THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 573 



In April, 1852, five vessels were despatched under command of 

 Sir Edward Belcher, and in the following year five mo;c expedi- 

 tions were sent in search of Franklin. One of these was fitted 

 out by Mr. Grinnell of New York and Mr. Peabody of London, 

 and was commanded by Dr. E. K. Kane, who had acted as sur- 

 geon, naturalist and historian of the former Grinnell expedition 

 under DeHaven. One of these expeditions very fortunately found 

 and rescued McClure and his ship's company, who had been buried 

 in the ice since the summer of 1850, three years. These returned 

 home with Belcher, abandoning their ship, and were thus the 

 first and only ship's company who ever entered Behring Strait 

 and returned to Europe by Baffin Bay. Thus was established at 

 last the great fact of a continuous water passage between Baffin 

 Bay and Behring Strait, parallel with the American coast. In 

 the spring of 1854 no less than five vessels were abandoned in 

 the ice and their crews had to return home in the vessels of other 

 search parties. 



In 1854 Dr. Rae met a party of Esquimaux who had in their 

 possession various articles of silverware belonging to officers of 

 the Erebus and Terror. These Esquimaux related that in 1851 

 they saw a company of forty white men dragging sledges and 

 going where they might kill deer, their ship having been crushed 

 in the ice. They purchased a few provisions from the natives, 

 and showed evidences of great destitution. At a later date, the 

 same summer, were found the corpses of about thirty persons 

 and some graves on the American shore, and five dead bodies on 

 an island near it. Of the bodies on the island one was supposed 

 to be an officer, as a telescope was slung about the neck. These 

 men had undoubtedly been driven to cannibalism before they 

 perisned, as there were on each the evidences of the fleshy por- 

 tions having been cut away. Dr. Rae found guns, watches, var- 

 ious scientific instruments, clothing, etc., among the natives who 

 had taken them from the dead bodies. Mr. Anderson found 

 similar traces of the lost party in 1855, and conversed witli natives 

 who declared that the men had died of starvation. 



Dr. Kane, the American explorer, left New York in the 



