Aug. 1859. LYONS' ATTEMPTED JOURNEY. 297 



wretched were they next morning, that it was deemed less 

 hazardous to attempt to reach the ship through the storm 

 and densely drifting snow, than to risk another night in 

 their snow-cavern. 



Providentially they found their ship,- but not until after 

 wandering about for three hours and a half in the snow- 

 storm, and when it was evident that four of the party could 

 not have survived another hour ! All of them were severely 

 frost-bitten. 



At this very time some Esquimaux also came to the ship 

 for relief; but their need was very different — the seal-hunt 

 had failed, they had nothing to eat, and their stock of 

 blubber also being exhausted, not a lamp remained alight in 

 their snow village ! 



With a proper equipment, or even a very slender one, 

 and a snow-hut, Lyons and his companions, instead of being 

 in imminent peril, might have been positively jolly ; but 

 this sort of knowledge is of slow growth. In his first voyage 

 Sir Edward Parry did not venture to travel before the 1st of 

 June, therefore this attempt of Lyons in the second voyage 

 was a very bold step in advance. 



We of the present time have, of course, benefitted largely 

 by the dear-bought experience of our predecessors. 



In the Franklin search more than 40,000 miles have been 

 sledged, including 8000 miles of coast-line minutely exa- 

 mined, by parties varying from five to eleven persons, re- 

 maining absent from their ships for periods ranging up to 

 one hundred and five days, and dragging along with them 

 provisions for five, six, or seven weeks. Sledge parties 

 travelled in every month excepting only the dark ones of 

 December and January, in temperatures not unfrequently 

 40 below zero (of Fahrenheit), and occasionally even io° 

 or 1 5 colder still. It was found that men employed on 

 long sledge journies lost on the average about twelve pounds 



