LAST VOYAGE OF FRANKLIN. 551 



awaiting an opportunity to enter Lancaster Sound. 

 They must have succeeded in this soon after ; for they 

 reached Beechey Island in time to explore Wellington 

 Channel before going into winter quarters. Franklin's 

 instructions from the Admiralty were to make to the 

 south-west from Cape Walker. Probably the ice blocked 

 his advance in that direction ; and so, Wellington Chan- 

 nel being open, he determined to lose no time, but to 

 attempt a northern passage around the Parry Islands. 

 Pressing then to the northward, he ascended Welling- 

 ton Channel as far as lat. 77 N. ; where, instead of 

 reaching, as he hoped, an open sea, he found, doubt- 

 less, like the expeditions which have since followed the 

 same track, a wide expanse of water, perfectly choked 

 up with ice, extending to the westward as far as the 

 eye could reach. Baffled thus, his only course was to 

 return to the southward. In so doing he passed along 

 the west side of Cornwallis Island, thus proving that a 

 channel exists between Cornwallis and Bathurst Islands, 

 and entered Barrow's Strait, at a point nearly due north 

 of Cape Walker, in which direction alone he was now 

 constrained to seek a route whereby to reach the sea 

 off the coast of North America. 



But by this time the autumn must have been well 

 advanced. The nights were getting rapidly longer. 

 Further progress that season was impossible. The Ere- 

 bus and Terror accordingly bore away for Beechey Isl- 

 and, and there Sir John Franklin and his companions 

 passed the winter of 1845-6. Three men died during 

 their stay at this place. But this was no unusual 

 degree of mortality, and there is no reason to suppose 

 that the party had to endure more than the ordinary 

 hardships of an Arctic winter. They were remarkably 

 well provided and organized ; and it was undoubtedly 

 with unabated ardor and in a high state of efficiency 



