Franklin Expedition. -367 



all this it was Captain McClintock. He was admirably fitted for 

 his task, his vessel well adapted for the voyage, and well pro- 

 vided. He only took thirty men with him, and if his own provi- 

 sions gave out, there were provisions deposited there by previous 

 expeditions sufficient for 100 men for two years. They desired 

 to recover, also, any books or journals which Franklin's party 

 might have left behind them. When he asked the Esquimaux 

 about them they had said they had had several, but not knowing 

 they were of value they had given them to their children, who 

 had played with them and torn them up. He only succeeded in 

 obtaining two leaves of a religious book which an Esquimaux wo- 

 man had in her work-bag, and which, with the rest of the relics, 

 save those he had with him, he had deposited by order of the 

 governnient in Greenwich Hospital. The Esquimaux he found 

 most correct in their geographical notions and descriptions. He 

 had only to point out to them on the chart certain places he 

 knew in common with them, and they would give him most accu- 

 rately the relative situation of another. Thus he ascertained the 

 place where the party had perished, and when parties from his 

 description subsequently went there, they found the remains of a 

 boat, and near it a piece of wood on which the word "Terror" 

 had been stamped. They found also kettles and other utensils 

 belonging to the expedition. They also found a piece of a snow- 

 shoe frame with the name of Mr. Stanley, one of the surgeons of 

 the expedition, carved upon it. He had traced it back to the 

 maker and the man in London from whom Mr. Stanley had 

 bought it. No remains of the bodies had been found ; and this 

 was principally owing to the nature of the site where the party 

 perished. They had been seen ere the ice had decayed, in the 

 spring time, on a low beach, which, at times, was doubtless covered 

 with water. The bodies were left to lie there ; the other articles 

 moved to a safer place. The former were washed away and lost, 

 foxes and wolves, perchance, aiding in their destruction. Capt. 

 Penny had told him that whales and walruses, which he had left 

 in similar places, had similarly disappeared. Dr. Rae here showed 

 the relics of which he had retained possession. They consist(?d of 

 portions of the cases of watches, pocket chronometers, gold chain, 

 an anchor badge worn on the shoulder of a ship's petty officer, 

 and a fork with Sir John Franklin's crest upon it. We also had 

 a very nicely made Esquimaux needle. The thread was made 

 from deer's hide. In fact the reindeer furnished them with food. 



