SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

Alone VOYAGES, A Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, performed in his Majesty's Ships Dorothea and Trent, under the command of Captain Buchan. R.N.; 1818. "10 which is added, a Summary of all the Attempts to reach the Pacific by way of the Pole. By Captain F. W. Headley, R.N.. F.A.S., one of the Lieutenants of the Expedition. Published by authority of the Lords Commissioners of the Ad miralty Bentley. Tnavatie,

The Eastern and Western States of America. By J. S. Buckingham. Esq. In

three volumes Fisher and Co.

POrray,

Elegiac Poems Mason% CAPTAIN BBECHEY'S NARRATIVE OP CAPTAIN BUCHANS EXPEDITION TOWARDS THE NORTH POLE.

THE voyage of which this volume contains an account was per- formed so long ago as 1818, and was planned as a companion to the first expedition under Captain Ross ; that officer endeavouring to arrive at the Pacific by the more Westerly direction of Baffin's Bay, whilst Captain &Toss was to attempt to reach the Pole direct from Spitzbergen. The publication of the narrative has been delayed so long, because Captain BUCHAN, the leader of the expedition, did not conceive his journal " possessed sufficient inte- rest to engage the attention of the general reader," and the present Sir JOHN FRANKLIN, the second in command, wanted leisure or inclination to prepare a book. The narrative has now been given by Captain BEECHEY, who then served in the second vessel under FRANKLIN, in order to complete the history of modern at- tempts to discover the North-west Passage. The length of time which has elapsed since the performanpe of the voyage, together with the various narratives that have been published respecting the Arctic regions, deprives the volume of the freshness it would have possessed had it appeared on the return of the expedition. The design of the voyage—to steer through the open sea direct to the Pole, and thence to make the passage to the Pacific—has, however, given some peculiarity to the book ; as it narrates a struggle with floating ice, instead of the tedium of long detention in a "field." Spitzbergen having been made the starting- point, is also another source of variety and interest, in the ob- servations made upon the island ; as, during the last detention to repair the injuries received by one of the vessels in its struggle with the ice, the coast of Spitzbergen was surveyed. This long delay appears to have been favourable to the literary execution of the book. Nearly thrice the period prescribed by HORACE has enabled the author to distinguish between images and incidents that have a general intrinsic interest, and such as at first only seemed so from their personal relation to himself, or the impression which circumstances and mere novelty had made upon his mind. In this point of view, the book is one of the best narratives of a voyage of discovery we have perused for a long time. The style is plain and unpretending, yet not devoid of strength or of a simple elegance ; the reflections interspersed are appropriate ' and just ; the matter is well varied both in its nature and its presen- tation, without any attempts at forced or formal arrangement ; and there is no disposition to overdo. Had the account been published at the conclusion of the voyage, Captain BEECHEY'S diary would most likely have been printed all but verbatim. Writing so long after the event, and when time had sobered the zeal of the discoverer and dissipated the charm of novelty, Captain BEECHEY seems to have gone over the whole with a critical• eye; presenting only those passages at length which his maturer judg- ment discovered to possess intrinsic attraction, and compressing the more commonplace parts,—a method by which he has avoided the besetting sin of modern journals, a detailed' dryness. Beyond the usual circumstances of a Northern voyage, the fea- tures of the volume before us are—the struggles and dangers of a vessel in navigating an icy sea, or in offering a " passive resist- ance" when locked up ; the feelings excited by the novel objects presented to the mind ; and the personal occurrences of in- dividuals engaged in duty or dangerous excursions over the ice, whether in the chace or to vary the monotony of an ice- bound life. To these may be added, the sights and scenery of an Arctic region ; which in this Voyage of Discovery are well depicted, both by pen and pencil, where the pencil can be em- ployed. The novelty, variety, and magnitude of the icebergs, floating in calm majesty, or rapidly moving with grotesquely fearful grandeur over an agitated sea—the surf breaking with terrific fury on the solid field of ice—the enormous masses gradually closing up under the pressure of wind and wave till, with a fearful mur- muring, portions are upheaved or ground to powder under the elemental pressure—the well-defined contrast of the stormy sky over the stormy ocean, with the clear sunshine and calm atmosphere over the solid ice—the perpetual day—the peculiar scenery of Spitzbergen, with its gigantic glaciers, its solitary desolation, and the relief of its singular animals, and occasionally the appearance of a scanty vegetation in favourable sites—are all exceedingly well depicted in the volume before us; and, though not perhaps essentially new, have an air both of freshness and novelty. As regards success, the voyage did not succeed because success was impossible. From the reports of the whaling-vessels for a few years previous, it was concluded that the sea was more free from ice than Pwiers and the early navigators had found it ; but the conclusion that it would be so in the following year was so far dis- proved, that, owing to a prevalence of south and westerly wind% or some other causes, the solid ice extended to a lower range than usual. The utmost advance the expedition was able to make; WKS to-80 degrees 34 minutes—only about half a degree further than and when wanted could be as expeditiously replaced, especially as smooth water be all that would be required, and consequently it would take up but little generally prevails between the floes of ice. In case of frost, the screw is wholly tended to be used as an auxiliary power, a small high-pressure engine would of the stowage of the vessel.

opens—would be able to accomplish three or four times the advance in the same period, and perhaps to come to some land in the North, which, if reached, would materially improve her prospect of success. In the event of the ice closing, the propeller could be instantly drawn up into the body of the vessel, place about the paddle-floats and boxes of an ordinary steam-vessel, to the be caught and compelled to winter, a steam-apparatus for warming the vessel throughout could be fitted with little trouble. And as the propeller is only in- tarelbe hours only ; during which time, an ordinary sailing-vessel, threading the under water, and entirely free from that accumulation of ice which would take great detriment. if not the entire destruction of the wheel. Should the vessel of navigation of winds, or at least of calms.

many tortuous channels, does not advance above ten or twenty miles in a direct line, before the closing of the fields puts a stop to her progress ; whereas a steamer, regardless of wind—and it is in calm weather mostly that the ice lihmsow, with ten men and a boy, in a vessel little bigger or better than a modern fishing-boat, penetrated in 1807 ; and not so far by a degree and a half as had been before attained : indeed, the accident of flue winds and weather of each season appear to decide whether 80 degrees can be exceeded or even reached. In his closing re- marks, Captain BEECHEY throws out a hint upon the success that would; probably result from employing a steam-vessel with the screw-propeller, in consequence of the independence of that mode

The openings in the ice are generally of short duration, perhaps for eight or

ADVANTAGE OF A STEAMER IN A POLAR VOYAGE.

Nothing made so deep an impression upon our senses as the change from

EFFECTS OP PERPETUAL DAY.

alternate day and night, to which we had been habituated from our infancy, to the continued dayi:ht to which we were subjected as soon as we crossed the Arctic circle. Where 'he ground is but little trodden, even trifles are interest- ing; and r do not, therefore, hesitate to describe the feelings with which we regarded this change. The novelty, it must be admitted, was very agreeable; andahe advantage of constant daylight, in an unexplored and naturally boiste- PODS sea, was too great to allow us even to wish for a return of the alternations above alluded to : but the reluctance we felt to quit the deck when the sun was shining bright upon our sails, and to retire to our cabins to sleep, often deprived us of many hours of necessary rest ; and when we returned to the deck to keep our night-watch, if it may be so called, and still found the sun gilding the sky, it seemed as if the day would never finish.

What, therefore, at first promised to be so gratifying, soon threatened to be- come extremely irksome; and would, indeed, have been a serious inconvenience, had we not followed the example of the feathery tribe, which we daily observed winging their way to roost, with a clock-work regularity, and retired to our cabin at the proper hour, where, shutting out the rays of the sun, we obtained that repose which the exercise of our duties required.

At first sight, it will, no doubt, appear to many persons that constant day- light must be a valuable acquisition in every country : but a little reflection

• think, be sufficient to show that the reverse Is really the case, and to

satisfy a thinking mind, that we cannot overrate the blessing we derive from the wholesome alternation of labour and rest, which is in a manner forced upon us by the succession of day and night. It is impossible, by removing to a high latitude, to witness the difficulty there is in the regulation of time, the proneness that is felt by the indefatigable and zealous to rivet themselves to their occupations. and by the indolent and procrastinating to postpone their duties; without being truly thankful for that all-wise and merciful provision

w ith which Nature has endowed the more habitable portions of the globe.

AN ARCTIC VIEW AT MIDNIGHT.

The progress of a vessel through such a labyrinth of frozen masses is one of the most interesting sights that offer in the Arctic seas; and being at this time wholly new to us, many, even of those persons not naturally curious were kept out of their beds until a late hour to partake of the enjoyment of the scene.

There was, besides, on this occasion an additional motive for remaining up : very few of us had ever seen the sun at midnight ; and this night happening to be particularly clear, his broad red disc, curiously distorted by refraction, and sweeping majestically along the Northern horizon, was an object of imposing grandeur, which riveted to the deck some of our crew, who would perhaps have beheld with indifference the less imposing effect of the icebergs. Or it might have been a combination of both these pbtenomena ; for it cannot be denied that the novelty occasioned by the floating masses was materially heightened by the singular effect produced by the very low altitude at which the sun cast hut fiery beams over the icy surface of the sea. The rays were too oblique to illuminate more than the inequalities of the floes; and, falling thus partially on the grotesque shapes either really assumed by the ice or distorted by the unequal refraction of the atmosphere, so betrayed the imagination, that it re- quired no great exertion of fancy to trace, in various directions, architectural edifices; grottos, and caves here and there glittering as if with precious metals. & generally, indeed, was the deception admitted, that, in directing the route of the vessel from aloft, we for a while deviated from our nautical phraseology, and shaped our course for a church, a tower, a bridge, or some similar structure, instead of for lumps of ice, which were usually designated by leas elegant ap- pellations. Our attention was, however, soon called from the contemplation of this engaging scene of novelty and illusion, to matter of more immediate im- portance and reality, arising from the increasing difficulty of our situation.

MAY OFF SPITSBERGEN.

The weather was now very severe : the snow fell in heavy showers ; and several tons' weight of ice accumulated about the sides of the brig, and formed a complete casing to the planks, which received an additional layer at each plunge of the vessel. So great, indeed, was the accumulation about the bows, that we were obliged to cut it away repeatedly with axes, to relieve the bow- sprit from the enormous weight that was attached to it : and the ropes were so thickly covered with ice, that it was necessary to beat them with large sticks, to keep them in a state of readiness for any evolution that might be rendered necessary either by the appearance of ice to leeward or by a change of wind.

APAILOSPHERIC EFFECTS.

It is remarkable, that although we had indisputable evidence that it was blowing a gale of wind at sea—by the enormous pressure upon. the ice, the romping of the sea upon the edge of the pack, and the aspect of the sky—the ships were so perfectly becalmed, that the vane at the mast-head was scarcely agitated: There was also a most marked difference in the state of the atmo- sphere over the packed. ice and that over the open sea. Over the ice the sky was Perfectly cloudless; whilst the sea was overcast with stormy-looking clouds, which passed heavily along with the gale, until they reached a line nearly per- pendicular to the edge of the packed ice. At this point, or line of demarcation of two atmospheres, it was curious to mark the rapid motion of the clouds to the right or left, and how immediately they became condensed, or were dispersed on arriving se if; and although mos- ses of clouds were continually borne towards the spot by the impetuosity of the tempest, the line of termination did not encroach upon that of the serene at- mosphere overhanging the pack. This contrast between the two atmospheres, so remarkable in cloudy weather especially, is termed the "ice blink," and enables the experienced mariner to judge of the nature and position of the ice, even at a distance.

A second part has been added by Captain BERCHEY, embracing an historical sketch of the voyages undertaken to discover the North-west Passage, from the earliest attempt to that of PHIPPS.; a brief and readable precis, which has the advantage of being written by a sailor, and a sailor who has performed the voyage himself.