The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-19 00:00:00

ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

TO TILE SECRETARY OF THE ADMIRALTY.
Sir,—l have the honour to acquaint you, for the
information of my Lords Commissioners of the Ad-
miralty, of my return from America in the royal mail
steamer Caledonia.
Having, as opportunities offered, sent you from
time to time detailed accounts of the progress of the
Arctic searching expedition under my command, I
beg now to submit, for the consideration of their
Lordships, a connected summary of the whole pro-
ceedings of the party up to this time, and also to re-
port the organization of a detachment under charge
of Mr. Rae, to ensure the completion of the entire
scheme of search comprehended in their Lordships' in-
structions to me.
On the 4th of June, 1849, five seamen, fifteen sap-
pers and miners, with four boats, 15,800 lbs. of pemi-
can, and other provisions and stores, were embarked
at Gravesend on board the Hudson's Bay Company
ships Prince Rupert and Westminster. The arrival
of these ships at York Factory was later than usual,
and some of the expedition stores still remained
on board on the 10th of September; but Chief Trader
Bell, of the Hudson's Bay Company, who now took
charge of the party, considered it imprudent to
wait longer for their landing. At this date,
therefore, he commenced his voyage into the interior,
taking with him, in addition to the English boats and
their crews, a large batteaux, with 16 Canadian voya-
geurs, and the stores necessary for building a winter
residence, providing for the fisheries, and equipping
and paying Indian hunters.
Owing to the extreme dryness of the summer, the
rivers were uncommonly low, and the boats being,
therefore, unable to carry more than two-thirds of
their ordinary load, it was necessary to leave a con-
siderable quantity of pernican at York Factory to be
forwarded inland, with the additional supplies next
summer. The difficulties which Mr. Bell encoun-
tered, as well from the lowness of the waters as from
the very early setting in of winter, were great, his
progress consequently was slow, and he was finally
arrested by the freezing of the lakes, six days' march
short of his intended winter quarters at Cumberland
House.

He immediately housed the boats, constructed a
storehouse for the reception of the provisions and other
packages, established fisheries, and as soon as sledges
could be made, accompanied the bulk of the party on
snow shoes through the woods to Cumberland House.
At that place, and at Beaver Lake, about sixty
miles further to the northward, the men were sup-
ported through the winter by the fisheries, but at
Cedar Lake, where the boats were laid up, the fish-
ing was unproductive, and there was, consequently,
en unforeseen consumption of pemican by the boat
keepers, and the wives and children of three of the
voyageurs who could not travel over the snow to
Cumberland House. This deficit of pemican was fully
made up during the winter by the exertions of the
Hu lson's Bay Company's officers on the upper por-
tion of Saskatchewan. Mr. Bell made winter
journeys to Cedar Lake, and early in the Spring
sant carpenters down to put the boats in repair, so
that everything was ready for the resumption of
the voyage on the breaking up of the rivers, which
took place in the beginning of June, 1848.
On the 25th of March, 1848, Mr. Rae and I left
Liverpool in the North American mail steamer Hi.
hernia, landed a fortnight afterwards at New York,
and proceeded, by way of the Hudson and Lake
Champlain, to Montreal, where we found waiting for
us 16 Canadian voyageurs, forming- the crews
of two canoes provided by Sir George Simpson, Go-
vernor of the Hudson's Bay • Company's territories.
Our route lay through Lakes Ontario, Erie, St.
Clair, and Huron, to Sault St. Marie, where we were
detained some days waiting for the breaking up of
the ice on Lake Superior. When the lake opened we
resumed our voyage to Fort William, and from
thence to Rainy Lake, the Lake of the Woods, and
Lake Winipeg, where we were again stopped for
some days by ice, but having at length
succeeded in breaking our way through,
we entered the Saskatchewan river on the 9th of June,
and on the 15th reached Cumberland House. Here
we learned that Mr. Bell had set out a fortnight
previously, but had been detained by ice in Bearer
Lake for lour days. We followed him with diligence
through Beaver Lake, Churchhill River, Isle it la
Crosse, Buffalo and Methy Lakes, to Methy Portage,
where we overtook him an the 20th of June, 1848.
With the assistance of the voyageurs from Mon-
treal, the boats and stores were transported, on the
men's shoulders, across the portage in eight days; this
laborious proceeding having been rendered necessary by
the death of the whole of the horses usually employed
there. The two canoes, with their crews, were sent
back to Canada.
On the 15th of July, having reached the last
postage on Slave River, three boats were arranged
for the sea voyage, with full loads of pemican and
able crews, consisting in the aggregate of eighteen
men. Mr. Rae and I embarked in them to proceed
with all speed to the mouth of the Mackenzie, leav-
ing Mr. Bell with the remainder of the party and two
boats containing the stores for winter use, with three.
tions to make the best of his way to Great Bear
Lake, to establish a fishery at its west end, near
the site of Fort Franklin, for the convenience of
the sea party, in the event of its having to return up
the Mackenzie ; and lastly, having traversed the lake
to its northern extremity, to erect dwelling-houses
and storehouses near the influx of Deese river,
and to carry on fisheries at such suitable
places as he should discover in the neighbour-
hood. He was also instructed to dispatch James
Hope (a Cree Indian, belonging to his party, who
had been formerly employed in the expedition, under
Messrs. Deese and Simpson, and knew the country
well), together with a native hunter of the district,
to the banks of the Coppermine in the beginning of
September, there to hunt till the 20:h of the month,
and look out diligently for the arrival of the boats.
On my way to the sea I landed three bags of
pemican at Fort Good Hope, the lowest of the
Company's posts on the Mackenzie, for the use of any
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deposited one case of the same article, with several
memoranda and letters, at Point Separation, which
forms the apex of the delta of the Mackenzie, marking
the locality in the manner agreed upon.
We reached the sea on the 4th of August, and had
an interview with about 300 Esquimaux, who were
collected to meet us, having been apprised of our
coming by signal fires lighted by their hunting
parties on the hills skirting the river. The
distance from Point Encounter, where we met
this party, to the mouth of the Coppermine river,
including the larger inflexions of the coast line, is
upwards of 800 miles ; and as we had almost constantly
head winds, we rowed along, near the shore, landing
at least twice a day to cook, occasionally to hunt, for
the most part at night to sleep on :bore, and often to
look out from the high capes. Our communications
with parties of Esquimaux, assembled on the head-
lands to hunt whales, or scattered in parties of two
or three along the coast in pursuit of reindeer and
waterfowl, were frequent. They came off to us with
confidence, and through the medium of our excellent
Esquimaux Albert, who spoke good English, we
were able to converse with them readily. They
invariably told us that no ships had passed, and
were rejoiced to learn by our inquiries that there
was a prospect of their seeing more, white men
on their shores. Up to Cape Bathurst, or for about
one-third of the distance between the Mackenzie
and Coppermine, the Esquimaux informed us that for
six weeks of summer, or as they expressed it, for the
greater part of two moons, during which they were
chiefly occupied in the pursuit of whales, they never
saw any ice,
We found an Esquimaux family encamped on
the extremity of Cape Bathurst, but as near
to that place as we could effect a land-
ing without observation, we erected a signal
post and buried a case of pemican; and we made a
similar deposit, marked by a pile of painted stones,
on the extremity of Cape Parry.
After rounding the latter Cape we observed, for
the first time on the voyage, flows of drift ice,
which became more numerous as we approached
Dolphin and Union Strait ; and in this part of the
coast we saw no Esquimaux, though we found a few
recent traces of their hunting parties.
On the 22d of August we had a strong gale of
westerly wind, before which we ran under sail for
some hours, but it speedily augmented to a violent
storm, and we were compelled to provide for
the safety of the boats by running among
the ice, loosely packed on Point Cock-
burn. During the night much ice drifted
past, and in the morning we found ourselves hemmed
in by dense packs, extending as far as the eye could
reach. Up to this time the weather had been of the
usual summer temperature of that region,
but it now became very cold, and we
had continual frosts, with frequent snow-storms,
during the remainder of our stay on the coast. By
keeping close to the beach in places where the shal-
lowness of the water kept off' the larger pieces of ice,
by cutting passages for the boats where the packs
abutted against the rocks, by dragging the boats over
the smoother floes, and by making portages
along the shore, according to circumstances,
with the aid of occasional spaces of open
water, we succeeded, with much labour,
in making our way to a bay between Capes Hearne
and Kendall by the end of the month. I had
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previously thought it advisable to abridge the labours
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Cape
by the time that we came near Cape Kendall the two
remaining boats were scarcely seaworthy, haring been