fortunate in my officers and crew; all deserve my praise alike." They had obtained an Esquimaux and thirty dogs.

Thus far had progressed the "little Fox" on the "final search." We can now only rest, trusting to Him who guides that star which her commander has before invoked-" Lead Thou us on"-to bless him and the efforts of his brave little band with success. That they will "persevere to the end" we have no doubt. We do not think Capt. M'Clintock will be enabled to get to the southward by Peel's Sound, for reasons which we have given, but the unsearched space may be reached by Bellot Strait. We have no expectation that the remains of the ships will be found along the west coast of Boothia, but we have great hope of the search, if extended to the north-west from King William's Land to Melville Sound, and west to the 110° W., the corrected limit of Mr. Wynniatt's exploration from the west. In this strait, or at the bottom of Melville Sound, upon which we have felt it our duty so confidently and so continually to dwell, and which we think was the line of route adopted by the retreating party from the Erebus and Terror, and the source of Rae's and Collinson's floating relics of the Franklin Expedition-in or about here, we think, the veil will be uplifted which hangs over the sad mystery of the north.

Having recorded, to our belief, all that has been said and done regarding the original Plan and Instructions for the unfortunate voyage, to accomplish which the lamented Franklin and Crozier, their hapless officers and crews, were despatched in 1845, and from which they have not returned; having pointed out the causes to which we owe the failure of all the attempts of our searching expeditions-we hope, with honest truthfulness, seeking no man's ill; having shown that our sailors have done their duty, that their heroic fortitude and perseverance, their enthusiasm and kindly-mindedness under privation and suffering are above all praise, we close this mournful subject, but still not without hope. It has not been proved that all are gone, and there is no reason for thinking that an Englishman cannot exist “where Esquimaux do live out a fair period of life;" we trust, therefore, to the future, and should even the present attempt fail of success, we have no doubt there will ever be manly hearts to renew the search, until the fate of these noble-minded, chivalrous Englishmen is known. Adopting the words of Sir Roderick I. Murchison,* the fast friend of the lost voyagers, "Let it be therefore impressed on the public mind, that although the area, on the southern edges of which some

*See Sir Roderick I. Murchison's Anniversary Address, Royal Geographical Society's Journal, vol. 27, p. cxciv.

of Franklin's people were last seen, has been approached, and can be easily again visited by ships, it has never yet been examined; and also, that though it be to the south of many tracts formerly penetrated, yet is it so cut off by impenetrable wilds from the nearest parts of North America in which food can be obtained, that by no exertion could any survivors of the Erebus and Terror be saved, except by sending out a well-found ship or ships to the points nearest to such insulated Esquimaux quarters. May God crown their efforts with success! May M'Clintock and his companions gather the laurels they so well merit in their noble endeavour to dissipate the mystery which shrouds the fate of the Erebus and Terror and their crews!" To which we add, Amen.

APPENDIX.

AT a late meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, April 12th, 1858, Dr. Norton Shaw, the Secretary, read a paper by his friend, Dr. Rink, of Copenhagen, "On the supposed discovery of the North Coast of Greenland and an open Polar Sea by Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, United States' Navy." The author states, that as the speculations of Dr. Kane relate to a matter-the physical geography of Greenlandwhich had occupied his attention for nine years, he feels called upon to subject them to a critical examination. Dr. Rink, after paying a warm tribute to the active energy and undaunted courage of Dr. Kane, who succeeded, in 1853, in gaining a somewhat higher latitude than his predecessor, Captain Inglefield, R.N., through Smith's Sound, the continuation of Baffin's Bay, goes on to show how, in 1855, the Doctor, with his crew, were obliged to return to Upernavik for winter quarters, in consequence of the ship being frozen in the ice. With regard to the great "Humboldt glacier," discovered by Dr. Kane, and which he places on the coast of Greenland, between 79° and 80° north latitude, Dr. Rink observes that it is really nothing more than what may be noticed in the interior of most of the Greenland fiords, from the most southern to the most northern point. After explaining why Dr. Kane did not notice these peculiar iceformations, which he attributes to the circumstance of their in general lying behind the bights, islands, and peninsulas, and to the fact of the Doctor and others, in search of the North-West Passage and of Sir John Franklin, passing too rapidly through Davis's Strait to admit of careful examination of the country, the author proceeds to discuss the second point, namely, "The open Polar Sea," supposed to have been discovered by Morton, the steward, and the Greenlander, Hans; throws great doubts upon the accuracy of their statements, and opposes Kane's theory of the Polar Sea, assumed to be kept open by a branch of the Gulf Stream from Nova Zembla, down Smith's Sound to Baffin's Bay. Dr. Kane, instead of

making the meridional observations the basis for the construction of his chart, had recourse to the mean between them and the dead reckoning, the latter being no less than 43′ 6′′ in excess; consequently, before we assume the latitude of 80° 52′ 32" N. as the farthest point reached by Morton, it is but just that the distance travelled by him on the 24th should be subjected to a deduction, which will be obtained by having recourse to the amount of error occasioned in the dead reckoning between the 21st and the 23rd of June, and which will be found to amount to 21 miles in 52. The latitude of Cape Constitution will therefore be 80° 44′ N., instead of 81° 22′.

After the reading of the paper, a lengthened discussion took place, which was sustained in an animated manner by the Chairman, Sir George Back, Captain Collinson, and Dr. Armstrong, who all supported the views of the author.

May 8th, 1858, the Royal Geographical Society gave notice, that the Royal awards "For the Encouragement of Geographical Science and Discovery" would be presented to Capt. Richard Collinson, R.N., C.B., and to Professor Alexander Dallas Bache, of the United States, by the President, Sir Roderick I. Murchison, at the Society's House, 15, Whitehall Place, on May 24th, 1858.