FranHin Expedition. 365 



lished this Survey, Museum and School of Mines, a monument 

 whicli will remain so long as geology is known on the other side 

 of the Atlantic, and I am sure will be equally appreciated here. 



ARTICLE XXXIV.— Abstract of Br. Raeh Account of the Ex- 

 pedition in Search of Sir J. Franklin. 



Dr. Rae, at the request of the Chairman, then addressed the 

 section. He said that previously to the expedition in which he 

 discovered these relics, he had been engaged in four boat expedi- 

 tions to the Arctic regions, and had traced some 2000 to 3000 

 miles of coast. This last expedition of his was undertaken more 

 for the purposes of geographical information than to, search for 

 Sir John Franklin — that having been a secondary consideration 

 as he bad hardly expected to find any traces of Franklin's party. 

 But in the course of his travels he fell in with an Esquimaux, who 

 iiad seen a party of whites the winter before, who were dead. 

 They were in possession of several watches, spoons, &c., with, 

 crests upon them, which proved to be thote of persons belonging 

 to Franklin's Expedition, including the decoration of Sir John's 

 order of Knighthood. He bought these from the Esquimaux for 

 saws, daggers and other weapons. Doubts have been expressed 

 in several quarters as to the honesty .of the; Esquimaux, and it was 

 suggested that they might have murdered Franklin's party and 

 robbed their bodies. He had always found them honest and 

 trustworthy, and much more cleanly in their habits than those 

 Dr. Kane met with. He found them extremely accurate in their 

 remembrance and description of what they had seen. He win- 

 tered among them in 1847. They described to him the visit of 

 Parry and others twenty years before, with such minuteness, that 

 he recognised their visitor as Parry, who had subsequently con- 

 firmed to him (Dr. Rae) the circumstances concerning his visit 

 which they related. All' the time he was among them they never 

 stole an article. He went away on a distant expedition, leaving 

 three men behind him with stores. They were never molested in 

 any way, and nothing was taken from them, thougli the Esqui- 

 maux would have made much more by murdering and robbing 

 them, than by the destruction of Franklin's party. In the eastern 

 •part of the continent there was no instance of that bloodthirsty 

 disposition towards the whites or other Indians, that they showed 



