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ARCTIC VOYAGES. 
We have been favoured by Dr. M‘Clintock with two letters from his 
brother, Captain F. Leopold M‘Clintook, from Baffin’s Bay. We now 
print them for the information of our readers; and also two letters to 
Captain Collinson and Mr. John Barrow, which have been already pub¬ 
lished in the “ Times” newspaper. To these we have added Dr. Walker’s 
“Diary,” published in the “Belfast News-Letter” of September 8, 1858, 
which many of our readers may not have seen:— 
I.—-CAPTAIN M'CLINTOCK TO DR. M‘CLINTOCE!. 
“ Commenced at Sea , April 26, 1858 ; 
closed at Holsteinborg , May 7. 
“ My dear Alfred, —As you are not likely to see me before 1859, I 
must only write you the reason why; it is capable of being made along 
story of, but I shall be as brief as I can. When last I wrote to you we 
were starting from that outpost of civilization—Uppernavik, August 6 
(1857), all well, but prospects rather clouded by the information we re¬ 
ceived there respecting the state of the ice and season. We reached the 
edge of the middle ice, or great ‘ pack,’ two days afterwards, a little to the 
south of Uppernavik, and finding it impenetrable, coasted along it up to 
Brown’s Islands in the depth of Melville Bay. The usual mode of getting 
round this bay is by holding fast to the land or fixed ice, which adheres 
to the shore, and extends for miles to seaward, and then making progress 
as the off-shore winds blow off the moveable ice or ‘ pack.’ 
“ But we found that all the land ice had been broken up, even to 
the foot of the glacier, which extends straight from point to point; and 
after waiting some days, a favourable change appearing, I took advan¬ 
tage of it to push straight across the bay for Cape York. There was 
indeed no alternative, but fortune deserted us: a change of wind and 
heavy gale closed up all the openings in the ice, and left us helplessly 
beset on August 18. 
“We continued to drift (as I expected) onward to the north-west, 
but a shoal, which it has been our misfortune to discover off Cape York, 
stopped the progress of several large icebergs, and they stopped the ice 
in which we were stuck fast. At length we drifted past the grounded 
bergs, but the season was gone—ice forming rapidly over every fresh 
crack or pool; and it became evident to all that we must winter in the 
pack, drifting, of course, wherever the winds or currents impelled it! 
You will understand how deeply I was disappointed ; at the very best, 
I could only hope for a release in the spring of this year in time to renew 
our work, should the efficiency of the ship and the crew be equal to the 
task. Thank God, this hope has been fully realized: we escaped from 
VOL. v.— rev. 2 B 
