May 25, 1857.] FINAL ARCTIC SEARCH. 473 



currents are delineated, has sustained tlie idea whicli I once thonght 

 possible, but aftei-wards abandoned, that the two ships seen floating 

 on an iceberg on the Newfoundland Banks may have been the 

 Erebus and Terror. The same author has recently published an 

 Appendix, in which, supporting his view by letters from parties 

 well acquainted with the seaman who made the observation, he also 

 gives a letter from Captain Ommaney, expressing his concurrence 

 in the same view. With every respect for the opinions of such 

 contemporaries, I cannot yet admit, that the vessels seen floating 

 southwards may have been the Erebus and Terror ; nor can I see 

 why they m.a,j not have been other vessels. But even if it be granted 

 that the question is to be thus disposed of as respects the ships, it is 

 consolatory to find, that both Captain Ommaney and Mr. Eindlay 

 strongly advocate a renewed search, to dispel our ignorance of the 

 only region, whose exploration can solve the great Franklin mystery. 

 Whatever may be thought of Mr. Findlay's view of Peel Sound being 

 closed to the south, his suggestion, that the unexplored tract between 

 the south end of Melville Sound and Victoria Strait is the area, which 

 ought specially to be searched, is entitled to the serious consideration 

 of all those who continue, like myself, to take a lively interest in the 

 solution of this problem, and who are bent upon ascertaining, by 

 positive survey, whether no traces of the ships or their records can 

 be found, and also to satisfy us that no survivors are eking out their 

 existence among the Esquimaux. On this last point I can never 

 forget what I heard from the lips of Captain Hartstene himself. 

 After our Sovereign had in December last visited the Eesolute, that 

 token of the good- will of the American people, the British Queen 

 inquired, with the right feeling which is her characteristic, if he 

 thought that any of her poor sailors might be still alive, and the 

 gallant officer assured Her Majesty that, in his opinion, such might 

 well be the case. 



A strong tendency towards this belief, has indeed gained much 

 ground since the publication of the admirable volumes of Dr. Kane. 

 One passage from that work has been already cited in the brief tri- 

 bute I have paid to the eminent man, who, when he was himself in 

 dire want and had unexpectedly procured some fresh supplies of 

 animals, thus exclaims : " How can my thoughts turn despairingly 

 to poor Franklin and his crew ? . . . . Can they have sur- 

 vived ? No man can answer with certainty, but no man, without pre- 

 sumption, can answer in the negative.^' . . . . "Of the one hundred 

 and thirty-six picked men of Sir John Franklin in 1 846, Northern 



