748 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



the eastern shores of North Somerset, in a channel alono- whose western side Franklin 

 had been two years before helplessly drifting. He returned to England in November, 

 1849, bringing back no tidings. 



In March, 1849, the British government offered a reward of £20,000 to any ex- 

 ploring party from any country whatsoever, which should render efficient aid to 

 Franklin and his party. The hope of gaining this reward partly, but much more a 

 feeling of intense interest in the fate of the missing navigators, led to numerous 

 searching expeditions. In 1850 there were eight in all, comprising eleven vessels. 

 The result of all that had up to this time been learned was that Franklin ha^ 

 never reached as far as longitude 110° and that he was not to be looked for east of 

 longitude 90°. There was then no indication that they had gone to the north of Lan- 

 caster Sound, or that they had anywhere reached the continent and were making their 

 way overland. The probable field of search was thus, upon good grounds, reduced 

 within narrow limits. They were to be looked for, with best hopes of success, among 

 the group of ice-bound islands lying westward of Melville Island. Thither from both 

 sides of the continent, the search was prosecuted in 1850 and the following years. 

 In 1849 Lady Franklin, who devoted all her life and fortune to the search for her 

 husband and his companions, had placed a supply of coals and provisions upon Cape 

 Hay, on the south side of Lancaster Sound. Such a supply, left by Parry in 1824, 

 had been in 1832 the means of preserving Sir John Ross and his men during their 

 long besetment. 



Apart from Rae, who as already mentioned, was continuing his searches on the con- 

 tinent, the first expedition of 1850 was that by way of Bering's Straits, consisting of 

 the Enterprise, Captain Collinson, and the Investigator, Commander McClure. They 

 were instructed to cruise in company as far to the eastward as they could go, to make 

 friends of the natives ; to make deposits of provisions here and there, in hopes that 

 they might prove of use ; and above all, to avoid any besetment by the ice. We fol- 

 low McClure in the Investigator. In August, 1850, having got separated from his 

 consort, he rounded the western point of the continent, and plunged into the Arctic 

 seas, and thenceforward for three years was lost to human sight. He reached the 

 eastern coast of Bank's Land in September, 1850, and in October was frozen in and 

 finally abandoned his ship in Mercy Bay on the north side of Bank's Land, where in 

 1854 he was rescued by an expedition sent by way of Baffin's Bay, and returned to 

 England. These first and last of all men have in person made the whole north-west 

 passage, rounding the American continent from Bering's Straits to Baffin's Bay. 

 Collinson, in the Enterprise, followed hard after McClure, went almost as far, and 

 made many explorations, but finally returned by the way he had gone. 



The Baffin's Bay expedition, sent out from England in the spring of 1850, consisted 

 of the Resolute, Captain Austin, the Assistance, Captain Ommaney, sailing vessels, 

 and the Pioneer and Intrepid, screw steamers, Capt. Sherrard Osborne. Their in- 

 structions were to the same purport as those given to McClure and Collinson. The 

 schooner Felix, with a small tender, the Mary, was also fitted out by private subscrip- 

 tion, and placed under command of Sir James Ross. The expedition was provisioned 

 for eighteen months and was to go along Lancaster Sound to the westward. The Lady 

 Franklin, fitted out by Lady Jane Franklin, and commanded by Captain Penny, also 

 sailed from England. Lady Franklin also defrayed two-thirds of the cost of another 



