and either joining Franklin or collecting some certain intelligence regarding his enterprise. In both objects he had the mortification to fail: He found the posts erected the preceding year and the buried bottles remaining untouched, and the state of the weather rendered it necessary to put about before reaching Icy Cape. It had been previously arranged, that the signal to be used by Franklin, if he arrived on an unknown coast during the night, should be a beacon kindled on the cliffs; and, on passing Cape Krusenstern after dark, their attention was arrested by a large fire blazing on an eminence. Every eye on board was fixed on the welcome light, and every bosom beat with the delightful expectation of soon seeing their friends. The ship was brought to, and hope almost passed into certainty, as a boat was seen pulling from the shore. On examining her through the telescope by the light of the Aurora Borealis, some sanguine spirits declared they could discern that she was propelled by oars instead of paddles, and it needed only a slight additional exertion of the fancy to be assured that the dress of the crew was European. In the midst of these excited and enthusiastic feelings, the harsh and boisterous voices of the natives suddenly broke on their ear, and the pleasing picture which their imagination had been so busy in constructing faded away in a moment, leaving nothing before them but two sorry Esquimaux baidars and their unlovely occupants. From this point Captain Beechey's voyage presented few features of new or striking interest. In Behring's Strait they were visited by a splendid exhibition of the Aurora Borealis, and under its coruscations of pink, purple, and green rays, which shot up to the zenith in the shape of a gigantic cone, they anchored off Chamisso Island. After the discovery of two capacious harbours, which they named Port Clarence and Grantley Harbour, they took their final departure from the Polar Sea on the 6th October 1827. On the 29th, a flight of large white pelicans apprized them of their approach to the coast of California; and after touching at Monterey and San Blas, they arrived at Valparaiso on the 29th April 1828. On the 30th June, they passed the meridian of Cape Horn in a gloomy snow-storm, and made Rio on the 21st July. Their voyage from Rio to England was completed in fortynine days, and they arrived at Spithead on the 12th October 1828. He found that the expedition of Franklin had preceded him in his return by more than a year, having reached Liverpool on the 26th September 1827; its transactions occupied two years and nearly eight months, whilst Beechey had been absent on his voyage three years and a half. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE NORTHERN REGIONS OF AMERICA. CHAPTER V. Introductory Observations. Amelioration in the Character of European Intercourse with uncivilized Nations-The Absence of Sandy Deserts, a grand Feature in the Physical Attributes of America -General Boundaries of the Districts afterwards treated of in Detail-Early Sources of Information regarding the Natural History of North America General View of the Fur-countries-Passages across the Rocky Mountains-Plains and Valleys along the Pacific Shore. THE preceding historical narrative will have rendered our readers familiar with the progress of navigation and discovery along the shores of North America; while the sketches which have been presented of the journeys of Hearne and Mackenzie, as well as of the more recent expeditions of Franklin and Richardson, will have exhibited an accurate and interesting picture of whatever is most worthy of record in the history and habits of the more central tribes. The unextinguishable boldness and persevering bravery of the human race are strikingly manifested by these achievements in maritime and inland adventure; and while we are too often shocked by the recital of deeds of violence and bloodshed,— by unprovoked and unpardonable aggression on the part of the invaders, and by unsparing revenge, in retaliation, by the darker savage, we cannot but admire the energy and reckless daring exhibited on either side, though we may too often regret the want of a gentler and more humanizing spirit. In regard, however, to the later expeditions, especially those from the British shores, the philanthropist and philosopher must have been alike delighted by the amelioration which has taken place in our mode of intercourse with the "painted men," who are no longer massacred as the beasts that perish, but, even when sought after originally from motives not entirely disinterested, are yet regarded as beings in whom the great Creator has implanted the germ of an immortal life. But by what a catalogue of crimes was the name of Christian first made known to many nations of the Western World; and by what cruel tyranny and the sword of an exterminating war, were not the insidious pretences of peace so often followed up by the civilized nations of Europe! The cross was indeed but a vain and hollow symbol in the hands of those bloodstained and avaricious men, who sought to plant upon a false foundation that glorious banner to which God alone giveth the increase. The last entry in the following sumptuous enumeration was probably omitted in the books of those proud traders:-"The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and-souls of men." We have now to describe the characteristic features of the Natural History of the Northern Parts of America, a task rendered comparatively easy, in many important particulars, by the labours of those intrepid men, the recital of whose adventurous expeditions by land and sea has already engaged the attention of the reader. Indeed we know of no better or more conclusive argument against those who venture to doubt the propriety of scientific exploration, on account of the uncertain fulfilment of some of our most sanguine expectations, than the great advancement which has recently been effected in our natural knowledge of far countries. It is true that the north-west passage has not yet been achieved, and it may be true that it * Revelations, xviii. 12, 13. never will be achieved, consistently with the strictly utilitarian views of merely commercial enterprise; but even although we should never have it in our power to substitute bad muskets for the arrows and harpoons of the skin- . clad Esquimaux, and should be for ever doomed to a continuance of our present lengthened navigation to the eastern shores of Asia,—still it is something to say that we have almost completed our geographical knowledge of the circumference of the northern parallels of the earth; and that if the merchant cannot exchange his commodities by a more rapid route, a stock of intellectual food, and a rich library both of useful and entertaining knowledge, has been already provided, and will doubtless increase for the benefit of future generations. It is to the two expeditions under Sir John Franklin that we owe the better part of our information regarding the natural history of the interior districts of the fur-countries of North America; and although the collecting of specimens did certainly form but a secondary object in comparison with those great geographical problems, the solution of which was looked forward to as the principal and more important result, yet it is gratifying to know that in the performance of higher duties of difficult and dangerous achievement, these resolute men neglected nothing which could in any way conduce to the completion of our knowledge of the countries they explored. Before entering into any zoological details, we shall devote a brief space to the consideration of one of the most peculiar and influential features in the physical character of the New World, viz. the absence of sandy deserts. It has been well observed that the physical conformation of North America precludes the possibility of those arid wastes. They result from a want of moisture, and attach to such extended plains, in the more immediate vicinity of the tropics, as are too vast and disproportioned in relation to the quantity of rain which nature has assigned them ; for there "No cloud of morning dew Doth travel through the waste air's pathless blue, They drink and are for ever dry; for the castellated glories of cloud-land float over them in vain; and even when rent by thunderbolts, or illuminated by the blinding glare of the red lightning, they never hear the refreshing music |