318 TRACES OF FRANKLIN. 



and scraps of iron showed the armorers' working-place ; 

 and, along an old water-course, now chained up by 

 frost, several tubs, constructed of the ends of salt-meat 

 casks, left no doubt as to the washing-places of the men 

 of Franklin's squadron. Happening to cross a level 

 piece of ground, which as yet no one had lighted upon, 

 I was pleased to see a pair of cashmere gloves laid out 

 to dry, with two small stones on the palms to prevent 

 their blowing away ; they had been there since 1846. I 

 took them up carefully, as melancholy mementoes of 

 my missing friends. In another spot a flannel was 

 discovered ; and this, together with some things lying 

 about, would, in my ignorance of wintering in the Arctic 

 regions, have led me to suppose that there was consid- 

 erable haste displayed in the departure of the Erebus 

 and Terror from this spot, had not Captain Austin 

 assured me that there was nothing to ground such a 

 belief upon, and that, from experience, he could vouch 

 for these being nothing more than the ordinary traces 

 of a winter station ; and this opinion was fully borne 

 out by those officers who had, in the previous year, 

 wintered in Port Leopold, one of them asserting that 

 people left winter quarters too well pleased to escape, 

 to care much for a handful of shavings, an old coal-bag, 

 or a washing-tub." 



The most interesting traces of winter residence were 

 the graves of Franklin's three seamen. Each grave 

 was marked by an oaken head and foot board, and the 

 inscriptions were as follow : 



" Sacred to the memory of J. Torrington, who de- 

 parted this life January 1st, 1846, on board of H. M. S. 

 Terror, aged 20 years." 



" Sacred to the memory of J. Hartnell, A.B., of 

 H. M. S. Erebus, died- January 4th, 1846, aged 23 years 



