DR. RAE'S DISCOVERIES. 215 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



THE FRANKLIN SEARCH. 



The Franklin Expedition The First Relics Dr. Rae's Discoveries The Government tired of the Search-Noble Lady 

 Franklin The Voyage of the Fox Beset in the Ice for Eight Months Enormous Icebergs Seal and Bear Hunts- 

 Unearthly Noises under the Floes Guy Fawkes in the Arctic -The Fiftieth Seal Shot A Funeral A Merry Christmas 

 New Year Celebration Winter Gales Their Miraculous Escape Experience of a Whaler Breakfast and Ship 

 lost together. 



IN October, 1854, the startling news came from Dr. Rae that he had at length found some 

 definite traces of the lost expedition. For several years he had been engaged in the search 

 principally at the expense of the Hudson's Bay Company during which time he had 

 descended the Mackenzie and Coppermine Rivers, and explored the shores and islands of 

 the Polar Ocean without success. During his last journey, however, in 1 853-1, he had 

 obtained positive evidence from the Esquimaux regarding the fate of the Erebus and Terror 

 and their crews. Six years before, in the spring-time, some forty white men had been seen 

 painfully struggling over the ice, dragging with them a boat and sledges. They had 

 indicated by signs that their vessels had been crushed in the ice, and that they were now 

 trying to reach a habitable part of the country where they might find game. They were 

 much emaciated from the effects of starvation, exposure, and unwonted exertion. Later 

 in the same year the corpses of some thirty persons and some graves were discovered by 

 the Esquimaux on the mainland, and five other bodies were subsequently found on an 

 island close to it, and about a day's journey north-west of Back's Great Fish River. 

 Several of them had died in their tents, and one, believed to have been an officer, was 

 described as lying on his double-barrelled gun, with his telescope yet strapped to his 

 shoulders. Dr. Rae obtained a number of relics from the Esquimaux, including pieces of 

 plate and other articles known to have belonged to the officers. The Government was 

 satisfied tliat these facts indicated the entire loss of the party, and the long outstanding 

 reward of 10,000 offered to any one who should bring intelligence of their fate was paid 

 to Dr. Rae and his party. Next season, Mr. John Anderson, a chief factor of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, while making a canoe voyage down Great Fish River to Montreal Island 

 and Point Ogle, obtained some confirmatory evidence and a few more relics from the 

 natives. 



The Government had now become tired of the search, and perhaps for good reason, for 

 its own officers had not been, as we have seen, successful in obtaining the desired in- 

 formation, while there had been an immense expenditure of the public money in fruitless 

 expeditions. It cannot, however, be wondered at that Lady Franklin had not abandoned all 

 hope, and that she, in common with many others, was not satisfied with the meagre evidence 

 of their fate so far obtained. That it pointed to the loss of the larger part of the officers 

 and men could not be doubted, but there was yet the possibility of some of them surviving 

 at some distant point it might be among the Esquimaux. Backed by distinguished 

 naval officers and men of science and influence, she appealed to the Government to make 

 one more last effort. It was in vain, and there was nothing for it but a private expedition. 

 Lady Franklin purchased the steam-yacht Fox, and aided, in a limited degree only, by 



