500 
Captain F. L. M‘Clintock, R.N. This gallant officer had 
offered his services to Lady Jane Franklin, in a manner 
which was as disinterested as it was chivalrous. Every per- 
son who had the honour of this officer’s acquaintance would 
bear testimony to the high value of the services he had 
already rendered to his country and to science, during the 
three Arctic expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin, 
in which he had already assisted: first, under the command 
of Sir James Ross, in 1848-9; secondly, under the orders 
of Captain Austin, in 1850-51; and thirdly, in com- 
mand of the screw steamer, Intrepid, in company with the 
Resolute, commanded by Captain Kellett, in 1852-3. A 
short account of these expeditions had been recently laid by 
Captain M‘Clintock before the Royal Dublin Society, in 
whose Museum were deposited the valuable zoological and 
geological specimens collected by him during the period of 
the expeditions. 
As was now well known, all these and other searching ex- 
peditions had taken too northerly a direetion, and the locality of 
Sir John Franklin’s ships was now ascertained to lie within 
narrow limits, easily reached ina single year. Notwithstand- 
ing repeated applications in Parliament and elsewhere, the 
Admiralty had decided on not prosecuting any further search 
for the Erebus and Terror ; and, under these circumstances, 
it remained for Lady Franklin to decide what steps she would 
herself take in the matter. She did not hesitate a moment ; 
and decided on sending out her own expedition, although pro- 
bably at a cost ruinous to an individual. She purchased the 
late Sir Richard Sutton’s screw schooner yacht, built with 
diagonal planking, and thankfully availed herself of Captain 
M‘Clintock’s generous offer to take the command of her ex- 
pedition. The manner in which the offer was made by him, 
and accepted by her, is highly creditable to both, and isa cir- 
cumstance of which M‘Clintock’s countrymen may well feel 
proud. 
