The thunder, the darkness, and the howlings of the wild beasts were awful; but the loud and continued crashings of large trees which fell very near to me during the storm, was even more so, to my ear. The Ashantee had dragged me along, or rather through, in this manner, until I judged it to be midnight, when, quite exhausted, with the remnants of my clothes scarcely hanging together, I let go his cloth, and falling on the ground, was asleep before I could call out to him."

Mr. Bowdich's work excited great public interest, and received the eulogies of the principal literary and scientific men of the day; but he felt somewhat disappointed at receiving no official encouragement to pursue his researches in Africa, to which country, he at length determined to make a second expedition, at his own expense. With this intention he proceeded to Paris, for the purpose of studying mathematical and physical science, and the various branches of natural history, with which he was but imperfectly acquainted. On his arrival in that city, he received great assistance and attention from Humboldt, Cuvier, and other celebrated Frenchmen; and, in testimony of the idea entertained of his merits, a public eulogium was pronounced upon him at an assembly of the four academies of the Institute.

After devoting to the preparation of himself for his expedition into Africa, a space of three years and a half, in which time he also published several works, he, in August, 1822, embarked at Havre, for Lisbon; whence he proceeded to Madeira, and passed several months on the island, of which he completed a geological description, besides several other interesting notices relating to it, which have been since published, edited by Mrs. Bowdich. From Madeira, he sailed to the Cape de

Verde Islands, and the river Gambia, of which, just previously to his intended departure for Sierra Leone, he commenced a trigonometrical survey, in the course of which, by his frequent exposure to heat and cold alternately, he was attacked with a fever, and after great suffering, expired in the arms of his wife, on the 16th of January, 1824. Besides the works already mentioned, he published, during his residence at París, Translations of Mollien's Travels to the Sources of the Senegal and Gambia, and a Treatise on Taxidermy; also an Essay on the Geography of North West Africa, accompanied by a map compiled from his own discoveries; An Essay on the Superstitions, Customs, and Arts, common to the Ancient Egyptians, Abyssinians, and Ashantees; besides three works on Natural History, exemplifying the modern classification of mammalia, birds, and shells. Whilst at Lisbon, he collected from various manuscripts, an account of all the discoveries made by the Portuguese in Southern Africa, which was published in 1824, together with a memoir, called The Contradictions of Park's last Journal Explained; but the work which most distinguished him, and which received the encomiums of all the scientific institutions and individuals of the day, was his Mathematical Investigation, with Original Formula for ascertaining the Longitude of the Sea by Eclipses of the Moon.

Mr. Bowdich was a nian possessing both personal and mental attractions; his countenance was animated and intelligent, his heart sensitive and susceptible, benevolent and affectionate; he pursued his enterprises with an ardour and perseverance that insured their success; and his writings, as well as his actions, evince how dear to his heart was the cause of genius and science.

THIS distinguished voyager, fourth son of Dr. Parry, a physician of eminence, was born at Bath, on the 19th of December, 1790. He received the rudiments of education at the grammar

school of that city; and, in 1803, went to sea with the Honourable William Cornwallis, in the Ville de Paris, where his conduct gained him the esteem and approbation of his commander. Speak

ing of him, in a letter dated August, 1804, Admiral Cornwallis says, "I never knew any one so generally approved of: he is a fine, steady lad; and will, I am sure, be fit for promotion before his time of servitude is out ;" and, on his quitting the admiral's ship, in 1806, the latter, recommending young Parry's friends not to send him to Portsmouth, added, "though he is so well disposed, that I do not think even a sea-port guard-ship could hurt him, who, at fifteen, has been the pattern of good conduct to all our young people."

In May, the subject of our memoir joined the Tribune, of thirty-six guns, and was employed until the end of the year in blockading a squadron of the enemy off L'Orient. In May, 1808, he removed to the Vanguard; and, on the 6th of January, 1810, was promoted to the rank of lieutenant; shortly after which he joined the Alexandria, and was employed in the Baltic, and in protecting the Spitzbergen whale fishery. Whilst upon this service, he passed part of the nights and days in studying the situation of the fixed stars, and he also made a survey of Balta Sound and the Voe, in Shetland, the chart of which he presented to the admiralty. In 1813, he was ordered to join the La Hogue, seventy-four guns, at Halifax, which he reached in June, and continued to cruise in that vessel until the summer of 1816, when he was appointed first lieutenant of the Niger. In 1817, in consequence of the death of his father, he obtained leave to visit England; and, in 1818, was appointed to the command of the Alexander, the second ship destined to explore the north-western passage, under the orders of Captain Ross, in the Isabella.

On his return, Lieutenant Parry was appointed to the command of a new expedition; and in May, 1819, he left Deptford, in his own ship, the Hecla, accompanied by the Griper, under the command of Lieutenant Beechey, the united crews of which amounted to ninety-four. His principal instructions were, to make the best of his way to the entrance of Davis's Strait; to advance, when the ice would permit, along the western shore to Baffin's Bay; to enter Lancaster's Sound; explore the bottom thereof; and, if possible, pass through it to Behring's Strait.

On the 28th of July, our voyager reached the entrance of Lancaster's Sound, just one month earlier than the preceding expedition had done, although Captain Ross had sailed above a fortnight sooner. "We were now," says Captain Parry, "about to enter and explore that great sound or inlet, which has obtained a degree of celebrity beyond what it might otherwise have been considered to possess, from the very opposite opinions which have been held with regard to it." After a sail of two or three days, during which he discovered Croker's Bay, and Navy Board's Inlet, and was now flattering himself that he had fairly entered the Polar Sea, he was informed, on the 4th of August, six p. m. that land was a-head. It, however, turned out to be only an island, which, together with a second one subsequently discovered, he named after Prince Leopold; and, about the same time, he added to his discoveries Maxwell Bay. On the 6th, he entered a large inlet, ten leagues wide at its mouth, to which he gave the name of Prince Regent's Inlet; after an accurate examination of which, he arrived off a channel of eight leagues in width, which he named after the Duke of Wellington; at the same time distinguishing the magnificent opening by which he had effected his passage into it, by the appellation of Barrow's Strait. On the 23rd, he made sail for Cape Hotham, to the southward of which, it was his intention to seek a direct passage towards Behring's Strait. His progress was, for some time, unin terrupted, and animating in the highest degree; but he had no sooner reached Cape Hotham, than an obstruction appeared, which proved insurmountable. But although thus thwarted in this and his subsequent attempt to trace out a passage, he, on the 4th of September, had the satisfaction of crossing the meridian of 110 deg. west from Greenwich, in the latitude of 74 deg. 44 min. 20 sec., by which the expedition under his orders became entitled to the sum of £5,000. On the following day, he succeeded in rounding Cape Hearne, at the distance of a mile and a quarter; and our sanguine navigator again gave way to flattering hopes, when a compact body of ice once more put an end to them. Towards the end of Septem

impossible, however trifling that progress might appear upon the chart, not to experience considerable satisfaction. Small as our actual advance had been towards Behring's Strait, the extent of coast newly-discovered and minutely explored in pursuit of our object, in the course of the last eight weeks, amounted to more than two hundred leagues, nearly half of which belonged to the continent of North America." During the winter, Captain Parry, as in his former expedition, contrived both amusement and employment for the ships' companies, by means of a theatre, and a school where the sailors learned to read and write.

In the beginning of July, 1822, the vessels being disencumbered of the ice, Captains Parry and Lyon continued their operations with vigour during the summer months; and on two occasions, they imagined themselves on the point of discovering the long-sought passage. The winter, however, again set in without the object of the expedition being accomplished; and it was not until the August of the following year, that Captain Parry was able to resume his researches. It had been his intention to have despatched the Hecla to England about this time; and after having taken a year's provisions from her stores, to remain in the Fury another summer, in the hopes of penetrating through some of the inlets he had discovered, before the end of the year 1824. In consequence, however, of the appearance of the scurvy among a part of the crews, and of the incertitude respecting the breaking up of the ice, he resolved on returning to England, where he arrived, in company with the Hecla, on the 16th of October, 1823. This expedition, though unsuccessful in its main object, led to many discoveries both by land and sea, which would tend considerably to lessen the difficulties of a future voyage, and to use Captain Parry's words, " at least served the useful purpose of shewing where the passage is not to be effected.'

On his arrival in England, Captain Parry found he had been promoted to post rank; and in the Deccmber of the year of his return, he was appointed acting hydrographer to the admiralty, and presented with the freedom of the city of Winchester; and on the 17th of January, 1824, he was placed in the

command of another expedition, for the purpose of again exploring the hyperborean regions. The same ships were employed as in the last voyage; the Hecla, however, being commanded by Captain Parry, and the Fury by Captain Hoppner. Having reached Port Bowen, our voyager remained there from the 28th of September until the 20th of July, 1825, when the ice damaging the Fury to such a degree that it was necessary to abandon her, he found himself obliged, under all the circumstances, to return to England, where he arrived about the middle of October. His proceedings giving satisfaction to government, his appointment to superintend the hydrographical office was confirmed by the admiralty, on the 22nd of November, 1825; and, in the following December, the freedom of Lynn was voted to him by the corporation," in testimony of their high sense of his meritorious and enterprising conduct."

On the 20th

In April, 1826, Captain Parry proposed to the admiralty to attempt to reach the North Pole, from the northern shores of Spitzbergen, by travelling with sledge-boats over the ice, or through any spaces of open water that might occur. By the recommendation of the Royal Society, the expedition was determined on, and he accordingly sailed in the Hecia, from Deptford, on the 25th of March, 1827. of June, he anchored in Treurenberg Bay, latitude 79 deg. 55 min. 20 sec., longitude 16 deg. 48 sec. 45 min. E.; and on the following day, started with two sledge-boats, which he named the Enterprise and the Endeavour, across the ice. On the 28th of July, he reached the highest latitude he was able to attain, being a little beyond 82 deg. 45 min., at which point the expedition had traversed nearly three hundred miles. After giving the name of Lieutenant Ross to a small islet, which is interesting as being the northernmost known land upon the globe, Captain Parry set out on his return to his ship, in which he sailed from Treurenberg Bay, on the 28th of August, and arrived in the Thames, in the following October. In his narrative of this expedition, he says, "sincerely as we regretted not having been able to hoist the British flag in the highest

latitude to which we aspired, we shall, perhaps, be excused in having felt some little pride in being the bearers of it to a parallel considerably beyond that mentioned in any other well-authenticated record."

As some reward for his services, he, on the 29th of April, 1829, received the honour of knighthood; and, in the July following, the honorary degree of D.C. L. was conferred upon him in a convocation at Oxford. In the course of the same month, having previously resigned the office of hydrographer to the admiralty, he sailed to New South Wales, as commissioner for the entire management of the Australian Agricultural Company's affairs, with a salary, it is said, of £2,000 per annum. Sir William Edward Parry has issue by his marriage, in October, 1826, with Isabella Louisa, fourth daughter of Sir Thomas

Stanley, Bart.; and, in addition to his other distinctions, is a fellow of the Royal Society; member of the London Astronomical Society; and honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburgh.

The name of Parry cannot fail to be perpetuated as that of one of the most intrepid, and comparatively successful navigators of this or any other age or country. For an idea of the dangers he underwent, and the difficulties he surmounted, the reader is referred to his own accounts ofthem, published, successively, in three quarto volumes, than which few will be found more replete with interest and information. As a writer, he aspires successfully to something more than a mere recorder of events, but it must be confessed, that the whole of his works might be reduced, with advantage, to at least one-half of their present bulk.

ALEXANDER GORDON LAING, son of a celebrated schoolmaster at Edinburgh, was born in that city on the 27th of December, 1794. He completed his education at the University of Edinburgh, with the intention of following the profession of his father, in whose academy he, for some time, acted as usher. Having, however, in 1810, entered a volunteer corps, he became so captivated with a military life, that he determined to adopt it; and, accordingly, in 1811, went out to the West Indies, where he performed the duties of deputy quarter-master general at Jamaica, and of fort-major at Honduras. The assiduity with which he served in these capacities, brought on a disease which compelled him to return to Scotland, about 1817; but in the latter part of 1819, he was appointed lieutenant and adjutant of his last regiment, the second West India, and shortly afterwards, set out for Sierra Leone. About eighteen months after his arrival in that colony he was employed by the governor, Sir Charles M Carthy, to undertake a mission to Kambia, principally with a view "to ascertain the state of the country; the disposition of

the inhabitants to trade and industry; and to know their sentiments and conduct as to the abolition of the slave trade." After remaining at Kambia a sufficient time to fulfil his instructions relating to commercial transactions, he crossed the river Scarcies to Malacouri, where, learning that Sanassee, an inferior Mandingo chief, was about to be put to death, by Amara, the king of that country, Lieutenant Laing, by his personal exertions, saved the life of the former. He was induced to do this in consequence of the friendly disposition of Sanassee towards the English. On his return to Sierra Leone, Lieutenant Laing, finding the life of the same chief to be in danger from Yarradee, an ally of Amara's, undertook a second expedition, and again secured the safety of

Sanassee.

On his return to Sierra Leone, he communicated to the governor that "he had observed, that many men who accompanied the Soolima army, were in possession of great quantities of gold, and had ascertained an abundance of ivory to be in the country;" facts, which he suggested might render a third expedition serviceable to the com