58 TRANSACTIONS iSqQ-'oO 



After that, years had to pass before further information was 

 obtained, though Belcher had gone through Wellington Channel 

 and examined the Victorian Archipelago, discovered North Corn- 

 wall, North York and North Kent, and connected them by 

 Belcher Channel with Jones Sound and Baffin Bay ; though 

 Kellett and Vesey Hamilton had found their way to the North 

 shores of Prince Patrick Island, threading with swift movement, 

 but with ever watchful eyes, the mazes of the furthest North 

 West of Franklin District ; though McClure had penetrated 

 Prince of Wales Strait, and from his wintering place of Princess 

 Royal Island had despatched sledging parties north and south 

 and east into Prince Albert and Victoria Land ; though Collinson 

 had carried his vessel into Victoria Strait and had come to within 

 a few miles of the spot where Franklin's vessel had been aban- 

 doned 5 years before. 



In 1854 Dr. Rae, then conducting an expedition for the 

 Hudson Bay Co., learned from a band of Eskimos that about 

 four years before some 40 white men had been seen dragging a 

 boat over the ice near the north shore of King William Island. 

 From these "Huskies" he obtained various articles, which he 

 carried to England in 1855 and obtained the reward of ^10,000 

 offered by the Admiralty to the first one ascertaining the fate of 

 the Franklin expedition. 



Lady Franklin in 1857 sent out the "Fox," Capt. McClin- 

 tock, for further search. He was beset in the middle pack of 

 the Greenland coast, and was held fast bound for 242 days and 

 carried nearly 1,402 statute miles. The ice pack was broken up 

 by a fierce storm on 24th April, 1858, and the "Fox" steamed 

 out from among the rolling masses of ice, escaping from 

 thraldom in a most miraculous manner. After eight months of 

 aimless, helpless drifting hither and thither, McClintock found 

 himself clear of his floating prison and ready to make a begin- 

 ning in the task Lady Franklin had set him. During the 

 autumn of 1858 he arrived at Beechey Island, and there erected 

 to the memory of Sir John Franklin and his companions, the 

 marble tablet already mentioned as having been provided for the 

 purpose by Lady Franklin. Then he turned his vessel south- 

 ward into Prince Regent Inlet and wintered in Bellot Strait. By 

 the middle of February, 1859, he was able to start on his first 



