14 INTRODUCTION. Chap. I. 



containing from three to five hundred pages each ; 

 and all brought forward by, and under the superin- 

 tendence of, Dr. Richardson, the fellow-traveller of 

 Sir John Franklin, and the man to whose energy, 

 courage, and skill Sir John has declared that he and 

 the whole party owe their safety and their lives. Let 

 these accessions to general knowledge have only their 

 due weight, and they will then be duly appreciated. 

 The value of the scientific observations and dis- 

 coveries, made in these Arctic voyages, independent 

 of all national and selfish considerations, is duly 

 appreciated on the continent of Europe and in 

 America. It is, perhaps, not generally known, that 

 the late voyage towards the South Pole, under the 

 command of Captain (now Sir James) Ross, had 

 no other object but the advancement of science and 

 general information regarding the Antarctic regions 

 of the globe ; and that among the first subjects to be 

 attended to was that of making a series of observa- 

 tions on terrestrial magnetism, a subject which has 

 of late years assumed so important a character, by 

 its influence on the globe, that the Government of 

 Great Britain, ever ready to take the lead in 

 matters connected with science, has been induced 

 to establish Magnetic Observatories in several of its 

 colonies, distant from each other ; and, by influ- 

 ence and example, has prevailed on other powers 

 to do the same, the object being to conduct simul- 

 taneous observations, at given stated times, in all of 



