472 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS. [May 25, 1857. 



tlie relics were discovered, and where the Esquimaux reported, that 

 some of the wanderers were last seen ? I regret to say that not- 

 withstanding the kind consideration of the Prime Minister, and the 

 hopes we were led to entertain, the limited search asked for has been 

 withheld, and Lady Franklin has once more been thrown upon her 

 own resources, to terminate that inquiry which my friends and 

 associates felt it to be the duty of the nation to complete. 



The intense feeling displayed on this subject by our kinsmen the 

 Americans, has been demonstrated by the strenuous efforts made 

 by their Government as well as by Mr. Grinnell. In 1853 I rejoiced 

 with you in learning, that this liberal philanthropist was about to 

 renew with his own funds another Franklin search, and that Kane 

 was about to sail on such a voyage. That noble young man, as I 

 have already shown, extended far the northern limits of Smith 

 Sound, at the head of Baffin Bay, and opened out headlands, gla- 

 ciers, and frozen seas, hitherto unknown to us. This search and 

 all the other trying endeavours were, we now know, made in wrong 

 directions. 



If, for example, CoUinson had not made extraordinary efforts to 

 force his way to the north-east through packs of ice, but had simply 

 confined his voyage to the channel along the north coast of America, 

 which he found so easy to follow, and by which he brought his ship 

 safely back, and had known that the tract near King William's 

 Land and the mouth of the Back Eiver, the edges of which he actually 

 touched, formed the goal we now desire to reach, the problem would 

 have been for ever solved by him. If, then, there is no obstacle 

 to a renewal of the western route, by Behring Strait and the north 

 coast of America, what difficulty can there be in reaching the north- 

 eastern edge of the limited area sacred to the memory of Franklin, 

 by a ship proceeding to Batty Bay or Wager Eiver, places which 

 our vessels have already reached, and whence they have also 

 returned unscathed ? The instructions of Lady Franklin to Capt. 

 Kennedy, the Commander of one of her private expeditions, were, 

 that on reaching that tract where poor Bellot has left his name, a 

 search was to be made south-westwards ; and had the suggestion of 

 that clear-sighted woman been followed, she would really have been 

 the first to discover, by her own efforts, the remnants of her husband's 

 expedition. 



An ingenious essay, by Mr. Findlay, on the probable course pur- 

 sued by Sir John Franklin's expedition, which was published in the 

 last volume of our Journal, and in which the directions of the Arctic 



