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TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 127 
or what is called the north-west passage ; not only would such a passage infinitely 
shorten the distance to the Pacific and China, but it was the fashion in these days 
for each maritime nation to have its own route, and Spain and Portugal, with the 
good offices of the Pope, laid claim to the monopoly of the present highways of 
Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope. To possess such a short and exclusive 
one, therefore, close to our own doors, was a great inducement to persevere ; 
many then were the efforts made, with no approach to success beyond additions to 
geographical knowledge, and after the middle of the eighteenth century Arctic en- 
terprise appears to have slept for nearly a hundred years. The end of the long war, 
however, left the navy without much occupation, and the subject was again revived, 
chiefly owing to the able advocacy of the late Sir John Barrow, who was its con- 
sistent supporter to the end of his life. The voyages of Parry, Franklin, and others, 
in 1819 and subsequent years, to the west and the north are familiar to all. Par 
however, never succeeded in reaching further westward than Melyille Island, in 
about the meridian of 115°; and no ship has ever since penetrated to the westward 
of his. The subsequent expedition of Franklin in the ‘Erebus’ and ‘ Terror,’ 
which left England in 1845, and was never again heard of until M‘Clintock disco- 
vered the records of its sad fate in 1857, was the last attempt to discover a north- 
west passage, though more in pursuit of scientific investigations than in the belief 
that any passage existed which could be turned to practical advantage. But it 
was this interval of twelve years which was fruitful in Arctic discovery. Expedi- 
tion after expedition was despatched by the Government, from the east and from 
the west, in search of the missing navigators with the full approval of the nation, 
and with the frequent cooperation of the citizens of another nation (the United 
States), who shared with us some important geographical discoveries; and it was 
during these years that the north-west passage may be really said to have been 
made by a ship’s crew, which entered the Arctic Ocean by Behring’s Straits, and 
returned nearly four years afterwards by the Atlantic. But no ship has ever yet 
assed through this frozen ocean; though from the day that Parry first stood on 
elville Island (in 1819) and looked out upon it to the westward, no reasonable 
doubt could be entertained but that there was water- or ice-communication between 
the two oceans. : 
The manner of the accomplishment of this passage was thus :—In 1853 M‘Clure 
reached the Bay of Mercy in Banksland, where his abandoned ship, the ‘ Investi- 
gator,’ now lies ; at the same time lay the ‘ Resolute’ at Melville Island, scarcely 
more than 150 miles distant; the crew of the former walked over the ice to the 
latter, and were conveyed to England in a third ship. 
Whether another attempt will ever be made to force this 150 miles of ice or 
water is immaterial; it is certain that it can never be turned to any practical 
account ; but that vessels will yet pass from one ocean to the other by this route 
many are sanguine enough to believe. The north-west passage, however, has been 
settled, and the great question with geographers now, and especially among those 
who shared in the labours and the honours of the search for Franklin and his com- 
panions, is the exploration of the Polar Sea and the discovery of the North Pole 
itself, 
English naval men naturally look upon this as their inheritance, and are very 
jealous of it, though it may be in some respects a barren one. Geographers of all 
nations, while they earnestly desire its accomplishment, have, with one consent, 
generously accorded the honour of its fulfilment to us. The Council of this Asso- 
ciation and the Royal Geographical Society of London have exerted all their in- 
fluence to promote the undertaking; the great geographical authority of this 
country, Sir Roderick Murchison, has been a consistent and untiring supportes of 
Arctic enterprise, and geographers of all countries are deeply indebted to him, and 
have acknowledged their indebtedness; but I must take leave here respectfully to 
dissent from Sir Roderick when he infers, as I think he does, in his Annual Ad- 
dress, that the disagreement among Arctic men themselves as to the proper route 
to be followed has been the principal cause of no action being taken. I cannot 
think this: doctors frequently differ as to the mode of effecting a cure, but never- 
theless it is very often effected, and by different modes. Geographers may differ as 
to the road by which they would prefer to reach the Pole; but there is no Arctic 
