The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-09-18 00:00:00

CAPTAIN BACK,

' Two weeks ago we bad the satisfaction of acquainting our
readers that letters had been received, intimating the return of
this gallant officer to his winter quarters on Great Slave Lake.
We have now the still greater satisfaction of announcing his ar-
rival in his own
_eimutry, and of giving circulation to the follow-
ing brief outline of his proceedings:—
On the 7th of June, 1834, he left Part Reliance with his party,
and was employed during the remainder of.that month in tran-
sporting his boat and stores on rollers to his destined point of
embarkation on the Thlewee-cho-dezeth, a very arduous service,
the distance .being above 201) miles, and his people being in
far from vigorous condition, in consequence of the spare diet to
which they had been subjected during the previous winter. The
task was, however, successfully accomeilished, and on the 7th of
July the party, consisting of Captain Back, Mr. King, his sur-
geon and only assistant, and eight men, all Europeans, bade
adieu to their companions, and proceeded down the river in the
direction ascertained the previous season. The stream was at
first deep, and interrupted by rapids as it cut its way transversely
through a mountain range running east and west ; but beyond
this it proceeded to the northward, with little interruption, till
in latitude 65 dee. 41) min. N., longitude 103 deg. 35 min. W., it
took a sudden turn to the east, thereby destroying the hopes up
to this time entertained of its entering the sea near Bathurst's.
Inlet. It now became very broad; and broken, as it were, into
a *succession of small lakes, terminating in one so large that it
showed a clear horizon on several points of the compass; and
here the expedition was much embarrassed by ice, so that for
above 20 miles it was only enabled to advance by severe ex-
' ertion. On recovering the clear Water, Inixeyer, the stream
speedily again contracted, still tending easterly, and even S.E.,
and much broken by rapids and cascades--until at length in lat.
65 deg. 54 min. N., longitude 98 deg. 10 min. W. (not far,
.therefore, from the head of Wager Bay), it burst with great
fury between the fur granite mountains, and flowed thence
tolerably direct towards the north. It also here became again
very wide—from half a mile to a Mile—and was even more
broken with rapids and whirlpools that before; the adjoining
country being in like manner rugged and hilly. The first Es-
.quimaux were met not far from the sea, fishipg at the foot of a
considerable fall; and, though they seemed in the beginning.
disposed to be hostile, they became after wards very:obliging WI
serviceable. On the 29th of July the expedition reached the
sea in latitude 67 deg. 7 min. N., I;u.g. 94 deg. 40 min. W.
The river first terminated in a narrow -estuary, much embar-
rassed by shoals and sandbanks ; and the view to the north was
iii some measure closed in by a lofty headland belonging to the
eastern mountains (afterwards called the Victoria headland.)
The opposite shores, hoe-ever, speedily increased their distance
from each other; that to the westward falling back in:: direction
nearly N.W , while that to the eastward trended off to N.E. a E.
—and as Captain Back was now to the eastward of Captain
James Ross's Pillar be considered it to be his duty to proceed to
' the westward, and to endeavour to approach it. But the drift
ice was so closely packed on the shore in this direction, and was
at the same time so frequently and dangerously set in motion
by heavy-N.W. gales, that he was unable to advance beyond
lat. 6$ deg. ,15 min. N.,long. 96 deg. 22 min. W., when it bore
N.W.. by N.,' distant 3 miles. From this point a clear icy
horizon was seen in the N.N.W., in about which direction there
seemed no doubt that there was a passage to the open sea, the
tides comiug up from this, quarter., and the vertebrae of a whale
iseeng found driven en the coast opposite to it, with several pieces
of drift wood, little sodden with water, and of a kind (the white
pine) known to be pectilie.r to the banks of McKenzie River.
Due mirth were two bite objects, whtcheeerned to be two large
islands. In the N.E. were water and ice, with what is denomi-
nated a water sky beyond them. In the cast the sea was clear,
with one email island hearing E. by S., from fifteen to twenty
miles distant; and to toe right of this was also a wide open
space before coming to the eastern land.
The packed. ice seemed chiefly confined to the western shore;
and beyond it. especially to the eastward, the passage appeared
quite free. Had Captain Back not known, therefore, of Captain
Ithes's return be would have proceeded in that direction; And
so, probably, have set at rest a question which he has now rather
raised than decided. viz, whether Captain Ross was not merely
on an island, and never on the main land of America at all.
Under his circumstances, however, and with the extremely
severe task before him of re-ascending so rapid and broken
a river as the Thlewee.cim to his winter quarters, he
would have been inexcusable had he quitted the coast
in his solitary, and by this time also damaged boat. Ac-
cordingly, he set out on his return on the 15th of August,
having previously' obtained from his friendly
adjoining coast,
which he has brought home with him, and which, as far as he
went, was remarkably corroborated by the results of his own
survey. He also ascended the most favourably-placed of the
neighbouring hills so as to extend his sphere of vision, and thus
took every step possible, in his circumstances, to render the re-
sult of his journey satisfactory. la ascending the river on his
return, he was obliged to abandon his boat, and proceed on foot
over the young ice; bnt his people, being well supplied with
provisions, did not suffer materially under this additional fatigue.
They arrived at Fort Reliance on the 27th of September, after
an absence of three months and a half on their arduous service,
and may all Ise expected in England, at the latest, by the
Hudson Bay Cumpany's ship in November. Their gallant
leader bar been enabled to precede them •by returning through
Canada.

With regard to the results of his journey, it is difficult as yet
to speak positively with only a meagre outline of his proceed-
ings before us, as contained in his letters, and without the
detail which in such subjects is indispensable towards the forma-
tion of a matured opinion. Yet on the face of his narrative
great dangers and difficulties appear to have been boldly and
ably surmounted; while these Isaac led him across a considera-
ble-extent (almost miles) of entirely.new ground, of which
we had no previous knowledge, unless through Indian report, as
indubitably proved, in the main, incorrect. But beyond this the
results of his labours are also extensively negative. Our previ-
ous conceptions of the configuration of the northeastern ex-
: tromitv of America, especially as founded on Sir John Ross's
representations, are much modified by them; and, hidiridually, '
we now believe that his Boothia was merely an island, none of
his statewents being irrecuncileahle with ,this hypothesis, ex-
cepting only the. difference of level which be alleges that lie
-found between the seas on either side of its peninsula. We
cannot help h.ping,however, that the real fact may yet speedily,
a . may certainly now easily, he ascertaiued. Besides what

Captain Back details; when obtained, may do towards settling,
the question, nothing seems more certain, from the result of
both these last expeditions, (Ross's and Back's,) than that the
ground respectively examined by them may easily be gone over
again. From Chesterfield or. Wager Inlets the distance to the
Thlewee-clao is now shown to be short, while that from Repulse
Bay to the sea, into which it falls, is probably still shorter. An
expedition wintering at any of these points, with the means of
constructing boats, in preparation for the following season,
could easily, cheaply, and certainly complete the bottom of
Regent's Inlet; while one or two vessels, either sent down the-
inlet or to the westward of Boothia, as might be thought best,
could complete,the observations about the magnetic pole begun
by Captain J. Ross, and probably connect his farthest with
Cape Turnagain also in one or two seasons. No value need be
attached to the bringing these vessels back; if they got ham-
pered, they might be abandoned, and the crews return iii their
,boats, as Captain Ross did, tea fixed rendezvous in Lancaster
Sound or Repulse Bay. Sorely an object which has been so
bong pursued has, from that circumstance alone, acquired suf-
`fictent value t,o warrant another trial like this; and we know
that neither are the old Arctic hands worn out, nor would new
volunteers be wanting, who would desire nothing so much as to
be sent on such a service. At this very moment. also, it is un-
derstood that the Board of Admiralty contemplates instituting
a series of usagnetical observations in the southern hemisphere;
and honour, if not even possibly scientific advantage, would be
acquired by the simultaneous pursuit of a similar series in the
opposite quarter.—Atheneum.