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SUCCESS OF THE ARCTIC DISCOVERY _ X ¥PEDITION. The question which has been a geographical problem for upwards of two centuries, the north west passage around the continent of America, is at length determined, and we have the satisfaction to lay before our readers an abstract of the journals of the intrepid discoverers by whose enterprise the object has been accomplished, and in the progress of which they have evinced intelligence, activity, and hardihood, not inferior to any of those daring and enduring men who have preceded them in the arduous path of Arctic discovery. The lively in terest which the British public manifested in the further discovery of the Arctic regions induced the Hudson’s Bay Company to determine on equipping an expedition, solely at their own expense, and composed of their own officers and servants. The formation and equipment of the expedition were entrusted to Mr. Simpson, the resident governor, in the spring of 1836. That gentleman, on his arrival from England at Norway house, Lake Win nipeg, in the month of June of the same year, beat up for volunteers for this arduous service, two active and enterprising leaders, Messrs. P. W. Dease and Thomas Simpson, and twelve men, were immediately selected and forwarded with the ne cessary supplies to Fort Chipewagan, Athabasca Lake, where they passed the winter of 1836-7. Immediately after the opening of the navigation on the 1st of June, 1837, the party started from Fort Chipewagan in two small boats which they had constructed in the course of the winter, descended the Slave River, passed the western end of Great Slave Lake, where they were detained several days by ice, and descended Mackenzie’s River to Fort Norman, where they arrived on the 1st of July. From Fort Norman they dispatched two of their party, with two other men belonging to Fort Nor man, to the eastern end of Great Bear’s Lake, for the purpose of erecting a small establishment at which they might take up their quarters for the following winter, and of laying up a stock of pro visions preparatory to an extension of their survey in the summer of 1838. These arrange ments being made, Messrs. Dease and Simpson, with the remainder of their people, forming a party of twelve in all, continued their route down the Mackenzie, and reached Fort Good Hope, the most northern establishment belonging to the company, on the 4th, where they found an assemblage of Hare and Loucheaux Indians, from whom they learned that the Esquimaux had killed three of their party a short time previous, which prevented the discoverers taking an interpreter from that tribe. On the 9th of July they reached the ocean by the most westerly mouth of the Mackenzie, making its situation in lat. 68 deg. 49 min. 23 sec. N., long. 136 deg. 36 min. 45 sec. W. They had proceeded but a short distance to seaward when a party of nineteen Esquimaux went off to them from Tent Island, who showed a disposition to be troublesome, but returned to their encampment when they found the party prepared to defend themselves if necessary. The progress of the party along the coast was very slow, owing to fre quent obstructions from ice, cold, dense fogs, and strong head-winds. On the afternoon of the 11th they reached Point Kay, where they found another encampment of Esquimaux, and where they were detained by a compact body of ice, occupying Phillips Bay until the 14th. They continued their route till the 17th, when an unbroken pack of ice extending to seaward made them seek the shore in Camden Bay, near a large camp of Esquimaux, who received them kindly. In the afternoon there appeared a narrow passage of water through the ice stretching outwards, and they immediately em barked, but had not proceeded above three miles from the land when the ice suddenly closed upon them, squeezing one of their boats, which, with their provisions and baggage, they had much diffi culty in saving; and by means of portages from one piece of ice to another, the oars serving as bridges, they finally got on a large floe, where they passed an inclement and anxious night. On the 20th they reached Foggy Islands Bay, when they were stopped by ice and a violent north-east wind until the 23d, having on the preceding day made an ineffectual attempt to weather Point Anxiety, in which they narrowly escaped with a thorough drenching. The latitude ashore was 70 deg. 9 min. 48 sec. From this situation they had the satisfac tion of discovering a range of the Rocky Moun tains to the westward of the Romanzoff chain, and not seen by Sir John Franklin, but being within the limit of his survey, called it the Franklin Range, as a just tribute to his character and merits. That evening they reached Sir John Franklin's Return Reef, where their survey commenced, that officer having got no farther. Return Reef is one of a chain of reef’s which run for twenty miles parallel to the coast, at the distance of about half a league, affording sufficient water within for their small craft. The mainland is very low. From Point Perense to Cape Halkett it forms Harri son’s Bay, fifty miles broad, by about a third of that distance in depth. At the bottom of this bay another picturesque branch of the Rocky Mountains Range rears its lofty peaks above these flat shores, which they named Pelly’s Mountains, in honour of the governor of the company. At their base flows Colviie’s River two miles broad at its mouth, to the south-west of which stands Cape Halkett, where they were detained by a north east gale the whole of the following day. The country extending to the foot of the mountains appeared to consist of plains covered with short grass and moss, a favourite resort of reindeer, of which they saw numerous herds. Observations were obtained determining Cape Halkett to be in lat. 7¢ deg. 43 min. N. long. 152 deg. 14 min. W.; the variation of the compass 43 deg. 8 min. 33 sec. E. Next morning, the 20th of July, they passed the Gany, a river about one mile broad. From Cape Halkett the coast turned suddenly off to the W.N.W. It presented to the eye nothing but a succession of low banks of frozen mud. In the evening they passed the mouths of a large stream, which they named Smith’s River. From thence for about nine miles the coast line is formed of gravel reefs, near the extremity of which, at Point Pitt, the land trends more to the eastward. Here they were detained by ice until the following after noon (27th), when an opening presenting itself, they resumed their route. It blew a cutting blast from the north-east, and the salt water froze upon the oars and the rigging. Point Drew, seven miles distant from their last encampment, is the com mencement of a bay of considerable size, but ex tremely shallow, and much encumbered with ice. To seaward the ice was still smooth and solid, as in the depth of a sunless winter. At midnight they reached a narrow projecting point, across which the peaks of some high icebergs appeared. This point they named Cape George Simpson, as a mark of respect for the governor of the company’s terri tories, to whose excellent arrangements the success of the expedition is in a great measure indebted. This point was destined to be the limit of their boat navigation, for during the four following days they were only able to advance as many miles. The weather was foggy and dismally cold, the wild fowl passed in long flights to the westward, and there seemed little prospect of their being able to reach Beechey’s Point Barrow by water. Boat Extreme is situated in lat. 71 deg. 3 min. 24 sec. N., long. 154 deg. 26 min. 30 sec. W., variation of compass 42 deg. 36 min. 18 sec. E. Under these circum stances Mr. Thomas Simpson undertook to com plete the journey on foot, and accordingly started on the 1st of August with five men, Mr. Dease and the other five men remaining in charge of the boate. The pedestrians carried with them their arms, some ammunition, pemican, a small oiled canvass canoe for the crossing of rivers, the necessary astronomical instruments, and a few trinkets for the natives. It was one of the worst days of the whole season, and the fog was so dense that the party were under the necessity of rigidly fol lowing the tortuous outline of the coast, which for twenty miles formed a sort of irregular the land bay (being guarded without by a series of gravel reefs) the shore of which was almost on a level with the water, and intersected by innu merable salt creeks, through which they waded. The different rivers, capes, and other remarkable objects between Franklin's Return Reef and Beechey’s Cape Barrow, were named by Messrs. Dease and Simpson after the Governor and Directors of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and other gentlemen come nected with the fur trade.
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London Planet
London, Middlesex, GB
Sun, Apr 22, 1838
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