May, 1859. POINT FRANKLIN. 255 



The same reasons which may be assigned for the return 

 of this detachment from the main body (which, it will be 

 remembered, had started under the command of Captain 

 Crozier for the Great Fish River) will also serve to account 

 for the party not having come back to their boat. In both 

 instances they appear to have greatly overrated their 

 strength, and the distance they could travel in a given time. 



Taking this view of the case, we can understand why 

 their provisions would not have lasted them for anything 

 like the distance they required to travel ; and why they 

 would be obliged to send back to the ships for more, first 

 taking from the detached party all provisions they could 

 possibly spare. Whether all or any of the remainder of this 

 detached party ever reached their ships is uncertain ; all we 

 know is, that they did not revisit the boat, otherwise more 

 skeletons would probably have been found in its neighbour- 

 hood ; the Esquimaux report is, that there was no one alive 

 in the ship when she drifted on shore, and that they found 

 but one human body on board of her. 



After leaving the boat we followed an irregular coast-line 

 to the N. and N.W., up to a very prominent cape, which is 

 probably the extreme of land seen from Point Victory by 

 Sir James Ross, and named by him Point Franklin, which 

 name, as a cape, it still retains. 



I need hardly say that throughout the whole of my journey 

 along the shores of King William's Land, we all kept a most 

 vigilant look-out for any appearance of the stranded ship 

 spoken of by the natives ; but our search for her was utterly 

 fruitless. 



