Jan. 28, 1856.] ANDERSON. FINDLAY. 21 



Fifth Meeting, January 28, 1856. 



Rear- Admiral F. W. BEECHEY, President, in the Chair. 



The Marquis of Lansdowne^i^.G,', Major Vincent Eyre ; F.Dillon 

 Croker ; John Anthony Rucker ; W. F. de Gex ; and H. JR. Williams, 

 Esqrs., were elected Fellotvs. 



The Papers read were — 

 1. Copy of a Letter from Chief Factor James Anderson to Sir 



George Simpson, Governor-in- Chief of Rupert Land, dated Fort 



Resolution, September 17, 1855. 



Communicated by the Hudson Bay Company. 



After enumerating the almost insurmountable difficulties experienced 

 during the journey, owing to the ice and other obstructions, and giving 

 an account of the twenty-five portages over which the expedition had 

 to pass, Mr. Anderson announced that his party had reached Montreal 

 Island, in the neighbourhood of which undoubted traces of Franklin's 

 people had been found, namely, tin oval boilers, bars of iron, chain- 

 hooks, an iron shovel, and other articles in the possession of the 

 Esquimaux. He also learnt by signs, that they had belonged to white 

 men who had arrived with a boat, and who had died of starvation. He 

 could find no traces of papers or books. At another place some pieces 

 of wood were found, on one of which was cut " Stanley, surgeon of 

 Erebus." Some chips were also discovered, on one of which was the 

 word Terror. There was no Esquimaux interpreter in Mr. Anderson's 

 party. 



The region visited is described as most inhospitable ; there is no 

 wood ; few or no deer pass by ; while wind and rain are almost con- 

 stant : so that in the opinion of the author no party could possibly 

 pass a winter there, and any papers or books would speedily be destroyed 

 by the weather or ice. 



In reply to a question from the Chair as to the cause of Mr. Ander- 

 son being without an interpreter. Dr. Rae explained that the interpreter 

 had been left by him in 1854 at Fort Churchill, and was retained there 

 in the pay of the Company, but in the winter, longing to see his friends, 

 he left, and did not return in time for the express. An old man was 

 sent in his place, but the difficulties of the journey prevented his 

 reaching the expedition, and no other could be obtained. 



2. A Paper " On the probable Course pursued by Sir John Franklin^ s 

 Expedition'' By A. G. Findlay, f.r.g.s. 

 Allusion was made to a former paper read by him before the British 

 Association, which showed that there was a constant circulation of the 



