INTRODUCTION. XV11 



any force the natives -can bring, should they be 

 hostile.* 



" Leaving this party at the rendezvous, the Blos- 

 som may proceed to examine the coast, assisted by 

 her decked launch, keeping in-shore of her ; and 

 signals can then be regularly placed on every con- 

 spicuous cape or height, according to the mode 

 agreed upon, for the purpose of directing Captain 

 Franklin's attention to bottles containing written 

 information, which will be buried at each station. 



" In this manner it is proposed, circumstances 

 permitting, to navigate from Kotzebue's Sound 

 northward, and then eastward as far as the state of 

 the ice will allow, following up every opening, and 

 never quitting the main shore. The distance to 

 which the ship can proceed to the eastward will be 

 limited by the lateness of the season, and the neces- 

 sity of avoiding the hazard of being beset in the ice 

 and obliged to winter. 



" Fog-signals and night-lights will of course be 

 established between the launch and the ship ; and 

 should the launch part company with the ship, it 

 will proceed to the last formed signal station, and 

 there await the junction of the ship ; but if she does 

 not arrive there in five days, the launch is to pro- 

 secute the voyage along shore, in search of Captain 

 Franklin, but not to go so far as to put the cer- 

 tainty of returning to Chamisso Island by the 30th 

 of September at any risk, by which date the ship 

 will also have arrived there ; and Captain Franklin 

 will proceed to the same place should he not have 

 met either the ship or launch before. 



* This erroneous idea was suggested by Captain Kotzebue's 

 account of the island, arising no doubt from a bad translation. 



