417 



POSTSCRIPT. 



The preparation of the illustrations, and other circum- 

 stances, having retarded the publication of these volumes 

 for some months after the letterpress was ready, the 

 delay has enabled us to learn the result of the last year's 

 search for the lost Expedition. The first traces of the 

 missing ships, discovered on the south side of Beechey 

 Island and on Cape Riley, as mentioned in vol ii. p. 155., 

 were followed up by the discovery of seven hundred empty 

 meat-tins, and other remains, which furnish undoubted 

 proof of Franklin's ships having wintered, in 1845-6, on 

 the inside of the above-named Island. The tombs of three 

 men, with headboards bearing their names and the dates 

 of their deaths, were erected on the east side of the Island, 

 not far from the site of the armourer's forge, an observatory 

 or store-house, and other enclosures opposite to the an- 

 chorage. One of these men belonged to the " Terror," 

 and two to the " Erebus," which is sufficient evidence of 

 the presence of both ships ; and the latest death supplies us 

 with the date of 3rd April, 1846. The mortality does not 

 exceed that of previous expeditions ; and we may therefore 

 conclude, that the Expedition was in highly effective order 

 when it left that anchorage, with only a moderate inroad 

 into its stock of preserved meats, the seven hundred empty 

 tins found on the island forming but a small proportion of 

 the 24,000 canisters with which the ships were supplied. 

 Captain Penny and his officers, who examined Beechey 



