PASSAGE OF THE "MIDDLE PACK." 659 



plies, and for such other duty in connection with said station as may be required 

 from time to time : Provided, That the President of the United States is authorized 

 to accept from H. W. Howgate, and fit out for the purposes of this expedition, 

 the steamship Gulnare, which vessel shall be returned to its owner when the 

 objects of the expedition shall have been accomplished, or when, in the opinion 

 of the President, its services are no longer required: Provided further, That the 

 United States shall not be liable to any claim for compensation in case of loss, 

 damage, or deterioration of said vessel from any cause, or in any manner what- 

 ever, nor be liable to any demand for the use or risk of said vessel. 



DEATH OF AN AFRICAN EXPLORER. 



Intelligence has been received at Paris that the Abbe Debaize, in attempting 

 to cross Africa, has died at Ujiji. He was commissioned by the French govern- 

 ment to traverse the continent from Zanzibar to the Atlantic, and to aid him the 

 sum of $20,000 was appropriated. He left Marseilles on April 21, 1878, and 

 organized his expedition, with nine missionaries and 400 camp followers, in less 

 than two months. On July 25, he left the coast and after passing a Belgian mis- 

 sionary expedition, he made his entrance with flags flying and music playing into 

 Kouihouron, the capital of Unyanyembe. Thousands of negroes gathered round 

 and received the travelers with boisterous and uncouth welcome. The Sultan and 

 Governor came out to the city entrance and conducted them to the building that 

 Cameron had occupied before them. In his report to the Minister of Public 

 Instruction the Abbe stated under the date of October 17, that hitherto his mission 

 had been lucky and that not one of the hundred men in his caravan had deserted. 

 The Abbe had been in good health all along and had managed to preserve his 

 baggage intact. 



PASSAGE OF THE "MIDDLE PACK." 



The southern edge of the "North Water" extends from Pond's Bay on the 

 west side in a northwesterly direction to Cape York, and there are three routes 

 through the middle pack by which it may be reached. The first and only safe 

 one is called by the sailors the "North-about Passage," along the Greenland coast. 

 The second is by entering the drifting pack in the center of the Bay. It is called the 

 " Middle Passage," and should only be attempted late in the season, when the land 

 ice of Melville Bay is generally broken up. The third, called the "Southern 

 Passage," is along the west side of Baffin's Bay, and can only be effected late in 

 the season, or after a long continuance of southerly winds. 



The earliest passage into the " North Water" was made on June 12, 1849, 

 and the average date of passage made by whalers for twenty-three years was July 

 13th. In the years 1825-28-32-33 and '34 the whole whaling fleet got through 

 to the " North Water" before the middle of June. John Davis was stopped by 



III — 42 



