56 TRANSACTIONS iSQg-'oO 



certained, if possible. England has never spared men or money 

 when her subjects are imprisoned and need to be set free 

 whether they are held in bondage among the mountains of 

 Abyssinia or in the "thrilling regions of thick ribbed ice." 



In all, I have counted 22 expeditions which were sent to 

 Polar regions to assure their countrymen that all was being 

 done that skill and energy could do to lift the veil and reveal the 

 fate of the captain and men of the "Erebus" and the "Terror." 

 By these, during the years 1850-54, nearly the whole of the vast 

 Archipelago of the district of Franklin was thoroughly searched. 



The kindred nation to the south of us generously lent a 

 helping hand, Moses Grinnell, of New York, equipping two ex- 

 peditions, one in 1850 and the other in 1853, to aid in the search. 

 In commemoration of his efforts we have added to the large 

 stock of place-names Grinnell I^and and Grinnell Island to mark 

 our gratitude and to remind future generations of the large- 

 hearted man who acted on the adage "blood is thicker than 

 water' ' that has more than once been invoked between the two 

 nations in times of need. 



France, the other kindred nation of Canada's people, was 

 represented in the search by lyieut. Bellot of the French navy, 

 who went as a volunteer with Capt. Kennedy. The gallant 

 Frenchman was drowned, and his deeds are commemorated by 

 the place name, Bellot Strait, which he discovered, and thus 

 established the most northerly coast of the continent ; and by a 

 marble tablet affixed to a cenotaph erected in Wellington 

 Channel near the place where he lost his life. 



Collinson and McClure went by way of Behring's Strait. 

 Penny and Austin entered Barrow Strait from the east. Sir 

 John Ross, then a veteran of 73 years, wintered near Penny, off 

 the south coast of Cornwallis Island. Years before he had 

 promised Sir John Franklin that if the occasion arose he would 

 go in search of him, and now the time for the fulfilment of the 

 promise having fully come, the brave old man, scorning ease 

 when his comrade's fate was the problem to be solved, was at his 

 post amidst the rocks and ice of Franklin District. Kennedy 

 with Bellot was sent out by Eady Franklin herself. 



