RAE, JOHN (1813-93). An English Arctic explorer, born near Stromners, in the Orkney Islands. He studied medicine at Edinburgh, and in 1833 became resident surgeon at one of the stations of the Hudson's Bay Company, where the greater part of his time was devoted to scientific study. In 1846-47 he made his first Arctic jour ney, and explored 700 miles of the coast of Committee Bay. In the following year he joined the Government land expedition to search for Sir John Franklin. In 1850 Rae was again sent out by the Government in quest of the lost ex plorer. During the year consumed by this ex pedition the party traveled 5380 miles, covering much territory in Wollaston Land and Victoria Land, which nothing had been known, and mapped out 700 miles of new coast line. In 1853 he set out with another party, under the auspices of the Hudson's Bay Company, with the object of completing the survey of the coast line. In Repulse Bay he obtained definite news of Frank lin's fate, and upon returning to civilization with the news, found that his party had earned the reward of £10,000 offered for the first accredited information of the lost explorer. In 1858, 1860,
and 1864 he took a prominent part in various expeditions in the northern part of the American continent. His activity and endurance bordered upon the marvelous, and he is said to have walked 20,000 miles in the course of his various journeys and explorations. The later years of his life were passed in London. where he held various offices in corporations and institutions concerned with colonial matters. Rae published, in 1850, Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sc,-, in 1846 and 18)7. An account of his work is given in Richardson, Polar Re gions (London, 1861). Consult, also, the same author's Arctic Expeditions (ib., 1852-53).