﻿18 SEARCHING EXPEDITIONS. 1847. 



pedition Avould make either for Lancaster Sound 

 to meet the whalers, or Mackenzie River to seek 

 relief at the Hudson's Bay posts, as they judged 

 either of these places most easy of attainment. 



After deliberately weighing these and other sug- 

 gestions, and fully considering the numerous plans 

 submitted to them, the Admiralty determined that, 

 if no intelligence of the missing ships arrived by 

 the close of autumn, 1847, they would send out 

 three several searching expeditions — one to Lan- 

 caster Sound, another down the Mackenzie River, 

 and the third to Beering's Straits. 



The object of the first, and the most important 

 of the three, was to follow up the route supposed 

 to have been pursued by Sir John Franklin ; and, 

 by searching diligently for any signal-posts he 

 might have erected, to trace him out, and carry 

 the required relief to his exhausted crews. Sir 

 James Clark Ross was appointed to the command 

 of this expedition, consisting of the " Enterprise " 

 and " Investigator ;" and, as his plan of proceeding 

 bears upon my own instructions, I give it at 

 length : — 



" As vessels destined to follow the track of the expe- 

 dition must necessarily encounter the same difficulties, and 

 be liable to the same severe pressure from the great body 

 of the ice they must pass through in their way to Lan- 

 caster Sound, it is desirable that two ships, of not less 



