June 23, 1856.] NOTES ON THE ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS. 105 



— more than 2000 geographical — have been added to that chart. It has been 

 alone by dint of sheer strength and perseverance, and long endurance of great 

 miseries, that such work has been accomplished. Many of the poor men will 

 carry to an early grave broken-down health, engendered by exposure and 

 excessive hardship ; many of them sunk under it ; and I can safely aver that 

 the devotion of our soldiers and sailors before the walls of Sebastopol does not 

 excel that of those poor fellows in their past exertions to rescue Franklin's 

 crews. 



You will recollect that, in 1852, the ' Assistance,' * Resolute,' * Intrepid,' 



* Pioneer,' and ' North Star,' left England to resume the search. I will not 

 detain you with any remarks upon our route to Beechey Island. It is only to 

 novices that that voyage is attended with much that is dangeroiis and striking. 

 But there is one point upon which I would endeavour to undeceive you. I dare 

 say you all, as well as myself, have heard of coal existing upon the island of 

 Disco as a late discovery. I know it cost us a wild-goose cruise up the 

 Waigat, and the loss of some days' important time. Now, as far back as 1806, 

 Professor Gieseke, a Dane, I presume, discovered this fact ; and in an old num- 

 ber of the ' Edinburgh Encyclopsedia,' which you will see in a more condensed 

 form under the head ' Greenland,' of a Gazetteer lately published by Messrs. 

 Fullarton, you will get much interesting information of those long-known coal 

 beds, and the geology of that part of the Arctic regions. On the west side of 

 Davis Strait coal is very plentiful, especially about Cumberland Strait, Cape 

 Walsingham, and Home Bay ; and, indeed, from thence it extends to the 

 N. W., in a greater or less degree, as far as Banks Land. 



On the 13th August, 1852, all our squadron was assembled at Beechey 

 Island. Parties went to research the scene of Franklin's winter quarters ; but, 

 as you may fancy, after a couple of hundred seamen had, in 1850, turned 

 everything topsy-turvy, and carried and dropped things far from where they 

 were originally deposited, those who first visited the place in 1852 can have 

 but little idea of what the place was like when we found it as it had been 

 left by the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror.^ Having completed with more than three 

 years of everything, which would carry us on to 1855, the * Assistance,' in tow 

 of the ' Pioneer,' started for Wellington Channel. The * Eesolute,' with the 



* Intrepid,' had the work of going to Melville Sound, up Barrow Strait. The 



* North Star ' was our depot to retreat upon. On the night of August 14th, 

 we, the Wellington Channel division, started. The night was beautifully 

 calm and clear, not a piece of ice to be seen ; and you can better fancy than I 

 can describe the excitement of penetrating a hitherto unvisited sea, and seeing 

 unroll before one fresh lands and waters, untrodden and unvisited by man. 

 Next day we commenced to sail instead of steam, and what with landing upon 

 points for observations and angles, our progress was but slow. 



As far as Cape Becher, you will remember, parties from the ' Lady Franklin,' 

 in 1851, had repeatedly gone over the land, and particulars of it have been 

 fully and ably detailed by Dr. Sutherland, in his work. The only remark I 

 have to make is, that although right in latitude, we found Penny too far to 

 the westward at Cape Becher — a pardonable error when he had no chro- 

 nometers supplied, and was not surveyor enough to triangulate his work. 



It was not until midnight of the 16th August that we fairly entered Queen 

 Channel. Hitherto we had seen no ice ; and as yet a clear sea rolled before 

 us. We could only see about thirty miles more land, which, of course, 

 shortened up considerably the length of that channel. Its direction appeared 

 to be N.N.W. true, and the tide of about three knots force, in the narrow. 

 Albert Land, as the N.W. extent of North Devon has been styled, becomes 

 more wild and striking west of Cape Becher, and abounds in magnificent 

 harbours. 



The opposite shore, or Bathurst Land, is less picturesque, but contains more 

 animals, and possesses a finer vegetation. The former I may describe as of 



