The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-09 00:00:00

THE MILITIA.

The Marquis of Donegal has been appointed Colonel-
Commandant of the Antrim militia, and has opened a
rendezvous at Belfast to enrol volunteers, each man on
joining receiving a bounty of 10s. The total number of
men required is 1,570 ; of those 570 will be trained as
artillerymen, and the remaining 1,600 as a rifle corps, to
be called the "Queen's Own Rifles." Volunteers continue
daily to present themselves.
Lieutenant W. Johnson, late of the 71st highland
light infantry, has been appointed by Colonel W. H. M.
Hodder to a company in the North Cork Militia Regi-
ment.
It is stated by the Northern IVhig that the Marquis
of Londonderry, as Lieutenant of the county, la as nomi-
as Adju-
or Mont-
ntaautet(flo Captainrth e n o
ySatiuNa rot;
tlha t
De
oo
wf tnh eREi
fisesse,xa
nßdi gm, sa,
gomery, late of the 45th Regiment, as Lieut.-Colonel.
'4O ehrolnlont beo6 Without delay, as goon as the ad,
_

tion, after having had recourse to cannibalism as a means
of prolonging life.
" I reached my old quarters at Repulse Bay, on the
15th of August, and preparations weirs immediately com-
menced for wintering. On the Ist of September I ex-
plained to the men our position, and stock of provisions
we had on hand (not more than three months' rations),
and the prospects we had of getting more, &c., pointing
oat all the danger and difficulty of our position. All
readily volunteered to remain, and our exertions to col-
lect food and fuel went on with unabated energy. By
the end of September 109 deer, 1 mask ox, 54 brace of
ptarmigan, and one seal had been shot, and the nets
produced 190 salmon.
" Of the larger animals above enumerated, 49 deer and
the musk ox were shot by myself, 21 deer by Mistegan
(the deer bunter), 14 by one of the men, 9 by Ouligbuck,
and 10 by the other four men. The migration of the deer
terminated about the middle of October, and 25 more
animals were added to our stock.
" On the 28th of October, the snow being sufficiently
hard for building, we were happy to exchange our cold
tents for the more comfortable shelter of the snowhouse.
The winter was very severe, but the temperature in our
snow huts was never so low as in my winter quarters of
1846-7. Up to the 12th of January we had nets set
under the ice in the lakes, the nets were taken up on
that date as they produced nothing.
" On the 31st of March my spring journey commenced,
but in consequence of gales of wind, deep and soft snow,
and foggy weather, we made but very little progress.
We did not enter Pelly Bay until the 17th. At this
place we met with Esquimaux, one of whom, on being
asked it he ever saw white people, replied in the nega-
tive, but said that a large party (at least forty persons)
had perished from want of food some ten or twelve days'
journey to the westward. The substance of the informa-
tion obtained at various times and from various sources
was as follows :
"In the spring four winters past (spring, 1850), a
party of white men, amounting to about 40, were seen
travelling southward over the ice, and dragging a boat
with them, by some Esquimaux, who were killing seals
on the north shore of King William's Land, which is a
large island, named Kei-ik-tak by the Esquimaux. None
of the party could speak the native language intelligibly,
but, by signs, the natives were made to understand that
their ships or ship had been crushed in the ice, and that
the whites' were now going to where they expected to
ind deer to shoot. From the appearance of the men,
all of whom, except one officer (chief) looked thin, they
were supposed to begetting short of provisions, and they
purchased a small seal from the natives.
"At a later date of the season, but previous to the
disruption of the ice, the bodies of about thirty white
persons were discovered on the continent, and five on an
island near it, about a long day's journey (say thirty-
five or forty miles) to the north-west of a large stream,
which can be no other than Back's Great Fish River,

(named by the Esquimaux Out-koo-hi-ca-lik) as its de
scription and that of the low shore in the neighbourhood
of Point Ogle and Montreal Island agree exactly with
that of Sir George Back. Some of the bodies had been
buried (probably those of the first victims of famine),
some were is a tent or tents, others under a boat that
had been turned over to form a shelter, and several lay
scattered about in different directions. Of those found
on the island, one was supposed to have been an officer,
as he had a telescope strapped over his shoulder and his
double-barrelled gun lay underneath him.
" From the mutilated state of many of the corpses,
and the contents of the kettles, it is evident that our
miserable countrymen had been driven to the last re-
source—cannibalism—as a means of prolonging life.
" There appears to have been an abundant stock of
ammunition, as the powder was emptied in a heap on
the ground by the natives, out of the kegs or cases cony
taining it, and a quantity of ball and shot were found
below high water mark, having been left on the ice close
to the beach. There must have been a number cf
watches, telescopes, compasses, guns (several double-bar-
relled), itc., all of which appear to have been broken up,
as I saw pieces of these different articles with the Esqui-
maux, and, together with some silver spoons and forks,
purchased as many as I could obtain. A. list of the
most important of these I inclose, with a rough pen-and-
ink sketch of the events and initials on the forks and
spoons. The articles themselves shall be handed over to
the secretary of the Hon. H. 8., oc., on my arrival in
London.
" None of the Esquimaux with whom I conversed had
seen the '"whites,' nor had they ever been at the place
where the dead were found, but had their information
from those who had been there, and those. who had seen
the party when alive.
" From the head of Pell y Bay—which is a bay, spite of
Sir H. Beaufort's opinion to the contrary—l crossed 60
miles of land in a westerly direction, traced the west
shore from Castor and Pollux River to Cape Porter of
Sir James Ross, and I could have got within 30 or 40
miles of Belot Strait, but I thought it useless proceeding
further, as I could not complete the whole.
" Never in my former Arctic journeys had I met with
such an accumulation of obstacles. Fogs, storms,
rough ice, and deep snow we had to fight against. On
one occasion we were for 4 days unable to get a glimpse
of the sun, or even to make out his pcsition in the hea-
vens. This, on a level coast, where the compass was of
little or no use, was perplexing in the extreme.
"The weather was much finer on our return journey
than when outward bound, and our loads being lighter,
our days' marches were nearly double the distance, and
we arrived at Repulse Bay on the 26th May, without
accident, except in one instance, in which one of the
party lost a toe from a frost bite.
" The commencement of spring was very fine, but
June and July were colder. We were unable to get
out of the bay until the 6th August.
" Our progress along the coast as far as Cape Fuller-
ton was much impeded by ice ; but on getting to south-
ward of the cape we had clear water, and saw no ice
afterwards.
"The conduct of the men, I am happy to say, was,
generally speaking, good ; and we had not a single case
of sickness all the time of our absence.
" Being anxious to send this to Red River by the first
boats, I write in haste and briefly, but shall have the
pleasure of sending a more detailed account by some
future opportunity --With the utmost respect, I have
the honour to be your' obeilient servant,
" JOHN RAE."

NEWS FROM SIBERIA AND KAMSCHATKA..—
INTELLIGENCE FROM THE WHILING
FLEET.
(From the San Francisco Herald, Sept, 30.)
By the schooner Eudorus, Captain Seaman, 33 days
from the Ochotsk Sea, we have received interesting in-
telligence from the northern Russian settlements and
front the immense whaling fleet in that region. We
congratulate the hardy fishermen on their success ; for
though there has been one ship totally lost, and severe
damage sustained by several others, as a general thing
the fleet has been most successful. For a number of
years there has not been near so much oil obtained so
early in the season ; and the probability is, that on its
ending there will have been more oil caught than in any
previous year. We regret that Captain Seaman is un-
able to give us any information of the ship Monongahela,
of New Bedford, which our readers will remember was
carried into the Arctic by the ice in the fall of 1853. He
states that none of the ships he spoke or heard from had
obtained any intelligence from the missing whalers. Of
course much interest was felt, and every inquiry had
been made by their brother mariners without success.
This will dampen the hopes of friends, lessening the pro-
bability of their being in existence. As it is an open
summer, perhaps later in the season some vessel may
penetrate far enough into the ocean of ice to, at least,
obtain some clue to their fate, if not in time to rescue
them.

Captain Seaman reports great fields of ice in the Bay
of Shanta this season. He did not encounter much of it,
having bad no occasion to go in amongst it. On July 4
he reports having been among ice as high as the mast
head of the vessel. The ice did not get out of the Bay
of Shnnta /until about July 22, when it began to break
and float oit to the ocean. He also reports that there
are only a few weeks during the year that the Sea of
Ochotsk is clear of ice.

The ship Silas Richards, Wilcox, of New Bedford,
was driven on shore by the ice on the southwest side
of Shanta I3ay ; vessel a total loss. All the oil and
bone were saved, and put on board the ship Hibernia
2d. Captain Wilcox was going to the Sandwich
Islands on board the ship John Coggeshall, of Fairhaven.
The ship Massachusetts, of New Bedford, had been
ashore, but got off without damage. There was a
report that the ship Morea had arrived in the Ochotsk
Sea from the Arctic, in charge of the first officer, the
captain having shot himself while in a state of mental
derangement. The ship Copia, Captain reports