Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/707

ARCTIC DISCOVERY C71 facilitate their progress, eating the remains of their old shoes and whatever scraps of leather they had, obliged from exhaustion to abandon their canoes when they came to rap- ids, subsisting at the last upon rock tripe and mosses, disappointed in finding assistance at a station where they had expected it, the suffer- ings of the party were almost unparalleled, and euch as but few men could have endured. They lost two of their companions, and in July, 1822, reached York Factory, whence they had started three years before. In these three years they had made a journey of over 5,500 m., without accomplishing their object. Mean- time, Captains Parry and Lyon, in the Fury and Hecla, made Southampton island, the terminus of Hudson strait, early in August, 1821, and immediately steered to the north up Fox chan- nel. Passing a bay hitherto unknown, which they named after the duke of York, they en- tered Repulse bay, in the hope of finding here an outlet toward the Arctic ocean. Leaving Repulse bay, they started upon the exploration of a hitherto entirely unknown region. They made slow progress, exploring every indenta- tion of the coast. Toward the close of Sep- tember the ice began to accumulate, and Parry was obliged to cut into a large floe, and make there a winter harbor for his vessels. It was July before they were once more free of ice, and able to make progress on their voyage. They made their way up Fox channel slowly, against a current setting to the southward, and reached, Aug. 14, the small island of Igloolik, situated at the entrance of a strait called after- ward the strait of the Fury and Hecla. The ships were long detained here by ice, reached the middle of the strait only in September, and were obliged to return to Igloolik for the win- ter, Oct. 30. The next spring (1823) proved unfavorable. The expeditions by land were able to effect but little, on account of the extreme ruggedness of the shore. The first week in August was past before the ships were released from their harbor; and Parry, who saw all advance to the north prevented, returned home, arriving in England in October, 1823. Four expeditions were now fitted out. The first, consisting of two ships, under Parry, was to try Prince Regent inlet, which it was supposed would be found to open at its south- ern extreme into the Arctic sea. The second party, under the command of Franklin, was to descend the Mackenzie river to the sea, and there divide, one party turning to the east, the other endeavoring to penetrate westward, even to Behring strait. Captain Beechey, in the Blossom, was despatched around Cape Horn, to sail through Behring strait and make headway to the east as far as Kotzebue sound, where he was to wait for Franklin's overland party. The fourth expedition (Capt. Lyon, in the Gri- per) was to pass to the south of Southampton island, up Sir Thomas Rowe's Welcome, to Repulse bay; then to cross the Melville isth- mus, and survey the coast as far as Franklin's Point Turnagain. This expedition was unfor- tunate ; the vessel was twice nearly wrecked, and the expedition was abandoned when yet 80 m. distant from Repulse bay. Parry's ex- pedition sailed in May, 1824, entered Lancas- ter sound in September, got into the ice, and was obliged to winter in Port Bowen, near the entrance of the sound. The following July, when starting forward again, the Fury was wrecked, and Parry returned to England in the Hecla, with a double crew. The only object gained by this disastrous expedition was a con- trivance whereby the compass was made to work perfectly under all circumstances, and in all places, no matter how near the magnetic pole, thus obviating a most serious difficulty in arctic navigation. This was accomplished by simply placing a small circular plate of iron near the compass. We come now to Frank- lin's expedition. The officers forming his staff were Dr. Richardson, Lieut. Back, Mr. Kendall, and Mr. T. Drummond, a naturalist. They arrived at Fort Chipewyan in July, 1825 ; passed on to Great Bear lake, where the party were to winter ; and thence a small party with Franklin descended the Mackenzie to the sea, which they reached at a point in lat. 69 14', Ion. 135 57', 1,045 m. from Great Slave lake. On June 28, 1826, the whole party again started from their quarters down the Mac- kenzie. The expedition separated, according to the previously planned course of operations. Franklin, going to the westward, reached the sea, and penetrated as far west as Return Reef, in lat. 70 24' and Ion. 149 37' W., whence on Aug. 18 he set out on his return to the Mac- kenzie, the weather becoming bad, and he being unaware that Beechey was waiting for him but 146 m. to the westward. The latter, in the Blossom, had passed through Behring strait and anchored near Chamisso island, in Kotze- bue sound, on July 22. He waited here till the advancing season made further stay dan- gerous, and then sailed for Petropavlovsk. The following year (1827) he again anchored in Kotzebue sound, but of course did not meet Franklin's party as he had hoped. Franklin traced the coast for 374 m. from the mouth of the Mackenzie. His voyage extended over 2,000 m. The other party, under Dr. Richard- son, accomplished but little. The whole ex- pedition wintered at Great Bear lake, where Franklin instituted a series of observations on terrestrial magnetism. In 1806 Mr. Scoresby, a whaleman and private discoverer, accom- panied by his son, had penetrated as far as 81 30' north, further than any one had gone before him. Buchan and Franklin so completely failed in the ship expedition in 1818, that Mr. Scores- by was led to advise an expedition to proceed by boats so fixed on sledges as to be easily dragged over the ice. Capt. Parry received the command of an expedition fitted out in accordance with this idea. Two boats, covered, well built, and set upon sledges, were to be landed upon the northern shore of Spitz-