ward and westward of Griffiths Island.

In accordance with this arrangement, as soon as the season for travelling parties would admit, viz., on the 17th of April, 1851, two divisions of explorers, each consisting of three sledges and 21 officers and men, under the general command of Captain Penny, left Assistance Harbour, for the purpose of minutely searching both shores of Wellington Strait to the northward. It is unnecessary to describe the proceedings of the several detachments; it is sufficient to say that an immense extent of coast never before visited, unless by Franklin, was minutely searched, but without finding any trace of the lost navigators; that on the east by Captain Stewart and Dr. Sutherland; that on the west by Mr. Goodsir and Mr. Marshall; while Captain Penny proceeded to a large island in the strait, named Baillie Hamilton Island. Captain Penny ascended a hill on this land about 500 feet high, from which ice was seen as far as an island 40 miles distant; and on the 17th of May, from Point Surprise, he was astonished to open out another strait which was 25 miles of clear water, beyond which the sky indicated a further extent of open sea. But further examination was impossible, for their provisions were exhausted; and no course was left but to return to the ships, which were reached on the 20th of May. The newly-discovered strait was named after Queen Victoria. The most northerly point reached by Captain Penny's parties was 76° 20' N.

The field of search which Captain Austin had assigned to himself and his officers, lay to the westward and southward, and com

prised an immense extent of frozen sea and islands, deeply indented into gulfs and bays, and extended towards Melville Island and Parry's Islands on the west, Beaufort and Bathurst Lands on the north, the north point of Boothia on the south, and further towards Banks's Land to the south-west. These parts had been penetrated by Captain Parry in his celebrated expedition in 1819; and it will be remembered that some hopes had been entertained that parties detached from Sir John Richardson's expedition down the Mackenzie might succeed in passing to the northward to Banks's Land, and open up communications with the Baffin's Bay expeditions, somewhere about Melville Island.

The arrangements made for the exploration of these dreadful coasts were the most systematic, comprehensive, and minute, that skill and experience could devise. Early in the season a preliminary search was made by parties under the command of Lieutenants Aldrich and McClintock, on Cornwallis and Bathurst Land, near which Griffiths Island is situated. In April the grand research commenced. The parties of operation were formed into two divisions.

The Southern Division was committed to Captain Ommanney, who had under his orders Lieutenants Osborne, Browne, and Meecham, with seven sledges, provided with every requisite, as well for their own support as to afford assistance to any of Sir John Franklin's party, should they happen to fall in with any. His orders were to search to the southward and westward between Cape Walker and Banks's Land, in all such directions as it might seem probable that the missing expedition might have

taken, dividing his parties as necessity might seem to require; to make such discoveries and obser vations as might come within their notice; but always to consider discoveries and observations wholly secondary to the great object of their mission-the most active, earnest, and persevering search for their missing countrymen!

The Western Division was placed under the chief command of Lieutenant Aldrich (the senior officer of that rank), having under him Lieutenant McClintock and other officers, also with seven sledges, similarly provided. The instructions to Lieutenant Aldrich, with the Northern Branch, Western Division," were to search the southern and western shores of Bathurst Island, the unexplored part between it and Byam Martin Island, and to the northward should any opening present itself. The same generous orders were imparted as to the Southern Division. To Lieutenant McClintock, who commanded the "Western Branch" of the Western Division, further instructions were given. He had expressed an anxious desire to be permitted to attempt a journey to Melville Island, and to him accordingly that arduous task was assigned. A most capable officer, Mr. Bradford, surgeon to the Resolute, was placed under his orders, with permission to detach him should he think proper. At a later period subsidiary parties of one sledge each were organized to visit the depôts of provisions, in order to provide that the several principal parties, in falling back to the ships, should not be disappointed, when reduced to their lowest provision, of the stores they had deposited on their outward routes.

It is impossible to give any in

telligible notion of the progress of search by these several detachments, by any verbal description; though they become instantly appreciable by the aid of the map which accompanies the Official Report*.

The first journey recorded in this very interesting publication is that of an auxiliary party under Mr. McDougal. This officer was directed to examine a deep bay nearly to the north of Griffiths Island, where the ships lay, running between Cornwallis Land and Bathurst Land. The party were eighteen days absent, and penetrated to the north end of the bay, which was found to be terminated by a narrow isthmus joining Cornwallis to Bathurst Lands, and on the other side of which was the new Queen Victoria Channel discovered by Captain Penny.

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The Southern Division" of search, under the chief command of Captain Ommanney, had a more extensive range, and a more arduous duty to perform, viz., the exploration of those extensive shores, bays, and inlets which form the northern extremity of Boothia Peninsula. The point from which this search was to commence may be taken to be Cape Walker. The task involved great labour and privation, much danger and suffering. It was, it is needless to say, executed in a manner becoming British officers and men, and with a minuteness that left nothing to be desired, but unhappily without the slightest success as regards the main object of search. The journals of the officers in command of

• Additional Papers relative to the Arctic Expedition under the orders of Captain Austin and Mr. William Penny. Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office.

the several parties present little of remarkable incident, beyond such as are common to Arctic research. Captain Ommanney himself traversed the western shore of Boothia Peninsula, passing in 60 days over a distance of 480 miles, of which 200 miles consisted of newly-discovered coast. The whole was of a most desolate character, destitute of human or animal life; the only sign of its having been theretofore visited by man was a very old Esquimaux provision depôt. Not a vestige of any European having ever previously visited these shores could be found, and the coast is altogether unnavigable for ships. Lieutenant Osborne was detached by Captain Ommanney to pursue the search still further to the westward and southward of Boothia Peninsula. This officer reached nearly to the 104th degree of west longitude, and made a southing to nearly the 72nd degree of N. latitude. He traversed, reckoning from the ships, 530 miles of land and ice; and was satisfied, like his superior officer, that those seas were not navigable for ships, and that none of Franklin's party had been that way.

While Captain Ommanney and Lieutenant Osborne were pursuing their search to the westward of Cape Walker, Lieutenants Meecham and Browne had been detached to explore the shores to the eastward of that point; the latter to visit a deep inlet which runs between Boothia Peninsula and North Somerset. The former officer closely examined the coast as far to the southward as 72° 52′ N., and found no trace of the missing expedition; nor did it seem possible that any ships could have attempted to pass that way. Total distance travelled, 236 miles.

Lieutenant Browne explored in the same minute manner the deep bay before alluded to; of course with no better success, and came to the conclusion that this inlet is seldom or never open to navigation. The result of the patient, minute, and earnest investigations of the Southern Division of search seems to have placed it beyond doubt that Sir John Franklin's expedition did not pass to the westward along the northern shores of Boothia Peninsula, and that none of his parties, or any survivors of his crews, reached these coasts in attempting to return from more northern lands.

The Western Division of search, under the command of Lieutenant Aldrich, the senior lieutenant in the squadron, having under his orders Lieutenant McClintock, were directed to pursue their investigations along the southern and western shores of Bathurst Land, the unexplored part between it and Byam Martin Island, and to the northward through any probable opening which might present itself; to the latter officer a search of Melville Island, a post which he had earnestly sought, was assigned as a special duty.

Lieutenant Aldrich, with the "Northern Branch, Western Division," performed his search along the coasts which were assigned to him with the greatest diligence, but met with unusual difficulties, arising chiefly from "sastragia," or ridges of snow, lying at right angles across his path, in perpetual succession. He nevertheless continued to advance until he had reached nearly to the 77th degree of north latitude, when he was compelled to retrace his steps; and regained the ships after an absence of 62 days, having traversed a total dis

tance of 553 miles, without finding any trace of Franklin,-any vestige or proof of their course or fate. "Nothing I have seen can induce me to think it has been to the northward and westward."

The only remaining party now to be accounted for is that committed to Lieutenant McClintock, the "Western Branch, Western Division," with five sledges and 35 men; having for his second, Mr. Bradford, surgeon of the Resolute. This party was probably considered the most important of all those detached upon the search-certainly its destination was the most distant and arduous, the difficulties the most formidable, and its safety the most precarious-and assuredly its performance was one of the most remarkable of any that have been recorded in Arctic annals. The Division departed from the ships on the 15th of April, 1851, and reached Cape Capel on the 25th, having endured such hardships at the outset, that two of the sledges were sent back with men disabled by snow-blindness and frost bites, the cold being 36° below zero. The remainder proceeded on their voyage, and passed over to Byam Martin Island on the 6th of May, having been detained 40 hours by a gale of wind, during which seven persons were sheltered under a tent 8 feet 8 inches long, by 6 feet 8 inches wide, scarcely able to keep themselves warm; the vapour of their breath and from their cooking apparatus becoming condensed and descending in a shower of fine snow. On the 11th of May they crossed and encamped on the southeast extremity of Melville Island. Here Mr. Bradford was detached to examine the eastern shore and Byam Martin Island, while Lieute

nant McClintock proceeded to a careful examination of the southern shore. By far the greater portion of it was actually walked over, the hills ascended, and the ice examined with a telescope. On the 21st of May they arrived at the mouth of Winter Harbour, in which Parry passed the winter of 181920, and in which it was possible Franklin might now have sought refuge; but no sign of life appearing, the party pushed on without entering. When Cape Dundas, the extreme south-western point of Melville Island, was reached on the 27th of May, the explorers could see Banks's Land to the westward in the far distance; and to the north-west an extensive tract of land which joined the northern entrance of Liddon's Gulf. The discovery of this land rendered it improbable that any traces would be found in Liddon's Gulf; but Parry had given so favourable an account of Bushnan's Cove, within it, as a favourable station, that it was deemed proper to examine it. These desolate regions appear to have abounded with animal life, whose ignorance of man, while it rendered them an easy prey to the hunter, gave too certain evidence that Franklin had not been there. On the 22nd of May a herd of musk oxen was made out with the spy-glass, two miles off, and McClintock set out in pursuit with his rifle. The herd consisted of eight full-grown animals. They did not see him until he was within 200 yards of them, and then they suddenly galloped away for a few yards, halted and formed for defence in a semicircle close together, with their heads down, their strangely-curved horns resembling a row of hooks in a butcher's shop. When within

100 yards, the sportsman waited for several minutes, until the largest one, which was on the left flank, moved so as to present his shoulder, and then shot him. Those nearest him moved out of the way, as he reeled and fell, but otherwise they were not in the least disturbed, continuing in the same defensive posture until McClintock had retired to a considerable distance, and then, without noticing their fallen companion, renewed their search for pasture, by scraping away the snow with their hoofs. Had such been necessary, the party could easily have shot two-thirds of the oxen they saw during their journey. On the following day the party went with a sledge, and cut up the ox, carrying away about 100 lbs. of beef. The herd were grazing near, and took no notice of their proceeding. Deer, bears, wolves, foxes, hares, seals or their traces, ptarmigan, gulls, ducks, and other birds, were frequently seen. Abundant signs of coal were found, especially near Liddon's Gulf, were it was mingled with iron pyrites. On the 1st of June. they reached Bushnan's Cove, The interest excited as they approached this point of Parry's farthest was great, and the men anticipated with great glee a supply of fuel in the remains of Parry's cart, which was left there, when Bushnan's Cove was discovered in 1820.

"Sunday, 1st of June.-Reached the point, and encamped upon it at 2h. 20m. A.M. Lunched. Leaving two men to prepare supper, for which purpose they were to collect the withered stem of willows, which are numerous here, I took the sledge and the other four men up the cove, in search of Sir Edward Parry's encampment of

the 11th of June, 1820. On reaching the ravine leading into the cove, we spread across and walked up, and easily found the encampment, although the pole had fallen down. The very accurate account published of his journey saved us much labour in finding the tin cylinder and ammunition. The crevices between the stones piled over them were filled with ice and snow, the powder completely destroyed, and the cylinder eaten through with rust and filled with ice. From the extreme difficulty of descending into such a ravine with any vehicle, I supposed that the most direct route, where all seemed equally bad, was selected; therefore sent the men directly up its north bank in search of the wheels, which were left where the cart broke down. They fortunately found them at once. Erected a cairn about the remains of the wall built to shelter the tent; placed a record in it, in one tin case within another. We then collected a few relics of our predecessors, and returned with the remains of the cart to our encampment. An excellent fire had been made with willow stems, and upon this a kettle containing Parry's cylinder was placed. As soon as the ice was thawed out of it, the record it contained was carefully taken out. I could only just distinguish the date. Had it been in a better state of preservation, I would have restored it to its lonely position.

Some tin canteens or water bottles were found. They were bright on the outside, but wet had lodged within, and rust had eaten small holes through all of them. The ammunition consisted of musket and pistol ball-cartridge, packed in a preserved-meat tin, which fell to pieces as we attempted to lift it.