88 



DISCOVERY 



CH. 



Among the names of explorers who lost their lives in 

 endeavouring to increase our knowledge of Arctic regions 

 that of Sir John Franklin is most prominent, partly on 

 account of his noble character and heroic death. 1 In 

 1845 Sir John Franklin sailed in the Erebus and Terror, 

 with a party of 129 men, for the purpose of completing 

 a survey of the Arctic coast of Canada, upon which he 

 had been engaged previously. The expedition vanished 

 from the world's ken almost at once, and as nothing had 

 been heard of it three years later a search was begun. 

 In 1859, at Point Victory, on the north-west coast of 

 King William Land, the chief relic of the Franklin 

 expedition was found in the form of a record of successful 

 exploration up to May 28, 1847. But round the margin 

 of the paper containing this record was a second message 

 in a different handwriting : 



April 25th, 1848 : the ships were deserted on April 22nd, having 

 been in the ice since September 12th, 1846. Sir John Franklin 

 died June llth, 1847, and the total loss to this dato has been 

 nine officers and fifteen men. The rest (105 in number) landed 

 here and start to-morrow for the Great Fish River. 



The ships had been provisioned for a period ending 

 July, 1848, and in April of that year the retreat by land 

 was begun. Not a soul survived. Franklin had suc- 

 ceeded in his object, the North- West Passage had been 

 discovered ; but the ice had taken its toll. Not until 

 1906 did any ship traverse the North- West Passage, 

 but in that year the Gjoa, under Roald Amundsen, 

 reached the haven of San Francisco, having left Chris- 

 tiania in May, 1903. 



In the interests of scientific investigation it was 

 arranged that from August, 1882, simultaneous obser- 



1 The toll of the ice here counted is chiefly that of an article by 

 B. C. W. in The School World for March, 1913. 



