Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1860-03-16
MISCEILANY Y.
The Voyage of the "FON" in the Arctic
Seas.

The voyage OF discovery undertaken bv
Sir John Franklin, and the non-return OF
the vessels and crews, and the various ex-
peditions which were sent out both from
England and our own country in search OF
tidings of the lost, without success are well
known. On the receipt of the relics of the
ill-fated expedition, brought home in 1854,
Lady Franklin resolved TO prosecute the
search so long as her own fortune, and aid
she might receive either from Government
or private benevolence, would admit. APP
plcation was made to Government for aid,
but it was decided not 10 risk the lives of
more men in search SO nearly hopeless.
Lady Franklin, However was not discour-
aged by this refusal, but, aided by her
friends, purchased the Fox" screw
yacht of III tons, refitted her, and placed
her under the command of Capt. McClin-
took, of TIE royal navy. The expedition
sailed on the 1sf of July, 1857.
Former searches having rendered al
most certain the lacalty where, if at all,
the desired information would be obtained,
Capt. McClintock determined TO make of
that section The most thorough search.
The first news of the Fox, received in
the summer of 1858, was net of cheering
nature. The previous winter had set in
earlier than usual, and the vessel had been
caught in the ice off Melville Bay, on the
coast of Greenland, and remained impris-
oned eight months, being floated back, mean
time, about tecelce hundred miles.
December 4th,they performed the mourn
f,,1 l,,t, aF h,,rx nf thpt~
The greater part Of the service of the
Church OF England was read on board, the
body placed on a sledge, and drawn by the
messmates of the deceased 70 short dis
tance from the ship, where hole through
the ice had been cut. at was there COM
mitted TO the deep" The Captain writes
"What scene it was / shall never for
get it, The lonely Fox almost buried in
snow, completely isolated from the habita-
bell mournfully tolling, our little procession
slowly marching over the rough surface of
the frozen sea, guided by lanterns and di-
rection posts, amid the dark and dreary
depths of Arctic winter; the death-like
stiffness, the intense cold, and threatening
aspect of murky, overcast sky, and all
this heightened by one of those strange lu-
mar phenomena which are seldom seen even
here, complete halo enaircling the moon,
through which passed a horizontal band of
pale light that encompassed the heavens.
Above the moon appeared the segments of
two other haloes. and there were also mock
moons. or paraselena, to the number of six.
The misty atmosphere lent a very ghastly
hue to this singular display, which lasted
for rather more than an hour"
Accounts of voyages in the Arctic re-
cions, although always different in particu-
lars, are in some respects the same. Noun
ians eff ice, of which we in the temperate
zone have no conception. Intense cold,
that makes the temperature at the freezing
point comparative warm. Ice packs and
drifts, nips and ice-quakes. High winds
and heavy seas are met with by all. We
wonder that any can be content to live in
such climate, but the fact that they are.
and that their love Of home seems 10 be as
strong as ours. is only another evidence of
the wisdom of the Creator.
Capt. McClintock gives the following ac-
count of a Greenland village that be visit
ed on the 1st Of August:
AFTER toilng around The base of aprcc-
ipice, we came rather suddenly in view of a
small sem-circular bay; the cliffs on either
side were 500 or 900 feet high, remarkably
forbidding and desolate; the mouth of
valley or wide mountain gorge opens out
into its head. Here, in the depth of the
bay, upon low, flat strip of land stood
seven tents-the summer village of ka-
parok-to-lik. never saw locality more
Characteristic of the Esquimaux than that
which they have selected for their abode !;
ii is widely picturesque in the true Arctic
application Of the term.
although August had arrived. and the
summer had been warm one. the bay was
still frozen over, and if there was an ice
covered sea in front, there was also aound-
ance of ice-covered land in the rear-a
glacier occupied the whole valley behind.
and to within 500 yards of the chosen spot +.
The glaciers height appeared 10 be from
$50 TO 200 feet; its sea-iaee extending