214 REAPPEARANCE OF THE SUN. {February, 



Mount, about fifteen hundred feet above the sea-level, in 

 order to observe the sun at noon. On Mount Beaufort, 

 about two hundred feet above the floe, they were prepa- 

 ring the base of a very large cairn, or tower, to mark 

 our visit and place of wintering. A cheer from this party 

 afforded me the agreeable tidings that he was seen from 

 thence ; and had it been the Houses of Parliament in 

 flames, we could not have hastened up the Mount with 

 greater anxiety. There he was at last ! Many and very 

 dry questions were put by some of our humorous tars. 

 He appeared very much distorted, like an oblong grid- 

 iron, and but just showed his golden but intensely bright 

 rays over the outline of the distant southern hills. 



The preparations for ice travel are now assuming a 

 more active and decided character. The order to be 

 ready for service on the 15th of March has gone forth, the 

 crews are all told off, and the respective sledge banners 

 assigned, to be formally delivered at the general review. 

 My own peculiar ideas of the weather about the 10th of 

 March will prevent any decided motion before that pe- 

 riod. Many now are the discussions which take place 

 as to the possible routes which Sir J. Franklin may have 

 taken ; but I firmly believe, from what most of us have 

 witnessed, that, if he entered this Polar Sea " to follow 

 the pack," no ship ever constructed could withstand 

 its customary pressure. If he entered the Great Arctic 

 Ocean, or Polar Basin, there he might be drifted for ever ; 

 for it never can, in my mind, be at rest. These reflec- 

 tions however belong rather to the end of our cruise. If 

 he passed through Jones's or Smith's Sounds, it is pos- 

 sible we may have the happiness of meeting some of his 



