LITTELL'S LIVING AGE.-No. 298.-2 FEBRUARY, 1850.

Yet, we must confess, that as a mere physical problem, we are inclined to attach much less importance to the North-west Passage than some others; and, considering it in a commercial point of view, we think it hardly promises any real benefit to society; for in the high latitudes, where alone it can be sought, it would necessarily, if attained, be precarious and uncertain, and depend-pered the fastidious appetite with costly viande, or ent upon a thousand accidents, over which man can have no control. It is impossible to deny to the problem all the interest which attaches to romance; the reaching of the centre of motion on the earth's surface, the actual observation of its ideal axis of rotation, are objects which cannot fail to engage the interest of the curious, and provoke the inquiry of the learned.

voyagers and "Quarterly Reviewers." Captain Cook and Sir John Ross were each unfortunate in their day and generation-the one found only ice where the learned had hoped and expected to find land; and the other found land, where it had long been previously settled that he ought to find water.

panded, his moral stature was exalted, and his | services ought to have secured. Thus, previously mental horizon extended beyond its ancient limits. to the expedition of Sir John Ross, in 1818, all Thus is it with this long-vexed problem of the the world ran mad upon a great Polar Basin; as, North-west Passage, which has perhaps done for in the days of Captain Cook, the fireside travelgeography and navigation what alchemy accom-lers had agreed upon a great polar continent. plished for chemical science, or what the vain Captain Cook disappointed the enthusiasts of his search for the philosopher's stone and perpetual day, as Captain Sir John Ross and his associates motion effected for medicine and mechanics. subsequently did in theirs, by failing to realize Though the problem itself may never be entirely all the idle dreams and silly theories of tea-table solved, and although nothing that has been accomplished leads us to hope that we are nearer attaining our object, still it has already rewarded its followers with important benefits. Naval energy has received a series of impulses which will not fail in due season to produce ample fruits; the spirit of enterprise has been awakened, and the love of knowledge and adventure has been dissem- It is then scarcely to be wondered at, that the inated. Men have been taught to struggle with addition to our physical knowledge has not been the stern and severe dangers of a Boreal winter, so great as the several expensive expeditions had and to regard with an unflinching and dauntless led us to expect; and it is really wonderful to spirit, the storms, the snows, and appalling dan- contemplate how very little has been done in two gers of the North. Regarding, then, this prob-centuries of generations actively engaged in solvlem as a problem of science, rather than of social ing the problem. The accumulated experience life, it is to be regretted that the Board of Admiralty have not always, in the organization of these expeditions, paid sufficient attention to the selection of persons competent to conduct those scientific inquiries which are expected to arise, and which are supposed to form an essential element in the composition of such undertakings.

which has been recorded from time to time, proves that the Polar seas have remained in much the same state for a series of ages. The great barriers may now and then partially shift their position, but they soon return to their original limits, and repel, with obstinate pertinacity, all approaches of the navigator.

The search for a North-west Passage first assumed something like a serious aspect in the reign of Elizabeth, but as it was unable to inspire that princess with the hope of any solid and immediate advantage, it did not sufficiently engage her sympathies, or operate upon her interest, to induce her to bestow upon it either care or treasure.

It is too much to anticipate in the commander of such an expedition, the possession of all those varied accomplishments which are necessary for making it useful and beneficial. Whatever degree of accomplishment he may possess in his own profession, it is unreasonable to expect in him a capacity to decide delicate questions of science, altogether out of the sphere and practice of his vocation. The ordinary calls upon his attention and upon the duties of command are so frequent, so important and engrossing, that it is impossible he can find leisure to divide with his professional calling the practical pursuits of science, requiring by them-means, he exposed himself, in 1576, to all the selves an exclusive attention. If more regard had been paid to this part of the subject, the various expeditions, which have been fitted out since 1818, would have yielded a more ample and valuable harvest.

The renowned Frobisher succeeded, after fifteen years of vain solicitation, in obtaining the means of equipping two miserable barks, of only twenty-five tons each. With these inadequate

horrors of a Polar climate, and to the dangers and tempests of the northern deep. Three voyages were devoted by this dauntless and accomplished seaman, to the beating about Hudson's Bay, before he discovered the main entrance into that sea. Another disadvantage under which these expe- What with the inadequate means at his disposal, ditions have ever labored, is, that their projectors the frail character of the craft upon which he was have not always adopted that philosophical method dependent, combined with the disadvantages of the which can alone guard us from the consequences imperfect state of navigation in this early age of of error, prejudice, or haste. Ingenuity and im- science, we are not to be surprised that he was agination have created favorite theories and pet the victim of a series of painful disasters—that he hypotheses, and have expected from the phenom- became entangled in the narrow channels perpetena of nature a submissive acquiescence; so that ually filled with masses of floating ice, and gained the results of an expedition were anticipated, and no step towards the fulfilment of his object. But in drawn upon the chart in London, before the ships those days there were in England enthusiasts, as left their moorings at Gravesend. The result of at present, though they were not susceptible of all this was, that in the cases where these idle the same impressions, and their sympathies were theories and unstable hypotheses were not con- not excited by the same agents. It booted little firmed by actual observation, the navigators failed to Queen Elizabeth, or her court, whether the to ensure that amount of consideration, gratitude, Pole was ornamented with a basin or a continent and reward, which their arduous and meritorious -the courtiers of those days were little engaged

1610, when the ingratitude of a youth, who owed him filial duty and gratitude, cost him his life. This young man, whom Hudson had rescued from an impending destruction, and educated in his own profession, with the care and solicitude of a parent, seduced his crew to mutiny-an event

tions. Hudson was thrust from his ship, and abandoned on the inhospitable and desolate shores which preserve his name, and where he no doubt found a solitary grave. God's vengeance speedily overtook the chief perpetrators of this great crime; they fell into the hands of savages, and perished miserably; some few escaped, who brought home the ship, and though they avoided the retributive sword of human justice, by their assertion that they had been merely passive and reluctant spectators of the crime, they nevertheless failed to satisfy the doubts which filled the public mind.

in speculating upon circumvolving currents, or that he for the first time entered the sea, which other fanciful notions, which interest the elderly has since been known by his name, though it has gentlemen and idle spinsters of modern times. In ever since been improperly designated a bay. those days all dreams were lulled in the pleasant This happened in his last and fatal voyage in anticipations of a discovery which they believed involved the summit of human happiness; and nothing short of the attainment of an El Dorado could sufficiently engage the attention of the court to induce it to bestow its patronage upon a maritime enterprise. About this period some glittering mineral had been brought from the north, which we believe is not singular in these expediwhich was idly supposed to contain gold. What the love of science found it impossible to accomplish, the lust of gold easily effected; and the queen, who had been impenetrable to the solicitations of science, easily yielded to the allurements of gain. She now was induced to furnish a tall ship of one hundred tons for a second voyage; and a third expedition was furnished with eleven ships, which contained the materials for establishing a permanent colony in the promised land. This voyage, however, terminated in bitter disappointment; the vessels were dispersed or lost, the idea of a settlement abandoned, and little was preserved from the wreck of the expedition, which had for- The discovery of Hudson tended to fan the merly raised the most extravagant hopes and popular zeal, and to engage public curiosity and expectations in the court and country. The spirit adventure. In the following year, Sir Thomas of discovery did not soon regain its former elas- Button entered Hudson's Bay, and pushing directly ticity; public expectation had been raised to more across its broad expanse, believed himself in full than an ordinary level, and the disappointment career to the South Sea. He recorded his disapconsequent upon the failure had produced an pointment in the name which he gave to the barunusual degree of depression. But the spirit of rier of coast that checked his advance: he named discovery only slumbered; it awakened again in it "Hope Checked," and returned, after spending 1586, when a company of merchants sent out Da- the winter in the inhospitable scene of his labors. vis, who commanded three successive expeditions The attention of the navigators was now turned with much ability and discretion. Davis pen- in another direction-they resolved to examine etrated through the broad strait, which still pre- and investigate thoroughly the sea entered by serves his name; and in his third voyage he succeeded in reaching its widest expanse, where appeared an open sea stretching to the westward. He returned, but was unable any longer to sustain the enthusiasm which had been cooled down to freezing point by three successive failures. The oracles of those days were not more reasonable than modern patrons and amateurs of arduous voyages; they exclaimed, "This Davis hath made three voyages; why hath he not found the passage?" Davis could never answer this question to the satisfaction of his querists, and it was in vain that he solicited the means of a fourth equip

ment.

Davis, and of which, as yet, no limits had been discovered. This task was entrusted to Baffin, who was deemed at this time the most accomplished seaman of his day. In 1616, Baffin reached the northern shore at a very high latitude, and made the complete circuit of the sea, which has since been called Baffin's Bay. He however thought that it was encircled by an unbroken continuity of coast, in which there was no passage into any sea beyond. Lancaster Sound escaped his vigilance; at this point his patience seems to have been exhausted, and his energies had been so sorely taxed, that he now began to despair. He bestowed but a cursory view upon the entrance into the Polar Sea, which two centuries afterwards also eluded the too superficial observation of Sir John Ross. Baffin returned home under the impression, which he communicated to his countrymen, that the passage sought for had no real existence. Thus terminated what may be deemed the last of the early series of attempts at North-western discovery; the public had so frequently been doomed to disappointment, that they were well prepared to receive and adopt the opin

To Davis succeeded a man of extraordinary and well-merited fame. Hudson came to his work with an established renown, as a seaman and scientific explorer, which had a marvellous tendency to reïllumine the lamp that a series of disasters had well-nigh extinguished. The name of Hudson arrested the quivering flame, and adventurers were found to equip an expedition, of which he took the command. He, first of all, sought a passage by the East along the North of Asia, from thence across the Pole; and, in the event of these fail-ion of Baffin. ing, he was to try the old route by the West.

But England had not been permitted to enjoy a

It was in the prosecution of the latter project, monopoly of the hopes and glory of discovery;

Spain, warmly impressed and actuated by the knowledge subsequently to the efforts of Cook and spirit of enterprise, after she became mistress of his immediate successors. Knight, an officer of Mexico, was not indifferent to the hope which the Hudson's Bay Company, was entrusted with then generally influenced the public mind. Cortes the formation of an expedition, which started upon entered with extreme ardor into these schemes of its perilous mission, but never returned. Subdiscovery, and was preeminently endowed with a sequently to this event the hopes of a successful disposition to engage in the boldest undertakings. solution of the problem became daily less sanHe published his expectation of finding, in the guine, in proportion as the real character of the unknown regions lying between America and navigation about the Polar regions was better India, kingdoms of extraordinary wealth. understood; however, the Admiralty sent out His enthusiasm led him to indulge in the most Captain Middleton, an enterprising officer, of disextravagant visions, and he promised the most tinguished merit, to explore the great opening to ridiculous results of discovery. He undertook to the north of Hudson's Bay, known as the Welmake Charles V. the master of the world, and come." Middleton's expedition, however, proved this monarch seems to have been so blinded by unsuccessful; his course was arrested by a frozen the flattering picture drawn by the sanguine ad- strait, through which a current seemed to flow from venturer, that he gave his fullest sanction to his the Atlantic. Upon the return of Middleton, a fierce projects; though Cortes was left to defray the controversy arose and divided public opinion upon expenses of these costly undertakings. Several the subject of his expedition. He was denounced expeditions were fitted out under the superintend- by his surgeon and clerk; and a Mr. Dobbs, who ence of Cortes, but none of them ever succeeded was the instigator of the expedition, proclaimed in penetrating beyond the rocky shores of Cali- him a traitor to his country, and as one bribed to fornia, which then yielded but a few pearls, and counteract the object which it had been his duty were inhabited by a thinly-scattered race of naked to further and attain. We thus see that controsavages. Successive dreams of gold and disap- versies between pen and ink travellers, and those pointed hopes continued to amuse and mortify the who actually and corporeally unite the ends of the public mind. Several expeditions under Cabrillo earth by their labors and perseverance, are not a and Viscaino, were sent for the purpose of exam- novelty of the present day, but a phenomenon ining the North-west coast into the Atlantic. common to the race, which occasionally develops All these expeditions, however, failed of their itself in illustration of the truth, that it is much purpose; the latitude of 40° only was reached; easier to censure the labor of others, than to imioverwhelmed with fatigue, broken down by tate their energy, perseverance, and courage. anxiety, and sinking under the weight of accumu- The controversy, however, produced a beneficial lated sufferings, complicated with an aggravated effect, as it rekindled an extraordinary zeal upon form of scurvy, a disease which was then little a subject which had latterly lost much of its understood, these intrepid voyagers were obliged interest in the public mind. A large sum of to return, without having effected the object of money was eagerly subscribed for fitting out a their pursuit. fresh expedition, and Parliament voted £20,000 to the crew who should achieve the discovery. This expedition, on its return, in no way tended to contradict the report of Middleton, and the controversy which had been fomented to an unusual height subsided.

the course of a river, now bearing his name, found the sea; and Sir Alexander MacKenzie afterwards proceeded in the same direction to a point 20° further west, where he tracked another river into the sea.

Up to this period, the most obscure ideas were entertained of the connection and relative position of the northern extremities of Asia and America; and it was not until the exploratory labors of Captain Cook raised the veil which was suspended over these remote regions, that anything approach- In 1769 a new light was thrown upon the subing to a clear idea of these two great continents ject by Mr. Hearne, who, following northward was entertained. By the light which was cast upon the geography of these regions by Captain Cook, and his successor Captain Clerke, who partially carried out the projects of the great navigator, so prematurely suspended by his untimely and lamented fate, the great breadth of the north- Hitherto, geographers had considered the coast ern extremity of the continent of America became running northward from Behring's Straits, and evident, and thus diminished the hopes which had Hudson's and Baffin's Bays, all enclosed by land, hitherto been entertained of effecting a North- and constructed their maps under the impression west Passage. The northern extremity of Amer- than an unbroken mass of land reached towards the ica had been fancifully conceived to terminate in a Pole, and that all these were forever barred against cape, which being doubled, the navigator would the efforts of the navigator. The discoveries of Mr. have little difficulty in reaching China and Japan. Hearne and of Sir Alexander MacKenzie now, But it was now ascertained that a transit of about however, threw a new light upon the formation of three thousand miles must be effected between the the coast which they had explored, and rendered Atlantic and Pacific, a difficulty which made the it probable that the preconceived notion of an hope of a North-western Passage darker and more unbroken land stretching into the depths of the doubtful than ever. Polar regions, was a mere creation of fancy, and Little was added to our stock of geographical] that there might be a continuous ocean bounding

the northern coast of America, at a latitude which the answers which had been furnished by some did not necessarily preclude the hope of a practicable passage.

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It further appeared that the danger of being surprised in these regions, and overwhelmed by masses of snow, was so imminent, that the hunters never undertook long journeys over the ice, and they reported their opinion, that they did not deem it practicable to convey loaded sledges over the hilly and rough surface of these regions, by the agency of reindeer or dogs.

The contributions of Mr. Scoresby possessed more than ordinary claims to public attention andR confidence, as emanating from a man peculiarly qualified to entertain correct notions upon the subject. An accurate and scientific observer of the phenomena of these Boreal regions, trained from infancy to the navigation of the Arctic seas, it was scarcely possible to find a man possessing the varied accomplishments of Mr. Scoresby, having the actual experience which he possessed upon the practical difficulties and peculiar charac

Russian hunters, to whom the corresponding questions had been exhibited. These men are Such was the state of geographical knowledge accustomed to spend the whole of the year in at the end of the last century; little or nothing Spitzbergen, and were, therefore, by experience, seems to have been effected for a lengthened competent to furnish valuable information upon period still the spirit of inquiry lay dormant, the probability of travelling from that island to and only awaited the fitting stimulus to develop the Pole, in sledges drawn by reindeer. The its latent energies. Mr. Scoresby did much to reports of these hardy men were not of a characrevive the interest naturally attached to the sub-ter to raise very favorable expectations from a ject of the North-west Passage, which now project conducted by way of Spitzbergen; their began again to attract a considerable share of accounts were discouraging in the last degree; public notice and curiosity. In 1818, it was they represented the winter at Spitzbergen as alleged that the captains of ships employed in the not only severe, but boisterous; they stated that northern whale fishery, generally concurred in the snow fell to the depth of three to five feet; representing the state of the Arctic Sea as sud- and that it drifted so much along the shore as denly become open and accessible to navigation. frequently to block up all communication. Speculators upon the cause of this phenomenon were as rife as blackberries. It was supposed that the great icy barrier, which had during so many ages obstructed these inaccessible regions, had, by some revolution of our globe, been broken up and dispersed. This state of things seemed to point out the present moment as the proper period for renewing the project of finding a Northwest Passage repeated disappointments had deprived the subject of much of its hopeful interest, but the favorable reports of the whalers tended to reassure the public mind. The project was revived, and the daring scheme of penetrating to the Pole was seriously proposed and discussed. Mr. Daines Barrington, a person of distinguished learning and sanguine temperament, had contributed much to produce this favorable impression upon the public mind; he had embraced with ardor the possibility of reaching the Pole, and had industriously ventilated that opinion. In succes-ter of Boreal navigation. sive papers published in the Transactions of the Royal Society, he had not only condensed the narratives of the early navigators, but attempted to prove the reasonableness and possibility of the scheme. He showed that in certain favorable seasons the Arctic seas were left for several weeks so free from obstruction, that navigators might safely penetrate to a very high latitude. It is true that the Board of Admiralty had already been induced by the representations of Mr. Barrington to send out Captain Phipps-afterwards Lord Mulgrave-to explore these regions, and that this expedition had proved signally unsuccessful, Captain Phipps having only succeeded in reaching the latitude of 80° 30', when his ship had become surrounded by a mass of ice, near Spitzbergen, from which it had escaped with extreme difficulty. But Mr. Daines Barrington was in no respect daunted by the untoward result of Captain Phipps' expedition. Some obscure impenetrable barrier of ice, and with it the Nornotions having been entertained upon the subject of congelation of sea-water, Mr. Barrington caused a number of experiments to be made upon the subject by two scientific chemists, and the results of these experiments were collected in a small volume, to which Colonel Beaufoy added a valuable appendix. This part of the work contained

At the same time, a variety of favorable circumstances, having a tendency to revive the slumbering spirit of discovery, coöperated to direct the public attention again to North-western research; it was believed by some, that important changes in the physical condition of the earth were then in operation, and that these changes were gradually mollifying the extreme rigor of the climate of the Polar regions. So great was the public credulity at the time, and so grossly was it abused, that a paragraph appeared in a Scotch newspaper of the day, which related, that a stupendous mountain of ice had been lately stranded on one of the Shetland Islands, and this absurd story was actually believed by some grave persons, who ought to have known better.

It had been known that for the last four hundred years an extensive portion of the eastern coast of Old Greenland had been closed by an

wegian or Danish Colonies, which had been established there for a long period preceding the unfortunate catastrophe. Various attempts had been made from time to time to approach the coast, with a view of ascertaining the fate of the unhappy colonists. But all these humane efforts had proved in vain, the ice being everywhere