THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 571 



his successor, Long; afterward, the colonists, in remembrance 

 of his great and beneficent services, voted a contribution of 

 $8,000, which was sent to Lady Franklin to assist in paying the 

 expenses of the search for her missing husband. 



The greatest ambition of Franklin's life was to discover a 

 northwest passage, and in this desire he was much encouraged 

 by the confidence in which he was held by the English public and 

 government as well. On May 19, 1845, he sailed again for the 

 North in the good steam screw propeller Erebus, accompanied 

 by a similar vessel, the Terror, commanded by Captain Richard 

 Crozier. A tender, carrying provisions, bore them company as 

 far as Davis Strait, where stores were landed sufficient to last 

 the expedition for three years. On July 26, 1845, the two 

 steamers were sighted by a whale ship in lat. 74 48', and long. 

 66 13', about the center of Baffin's Bay, anchored to an iceberg, 

 awaiting an opening into Lancaster Sound. This is the last time 

 either of the vessels was ever seen. So much anxiety was felt 

 for their safety after the expiration of three years, that in 1848 

 three expeditions were sent out to search for them. These 

 meeting with no success, in 1850 three more expeditions were 

 dispatched, but these, too, returned without finding any trace of 

 the lost explorers. In 1849 the British government offered 

 $100,000 to any private exploring party, from any country, who 

 should render efficient aid to the missing crews. Under this 

 stimulus no less than eight other expeditions, consisting of twelve 

 vessels in all, started in search of Franklin ; one of these was 

 sent by the United States government, chiefly through the influ- 

 ence of Henry Grinnell ; the English government equipped 

 another ; the Hudson Bay Company another ; while Lady Frank- 

 lin sent one entirely at her own expense, and bore two-thirds of 

 the expense of another ; while a final expedition was equipped 

 by public subscription, this last one being commanded by Sir 

 John Ross. 



Capt. Shepherd Osborne, in charge of the Hudson Bay expe- 

 dition, came upon the first traces of the missing explorers on the 

 23d of August, 1850. These traces were found scattered over a 



