354 SIMPSON'S EXFLOHA TIONS—18S6-29. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 



Simpson's explorations, 1836-39 — official instructions — arrival at 

 return reef — the unknown tract traversed — return to winter 

 quarters. 



While Captain Back, in the " Terror," was drifting helplessly in the ice-pack 

 between Frozen and Hudson Straits, an expedition destined to be as suc- 

 cessful as the gallant captain's was fruitless, was being organised by the 

 Hudson's Bay Company. By the efforts of Franklin, Beechey, and Back, 

 immense tracts of the northern shores of America had been visited and 

 surveyed. Beginning from the west, Beechey's expedition, passing north 

 through Behring Strait, and eastward past Icy Cape, advanced the British 

 flag as far eastward along the American shore as Point Barrow, in long. 156° 

 21' W. From Point Barrow, eastward to Eeturn Eeef, a distance of about 

 150 miles, the tract of coast was as yet entirely unknown. From Keturn 

 Eeef eastward along the coast, past the mouths of the Mackenzie and Cop- 

 permine Elvers to Point Turnagain, on the eastern shore of Kent Peninsula 

 (Dease Strait), Franklin and Eichardson surveyed the shore. From Point 

 Turnagain eastward again, the shores of the Polar Sea were entirely un- 

 known as far as the coasts of the mouth of Back or Great Fish Eiver, the 

 discovery of which, as we have seen, is due to the energy and enterprise 

 of Captain Back. The portions of the northern coast of America that 

 remained still unexplored, then, were the tracts between Point Barrow and 

 Eeturn Eeef in the far north-west, and between Point Turnagain and the Great 

 Fish Eiver, forming the most easterly reach of the coast-line. What lay to 

 the east of the mouth of Great Fish Eiver was wholly unknown in 1836. 

 Many persons interested in Arctic discovery, however, believed that water- 

 communication existed between the mouth of this great river and Eegent 

 Inlet. To ascertain whether this really was the case, and also to survey the 

 as yet undiscovered tracts of the North American coast-line, were the prin- 

 cipal considerations in determining the Hudson's Bay Company to organise 

 the expedition with which the name of Simpson is identified in the annals 

 of Arctic exploration. The directors of the Company resolved to give the 

 command of the enterprise to two of their own officers, and the gentlemen 



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