GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 391 



tetragona, he preserved his men in health, and thus enabled them to 

 execute their arduous surveying journeys of upwards of 1000 miles 

 in the spring. In his later journeys, in which he travelled more than 

 300 miles on snow-shoes, Dr. Rae has shown equal judgment and per- 

 severance. Dreading, from his former experience, that the sea might 

 be frozen, he determined on a spring journey over the ice, and per- 

 formed a most extraordinary one. 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, which 

 he taught his men to build, accomplished a distance of 1060 miles in 

 39 days, or 27 miles per day including stoppages a feat which has 

 never been equalled in Arctic travelling ; and this without the aid of 

 advanced depots, and dragging a sledge himself a 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 prov- 

 ed the continuity of Wollaston and Victoria lands along a distance of 

 nearly 1100 miles, and have shown that they are separated by a 

 strait from North Somerset and Boothia, through which the flood tide 

 sets from the north. 



Dr. Rae in his last boat expedition had not even the Arctic luxury 

 of a cup of tea, but was well content to share the chance luck of the 

 kettle with his crew. His greatest suffering, he once remarked to Sir 

 George Back, arose from his being obliged to sleep upon his frozen 

 moccasins in order to thaw them for the morning's use. The naval 

 expeditions sent out in search of Sir John Franklin, have contibuted 

 much to our knowledge of the geography of the Arctic regions. The 

 expeditions at present engaged upon this duty are those of Capt. 

 McClure and Collinson, and of Sir Edward Belcher. The former of 

 these is engaged in researches to the Northeast of Behring's Straits, 

 and having entered the ice in the summer of 1850, has not since been 

 heard from. The object of Capt. McClure was to penetrate from the 

 Asiatic to the American coast, or in other words, to accomplish the 

 Northern passage from the Eastern side. The prolonged absence 

 of this expedition is already a source of some anxiety. Sir Edward 

 Belcher sailed from England in May, 1852, and at the last accounts 

 had passed up Wellington Channel, which in August, 1852, was fortu- 

 nately, entirely free from ice. Sir Edward Belcher's vessel is a screw 

 steamer, and he has undoubtedly ere this, solved the problem of the 

 existence of a great Arctic sea, free from ice. It was the resolve of 

 Sir John Franklin, to penetrate if possible, by the northwest into an 

 open polar sea, and to navigate it until he reached the longitude of 

 Bhering's Straits. If then he really passed through AYellington Chan- 

 nel, and did gain such a sea, he may have made considerable progress 

 westward, and if compelled to abandon his ships, he might 

 have taken refuge on land, and be yet living on the natural produce of 

 the region, but cut off from all communication with countries to which 

 we have access. On this idea, mainly founded on the character of 

 Franklin, a bold project was started by Lieut. Pirn, an officer formerly- 

 engaged in Capt. Kellet's voyage of exploration. He proposed to 

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