With characteristic modesty McClintock dwells lightly on his own work, and ends his story with a merited tribute to "those heroic men who perished in the path of duty, but not until they had achieved the grand object of their voyage--_the discovery of the northwest passage_." While the self-sacrificing heroism of McClintock and of his loyal companions solved the mystery of the English sailor dead, which their powerful government had been unable to reveal, yet the initiation and in part the prosecution of this work were due to the wifely and patriotic devotion of Lady Jane Franklin. Well and truly has it been said of this true woman: "So long as the name of Franklin shall be bright in the annals of British heroism will the unwearied devotion and energy of his widow be with it remembered and honored." THE MARVELLOUS ICE-DRIFT OF CAPTAIN TYSON "To die be given us, or to attain! Fierce work it were to do again." --ARNOLD. Only once in our history has the United States sent forth an expedition to reach the north pole, and that was under Charles Francis Hall, already distinguished for his daring arctic work in search of relics of the Franklin squadron. Hall sailed in the _Polaris_, and in a voyage of unusual rapidity, passing through Smith Sound, added to his fame by discovering Robeson Channel and its bordering lands. He broke the record in navigating his ship to 82 deg. 11' north latitude, in the Great Frozen Ocean, which was reached August 30, 1871. The _Polaris_, forced southward by the arctic pack, wintered at Thank God Harbor, Greenland, where Hall died of apoplexy. With his death the north-polar quest was abandoned, and the ice-master Buddington sailed homeward the following summer. Pushed hastily into an impassable pack, the ship was subjected to its vicissitudes for two months without possibility of escape. Drifting steadily southward the _Polaris_ was off Northumberland Island on October 15, 1872, when she was nearly destroyed by a violent blizzard and her crew was separated--half on the floating pack and the rest on shipboard. The latter party beached the sinking ship in Life Boat Cove, where the crew wintered. Going south in 1873 they were picked up by the whaler _Ravenscraig_ near Cape York. The story of the separation and of the experiences of the castaways follow.[14] * * * * *