Preliminarij Chapter. 



XV 



of life among that not inhospitable people, and he Iioped that by his 

 going out and living patiently among them, he could draw out tbrough 

 faithful interpreters, the final clue to the fate of the ships, the men, and 

 the records of the expedition Other reasonings leading liini to beheve 

 that some of Franklin's party still survived were substantially these: 

 tliat no Arctic explorer had ever understood better the necessities of a 

 good supply of fresh provisions for his men than did Sir John Franklin, 

 and that he made provision for such necessities. In proof of this, Hall 

 had found in the official papers that a full complement of fresh provis- 

 ions, preserved meats, soups, and vegetables, and ten live oxen were on 

 board the Erebus and the Terror. Further, that Franklin had told Cap- 

 tain Martin, of the whaler Enterprise, when off the coast of Greenland, 

 July 22, 1845, that he had provisions for five years, and, if necessary, 

 could make them spin out seven ; and he would lose no opportunity of 

 killing game, having already organized shooting j)arties. There was 

 every reason to believe, too, that animal life was found in abundance 

 by his men on the shores of Wellington Channel, especially in the 

 neighborhood of Baillie Hamilton Island, and that Franklin had sent 

 hunting parties to great distances with sledges ; for the tracks of these 

 sledges were seen six years after by Kane, De Haven, and Ommaney 

 and Osborn. Hall could say with truth that his expectations of ren- 

 dering relief were leased on years of careful study and examination of 

 what had been written on this subject; and his appeal was plain and 

 strong, ''Why should not attempts be renewed again and again until 

 all the facts are known?" 



These and other references to the First Voyage are here made the 

 more full, because, as has been already intimated, the same idea of 



