A Party Of Our Sailors Once, On Landing, Took Some Sticks
From A Large Heap, And Uncovered The Nest Of
A snow-bunting with
young, the bird flew to a little distance, but seeing that the men
sat down, and
Harmed her not, continued to seek food and supply her
little ones, with full faith in the good intentions of the party.
Captain Lyon found a child's grave partly uncovered, and a snow-
bunting had built its nest upon the infant's bosom.
Sailing round Melville Peninsula, we come into the Gulf of Akkolee,
through Fury and Hecla Straits, discovered by Parry. So we get back
to the bottom of Regent's Inlet, which we quitted a short time ago,
and sailing in the neighbourhood of the magnetic pole, we reach the
estuary of Back's River, on the north-east coast of America. We
pass then through a strait, discovered in 1839 by Dean and Simpson,
still coasting along the northern shore of America, on the great
Stinking Lake, as Indians call this ocean. Boats, ice permitting,
and our "Phantom Ship," of course, can coast all the way to Behring
Strait. The whole coast has been explored by Sir John Franklin, Sir
John Richardson, and Sir George Back, who have earned their
knighthoods through great peril. As we pass Coronation Gulf - the
scene of Franklin, Richardson, and Back's first exploration from the
Coppermine River - we revert to the romantic story of their journey
back, over a land of snow and frost, subsisting upon lichens, with
companions starved to death, where they plucked wild leaves for tea,
and ate their shoes for supper; the tragedy by the river; the murder
of poor Hood, with a book of prayers in his hand; Franklin at Fort
Enterprise, with two companions at the point of death, himself
gaunt, hollow-eyed, feeding on pounded bones, raked from the
dunghill; the arrival of Dr. Richardson and the brave sailor; their
awful story of the cannibal Michel; - we revert to these things with
a shudder. But we must continue on our route. The current still
flows westward, bearing now large quantities of driftwood out of the
Mackenzie River. At the name of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, also, we
might pause, and talk over the bold achievements of another Arctic
hero; but we pass on, by a rugged and inhospitable coast, unfit for
vessels of large draught - pass the broad mouth of the Youcon, pass
Point Barrow, Icy Cape, and are in Behring Strait. Had we passed
on, we should have found the Russian Arctic coast line, traced out
by a series of Russian explorers; of whom the most illustrious -
Baron Von Wrangell - states, that beyond a certain distance to the
northward there is always found what he calls the Polynja (open
water). This is the fact adduced by those who adhere to the old
fancy that there is a sea about the Pole itself quite free from ice.
We pass through Behring Straits. Behring, a Dane by birth, but in
the Russian service, died here in 1741, upon the scene of his
discovery.
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