Intelligence Jrom the Land Arctic Expedition. 165 



and the dispatch, by which I send this, sets out to-morrow with 

 intelligence of their proceedings to Oovernment, 



'* Mr or at all events Mrs H. will rejoice to hear that we have 

 a Highland piper, and a crew of hardy and hearty sons of the 

 mist, who foot it every night after the labours of the day to 

 the sound of their native music. We lack only a little of the 

 mountain dew to invigorate the dance. For my part I think 

 water a more wholesome beverage ; but there is a great deal in 

 the name, and prejudices are difficult to be overcome,"" 



In a letter from Captain Franklin to a friend in London, and 

 published in the Courier Newspaper, is the following state- 

 ment 



** I do most heartily congratulate you on the prospect we 

 had from Garry's Island, of a perfectly open sea, without a par- 

 ticle of ice, as it is another step gained in confirmation of your 

 much contested hypothesis. We saw nothing to stop the ships, 

 but, on the contrary, every thing around us strengthened my 

 hope of their effecting the passage. The Indians, indeed, have 

 a report, that, between the Mackenzie and Copper Mine River, 

 there is a point which stretches far to the north, which is gene- 

 rally surrounded with ice. If this be true, the ships may per- 

 haps be checked in their progress for a time ; but I think they 

 will not be altogether stopt, providing they have been enabled 

 to get to the main shore, to the eastward of Regent's Inlet. No 

 Indian, however, with whom I had spoken in my recent visit to 

 the sea, can speak of this point, or of the obstruction, from 

 his own observation ; and the report seems, like many others cur- 

 rent among them, to have passed from generation to generation, 

 which at the first had but little ground to stand upon.*" 



Franklin has thus, in our opinion, succeeded in realising, to 

 a certain extent, the views of the learned and distinguished Se- 

 cretary Barrow. We ardently hope and trust, that the honour^ 

 of effecting thp North-west Passage, will not be allowed to pass 

 from us, and that Captain Parry will be again dispatched to 

 finish this grand nautical enterprise. The Congress of the 

 United States are, we are informed, at this moment consider- 

 ing a proposal laid before them for the discovery of the North- 



