CHAPTER III. 



ANXIETY IW REGARD TO FRANKLIN AND HIS SHIPS. THREE EXPEDI- 

 TIONS OP SEARCH SENT OUT. KELLETT AND MOORED EXPEDITION BT 



BEHRING'S STRAIT. ITS RETURN. RICHARDSON'S AND RAE'S LAND 

 EXPLORATIONS. SIR J. C. ROSS'S EXPEDITION BY LANCASTER SOUND. 



THE EXPLORERS RETURN UNSUCCESSFUL. LIEUT. PULLEN, FROM THB 



BEHRING STRAIT EXPEDITION, ASCENDS THE MACKENZIE. RETURN TO 



THE ARCTIC SEA AND BACK. THE SEASON OF 1850. PULLEN 'S ARRI- 

 VAL IN ENGLAND. 



TOWARD the end of the year 1847, anxiety began to 

 be felt in regard to the fate of Franklin and his men. 

 Not a word had been heard from them since they had 

 been seen by the Prince of Wales whaler ; and appre- 

 hension became general that they had shared a similar 

 fate to the Fury of Sir Edward Parry, or the Victory of 

 Sir John Ross. The government, therefore, promptly 

 determined to send three expeditions in search of them. 

 The first was a marine expedition, by way of Beh- 

 ring's Strait, to be conducted by Captain Henry Kellett, 

 of the ship Herald, of twenty-six guns, then in the 

 Pacific, aided by Commander Thomas E. L. Moore, in 

 the Plover, surveying vessel ; and this was designed 

 to relieve Sir John Franklin and his companions in 

 the event of their having gone through the north-west 

 passage, and stuck fast at some advanced point of the 

 Polar Sea. The second was an overland and boat expe- 

 dition, to be conducted by Sir John Richardson, to 

 descend the Mackenzie River, and to examine the coast 

 eastward to the Coppermine ; and this was designed to 

 afford relief in the event of the adventurers having 



