ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. [From the Morning Chronicle, Nov. 23.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 810, 7 May 1853, Page 4

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. [From the Morning Chronicle, Nov. 23.]

A very full meeting of tbis society was held last evening, at the theatre of the Royal Institution, with Sir R. I. Murchwon (the President) in the chair, when the Marquis of Breadtlbane, Dr. R. Gordon Latham, Messrs. H. Browning, John Watkins, William Cotton Osffdl, Lionel Gisborne, J. Stubbi, Thomas Forrester, J. T. Wheeler, J. G. Price, Major H. Sebastian Rowan, R.A., Captain B. Wade, Lientenant R. Saumarez, R. N., Lieutenant ■J. W. Pikt, R.N., and Colonel Arthur A. T. Cunningham were elected fellows* The minutes of the former meeting having been read by the secretary, Dr. Shaw, * The President called upon Commander Inglefield to read the account of his late search in the Arctic Regions. Commander Inglefield then gave a detailed account of his voyage to the Arctic Regions, in search of Sir John Franklin, in the screw schooner Isabel, of 140 tons. After briefly alluding to the circumstances under which he had accepted | the Isabel, from Lady Franklin and the subscri- | bers, leaving him to defray the expenses of her i further equipment, wages of the crew, &c, be stated that he sailed from England with the intention of examining those parts of Baffin Bay, in the extreme north, which had never hitherto been reached ; but, failing in getting so far, he hoped to be able to reach Beechy Island, there to make an offer of his surplus provisions to the government expedition. Should he not succeed in this, it was his intention to jxaroine the West coasf of Baffin's Bay and Labrador for the crews of the missing vessels, fh case they should have been wrecked, or should have deserted those vessels, as reported by the Renovation to have been seen on an ice floe. The commander made allusion to the season in which lie sailed from England as being far advanced ere he started, and stated that be bad left three months later than the government expedition of last year. Notwithstanding tbis, he bad succeeded in reaching a considerably higher latitude than had been attained by Ross and Parry iv their voyage of 1818, hnviug explored and laid down 600 miles of new coast line, determining also that the entrance into Whale Sound was a great strait passing into an open sea, and thus apparently defining Greenland an island. On the northern shore of ibis strait Captain Inglefield discovered several islands (Northumberland Island, Sir Thonus Herbert's Island, and Louis Napoleon's Island), all of which are rapidly surveyed and laid down upon tbe cbartt now exhibited. Leaving this Sound, as it bad hitherto been termed, be bailed northward in tbe

direction of Smith's sound, and there found a great extent of sea stretching far before him. On the 27th of August, at 2 p.m., he attained the latitude of 78 de#. 35 mm., nearly 129 miles farther north tluu any former voyagers, and within a great sea, the entraoce of which was 85 miles across, only partially encumbered with ice, and which upon the eastern shore seemed perfectly navigable. Captain Inglefield stated that he had thus entered the great Polar basin, and declaied that he believed he would have been able to have pushed through in the direction of Bebring Straits, had the gale, which fairly blew him oat of it, not defied his utmost efforts. The small high pressure engine with which the Isabel was fitted was only equal to pushing the vessel in calms or light wiaJs. The strong breeze soou increased to a furious gale of wind and snow, and lasted thirty hours, during which time the ship remained hove to. After it moderated Captain Inglefield described the perilous situation in which he was suddenly placed by driving into the lee pack, and exhibited a sketch of the position of his vessel upon this occasion. After some hours of great exertion he was providentially released, and then closely examining the western shore entered Jones' Sound on the 30th of August. Here be penetrated to long. 84 deg., and found at this point that the coast suddenly trended away to the north-west, whilst the southern shore continued westerly as far as the eye could reach, but no land could be distinguished at the bottom of the sound, nor could any tract of the missing expedition be discovered. On the Ist September Commander Inglefield sailed from Jones' Sound with the intention of communicating with the squadron !of Sir Edward Belcher; he reached Beecby Island on the 7th of September, and, after depositing his letter-bags and receiving others in return for England, sailed the same day, with the "view to coaomence a more detailed examination of the western shores of Baffin's Bay than former navigators bad been able to bestow on the coast. Commander Inglefield was unsuccessful in finding any traces of the missing expedition on these shores, which he explored as far south as the River Clyde, where the ice fixed to the land and stretching nearly across Baffin's Bay, carried Mm over to the eastern shore, in the neighbourhood of Disco Island, where he encountered a succession of gales, which he describes as being the most violent he had ever witnessed ; and which, owing to the proximity of the ice and the vast bergs which surrounded the coasts, rendered them doubly dangerous. After several fruitless efforts to get into Northumberland Inlet (where the commander intended to winter), he was at the earnest representations of his ice masters, forced to relinquish the attempt, and bore up for England on the 14th of October, arriving at Peterhead exactly four months from the day he sailed. Captain Inglefield dropped some remarks npon the search for the missing vessels, and gave it as his opinion that the Government expedition was undoubtedly on the right track. Reviewing his geographic discoveries, taking into consideration the strong current which be found setting from the southward in the Polar basin, and through Murchiton Strait, he could not but fee) sure that he had discovered and entered the Polar basin, and that probably this Strait and Smith Sound are both entrances int* that basin ; he urged that the formation of the land and other circumstances to which he briefly alluded, induced him to believe that Baffin's Bay could no longer be considered as a mere bay, but rather as an arm of communication, and that the Polar sea might be sail to commence from Lancaster Sound on the westward, and from Whale Sound on the eastward. He spoke of the animal life which existed in the parts that tie had visited, and drew particular attention to the fact that the species of mollusca, viz., the clio-borealis and the sagitta, two of that class upon which the whale principally feeds, were found by the surgeon of the expedition, Dr. Sutherland, to be more numerous and larger in Whale Sound than in any locality he bad visited ; and that the sea birds, mollys (fulmar petal) and loons (uria troile) were abundant. Captain Inglefield stated that upon one occasion he sailed through positive sboals of birds, and that as far as the eye could reach, the surface of the water was covered with these creatures, and that they appeared to be so completely gorged, as to be apparently unwilling to move, as his ship ploughed her way among them. The President congratulated Captain Inglefield on the high qualities of seamanship, and the extraordinary activity, seal, and endurance he had evinced in the conduct of his ex]>edition. The best proof of bis provident care in husbanding bis resources was, that he had brought back a store of coals amounting to 62 tons in the hold of his vessel. Mr. Pctermaon inquired if Captain Inglefield had met with any driftwood on the coasts examined by him, as there was reason to conclude that one of the characteristics of the Polar basin was a great current coming ftom the northern shoies of Asia, caused by the efflux of the great Siberian rivers, draining an area of 4,000,000 square miles, which conveyed an immense quantity of driftwood lhat wouJd naturally be deposited on the Arctic coasts of the American side. Captain Inglefield said he bad not found driftwood at any point, though passing so close to the shore that he must have observed it had any existed. He doubled the existence of any such current as lhat spoken of, since on one occasion, having the ship hove-to for a period of 30 hours he found he only drifted a single mile to the southward. The Duke of Argyll inquired if Capt. Inglefield had an interpreter through whem he could communicate with the Esquimaux, relative to the existence of a polar basin. Captain Inglefield said lhat be had been disappointed in his hopes of obtaining an interpreter through the Danish authorities at Disco,but Mr, Abernethy, his mate, and also Dr. Sutherland, could speak a little of their language, having made several previous voyages to the polar regions. His impres.ion was, that Sir J. Franklin was still to be found, either by the route he had followed, or by that of the sea between Spitsbergen and Nova Zembla, which he had wished lo explore be/ore leaving England, but bad been strongly advised lo the contrary, from the perils and difficulties, attendant on a search conducted in a siugla ship. His hope was that the Isabel might yet be employed m the examination of this sea. Sir John Ross thoiipbt that the energetic exertions of Captain i"!^ field had completely established that Ui.' 1

never went up Wales or Jones' Sounds, or any other passage at the head of Baffin's Bay. It remained, therefore, only to look to the Wellington Channel. The President, in adjourning the meeting, congratulated those present on having heard enough to show that their expectations of the search for Sir John Franklin heing crowned with success were anything but visionary.