503 © 
lost by ice-crushing. She was only a merchant ship employed 
to carry provisions ; she had not been strengthened like the 
searching vessels, and had been kept in a most exposed and 
perilous position for fourteen days previous to the accident. 
This occurred near Beechey Island, where, had she been docked 
in the ice, in conformity with the usual practice, she would 
have been saved. 
6th. The scientific results of the previous searching expe- 
ditions have not been made public by the Admiralty. Tide 
observations, magnetical and meteorological observations of 
the highest interest and value, were made during those expedi- 
tions; and it is manifestly unfair to decry the scientific results 
of those expeditions, when no opportunity of judging of them 
has been afforded to the scientific public, who alone are com- 
petent to judge of their value. 
7th. The commercial value of previous Arctic explora- 
tions may be judged of by the following facts :— 
1. Sir H. Gilbert’s discovery of the Cod Fishery of New- 
foundland. 
2. Davis—Great Whale Fishery of West Greenland. 
. Hudson—Hudson’s Bay and the Great Fur Company. 
4. Sir John Ross— Whale Fishery of the north and north- 
west of Baftin’s Bay. 
5. Parry—Whale Fishery of Lancaster Sound, Barrow 
Strait, and Prince Regent’s Inlet. 
6. Beechey—Whale Fishery of Bhering’s Straits. In 
this Fishery, in the space of two years the American 
whalers obtained cargoes amounting to eight million 
dollars in value. 
8th. Lady Franklin’s expedition affords the last hope of 
the discovery of a practicable north-west passage. Collinson’s 
voyage has proved that the northern coast of the American 
continent can be safely navigated for an extent of 1400 miles 
east and west; and if there be a north-west passage at all, it 
must exist in the area proposed to be searched for the Erebus 
Se) 
