120 REPORT — 1877. 



were obtained, chiefly in the southern and Antarctic oceans, varying from 12 to 

 7200 feet; in lat. 15° 33', long. 23° 14' W., soundings were tried for with 4000 

 fathoms of line, the greatest depths of the ocean that had ever been satisfactorily 

 ascertained up to that time. Meteorological observations of great value were 

 made, and the fact established that a lower barometric pressure exists in the 

 Southern hemisphere than in the Northern. It is impossible to do more than 

 refer to the above leading results of this voyage, reflecting so much honour on the 

 skill and courage of all concerned in it. 



Those regions on our terrestrial surface which have attracted the enterprising 

 traveller are naturally those where civilized men have not penetrated — the ice-- 

 bound seas of the Arctic regions ; also the interior of Africa, which in 1841 was a 

 blank on our map, where the equator alone extends through a stretch of something- 

 like 2000 miles, and the northern tropic through more than 4000 miles of land. 

 Little was known of Australia within the fringe of settlers located on certain parts 

 of the coast. I will therefore, in the first instance, speak of Arctic exploration, 

 which has so recently culminated in the Expedition under Nares to the Polar Sea. 



When the British Association met here in 1841, Franklin had not started on his 

 memorable attempt to force the North-west Passage from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific Oceans : at that time the coast-line of Arctic "America had not been com- 

 pletely explored. It was not known whether the projecting mass of Boothia was 

 connected with the American continent, or whether the neighbouring Kino- "Wil- 

 liam's Land was an island or a peninsula. Parry, in 1819, had discovered the 

 group of islands extending to the west from Wellington Channel, still bearing his 

 name ; and twelve years after, James Ross fixed the site of the magnetic pole on 

 West Boothia. b r 



The ' Erebus ' and < Terror,' under the command of Sir John Franklin and Captain 

 F. R. M. Crazier, entered Barrow Straits in the summer of 1845, and from that 

 time were lost to sight. 



It was not until 1848 that the Government yielded to the public demand for 

 succour being sent after the missing ships ; and an expedition, consisting of the 

 ' Investigator' and 'Enterprise,' under the command of that distinguished Arctic 

 and Antarctic voyager, Sir James Ross, was sent out. The extent of his efl'orts 

 was hunted to a small range of search. His ships wintered at Port Leopold, at the 

 entrance of Regent's Inlet. In the spring of 1849 he made a sledge journey alono- 

 the shores of North Somerset and to the east side of Peel Sound to lat. 72° 38, 

 long. 95° 40' W. On the return of the navigation season, finding he could not 

 advance, owing to Barrow Straits being blocked with ice, Ross returned home 

 with his ships, but without a vestige of Franklin's people. Universal disappoint- 

 ment was manifested at this result. The veteran traveller, Sir John Richardson, 

 with the noble spirit of sacrifice to duty for which he was distinguished, had re- 

 turned from his examination of the Arctic shores of America, between the Mackenzie 

 and the Coppermine rivers, without finding any clue to the missing ships. Thia 

 was sacred ground to him, associated as it was with the trials undergone when he 

 was the companion of Franklin in their overland journey to the Arctic coasts, 1820 

 -21, to discover the North-west Passage. The Admiralty, the Hudson's Bay Com- 

 pany, the United States and Russian Governments, together with private enter- 

 prise, all combined, in 1850, to leave nothing undone to secure an effectual pursuit 

 alter I rank-tin's ships, the 'Erebus' and ' Terror.' The two ships brought back- 

 by Sir James Ross were fitted out with all dispatch, to enter the Arctic seas through 

 Behnng Straits before the navigation season of 1850 closed. You all know 

 the eventful history of those two ships, the < Enterprise ' (Captain Colhnson) and 

 Investigator (Commander McClure). They parted company in the Pacific Ocean 

 never to meet again,— thus becoming, in fact, two separate expeditions, and adding 

 greatly to our geographical knowledge, by filling up the vacant space on our charts 

 between the continent of America and the Parry group. The ' Investigator' was 

 abandoned m Mercy Bay, on the north coast of Banks's Land, by McClure and his 

 gallant crew, leaving the British ensign and pennant flying. There they probably 

 will remain, a monument to our intrepid band of seamen who completed the North- 

 west Passage, the relics of which, like those of Barentz in his North-east expedi- 



