VOYAGE AND DEATH OF FRANKLIN 183 



made. Five days later McClintock came upon a boat which he found, from a 

 note attached to • it, that Hobson had already examined. It had evidently 

 escaped the notice of the Eskimo, and, until the white men found it, had 

 probably not been touched by human hands from the moment its occupants 

 had died. It was mounted on a sledge, as though it had been hauled over 

 the ice; but from tht fact that its bows pointed towards the spot where the 

 ships had been, it was surmised that the men were dragging it back to the 

 vessels when they were overcome. 



"Inside were two bodies, one lying on its side under a pile of clothing 

 towards the stern, and the other in the bows, in such a position as to suggest 

 that the man had crawled forward, had laboriously pulled himself up to look 

 over the gunwale, and had then slipped down and died where he fell. Beside 

 him were two guns, loaded and ready cocked, as though the man had been 

 apprehensive of attack. There was also as many as five watches, several 

 books (mostly with the name of Graham Gore or initials G. G in them), abun- 

 dance of clothes and other articles such as knives, pieces of sheet lead, files, 

 sounding leads and lines, spoons and forks, oars, a sail, and two chronc meters, 

 but of food only some tea and chocolate, 



"The story mutely told by these relics was only too plain. Weary with 

 hauling it, the majority of the men had left the boat in order to get back to 

 the ships and obtain a fresh supply of provisions, leaving two, who were too 

 weak to struggle on, in the boat as comfortable as they could be made until 

 some of the others could get back to help them. Then the days had passed 

 until the store of provisions had been consumed and the two sufferers had 

 grown weary with waiting, so weary that one had slept and died under his 

 wraps, and the other, with his remaining vestige of strength, had crawled 

 forward to peep out once more for the help that was so long in coming. But 

 only ice had met his gaze, and, sinking down, he had also passed into that 

 overwhelming sleep, and had lain undisturbed for twelve years under the 

 covering of the Arctic snows." 



Others who helped prove Franklin's fate were Grinnell, an American; 

 Peabody, an Englishman, and Sir John Ross, also a Briton, and Capt. Charles 

 Francis Hall, of New London, Conn. While prosecuting their search they 

 explored much territory and made discoveries of great value to science. 



Most noted of all the explorers who thus turned the Franklin tragedy 

 into great account for the advancement of learning was Elisha Kent Kane, an 

 American physician. Dr. Kane's book, "Arctic Explorations," is one of the 



