168 CONJECTURE. 
a position which commanded a full view of Lancaster 
Sound to the east of south, and of Wellington Chan- 
nel extending north. It may be fairly inferred, also, 
that the general health of the crews had not suffered 
severely, three only having died out of a hundred and 
thirty odd; and that in addition to the ordinary details 
of duty, they were occupied in conducting and comput- 
ing astronomical observations, making sledges, prepar- 
ing their little anti-scorbutic garden patches, and ex- 
ploring the eastern shore of the channel. Many facts 
that we ourselves observed made it seem probable that 
Franklin had not, in the first instance, been able to 
prosecute his instructions for the Western search ; and 
the examinations made so fully since by Captain Aus- 
tin's officers have proved that he never reached Cape 
Walker, Banks' Land, Melville Island, Prince Regent's 
Inlet, or any point of the sound considerably to the 
west or southwest. The whole story of our combined 
operations in and about the channel shows that it is 
along its eastern margin that the water-leads occur 
most frequently : natural causes of general application 
may be assigned for this, some of which will readily 
suggest themselves to the physicist ; but I have only 
to do here with the recognized fact. 
So far I think we proceed safely. The rest is con- 
jectural. Let us suppose the season for renewed prog- 
ress to be approaching ; Franklin and his crews, with 
their vessels, one or both, looking out anxiously from 
their narrow isthmus for the first openings of the ice. 
They come : a gale of wind has severed the pack, and 
the drift begins. The first clear water that would meet 
his eye would be close to the shore on which he had 
his encampment. Would he wait till the continued 
drift had made the navigation practicable in Lancas- 
