march from Cape Victory upon April 26, 1848.

After this no more written information was collected of their proceedings, except the melancholy relics which were strewn along their path, and too painfully tell their own tale. A large boat upon a sledge was found about half-way to Cape Herschel, and Captain M'Clintock thinks she was returning to the ships for provisions. In her there was found two skeletons, and a little tea and chocolate, but no other provision. What became of the large party of men evidently necessary to drag such a boat and sledge, in their then debilitated condition, we shall probably never know; for if they found her too heavy to drag, and tried to march back to the ships, with the intention of staying in them until death released them from their sufferings, it is to be feared the ships were never reached, as the Esquimaux distinctly said that they only found one skeleton in the vessel that fell into their hands. If the poor men fell by the wayside, as seems likely from the unburied skeletons found in the boat, and on the beach near Cape Herschel the wolf and bear would soon obliterate all traces of their fate; and if they walked and fell upon the smooth ice of the strait, a short distance off shore, the summer thaws would soon allow the bones of the starved seamen to sink through the ice to their long rest in the sea beneath. Had not the relics brought home by Dr Rae in 1854, and Mr Anderson in 1856, assured us of some portion of this retreating party having reached Montreal Island, we should still not have needed proof to show that, at any rate, some of the 105 men had rounded Cape Herschel, for a few miles beyond it Captain M'Clintock found a skeleton on a ridge of gravel. The poor creature had evidently fallen on his face as he was walking towards home, and had only been disturbed subsequently by wild animals, though not to any great extent. He remarks that it was indeed a melancholy truth that the old woman at Cape Norton had spoke, when she said the retreating seamen "fell down, and died as they walked along." By the light of Esquimaux

report, we are assured that at anyrate a portion of the crews-a forlorn hope, in short-reached the entrance of the Fish River, and that too with a boat. The description of this party, given from reports collected by Dr Rae in 1854, is confirmed by Captain M'Clintock's information; and the Esquimaux of Repulse Bay, Boothia Felix, and King William's Land, all agree in the account of the eventual death by starvation of every soul in this advanced party. Who they were that thus survived to see that summer of 1848 come in upon them, will perhaps never be known; but the Esquimaux description of the officer or chief who reached Montreal Island agrees with the appearance of Captain Fitzjames, whilst the fact of a piece of wood being found on Montreal Island with the name of Dr Stanley carved upon it, and a fragment of an under-flannel, marked with the initials of Charles Des Voeux, point to two more individuals, whose well-known vigour of constitution renders it probable that they survived many of their more weakly comrades. We need not dwell longer on this painfully touching subject; it would be profanation to attempt to picture the last hour of these gallant martyrs to their country's fame-it only remains for us to thank Providence that, owing to the persevering self-sacrifice of Lady Franklin, and the devotion and zeal of M'Clintock and his worthy comrades, the memory of the Franklin Expedition will ever be associated with their great achievement, the first discovery of the North-West Passage; for on the day that Cape Herschel was reached by Franklin's sledge-parties, and that probably as early as on the occasion of Commander Gore's journey in 1847, the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans were connected; and we have little doubt that Sir John Franklin died knowing that the great work to which he had devoted so many years of his life was accomplished.

With all this information carefully collected, and after having searched in a triple examination every nook and bay of the western coast of King William Land, M'Clintock and his comrade Hobson loaded their sledges with relics of the lost ones, and has

tened back to the "Fox," just in time to avoid being cut off by the summer thaws. Success in the search was followed by good fortune in the escape of the "Fox" from Bellot Strait, and subsequent voyage to England, where our stout little band of navigators arrived in September last, to be hailed, as they deserved, with the heartfelt congratulations of all classes of their countrymen-congratulations which have re-echoed from across the Atlantic, where many a warm heart and generous purse have for long years laboured with sympathy and energy in the search for Franklin.

The Sovereign, whose navy Captain M'Clintock adorns, has gracefully added to his laurels, by granting him sea-time for every day he commanded the "Fox," as if it had been one of her own war-ships-an act of grace and courtesy only conceded on rare and extraordinary occasions; and the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, in the official letter informing the gallant officer of this Royal act of approbation, gracefully add, that it was in "consideration of the important services performed by you, in bringing home the only authentic intelligence of the death of Sir John Franklin, and of the fate of the crews of the 'Erebus' and 'Terror'"an official acknowledgment which we have reason to know gives the captain and officers of the "Fox" a legal claim upon a very handsome parliamentary reward of £10,000.

In taking leave of this pleasing narrative, we must call attention to the valuable paper entitled Geological Account of the Arctic Archipelago, by Professor S. Haughton, of Trinity

College, Dublin. In it will be found not only a lucid summary of the results of Captain M'Clintock's scientific labours as a geologist, but a geological map, the first that has been drawn, of the Arctic regions, in which we see at a glance the formation of that little-known quarter of the globe, and the relative position of its coal-beds and fossils. The learned Professor has discovered in some fossil fragments brought to England, indubitable proof of the existence of Ichthyosauri in the lias of the Parry group; and apart from a very different climatic condition such fossils would indicate, he expresses an opinion, substantiated by many interesting facts, that these Arctic lands have been submerged, but that this submergence must have been anterior to the period when pine forests clothed the low sandy shores of the slowlyemerging islands, the remains of which forests now occupy a position at least 1000 feet above high water-mark." And we may add, that it has been a long time since a work of travel has appeared in England so lavishly illustrated with beautiful woodcuts; and in this case their truthfulness is vouched for by the talented artist being an officer in the navy-Commander Walter Maywho has largely shared in Arctic enterprise, and witnessed scenes very similar to those he has so graphically depicted. As a mere Arctic album, the narrative of the "Fox" will be valuable to those who may not be interested in moving tales of adventure by ship and sledge in the frozen North.

HOWEVER pleasant it may be in after life and I admit that it is very pleasant to talk over school-days with a crony who has a vivid recollection of the mutual floggings you received, the scrapes in which you were both involved, and the feuds in which you made common cause, I cannot help thinking that it is somewhat impertinent to the public at large to thrust such narratives upon it. Grant that Thomson was a hero, Simpson a pickle, and Robertson an unmitigated beast-what does the public know or care about Thomson, Simpson, or Robertson? They were simply notorieties-good, bad, or indifferent-of the class to which you belonged; but in the great world that lies beyond both school and university they made no figure, and you know not what has become of them. Surely they are not fitting subjects for biographical reminiscence; and wherefore should you expose the failings of a pedagogue, whose temper you sorely tried; who set you down with considerable show of reason as an impenetrable blockhead;

VOL. LXXXVII.-NO. DXXXII.

and who, in inflicting chastisement for your dulness, merely followed the recognised and ancient traditions of his tribe? For my part, looking back to my early years, I can discern nothing in my school life worthy of being narrated; nor do my first university experiences suggest any important memorabilia. Like most Scottish students of the time, I acquired a good knowledge of Latin, a smattering of Greek, and a considerable stock of general information, increased by private reading of a desultory kind, which was of far more use to me afterwards than anything I learned in the schools. My uncle's library was but a poor one; but in it I found the plays of Shakespeare, Anderson's edition of the British Poets, the works of the elder novelists, and the histories of Hume and Gibbon. These I perused with absorbing interest, to the neglect, I must confess, of the mathematical and metaphysical treatises which ought to have engrossed my attention; but on that account I cannot truthfully say that I have any tears to shed. I never

took kindly to mathematics; partly because the practical use of that study was not explained to me, and partly because I could see nothing in it to interest the imagination. Metaphysics I detested. The science appeared to me an elaborate diabolical invention for mystifying what was clear, and confounding what was intelligible; it muddled the intellect, without refining the understanding; and the peculiar jargon in which it was couched seemed to me destructive of the purity of the English language. I do not say that such is my opinion now, but I feel no shame in avowing my earlier impressions; and, judging from certain metaphysical discourses which I have heard delivered from the pulpit by gentlemen fresh from college, I have serious doubts as to the fitness of the style for edification and improvement. In chemistry I made some progress, and would have made more, but for the occurrence of an accident which fairly cured me of the passion for experiment. It so happened that at college I had an especial chum, Willie Menelaws, with whom I was inseparably leagued. Whether in mischief or in study, we went together; and bore each other's burdens, though these were not very heavy, with a fidelity that might have done honour to Damon and Pythias. Willie never hesitated to accept responsibility for my literary squibs, which sometimes excited the wrath of the students against whom they were directed; ad 1, in return, stood between him and the parental anger in the matter of certain abstracted bell-pulls which Vad given rise to a serious outcry. wɔ Norà commenced the study of winery with great zeal, and went Do preliminary stages of ... gas in tobacco-pipes; verspoons by rubbing evy, which metal we sadig an ancient barosang the walls with Ce scrapon which very ortunato Peg Then, in de ightning cted a

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how it would not fly; and we tried to make caustic, by steeping a shilling in nitric acid, the result of which was, that our fingers became as black as the claws of an ourang-outang. It was God's mercy that we did not get the length of fulminating powder, else assuredly we should have been blown to smithereens. That consummation, however, we were very near attaining otherwise, and it took place after this fashion.

I had discovered in an attic some old-fashioned apparatus which my uncle had laid aside-troughs, jars, syphons, and suchlike, which I regarded as an inestimable treasure; and these were forthwith removed to a room on the ground-floor which I occupied as a kind of study. We had previously tried our hands at making oxygen gas, but had failed for lack of implements. We now determined to essay the production of hydrogen, and having procured the necessary materials, we arranged our whole stock of glass, so that the gas from the retort might, after passing through various receptacles, be at last lodged in a huge bell-shaped jar, surmounted by a brass stop-cock, which was the pride of our collection. Nothing could have succeeded better. The gas was generated, bubbled up through the water, and very soon reached the jar, as we soon discovered by the nauseous odour of its escape.

"Now then, Willie," said I," suppose we apply a light, and see how it burns."

We did so; and a pale-blue jet whizzed up, upon which we gazed with the delight of a couple of Ghebers; but our adoration was uncommonly brief, for a minute could hardly have elapsed before the flame waxed dim, buzzed like an infuriated wasp, descended into the jar, and a tremendous explosion followed, which dashed both of us to the ground.

"Willie, man!" said I, recovering myself so far as to sit upon my rump, and extracting a piece of glass from my cheek, which bled profusely— "Willie, man! are ye killed?”

"No, I don't think I am," said Willie, scrambling to his feet; "but Lord's-sake, Norman, bear a hand with the water jug! Fling it over me

-fling it over my legs; for the acid has burned through my breeches, and I feel it biting in my flesh !" "O Willie, what am I to do? The jug's empty!"

Take me out to the pump! take me out to the pump!" roared Willie, "or I'll be as raw as a skinned rabbit!' "His presence be wi' us! What's this o't, lads?" cried Nurse Osett, rushing into the room, greatly alarmed, as she might well be, for the explosion was violent enough to shatter several of the window-panes; "surely ye've no been trying to raise the deevil?"

"The pump! the pump !" screamed Willie, and accordingly we conveyed him thither, where copious libations diluted the acid, and saved my friend from serious consequences, though it was a month and more before he could walk to lecture, without betraying, by an absurd waddle, the temporary loss of his cuticle. On investigating the apartment, we found that we had great reason to be thankful for our escape with so little damage. The brass stop-cock had been driven an inch and a half into the plaster of the wall, in a direction which showed that it must have passed close by the head of my companion; the carpet, fortunately not a new one, was utterly destroyed; and an old hat that hung upon a peg was cut through by splinters of the apparatus, as clean as could have been effected by the bursting of a hand-grenade.

I confess that this catastrophe quite damped my ardour in the pursuit of chemical science. I had no intention of adopting the medical profession, and therefore did not judge it necessary to expend my limited pocket-money or endanger my life in making further investigations as to the qualities of explosive gas; and perhaps it was fortunate that I did so, for, in little more than a year afterwards, my beloved Willie suffered a far more serious loss than that of his epidermis, a finger and a thumb having been blown away by the explosion of an infernal machine, called, I think, a "Papin's Digester."

But I must not linger over these educationary reminiscences. Fortune, which had not smiled on me at my

birth, gave me a partial respite throughout the years which are really the most valuable; because the career of every man depends upon the impressions he receives, and the aspirations he forms, during the period of his pupilarity. But it was so ordained that I was again to be thrown upon my own resources, at an age when individual exertion must necessarily be of slight appreciable value.

From the sketch I have already given of my uncle's character and habits, it will readily be understood that he was anything but a prosperous man. That he did not pass from this world to the next, leaving a large amount of debt behind him, was, I verily believe, owing to the circumstance that nobody would give him credit-a position which, by the way, I cannot regard as wholly unfortunate, insomuch as, on the one hand, it checks extravagance; whereas, on the other, it saves the shareholders of the banks, who of late years have been severely smitten by the romantic passion of their managers for extending the circulation of their notes. I do not mean to imply that my uncle was extravagant; on the contrary, his wants were few and his tastes simple; but he was one of those easy-minded people, who are marked out by nature as the ready victims of imposture. His ear and purse were equally open to every tale of distress, however suspicious it might be; and as from indolence, which was his besetting sin, he never instituted any inquiry into the character of the persons whom he relieved, he was systematically swindled by a gang of miscreants who lived in comparative luxury upon the abuse of charity.

I remember one notable instance of imposture, the mention of which may be useful to those tender-hearted persons who, like Dr Buchanan, are addicted to indiscriminate alms-giving. A tall, forbidding female, attired in rusty black, was in the habit of way-laying my uncle. She represented herself as the daughter of an old missionary belonging to the Independent Church, who, worn out with years and hard labour, could no longer earn a livelihood, and for whom no provision had been made. This