June, 1859. NAVIGABLE N.W. PASSAGE. 267 



towards the Great Fish River, and from thence to a winter- 

 ing position on Victoria Land. Perhaps some future 

 voyager, profiting by the experience of Franklin, and the 

 observations which my journey round King William's Island 

 has enabled me to make, may succeed in carrying his ship 

 through from sea to sea; at least he will be enabled to 

 direct all his efforts in the true and only direction. Never- 

 theless, to Franklin must be assigned the virtual completion 

 of the North-West Passage, 1 as well as the priority of its 

 discovery. This fact will be readily understood when it is 

 recollected that a navigable passage is known to exist along 

 the continent of North America, from Boothia to Behring 

 Strait. Franklin himself, and his companion Richardson, 

 discovered and surveyed by far the greater portion of that 

 vast extent, which overlaps in longitude the discoveries of 

 Parry in a more northern latitude ; and for the last thirty 

 years or more, the discovery of a North-West Passage has 

 been reduced to the discovery of a link uniting the two. 

 Therefore, to reach those well-known waters along the 

 continental shore was the guiding object of all Franklin's 

 efforts ; and that heroic leader, having conducted his ships 

 abfiost within reach of the goal, sent forth his parties to 

 explore : to me a striking parallel here suggests itself. 



But neither Franklin nor any one of his heroic band was 

 destined to bring home the news of their achievement ; nor 

 perhaps would it ever have been fully brought to light, had 

 not the ' Fox ' been sent on her noble mission, and returned 

 in safety- 

 Intelligence of the discovery of a North-West Passage in 

 1850 by Sir Robert McClure, who entered the Arctic Sea 

 by Behring Strait, reached England in 1853 ; but it is only 

 now that we have become aware of Franklin's prior dis- 

 covery, which was probably made in the spring of 1847. 



1 See Preface, page xiii. 



