CHAPTER XXXIV 
SIR ALLEN YOUNG AND THE PANDORA. 
AMUNDSEN AND THE NORTH WEST PASSAGE 
In the same year that the English Arctic expedition 
was despatched, Sir Allen Young determined to see 
whether it was an open year for passing through the 
navigable north-west passage discovered by Sir Leopold 
M'Clintock. This depends upon the winds. If very 
strong winds from the north have been prevalent, the 
passage down Franklin Channel is choked with ice and 
impassable. If this has not been the case, the passage 
can be made. Sir Allen Young bought the gunboat 
Pandora from the Admiralty, a vessel built at Devonport 
for speed, and commissioned by my old friend Ruxton 
in 1863. She was well strengthened for Arctic work 
at Southampton. Allen Young bore the expense with 
some assistance from Lady Franklin and Lieutenant 
Lillingston, R.N., who went as his chief officer. The 
second was Navigating Lieutenant Pirie, and an ardent 
young Dutch naval officer named Koolemans Beynen 
joined as a volunteer. The Pandora was provided with 
a steam cutter, which proved very useful, three whale- 
boats, and four other boats. 
Allen Young paid a very interesting visit to the 
cryolite mine in South Greenland 1 where he found his 
old ship, the Fox. He took in a supply of coals at Kudlisit 
in Disco, and was fortunate in passing through the ice 
of Melville Bay. After leaving letters for the Alert and 
Discovery on one of the Cary Islands, he proceeded up 
Lancaster Sound to examine the depot on Beechey 
Island. He then went down Peel Sound in very thick 
weather. He was entering upon his own ground, his 
1 Ivigtut, the cryolite mine, is about 16 miles up the Arsak fjord. 
Cryolite is a white mineral found on the gneiss of S.W. Greenland and 
nowhere else — a double hydro-fluorate of soda and alumina. In 1857 
a licence was given to a company to work the mine to the amount of 
about 26 ship-loads yearly. 
