Repentance may stand at thy side- But Faith at thy bidding, my footsteps shall guide, And Charity-love which for ever shall glow,- ON RECEIVING AN AUTOGRAPH POEM BY HENRY KIRKE WHITE FROM HIS SISTER. 1. The years which o'er the relics pass But deeper in reflection's glass The expressive lights they shed; Of dear departed days they tell, Ev'n from the dead they rise, they speak But Fancy images the tale, And chronicles in light Those features, which destruction's veil And thus, where Henry's hand has been, Which wraps thy form in night; 3 As once I bent above thy tomb, By fond Affection's silent tear, 4. If then my footstep echoed not If then the arches of the spot Gave back no sorrowing sound, It was not coldness- was not wrong To jealous grief there does belong No uttered tones it will employ, 5. I could but with a holy awe Thy stone in sorrow steep, I would not wish thee to return Though we should cease to weep: 6. It seemed whilst o'er thy life I bent, Oh then, young lover of the lyre! 7. But though far vanished into heaven, Of thy sweet influences, to leven The vigils which thy heart has kept, And thousand happy souls adored 8. These to the many;—and to me Traced by thy viewless hand, shall be If thou, who mov'st in glory now, J. H. W. 405 PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. Natural History-Discoveries in Egypt.-Accounts have been lately received from Mr. Waddington of Trinity-college, and Mr. Hanbury of Jesus-college, Cambridge; who, availing themselves of the opportunity of attending the Pacha of Egypt in a military expedition against some tribes of Arabs, have had the good fortune to see a part of the Nile's course, which had not before been safe for any European traveller to visit. They have discovered one or two interesting islands, with about thirty entire pyramids of different sizes, and extensive ruins of temples, of unequal construction, but some of them exhibiting considerable skill, and others apparently of the highest antiquity. coast. Progress of the Land Arctic Expedition, under Lieut. John Franklin, R. N.-Soon after the expedition under lieut. Franklin had arrived on the coast of Hudson's Bay, they proceeded from York Factory, the grand depôt of the Hudson's Bay company, towards their wintering ground at Cumber land, the central post of the interior, a distance of about 900 miles from the Lieut. Franklin, Dr. Richardson, Mr. Back, and Mr. Hood, attended by the hardy Orkuey men, who had been engaged to man the boats in the rivers of the interior, had worked in the company's service several years, and understood the language of many of the Indian tribes, left the factory on the 7th of September, 1819, with a fair wind, under a salute from the depôt, and amidst the acclamations of the officers and men of the company. Of the immense quantity and variety of provisions supplied by government for the use of the expedition, the greater part was left at the factory; those who knew the country, and the difficulty of travelling through it, having represented the impossibility of conveying European food, which at the Bay receives the name of luxuries, to any considerable distance. On the third day after their departure from the factory, the boats of the company, which were proceeding to the various trading posts in the interior, came up with the expedition in the Steel River, distant about sixty miles from the place at which they set out. Most of the rivers in that part of America abound with rapids and falls. The rapids are generally more navigable near the banks, but they frequently extend across the stream, and then the labour of the boat's crew becomes excessive, every man being obliged to turn into the water and assist in carrying the boat sometimes to the distance of half a mile before they gain the head of one of those terrible impediments. The company's men, upon turning one of the points of the river, observed the officers of the expedition making desperate efforts to get through the mud along the banks; some of them were up to their knees, others up to their waist, while the men were handing the boats over a most violent rapid, which, though but half a foot deep, rendered it necessary that those who stood in the water should hold fast by the boat, the impetuosity of the stream being so extraordinary as not unfrequently to overturn a man in an instant, and dash him to pieces against the rocks and huge stones which lie scattered along the bed of the river. Indeed, before the company's boats had reached those of lieutenant Franklin, it was suspected that the expedition had already met with more hardships than they had any notion of encountering at so early a period. Several of the tin cases which had contained the preserved meats were seen at the different up-putting places (the spots of YOL. IV. No. 8. 2 E ground on the banks chosen for passing the nights upon,) and those miserable abodes were drenched with rain, and presented an appearance the most appalling. Two black bears were seen prowling about, and devouring some of the luxuries which the travellers had ascertained it was impossible to convey in any considerable quantities further up the river; and along the banks were strong symptoms of the inexperience of those who had gone forward. The traders with the North American Indians, in travelling to their posts, kindle fires of immense magnitude upon landing to put up for the night. Every man carries his fire-bag, containing all the necessary apparatus. They proceed to hew down the trees, an office which they perform with wonderful dexterity. The fires are lighted, the tents for the officers pitched, and the only regular meal taken during the twenty-four hours, served up in as comfortable a manner as possible under the circumstances. As the travellers advanced, the mild season not having yet begun to disappear, vast herds of grey deer were observed passing the river towards the Esquimaux lands, and the Indians who were accompanying the expedition gave extraordinary proofs of their activity, by rushing upon the animals in the water, and striking long knives into their hearts. Lieut. Franklin, on entering the Hill River, so called from a neighbouring eminence, the only one that presented itself between York Factory and Cumberland, had reason to express surprise that trading goods could be transported to the interior, in spite of such frightful obstructions. His men were fatigued in the extreme, and he found it indispensably necessary to request that the officers of the Hudson's Bay company would lighten his boat of the greater part of the luxuries and instruments. This accommodation was readily given, and, after the most laborious efforts, the expedition reached the Rock depôt, one of the company's posts, having devoted seven days to the exhausting toil of working up thirty miles of their journey. Upon arriving at the depôt, the officers and men of the expedition were treated with great hospitality by Mr. Bunn, the officer in charge, who entertained them with the tittimeg, a fish which they admitted was the most delicious they had ever tasted, and which was caught in God's Lake, an immense piece of water, so named from the abundance and excellence of its inhabitants. Mr. Hood, one of the draftsmen of the expedition, took a sketch of the Rock-fall and the post, which présented one of the most beautiful objects in these desolate regions, and introduced a distant view of a wigwam (an Indian tent) with its inmates. Five days after the expedition left the Rock depôt they reached another post, having encountered numberless difficulties similar to those which have been described. There was, however, some relief to the painful sameness of the journey in several beautiful lakes through which they had to pass. At Oxford-house post, which was reached four days subsequently, they were provided with pimmikin, the celebrated winter food of the country, made of dried deer or buffalo flesh, pounded and mixed with a large quantity of the fat of the animal. The officers of the expedition were not a little surprised at the difficulty of cutting their meat, but they soon reconciled themselves to the long established practice of chopping it with a hatchet. The next post at which they arrived was Norway-house, upon leaving which they entered upon Lake Winnipic, at whose further side they had to encounter the grand rapid, extending nearly three miles, and abounding in obstructions quite insurmountable. Here they were obliged to drag their boats on shore, and carry them over the land, or, to use the technical language," launch them over the portage." The woods along the banks were all in a blaze, it being the custom of the natives, as well as of the traders, to set fire to the trees around the up-putting places, for the double purpose of keeping off the cold and the wolves, whose howl ing is increased in proportion to the extent of the conflagration. The expedition passed several other rapids and falls along a flat, woody, and swampy country, across five miles of which no eye could see. At length they reached the White Fall, where an accident took place, which had nearly deprived them of their commander. While the men were employed in carrying the goods and boats across the portage of the fall, Lieut. Franklin walked down alone to view the rapid, the roaring of which could be heard at the distance of several miles. He had the boldness to venture along the bank with English shoes upon his feet, a most dangerous experiment, where the banks are flint-stones and as smooth as glass. He was approaching the spot from which he could have taken the most accurate observation, when he slipped from the bank into the water. Providentially the water into which he was precipitated was still water. Had he lost his footing ten yards lower down, he would have been hurried into a current which ran with amazing impetuosity over a precipice, presenting one of the most terrific objects his eyes had yet fixed upon amidst all the horrors of the journey. Lieut. Franklin is an excellent swimmer, but he had on him a sailor's heavy Flushing jacket and trowsers, heavy English shoes, and a large neck handkerchief, the weather having begun to set in very cold. He swam about for some time, and made vigorous efforts to get upon the bank, but had to contend against a smooth precipitous rock, and was just exhausted when two of the company's officers, who were at a short distance from the fall, looked up and saw him struggling in the water. With the assistance of their poles, they raised him out of his perilous situation, in which he had been nearly a quarter of an hour. The moment he reached land he fell to the ground, and remained without motion for some time. His powerful constitution, however, soon buffeted the effects of the accident, and he had happily only to regret the injury his chronometer, for which he had given 100 guineas, received in the water. After a tedious journey of forty-six days, the dangers and distresses of which rather increased than diminished as they advanced, the expedition arrived at Cumberland, a post situate on the banks of a beautiful lake, and stockaded against the incursions of savages, the attacks of wolves and bears, and the more ferocious assaults of rival traders. A letter has since been received, at Montreal, from a person belonging to the expedition, on the borders of the barren ground, only fifteen miles from Hearn's River, in about 64 N. lat. and 110 W. long. from Greenwich. All the members of the company were in good health and spirits, and had passed an agreeable winter, living on the flesh of rein deer, which animal abounds in those regions, and passed the encampment of the party in great droves. The encampment was made in September last, when further progress became impracticable. The party consisted of Captain Franklin, and two or three naval officers, one seaman, nineteen Canadian voyageurs, and seventeen Indians, making in all forty persons. Mr. Williams, the principal agent of the Hudson's Bay Company, and dignified with the title of Governor, being resolved to prepare his visitors for some of the scenes which were to become part of their future occupation, proposed to Mr. Franklin and Mr. Richardson a wolf-hunt, in the beginning of January. Those gentlemen having practised the necessary accomplishment of running with snow-shoes, were qualified to join in the hunt, and the wolf, against whom the attack was meditated, had already roused the anger of the inhabitants of the fort, by killing several of their dogs. Indeed, upon one occasion the ferocious animal had attacked two of the company's servants as they were crossing Cumberland Lake with a quantity of fish, and obliged them, after having torn one of them in a desperate manner, to leave the provi |