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[TIE ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS. 



[185: 



strewed with drift wood. Here communication was held with' 

 the natives, — one of whom had a gun with the name of Barnet, 

 .and the date 1840 on the lock; and tobacco was bartered -for 

 salmon and ducks. The thievish propensity of these natives 

 alluded to by other explorers is amply confirmed by Captain 

 M'Clure. — Struggling on through narrow leads of water, the 

 Pelly Islands, at the mouth of the Mackenzie, were reached on 

 the 21st of August, — and Point Warren, near Cape Bathurst,on 

 ■the 24th. Here a circumstance occurred which we should be 

 glad to know admitted of satisfactory explanation. 



It appears, that on attempting to land at the above point, two 

 natives waved the adventurers off with threatening gestures. It 

 ■was with much difficulty that they were pacified; and then, they 

 related, that all their tribe but the chief and his sick son had fled 

 :on seeing the ship, — alleging as a reason that they feared the 

 Investigator had come to revenge the death of a white man 

 whom they had murdered some time ago. They proceeded to 

 relate (through the medium of the interpreter on board the In- 

 vestigator), that some white men had come thither in a boat, and 

 that they built themselves a house and lived there. At hist the 

 natives murdered one ; and the others escaped — they knew not 

 where. The murdered man was, they said, buried in a spot which 

 they pointed out Capt. M'Clure adds, that he was prevented from 

 examining this grave in consequence of a thick fog which obliged 

 him to return to his ship. It is matter of most serious regret that 

 the truth of this story was not inquired into. The history of the 

 Adam Beck fabrication of the murder of white men by Esqui- 

 maux, and the well known habit of these latter to exaggerate and 

 deceive, render it expedient, no doubt, to receive all accounts from 

 them with much doubt : — but here the means of verification were 

 apparently at hand. Prima facie, it is hardly likely that natives 

 would volunteer a statement to the officer so self-criminatory as the 

 above, unless it rested on grounds of truth. And here we may 

 mention, that a correspondent has drawn our attention to an ex- 

 tract of a letter seemingly bearing on the above story, which we 

 published in our columns in 1848, (No. 1094, p. 1029,) and 

 which excited considerable interest at the time. The letter in 

 question was received by the Admiralty from Chief Factor Mac- 

 pherson. It is dated March 1, 1848, and contains this passage: 

 — " There is a report from Peel's River, that the Esquimaux saw 

 two large boats (query ships ?) to the east of the Mackenzie River 

 full of white men; and they, the Esquimaux, showed knifes, files, 

 &c, to the Peel's River Indians, which they had received from 

 these white men. Could these have been Franklin or Rae ?" To 

 the latter query, we may at on?e answer, that it could not have 

 been Rae ; on the other hand, the locality referred to I y the Es- 

 quimaux is precisely that in which a boat party endeavouring to 

 return by the Mackenzie would have encamped. It agrees, too, 

 exactly with the Esquimaux story told to Captain McClure; and 

 we must hold, that steps should have been taken by him to inves- 

 tigate the matter. "We trust, that the Hudson's Bay Company, 

 who always evinced a desire to aid the searching cause, will lead 

 a helping hand towards completing this inquiry. 



Continuing his course to the east aloug the coast, the water 

 being very shallow, but admitting of safe navigation, Cape Perry- 

 was reached by Captain McClure on the 6th of September. — ■ 

 From this position high land was obsgrved to the E. N. E. This 

 was taken possession of, and named Baring Island. Two days 

 after this discovery, land was observed to the N. If. E., which 

 was named Prince Albert Land. This is continuous with Wol- 

 laston and Victoria Lands, and extends north to 73° 21' lat, 

 and 112 ° 48' west long. Here, Capt. McClure was very near 

 Rae's discoveries in 1851. The Investigator was now navigated 

 through a channel, called Prince of Wales Strait, dividing Baring 

 Island from Prince Albert Land. This strait runs to the north- 

 gas'., and was a most promising course for reaching the sea south 



of Melville Island. In the centre of the strait a number of islands 

 were discovered, — to which the name of the Princess Royal was 

 given; and a depot was made on one of them of three months' 

 •provisions for sixty-six men, with a boat and ammunition. Sail- 

 ing up the strait, the Expedition progressed very favorably until 

 the 11th of September, — when the ship was beset and drifted 

 with the ice, narrowly escaping destruction several times, until 

 the 8th of October. On that day she became firmly fixed. The 

 position at this time, as will be seen by the accompanying chart, 

 was not far from the northern extremity of the strait. Here she 

 was frozen in, — and remained stationary during the winter. — 

 Parties were sent out to explore; and it was soon ascertained 

 that the channel opened into Barrow Strait. This established 

 the existence of a North- West passage ! Had the sea remained 

 open a few days more, the Expedition would have made the pas- 

 sage, — not only in one season, but in the short space of little more 

 than two months and a half. 



The summer of 1851 was now anxiously awaited; but mean- 

 while advantage was taken of the spring to explore the coasts to 

 the north-east and south-east in the direction of Bank's Land, 

 and Wollaston Land. In the course of their exploration, tribes 

 of Esquimaux were met with who had evidently never seen white 

 men before. They were quiet and inoffensive. Several musk 

 oxen were shot on Prince Albert Land, — and proved a welcome 

 addition to the supplies of the party. 



On the 14th of July (1851 ) the ice opened without any pressure 

 and the Investigator was again fairly afloat. Great exertions 

 were made to pass through the strait ; but, after many attempt? , 

 the progress of the Expedition was completely arrested on the 

 16th of August by strong north-east winds driving large masses 

 of ice to the southward. At this date the party were in latitude 

 73 ° 32' and longitude 115 ° 32'. Thus baffled, Capt. McClure 

 boldly resolved on running to the southward of Baring Island, 

 and sailing up northward along its western side. This, after 

 many delays, and after surmounting formidable obstacles, he ac- 

 complished. Eventually he succeeded in reaching the north side 

 of Baring Island on the 24th of September. Had open water 

 existed to the east, the rest of the passage might have been easily 

 performed this way ; for Barrow's Strait lay before them, — the 

 navigation of which from then position to Lancaster Sound, was. 

 known to be practicable. Unhappily, however, on the night of 

 the above day the Investigator was frozen up ; and to the date of 

 Capt. McClure's last despatch, (April 10, 1S53,) she had not 

 been liberated. Her position is 74 ° 6" north lat. and 117 ° 54' 

 west long. Captain McClure describes the locality as being ex- 

 cellent : — well protected from ice by the projection of a reef which 

 throws it clear of the ship 600 yards. 



In April, (1852) a party crossed the ice to Melville Island, — 

 and deposited a document there giving an account of their pro- 

 ceedings and of the position of the Investigator. This was, hap- 

 pily discovered by Captain Kellett's officers — only a few days 

 before Captain McClure had made arrangements for deserting 

 his frozen-up ship. Immediate steps were taken to communicate 

 with the party in their ice-prison 1 — and the excitement of the 

 meeting between Lieut Pirn, who was appointed for the service 

 by Captain Kellett, and the piBieers of the Investigator, they only 

 will understand who can imagine the horrors of such a prison, 

 and the long, dreary and dreadful paths by which the prisoners 

 were about to make their desperate attempt at escape from it. — 

 It would, we hope, be precipitate to predict that the Investigator 

 will not be liberated from her icy bonds this year ; but we have 

 high Arctic authority for stating, that, looking to the enormous 

 quantity of ice this summer in Barrow's Strait, and in the seas 

 south and west of Melville Island, it is not likely that the ship has 

 yet been moved. The perils of Arctic navigation in the vicinity 



