fruit of 30 years' honest, hard reading of his wellstocked library, the finest of its kind in America; our author is full of his subject to overflowing, and from the perhaps unavoidable necessity of giving a complete series of Spanish authors and a catalogue of books he is sometimes oppressed with his learning, as David was by the heavy armour of Saul; occasionally we were jaded with dry details, and felt that a considerable portion of his volumes, and notes especially, were less suited for the reading-desk than the bookcase; but no library of any pretensions can dispense with this matterpregnant work. The style of Mr. Ticknor suits the professor; it is clear, precise, and unaffected. Without being lively or poetical, he interests in his descriptions, and is impartial and unprejudiced in his criticisms; here and there the fastidious ear of the Old Country will trace a tone of constraint, which Americans writing this high class of English can scarcely quite escape. Taken as a whole, the work is the best that has ever appeared on its subject, and certainly will insure to Mr. Ticknor a lasting and honourable reputation on both sides of the Atlantic.

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN,

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ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS.*

Have any

"WHAT news of Sir John Franklin ? traces of his whereabouts been discovered? Has any light been thrown upon the fortunes of himself and his crews?" Such are the inquiries which the announcement of any new narrative of an Arctic Expedition will elicit from almost every Englishman, and until these questions are answered it would be a mere waste of time to expatiate on geographical or geological discoveries, or to unfold additions to the Flora and Fauna Borealis. Dr. Sutherland, who appears to have literally followed Sir John Franklin's recommendation to his officers to "observe everything from a flea to a whale," has accumulated in the volumes before us many useful facts in natural history and meteorology, to which, however, due attention will scarcely be paid until anxiety about Sir John Franklin's fate is somewhat allayed. We hasten, then, to say, on the authority of

* 1. Journal of a Voyage in Baffin's Bay and Barrow's Straits in 1850-51, performed by Her Majesty's ships Lady Franklin and Sophia, under the command of Mr. William Penny, in search of the missing crews of Her Majesty's ships Erebus and Terror. By Peter C. Sutherland, M.D., M.R.C.S.E., surgeon to the expedition. 2 vols. Longmans. 1852.

2. Papers and Despatches relating to the Arctic Searching Expeditions of 1850-51-52; together with a few brief remarks on the probable course pursued by Sir John Franklin. Collected and arranged by James Mangles, Commander, R.N. Rivingtons. 1852,

those best qualified to form an opinion upon the subject, that hope of Sir John Franklin's safety is by no means to be abandoned, for the probabilities of his existence in some Polar region not yet explored are far greater and more numerous than the probability of his total loss. We say total loss-because in any other case than that of foundering in deep waters some vestige of wreck would, ere this, have been detected by the many keen-sighted and experienced investigators engaged in the search. We will remind the impatient or ill-informed, that the total extinction of two British men-of-war, commanded by such officers as Sir John Franklin and Captain Fitzjames, and manned and equipped as the vessels of his expedition were, is an event so contradictory to all experience of the casualties of the Polar regions, as to amount to the strongest improbability. Captain George Harrison (of 30 years' experience in the command of whalers) states in a letter printed in the Nautical Magazine for April, that out of the whole 103 ships wrecked since the first discovery of a passage through Melville Bay, not more than 10 lives have been lost. And to those who fancy that every nook of the Polar regions has been explored for the missing voyagers we would observe, that the whole of the regions hitherto explored by the various expeditions sent out are scarcely one-third of those which remain unexplored. It may be well to add, moreover, that in the opinion of most competent judges, such as Colonel Sabine, Mr. Augustus Peterman and others, there is a greater probability of finding Sir John Franklin's expedition in regions to which search has not yet been extended than in the more familiar locali

LATEST NEWS OF THE EREBUS.

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ties throughout which search has hitherto been made. The arguments of those who maintain the improbability of maintaining life in higher latitudes than those already explored are refuted by well-established facts, to which we will presently advert more in detail.

Sir John Franklin sailed from Sheerness with the Erebus and Terror, in May, 1845, and arrived at the Whalefish Islands on the 4th of July. His last despatches were from this point, bearing date July 12, and in Captain Mangles's excellent little repertory of Arctic papers some really charming letters from Captain. Fitzjames of the same date may be found, and will be perused with pleasure by all who love a sailor's lively humour and unruffled cheerfulness, blended with the delicate feelings and correct taste of the wellbred gentleman. The Erebus was spoken on the 22d of the same month by Captain Martin, of the whaler Enterprise, in latitude 75 deg. 10 min., longitude 66 deg. west. The latest date at which the expedition was actually seen was four days subsequently. The Prince of Wales whaler reported that on the 26th of July, 1845, she saw Franklin's vessels in latitude 74 deg. 48 min., longitude 66 deg. 13 min. They were then moored to an iceberg awaiting an opening in the middle ice to enable them to cross over to Lancaster Sound. Between this period and the 23d of August, 1850, five years and a month, when the first traces were discovered by Captain Ommaney, of Her Majesty's ship Assistance, at Cape Riley, no intelligence, direct or indirect, was received of the missing ships. The evidences afforded by these first traces were added to largely four days afterwards (27th of August, 1850), by

Captain Penny's alighting at Beechy Island upon the spot where Franklin spent his winter of 1845–6.

Early in 1850 the Admiralty, after despatching an expedition under Captains Collinson and M'Clure, to Behring's Straits, placed four ships in commission under the command of Captain Horatio T. Austin, C. B., who had served in an exploring voyage under Sir Edward Parry, for the purpose of examining Barrow's Straits, under a notion that Sir John Franklin might be retracing his course eastward in boats, or even in the ships themselves, having relinquished the hope of making a northwest passage. The squadron under Captain Austin consisted of his own ship the Resolute, the Assistance, Captain E. Ommaney, and the steam tenders Pioneer, Lieutenant Osborn commanding, and Intrepid, Lieutenant Cator commanding. It was considered desirable that to the power of the navy should be added the experience of the whaler, and accordingly, after many strivings of heart and doleful misgivings, lest etiquette should be infringed, and discipline endangered, the Lords of the Admiralty ventured to associate William Penny, an experienced whaling captain of Dundee, with their own commissioned officers. Mr. Penny, after receiving instructions from the Admiralty, proceeded to Aberdeen and Dundee, where he purchased two new clipper-built vessels, which were named respectively the Lady Franklin and Sophia, the latter in compliment to Miss Sophia Cracroft, a niece of Sir John Franklin, and most devoted companion of his noble-hearted wife. These vessels were placed under Mr. Penny's command, with separate instructions direct from the Admiralty, and both ships and men acquitted themselves during