ciples. The concluding chapter, On planting Orchards and making Cyder,' will probably be consulted also with much practical advantage.

ART. VI. A brief Narrative of an unsuccessful Attempt to reach Repulse Bay, through Sir Thomas Rowe's "Welcome," in His Majesty's Ship Griper, in the Year 1824. By Captain G. F. Lyon, R. N. With a Chart and Engravings. 8vo. pp. 214. 10s. 6d. Boards. Murray. 1825.

IN

N connection with the third expedition in which Captain Parry is now engaged, Captain Lyon had been destined to the special service of proceeding to Repulse Bay, where it was intended he should winter, and, on the return of spring, detach a small party across Melville Peninsula, with a view to explore the polar seas as far as Point Turnagain, at which Captain Franklin, as our readers may recollect, terminated his bold and perilous survey. The Griper, accordingly, accompanied by the Snap, as a store-ship, weighed from the Little Nore, on the 6th of June last. At her very outset, it was but too apparent that the former vessel pitched deeply, and had been rendered very unfit either for quick sailing, or for contending with the heavy seas and appalling ice of the northern ocean. We would not willingly impute blame to any of the parties concerned in the equipment; and yet it is painful to reflect, that an instance of such serious inadvertence was permitted to occur in a country justly celebrated for nautical skill and liberal enterprize. The requisite stores and clothing, on the other hand, had been provided on the most humane and comfortable scale.

On the 28th, when off Noss Head, Captain Lyon and his party, owing to a fog, and the ignorance of the local pilot, had a narrow escape from shipwreck.

. Having made an offing, until by the pilot's account of the set of the tide, we could weather the Head, we again stood inshore but a heavy swell, through which the ship made no way, and a light air, rendered her quite unmanageable; and the tide having turned, we were carried right for the Head; for at ten P. M. we obtained soundings in twenty-five fathoms, and saw the shadow of the cliff close above us, while at the same moment the breakers were seen and heard under her bows.

Our next cast gave us four fathoms, but most opportunely a flaw of wind came edging round the rock, and we were fortunate in staying the ship, and just clearing her off the reef. Guided by the sound of the breakers, and our hand leads, we succeeded in running into an anchorage in fifteen fathoms, apparently sheltered by some part of the high land. As Sinclair's Bay is the only

place

place affording anchorage along a great extent of this most precipitous coast, we were most thankful for our security. I cannot pass over the circumstances of this escape without deploring the extreme ignorance of the pilots for this part of the coast; ours, for instance, not having any idea of our situation when an chored, and having been most positive that the set of the tide, with which he declared himself perfectly acquainted, could not possibly sweep us near the Head, on the course we had been steering.'

As the vessels put into Stromness for refreshments, an opportunity occurred of visiting some circular ranges of stone, commonly called Druidical Temples. Here, too, were procured, though not without much difficulty, two diminutive ponies, of the genuine Shetland breed, which might, it was believed, prove peculiarly serviceable in the contemplated operations on land. The inmates of the Orcadian huts declared that they had nothing better than meal and water to offer to the strangers.

At length, however,' says the Captain, we made acquaintance with an old woman, who took us into her smoky cabin, and laid before, us abundance of roasted eggs, roasted potatoes, bannocks, butter, and milk, while her husband produced his "ain wee bottle," from which he poured us some excellent whiskey. The old gentleman, who called himself a farmer, had several acres under cultivation, but the hut in which "Christy" and he lived was most miserable and dirty, having no light but through the smoke-hole in the roof.

While the good farmer stood declaiming before us on his visit to London many years ago, we could not but admire his costume, consisting of sufficiently ill-assorted articles of various colours; and he completed the array of his outward man by wearing a red wig, which had been cropped or rather notched, over a dark shock head of hair, which peeped like a fancy fringe from beneath the boundaries of this supplemental covering. The ground of our friend was well tilled, as indeed were all the other fields through which we passed, but the corn was only yet in blade.'

The navigators resumed their course on the 3d of July, but advanced slowly through a heavy rolling sea, the Griper being frequently towed by her consort. It was observed as a singular phænomenon, that the clouds near the horizon were constantly rising in clearly defined and widely extended arches, being within their bounds far more luminous, and of different colors from any other parts of the heavens; and as we sometimes saw three or four of these remarkable bows at the same instant in different quarters, it is evident that lo cality has no influence in their formation."

A re

A remarkable sunset, which occurred on the 25th, is, thus described:

In the north-west was an arch, whose bases were from east to north-west, where its extremity joined a second bow, stretching to the south-south-east. That to the north-west was topped by clouds of the most vivid orange colour, shaded with deep purple, in long waving, but curved bands; and below these gleamed forth the clear blue sky, which, as it approached the horizon, blended into soft green, rose-colour, and lake. In the bluest part of these bright heavens, small clouds resembling streamers of white floss silk floated with the most airy lightness, while near the horizon were a quantity of long black streaks, in solid masses; behind which the sun was setting. One round blood-coloured spot marked its position, and the base of the dark cloud imme diately above it was bordered with the most brilliant scarlet, while the reflection from the sun on the long-rolling sea imparted to it a deep purple tinge.

"A singular change took place where the two arches joined; as that to the eastward was of a pure rose-colour, packed, band above band, the divisions of which were distinguished by a dull pink. streak.'

Icebergs began to appear on the 1st of August, when the temperature of the atmosphere had fallen to 34°, and that of the water to 31°. As the weather cleared up in the evening, the high, rugged, and inhospitable land of Labrador became visible in the distance. On running along the coast, next day, at noon, Captain Lyon was surprized to find that he was only in lati tude 59° 24′ 38′′, having been, as he conjectured, driven considerably to the southward, under the united influence of the currents from Hudson's and Davis's Straits. Before they became completely involved among the ice, the stores, &c. were transferred from the Snap to the Griper, the former then steering for Newfoundland, and the latter, more lumbered than ever, pursuing her solitary and hazardous course.

From such observations as he was enabled to make, Captain Lyon was led to infer that Cape Chidley is laid down in the charts 27 miles too much to the northward On the 5th, he made Cape Resolution, in the midst of severe and disagreeable weather, which was, however, succeeded by a calm and sunny evening on the 6th. He next came abreast of Terra Nivea, so called by the early northern navigators from its uniform covering of snow, while the neighbouring ridges, of equal height, are destitute of such a covering. The compasses now began to exhibit great irregularities, which even the influence of Mr. Barlow's plate failed to correct,. On a floe by which the ship hung were collected several hits

of

of gneiss and granite, bivalve shells, sea-weed, and, what excited more surprize, leaves of the oak, and one of the common whortle-berry bush. In Hudson's Strait, the quantity of ice, so late in the season, was found to be much more considerable than usual, owing to the prevalence of north-easterly gales during July and August.

On the appearance of a very vivid aurora borealis, on the night of the 11th, the Captain candidly retracts his former assertion, that "the prismatic colours are not visible in this phenomenon." Ocular demonstration had, long ago, convinced us of the fact, and without stirring so far as the author has done from our fire-side; for one of the most magnificent displays of variously-colored aurora that can be conceived we recollect to have contemplated long ago, in our own island.

Whilst detained in the ice, the ship was visited by about sixty Esquimaux, males and females, who came to barter their spare articles, consisting chiefly of weapons and clothes: they were, as usual, very lively and very vociferous. At first, they appeared to be scared at the ponies and the pigs: but, when their apprehensions were removed, they expressed great satisfaction at having seen two new species of rein-deer. Their settlement was in the bay, immediately behind the North Bluff; and they represented it as abounding in musk oxen, rein-deer, and fish. About eight miles farther up the coast, a party belonging to another tribe came alongside, and engaged in a brisk and tumultuous traffic of exchange. The Captain procured from them a small parcel of the skins of the legs of the red fox, whence we may infer that this quadruped frequents the shores of Hudson's Strait. The progress of the vessel, meanwhile, through occasional lanes hedged with ice, was painfully slow, and often effected under the cheerless and chilling influence of fogs.

Although the fogs in the polar regions are so frequently mentioned in the course of the recent narratives which have been published, I believe they are generally understood as resembling our English fogs, which is not, in fact, the case. In the northern seas these vapours rarely rise to above a hundred feet from the sea, and a sky of most provoking brilliancy is frequently seen over head. The view from the deck is bounded to about a hundred yards, and such is the rapid formation of the icicles on the rigging, that it is actually possible, when the temperature is low, to see them grow beneath the eye. Yet chilling as this may appear, the sudden clearing of the fog no sooner permits the sun to break forth in its full vigour, than the ship and rigging glisten in the most brilliant manner, as if they were of glass, and a rapid thaw quickly restores every thing to its original colour.'

From

From the 24th, the navigation, regulated by a constant series of soundings along the coast, proved laborious, fatiguing, and dangerous; attesting, at the same time, the careless manner in which the old charts had been executed. The high land of Cape Pembroke was observed to give place to a long tract of flat and uniform beach, awash with the water. On landing, an interview immediately took place with some of the natives, whose language differed from that of the Esquimaux already noticed; but who, also, expressed friendly dispositions, and testified much gratitude for some knives given in exchange for their sharpened bones. Notwithstanding their poverty, none of them begged or were troublesomely importunate. They live in dirty tents, and subsist chiefly on salmon. Two boats having been dispatched on the 29th, landed in the neighbourhood of an apparently forsaken station of Esquimaux: but, although the huts were dilapidated, or overgrown with grass, stores of provisions were still hoarded in their rude magazines. In one of their graves was found a dead body, coiled up, and sewed in a sack of skin.

Near the large grave was a third pile of stones, covering the body of a child, which was coiled up in the same manner. A snow buntin had found its way through the loose stones which composed this little tomb, and its now forsaken, neatly built nest, was found placed on the neck of the child. As the snow buntin has all the domestic virtues of our English red-breast, it has always been considered by us as the robin of these dreary wilds, and its lively chirp and fearless confidence have rendered it respected by the most hungry sportsmen. I could not on this occasion view its little nest, placed on the breast of infancy, without wishing that I possessed the power of poetically expressing the feelings it excited. Both graves lay north-east and south-west. Before going on board I placed boarding-pikes, men's and women's knives, and other articles, which might be useful to the poor Esquimaux, on the huts and various piles of stones.'

The flat calcareous coast produces luxuriant grasses and mosses: but, in the course of the three visits which the people made to it, not a particle of sorrel was to be found; and the leaves of the pigmy willows never rose above the moss.

We have now to state, that a heavy gale and dangerous shoals rendered it necessary to part with a great quantity of the stores, and that on the 1st of September destruction appeared inevitable. On such a solemn and critical emergency, we can scarcely conceive a more sublime picture of human fortitude and composure than is exhibited in the ensuing passage:

I caused the long-boat to be hoisted out, and, with the four smaller ones, to be stored to a certain extent with arms and proREV. MAY, 1825.

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visions.