416 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
e 
it extinguishes the hope of any further discovery of written records. ‘They were 
told that the Natchilli Esquimaux had found a tin box, one foot square and two 
feet long, containing books, at a point near Back’s river, the place where the last 
of the Franklin party probably perished. ‘The box was found and opened by the 
natives not long after the death of the white men, that is to say, thirty years ago. 
The most careful search failed to bring to light any of its contents, which were 
most likely the written records of the Franklin expedition, and there is hardly a 
doubt that they were long since irreparably lost or destroyed. They ascertained 
that the cairn mentioned in Capt. Barry’s story has no existence. It is evident, 
then, that the history of the expedition up to the time of Sir John’s death, the 
particulars of his illness, the story of the wanderings of the crews after they de-_ 
serted the Erebus and Terror, and many other things that we would most like to 
know, must forever remain enveloped in mystery. 
CHEYNE’S PROPOSED EXHIBITION. 
Commander Cheyne is vigorously at work raising subscriptions for his pro- 
posed new expedition to the Pole, the cost of which he estimates will be about 
£30,000. According to the London Zzmes it is not improbable that the cvu-op- 
eration of Canada will be invited. By adopting a course of lectures, illustrating 
Arctic work by means of the lime light, Commander Cheyne has succeeded in 
establishing an influential central committee in London, and upward of sixty 
branch committees in England, Scotland, and Ireland, for carrying on a collection 
of subscriptions, the work being on a voluntary basis. The sum of £1,890 has 
been secured in London already, in cash and written promises; Captain Bailey, 
R. N., has brought into the fund £264, besides making a present of a six-man 
sledge; Messrs. Forrest, the boat-builders, have promised another sledge and 
#150 worth of limejuice, and limejuice biscuits have also been promised by 
Messrs. L. Rose & Co. Various other articles are forthcoming in the shape of 
medical comforts, etc., and Dr. B. W. Richardson, F. R. S., has undertaken to 
superintend the proper provisioning of the vessel. Mr. John M. Cook has gen- 
erously given the committee a commodious office, rent free, and has under his 
consideration a plan for sending a steamer as far as Disco, or Upernavik, taking 
a party of excursionists and conveying surplus stores across the Atlantic for the 
expedition, tnus saving the expense of hiring a vessel for transport service. 
Taking all these favorable circumstances into consideration, it has been determ- 
ined to give notice of a motion to be brought before Parliament early next session, 
asking for a small Parliamentary grant in aid of this volunteer movement. Sup- 
port of such a motion is already assured on both sides of the House, there being 
happily no political bias in the question of our Arctic prestige. 
A deputation of the London Central Arctic Committee waited, on the 27th of 
August, upon Sir John Macdonald, the Premier of the Canadian Dominion, who 
promised the members that the case of joint action should be submitted for fav- 
