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CHAPTER VIII. 



Import of Instructions. Further Search impossible. Leaving the 

 ' Talbot.' Dr. Rae's Information. Finds undeniable Traces. 

 Dissection of Report. State of the Bodies. The Quantity of Relics. 

 List of Articles found. Opinion on the Information. Impressions 

 of 1850-1852. Official Letter. Captain Collinson's Discoveries. 

 Opinion on the North-west Passage. Rewards due for Discovery. 



I COME therefore simply to the Instructions. What were 

 they founded on? The report of a Committee on the 

 proceedings of my predecessor, and in that document 

 the following occurs (paragraph 16) : "If, on the other 

 hand, Wellington Strait is found open and navigable on 

 the arrival of the Expedition, in the summer of 1852, we 

 think one of the sailing ships, with a steamer, might 

 proceed at once to take advantage of this opportunity, 

 if the officer commanding should judge such a measure 

 safe and prudent, and be thus placed in winter quarters 

 in a more favourable position for commencing the land 

 search in the spring of 1853, but with the most strict 

 injunctions not to advance to such a distance as to en- 

 danger their return to the depot, or their communication 

 with it that year ; and it should be enjoined with equal 

 strictness, that, in the event of any irreparable disaster to 



VOL. II. II 



