124 
HE VIEWS. 
“ Retracing their steps a short distance, advantage was taken of a strong N. W. gale 
to steer boldly across the land, in a southerly direction, in order to avoid the circuit round 
Land’s End, as also the execrable road. For some distance they travelled over a dreary 
plain, without a single object to relieve the eye; but at length they unexpectedly found 
themselves amongst ravines; and although by having to follow their tortuous windings, 
their work was increased, it proved an agreeable relief to the monotonous level. In one 
of the ravines, a tree, protruding some ten feet from a bank, was discovered; it proved 
to be four feet in circumference. In its neighbourhood, several others were seen, all of 
them, be it remarked, of the same description as that found on Cape Manning. A second 
tree measured four feet in the round by thirty feet in length, and a third two feet ten 
inches round. Several pieces were sawn off as specimens and fire wood. In appearance, 
Mr. Dean, our carpenter, declares it resembles larch, but in weight it bore a stronger re¬ 
semblance to lignum vitae, or iron wood; the additional weight was imparted by the 
soddened state in which it was found. When comparatively dry, it was tried as fuel, but 
its virtue had gone; it threw out little or no flame, but smouldered rather than burned, 
like so much tinder. The position of this decayed forest (for three trees in this country 
I consider entitled to the distinction) was, by supposition, about 400 feet above the level 
of the sea, being on the first step (descending) of the plateau, considered to be between 
500 and 600 feet elevation. The trees were found in lat. 76° 12' N., long. 122° W. 
near the head of Walker Inlet.” 
The loss of the “ Breadalbane ” transport ship has been frequently 
mentioned, and is thus described:— 
“ On the 20th August, the wind blowing strong from the S. E., the ‘ Phoenix’ and 
‘ Breadalbane’ were secured to a driving floe, about half a mile south of Beechey Island. 
The ice from the offing closed, and so effectually crushed the transport as to complete her 
destruction in the short space of fifteen minutes; the ‘ Phoenix’ narrowly escaping a 
similar catastrophe. And here I would respectfully call the attention of the theoretical 
savants to the fact that in the short space of a quarter of an hour, a vessel capable of 
navigating the globe disappeared beneath the surface of the sea, by the almost myste¬ 
rious power of a field of ice. The accident occurred at night, and was so unexpected, 
that the agent narrowly escaped with his life, being obliged to rush on deck, and scramble 
to the floe in almost a state of nudity. The ‘ Breadalbane,’ however, I must admit, 
was a hired transport, and was not strengthened, as she ought to have been, like all 
other arctic ships, and the agent had never been in the ice before.” 
The following we believe to he a fair account of the courts martial, 
which terminated in the somewhat dubious acquittal of Sir Edward 
Belcher for abandoning so many ships in the ice;—a step the propriety 
of which has certainly not been rendered more clear by the fact that the 
abandoned “ Resolute” found her own way through the dangers of Lan¬ 
caster Sound and Baffin’s Bay, and is now quietly rotting in one of her 
Majesty’s dockyards:— 
“ The abandonment of so many ships naturally excited great interest and much dis¬ 
cussion, and the proceedings of the court martial, which, as a matter of coui’se, was held 
on the various officers in command, were watched with no common interest. 
“ The Court was held on board the ‘ Waterloo,’ at Sheerness, and occupied three 
days, viz., the 18th, 19th, and 20th October. Admiral the Hon. George Gordon pre¬ 
sided ; the other officers comprising the Court were Captains Sir Thomas Pasley, of the 
‘ Royal Albert;’ Wyvill, of the ‘ Wellesley;’ Tucker, of the ‘ FormidableKeith 
Stewart, of the ‘ Nankin Seymour, of the ‘ Cumberland;’ and Fanshawe, of the 
‘ Cossack.’ Mr. W. W. Hayward officiated as Judge-Advocate. 
“ The first case proceeded with was the abandonment of the ‘ Investigator.’ Her 
captain, the present Sir Robert L. M. M'Clure, justified his leaving his ship by producing 
written orders to that effect, from his senior officer, Captain Kellett. 
