326 SEARCH FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE RESUMED. [1821. 



Upon the passage of this act, the union of the two companies 

 was effected, and a grant was made, by the king, to " the governor 

 and company of adventurers trading to Hudson's Bay, and to 

 William Macgillivray, Simon Macgillivray, and Edward Ellice," the 

 persons so named, representing the former proprietors of the North- 

 West Company,* of the exclusive trade, for twenty-one years, in all 

 the countries in which such privileges could be granted agreeably 

 to the act. Persons in the service of the company were, at the 

 same time, commissioned as justices of the peace for those coun- 

 tries ; and the jurisdiction of the courts of Upper Canada was 

 rendered effective as far as the shores of the Pacific, no exception 

 being made, in that respect, by the act, with regard to any of the 

 territories embraced in the grant, " not within the limits of any civil 

 government of the United States." 



About this period, also, the search for a north-west passage, or 

 navigable communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, 

 north of America, which had been so long suspended, was resumed 

 by British officers, under the auspices of their government ; and 

 expeditions for that object were made through Baffin's Bay, as well 

 as by land, through the northernmost parts of the American conti- 

 nent. The geographical results of these expeditions were highly 

 interesting, while, at the same time, the skill, courage, and perse- 

 verance, of the British were honorably illustrated by the labors of 

 Ross, Parry, Franklin, and their companions. The west coasts of 

 Baffin's Bay were carefully surveyed, and many passages leading 

 from it towards the west and south-west, were traced to considera- 

 ble distances. The progress of the ships through these passages 

 was, however, in each case, arrested by ice ; and, although many 

 extensive portions of the northern coast of the continent were 

 explored, and the Arctic Sea, in their vicinity, was found free from 

 ice during the short summer, the question respecting the existence 

 of a northern channel of communication between the oceans was 

 left unsolved. These voyages, independently of the value of their 

 scientific results, also proved most advantageous to the commerce 

 of the British throughout the whole of their territories in America, 

 as new routes were opened, and new regions, abounding in furs, 

 were rendered accessible. 



The Russians were, in the mean time, constantly increasing their 



* In 1824, the North- West Company surrendered its rights and interests to the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, in the name of which alone all the operations were thence- 

 forward conducted. 



