INTRODUCTION. xlvii 



The reduced dimensions of this work have prevented me 

 from inserting, as in former editions, the letter of Lady 

 Franklin to Lord Palmerston, and the memorial also 

 addressed to the Prime Minister by all the leading men of 

 science then in London, strenuously advocating this final 

 effort. I will give one passage only from Lady Franklin's 

 letter above alluded to, and will conclude with a few touching 

 words from her appeal to the Admiralty : — ■ 



" I submit to your Lordship that this is a case of no 

 ordinary exigency. These 135 men of the 'Erebus' and 

 1 Terror ' (or perhaps I should rather say the greater part of 

 them, for we do not yet know that there are no survivors) 

 have laid down their lives after sufferings doubtless of 

 unexampled severity, in the service of their country, as truly 

 as if they had perished by the rifle, the cannon-ball, or the 

 bayonet. 



" Nay, more, by attaining the northern and already sur- 

 veyed coast of America, it is clear that they solved the 

 problem which was the object of their labours, or, in the 

 beautiful words of Sir John Richardson, that they ' forged 

 the last link of the North-West Passage with their lives.' 

 Surely, then, I may plead for such men that a careful search 

 be made for any possible survivor, that the bones of the 

 dead be sought for and gathered together, that their buried 

 records be unearthed or recovered from the hands of the 

 Esquimaux, and above all, that the last written words, so 

 precious to their bereaved families and friends, be saved 

 from destruction. 



" A mission so sacred is worthy of a Government which 

 has grudged and spared nothing for its heroic soldiers and 

 sailors in other fields of warfare, and will surely be ap- 

 proved by our gracious Queen, who overlooks none of her 



