EXPLORERS IN THE FAR NORTH. The North-West Passage again--Lieut. John Franklin's land expedition--Two lonely winters--Hearne's mistake corrected--Franklin's second journey--Arctic sea coast explored--Franklin knighted--Captain John Ross by sea--Discovers magnetic pole--Magnetic needle nearly perpendicular--Back seeks for Ross--Dease and Simpson sent by Hudson's Bay Company to explore--Sir John in _Erebus_ and _Terror_--The Paleocrystic Sea--Franklin never returns--Lady Franklin's devotion--The historic search--Dr. Rae secures relics--Captain McClintock finds the cairn and written record--Advantages of the search. The British people were ever on the alert to have their famous sea captains explore new seas, especially in the line of the discovery of the North-West Passage. From the time of Dobbs, the discomfiture of that bitter enemy of the Hudson's Bay Company had checked the advance in following up the explorations of Davis and Baffin, whose names had become fixed on the icy sea channels of the North. Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, had been the last of the great captains who had taken part in the spasm of north-west interest set agoing by Dobbs. Two generations of men had passed when, in 1817, the quest for the North-West Passage was taken up by Captain William Scoresby. Scoresby advanced a fresh argument in favour of a new effort to attain this long-harboured dream of the English captains. He maintained that a change had taken place in the seasons, and the position of the ice was such as probably to allow a successful voyage to be made from Baffin's Bay to Behring Strait. Sir John Barrow with great energy advocated the project of a new expedition, and Captain John Ross and Edward Parry were despatched to the northern seas. Parry's second expedition enabled him to discover Fury and Hecla Strait, to pass through Lancaster Strait, and to name the continuation of it Barrow Strait, after the great patron of northern exploration. FRANKLIN'S LAND EXPEDITION. Meanwhile John Franklin was despatched to cross the plains of Rupert's Land to forward Arctic enterprise. This notable man has left us an heritage of undying interest in connection with this movement. A native of Lincolnshire, a capable and trusted naval officer, who had fought with Nelson at Copenhagen, who had gone on an Arctic voyage to Spitzbergen, and had seen much service elsewhere, he was appointed to command the overland expedition through Rupert's Land to the Arctic Sea, while Lieutenant Parry sought, as we have seen, the passage with two vessels by way of Lancaster Sound.