356 MM. C. Borgen and R. Copeland's Short Account of the 



connexion with the first, he introduced the improvement of 

 carrying the cabin stairs not only down to the floor, but below 

 this into the hold, and then bringing another stair from the 

 latter up again into the antechamber of the cabin — an arrange- 

 ment which was of extraordinary service in keeping up the 

 temperature. 



We come now to the last of the so-called Franklin-expeditions*. 

 It was the fourth of the expeditions fitted out by Lady Franklin ; 

 and the command of it was entrusted to Captain M'Clintock. 

 He sailed on the 1st of July 1857, from Aberdeen, in the screw- 

 steamer ' Fox/ of 180 tons, with a crew in all of 25 men. The 

 officers were Lieutenant Hobson of the Royal Navy as first, and 

 the merchant-captain Allen Young as second officer. Besides 

 these there were in the cabin a surgeon, Dr. Walker of Belfast, 

 two engineers, and Petersen an interpreter. The stores con- 

 sisted of 6000 pounds of pemmican and a large stock of pre- 

 served vegetables, with the well-known antiscorbutic remedies 

 ^lemon-juice and sugar), and was calculated for twenty-eight 

 months. 



The voyage was prosperous as far as Melville Bay ; but when 

 M'Clintock attempted to make his way into Lancaster Sound the 

 ship got into pack-ice, became fixed, and drove with it down Baf- 

 fin's Bay for 242 days. The first winter, therefore, had to be 

 passed in the pack-ice; but the ice was quiet, and they were ex- 

 posed to none of the perils which so frequently occur under similar 

 circumstances. No cases of illness occurred; but the second engi- 

 neer died in consequence of a fall in the engine-room. As soon 

 as the ship was again set free, they turned once more towards 

 the north, and succeeded this time in passing through Lancaster 

 Sound. An attempt to sail down Franklin's (Peer's) Strait was 

 unsuccessful, as it was completely blocked with ice in the nar- 

 row part. M'Clintock then attempted to push through Prince- 

 Regent Inlet and Bellot's Strait into the southern part of Peel's 

 Strait and so to King William's Land, but here also was pre- 

 vented by ice from penetrating further. 



Nothing then remained but to allow themselves to be frozen 

 up in a small harbour in Bellot's Strait, and to do by sledge- 

 journeys what could not be done with the ship. How far this 

 was successful, how the greater part of the coasts of Peel's, Ross, 

 and Victoria Straits was surveyed by M'Clintock, Hobson, and 

 Young, and how Hobson found that important document which 

 furnishes the only authentic intelligence of the condition of 

 Franklin's expedition up to April 1848, is too well known to 

 render it necessary for us to dwell upon it here. 



* The Voyage of the 'Fox' in the Arctic Seas. London, 1859. And 

 Petersen : Den sidste Franklin-Expedition med Fox, Capt. M'Clintock. 



