The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 10, No. 278, Supplementary Number (1828)

"My Lords perceive, that by this plan the whole of the space in St. James's Park, now laid out in grass, and from which the public are excluded, will be thrown open (with the exception of the parts to be planted) for the use of persons on foot."

The magnificent range of buildings intended to occupy the site of Carlton-house and gardens, and to extend from Spring Garden, Charing Cross on the east, to the Ordnance office, in Pall Mall, on the west, is already commenced in the last mentioned quarter. The substructure is a terrace, (containing the domestic offices,) of about 53 feet wide—its architecture of the Paestum Doric order surmounted by a balustrade. The order of the superstructure is Corinthian. In the centre of the range will be a fountain formed of the eight columns of the portico of Carlton-house, with eight additional columns on the same model. The basement story of all the houses is to be supplied with water by the overflow of this fountain and jets.

Our third Engraving represents the Grand Lodge Entrance to the New Palace, and resembles the arch in the front of the palace. The frieze of this gateway or arch, which is said to possess great merit, is still in the course of execution. Altogether this structure may be expected to form an approach of suitable splendour to the royal domain, whilst it bids fair to rank among the most interesting of the modern architectural embellishments of the metropolis.

Such is an outline of the improvements now in progress in St. James's Park and its vicinity. The palace may have fallen short of some expectations, but with all its imperfections, it will, when completed, be a pile of immense magnitude, with much of the grandeur and magnificence appertaining to regal splendour. His majesty will reside there when in his capital, and it is not an indifferent trait to observe, that it will not be altogether strange to his eyes; for every mantle and movable piece of Carlton palace, which can be used in the palace in St. James's Park, has been, or is about to be, removed thither. Meanwhile, the recreation of the people is not unstudied in the new arrangements of the park; indeed, it appears to be with their illustrious originator a primary consideration, as will be seen on reference to the treasury minute. Hence all loyal and grateful subjects may join in the song of olden time:

God prosper long our noble king,Our lives and safeties all.

Arcana of Science

CAPTAIN PARRY'S EXPEDITION

(Abridged from the Literary Gazette.)

On Saturday, September 29th, Captain Parry from his Arctic, and Captain Franklin from his North-American expedition, arrived at the Admiralty within half an hour of each other!3

Captain Parry may himself be taken as a specimen of the health of his crew; he looks as well as when he set out on his bold undertaking.

The sum of the intelligence which has transpired is, that the Hecla having arrived at Hamerfest, took in the rein-deer for dragging the boats, snow-shoes, &c. for the journey over the ice. Having reached the coast of Spitzbergen, a heavy gale drove the ship among packed ice, where she was entangled for several weeks, to the 6th of June. Here the first effort to proceed in the manner projected was tried on two boats commanded by Captain Parry and Lieut. Ross; but the ice broke up, and it was speedily relinquished. The Hecla then wrought to the north as far as Seven Islands, where finding no harbour, she put back. By the 19th of June, however, having cut through a formidable barrier, to the Wratskel of Van Henloopen, a second attempt to get forward in the ice-boats was strenuously made. Unfortunately the ice was what is called rotten, and so irregular as to render success impossible. Nothing could exceed the fatigues and difficulties of transport; the boats had to be loaded and unloaded many times in the course of a few hours; and no field-ice was met with, to any extent, over which they might glide on their way. The party at last attained the latitude of 82 deg., and three quarters N.; or to between four and five hundred miles of the Pole. Heavy rains prevailed, and the ice over which they were travelling so laboriously towards the north, was itself drifting more rapidly to the south than the distances which they could accomplish. Thus, the last three days having been spent in this disheartening and fruitless toil,—half the provisions being exhausted,—some of the men falling sick, and being reported unfit for exertion,—the scurvy threatening them,—and no hope of any favourable change remaining—our brave countrymen were compelled to abandon their impracticable design. They accordingly returned to the Hecla, and on the 24th of September put into Longhope, in the Orkneys, without having experienced any loss by death. The whole period occupied in these exertions on the ice is stated to have been sixty-one days.

The highest latitude to which the Hecla reached was 81 deg. 6 min. believed to be the farthest north that ever a ship made her way; so that all that was made in the boats was 1 deg. 39 min. At the farthest point north, no barrier of ice was seen, so that the idea of such a barrier always existing may now be dismissed. The ice found by the present expedition was of a very chaotic form. For about a mile, perhaps, it might be tolerably smooth; but at every interval huge ridges were crushed up by the action of tides and currents. No sooner was this obstacle over, and one of these rugged and precipitous masses overcome, than another appeared. There was plenty of fresh water on the surface, but towards the end of the attempt, when the rains fell, the ridges separated, and between them the salt sea flowed like so many canals. It was found impossible to make any use of the rein-deer in dragging the boats; and as there were no means of feeding dogs (as once proposed,) the whole work was performed by personal labour. Officers and men, twenty-eight in number, were alike harnessed to the tackle, and wrought in common at the exhausting toil. Their time for stalling in the morning (their morning being the beginning of the night,) was chosen when the light was least injurious to the eyes; for though the sun shone upon them during the whole period, and there was no darkness, yet when that luminary was lowest in the horizon, the reflection from the bright white surface of snow was more endurable. They could not, however, bear up under the fatigue. During their whole march they were soaking wet to the knees, and benumbed by a temperature always at or near the freezing point. At the close of twelve or fourteen hours thus occupied, when they came to seek rest by lying down, the change of their wet for dry stockings and fur boots caused such a reaction, that the tingling and smart were insufferable.

When Captain Parry found that the men could not support their toils on the allowance, (of about nineteen ounces per twenty-four hours, of pemecan and biscuit-powder.) he added, by way of luxury, a pint of hot water at night. This was found to be very restorative, warming the system; and if a little of the dinner food had been saved, it made a broth of great relish and value. Spirits were not drank; and the reason why even hot water was scarce, was, that it took so large a stock of their spirits of wine to boil it and the cocoa, that the quantity consumed could not safely be increased.

The ice itself was drifting faster to the south than they could make their way over it to the north: thus, during the last three days of their struggle, instead of gaining a higher latitude, they were actually two miles farther south than when they set out. This put an end to the expedition where everything which human energy and perseverance could do, was done so fruitlessly.

While the boats were away, the Hecla was not exempt from dangers. She had been wrought into a snug birth near the shore. A-head there were about three miles of ice; and a heavy gale coming on, detached this prodigious mass, and drove it with terrible violence against the ship. The cables were cut asunder, the anchors lost, and the poor Hecla forced high and dry upon the coast, by the irresistible pressure. Having got her again to the water, however, they proceeded to Weygatt Straits.

It is vexatious to be forced to the conviction that any attempt to reach the North Pole is but too likely to end in disappointment; but every fresh enterprise seems to lead to this conclusion.

Hudson, whose name is perpetuated in the bay, reached lat. 82 (as is laid down) in the year 1606; and a Scottish journal states, that the Neptune whaler, in 1816, got as high as 83 deg. 20 min.; but of the accuracy of this statement we have great doubts.

The Land Arctic Expedition.—About the end of June, 1826, Captain Franklin arrived at the last of the Hudson Bay company's posts, named Fort Good Hope, in lat. 67 deg. 28 min. N., long. 130 deg. 53 min. W.; with the expedition under his command in excellent health and spirits.

Three days' journey from thence, on the 4th of July, he despatched a party to the eastward, under the command of Dr. Richardson, and proceeded himself, in command of another party, by the western channel of Mackenzie's river, which flows at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and completed a survey of the coast from long. 113 deg. W. to 149 deg. 38 min. W. He was much impeded in his progress by the constant obstruction of ice, unbroken from the shore, in many parts, until the 4th of August—by the prevalence of fogs—and by the nature of the sea coast, which to the westward of the 140th degree is so extremely low and flat as to be unapproachable, even in boats, nearer than two or three miles. Indeed, beyond the 139th degree it was found impossible to land on the main shore, except at one point; and there they were most vexatiously detained eight days, in the best part of the season, by fog.

Before Captain Franklin had reached more than half way to Icy Cape, most of his party shewed symptoms of extreme suffering, from their unavoidable exposure to wading in the water, for the purpose of dragging the boats where they landed to rest or to get fresh water, or when compelled by gales to seek the shore. The temperature of the water was generally about the freezing-point, whilst that of the air seldom exceeded 36 degrees. The coast westward of Mackenzie's river, under any circumstances, was extremely hazardous to navigate; but under the difficulties which Captain Franklin experienced, further perseverance on his part would have been unpardonable rashness. The whole party being of opinion that the obstructions were insurmountable, were compelled to return, in the conviction, however, that the navigation of the northwest passage is open.

The eastern party, under Dr. Richardson, who was accompanied by Mr. Kendall, an intelligent young officer, succeeded in reaching the Coppermine river on the 8th of August, and returned to Fort Franklin, Great Bear Lake, on the 1st of September. Like that under the command of Captain Franklin, they experienced repeated obstructions from ice, and occasionally from strong breezes; but they were spared the foggy weather, except on parts of two days.

The object of Dr. Richardson's party was to examine the intermediate coast between the Mackenzie and the coppermine rivers. After separating from Captain Franklin, on the 4th of July, they pursued the easternmost channel of the Mackenzie, until the 7th of that month, when finding that it distributed itself by various outlets, of which the more easterly were not navigable, for their boats, they chose a middle one, and that night got into brackish water, with an open view of the sea, in lat. 69 deg. 29 min. N., long. 133 deg. 24 min. W.

On the 11th, in lat. 69 deg. 42 min. N., long. 132 deg. 10 min. W., the water was perfectly salt, the sea partially covered with drift ice, and no land visible to seaward. They experienced considerable difficulty in crossing the estuaries of several rivers, which were deemed to be outlets of the shallow channels of the Mackenzie, that had been left to the eastward. They suffered, besides, some detention from ice and bad weather; and it was not until the 18th of July that, in lat. 70 deg. 37 min., long. 126 deg. 52 min. N., they got entirely clear of the widely spreading mouths of the Mackenzie, and of a large lake of brackish water, which seems to receive one of the branches of that river. The navigation across these wide estuaries was very embarrassing.

This danger was gladly exchanged for a coasting voyage in the open sea. They rounded Cape Parry, in lat. 70 deg. 8 min. N., long. 123 deg. W.; Cape Krusenstern in lat. 60 deg. 46 min. N., long. 114 deg. 45 min. W.; and entered George the IVth Coronation Gulf, by the Dolphin and Union Straits (so named after the boats), which brought them within sight of Cape Barrow, and two degrees of longitude to the eastward of the coppermine river. Their sea voyage terminated as beforementioned, on the 8th of August, by their actually entering that river.

Although they saw much heavy floe ice, some of it aground even in nine fathom water, yet none of it bore marks of being more than one season old; and from the heights of land they could discern lanes of open water outside,—so that a ship, properly strengthened for such a voyage, could make way through it with a favouring breeze.

Throughout the whole line of coast they had regular tides, the flood setting from the eastward; the rise and fall being from a foot to twenty inches. In the Dolphin and Union Straits, the current in the height of flood and ebb exceeded two miles an hour. They found drift timber everywhere, and a large portion of it, on many parts of the coast, lay in a line from ten to fifteen, and in some places upwards of twenty feet, above the ordinary spring-tide water-mark, apparently thrown up by a heavy sea.

After the first rapid, in the coppermine river, Dr. Richardson's party abandoned the boats, with the remainder of their cargoes of provision, iron-work, beads, &c. to the first party of Esquimaux which should chance to pass that way; and on the 10th of August set out by land, with ten days' provisions.

They reached the eastern end of Bear Lake, at the influx of Dease's river, on the 18th, and remained there until the evening of the 24th, before the boats arrived to convey them to Fort Franklin.

The person to whom the boats were entrusted, and who was sent off to Fort Franklin on the 6th of August, did not arrive on the latest day appointed for his appearance (the 20th), from a belief that Dr. Richardson's party would never return, and that he should make a needless voyage: and after the 20th Dr. Richardson was obliged to distribute his party into hunting and fishing groups, to procure subsistence. Dr. Richardson collected his party for embarkation on the evening of the 28th; and they reached the fort, after an absence from it of seventy-one days, the whole party in perfect health.

1

This mound is said to resemble, in miniature, the scenery of Cumberland and Westmoreland. Perhaps this is too courtly; but it is surprising what the union of nature and art may effect in this way. Barrett, Cipriani, and Gilpin contrived to paint a room for Mr. Lock, at Norbury Park, so as to blend the scenery of Cumberland and Westmoreland, with the view from the windows, and to make it appear a continuation; and the effect was delightful, as thousands of delighted visiters have testified.

2

Some years since there was at Reigate, in Surrey, a successful attempt made in this style of laying out grounds, on the very site where the illustrious Lord Shaftesbury wrote his "Characteristics," and probably the very background of the Gribelin frontispiece to the early edition of that invaluable work. This spot came afterwards into the possession of a gentleman who laid it out and planted it in so many forms, as to comprise in miniature whatever can be supposed in the most noble seats; for in it were a mount, river, parterre, wilderness, and gardens, and a lawn containing four or five deer, terminated by a small wood; yet the whole extent of ground did not exceed four acres. This occasioned it to be called all the world in an acre. Something of this kind was also projected by John Evelyn, called Elysium Britannicum, the plan of which is to be found in his works; but he did not complete his scheme. Gardening is one of the most interesting amusements of retirement, and without gardens, palaces are but "gross handyworks." Philosophers and Heroes have always been fondly attached to gardens, and their retreats must form an agreeable relief to the cumbrous cares of Royalty itself.

3

In the facetious poem entitled May Fair, in speaking of Captain Parry's undertaking, and predicting its probable want of success, the following prophetic couplet appears:—

"Quarter-day you'll have him back,With his volume in his pack;"

And lo! on quarter-day, the 29th of September, did Captain Parry make his appearance at the Admiralty!!