180 REPORT — 1860. 



On the Lost Polar Expedition and Possible Recovery of its Scientific 

 Documents. By Captain Parker Snow. 

 Captain Parker Snow, in addressing the audience upon the subject of his paper, 

 stated that the great object he had in view was to keep before the public the fact 

 that we had not yet done all that might be done as regarded the lost polar expedi- 

 tion. Thuse who went out in that expedition ought, none of them, ever to be for- 

 gotten ; and it was our duty to persevere in ascertaining their real fate until posi- 

 tive evidence came forward concerning it. This evidence, he asserted, had not yet 

 been found ; and he was prepared to show that more could be obtained if right mea- 

 sures were taken. 



He then commenced his arguments by giving an analysis of Franklin's instruc- 

 tions, and pointed out how certainly numerous scientific observations of great value 

 must have been made by the officers in that expedition. He enumerated the differ- 

 ent searching expeditions, and with much pleasure dwelt upon the exertions made 

 by the several leaders and subordinates engaged upon this work, many of whom he 

 named. He next pointed out Dr. Rae's discoveries, and then those of the ' Fox' 

 under the present Sir Leopold M'Clintock, doing full justice to one and all. After 

 this, he dissected the whole information that had been obtained by making the fol- 

 lowing remarks : — 



"First of all," said he, "what do we know for a certainty concerning the lost 

 expedition? Why this: 105 persons landed at Point Victory in April 1848, and 

 Captain Crozier (one of their chiefs) said that he or they, or some of them, were going 

 to start on the 26th for Back's Fish River. They do not say a word about being in 

 want of assistance, nor yet that they are suffering. They have abandoned their 

 ships and are going southward, even as Captain M'Clure had intended to do with a 

 part of his crew. 



" This is all we positively know from any written evidence. What else we know 

 is from other testimony. It is as follows s — Three skeletons — perhaps belonging to 

 the 105, perhaps not — have been found ; also a boat. Forty of our countrymen 

 were seen by the natives in the spring of 1850 walking to the Fish River, where, 

 later in the year, it is said that some of them died. Traces of others have been 

 found part of the way up the Fish River, and along the Boothian Isthmus, the coasts 

 of Boothia, and King William Island. Rumours of white men, going westward 

 along the coast of America, have been heard for several years past. To Cape War- 

 ren, the Peel River, the Fish River, and, about the Melville Peninsula, strange tales 

 attach great interest. These places have yet to be searched, and the mystery con- 

 nected with them examined. 



" Such is what we know. Now what is it we suppose ? Briefly this : — From 

 April 1848 to the spring of 1850 is two years. Clearly the party must have been 

 wandering about during that interval. What so likely as that, in the summer of 

 1848, they found open water for their boats, and went away to the westward (or at 

 all events one party did), and tried to reach the Mackenzie or Peel River. Some may 

 have perished, some have gone another way than by the coast (possibly by a direct 

 channel yet undiscovered by us), and finally, being unsuccessful in their western 

 route, they return to the eastward for Fish River, and perhaps a few of them to- 

 wards Lancaster Sound, or the channels leading into Baffin Bay; in fact, to any 

 place, where a hope of relief, and where good hunting would be presented. 



"This hypothesis would explain away the lapse of time, and account for only 

 forty being seen by the natives in 1850. It is further strengthened by other circum- 

 stances founded on negative facts. 



"Thev did not take away any of the Fury Beach stores, though well known to 

 them as'existing at only about 200 miles' distance : they did not send information 

 of distress through the Esquimaux or Indians, as we now know could have been done, 

 even as Captain Collinson and Captain Maguire sent notices of relief: they did not 

 sav a word about being starving or in want of immediate aid ; and many other 

 things thev did not do, which we should expect would have been done, in case of 

 great distress. Hence we may infer that in April 1848 they were not so badly off 

 as is supposed. Had they been so, why did they not visit the Fury Beach stores 

 and get relief? Those stores are even now in excellent order, as may be known from 

 Captain M'Clintock's published Journal. Yet we find them unused, at all events 



