SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. 
243 
For the past three weeks we have been living on ptar¬ 
migan, rabbits, two reindeer, and seal. 
SHOOTING SEAL. 
£ - They are fast curing our scurvy. With all these 
resources,—coming to our relief so suddenly too,—how 
can my thoughts turn despairingly to poor Franklin 
and his crew? 
“ .... Can they have survived? No man can 
answer with certainty; but no man without presump¬ 
tion can answer in the negative. 
“If, four months ago,—surrounded by darkness and 
bowed down by disease,—I had been asked the ques¬ 
tion, I would have turned toward the black hills and 
the frozen sea, and responded in sympathy with them, 
‘ No.’ But with the return of light a savage people* 
come down upon us, destitute of any but the rudest 
