SIR JOHN RICIfA.RDSON'S ARCTIC SEARCHING EXPEDITION. * IT will tend to

a clearer understanding of the objects of this expe- dition, to call to mind the object and instructions of Sir John Franklin. It is an opinion reasonably grounded upon late dis- coveries, that there is a North-west passage from Lancaster Sound, in about 74 degrees of North latitude and 79 degrees of West longitude, to Behring's Straits in 67 degrees of latitude and 170 of longitude; and that this passage runs direct by Melville Island with no other than the usual impediments of Arctic navigation,— numerous islands, tortuous channels, and impassable barriers of ice. The Northern coast of continental America, along about 70 degrees of North latitude, with the group of islands from Baffin's latto Boothia Felix, extending about four degrees further North, has been sufficiently examined in search of the missing expe- dition. The channel through which Sir John Franklin was to proceed, if he could, has only been examined to about 115 -degrees of West longitude, and that partially on the South- ern shore. So far as is known it is bounded on both sides by land and intersected by islands. It is a well-grounded conclusion, that the land on the Southern side extends nearly the whole of the distance to Behring's Straits ; for there is Banks's Land on the Southern side of Melville Island, Victoria Land and Wollaston's Land in about the same longitude lying off the continental coast; and signs of land have been seen at different places from the icy sea of the North American coast.

But though Sir John Franklin's orders were positive to proceed by the Southern channel of Melville Island, he had a discretion to try any other opening to the Northward, in case he should be un- able to make his way by the route directed. It was supposed that he might have attempted a passage through Jones Sound on the Western side of Baffin's Bay, in about latitude 77, or Wellington Channel, opening to the Northward of the course he was directed to take, about mid distance between Baffin's Bay and Melville Is- land. In other words, if he could not make his way by the long line of the inverted B below, he might attempt to reach the end by either of the segments ; but he was directed to try the middle or Wellington Channel first, if he could.

When doubts began to be entertained of Franklin's safety,

• Arctic Searching Expedition. A Journal of a Boat Voyage, through Rupert's Land and the Arctic Sea, in Search of the Discovery Ships under the command of air John Franklin. With an Appendix of the Physical Geography of North America.

By Sir Jobn Richardson, C.B., Inspector of Naval Hospitals and Fleets, 2tc. he. In two volumes. By Authority. Published by Longman and Co.

the Admiralty called for the opinions of men best acquainted with the Arctic regions. Sir James Rosa and Sir John Richardson both gave their opinion that Franklin had endeavoured to obey his in- structions, and had got fixed in the ice to the West of Melville Is- land ; and Sir John Parry was substantially of the same opinion. Richardson further considered, that if the ships were wrecked or abandoned, Franklin would endeavour to make his way either to Lancaster Sound to meet the whalers, or to Mackenzie River to reach the Hudson Bay posts. To give effect to these opinions the expeditions of Ross and Richardson were organized. Ross was to follow the directed route of Franklin through Lancaster Sound and Barrow's Strait to Melville Island. Richardson was to proceed to Canada, and, making his way across the Hudson's Bay territory, descend the Mackenzie River, coast the continent of America to the Coppermine River, and, if time permitted, examine Wollaston Land, lying in the same longitude as Melville Island, and distant from it about 350 miles. There was a discretion to extend the search, and to continue it for a second year. Both these expedi- tions failed, as is well known, on account of the ice. Ross could not reach even Wellington Channel ; neither Richardson in 1848 nor his second Rae in 1849 could cross the channel which sepa- rates North America from Victoria Land and Wollaston Land.

The account of this expedition of Sir John Richardson is con- tained in the volumes before us : it is rather a book of important scientific facts and observations than of travel or adventure. The descent of the Mackenzie—the coasting voyage—the overland journey from Cape Kendall, near the mouth of the Coppermine River—the wintering in quarters previously prepared at the Great Bear Lake—with Mr. Rae's return to the coast in the following summer, and his vain efforts to reach Wollaston Land—have no substantial novelty. There are, of course, the Northern landscapes painted by an observer who combines scientific knowledge with the taste of a lover of nature; there are, equally as a matter of course, zeal and endurance linder-hudships ; and there are inci- dents interesting. from their rarity or their circumstances; but there is nothing in Sir John Richardson's narrative that is di out from his own or other expeditions undertaken to explore the same region. The interposition of geological and other ebserva= tions of the country traversed interferes with the narrative. A large part of the scientific matter, however, is presented by itself. A curious account of the Indian races whose territories Sir John travelled over, and With whom he came in contact, forms a snoces- sion of separate chapters. A series of elaborate papers on the physical geography of North America occupy an appendix, which fills nearly two-thirds of the second volume.

From the knowledge of Arctic exploration possessed by Sir John Richardson and Mr. Rae, no other than necessary hardships were undergone; and though theseare great, they look less great than they are, from the persona being habituated to them. The nature of the country gives a freshness to everything connected with it, and interest even to casual observation. This is a curious fact

connected with.the feeling of heat. "The power of the sun this day iu a cloudless sky was so great, that Ms. Rae and I were glad to take shelter in the water while the crews were en. gaged on the portages. The irritability of, the human frame is either greater in these Northern latitudes, or the sun, notwithstanding its obliquity, acts more powerfully upon it than near the Equator; for .I have never felt its direct rays so oppressive within the Tropics as I have experienced them to be on some occasions in the high latitudes. The luxury of bathing at such times is not without alloy ;- for, if you choose the mid-day, you are as- sailed in the water by the ta&ni,. who draw blood in an instant with their formidable lancets; and if you select the morning or evening, then clouds of thirsty moschetoes' hovering around, fasten an the first part that emerges. Leeches also infest the still waters, and are prompt in their aggressions." • The following relate to cold and mid-winter. "The rapid evaporation of both snow and ice in the winter and spring, long before the action of the sun has produced the sli,ghtest thavi or appear- ance of moisture, is made evident to residents in the high latitudes by many facts of daily occurrence ; and I may mention that the drying of linen fur- nishes a familiar one. When a shirt, after being washed, is exposed in the open air to a temperature of 40° or 50' below zero, it is instantly rigidly frozen, and may be broken if violently bent. If agitated when in this con- dition by a strong wind, it makes a rustling noise like theatrical thunder. In an hour or two, however, or nearly, as quickly as, it would do if expord to the sun in the moist climate of England, it dries and becomes limber.

* * •

"In consequence of the extreme dryness of the atmosphere in winter, most articles of English manufacture made of wood, horn, or ivory, brought to Rupert's Land, are shrivelled, bent, and broken. The handles of razors and knives, combs, ivory scales, and various ,other thinge kept in the warm rooms., are damaged in this way.. The human body, also, becomes visibly electric from the dryness of the skin. One cold night I rose from my bed, and, having lighted a lantern, was going out to obserte 'the thermometer, with no other clothing than my flannel night-dress, when on approaching my hand to the iron latch of the door, a distinct spark was elicited. Fric- tion of the skin at almost all times iu winter produced the electric odour.

"Even at mid-winter we had three hours mks half of daylight. On the 20th of December I required a candle to write at the window at ten in the morning. On the 29th, the sun, after ten days' absence, rose at the fishery, where the horizon was open; and on the 8th of January, both limbs of that luminary were seen from a gentle eminence behind the fort, rising above the centre of Fishery Island. For several days previously, however, its place in the heavens at noon had been denoted by rays of-light shooting into the sky above the woods. The lowest temperature in January was 50' F. " On the 1st of February the sun rose to us at nine o'clock and set at three, and the days lengthened rapidly. -On the 23d I could write in my room without artificial light from ten cm. to half-past two p.m., making four hours and a half of bright daylight. The moon in the long nights was a most beautiful ob- ject; that satellite being constantly above the horizon for nearly a fortnight together in the middle of the lunar month. Venus also shone with a bril- liancy which is never witnessed in a sky loaded with vapours ; and, unless in snowy weather, our nights were always enlivened by the beams of the Aurora."

Few if any readers will ever be in a situation to use the know- ledge of how to build a snow-house. The Arctic architecture, from a chapter on the Esquimaux, is worth reading, should it never turn out to be worth knowing.

"As the days lengthen, the villages are emptied of their inhabitants, who move seaward on the ice to the seal-hunt. Then comes into use a marvel- lous system of architecture, unknown among the rest of the American na- tions. The fine pure snow has by that time acquired, under the action of strong winds and hard frosts, sufficient coherence to form an admirable light building material, with which the Eskimo master-mason erects most com- fortable dome-shaped houses. A circle is first traced on the smooth surface of the snow ; and the slabs for raising the walls are cut from within, so as to clear a space down to the ice, which is to form the floor of the dwelling, and whose evenness was previously ascertained by probing. The slabs requisite to complete the dome, after the interior of the circle is exhausted, are cut from some neighbouring spot. Each slab is neatly fitted to its place by run- ning a flenchimg-knife along the joint, when it instantly freezes to the wall, the cold atmosphere forming a most excellent cement. Crevices are plugged up, and seams accurately closed by throwing a few shovelfuls of loose snow over the fabric. Two men generally work together in raising a house, and the one who is stationed within cuts a low door, and creeps out when his task is over. The walls being only three or four inches thick, are suffi- ciently translucent to admit a very agreeable light, which serves for ordinary domestic purposes ; but if more be required a window is cut, and the aper- ture fitted with a piece of transparent ice. The proper thickness of the walls is of some importance. A few inches excludes the wind, yet keeps down the temperature so as to prevent dripping from the interior. The furniture— such as seats, tables, and sleeping-places—is also formed of snow, and a co- vering of folded rein-deer-skin or seal-skin renders them comfortable to the inmates. By means of antechambers and porches, in form of long, low gal- leries, with their openings turned to leeward, warmth is insured in the in- terior ; and social intercourse is promoted by building the houses contigu- ously, and cutting doors of communication between them, or by erecting covered passages. Storehouses, kitchens, and other accessory buildings, may be constructed in the same manner, and a degree of convenience gained which would be attempted in vain with a less plastic material. These houses are durable, the wind has little effect on them, and they resist the thaw until the sun acquires very considerable power."

The following account of the formation of dry land is from an earlier portion of the journey, and refers to a region between the 50th and 55th degrees of latitude.

" The Eastern coast-line of Lake Winipeg is in general swampy, with granite knolls rising through the soil, but not to such a height as to render the scenery hilly. The pine forest skirts the shore at the distance of two or three miles, covering gently-rising lands ; and the breadth of continuous lake- surface seems to be in process of diminution, in the following way. A bank of sand is first drifted up, in the line of a chain of rocks which may happen to lie across the mouth of an inlet or deep bay. Carices, balsam-poplars, and willows, speedily take root therein ; and the basin which lies behind, cut off from the parent, lake, is gradually converted into a marsh by the luxu- riant growth of aquaticplants. The sweet gale next appears on its borders, and, drift-wood, much of it rotten and comminuted, is thrown up on the ex- terior bank, together with some roots and stems of larger trees. The first spring storm covers these with sand, and in a few weeks the vigorous vege- tation of a short but active summer binds the whole together by a network of the roots of bents and willows. Quantities of drift-sand pass before the high winds into the swamp behind, and, weighing down the flags and wil- low branches, prepare a fit soil for succeeding crops. During the winter of this climate, all remains fixed as the summer left it ; and as the next season is far advanced before the bank thaws, little of it washes back into the water, but, on the contrary, every gale blowing from the lake brings a fresh supply of sand from the shoals which are continually forming along the shore. The floods raised by melting snows cut narrow channels through the frozen beach, by which the ponds behind are drained of their superfluous waters. As the soil gradually acquires depth, the balsam-poplars and aspens overpower the willows; which, however, continue to form a line of demarcation between the lake and the encroaching forest.

"Considerable sheets of water are also cut off on the North-west side of the lake, where the bird's-eye limestone forms the whole of the coast. Very recently this corner was deeply indented by narrow branching bays, whose outer points were limestone cliffs. Under the action of frost, the thin hori- zontal beds of this stone split up, crevices are formed perpendicularly, large blocks are detached, and the cliff is rapidly overthrown, soon becoming masked by its own ruins. In a season or two the slabs break into small fragments, which are tossed up by the waves across the neck of the bay into the form of narrow ridgelike beaches, from twenty to thirty feet high. Mud and vegetable matter gradually fill up the pieces of water thus secluded ; a willow swamp is formed ; and when the ground is somewhat consolidated, the willows are replaced by a grove of aspens."