159 
franklin’s encampment. 
extending the line along the shore over which the par- 
ty must have moved from Cape Riley. 
Among the articles they had found were tin canis- 
ters, with the London maker’s label ; scraps of news- 
paper, bearing the date 1844; a paper fragment, with 
the words “until called” on it, seemingly part of a 
watch order ; and two other fragments, each with the 
name of one of Franklin’s officers written on it in pen- 
cil. I annex a fac-simile of one of these, the assistant 
surgeon of the Terror. They told us, too, that among 
the articles found by Captain Penny’s men was a 
dredge, rudely fashioned of iron hoops heat round, 
with spikes inserted in them, and arranged for a long 
handle, as if to fish up missing articles ; besides some 
footless stockings, tied up at the lower end to serve as 
socks, an officer’s pocket, velvet-lined, torn off from the 
dress, &c., &o. ; all of which, they thought, spoke of a 
party that had suffered wreck, and were moving east- 
ward. Acting on this impression. Captain Penny was 
about to proceed toward Baffin’s Bay, along the north 
shore of Lancaster Sound, in the hope of encountering 
them, or, more probably, their bleached remains. 
For myself, looking only at the facts, and carefully 
discarding every deduction that might be prompted by 
sympathy rather than reason, my journal reminds me 
that I did not see in these signs the evidence of a lost 
party. The party was evidently in motion; but it 
might be that it was a detachment, engaged in making 
observations, or in exploring with a view to the oper- 
ations of the spring, while the ships were locked in 
winter quarters at Cape Riley or Beechy, which had 
returned on board before the opening of the ice. 
I may add, as not without some bearing on the for- 
tunes of this party, whatever may have been its condi- 
