERT MARTIN.

Declared, December, 29th, 1851, before

R. GRATH, Provost of Peterhead.

A SUMMER'S SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, WITH A PASS INTO THE POLAR BASIN, BY COMMANDER E. A. INGLEFIELD, IN THE SCREW STEAMER ISABEL, IN 1852.

The profound interest which the heroism and mysterious fate of Sir John Franklin, have excited in the public mind, occasioned other expeditions to start in pursuit of him, both from England and the United States, the details of whose adventures are in the highest degree entertaining. On the 12th of July, 1852, Commander Inglefield took his departure in the English steamer Isabel, from Fair Island; and sailed forth toward the frozen realms of the north, to which so many other bold adventurers had already been attracted. His crew consisted of seventeen persons, including two ice-masters, a mate, surgeon, engineer, stoker, two carpenters, cook, and eight able seamen, who had been whalers. The two ice-masters, Messrs. Abernethy and Manson, were already well known in "Arctic Cirles," as having been connected with former expeditions, and as having great experience in the perils incident to adventurous travel in that perilous zone. The vessel was provided with fuel and provisions for several years.

On the 30th of July the expedition gained their first distant glimpse of the snowy mountains of Greenland. On the same day the first icebergs sailed majestically past them. Ere midnight the Isabel was completely surrounded by those massive monuments of the northern seas. Already the utmost caution was necessary to prevent a fatal collision between them and the little steamer which slowly and adroitly elbowed her way through their rolling masses. spite of the utmost prudence, the Isabel occasionally struck; instantly she trembled from stem to stern, recoiled for a moment, but then again recovered and advanced upon her way. The advantages of a screwsteamer for the purposes of navigating polar seas filled with floating ice, were already apparent at this

In

early stage of the expedition. The propelling power being placed at the stern of the vessel, and not at the sides, enabled her to worm her way unresisted through very many narrow defiles, which a steamship of ordinary structure, or even a sailing vessel could not have done.

On the 7th of August the expedition reached the neighborhood of Fiskernoes, a Danish settlement; and they were there visited by some Esquimaux in their canoes. Guided by these pilots they entered the harbor on which their village is built. They visited the Danish governor, M. Lazzen, and were kindly entertained by him. A few goats supplied his family with milk, and a very small garden protected from the storms of that climate by artificicial means, afforded them a few vegetables during the summer months. M. Lazzen furnished the vessel with some salmon, codfish, and milk. The residence of the governor in this inhospitable region, consisted of a small house two stories high, built in an antique but substantial manner. A Danish clergyman visits this obscure and remote spot once every two weeks, and preaches to the governor and to the colony of rude Esquimaux over whom he rules.

On the 10th of August the Isabel resumed her journey. She then sailed for the harbor of Lievely, in which the expedition obtained a few supplies of sugar, soap, and plank, which they needed; but they failed to obtain here either dogs or interpreters. On the 15th, they found themselves off Upernavick, a settlement in which they obtained these necessaries. This Greenland village consists of two or three wooden houses for the Danish settlers, and a few mud huts for the Esquimaux. In sailing out from this harbor the steam-engine suddenly stopped, and neither the commander nor the engineer was able to discover the difficulty. They were completely puzzled, until at length it was ascertained that the screw at the stern had caught in a loose cable which floated

in the water, which had become wound around the screw so tightly, and in such a manner, as to eventually impede its revolutions and stop the engine.

After the adjustment of this singular and unusual difficulty, the vessel continued her voyage. On the 17th of August she reached Buchan Islands, passing in her way innumerable icebergs of gigantic size, which reeled and tumbled in the deep, and occasionally split up into many fragments, with a roar more grand and deafening than that of thunder. On this day the vessel lost her main-boom; which in falling on the deck, struck the standard compass and damaged it. In a short time the injuries to both were repaired, and the Isabel held on her hyperborean way.

Having arrived at Wolstenholme Sound, the navigators examined the site of the former winter quarters of the "North Star," and had the melancholy pleasure of inspecting the lonely graves where the remains of several of her crew were laid to repose. Captain Inglefield and his officers and men went on shore with pickaxes and shovels. The place is called North Ornenak; and one Adam Beek, a seamen in one of the former Arctic expeditions, had asserted that here Sir John Franklin had been assailed by the savage and starving natives; that here he and his crew had been massacred; and that here in large cairns they had been buried. The story was an improbable one; but Captain Inglefield determined to examine the spot thoroughly, and test the truth of the report. Several large cairns were indeed here found, composed of heavy rough stones. They were immediately pulled down and their interiors inspected. But nothing was discovered save a large quantity of fish bones and the bones of other animals, which seem to have been deposited there for some future use. In the village itself, composed of a few underground hovels, occupied by half starved Esquimaux, were found a quantity of seal and walrus flesh, intended to supply the wants of nature during the

nine long months of winter, which these wretched beings are compelled each year to endure.

Captain Inglefield determined to continue the thorough examination of the shores of Wolstenholme Sound. He did so, and discovered several islands which were not to be found on any chart. These islands he respectively termed the Three Sister Bees, Manson Isle, and Abernethy Isle. During this portion of the cruise, the voyageurs had not encountered as yet much of the severe extremes of northern cold. It was still mid-summer, and the trim steamer was able in the absence of compact ice, to sail rapidly through known and unknown seas, in opposition both to tide and wind. On the 25th, the Isabel reached the Cary Islands; and from this point began the voyage of Captain Inglefield into untraveled waters, and into regions which had not been explored, at least in a northward direction, by any of his predecessors. At this point, in the summer months, a few wretched Esquimaux manage to support existence; and Captain Inglefield carefully examined their huts to ascertain whether any memento of the expedition of Sir John Franklin might exist among them. No article of European manufacture was found, except a knife-blade stamped B. Wilson, set in an ivory handle, a broken tin canister, and several small pieces of steel, curiously fixed in a piece of bone. A piece of rope was also obtained, having an eye in it; but this was supposed to have drifted ashore from some whaling vessel. No trace of the lost navigators had as yet been seen since the commencement of this expedition.

Captain Inglefield resumed his voyage, and as he rapidly invaded those new seas, through the tireless power of steam, he discovered many new islands, at that period of the year free from their monstrous burdens of ice, to which he gave appropriate names. One he called Northumberland Island, another Herbert Island, and a third, Milne Island. At this point