558 LAST VOYAGE OF FRANKLIN. 



about near the cairn at Point Victory, we know that 

 before starting they threw away everything that could 

 possibly be spared, to lighten their burden. Forty 

 days' provision is the utmost amount that they could 

 have carried upon their sledges, in addition to their 

 other equipments. The country at that season afforded 

 no game ; but, as the Great Fish River is known not to 

 open before August, it is supposed that they hoped to 

 find deer and salmon, when they reached the main land, 

 with which to sustain themselves during the intervening 

 time. It was probably the absolute necessity of pro- 

 cming fresh provisions- -for salted meat is simply poi- 

 son to men afflicted with scurvy that induced them 

 to abandon the ships at so early a period of the year. 



The boat found by Lieut. Hobson, about sixty-five 

 miles from the ships, with her bow turned northward, 

 proves that some portion of the party attempted a 

 return. Capt. M'Clintock thinks that they were return- 

 ing for more provisions. Lieut. Sherrard Osborne gives 

 a different explanation. He thinks that, as the men 

 toiled slowly along, growing weaker from day to day, 

 under the fearful labor of dragging such ponderous 

 sledges and boats, as well as their disabled comrades, 

 through the deep snow and over rugged ice, it became 

 apparent that, if any were to be saved, there must be a 

 division of the party, and that the weak and disabled 

 must stay behind. Those who were too weak to go on 

 accordingly turned back with this boat. The skeletons 

 found in her, and the bones said to have been found by 

 wandering Esquimaux on board one of the ships, are, 

 upon this theory, the remnants of the sick and weak, 

 who must have formed a large proportion of the original 

 party that landed at Point Victory. Either of these 

 explanations is probable enough ; but we only know, 

 after all, that a portion of the party turned back, for 



