PREFACE. xvii 



interest in this intelligence — such as, indeed, they have 

 always evinced whenever the search for the missing navi- 

 gators has been brought under their consideration. The 

 immediate bestowal of the Arctic Medal upon all the officers 

 and men of the ' Fox ' is a pleasing proof that this interest is 

 well sustained. 



But these few introductory sentences must not be extended; 

 and I invite the reader at once to peruse the Journal of 

 M'Clintock, which will gratify every lover of truthful and 

 ardent research, though it will leave him impressed with the 

 sad belief that the end of the companions of Franklin has 

 been truly recorded by the native Esquimaux, who saw 

 these noble fellows " fall down and die as they walked along 

 the ice." 



Looking to the fact that little or no fresh food could have 

 been obtained by the crews of the ' Erebus ' and ' Terror ' 

 during their long imprisonment of twenty months, in so 

 frightfully sterile a region as that in which the ships were 

 abandoned — so sterile that it is even deserted by the 

 Esquimaux — and also to the want of sustenance in spring 

 at the mouth of the Back River, all the arctic naval authori- 

 ties with whom I have conversed coincide with M'Clintock 

 and his associates in the belief that none of the missing 

 navigators can be now living. 



Painful as is the realisation of this tragic event, let us 

 now dwell only on the reflection that, while the North-West 

 Passage has been solved by the heroic self-sacrifice of 

 Franklin, Crozier, Fitzjames, and their associates, the 

 searches after them, which are now terminated, have, at 

 a very small loss of life, not only added prodigiously to 



return to their homes, to the affectionate embrace of their families arid 

 friends, and the acknowledgments of a grateful nation." 



b 



