THE

QUARTERLY,

&c. &c.

MARCH, 1825.

The Private Journal of Captain LYON, of H. M S. Hecla, during the Recent Voyage of Discovery under Captain PARRY. With a map and plates. Lond. 1824. 8vo. p. p. 468.

Ir it be asked, why we notice a private Journal of a second in command, rather than the official account of the Chief of this bold, hazardous, and interesting expedition, we shall avow frankly, because it is to us the more interesting work of the two, and we hope that reason will be satisfactory: if not we may add, without scruple, that it is the more recent publication, and the more manageable for our purpose. We hope to find, 'ere long, a more apt occasion, for saying something relative to the errand, on which these meritorious individuals have, some of them, so often and so cheerfully gone; so admirably and exemplarily conducted themselves in their comfortless business, and so happily and safely returned.-May a similar termination this time crown a more successful result-a

better time of it" we are not perhaps, at liberty to wish them. At present we set about selecting from the truly interesting volume before us, a specimen of the economy and adventures, by which Parry and his companions have secured the admiration of posterity.

In a modest and brief preface, we are informed by the estimable author, that the Journal was not written for the public, and was committed to the press, at the suggestion of those high in office at the admi

ralty, to whose scrutiny it had been submitted, along with corresponding productions by the other officers of the expedition---according to established Naval custom. If this assurance be put forward, to disarm the severity of criticism, we have little hesitation in saying, that it will in general be considered unnecessary. Had Captain Lyon written for the Press, we doubt not, that some things would have been written differently, and some, perhaps, not at all---but we are better pleased to be introduced to him in his cabin, than if the ceremony had taken place on his quarterdeck.

The expedition left the Thames finally on the 8th of May 1821, consisting of the Fury and Hecla, accompanied by the Nautilus transport, carrying stores, &c. The Hecla had been the Commodore's ship on the former expedition, and never yielded the post of honour to the Fury.

To our Author, who commanded the Ci-devant flag-ship, the regions he was about to explore were new;* and he soon arrests our attention, by his confessions of curiosity, with regard to the subject of Hyperborean scenery, that shortly solicited his attention. He particularly describes an arctic evening, when the sun set (it being shutish days) at half past 10; and the whole affair surpassed any Italian display of the same (sort, we had nearly said) season. Two large ice-bergs however reminded them of a luxury, not so easily obtained perhaps at Rome. On coming to the pack, or main ice, he was reminded of riding from Tripoli, to take a view of the desert, when about to enter on his African journey.

While battling with floes, ice-bergs and tides, in the mouth of Hudson's bay, they neared three vessels, belonging to the Company bearing that name, one of which had 160 Hollanders on board bound for Lord Selkirk's colony on the Red River. These sedale

* To very few of our readers can it be necessary to introduce cur author, as a traveller in Africa-ED,

people were waltzing at 32° of Fahrenheit, al vero fresco, as the Captain says. The ship had been buffeting about so long, that the inmates had taken to waltzing, whenever there was waltzing weather---that is to say, when it did not snow; for even there it did not freeze always, but snowed whiles."*

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Our adventurers had but entered Hudson's strait, when they were visited by the singular people, who inhabit those regions, in which the maintenance of life seems an insolvable problem. Mirth, of the most boisterous description, was the harbinger and accompaniment of their arrival and intercourse. We cannot attempt any formal account of these interesting savages; the mass of information being too extensive, circumstantial and desultory; and too much involved in events, to be easily condensed. Our readers must, therefore, put up with such gleanings, as our limits will enable us to gather, as we go along.

They are described as ugly and filthy in their persons; and yet we are now and then told of pretty girls, &c. Their skin was so begrimed with blood, grease, and dirt, as to render it impossible to discover its natural hue---in both sexes it was soft and greasy to the touch. The hair was black, lank, and generally matted and straggling; though some of the women wore it tied on the top of the head † They were much afflicted with an inflammatory affection of the eyes, and a sort of leprous blotch was discerned in the knuckles of some of the men, resembling an appearance of the same kind, which Captain Lyon had observed among the Arabs.

During a journey in Scotland by a distinguished personage from the Southern division of Great Britain, it rained incessantly. Meeting a young peasant one day, he asked in a splenetic manner, if it rained always there?" Hoot, na sir," said the callant, either simply or shrewdly, it snaws whiles."

†This was not the case with the women of the tribe they afterwards saw so much of; they divide the hair in the middle of the head, and arrange it on each side" in the shape of a mighty pig tail, which has a piece of wood or bone for a stiffner."