Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/338

POLAR REGIONS ton Channel to Northumberland Bay, where he wintered, passing a second winter lower down in Wellington Channel, and then abandoning his ships and coining home in 1854. But Sherard Osborn and Commander Richards did good work. They made sledge journeys to Melville Island, and thus discovered the northern side of the Parry group. Captain Kellett received command of the "Resolute," with M Clintock in the steam tender "Intrepid." Among Kellett s officers were the best of Austin s sledge travellers, M Clintock, Mecham, and Yesey Hamilton, so that good work was sure to be done. George Nares, the future leader of the expedition of 1874-75, was also on board the " Resolute." Kellett passed onwards to the westward and passed the winter of 1852-53 at Melville Island. During the autumn Mecham discovered M Clure s record, and the position of the "Investigator" was thus ascertained. The safety of her crew was consequently assured, for it was only necessary to send a message across the strait between two fixed positions. This service was performed by Lieutenant Pirn early in the following spring. The officers and crew of the "Investigator," led by M Clure, arrived safely on board the "Resolute" on June 17, 1853, and they reached England in the following year. They not only discovered but traversed a north-west passage, though not in the same ship, and partly by travelling over ice. For this great feat M Clure received the honour of knighthood, a reward of 10,000 being granted to him self, the other officers, and the crew, by a vote of the House of Commons. The travelling parties of Kellett s expedition, led by . M Clintock, Mecham, and Vesey Hamilton, completed the discovery of the northern and western sides of Melville Island, and the whole outline of the large Island of Prince Patrick, still further to the westward. M Clintock was away from the ship with his sledge party for one hundred and five days and travelled over 1328 miles. Mecham was away ninety-four days and travelled over 1163 miles. Sherard Osborn, in 1853, was away ninety-seven days and travelled over 935 miles. The "Resolute" was obliged to winter in the pack in 1853-54, and in the spring of 1854 Mecham made a most remarkable journey in the hope of obtaining news of Captain Collinson at the Princess Pioyal Islands. Leaving the ship on 3d April he was absent seventy days, out of which there were sixty-one and a half days of travelling. The distance gone over was 1336 statute miles. The average rate of the homeward journey was 23^ miles a day, the average time of travelling each day nine hours twenty -five minutes. This journey is without a parallel in arctic records. Fearing detention for another winter, Sir Edward Belcher ordered all the ships to be abandoned in the ice, the officers and crews being taken home in the " North Star," and in the "Phoenix" and "Talbot" which had come out from England to communicate. They reached . home in October 1854. In 1852 Captain Inglefield, R.N., had made a voyage up Baffin s Bay in the "Isabel" as far as the entrance of Smith Sound. In 1853 and 1854 he came out in the "Phrenix" to communicate with the "North Star" at Beechey Island. The drift of the " Resolute " was a remarkable proof of the direction of the current out of Barrow Strait. She was abandoned in 74 41 N. and 101" 11 W. on May 14, 1854. On September 10, 1855, an American whaler sighted the "Resolute" in 67 N. lat. about twenty miles from Cape Mercy, in Davis Strait. She was brought into an American port, and eventually presented to the British Government. She had drifted nearly a thousand miles. In 1853 Dr Rae was employed to connect a few points which would quite complete the examination of the coast of America, and establish the insularity of King William Land. He went up Chesterfield Inlet and the river Relics Quoich for a considerable distance, wintering with eight ot ,^ ra men at Repulse Bay in a snow house. Venison and fish ex JLv were abundant. In 1854 he set out on a journey which tion. occupied fifty-six days in April and May. He succeeded in connecting the discoveries of Simpson with those of James Ross, and thus established the fact that King William Land was an island. Rae also brought home tidings and relics of Franklin s expedition gathered from the Eskimo ; and this led to the expedition of M Clintock in the " Fox," already described in the article FRANKLIN (vol. ix. p. 721-22). While M Clintock was prosecuting his exhaustive search over part of the west coast of Boothia, the whole of the shores of King William Island, the mouth of the Great Fish River, and Montreal Island, Allen Young completed the discovery of the southern side of Prince of Wales Island. The "Fox" returned to England in the autumn of 1S59. The catastrophe of Sir John Franklin s expedition led "Work to 7000 miles of coast-line being discovered, and to a vast tlie b ^f extent of unknown country being explored, securing very j^J. considerable additions to geographical knowledge. Much attention was also given to the collection of information, and the scientific results of the various search expeditions were considerable. The catastrophe also afforded a warn ing which would render any similar disaster quite inexcus able. If arrangements are always carefully made for a retreat beforehand, if a depot ship is always left within reach of the advancing expedition as well as of the outer world, and if there is annual communication, with positive rules for depositing records, no such catastrophe can ever happen again. The American nation was first led to take an interest in Grinne polar research through a very noble and generous feeling ^P 6 ^ of sympathy for Franklin and his brave companions. Mr Grinnell of New York gave practical expression to this feeling. In 1850 he equipped two vessels, the "Advance :> and "Rescue," to aid in the search, commanded by Lieutenants De Haven and Griffith, and accompanied by Dr Kane. They reached Beechey Island on August 27, 1850, and assisted in the examination of Franklin s winter- quarters, but returned without wintering. In 1853 Dr Kane, in the little brig "Advance" of 120 tons, undertook Kane. to lead an American expedition up Smith Sound, the most northern outlet from Baffin s Bay. The " Advance " reached Smith Sound on the 7th August 1853, but was stopped by ice in 78 D 45 N. only 17 miles from the entrance. He described the coast as consisting of pre cipitous cliffs 800 to 1200 feet high, and at their base there was a belt of ice about 18 feet thick, resting on the beach. Dr Kane adopted the Danish name of " ice-foot " (is foci] for this permanent frozen ridge. He named the place of his winter-quarters Yan Rensselaer Harbour. In the spring some interesting work was done. A great glacier was discovered and named the Humboldt glacier, with a sea face 45 miles long. Dr Kane s steward, Morton, crossed the foot of this glacier with a team of dogs, and reached a point of land beyond named Cape Constitution. But sickness and want of means prevented much from being done by travelling parties. Scurvy attacked the whole party during the second winter, although the Eskimo supplied them with fresh meat and were true friends in need. On May 17, 1855, Dr Kane abandoned the brig, and reached the Danish settlement of Upernivik on Gth August. Lieu tenant Hartstene, who was sent out to search for Kane, reached Van Rensselaer Harbour after he had gone, but took the retreating crew on board on his return voyage. On July 10, 18GO, Dr Hayes, who had served with Haye;- Kane, sailed from Boston for Smith Sound, in the sehooner

"United States" of 130 tons and a crew of fifteen men.