132 report — 1877. 



became beset in crossing the north water of Melville Bay, and was frozen in for the 

 ■winter, which was passed drifting bodily with the pack-ice southward in the pre- 

 vailing current. She was beset in lat. 75^° N., and drifted in 242 days to lat. 63£° X., 

 long. 58° 25' W., altogether 1194 geographical miles. On April 28th, 1858, the 

 { Fox ' anchored in the Danish harbour of Holsteinborg in Greenland. Nothing 

 daunted by this detention of a dreary winter imprisonment in the ice-pack, with the 

 attendant anxieties and perils, after a refit McClintock proceeded northward again 

 with better success, touching at Beechey Island, the first winter quarters of Franklin, 

 and then went down Prince Kegent's Inlet to Bellot Straits, where the ' Fox ' was 

 frozen in for the winter. With the return of spring (1859) travelling parties set off to 

 explore West Boothia and King William's Land, which resulted in the great discovery 

 of the " Record," the only one ever found, raid which was picked up near the site 

 of the magnetic pole fixed by James Bo.^s (1831). The contents were brief, and to 

 this effect : that the expedition ascended the Wellington Channel to lat. 77° N., 

 that it returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island, and wintered, 1845-46, at 

 Beechey Island. After leaving Beechey Island the ships were beset on 12th Sep- 

 tember 1840, and continued wintering in the ice until 24th May 1847, when they 

 were in lat. 70° 5' N., long. 98° 23' W, on which day Lieutenant Gore and Mr. 

 Des Vaux with six men left the ship all well; Bound the margin of the record is 

 written : — 



"April 25th, 1848. — JE.M. ships 'Erebus 'and ' Terror ' were deserted on the 

 22nd April, five leagues N.N.W. of this, having been beset since 12th September, 



1846. The officers and crews, consisting of 105 souls, under the command of Cap- 

 tain F. 11. M. Crozier, landed at lat. 69° 37' 49", long. 98° 41'. This paper was 

 found by Lieutenant Nairn, under the cairn supposed to have been built by Sir 

 James Boss in 1831, four miles to the northward, where it had been deposited by 

 the late Commander Gore in June, 1847. Sir James Boss has not, however, been 

 foimd, and the paper has been transferred to this position, which is that in which 

 Sir James Boss's pillar was erected. Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June, 



1847, and the total loss by death in the expedition has been to this date 9 officers 

 and 15 men. 



"JAMES FITZ-JAMES, 

 " F. B. M. CBOZIEB, " Captain H.M.S. ' Erebus.' 



" Captain and Senior Officer. 



and start to-morrow, 25th, for Back's Biver." 



The " Becord " was then deposited again on the site of Sir James Boss's pillar, 

 where it was found by Lieutenant Hobson, on 6th May 1859, detached to search in 

 that direction by Captain McClintock. Belies of clothing, watches, plate, guns, &c. 

 were found along the beach, also the body of a young man ; the boat was found on 

 the beach in lat. 69° 9' N., long. 99° 27' W. ; all of winch have often been described 

 before, and need not be repeated. No journals were found nor the ships seen. The 

 shore had not been visited by Esquimaux since the abandonment of the ' Erebus ' 

 and ' Terror.' 



The whole of the coast of King William's Island was searched by McClintock, 

 while Allen Young examined Prince -of- Wales Land, and determined its insula- 

 rity by a laborious journey, filling up the intervening space between the points 

 reached by my parties in 1851. 



Thus was successfully accomplished the object of this voyage, and the mystery 

 of the ill-fated expedition cleared up by the several searching expeditions for 

 Franklin's ships : the heroes had perished at the point of success. 



Franklin died gloriously at his post, as did the old voyager Barentz on the 

 shores of Novaia Zemblia in 1596. The conclusions drawn from Bae's discoveries 

 were confirmed ; but the total disappearance of the ships remains unaccounted for. 



After the important discoveries brought to geographical knowledge by the 

 Franklin Expedition and the North-west Passage were settled, a lull of interest 

 in Arctic research followed for a time ; it was revived again by Dr. J. L. Hayes, of 

 the United States, the companion of Kane, who returned to the scene of his 

 labours animated with an ambition for gaining the Pole. IBs expedition of 1860-61 



