275 



that time peculiarly desirable in connexion with the magnetical 

 inquiries then in progress. 



The history and fate of the Expedition, which left our shores in 

 May 1845, are still veiled in obscurity; this, however, we know, 

 that every thing was done to render it efficient, that the officers 

 under Sir John Franklin were men of experience and zeal, and that 

 the last accounts which were received from them represent their 

 commander as animated by all the ardour and spirit which charac- 

 terized his early Arctic exertions. 



It would have been unjust to have expected less from such a man, 

 and as his instructions contained the usual discretionary latitude 

 given in these documents, there is too much reason to fear that in 

 his great anxiety and daring attempts to solve the problem of the 

 North-west Passage, his ships became inextricably entangled in the 

 thick-ribbed ice of the Arctic regions, and his attempts to reach the 

 North American continent were rendered abortive. 



But although the few facts that have reached us point to the 

 dreary shores of the Arctic regions as the final resting-place of our 

 lamented Fellow and his brave companions, his memory will ever 

 be enshrined on British land within British hearts, as an explorer 

 as eminent in discovery, as he was patient under trial and privation, 

 and kind and good in all the relations of life. 



CAPTAIN FRANCIS RAWDON MOIRA CROZIER, R.N., the compa- 

 nion of Sir John Franklin on his last and fatal voyage, and second 

 in the command of the expedition, was eminently qualified for the 

 post by long experience in the navigation of the icy seas. 



He accompanied Sir W. E. Parry on his last three voyages to the 

 Arctic Regions, and was made Commander for his services as First 

 Lieutenant of H.M.S. ' Cove,' under Captain James Clark Ross, and 

 despatched in the depth of winter to afford assistance to the missing 

 whalers supposed to have been frozen in the pack of Davis Strait. 



Again, as second in command to Captain J. C. Ross, he obtained 

 post rank for . the first season's successful operations of the expedi- 

 tion sent, at the recommendation of the Royal Society and British 

 Association, for purposes of scientific research and geographical dis- 

 covery to the Antarctic Ocean. 



Captain Crozier was distinguished for devotion to his duties as an 



