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'i ij'i !■ ' •■; ,/>6L, THE 5 ■%%'''^' W ■;X'>. .^(v*^- k.T A A V •r»- ^k y\^ .i:■■", j' ■f'R''*/ii V'- •)■ ■.AZ-.y-:' ifi;,) t'V "v ,i' Mj. ^r*v -% W;:h ..J-/. >j. ./;', r fi]S'ffl i>'>^ :'Vl>l '^ • The fact the early par tenses in rel has either k been done in ■uecwtful TO 4/ ^M,.,M^ (j^Y*^>^^ y\'d. V' ux m '^ I I ^ THE SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. ? !. Si \ '\ 1 ^^ERE are few subjects which have excited so generally the interest and sympathy of the ivihsed world, as the fate of the missing expedition under Sir John Franklin. As year after year rolled by, and squadron after squadron returned to our shores from an unsuccessful search after the lost navigators, the mind ever recurred with a melancholy interest to those dreary seas, amid whose icy solitudes our country- men were imprisoned. Now that the fate of the expedition has been discovered, and the terrible mys- tery solved, the present seems an oppoitune time to recall the various eiforts made during fifteen years to rescue the lost ones.* * The fkot that this account of the Search for Franklin was first publbhed in the early part of 1853, will sufliciently explain the use of the present and future tenses in relation to events now of the past, and speculations that experience has either exploded or established as truth. A complete epitome of what has been done in behalf of the missing voyagers since that time, up to the rmuientl/ •uecestftiil voyage of the Fox (1857-09), has been added at the end. 46 t ■""■ P I MW. History D:p PROVINCIAL. LIBRARY VICTORIA, B. C. /260 SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. In the following pa^es is presented a succinct account of the numerous expeditions oretinised by (ireat Britain and America, tog-ether with such information concerning the natural history of the Arctic regions as is hkely to prove of interest to the reader. Beyond the discovery of FrankUn's first winter quarters at the entrance of Wellington Channel, the only result, indeed, of the various searching expeditions which have left this country within the last six years — except the large additions that have been made to our stock of geographical knowledge — has beei» to shew where our lost countrymen are not, and to incite us to fresh efforts for their rescue from their present perilous situation, wherever that may be. The general belief of those officers whc have served on the former arctic expeditions appears to be, that Franklin must have penetrated to a far greater distance to the westward than has yet been attained by any of the parties des- patched in search of him, and indeed by any previous expedition to the polar seas ; and that, whatever accident may have befaller the Erebus and Terror^ they cannot wholly have disappeam - from those seas, but that some traces of their fate, if not some remnant of their crews, must eventually reward the It is possible they may be hving search of the dilisrent mvestigator. foimd in quarters the least expected. There is thus still reason for hope, if for nothing more, and still a necessity for the great and honourable exertions which hope has prompted and still ke^s alive. The Erebus and Terror, for the safety of whose officers and crews so deep an interest is now felt, sailed from Sheemess on the 26th May 1845, and are consequently now passing through the! severe ordeal of their eighth winter in the arctic regions. The two vessels had just returned from the antarctic expedition to the south polar seas under Sir James Ross, where their qualifications for the peculiar service upon which they were about to enter had been fully tested. The total complement of officers and seamen in each ship was as follows : — Erebus, Screw Discovery-ship, 30 Horse-power. Captain — Sir John Franklin, K.C.H. (Rear-admiral).* Commander — James Fit^ames (Captain). Lieutenants — Graham Gore (Com- mander), Henry T. D. le Vesconte, James William Fairholme. Mates — Charles F. des Voeux (Lieu- tenant), R. O. Sargent (Lieutenant), EdAvard Couch (Lieutenant). Ice-master — James Read (Acting). Surgeon — S. S. Stanley. Assistant-surgeon — H. D, S. Goodsir. Paymaster and Purser — C. H. Osmer. Second-master — H. F. Collins. I 'i Fifty-eight petty officers, seamen, and marines. Full complement, 70. * The promotions which have taken place since the departure of the expedition are indieatud witbiu parentheses. 8 / VI a It). { Y" J' ,* I % SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANELIX. Tebrob, Screw Discovery-ship, 30 Horse-power. Surgeou — John S. Peddie. Mates — E. J. Hornby (Lieutenant), Robert Thomas (Lieutenant). Assistant-surgeon — Alex. M'Donald. Second-master — C. A. Maclean. Clerk in charge — E. J. H. Helpman. &c. Full complement, 68. — Total Captain— F. R. M. Crozier. Lieutenants — Edward Little (Com- mander), G. H. Hodgson, John Irving. Ice-master — Thomas Blenky (Act- ing). Fifty-seven petty officers, seamen, complement of the two ships, 138. The instructions issued to the expedition are too voluminous for insertion here ; but their general purport is sufficiently well known. The ships, after entering" Lancaster Sound, were to proceed in a nearly due- west direction, ' in the latitude of about 74^° N. until they should reach the longitude of that portion of land in which Cape Walker is situated, or about 98° W.' From that point, every effort was to be made ' to penetrate to the southward and west- ward, in a course as direct towards Behring's Strait as the position and extent of the ice, or the existence of land at present unknown, might admit.' Should it be found impracticable to eiFect a south-west course in this direction, a passage was directed to be attempted nortli- ward round the Parry Islands, through Wellington Channel. As this route, which, in contradistinction to that by Cape Walker, we may denominate the northern route, has latterly acquired a great importance from causes that will afterwards be more fully explained, we shall quote, in extenso, that paragraph of Frank lin^s instructions which relates to it. * We direct you to this particular part of the Polar Sea [the sea to the south-west of Cape Walker], as affording the best prospect of accompUshing the passage to the Pacific, in consequence of the unusual mag- nitude and apparently fixed state of the barrier of ice observed by the Ilccla and Griper in the year 1820, oif Cape Dundas, the south-western extremity of Melville Island; ana we there- fore consider that loss of time would be incurred in renewing the attempt in that direction ; but should your progress in the direction before ordered be arrested by ice of a permanent appear- ance, and that when passing the mouth of the strait between Devon and Cornwalhs Islands [WelHngton Channel], you had observed that it was open and clear of ice, we desire that you will duly consider, with reference to the time already consumed, as well as to the symptoms of a late or early close of the season, whether that channel might not offer a more practicable outlet from the archipelago, and a more ready access to the open sea, where there would be neither islands nor banks to arrest and fix the floating masses of ice ; and if you should have advanced too far to the south-westward to render it expedient to adopt this new course before the end of the present season, and if, therefore, you should have determined to winter in that neighbourhood, it will be a 44303 n SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. matter for yorr mature deliberation, whether in the ensuing- season you would proceed by the above-mentioned strait, or whetlier you would persevere to the south-westward according to the former directions.' The vessels were accompanied as far as the Whale Fish Islands in Baffin's Bay by the tender Baretto Junior, under the command of Lieutenant Griffith, who broug-ht back dispatches from the expedition — the last ever received from it — of tne date 12th July 1845. in a letter to Colonel Sabine of this date. Sir John Franklin speaks most hopefully of the prospects of the expedition at this )>oint, and of the spirit which animated till on board, while thus as yet but on the threshold of their enterprise. After noticing that the Erebus and Terror, including what they had received from the transport which had accompanied them thus far, had on board provisions, fuel, clothing-, and stores for three years jomplete from that date— that is, to Julj' 1848— he continues : '• I hope my dear wife and daughter will not be overanxious if we should not return by the time they have fixed upon ; and I must beg of you to give them the benefit of your advice and experience when that arrives, for you know well, that even after the second winter without success in our object, we should wish to try some other channel, if the state of our provisions and the health of the crews justify it.' The Erehts was spoken on the 22d of the same month by Captain Martin, of the whale-ship E'w^erpm^, in lat.75° 10' N., and long. 60" W. The latest date at which the expedition was actually seen was four days subsequently. The Prince of Wales whaler reported that, on the 26th of July 1845, she saw Jranklin's vessels in lat. 74° 48' N., and long. 66° 13' W. They were then moored to an iceberg, awaiting an opening* in the middle-ice, to enable them to cross over to Lancaster Sound. Of the copper cylinders Franklin was directed to throw overboard from time to time, after passing the latitude of 65" N., one only has been recovered ; but as it bore a date anterior to that of the last dispatches, no informa- tion of any importance was derived from it. Between this period and the 23d of August 1850, when the traces of their first winter- quarters at Beechey Island in 1845-46 were discovered by Captain Austin's squadron, no intelligence, direct or indirect, has been received of the missing ships. Our positive accounts of the expe- dition extend, therefore, up to the winter of 1846 as to time, and to the entrance of the Wellington Channel as to place ; and no further. It was not anticipated that the Erebus and Terror would return before the close of the year 1847, nor was any intelligence ex- pected from them in the interval ; but when the autumn of that year arrived without any tidings of them, the attention of the government was directed to the necessity of searching for and con- veying relief to them, in case of their being imprisoned in the ice, or wrecked, and in want of provisions and the means of transport. For this purpose, a searching expedition, in three divisions, was t 'aptain been xpe- and t was SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANRLI]){. fitted out in the early part of 1848. The investigation was directed to three different quarters simultaneously — namely, first, by the Westward to Behring-'s Strait, where, if successful in effecting the passage through the Polar Sea, the missing expedition might now he expected ; second, by the eastward to Lancaster Sound in the direction Franklin himself had been directed to pursue, to meet the contingency of the ships havin*' been arrested in an early stage of their progress; and third, a noat-expedition to explore the coasts of the Arctic Sea, between these two points — it being sup- {)osed that if Sir John Franklin's party had been compelled to eave the ships and take to their boats, they would make for this coast, whence they could reach the Hudson Bay Company's trading-posts. The western expedition consisted of a single ship, the Plover, under the command of Lieutenant Moore, which left England in the beginning of January 1848. I/istructions were sent out at the same time to H.M.S. Herald, Captain Kellet, then stationed at Panama, to proceed to Behring's Strait to join the Plover; and it was expected that both vessels would arrive there about the 1st of July. They were then to proceed along the American shore, as far as possible in an easterly direction from Point Barrow, exploring the coast where necessary with boats, until symptoms of winter should appear, when the Flavcr was to be secured in a safe harbour, and the Herald was to return and transmit to England, vid Panama, intelligence of their proceedings up to that tune. The Herald was to proceed the following season once more to Behring's Strait, with any fresh instructions that might be deemed neces- sary; while the Plover was directed to despatch boat-parties from Point Barrow in the direction of Mackenzie's River, to communi- cate, if possible, with the boat-expedition through the Hudson's Bay territories. Owing to the bad sailing qualities of the Plover, and to obstructions from the ice and other causes, it took the vessels two seasons to accomplish what their instructions anticipated would be effected in one. In the summer of 1860, however, Lieutenant PuUen, with a boat-party from the Plover, succeeded in completing the survey from Behring's Strait to Mackenzie's River, ami reached in safety one of the trading-posts of the Hudson's Bay (^lompany on that stream, where he wintered, and subsequently' made his way overland to England, without discovering, it is scarcely necessary to say, any traces of the missing expedition. The eastern division of the search, consisting of two ships, the Enterprise and the Investigato?', was in the meantime placed under the able and experienced conduct of Sir James Ross, who sailed from England early in June 1848. The late period of their departure, and the uniiivourable state of the ice in Baffin's Bay, prevented the ships from entering Lancaster Sound until the season for the navig-ation of these icy seas had nearly closed. They were unable therefore to advance that season beyond Leopold Harbour, n II SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. on the west side of the opening of Prince Regent's Inlet, where they wintered. On attempting to renew their operations in the following spring, they got entangled in the pack-ice off the inlet, and were drifted with it bodily through Lancaster Sound into Baffin's Bay, where, unfortunately, missing the store-ship, the North Star J which had been sent out with a supply of provisions and fuel to enable them to remain out another year, they were compelled to return home unsuccessful. They had been supplied with a large stock of provisions, a steam-launch, and a portable house, for the use of Sir John Franklin's party ; and these they had secured in a safe depot at Leopold Harbour, where they doubtless remain to this day, nearly in the state in which they were left. The boat-expedition through the Hudson's Bay territories, intended to connect the eastern and western divisions of the search, was placed under the command of Sir John Richardson, the faithful friend and companion of Franklin in his former travels. From Montreal, where the party commenced their journey northward in the beginning of May 1848, a succession of rivers and lakes conducted them to the mouth of the Mackenzie, on the Arctic Sea, where they arrived too late, however, to effect any very extensive exploration of the coast that season. Great Bear Lake, from its proximity to the sea, and the inexhaustible supply of fish it afforded, was selected as a convenient wintering-station, from which a more extended examination of the lands and islands to the north of the Coppermine River was subsequently carried on for three years in succession, chiefly under Mr John Rae, of the Hudson's Bay Company, Sir John Richardson's assistant, and favourably known as an arctic traveller of great energy and endurance. During these explorations, Mr Rae made veiy considerable additions to our knowledge of the geography of the arctic coasts and islands ; but as regards the main object of the expedition — ^the discovery of traces of the missing vessels — it was, like its predecessors, wholly unsuccessful. Afber the subject had received the most ample consideration, such was the hope that the missing ships had penetrated to the westward in their attempts to win the long-contested prize of a north-west passage, that, on the return of Sir James Ross's squadron, which arrived in England in the beginning of October 1849, it was at once resolved to equip a second series of expeditions in the same directions as before. Mr Rae — Sir John Richardson having* meanwhile returned to England — was instructed to continue his researches along the unknown lands and islands between the mouth of the Copper-mine and Bank's Land. Captains Collinson and M'Clure were next despatched to Behring's Strait with the Enterprise and Investigator, which had just returned from Barrow's Strait ; and being there joined by the Herald and Plover^ which were still out, the whole squadron entered Behring's Strait in the autumn of 1850. The Investigator, Captain M'Clure, alone succeeded in penetrating through the banier of ic"! which blocked 6 t T f( 8EAR0H FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. r up the entrance of the strait, and was last seen by her consort, the Plover, on the 4th Aurni.it 1860, bearing gallantly, under full sail, into the heart of the pack to the eastward of Point Barrow. The Enterprise, tinding" it imposrtible to get through the ice, was forced to return and pass the winter at Hong-Kong. She departed a second time in May 1851, and the last accounts report her having quitted Port Clarence, in Behring's Strait, on the 10th of Ju^.y 1861, for the purpose of carrying on her explorations to the north- east. The Herald returned direct to England, arriving at Spithead in June 1861. The Plover was stationed as a reserve or store-ship to the Enterprise and Investigator at Port Clarence, Behring's Strait, where she was to remain until the autumn of 1853. Fresh stores have since that period been forwarded to the Plover, and a regular communication kept up with England; but up to the 7tn September 1862, no intelligence of any traces of Sir John Franklin had been received at Port Clarence, and no commu- nication respecting the progress of the Enterprise and Investigator under CoUinson and M'Clure. Upwards of rour years' endeavours, and many attempts from that direction, have therefore been fruitless. Having settled the question with reference to the possibility that Franklin's ships might appear at Behring's Strait, the next thing that pressed upon the attention of the Admiralty was the necessity that Lancaster Sound should not be neglected, as Sir John FrankUn might be retracing his steps eastward in boats, or even in the ships themselves, having given up the hope of making a north-west passage. With this view, four ships were placed m commission, under the command of Captain H. T. Austin, C.B. ; and their ample equipment for arctic service was making rapid progress in the beginning of March 1850. Two of these vessels were steamers, of suliScient power to advance in calm weather and smooth water at the rate of live or six miles an hour, with the two saihng-vessels in tow. The difficulties of navigation in Baffin's Bay, and espe- cially in the northern portion, from Melville Bay to Lancaster Sound, having become apparent by the previous expeditions, the Admiralty decided on adaing to the power of the navy the expe- rience of a whaUng-captain. Accordingly, they appointed Captain Penny, an experienced whaler fror Aberdeen, to the command of two additional vessels, the Lady Franklin and the Sophia, fully equipped and fortified for a prolonged voyage in the arctic seas. Both squadrons left England about tho beginning of May ; and after, on the whole, a very favourable passage across the Atlantic and throuo-h Baffin's Bay, entered Lancaster Sound about the beginiiuig of August. Simultaneously with these expeditions, three others, equipped mainly from private resources, entered Lancaster Sound about the same time: one, consisting of two vessels, the Advance and Rescue, fitted out in the United States by a noble-minded citizen of New York — Mr Henry Grinnel; the second, under Sir John Ross — consisting of a small vessel, the f , L .ROH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN P(cZta?, accompanied by a tender — fitted out chiefly by public subscription in London ; and a third— a Hing^le schooner, the Prince Albert, under Commander Forsyth— equipped almost entirely from the private resources of Lady I'ranklin. It was during this autumn that the first authentic traces of the lost expedition were discovered. On the 23d August 1850, Lieutenant Cator, in the Intr(mid screw-steamer, attached to Captain Austin's squadron, landed at Cape Ililey, and subse- ?uently at Beechey Island, at the entronce of Wellington Ihannel, and was gratified by finding positive and undoubted traces, at both places, of Franklin's first winter-quurters after leaving England. The interesting circumstances attending this important discovery are thus related by Lieutenant Osborne : — ' The steamer having approached close under Beechey Island, a boatful of oflicers and men proceeded on shore. On landing, some relics of European visitors were found ; and we can picture the anxiety with which ♦he steep was scaled and the cairn torn down — every stone turned over, and the ground underneath dug up a httle, and yet, alas I no document or record found * A short distance within Cape Riley, another tent-place was found ; and then, after a look at the coast as far as Cape Innes, the two steamers proceeded across towards Cape Hotham, on the oppo- site side of Wellington Channel; havino- in the first place erected a cairn at the base of Cape Riley, and in it deposited a document. Whilst the Assistance and Intrepid were so employed, the American squadron, and that under Captain Penny, were fast approaching. The Americans first communicated with Captain Ommaney^s division, and heard of the discovery of the first traces of Sir John Franklin. The Americans then informed Penny, who was pushing for Wellington Channel ; awd he, after some trouble, succeeded in catching the Assistance, and on going on board of her, learned all they had to tell him, and saw what traces they had discovered. Captain Penny then returned, as he figuratively expressed it, " to take up the search from Cape Riley like a lilood-hound ; " and richly was he rewarded for doing so. * At Cape Spencer he discovered the ground-plan of a tent, the floor of which was neatly and carefully paved with small smooth stones. Around the tent, a number of birds' bones, us well as remnants of meat-canisters, led him to imagine that it had been inhabited for some time as a shooting-station and a look-out place, for which latter purpose it was admirably chosen, com- manding a p;ood view of Barrow's Strait and Wellington Channel. This opinion was confirmed by the discovery of a piece of paper, on which was written, "to be called" — evidently the fragment of an ofllicer's night-orders. * Some sledge-marks pointed northward from this neighbourhood; and the American squadron being unable to advance up the strait, in consequence of the ice resting firmly against the land close to ■ 8RARGH FOR Sill JOHN FRANKLIN. y public ,e Prince rely from ea of the 8t 1850, ached to d subse- ellinf^on ndoubted era after discovery r having icera and European ith which ne turned , alas ! no ilace was [nnes, the the oppo- erected a locument. American roaching. nmaney 8 Sir John 3 pushing ceeded in earned all iscovered. ed it, " to ad;" and I. tent, the ill smooth 8 well OB had been look-out sen, com- Channel. of paper, fra<>;ment )ourhood; the strait, d close to Cape Innes, and across to Bnrlow Inlet on the opposite shore. Lieutenant de Haven [commanding the United States squadron] despatched parties on foot to follow these sledge-marks; whilst Penny's squadron returned to re-exUiUine Beechey Island. The American ofKcers found the sledge-tracks very distinct for some miles : but before they had got as far as Cape Bowden, the trail ceasea, and one emj)ty bottle and a piece of newspaper were the last things found m that direction. Not so Captain Penny's squadron. Making fast to the ice between Beechey Island and Cape Spencer, in what is now called Union Bay, and in which they found the Felix schooner to be likewise lymg, parties from the Lady Franklin and Sophia started towards Beechey Island. A long point of land slopes gradually from the southern bluffs of this now deeply interesting island, until it almost connects itself with the land of North Devon, forming on either side of it two good and commodious bays. On this slope, a multitude of pre- served-meat tins were strewed about ; and near them, and on the ridge of the slope, a carefully constructed cairn was discovered. It consiated of layers of meat-tins, Ulled with gravel, and placed to form a iirm nnd solid foundation. Beyond this, and along the northern shore of Beechey Island, the following traces were then quickly discovered : — The embankment of a house, with car- penter and armourer's working-places, washing-tubs, coal-baw-s, pieces of old clothing, rope, and, lastly, the graves of three of tlie crew of the Erebus and Terror — placing it oeyond all doubt that the missing ships had indeed been there, and bearing date of the winter 1846-46.' The absence of any documents among these relics calculated to throw any light upon the direction taken by the missing expedition from this point, is one of those inexplicable circum- stances which it would be needless to endeavour to account for. In the vain search for this all-important information, ever- jot of ground within and around the winter-quarters of the ^rebus waA Terror was dug up, and every cairn and mound ransacked, but without a vesti^je of a record of any kind being discovered. The movements ol the searching squadrons were thus com- pletely paralysed. The ships wintered within a short distance of each other, near the entrance of Wellington Channel, prepared, notwithstanding this disappointment, to prosecute their researches with renewed vigour the following season. Travelling-parties, sent out over the ice early in the spring, explored several hundred miles in a circle round their winter-quarters. Between the months of April and July, fourteen sledges and 104 officers and men, from Captain Austin's division alone, were engaged in this duty. No trace whatever of Sir John Franklin having been found by any of the sledge-parties. Captain Austin concluded that the missing expedition had not been to the southward and westward of Wellington Channel. In the meantime, the exploring-parties sent to examine this 45 1^ SEARCH FOB SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. remarkable channel, from Captain Penny's division of the squadron, had been arrested by open water as early as April. There is reason, indeed, to believe, that a sea of considerable extent and depth, com- paratively unencumbered with ice, exists beyond it, if it be not, in lact, the entrance to that remarkable expanse of open water which the explorations of Baron Wrangell have placed oeyond all doubt as existing" to the north of Siberia, to a great extent free from ice all the year round. The probability of an open sea existing to the north of the Parry Islands had long been a favourite subject of speculation among arctic navigators; and it is well known that Franklin himself was one of the most ardent supporters of this theory, and frequently, before his departure from England, ex- pressed his determination to eifect, it possible, the solution of a geographical problem of such first-rate interest and importance as the exploration of this open sea, and his conviction that Wellington Channel afforded the most likely opening into it from the west- ward. Of late years, mo.e than ordinary interest has attached to this question, from the possibility of Franklin's having succeeded in penetrating within this so-called polar basin, and been up to this time, from some casualty, unable to extricate his ships. It will not be uninteresting, therefore, to the reader to learn upon what gi ounds the presumption of the existence of such an expanse of open water, in the heart of a region long supposed to be the seat of a perennial frost, is based. These grounds are thus suc- cinctly stated by Colonel Sabine, in the p"^face to his translation of Baron Wrangell's narrative.* * All the attempts to effect the north-west passage since Barrow's Strait was first passed in 1819, have consisted in an endeavour to force a vessel by one route or by another through this land-locked and ice-encumbered portion of the Polar Ocean Tin immediate con- tiguity with the coast-line of North America]. Is o examination has made known what may be the state of the sea to the north of the Parry Islands— whether similar impediments may there present themselves to navigation, or whether a sea may not exist offering no difficulties whatsoever of the kind, as M. von Wrangell has shewn to be the case to the north of the Siberian islands, and as, by strict analogy, we should be justified in expecting; unless, indeed, other land should exist to the north of the Parry grou) /, making that portion of the ocean also a land-locked sea. * The equipment of the expeditions of MM. von Wrangell and von Anjou, for the prosecution of their researches, was formed on the presumption, ol the continuance to the north — in the winter and spring at least — of the natural bridge of ice by which the Siberian islands are accessible from the continent of Asia; but every attempt which they made to proceed to the north, repeated as these were during three years, and from many different points of a hne extending for several hundred miles in an eastern and * Narrative of an Exjifdition to the Polar Sea along the Coast 0/ Siberia. Admiral Ferdinand von Wrangell, of the Russian Imperial Navy. 10 By ^ iquadron, is reason, 3th, com- be not, in ber which all doubt ! from ice ing" to the sunject of Lown that rs of this fland, ex- ition of a ortance as Wellington the west- ttached to succeeded leen up to ships. It earn upon in expanse to be the thus suc- branslation 5 Barrow's ieavour to ind-locked jdiate con- nation has rth of the re present st offering angell has is, and as, *"; unless, rry grou]/, mgell and formed on the winter which the Asia; but , repeated ent points istem and Siberia. By SEARCH POR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, western direction, terminated alike in conducting them to an open and navigable sea. From whatever point of the coast their depar- ture was taken, the result was invariably the same : after an ice- journey of more or less continuance, tliey arrived where further progress in sledges was impossible — where, to use the words of M. von Wrangell, "we beheld the wide immeasurable ocean spread before our gaze, a fearful and magnificent, but +o us a melancholy spectacle." I need scarcely say, that the spectacle which to them appeared " melancholy," because it compelled them to renounce the object for which they strove so admiraDly through years of privation and toil, would wear an aspect of a totally opposite character to those whose success should depend on the facilities of navigation. . . . When, in 1583, Davis sailed through the strait which has since borne his name, his heart misgave him when he was able to discern, though in the extreme distance, " land on both sides of him." Notwithstanding, "desirous to know the certainty," he proceeded; and when he found himself in lat. 75", in " a gi'eat sea free from ice, large, very salt, blue, and of an unsearchable depth," his hopes revived, " and it seemed most manifest that the passage was free and without impediment." Those who believe that the recent researches are far indeed from disproving the existence of such a passage as Davis sought, will undoubtedly find in M. von Wrangell's narrative a strong support to their opinion, in the probability which it sanctions of the exist- ence of an open sea in that portion of the passage which has not been traversed by ships — namely, between the meridians of Melville Island and Behring's Strait.' The fact of the existence of a polar basin untraversed as yet by any adventurous keel, would appear thus to rest upon evidence stronger than any mere hypothetical reasoning or analogy. The seasons of 1851, 1852, appear to have been unusually open ones; and there can hardly have been imagined a more favourable con- currence of circumstances than was presented on the arrival of the searching squadrons off the mouth of Wellington Channel, for deciding the important question, how far this remarkable expanse was accessible from the direction of Lancaster Sound; and thus setting at rest the anxious conjectures which had so long prevailed, as to whether Franklin had been induced to deviate into this route in his attempts to force a passage westward. A series of untoward circumstances, however, prevented the accomplishment of an object so desirable and important. The United States expedition, perhaps the best equipped of them all for a prolonged and successful navigation of the arctic seas, had scarcely completed the usual preparations for wintering, in what was considered a sufficiently safe position, r^ar Griffith's Island — about which all the searching squadrons w«re concentrated for the winter — when, by one of those sudden and inexplicable movements of the ice so common in these seas (a similar instance of which has been already noticed in the case of Sir James Ross), both vessels were swept 11 SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. TT W out, and became imbedded in the pack-ice opposite Wellinaton Channel. This occurred about the middle of September ; and irom that time the ships were helplessly drifted about in the heart of the pack, during the whole wmter, through Lancaster Sound and Baffin's Bay, as far south as Cape Walsingham — a distance alto- gether of not less than 1200 miles — where, after much exposure, trial, and danger, they were at length liberated on the 10th of June 1851. Although the commander, nothing daunted, determined to return northward, he was unable to get beyond Melville Bay, whence the expedition was finally compelled to steer homeward, arriving at New York on the 30th September 1851. The Prince Albert, after examining the western side of Prince Regent's Inlet, as far south as Fury Point, and subsequently com- municating with the other expeditions oiF the Wellington Channel, returned homeward the same season, arriving at Aberdeen on the 22d of October 1851, after an absence of no more than four months. Notwithstanding this unfortunate diminution of the effective force of the searching squadrons, there was still ample provision for prosecuting the search with the remaining vessels, and this with every prospect of success. As already stated, they wintered very nearly together, within a short distance of the spot which had been identified as the wintering-quarters of Franklin's expedition in 1845-46, from which travelling-parties, despatched in the course of the spring, had made the interesting discoveries in the Welhng- ton Channel already adverted to. On the opening of the navi- gation, however, instead of following up the promising indications of a comparatively open passage to the westward in this direction, through which there were such strong grounds for believing the missing expedition had proceeded before them, the surprise and disappointment of the public were great on learning, towards the end of September 1851, that Austin and Penny had returned to England with all the remaining' ships, leaving the great and absorbing question of the fate of the lost navigators shrouded in the same painful and impenetrable mj^stery as before. As the expeditions had been equipped for an absence of three years, with means amply sufficient for the vigorous prosecution of the search for that period with safety — in the estimation of those most competent to form an opinion, with perfect safety — this return was as unexpected as it was unwelcome. It appears, indeed, to have been no question of means at all, but purely a question of a personal nature between the commanders of the two chief sections of the expedition — Captain Austin and Captain Penny. The subject is a painful one. Without entering into the contro- versy which ensued on their arrival in England, it is sufficient to state, that a committee of experienced arctic officers, among whom were Sir Edward Parry, Sir George Back, and Captain Beechey, was appointed to examine the officers of the expeditions ; and the IS he jT^ SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. evidence, as it was taken, was in due time laid before the public in the form of a voluminous Blue Book. It was part of the duty of tiiis committee to obtain from the reports and evidence of the com- manders of the expeditions, and the oflficers of the travelling-parties, such details as mig'ht be necessary for the guidance of a fresh expedition, which it was at once decided should be despatched in the same direction as before, early in the following spnng. The researches of the previous expedition had been attended with good results in one sense — the search for the lost was not to be given up ; and a faint ray of hope was rekindled that Franklin or some of his gallant band might yet be seen. This hope appeared to rest almost, if not entirely, upon the supposition that he went through Wellin"-ton Channel. An expedition, under the command of Sir Edward Belcher— the most extensive as yet despatched in the search — consisting of five vessels, the Assistance, JResolute, North Star, and the Pioneer and Intrepid steamers, accordingly sailed once more from England on the 21 st of April 1852, direct for Wellington Channel ; Beechey Island, at its entrance, being intended as the head- quarters. Two of these — the Assistance, and one of the steamers, th-^ Pioneer — were directed to proceed, under Sir Edward Belcher's own orders, up the Wellington Channel ; while the other two vessels, under Captain Kellet, were instructed to advance towards Melville Island, and deposit provisions therefor the use of Captain Collinson and Commander M'Clure, in the event of their having succeeded in reaching that island from Behring's Strait. The North Star was to remain at Beechey Island as a depot Btore-ship. While the preparations for this extensive equipment were in progress, the search so disastrously abandoned during the Erevious year had not been lost sight of. Lady Franklin and er devoted companion, Miss Sophia Cracroft, the niece of Sir John Franklin, had laboured incessantly in the good cause which lay so near their, hearts; and it is to their untiring exertions that much that has been done in search of him whose long absence they still mourn has been mainly owing. The name of Lady Franklin has indeed, through these labours, become as familiar as a household word in every quarter of the civilised world ; and all interested in the fate of Sir John Franklin and his devoted companions, must feel the deepest sympathy for, and admiration ot, the zeal, perseverance, and conjugal affection dis- played in her noble and untiring efforts to relieve or discover the fate of her distinguished husband and the gallant party under his command, despite the difficulties and disappointments by which these efforts have been attended. In the spring of 1849, she had made a touching and pathetic appeal to the feelings of the American nation, which, as we have seen, had been nobly responded to by the munificent equipment of an expedition at his own cost by Mr Grinnel of New York. A few extracts from this appeal, addressed to the President of the United States, and the reply to SEARCH FOB SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. it irom the American government, although somewhat digressing from our subject, may not be uninteresting here, as indicative of the deep and wide-spread sympathy existing in other countries in the fate of the missing expedition. u t LADY FRANKLIN TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Bedford Flack, London, ith April 1849. Sir — I address myself to you as the head of a great nation, whose power to help me I cannot doubt, and in whose disposition to do so I have a confidence which I trust you will not deem presumptuous. The name of my husband. Sir John Franklin, is probably not unknown to you. It is intimately connected with the noi"thern part of that continent of which the American republic forms so vast and conspicuous a portion. When I visited the United States three years ago, amongst the many proofs I received of respect and courtesy, there was none which touched and even surpnsed me more than the appreciation everywhere expressed to me of hif> former services in geographical discovery, and the interest f^sit in the enterprise in which he was then known to be engaged. [Her ladyship here gives the details of the departure of the expedition, and. the measures already taken for its relief.] The Board of Admiralty has been induced to offer a reward of L.20,000 sterUng to any ship or ships of any country, or to any exploring-party whatever, which shall render efficient assistance to the missing ships or their crews, or to any portion of them. This announcement which, even if the sum had been doubled or trebled, would have met with public approbation, comes, however, too late for our whalers, which had untortunately sailed before it was issued, and which, even if the news should overtake them at their fishing-grounds, are totally unfitted for any prolonged adventure, having only a few months' provision on board, and no additional clothing. To the American whalers, both in the Atlantic and Pacific, I look with more hope as competitors for the prize, being well aware of their numbers and strength, their thorough equipment, and the bold spirit of enterprise which animates their crews. But I ven- ture to look even beyond these. I am not without hope that you will deem it not unworthy of a great and kindred nation to take up the cause of humanity, which I plead in a national spirit, and thus generously make it your own. I must here in gratitude adduce the example of the imperial Russian government, which, as I am led to hope by his excellency the Russian ambassador in London, who forwarded a memorial on the subject, will send out exploring^- parties this summer from the Asiatic side of Behring's Strait northward, in search of the lost vessels. It would be a noble spectacle to the world if three great nations, possessed of the widest empires on the face of the globe, were thus to unite their xr—. SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. efforts in the truly Christian work of saving their perishing fellow-men from destruction. It is not for me to sug-gest the mode in which such benevolent efforts mig-ht best be made. I will only say, however, that if the conceptions of my own mind, to which I do not venture to give ufierance, were realised, and that in the noble competition which followed, American seamen had the good-fortune to wrest from us the glory, as might be the case, of solving the problem of the unfound passage, or the still greater glory of saving our adven- turous navigators from a lingering fate, which the mind sickens to dvell on ; though I should in either case regret that it was not my own brave countrymen in those seas whose devotion was thus rewarded, yet should I rejoice that it was to America we owed our restored happiness, and should be for ever bound to her by ties of affectionate gratitude. I wn not without some misgivings while I thus address you. The intense anxieties of a wife and of a daughter may have led me to press too earnestly on your notice the trial under which we ars suffering — ^yet not we only, but hundreds of others — and to presume too much on the sympathy which we are assured is felt beyond the limits of our own land. Yet if you deem this to be tbe case, you will still find, I am sure, even in that personal ir.tensity of feeling, an excuse for the fearlessness with which I hive thrown myself on your generosity, and will pardon the h*mage I thus pay to your own high character, and to that of the people over whom you have the high distinction to preside. I have, &c. (Signed) Jane Franklin. To which the following reply was received : — MR CLAYTON TO LADY FRANKLIN. Department of State, Washimoton, S5th April 1849. Madam — ^Your letter to the President of the United States, dated April 4, 1849, has been received by him, and he has instructed me to make to you the following reply : — The appeal made in the letter witn which you have honoured him, is such as would strongly enlist the sympathy of the rulers and the people of any portion of the civilised world. To the citizens of the United States, who share so largely in the emotions which a^tate the public mind of your own countiy, the name of Sir John Franklin has been endeared by his heroic virtues, and the sufferi i^, and sacrifices which he has encountered for the benefit of mankind. The appeal of his wife and daughter, in their distress, has been borne across the waters, asking the assistance of a kindled people to save the brave men who embarked in his unfortunate expedition ; and the people of the United States, who have watched with the deepest interest that hazardous enterprise, will now respond to that appeal, by the expression of their united lo SEARCH FOn SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. '1 . it- li! 1 wishes that every proper effort may be made by this g-ovemment for the rescue of your husband and his companions. To accomplish the objects you have in view, the attention of American navigators, and especially of our whalers, will be im- mediately invoked. All the information in the possession of this gfovernment, to enable them to aid in discovering" the missing ships, relieving their crews, and restoring them to their families, shall spread far and wide among our people; and all that the executive government of the United States, in the exercise of its constitutional powers, can effect, to meet this requisiciun on Ame- rican enterprise, skill, and bravery, will be promptly undertaken. The hearts of the American people will be aeeply touched by your eloquent address to their chief-magistrate, and they will x)in with you in an earnest prayer to Him whose spirit is on the waters, that your husband and his companions may yet be restored to 'heir country and their friends. I have, &c. (Signed) John M. Clayt3n. pr( ¥ I I ' il I While thus endeavouring to enhst the sympathies of foreign nations in behalf of an object which lay so near her h** irt. Lady Franklin was no less active in stimulating the flagging energies of her own countrymen at home. Keeping up an extensive and voluminous correspondence with the principal ship-owners engage! in the Greenland fisheries, and personally visiting tiie chief ship- ping ports in England and Scotland, she had succeeded in intc- restmg some of the most adventurous whaling captains in the object; who, by her persuasion, and induced also, probably, by the hope of participating in the promised reward, had frequent^ diverged from their accustomed fishing-grounds in search of tracjs or intelligence of the missing ships. As already stated, she had, besides, fitted out mainly at her own cost, an expedition in tie Prince Albert, auxiliary to that of Captains Austin and Pennj, with the view of exploring Prince Regent's Inlet, an object which had been fnistrated by the premature return of that vessel in the autumn of 1850. Much importance was attached to this division of the field of search, from the fact, that a large depot of Srovisions left at Fury Point, about half-way down the inlet, by ir Edward Parrv in 1823, was known to be still there, at the time Franklin sailed, in excellent preservation and ready for use ; and it was believed, that had Franklin and his party been stopped in their progress anywhere within a reasonable distance of it, they would probably have followed the example of Sir John Ross, wlien arrested under similar circumstances in 1830, and directed their steps thither in the first instance, instead of falling back on the utterly barren re^'ion of the north coast of America, of which FrankUn had himself had such disastrous experience in his first journey to the mouth of the Coppermine River in 1819-20. As this division of the search was totally unprovided for in the instructions to Captain Austin and Captain Penny, Lady ifi ^p vemment tention of ill be im- 3n of this 3 missing ' families, i that £lie jise of its I on Ame- lei'taken. )uchei by T will x)in he waters, ed to 5heir layt:)N. jf fcreien 'irt, Lady nergies of nsive and s engage! hief ship- id in intt- ins in the bably, ty requenty 1 of tracjs , she had, on in tie d Pennj, an object at vessel d to this depot of inlet, by re, at the ■f for use ; irty been distance Sir John 830, and of falhng America, rience in River in iprovided ny, Lady SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. Franklin, on the return of the Prince Albert, at once decided on sending her out ag^in, to continue the examination of thitt promismg quarter. Accordingly, on the 22d of May 1851, the Prince Albert again left Aberdeen, to continue the search in Prince Regent's Inlet, under the command of Mr William Kennedy, who has published a short and sensible narrative of his voyage.* M. Bellot, a lieu- tenant in the French navy, joined as a volunteer, and his generous ardour and valuable scientific attainments appear to have con- tributed greatly to the efficiency of the expeaition. The Prince Albert's intended course was lirst to Griffith's Island, where intel- ligence of the proceedings of Captain Austin and Captain Penny had been directed to be deposited ; but, driven by an extraordinaiy accumulation of ice in Barrow's Strait upon Leopold Island, Mr Kennedy was obliged to take lofuge in Prince Regent's Inlet, where the ship found a safe harbour for the winter in Bally Bay, on the west side of the inlet. From this point Mr Kennedy made a series of journeys during the winter ana spring to the south and west, which, whether we regard their extent, or the slender means by which they were accomplished, are perhaps unparalleled in the history of arctic explorations, and shew what it is m the power of a really intrepid traveller by skilful and judicious management to effect. The first journey was undertaken in the depth of winter, when the sun had tor some time disappeared below the horizon ; and the success which attended the simple arrangements for securing the health and safety of the party, at this most trying and critical season, must for ever set at rest the question as to the power of the European constitution to endure the severest rigours of an arctic climate. In his modest narrative, Mr Kennedy describes the general order of his arrangements. His party, including M. Bellot and himself, consisted of six persons. Their luggage and stores were borne on sleighs, made after the Indian fashion, five Esquimaux dogs very materially assisting in their draught. Their provisions consisted chiefly of pemmican (a pre- paration of dried meat and melted fat, which forms the common food of the natives of North America during their journeys), to which were added a few bags of biscuit, some flour, tea, and sugar. They were materially indebted for some useful additions to their equipments to the old stores of the Fury, wrecked in Prince Regent's Inlet during Sir Edward Parry's second voyage, which were found ' not only in the best preservation, but much superior in quality, after thirty years of exposure to the weather, to some of the Prince Albert's own stores, and those supphed to other arctic expeditions.' The routine of the day's march, which may be interesting from the insight it, affords into the arrangements of a winter-travelling party, is thus described by Mr Kennedy : — * Narrative of the Second Voyage of the Prince Albert to the Arctic Sto* in Search qf Sir John Franklin. Dalton : Cockspur Street, Fall Mall, London 17 mifmimm mm^ hit SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIK. * At six o'clock, generally (although from various circumstances this hour was not always strictly adhered to), all hands were roused by myself, and the preparations for the day's march begun. Breakfast was the first operation, and then came the bundling up of the bedding, cooking utensils, kc, the lashing of the sleighs, and the harnessing of the dogs, which altogether, on an average, occupied the next two hours. Then came the start, I leading the way, and selecting the best track for the sleigh, and M. Bellot, with the rest of the party, following in regular line with the four sledges. At the end of every hour, five minutes were allowed for restinff the men and breathing the dogs. When the weather per- mitted, sights for the chronometer were taken at any convenient hour in the forenoon, and again for latitude at noon. The proper corrections had been prepared beforehand, the previous night or morning, so as to enable the observations to be worked off on the spot without the trouble of referring to books. A half an hour on each occasion generally sufficed to get through all the necessary operations for ascertaining our latitude or longitude, as the case might be. The construction of the snow-house, and the prepara- tions for the evening meal and our repose for the night, concluded the labours of the day, which were seldom over before ten at night.' With a Uttle practice, Jl hands became expert in the erection of snow-houses, which formed the only protection to the travellers at night, and were found far superior to tents, which, from their bulk, it would have been, besides, impossible for the party to carry along with them during so long a journey. The process of con- structing these snow-houses Mr Kennedy describes as going on something in this way — ^varied of course by circumstances of time, place, and materials : — ' First, a number of square blocks are cut out of any hard drifted bank of snow you can meet with adapted for the purpose, which, when cut (we generally employed a hand-saw for this purpose), have precisely the appearance of the blocks of salt sold in the donkey-carts in the streets of London. The dimensions we generally selected were t,wo feet in length by fourteen inches in height, aiid nine inches in breadth. A layer of these blocks is laid on the ground, nearly in the form of a square, and then another layer on this, cut so as to incline slightly upwards, and the corner blocks laid diagonally over those under- neath, so as to cut off the angles. Other layers follow in regular order, arching towards the top, imtil you have at last a dome- shaped structure, out of which you have only to cut a small hole for a door, to find yourself within a very light, comfortable-looking bee-hive on a large scale, in which you can bid defiance to wind and weather. Any chinks between the blocks are filled up with loose snow with the hand from the outside. As these are best detected from within, a man is usually sent in to drive a thin rod through the spot where he discovers a chink, which is immediately plastered over by some one from without, till the house is as air- is ^^ ' ^m nstances ids were h begun, dlin^ up I sleighs, average, iding the [. BeUot, the four [owed for ther per- )nvenient lie proper night or )ff on the 1 hour on necessary I the case J prepara- concluded ire ten at irection of travellers from their y to carry S8 of con- going on stances of blocks are neet with employed nee of the f London, length by A layer of a square, e slightly ose under- in regular t a dome- small hole )le-looking ce to wind id up vidth |e are best a thin rod amediately le is as air- SBAROH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. tight as an efi^.^ These snow-houses were found so completely impervious to the air, and the snow proved so perfect a non-con- ductor of heat, that the ' flame of a common candle, or a little spirits of wine, sufficed to diffuse an agreeable warmth throughout the interior.' While travelling, the party had a cup of hot tea night and mornine" — * a luxury they would not have exchanged for the mines of Ophir.' A gill and a half of spirits of wine, which was used as a substitute for fuel, and served the purpose admirably, boiled a pint of tea for each person. When detained by bad weather, they had but one meal daily, and took ice with their biscuit and pemmican to save fuel. To lengthen out their stock of provisions, they fed the dogs on ' old leather shoes, and the fag- ends of buffalo-robes, on which they not only Uved, but throve wonderfully.' A few ptarmigans were shot auring the journey, which, having no means of cooking, they ate frozen ! In this way it is computed the party must have travelled during their various journeys fully 2000 miles. On one occasion, they were ninety-seven days absent from the ship, exploring minutely the west coast of Prince Regent's Inlet, and the lands and islands to the west as far as Cape Walker, and round by BaiTow's Strait and Port Leopold back to the ship. From the result of these extensive explorations, in connection with those of Captain Austin's squadron during the previous year, Mr Kennedy is decidedly of opinion that Franklin has not taken the south-west route by Cape Walker, but has gone up the Wellington Channel, and has pro- bably proceeded to an aavanced west longitude, and is now to be sought from the westward by Behrin^'s Strait. On liberating his ship from her wmter-quarters in Bally Bay, Mr Kennedy proceeded to Beechey Island, at the entrance of Wellington Channel; and having there received communications from the North Star, one of the ships of Sir Edward Belcher's squadron, shaped his course homeward, and arrived at Aberdeen on the 7th October 1862. No fresh traces of Sir John FrankUn were found during this protracted and arduous journey ; but Mr Kennedy brought with him to England the most satisfactory and cheering intelligence of the progress and prospects of Sir Edward Belcher's squadron, which had sailed up the Wellington Channel as early as August through open water ; Captain Kellet had like- wise aavanced a considerable distance in the direction of Melville Island, which he had no doubt of being able to reach before the winter set in. The summer of 1852 witnessed also a third effort of the untiring devotion of Lady Franklin. The search for the Erebus and Terror j protracted through so many years without success, had given rise to a variety of rumours and conjectures as to their fate, of which it will be necessary here to notice only two, which attracted for a time a certain degree of pubUc attention. One was, that the missing vessels, or vessels answering their description, had been 19 tm manv ■(■■P 1 ; ilM^ SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIIT. , I i: seen by the crew of an American trader, named the Renovattartf stranded on an iceberfif in the North Atlantic, and abandoned by their crews. The second waa a tale devised by the Esquimaux interpreter of Sir John Rosa, Adam Beck (and which Sir John Ross himself professed to believe, and thus g-ave it a certain currency), to the effect, that Franklin and his crew had been treacherously murdered at an Esquimaux settlement at Wolsten- holme Sound, in the north of Baffin's Bay. The Isabel screw-steamer, having, through the failure of Cap- tain Beatson's intended expedition, been thrown on the hands of Lady Frankhn, Commander Inglefield, R.N., undertook to proceed in her and explore the coasts of Baffin's Bay, from which, if the story of the Renovation was to be credited, those icebergs probably drifted on which the vessels were seen. The Isabel was absent four months; and during that period a minute examination was made of both coasts of Baffin's Bay, and the settlement at Wolsten- holme Sound, and the tragical storj' connected with it thoroughly investigated, without trace, it is almost needless to say, being found of any such event having occurred there, or any catastrophe like that described by the crew of the Renovation having taken place. This is the last of the terminated expeditions, the result of whose explorations has as yet reached us. But the search has by no means been abandoned. In the course of the present year, three fresh expeditions have left England for prosecuting the search in new directions, or for reinforcing those already out. Within the last few weeks, the Rattlesnake, Commander Trollope, and the Isabel — once more fitted out by the indefatigable solicitude of Lady Franklin, and placed under the command of Mr Kennedy- have been despatched to Behring's Strait, to reinforce the squadron at present engtiged in that quarter. Mr Rae has likewise been despatched to make a second examination of the North American coast, in the neighbourhood of the Isthmus of Boothia. By the last intelligence from America, we learn that Mr Grinnel, of New York, has fitted out the Advance, under the command of Lieutenant Kane of the United States navy, once more to explore the coast of Greenland and the passages leading out of Baffin's Bay into the unknown region surrounding the pole. Commander Inglefield is, while we write, on his way to Barrow's Strait with two fine ships, the Phamix and the Lady Franklin, to reinforce the expedition now out in that quarter under Sir Edward Belcher. Add to this, that a company has been recently formed in London for the purpose of carrying on whale and other fisheries, and founding a permanent settlement on the west coast of Baffin's Bay. The company propose sending two new screw steam- whalers, of 500 tons each, in the spring months, to the seas between Greenland and Nova Zembla — seas into which Frankhn may be finding his way, or by which relics of the expedition may be reached. Thus, it is not impossible that there may be sixteen vessels with their crews in the arctic regions this summer; and. 90 t 4 i i SEARCH FOn SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. if the Prince Albert and the two whahng-ships of the Arctio Company are employed, nineteen. Or, in a tabular view : Erobus, . . Terror, . . . Plover, . . . Enterprise, Investigatur, . North Star, . Assistance, Pioneer, . . Resolute, . . Intrepid, . . Rattlesnake, . Isabel, . . . Lady Franklin, Phoenix, . . U. S. Fxped., Overl. Exped., Capt. Sir J. Franklin, . 1845 ) Capt. F. R. Crozler, . 1845 j Com. Maguire, . . . 1848, Capt. R, Collinson, . . 1850 Com. R. J. M'Clure, . 1850 Com. W. J. Pullen, . 1852, Capt. Sir E. Belcher, . 1852 Com. Sherard Osborne, 1852 Capt. H. Kellet, . . 1852 j Com. M'Clintock, . . 1852 \ Com. Trollope, . . . 1853 Mr Wm. Kennedy, . . 1853 | Com. Inglefield, . . . 1863 ) 1853 i Lieut. Kane, .... 1853, Position unknown. Point Barrow, Beh- ring's Strait. Position unknown ; last seen north of Point Barrow. Becchey Island. Wellington Channel. Melville Island. Bound to Behriiig's Strait. Bound to Wellington Channel. Bound to Baffin's Bay. Isthmus of Boothia. DrRae, 1863, Among the numerous parliamentary returns which have ap- peared from time to time in connection with the arctic expeditions, there has as yet been no official estimate of the gross expenditure entailed on tlie country by these magnilicent but costly tributes to humanity. The following estimate, derived from various sources, and based, in the case of the government expeditions, upon the annual y)arliamentary grants, under the head ot ' Arctic Searching Expeditions,' will, we believe, be found a tolerably close approxi- mation to the outlay in each case :— ESTIMATED COST OP THE EXPEDITIONS. FIRST SERIES OF THE SEARCHINO EXPEDITIONS, DESPATCHED IN 1848 AND 1849. Behring's Strait Expedition (Kellet and Moore), and Branch Expedition, in boats, to Mackenzie's River (Pullen), Land Expedition through North America (Richard- son and Rae), ) Lancaster Sound Expedition (Sir James Ross), Nm'th Star, store-ship (Saundere), . ■ECONO SERIES OF THE SEARCHINO EXPEDITIONS, DESPATCHED IN 1850. Behring's Strait Expedition (Collinson and M'Clure, Moore and Kellet), Lancaster Sound Expedition (Captain Penny), . Lancaster Sound Expedition (Captains Austin, Ommaney, M'Clintock, and Osborne), Lancaster Sound Expedition (Prince Albert, Com- mander Forpyth), Lancaster Sound Expedition (Sir John Roi^s and Captain Philips), Lancaster Sound — United States Expedition (Lieut, de Haven), 2 4 (bo»U), von. 1 L.92,466 4 (bo«ti), 10,000 2 1 70,000 60,000 4 100,000 2 15,000 4 145,000 1 4,000 2 4,000 6,000 n mm 8BAR0H TOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. I I'i miSD IBRIKS OV THB SBAROHINO EXPGDITIONa, DEBPATOIIEO IN IBfil AND IBM. VMMlt. Land Expedition throuf^h Nortli America (Rae), 1 0>Mt)f Regent's Inlet Expedition (Kennedy), . . 1 Baffin's Bay Expedition (Inglctield), . . 1 FOURTH 8RRIRB OP TIIR 8EAR0HINO RXPRDITIONS, DESPATCHED IN 1832, NOW IN THB AROTIO REQIONH. Lancasinr Sound Expedition (Sir Edward Belcher, Kellet, PuUen, M'Clintoclf, and Osborne), Additional stores fon\-arded to Behring's Strait, for \ the use of Collinson and M'Clure, under Com- mander Magtiire of the Plover, FIFTH BBRIBS OP THB BEAROHINO EXPEDITIONS, LEAVINO BNOLAND DURING TIIR PRESENT YEAR (Ittfi3). Behring's Strait Expedition {Rattlesnake, store- ship, Commander Trollope), Behring's Strait Expedition {Isabel, Kennedy), 1 Lancaster Sound Expedition (Ingleticid), . . 2 United States Expediition (Lieutenant Kane), . 2 Land Expedition to Isthmus of Boothia (llao), 1 (boat), 1 H f ! L.2,000 6,000 6,000 160,000 20,000 60,000 4,000 60,000 6,000 4,000 Total estimated cost of the Searching Expeditions, L.802,466 If to this be added the original outlay in the eauipment of Franklin's own expedition, the entire sum expended by the country upon arctic expeditiouH, including* the contributions from the United States and from private sources, within the last eight years, will thus amount to not far from a million sterling I Having thus briefly traced the eiforts which have been made during the last six years for the rescue of Sir John FrankUn and his companions, the question naturally arises, aa these efforts have hitherto been wholly unsuccessful, what prospect is there of the Sarty being still in life, after so prolonged and unprecedented a etention within the inhospitable regions of the arctic seas? It would be idle to speculate upon a question to which so much doubt and uncertainty must necessarily attach. Among the various casualties incident to the situation of the lost navigators, public anxiety appears to point more especially to two— the absence of food and the severity of the climate — and they are undoubtedly those which furnish the strongest grounds for anxiety ind apprehension for their safety. That they are not such, how- ever, as necessarily lead to the unfavourable view which some have taken of the situation of the missing ships and their crews, must, we think, be obvious on the most cursory consideration of the facts in relation to the climate and resources of the arctic regions which the recent explorations have brought to light. It has long been a common but erroneous supposition, that animal life within the arctic regions decreases as the Pole is approached. This opinion, probably, had its origin chiefly in the observation made respecting the distribution of mankind ; for the number of our fellow-creatures living beyond the Arctic Circle is very small, and, so far as we I SBARGH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIX. L.2,000 6,000 6,000 160,000 20,000 60,000 4,000 60,000 6,000 4,000 L.802,466 )ment of by the ons from ist eight en made iklin and arts have re of the dented a seas? It much long the vigators, two — the they are anxiety ch, how- ome have ^s, must, ' the facts ns which ig been a ithin the 3 opinion, especting ■creatures 'ar as we know, ceases altogether between the 7fith and 77th parallels of latitude. This fact may, however, be quite otherwise accounted for. It certainly has no relation fo the means of exit^t^nce, for * animal life,' as has been observed by a well-informed writer on this subject, 'is found as much in the ])olar as in the tropical regions ; and though the number of species is decidedly inferior, the immense multitude of individtMla compensate for this defi- ciency.' Mr Petermann, the writer to whom we refer, has, in a variety of publications on the subject of the Frankhn exj)editions, brought together much interesting and valuable information, from the narratives of various travellers, on the resources of the arctic regions, which give certainly a very encouraging view of the means of sustainhig life in that remote and inhospitable portion of the globe. Without adopting altogether his high estimate of these resources, they are undoubtedly much more abundanc than has been generally supposed. The severity of the climate, severe as it undoubtedly is, has likewise been greatly overrated. Mr Kennedy's remarkable journeys, performed, as has been stated, in the depth of mid-winter, are a Une example of what may be eflFected under prudent guidance, and by a party of resolute 'men. These jour- neys — extending, as already mentioned, upwards of 2000 miles — were performed at the most inclement period of the year, without fuel or any shelter from the cold beyond that obtained from the embankments of snow the party threw up every night around them, and with no other light for a considerable part of the time than that of the moon or stars ; and all this without a single case of serious illnf^ss occurring during the whole period of their absence from England. The climate of the arctic regions has, in feet, been divested of much of its terrors by the experience of the last few years. A careful comparison of the meteorological data furnished by the late expeditions, from diiferent localities within the Arctic Circle, has enabled us to arrive at a tolerably precise acquaintance with the laws which regulate the distribution of temperature within these limits ; und, like nil other knowledge, it has served to dissipate much of that unthinking and mysterious dread with which the frozen regions of these icy seas have been hitherto regarded. It has been a too common error, in regarding the climate of the arctic regions, to take into consideration the lines of latitude only ; and on the principle of considering the equator and the poles as the centres of the jireatest heat and the gi'eatest cold, to infer that in advancing northward the temperature will in all cases be found to correspond with the latitude. Nowhere, however, are the inferences drawn from such views more erroneous than in the arctic regions, where the temperature depends in a great measure on the currents and drift-ice, the influence of which is remarkable. Taking the data of Professor Dove as a basis, Mr Petermann has laid down on twelve polar charts the lines of equal temperature of every month in the year, and from a careful study of these * »» SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIIT. lines, has. deduced the following- conclusion : that ' there exists a movable pole of cold, which in January is found in a line drawn from Merville Island to the river Lena, in Siberia, and which gradually advances towards the Atlantic Ocean, till, in July, it is found in a line drawn from Winter Island, in the north of Hudson's Bay, across the northern extremity of Baffin's Bay and the peninsula of Greenland to Nova Zembla, whence it gra- dually recedes during the succeeding months back to it« former position.' Winter Island, in lat. 66° 30' N., is consequently the pole of cold of tb.e northern hemisphere during the summer ; while Yakutsk, in Siberia, may be taken as the winter pole. And it appears from the researches of Mr Seemann, the naturalist of the Herald — which are so far, therefore, corroborative of this view — that Winter Island is likewise the phytological north pole — namely, that point which possesses t'le smallest number of genera and species of plants, and whence th number increases in every direction. A line drawn from Winter Island to Lancaster Sound would, therefore, represent the line of lowest summer temperature ; and vessels having crossed this Une, and reached Melville Island or Wellington Channel, may be said to have passed, not the mathe- matical, but certainly the natural or physical north pole. Actual experience is so far corroborative of this physical fact, that no other part of the arctic regions has offered greater difficulties to navigation, as the narratives of Sir Edward Parry have shewn, than the one here designated as the physical north pole. The great mass of the polar ice, formed where the winter cold is the greatest — namely, in the region between Melville Island and Siberia — would appear, when broken up, to be annually drifted through Lancaster Sound into the Atlantic, reducing in its prog^ress the temperature wherever it goes. These moving masses of ice, meeting through various outlets in Baffin's Bay, and drawn to- gether by the natural law of gravitation, constitute the \^'ell-known phenomenon of the ' middle-ice,' so frequently referred to in the narratives of our arctic voyagers, and which in its progress along the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland, until it is finally dissi- pated by the warm current of the Gulf-stream, influences in so remarkable a degree the climate of the east coast of America. Bearing these facts in view, in connection with the existence of the large sea along the Asiatic continent, observed by Wrangell as being more or less open and free from ice during the whole of the year, it is not unreasonable to conclude that Franklin — supposing him to have taken the northern route by the Wellington Channel — will not have been exposed to any greater severity of climate than the experience of previous voyages to the arctic ?eas has shewn to be quite within the power of an average European constitution to sustain without any permanently injurious effects. It may be added also, that the northern coasts of Siberia, though exposed to a cUmate much more severe during the winter months 84 SBARCn FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. hough loiiths than the corresponding coasts of America, are inhabited by perma- nent communities of Russians, who, whatever hardships they may undergo on political or other grounds, are not, so far as we know, in any way injuriously affected by the climate. The following comparative view of the distribution of temperature on both sides of the arctic basin, as shewn by a series of meteorological obser- vations at the se-iral stations mentioned, will put this in a clear light :— COHPABATITE VIEW OF THE MEAN TEMPERATURE ON THE AMERICAN AND ASIATIC COASTS OF THE POLAR SEA. WINTKR TEMPERATUKE (JANUARY.) Siberia. Yakutsk (winter poleH)f cold) 4:5°'5 list Yansk, . V . 39°-6 Nishnei Kolymsk, . . 31° -3 Nova Zembia, . . . 2°-9 Antio America. Melville Island, Port Bowen (Regent's Inlet), Fort Churchill, . Winter Island, Great Bear Lake, 31"-3 29''-9 28° 23'''2 22°'3 8DMMER TEMPERATURE (JULY.) Yakutsk, Ust Yansk, Nishnei Kolymsk, . Nova Zembia, . Spitzbergen Sea (lat. 80°), 58°-6 62° 36°-3 35°-9 Melville Island, . . . 42°-5 Port Bowen, . . . 86°-C Fort Churchill, . . .68° Great Bear Lake, . . 62°'l Winter Island (summer pole of cold), . . • . 35°-4 Taking all these facts into consideration, the conclusion seems to be a reasonable one, that Franklin, ever since he entered WelUngton Channel, has found himself in a district of country certainly not below the average temperature of the polar seas ; and under such circumstances he and his party could therefore exist — as far as the question of climate is concerned— as well as other inhabitants of the arctic regions : more especially as, in addition to other resources, they would in their vessels possess more comfortable and substantial houses than any native inhabitants whatever of these regions. Closely connected with the subject of temperature, is the distri- bution of animal and vegetable life in the arctic regions. As previously remarked, though few in species, the animals composing the arctic fauna are, individually, found in as great, if not greater numbers, than in any other part of thn globe. * Though several classes of the animal creation' — to quote Mr Petermann's summary — * as, for example, the reptiles, are entirely wanting in this region, those of the mamniiils, birds, and fishes, at least bear comparison, both as to number and size, with those of the tropics— the lion, the elephant, the hippopotamus, and others, being not more notable in this latter respet;t than the polar bear, the musk ox, the walrus, and, above all, the whale. Besides these, ther*! uiO the moose, the reindeer, the wolf, the polar hare, the seal, and various smaller 8fi "^p^^. SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. quadrupeds. The birds consist chiefly of c n immense number of aquatic species. Of fishes, the salmon, salmon-trout, and herring, are the principal ; the latter especially occurring in such myriads as to surpass everything* of the kind met with in tropical regions. Nearly all the animals furnish wholesome food for man.' The geographical distribution of these animals is very irregTilar, following in a gi'eat measure the distribution of the temperature. Thus, of all the shores of the arctic basin, those of North- eastern Siberia possess the greatest abundance of animal life ; the temperature bemg there comparatively the highest in summer, although in winter the same region is the coldest on the face of the globe. Wrangell's description of the natural resources of the Kolyma district ol Siberia is a very striking one. * As soon as the dreary winter is over, large flights of swans, geese, and ducks, begin to make their appearance, and are killed in large numbers by the natives. When the rivers begin to open, which is gene- rally about the month of June, immense shoals of fish pour in along the coast and ascend the streams. The principal species are the salmon, the salmon-trout, and the herring. In the interior, wherever vegetation has reached, large herds of reindeer, elks, bears, foxes, sables, and the Siberian squirrel, fill the stunted forests, or roam over the low grounds. Eagles, owls, and gulls, pursue flieir prey along the sea-coast; ptarmigans are seen in troops among the bushes; and little snipes are busy among the brooks and in the morasses.' This is precisely the description given by travellers of that portion of the American side of the arctic basin corresponding in position with the region of the Kolyma. The yearly produce of the Russian Fur Company, who occupy the greater part of this district by permanent trading-posts, is very great. Mr Robert Campbell, an enterprising officer of the Hudson's Bay Company, has for some years been employed in exploring the interior of this remarkable section of country, with the view of opening its resources to the enterprise of his countrymen ; and his description would lead to the conclusion, that notwithstanding its northern position, it is not inferior, in fertility of productions, to any part of the fur territories ot ^'.'orth America occupied by the Hudson's Bay traders. This account is sustained by the published narratives of Richardson, Isbister, Dease, and Simpson, and other arctic explorers, who have visited this section oi country. On both sides of the polar basin, there Is the same tendency, both in the genera and species of the animal tribes, to decrease in number from we?': to east. On the shores of Baffin's Bay, Regent's Inlet, and Laiu ster Sound, fewer are met with than in Melville Island and tb' neighbouring lands and islands; and some species which exist ^n abundance further west are not found at all in these loca- liti« J. The animals available for the food of man, most generally ''iaused, and which are met with throughout the entire area of the polar seas, are the reindeer, the polar bear, the common Greenland as SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. ipany, whale, the seal, the walrus, the arctic hare, and certain species of aquatic birds and fishes. The reindeer has been found at certain seasons of the year among-st all the islands of the Polar Sea, even in the barren and isolated Spitzbergen. They generally cross over the ice from the mainland in the early months of spring-, pass the summer on the islands, and return on the approach of winter to the more genial climates of the south. Melville Island, the most distant point from either continental shore hitherto reached by us, was foimd by Sir Edward Parry to be a common resort of these animals during the warm season. He gives the following list of the quantities of game procured there during a few hunting excursions made by the officers of the Hecla and Griper, when these vessels wintered here in 1819-20 : — 3 musk oxen, 24 deer, 68 hares, 63 geese, 144 ptarmigans, 69 ducks. An animal that may be classed with the reindeer in its universal diffusion over the arctic seas, is the Polar or Greenland bear (Ursus maritimus). He is the sovereign of the quadrupeds of the arctic countries. Traversing extensive fields of ice in pursuit of his prey, he is as much at home on the ice as on the land. He has been found on field-ice above 200 miles from shore. In some places, particularly along the lands surrounding Baffin's Bay, polar bears are met with in great numbers. * On the east coast of Greenland,' according to Dr Scoresby, ' they have been seen hke flocks of sheep on a common.' The flesh of the bear, according to the same authority, is, when cleared of fat, * well flavoured and savoury,' especially the muscular part of the ham. The okin, when dressed with the hair on, forms beautiful mats, and may be used as a substitute for blankets or clothing when necessary. Prepared without being ripped up, and the hairy side turned inward, it forms a veiy warm sack-bed, and is used as such in some parts of Greenland. The seal and the walrus are hkewise extensively diffused species, and, as well as the various tribes of cetacea peopling the Arctic seas, can be made available for food. The Isabel, previously alluded to, never got further than Valparaiso, where a quarrel ensued between her captain, and officers, and the crew, and the expedition was abandoned. Dr Kane sailed in the Advance from New York on May 30, 1853, with the object of exploring Smith's Sound and Baffin's Bay. Nothing concerning the missing voyagers resulted from this expedition. Ingletield returned with the Phcenix, already mentioned, in October 1853, bringing the melancholy intelligence of the death of Bellot — who was l^lown off a hummock into an ice-crack and drowned — besides news from Sir E. Belcher, whose explorations of Wellington Channel proved altogether unfruitful of traces of the lost expedition. The Phcenix likewise brought home with her, intelligence of the discovery of the North-west Passage by Captain SKAROH FOR SIR JOHN PRANKLTX. M'Clure. Sailing' round Point Barrow, Captain M'Clure proceeded eastward to Port Warren, where they found a chief with a brass button in his ear, who, on beingf questioned about how he came by it, said it had been taken from a white man who had been killed, and who was one of a party that had proceeded inland. Nothing" satisfactory could be learned as to the time of this occurrence, nor any circumstance to connect it with Franklin, and M'Clure continued his journey north-east Prince Albert's Land— discovered by him— to which he was forced back to take up his winter-quarters in October 1850. On the 21st Octooer, Captain M'Clure set out with a party from the ship, in order, if possible, to determine what connection Barrow Strait had with the waters they were then in. On the 26th, they pitched their tents on the shores of Barrow Strait, and found, to their inex- pressible satisfaction, that they had solvefl the question of aj^es — that they had discovered the North-wkst Passage— the Prince of Wales Strait, which separates Prince Albert's Land and Baring Island, being found to have an opening into Barrow Strait. The discovery was thus entered in the ship's log : * October 31, 1^*50.— The captain returned at 8.30 a.m., havings upon the 26th instant ascertained that the waters we are now in communicate with those of Barrow Strait, the north-western limit being in lat. 73° 31' N., long. 114° 39' W., thus establishing the existence of a north-west passage between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.' By 1854, the whole of the expeditions despatched by govern- ment had returned — having abandoned four vessels in the ice — but without any traces of the gallant Franklin or his crew. But besides the great event of the discovery of the North-west Passage, much valuable addition to the geography of the Arctic regions had resulted. In fact, the explorations, undertaken since the loss of Franklin, have added incomparably more to our know- ledge of these ever-frozen seas, and the ice-bound territories bordering them, than all previous expeditions put together, from the time of Martin Frobisher down to the departure of Franklin. One important fact they established, and that is, that the Arctic regions are by no means so hostile to human life as had been previously supposed ; and further, that much more can be accomplished by sledging and overland journeys than had before been thought possible. But looking to the impracticable char- acter of the North-west Passage when discovered, to the great length of time the Franklin expedition had been away, and to the absence of all trace of it after the first winter, government declared it did not feel justified in expending more money and hazarding more valuable lives in further search. The de'iision was received with mingled feelings, in which, perhaps, disappointment pre- ponderated ; and this was increased when Dr Rae, the traveller tor the Hudson's Bay Company, in the same year brought intelligence to England from the Esquimaux of Boothia Felix, 2a SKARGH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. er, if and that a party of forty white men had heen met on the west coast of King William's Island, and had thence travelled on to the mouth of the Great Fish River, where they had all died of starvation. Dr llae also bi-oug-ht with him watches, silver spoons, and other relics, that left no doubt as to the fact of these unfortunate white men having belonged to the Franklin expedition. An expedition which the Hudson's Bay Company, at the instance of the home government, sent in 1855 to explore the Fish River, was much too ill equipped to be satisfactory. All that it discovered was a few more relics, and the fact that a portion of the missing crews had been seen on Montreal Island in the mouth of that river. All importunities for further search being lost upon govern- ment, the indefatigable Lady Franklin determined to fit out an expedition on her own responsibility. She accordingly, assisted by the subscriptions of friends, purchased and retitted, at a cost of more than £4000, the steam pleasure-yacht Fox, of 177 tons burden, the command of which she conferred on Captain M'Clin- tock, an officer who had particularly distinguished himself in previous Arctic expeditions ; and all being ready, the vessel sailed from Aberdeen with the hearty God-speed of the nation on July 1, 1857. Her whole crew, including officers, amounted but to twenty-five souls, who had ample provisions for twenty-eight months. A speedy run to the edge of 'the middle ice' was followed by eight months' detention in the ice by which they were beset in I\Ielville Bay, and which carried them back some 1200 geographical miles. The captain of the Fox, disappointed, but not disheartened, put back, as soon as the vessel was free, to Holsteinborg, in Greenland, in order to recruit and prepare for another attempt. After visiting Godhavn and Uppernivik, coaling and laying in all available necessaries for a vigorous prosecution of the search, Captain M'Clintock sailed from Uppernivik on the 4th June, and by the 6th the Fox was once more struggling amid the ice in Melville Bay. After much labour and danger, Cape York was reached on the 26th. On the 27th July, the entrance to Pond's Bay was reached, and it was here learned from a tribe of Esquimaux that two old wrecks, which had gone on shore many years ago, were lying four days' journey southward of Cape Bowen. Cape Riley was reached on the 11th August, and coaling there completed by the 1 5th. On the 17th, the Fox was sailing merrily down Peel Sound, and the Fish River was talked of as winter-quarters ; but Behring's Straits were found closed, and the only chance of reaching their hoped-for destina- tion was by way of Bellot Strait, about even the existence of which there was some doubt. This doubt was set at rest by Captain M'Chntock sailing through in his boat on the Slst August, but it was not until the 6th of the next month that the Fox succeeded in getting through. Finding, however, that he 21) SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. could not, in consequence of the rapid formation of the ice, push forward any further, Captain M'Clintock returned throug:h Bellot Strait, and on the 27th September 1858, the Fox was laid up for the winter in Port Kennedy. Then commenced extensive sledging operations, the parti- culars of which we have not space to detail, but which we may state were characterised by unusual sagacity and energy. The result was the discovery op the fate of Franklin. On the 6th May 1859, Lieutenant Hobson found at Cape Victoria a large cairn, which contained a paper with the long- ought infor- mation regarding the gallant souls who, fourteen years before, had set sail to these icy regions to unravel, if possible, the mystery of the North-west Passage. The record was as follows : * May 28, 1847. — H. M. ships JErcbus and Terror wintered in the ice in lat. 70° 6' N., long. 98° 23' W. * Having wintered in 1846-7 [a mistake for 1845-6] at Beechey Island, in lat. 74° 43' 28'' N., long. 91° 39' 15" W., after having ascended Wellington Channel to lat. 77°, and returned by the west side of CornwalUs Island. * Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition. * AH well. 2 officers and six men left the ships on * Party consisting of Monday 24 May 1847. Gm. Gore, Lieut. Chas. F. Des Vceux, Mate.^ paper were written the following On the margin of this melancholy words : ^ April 25, 1848. — H.M. ships Terror and Erebus were deserted on the 22d April, 5 leagues N.N.W. of this, having been beset since 12th September 1846. The officers and crews, consisting of 105 souls, under the command of Capt. F. R. M. Crozier, landed here in lat. 69° 37' 42" N., long. 98° 41' W. Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June 1847; and the total loss by deaths in the expedition has been to this date 9 officers and 15 men. * (Signed) F. R. M. Crozier, Cajjtain and Senior Officer. * (Signed) James Fitzjames, Captain, H.M.S. Erebus. * And start on to-morrow, 26th, for Back's Fish River.' In the body of the paper was a printed request, in six different languages, that the finder would send it to the secretary of the Admiralty in London. The Fox, having now successfully accomplished her mission, waited but for the breaking up of the ice to return to England. This occuiTed partially on the 7th and 8tli of August, fiy the 16th, Lancaster Sound had been entered; ten days later, the Fox was in Godhavn harbour ; and on the 23d September, safely within the docks at Blackwall, on the Thames. Besides the successful accomplishment of his mission, M'Clin- tock in this voyage established the existence of Bellot Strait 30 m the tion wit On of SEARCH FOR SIR JOHN FRAMKLIK. — *laid down,' to use the words of Sir R. Murchison, *the hitherto unknown coast-line of Boothia southwards from Bellot Strait to the Magnetic Pole — delineated the whole of King William's Island — and opened a new and capacious, though ice- choked channel, suspected before, but not proved, to exist, extending from Victoria Strait in a north-west direction to Melville or Parry Sound.' The voyage of M'Clintock has also established that the route of Sir John Franklin, during the two summers before his ships were beset, was ahke remarkable ' for its novelty, range, rapidity, and boldness,' as well as the additional fact, that Franklin was per- mitted before his death to become the first discoverer of the North-west Passage. That of the expedition there now remains no soul alive to claim, in his own and his comrades' names, the honour and reward justly due to them as the first discoverers, is the painful conclusion at which men best able to form an opinion on the subject have arrived. It is to be hoped, therefore, that no more valuable Uves will be Lazarded m further search. Britain has done her duty nobly to her lost sons; it is now for her to remember what is due to her living brave, who are of more value than a thousand mere relics, which, even if they do exist, and it were possible to find them, could add little of practical importance to what we now know about the icy north. Of a man who, hke Sir John Franklin, has of late years been an object of such universal interest and sympathy, a few biographical details will perhaps not prove uninteresting in conclusion. Sir John Franklin, Kt., K.R.G., K.C.H., D.C.L., F.R.S., was bom in 1786, at Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, and is brother of the late Sir W. Franklin, chief-justice of Madras. Destined from an early period to the naval profession, he was entered, at the age of fourteen, on board the PotyphemtiSy Captain Lawford, under whom he served as midshipman in the action off Copenhagen, 2d of April 1801. He then sailed with Captain Flinders, m H.M. sloop Investigator, on a voyage of discovery to New Holland, in the course of which he was wrecked on a coral-reef, near Cato Bank, on the 17th of Ausrust 1803. Two years afterwards, we find him taking part in the oattle of Trafalgar, on board the Bellerophon, where he was signal midshipman. On the 11th of February 1808, he received his commission as lieutenant, and was appointed to the Bedford, seventy-four, in which the royal family of Por- tugal was transported irom Lisbon to South America, at the time of the occupation of their country by the French. He was engaged in very arduous services during the expedition against New Orleans in 1814, when he was wounded. In the year 1818 commenced the brilliant series of arctic expeditions, originating in the sugges- tion of the late Sir John Barrow, secretary to the Admiralty, and with which Franklin's name has been long so honourably associated. On the 14th of Jmiuary 1818, he was appointed to the command of the Trent, in which he accompanied Captain Buchan of the mmm SEARCH POR SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. Dorothea on a voyage to Spitzbergen, of which Captain Beechey has published an interesting* account. On his return, la the autumn of the same year, he was invested with the command of an overland expedition from Hudson's Bay to the northern shores of America, for the purpose of examining the coasts of the Polar Sea to the eastward of the Copjjermine River, and fixin"* the latitude and longitude of the mouth of that stream, which haa been traced to the ocean in the previous century by Hearne, but regard ing the accuracy of whose report considerable doubt had been expressed. Franklin, in this voyage, established beyond doubt the existence of an extensive sea, washing the northern shores of America, which he traced in a common Indian canoe, such as is used by the voya^mrs of Hudson's Bay, for 1 iO miles to the east of the Coppermme. The return of the party from the sea was marked hj much hardship and suifering; and it was only after the loss ot more than half his crew, under the combined effect oi cold, hunger, and exhaustion, that Franklin was able to reach York Fort on Hudson's Bay, after an absence of three years; during which he had travelled by land and water a distance of 6560 miles. The details of this tragical journey are well known from Franklin's own narrative of the expedition, published shortly after his return to England. In 1825, he undertook a second expedition over the same country, having more especially for its object a co-operation with Captam Parry and Captam Beechey, in the task of ascertaining from opposite quarters, by Lancaster Sound and Behring's Strait, the existence of a north-west passage. During" this journey, the details of which will be found in Franklin^ Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in 1825-7, the coast of North America, from the mouth of the Coppermine River to within 160 miles of Point Barrow, compris- ing a distance of upwards of 1200 miles, was accurately surveyed, and added to our maps. For this important contribution to geo- graphical science, the French Geographical Society awarded FrankUn their annual gold medal, valued at 1200 francs. Shortly after his return to England from this journey, he received the honour of knighthood, and, in July 1830, had the degree of D.C.L. conferred upon him by the university of Oxford. After serving some years on Jie Mediterranean station, and taking an active part in the war of liberation in Greece, for his services in which he was rev/arded with the cross of the Redeemer of Greece, Sir John returned to England, and was created a K.C.H. on the 25th of January 18;i0. He was shortly after appointed governor of Van Diemen's Land, an office he continued to hold till within a short period of his leaving England on his last ill-fated expedition. 33 / 'i) 1 i It |f, "f),,,^.''^■•^•Vi '■■ ^W^^»^ W,i 'III ^1 l| II ^., ... " . ■ ■ , i; . • ■ ■ \» . ' ni '. , r •^?:v . •''« . ■ -.^ny.X- •i.:feft^>t 1-f V 1 ; .>'V^(v:^^ 4' ) ^ I'M ^r 'vS*