650 CAPTAIN MARKHAM'S DISCOVERIES. 



and, even with the subsequent disasters and failures, it hag 

 been an honor to our country and its projectors both in its 

 conception and its execution. 



When the steamer Arctic (the same that on her return 

 brought to Dundee the rescued Polaris crew) set out for 

 her usual whaling-ground, in the season of 1873, she took 

 out as a passenger, Captain Markham, of the British royal 

 navy, who went out for the purpose of making obser- 

 vations in view of a contemplated expedition to the North 

 Pole advocated by the leading members of the Geographi- 

 cal Society of Great Britain. The Arctic proceeded to 

 the usual whaling grounds, where she hunted until about 

 the middle of July. Finding the whales scarce and wild, 

 her commander, Captain Adams, steamed up Lancaster 

 Sound and Barrow Straits to the Gulf of Boothia. This 

 is the first time a whaler has found its way to the Gulf of 

 Boothia, and Captain Adams was rewarded for his enter- 

 prise by finding the gulf literally abounding with whales, 

 less wild, and hence more readily caught, than those of the 

 " open polar sea " of Spitzbergen. The gulf may be said 

 to be a virgin sea so far as the getting of whales is con- 

 cerned. The cetacea have been allowed to breed in quiet, 

 and possibly the instinct of self-preservation has led them 

 to seek refuge in its quiet waters from the pursuit of their 

 merciless foes. In the course of the run through Barrow 

 Straits and the gulf, Captain Markham made some im- 

 portant and interesting observations. He landed at Port 

 Leopold, at the entrance to Prince Regent's Inlet, where 

 Sir James Clarke Ross wintered in 1848. (See Chapter 

 XII.) Here he found the depots of provisions left by Sir 

 James in a very excellent state of preservation. The 

 pemmican and potted meats were in splendid condition, 

 and quite fit for being used as food. In some of the kegs 

 which had been damaged the meat was, of course, in a 



