"As soon as I had satisfied my own mind on this subject, I made known to the party this gratifying result of all our joint labours; and it was then that, amidst mutual congratulations, we fixed the British flag on the spot, and took possession of the North Magnetic Pole and its adjoining territory, in the name of Great Britain and King William the Fourth. We had abundance of material for building in the fragments of limestone that covered the beach; and we therefore erected a cairn of some magnitude, under which we buried a canister containing a record of the interesting fact, only regretting that we had not the means of constructing a pyramid of more importance and of strength sufficient to withstand the assaults of time and of the Esquimaux. Had it been a pyramid as large as that of Cheops I am not quite sure that it would have done more than satisfy our ambition under the feelings of that exciting day. The latitude of this spot is 70° 5´ 17´´ and its longitude 96° 46´ 45´´."
Thus much for the magnetic pole. This pole is almost directly north of the city of Winnipeg, and within less than twenty degrees of it. One of Lady Franklin's captains—Captain Kennedy, who resided at Red River—elaborated a great scheme for tapping the central supply of electricity of the magnetic pole, and developing it from Winnipeg as a source of power.
SIR GEORGE BACK, THE EXPLORER.
In the third year of Captain Ross's expedition his protracted absence became a matter of public discussion in Britain. Dr. Richardson, who had been one of Franklin's followers, offered to take charge of an overland expedition in search of Ross, but his proposition was not accepted. Mr. Ross, a brother of Sir John and father of Captain James Ross, was anxious to find an officer who would take charge of a relief expedition, and the British Government favoured the enterprise. Captain George Back, one of the midshipmen who had accompanied Franklin, was favourably regarded for the important position.
The Hudson's Bay Company was in sympathy with the exploration of its Arctic possessions and gave every assistance to the project. Nicholas Garry, the Deputy-Governor of the Company, ably supported it; and the British Government at last gave its consent to grant two thousand pounds, provided the Hudson's Bay Company would furnish, according to its promise, the supplies and canoes free of charge, and that Captain Ross's friends would contribute three thousand pounds.
Captain Back cordially accepted the offer to command the expedition, and his orders from the Government were to find Captain Ross, or any survivors or survivor of his party; and, "subordinate to this, to direct his attention to mapping what remains unknown of the coasts which he was to visit, and make such other scientific observations as his leisure would admit."
In 1833 Captain Back crossed the Atlantic, accompanied by a surgeon, Dr. Richard King, and at Montreal obtained a party of four regulars of the Royal Artillery. Pushing on by the usual route, he reached Lake Winnipeg, and thence by light canoe arrived at Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake in August. He wintered at Fort Reliance, near the east end of Great Slave Lake, which was established by Roderick McLeod, a Hudson's Bay Company officer, who had received orders to assist the expedition. Before leaving this point a message arrived from England that Captain Ross was safe. Notwithstanding this news, in June of the following year Back and his party crossed the country to Artillery Lake, and drew their boats and baggage in a most toilsome manner over the ice of this and three other lakes, till the Great Fish River was reached and its difficult descent begun.
On July 30th the party encamped at Cape Beaufort, a prominent point of the inlet of the Arctic Ocean into which the Great Fish River empties. The expedition again descended the river and returned to England, where it was well received, and Captain Back was knighted for his pluck and perseverance. An expedition under Back in the next year, to go by ship to Wager Bay and then to cross by portage the narrow strip of land to the Gulf of Boothia, was a failure, and the party with difficulty reached Britain again.
