Sept. 30, 1880] 



NATURE 



507 



self. The following telegram in the Ncu) York Herald 

 of September 23, from New Bedford, Massachusetts, 

 ■was the first announcement of the return of the ex- 

 pedition : — 



" The Franklin Search Expedition, under the command 

 of Lieut. Schwatka, have returned here. They have dis- 

 covered and brought southward relics of the two British 

 ships Terror and Erebus, which sailed from London, 

 under Sir John Franklin, in May, 1S45. The expedition 

 successfully withstood the greatest amount of cold ever 

 encountered by white men. During sixteen days of a 

 sledge journey, extending over a period of eleven months, 

 the average temperature was 100' below freezing point. 

 In the summer and autumn of 1879 It's expedition made 

 a complete search of King William's Land and the adjoin- 

 ing mainland, travelling by the route pursued by the crews 

 of the Erebus and Terror in retreating towards Back's 

 River. They burnt [? buried] the bones of all remaining 

 above ground, and erected monuments in memory of the 

 dead. Their researches have established the fact that the 

 records of the Franklin Expedition are beyond recovery. 

 They have also learnt that one of Sir John Frankhn's 

 ships drifted down the V'ictoria Straits, and was un- 

 wittingly scuttled by the Eskimo, who found it off 

 Grant Point in 1849. The expedition have brought away 

 the remains of Irving, the third officer of the Terror. 

 From each spot where graves were found a few tokens 

 were selected which may serve to identify those who 

 perished there. They also secured a board which may be 

 of use in identifying the ship which completed the North- 

 West Passage." 



A few further details have appeared in the subsequent 

 numbers of the Herald, but we must await the arrival 

 of the paper and the publication of Lieut. Schwatka's 

 narrative for full details. Paiticulars, we are told, are 

 given of the sufferings and hardships endured by Lieut. 

 Schwatka's party, who, however, succeeded in discovering 

 relics of the expedition, and learnt from the natives details 

 of the sufferings it underwent from cold and starvation. 

 The natives related that they saw a small party of officers, 

 believed to be the last survivors of the expedition, black 

 about the mouths and with no flesh on their bones, 

 dragging a boat across the ice. They then disappeared 

 from view, and their skeletons were subsequently found 

 under the boat and in a tent, a prey to wild beasts, and 

 affording evidence that some of them had been eaten by 

 their comrades. Lieut. Schwatka's own party, we are 

 told, made a sledge journey of over 2,819 geographical 

 miles, mostly across unexplored country, and this consti- 

 tutes the longest sledge journey on record, both as to time 

 and distance ; the men it seems lived like the natives. 



The sad story of the terrible suffering endured by 105 

 men who quitted the Erebus and Terror on April 22, 

 1848, ten months after the death of Franklin, is too well 

 known from the narrative of the search party in the Fox 

 under M'Clintock. Ample evidence was found scattered 

 along the shores of King William's Land and Boothia, by 

 which they endeavoured to reach the Fish River Settle- 

 ments, of the fate of most of the party, many of whom, 

 the Eskimo told M'Clintock, fell down as they walked, 

 and had to remain unburied. Lieut. Schwatka's party 

 have done what they could to show respect to what 

 remains of the brave and unfortunate band. Unfortu- 

 nately no written records of the expedition have been 

 found ; there was little room to expect that there would. 

 As to the statement about the vessel which completed the 

 North- West Passage, we suppose this must mean that 



one of the ships had drifted south-westwards so far as to 

 meet with the furthest eastward point reached by Franklin 

 in his earlier expeditions. The records of temperature 

 will be eagerly looked for by meteorologists ; the degree 

 of cold seems to have far exceeded any Arctic temperature 

 on record. 



An unfortunate set-off to Lieut. Schwatka's successful 

 return is the news that Capt. Howgate has been again 

 compelled to put back in the Gulnare to St. John's, 

 Newfoundland, the vessel being so unsuited for her work 

 that the proposed expedition to Lady Franklin Bay has 

 had to be abandoned for this year. Capt. Howgate is 

 certainly very unfortunate in his Arctic scheme, though 

 we trust he will not be daunted, but will next year be 

 able to accomplish the foundation of his Polar colony. 



Further sad news comes from San Francisco of the 

 Gordon-Bennett expedition in the Jeannette, which set 

 out full of hope not long ago. No tidings can be obtained 

 by the whalers of the expedition, and the relief steamer 

 Corwin had to return owing to the severity of the weather. 

 There is however no more reason for giving up hope than 

 there was in the case of the Payer- Weyprecht expedition, 

 which disappeared suddenly off the Novaya Zemlya coast 

 in 1872, and returned about two years later with the tidings 

 of the discovery of a new Arctic land. This land, Franz 

 Josef Land, a telegram from Hammerfest informs us, was 

 visited in August by that most daring of yachtsmen, Mr. 

 Leigh Smith. He explored to the west as far as 45° E. 

 and 80" 20' N ., and sighted land from that point about 

 forty miles north-west. No doubt Mr. Leigh Smith's 

 experience this year and Capt. Markham's in the same 

 direction last year, seem to point out that exploration 

 northwards on the basis of Franz Josef Land is hopeful. 

 So long as such exploration is carried on by private enter- 

 prise there can be no objection to it, but if Government 

 has any funds to spare for Arctic work during the next 

 few years, they would be expended to the best advantage 

 in enabling this country to join the European and Ame- 

 rican concert for the establishment of Polar observing 

 stations, from which England is conspicuously absent. 



ROOD'S BIRDS OF CORNWALL 

 The Birds of Corn-Mall and the Scilly Islands. By the 

 late Edward Hearle Rodd. Edited, with an Introduc- 

 tion, Appendi.x, and brief Memoir of the Author, by 

 James Edmund Harting. With Portrait and Map. 

 (London ; Trubner and Co., 1880.) 

 n"'HE addition of another volume to the already long 

 -1- series of works upon the local avifaunas of Great 

 Britain is not perhaps an event of any veiy great import- 

 ance as regards ornithology in general. Yet the name of 

 the late Mr. Edward Hearle Rodd of Penzance is so well 

 known to British naturalists, and the county in which his 

 observations were made is a land of such special interest, 

 that there can be no doubt of the present volume being 

 acceptable to a wide circle of readers. 



At the time of his death it was generally understood 

 that Mr. Rodd had in preparation a general work upon 

 the birds of his native county. This work, however, as 

 we are now informed by Mr. Harting, had only so far 

 advanced as to " consist of a transcript of various notes 

 on the ornithology of Cornwall, communicated by the 

 author to the pages of the Zoologist arranged in chrono- 



