FUKTHEll INFORMATION. 227 



taking- u bunt or boats with them, and that in the following winter their bones were 

 found there."* 



On May 7th, to avoid snow-blindness, the party commenced night marching. Crossing 

 over from Matty Island towards the King William's Island shore, they continued their 

 march southward until midnight, when they had the good fortune to arrive at an inhabited 

 snow village. They halted at a little distance, and pitched their tent, the better to secure 

 small articles from being stolen whilst they bartered with them. M'Clintock purchased 

 from them six pieces of silver plate bearing the crests or initials of Franklin, Crozier, 

 Fairholme, and McDonald ; they also sold them bows and arrows of English woods, uniform 

 and other buttons, and offered a heavy sledge made of two short stout pieces of curved 

 wood, which no mere boat could have furnished them with; but this, of course, could not 

 be taken away ; the silver spoons and forks were readily sold for four needles each. The 

 narrative continues : 



" Having obtained all the relics they possessed, I purchased some seal's flesh, blubber, 

 frozen venison, dried and frozen salmon, and sold some of my puppies. They told us it 

 was five days' journey to the wreck one day up the inlet still in sight, and four days 

 overland : this would carry them to the western coast of King William's Laud ; they added 

 that but little now remained of the wreck which was accessible, their countrymen having 

 carried almost everything away. In answer to an inquiry, they said she was without 

 masts; the question gave rise to some laughter amongst them, and they spoke to each 

 other about fire, from which Petersen thought they had burnt the masts through close 

 to the deck in order to get them down. 



"There had been many books, they said, but all have long ago been destroyed by the 

 weather. The ship was forced on shore in the fall of the year by ice. She had not been 

 visited during this past winter, and an old woman and a boy were shown to us who were 

 the last to visit the wreck; they said they had been at it during the winter of 1857-8. 



" Petersen questioned the woman closely, and she seemed anxious to give all the in- 

 formation in her power. She said many of the white men dropped by the way as they 

 went to the Great River; that some of them were buried and some were not. They did 

 not themselves witness this, but discovered their bodies during the winter following." 



Having examined Montreal and King William's Island, they started on the return 

 journey. After three weeks' travel M f Clintock continues : " We were now upon the shore 

 along which the retreating crews must have marched. My sledges, of course, travelled 

 upon the sea-ice close along the shore ; and although the depth of snow which covered the 

 beach deprived us of almost every hope, yet we kept a very sharp look-out for traces ; nor 

 were we unsuccessful. Shortly after midnight of the 25th of May, when slowly walking 

 along a gravel ridge near the beach, which the winds kept partially bare of snow, I 



* Conjecture is perhaps wrong at this point, but the painful thought has often occurred to the writer that the 

 Esquimaux, not always quite so innocent as some writers would have us believe, were the murderers of some- 

 at least of the enfeebled party. Broken down by starvation, and exhausted by painful travel, they would be an 

 easy prey to the hardy natives, whose cupidity might be excited by the many useful articles they possessed. We 

 have before seen how Franklin was nearly involved in a serious fracas with those people, and in later days it is on 

 record that Dr. Hayes, the American explorer, discovered a plot for the destruction of his party. 



