“Miscellaneous Intelligence – Captain Back” (p. 561)
CAPTAIN BACK.—Intelligence of our worthy Arctic voyager has, we are happy to say, been received, from which we are led to believe that he will be among us ere long.
It appears that his progress to the northward had been much interrupted by the ice in the lakes and rivers through which he had to pass; and that when he reached the coast, he found it much beset by ice. In the month of August last, he attained a point on the shore of the Arctic Sea due south 80 miles from the westernmost point of land of Captain James Ross, named Ross’s Monument. Hence it may be inferred, either that he was on the shore of a bay where the coast takes an east and west direction, Ross’s coast forming the north side of it; or that he was on the south side of a strait, which would make Ross’s land an island. No doubt, we shall soon be relieved from our speculations by Captain Back himself, whose return from his difficult mission we shall hail with great satisfaction.