1902] SIR L. McCLINTOCK ON SLEDGING 299 



' In early Arctic voyaging the ship alone was relied upon 

 for penetrating into unknown seas; it was not until the second 

 and third voyages of Parry and the second voyage of Sir John 

 Ross — that is, between 182 1 and 1834 — that sledging was 

 commenced and a number of short journeys were made, 

 mainly by the assistance of the Esquimaux, whose methods 

 were closely observed and more or less imitated. 



' But our seamen had not yet familiarised themselves with 

 the idea that it was quite possible for well-equipped Europeans 

 not only to exist, but to travel in an Arctic climate, as well as 

 the Esquimaux themselves ; and it was not until the Franklin 

 Search Expeditions were sent out, between 1848 and 1854, 

 that men seriously reflected upon the possibility of any ex- 

 tensive exploration on foot; and no more powerful incentive 

 could have been imagined to rouse the utmost energies of 

 the searchers than the protracted absence of the missing 

 expedition, 



' The endurance of the hardiest was called forth, and the 

 talent of invention evoked and stimulated, until at length a 

 system of sledging was elaborated such as I will now proceed 

 to describe. 



' . . . The late Sir James Ross, who had served with very 

 great credit in all the six voyages of Parry and John Ross 

 from 1818 to 1834, formed the connecting link between them 

 and the searching expeditions which commenced in 1848, and 

 the first of which he commanded. He was acquainted with 

 the flat sledges of the Hudson Bay Territory, which alone can 

 be used in deep soft snow, gliding as they do over its surface ; 

 he was also acquainted with the Greenland dog sledge, with 

 its high narrow runners shod with ivory or bone, and which 

 cuts down through the usually thin layer of snow and runs 

 upon the ice beneath ; he was familiar with the various 

 modifications of these typical forms which had been used in 

 the Arctic expeditions of Parry and John Ross. 



' He had moreover made several journeys with the natives 

 of Boothia Felix, culminating in his discovery of the Magnetic 

 Pole, and on one of these journeys he was absent from his ship 



