378 THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 



The celebrated arctic explorers, Captain John 

 Davis, Sir Edward Parry, 8ir John Eoss, Sir John 

 I'raiddin, Captain (now Sir Kobert) M'Cliire, Dr. 

 Kane, Captain (now Sir Leopold) M'Clintock, and 

 others, in their search for the nortli-west passage, 

 have only too clearly demonstrated the dangers of 

 any attempt to penetrate these regions. Nor ought 

 we to omit the name of the intrepid and learned 

 De Blosseville. Sent on an exploring expedition to 

 the coasts of Greenland in the Lilloise, he and his 

 companions must have perished miserably in those 

 inhospitable regions, for not a trace has since been 

 discovered of them. 



The ice-bound ship is in an unsafe position, but 

 its release may be attended with even more danger 

 than its captivity. Sir Leopold M'Clintoek, who suc- 

 ceeded in discovering a feA^ remains of Franklin's 

 expedition, says : *' On the 18th of August we had 

 arrived in the mid-channel of Melville's Bay, in 

 Lancaster Straits, when, being unexpectedly encircled 

 by an immense accumulation of drift-ice, we found 

 ourselves compelled to pass the winter in the midst 

 of one of those vast fields of ice of which I had 

 often heard during my career as a sailor. In the 

 course of the winter the force of the water often 

 opened long crevices or channels in the solid vault of 

 ice which covered it, and these solutions of continuity 



