FATE OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION ASCERTAINED.
The news arrived in London on Thursday that Captain M'Clintock had landed at Portsmouth on Wednesday from the yacht Fox, and had hurried up to London carrying with him verbal and tangible traces of the lost expedition of Sir John Franklin. The intelligence was eagerly welcomed, and it has proved true. On the same evening the Admiralty forwarded the documents to the journals for publication, and they have been read with the greatest interest. The first is addressed by Captain M'Clintock to the Secretary of the Admiralty.
" Yacht Fox, R.Y.S.
" Sir,—I beg you will inform the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty of the safe return to this country of Lady Franklin's Final Searching Ex- pedition, which I have had the honour to conduct. "Their Lordships will rejoice to hear that our endeavours to ascertain the fate of the ' Franklin Expedition' have met with complete success. -
"At Point Victory, upon the north-west coast of King William's Island, a record has been found, dated the 25th of April, 1848, and signed by Cap- tains Crozier and Fitzjames. By it we were informed that her Majesty's ships Erebus and Terror were abandoned on the 22d of April, 1848, in the ice, five leagues to the N.N.W., and that the survivors—in all amounting to 105 souls, under the command of Captain Crozier—were proceeding to the Great Fish River. Sir John Franklin had died on the 11th of June, 1847.
" Many deeply interesting relics of our lost countrymen have been picked up upon the western shore of King William's Island, and others obtained from the Esquimaux, by whom we were informed that subsequent to their abandonment one ship was crushed and sunk by the ice, and the other forced on shore, where she has ever since been, affording them an almost inex- haustible mine of wealth.
" Being unable to penetrate beyond Bellot Strait, the Fox wintered in Brentford Bay, and the search—including the estuary of the Great Fish River and the discovery of 800 miles of coast line, by which we have united the explorations of the former searching expeditions to the north and west of our position with those of Sir James Ross, Deese, Simpson, and Rae, to the south—has been performed by sledge journeys this spring, conducted by Lieutenant Robson, R.N., Captain Allen Young, and myself. " As a somewhat detailed report of our proceedings will doubtless be in- teresting to their Lordships, it is herewith enclosed, together with a chart of our discoveries and explorations, and at the earliest opportunity I will present myself at the Admiralty to afford further information, and lay be- fore their Lordships the record found at Port Victory. " I have the honour to be, &c. " R L. M‘Cmarocx, Captain, R.N. " To the Secretary of the Admiralty."
In sequel to this comes the detailed report and its interesting en- closures. The report describes the proceedings of the expedition from May 1858 until the yacht arrived off the Isle of Wight on Wednesday; and of this we proceed to give an account.
The Fox escaped out of the main pack in Davis's Straits on the 25th of April, 1858, and reached Holsteinborg on the 28th. The voyage was recommenced on the 8th of May, Cape York was reached on the 26th of May, and Pond's Inlet on the 27th of July. Here the people were very friendly, but no rumour of the lost expedition had reached them. Pond's Inlet was left behind on the 6th of August, and on the 11th the Fox reached Beechy Island; and landed "a handsome marble tablet, sent on board for this purpose by Lady Franklin bearing an appropriate inscrip- tion to the memory of our lost countrymen in the Erebus and Terror." Having embarked stores and coals, the Fox sailed down Peel Strait, but finding the channel covered with ice, Captain M'Clintock determined to make Bellot Strait, which he accomplished by the 6th September. He touched its western outlet, and waited there three weeks in the hope of passing out, but he was prevented by an immoveable bather of ice, and he retreated to the eastern entrance, and took up his winter quarters in a
snug harbour there, which he named Port Kennedy, after a predecessor who commanded one of Lady Franklin's searching expeditions.' The time vrasnow occupied in making arrangements for journeys in the early spring, and on the 17th of February, 1859, Captain Young and Captain M'Clintock started, the former towards Prince of Wales' Land, the latter towards the magnetic pole. It was the good fortune of Captain M'Clin- tock to journey in this direction ; for on the 28th of February he met, near Cape Victoria, with a party of friendly Esquimau" who told him that " several years ago a ship was crushed by the ice off the north
shore, off Xing William's Island, but that all her people landed safely-, and went away to the Great Fish River, where they died. This tribe was well supplied with wood, obtained, they said, from a boat left by the white men on the Great River."
The expedition returned to the ship and on the 2d of April, Captain M'Clintock and Lieutenant Hobson resumed their journeys. Before
separating near Cape Victoria they met two Esquimanx families ; "from them we learned that a second ship had been seen off King William's Island, and that she drifted ashore on the fall Of the same year. From this ship they had obtained a vast deal of wood and iron."
Lieutenant Hobson was sent to look after the wreck, and the Captain and interpreter, Petersen, marched along the east shore of King William's Island. On the 8th of May, off Cape Norton, he fell in with a snow village, and from its inhabitants obtained many relics of our countrymen, and information. " Most of our information was received from an intelligent old woman ; she said it was on the fall of the year that the ship was forced ashore ; many
of the white men dropped by the way as they went towards the Great River ; but this was only known to them in the winter following, when their bodies were discovered."
The search was continued without result at Point Ogle, Montreal Island, and Barrow Island. " Recrossing the Straits to King William's Island, we continued the ex- amination of its southern shore without success until the 24th May, when about ten miles eastward of Cape Herschell a bleached skeleton was found,
around which lay fragments of European clothing. Upon carefully_ re- moving the snow, a small pocket-book was found, containing a few letters. These, although much decayed, may yet be deciphered. Judging from the remains of his dress, this unfortunate young man was a steward or officer's servant, and his position exactly verified the Esquirnaux's assertion, that they dropped as they walked along." Nothing was found in Simpson's Cairn which appeared to have been plundered. Lieutenant Hobson had been successful. A short distance
westward of Cape Felix, "he found a very large cairn, and close to it three
small tents, with blankets, old clothes, and other relics of a shooting or a magnetic station ; but although the cairn was dug under, and a trench dug
all round it at a distance of ten feet, no record was discovered. A piece of blank paper folded up was found in the cairn and two broken bottles, which may, perhaps, have contained records, lay 'beside it among some stones
which hadfallen from off the top. The most interesting of the articles dis-
covered here, including a boat's ensign, were brought away by Mr. Hob- son." On the 6th of May Lieutenant Hobson found a large cairn at Point Victory, and among the atones a tin containing a record, the substance of which is as follows :—" This cairn was built by the Franklin expedition, upon the assumed site of Sir James Ross's pillar, which had not been found.
The Erebus and Terror spent their first winter at Beechy Island, after
having ascended Wellington Channel to latitude 77 degrees N., and re- turned by the west side of Cornwallis Island. On the 12th of September
1846, they were beset in latitude 70 05 N., and longitude 98 23 W. Sir d.
Franklin died on the 11th of June 1847. On the 22d of April, 1848, the ships were abandoned five leagues to the N.N.W. of Point Victory, and the survivors, 105 in number, landed here under the command of Captain Crozier. This paper was dated April 25, 1848, and upon the following day they intended to start for the Great Fish River. The total loss by deaths in the expedition up to this date was nine officers and fifteen men. A vast quantity of clothing and stores of all sorts lay strewed about, as if here every article was thrown away which could possibly be dispensed with ; pickaxes, shovels, boats, cooking utensils, iron-work, rope, blocks, canvass, a dip circle, a sextant engraved Frederic Hornby, R.N.,' a small medicine- chest, oars,'&c."
Lieutenant Hobson also discovered a large, strongly built boat, apparently intended for the ascent of the Great Fish River. "A large quantity of
clothing was found within her, also two human skeletons. One of these
lay in the after part of the boat, under a pile of clothing ; the other, which was much more disturbed, probably by animals, was found in the bow. Five
pocket watches, a quantity of silver spools and forks, and a few religious
books were also found, but no journals, pocket-books, or even names upon any articles of clothing. Two double-barrelled guns stood upright against the boat's side, precisely as they had been placed 11 years before. One barrel in each was loaded and cocked ; there was ammunition in abun- dance, also 301b. or 401b. of chocolate, some tea and tobacco. Fuel was not wanting ; a drift tree lay within 100 yards of the boat."
The three parties now returned to the ship. Captain Young had made an enterprising journey, attended by one man. Lieutenant Hobson, ill when he set out • was unable to stand wihout assistance on his return "; there were some cases of scurvy, but "Burton ale, lemon juice, and fresh animal food," soon restored their health. The ship set sail for England on the 9th of August, arrived at Disco on the 27th, started again on the 1st of September, and arrived, as we
have seen, on the 21st. While at Port Kennedy the engineer, Mr. Brand, and the steward, Mr. Blackwell, died and were buried. Captain M'Clintock speaks well of his officers and men.
"A feeling of entire devotion to the cause, which Lady Franklin has so nobly sustained, and a firm determination to effect all that men could do, seems to have supported them through every difficulty. With less of this enthusiastic spirit, and cheerful obedience to every command, our small number-23 in all—would not have sufficed for the successful performance of so great a work." The remaining papers published contain interesting lists of the relics brought away from the different points, and those which were seen and left behind. Tho relics brought home include a Bible, Testament, Prayer Book, ' a copy of the Vicar of Wakefield," two guns, several knives, bullets, a short clay-pipe, two or three pairs of " goggles "— spectacles made of leather with crape or wire instead of glass—com-
passes, nails, pencil-cases, watches, a piece of red sealing-wax, seals, silver spoons and forks, the property of Franklin and other officers, and the medal obtained by the assistant-surgeon' M'Donald, at a medical ex- amination in Edinburgh, 1838. The lists of relics are full of interest, but too long to print.