SEAKCH FOB FRANKLIN. 253 



outh-west, and eventually reached within twelve miles 

 of the north extreme of King William's Land, when their 

 progress was arrested by the approaching winter of 

 1846-7. That winter appears to have passed without 

 any serious loss of life ; and when in the spring Lieu- 

 tenant Gore leaves with a party for some especial 

 purpose, and very probably to connect the unknown 

 coast-line of King William's Land between Point Victory 

 and Cape Herschel, those on board the Erebus and Terror 

 were 'ail wail,' and the gallant Franklin still com- 

 manded." 



But, alas ! round the margin of the paper upon which 

 Lieutenant Gore, in 1847, wrote those words of hope 

 and promise, a sad and touching postscript had been 

 added by another hand on the 28th April in the following 

 year. 



'* There is some additional marginal information relative 

 to the transfer of the document to its present position 

 (viz., the site of Sir James Ross's pillar) from a spot four 

 miles to the northward, near Point Victory, where it had 

 been originally deposited by the late Commander Gore. 

 This little word late shows us that he too, within the 

 twelvemonth, had passed away. 



" In the short space of twelve months how mournful 

 had become the history of Franklin's expedition, how 

 changed from the cheerful ' all well ' of Graham Gore ! 

 The spring of 1847 found them within 90 miles of the 

 known sea off the coast of America ; and to men who 

 had already, in two seasons, sailed over 500 miles of 



