220 THE SEA. 



" I inquired after the man who was furnished with a wooden leg by the carpenter 

 of the Victory ; no direct answer was given, but his daughter was pointed out to me. 

 Petersen explained to me that they do not like alluding in any way to the dead, and 

 that, as my question was not answered, it was certain the man was no longer amongst the 

 living/' 



M'Clintock returned to the Fox, having travelled 420 miles in their twenty-five days* 

 absence, and having also completed the survey of the coast line of continental America, 

 thereby adding about 120 miles to our charts. On reaching the ship the crew was at 

 once assembled, and the information obtained laid before the men, M'Clintock pointing 

 out that one of the ships still remained unaccounted for, and that they must carry out to 

 the full all the projected lines of search. 



After several sledge journeys to the various depots previously made, to collect pro- 

 visions deposited there, the search was resumed, M'Clintock and Hobson leading two- 

 parties in different directions. 



On their return M'Clintock writes as follows, under date of June 21th: "I have 

 visited Montreal Island, completed the exploration and circuit of King William's Island, 

 passing on foot through the only feasible North-west Passage; but all this is as nothing to 

 the interest attached to the Franklin records picked up by Hobson, and now safe in my 

 possession. We now know the fate of the JEre&us and Terror. The sole object of our 

 voyage has at length been completed, and we anxiously await the time when escape from 

 these bleak regions will become practicable." 



On April 20th two families of the same people previously encountered at Cape Victoria 

 were found in their snow huts upon the ice. M'Clintock says : " After much anxious 

 inquiry we learned that two ships had been seen by the natives of King William's Island : 

 one of them was seen to sink in deep water, and nothing was obtained from her, a circum- 

 stance at which they expressed much regret; but the other was forced on shore by the 

 ice, where they suppose she still remains, but is much broken. From this ship they have 

 obtained most of their wood, &c., and Oot-loo-lik is the name of the place where she 

 grounded. 



" Formerly many natives lived there, now very few remain. All the natives have 

 obtained plenty of wood. 



" The most of this information was given us by the young man who sold the 

 knife. Old Oo-na-lee, who drew the rough chart for me in March to show where the 

 ship sank, now answered our questions respecting the one forced on shore; not a 

 syllable about her did he mention on the former occasion, although we asked whether 

 they knew of only one ship. I think he would willingly have kept us in ignorance of 

 a wreck being upon their coasts, and that the young man unwittingly made it known 

 to us. 5 



" The latter also told us that the body of a man was found on board the ship ; that 

 he must have been a very large man, and had long teeth : this is all he recollected having 

 been told, for he was quite a child at the time. 



"They both told us it was in the fall of the year that is, August or September 

 when the ships were destroyed ; that all the white people went away to the ' large river/ 



