154 PRESENT STATE OF THE SEARCH. 



quent to 1841. The fragment of canvass which 

 seemed to have been part of a boat's swab, had the 

 Queen's broad arrow painted on it ; and the chip 

 of wood was of ash, a tree which does not grow 

 on the banks of any river that falls into the Arctic 

 Sea. It had, however, been long exposed to the 

 weather, and was likely to have been cut from a 

 piece of drift-timber found lying on the spot, as 

 the mark of the axe was recent compared to the 

 surface of the wood, which might have been ex- 

 posed to the weather for a century.* Mr. Snow 

 counted five rings of stones with tsvo or three 

 slabs in the centre of each circle, which he took 

 for fire-places, but on which there were no traces 

 of smoke nor any remains of burnt wood. As 

 tent-pegs could not be driven into the shingly 

 beach, the stones had been evidently used in the 

 erection of as many tents as there were cir- 

 cles, and the slabs in the centre were likely to 

 have served as stands for magnetic instruments. 

 Colonel Sabine remarked that four tents would be 

 needed in using the instruments supplied to Sir 

 John Franklin's expedition, and a fifth for the 

 protection of the observers. If the ships were 



* The grounds of these conclusions were fully stated in a 

 report made to the Admiralty by Sir W. Edward Parry, myself, 

 and other officers, which has been published with other parlia- 

 mentary returns. 



