OSBORN'S ARCTIC JOURNAL.*

THE Arctic narrative in this volume has the novelty of containing the first account of a steam voyage in the Polar regions ; Lieute- nant Osborn having commanded the Pioneer in the expedition of 1850-51, despatched to search for Sir John Franklin. The frank, straightforward, sailorlike character of the author, is an additional feature. There is nothing of solemn blue-book ponderosity about Lieutenant Osborn, not much of official reserve. He is not so un- shackled in the expression of his opinions or in his criticisms as some American officers, but he freely unbosoms himself to the reader' especially upon the manner in which his steamer was re- tarded in towing a heavy tub of a sailing-vessel. How a steamer, with her necessarily heavy cargo of fuel, leaving small space for provision, is fitted for the solitary navigation of those ice-bound seas, where accident may detain the crew for nearly a twelve- month, may be matter of question.

interest nterest of Lieutenant Osborn's book as a narrative or story has been in a measure forestalled, because the official reports, and the discussions on the premature return of the expedition, have made the public acquainted with the final results, as well as with

• Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal; or Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin's Expedition, in the years 1850-51. By Lieutenant Sherard Osborn, Commanding H.M.S. Vessel Pioneer. Published by Longman and Co, the discovered traces of Franklin. Those who with the latest map in hand like to follow the course of the navigators, may learn in what directions a search has been made, and where in all human probability Franklin's expedition is not. But these things are more readily ascertainable from Lieutenant Osborn's book and its companion map. It also brings the daily life of the expedition be- fore us not only in its details but its feelings. The impression pro- duced by the scenery—the hopes and fears as the ice, that is as the weather, fluctuated—the rivalry of the different squadrons, for four or five expeditions were navigating those seas, and ap- parently without any proper understanding as to the division of duty—the amusements to vary the monotony of the winter—the cordiality, and the enthusiastic feelings that animated the men for the objects of the expedition—an all vividly brought out. As a writer, Mr. Osborn has occasionally too much of undisciplined feel- ing for a pure close style of composition, but he writes with vigour and spirit, if a little dashed with exuberance.

The most striking feature of the Stray Leaves is hardship, dan- ger, and their cheerful endurance. Neither hardship nor danger, indeed, were much encountered on board the ships. The discovery- vessels are now so fitted and found for the voyage, that the risk is not great during the navigable season, and when frozen up for the winter in known regions, the danger is not much more than in har- bour. The real perils and labours were undergone in the sledge- expeditions, undertaken across the frozen sea during the spring, when the weather was sufficiently advanced to render it possible without certain death, and yet not so warm as to make the ice al- together precarious. Lieutenant Osborn commanded one of those expeditions, which was to examine the Southern shore of Barrow's Strait from Cape Walker in a Westerly direction; the sledges having crossed the Straits upon the ice. The labour was severe ; for every man on starting was to draw as much as it was calculated he could, and the weight was not diminished for a long time, be- cause each sledge was accompanied by a" support "—another sledge carrying provisions, to prevent diminution of the stook for a cer- tain distance, and to form a cache or store. Labour and weather were not the only things to complain of; another enemy had to be encountered.

"Caps Walker was found to form the Eastern and most lofty extreme of a land-trending to the South-west on its Northern coast and to the South on its Eastern shore. The cape itself, full 1000 feet in altitude, was formed of red sandstone and conglomerate, very abrupt to the Eastward, but dipping with an undulating outline to the West. • •

"Every mile that we advanced showed us that the coast was one which could only be approachable by ships at extraordinary seasons : the ice ap- peared the accumulation of many years, and bore for some forty miles a quiet undisturbed look. Then we passed into a region with still more aged features: there the inequalities on the surface occasioned by the repeated snows of winters and thaws of summer, gave it ?he appearance of a constant succession of hill and dale. Entangled amongst it, our men laboured with untiring energy up steep acclivities and through pigmy ravines, in which the loose snow caused them to sink deeply, and sadly increased their toil. To avoid this description of ice, amongst which a lengthened journey became perfectly hopeless, we struck in for the land, preferring the heavy snow that encumbered the beach to such a heart-breaking struggle as that on the floe. The injury had, however, been done during our last day's labour amongst the hummucks ; a fine clear evening had given us the full effects of a power- ful sunlight upon the pure virgin snow : the painful effect those alone can conceive who have witnessed it. All was white, brilliant, and dazzling; the eye in vain turned from earth to heaven for rest or shade—there was none ; an unclouded sunlight poured through the calm and frosty air with merciless power, and the sun, being exactly in our faces, increased the in- tensity of its effects.

"That day several complained of a dull aching sensation in the eyeball, as if it had been overstrained, and on the morrow blindness was rapidly coming on. From experience I can speak of the mental anxiety which must have likewise, with others, supervened, at the thought of one's entire help- lessness, and the encumbrance one had become to others, who, God knows; had troubles and labour enough of their own. Gradually the film spread it-

self, objects became dimmer and dimmer, and at last all was darkness, with an intense horror of the slightest ray of sunlight. In this condition, many of the four sledge parties reached a place called by us all, in commemoration of the event, Snow-blind Point,' at the entrance of a bay in 100' W. long.

"Unable to advance in consequence of a severe gale, which raged for six- and-thirty hours, we found, on the 1st of May, that sixteen men and one officer were more or less snow-blind, and otherwise unwell; a large propor- tion out of the entire number of thirty souls. To be ill in any place is try- ing enough ; but such an hospital as a brown-holland tent, with the thermo- meter in it at 18' below zero, the snow for a bed, your very breath forming into a small snow called barber,' which penetrated into your very inner- most garments, and no water to be procured to assuage the thirst of fever until snow had been melted for the purpose, called for much patience on the part of the patients, and true Samaritan feelings on the part of the 'doc- tors'; a duty which had now devolved on each officer of a sledge-party, or,

in default of him, upon some kind volunteer amongst the men. Happily, the effects of snow-blindness are not lasting, for we recovered as suddenly as we had been struck down. The gale blew itself out, leaving all calm and still, as if the deathlike scenery was incapable of such wild revelry as it had been enjoying; and again we plodded onwards, parting from the last sup- porting sledge on the 6th of May."

In spite of cold, hardships, and hard work, the indomitable spirit of the British sailor triumphed over all.

"The broken and rugged nature of the floes obliged us to keep creeping along the coast-line, whilst our ignorance of the land ahead, its trend or direction, occasioned, together with the endless thick weather that we had until the 14th May, many a weary mile to be trodden over, which a know- ledge of the bays or indentations would have saved us. It was under such unprofitable labour that the sterling value of our men the more conspicuously showed itself. Captain Ommanney, myself, and Mr. Webb, of the Pioneer, (who, sooner than be left behind, had voluntarily taken his place as one of the sledge-crew,) were the only three officers ; we were consequently throws much into the society of the men; and I feel assured km. not singular in saying that that intercourse served much to raise our opinion of the character and indomitable spirit of our seamen and marines. On them fell the hard labour, to us fell the honours of the enterprise, and to our chief the reward; yet none equalled the men in cheerfulness and sanguine hopefulness of a sue- woeful issue to our enterprise, without win* of course, energy would soon have flagged. Gallant fellows ! they met our commiseration with a smile, and a vow that they could do far more. They spoke of cold as Jack Frost,' a real tangible foe, with whom they could aombat and would master. Hunger was met with a laugh, and a chuckle at some future feast, or jolly recollec- tions, told in rough terms, of bygone good cheer; and often, standing on some neighbouring pile of ice, and scanningthe horizon for those we sought, have I heard a rough voice encouraging the sledp-crew by saying, Keep step, boys ! keep stop! she (the sledge) is coming along almost by herself: there's the Erebus's masts showing over the point ahead. Keep step, boys ! 'keep step ! " The explorations of the different expeditions seem to prove that Franklin must be looked for, at least from the Eastern or Baffin's Bay quarter, farther North than Barrow's Strait, or its adjacent inlets—that is to say, farther North than 75 or 76 degrees of Worth latitude. It is Lieutenant Osborn's opinion that this un- known region is not land, as usually laid down in the maps, but either an open sea, or one intersected by islands ; and that these Northern regions are more fertile in life available for the food of man, than the lower Arctic latitudes. Be draws the conclusion 'Chat Franklin went to the North of Barrow's Strait, and would there lnii subsistence. His reasons are founded on modern dis- coveries and his own observations. These geographical arguments are supported by a disquisition on the Esquimau', who are more numerous and in better case in Baffin's Bay than on the mainland of America. He also holds that Davis Straits is the region of ice- bergs, which are never produced but where the land is favourable to their production ; and that as the navigator advances through Lancaster Sound in a Westerly direction, he leaves the ice-bergs behind. This theory, if true, would seem to put an end to the story of the Erebus and Terror having been seen attached to an iceberg, for Franklin's first wintering-place was beyond their region. The actual facts of the following passage, on discovering the traces of Franklin's winter-quarters and the graves of his men, we not new, any more than the information conveyed; but the details realize the scene and the emotions it excited—we have feelings as well as facts. "It needed not a dark wintry sky nor a gloomy day to throw a sombre shade around my feelings as I landed on Beechey Island, and looked down upon the bay, on whose bosom once had ridden her Majesty's ships Erebus and Terror; there was a sickening anxiety of the heart as one involun- tarily clutched at every relic they of Franklin's squadron had left behind, in the vain hope that some clue as to the route they had taken hence might be found.

"From the cairn to the long and curving beach, from the frozen surface of the bay to the tops of the distant cliffs, the eye involuntarily but keenly sought for something more than had yet been found.

"But no ! as sharp eyes, as anxious hearth, had already been there, and I was obliged to be content with the information, which my observation proved to be true, that the search had been close and careful, but that nothing was to be found in the shape of written record. " On the Eastern slope of the ridge of Beechey remnant of a garden (for remnant it now only was' having been dug up in the search) told an interesting tale : its neatly-shaped oval outline, the border carefully formed of moss, lichen, poppies, and auemoniea, transplanted from some snore genial part of this dreary region, contrived still to show symptoms of vital- sty ; but The seeds which doubtless they had sown in the garden had decay- ed. away. A few hundred yards lower down, a mound, the foundation of a storehouse, was next to be seen. It consisted of an exterior and interior embankment, into which, from the remnants left, we saw that oak and elm scantling had been stuck as props to the roofing : in 'onepart of the enclosed space some coal-sacks were found, and in another part numerous wood- shavings proved the ship's artificers to have been working here. The gene- rally received opinion as to the object of this storehouse was, that Franklin had constructed it to shelter a portion of his superabundant provisions and stores, with which it was well known his decks were lumbered en leaving Whale Fish Islands.

4' Nearer to the beach, a heap of cinders and scraps of iron showed the ar- mourer's working-place • and along an old watercourse, now chained up by frost, several tubs, constructed of the 'endsof salt-meat casks, left no doubt as to the washing-places of the men of Franklin's squadron. Happening to cross a level piece of ground, which as yet no one had lighted upon, I was pleased to see a pair of Cashmere gloves laid out to dry, with two small atones on the palms to prevent their blowing away : they had been there knee 1846. I took them up carefully, -as melancholy mementoes of my mis- sing friends."

4' The graves next attracted our attention; they, like all that English seamen construct, were scrupulously neat. Go where you will -over the globe's surface, afar in the East, or afar in the West, down amongst the coral-girded isles of the South Sea, or here where the grim North frowns on the sailor's grave, you will always find it alike ; it is the monument raised by rough hands, but affectionate hearts, over the last home of their mew- s:nate ; it breathes of the quiet churchyard in some of England's many nooks, where each bad formed his idea of what was due to departed worth ; and the ornaments that Nature decks herself with, even in the desolation of the Frozen Zone, were carefully culled to mark the dead seamen's home. The good taste of the officers had prevented the general simplicity of an oaken bead and footboard to each of the three graves being marred by any long and childish epitaphs or the doggrel of a lower-deck poet, and the three inscrip- tions were as follows— '"Sacred to the memory of J. Torrington, who departed this life, January 1st 1846, 'Onboard of 11.11.8. 'Ferrer, aged 20 years.'

Sacred to the memory of Wm. Brains, a.m., Of H.M.S. Erebus ; died April 3d 1846, aged 32 years. " 'Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.'—Josh. axis. 15.'

" ' Sacred to the memory of J. Hartwell, A.B., of H.M.S. Erebus; died January 4th 1846, aged 25 years.

" • Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways.'—Haggai, 7.'

"I thought I traced in the epitaphs over the graves of the men from the Erebus, the manly end Christian spirit of Franklin. In the true spirit of chivalry, he, their captain and leader, led them amidst dangersand unknown difficulties, with iron will stamped upon his brow, but the words of meekness, gentleness, and truth were his device. We have seen his career and we know &la deeds!

' Why should their praise in verse he sung ? 'he name that dwells on every tongue No minstrel needs."