John Richardson, and Sir George Back, who have earned their
knighthoods through great peril. As we pass Coronation Gulf--the
scene of Franklin, Richardson, and Back's first exploration from the
Coppermine River--we revert to the romantic story of their journey
back, over a land of snow and frost, subsisting upon lichens, with
companions starved to death, where they plucked wild leaves for tea,
and ate their shoes for supper; the tragedy by the river; the murder
of poor Hood, with a book of prayers in his hand; Franklin at Fort
Enterprise, with two companions at the point of death, himself
gaunt, hollow-eyed, feeding on pounded bones, raked from the
dunghill; the arrival of Dr. Richardson and the brave sailor; their
awful story of the cannibal Michel;--we revert to these things with
a shudder. But we must continue on our route. The current still
flows westward, bearing now large quantities of driftwood out of the
Mackenzie River. At the name of Sir Alexander Mackenzie, also, we
might pause, and talk over the bold achievements of another Arctic
hero; but we pass on, by a rugged and inhospitable coast, unfit for
vessels of large draught--pass the broad mouth of the Youcon, pass
Point Barrow, Icy Cape, and are in Behring Strait. Had we passed
on, we should have found the Russian Arctic coast line, traced out
by a series of Russian explorers; of whom the most illustrious--
Baron Von Wrangell--states, that beyond a certain distance to the
northward there is always found what he calls the Polynja (open
water). This is the fact adduced by those who adhere to the old
fancy that there is a sea about the Pole itself quite free from ice.

We pass through Behring Straits. Behring, a Dane by birth, but in
the Russian service, died here in 1741, upon the scene of his
discovery. He and his crew, victims of scurvy, were unable to
manage their vessel in a storm; and it was at length wrecked on a