The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-07 00:00:00

/1

THE ARCTIC LAND EXPEDITION.

latter receisrl.froin Captain Back left him, ct
will be remeriSered; at Novaya_y House, on the Jack River,
near Lake Winnepie—aids is situate 53 degrees North
lat. and 98 'West long.'re Here be proposed leaving his
heavy boats anti the 'greatest part of his stores, and taking
with him light canoes. to cross the rivers to proceed with
his small party to the Great Slave Lake, which is in the,
62d degree North lat. and the 112th West long. Hence
inclining rather eastward, he would make for the Chesa-
dawd Lake, situate 633- degrees North lot. and 1074
West long. He would then have travelled 3,000 miles
from Montreal, and all beyond him would be unexplored
country. According to the Indians a river runs from this
! lake in a north-easterly direction, which they call
" Thov-e-oho," signifying the Great Fish River. They
describe its banks as abounding with game. Captain
Back's purpose was either to fix his winter quarters at
Lake Chesadawd, or at as far a distance down this sup-
posed river as circumstances and the state of the season
would permit. Having fixed his location directions would
he sent to Lake IVinnepeg, through a line of communi-
cation which lie would establish with the agents of the
Hudson's Bay Company as he advanced, directing the
heavy boats and winter stores to be forwarded to him.
The same mode of communication, it is confidently
believed, will insure the messenger who will have to
convey the despatches sent out since Captain Ross's
most providential return, the easy means of reaching
Captain Back before he breaks up his winter quarters.
These despatches, after acquainting Captain Back with
the safe arrival of Captain Ross and crew, and of the
discoveries made by Captain anti Commander Ross,
direct him to proceed to Cape Turnagain, which lien
north-west of the Chesadawd Lake, and is so named from.
being the extreme northern point reached by Captain
Franklin. Thence he is directed to proceed to the
obelisk of stones, erected by Commander Ross to mark
the south-west limit of the neck of land which he par-
tially expiated. This obelisk is situate in 69 deg. 37
min. North lat. and 90 deg. 40 min. West long., and is
supposed to be distant only 150 miles from Cape Turn-
again. It is thought that, starting westerly from this
obelisk, it will be highly desirable that Captain Back
should complete the survey of the south-west coast of this
land, and also, if the season will admit of it, the north-
west coast, which was traced by Commander Ross only
for a distance of ninety miles from the isthmus. If, from
the discoveries he will have made, it should be more eligible,
Captain Back is instructed to proceed direct from his pre-
sent quarters to the obelisk. Doubts exist in the minds
of some of the Arctic Land Committee as to the existence
of the Great Fish River, which, if the Indian acount
be correct, runs from the Chesadawd Lake in a
north-east direction. Mr. Simpson, one of the Gover-
nor's of the Hudson's Bay Company, is of opinion
that it is identical with the river discovered by Captain
Franklin, and named by him Back's River, which
run; rather to the west of north from the lake. On the
oilier hand, there are several of the Committee whose con-
fidence in the correctness of the Indian account is
strengthened from the remarkable manner in which their
accuracy on another geographical point has been proved
by Captain Ross's recent discoveries. In their interviews
with the agents of the Hudson's Bay Company they
always have declared, after their manner, by standing with
their faces due north, and stretching out their right hand.
in an easterly direction, that the land farther north spread
out in thst direction--a fact now placed beyond doubt by
Captain Ross. Accompanying the despatches sent out
are maps descriptive of the extent to which Captain Ross
has, during his tedious residence in these inclement re-.
gions, been able to trace their boundaries. It is cenfi-.
dently hoped by the Committee that the liberality of the.
public will insure the supply of the necessary funds to.
enable Captain Back to prosecute his tack of exploration
for a third season, in the course of which, it is believed,
he would be able to complete the survey of the north-east
coast of America up to the southern point, where Captain
Ross's discoveries terminate.

THE WHALE FISHERY.—CAPT. ROSS.
The Liverpool Times says—" We have become aware
of some facts which show the immediate and practical
utility of the recent arctic voyages in a very strong light.
There is every reason to believe that if they had not been
undertaken, the whale fishery, which employs a capital
of up,vards of a million, which is one of the best nurseries
in the world for seamen, and on which Hull, Peterhead,
Frazerburgh, and several other towns of the kingdom,
mainly depend, would have been lost to the country, Fur
many years, a great change has been taking place in the
habits of those stupendous creatures, which draw the
enterprise of the merchants and mat iners of England andl
Scotland into the Arctic seas. When the fishery com-
menced, they were so tame that they were found floating
in all the gulf and bays of Spitzbergen, fearless of harm,
and were taken by hundred:, and without an effort. In a
few years, however, this dreadful destruction drove them
to the more remote bays, from whence they were soon
driven into the open sea, far away from land. But the
trackless ocean afforded them no shelter from their ene-
mies ; they were pursued, and that with so much resolu-
tion, that the Dutch are calculated to have destroyed
upwards of 50,000 in no very long souse of years.
Retiring before their ruthless pursuers, they next tool:
refuge along the line of perpetual ice, which was their
habitation when Scoresby wrote his celebrated work.
Here as many as fourteen hundred of them were killed in
one year. At last, worn out by perpetual persecution,
they have plunged into the regions of eternal ice, where
the boldest whaler dares not to pursue them. The con-
sequence is, that the Greenland fishery, which was
formerly carried on in the sea between Greenland and
Spitzhergen, is nearly abandoned, and the whole trade
would soon have been at an end, if Ross had not penetrated
in his first voyage through the mass of ice which renders
the entrance to Baffin's Bay so hazardous, and opened to
the whalers vast seas never before fished, and which th-e
monsters of the deep are found to frequent in great sum..
hers. The most northern parts of An's Bay) 'together
with the Lancaster Sound, Regent's Inlet, &c,, are now
the great fishing stations, and all these regions have been
discovered, or at least laid down with accuracy by the
recent navigators, who opened the route to the less ad-
venturous traders—showed them that the seas abounded
with whales—broke the icy barrier which bad never been
passed since the days of Baffin, and described the coasts,
and harbours so correctly, as to deprive the voyage of 'she_
greater part of its perils. The mere pecuniary expenso
of the voyages of discovery has, therefore, already been
repaid many times ; independent of the extension of geo•
graphical knowledge and the improvement of science."

MPROVEMENTS IN THE CiTY.--Upwarch
of four hundred respectable firms in the city have already
signed the petition to the Court of Common Council foe
removing the banking-house of Messrs. Smith, Payne, and
Smith, and by such means to continue the new street to
London Bridge, and harmonise it with the Mansion
House. The petition has received numerous signatures at
Lloyd's and the Commercial Sale Rooms, all parties con-
nected with the trade and commerce of the city being of
opinion that the alterations in the plans of the London
Bridge Committee, by which the banking house will
not remain, ought to be made.
SIR C. DANCE'S STEAM-CARRIAGE.--
This carriage arrived in town on Tuesday, from Stony
Stratford, at two o'clock, having left Stony Stratford at a
quarter before seven in the morning, and having performed
the distance (fifty-four milts), exclusive of stoppages, in a
period which was necessarily prolonged from the want of
due preparation on the road, of four hours and forty-five
minutes. On Monday afternoon, in consequence of a
strong wish expressed by several magistrates, who were
assembled at Stony Stratford, Sir Charles started the car-
riage for a short trip to Birmingham and back. Among
those whose wishes were thus gratified were Sir T. Fre-
mantle, M.P. for Buckingham, Sir C. Knightly, Igr,,
Cartwright, M.P. for Northampton, the Rev. L. S.nith,
the Rev. F. Litchfield, Mr. Lowndes, formerly M.P.
Bucks, Celonel Hantner, M.P. for Bucks, Mr. Morgan,
of Bilsden, and several others, who, having performed a
distance a few miles in and out, expressed themselves
l,igbly gratified with the experiment. We understand it
is the intention of Sir Charles Dance to pursue these ex-
periments at short distances from town until a new engine
shall be prepared upon the same principle, to proceed
upon a more enlarged scale, for which a liberal subscrip-
tion has been commenced.

DANIELL'S ORIENTAL ANNUAL.-4, This
may not unaptly be called the Aurora of the Annuals of
1834, not only because it takes its rise in the East, and is
the precursor of their blaze, but on account of its intrinsic
beauty, lightness, and elegance. We have never seen Mr.
Daniell to greater advantage, for although there is no artist
who has manifested more uniform excellence. yet we own
we are most pleased with him when he is treating such
subjects as those before us, of which he is so thoroughly
the master that, not merely are the main features faithful,
but every little adjunct of the scene is full of appropriate
Asiatic character. It is a publication which must prove
exceedingly interesting to persons who have been in India
themselves, or who have near and dear connexions there
(what a large class of the population Of Great Britain does
that description embrace!), and scarcely less to all who
are lovers of nature and art, as seen in some of their moat
picturesque, romantic, and pleasing shapes."—Lit
erny
Gazette.