SURGEON GOODSIR. 487 



of 1849-^the last he undertook previously to his appointment to the com- 

 mand of the search expedition already mentioned. Fortunately for us, to 

 give an outline of this cruise is at once desirable for the purpose of suitably 

 introducing Captain Penny to the reader, and necessary in order to faithfully 

 carry out the purpose and the plan of the present work. The cruise referred 

 to, made in the whaler " Advice " of Dundee, is memorable and noteworthy 

 for more than one reason. It was not exclusively a whaling cruise. It was 

 practically also a Franklin search expedition, and for this reason, if for no 

 other, it falls in to be noticed here in the chronological order which has been 

 observed throughout these pages. In what sense the cruise of the " Advice " 

 in 1849 was a search expedition as well as a commercial venture, may in a 

 few words be explained. 



In a previous chapter, in which the departure of Franklin on his last 

 expedition in the " Erebus " and " Terror " is recounted, we were fortunate 

 enough to be able to reproduce from Commander Fitzjames's "Journal," 

 portrait-sketches of all the officers of the former vessel. Of these sketches, 

 perhaps none is so vivid, so instinct with character, as that of "Surgeon 

 Goodsir." He is "long and straight, and walks upright on his toes, with 

 his hands tucked up in each jacket pocket. He is perfectly good-humoured, 

 . . . laughs delightfully, cannot be in a passion, is enthusiastic about all 

 'ologies, . . . catches phenomena in a bucket, ... is a pleasant 

 companion, and an acquisition to the mess." Is this sound-hearted man and 

 "pleasant companion" who so soon won the friendship of all on board, 

 likely to have left no friends at home ? That he counted them in troops 

 we may be sure ; for, besides his fine social qualities, he possessed a hberal 

 share of that intellectual superiority which won for one member of his 

 family, at least, a European reputation. He himself, though only twenty- 

 eight when he joined the " Erebus," had been for some time previously 

 Curator of the Edinburgh Museum. His elder brother, John Goodsir, 

 Professor of Anatomy in Edinburgh University, has left a name which is 

 known and revered in every medical school throughout the world. Another 

 brother, Robert Anstruther Goodsir, late President of the Eoyal Medical 

 Society of Edinburgh, was also a man of fine intellectual gift, and of sym- 

 pathy warm and wide. With this last gentleman it is now oxir privilege to 

 commence a pleasant acquaintance in these pages. 



Years having passed after the departure of the " Erebus " and " Terror " 

 without one re-assuring message being brought home from the blank Polar 

 wastes, E. A. Goodsir— like a thousand other kinsfolk of the absent men- 

 began to feel much anxiety for the fate of his brother " Harry," as in his letters 

 he familiarly calls the assistant-surgeon of the " Erebus," and eventually he 

 resolved to go out to the north and search for him and for the missing 

 expedition. In 1849 he incidentally heard of Captain Penny (then master 



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