dence in the Arctic seas. It is impossible
to describe how perfectly everything was arranged: experience had taught
them what was necessary for such an expedition. On this occasion I put
in practice my lessons in cookery by making a large quantity of orange
marmalade for the voyage. When, after three years, the ships returned,
we were informed that the name of Somerville had been given to an island
so far to the north that it was all but perpetually covered with ice and
snow. Notwithstanding the sameness which naturally prevails in the
narratives of these voyages, they are invested with a romantic interest
by the daring bravery displayed, and by the appalling difficulties
overcome. The noble endeavour of Lady Franklin to save her gallant
husband, and the solitary voyage of Sir Leopold McClintock in a small
yacht in search of his lost friend, form the touching and sad
termination to a very glorious period of maritime adventure. More than
fifty years after these events I renewed my acquaintance with Lady
Franklin. She and her niece came to see me at Spezia on their way to
Dalmatia. She had circumnavigated the globe with her husband when he was
governor in Australia. After his loss she and her niece had gone round
the world a second time, and she assured me that although they went to
Japan and China (less known at that time than they are now), they never
experienced any difficulty. Seeing ladies travelling alone, people were
always willing to help them. The French sent a Polar expedition under
Captain Gaimard in the years 1838 and 1839; and the United States of
North America took an active part in Arctic exploration. Whether Dr.
Kane's discovery of an open polar ocean will ever be verified is
problematical; at all events, the deplorable fate of Sir John Franklin
has put a stop to the chance of it for the present; yet it is a great
geographical question which we should all like to see decided.

Captain Sabine, of the Artillery (now General Sir Edward Sabine,
President of the Royal Society), was appointed to accompany the first
expedition under Captains Ross and Parry on account of his high
scientific acquirements. The observations made during the series of
Arctic voyages on the magnetism of the earth, combined with an enormous
mass of observations made by numerous observers in all parts of the
globe by sea and by land, have enabled Sir Edward Sabine, after a labour
of nearly fifty years, to complete his marvellous system of