340 Miscellanea. 
had passed to the north-east, and has not bee» heard of since he entered 
the ice. * 
As there exists no clear evidence of the route taken by Sir J. Franklin, 
we cannot speculate with confidence on any one line of research being 
more likely to succeed than another. The presumptive evidence, however, 
being much in favour of his having forced through Wellington Channel, 
after having waited for some time at or near Cape Riley, the Admiralty 
has judged wisely in directing the chief efforts to that point. At the same 
time, it is much to be regretted, that a simultaneous national endeavour 
could not have been made by the employment of a steam-vessel from 
the side of Behring Strait, and by extending the researches of Captain 
Kellett in his sailing vessel, the Herald, beyond the island named after her. 
That gallant officer having all along been of opinion that an application of 
steam power in Behring Strait might prove successful, in enabling the 
explorer to work round to meet Franklin through lanes of water between 
Siberia and the northern packs of ice, until an open Polar sea might be 
reached, it was with true gratification that I made every exertion to forward 
two successive projects, in which the Council and Members of this Society 
took as deep an interest as Lady Franklin and myself. 
Many persons who know that it was the resolve of the inflexible Franklin 
to penetrate, if possible, by the north-west into an open polar sea, and to 
navigate in it until he reached the longitude of Behring Strait, have thought 
that, if he really passed through Wellington Channel, and did gain such a 
sea, he may have made considerable progress westward; and that then, if 
compelled to abandon his ship, he might have taken refuge on land, where 
some of our countrymen may still be living on the natural produce of the 
region, but cut off from all communication with countries to which we have 
access. 
It is this idea, mainly founded upon the character of Franklin, which 
has induced many geographers to attach value to such an hypothesis. 
On this ground we supported the bold project of Lieut. Pim, one of the 
officers of Captain Kellet, who proposed a plan of research by which he 
hoped to go far béyond the tracts formerly explored byAdmiral Wrangel. 
Travelling over Siberia to the extreme edge of the Russian settlements (a 
journey which occupies the post six months), he designed to traverse the 
wilds of the Tchuktchi race, and from their shores to pass over channels 
of water in India-rubber or skin canoes to tracts inhabited by the 
most northern Esquimaux, and there endeavour to learn the fate of his 
countrymen. 
+ Capt. McClure intended (as expressed in a letter to Sir George Back, 
dated July 28, 1850, from Kotzebue Sound) to take the first opening in the 
ice, and try for Banks Land, being careful not to be caught in the bight to 
the 8. E. near Boothia: his next object being to get to the northward of 
Melville Island, and afterwards to try to pass to the S.E. by the Wellington 
or some other channel, all of which operations, as this brave man estimated, 
might be so accomplished as to enable him to return home, at least, in 1853. 
