Nov. 14, 1859.] IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 9 



toria Strait. For we find in Rae's Journal that he waited at Admiralty Inlet, 

 I think, two days, in the hope of being able to reach the caim erected by 

 Sir J. Ross, then only 40 miles east of him.* 



Lastly, as to the probable state of the M'Clintock Channel, he could not 

 help coming to the conclusion that all the evidence, particularly that of Osborn, 

 leads us to infer that the region of M'Clintock Channel is at times open, 

 and his sledge journal, during Austin's expedition, tends to confirm motion of 

 the ice. Thus, we may observe all the heavy ice was noticed near Osborn's 

 farthest. The pressed up ice clearly proved outside motion. He noticed what 

 he mistook for loom of land : its bearing had changed the next day. To my 

 mind, he saw only the water sky, which does present at a distance a dull 

 bluish loom like land. The gravel banks also observed off shore might be 

 attributed to up-turned floe, which carried on it the gravel of the bottom where 

 it had grounded. The only measured depth near the shore which he had seen 

 recorded was 7 fathoms ; but no vessels, seeing such pressed up ice near the 

 shore, would attempt to close on such inevitable danger. 



Captain R. Collinson, v.p.k.g.s,, said, — Among the important results 

 brought home by Captain M'Clintock is the interesting fact, that a discrepancy 

 occurs in accounting for the crews of the Erehus and Terror, and nine men are still 

 unaccounted for. Had he been in the position of Captain Crozier at the end of 

 the second year, he should have been prompted to send a boat to the Mackenzie 

 River to warn the Hudson Bay Company that assistance was wanted, and this 

 may afford a clue to the grave at Point "Warren. This view is still further 

 borne out by the piece of wood he picked up on the Finlayson Islands. The 

 general set of the current through the Dolphin and Union Strait being to the 

 eastward, there is every probability that it was either left on the island itself 

 or dropped to the westward of it. 



Twice previous to the finding of this piece of wood he visited the Finlayson 

 Islands and encamped within 20 feet of the spot where it was found, a fact 

 which will show how important it is in order to afford a complete elucidation 

 of the mystery attending the fate of our countrymen, that the search should be 

 made when the snow has melted, in the months of July, August, and 

 September. 



He now came to the abandonment of the ships by the crews : at that period 

 travelling with sledges had not been brought to anything like the perfection 

 it has since attained, and when he considered that sick men and boats had to 

 be dragged, he felt assured that they could not have carried with them more 

 than forty days' provision, and presuming that they would make for the 

 mouth of the Great Fish River, where Sir Gr. Back had described the fish as 

 plentiful, they would arrive before the ice had melted. In Cambridge Bay, in 

 1853, fish were not caught until the second week in July ; there is, therefore, 

 every reason to suppose that the provisions being exhausted, the retreating 

 party perished here. 



With the object of his search so completely within his grasp, it was a source 

 of regret that he did not succeed in attaining it. He has, however, the satis- 

 faction to think that the laurel has fallen to the right crown, and that he who 

 at an early stage of the search started on his sleigh, with the motto " Perse- 

 vere to the end," had, after six winters of arduous toil, worthily won the prize. 

 It had also afforded a still further exposition of that determined constancy, 

 that high-souled perseverance which had animated Lady Franklin to continue 



* Ext. — " I determined to run back a few miles (in a boat) to a safer harbour, 

 where we could wait any favourable change in the wind and ice, and also if an 

 opportunity offered make an attempt, by getting under the lee of Admiralty 

 Island, to cross over to Sir James Ross's Point Franklin, only forty miles distant." 

 There the document was found ! 



