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Rh York, Hudson's Bay, on an overland expedition to circumnavigate the northern coast. They were accompanied by Midshipman George Back, afterward Captain Back, a courageous and enterprising explorer. In 1825 Franklin, Richardson, and Back, again set out on an overland expedition for surveying the northern coast. In 1829 Captain John Ross entered Prince Regent's Inlet, and, after surveying the coast of the Boothian Peninsula, he went into winter-quarters. In the spring of 1831 his nephew, James Ross, discovered the north magnetic pole.

In 1837 the coast between Return Reef and Point Barrow was surveyed by Dean and Simpson, in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company. Simpson was the soul of the expedition, and had already made a tramp of over 2,000 miles through the wilderness, and in the depth of winter. Simpson afterward continued the survey, and accomplished a boat-voyage of over 1,600 miles. He died, at the age of thirty-six, by the hand of an Indian assassin.

Sir John Franklin set out on his last voyage in 1845, being then in his sixtieth year, with two ships, the Erebus and the Terror. These vessels were last spoken, July 26th, in the same year, in Baffin's Bay, latitude 77°. In 1848 commenced the search for Franklin. The Plover and Hecla took out supplies for him to Behring's Strait. His old companion Richardson went out the same year, as did also Sir James Ross and Captain Bird. In 1850 twelve ships joined in the search, and in 1852 six vessels sailed from England on the same errand. McClure, commanding the Investigator, passed through Behring's Strait in 1850, and safely reached Marcy Bay in 1852, thus discovering the northwest passage. McClintock at length, in the spring of 1859, learned from a party of Esquimaux, on the southwest coast of Boothia-Felix, the mournful story of the fate of Franklin and his men.

Elisha Kent Kane accompanied the first Grinnell expedition (Advance, Lieutenant De Haven) in 1850-'51, and was commander of that vessel in the second Grinnell expedition in 1853. On August 7th he entered Smith's Sound, and, after encountering fearful perils, found a harbor in Rensselaer Bay, latitude 78° 38'. The Advance was fated never to come out of that bay, and had to be abandoned there two years later. April 25, 1854, he set out on a sledge-journey northward, drawn by dogs. May 4th he saw Great Humboldt glacier, and, though scurvy, cold, and dropsy, had wasted his strength, he would still have insisted on advancing, but he now became delirious, and his companions turned their faces shipward. On August 24th, when it was seen that there was no hope of getting the ship free from the ice, Kane called his officers and men together and announced his determination to remain. They were in all 17, and of these nine chose to leave their commander and essay a return home. Kane now adopted the Esquimaux form of house and the Esquimaux diet, as best suited to the climate. He also entered into friendly relations with the natives;