BZAECH FOR FRANKLIN. 249 



his journey to the southern extremity of the island, and 

 thereafter crossed over to Point Ogle and Montreal 

 Island, at the foot of the Great Fish River. A careful 

 examination of the latter, the last spot in which the 

 survivors of the last party had been seen by the natives, 

 yielded nothing to the seekers but a piece of a preserved 

 meat tin and some scraps of copper and iron hoops ; and 

 with much disappointment they again turned northwards 

 on the 19th of May. 



Five days afterwards they recrossed to King William's 

 Island, and folio \ved the windings of the western shore. 

 Here, on the 25th, " while slowly walking along on a 

 gravel ridge near the beach, which the winds kept 

 partially bare of snow," in all the solemn stillness of an 

 Arctic midnight, they came upon a human skeleton 

 stretched upon its face, with scraps of clothing lying 

 round, and appearing through the snow. The victim ap- 

 peared to have been a young man, slight build, and, from 

 his dress, a steward or officer's servant. A pocket-book 

 found close by afforded hopes of his identification, but 

 though every effort was made to decipher the hard frozen 

 leaves, nothing but a few detached sentences, in no way 

 bearing on the fate of the expedition, has been made out. 

 " It was a melancholy truth that the old woman spoke 

 when she said, ' they fell down, and died as they walked 

 along.' .... This poor man seems to have selected the 

 bare ridge top, as affording the least tiresome walking, 

 and to have fallen upon his face in the position in which 

 we found him." 



