Nov. 24, 1856.] PIM ON ARCTIC SEARCH. 213 



they came down Peel Sound at all ; had they done so, we should have expected 

 to have found traces of them from its vicinity to Fury Beach. He thought 

 Franklin, in his endeavours to carry out his instructions, had attained large 

 westing from Capo Walker, as far west as 105° or 110*^, and had got entangled 

 by the heavy ice in the deep bay of Melville Sound, and that he endeavoured 

 to escape south by a strait which he (Mr. Brown) thought existed at tlie 

 bottom of Melville Sound, between it and Gateshead Island, in King William 

 Land. In 1854, he expressed to Captain Collinson, just then arrived, his opinion 

 as regarded that particular part being a Strait. The heavy fixed ice on the 

 eastern side of Melville Sound, found by Captain Ommaney and Captain 

 Osborn, the currents and other reasons, too long to be entered upon then, had 

 led him to that conclusion. Captain Collinson said, he " thought it probable, 

 and yet the thought never occurred to him when he was on the spot." He 

 mentioned this to prevent future failure. At any rate the fate of Franklin 

 and his followers could not rest where it was, and he thought if they 

 went down Prince Regent Inlet, and then crossed over as Kennedy and 

 Bellot did, and in the direction he (Mr. Brown) had indicated, that they might 

 obtain traces of the relics at least, of the long absent expedition. The way 

 by Behring Strait was an excellent one, but he feared it took too long a 

 time from England. 



Captain Maguire, r.n., said, he had been to Behring Strait four times, and 

 as to the possibility of communicating with the mouth of Back River by the 

 western route, he might state that he had been round Point Barrow three 

 times, and he thought it was a navigation which might be undertaken without 

 the slightest danger. Captain Collinson was of the same opinion. The ad- 

 vantages of the western route were threefold : 1st, the certainty of the ships 

 arriving at the spot where the search has to be made ; 2nd, in the event of 

 any accident occurring to the vessel, the crew will be sure to reach the Hudson 

 Bay settlements ; 3rdly, that a travelling party (coming from. the east) could 

 not remain sufficiently long upon the spot so as to render the search complete 

 and final. By this route, notice of the ship's progress can be conveyed by the Rat 

 Indians from the Colville, and from Barter Island to Fort Youcon, and her 

 safe arrival at her destination can be made known in England by the January 

 following. Thus there would be no anxiety with regard to her safety. A 

 vessel could get round by September ; but by the eastern route it would be 

 the spring following, before parties could reach there by travelling. This was 

 a point of some importance, because information could not be got from the 

 Esquimaux in a day or two. It took weeks, and it was very difficult to get 

 correct information from them. By the western route, the passage from Eng- 

 land to the mouth of Back River, could be undertaken with very little chance 

 of stoppage. Captain Collinson had made the passage in one year, and Captain 

 M'Clure in another, and they each could have got there by the month of Sep- 

 tember. A ship having arrived there, it would be very easy in the following 

 spring, when the crews would not be employed about anything else, to try 

 and find a way out by the eastward instead of returning as they went. But 

 ships going in by the east, did not know how far they could get, and it was 

 well known that Arctic travelling was a very laborious thing. People arriving 

 at a place after a long journey, were not in a state to make a search with the 

 same vigour they would exert if they were quite fresh. 



Sir Roderick Murchison said, it was interesting to find that the remarks 

 made by Lieut. Pim had been confirmed by so experienced an Arctic navi- 

 gator as Captain Maguire, whose observations were quite in unison with 

 those of Captain Collinson — both of these officers who had " gone and done the 

 thing." The public must therefore not imagine that the search that the me- 

 morialists and Lieut. Pim advocated, was attended by those dangers which 

 were connected with former indefinite searches. With reference to the cha- 



