PREFACE 



TO THE FIRST EDITION. 

 By SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON, Bart., F.R.S. 



PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, 

 &C. &>C. &*C. 



The following narrative of the bold adventure which has 

 successfully revealed the last discoveries and the fate of 

 Franklin is published at the request of the friends of that 

 illustrious navigator. The gallant M'Clintock, when he 

 penned his journal amid the arctic ices, had no idea what- 

 ever of publishing it ; and yet there can be no doubt that 

 the reader will peruse with the deepest interest the simple 

 tale of how, in a little vessel of 170 tons burthen, he and his 

 well-chosen companions have cleared up this great mystery. 



To the honour of the British nation, and also, let it be 

 said, to that of the United States of America, many have 

 been the efforts made to discover the route followed by our 

 missing explorers. The highly deserving men who have so 

 zealously searched the arctic seas and lands in this cause 

 must now rejoice that, after all their anxious toils, the merit 

 of rescuing from the frozen North the record of the last 

 days of Franklin has fallen to the share of his noble-minded 

 widow. 



Lady Franklin has, indeed, well shown what a devoted 

 and true-hearted Englishwoman can accomplish. The 

 moment that relics of the expedition commanded by her 

 husband were brought home (in 1854) by Rae, and that she 



