150 
REVIEWS. 
The following is a fair specimen of Mrs. Somerville’s style, and will, 
we "believe, be considered by most readers who are not possessed of Arctic 
maps, or who have not previously studied them, to be a somewhat unin¬ 
teresting description of the curious discoveries made by the searching 
parties who have been seeking the “Erebus” and “Terror” for many 
years:— 
“ The continent of North America seems to have been much shattered and broken up 
by the Polar Ocean into a vast number of fragments of great size, all bearing more or 
less the severe character of Arctic lands. It may be that the land is sinking down or 
rising up, for in either case appearances would be the same; but the climate would im¬ 
prove in the first, and would be, if possible, more rigorous in the second. Immediately 
to the north of the continent land of great extent lies between the 69° and 75° N. lat., 
and stretching nearly from the 60th to the 125th degree of west longitude. On the 
south, this mass of land is separated from the continent by various narrow straits, Dol¬ 
phin, and Union, and Dease Straits. The Arctic Ocean bounds it on the west; the 
Straits of Banks, Melville, and Barrow, with Lancaster Sound on the north; and its 
eastern limits are Davis Strait and Hudson Bay. It is divided into three parts by Prince 
Regent Inlet and the Gulf of Boothia on the one hand, and by Prince of Wales’ Strait on 
the other. The eastern part, known as Cockburn Island, is intersected by various arms 
of the sea, respecting which little is known. The middle part contains Boothia, Victoria, 
Wollaston, and Prince Albert Lands. Banks’ Island is the westerly continuation; its 
northern coast was discovered by Sir Edward Parry, who gave it the name of Banks; 
and Captain M‘Clure, in his voyage from Behring Strait, first discovered its most 
southerly point, Prince of Wales’ Strait, which separate it from Prince Albert Land, and 
afterwards all but circumnavigated the island. Besides these, three principal parts, 
North Somerset Island, lying immediately south of Barrow Strait, forms a northern 
continuation of Boothia, only separated from it by the narrow passage called Bellot 
Strait. 
“ North of that long line of narrow seas or straits, already mentioned, that stretches 
from Banks’ Island to Baffin Bay, lie Prince Patrick, Melville, By am Martin, Bathurst, 
and Cornwallis Islands, celebrated in the annals ofArctic discovery as Parry Lands. The two 
last are now known to be the southern continuation of Queen Land, discovered by Captain 
Penny. Beyond this is the great oceanic inlet of Wellington Channel, of late years the 
object of so much Arctic research, and forming its eastern side. The great island of 
North Devon lies more to the east, and ends in Baffin Bay; on the north it is divided by 
Jones Sound from North Lincoln, and Ellesmere Island, which is unknown, on the west, 
but it has been traced as far as Victoria Head in 78° 28' 21" N. lat., by Captain Inglefield, 
who discovered that it is separated from Greenland by Smith Sound, and that the latter is 
a strait leading from Baffin Bay into the Polar Ocean, an important discovery, confirmed 
afterwards by Dr. Kane.” 
In afterwards describing, in more detail, some of tbe discoveries of 
the Arctic voyagers, Mrs. Somerville makes some statements which 
prove that she did not read the narratives she refers to with anything 
like the degree of care requisite in one who aims at writing a book which 
may be appealed to as an authority:— 
“ Dr. Kane, a man of great energy and science, who, by his heroic courage and gene¬ 
rous character, was an honour to his country and to the age, left NewYork with Lieute¬ 
nant de Haven in the brig Advance, which, as before mentioned, was frozen up for nine 
months in Baffin Bay in an enormous field of ice. Dr. Kane left the ship with a party, 
and travelled for 800 miles over the ice, dragging their boats, in which they afterwards 
made a voyage of 1300 miles to the coast of Greenland. Before they came to the 82° N. lat. 
they had to pass a barrier of ice from 90 to 100 miles broad. The mean temperature of 
that icy region was 60° Fahr. (!!) chloroform froze, essential oils became solid, and chloric 
