ARCTIC VOYAGES. 
81 
and perhaps the most painful part of this tale of suffering is, that it all arose from an 
idea upon Captain Belcher’s part that he was gifted with prophetic powers as to a high 
range of temperature after the 22nd February.”— Osborn , p. 170. 
The probable position of the “ Erebus” and “ Terror” seems to re¬ 
solve itself into the question,—Did Franklin sail down Peel Sound, or 
down a supposed sound leading into Yictoria Strait, from the bottom 
of Melville Sound between Osborn’s and Wynniatt’s farthests ? As 
Captain Osborn himself surveyed one of these limits, his opinion is en¬ 
titled to be heard. 
“ The 7th of the month brought back the sledge party under Mr. Wynniatt; his 
turning-point was on the 26th May, at which time he was only fifty miles from the far¬ 
thest point reached by a party under Lieut. Osborn from Griffith’s Island. In both cases 
the land where each party turned back was strikingly similar, low, with off-lying shoals, 
and closely beset with stupendous ice. Since then, in the winter of 1853-54, two of Her 
Majesty’s ships, the ‘ Resolute’ and ‘ Intrepid,’ were caught in the pack, and wintered 
due north of this intervening fifty miles of ground ; and although the wind blew fresh 
from the north and north-west, they did not drift through any channel in a southern 
direction ; the natural inference therefore is, that the land from Cape Walker in Peel 
Sound to the Prince of Wales Strait is continuous. The drift chart of the ‘ Resolute’ 
and ‘ Intrepid’ is strong evidence, at any rate, in favour of such a theory.”— Osborn , 
p. 192. 
We do not concur in the inference here drawn from the drift chart 
of the “ Resolute” and “ Intrepid,” in the winter of 1853-54, for we 
believe that if a channel exists between Prince of Wales Land and Prince 
Albert’s Land leading into Yictoria Strait, that the Atlantic and Pacific 
tidal streams must meet at the north end of this channel, and that, there¬ 
fore, it is permanently blocked up with ice, like Prince of Wales Strait, 
and that no current sets through it, as the tides destroy each other at 
both flood and ebb. If we might venture to draw any inference from 
Wynniatt’s and Osborn’s descriptions, it would be that the “stupen¬ 
dous ice” which besets this coast and the adjoining islets, is occasioned, 
as in Banks’ Strait, by the existence of a channel in which the tidal 
currents meet—and it is also to be remembered that the unexplored 
coast is probably 150 miles, instead of 60, as there is reason to believe 
that Wynniatt’s longitudes are seriously in error, in consequence of an 
accident to his chronometer; and it is well known that the log reckoned 
by men’s feelings in a sledge excursion is always considerably in excess 
of the truth. 
Captain Osborn’s Appendix contains a most interesting account of a 
winter spent at Point Barrow by Captain Maguire, in command of the 
“Plover.” The magnetic observations made by this officer have re¬ 
cently been published by the Royal Society, and the meteorological ob¬ 
servations collected by the surgeon, Dr. Simpson, have been communi¬ 
cated to the British Association at their Meeting in Dublin, 1857. 
The voyage of the “Enterprise,” under Captain Collinson, remains 
to be put on record for the information of the public. It was, in many 
respects, one of the most important and successful of the Arctic voyages, 
either eastern or western; and our Arctic literature must be considered 
very incomplete without the publication of this volume. 
VOL. v.— rev. 
M 
