xiv PREFACE. 



after his companion, the brave Lieutenant Bellot, and which 

 has hitherto been regarded only as an impassable frozen 

 channel, or ignored as a channel at all, is a navigable strait, 

 the south shore of which is thus seen to be the northernmost 

 land of the continent of America. 



M'Clintock has also laid down the hitherto unknown 

 coast-line of Boothia, southwards from Bellot Strait to the 

 Magnetic Pole, has delineated the whole of King William's 

 Island, and opened a new and capacious, though ice-choked, 

 channel, suspected before, but not proved, to exist, extend- 

 ing from Victoria Strait in a north-west direction to Melville 

 or Parry Sound. The latter discovery rewarded the in- 

 dividual exertions of Captain Allen Young, but will very 

 properly, at Lady Franklin's request, bear the name of the 

 leader of the ' Fox ' expedition, who had himself assigned to 

 it the name of the widow of Franklin. 1 



Neither has the expedition been unproductive of scientific 

 results. For, whilst many persons will be interested in the 

 popular descriptions of the native Esquimaux, as well as of 

 the lower animals, the man of science will hereafter be 

 further gratified by having presented to him, in the form of 

 an additional Appendix, 2 most valuable details relating to 

 the zoology, botany, meteorology, and especially to the 

 terrestrial magnetism, of the region examined. 



Lastly, M'Clintock has convinced himself that the best 



1 In his volume before cited, p. xii., Mr. John Brown gave strong 

 reasons (which he had held for some time) for believing in the existence 

 of the very channel which now bears the name of M'Clintock. It is, 

 however, the opinion both of that officer and his associates, as also of 

 Captain Sherard Osborn, that Franklin could not have reached the spot 

 where his ships were beset by proceeding down that ice-choked channel, 

 but that he must have sailed down Peel Sound. 



2 Much of this Appendix [First Edition] will be prepared by Dr. 

 David Walker. 



