FRANKLIN'S FIRST ARCTIC VOYAGE 33 



peculiar ; which, when enlightened by the occasional 

 ethereal brilliancy of the Polar sky, and harmonised in 

 its serenity with the calmness of the ocean, constitute a 

 picture both novel and magnificent. There is, indeed, 

 a kind of majesty, not to be conveyed in words, in 

 these extraordinary accumulations of snow and ice in 

 the valleys, and in the rocks above rocks and peaks 

 above peaks, in the mountain groups, seen rising above 

 the ordinary elevation of the clouds, and terminating 

 occasionally in crests of snow, especially when you 

 approach the shore under the shelter of the impene- 

 trable density of a summer fog ; in which case the fog 

 sometimes disperses like the drawing of a curtain, when 

 the strong contrast of light and shade, heightened by a 

 cloudless atmosphere and powerful sun, bursts on the 

 senses in a brilliant exhibition resembling the produc- 

 tion of magic." 



In 1818 there went out the first British expedition 

 prepared to winter in the north. The vessels were two 

 whalers bought into the navy, the Dorothea and Trent, 

 the first under the command of David Buchan, the 

 other under that of John Franklin. Neither officer 

 had been in the Arctic region before, but Buchan had 

 done excellent service in surveying Newfoundland, and 

 Franklin had been marked for special duty owing to his 

 work in Australian seas under his cousin, Matthew 

 Flinders, and for the manner in which on his way home 

 he had acted as signal officer to Nathaniel Dance in 

 that ever-memorable victory off the Straits of Malacca, 

 when the Indiamen defeated and pursued a French 

 fleet under Admiral Linois. Dance's report gave 

 Franklin a further chance of distinction, for it led to 



