FOREWORD xix 



Clark Ross, who was young and energetic, and who 

 was later to win laurels at the opposite end of the globe. 

 This first attempt to use steam for ice navigation 

 failed, owing to a poor engine or incompetent engi- 

 neers, but in all other respects the Rosses achieved 

 gloriously. During their five years' absence, 1829- 

 1834, they made important discoveries around Boothia 

 Felix, but most valuable was their definite location of 

 the magnetic North Pole and the remarkable series of 

 magnetic and meteorological observations which they 

 brought back with them. 



No band of men ever set out for the unknown with 

 brighter hopes or more just anticipation of success 

 than Sir John Franklin's expedition of 1845. The 

 frightful tragedy which overwhelmed them, together 

 with the mystery of their disappearance, which bafHed 

 the world for years and is not yet entirely explained, 

 forms the most terrible narrative in arctic history. 

 Franklin had been knighted in 1827, at the same time 

 as Parry, for the valuable and very extensive explora- 

 tions which he had conducted by snowshoes and canoe 

 on the North American coast between the Coppermine 

 and Great Fish rivers, during the same years that 

 Parry had been gaining fame in the north. In the 

 interval Franklin had served as Governor of Tasmania 

 for seven years. His splendid reputation and ability 

 as an organizer made him, though now fifty-nine years 

 of age, the unanimous choice of the government for 

 the most elaborate arctic expedition it had prepared in 

 many years. Franklin's fame and experience, and that 

 of Crozier and his other lieutenants, who had seen much 

 service in the north, his able ships, the Terror and the 



