Jan. 28, 1856.] FINDLAY. 25 



mouth of Peel Sound had been well examined by Lieut. Browne and Sir 

 James Ross ; and if the boats from deserted ships had touched on either 

 side, some traces would have been found. The discovery of the shovel 

 belonging, as he supposed, to the ship's forge, convinced him that the 

 ship itself could not be far off, and therefore he had changed his former 

 opinion that the expedition went down Prince Regent's Inlet, and con- 

 cluded that one vessel at least must be near the mouth of Back River. 



He thought the author of the paper had not taken the changes of the 

 seasons sufficiently into consideration ; his hypothesis involved an open 

 season. In some cases the ice had been known to travel north ; portions 

 of the ' Breadalbane ' transport, nipped to the eastward of Beechey Island 

 on the 22nd of August, were found alongside of the ' Assistance,' 52 

 miles N. of Beechey Island, on the 5th of September, and the ice had 

 travelled as far as Hamilton Island. The effect of the main current 

 was to force some things up Wellington Channel and press others on 

 the E. shore. He thought the diagram proved the vessels were not 

 the * Erebus ' and ' Terror ;' he felt sure the spars would not have 

 been left standing, and indeed he had private information before leaving 

 England that he need not make search for those vessels on the banks. 

 Icebergs, when they got on the tail of the banks, under the influence 

 of increased temperature, would expand and explode, turn into sludge, 

 and soon disappear. 



Dr. Rae differed from Sir E. Belcher. He believed that the ships 

 had been abandoned to the N. of Back River, although the natives 

 had not seen them, and saw no reason to doubt the information given 

 by the Esquimaux ; thirty of them had been questioned ; they pointed 

 out the place where Sir J. Ross had wintered, and near the N. point 

 of King William Land as the spot where they saw the party dragging 

 sledges and boat ; that they had afterwards followed their tracks to the 

 W. of an island that lay to the N. of a large river, where they had turned 

 to the rising sun between the shore and the island, towards the mouth 

 of the river, on low flat ground : there they had found bodies, and a boat 

 turned over, painted white, — and one or two tents ; and thought that 

 some had lived until the wild fowl appeared. These Esquimaux he 

 had known in 1846-7. They had also found books which had been 

 given to the children, and toifH up by them. One leaf had been pre- 

 served, and was now in Greenwich Hospital with the other relics. 



The truth or falsehood of Esquimaux stories was easily to be ascer- 

 tained by cross-examination. Their knowledge of the geography of 

 their country had been remarked by every one. Of this he would give 

 two instances. The country he (Dr. Rae) had surveyed had been 

 accurately described to Sir E. Parry when 300 miles off, and on his 

 return to Repulse Bay they had described to him the position of caches 

 opened by him at nearly as great a distance from that place, which he 

 knew to be the same from their contents and appearance. 



D 



