TRACES. 
165 
filled with limestone pebbles, perhaps to serve as con- 
venient ballast on boating expeditions. 
These were among the more obvious vestiges of Sir 
John Franklin's party. The minor indications about 
the ground were innumerable : fragments of canvas, 
rope, cordage, sail-cloth, tarpaulins ; of casks, iron- work, 
wood, rough and carved ; of clothing, such as a blank- 
et lined by long stitches with common cotton stuff, 
and made into a sort' of rude coat ; paper in scraps, 
white, waste, and journal; a small key; a few odds 
and ends of brass-work, such as might be part of the 
furniture of a locker ; in a word, the numberless re- 
liquiae of a winter resting-place. One of the papers, 
which I have preserved, has on it the notation of an 
astronomical sight, worked out to Greenwich time. 
With all this, not a written memorandum, or point- 
ing cross, or even the vaguest intimation of the condi- 
tion or intentions of the party. The traces found at 
Cape Riley and Beechy were still more baffling. The 
cairn was mounted on a high and conspicuous portion 
of the shore, and evidently intended to attract observa- 
tion ; but, though several parties examined it, digging 
round it in every direction, not a single particle of in- 
formation could be gleaned. This is remarkable ; and 
for so able and practiced an Arctic commander as Sir 
John Franklin, an incomprehensible omission. 
In a narrow interval between the hills which come 
down toward Beechy Island, the searching parties of 
the Rescue and Mr. Murdaugh of our own vessel found 
the tracks of a sledge clearly defined, and unmistaka- 
ble both as to character and direction. They pointed 
to the eastern shores of Wellington Sound, in the same 
general course with the traces discovered by Penny 
between Cape Spencer and Point Innes. 
