June 23, 1856.] PROPOSED ARCTIC EXPEDITION. 95 



" 1 think either of three routes might be adopted, viz., one to King William 

 Land, by Behring Strait, as proposed by Captain Collinson ; another through 

 Hudson Strait to Repulse Bay ; and a third through Lancaster Sound to I'eel 

 Channel, or Prince Eegent Inlet. To the last I decidedly give the preference 

 for the following reason : — No vessel has yet reached so far as Captain Collin- 

 son's farthest in one season ; and to do it in two would expend the resources 

 and render the people unfit for searching by sledges (the only method). The 

 plan, then, would be to select a screw vessel of convenient size, and fortify her. 

 She would have a complement of seventy men, and be provisioned for two 

 years. I would require no tender or second vessel. She would proceed down 

 Peel Channel as far as possible ; but should Peel Channel be impracticable 

 (which I do not believe), then put the ship in the neighbourhood of Brentford 

 Bay in Prince Eegent Inlet. Once in a berth for winter, commence your tra- 

 velling operations. Much can be done in the same autumn, but the great jour- 

 neys must be taken in the following spring. Both sides of Peel Channel as high 

 as King William Land and Gateshead Island must be explored. If the ships or 

 their wrecks are not found there — and I think they will be — continue the search 

 up both sides of King William Land to Montreal Island, at the embouchure of 

 the Great Fish River. Another portion will yet remain to be examined. Between 

 Osborn's and Wynniatt's farthest there is a space of sixty miles. This may 

 be a strait, and may communicate with the head of Peel Channel, making an 

 island of Prince of Wales Land. It is possible that Franklin may have 

 passed to the south-west of Cape Walker with his vessels, and be blocked up 

 here. The exploration of these lines of coast by sledges could, I believe, be 

 satisfactorily done by the force I have named ; and there is a conviction in my 

 mind, amounting to certainty, that the fate of Franklin would be solved, and 

 the remains of his ships be found." 



6. The following memorial to Lord Palmerston was then read by SiR 

 Roderick Murchison, f.r.g.s. : — 



" London, June, 1856. 



" My Lord, — Impressed with the belief that Her Majesty's missing ships, 

 the * Erebus ' and ' Terror,' or their remains, are still frozen up at no great 

 distance from the spot whence certain relics of Sir John Franklin and his 

 crews were obtained by Dr. Rae, we whose names are undersigned, whether 

 men of science and others who have taken a deep interest in Arctic discovery, 

 or explorers who have been employed in the search for our lost countrymen, 

 beg earnestly to impress upon your Lordship the desirableness of sending out 

 an expedition to satisfy the honour of our country, and clear up a mystery 

 which has excited the sympathy of the civilised world. 



" This request is supported by many persons well versed in Arctic surveys, 

 who, seeing that the proposed expedition is to be directed to one limited area 

 only, are of opinion that the object is attainable and with little risk. 



*' We can scarcely believe that the British Government, which to its great 

 credit has made so many efforts in various directions to discover even the route 

 pursued by Franklin, should cease to prosecute research, now that the locality 

 has been clearly indicated' where the vessels or their remains must lie ; iu" 

 eluding, as we hope, records which will throw fresh light on Arctic geography, 

 and dispel the obscurity in which the voyage and fate of our countrymen 

 are still involved. 



" Although most persons have arrived at the conclusion that there can be no 

 survivors of Franklin's expedition, yet there are eminent men in our own 

 country, and in America, Avho hold a contrary opinion. Dr. Kane, of the 

 United States, for example, who has distinguished himself by pushing farther 

 to the north in the search for Franklin than any other individual, and to 

 whom the Royal Geographical Society has recently awarded its Founder's Gold 

 Medal, thus speaks : — 



