The Press. — London, England, 1855-12-15 00:00:00

DECX)6I4R 15., 1855.. Was there not more danger incurred in crowding the crews of all five vessels into the North Star (admitted by Captain Belcher to be a perilous proceeding) than there would have been in leaving a portion of the men with one or more of the ships ? 3. When the phoenix and Talbot arrived, might not one vessel have been left at Beechey Island, in case Collinson and his crew should come to that point for succour, and for means of passage home ? It is the second of these questions which eeems to us the most pressing, though we cannot agree in Captain Belcher's dis paragement of the good ships he abandoned, as being merely " masses of purchased " timber," the instant they ceased to be under command of her Majesty's officers. To all these questions the safe return of the Antic crews is, perhaps, the best and certainly the most practical answer that can be given. The " Last of the Arctic Voyages," though not wholly satisfactory, is yet worth its cost. No one can look at the last chart without a feeling of gratification at the progress made. The chart in these volumes, however, is very imperfect ; not even the winter stations of the Resolute are marked ; nor are places given the names of which frequently occur in the narrative. As we have intimated a suspicion of the soundness of Sir E. Belcher's judgment, we quote a sentence or two that our readers may judge for themselves whether our doubt be well-founded. He writes, in one place : By some unaccountable peculiarity, I make up my mind to effect an object, at a moment when no chance of its accomplishment is apparent.—i. 360. This is in reference to a kind of instinctive faculty of doing, or guessing, right which he supposes himself to possess. On one occa sion a dog sledge is reported, and Captain Belcher, without any kind of certainty as to what news it may bring, divines its mission:— My salutation was—" Well, you bring me news of Captain Collinsou's safety." " Yes, sir, he is safe, and I have documents here for you."—ii. 186. Again : To-day I felt so perfectly satisfied that a sledge from Kellett was due (if lie existed), that I fully intended, when the master reported noon, to desire him to send a person to look out on the hill. It escaped me, being then engaged on other matters ; but my clerk coming in from taking the temperature of the Crystal Palace La large ice -house], reported—" A dog•sledge nearly along-side, sir." My reply, instigated by what was then passing in my mind, was very short, and without emotion. " I know it!" which some what astonished him; but fortunately I explained my meaning, which, perhaps, led him to imagine I was dreaming. How could the sledge be due? The day was the 13th of March, a date earlier than Captain Belcher himself recommended any journey to be begun ; and had Kellett been kept at Melville Island, as was probable, no messenger could have arrived from him so soon. The conviction of Captain Belcher may be attri buted to second-sight, but could not have been founded on rational calculation. He gives us the impression of being excessively opinionated, and unreasonably suspicious. On his jealousy of command, the reader may con sult vol. ii. 213 and 228 ; and on his apparent mistrust of M'Clure, vol. ii. 231. The para graph relating to this noble officer•, at vol. ii. 259, seems dictated by ungenerous feeling. The getting-up of these volumes is highly creditable to the publishers and to the per sons who have furnished the valuable matter contained in the appendices. The careful observations of Captain Belcher himself arc also extremely valuable. We doubt whether the title, " The Last of the Arctic Voyages," will long remain true. Further traces of Franklin are yet to be sought in the direction from which, by the account of Dr. Rae's Esquimaux, his party proceeded. Besides, the question has not yet been finally deter mined whether an open sea may not exist in a higher latitude than has yet been reached, though probabilities, we admit, are strongly against the supposition. In any case, it does not seem impracticable, with proper arrange ments, to reach the North Pole, and thus solve some very interesting geographical problems. The money spent, and the dangers incurred, in the pursuit of science, yield a rich, though not perhaps a direct or immediate, reward; nor is there any glory more truly honourable to, a nation than that of taking the lead in TtIV PAV.ss. enterprises calculated to produce results which will last through all time, and benefit all mankind. Shooting in the Himalayas. By Colonel Fred. Markham, C.B. London : Bentley. Lis death of General Markham took the public by surprise. Younger than most of our Crimean leaders, hardy in constitution, and inured to warfare, he might have been supposed to be one of the least likely to suc cumb to the hardships of the war. But his extreme zeal and disregard of fatigue, acting perhaps upon a frame overtasked in former exploits, and aided by an injury received in crossing the Desert to join Lord Raglan's forces, has closed his career at the moment when it seemed destined r the greatest glory On his merits as a soldier we need not dilate—they foim the subject of every tribute that is paid to his memory. But be was more than a soldier. His adventurous disposition made him impatient of the barrack and parade, and led him, both in America and India, to fill up the intervals of actual service with the pursuit of the most perilous sports ; while his literary accomplishments enabled him to de scribe graphically the adventures he met with. Hence the volumes which stand at the head of this notice. In the summer of 1846 the 32nd Regiment, of which he was then lieutenant-colonel, em barked for India, and, atter a long march into the interior, was quartered at Meerut. The spring found them settling down into the rou tine of an Indian corps, acclimatised in mind as well as body. The hot season was com mencing, during which drill was impossible. Six months' leave of absence was obtained, and, in company with one of his sporting ensigns, Colonel Markham started for the Himalayas. At that time, he tells us, he was rather poor in worldly goods, and possessed but one gun, a double•barrelled one, which he had purchased new out of an ironmonger's shop in London for 21. 5s , and which was far from a first-rate article. His first adventure was a tiger-hunt: — A jolly breakfast party of nine hungry sportsmen, and then—hurrah for the jungle. I know not a finer or mere exciting spectacle than a line of elephants beating for tigers. The larger anti most courageous elephants carry ing the howdahs, placed at equal distances, with the infe rior animals between as beaters, sometimes almost hidden from each other, as the line advances through the tall grass, the roads thickly matted together by the luxuriant growth of innumerable shrubs and creepers ; the Mahouts alternately coaxing and belaying the huge animals as they go crushing deliberately through the jungle, with an occa sional shrill cry of pain and disgust from an elephant more delicate and thin skinned than the others, it being forced through the thorny mass of tangled roses and bushes—a favorite lay of tigers; the startled deer, feathered game rising every few paces; the well-appointed sportsmen ; the white garments of the Mahouts ; the wild-looking, half naked villager, taken up from his field to show the ground ; altogether form a scene not easily forgotten by those who witness it for the first time. Carefully we beat the most likely jungle, full of deer, pea fowl, partridges, Sex. Not a shot was fired, lest the noble game should be disturbed. At last, despairing of a tiger, we blazed at everything, and had capital shooting, until tiffin reassembled the party, one of whom, to our great distress, was brought in with his hand dreadfully shattered by the bursting of his gun. Having sent him home under charge of Doctor Bruce, and being well satisfied he would be well taken care of, we beat steadily on, when three shots in quick succession were fired on the right of the line. " Dekho, sahib ; dekho, bagh ! "—Look, sir! look, a tiger!—screeched out by a dozen voices, sent the whole line in pursuit The elephants, urged to their utmost speed, crushed through the jungle, screaming and trumpeting as they smelt the tiger. A waving line is seen on the surface of the long grass as of some large animal moving swiftly and stealthily along, and then, charging at full speed, the tiger, with a final spring, fixed himself upon Mayne's elephant, who, after a violent struggle, succeeded in shaking him off. Severely wounded, he retired into some long grass, and in making a second charge was shot dead. He was a fine animal, well grown, and full of pluck; and, with our spirits TR i sed at the success of our maiden essay in tiger shooting (for,as a matter of course, everybody killed him), we returned to camp. But this was only the prologue to the play. Tahir and gooral shooting was the next scene. The tahir is one of the species of the wild goat of the Himalayas, and at a distance has something of the appearance of a great wild hog. The gooral is the chamois of the Hima layas The method adopted for its discovery is singular—to give a few loud hisses. Should one be near, it will answer, and generally move and expose itself for a fair shot. The work was very hard, and at first not very successful. We find him saying:— az We found many tahir, and bed some good chan•es; but, swing to a chapter of those trifling accidents which will occasionally occur, we returned at night emptyhanded to the camp, and passed the evening as usual, eating a good deal, drinaing a little, smoking considerably, and talking incessantly : We were all to start in the murnuig over the hill to Jsfah ; so up tally and called on my sleeping com panions to arise. lint I called in vain; tired of the hill, they changed their minds, and Wilson and I had to start re • e,. BM *port was not the only object of interest for ow autbor—witness the following descrip tion et the glacier of the Gauges : A floe cold morning, and we started early to accomplish the live miles to the source of the mighty river. The walking was bad, for in all the small tributary streams were stones and rocks incrusted with ice, which made them very difficult to cross. On the opposite side we saw immense flocks of burrell (the wild sheep), but there was no getting at them. At last the great glacier of the Gauges was reached, and never can I forget my first impressions when 1 beheld it before me in all its savage grandeur. The glacier, thickly studded with enormous loose rocks and earth, is about a mile in width, and extends upwards of many miles towards an immense mountain, covered with perpetual snow down to its base, and its glittering summit piercing the very skies, rising 21,000 feet above the level of the sea. The chasm uf the glacier, through which the sacred stream rushes forth into the light of day, is nailed the Cow's Mouth, and is held in the deepest reverence by all Hindoos, and the regions of eternal frost in its vicinity are the scenes of many of their most sacred matters. The Ganges enters the world no puny stream, but bursts forth from its icy womb a river thirty or forty yards In breadth, of great depth, and very rapid. A Durrell was killed by a lucky shot across the river, just at the mouth, and fell backwards into the torrent, and was no more seen. Fatigue is very little thought of in this volume, and we are constantly finding remarki of this kind : The journey down is awful work, slipping and falling every few yards, being unable to see the bail places; how ever, the men were down as often as we were, and that was some consolation. The walking at this time is very dangerous, as a false step or slip would in all probability send you, unable to check yourself, over some ledge of rocks, and it is absolutely necessary to be careful. One more extract is all we can find room for : The mighty hunters and sportsmen of the plains may talk of the charge of a tiger or of a wild boar ; and, I dare say, laugh at me for placing such a clumsy brute as a bear in comparison with them, and yet he beats them hoUow in the quickness of his charge, and many people who have stood it will doubtless agree with me in thinking so. It must, however, be borne in mind that a man may shoot bears for years and never see a real downright charge. They will often make a rush at their pursuer, rising, as they close, upon their hind legs, and stretching out their fore paws to seize hold, but at times they will come as if shot out of a cannon ; you see a mass of black fur, and before you can even turn it is upon you. •• I recollect on one occasion taking a shot at a bear as it was peering down at me over a bush ; I could only see its head. and it might have been eighty yards er so distant, and considerably higher up the hill than I was myself. The ball from the first barrel now possessed an exeel lent double ride) went through one of its ears, and just grazed the skin all down the back. Without an instant's hesitation it rushed down, and 4 really never saw anything come at such a pace It scarcely could have been quicker if it had been pitched at me. I had just time to cock the other barrel, pull the trigger, and not a second to spare. The bear must have been within a yard when I did so, and it was, I think, one of the luckiest shots I ever fired, for taking aim was quite out of the question. The ball hit the animal right in the mouth, smashing a good many teeth, and entering the brain, which laid it dead at my feet. The book abounds with incidents like these. Sometimes we have the nigh; surprise of a tiger or leopard, while carrying off the carcase of a bullock ; sometimes a shot at a flock of burrell, racing at Derby pace across a glacier ; and sometimes a hand-to-hand encounter with a bear, or a chase from cave to cave, with dan gerous charges and hairbreadth escapes. Every thing is well told ; no exaggerated description, and yet no lack of descriptive power. The last page reads the saddest, where, in concluding the narrative of five shooting seasons in the hills, he expresses his hope that his sporting excursions were not ended for ever; that he might again wander over valley and mountain ; might, once more, face bruin in his haunts , and bring down many an ibex, amidst t 4 rocks and the snows of the Himi4ayas. A Lady's Second Journey Round the World. By 146 Pfeiffer. Two Vols. London Longmans. THIS lady, so favorably known by the publication of her previous travels, has given us in two compact volumes the narrative of her latest wanderings, ex tending over a period of four years, and embracing a voyage round the world. She left England fa . the Cape of Good Hope, in April,lBsl; thence proceeded to Singapore' visited Sarawak, where she satisfied