Report on the Dominion Government Expedition to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Islands on board the D.G.S. Neptune, 1903-1904

by A. P. Low

PORT BURWELL TO FULLERTON AND BACK.

Having crossed the mouth of Ungava bay, a strong headwind greatly delaying the ship, we put into Wakeham bay on the south side of the strait, to test its capabilities as a harbour. A fine clear passage was found into the bay on a line from the east end of Prince of Wales island to the centre of the inlet; there are a few low shoals on both sides of this line, but all are well beyond the course. A high, rounded point connected by a sandy neck to the south side of the bay forms an excellent protected anchorage just inside the heads. A second anchorage was found about five miles farther up on the same side, opposite to an Eskimo encampment and close to a good stream of water. Anchoring at the lower place, we were visited in the evening by a number of natives from the encampment. Several books, given for distribution by the Rev. Mr. Peck, were handed out to them, and they immediately held on deck a service of song and prayer. These natives had never seen a missionary, but had learned to read from others at Fort Chimo who had come in contact with the missionaries on the east coast of Hudson bay.

Women’s Boat at Wakeham Bay.

A pilot, well acquainted with the southern coast of the strait as far as Cape Wolstenholme, agreed to accompany us to Fullerton and return again on the ship.

We started early in the morning of the 8th, and passed through King George sound, reaching Douglas harbour at eight o’clock, where we were boarded by two natives, each in his kyak, one of which contained a bear lately killed. A number of walrus were seen about the small islands a few miles east of Douglas harbour. Continuing close to the coast, shallow water was encountered while passing inside of Joy island, a few miles east of Cape Weggs, where suspiciously low islands fringe the shore. After considerable difficulty had been experienced in extricating the ship from this dangerous position, deeper water was followed to the cape, when the course was laid for Charles island. While steaming along the island next morning a ship was seen passing out of the strait, but too far away to signal. She afterwards proved to be the Strom, belonging to the French Fur Company.

The walrus, so plentiful last year about the western end of the island, were now absent; consequently we were unable to obtain a supply of dog-food for Fullerton. The course was next directed southward for Deception bay, in the mainland, opposite the western end of Charles island. When within a few miles of its mouth the water became shallow and the bottom uneven, so that the bay could only be approached with safety by sending the launch ahead to sound. It was thought that too much precious time would be lost in this undertaking, especially as it was known that a good harbour existed in the bay, where the whaler Arctic had twice anchored, so we passed westward close to the land in order to correct the survey made during the night on the trip eastward. About thirty miles west of Deception bay the mouth of another long narrow inlet, known as Sugluk bay, was entered, and the ship continued five miles up it looking for a convenient place for water. A shallow place was crossed at the mouth of the bay, probably due to the ship being too close to the eastern shore, but, inside, the water was found to be very deep, and an anchorage could only be obtained on the edge of the narrow mud banks close under the rocky cliffs of both shores.

In the small launch, the survey of the bay was continued to its head, some five miles beyond, where the ship anchored. At the head of the bay three families of natives were found, living in a state of destitution. This was their first direct contact with white men; they were somewhat shy and frightened, but a present of tobacco and biscuit soon made all good friends. These people do not visit any of the far away trading posts, but trade their furs with their neighbours on the east or west for guns and other articles of civilization.

Considerable difficulty was experienced returning against a very strong tide, and the ship was not reached until long after dark.

The following afternoon the remainder of the south coast was surveyed to Cape Wolstenholme, where we arrived at dark; then the ship was headed north across the strait for Salisbury island, the eastern end of which was reached early next morning. Following close along the steep rocky shores of the northern side, the northeast point was reached at noon. The weather throughout the morning had been bad, a strong northwest breeze bringing down frequent heavy blinding showers of snow. These showers became almost continuous, and towards noon only momentary glimpses of the land were to be obtained at long intervals. The tides here are very swift, and when the sky cleared a strong ice-glint was to be seen ahead. It was considered dangerous to attempt to enter the ice in such weather, with the unknown Mill islands directly in the course; we therefore turned back to pass south of Nottingham island. This decision proved wise, for next day the whole mouth of Fox channel was found completely filled with heavy ice drifted south from the northern parts of that channel. The condition of the Neptune’s stem did not warrant any contact with the ice that could possibly be avoided.

The northern side of Salisbury island rises directly from the water in granite cliffs to elevations varying from 500 to 1,000 feet. The surface of the island appears to be very rugged and barren. As a rule the shores are without harbours along this side, but at both ends there are deep bays protected by rocky islands, where safe harbours would be found if the water did not prove too deep. In all of the many soundings taken along the island, no bottom was obtained at two hundred and twenty fathoms; this is consequently the deepest water in Hudson bay and strait. Two large icebergs were grounded off the eastern end of the island, while a third very large one had penetrated to the head of the bay at the northeastern end and was aground close under the rocks. As these bergs must have come from Davis strait, there being no glaciers on the lands fronting on Hudson bay, they show a strong current from the eastward along the northern side of the strait.

On the 13th, having rounded Salisbury and Nottingham during the night, ice was met with at nine in the morning, twenty-five miles to the westward of the last mentioned island. The course was changed to south of west to skirt the edge of this great pack, and as it continued unbroken to the westward, the idea of passing through Fisher strait was abandoned, and the course was laid to the southward of Coats island. The passage was encumbered by ice until dark, when the ship lay-to awaiting daylight. The low southern shore of Coats was then followed westward to Cape Southampton, after which we headed away direct for Fullerton. When within a few miles of that place, on the evening of the 15th, we came up with the Scotch whaler Active, now bound homeward from Repulse bay. Captain Murray came on board, seeking the doctor. From him we learned that the Active had passed us, on our way out, on the 20th of July, when leaving the eastern entrance to Evans strait. She had come in early in the month, and after landing a number of miners at Lake harbour, on the north side of the strait close to the eastern end of Big island, had taken on board a large number of Eskimos from that place and from the vicinity of Kings cape, at the entrance to Fox channel. Great difficulty had been experienced in the ice while crossing Fox channel. Subsequently, little ice was met with until the ship reached Repulse bay, which was still solidly frozen, so that the Active did not get into the harbour there until the 10th of August. Frozen strait remained full of ice all the season. The Active and the whaling station in connection with it at Repulse bay both had a successful season. The catch of the steamer included thirty-three white whales, thirty-six walrus, and one Right whale affording 1,300 pounds of bone. The returns of the station were twenty-eight musk-ox skins, thirty white whales, and one small Right whale with 500 pounds of bone. In 1903 the combined catch included five Right whales with a total of 40,000 pounds of bone.

The Active on her way out would pass through Fisher strait, in order to hunt walrus at Walrus island and on the floating ice on the eastern side of Fox channel. Part of the large crew of natives would be put ashore at Kings cape and the remainder at the mica mine, where the results of the season’s mining, some thirteen tons, would be taken on board, together with the white men there, and the ship would leave for home about the 1st of October.

The Era had been met in Repulse bay, and had at that time not added to her catch since we left Fullerton. Captain Comer was again to winter in Fullerton harbour, and was on his way south to go into winter quarters. Including the crew, the Active had one hundred and twenty-three persons on board; the ship is quite small, and the accommodation and crowding can be imagined.

Fullerton was reached next morning, and we were soon boarded by the police detachment and our old Eskimo friends of the past winter. During our absence Staff-Sergeant Dee had made an exciting trip to Repulse bay in a whaleboat manned by natives.

The day after our arrival the Era entered the harbour, and Captain Comer reported the lack of success mentioned above.

We remained at Fullerton until the 25th, being busily employed in the meantime with landing provisions and coals for the police, shifting coal, and taking aboard ballast. Two of the policemen who had been left here in the spring were found to be seriously ill, and on the doctor’s certificate were taken on board invalided home.

The homeward voyage from Fullerton to Port Burwell was made in fine weather, and the only incident requiring mention was that the ice from Fox channel had advanced southward and westward nearly twenty miles since we last saw it. This necessitated our keeping close to Mansfield island. Our pilot was safely returned to his home in Wakeham bay, and Port Burwell was reached on the 1st of October.

The ship had not been at anchor in the harbour for an hour, when the Arctic, with Major Moodie and Captain Bernier, came in. Major Moodie brought the welcome word of recall to the Neptune, and after procuring some articles of equipment from us left again that evening, being in a great hurry to reach Fullerton before the harbour froze over.

A heavy gale of southeast wind kept us in the harbour until the morning of the 4th, when we rounded Cape Chidley and turned south bound for home. A fine passage was made down the Labrador coast, and on the evening of the 7th we reached Chateau, where telegrams were sent announcing our safe arrival. The trip across the Gulf of St. Lawrence and along the coast of Nova Scotia was rough. We arrived in Halifax on the 12th, looking somewhat weather-beaten, as was only natural after nearly fifteen months’ absence.

I cannot close this narrative without expressing the deep feelings of gratitude I bear towards Captain Bartlett and the officers and crew of the Neptune, for their unfailing and cheerful attention to duty throughout the voyage, an attention which rendered my leadership both easy and enjoyable.

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South Coast of North Devon Island.

CHAPTER IV.
AN HISTORICAL SUMMARY OF THE DISCOVERIES AND EXPLORATIONS IN ARCTIC AMERICA.

A summary of Arctic explorations must be confined to a brief statement of the objects and achievements of the various expeditions, and in consequence loses the charm of the matter of fact manner in which the dangers, difficulties and hardships are recorded in the different narratives.

The history of the exploration of the American Arctics opens with the first voyage of Sir Martin Frobisher, in 1576, and practically closes with the return of Sverdrup in the Fram, in 1902. The great land masses of the Arctic islands have now been outlined, and all that remains to be done is to fill in minor details.

The acquirement by Spain of all the richer parts of America followed close on the discovery of Columbus; at the same time Portugal laid claim to the southern route, by the Cape of Good Hope, to India and China, in consequence of the discoveries of Vasco da Gama.

England was thus debarred from these new fields of wealth, and it was the search for a northern and unclaimed passage to the East which stimulated, in the reign of Elizabeth, the awakening enterprise of London and Bristol merchants to outfit expeditions under brave and adventurous seamen.

The first attempt was made to the eastward, around the northern coasts of Europe and Asia. Although failing in the main object, a large and profitable trade was opened with northern Russia, which led to the founding, by Sebastian Cabot, of the Muscovy Company of London in 1553.

This company, through selfish motives, was unfavourable to the prosecution of a search for a northern passage to the westward, and nothing was attempted in that direction until 1576. In that year Sir Martin Frobisher, filled with enthusiasm by accounts of a mythical Strait of Anian, which was said to afford a safe passage between the Atlantic and Pacific, through the north temperate regions of America, resolved to explore the strait. Aided by powerful friends, he overcame the opposition of the Muscovy Company, and under the direct patronage of the Queen, he succeeded in outfitting three small clumsy vessels, two being of twenty-five tons burden each, the third being a pinnace of ten tons. These he provisioned for twelve months, and with the combined crews, numbering thirty-five persons, sailed from the Thames. High pinnacle land, covered with snow, was seen on the 11th of July, in N. latitude 61°. Off this land the pinnace foundered with all on board, and his other consort, deserting, returned to England.

Continuing westward alone, in a leaky ship with a sprung mast, high land was again seen on the 28th of July. Frobisher named this land Queen Elizabeths Foreland, but it was not until the 10th of August that a landing was effected. The following day, in N. latitude 63°, he entered the bay which bears his name, thus being the first to reach the great island of Baffin. He sailed a considerable distance up the bay, believing the land on his right hand to be the coast of Asia, while that to the left was the continent of America. The land on the north side of the entrance to the bay he named the North Foreland, while Queen Elizabeths Foreland forms the southern point. While in the bay four of the crew landed without permission, and were never seen again; in revenge for their supposed murder by the Eskimos, one of the latter was seized and carried to England, where he died shortly after arriving.

On his return to England, Frobisher was greatly commended for his voyage, especially for the hope he brought of a safe passage to China, and the Queen named the lands bounding the supposed strait, Meta Incognita.

A piece of ‘black earth’ picked up on Hall island was submitted to an alchemist, Baptista Angello, who ‘by coaxing nature’ obtained some gold from it, or said he did. On the strength of this discovery, money was immediately raised for a second expedition, with the sole purpose of bringing back ore. Three ships were again sent out under Frobisher, and returned well laden with the supposed ore. During the stay of the expedition in Frobisher bay several skirmishes took place with the natives, a number of whom were killed.

Fifteen ships were fitted out in 1578 for the third voyage, to bring home ore. Carried southward by strong currents, the fleet entered what was later called Hudson strait, and sailed several days westward through it before the mistake was discovered. If Frobisher had been on a voyage of discovery he might easily have entered Hudson bay, but the search for gold being the object he turned back, and entered Frobisher bay by passing through the strait to the east of Resolution island. On the 1st of August most of the fleet was assembled at the Countess of Warwick island, where the ore was mined, and all the ships loaded by the end of the month. The ore finally proving worthless, nothing further was done to continue the discoveries of Frobisher.

Ten years after the last voyage merchants of London determined to fit out another expedition to search for the northwest passage. The enterprise was entrusted to John Davis, ‘a man well-grounded in the art of navigation.’ Two vessels, the Sunshine and the Moonshine, were employed for the first voyage, with a combined crew of forty-two persons. Davis, on his outward voyage, landed on the southern coast of Greenland, and named the coast the Land of Desolation. One fiord in latitude 64° 15´, where the mission stations of Godhaab and Nye Hernhut are located, he named Gilbert’s Sound. Leaving here, Davis stood to the westward and northward for five days, and on the 6th of August, 1585, discovered land in latitude 66° 40´, quite free from ice. He anchored in the mouth of Exeter sound under Mount Raleigh, calling the north foreland Dier’s cape and the southern one Cape Walsingham. From here he coasted southward along the land, and rounded the Cape of Gods Mercy into Cumberland gulf, up which he sailed for sixty leagues to some islands. On his return he discovered that Cumberland gulf was separated from another long inlet, which, not recognizing as Frobishers bay, he called Lumlie’s inlet. Having crossed the mouth of this inlet, Davis then crossed to the south side of another great inlet, and renamed its northern point Warwick’s Foreland, while the south cape was named after John Chidley. Davis remarks on the strong tides met with in the entrance to Hudson strait.

On his second voyage Davis coasted the American shore from the 67th to the 57th degree of latitude, but added nothing to his previous discoveries to the northward of Hudson strait. Keeping near the Greenland coast, on his way northward, Davis on his third voyage reached latitude 72° 15´. The northern coast of Greenland he called the London coast. Leaving this, he sailed west for forty leagues, where he fell in with the ice of the ‘middle pack’ of the whalers; a strong gale then forced him south along the edge of the ice, so that no land was seen either to the west or north.

George Weymouth was the next adventurer to seek the northwest passage. He was fitted out by the Muscovy Company in 1602. On the 28th of June, in the Discovery, he reached Warwicks island, between Frobisher and Cumberland bays, and sailing northward he passed Cape Walsingham and nearly reached the 69th parallel, when the crew mutinied and forced him to return south. Passing around Hatton headland on Resolution island, he sailed a considerable distance up Hudson strait, and then returned to England, where he arrived on the 5th of August.

Captain John Knight, in the Hopewell, sailed in 1606, but the voyage terminated speedily and disastrously by the death of Knight, his mate and three of the crew, who were surprised and slain by the Eskimos.

Undeterred by these unsuccessful attempts, Sir John Wolstenholme and Sir Dudley Digges, in 1610, resolved to employ the Discovery, of fifty-five tons, in searching for the northwest passage, and nominated Henry Hudson to the command. He had proved his worth on previous voyages to Spitzbergen and to the Hudson river. On this, the last of his voyages, he first sighted the south shores of Greenland; eleven days later he entered Frobisher bay, but was soon turned back by ice, and so passed south into Hudson strait, which he followed westward into Ungava bay, where he was greatly obstructed by ice. Passing Akpatok island, which he named Desire Provoketh, on the 11th of July, he reached the islands of Gods Mercies, and thence sailed along the south shore of the strait, naming it Magna Britannia. He passed into Hudson bay on the 2nd of August, through a strait about two leagues broad. The southern head of this was named Cape Wolstenholme and the northern one, on an island, Cape Digges; a bold headland six leagues to the northward was called Salisburies Foreland (Salisbury island). Hudson’s journal ends on the 3rd of August, and the remainder of the melancholy story is told by Abacuk Pricket, who states that they were frozen in, on the 10th of November, in the southeast part of the bay, after sailing three months through a labyrinth of islands. Dissensions had early sprung up among the crew, and in the June following a mutiny broke out headed by Robert Juet and Henry Greene. On the 21st Hudson was seized by the conspirators, and, with his young son, forced into a small boat. The carpenter, John King, accompanied him voluntarily, while six sick men were also forced into the boat, which was cut adrift, never to be heard of again. On the way home Juet and other of the leading mutineers were killed by the Eskimos at Cape Digges, and the remainder only reached England after great sufferings from famine and other hardships.

In 1612, Sir Thomas Button, accompanied by Bylot and Pricket of Hudson’s crew, entered Hudson strait through the channel between Cape Chidley and Button islands. Having passed the strait, he continued westward, passing the south end of Coats island, which he named Cary’s Swan’s Nest, and reached the western side of the bay, to the northward of Chesterfield inlet, where he named the land ‘Hopes Checked,’ because his progress westward was thus arrested. Turning south, he followed the coast to the mouth of the Nelson river, where he wintered. His crew suffered greatly from scurvy, but an abundant supply of birds and fish in the spring recruited the strength of the men sufficiently to allow them to continue the voyage. This is memorable as the first instance of a crew wintering in the north and being sufficiently healthy to remain the following summer. This year’s voyage ended in latitude 65°, near Whale point in Roes Welcome. On the homeward voyage Button passed close to a large island south of Southampton, which he called Mansell, and not Mansfield, as it is now written.

The following extract from Prince Henry’s instructions for Button, dated 5th of April, 1612, shows the accurate knowledge of Hudson strait possessed at that early date: 8. ‘Being in; we holde it best for you to keep the northern side, as most free from the pester of ice, at least till you be past Cape Henry; from thence follow the leading ice, between King James and Queen Anne’s Foreland, the distance of which two capes observe if you can, and what harbour or rode is near them, but yet make all the haste you maie to Salisbury island, between which and the northerne continent you are like to meet a great hollowe billowe from an opening and flowing sea from thence.’

In the same year, James Hall and William Baffin went to the west coast of Greenland in search of a gold mine, at Cunningham fiord near the Arctic circle, which was reported to have been worked by the Danes. No ore was found, but traces of old workings were discovered.

Baffin, accompanied by Bylot, sailed through Hudson strait in 1615. He then passed north by Mill island and traced the northeast shore of Southampton island, from Sea-horse point to Cape Comfort, the last being according to his observations in latitude 65° N., longitude 85° 22´ W. Doubling this cape, the tide was found to set differently from what had been expected, and gave no hope of a passage in that direction, so he turned back. The following extract from Baffin’s journal gives his opinion as to the possibility of a passage westward being found leading from any of the channels entering Hudson bay:—‘And now it may be that some expect that I should give my opinion concerning the passadge. To those my answere must be, that doubtless there is a passadge. But within this strayte, whome is called Hudson’s straytes, I am doubtfull supposinge the contrarye. But whether there be or no, I will not affirme. But this I will affirme, that we have not been in any tyde than that from Resolutyon Iland, and the greatest indraft of that cometh from Davis’ straytes; and my judgment is, if any passadge within Resoluyton Iland, it is but som creeke or inlett, but the maine will be up fretum Davis.’

In accordance with this opinion, in 1616, Baffin sailed up Davis strait, his instructions being to reach if possible the 80th parallel before turning westward. By following the Greenland coast he was able to reach Horn sound in latitude 74° before being greatly embarrassed by ice. Here he met a band of Eskimos, with whom he traded for narwhal horns and walrus teeth. Being liberated from Horn sound, Baffin continued northward past Cape Digges, in latitude 76° 35´, and across the entrance of Wolstenholme sound to Whale sound, where he was again beset in the ice during a gale. After being released, he passed Hakluyt island and reached the offing of a great sound extending northward of the 78th parallel of latitude; this he named after Sir Thomas Smith. This was the northern limit of the voyage. He now turned south, passing Cary islands, and on the 10th of July anchored at the mouth of Alderman Jones sound, where a great number of walrus were seen, but no natives. On the 12th Sir James Lancaster sound was discovered, but could not be entered on account of the ice across its mouth. Baffin could not penetrate these sounds owing to the strong westerly winds blowing out of them. Finding the ‘middle pack’ immediately south of Lancaster sound, thickly jammed on the western shore, Baffin stood across to the Greenland coast, in more open water, and so returned home. In his report Baffin says that after having coasted nearly all the way round, he considers it nothing but a great bay, and draws attention to the importance of the whale fishery, which soon after was begun, and lasts to the present day.

About this time a Danish expedition, under the command of Jens Munck, sailed into Hudson bay and wintered in the mouth of Churchill river. The ships were unprepared for a winter in the north, and, consequently, the crew suffered terribly from the ravages of scurvy, so that in the spring, out of fifty-two persons only Munck and two others survived. These fortunately procured some grasses from under the snow, and as the water opened killed ducks and fish enough to give them strength to repair the smaller vessel, in which they reached home.

The Muscovy Company, in 1631, again decided to send out an expedition to search for a passage from Hudson bay, and entrusted the command to Captain Luke Fox. Having passed through Hudson strait he landed at Cary’s Swan Nest, and then rounded the southwest point of Southampton island, and proceeded to explore the channel between that island and the mainland, up to latitude 64° 10´, where he saw an island near the mainland, which he named Sir Thomas Roe’s Welcome, a name now applied to the channel as a whole. Fox’s instructions limited him to the coast south of latitude 63°, so he now stood to the south along the shore, passing Marble island, which he called Brooke Cobham, and the mouth of the Churchill river, and reaching Nelson river on the 10th of August. Keeping a southerly course for a fortnight longer, he fell in with Captain James near Cape Henrietta Maria. Having convinced himself that there was no opening to the west between latitudes 65° 30´ and 55° 10´, Fox turned northward and explored Fox channel to the east of Southampton island, naming the prominent points on the west side of Baffin island, King Charles his Promontory, Cape Maria, Lord Weston’s Portland and Point Peregrine, the last being the most northerly point reached.

Captain James was in command of a rival expedition, fitted out the same year, with instructions to explore to the south of the track taken by Fox. After parting with Fox, he sailed southward along the west coast, thoroughly examined it, and after several narrow escapes from shipwreck through grounding on shoals, finally ran his ship aground on Charleton island, and there passed the winter. James gives a woeful tale of the hardships caused by cold, lack of food and scurvy. He states that the cold was so intense that wine, sack, oil, vinegar and even brandy froze solid; that the cook soaked his salt meat near the fire to prevent it from freezing, and that the side near the fire was found to be warm while the opposite side was frozen an inch thick. This is a sample of James’ report, and shows what reliance may be placed on his other statements.

From the time of Charles I. to that of George I. England was convulsed with civil war and revolutions, and was at war with other nations abroad, so that for nearly a century after Fox no maritime discoveries were undertaken, and nothing would have been done in the north but for the foundation of the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Two French Canadian fur traders, named Radisson and Chouart dit Groseilliers, had for a number of years traded and lived with the Indians in the country north and west of Lake Superior, learning much about the great sea to the north, and the canoe routes leading to it. They visited its southern shores in 1659, and on their return to Quebec endeavoured to enlist prominent merchants there in a scheme to establish permanent trading posts on the bay, to be supplied by ships from Canada or France. Being unsuccessful, they crossed to Paris, where they found no one to advance the capital necessary to start the project. The English ambassador, hearing of their scheme, sent them to London, where they interested Prince Rupert and several influential men of the court and city.[^*] These advanced sufficient money to outfit a small vessel, under the command of Zachariah Gillam, a New England captain, who, accompanied by Groseilliers and Radisson, sailed through Hudson strait and down the bay to the mouth of Rupert river. Here friendly intercourse was held with the natives, and a small fort was built, in which the party successfully wintered.

On the return of Gillam, in 1669, Prince Rupert and his associates applied to Charles II. for a charter. This was granted on the 2nd of May, 1670, to the Governor and Company of Adventurers trading from England to Hudson bay. It states that

‘in consideration of their having at their own cost and charges undertaken an expedition to Hudson bay in the northeast parts of America, for the discovery of a new passage to the South sea, and for the finding of some trade for furs, minerals and other considerable commodities, and of their already having made by such their undertakings such discoveries as did encourage them to proceed farther in pursuance of the said design, by means whereof there might probably arise great advantage to the King and his Kingdom, absolutely ceded and gave up to the said undertakers, the whole trade and commerce of all those creeks, seas, straits, bays, rivers, lakes and sounds, in what latitude soever they may be, which are situated within the entrance of the Hudson’s straits, together with all the countries, lands and territories upon the coasts and confines of the said seas, &c., so that they alone should have the right of trading thither, and whoever should infringe this right, and be found selling or buying within the said boundaries, should be arrested and all his or their merchandises should become forfeit and confiscated, so that one-half thereof should belong to the King and the other half to the Hudson’s Bay Company.’

In 1670 the newly formed company sent out Charles Bayly, as Governor, to establish Fort Rupert at the mouth of Rupert river, in latitude 51° 30´, thus establishing their sovereignty by right of the first permanent habitation of the territory granted to them by the King, whose right was that of discovery by Hudson.

The French soon felt the competition of the English trading posts on Hudson bay, and sought to oust them, claiming the territory about Hudson bay by right of discovery and possession. They claimed that in 1656 the Sovereign Council of Quebec authorized Jean Bourdon to make discoveries in Hudson bay, and that he proceeded there, took possession in the name of the King of France, and made treaties of alliance with the natives. This claim is disproved by the journal of the Jesuits for that year, which relates that Bourdon sailed on the 2nd of May, and returned on the 11th of August, having been stopped by ice on the coast of Labrador, where a Huron Indian was killed by the Eskimos.

The Governor of Canada, D’Argenson, in 1661, despatched Dablon, a Jesuit missionary, accompanied by Druillette de Vallière, to the country about Hudson bay. They travelled by way of the Saguenay, but did not reach the watershed, their guides refusing to proceed on account of Iroquois war parties being between them and Hudson bay. The ravages of the Iroquois were such that no travel was possible in the north until 1663, when Sieur de la Couture with five men, it is claimed, proceeded overland to the bay, took possession of the territory in the name of the King of France, noted the latitude, planted a cross, and deposited His Majesty’s arms engraved on copper at the foot of a large tree. Sieur Duquet and Jean L’Anglois are said to have visited the bay the same year, by order of D’Argenson, and to have there set up the King’s arms. No mention of these important expeditions occurs in the Relations des Jésuites. The first Frenchman whose visit to the bay is undisputed, was the missionary Albanel, who crossed by way of the Saguenay and Rupert rivers, arriving at the mouth of the latter on the 28th of June, 1672, where he found a small fort and a boat belonging to the English traders.

The Hudson’s Bay Company, always energetic in establishing trading posts wherever the Indians congregated about the shores of the bay, had, by 1685, small forts at the mouths of the Albany, Moose, Rupert, Eastmain, Severn and Nelson rivers. All were trading posts except Eastmain, where a mica mine was worked for a few years, but finally abandoned as unprofitable. No attempts were made to carry the trade inland in direct competition with the French, whose coureurs de bois the English appear to have held in great respect.

Many complaints were soon made to the Governor of Canada by merchants and missionaries that the English posts on the bay were ruining the fur trade and demoralizing the natives; and he, knowing no affront in this quarter would cause James II. to break with Louis XIV., resolved, in a time of peace, to take possession of the English forts. The Governor accordingly sent a detachment of soldiers, under the command of Chevalier de Troyes, overland from Quebec, who, almost without a struggle, took possession of Rupert, Moose and Albany forts. This was the commencement of an intermittent warfare between French and English on Hudson bay, lasting until the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713. In 1690 D’Iberville sailed from Quebec with two ships to capture Fort Nelson, but was unsuccessful. War having been declared between England and France in 1693, the Company, assisted by warships, retook Albany, Moose and Rupert forts. The following year D’Iberville, with two ships and one hundred and twenty men, took Fort Nelson from the English; while a strong force, sent overland from Canada, easily recaptured Albany and Rupert forts. These latter places were a second time recovered by the assistance of the warships Bonaventure and Seaford, in 1695: while in the following summer Fort Nelson was recovered with the aid of four warships.

In 1697 D’Iberville again visited the bay, where he destroyed the English ships amongst the ice, and afterwards took Nelson, renaming it Fort Bourbon. By the treaty of Ryswick, signed in this year, each country returned to the other all places taken during the war, and retained those captured previously, thus leaving to the company the possession of Albany only.

Affairs remained in this condition until the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, when the French relinquished all claims to the territory about Hudson bay.

The first attempt at exploration inland was made by the Hudson’s Bay Company, in 1691, when Henry Kelsey, by order of the Governor at Nelson, accompanied some Indians to the interior. From his diary, it would appear that he journeyed, in a canoe, some distance up the Nelson river, and then tramped overland to the open country north of the Saskatchewan.

In 1719, the Company made extensive preparations for an exploration of the northern parts of Hudson bay. The expedition consisted of a frigate, commanded by Captain Vaughan, and a sloop by Captain Barlow, the chief command being entrusted to Captain James Knight, who had been governor of a number of the forts, but who was eighty years of age. The expedition sailed from England in June, well stored with provisions, with a house in frame and a large stock of goods for trade. Their instructions were to proceed to the northward, by Sir Thomas Roe’s Welcome, as far as 64° latitude, in search of the Anian strait. As the ships did not return to England in 1720, fears were entertained for their safety, and orders were despatched by the next ship to send the Whalebone, John Scroggs, master, in search of them. The instructions reached Churchill too late to be acted upon that season, and Scroggs did not sail until 1722. After considerable trouble with shallow water and shoals along the coast, he managed to reach Marble island, where pieces of wreck were found, but they were considered of no importance by Scroggs, who returned without continuing the search. Hopes were long entertained that Knight had made his way to the Pacific, and it was not until 1767 that the fate of the expedition became known. That year the Company started a whale fishery at Marble island, and one of the boats engaged in the fishery accidently discovered a harbour near the east end of the island; at its head guns, anchors, cables and many other articles were found. The wrecks of the ships lay in five fathoms of water, and the remains of the house were still in existence, with two skulls on the ground near by. Hearne learned from the Eskimos that the ships arrived late in the summer, that the larger one received much damage entering the harbour, that soon after arriving the house was built and that the white men numbered about fifty. When the natives again visited them, during the following summer, their number was greatly reduced, and the remainder were unhealthy. The carpenters were then at work on a boat. By the beginning of winter the number was reduced to twenty, and in the following summer only five remained alive, all of whom died within a few days after the arrival of the natives. That such a disaster could occur within two hundred and fifty miles of Churchill is astonishing at the present day, when so much more is known of the comparative ease with which long journeys may be made over the snow and ice in the springtime.

After this disastrous termination of their first expedition by sea, the Company was not eager to undertake another, but they were practically forced to do so by Arthur Dobbs, a zealous and enthusiastic advocate of the northwest passage. On his insistence, two sloops were sent northward from Churchill, in 1737, to open trade with the natives, and to look for a northern passage to the westward; the latter seems never to have been seriously undertaken, and did not at all satisfy Dobbs.

In 1741, Captain Middleton, who had been long in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company, was selected by the Admiralty to conduct an expedition of discovery up the Welcome. He sailed with two small vessels, and wintered at Churchill. The following summer he proceeded northward, and discovered Wager inlet and Repulse bay, the south headland of which he named Cape Hope. Being unable to proceed farther on account of ice, he walked fifteen miles to a high point, from which he saw a frozen strait, turning round the north end of Southampton island, with the flood tide coming from Fox channel into Repulse bay. On Middleton’s return, Dobbs was greatly disappointed, and preferred charges against Middleton to the Admiralty, accusing him of want of honesty in the report of his proceedings, and of concealing everything that told in favour of a passage, so that he might serve the interests of the Hudson’s Bay Company, which he, Dobbs, alleged would be injured by the discovery of a northwest passage. The honest reply of Middleton and the evidences which he adduced of the truth of his statements satisfied the Admiralty, but it was not until eighty years later that the correctness of his statements was verified by Parry. In the meantime Dobbs had influence enough to procure the passage of an Act of Parliament, offering a reward of £20,000 for the discovery of a northwest passage; and was also instrumental in raising sufficient money to outfit two ships to earn the reward. They sailed in 1746, and wintered at Port Nelson. Their captains agreed only on one point, and that was that they were not expected to explore Repulse bay and the Frozen strait, and, after an examination, that Wager inlet could connect only with the Welcome. On the 25th of August a council was held, and a ‘definitive resolution was taken to bear away without further delay for England’—‘the discovery being finished,’ as the narrative puts it. Both ships had entered Chesterfield inlet, which had been examined as far as an overfall or cascade. The account of this was not thought satisfactory in England, so, to settle the question the Hudson’s Bay Company sent Captain Christopher in a sloop to examine it again, in 1761. On his return he reported that he had navigated the inlet for more than 150 miles in a westerly direction, until he found the water fresh, but had not seen its end. On this, Mr. Norton was sent, in 1762, to trace it to its extremity, which he did, and found it to end at a distance of 170 miles from its entrance, in a fresh water lake seventy-two miles in length, and from twenty to twenty-five miles wide. In 1791 Captain Duncan examined, for the Hudson’s Bay Company, Corbets or Rankin inlet, which proved to be a bay, and Chesterfield inlet, which he found to agree with Norton’s description.

Samuel Hearne, a clerk in the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company, started, in 1770, with a party of Chipeweyan Indians, and travelled overland on foot to the mouth of the Coppermine river, where the Indians massacred a number of Eskimos. On his return journey he passed Great Slave lake, and reached Fort Churchill in safety after one of the most remarkable journeys ever accomplished.

This ended for many years the attempts of the Hudson’s Bay Company at northern exploration, their undivided energies being required to maintain the trade struggle with their energetic rivals, the North-west Company.

Previous to the conquest of Canada, the French fur traders had carried their trading posts beyond the great lakes, across the wooded country to Lake Winnipeg, and thence up the Saskatchewan to the foot of the Rocky mountains. Shortly after the cession, a number of Scotch and Canadian merchants acquired the rights of the old French company, and prosecuted the trade with such increased vigour as to greatly diminish that of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who in self-defence were compelled to establish trading posts inland close to those of their rivals. In this manner the interior of British America was soon dotted with trading stations that extended over the whole territory from the bleak shores of the Atlantic to and beyond the Rocky mountains. The strong rivalry for furs soon led to collisions between the partizans of both companies, and blood was often shed; the natives were debauched with liquor, and general lawlessness continued until the amalgamation of the companies in 1820.

The wars with the American colonies and with France occupied the undivided attention of the British nation until after the final fall of Napoleon, and during this period nothing was done to further the renewal of the search for a northwest passage, until 1817, when Captain Scoresby published an account of the great disruption of the ice in the Greenland seas, and pointed to the ease with which explorations might then be carried on in the Arctics. He was aided by Sir John Barrow, secretary to the Admiralty, who, by his writings and personal influence, induced the British government to again undertake a series of Arctic explorations.

Two ships, well equipped for wintering in the north, were fitted out to explore the regions westward of Davis strait. The Isabella, commanded by Captain John Ross, and the Alexander, by Lieutenant William Edward Parry, were selected for this undertaking. They sailed on the 3rd of May, and were first stopped by ice just north of Disko island on the 17th of June. Melville bay was crossed with some difficulty, and a delay of a week occurred near Cape York. At midnight on the 19th of August the Isabella was in latitude 76° 54´ N., with the Cary islands bearing southeast; this was the most northerly point reached. Ross considered Smith sound a closed bay, and named the capes forming each side of it Isabella and Alexander, after the ships. He stated that the sound probably extended eighteen leagues; sailing down the western side, the mouths of Jones and Lancaster sounds were passed, both free from ice, but Ross did not enter them. He described Lancaster sound as closed by the Crocker mountains. The expedition returned to England in October, having practically accomplished nothing beyond confirming the statements of Baffin made many years before.

The report of Ross was not thought conclusive by the Admiralty, and in 1819 the Hecla and Griper were commissioned to explore Lancaster sound. Lieutenant Parry was given command in the Hecla, with Lieutenant Mathew Liddon in the Griper. The ships, without much difficulty, reached the mouth of Lancaster sound, and sailing over the supposed Croker mountains, continued westward past Regent inlet on the south, and Wellington channel and Byam Martin channel on the north, reached the south side of Melville island, where the winter was safely passed by both ships in a small cove called Winter harbour. The following summer an attempt was made to penetrate the heavy arctic ice which forms a perpetual barrier across the strait between Melville island and Banks island; this proving impossible, the expedition returned safely to England in October, 1820. Parry on his voyage passed over nearly half the distance between the Atlantic and Pacific, and saw from his farthest western point the shores of Banks island beyond the middle of that distance. He laid down, on the north of his track, the chain of islands bearing the names of North Devon, Cornwallis, Bathurst and Melville; and on the south, North Somerset, Cape Walker and Banks.

Sir W. E. Parry, in 1821, made his third voyage to the Arctic islands, in command of the Fury, having as second in command Captain G. F. Lyon, in the Hecla. This time the attempt was made through Hudson strait and up Fox channel. The first season, he examined Repulse bay and went into winter quarters at Winter island, a few miles beyond the eastern entrance of the Frozen strait of Middleton, whose accuracy was proved after being long clouded by the reckless attacks of Dobbs. The ships were released from the ice on the 28th of June, and no time was lost in pushing northward, until stopped by the heavy ice off the eastern mouth of Fury and Hecla strait, where the remainder of that season and the early part of the next were spent in trying to pass through the strait, the eastern part of which remained continuously blocked with heavy ice.

A fourth time Parry tried to make the northwest passage, by way of Regent inlet. This attempt was terminated by the shipwreck of the Fury, commanded by Captain Hoppner. With great forethought, Parry caused all the provisions to be landed from the wreck and safely housed on Fury beach, where they were subsequently found by Ross, and were the means of rescuing his crew from starvation.

During the time that Parry was making his important discoveries by sea, Lieutenant John Franklin was employed in tracing the northern shores of the American continent. From 1819 to 1822 Franklin was engaged in leading an expedition overland from Hudson bay to the Arctic shores, in the vicinity of the Coppermine river. The Admiralty, who planned the expedition, knew practically nothing about the conditions for travel through the regions that it purposed exploring, and depended for aid solely upon the Hudson’s Bay Company. Unfortunately, at this time the quarrel between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North-west Company was at its height, and the resources of both were consequently greatly crippled. The North-west Company were far stronger in the Mackenzie river valley, and their rivals, who were to help Franklin, were unable to give him very efficient aid, or to supply him with a large stock of provisions; in consequence, he started from the outposts with almost no food, determining to trust to his hunters for the provisions required for his party. This finally led to disaster, and on the retreat from the Arctic sea, over one-half of the party, including Lieutenant Hood, died of starvation. Franklin left England in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s ship, accompanied by Lieutenants Back and Hood, Dr. Richardson and one seaman. They arrived at York Factory, and there met four of the leading partners of the North-west Company, who were held prisoners by their rivals. As these men had spent a number of years in the Mackenzie river country, Franklin obtained much valuable information from them. After a few days at York, the party proceeded by canoes from there, 650 miles to Cumberland House, on the Saskatchewan river, where the first winter was passed. The following summer the party, reinforced by a number of Canadian voyageurs, started northward in canoes, and reached Fort Chipewyan, on Great Slave lake, before the ice had melted. The expedition, now consisting of twenty-five persons, started away from Fort Chipewyan with one day’s supply of provisions and a totally inadequate amount of ammunition. Travelling to the north side of the lake, the party was further increased by a band of the Copper Indians, and all journeyed to Fort Enterprize, which was built near the edge of the barren lands, in latitude 64° 30´ N. The total distance travelled during this season was 1,350 miles. Venison was plentiful during the winter, but the supply failed in the spring, so that a start was made over the barrens without any food except such as fell to the hunters from day to day. The distance from Fort Enterprize to the mouth of Coppermine river is 334 miles. The first 120 miles were made by tramping with canoes and outfit over the snow; the remainder was made in canoes, and the mouth of the river was reached on the 21st of July. Turning eastward, the shores of Bathurst inlet and Coronation gulf were surveyed to Point Turnagain, in latitude 68° 19´ N. and longitude 109° 25´ W. The canoes were detained here for several days by a snowstorm, and a retreat was necessary as soon as the weather moderated. The course along the coast was therefore retraced to Hood river, and that stream was ascended for a short distance. The equipment was reduced to the smallest compass, and a course was shaped overland for Fort Enterprize, the travelling being through deep snow. Game was very scarce, and the hardships soon began to tell on the weaker members of the party, with the result, as before stated, that half the number succumbed to cold and starvation. The survivors were succoured by Indians on the 7th of November, and reached the Hudson’s Bay post on Great Slave lake on the 11th of December, and England in October, 1822.

In 1825-27, Captain Sir John Franklin resumed his exploration of the Arctic coasts of America in much happier circumstances. The rival fur companies had now amalgamated, forming one powerful company, with full control over the natives, and capable of rendering valuable assistance to an exploring party in the far north. Franklin, profiting by his former sad experience, had a large supply of pemmican prepared in advance, and stored at Fort Chipewyan. The journey from England was made by way of Montreal and the great lakes. After passing a winter at Great Bear lake, Franklin descended the Mackenzie to its mouth, and then surveyed the coast westward to Return reef, passing the northern end of the Rocky mountains, leaving only 160 miles of unsurveyed coast between his farthest point and Point Barrow, reached the same year by Captain Beechey in boats from Bering straits.

While Franklin was thus engaged with one-half of his party, the other half, under the command of Dr. Richardson and Lieutenant Kendall, were exploring the coast between the mouths of the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers. These surveys carried the exploration from Bering strait to Coronation gulf, with only a break of 160 miles between Return reef and Point Barrow, or through sixty degrees of longitude. The eastern end of these surveys was overlapped six degrees in longitude by the discoveries of Parry to the northward, and only a channel running north and south was required to connect them, and so complete the long sought northwest passage.

Captain John Ross, being anxious to remove the reproach of his former failure, and having been provided by Sir Felix Booth with a well-fitted ship, the Victory, of 150 tons, sailed, in 1829, with the intention of seeking a passage through Regent inlet. The ship was set fast in the ice, and finally abandoned in Victoria harbour, on the west side of Regent inlet, nearly opposite Fury and Hecla strait. The expedition was remarkable for the number of winters spent within the Arctic circle, three of them on the Victory and the fourth at Fury beach, where the provisions thoughtfully housed by Parry were the means of saving the crew from starvation. They at length escaped from the ice in their boats, and were picked up by a whaler in Lancaster sound. Sir John Ross surveyed the shores adjoining his winter quarters, and named the lower part of Regent inlet the Gulf of Boothia.

The chief discoveries were made by Lieutenant James Clark Ross, who, by several long sled journeys, traced a part of the shores of King William island, and of the west side of the peninsula of Boothia, up to the Magnetic Pole; also the shores of Lord Mayors bay and its vicinity in the Gulf of Boothia. During the retreat to Fury beach, Brentford bay was crossed several times without notice being taken of Bellot strait.

Considerable anxiety was felt in England, after two winters had passed without any tidings of the Victory, and Captain Back was outfitted by public subscription to descend the Great Fish river to its mouth, and there if possible, with the help of natives, succour the crew of the Victory. Back spent the winter of 1834 at Great Slave lake, and the following summer crossed the height-of-land and descended Great Fish river to its mouth in a heavy boat. Having been informed, by an express from England, of the safe return of Ross, he confined himself to geographical work, and traced the estuary of the river to Cape Britannia on the one side and to Point Richardson on the other, leaving only a short distance between his northern termination and the southern point of James Ross’ southern sled journey. The result of this journey left only 160 miles to the west of the Mackenzie, and thirteen degrees of longitude between Franklin’s Point Turnagain and the Gulf of Boothia to complete the northwest passage.

The Hudson’s Bay Company undertook to fill these gaps of unsurveyed coast-line, and sent an expedition under the direction of Peter Warren Dease and Thomas Simpson, an expert surveyor. The western section was first completed in 1837. In 1838-39 the eastern portion between Point Turnagain and the estuary of the Great Fish river was surveyed by the same intrepid explorers, without any loss of life to their party, and without other hardships than those incidental to travel in the Arctics. The boat voyages, by which these surveys were completed, were the longest ever undertaken in arctic waters, and embraced sixty-two degrees of longitude between Point Barrow and Castor and Pollux river, the most eastern point of Simpson. While surveying the coast to the eastward, Simpson charted the south side of Victoria island and the south side of King William island.

Unfortunately the advanced state of the season would not permit Simpson to connect the mouth of Great Fish river with Regent inlet, or with King William sea. This the Hudson’s Bay Company resolved to complete, and in 1845 selected Dr. John Rae for the work. Dr. Rae sailed in boats from Churchill to Repulse bay, where he passed the winter, supporting his party mainly by his own skill in hunting. The following spring he portaged his boats, by a number of lakes, across the Rae isthmus to the bottom of Committee bay, and surveyed the southern part of the Gulf of Boothia to Fury and Hecla strait on the east side, and to Lord Mayors bay on the west side, thus proving that land having the width of four degrees of longitude intervened between the Gulf of Boothia and the eastern bay of the sea explored by Dease and Simpson. Dr. Rae returned in his boats to York factory in the autumn of 1847, without losing a man of his party.

In 1824 Captain Lyon, in the Griper, made an unsuccessful attempt to continue the work of Parry and himself in Fox channel. He left England on the 20th of June, rounded Southampton island on the 30th of August, and stood up Roes Welcome, where excessively bad weather was met with. He reached Wager inlet on the 12th of September, and when riding out a gale lost his last two anchors, while the ship was rendered very leaky. In such a state he was unable to anchor, and was obliged to return home immediately.

A second attempt to continue Parry’s work in the same region was made by Captain Back, in 1836. He was in command of the Terror, and left England on the 14th of June. On the first of August he was among heavy ice, off Resolution island. On the 23rd he was working through heavy ice on the east side of Southampton island, and finally nearly reached Repulse bay, where he intended to winter, when he was driven back late in September, past Cape Comfort, out into the middle of Fox channel, where the ship became fast frozen in, and drifted all winter at the mercy of wind, tide and ice. Towards the close of February the floe broke up, and the ship was caught in a pressure ridge formed between great pieces of the broken floe. In this manner the vessel continued to be tossed about and squeezed until the 16th of March, when an extra heavy squeeze lifted the ship up and left her stranded on the top of a great mass of ice, caused by the piling of large broken cakes upon one another. The Terror remained embedded on this mass of ice, and drifted with it until released, on the 13th of June, near Charles island, in Hudson strait. Notwithstanding the terrible usage of the ship, Back managed to caulk and fit her, so that he reached the coast of Ireland, but there had to run the ship ashore to prevent her from sinking.

The Admiralty made no further attempt at Arctic exploration for nine years after Back’s disastrous trip. In 1845, they fitted out the Erebus and Terror with provisions for three years, and with the most approved systems of heating and ventilating, and other means of preserving the health and comfort of the crews. The command of the expedition was given to Sir John Franklin, with Captain Crozier, of the Terror, second in command. The other officers were carefully selected from among the most promising and energetic of the junior officers of the navy, while the seamen and petty officers were also of the best in the navy. The crews leaving England amounted to one hundred and thirty-four persons, of whom five were sent home from Greenland, leaving a total of one hundred and twenty-nine on board the ships when they entered Lancaster sound, and were seen for the last time. The fate of the expedition remained for a number of years unknown, although the British government spared no expense in the attempt to rescue the unfortunate crews, and, when the hope of succouring was gone, in a search for proof of their fate. Official relief expeditions were supplemented by others under private auspices, due either to Lady Franklin or to her appeals to the sympathy of the public for convincing evidence as to the terrible fate of her unfortunate husband and his companions. America joined forces with England in the attempt to rescue the expedition, and sent out a number of ships, to act in conjunction with the others, while France sent two gallant officers, one of whom, Lieutenant Bellot, lost his life while engaged in this work. As the conditions under which the searches were made were exceedingly difficult and hazardous, much time and energy were spent, and many risked and lost their lives. Twelve years passed before M’Clintock discovered undoubted proofs of the complete loss of the ships and the death of the entire crews. During this time thirty-five ships and five overland expeditions carried a host of eager searchers to the Arctics, where, incidental to their main object of rescuing the crews of the Erebus and Terror, they explored the entire northern coast-line of America and the shores of the Arctic islands, with such minute care as only their mission would warrant. To these search expeditions our intimate knowledge of Arctic America is largely due, and when the search was finished only the most northern islands remained for the future explorer.

At Beechey Island.

Before entering upon a short statement of the work of the search parties, the work and fate of Franklin’s expedition may be traced. His instructions were to enter Lancaster sound, and, when in the vicinity of Cape Walker, to penetrate to the southward and westward in a course as direct as possible to Bering strait. A quick passage appears to have been made through Lancaster sound to Wellington channel, up which the ships sailed to the seventy-seventh parallel, and then down again on the west side of Cornwallis island, returning eastward to winter at Beechey island. Many traces of a winter residence were found there, including sites of workshops, forge and observatory. Over 700 empty meat cans, all labelled ‘Goldner’s Patent,’ were found piled in regular mounds. A large quantity of similar tins supplied to the navy had been found to be putrid, and were condemned. This had probably happened to the tins left at Beechey island, and helped to hasten the starvation of the unfortunate crews two winters later. Three seamen died during the first winter, and were buried on the island. The next information concerning the fate of Franklin was obtained from a brief record, found on King William island by M’Clintock, in 1859. The record is as follows:

‘Lieutenant Graham Gore and Mr. Charles F. des Vœux, mate, left the ships on Monday, the 24th of May, 1847, with six men (to deposit papers on King William’s island)’—‘H.M. ships Erebus and Terror wintered in the ice in latitude 70° 5´ N., longitude 98° 23´ W. Having wintered in 1846-47 at Beechey island in latitude 74° 43´ 28´´ N., longitude 91° 31´ 15´´ W. After having ascended Wellington channel to latitude 77°, returned by the west side of Cornwallis island, (Sir) John Franklin commanding the expedition. All well.’

This was the original record, and a most mournful addition was made to it, on the 25th of April, 1848, after another winter in the ice. Here is the addition:

‘—(1)848. H.M. ships Terror and Erebus were deserted on the 22nd April, 5 leagues NN. W. of this—(hav)ing been beset since 12th Sept., 1846. The officers & crews consisting of 105 souls under the command ——tain F R M. Crozier landed here in lat. 69° 37´ 42´´, long. 98° 41´—paper was found by Lt. Irving under the cairn supposed to have been built by Sir James Ross in 1831, 4 miles to the northward, where it had been deposited by the late Commander Gore in June, 1847. Sir James Ross’ pillar has not, however, been found, and the paper has been transferred to this position which is that in which Sir J. Ross’ pillar was erected. Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June, 1847, and the total loss by deaths in the expedition has been to this date 9 officers & 15 men. F. R. M. Crozier, Captain & Senior Offr., and start on to-morrow 26th, for Back’s Fish river. James Fitzjames, Captain H.M.S. Erebus.’

The rest of the sad story may be shortly told: the distance to the mouth of the Fish river, from the spot where the ships were abandoned, is about 250 miles. They started from the ships dragging heavy boats on sleds. M’Clintock found one of the boats on the west side of King William island with two skeletons inside it; and the Eskimos told him that the men dropped down and died in the drag ropes. The Eskimos living at the mouth of Fish river said that about forty white men reached the mouth of the river, and dragged a boat as far as Montreal island in the estuary, where the natives found it and broke it up. The last of the survivors died shortly after the arrival of the summer birds. It is exceedingly doubtful, if their strength had lasted, whether they could have travelled over the thousand miles of barrens separating the month of the river from the nearest trading post on Great Slave lake, but at least a trial would have been made.

It is impossible to give in this report more than a mention of the numerous searching expeditions, and a brief summary of the geographical work accomplished by them.

1847-50—Sir John Richardson and Dr. Rae, overland, and along the coast in boats from the mouth of the Mackenzie to that of the Coppermine.

1848-50—Captain Thomas Moore, of H.M.S. Plover, and Captain Henry Kellett, of H.M.S. Herald, and Robert Shedden, in yacht Nancy Dawson, to Bering sea.

1848-49—Captain Sir James Clark Ross, of H.M.S. Enterprise, and Captain E. J. Bird, of H.M.S. Investigator, to Lancaster sound.

1849-50—James Saunders, Master of H.M.S. North Star, to Wolstenholme sound and Ponds inlet.

1849—Dr. R. A. Goodsir, in the Advice, whaler, to Baffin bay.

1849—Lieutenant W. J. S. Pullen, of H.M.S. Herald, boat voyage from Bering strait to the Mackenzie.

1850-51—Lieutenant De Haven, of United States navy, in the Advance; S. P. Griffin, of the United States navy, in the Rescue; Captain Horatio Austin, of H.M.S. Resolute; Captain Ommaney, of H.M.S. Assistance; William Penny, Master of the Lady Franklin, under Admiralty orders; Alexander Stewart, Master of the Sophia, under Admiralty orders; Rear-Admiral Sir John Ross, in the Felix yacht, fitted at the expense of the Hudson’s Bay Company, all to Lancaster sound.

1850—Captain C. C. Forsyth, R.N., commanding the Prince Albert, belonging to Lady Franklin, to Regent inlet.

1850-54—Commander Robert M’Clure, of H.M.S. Investigator, to Bering strait, Banks island and Lancaster sound. The crew abandoned the ship, and by walking over the ice to Beechey island made the northern northwest passage.

1850-55—Captain Richard Collison, C.B., of H.M.S. Enterprise, to Bering strait, Banks island, and along the continental channel to Cambridge bay, in Victoria island, near King William island.

1851—Dr. John Rae, employed by the Admiralty, descended the Coppermine, and traced Victoria island up to the parallel of the north end of King William island, in Victoria strait.

1851-52—William Kennedy, Master of the Prince Albert, belonging to Lady Franklin, to Regent inlet, Bellot strait and Prince of Wales island.

1852—Captain Charles Frederick, of H.M.S. Amphitrite, to Bering strait.

1852—Captain Edward A. Inglefield, in the Isabel, Lady Franklin’s vessel, to Lancaster sound.

1852-55—Captain Rochfort Maguire, of H.M.S. Plover, to Bering strait.

1852—Dr. R. M’Cormick, a boat excursion to Wellington channel.

1852-54—Captain Sir Edward Belcher, C.B., of H.M.S. Assistance, to Wellington channel.

1852-54—Captain Henry Kellett, C.B., of H.M.S. Resolute, to Lancaster sound, Melville and Banks islands.

1852-54—Lieutenant Sherard Osborn, of H.M.S. Pioneer, to Wellington channel.

1852-54—Captain Francis Leopold M’Clintock, of H.M.S. Intrepid, to Lancaster sound and Prince Arthur island.

1852-54—Captain W. S. J. Pullen, of H.M.S. North Star, to Beechey island.

1853—William H. Fawckner, Master, Breadalbane Transport, Beechey island; crushed in the ice and foundered.

1853—Captain E. A. Inglefield, of H.M.S. Phœnix, and Lieutenant Elliott, of the store ship Diligence, to Beechey island.

1853—Dr. John Rae, under Admiralty orders, by sled to Victoria island, and by boat voyage to Victoria strait.

1854—Captain E. A. Inglefield, of H.M.S. Phœnix, and Commander Jenkins, of H.M.S. Talbot, to Beechey island.

1853-54—Dr. John Rae, boat expedition at the expense of the Hudson’s Bay Company, to Repulse bay, and the east side of King William island, bringing the first intelligence of the loss of the Erebus and Terror, and of all their crews.

1853-55—Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, of the United States navy, to Smith sound, Humboldt glacier and Grinnell land.

1855—Chief factor John Anderson, of the Hudson’s Bay Company, canoe voyage down the Great Fish river to Montreal island and Point Ogle, procuring further relics of the Erebus and Terror.

1857-59—Captain F. L. M’Clintock, R.N., in the Fox, Lady Franklin’s yacht, to Peel sound, Regent inlet, Bellot strait, King William island and Montreal island, bringing precise intelligence of the fate of the Erebus and Terror, and a short record of their proceedings.

The above list is taken from ‘The Polar Regions,’ by Sir John Richardson, and gives a very brief statement of the numerous expeditions sent out in search of these ill-fated ships. Lengthy records of most of these expeditions have been published, in which the trials and hardships undergone are recorded in a matter-of-fact way, without any attempt to excite sympathy, and all honour should be paid to the memory of these men, many of them volunteers, for the dangers they passed through in the endeavour to rescue their fellowmen from terrible death by starvation and cold in the inaccessible Arctics. Many lost their own lives, while others drifted all winter in ships crushed between great floes of arctic ice; others, again, travelled through the northern winter, with its short days and intensely cold nights, with only a fireless tent to shield them from death in the howling storms which sweep the treeless regions; all did their duty, and were faithful unto death.

A summary made shortly after the search ended, gives the length of coast-line examined by the various searching parties as follows: Sir James Ross, in 1849, explored 990 miles of coast-line on the eastern side of Peel strait, in Lancaster sound and in Regent inlet; Captain Austen traced 6,087 miles; Sir Edward Belcher and Captain Kellett, 9,432 miles; Sir Robert M’Clure, 2,350 miles; Captain Collison in his voyage to Cambridge bay, and Dr. Rae on the same coasts, 1,030 miles, making in all, 21,500 miles of coast-line examined, of which 5,780 miles were previously unknown. From this summary the search of the American expeditions is omitted, as well as those of Lady Franklin’s private expeditions, all of which would add greatly to the total. Admiral Sir F. L. M’Clintock has estimated the amount of money expended by the British government on Arctic research, including the outfitting of the Erebus and Terror, at £272,000, and on the relief and search expeditions, £675,000; to this must be added the money subscribed for private expeditions, amounting to £35,000. The expeditions fitted out in the United States, mostly by private subscriptions, cost over $250,000. Admiral M’Clintock has further estimated that the number of miles traversed by sled expeditions only, over ice and land, is about 43,000 miles. His views as regards the economic and scientific value of the Arctic explorations are as follows:

‘The benefits, doubtless, have been very great; to whaling commerce it has opened up all to the north and west of Davis strait and Hudson strait; also to the north of Bering strait. The value of these fisheries alone amounts to very many millions sterling into the pockets of English and American traders. The scientific results are very varied, and ample in almost every department, and peculiarly so in magnetism, meteorology, the tides, geographical discoveries, geology, botany and zoology, as shown by the general advance in each branch. Upon naval impulse the influence has been truly great; we could man an expedition with English naval officers.’

The exploration of Smith sound, the northern inlet to Baffin bay, was commenced during the search for Franklin. In 1852, Captain Inglefield left England, in the screw schooner Isabel, with the intention of searching the deep northern inlets of Baffin bay for traces of Franklin, and with the hope of reaching the open Polar sea through Smith sound. Cape Farewell was sighted on the 30th of July, and Cape York on the 21st of August where a number of natives were seen in the vicinity. At North Omenak native caches of meat and winter clothing were found. On the 26th Cape Alexander, the farthest point seen by Baffin, was passed, with an open sea to the northward. On the 27th he reached latitude 78° 21´ N. one hundred and forty miles beyond any previous navigator. He was forced by a strong northerly gale and low temperature to retreat south, and on his way entered Jones sound, which he explored to latitude 76° 11´ N. and longitude 84° 10´ W. He then entered Lancaster sound, and visited Beechey island, after which, turning homeward, he did not cross the Arctic circle until the 12th of October.

In 1853, Dr. Elisha Kent Kane left New York in the brig Advance, fitted out by Henry Grinnell and George Peabody, to assist in the search for Franklin. The Advance entered Smith sound on the 7th of August, and, after considerable danger and trouble with ice, was moored in Rensselaer bay, from which she never emerged. This wintering place was about 120 miles north of any previously attained, being in latitude 78° 38´ and longitude 70° 40´. Kane confined his explorations to the Greenland side of the sound, and personally reached the southern edge of the great Humboldt glacier, while Dr. Hayes, surgeon to Kane, crossed Kane basin to the neighbourhood of Cape Fraser, and William Morton, on the Greenland coast, passed the Humboldt glacier and attained latitude 80° 35´ in the vicinity of Cape Constitution, where from an elevation of 500 feet he saw open water in Kennedy channel extending to the north as far as the eye could reach. In July, 1854, the ice being still firm, Kane attempted to reach Beechey island, where he knew that assistance could be obtained, but had to return before reaching Cape Parry. At the end of August, Hayes and eight others of the crew left the ship with the intention of reaching the Danish settlement of Upernivik; they returned in December, nearly dead of starvation and cold. The vessel was formally abandoned on the 20th of May following, and on the 17th of June the boats were launched in open water near Cape Alexander. Cape York was doubled on the 21st of July, and the greatly reduced party reached Upernivik on the 6th of August.

Dr. I. I. Hayes was the next to attempt to reach the supposed open sea, by way of Smith sound. He left Boston, in the schooner United States, on the 7th of July, 1860, and on the 12th of August reached Upernivik, where he added six natives to his crew, bringing the total number up to twenty-one. Meeting with a succession of northerly gales off Cape Alexander, Hayes was obliged to winter south of Littleton island, in Foulke fiord, in latitude 78° 18´ N. He first tried to explore the Greenland coast, but was obliged to abandon the attempt on account of the very rough ice. He then determined to cross Kane basin and follow the west coast northward. Thirty-eight days were occupied in crossing the seventy miles between the ship and Cape Hawkes, after which he claims that six days’ travel brought him to Cape Lieber, situated 170 miles beyond Cape Hawkes; this is evidently a mistake. The ship was released on the 10th of July, and the passage north being barred by solid ice, Hayes crossed to the west side, and explored the coast southward from Cape Sabine to Cape Isabella before returning home. He was thus making good the claim of being the first white man to tread the shores of Ellesmere island.

The next expedition to Smith sound was commanded by Charles F. Hall, in the Polaris. Hall had previously spent two years among the natives at Frobisher bay, the charting of which is due to his efforts. On his return from this first trip he went, in a whaler, to Roes Welcome, where he again lived with and like the natives, in an attempt to recover the logs and other records of the Erebus and Terror. He remained in the country for four winters before he succeeded in reaching the southern shores of King William island; he was unsuccessful in his quest. Hall throughout his journeys kept a voluminous journal; he took meteorological observations and observations for his position. His instruments appear to have been not of the best, and Hall seems to have had a great faith in the statements of the natives, a faith that was often abused; in consequence, much of his information from that source is quite unreliable.

To return to the Polaris expedition, fitted out by the United States government, with the object of reaching the North Pole. She left New York on the 29th of June, 1871, with a crew of twenty-three, which was increased by ten Greenlanders. Melville bay was crossed in thirty-four hours, and Smith sound being free of ice, an almost uninterrupted passage was made through Kane basin and Kennedy channel, so that the Polar ocean was reached on the 31st of August in latitude 82° 11´, to the northwest of Repulse harbour, where heavy, ancient, arctic ice stopped further progress. Returning southward, the Polaris went into winter quarters at Thank God harbour. Hall, in October, reached Cape Brevoort, but died suddenly shortly after his return, and this calamity put a stop to further efforts to reach the Pole. Some explorations were made in the early spring before it was decided to return home. On the way south the ship was caught in the ice in Kennedy channel, on the 14th of August, and remained fast in the pack until the 15th of October, when a furious gale broke up the pack, in sight of Northumberland island, after nearly destroying her in the process of disruption. When this occurred several of the party who were on the ice landing stores were left, and drifted southward 1,500 miles on the ice, being rescued by the Tigress, off the coast of Labrador, on the 30th of April, 1872. The vessel was beached at Life Boat cove, and the remainder of the crew passed the winter in safety in a house built from the wreck. During the winter two boats were built, in which the party started to retreat on Upernivik, but were fortunately rescued by a relief steamer in the vicinity of Cape York.

The British Government, in 1875, fitted out an expedition with Captain George Nares in command of the Alert, and Captain Stephenson, second in command, on the Discovery, while the complete crews numbered one hundred and thirty officers and men, with three native dog-drivers. The instructions, which were to proceed up Smith sound, indicated that the primary object of the expedition was to attain the highest northern latitude, and, if possible, the North Pole, including explorations to the adjacent coasts from winter quarters. The ships left England on the 29th of May, and Cape York was reached on the 25th of July, after very little trouble with the ice. Here the first of a series of caches of provisions was established, to provide for the safety of the crews in case they were obliged to abandon the ships and retreat southward over the ice. These caches were not used, and being left for future explorations were the means of preserving life in the survivors of Greely’s party some years later.

From Cape York the passage northward was a constant struggle with immense floes of heavy ice, so that it was the 25th of August before the Discovery anchored for the winter in Discovery harbour. The Alert pushed on, and reached Floeberg beach, in latitude 82° 25´ N., and longitude 61° 30´ W., where further progress was barred by the heavy ancient ice of the Polar sea, to which Nares has given the name paleocrystic, to distinguish it from the ice of more southern waters, which is formed annually. Here the Alert was moored for the winter, exposed to the crushing action and movement of these solid floes, in a latitude far north of that before attained by any ship. Depots of provisions were established during the autumn by sledging parties for use in the following spring. On the 3rd of April seven sleds, manned by fifty-three men and officers, left the Alert for northern explorations. One party, under Commander Markham, was to push northward over the frozen ocean; the other, under Lieutenant Aldrich, to explore the north coast of Grinnell land. Markham, after great toil and hardships, hauling heavy sledges and boats over exceedingly rough ice, and with five of his eighteen men helpless from the effects of scurvy, succeeded in reaching a point on the ice in latitude 83° 20´ 26´´, the farthest north to that date. The health of the men became worse on the return journey, and if Lieutenant Parr had not, by a forced march of twenty-four hours, reached the ship for assistance, all would probably have been lost; as it was, one died and eleven others had to be dragged to the ship.

Lieutenant Aldrich surveyed two hundred and twenty miles of new coast, reaching, on the 18th of May, Point Albert, in 82° 16´, and 85° 33´ W. His party, also attacked by scurvy, would not have reached the ship without assistance.

Exploring parties were, at the same time, in the field from the Discovery. Lieutenant Archer explored Franklin sound and reached the head of Archer fiord. Lieutenant Beaumont left the ship with two sleds, and, after first visiting the Alert, crossed Robeson channel to Repulse harbour, on the coast of Greenland. He succeeded in reaching with one man, the eastern side of Sherard Osborne fiord, in 82° 20´ N. and 50° 45´ W., on the 20th of May. The return was made under distressing circumstances; only Beaumont and one man were free from scurvy when Repulse harbour was reached. The ice in Robeson channel was too rotten to cross with his crew of invalids, and but for the timely arrival of a relief party all would have perished. Two men died, and only with great difficulty did the remainder reach the ship. Owing to the scurvy, Captain Nares wisely determined to return home. The disease had attacked almost every man on the ships outside the officers, but it is a mystery why it should have played such ravages on an expedition fitted out and provisioned with all possible precautions against the disease; the only explanation given is that the men were over-worked, slept in damp clothes, and were regularly served with a liberal ration of spirits. The Alert left Floeberg beach on the 31st of July, and on the 9th of September both vessels safely reached the open sea, and recrossed the Arctic circle on the 4th of October.

In 1881 the United States government determined to establish a meteorological station in connection with the international polar stations in the region of Smith sound. Congress voted an appropriation of $25,000 for this expedition, a sum ridiculously small, as only $6,000 remained after paying for the transport of the party to their destination. The expedition was under the command of Lieutenant A. W. Greely, and was composed of officers and men from the United States army, none of whom had had previous experience in Arctic work. The party, numbering twenty-six, sailed from St. John’s, Newfoundland, in the steam sealer Proteus, on the 4th of July, 1881. At Upernivik two Eskimo dog-drivers were added to their number. Little trouble was experienced from the ice until the ship reached Discovery bay, where the station was to be located, and after a short delay the party was landed on the 11th of August. Two men found to be physically unfit were sent home. A house was soon erected, and the observation work carried on regularly during the time that the expedition remained there. In the spring of 1882 several sled journeys were made, the most important being that of Lieutenant Lockwood, who crossed Kennedy channel, and passing northeastward along the coast of Greenland pushed beyond the farthest point reached by Lieutenant Beaumont, and succeeded in reaching latitude 83° 23´ N., the highest attained at that time. The Neptune attempted to relieve them during the summer of 1882, but found Smith sound blocked with ice. The second autumn and spring were spent in making explorations, chiefly in Ellesmere island. Lockwood attempted to pass his previous record, but was prevented by the loose ice and the rugged mountains along the northern coast. As no relief ship arrived and parts of the supplies were running short, a retreat was decided upon, and the party started south in a steam launch and two boats, on the 11th of August. Great trouble was experienced in the heavy ice, and they were obliged to abandon their boats on the 10th of September, after having been beset by the ice for two weeks. Land was reached at Cape Sabine on the 29th of September, where a poor shelter of stones and canvas was erected, in which the party passed the winter. Their provisions comprised the remainder of the food taken with them, and a small quantity landed from the Proteus after that vessel sank from an ice nip while trying to reach Greely a few weeks earlier in the season. The bulk of their provisions was obtained from the caches left by Nares in 1875. Exposure to the weather had nearly ruined everything left in the caches, but their contents, even in this shape, were of great assistance to these famished men; without them all would have succumbed; as it was, only seven survived the hardships and starvation, when the rescue steamer arrived on the 22nd of June, 1883.

The next Arctic work was the crossing of the Greenland ice-cap, in 1893, by Nansen, who landed on the eastern side, and with a few companions succeeded in passing over the immense fields of ice and snow, coming out on the coast of the western side to the southward of Disko.

Lieutenant R. E. Peary, United States navy, spent eight winters in the regions about Smith sound. During these years none of the ships engaged to take supplies to him were able to penetrate more than the southern portion of Smith sound, and consequently Peary had to haul all his provisions and outfit over the very rough ice in dog-sleds two hundred miles before he arrived at the original starting point of Beaumont and Lockwood. This was a handicap of the severest description, and Peary deserves the greatest credit for the manful way in which he overcame it, and succeeded in not only crossing the ice-cap of the northern part of Greenland, but also in tracing its northern outline far to the eastward, and so establishing the certainty of the island character of that supposed peninsula.

The last of the expeditions to the Smith sound region was that headed by Captain Sverdrup, in the famous Fram. This expedition started with the intention of exploring the northern part of Greenland, but found Smith sound blocked with ice, and the Fram was obliged to pass the winter of 1898-99 at Cape Sabine, where Greely’s party passed their last winter. In the spring, parties from the ship explored Hayes sound, and crossed Ellesmere island to its west coast. In 1899 Smith sound continued closed, and Sverdrup returned south with the intention of exploring Jones sound. Taking the Fram up that channel, he went into the second winter quarters on its north side, in a small fiord on the south coast of Ellesmere island. During the following spring two long sled journeys were made to the north and west, occupying seventy-six and ninety days respectively. The Fram broke out of winter quarters on the 9th of August, 1901, and proceeding westward was beset off the north coast of Grinnell peninsula until the middle of September, when she was again released, and reached winter quarters in Belcher channel at the western end of Jones sound. In the spring of 1902 two long journeys were again undertaken by Sverdrup and Isacksen, involving important discoveries. The Fram could not be released, and a fourth winter had to be faced. Sverdrup made his longest and most important journey in the spring of 1902, while his companions were making minor trips. On the 6th of August the Fram was released, and returned to Norway, after having completed the last great and important work that remained to be done in the Arctics, thus finishing the work begun three centuries ago. The principal achievements were the mapping of Jones sound and the western side of Ellesmere island, the discovery of a large island lying on the west side of Ellesmere island, and two other large islands in latitude 79°, extending westward to longitude 106° W., which is that of the eastern side of Melville island, while North Cornwall and Findlay islands were seen to the south. To the westward and northward no signs of land were seen, and the ancient Arctic ice was found pressing on the coasts of these new northern islands, so that the line of drift pressure can now be traced from Bering sea to the east coast of Greenland.

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[*]	Another version, however, of the origin of the Hudson’s Bay Company, states that the two Frenchmen went to Boston, New England, where they met Sir George Carteret (or Cartwright), who gave them letters of introduction to King Charles.

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Frenchman Cove, Cyrus Field Bay.

CHAPTER V.
THE ARCTIC ISLANDS.

Little is known of the interior of even the more southerly of the Arctic islands. Up to the present time exploration has been largely confined to their coasts, with only a few isolated lines run across their interiors. In this way, however, sufficient knowledge has been obtained to give a general idea of the geography, which will probably be greatly modified when future explorations have given more information.

Thanks to the work done by the numerous search parties for the unfortunate Franklin and his companions, the coast lines of many of even the most northern islands have been thoroughly explored. The work left undone by these parties has since been practically finished by the British expedition of 1875, and by the work of Greely, Peary and Sverdrup.

The physical features of the coasts visited by the Neptune have been described in detail in the narrative of the voyage, and need not be repeated here. All other information concerning the geography of these northern lands has been obtained from the printed records of earlier Arctic travellers, and is here used to give some general idea of the extent and physical condition of these islands.

The islands of the Arctic archipelago extend from the north side of Hudson bay and Hudson strait, in 62° N. latitude to 83° N. latitude, a distance of 1,500 miles. Their greatest extension westward is along the 73rd parallel, from the west side of Baffin bay to 125° W. longitude, a distance of 500 miles.

The islands have, for convenience, been divided into four natural groups, as follows:—

Group I.—The islands situated in the northern parts of Hudson bay and Hudson strait. These include the great island of Southampton, together with the smaller islands of Coats, Mansfield, Nottingham, Salisbury, Charles, Akpatok, Resolution and many other small ones still unnamed.

Group II.—Includes the islands lying between Hudson bay and Hudson strait, on the south, and Lancaster sound on the north, the western boundary of the group being Prince Regent inlet. The largest of all the islands, Baffin, belongs to this group. The only other island of considerable size is Bylot, while the remainder are small and fringe these two large islands.

Group III.—This contains the islands lying west of Prince Regent inlet and south of Lancaster sound, and its western continuation, Barrow strait. These islands are almost inaccessible, as they lie to the west and south of the ice-covered waters of Lancaster sound, the only channel by which they may be reached from the eastward; while the western islands of the group can only be reached by passing through the Arctic ocean from Bering strait, a long distance to the eastward of them. They are comprised of Banks, Victoria, Prince of Wales, North Somerset and King William islands.

Group IV.—The islands north of Lancaster sound and Barrow strait. Those include the great islands of Ellesmere and North Devon, whose eastern sides front on Baffin bay and Smith sound; the Parry islands—Cornwallis, Bathurst, Byam Martin, Melville, Eglinton and Prince Patrick—all on the north side of Barrow strait; the Sverdrup islands—Axel Heiberg, Ellef Ringnes, Amund Ringnes, King Christian and North Cornwall—situated to the west of Ellesmere and to the north of the Parry islands.

The following is a list of the islands of the archipelago, having an area greater than 500 square miles:—

		Area
		square miles.
Group I.—	Southampton	19,100
Group II.—	Baffin	211,000
	Bylot.	5,100
Group III.—	Banks	26,400
	Victoria	74,400
	Prince of Wales	14,000
	North Somerset	9,000
	King William	6,200
Group IV.—	Ellesmere	76,600
	North Devon	21,900
	Bathurst	7,000
	Cornwallis	2,700
	Eglinton	700
	Prince Patrick	7,100
	Melville	16,200
	Axel Heiberg	13,200
	Ellef Ringnes	4,800
	Amund Ringnes	2,200
	King Christian	2,600
	North Cornwall	600
		————
	Total area	520,800

The configuration and the physical features of the islands depend upon the character of the rocks that form them; in consequence, a brief description of the geology of these northern regions is here given.

Granites, gneisses and other crystalline rocks, very similar to those forming the Archæan system of more southern regions, occupy the eastern shores of the great islands fronting on Baffin bay and Davis strait, from Smith sound to Hudson strait. On Ellesmere island these rocks form a wide band down the east side from the neighbourhood of Cape Sabine to Jones sound, where the western boundary is upwards of fifty miles from the mouth of the sound. They occupy the eastern part of North Devon, reaching, on its south side, some seventy miles up Lancaster sound. The whole of Bylot island and that part of northern Baffin island to the eastward of Admiralty inlet is formed of these rocks. The great island of Baffin has upwards of three-quarters of its area underlain by Archæan granites and other crystalline rocks, while the eastern side of Southampton belongs to that formation which is also found at Salisbury, Nottingham and Charles islands of Group I.

To the westward of this wide rim of Archæan rocks is a great basin which has been filled with deposits of limestone, sandstone and other bedded rocks belonging to the Palæozoic or middle formations of the earth’s crust. These rocks extend upward from the Silurian to the Carboniferous.

The lower rocks, consisting largely of limestones, are the most widely distributed. They extend southward and westward far beyond the limits included in this report. The rocks newer than these Silurian limestones are not found south of Lancaster sound and Barrow strait, except on the northern part of Banks island at the extreme west of the archipelago. These rocks of Devonian and Carboniferous age occupy the Parry islands and the western and northern parts of Ellesmere, and in many places contain good deposits of coal.

A yet newer series of rocks belonging to the Mesozoic are found along the western edge of Ellesmere and on the Sverdrup islands. Isolated patches of later Tertiary age probably also occur along the northern and eastern coasts of Baffin island, and are of importance in that they are often associated with deposits of lignite coal. Small areas of this age have been found in the Parry islands and on the western part of Banks island.

On these northern islands the country underlain by the crystalline Archæan rocks is very similar in physical character to like areas of more southern regions. Where these rocks occur, the coast is usually greatly broken by irregularly shaped bays and headlands. The shores are often fringed with rocky islands, and the adjacent sea-bottom is liable to be very uneven. The land, as a rule, rises rapidly from the coast into an uneven plateau or tableland, whose general level is broken by ridges of rounded hills which seldom rise more than a few hundred feet above the general level. The elevation of the tableland varies from a few hundred feet to an extreme height of nearly five thousand feet.

In the northern parts the surface of this Archæan tableland is usually covered with a thick ice-cap, through which only the loftier hills protrude. The valleys leading down to the coast from the ice-cap are filled with large glaciers which project into the bays, where they discharge numerous icebergs. As the ice-cap becomes thinner in the more southern parts the glaciers become less active, and generally terminate without reaching the sea, and consequently no icebergs are formed from them.

The country, formed of the limestones and other Palæozoic rocks, differs in its physical character from that already described. On the northern islands, where these rocks attain a considerable thickness, the land rises in abrupt cliffs directly from the sea. The summits of these cliffs vary in elevation from 1,000 to 3,000 feet, while the country behind is a tableland rising in steps inland, the front of each step being a cliff usually of much less thickness than the initial one by which the land rises from the sea. In the more northern islands the higher portions of these tablelands support ice-caps generally much thinner than those covering the adjoining Archæan tablelands. The coasts composed of these flat-bedded limestones are deeply indented by narrow bays or fiords in the valleys of the more important streams; each small stream and rill flowing off the land has left its sculptured mark upon the cliffs, so that the whole resembles, on a great scale, the banks of a stream cut into a deep deposit of clay. This minute sculpturing of the rocks points to their having been elevated above the sea for a very long period, during which time the streams were actively at work cutting their valleys down to the sea-level.

These high abrupt cliffs are characteristic of the islands on both sides of Lancaster sound and to the northward of it.

The limestone islands of Hudson bay and that portion of southwest Baffin underlain by these rocks are very low and flat, with shallow water extending several miles from their shores.

Those northern islands, wholly or in part formed of the Mesozoic rocks, are characterized by low shores and no great elevation inland. At Ponds inlet, where an area of Tertiary deposits occurs, the country overlying it forms a wide plain deeply cut into by the streams that drain it.