Vll 



Great Bear Lake, being at a distance of more than 150 miles from 

 the coast by the route he was compelled to take, he could not, as in 

 the parties of our naval expeditions, travel on the ice with capacious 

 sledges, and was, therefore, obliged to restrict his provisions and 

 baggage to the smallest possible weight. With a pound of fat daily 

 for fuel, and without the possibility of carrying a tent, he set out 

 accompanied by two men only, and trusting solely for shelter to snow 

 houses he taught his men to build, accomplished a distance of 

 1,060 miles in 39 daya, or 27 miles per day including stoppages, and 

 this without the aid of advanced depots, and dragging a sledge him- 

 self great part of the way. The spring journey, and that which 

 followed in the summer in boats, during which 1,700 miles were 

 traversed in 80 days, have proved the continuity of Wollaston and 

 Victoria lands along a distance of nearly 1,100 miles, and have shown 

 that they are separated by a strait from N. Somerset and Boothia, 

 through which the flood tide sets from the north. In this way Dr. 

 Rae has performed most essential service, even in reference to the 

 search after Franklin, by limiting the channels of outlet between the 

 continent of America and the Arctic Islands." 



It is easy to understand that Dr. Bae's views as to the equipment 

 of expeditions in Arctic travel would differ in many respects, rightly 

 or wrongly, from those who advocated the costly naval expeditions 

 then in vogue. He could point to instances of his own superior 

 success, and to the disasters that befel the survivors of the Franklin 

 expedition, as they toiled homewards with a miscellaneous collection 

 of heavy articles. Putting forward his views, as he did with point 

 and insistence, his remarks were, as a rule, somewhat unwelcome to 

 the naval authorities. 



In early middle life Dr. Bae was remarkable for manly beauty in 

 form and feature, combined with a temper that was quick and some- 

 what fiery. In a book on Ethnology, where each of the human races 

 was represented by a single specimen, it was noticed that an old 

 photograph of Dr. Bae had been utilised to represent the Caucasian 

 type. 



Dr. Bae's house contained an interesting series of specimens illus- 

 trating the fauna and flora of arctic America and the domestic 

 methods of the Eskimo, which he delighted to show and to explain, 

 for he was a most courteous host, well aided by his wife. As a 

 narrator he was delightful, being always lucid while full and circum- 

 stantial. His memoirs and speeches were stamped throughout with 

 those characteristics. 



His interest in the regions where he gained his fame remained 

 unabated to the last. He died, regretted by many friends, in his 



eightieth year. 



F. 



