Abstract
DR. JOHN RAE, F.R.S., whose death we announced last week, was perhaps the most persevering and successful of the Arctic travellers by land whose journeys called forth the admiration of the world forty years ago. He was a native of Orkney, born in 1813, and studied medicine at Edinburgh, where he qualified in 1833. Rae was early brought face to face with his life-work, his first engagement on leaving college being as surgeon to the Hudson Bay Company's ship which carried supplies to the fur-forts in Hudson Bay. He entered the service of the company, and for ten years lived at Moose Factory, gaining familiarity with Arctic life during the severe winters. In 1845 his true career as an Arctic explorer began in his undertaking the leadership of a small expedition to explore a considerable extent of the coast-line of the Arctic Sea. In June, 1846, he set out on this expedition from York Factory, coasted along the west side of Hudson Bay, and wintered on the shore of Repulse Bay. Early in 1847 he made an extensive land journey to the north and west, with the result that 700 miles of new coast were surveyed, almost filling the gap between Ross's work in Boothia and Parry's at Fury and Hecla strait. In 1850 Dr. Rae published an account of this expedition in the form of a book of 250 pages. This was, curiously enough, his only permanent contribution to geographical literature, his subsequent journeys being recorded merely in formal reports published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society. After this journey Rae came to London,but was almost immediately induced to join the first land expedition sent to seek for Sir John Franklin, under the leadership of Sir John Richardson. The expedition was unsuccessful as to its primary purpose of finding traces of Franklin, but it effected a satisfactory survey of the whole coast between the Mackenzie and Coppermine rivers. In 1851 Rae received the command of another boat expedition for the Hudson Bay Company, in the course of which he thoroughly explored and mapped the south coast of Wollaston Land and Victoria Land, still searching vainly for traces of Franklin's party. On his return from this arduous undertaking, which he conducted throughout with conspicuous daring and sagacity, he had to travel on snow-shoes, and himself dragging a sledge, across the whole length of Canada from the Arctic Sea, through Fort Garry (now Winnipeg) until he reached United States territory. His total walking on this expedition was over 5000 miles, of which 700 miles were traversed for the first time. On returning to England in 1852 the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society was presented to him by Sir Roderick Murchison in a speech, the cordial terms of which showed how fully Dr. Rae's genius for Arctic travel with the minimum of equipment and at infinitesimal expense was appreciated by the highest authorities. In no wise deterred by the hardships of his earlier campaigns, Rae left England early in 1853 to continue his work in the far north; the Hudson Bay Company equipping an expedition on condition that he would lead it personally. He completed the survey of King William's Land on this occasion, proving it to be an island; 1100 miles of sledging were accomplished in the process, of which 400 miles were new discovery. But the really important result of this expedition was Dr. Rae's meeting with the first evidence of Sir John Franklin's fate, from the story of a party of wandering Eskimo. The tribe encountered were in possession of many personal relics of members of that ill-fated expedition, which Rae secured and brought home. When he returned to England with the news so long searched for and so anxiously awaited, the Admiralty, which had spent large sums in fitting out successive expeditions,concluded that the fate of Franklin was decided beyond a doubt, and accordingly awarded to Dr. Rae the sum of £10,000 offered by Government to the first who brought back decisive information. The justice of this award was at the time strongly objected to by Lady Franklin, and although no further action was taken by Government she continued to organise private expeditions, which, while proving in effect the correctness of Dr. Rae's information from the Eskimo, served in no small degree to advance the geographical survey of the polar area.
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The Late Dr. John Rae. Nature 48, 321 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/048321a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/048321a0