THIRTY YEARS 
IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 
CHAPTER I. 
Sir John Franklin’s first expedition to the Arctic 
Regions was made in the year 1816, as Lieutenant 
under Captain Buchan, with the ships “ Dorothea” and 
“Trent.” 
' After much difficulty, these vessels gained lat. 
80 deg. 34 min., north of Spitzbergen ; but were ob- 
liged speedily to withdraw, and try their fortune off 
the western edge of the pack. Here, however, a wild 
war of ice and waves prevailed, so that choice and ne- 
cessity equally induced the bold experiment of dash- 
ing through it, to take shelter in the pack. First 
went the “ Dorothea,” and then the “ Trent,” whose 
crew seemed to a man imbued with the dauntless 
spirit of the Lieutenant in command. A dreadful 
pause preceded the critical moment. ‘Each person,” 
says Beechey, in his narrative, “ instinctively secured 
his own hold, and, with hig eyes fixed upon his masts, 
