4334.22 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year Eighteen Hundred and FiftySeven, by EPES SARGENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the District of Massachusetts. PREFACE. THE interest in the history of Arctic adventure created by the various expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin, has been wonderfully increased, of late, by the deeply interesting narrative of Dr. Kane. Presented to the public in two elegant volumes, and embellished with some three hundred engravings and wood-cuts, conveying new and striking illustrations of the characteristics of Arctic scenery, this work is at once an honor to the American press and to the much-lamented author, who exhibited the rare union of those Cæsar-like gifts which make both the successful man of action and the skilful historian. To Messrs. Childs & Peterson, of Philadelphia, the liberal publishers, we are indebted for the wood-cuts which illustrate that chapter in the present work devoted to Kane's expedition. No one, we believe, can lay down Dr. Kane's book, after perusal, without a strong desire to know something more of Arctic adventure - something of the preliminary parts of a history, of which his volumes form the fascinating sequel. It has certainly been our fortune to hear this desire expressed by many, and we have prepared the present work to meet an actual demand. To the narratives of Ross, Parry, Franklin, Beechey, Back, and other explorers to Sir John Barrow's abstract of Arctic subjects of the Messrs. Chambers, of Edinburgh, and of Nelson & Sons, of London-to the British quarterly reviews, magazines, and journals—we have been largely indebted; in many instances adopting, without alteration, the language in which events are narrated. Still, with all our obligations, no small amount of original labor and research has been found necessary, in order to render our narrative clear and complete. It would be unjust if we did not mention, in this connection, our indebtedness to Lieutenant Sherard Osborn, the latest Arctic historian, who, in his account of M'Clure's expedition, and of the discovery of a north-west passage, has given us the record of achievements the magnitude of which has been hardly appreciated as yet. The world looked for the dénouement of a personal tragedy; and turns, with comparative indifference, from the solution of the great geographical problem of the last three |