478 THE FRANKLIN SBAECff— 18^8-51. 



natural law to decay and vanish from the earth in presence of the white 

 man. Perhaps too much has already been written on the necessarily ephe- 

 meral character of the ancient races of America. It is when the vices of the 

 civihsed are engrafted upon the uncivilised man that the latter dies out in 

 a very few generations. How would it be if only the virtues of the white 

 man were added to the " savage virtues " of the coloured races 1 Richard- 

 son, a keen observer and just thinker, states that, with proper management, 

 the natiu-al resources of the country around Great Bear Lake " would sup- 

 port a population ten times as great. But as long as all the drones of the 

 community claim a right to appropriate to their own wants the produce of 

 the exertions of an industrious hunter and fisherman, no certain provision 

 for the future will be made. The first step in advance," continues Richard- 

 son, "wiU be the formation of fishing villages, and the culture of barley 

 and potatoes ; and, under the guidance of intelligent missionaries, this might 

 be efiected without much difficulty; while, at the same time, the truths of 

 Christianity might be brought to bear on the heathenism and moral defects 

 of the 'Tinn^ (or Chepewyan) nation." 



The structiu-e and formation of ice is a subject which, prior to the date of 

 the Richardson and Rae expedition, had not, to any serious extent, engaged 

 the attention of travellers within the Arctic circle. This subject, how- 

 ever, formed a branch of scientific inquiry which offered many attractions 

 to Richardson; and the prolonged residence of that naturalist in the fur 

 countries of America afforded abundant facilities for pursuing it. The first 

 step in the freezing of rivers in the Polar regions, and after the water has 

 been cooled down by continued cold weather to the freezing point, or to 

 about 32°, is the formation upon its surface of circular plates of ice of from 

 six to eight inches diameter. " These drift for a time with the current, until 

 they have become numerous enough to cover the surface of the water, when 

 they are arrested in a narrow part of the river, or by any slight obstacle, 

 and speedily adhere to each other, after which the interstices between the 

 circles fill rapidly with crystals that bind all firmly together. The sheet of 

 ice thus produced is at first nearly opaque ; but, when, in the course of a 

 day or two, it has acquired the thickness of a few inches, it becomes trans- 

 parent, and remains so until a fall of snow has obscured the surface. In 

 unsheltered lakes, the wind drifts the snow to the beach, and would, perhaps, 

 keep the ice clear for a great part of the winter were it not that in certain 

 hygrometric conditions of the atmosphere small starry tufts of most beautiful 

 crystals are deposited at short intervals on the ice, and freeze firmly to it. 

 In a dry atmosphere, these crystals evaporate again, but should a fall take 

 place of the fine, dust-Kke snow, which is the most common kind in the high 

 latitudes, they serve to detain it until it consohdates, so as to resist the 

 wind. It is rare, however, for the snow to lie more than a foot deep on 



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