398 DR JOHN RAE'S EXFLOEA TIONS— 18^QA7. 



carrying between fifty and sixty pieces of goods of 90 lbs. per piece. They 

 were each rigged with two lug-saUs, to which a jib was afterwards added, 

 under which, with a strong breeze of wind, they were found to work admir- 

 ably. They were named the 'North Pole' and the 'Magnet.'" Rae 

 occupied himself during the winter months in taking observations and com- 

 pleting the equipment of his party. He added to his stores a number of 

 articles that had never been used on any former expedition, and as Dr Rae 

 is essentially an explorer of our own day — few improvements in Arctic 

 travelling having been introduced since last he visited the shores of North 

 America — it may be well to quote his short statement of the additions to his 

 equipment, upon which he depended for some degree of comfort during the 

 winter he was to spend at Repulse Bay. " Among other articles which I 

 thought might be useful," he says, " were a small sheet-iron stove for each 

 boat, a set of sheet-iron lamps' for burning oil after the Eskimo fashion, some 

 small kettles (commonly called conjurers), having a small basin and per- 

 forated tin stand for burning alcohol, a seine net, and four small windows, 

 each of two double panes of glass. An oiled canvas canoe was made, and 

 we also had one of Halkett's air-boats, large enough to carry three persons. 

 This last useful and light little vessel ought to form part of the equipment 

 of every expedition." 



On the 13th June 1846, the " North Pole," carrying Dr Rae and five 

 men, and the " Magnet," with five men, set sail from York Factory along 

 the coast northward to Churchill. After a rough day, the explorers cast 

 anchor close to the shore at ten o'clock p.m. The night was beautiful, and as all 

 the men had gone to sleep, there was nothing to interrupt the silence around 

 but the blowing of a white whale, the musical note of the long-tailed duck, 

 or the harsh scream of the great northern diver. Yet though the night was 

 beautiful and still, Dr Rae found it impossible to sleep. On the first night 

 of such an undertaking as that of which he was the leader, the mind is busy 

 at once with the past and with the future, and the mixed emotions, natural 

 under the circumstances, banish sleep. Yet Rae could not attribute his 

 wakefulness to any inferiority of sleeping accommodation. He was lyinw 

 on a number of bags of flour, small but hard packed, over which he had 

 thrown a blanket. Each of the bags was like a round boulder, and it was 

 only at three or four points that his body was supported by them — at other 

 points it being necessary for him to accommodate himself to the inequali- 

 ties of the surface in the best way he could. " To a man," writes Rae, 

 " who had slept soundly in all sorts of places — on the top of a round log, 

 in the middle of a swamp, as well as on the wet shingle beach — such a 

 bed was no hardship ; but thoughts now pressed upon me which, during the 

 bustle and occupation of preparation, had no time to intrude. I could not 

 conceal from myself that many of my brother officers, men of great experi- 



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