212 PIM ON ARCTIC SEARCH. [Nov. 24, 1856, 



travelling over a short extent of the American continent. He concluded that 

 Sir John Franklin would have followed the route taken by Sir John Ross in 

 escaping from Regent Inlet ; and this opinion induced him to think that he 

 was not to he found in the neighbourhood where relics had been met with. 

 He did not think, with many other authorities, tliat documents were to be 

 found. The documents, whatever they were, would have been carried to the 

 point where the last survivors rested. That was his opinion. The Esquimaux 

 told him that they had found eight or ten books where the dead bodies were ; 

 that those books had " markings" upon them, but they could not tell whether 

 they were in print or manuscript. On being asked what they had done with 

 them, they said they had given them to their children, who had torn them up 

 as playthings. This was such an answer as the Esquimaux would scarcely 

 have formed from mere invention ; it was just what children would do in this 

 country or anywhere else. But wherever the vessels were left, there it was 

 barely possible that remnants of books might be found ; still it was clear that 

 those books could give no account of the fate of the party seen near the Fish 

 River. There was only one point connected with the discoveries made by Mr. 

 Anderson, which at first appeared to him inconclusive, and that was the not 

 finding traces of bodies. Upon considering the subject, and consulting Sir 

 George Back's book, he came to the conclusion that they had been washed 

 away or covered up with mud. On the low ground where the party en- 

 camped, the tide flowed nearly over the whole of it, in gales of wind from 

 certain directions. There was a large river flowing down, and all who have 

 lived in the northern parts of America, know the effect of such a river filled 

 with ice flowing over a flat tract of country ; that it carried away remains 

 of much greater resistance than any that mere bodies could offer. He 

 might also refer to Captain Penny in confirmation of this view of the case. 

 When Captain Penny wintered up Northumberland Inlet, he found that 

 whales' carcases and bones, Avhich he had left nearly high and dry the previous 

 season, had been removed by a process he could not account for ; there was not 

 a bone to be seen. With respect to the expedition proposed by Lieutenant 

 Pim, he wished it might be carried out, because he thought that the informa- 

 tion obtained, if any ^ would confirm the statements he had himself brought 

 home. He would not at present say exactly what his plans were, but he 

 wished to complete the survey of the north coast of America, which he had 

 twice endeavoured to accomplish. It was said that the third time was lucky, 

 and he should probably try the third time. 



Mr. John Brown, f.r.g.s., wished to make an observation with reference 

 to Peel Sound. He would caution geographers against the adoption of it as a 

 Strait. It was not known to be a Strait. If they referred to the Blue Books 

 they would find that Lieut. Browne, of Austin and Ommaney's expedition, went 

 some distance down that Sound, and in his report pronounced it to all appear- 

 ance "rarely if ever open for navigation ;" in fact, he said, in parts it was frozen 

 to the bottom, A little farther south, at Creswell Bay, by reference to Sir 

 John Ross's trip down Prince Regent Inlet, they would find, looking west, 

 a range of mountains — the Union Mountains — these must be some distance to 

 the westward ; they were very high ; this again offered an obstacle to the sup- 

 position that Peel Sound was a strait. Again, farther south, at the western 

 entrance of Bellot Strait, Capt. Kennedy and Bellot describe a " con- 

 tinuous barrier of land" from Cape Bird round to the north and west, forming 

 a deep bay ; this would shut out all idea then of Peel Soimd being a strait. 

 He would be sorry to see another failure by a search in that direction, after 

 the many they had had. Probably the best place to put the ships would be 

 down Prince Regent Inlet, but not so far south as to be locked up as Ixoss 

 was, — say about Creswell Bay. But, after all, where, he would ask, did the 

 party said to have perished at Montreal Island come from ? He did not think 



