The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-27 00:00:00

TO THE SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY.

17, Savile-row, Oct. 27, 1854.
Sin,—l transmit, for the information lof my
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, a copy of
my correspondence with their Lordships, bearing
date respectively December 21, 1844 ; January 8,
1845 ; January 31, 7845.
There was no Sir Robert Harry Inglis in those
days ; so this correspondence has no place in the
" Blue Books."

It, however, should have, I think, a place in
the next " Blue Book ;" for the lithographed con-
jectural chart, illustrative of the correspondence,
bears, in indelible characters, not only the position
of the "Great Polar Passage" discovered by Capt.
M'Clure, but the Atlantic outlet of that " Great
Polar Passage " through Jones Sound discovered
by it E. Belcher.

The actual chart of 27th October, 1854, now
about to issue from the Hydrographer to the
Admiralty, is, doubtless, more ornamental but not
more truthful, than the conjectural chart,.of 31st
January, 1845.

,
According to a principle, my unerring guide
from the moment I had to deal with life and death
on a great scale, I forward copies of this corre-
spondence to the " London Press:L:--:.-3, have the
honour, &a., RICHARD KING.

POLAR SEA EXPEDITIONS AND POLAR LAND
JOURNEYS.

Sir,—The problem of a North Polar passage between the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans having occupied your attention
for ?some years, I beg to submit to you a careful digest of the
services which have taken place since you entered upon this
field of research in 1818.
Th '-to 13^'

Jay are divisible into Polar Sea Expeditions and Poi.
Land Journeys. The Polar Sea Expeditions amount'to ten,
the Polar Land Journeys to three ; seven out of the ten
Polar Sea Expeditions may be briefly described :—Captain
Lyon's expedition was modestly called by him " an unsuccess-
ful attempt to reach Repulse Bay ;" in the body of the nar-
rative of Captain Back's expedition, will bo found the same
tale which Captain Lyon told on his title-page ; Captain Rose
returned after four years' wintering, without advancing a step
towards the object in view ; Captain Parry failed in ,his at-
tempt to reach the Polar Sea by Regent Inlet ; Captain
Beechey saw the Polar Sea, and that is all; and Captain
Buchan was not so fortunate as Captain Beechey.
To the remaining three I call your particular attention ;
l et, to that of the Isabella, of 385 tons, under the command

Pola:

of Captain John (now Captain Sir John) Ross ; and the Alex-
ander, of 252 tons, commanded by Lieutenant (now Cap-
tain Sir Edward) Parry, having in view a western passage
from Baffin Bay. Captain John Ross rounded Baffin Bay
from east to west, without discovering an opening to the
west. 2dly, to that of the Hecla, of 375 tons, under the
command of Lieutenant Parry, and the Griper, of 180 tons,
under the command of Lieutenant Liddon, with the same

object as Captain John Ross in view. Instead of round-
ing Baffin Bay, Lieutenant Parry made an attempt to cross
the Atlantic, in the parallel of .58 deg., and afterwards
in 73 deg. He succeeded, but the passage was one of great
risk. The result of this expedition everybody knows, and ap-
preciates. We became acquainted with a Sea, of 31 de-
grees of longitude, bounded on the north by broken laud,
called the North Georgian Group; and on the South, by Banks
Land to the West, land without a name to the East, and
North Somerset between the two. The Sea between the land
without a name and North Somerset, is called Regent
Inlet, while that between North Somerset and Banks Laud, is
without a name. 3dly, to that of the Fury, of 327 tons, under
the command of Captain (lat.•ly Lieutenant) Parry, and the
Hecla, commanded by Captain Lyon, fitted out with the view
of reaching Regent Inlet, by some unknown southern commu-
nication from Fox Channel. A communication was found,
through the agency of the Esquimaux, in the Fury and llecla.
Strait, but it was ice-clogged.
From these premises, what is the state of things ? " When
you applied in 1818 to this question, the power of your vigor-
ous mind and penetrating judgment," a reflection was cast
upon those who had hitherto laboured in this field of researca,
and no doubt was entertained that the problem would be
speedily solved. But another expedition, and another, until
they cumber ten, have sailed and returned, and the North-
west Passage remains equally a problem ; but with this dif-
ference, that it is no longer of a simple, but of a compound
character. The lands that have been brought to light are so

many lesser puzzles, as additions to the great puzzle of three

centuries.

The great difficulty in the way of these various attempts,
all know, was ice, but no one, not even the author of the
" Chronological History of Arctic Voyages," has inquired
where was it found, where was it not found, and where,
therefore, was it for the future to be avoided. That which
forced itself, especially upon Sir Edward Parry's mind, was
the fact of the adherence of ice to those shores which had an
eastern aspect, while those of an opposite character were free.
have tested this fe.ot in conneetien with 4h. ,uuvements of
the various Polar Sea Expeditions which have been set afloat
since 1818, and I find that in every instance the difficulties
arose from the same cause—the clinging to lands having an
eastern aspect. It may be as well to mention them, for facts
are always worth repeating. Sir Edward Parry, in his second-
expedition, made attempts for two successive summers, to
eltaheStFra.iity
while pushing his way along the eastern laud of North,
ahnedlonset
ai, penetrated
failed the;
a neda,s
itne r u
his e n
thirdt u e
expedition,ofthe F ury
Somerset. Sir John Ross, in his second expedition, was four
years advancing four miles along the same eastern land, and
was at last obliged to abandon his vessel. Captain Lyon and
Sir George Back made separately unsuccessful attempts to
reach Repulse-bay, which has an eastern aspect.
How, it may be inquired, is this general difficulty to be
avoided ? By doing, from experience, that which Baffin and
Ross did from instinct, by taking the road, which is fairly
open to us—the lauds that have a western aspect. The diffi-
culty then is clearly one of our own seeking, and uo longer
presents an insurmountable barrier to arctic research.
Iu 1818, you particularly c;lled attention to the easterly
current setting through Behring Strait,
on the Pacific, and
the southerly current setting down Baffin Bay, on the At-
lantic, and you, in consequence, inferred that there must bo
a northern connecting Sea to the two great oceaus. It was,
iu fact, your most powerful, if not your only, lever to set in
motion a Polar Sea Expedition. Yettbe absence of a current
in Lancaster Sound, and the Fury and Hecla Strait, never
seems for a moment to have surprised
you. By some unac-
countable means, you have been most effectually drawn from
your original stronghold. It'is quite clear that the master
mind has not yet been at work on the subject of Polar Sea
Expeditions, and while the polar travellers are divided among
themselves, and while you aro intent upon Regent Inlet,
which may, with as much justice bo called Barrow His Hole,
as James Bay was called " Gibbons His Hole," and as the
lower part of the Regent Inlet would most assuredly have
been called, had Sir John Ross done as Sir John Barrow
thinks he ought, Ross His Hole, the mastermind is not likely
to be brought to light.
And now let me call your attention to the other service
which has been at 'work upon this interesting question. I
mean the Polar Land Journeys, those fruitful missions, but
for which you would ha ,e been deprived of one or other
of your favourite Polar Sea Expeditions. A short survey
of the Polar Land Journeys will afford a standard of com-
parison with the Polar Sea Expeditions, and develop, the
true position. The publication of the travels of Hearne, the
fur trader, for which we are indebted to a Frenchman, demon-
strated that the Polar Sea could be reached overland by way
of Canada, and the success which attended the first Govern-
Inca expedition proved that the opinion which bad been
formed was in every way correct. The distance between the
Coppermine River and Point Turnagain,
as Sir John Franklin
named the point of his retrograde movement,, was thus made
known to us. •A second expedition added the distance be-
tween the Mackenzie and the Coppermiue, and as far west-
ward of the Mackenzie as Foe Island, which far surpassed
in extent the prosperous voya'ggYe of Sir Edward Parry, in 1819
and 1820. A third expedition eclipsed all, and left to be sur-
veyed but a small porton of the North American boundary
of the Polar Sea ; in that portion, small as it is, rests the
problem of three centuries.
Is not this sufficient encouragement to send a fourth ? The
fruits of the ten Polar Sea expeditions will not balance with
those of the last of the three Polar laud journeys ; and the
harvest of the first and the least successful of these into-
resting missions isgreater than that which remains to be
gathered, while in expenditure the three land journeys have
g
certainly not cost more than two, if one, of the ten Polar
Sea expeditions. Even the little that has been done by the
Polar Sea expedition is of doubtful character. Banks Land,
North Somerset, the North Georgian Group of Islands, and
the boundaries of Barrow Strait are still problems ; they are
the lesser puzzles which I have mentioned. It is not so with
the labours of Franklin, Richardson, and Simpson ; the foot-
ing they made is permanent, while Croker Mountains have
dissolved, and islands threaten to be continents, and conti-
nents islands, the natural consequence of discovery in ships.
Had you advocated in favour of the Polar Land Journeys,
with a tithe of the zeal that you have the Polar Sea Expedi-
tionsAthe North-West Passage would have long since ceased to
be a problem, and, instead of a baronetcy, you would deserve a
Peerage, for the country would have been saved at least two
hundred thousand pounds. But what use have you made of
the Polar Laud Journeys ? You have invariably made use of
them to stir up a Polar Sea Expedition, which, if it ceased
not to exist in embryo, as was the case with the expeditions
under the command respectively of. Captain Lyon, Captain
Beechey, and Sir George Back, it had but a short uninte-
resting life. If your are really in earnest upon this subject,
you have but one course to pursue: search for the truth, and
value it when you find it. Another fruitless Polar Sea ex-
pedition, and fruitless it will assuredly be, if not well di-
gested, will be a lasting blot iu the annals of our vogages of
discovery.--I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient
servant, RICITAILD KUM.
17, Savile-row, Dec. 21, 1844,
To Sir John Barrow, Bart.,
Secretary to th Admiralty,
Author of the " Chronological History of Arctic Voyages."
Sir,—l revert to my letter of the 21st of December. The
Polar travellers are pretty well agreed as to the Northern
se,
enaelroi
danvE:ooaecs
intottuptdnhua:
continent
actluluni
Wollaston
ohrf)
ainoi
opinion
Ltomeuannts
nel
America
laatpispot;:so
ascp:
notiot.
conjecture.
Melvilletloojthneitochsitnnauofrtneovh ef.
the
. an
PolarntePsot
ueie hti Peninsula,
aeusan partil
beingy.ad e,,
boundary of America om Baring Strait to the Great
and
is
ia
ian
oFtGrilfaesetnohhkett. egaßo
island, or an archipelago of islands, which, with the North
The Atlantic outlet of the Polar basin is thus divided. In
other words, there are two North West Passages. That be-
tween the oceanic group and the continent of America, which;
at its eastern limit, is called Barrow Strait, has alone been
explored, and is still incomplete. A small sea-way remains
to be discovered in the direction of the Great Fish River
Estuary. It will be found, I believe, washing the western
shore of North Somerset.
The Northern Strait, as I have named it for present conve-
nience, has an oulet, in all probability, iu Jones Sound, or
hard by. Here we may look for the current which we lose at
Behring Strait, and find in Baffin *Bay. Hero we may ex-
pect to- discover a country teeming with" life and its'neces-
i n
Youeonj eircntpulliec.it
yN obwel
ifeovre tNh eo
ratit,
uSmomeneticet to. be an island, and
'neces-
saries—man as well as beast, food as well as fuel. Thus much
the Fury and. Hecla Strait to be the Atlantic outlet of the