The Press.
London, England, 1855-08-25 00:00:00

AUSTRALIA.

Advices dated Melbourne, the Ist of June, sixteen
days later than the previous intelligence, have been
received from Australia. They give a moderately
favorable account of the progress of business.
The markets were still oppressed with goods, but
less so than for some months past, and such trade as
was carried on was for the must part sate and remu-
nerative. Grain and farm produce generally were in
great demand, and the prevalence of high prices
had caused a large increase in the breadth of land
sown with wheat. The export duty on gold had
come into operation on the let of May, and, owing
to the forms connected with it, a temporary dimi-
nution had occurred in the quantity brought into
Melbourne, although the rate of production was
understood to be undiminished. The efforts made
previously to send away as much as possible had
also contributed to a reaction. The success of the
Chinese diggers had been remarkable, and several of
them were returning to China with large amounts.
Violent opposition was being raised against them as
settlers, and a public meeting had been called to
demand measures to put a stop to their arrival.
The produce of the gold duty for the four weeks it
bad been in operation, was 14,4191. A plan of Mrs.
Chisholm for the erection of shelter sheds on the
roads to the mines, at from five to nine miles apart,
had been adopted by the Government, and a supply
had been ordered for the first eighty miles out of
Melbourne. Sir Robert Nickle, the Commander of the
Forces at Melbourne, died a few days before the
last accounts were despatched.

Accounts received from Wasa state tbat some
English cruisers had visited the place, and burned
the magazines and vessels found there belonging to
the Russian Government.

812

yittratrat.

Memoirs and Journal of Lieutenant Joseph Rene
Bellot. London: thirst and Llackett.

WE had no conception until the publication of
this work that the gallant Lieutenant Bellot
left behind him a full and spirited account of
the voyage he undertook in the Prince Albert,
to assist in the search for Sir John Franklin
Of all the narratives of Polar discovery which
have been given to the public—and our litera-
ture is rich in them—we have not one of
greater interest than this. The discoveries
effected by the crew of the Prince Albert,
though far from inconsiderable, cannot of
course rank with those made by Parry and
other Polar navigators ; but, considering the
beauty appliances of the little vessel, we think
the fourteen weeks' journey made by Captain
Kennedy with Lieutenant Bellot and the crew,
may justly rank as the most wonderful achieve-
ment ever performed in the Polar regions.
From an eloquent memoir prefixed to this
volume, written by one who knew Bellot well,
we learn that this promising young officer was
born in Paris in 1826. When four years old
his parents removed to Rochefort, and hence
he was accustomed to consider himself as a
Rochefort man. His parents were in humble
circumstances, his father being a smith and
farrier, but at school young Bellot gave so
much promise of superior ability that, at the
recommendation of the Mayor, a demibruso
was granted him at the College of Rochefort.
At fifteen he was admitted in the naval school,
and in due time was nominated an eleve de
marine.
Many instances are given of his affection for
home and of his open-heartedness, but one will
suffice. From his scanty pay as slave demarine
he left, when appointed to the corvette
Berceau, twenty francs a month for the assist-
ance of his family ; and it is characteristic of
his nature that lie seems ever to have sought
for distinction more for the pleasure it would
afford his friends than for his own gratification.
When nineteen he had as fair an opportunity
for the display of conduct and courage as he
could have wished. He was engaged in the
expedition against Tamatave, and performed
his part in it with singular gallantry. He was
wounded, but was nobly rewarded by being
promoted and by being made a Chevalier of
the Legion of Honour. The following year
he was raised to the rank of enseign de vaisseau,
but he had little further opportunity of en-
gaging in active service.
His was not a disposition which co Id be
content in obscurity. In 1850 the anxiety
felt for the fate of Sir John Franklin, and the
efforts made by Lady Franklin to render the
search for her husband as effective as possible,
appealed strongly to his enterprising and
enthusiastic mind. He solicited and obtained
permission from his Government to join in the
search for Sir John, as a volunteer, and en-
tered the Prince Albert, the vessel which Lady
'ranklin had fitted out at her own charge. It
was commanded by Captain Kennedy, a Cana-
dian, who had been employed in the service of
the Hudson's Ray Company, and thoroughly
inured to the privations and fatigue of a Cana-
dian voyager's life. He was an amiable, pious
man, of great simplicity of manner, but not
wanting in decision and energy. Of spare
figure, and below the middle size, he was well
calculated to accomplish long journeys over
the ice. The voyage was undertaken on strict
temperance principles, the vessel carrying no
kind of spirituous liquors ; yet the crew were
healthy and contented. Temperance princi-
ples were never subjected to a severer trial.
The journal kept by Lieutenant Bella of
this voyage is extremely amusing, but, in the
introduction to it, the division of opinion as
to the route Franklin took is marked by the
opposite notes of the author. At the com-
mencement he writes :
Franklin, obeying his instructions to the letter, had no
doubt become entangled in the narrow channels and
among the unknown islands which exist between Bank's
Land and Victoria and Wollaston Lands.
It is a great pity this view was ever for a
moment lost sight of, as those who knew
graaklin best, and were acquainted with his
hopes uud, designs, felt certain he would make

THE PRESS.

for the American coast somewhere to the
south-west of Cape Walker; but the discovery
of the traces of the expeditien on Beechy
Island at the entrance •of the Wellington
Channel, and the failure to meet any indica-
tion of him by Captain Austin's travelling
parties on either the southern or northern
shore of Barrow's Strait as far as Melville
Island, gave rise to an irrational, and, as it
has turned out, ill-founded opinion that Sir
John had proceeded up Wellington Channel.
In this opinion Lieutenant Bellot, by the
closing paragraph of his "Introduction," seems
to have shared. Ho attaches, however, more
importance to the explorations of his party, as
limiting the region in which search for Sir
John was to be made, than they deserved
The expedition of the Prince Albert has, therefore, contri-
buted to contract more and more the circle of the probable
directions taken by Franklin, and it now seems probable
that he took the route to the north of Wellington Channel.

From the instant Ithat the senseless
clamour set in that Sir John must have pro-
ceeded up Wellington Channel, all chance of
discovering him was lost. The expeditions of
Captain Inglefield and Sir Edward Belcher
were on the wrong track. Sir John should
have been steadily sought in that direction
which he was ordered to take, and which he
had declared his intention of taking. The
party of Captain Ommaney and Lieutenant
Osborne, who rounded Cape Walker and ad-
vanced some leagues to the south, must have
approached his track closely, and it has always
appeared to us that they despaired too early
of making any discoveries in that direction.
That they found no traces as far as they went
should not have weighed with them. Any
signals set up are soon obliterated by the
snow, or easily overlooked. It is a remarkable
fact that Captain Kennedy's party went over
the same ground by Cape Walker that Captain
Ommaney's party had (lone the previous
spring, and actually passed by or walked over
the large cairns they had erected without
noticing them. Had the efforts of the various
expeditions sent out in 1850, numbering alto
gether, we think, eleven vessels, been devoted
to a thorough exploration of the region south-
west of Cape Walker, Sir John Franklin and
his companions would probably have been
brought back in safety. It is a circumstance
to be for ever regretted that a diligent and
effective search was not made for him in this
direction while a reasonable chance of his
safety remained. The cry got up, chiefly by
Penny and his partisans, in favour of Welling-
ton Channel, only shows to what an extent
our public may be misled by ignorant or de-
signing speculators.

To return to M. Bellot and his voyage. An
anecdote he relates, in his own lively, light
hearted style, of his misadventures when ou
his way over the ice to visit the vessels of the
American expedition, painfully recalls the ac-
cident by which he met his death :

Mr. Kennedy and I go on board the Americans, since
there is no chance of the ice opening. They are among
loose lee, which makes our excursion pretty difficult. We
have to jump from piece to piece, and though we take
care to feel our way with our gaffs, the ice gives way under
my feet while I am in the act of jumping, and then I am
swimming in water of 34 deg.—an honour which I should
never have sought of my own accord, but which I try to
bear as handsomely as T can, and I am the first to laugh at
my own mishap. As we are near the ships, I run towards
them to keep myself from freezing, jumping over every.
thing and thinking nothing of getting into the water up
to the middle, so I can but shorten my way. At last I
manage so well, that 1 tumble a second time into a hole,
but have more difficulty in getting out of it than the first
time, because Dr. Kane has come out to meet us, and I
have two persons to help me instead of one. Each of
them hooks me with his gaff, and draws me towards him-
self, the consequence being that, between the two, I re-
main in the water, cutting my fingers against the ice, and
swallowing some mouthfuls. My large boots filling with
water add considerably to the weight, of say clothes, but,
after all, I get out in spite of the efforts made in my
behalf.
Lieut. Bellot was the first Frenchman who
had ever taken a part in Polar discovery. His
reflections on the Esquimaux, and on their
eingular mode of life, aro full of intelligence
His description of an Exquimaux hut is
graphic:—
A rectangular enclosure of stones, covered on the out-
side with a thick layer of earth, and on the interior with
three or four planks, forms the body of the hut; at each of
the doors, and at the further end, a sort of trellis, a foot
from the ground, and three or four feet wide, serving for bed
and table. In the middle 'Race, of about three feet, lieta

SATURDAY,

half a seal, from which the fat has been removed, but the
bloody flesh, trampled under foot, is there at hand when-
ever the inmates of the hut feel disposed to eat.
On one side of the hut is an old woman, nearly blind,
with grisly locks, bare legged, and bare armed, sewing
skins which she moves about with her hands and feet.
Her red eyelids, contrasting with her bistre skin, seem
still more prominent from the leanness which is only
found in individuals of her race. She looks the image of one
of the witches in Macbeth. Nevi her lies her son, who
sits up to do me the honours of his house. At the further
end a young woman, nearly naked, is suckling a naked
infant, which she holds with one hand, while with the
other she snatches up some skins which constitute her
garments. Two lamps, fed with fetid oil, do the double
service of lighting and warming the apartment. Harpoons,
lances, and rolls of skin hang from the walls, or are laid
against it, the lower ends resting in rubbish and offal of
all sorts. There is no opening for the escape of smoke,
a single hole near the entrance, glazed with thin intes-
tinal membranes, alone allows it to be seen that there is
an outer world. •

The great feature of this voyage was the
journey made in the spring of 1852. The
party, including Captain Kennedy and Lieute-
nant Bellot, consisted of six persons. Their
luggage and stores were carried on six sledges,
made after the Indian fashion, five Esquimaux
dogs materially assisting the draught. Through.
out their journey they depended on snow.
houses for shelter, which were rapidly erected
at every resting place. Lieutenant Bellot
relates :
We took leave of the vessel about the end of February,
not to return to it until June, living in the interval on food
carried on sledges, some of which were drawn by dogs,
others by ourselves. Following the line of coast, or
crossing the ice in Cresswell and Brentford Bays and
Victoria Straits, we arrived at new lands, which
we traversed westward as far as longitude 100 W.
(Greenwich) ; and, after visiting Cape Walker, we re-
turned to Port Leopold, and finally to our vessel. In the
course of the last four months we passed out of constant
obscurity into perpetual daylight, and were exposed to a
temperature of 44 deg. below Zero, centigrade.
In the ninety-seven days during which this
journey lasted the party traversed a distance
of eleven hundred miles. During the whole
time they had no other shelter than the snow
houses they erected. They were compelled to
be very sparing of their provisions, restricting
themselves to one meal a day when not on the
march, and their greatest luxury being a cup
of hot tea night and morning.
The amusing journal of Bellot terminates
with the return of the Prince Albert to Upper-
nairk on her way homeward. But full parti-
culars of the brave Lieutenant's death are
given in the Memoir prefixed to the volume.
He joined the Phenix steamer under command
of Captain Inglefield in the spring of 1853.
His biographer relates :-
- - - • •

-
It was from Erebus and Terror Bay that Bellot set out
on the 12th of August upon the expedition in which he was
to perish.
Captain Ingle&ld had left the Phcsnix two days before to
go in search of Captain Pullen, who had been separated for
a month from his ship North Star, which remained in
Erebus and Terror Bay. His intention was, immediately
on his return, to devise means for forwarding the Adair
ralty despatches to Sir Edward Belcher. The transmis•
sion of those despatches was one of the special and urgent
objects of the mission of the Thamix. Now, Captain
Pullen having reappeared shortly after Captain Ingletield's
departure, Bellot, who knew how important it was that the
despatches should be promptly delivered, and was always
ready to encounter every danger, thought it his duty to
anticipate the commander's return. He conferred with
Captain Pullen, whom he left with the two tesselS, and
set out on the 12th of Xtigifit, accompanied by the
quartermaster of the North Star and three sailors, and
taking with him a sledge and an indiarubber canoe.
It was supposed that Sir Edward Belcher was in Wel•
lington Channel in the neighbourhood of Cape Belcher.
In that direction, therefore, the little troop set out, march-
ing close along the eastern shore of the channel. After
encamping the first day three miles from Cape Innis, the
five men halted next day on detached blocks of ice about
three miles from Cape Bowden. On the night of the 14th,
on quitting that Cape, they !nut to cross a cleft in the ice
four feet wide, which they effected prosperously enough.
They were three miles off land, where Bellot proposed to
encamp, and he tried to reach it in the. indiarubber canoe,
but, being twice driven back by a violent gale from the
south-east, he determined to have an attempt made by two
of his companions—Harvey, the quartermaster of the
North Star, and Madden. The attempt succeeded, and,
once on shore, the two men fixed a pass-rope between the
sledge and the coast, by which means objects were three
times transported. A fourth trip was about to be under-
taken, when Madden, who.'*ns up to his middle iii the
water, perceived that the ice was setting itself in. motion
off shore, and towards mid-oltannel. Bellot shouted to let
go the rope. An effort may yet be made—a hope remains;
but the motion of the ice is so rapid that before any men.
sure can be taken it is already at an enormous distance
from the shore. " I then went to the to of a hill to
watch them," says Madden in his deposition, " and saw
them swept away from land towards mid-hannel. I
watched from that spot for six hours, but lost sight of them
in two. When they passed oat of sight the wen were
•