740 THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 



point I Fetersen informed me that she was begging for a needle 

 for her child. T need not say I gave it one as expeditiously as 

 possible ; yet sufficient time elapsed before the infant was again 

 put out of sight to alarm me considerably for its safety in such a 

 temperature. The natives, however, seemed to think nothing of 

 what looked to me like cruel exposure of a naked baby." 



A GHASTLY DISCOVERY. 



McCLiNTOCK returned to his ship after a week spent among 

 the natives referred to, in order to increase his provisions, that 

 he might be prepared to proceed further north and follow up the 

 interesting clue he had obtained. In April, 1859, he loader! sev- 

 eral sledges, increased his force, and started again for the head 

 of King William's Land. In latitude 70 30' N. he met with two 

 Esquimau families, numbering twelve persons. From these he 

 purchased a file, and a ship cutlass, besides seeing several other 

 things that had belonged to the Franklin party. These natives 

 also told him that they had seen one of the Franklin ships sink, 

 while the other was driven upon the shore, where she was broken 

 up, and from this latter vessel they had obtained the relics. The 

 natives also declared that the men on both vessels had escaped, 

 and rowed away in two boats up a " large river," to an island on 

 which their bones were afterward found. The large stream 

 proved to be the Great Fish River, which McClintock followed, 

 and on May 24th came upon a human skeleton partly exposed, 

 with a few fragments of clothing still adhering to it ; but there 

 was nothing found by which the body could be identified. This 

 skeleton was convincing proof to McClintock that he was now on 

 the route traveled by the Franklin party in their retreat, when, 

 as had been told him by an old Esquimau woman, the white men 

 had fallen down one after another and died on the march. Two 

 days later a cairn was found in which were deposited the records 

 of the Franklin party, with many relics, evidently abandoned 

 because they could be carried no further. 



On May 30th a large boat was found, 28 feet long and '7 feet 

 3 inches wide, which had been built at the Woolwich dockyard 

 in this bout were two skeletons, one of a sp 



