The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-26 00:00:00

TIIE ARCTIC SEARCHING EXPEDITIONS.

By the Avon have been received further details of
the news an to the Behring Straits Arctic searching expedi-
tion, brought by her Majesty's ship Dmaslus, Capt. Wel.
lesleY, from Behring's Straits to San Francisco on the
22nd of October (as stated in the Express of Dec. 1G). The
Plover, Commander Moore, had passed the winter in
Granticy Harbour, and was rejoined by the Enterprise,
Capt. Collinson, C. 8., from Hong Kong, on the 3rd of.
July, who, on the 10th, proceeded northward. The Daedalus
and Plover met at l'ort Clarence towards the end of July, the
former deeply laden with provisions and stores, and prepared
to pass the winter in the ice, should that prove necessary
from any accident having happened to the Plover. The
crew of the Plover had suffered a good deal from scurvy
during the winter, but no lives were lost, and a great
number of the crew were removed, and replaced by vo-
lunteers from the Daedalus. We regret to state that
the Enterprise has been less fortunate, having lost two
officers. These me Lieutenant J. Barnard, and Mr. White-
head, clerk in charge. Lieutenant Barnard and Mr. E.
Adam, assistant-surgeon of the Enterprise, had been left
at Michaelowski, the Russian trailing post in Norton Bay,
in October last, fur the purpose of collecting information
of the missing expelition front the Russian posts and from
the natives inland. In pursuance of this object, Lieutenant
Barnard, with an interpreter, had gone early in January to
a distant post, intending to communicate, if possible, with
some of the neighbouring chiefs. During the night the
post was surrounded by a large body of Ko-yu-kuk Indians,
several of whom at daybreak entered the principal dwelling
and killed the Russian governor. Lieutenant Bernard and
the interpreter, who were in the same house, made such re-
sistance as drove the Indians oat of the house. They then
laid siege to the post, sheltering themselves behind wooden
shields, stuck upright in the snow, but one of them being
soon afterwards shot, the whole party retired to an Esqui-
mans village at some distance, where they committed
great cruelties, killing upwards of 60 natives, including
women and children. Lieutenant Barnard died of his
wounds on the afternoon of the day following the attack.
Mr. Adams, on hearing of the event at Michaelowski, pro-
ceeded with a number of Russians to the post, where he
saw the body of his late companion, in which were numer-
ous wounds, the principal one being in the abdomen, and
of such an extent as to have proved inevitably fatal. Mr.
Whitchead's death took place on board the En-
terprise, while on her passage from Hongkong to
Port Clarence. Lieutenant E. L. Cooper (invalided),
and Mr. John Simpson (11), surgeon (on promotion), came
to San Francisco by the Daedalus on their way to England
by Panama. The whaling-vessels have crowded in greet
numbers this year again to the Straits of Behring, but have
not been so successful as before. The season has been a late
one in those seas, and the ice floating about until late in
July, has caused many disasters, no less than 11 or 12 ves-
sels having been lost, but not may lives. Among the ves-
sels endangered by being " beset" by the ice were the En-
terprise and Daalialus, somewhere near St. Lawrence Island.
The line of ice in the Artie sea has likewise been found in
a lower latitude than in the two preceding years. There
is no account of the Investigasor, Commander M'Clure, sines
July, 18.50 ; probably ho is to the ice eastward of Point
Barrow. The Dmdalus sailed from San Francisco for the
Sandwich Islands on the 31st of October.