CH. XXVI] 
The Franklin Expedition 
243 
navigable season. They were drifting very slowly to the 
west. 
In the spring of 1847 travelling parties were organised. 
Fitzjames provided them with records in tin cylinders to 
be deposited in cairns. The records were as follows : 
H.M. ships Erebus and Terror 
Wintered in the ice in 
Lat. 70 0 5' N. Long. 98 0 23' W. 
28 May 1847. 
Having wintered in 1846-47 1 at Beechey Island in Lat. 74 0 43' 28" N. 
Long. 91 0 39" 15" W. after having ascended Wellington Channel to 
Lat. 77 0 and returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island. 
Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition, 
All well. 
Party consisting of 2 officers and 6 men left the ships on Monday 
24th May 1847. 
Gm Gore, Lieut 
Chas. F. Des Voeux, Mate. 
One party, probably led by Fitzjames himself, went east 
for magnetic observations, passing Cape Felix of Ross. The 
other, under Graham Gore, advanced southwards to the 
Cape Herschel of Simpson, and thus discovered the North 
West Passage. Franklin's party was thus the first to dis- 
cover the connection of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 
When the travelling parties returned they found that 
Sir John Franklin was dying. He heard of the discovery of 
the North West Passage, he was confident that the ships 
would get clear in the summer, and he was in comparative 
comfort. Doubtless he bade farewell to officers and men, 
sent messages to Lady Franklin, and died happy and full 
of hope. His funeral is admirably portrayed in the 
bas-relief below his statue, by one who knew the Arctic 
regions well. The beautiful epitaph in Westminster Abbey 
is by Franklin's nephew-in-law, the poet Tennyson 2 — 
Not here ! the cold North hath thy bones, and thou 
Heroic sailor soul 
Art passing on thy happier voyage now 
Toward no earthly pole. 
1 This is manifestly an error for 1845-46. 
2 Under the title Versus Tennysoniani no less than 165 renderings of 
"Not here..." etc., in Greek, Latin, Sanscrit, Arabic, German, Italian, and 
French, etc. were published by Canon Wright in 1 882 at the Cambridge Press, 
written by Archbp. Benson, Canon Ainger, Dean Bradley, Prof. Butcher, 
Dr Haig-Brown,Dr Butler, Master of Trinity, Calverley, Prof. Cowell, Farrar, 
Gladstone, J ebb, Lord Lyttelton, Dean Merivale, Max Miiller, Prof. Palmer, 
Lord Selborne, Bp. Wordsworth, and others. (Ed.) 
16 — 2 
