POSTSCRIPT.. 4 1 9 



searched for memorandum does not seem to be sufficiently 

 accounted for by such a supposition. The time required 

 for calling in the parties from Cape Spencer, Caswall's 

 Tower in Radstock Bay, and other points where they have 

 been traced, and for embarking the instruments and utensils 

 from the observatories and kitchen, might have sufficed for 

 the planting of a copper cylinder or bottle, with a memo- 

 randum. That the ships drifted out unexpectedly in a floe 

 of ice is not considered by the nautical men who have ex- 

 amined the anchorage to be possible. The north point of 

 Beechey Island being connected to North Devon by a 

 shingle beach, covered by only two or three feet of water, 

 no pressure of ice can operate on the harbour from that 

 direction so as to drive out vessels by the south-eastern 

 and only navigable entrance, and it is almost certain that 

 Franklin's ships must have made their exit by the tedious 

 and laborious operation of sawing out. 



The absence of a memorandum at the wintering station 

 is remarkable, and, in my opinion, wholly unexplained by 

 any suggestion that has hitherto been given by the many 

 writers who have made their opinions known, through the 

 medium of the periodical press. From Sir John Franklin's 

 well-known anxiety to act up to the tenor of his instruc- 

 tions, combined with the expressed desire of the Admiralty, 

 that he should embrace every opportunity of forwarding 



station near the east corner of the island, but it is stated to have been 

 not worth carrying on board. The bird's bones remaining in the vicinity 

 of the stone enclosure on Cape Spencer show that the sportsmen en- 

 camped there had been tolerably successful ; and much small shot was 

 found scattered among the stones with which the enclosure was paved. 

 In the interstices of the stone wall there were many pieces of news- 

 papers, also two bits of paper of much interest to the friends of two 

 of the missing officers — one being inscribed with the name of Mr. 

 M'Donald the surgeon ; the other containing part of a memorandum 

 in the handwriting of Captain Fitzjames, giving directions as to the 

 times of recording: certain meteorological observations. 



