hortly for the same destination; and in Lady Franklin's own
vessel, the "Prince Albert," as well as a craft under Sir John Ross, we
find two more assistants in the plan of search.

And yet, gentle reader, if you turn to the papers of the fall of 1849,
you will find some asserting that Sir John Franklin had perished in
Baffin's Bay, because Sir James Ross had found nothing of him in
Lancaster Sound! Happily the majority of Englishmen have, however,
decided otherwise; and behold, this noble equipment! this magnificent
outlay of men and material!

We will not dwell on the pleasures or annoyances of the cruise across
the Atlantic, beyond stating the fact that our bluff-bowed worse-halfs,
the sailing ships, nigh broke our hearts, as well as our hawsers, in
dragging their breakwater frames along in the calms; and that we of the
screws found our steam vessels all we could wish, somewhat o'er lively,
mayhap,--a frisky tendency to break every breakable article on board.
But there was a saucy swagger in them, as they bowled along the hollow
of a western sea, which showed they had good blood in them; and we soon
felt confident of disappointing those Polar seers, who had foretold
shipwreck and disaster as their fate.

[Headnote: _THE ATLANTIC.--GREENLAND._]

The appearance of numerous sea-birds,--the Tern especially, which do
not fly far from land,--warned us, on Sunday 26th May, of our fast
approach to Greenland, and on the morrow we espied the picturesque
shores about Cape Farewell. Which of all the numerous headlands we saw
was the identical cape, I do not pretend to say; but we chose, as _our_
Cape Farewell, a remarkable-looking peak, with a mass of rock perched
like a pillar upon its crest. The temperature began to fall as we
advanced, and warmer coats quickly replaced our English clothing.

Distant as we were from Greenland, our view of its southern extremity
was fleeting, but sufficient to show that it fully realized in
appearance the most striking accumulation of ice and land that the mind
could picture,--a land of gaunt famine and misery; but which
nevertheless, for some good purpose, it had pleased Providence in a
measure to people.

Had we not had an urgent duty to perform, I should have regretted thus
hurrying past the land; for there is much to see there. True, Greenland
has no deep historical interest, but the North has always had its charm
for me. Scandinavia, and her deeds,--the skill and intrepidity of her
b