'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎33] (144/258)

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ON ARCTIC DISCOVERy— 1836-1845.
33
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the parallel ol 82 ° 40’, when they found themselves compelled to return.
Notwithstanding the magnificent additions that had been made to the Geo
graphy of Polar America, the spirit of enquiry was far from being allayed.
In June 1836, H. M. S. Terror was dispatched for Baffin’s Bay, under com
mand of Captain Back, with the view of proceeding to Repulse Bay or Wager
Inlet: an exploring party was from this to be sent northward across the
supposed isthmus to the Arctic Sea, with the hope of coasting along and de
termining the outline of the unsurveyed portion of the northern shores of
America. They reached Baffin’s Island in the middle of August. The Ter
ror speedily got so packed up amongst the ice as to be wholly at the mercy of
the winds and waves, and beyond the control of the crew. In this state she
continued till the following spring, when so much time was found to have been
lost, and so great injury sustained by the ship, that she returned home in Sep
tember 1837, not having let go anchor since she left fifteen months before. Her
greatest northing had been 73 ° 40’, in lat. 65 ° 48’. During this year an
overland expedition was undertaken by Messrs. Simson and Deas, ofthe
Hudson’s Bay Company. They first proceeded westward, and completed the
line of survey in the direction of Behring’s Straits, until they united Franklin’s
with the previous discoveries. They then descended the eastern branch of the
McKenzie river, and took up the enquiry in lat. 109 ° , the easternmost point
attained by Captain Franklin,—and thence proceeded for about ninety miles
eastward towards Hudson’s Bay—a further line of thirty miles of coast, open
ing out on a fine open sea, having been examined. A second expedition, by
the same parties, occupied them up to the end of 1839, when all the objects
originally contemplated were fulfilled. In awarding the Medal of the
Geographical Society to the adventurers, the President stated that from Beh
ring’s Straits eastward to the 106th degree ot west longitude the American
polar coast line could be laid down with perfect confidence on the maps
through the space of upwards of sixty degrees of longitude. The only portion
of the coast thus left to be examined was a small fragment betwixt the last
of the explorations just noticed, and that adverted to in the notice of the
voyage of the Hecla and Fury, (p. 28,) surveyed to 91 ° 50’ W., and lat
72 ° 42’ N.
By this time Sir John Franklin had been appointed Lieutenant Governor
of Van Dieman’s Land, and was able to afford to his former fellow labourer
in the cause of Arctic Discovery, Sir James Clarke Ross,—in 1840 placed in
charge of the Antarctic Magnetical Expedition,—the most valuable aid in the
establishment of an observatory at Hobart Town and promotion of his re
searches generally.
In 1815 a further attempt was, on the recommendation of Sir John Franklin,