vii
Great Bear Lake, being at a distance of more than 150 miles from
the coast by the route he was compelled to take, he could not, as in
the parties of our naval expeditions, travel on the ice with capacious
sledges, and was, therefore, obliged to restrict his provisions and
baggage to the smallest possible weight. With a pound of fat daily
for fuel, and without the possibility of carrying a tent, he set out
accompanied by two men only, and trusting solely for shelter to snow
houses he taught his men to build, aecomplished a distance of
1,060 miles in 39 days, or 27 miles per day including stoppages, and
this without the aid of advanced depôts, and dragging a sledge him
self great part of the way. The spring journey, and that which
followed in the summer in boats, during which 1,700 miles were
traversed in 80 days, have proved the continuity of Wollaston and
Vietoria lands along a distance of nearly 1,100 miles, and have shown
that they are separated by a strait from N. Somerset and Boothia,
through which the flood tide sets from the north. In this way Dr
Rae has pcrformed most essential service, even in refercnce to the
scarch aftcr Franklin, by limiting the channcls of outlet between the
continent of America and the Arctic Islands."
It is easy to understand that Dr. Rae's viows as to the equipment of expeditions in Arctic travel would differ in many respects, rightly or wrongly, from those who advocated the costly naval expeditions then in vogue. He could point to instances of his own superior success, and to the disasters that befel the survivors of the Franklin lition, as they toiled homewards with a miscellaneous collection of heavy articles. Pntting forward his views, as he did with point and insistence, his remarks were, as a rule, somewhat unwelcome to the naval authorities.
In early middle life Dr. Rae was remarkable for manly beanty in form and feature, eombined with a temper that was quick and some- what fiery. In a book on Ethnolegy, where each of the human raccs was represented by a single specimen, it was noticed that an old photograph of Dr. Rae had been utilised to represent the Caucasian type.
Dr. Rae's house contained an interesting series of specimens ilus trating the fauna and flora of arctic America and the domestic methods of thc Eskimo, which he delighted to show and to explain, for hc was a most eourteous host, well aided by his wife. As a narrator he was delightful, being always lucid while full and circum stantial. His memoirs and specches were stamped throughout with those characteristics.
His interest in the regions where he gained his fame remaiued unabatcd to the last. He died, regretted by many friends, in his eightieth year.
