VI PREFACE. 



of the release of the American Expedition adds anothet 

 proof of the uncertainty of the navigation even of the 

 mouth of Lancaster Sound, which was found late in 

 August to be completely barred by ice; and consequently 

 Captain Hartstein was unable to place the monument to 

 Captain Franklin on Beechey Island. With such facts 

 before us, we cannot but rejoice that no vessels and 

 crews were left, to distract the feelings of relatives nor 

 uselessly to exhaust the revenues of the country. 



The system of Arctic travel by sledges over vast dis- 

 tances, and the powers of men in carrying out labours 

 under which the quadruped, taking man- against horse- 

 power, would succumb, present a new feature as com- 

 pared with the labours of the lamented Parry and his 

 associates. True it is that the qualities of the professed 

 seaman find but small scope in this narrative; but the 

 exertions of those who did venture upon travel offers 

 matter for reflection on the powers of men in every stage 

 of action where their services may be required, be the 

 enemy frost, fire, patient endurance of monotonous la- 

 bour, or battle. 



The value of the seaman I mean the disciplined man 

 in carrying out the service here recorded, entailing 

 questions even of existence if they faltered or failed in 

 strength, has not, I fear, been sufficiently estimated by 

 those who merely read of the exploits of the sledge tra- 

 vellers ; nor can my pen do justice to their labours, to 

 the passive endurance, the high discipline, which cha- 

 racterized their performance, only to be sustained on the 



