The diary of Assistant Surgeon Henry Piers, HMS Investigator, 1850–54

1990 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-38
Author(s):  
Ann M. Savours
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
North West ◽  
Senior Surgeon ◽  
The North ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Maritime Museum

SummaryFrom the 16th to the mid 19th century, many voyages were made from England to discover a North West Passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. The Investigator was one of some 40 vessels that searched for the lost North West Passage expedition of 1845–48 under the command of Sir John Franklin in HM Ships Erebus and Terror, which became beset among what are now known as the Canadian Arctic Islands. The “Investigators” found no trace of Franklin, but were the first to traverse the North West Passage, although their ship had to be abandoned in Mercy Bay on Banks Island after two winters there. The diary of Assistant Surgeon Henry Piers, from the manuscript collection of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, is here examined. Reference is also made to the narrative and report published by the senior surgeon of the Investigator, Dr Alexander Armstrong.

IX. Contributions to terrestrial magnetism.—No. IV

1843 ◽  
Vol 133 ◽  
pp. 113-143 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
West Coast ◽  
China Seas ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
The Times ◽  
The China Seas

In the present number of these Contributions, I resume the consideration of Captain Sir Edward Belcher’s magnetic observations, of which the first portion, viz. that of the stations on the north-west coast of America and adjacent islands, was discussed in No. II. The return to England of Her Majesty’s ship Sulphur by the route of the Pacific Ocean, and her detention for some months in the China Seas, have enabled Sir Edward Belcher to add magnetic determinations at thirty-two stations to those at the twenty-nine stations previously recorded. In the notice of the earlier observations, a provisional coefficient was employed in the formula for the temperature corrections of the results with the intensity needles, as no experiments had then been made for the determination of their individual co­efficients. As soon therefore as Sir Edward Belcher had completed the observation of the times of vibration of those needles at Woolwich, as the concluding station of the series made with them, Lieut. Riddell, R. A. undertook the determination of their several coefficients, which was performed in the manner and with the results described in the subjoined memorandum.

scholarly journals Pingo investigations, north-central Banks Island, Canadian Arctic

1976 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 937-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Pissart ◽  
H. M. French
Keyword(s):  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Central Banks ◽  
North Central ◽  
The North ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
Small Tributary

A number of pingo-like mounds, located in the north-central part of Banks Island, are described. The features are situated on low terraces within the valleys of the Thomsen River and its small tributary, Able Creek. Many are elongate in plan and partially collapsed in form. Sections excavated across four of the mounds reveal cores of massive ice. It is hypothesized that these ice bodies are the result of both segregation and injection processes, induced by the freezing of localized sub-channel taliks.

scholarly journals Contributions to terrestrial magnetism

1843 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 465-465 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Ocean ◽  
West Coast ◽  
Thin Layers ◽  
China Seas ◽  
Magnetic Intensity ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Pacific Ocean ◽  
The China Seas

In the present number of these contributions, the author resumes the consideration of Captain Sir Edward Belcher’s magnetic observations, of which the first portion, namely, that of the stations on the north-west coast of America and its adjacent islands, vas discussed in No. 2. The return to England of H. M. S. Sulphur by the route of the Pacific Ocean, and her detention for some months m the China Seas, have enabled Sir Edward Belcher to add magnetic determinations at thirty-two stations to those at the twenty-nine stations previously recorded. The author first describes the experiments which he instituted with the different needles employed by Captain Sir Edward Belcher for determining the coefficient to be employed in the formula for the temperature corrections; and takes this opportunity of noticing the singular fact that, in needles made of a particular species of Russian steel, this coefficient is negative; that is, in these needles, an increase of temperature increases the magnetic power. M. Adolphe Erman describes this particular kind of steel as consisting of alternate very thin layers of soft iron and of steel, so that when heated the soft iron layers increase their magnetic intensity and the steel layers diminish theirs.

scholarly journals THE COURSE OF THE PEOPLE’S LIBERATION STRUGGLE UNDER MUHAMMAD-AMIN’S COMMAND IN THE NORTH-WEST CAUCASUS IN THE 50s OF THE 19th CENTURY

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-63
Author(s):  
D S Kidirniyazov
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Scientific Concept ◽  
North West ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Liberation Movement ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of ◽  
Liberation Struggle ◽  
The 19Th Century

Liberation struggle of mountaineers of the North Caucasus in the first half of the 19th century has always been one of the most topical problems in Russian historiography, since an integral, truthful and genuinely scientific concept of the events, which played an important role in the destinies of the peoples of the region, has not been created yet. It is known that the assessment of the Caucasian War has been changed many times. The researchers have misrepresented events and slanted a number of problems in the history of the local peoples and their relationship with Russia. The history of long heroic and at the same time tragic struggle of the mountaineers for freedom and independence is complex and unique. The people’s liberation movement arose due to socio-economic and political situation in the region, although intrigues of emissaries of other states also influenced the mountaineers’ struggle. The main reasons for the people’s liberation struggle appeared in the North-East Caucasus when the socio-political situation in the region had considerably changed. Basing on archival materials and special historical literature, the author of the article analyzes the liberation struggle of the mountaineers of the North-West Caucasus against the tsarist autocracy under the command of Shamil’s Naib Muhammad-Amin. The goal of the article is to trace the course of the people’s liberation struggle in the North-West Caucasus and its legal aspects in terms of both positive and negative sides. The author focuses on administrative and commanding talent of Muhammad-Amin, who managed to rally the mountaineers and organize the people’s liberation movement.

Chronological list of expeditions and historical events in northern Canada. IV. 1763–89

Polar Record ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 15 (98) ◽  
pp. 699-721
Author(s):  
Alan Cooke ◽  
Clive Holland
Keyword(s):  
The Arctic ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
Minor Importance ◽  
Hudson's Bay Company ◽  
Southern Boundary ◽  
Northern Canada ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Hudson’S Bay Company

If the Treaty of Paris in 1763 secured the Hudson's Bay Company in its monopoly of Rupert's Land, it also, by the Cession of Canada, opened to British enterprise the river-and-lake routes, discovered by the French, from Montreal to the fur-rich country west of Hudson Bay. This instalment of our list covers the years of the Montreal traders' expansion into the North-west, their crossing of the Arctic watershed into the fur trader's Eldorado, the Athabasca district, their organization into the Hudson's Bay Company's formidable rival, the North West Company, and concludes with the climax of their north-westward surge, Alexander Mackenzie's arrival at the Arctic Ocean in 1789. This activity obliged the Hudson's Bay Company to change its policy of waiting for the Indians to bring their furs to posts on Hudson Bay and made them push inland to compete for furs with the pedlars from Montreal. In the meantime, the Moravians had established missions on the coast of Labrador, searches for a North-west Passage were directed away from Hudson Bay to the Pacific coast of North America, the first scientific expedition was sent to Hudson Bay, and the Indians were decimated by smallpox. Toward the end of this instalment, we begin to draw our southern boundary of “northern Canada” both westward and northward and to omit many expeditions and events of peripheral or minor importance, such as activities south of Saskatchewan River, or of regular occurrence, such as annual voyages northward from Churchill.

New evidence from the western Canadian Arctic Archipelago for the resubmergence of Bering Strait

2008 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. England ◽  
Mark F.A. Furze
Keyword(s):  
Arctic Ocean ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Canadian Arctic ◽  
Laptev Sea ◽  
Canadian Arctic Archipelago ◽  
Bering Strait ◽  
The North ◽  
Banks Island ◽  
The North Atlantic ◽  
The Laptev Sea

AbstractWidespread molluscan samples were collected from raised marine sediments to date the last retreat of the NW Laurentide Ice Sheet from the western Canadian Arctic Archipelago. At the head of Mercy Bay, northern Banks Island, deglacial mud at the modern coast contains Hiatella arctica and Portlandia arctica bivalves, as well as Cyrtodaria kurriana, previously unreported for this area. Multiple H. arctica and C. kurriana valves from this site yield a mean age of 11.5 14C ka BP (with 740 yr marine reservoir correction). The occurrence of C. kurriana, a low Arctic taxon, raises questions concerning its origin, because evidence is currently lacking for a molluscan refugium in the Arctic Ocean during the last glacial maximum. Elsewhere, the oldest late glacial age available on C. kurriana comes from the Laptev Sea where it is < 10.3 14C ka BP and attributed to a North Atlantic source. This is 2000 cal yr younger than the Mercy Bay samples reported here, making the Laptev Sea, ~ 3000 km to the west, an unlikely source. An alternate route from the North Atlantic into the Canadian Arctic Archipelago was precluded by coalescent Laurentide, Innuitian and Greenland ice east of Banks Island until ~ 10 14C ka BP. We conclude that the presence of C. kurriana on northern Banks Island records migration from the North Pacific. This requires the resubmergence of Bering Strait by 11.5 14C ka BP, extending previous age determinations on the reconnection of the Pacific and Arctic oceans by up to 1000 yr. This renewed ingress of Pacific water likely played an important role in re-establishing Arctic Ocean surface currents, including the evacuation of thick multi-year sea ice into the North Atlantic prior to the Younger Dryas geochron.

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