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Arctic Blue Books Online
British Parliamentary
Papers on
Exploration in the Canadian North
by
Andrew Taylor
From Arctic Bibliography 1959: Vol. Vlll: 317-352
Nos. 45212-45257 describe documents on some of the British Government
expeditions in the North American Arctic in the l9th century. Most
of these documents originated in the Admiralty, were presented to
one or both Houses of Parliament in connection with an inquiry, and
were published in its (their) sessional papers. Many were also issued
separately. A few concern early attempts on the Northwest Passage;
most deal with the mid-century Franklin search efforts; a few concern
Nares' abortive attempt on the North Pole. The documents are largely
field records of participants in the expeditions or their evidence
at hearings, etc., and record their activities and the regions explored
in more explicit detail than the narratives and scientific papers
of these expeditions published for the general public. For a large
part of the Canadian Arctic, they have been the most extensive source
of information in print, and for sections of it, until recently, the
sole source. The information is difficult of access, however, due
to the character and complexity of the documents, lack of indexes,
etc. In Nos. 45212-45257 and the index at the end of this volume,
these documents are described and indexed for their geographic content,
data on environmental conditions, expeditionary health, and organization;
some essentially administrative matter is indicated but no attempt
made to trace history of exploration. Geographic coordinates of most
of the cited localities are given in Northwest Territories and
Yukon, a provisional section of the Gazetteer of Canada, prepared
by Canadian Board of Geographic Names, Ottawa, 1958. These documents,
or most of them, are available in the libraries of the Canadian Department
of Northern Affairs, Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England,
Royal Geographical Society, London, and in sessional papers files
maintained by the Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Canadian
Parliamentary Library, among others; they are also available in microprint
from Readex Microprint, 115 University Place, New York 3, N.Y. The
Arctic Circular, v. 8, no. 3, 1955, published a preliminary
guide to these documents by Dr. Andrew Taylor,* who also prepared
the abstracts which follow.
*The documents have been indexed in depth by Dr. Taylor for the
Canadian Dept. of Northern Affairs and National Resources, and this
index, an extensive card file, is available for use in the Northern
Affairs Library, Northern Research Co-ordination Centre, Ottawa. |
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