'CAPTAIN HACK'S GEOGRAPHICAL VOYAGE TO THE ARCTIC SHORES.

"rnis expedition was planned in order to accomplish by sea what -Captain BACK had failed to do by a land journey in 1833 *—com- Iplete the survey of the Arctic shore between Regent's Inlet and Cape Turnagain. But his attempts were frustrated by the se- verity of the winter immediately preceding his departure, which stopped the breaking-up of the ice during the summer months. So early as the end of July, he was checked by the ice in about -82 degrees of latitude ; and by the middle of August he was snugly -embedded in a floe off Southampton and Butlin's Islands, (latitude .65°.66° ,) almost Within sight of the spot where he was to begin operations. By the exertions natural or at least habitual to British seamen, and by keeping the sails constantly set to take instant advantage of any opening in the ice, or of a wind strong enough to enable the good ship Terror to force her way through the disjointed masses, a little progress was occasionally made. But the effects of currents, tides, and storms, upon the field of ice in which they were confined, frequently undid more in a day than all the efforts of crew and ship could achieve in a week. By the latter end of September, all chance of doing any thing that season was at an end. The night frosts glued the masses of perennial ice together ; and nothing remained but to winter off Cape Comfort, and take their chance in the ensuing summer. But when summer came, it was found absolutely necessary to re- turn. From the failure of a new-invented warming apparatus, which certain official people had foolishly substituted for PARRY'S, and from some inexplicable circumstances, both officers and men were visited with scorbutic affections and rigidity in the joints and couecles. Several deaths had taken place ; and the surgeon offici- ally declared, that it' the ship remained another winter, " it would be fatal to ninny of the officers and men." But a still greater obsta- cle opposed their progress. From the pressure of the ice, caused by currents, &c. driving masses into channels too small to hold them, the ship was forced out of the water, jammed between large blocks, and received such dislocations in the fearful convulsions to which she was at times subjected, that when freed, she was no donger sea-worthy. By contrivances, and great exertions, (though once5 for a moment, the crew sunk under their toils, and the ship was going down,) they at last reached Lough Swilly. Here, "Harassed and worn out by extreme toil, the crew were no longer able to work m formerly ; and though ably assisted by the officers and men of her Majesty's service stationed slung the coast, and especially by Lieutenant Mur- ray and the officers and crew of the Wickham, yet the Terror was gradually sinking by the head ; when, finding that their united efforts were unequal to keep her afloat, it was determined, as the last resource, to run her ashore on a small sandy beach selected for the purpose. It was found at low water that upwards of twenty feet of the keel, together with ten feet of the stern-post, were driven over more than three feet and a half on one side, leaving a frightful opening astern for the free ingress of the water. The forefoot too was entirely gone, besides numerous bolts either loosened or broken; and when, besides this, the strained and twisted state of the ship's frame was considered, there was not one on board who did not express astonishment that we had ever floated across

the Atlantic."

Battled at the outset of theexpedition by obstacles before which buman exertions and human endurance are alike powerless, no contribution could be made to geographical science ; nor did an opportunity occur for adding any thing to our knowledge of natural history, or of savage man. The few Esquimaux the voy- agers met were only seen for a short time, and displayed no new or striking characteristics. Such was the dreary inhospitality of their long winter location, that even Arctic animals were rarely within their reach : one bear and one rein-deer form the sum of their sporting spoils, except a few smaller creatures; but, so bar- ren of incident or object was their life, that these trifles swelled into importance and caused excitement. Except to professional men, or to amateur nauticals, the chief interest of the volume is moral ; and will be found in the glimpses it gives us into our own nature, in scenes of irksomeness, depression, difficulty, or peril; and the different effects they produce upon the half' taught or the undisciplined mind, and on the man excited by responsibi- lity and animated by the hope of fame. What attraction there is besides, consists in some sketches of Arctic scenery, and in the sympathy with which the reader follows the partially success- ful though in the end baffled exertions of man against the ele- ments. At the same time, criticism must acknowledge that the volume is somewhat bulky in proportion to the quantity of new or attractive matter it contains.

Of the manner in which the vessel was prepared by the ship- wrights at Chatham, Captain BACK speaks in the highest terms. Of the crew he does not pronounce so favourably. Except in cases of danger or exertion, they wanted the esprit de corps and the sea good-breeding of man-of-war's-men, though superior seemingly in acquirements.

"Meantime, we were not unobservant of the habits and dispositions of the crew, bastily gathered together, and for the most part composed of people who bad never before been out of a collier : some half-dozen, indeed, had served in • A notice of the Expedition will be found in the Spectator of 2Sth May 1336 ; No. 413 Greenland vessels; but theiaxity which is there permitted rendered them lark better than the former. A few men-of-war'sr-men who were also on board were worth the whole together. The want of discipline and attention to personal comfort were most conspicuous; and though the tekalesome regulations prac- tilted in his Alajeaty:s service were most rigidly attended to in the Terror, yet such was the unsumability, though without an ill.will, than it was only by a steady and undeviating system pursued by the First Lieutenant that they were brought at all together with the feeling ot mesamates. At firs, though north, nally at the same mess, and eating at the same table, many of them vvould se. Crete their allowance with other unmanly and unsailor-like practices. This was another proof added to the many I had already witnessed, how greatly dis- cipline improves the mind and manners, and how much the regular aervice man is to be preferred for all hazardous or difficult enterprises. Reciprocity of kindnesses, a genetous and self-denying disposition, a spirit of frankness, a hearty and above-board manner—these are the true characteristics of the Bri- tiah veaman ; and the want of these is seldom compensated by other qualitie3. In our case, and I mention this merely to show the difference of olden and mo- dern times, there were only three or four in the whip who could not write. AR read ; some recited whole pages of poetry ; others sang French songs. 'Vet with all this, had they- been left to themselvem, I verily believe a more unsoci- able, suspicious, and uncomfortable set of people could not have been found. Oh ! if the two are incompatible, give me the old Jack-tar who would stand up for his ship and give his life for his messmate."

Perhaps the reciters of poetry and singers of French songs had got a habit of thinking for themselves, and, instead of trusting implicitly to their ollicers, were looking forward, and contemplating their hopeless prospects. Whether jollity springs from thoughtlessness or not, it cannot be denied that mental cultivation and refinement have a tendency to check good fellow- ship. The Negro slave, the Jack-tar, and the beggar, were amongst the most light-hearted, or at least jovial of mankind, though it would seem with the least reason.

When Robinson Crusoe, in his little skill; was hurried rapidly out to sea by an adverse current, he wishfully looked towards the island from which he had so often lunged to get away. and cursed his folly for leaving it. So it was with our adventurers. The ice, which was at first looked upon as their enemy, was at last regarded as their friend ; and much anxiety was felt lest it might break up, and expose the ship to the tender mercies of icebergs floating in a convulsed sea, or be driven by some over- whelming force upon the iron-bound cliffs of Cape Comfort, and ground to powder with the mass in which they were locked up. For months the sounds of these commotions were almost the only noise that broke upon the stillness of an Arctic night. A few extracts will indicate their state.

"The snow did not cease until Lih• 30m. p. us. ; and then so laden were the deck with it, that the people were actively- Occupied mole than an hour in clearing it away : the mist at the same time partially clearing, permitted a glimpse of the land, which was found to be considerably nearer than any one had anticipated, and proved that we had been set further than was expected to the westward. At Sh• p. in. Cape Comfort bore by compass N.N.E. ; and soundings were obtained with one hundred and seventy-five fathoms of line, at a distance of not more than five miles from the nearest rocks. During the night, the increased violence of the wind, and its unwelcome constancy to the adverse quarter, had a direful effect on the shore ice in which we were em- bedded ; and though etrery piece was so closely and firmly packed against the other that there was not a hole large enough to admit of drawing water, yet at 41. 30m. a. m., September 14th, an agitative motion discovered itself among the surrounding ice, so violent, and indeed irresistible, that what was not crushed by its enormous force was raised up to various heights; one ponderous mass, with several peaks, to upwarda of twenty feet. " Throughout the latter part of the day and most of the night, heavy squalls were frequent from the same quarter ; and though these had considerably abated by the 14th, yet, ta our astonishment, the pack had taken us, according to Lieutenant Stanley's measurement, within three thousand six hundred and tifty yards of the inaccessible cliffs of Cape Comfort; against which, therefore, there was reason to apprehend that the ice might strike, break up, and wreck the ship. The extraordinary 11 iaappeatance of extensive bodies of in-shore ice, and the occupation of their platea by the *ill heavier ones from seaward, seemed at first quite unaccountable, till the fact Was established that two-thirds of it were actually ground and pressed up to the height of twenty feet in a solid mass against the unyielding rocks. What fatal consequences, therefore, might Out be apprehended, if any untoward fracture of the pack should unmoor its

from our present bed ! • • • " The wind veered to the south.east ; and some signs were observed of water in the opposite goat ter, occasioned, as we knew, by the motion of our own pack. The night was unusually calm ; yet it was apparent to every one that some dis- turbing force was carrying us rapidly towards the frowning precipices not a gun-shot distant. The attention of those on deck was rivetted to sounds dia. tinctly heard of breaking ice, crashing and grinding with a discord the more horrible, as, with that exception, nature was in dead repose. When day dawned, it appeared that we hed been driven to the westward, and close in-shore, where the bay ice was still in tumultuous agitation, having been thrown up against the rocks into sonic shelving places to the height of thirty or forty feet. After church, a large party went to the edge of the pack, or floe as it was now termed, and witnessed the work of destruction as it went on. It was a spectacle, indeed, not less sublime than appalling. • • "

" The carpenters now commenced caulking wherever they could outside the ship. At 75 p. us. a slight noise was heard among the ice about a mile to the westward of the ship ; which, fur the succeeding two hours, drove fast towards the straits; but as the tide grew weaker, the onward motion of the ice was of course checked, while the breeze urged the whole western body with irresistible force against it ; the effect of which was, that at 91‘. p. In., while we were making the curve of a bay, our floc-pieces were suddenly assailed by a powerful rush ot the sesward ice, which, thrusting us close to the tidal wall so as to cause almost a dead pressure, began to grind and plough up the edges on every

side. Frequently during the process, there were brief intervals of cessation in one part or another, followed by a quick repetition in a direction perhaps ex-

actly opposite. Again, there would be a general pause, not unlike the silence which succeeds a heavy crash of thunder ; but suddenly, when hope was be- ginning to whisper that all was over, on it Caine again with a burst of deafening

roar, destroying every thing in its furious course. Wherever our eyes were turned, they were met by rising waves of ice rolling their burdens towards the ship. One in particular, not more than thirty paces away, had reared itself at

least thirty feet on our inuer floe, piece, which, strong as it was, gave way under

the accumulated weight ; and a mass of several tons being thus upturned and added to the original bulk, the whole bore down slowly upon our quarter. The ship herself was high out of the water on the ice, but this overtopped her like a tower. Meantime, we were getting nearer and nearer to the land ice : large rents wets showing themselves in the ice, at right angles on each side

of the fore-chains; the ship, unable to right herself, began to complain ; and the scene every moment became more dark and threatening. Extra pur- chases were fixed to the putnps ; the hands were turned up, the sick provided for ; and though nothing effectual could he done for our preservation, the atten- tion of the men was occupied in hoisting two of the boat, higher up. On former occasions there were large pieces of ice around, any one of which would have afforded a sufficient deposit for boats, provisions, or whatever in the exi- gency of the moment might have been placed upon it. Now, on the contrary, we were surrounded by crushed and broken ice ; some, indeed, ponderous enough, but all too angular and fractured to trust a boat upon ; nor could we ourselves have found footing so long as every pat t was more or less in motion; or even if some of the more active and hardy had succeeded in doing so, still they could not possibly have reached the hind. Knowing thin, and feeling acutely for the many beings intrusted to my charge, it may be conceived with what intense anxietyI listened to the crashing and grinding around. The strength of the ship, tried and shaken as it had already been, could hardly be expected to with. stand the overwhelming power oppoeed to it ; and what the result of that night might have been, it is impossible to say and painful. to contemplate, had not an overruling Providence mercifully averted the cr:.:3, by suddenly, and at the moment of greatest peril, arresting the tumult. In less time than it could he spoken, there was the stillness of death—and we were saved ! The watch was called, the crew dismissed ; and I trust that none that night laid his head on Iris pillow without offering up a devout thanksgiving Mr the mercy which hail been vouchsafed him."

The final breaking-up of the ice was prodigal of hope and fear, and not destitute of adventure. For some time the vessel was em- bedded in a large mass, with which it floated about : and though time and the use of ice-saws lessened its quantity, too much of it still adhered to her to allow of any successful attempt at naviga- tion. Whilst occupied in attacking it with mechanical means, a part of it separated.

"The detached portion, on which were two men, (a third being in the dingy, close to them,) was instantaneously splintered into three pieces ; two of which, siogularly enough, were separately occupied by the persons just mentioned, who, standing steadily on the whirling and heaving ice, thus violently discarded, gave a hearty cheer, while their companion, having lost his bahowe from the sudden jerking of the dingy, lay stretched at full length and graving the gun- wale on each side. The cheering, however, was turned to astonishment, as they watched the ship slowly rising and heeling over to port. We on board had been surprised that no counteraction occurred ; and were beginning to wonder that the vessel did not recover her equilibrium, but Were now startled by the conviction that she was gradually going over ; and the great inclination rendering it impossible to stand on deck, every one clung on to windward as he best could. Then it was we beheld thestrange and appalling spectacle of what may be fitly termed a submerged berg, fixed low down with one end to the ship's side, while the other, with the purchase of a long lever advantageously placed at a right angle with the keel, was slowly rising towards the surface. Tfeanwhile, those who happened to be below, finding every thing falling, rushed or clambered on deck, where they saw the ship on her beam-ends with the lee boats touching the water, and felt that a few moments only trembled between them and eternity. Yet in that awful crisis there was no confusion; the sails were dewed up and lowered; fresh men front former crews were stationed in the boats, which again were rather unhooked than lowered : the barge was hoisted out; and with a promptitude and presence of mind which I shall ever remember with admiration, the whole five were provisioned and filled with arms, ammunition, and clothing, and veered astern clear of danger. The pumps were never quitted ; and though expecting that the ship might capsize, yet the question of Does the leak gain on us ?' was asked, end when answered in the negative, there was still a manifestation of hope. Our fate, however, yet hung in suspense, for not in the smallest degree did the ship right : happily for us, there was a dead calm, which permitted us to examine the herg.

• • • •

"It isnot a little remarkable to reflect on the various ineffectual attempts that have been made by different commanders in modern dap' to fill up the small blank on the Northern charts between the bottom or south part of Regent's Inlet nod Point Turnagain. Parry's and Franklin's achievements are too well known to require observation or eulogium from me; yet the former could not penetrate through Fury and Ilecla Strait, and the latter found it impracti- cable, from the damaged condition of his canoes, the want of provision, and the advanced state of the season, to proceed beyond Point Tut nagain. Of Sir John Ross's eventful expedition all have heard. My own in search of him is also before the public. Captain Lyon, in trying to reach Repulse Bay by the Welcome, was baffled by a succession of bad weather and heavy gales. And now again, I, acting upon the united experience of most of the distinguished names just men- tioned, under circumstances considered favourable, after getting nearly within sight of my part, am stopped by drift ice, at what is generally the very best period for navigating the Polar Seas ; urn frozen fast, in October MG, at the entrance of Frozen Strait ; and now, June Itith, am carried into theism's Strait, on some of the very same ice that originally begirt the ship, without having had it once in my power either to advance or retreat. In short, from north, south, east, and west, the attempt has been made, and in all equally without effect ; and yet, with a tolerably open season, the whole affair is within the accomplishment of six months."

The volume is illustrated by a chart of the ship's track, and by some very spirited drawings from the pencil of Lieutenant (now Captain) SMYTH—the same, or we are much mistaken, whose ardu- ous Journey across the Andes, and descent of the Amazon, we no- ticed some two years since. Such is the sailor's life—burning under the Tropic this year, and the next freezing as near the Pole as he can get.