The long-retired and independently wealthy Rae, soon takes a job with the Atlantic Telegraph Company surveying the land portion of the new telegraph line to America. This takes him across the Faeroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland (between August to October, 1860). Oddly enough, he sails aboard the Fox for this job (this is the same ship in which Lady Franklin sent McClintock to King William Island aboard).

In the summer of 1861, Rae sails by steamer from London to Hamilton where he leaves Kate with her family and heads out on another hunting party into western Canada p.279

At about this time, the Hudson's Bay Company undertakes to lay a telegraph line to the Pacific coast; back in London, Rae is asked to head project; Kate joins him to New York by steamer. Here, collects the project money and heads for Montreal by train to oversee supplying western project with telegraph poles. They leave Montreal by train to Toronto, then to Detroit and Chicago, (up-river by sternwheeler) to St. Paul, where Rae buys horses for the journey west. With two wagons and two Red River carts, Rae, Kate and company engineer head west.

June 8, 1864, Rae leads the band through the Detroit Lakes then north to Red River. Rea, again, sends men ahead to set up provision stations along his proposed route. Before heading to the Pacific, Rae meets with Salteaux Indians to discuss their concerns regarding the impact of the telegraph line on their nation. Rae's party covers 825 miles by horse and cart from Fort Garry to Fort Edmonton averaging 25 miles per day. The parts he walked by foot, Rae's party averaged 20 miles/per/day.

He wonders at the magnificent Mt. Robson [12,970 ft.] and all those explorers who had done so before him.  

Rae uses pack horses through the most rugged country in the world. Rae's group travels the Fraser in dugout canoes from near Jasper to [Fort] Prince George. The party stops at Quesnel after passing through many dangerous rapids. From Yale -- where the river is wide and calm -- Rae took a sternwheeler arriving at New Westminster.

This journey by Rae received no publicity at the time while others - because of their resultant misfortunes -received wide readership.

Rae made hard travel look easy. In Western Canada, as in the Arctic, to compare his elegant success with the gawky failures of others is to see the truth in stark relief: as a rough-country traveller -- John Rae had no peers!

He then travelled by side-wheeler to Victoria, arriving September 28, 1864. Rae then caught a steamer to Panama, crossed the isthmus by train, returning to London where, not long after, his wife, Kate, arrived.

Footnote: The HBC never did construct a telegraph along the route Rae surveyed.

Epilogue: -

In 1865, John & Kate Rae rented Berstane House in the outskirts of Kirkwall for two years; here, each Sunday, they would arrive by coach at St. Magnus Cathedral, Kate dressed in her finest crinolines and Rae in his kilt and accoutrements.

The Rae's had no children, but enjoyed many happy years together.

In 1866, Rae travelled south to Edinburgh University where he received an honorary doctor of laws, recognition which gave him immense pleasure.

By 1869 the Rae's had taken up permanent residence in London

During the next two decades, Rae continued to practise medicine, give lectures and publish papers on the Arctic and its people, giving much credit to the Natives and their ability to survive in these harsh lands.

His feud with Lady Franklin and here friend, Sophia Cracroft continued and letters between them survive to this day.

Rae's audiences were the Physical Society of London, the Anthropological Institute, the Ethnological Society, the Royal Institute the Society of Arts, the Linnean Society, and, the most prestigious of all -- the the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

He made presentations at all major universities including Oxford

Rae resigned from a Royal Geographic committee when their proposed Arctic expedition was approved to be conducted under standard operating procedures set out by the Admiralty. Rae became embroiled (once again ) in controversy, this time taking on the Admiralty hydrographer, - G. H. Richards, and wrote him a scathing letter.

The polar expedition left under Capt. George Nares aboard the Alert in 1875.

Rae was a strong advocate of not using Royal Navy men to explore the Arctic but rather men experienced in snowshoe travel, sledging and setting nets under the ice.

Rae visited Canada for the last time in 1882

He delivered papers in Montreal and he and Kate travelled as far west as Winnipeg

Rae remained a fierce competitor the remainder of his life and refused a commission in the London Scottish Regiment where asa marksman, became the oldest private in the 200,000 strong force!

He finally had to resign at age 77 years.

Almost every summer for the rest of his life, Rae returned to Orkney to sail and hunt

Rae's Death - p.300

Rae died July 22,1893 in London at age 79 years and his wife of thirty-three [33] years - after a brief service at St. John the Baptist church - had his body returned to Orkney where is lies in repose in St. Magnus Cathedral in the heart of the Orkney capital, Kirkwall

The monument is inscribed: "John Rae, M.D., L.L.D., F.R.S, F.R.G.S,/Arctic Explorer/Interpid discoverer of the fate of Sir John Franklin's last expedition / Born 1813-died 1893 / Expeditions: 1846-7, 1848-9, 1851-2; 1853-4. Erected 1895 by public subscription, 1895."

Rae's birthplace Hall of Clestrain is today a Class-A heritage site and tourist attraction in Orkney

Relics are housed in Stromness Museum and the Pier Arts Centre is the former headquarters of the HBC

Rae's parents are buried in the old Stromness kirkyard atop the hill behind this ancient city

After his death, Kate tried unsuccessfully to have his memoirs and papers published in one volume. His records today can be found in the Scott Polar Research Institute

An Arctic Homage p.303

Patrick McGoogan, author of Fatal Passage, is at Gjoa Haven on the east coast of King William Island with two other men. In their small motor boat, they beat their way across the fifteen miles of Rae Strait in rough seas. They were here to erect a plaque to John Rae which reads: "This plaque marks the spot where Arctic explorer John Rae (1813-93) discovered the final link in the Northwest Passage." This is where Roald Amundsen in 1903 passed to complete the first passage by boat from west to east. In this area, John Rae and his motley crew of Inuits, Scots and half-breeds, had solved two of the nineteenth centuries greatest mysteries: the fate of Sir John Franklin's expedition and the final link in the Northwest Passage. Lady Franklin saw to it he never received full credit for either.

Between 1846 & 1854, he led four major expeditions travelling over 23,000 miles; 6,504 of this in the Arctic, mostly on snowshoe and an additional 6,634 miles in canoe and small boat. He surveyed and recorded 1751 miles of unexplored territory, including 1538 miles of northern coastline.

Rae is the only major Arctic explorer not to receive a knighthood because he would not recant his story and thus sellout the Inuit people who truthfully and factually reported events to him.