IF£ PREPARE FOR THE SLEDGE EXPEDITION 23 



the polar expeditions during the Franklin period, and 

 the search for him, and I must admit I am filled with 

 admiration for these men and the amount of labor they 

 expended. The English nation, truly, has cause to be 

 proud of them. I remember reading these stories as a 

 lad, and all my boyish fancies were strangely thrilled 

 with longing for the scener)' and the scenes which were 

 displayed before me. I am reading them now as a 

 man, after having had a little experience myself; and 

 now, when my mind is uninfluenced by romance, I bow 

 in admiration. There was grit in men like Parry, Frank- 

 lin, James Ross, Richardson, and last, but not least, in 

 M'Clintock, and, indeed, in all the rest. How well was 

 their equipment thought out and arranged, with the 

 means they had at their disposal ! Truly, there is noth- 

 ing new under the sun. Most of what I prided myself 

 upon, and what I thought to be new, I find they had 

 anticipated. M'Clintock used the same thing forty 

 years ago. It was not their fault that they were born 

 in a country where the use of snow-shoes is unknown, 

 and where snow^ is scarcely to be found throughout the 

 whole winter. Nevertheless, despite the fact that they 

 had to gain their experience of snow and snow travel 

 during their sojourn up here ; despite the fact that they 

 were without snow-shoes and had to toil on as best 

 they could with sledges with narrow runners over uneven 

 snow -covered drift-ice — what distances did they not 

 cover, what fatigues and trials did they not endure ! No 



