NOV. 14, 1859.] IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 3 



points reached by Lieutenants Osbom and Browne in 1851, and 

 also from Bellot Strait northwards to Sir J. Ross's farthest, in 

 1849, but found no trace of the lost expedition. In order to com- 

 plete these extensive discoveries he sent back four out of his five 

 companions, and, with one seaman and a few dogs, continued his 

 explorations for forty days longer. 



Captain M'Clintock searched the eastern shores of King William 

 Land and found Esquimaux who were able to afford precise intelli- 

 gence. They had seen the white men of Franklin's party upon their 

 march, and had visited the abandoned ship, but stated that very 

 little remained of it above water when they last saw it, about a 

 year since. Captain M'Clintock pushed on until his route over- 

 lapped that of Anderson and Stewart in 1855 and, as it afterwards 

 proved, he travelled there at precisely the same season, viz., May, 

 that the crews of Franklin's party were on their march, conse- 

 quently he saw the country exactly as they saw it, and had the best 

 opportunity of discovering cairns or other remains left by them. 

 Little, however, was to be found. Simpson's Cairn, on Cape Herschel, 

 was examined; it appeared to have been disturbed, and it was 

 believed that records had been deposited there by Franklin's party, 

 but had been subsequently removed by the Esquimaux. A skeleton 

 was also passed, with papers and clothing that identified him as a 

 sailor. 



Lieutenant Hobson was more successful in his search. He 

 soon came to unequivocal traces of the lost expedition. A large 

 cairn with tents, blankets, and other remains of a station, was dis- 

 covered, but no papers could be found. Subsequently he passed 

 other cairns, and latterly one which contained a record of the party, 

 secured in a tin case. By it we have been informed that in May, 

 1847, all was well on board the Erebus and Terror ; that, in the year 

 1845, the same year in which they left England, they ascended 

 Wellington Channel to lat. 77°, and returned southward by the 

 west of Comwallis Island, and spent their first winter at Beechey 

 Island. On the 12th Sept., 1846, they were beset in lat. 70° 5', long. 

 98° 23', and here, in the packed ice, about 15 miles off the N.W. 

 shore of King William Island, they passed their second winter. 

 Lieutenant Gore and Mr. des Vocux, with a party of six men, landed 

 and deposited the above record, and another exactly similar, which 

 Lieutenant Hobson found in a small cairn one day's march farther 

 south. Round the margin of the former of these documents much 

 additional information was given, under date of the 25th of April, 

 1848. 



The ships, it states, were abandoned on the 22nd of April, 1848, 



B 2 



