CHAPTER XIII. 



OPINIONS IN REGARD TO THE FATE OF FRANKLIN. CLIMATE. RESOURCEi 



OP GAME. REWARDS OFFERED. REPORTS FROM WHALERS. RK- 



NEWED SEARCHES. COLLINSON AND M'CLURE. RAfi's INSTRUCTIONS. 



OTHER EXPEDITIONS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE. GRINNELL's EXPEDI- 

 TION. MEETING IN THE ARCTIC SEAS. TRACES OF FRANKLIN. 



GRAVES. SLEDGING PARTIES. RETURN HOME. 



IT was the opinion of Sir John Richardson, the former 

 companion of Franklin, that his plans were to shape his 

 course, in the first instance, for the neighborhood of 

 Cape Walker, and to push to the westward in that 

 parallel ; or, if that could not be accomplished, to make 

 his way southwards, to the channel discovered on the 

 north coast of the continent, and so on to Behring's 

 Strait ; failing success in that quarter, he meant to 

 retrace his course to Wellington Sound, and attempt a 

 passage northwards of Parry's Islands ; and if foiled 

 there also, to descend Regent's Inlet, and seek the 

 passage along the coast discovered by Messrs. Dease 

 and Simpson 



Captain Fitzjames, the second in command under Sir 

 John Franklin, was much inclined to try the passage 

 northward of Parry's Islands ; and he would, no doubt, 

 endeavor to persuade Sir John to pursue this course, if 

 they failed to the southward. In a private letter to 

 Sir John Barrow, dated January, 1845, Fitzjames writes : 

 " It does not appear clear to me what led Parry down 

 Prince Regent Inlet, after having got as far as Melville 

 Island before. The north-west passage is certainly to 



