THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION 465 



on the 7th January, 1881. Each of the regiments stationed 

 in the Castle garrison was represented by a detachment of 

 twenty-eight men (the 21st Hussars, the Royal Artillery, and 

 the 71st Highlanders), and Her Majesty's ship, Warden, at 

 Leith, furnished a contingent of one hundred Royal Marines 

 and sailors. The procession was also accompanied by the 

 military band and pipers of the 7lst Regiment, while a vast 

 concourse of sightseers thronged the entire route from the 

 starting point in Great King Street to the Dean Cemetery. 

 The coffin was of solid oak, and on the lid was a brass plate 

 simply inscribed ' John Irving, Lieutenant R.N. Born 1815. 

 Died 1848.' The chief naval and military authorities 

 were present, and also many of the leading citizens of Edin- 

 burgh, and nothing was left undone that could add to the 

 dignity and impressiveness of the scene. Lieutenant Irving, 

 it may be added, was the fourth son of the late Mr. John 

 Irving, writer to the Signet, a schoolfellow and friend of 

 Sir Walter Scott." 



For the special benefit of future Arctic explorers, ignor- 

 ant of the canon formulated by the eminent navigator, the 

 late Admiral Sir Edward Parry, as a result of his observa- 

 tions during his first and second expeditions, I would now 

 quote therefrom : " The eastern coast of any portion of 

 Polar land, or what is the same thing, the western sides of 

 seas or inlets having a tendency at all approaching north and 

 south, are at a given season of the year generally more 

 encumbered with ice than the shores with an opposite aspect. 

 Ships should be kept disengaged from ice so that they may 

 be at liberty to take advantage of the occasional openings in- 

 shore, by which alone the navigation of these shores is to be 

 performed with any degree of certainty. Time and later 

 experience have tended to confirm these views. One very 

 noticeable instance in this connection was that of Captain 

 McClure. Had he, on reaching Cape Crozier (Baring 

 Island) in September, 1851, made a bold push for Cape Hay 

 (Melville Island), instead of hugging the coast and thereby 



