VOYAGE AND DEATH OF FRANKLIN 179 



the still cold air. A momentary silence followed as the iiag-swathed figure 

 was lovered into the grave, and then a quick rattle of fire-arms as the last 

 salute was paid echoed far and wide among the ice-bergs. 



"Twice more was that scene repeated before the ships cleared from the 

 ice, and one of the first signs discovered by the searchers after Franklin were 

 the three headstones raised on that lonely isle to the memory of W. Braine, 

 John Hartwell, and John Torrington, who died while the ships were winter- 

 ing in the cold season of 1845-6. 



During this dark season some progress was made in the journey, for 

 whenever the ice broke up for a spell, the ships were forced onward. By the 

 end of the winter the expedition had reached within two hundred and fifty 

 miles of the western end of the passage, and in July the voyage was resumed 

 in earnest. Little by little they worked west, — how little is seen by the fact 

 that they made but one hundred and fifty miles in two months. At the end 

 of this period, in' September, 1846, the ships became frozen in the ice for the 

 last time. They were off the north end of King Williams' Land. 



And now the explorers, first began to realize that all might not be well 

 with them. They had provisions for three years when they started; and 

 when the winter they were facing was over, they would have been in the 

 Arctic two years. There was no help at hand, however, and another winter 

 passed without light breaking on their problem. 



Then, in the spring, it was seen something must be done. They could not 

 go back; they must go forward. One hundred and thirty men looked to 

 Franklin for their lives. He decided, in the emergency, to send a partv ahead 

 in the effort to discover the end of the passage and find open, sea by which 'the 

 ships could return home. Lieut. Gore was the man selected for this mission. 

 He and his followers started overland, and after a terrific journey, at last 

 reached an elevation from which they could discern the glorious open sea. 

 The northeast passage had been found. 



"To commemorate the fact the little party built a cairn upon the summit 

 of the point, which they named Point Victory, and enclosed in a tin canister 

 they deposited, under the cairn, a record of their trip and its results. Twelve 

 years later this record was found, and by it the honour due to Franklin for 

 the discovery of the passage was confirmed. 



"Elated with the success of their efforts, Lieutenant Gore and his com- 

 panions retraced their way back to the ships, for with the end of their journey 

 near at hand, all fears of the provisions running short were at an end. As soon 



