FIRST OCEAN STEAMER. 



573 



mountains of floating and tumbling ice. Captain Biscoe gave 

 to the discovery the name of Enderby's Land. Farther to the 

 west he discovered an island, which he named Adelaide, in 

 honor of the Queen of England. It presents an imposing 

 appearance, — a tall peak burying itself in the clouds and often 

 peering out above them. Its base is surrounded with a dazzling 

 girdle of snow and ice, which extends, though sapped and exca- 

 vated by the action of the waves, some nine hundred feet into 

 the sea. 



In 1836, the English Government appointed Captain George 

 Back — who had lately been upon a land-expedition in the 

 American Arctic regions in search of Captain and Commander 

 Ross — to the since celebrated ship Terror, for the purpose of 

 determining the western coast-line of Prince Regent's Inlet. The 

 voyage, though entirely unsuccessful, is one of the most remark- 

 able on record,— showing as it did a power of resistance and 

 endurance in a ship which till then was not believed to belong 

 either to iron or heart of oak. Back proceeded no farther than 

 Baffin's Bay, the Terror remaining for ten months fast in the 

 gripe of its "cradle" or " ice-wagon," as the men called the 

 huge floating berg upon which she rested. He was knighted on 

 his return, and his sturdy ship was put out of commission and 

 docked. It is a subject of regret that so splendid a specimen 

 of marine architecture, as far as strength and solidity are con- 

 cerned, should have met the fate which she has encountered. 

 Where she is no mortal knows, except perhaps a few inaccessible 

 Esquimaux ; for she has perished with her lost consort, the 

 Erebus, and their hapless commander, Sir John Franklin. 



In the year 1838, on the 23d of April, two ocean-steamers — 

 the first with the exception of the Savannah — entered the harbor 

 of New York. They were the Sirius and the Great Western. 

 They had been expected, and their arrival was the signal for 

 general rejoicings and the theme of universal congratulation. 

 Crowds of people — men, women, and children — assembled alone 



