120 
REVIEWS. 
cumstances connected with the drifting of the vessels in the pack ice 
for many months. 
In September, 1850, the following vessels were assembled at Grif¬ 
fith’s Island:—the “Resolute” and “Intrepid,” the “Assistance” and 
“Pioneer,” the “Lady Franklin” and “Sophia,” and the “Advance” 
and “ Bescue.” The history of the “ Lady Franklin” and “ Sophia” 
is written by Dr. Sutherland; and that of the ‘ ‘ Advance ’ 9 and ‘ ‘ Eescue ’ ’ 
by Dr. Kane. In the latter book there is a chart of the path of the ships 
in the ice-drift, which appears to us to be conclusive as to the character 
of the tidal currents in the Wellington Channel. The unfortunate Ame¬ 
rican vessels drifted up the channel with the ice, until, on the 2nd Oc¬ 
tober, they attained a latitude of 75° 24', in a position a little south of 
that which we have assigned as the place of meeting of the Arctic and 
Atlantic tides in this channel. On the occurrence of the spring tides, 
the ice floe drifted slowly to the south, and carried the vessels with it 
into Lancaster Sound, where they came under the influence of the per¬ 
manent currents, which are continually employed in emptying Melville 
Day of its load of ice, through that Sound, into Baffin’s Bay. They 
wintered in the drifting pack, and were not finally released until June, 
1851, off Cape Walsingham, in latitude 65°. 
The following description of the commencement of this strange 
voyage in the ice is interesting:— 
“ The sound of our vessel crunching her way through the new ice is jiot easy to be 
described. It was not like the grinding of the old formed ice, nor was it the slushy 
scraping of sludge. We may all of us remember, in the skating frolics of early days, 
the peculiar reverberating outcry of a pebble, as we tossed it from us along the edges of 
an old mill-dam, and heard it dying away in echoes almost musical. Imagine such a 
tone as this, combined with the whir of rapid motion, and the rasping noise of close- 
grained sugar. I was listening to the sound in my little den, after a sorrowful day, close 
upon zero, trying to warm up my stiffened limbs. Presently it grew less, then increased, 
then stopped, then went on again, but jerking and irregular; and then it waned, and 
waned, and waned away to silence. 
“ Down came the captain: ‘ Doctor, the ice has caught us: we are frozen up.’ On 
went my furs at once. As I reached the deck, the wind was there, blowing stiff, and 
the sails were filled and puffing with it. It was not yet dark enough to hide the smooth 
surface of ice that filled up the horizon, holding the American expedition in search of Sir 
John Franklin imbedded in its centre. There we were, literally frozen tight in the mid¬ 
channel of Wellington’s Straits.” 
The observations on the phenomena of the ice-floe, illustrated as 
they are by excellent woodcuts, render this book of Dr. Kane’s the most 
valuable contribution that has yet been made to our knowledge of the 
laws of Arctic ice-drifts. 
The following is very suggestive:— 
“ This ice-opening was instructive practically, because it taught those of us who did 
not understand it before how capriciously insecure was our position. It revealed much, 
too, in relation to the action of the ice. 
“1. The first crack was nearly at right angles to the axis of the channel; the sub¬ 
sequent ones crossed the first; the wind being in the one case from the westward, and 
afterward changing to the southward. 
