INTRODUCTION. . 
Tue objects of Natural History collected by the last Overland 
Expedition to the Polar Sea, under the command of Captain Sir 
John Franklin, to which I was attached as Surgeon and Naturalist, 
being too numerous for a detailed account of them to be comprised 
within the ordinary limits of an Appendix to the narrative of the 
proceedings of the journey, I was desirous of making them known 
to the world in a separate work. As it was necessary, however, in 
order to render such a publication useful, that many of the subjects, 
particularly in the Ornithological and Botanical parts, should be illus- 
trated by figures, the expense would have been an insurmountable 
difficulty, had not His Majesty’s Government, actuated by a most 
laudable desire of encouraging science, lent a liberal aid to the under- 
taking. On an application, which had the approval of the Secretary of 
State for Colonial Affairs, the Treasury granted one thousand pounds, 
to be applied solely towards defraying the expense of the engravings. 
A moiety of that sum has been allotted to the illustration of the 
Quadrupeds and Birds, and the remainder to the Fishes, Insects, and 
Plants; and care has been taken, by employing only the first artists, 
to render the plates worthy of the high patronage the work has 
received; while their number will demonstrate the rigid economy 
with which the funds for their execution have been distributed *. 
* There are twenty-eight plates in this part ; and fifty admirable coloured ones, of birds, 
have also been executed. The botanical plates will likewise be numerous, and many of them 
are already finished. 
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