534 THE FRANKLIN SEAUCJI— 184:8-51. 



through Baffin Bay for England, where he arrived at the close of Sep- 

 tember. 



Thus the completest and most splendidly-equipped expedition that had 

 ever left the British shores returned after an absence of seventeen months. 

 Its officers had searched the whole coast of the Parry Islands, from Beechey 

 Island, where Penny discovered Frankhn's first winter quarters, to- the ex- 

 treme western point of Melville Island — a distance of 350 miles; and besides 

 this, great tracts of land, of more than 500 miles in extent, had been 

 thoroughly examined by Surgeon Bradford and Lieutenant Aldrich. Again, 

 400 miles of coast-line to the south of Cape "Walker had been discovered 

 and roughly surveyed. Finally, both sides of Wellington Channel had been 

 examined by Penny, and Jones's Sound, as far as the barrier of ice, by Cap- 

 tain Austin ; yet, though the search was so thorough and of such wide extent, 

 nothing was discovered that threw light on the fate of the " Erebus " and 

 " Terror." ISTothing, yet, for a little while. 



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