VISIT TO THE RESOLUTE. 
171 
he set out, and he thinks that Melville Island is now 
the seat of such a house-asylum. ' For, depend upon 
it,' he added, ' Franklin will he expecting some of us 
to he following on his traces. Now, may it he that 
the party, whose winter quarters we have discovered, 
sent out only exploring detachments along Wellington 
Sound in the spring, and then, when themselves re- 
leased, continued on to the west, hy Cape Hotham and 
Barrow's Straits T I have given this extract from my 
journal, though the theory it suggests has since heen 
disproved hy Lieutenant M'Clintock, hecause the tone 
and language of Sir John Ross may he regarded as 
characteristic of this manly old seaman. 
" I next visited the Resolute. I shall not here say 
how their perfect organization and provision for win- 
ter contrasted with those of our own little expedition. 
I had to shake off a feeling almost of despondency 
when I saw how much hetter fitted they were to grap- 
ple with the grim enemy. Cold. Winter, if we may 
judge of it hy the clothing and warming appliances of 
the British squadron, must be something beyond our 
power to cope with ; for, in comparison with them, we 
have nothing, absolutely nothing. 
" The officers received me, for I was alone, with the 
cordiality of recognized brotherhood. They are a gen- 
tlemanly, well-educated set of men, thoroughly up to 
the history of what has been done by others, and full 
of personal resource. Among them I was rejoiced to 
meet an old acquaintance. Lieutenant Brown, whose 
admirably artistic sketches I had seen in Haghe's lith- 
otints, at Mr. Grinnell's, before leaving New York. 
When we were together last, it was among the trop- 
ical jungles of Luzon, surrounded by the palm, the 
cycas, and bamboo, in the glowing extreme of vegeta- 
