x PREFACE. 



original project \ the more so as he had then tested and 

 recognised the value of the services of Lieutenant (now 

 Commander) Hobson, his able second in command; of 

 Captain Allen Young, his generous volunteer associate; 1 

 and of Dr. Walker, his accomplished Surgeon. 



Despite, however, of these reassuring data, many an 

 advocate of this search was anxiously alive to the chance of 

 the failure of the venture of one unassisted yacht, which 

 after sundry mishaps was again starting to cross Baffin Bay, 

 with the foreknowledge that, when she reached the opposite 

 coast, the real difficulties of the enterprise were to commence. 



Any such misgivings were happily illusory ; and the reader 

 who follows M'Clintock across the "middle ice" of Baffin 

 Bay to Ponds Inlet, thence to Beechey Island, down a 

 portion of Peel Strait, and then through the hitherto un- 

 navigated waters of Bellot Strait in one summer season, may 

 reasonably expect the success which followed. 



Whilst the revelation obtained from the long -sought 

 records, which were discovered by Lieutenant Hobson, 

 is most satisfactory to those who speculated on the proba- 

 bility of Franklin having, in the first instance, tried to force 

 his way northwards through Wellington Channel (as we 

 now learn he did), those who held a different hypothesis, 

 namely, that he followed his instructions, which directed 

 him to the S.-W., may be amply satisfied that in the follow- 

 ing season the ships did pursue this southerly course till 

 they were finally beset in N. lat. 70 05V 



,/ 2 



1 Captain Allen Young, of the merchant marine, not only threw his 

 services into this cause, and subscribed munificently in furtherance of 

 the expedition, but, abandoning lucrative appointments in command, 

 generously accepted a subordinate post. 



2 For a resume of all the plans of research and the speculations of 

 seamen and geographers, see the interesting and most useful volume 



