EXPLORATION OF THE GEEAT PISH EIVEE. 507 



modated, the seamen disposed of, and all was done for us wnich 

 care and kindness could perform. 



" Night at length brought quiet and serious thoughts ; and I 

 trust there was not a man among us who did not then express, 

 where it was due, his gratitude for that interposition which had 

 raised us all from a despair which none could now forget, and 

 had brought us from the very borders of a most distant grave 

 to life and friends and civilisation. Long accustomed, however, 

 to a cold bed on the hard snow or the bare rock, few could sleep 

 amid the comfort of our accommodations. I was myself com- 

 pelled to leave the bed which had been kindly assigned me, and 

 take my abode in a chair for the night, nor did it fare much 

 better with the rest. It was for time to reconcile us to this 

 sudden and violent change, to break through what had become 

 habit, and to inure us once more to the usages of our former 

 days." 



I have no time to relate how Eoss was received in England, 

 and what honours were heaped upon him ; honours conferred 

 with all the better grace that the nation had not forgotten him 

 during his long-protracted absence, and had no cause to blush 

 for culpable neglect. For Britain has ever considered it her 

 duty to help and assist the men who venture their lives in the 

 cause of science and for the advancement of her glory ; nor will 

 she allow the officer who carries her standard into unknown 

 lands, and there falls a victim to nature or to man, to perish 

 without feeling his last moments gladdened by the conviction, 

 that, however distant his grave, the eye of his country rests upon 

 him. 



Thus when Back, that noble Paladin of Arctic research, 

 volunteered to lead a relief expedition in quest of Eoss, ^4000 

 were immediately raised by public subscription to defray the 

 expenses of the undertaking. While deep in the American wilds 

 Back was gratified with the intelligence that the object of his 

 search had safely arrived in England, but, instead of returning 

 home, the indefatigable explorer resolved to trace the unknown 

 course of the Thlu-it-scho, or Great Fish Eiver, down to the 

 distant outlet where it pours its waters into the polar seas. It 

 would take a volume to recount his adventures in this wonderful 

 expedition, the numberless falls, cascades, and rapids that ob- 

 structed his progress ; the storms and snow-drifts that vainly 



