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McCLINTOCK.

McCLINTOCK, Vice-Admibal Sib Francis Leopold, D.C.L., LL.D., F.B.S., is a younger son of the late Mr. Henry McClintock, of Dundalk, Ireland, who was uncle to the first Lord Rathdonnell. He was born at Dundalk, in 1819, and entered the navy at the ace of twelve. In 1838 he passed his examination, and after having been commissioned for some time at Portsmouth as mate of the Excellent ffunnery ship, he sailed to South America in Her Majesty's steamship Oorgon. For his distinguished con- duct in recovering this vessel when stranded, near Monte Video, he was promoted to a lieutenancy in 1845. During the next two years he was with the Pacific squadron in the Frolic, Captain Hamilton. Return- ing to England about the time when great anxiety began to be felt for the safety of Sir John Franklin, he entered heartily into the schemes for his relief, and a.c- companied Sir James Clarke Boss in the Arctic exi>edition sent out by the Admiralty in 1848. He came back again in Nov., 1849, after an absence of nineteen months, and early in the following year joined another expedition, under Capt. Austin, as first lieutenant of the Resistance, Capt. Ommaney. It was his fortune, in Aug., 1850, to see at Cape Riley the first traces of the missing mariners. In April, 1851, while the ships were fast in the ice in Crozier Channel, he com- menced a sledge journey of eighty days along the north shore of Parry Sound, travelling 760 miles, and reaching the moat westerly point which had yet been attained from the east in the Arctic regions. The comparative perfection to which sledge travelling has been carried is due in great measure to the improvements which he effected. The squadron returned to England in the autumn of the same year, and Lieutenant McClintock was at once promoted to the rank of Com- mander. The following spring saw

him in command of the Intre^. _, one of the five vessels sent out 4o the Polar regions under Sir EdwaW Belcher. In accordance with iii- structions from the Admiralty, be sailed in company with Capt. Kel- lett towards Melville Island, m search of McCliire, whom he rescued from a three years' imprisonment in the ice ; but he was subsequently compelled to abandon his own ship, with three others of Belcher's fieet, the whole expedition reaching home in Sept., 1854, some in their single remaining vessel, and the rest with Capt. In^efield. McClintock's ser- vices were recognised by his pro- motion to the rank of Captain; but he did not obtain active employ- ment until Lady Franklin offered him, in 1857,the command of the Fox, a screw st-eamer of only 177 tons, which was refitted and equipped with a crew of 24 volunteers. The little vessel left Aberdeen July 1, 1857, and eventually McClintock discovered on the north-west shore of King William Land a record announcing the death of Sir John Franklin and the abandonment of the Erebus and Terror. The Fox reached the Isle of Wight on her return journey Sept. 20, 1859, and Capt. McClintock was received with great distinction. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the Universities of Dub- lin, Oxford, and Cambridge, and was created a knight (Feb. 23, 1860). The Corporation of London voted him the freedom of the City, the Admiralty granted him the f idl pay of captain in the navy for his two years' absence, and Lady Franklin presented to him the ves- sel in which he made the memor- able voyage. In the spring of 1860 he was appointed by the Government to survey the deep sea route for a proposed North Atlan- tic Telegraph. He was appointed Commodore of the Jamaica station in 1865, in command of H.M.S. Ahoukir. He was a Naval Aide-de Camp to Her Majesty from 1868 to