IN QUEST OF THE POLE. 365 



York, Hudson's Bay, on an overland expedition to circumnavigate the 

 northern coast. They were accompanied by Midshipman George 

 Back, afterward Captain Back, a courageous and enterprising ex- 

 plorer. In 1825 Franklin, Richardson, and Back, again set out on an 

 overland expedition for surveying the northern coast. In 1829 Captain 

 John Ross entered Prince Regent's Inlet, and, after surveying the coast 

 of the Boothian Peninsula, he went into winter-quarters. In the 

 spring of 1831 his nephew, James Ross, discovered the north magnetic 

 pole. 



In 1837 the coast between Return Reef and Point Barrow was sur- 

 veyed by Dean and Simpson, in the service of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company. Simpson was the soul of the expedition, and had already 

 made a tramp of over 2,000 miles through the wilderness, and in the 

 depth of winter. Simpson afterward continued the survey, and ac- 

 complished a boat-voyage of over 1,600 miles. He died, at the age of 

 thirty-six, by the hand of an Indian assassin. 



Sir John Franklin set out on his last voyage in 1845, being then in 

 his sixtieth year, with two ships, the Erebus and the Terror. These 

 vessels were last spoken, July 26th, in the same year, in Baffin's Bay, 

 latitude 77. In 1848 commenced the search for Franklin. The Plover 

 and Hecla took out supplies for him to Behring's Strait. His old com- 

 panion Richardson went out the same year, as did also Sir James Ross 

 and Captain Bird. In 1850 twelve ships joined in the search, and in 

 1852 six vessels sailed from England on the same errand. McClure, 

 commanding the Investigator, passed through Behring's Strait in 1S50, 

 and safely reached Marcy Bay in 1852, thus discovering the northwest 

 passage. McClintock at length, in the spring of 1859, learned from a 

 party of Esquimaux, on the southwest coast of Boothia-Felix, the 

 mournful story of the fate of Franklin and his men. 



Elisha Kent Kane accompanied the first Grinnell expedition (Ad- 

 vance, Lieutenant De Haven) in 1850-51, and was commander of that 

 vessel in the second Grinnell expedition in 1853. On August 7th he 

 entered Smith's Sound, and, after encountering fearful perils, found a 

 harbor in Rensselaer Bay, latitude 78 38'. The Advance was fated 

 never to come out of that bay, and had to be abandoned there two 

 years later. April 25, 1854, he set out on a sledge-journey north- 

 ward, drawn by dogs. May 4th he saw Great Humboldt glacier, and, 

 though scurvy, cold, and dropsy, had wasted his strength, he would 

 still have insisted on advancing, but he now became delirious, and his 

 companions turned their faces shipward. On August 24th, when it 

 was seen that there was no hope of getting the ship free from the ice, 

 Kane called his officers and men together and announced his determi- 

 nation to remain. They were in all 1 7, and of these nine chose to leave 

 their commander and essay a return home. Kane now adopted the 

 Esquimaux form of house and the Esquimaux diet, as best suited to 

 the climate. He also entered into friendly relations with the natives ; 



