in charge of that service will of course have to take into account the having to winter in that quarter. 9. His earliest attention, in that case, in the ensuing spring, will be1st. The depositing such supplies at Melville Island as he can spare, or endeavouring to convey them thither by sledges, if he should not reach the island with his ships; and 2nd. The detaching travelling parties in a westerly direc tion for the combined purpose of a search for traces of Sir John Frankliu, and of depositing notices in conspicuous situations as to where the supplies are left, but being at the same time strictly enjoined to return to their ships before the usual period of the breaking up of the ice, in order that such ships may return to their rendezvous at Beechy Island, or otherwise prepare for quitting Lancaster Sound to return to England, according as the supplies on board of his ships, and the length of time consumed in the above service shall require. 10. And here we think it necessary more particularly to call your attention to the instructions to be given by you to the Officer charged with this branch of the expedition; for whilst there is a possibility of your calculating on an early return of such Officer from Melville Island, in the summer of 1853, and of his being able to afford you support in any particular direction, it is, on the other hand, not improbable that, from a prolonged detention to the westward, it may be his bounden duty not to hazard a further stay in those seas, but to make the best of his way home; in which case he must endeavour to commumicate with the rendezvous at Beechy Island, before finally quitting Barrows Strait, in order to obtain information of the other ships, and to deposit records of his proceedings. 11. He should, therefore, be made to understand the nature of the responsibility that devolves upon him, both as to the execution of his orders, in the first instance, and determining the point at which the power of compliance with those orders ceases. 12. It is, of course, possible that seasons such as were experienced by the expedition in 1850-51 may again occur to prevent a passage by ships up Wellington Channel, or to the west of Griffith Island, and, under such circumstances, it will be for you to consider how far it might serve any useful purpose to undertake an examination by travelling parties from Baring Bay, or Prince Alfred Bay, in the direction of Jones's Sound, in addition to those which it will be your duty to send out to the north and north-west for traces of Sir John Franklin, in the direction of Queen's Channel. 13. Our instructions, therefore, are without reference to the possible circumstance of records still being found at Beechy Island, or elsewhere (and for which it will be your duty to search), at a certain distance from the respective cairns, where it has been stated it was Sir John Franklin's custom to deposit them; and if by such records it should prove that Sir John Franklin proceeded to the eastward out of Lancaster Sound, after he wintered at Beechy Island in 1845-46, you will still continue to push forward two of your ships towards Melville Island, as already directed by us, and with the other two you are to ́act as circumstances may render necessary, depending on the information which those records may convey; and adverting to the report of two ships having been seen on the ice in the North Atlantic, in the spring of 1851, we think it expedient to draw your attention to this subject, that you may adopt such steps on your way from Baffin Bay, with reference to search and inquiry on the shores of Davis Straits, as you may consider most advisable under the circumstances above stated, and the information the records may convey. 14. You are aware of the deposit of stores and provisions at Port Leopold, and of the steam launch left there by Sir James Ross; you are at liberty to The piece of tin or copper, said, by Adam Beck, to have been dropped from a staff, should also be looked for. See Evidence before Arctic Committee. employ that vessel in any way that her services may be made available; but with reference to the store of provisions at Port Leopold, and also those for 100 men, which were landed by Mr. Saunders on an island in Navy Board Inlet, it is our directions that such provisions and stores shall on no account be touched by any of the vessels under your orders, unless compelled to do so by absolute necessity. 15. We have furnished you with copies of these instructions, which you are to deliver to the Captain and Officers in command of vessels under your orders. And we deem it necessary that you should be directed to communicate freely and unreservedly with your second in command, and the Officers in charge of the other ships, on all points connected with the expedition, keeping them acquainted with your views and intentions, that, in case of an accident happening to yourself, or a separation of the ships, these Officers may be fully aware of the courses of proceedings intended to be adopted by you, and when the ships are separated from you for the purpose of carrying out our orders, the same unreserved intercourse and communicatioa is to be maintained between the Officers in command of the respective ships. 16. You are no doubt aware of the Prince Albert, private vessel, being engaged in a like search in the Arctic seas; you are to afford that vessel every aid and assistance, in the event of falling in with her, but you are in no way to interfere with her orders to take her under your charge. 17 The various logs and private journals, with drawings, plans, &c., are to be sent to this office, on the return of the expedition. And you are to be careful that from the date of your parting company with the ships sent to assist in towing you, your own letters to our Secretary, together with those of the Officers addressing you, are duly numbered as well as dated; and you are invariably, should any opportunity offer, to leave letters for us at such places as Cape Warrender, Ponds Bay, &c., provided no delay be incurred thereby. 18. Your ships have been fully equipped for the service they are going upon, and it has been our desire that you should be provided with every means and resource that might be made available. We have an entire reliance on the best use and application of those means on your part, and we have equal confidence in the care to be exercised by you for those employed under your orders; but there is one object which, in the exercise of that care, will naturally engage your constant attention, and that is, the safe return of your party to this country. 19. We are sensible, however, that notwithstanding a wish to keep this part of your duty prominently in mind, yet, that an ardent desire to accomplish the object of your mission, added to a generous sympathy for your missing countrymen, may prevail in some degree to carry you beyond the limits of a cautious prudence. 20. You are, therefore, distinctly to understand our directions to be, that the several ships under your orders shall each be on its way home, and to the eastwood of Barrow Strait, whenever their stock of provisions shall have been reduced to twelve months' full allowance; and commending you, and those employed under you, to the providence of God, we trust that success may crown your efforts, and that you may be the means of affording succour to those of our countrymen whose absence we have so long deplored. Given under our hands this 16th day of April, 1852. To Sir Edward Belcher, C.B., Captain of Her NORTHUMBERLAND. By command of their Lordships, W. A. B. HAMILTON. NAVIGATION OF BEHRINGS STRAITS. The following document was communicated to the United States Senate by the Secretary of the Navy, in reply to a resolution of that body: Navy Department, April 5, 1852. Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the Senate's resolution, adopted on the 22nd ult, calling upon the Secretary of the Navy to communicate to the Senate his opinion of the expediency of a reconnoissance of the routes of navigation in the northern seas and in the China and Japan seas, and whether any vessel belonging to the service can be used for that purpose; and also what would be the expense of such a reconnoissance? So far as regards the expediency of the reconnoissance referred to in the resolution, I find that the files of this department contain a carefully prepared discussion of the subject by the Superintendent of the National Observatory, of the date of December 3, 1851, confined, however, to the value and importance of the whale fishery in the Anadir, Ochotsk, and Arctic seas, as the whaling grounds in the regions about Behrings Straits are called, from which I beg leave to furnish the following extracts: "In the summer of 1848, Captain Roys, of the whale ship Superior, penetrated the Arctic Ocean, through Behrings Straits, and encountered in his adventurous pursuits all the dangers of an unknown Polar sea. He was successful in his enterprise, filling his ship with oil in a few weeks. Influenced by the report which he brought back as to the abundance of whales, owners in the United States fitted out a large fleet for those grounds, and in 1849 Captain Roys was followed by 154 sail of whale ships, each vessel (said to be) worth on the average, with her outfit, 30,000 dollars, and manned by 30 ablebodied seamen each. This fleet took that season 206,850 barrels of whale oil, and 2,481,600 pounds of bone. In the summer of 1850 there went up a whaling fleet of 144 American vessels, manned as above, and of a like average value. This fleet, in the course of the few weeks left for their pursuits in those inhospitable regions, took 243,680 barrels of whale oil, and 3,654,000 pounds of bone. In the current year (1851) there went up a fleet of about 145 American vessels: but their returns have not been received; partial accounts of wreck and disaster only have reached us; they are startling. The lives and property at stake there for the two years for which we have complete returns may be thus stated: Value of ships and cargoes dols. 4,650 4,650,000 2,606,510 814,112 8,070,622 4,320 4,320,000 3,761,201 1,260,630 9,341,831 299 8,970 17,412,453 "The losses during the year 1851 have been unprecedented, so far as heard from. No less than seven sail of this fine fleet of 1851, the Howqua, the New Bedford, the Arabella, the America, the Armata, the Mary Mitchell, and the Henry Thompson, have been wrecked there, and left behind as monu ments of the dangers which meet these hardy mariners in their adventurous calling. There are reports of other losses and wrecks; these are certain: and though several of them were lost, not on shoals, but otherwise, yet these are enough to tell of imperfect hydrography, and to show the national importance of looking to it; for it may be so, that in case of loss in the ice, the knowledge of a sheltered anchorage near, and which a survey would give, would have prevented the exposure to the ice which induced the loss. All our commerce with what is called the East, is not so valuable as this was for 1849 and 1850. We see by the above statistics that in these two years more American seamen were engaged in that small district of ocean than are employed in our whole navy at one time; that in these two years these hardy mariners fished up from the bottom of the sea, and by their own energy created and added to the national wealth, the value of more than eight millions of dollars. And we moreover see that, owing to the dangers of the land and ice, the hidden rock and unknown shoals, one vessel in every twenty that went therein during the summer of 1851, has been left behind a total wreck, and that the lives of their crews, or of not less than one man for every twenty engaged in that business, have been put in jeopardy, mostly from the want of proper charts. No protection that our squadrons can at this moment give to our commerce, with any of the states of Christendom, can compare with that which a good chart of that part of the ocean would afford to this nursery of American seamen, and to this branch of national industry. I learn that in lat. 64° 15′ N., long. 178° W., Captain Middleton, of the barque Tenedos, of New London, discovered a shoal having only eight feet of water on it, and which was two acres in extent; that the ship Ajax, of Havre, was lost on a rock south of the Isle of St. Lawrance, ten miles from land; that the entire fleet of whalemen in the Arctic Ocean complain much that charts are wrong, that the coast is badly explored, but little known, &c.; that 'several of our vessels have been near being wrecked by unexpectedly making land or rocks under the bows at night;" that they have found in the Arctic Circle low sand-spits, extending five or six miles out; that also in Ochotsk Sea, there are hidden dangers;' that 'the Howqua, in 1851, was totally wrecked on a sunken rock in that sea.' I am also informed that the Indians are very friendly; that they wanted to trade; that the whalemen frequently went on shore, &c.; that 'Captain Taylor brought specimens of ores of metal from the Arctic shore' that he obtained information from the natives of the existence of gold amongst them, as also iron that when shown implements of various kinds, they gave him to understand, plenty in the mountain.' Such was also the case with the gold. They knew the metal, and pointed as such existing among them. "With these facts before the department I have no hesitation in expressing an opinion favourable to the measure suggested in the resolution, nor in recommending such a reconnoissance and survey as will establish accurately the positions of prominent capes, bays, headlands, and harbours. To fix the position of the rocks and shoals that endanger the navigation there, and to examine the Fox or Aleutian Islands, would be the work of two or three properly appointed vessels only for a short time. When the season is closed for these latitudes, the same vessels could be most beneficially employed in an examination of the seas of China and Japan, and the regions thereabout, whose hydrography is so defective, and an accurate knowledge of which is becoming every day of more and more importance. "In reply to the latter clause of the resolution, viz. :- Whether any vessels belonging to the service can be used for that purpose, and also what would be the expense of such a reconnoissance?' I respectfully state that this department has not at its command the vessels necessary for the contemplated service, unless by reducing the number of our vessels attached to squadrons on foreign service, which I by no means recommend. I am of opinion that the necessary vessels can be built at our navy yards, or purchased for a sum not exceeding 125,000 dollars; and that no additional appropriation beyond that sum need be made. The wear and tear of the vessels, the pay of the officers and crews, stores, provisions, instruments, &c., can be provided for out of current appropriations. The accompanying report from the chief of the Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography, and papers prepared by Commander Ringgold and Lieutenants Maury and Page, are respectfully submitted, as throwing additional light upon the subject. "I have the honour to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, "W. A. GRAHAM. « Hon. W. R. King, President of the Senate." My early impressions in relation to the Island of Bermuda, where I spent many happy days when youthful vigour made me more sensible of pleasurable scenes, are still vivid in my recollection. The beauty of its scenery has not changed, nor are its inhabitants less steady and judicious than in former days, but the medium through which those objects are viewed does not present them in such lively colours. I was in one of the first ships which entered within the reefs after the flag-ship of Admiral Murray had proved its practicability. Ships then did not proceed further than that anchorage, which obtained the appellation of "Murrays Anchorage," from the circumstance above mentioned. They now run in to Grassy Bay, fifteen miles further within the reef. [The forts which: crown the hills were not then in existence. St. George's, the capital, was a quiet village where few troops were seen, and the harbour was a resort of small colonial vessels, to the reception of which it was limited previous to the deepening of the channel. This has been effected at a considerable expense by the Legislature of the island in the hope to induce the large steam packets to avail themselves of that port. This island, ever since the discovery of the opening in the reefs (by Captain Hurd in his minute survey), has been deemed of much naval importance, and plans were formed by the highest military authorities for its defence. A naval arsenal also has been designed for the accommodation of a large establishment of ships of war. Distant islands, however, cannot be defended on principles which would be the most judicious at home-by the erection of forts in all quarters that could be occupied by an enemy. It is obvious that under the circumstances of Bermuda, troops cannot be spared from the parent state permanently to garrison a multitude of forts, which on such a principle of defence would be requisite if they could, the expense would be enormous, and therefore I cannot dismiss this subject without an expression of my satisfaction at intelligence I lately received that such extravagant and unavailing system of forti IX OV |