1908-9.] A SToRY OF A FRANKLIN SEARCH EXPEDITION. 393 
A STORY OF A FRANKLIN SEARCH EXPEDITION. 
By J. B. TYRRELL, M. A., F. G.S., &c. 
(Read 5th December, 1908). 
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY has been characterized in many dif- 
ferent ways,and many different titles have been suggested for it, mostly 
representing various phases of material progress and expansion. The 
titles so given undoubtedly designated some achievements that seemed 
to be of overmastering importance to us at the time, but in many cases 
these achievements will doubtless be overshadowed by greater accom- 
plishments on the same lines, or in the same fields of work, in future’ 
People are notoriously forgetful of the stages of material progress pre- 
ceding their own, and there is a strong tendency among them to smile 
at the knowledge possessed by their ancestors when they think of the 
additions that have been made to that knowledge in their own times. 
Therefore while we who lived in it speak of the great material progress 
of the last century the coming generations are not unlikely to regard 
our titles and characterizations with smiles of easy tolerance rather than 
of approval. 
If not material progress what then will stand out in history as the 
salient features of that century? In what field of endeavour did the 
curve of accomplishment reach its highest point ? I venture to predict 
that nothing done during the past hundred years will overshadow the 
death-grip struggles and splendid achievements of the heroes of Arctic 
exploration, and that as year follows year into ages to come the heroic 
endeavours of these Arctic explorers will stand out more and more 
strongly in relief, and that the Nineteenth Century itself is not unlikely 
to be known as “ The Century of Arctic Exploration.” 
During the first half of the century the energies of the explorers 
were chiefly devoted to the discovery of an ocean passage from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific north of the continent of America, which, ever 
since its discovery by Columbus had always been regarded by navi- 
gators as more or less of an obstruction or impediment in the course of 
trade with China and Eastern Asia. 
The next quarter of a century or more was devoted to the search 
