608 THE PROGRESS OF MARITIME DISCOVERY. 



conspired to repel Mm ; the horrors of that iron-ribbed desert, 

 without a single tree on the whole line of his passage ; and how 

 heroically he persevered to the very last, and added Back's Eiver, 

 as the Thlu-it-scho has most deservedly been called, to the geo- 

 graphical conquests of which England may well be proud. 



The present is not a detailed account of Arctic discovery, a 

 complete historical narrative of how step by step those dreary 

 regions, the refuse of the earth, have grown into distinctness on 

 the map ; so passing over Simpson's wonderful boat-voyage 

 along the northern shores of America, which led to the discovery 

 of 1600 miles of coast (1837-1839), and Eae's important re- 

 searches on Melville Peninsula (1846, 1847), I proceed to the 

 last expedition of Sir John Franklin. We all know how the 

 veteran seaman left England in the sixtieth year of his age, 

 once more to try the north-western passage ; how since his last 

 despatches, dated from the Whalefish Islands, Baffin's Bay, 

 July 12th, 1845, months and months, and then years and years, 

 elapsed without bringing any tidings of his fate ; how Collinson 

 and M'Clure, Penny and Inglefield, Kane and Bellot, and so 

 many other worthies, went out to search for the " Erebus " and 

 " Terror," and how in spite of all their efforts mystery still over- 

 hung the ill-fated expedition, until M'Clintock raised the veil 

 and informed us how miserably most of the gallant seamen 

 perished in those dreary wastes, but how their commander had 

 been spared the pangs of protracted suffering, and gone to his 

 eternal rest even before his country began to feel concerned 

 about his loss. 



The search for Franklin is a page in history of which a' 

 nation may well be proud, more, noble than a hundred battles 

 and grander than the conquest of an empire. These are no 

 blood-stained laurels, but palms of glory gained by matchless 

 energy and perseverance over the horrors of a nature inimical to 

 man, a theme which some future Homer will delight to sing. 

 Had Franklin been ever so successful, he could not possibly 

 have achieved so much for Arctic discovery as his loss gave rise 

 to ; for to the disasters of his voyage we, owe the knowledge of 

 all the coasts of that intricate conglomeration of islands which 

 faces the Pole, and of the channels, which opening far to the 

 north, lead to its profoundest, and seemingly impenetrable depths. 

 All these discoveries are of little commercial value, it is true, 



