standing generally in pairs: these we pulled down one after the other,
and examined without finding any thing in them; and it was only the
accidental discovery by one of the men of a seal-blubber _caché_,
which showed that the cairns were merely marks by which the Esquimaux,
on their return in the winter, could detect their stores.
[Headnote: _LANCASTER SOUND._]
The winter abode of these Esquimaux appeared to be sunk from three to
four feet below the level of the ground: a ring of stones, a few feet
high, were all the vestiges we saw. No doubt they completed the
habitation by building a house of snow of the usual dome shape over the
stones and sunken floor. Having no wood, whale-bones had been here
substituted for rafters, as is usual along the whole breadth of the
American coast-line from Behring's Straits; but many of the hovels had
no rafters. On the whole the impression was, that the natives here
lived in a state of much greater barbarity and discomfort than those we
had seen about the Danish settlements on the opposite shore.
A cairn was erected by us; a record and some letters deposited for the
natives to put on board whalers at a future season; and having placed a
number of presents for the poor creatures in the different huts, and on
the _cachés_, we hurried on board and made the best of our way to
Possession Bay, and rejoined the "Resolute," from whom we learnt that
the "North Star" had placed a record there, to say, that after having
failed to cross Baffin's Bay in 1849, she had done so in 1850, and had
gone up Lancaster Sound to seek the "Enterprise" and "Investigator,"
under Sir James Ross, they having, as we knew, meanwhile, gone home,
been paid off, recommissioned, and were now, please God, in the Arctic
Ocean, by way of Behring's Straits.
_August 22d, 1850._--The "Resolute" in company, and steering a course
up Lancaster Sound.
The great gateway, within whose portals we were now fast entering, has
much in it that is interesting in its associations to an English
seaman. Across its mouth, the bold navigator Baffin, 200 years before,
had steered, pronounced it a sound, and named it after the Duke of
Lancaster. About thirty-five years ago it was converted into a bay by
Sir John Ross; and within eighteen months afterwards, Parry, the prince
of Arctic navigators, sailed through this very bay, and discovered new
lands extending half of the distance towards Behring's Straits, or
about 600 miles. To complete the remaining 600 miles of unknown region,
Sir John Franklin and his 140 gallant followers had devoted
themselves,--with what resolution, with what devotion, is best told by
their long absence and our anxiety.
The high and towering ranges of the Byam Martin Mountains looked down
upon us from the southern sky, between fast-passing fog-banks and
fitful gusts of wind, which soon sobbed themselves into a calm, and
steam, as usual, became our friend: with it the "Pioneer," towing the
"Resolute" astern, steered for the north shore of Lancaster Sound; and
on August 25th we were off Croker Bay, a deep indentation between Cape
Warrender and Cape Home. The clouds hung too heavily about the land,
distant as we were, to see more than the bare outline, but its broken
configuration gave good hope of numerous harbours, fiords, and creeks.
From Cape Home, we entered on a new and peculiar region of limestone
formation, lofty and tabular, offering to the seaboard cliffs steep and
escarped as the imagination can picture to be possible. By the
beautiful sketches of Parry's officers, made on his first voyage, we
easily recognized the various headlands; the north shore being now
alone in view; and indeed, except the mountains in the interior, we saw
nothing more of the south shore of Lancaster Sound after leaving
Possession Bay.
[Headnote: _ICEBERGS AND GLACIERS._]
Of Powell Inlet we saw an extensive glacier extending into the sound,
and a few loose 'berg pieces floating about. This glacier was regarded
with some interest; for, remarkably enough, it is the last one met with
in sailing westward to Melville Island.
The iceberg, as it is well known, is the creation of the glacier; and
where land of a nature to form the latter does not exist, the former is
not met with.
The region we had just left behind us is the true home of the iceberg
in the northern hemisphere. There, in Baffin's Bay, where the steep
cliffs of cold granitic formation frown over waters where the ordinary
"deep sea lead-line" fails to find bottom, the monarch of glacial
formations floats slowly from the ravine which has been its
birth-place, until fairly launched in the profound waters of the
Atlantic, and in the course of many years is carried to the warmer
regions of the south, to assist Nature in preserving her great laws of
equilibrium of temperature of the air and water.
At one period--and not a very distant one either--savans, and, amongst
others, the French philosopher St. Pierre, believed icebergs to be the
accumulated snow and ice of ages, which, forming at the poles, detached
themselves from the parent mass: this, as they then thought, had no
reference to the existence of land or water. Such an hypothesis for
some time gave rise to ingenious and startling theories as to the
effect which an incessant accumulation of ice would have on the globe
itself; and St. Pierre hinted at the possibility of the huge cupolas of
ice, which, as he believed, towered aloft in the cold heavens of the
poles, suddenly launching towards the equator, melting, and bringing
about a second deluge.
Had the immortal Cook been aware of the certainty of land being close
to him, when, in the Antarctic regions, he found himself amongst no
less than one hundred and eighty-six icebergs in December, 1773; he
who, from the deck of a collier, had risen to be the Columbus of
England, might have then plucked the laurel which Sir James Ross so
gallantly won in the discovery of the circumpolar continent of Queen
Victoria's Land.
On every side of the southern pole, on every meridian of the great
South Sea, the seaman meets icebergs. Not so in the north. In the 360
degrees of longitude, which intersects the parallel of 70 degrees north
(about which parallel the coasts of America, Europe, and Asia will be
found to lie), icebergs are only found over an extent of some 55
degrees of longitude, and this is immediately in and about Greenland
and Baffin's Bay. In fact, for 1375 miles of longitude we have
icebergs, and then for 7635 geographical miles none are met with. This
interesting fact is, in my opinion, most cheering, and points strongly
to the possibility that no extensive land exists about our northern
pole,--a supposition which is borne out by the fact, that the vast
ice-fields off Spitzbergen show no symptoms of ever having been in
contact with land or gravel. Of course, the more firmly we can bring
ourselves to believe in the existence of an ocean road leading to
Behring's Straits, the better heart we shall feel in searching the
various tortuous channels and different islands with which, doubtless,
Franklin's route has been beset. It was not, therefore, without deep
interest that I passed the boundary which Nature had set in the west to
the existence of icebergs, and endeavoured to form a correct idea of
the cause of such a phenomenon.
[Headnote: _A GALE IN BARROW'S STRAIT._]
Whilst this digression upon icebergs has taken place, the kind reader
will suppose the calm to have ceased, and the "Resolute" and "Pioneer,"
under sail before a westerly wind, to be running from the table-land on
the north shore of Lancaster Sound, in a diagonal direction towards
Leopold Island. On the 26th of August, Cape York gleamed through an
angry sky, and as Regent's Inlet opened to the southward, there was
little doubt but we should soon be caught in an Arctic gale: we,
however, cared little, provided there was plenty of water ahead, though
of that there appeared strong reasons for entertaining doubts, as both
the temperature of the air and water was fast falling.
That night--for night was now of some two hours' duration--the wind
piped merrily, and we rolled most cruelly; the long and narrow
"Pioneer" threatening to pitch every spar over the side, and refusing
all the manoeuvring upon the part of her beshaken officers and men to
comfort and quiet her.
A poet, who had not been fourteen hours in the cold, and whose body was
not racked by constant gymnastic exertion to preserve his bones from
fracture, might have given a beautiful description of the lifting of a
fierce sky at about half-past one in the morning, and a disagreeable
glimpse through snow-storm and squall of a bold and precipitous coast
not many miles off, and ahead of us. I cannot undertake to do so, for I
remember feeling far from poetical, as, with a jerk and a roll, the
"Pioneer," under fore and aft canvas, came to the wind. Fast increasing
daylight showed us to have been thrown considerably to the northward;
and as we sailed to the south the ice showed itself in far from
pleasing proximity under the lee--_boiling_, for so the edge of a pack
appears to do in a gale of wind. It was a wild sight; but we felt that,
at any rate, it was optional with a screw steamer whether she ran into
the pack or kept the sea, for her clawing-to-windward power astonished
us who had fought in the teeth of hard gales elsewhere in flying
Symondite brigs. Not so, however, thought a tough old Hull quarter-master
whose weather-beaten face peered anxiously over the lee, and watched
the "Resolute" beating Cromer-a-lee, for I heard him growl out, "Wull,
if they are off a strait lee-pack edge, the sooner they make up their
minds to run into it the better!" "Why so, Hall?" I inquired. "Because,
sir," replied the old man, "that ship is going two feet to leeward for
one she is going ahead, and she would _never_ work off _nothing!_"
"Pleasant!" I mentally ejaculated; but, willing to hear more from my
dry old friend, who was quite a character in his way,--"Perhaps," I
said, "you have occasionally been caught in worse vessels off such a
pack as you describe, or a lee shore, and still not been lost?"
"Oh! Lord, sir! we have some rum craft in the whaling ships, but I
don't think any thing so sluggish as the Resolute.' Howsomdever, they
gets put to it now and then. Why, it was only last year, we were down
on the south-west fishing-ground: about the 10th of October, it came on
to blow, sir, from the southward, and sent in a sea upon us, which
nearly drowned us: we tried to keep an offing, but it was no use; we
couldn't show a rag; every thing was blown away, and it was perishing
cold; but our captain was a smart man, and he said,--'Well, boys, we
must run for Hangman's Cove,[3] altho' it's late in the day; if we
don't, I won't answer where we'll be in the morning."
[3] Hangman's Cove, a small harbour on the west side of Davis's
Straits.
"So up we put the helm, sir, to run for a place like a hole in a wall,
with nothing but a close-reefed topsail set, and the sky as thick as
pea-soup. It looked a bad job, I do assure you, sir. Just as it was
dark, we found ourselves right up against the cliffs, and we did not
know whether we were lost or saved until by good luck we shot into dead
smooth water in a little cove, and let go our anchor. Next day a calm
set in, and the young ice made round the ship: we couldn't cut it, and
we couldn't tow the vessel through it. We had not three months'
provisions, and we made certain sure of being starved to death; when
the wind came strong off the land, and, by working for our lives, we
escaped, and went home directly out of the country."
"A cheering tale, this, of the Hangman's Cove," I thought, as I turned
from my Job's comforter; and, satisfying myself that the pack precluded
all chance of reaching Leopold Island for the present, I retired to
rest.
[Headnote: _STEAMING UP BARROWS STRAIT._]
Next day, the 27th of August, found us steering past Cape Hurd, off
which the pack lay at a distance of some ten miles, and, as we ran
westward, and the breadth of clear water gradually diminished, the wind
failed us; although, astern in Lancaster Sound, there was still a dark
and angry sky betokening a war of the elements, whereas where we were
off Radstock Bay--all was calm, cold, and arctic.
"Up steam, and take in tow!" was again the cry; and as the pack, acted
on by the tide, commenced to travel quickly in upon Cape Ricketts, we
slipped past it, and reached an elbow formed between that headland and
Beechey Island. The peculiar patch of broken table-land, called
Caswell's Tower, as well as the striking cliffs of slaty limestone
along whose base we were rapidly steaming, claimed much of our
attention; and we were pained to see, from the strong ice-blink to the
S.W., that a body of packed ice had been driven up the straits by the
late gales.
The sun was fast dipping behind North Devon, and a beautiful moon (the
first we had found any use for since passing Cape Farewell on the 28th
of May) was cheerfully accepted as a substitute, when the report of a
boat being seen from the mast-head startled us and excited general
anxiety. We were then off Gascoigne Inlet, the "Resolute" in tow. The
boat proved to be the "Sophia's," and in her Captain Stewart and Dr.
Sutherland; they went on board the "Resolute," and, shortly afterwards,
the interesting intelligence they then communicated was made known to
me.
It was this,--the "Assistance" and "Intrepid," after they left us, had
visited Wolstenholme Sound, and discovered the winter quarters of
H.M.S. "North Star," but nothing to lead them to place any faith in
Adam Beck's tale: from thence they had examined the north shore of
Lancaster Sound as far as Cape Riley, without discovering any thing; on
landing there, however, numerous traces of English seamen having
visited the spot were discovered in sundry pieces of rag, rope, broken
bottles, and a long-handled instrument intended to rake up things from
the bottom of the sea; marks of a tent-place were likewise visible. A
cairn was next seen on Beechey Island; to this the "Intrepid"
proceeded, and, as rather an odd incident connected with her search of
this spot took place, I shall here mention it, although it was not
until afterwards that the circumstance came to my knowledge.
[Headnote: _TRACES OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN._]
The steamer having approached close under the island, a boat-full of
officers and men proceeded on shore: on landing, some relics of
European visitors were found; and we can picture the anxiety with which
the steep was scaled and the cairn torn down, every stone turned over,
the ground underneath dug up a little, and yet, alas! no document or
record found. Meanwhile an Arctic adventure, natural, but novel to one
portion of the actors, was taking place. The boat had left the
"Intrepid" without arms of any description, and the people on the top
of the cliff saw, to their dismay, a large white bear advancing rapidly
in the direction of the boat, which, by the deliberate way the brute
stopped and raised his head as if in the act of smelling, appeared to
disturb his olfactory nerves. The two men left in charge of the boat
happily caught sight of Bruin before he caught hold of them, and
launching the boat they hurried off to the steamer, whilst the
observers left on the cliff were not sorry to see the bear chase the
boat a short way and then turn towards the packed ice in the offing.
This event, together with some risk of the ice separating the two
vessels, induced the party to return on board, where a general (though,
as was afterwards proved, erroneous) impression had been created on the
minds of the people belonging to the two ships, that what they had
found must be the traces of a retreating or shipwrecked party from the
"Erebus" and "Terror." A short distance within Cape Riley, another
tent-place was found; and then, after a look at the coast up as far as
Cape Innis, the two vessels proceeded across towards Cape Hotham, on
the opposite side of Wellington Channel, having in the first place
erected a cairn at the base of Cape Riley, and in it deposited a
document.
Whilst the "Assistance" and "Intrepid" were so employed, the American
squadron, and that under Captain Penny, were fast approaching. The
Americans first communicated with Captain Ommanney's division, and
heard of the discovery of the first traces of Sir John Franklin. The
Americans then informed Penny, who was pushing for Wellington Channel;
and he, after some trouble, succeeded in catching the "Assistance,"
and, on going on board of her, learnt all they had to tell him, and saw
what traces they had discovered. Captain Penny then returned--as he
figuratively expressed it--"to take up the search from Cape Riley like
a blood-hound," and richly was he rewarded for doing so.
At Cape Spencer he discovered the ground-plan of a tent, the floor of
which was neatly and carefully paved with small smooth stones. Around
the tent a number of bird's bones, as well as remnants of
meat-canisters, led him to imagine that it had been inhabited for some
time as a shooting station and a look-out place, for which latter
purpose it was admirably chosen, commanding a good view of Barrow's
Strait and Wellington Channel; this opinion was confirmed by the
discovery of a piece of paper, on which was written, "to be
called,"--evidently the fragments of an officer's night orders.
Some sledge marks pointed northward from this neighbourhood; and, the
American squadron being unable to advance up the strait (in consequence
of the ice resting firmly against the land close to Cape Innis, and
across to Barlow Inlet on the opposite shore), Lieut. de Haven
despatched parties on foot to follow these sledge marks, whilst Penny's
squadron returned to re-examine Beechey Island. The American officers
found the sledge tracts very distinct for some miles, but before they
had got as far as Cape Bowden, the trail ceased, and one empty bottle
and a piece of newspaper were the last things found in that direction.
Not so Captain Penny's squadron:--making fast to the ice between
Beechey Island and Cape Spencer, in what is now called Union Bay, and
in which they found the "Felix" schooner to be likewise lying, parties
from the "Lady Franklin" and "Sophia" started towards Beechey Island.
[Headnote: _TRACES OF THE LOST EXPEDITION._]
A long point of land slopes gradually from the southern bluffs of this
now deeply interesting island, until it almost connects itself with the
land of North Devon, forming, on either side of it, two good and
commodious bays. On this slope, a multitude of preserved meat-tins were
strewed about, and near them, and on the ridge of the slope, a
carefully constructed cairn was discovered: it consisted of layers of
meat-tins filled with gravel, and placed to form a solid foundation.
Beyond this, and along the northern shore of Beechey Island, the
following traces were then quickly discovered:--the embankment of a
house with carpenter and armourer's working-places, washing-tubs,
coal-bags, pieces of old clothing, rope, and, lastly, the graves of
three of the crew of the "Erebus" and "Terror,"--placing it beyond all
doubt, that the missing ships had indeed been there, and bearing date
of the winter of 1845-46.
We, therefore, now had ascertained the first winter quarters of Sir
John Franklin! Here fell to the ground all the evil forebodings of
those who had, in England, consigned his expedition to the depths of
Baffin's Bay, on its outward voyage. Our first prayer had been granted
by a beneficent Providence; and we had now risen, from doubt and hope,
to a certain assurance of Franklin having reached thus far without
shipwreck or disaster.
Leaving us in high spirits at the receipt of such glorious
intelligence, Captain Stewart proceeded in his boat to search the
coast-line towards Gascoigne Inlet and Caswell's Tower. We continued to
steam on; off Cape Riley a boat was despatched to examine the record
left by the "Assistance;" and, from her, I heard that the "Prince
Albert," which had been ordered by Lady Franklin down Regent's Inlet to
Brentford Bay, had visited the said cairn, deposited a document to say
so, and was gone, I now felt certain, home.
As the "Pioneer" slowly steamed through the loose ice which lay off
Beechey Island, the cairn erected by Franklin's people on the height
above us was an object of deep interest and conversation; and, placed
so conspicuously as it was, it seemed to say to the beating heart,
"Follow them that erected me!"
On rounding the western point, three brigs and a schooner were seen to
be fast to the land ice in Union Bay; and, as we had been in the habit
of almost scraping the cliffs in Baffin's Bay, I, forgetting the
difference between the approach to a granite and a limestone cliff, and
desirous to avoid the stream of ice now pouring out of Wellington
Channel, went too close to the shore, and eventually ran aground; the
"Resolute" just saved herself by slipping the tow-rope, and letting go
an anchor. A rapidly-falling tide soon showed me that I must be patient
and wait until next day, and, as the "Resolute" was in the course of
the night worked into the bay, and secured, we "piped down" for awhile.
_Wednesday, 28th August._--I was awoke by a hearty shake, and Captain
Penny's warm "Good-morning;" he had come out to me towing the "Mary," a
launch belonging to Sir John Ross, in order that I might lighten the
"Pioneer," and offered me the "Sophia" brig, to receive a portion of my
stores, if I would only say it was necessary.
"A friend in need is a friend indeed," and such Captain Penny proved
himself; for my position was far from a pleasant one,--on a hard spit
of limestone, in which no anchor could find holding ground, and, at low
water, five feet less than the draught of the "Pioneer," exposed to all
the set of the ice of the Wellington Channel and Barrow's Strait, with
about another week of the "open season" left.
[Headnote: _FRANKLIN'S WINTER QUARTERS_]
All arrangements having been made to try and float the steamer at high
water, I had time to ask Captain Penny his news; the best part of which
was, that as yet nothing had been found in our neighbourhood to lead to
the inference that any party in distress had retreated from the
"Erebus" and "Terror." He considered the harbour chosen by Franklin for
his winter quarters was an excellent one.
Captain Penny gave no very cheering account of the prospect of a much
farther advance for ourselves: Wellington Channel was blocked up with a
very heavy floe, and Barrow's Strait to the westward was choked with
packed ice; the "Assistance" and "Intrepid" were to be seen off Barlow
Inlet, but their position was far from a secure one; and, lastly, Penny
told me he intended, after the result of a fresh search for a record on
Beechey Island was known, to communicate with the "Assistance," in
order that Captain Ommanney might be fully informed of all that had
been discovered, and that we might learn whether any thing had been
found at Cape Hotham.
On the 29th of August, the "Pioneer," much to my joy, was again afloat,
and fast to the ice in company with the other vessels; and, although my
officers and crew were well fagged out with forty-eight hours' hard
labour, parties of them, myself amongst the number, were to be seen
trudging across the ice of Union Bay towards Franklin's winter
quarters.
It needed not a dark wintry sky nor a gloomy day to throw a sombre
shade around my feelings as I landed on Beechey Island and looked down
upon the bay, on whose bosom once had ridden Her Majesty's ships
"Erebus" and "Terror;" there was a sickening anxiety of the heart as
one involuntarily clutched at every relic they of Franklin's squadron
had left behind, in the vain hope that some clue as to the route they
had taken hence might be found.
From the cairn to the long and curving beach, from the frozen surface
of the bay to the tops of the distant cliffs, the eye involuntarily but
keenly sought for something more than had yet been found.
But, no; as sharp eyes, as anxious hearts, had already been there, and
I was obliged to be content with the information, which my observation
proved to be true, that the search had been close and careful, but that
nothing was to be found in the shape of written record.