May 28, I860.] ARCTIC RESEARCHES. 167 



navigation for the lasl^ forty years which has not given a helping 

 hand to the solution of this great problem ; but, in speaking of the 

 amount of discovery, it is but fair to state that, out of the 2060 

 miles which intervene between the discoveries of Baffin from the 

 side of the Atlantic, and those of Cook from the Pacific — in other 

 words, the north-west passage between the two oceans — no less than 

 1260 miles were explored and navigated under the command of Sir 

 J. Franklin himself, either by boat or ship. In his last fatal expe- 

 dition, upwards of 560 miles of unknown waters were navigated by 

 the Erebus and Terror^ which vessels, previously to taking up their 

 quarters at Beechey Island for the first winter, pushed their 

 explorations as far north as 77° n. lat., when, having satisfied them- 

 selves of the impossibility of finding a passage in that direction, 

 they returned to Beechey Island by a channel to the west of Corn- 

 wallis Island, and in the following summer proceeded in the direct 

 execution of their mission by taking a southerly course towards 

 the coast of America, in order, if possible, to obtain a connection 

 with those already known waters extending from Back Eiver to 

 Bering Strait. In the month of September, 1846, they attained a 

 position off the north-west point of King William Island, or, as the 

 Admiralty chart of that day represented it. King William Land, 

 it being supposed to form part of the continent. They were here 

 distant but 90 miles from the channel which had, many years 

 before, been navigated along the coast of North America, and which 

 it was Franklin^ s object to enter. In the following spring, before the 

 navigation was open, a party was detached" from the ship to follow 

 the coast-line of King William Land to Cape Herschel, and thus con- 

 nect the recent discoveries with those of former years. A marginal 

 note of later date, on the same document, records the death of Sir J. 

 Franklin in June, 1847, and the abandonment of the ships in April, 

 1848, by the survivors, 105 in all, who, under the command of 

 Captains Crozier and Fitzjames, commenced their retreat on the 

 Back Eiver. Beyond the last-named date we have no written evi- 

 dence of their proceedings. They must have been in a state of 

 great debility and disease, dropping one after the other, though 

 some were able to reach as far as Montreal Island in the estuary of 

 the Back River, where remains of clothing and equipment were 

 found, but no skeletons, as upon King William Island. 



The labours of Captain M'Clintock and his companions have not 

 only procured for us this authentic information as to the proceedings 

 of the Franklin Expedition, but have added materially to our geo- 



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