THE FRANKLIK EXPEDITION 4iil 



Company, may remember that they erected a large and con- 

 spicuously placed cairn of stones at Cape Herschell, latitude 

 68° 41' 16" north, longitude 98° 22' west, — their most north- 

 erly attained point. This cairn was on the line of retreat 

 of the Franklin men under Crozier and Fitzjames. Captain 

 McClintock visited the spot early in June, 1859, and found 

 that one side of the cairn had been pulled down, probably by 

 the retiring party, and, from evident indications, they no 

 doubt placed a notice and perhaps some of the valuable 

 records of the expedition therein. Unfortunately, however, 

 Eskimos undoubtedly visited, secured and destroyed these 

 papers. McClintoek says he could not divest himself of the 

 belief that some record was left there, and possibly some 

 most important docimients which their slow progress and fast 

 failing strength would have assured them could not be carried 

 much farther. It was with a feeling of deep regret and 

 much disappointment that he left Cape Herschell without 

 finding any records whatever. He therefore truly remarks : 

 " Perhaps in all the wide world there will be few spots more 

 hallowed in the recollection of British seamen than this cairn 

 on Cape Herschell." 



" Some regret had been expressed by many people inter- 

 ested in Arctic exploration that after the return of Sir 

 Leopold McClintoek no steps were taken by the British 

 Government to obtain still further particulars of the fate of 

 Franklin and his gallant men. In the United States, how- 

 ever, among our kith and kin, the subject was not iorgotten. 

 The late Captain Hall pursued a laborious investigation 

 among the Eskimos of that region, and eventually ascer- 

 tained that one of the abandoned ships, with five of her crew 

 on board, had actually, and in a measure, accomplished the 

 l^orth-West Passage, and that she was afterwards deserted 

 by them near Heilly Island, in about latitude 68° 30' 

 north, and longitude 98° 8' west, where the Eskimo 

 found her. Hall collected one hundred and fifty relics 

 of the ill-fated expedition which had belonged to the 



