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"As they fell, they died."

have the same antipathy to speak of death in any form. The body of one man only had been found on the ship. It was the fall of the year, in August or September, when the ships were destroyed: "All the white people went away to the 'large river,' taking a boat or boats with them," and in the following winter their bones were found there.

On April 28th Hobson and M'Clintock parted. The first marched direct for Cape Felix, King William's Land, whilst the commander took a more southerly course. On May 7th M'Clintock obtained from natives of King William's Island six pieces of silver bearing the crests or initials of Franklin, Crozier, and others. These people averred that little was now left of the wreck on shore. There had been many books on board, which had long ago been destroyed by the weather. An old woman who had been to the wreck was questioned closely. She said that "many of the white men dropped by the way as they went to the Great River; that some were buried and some were not." At another place native paddles, shovels, &c., evidently made from parts of boats, were found; at a further point some trifling metallic articles of European manufacture.

On the return journey a cairn near Point Gladman was carefully examined, but nothing found. "We were now," continues the narrator, "upon the

The Skeleton on the Beach.

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shore along which the retreating crews must have marched. My sledges of course travelled upon the sea-ice close along the shore; and, although the depth of snow which covered the beach deprived us of almost every hope, yet we kept a very sharp look-out for traces, nor were we unsuccessful. Shortly after midnight of the 25th May, when slowly walking along a gravel ridge near the beach, I came upon a human skeleton, partly exposed, with here and there a few fragments of clothing appearing through the snow. The skeleton-now perfectly bleached-was lying upon its face, the limbs and smaller bones either dissevered gnawed away by small animals.

or

"A most careful examination of the spot was of course made, the snow removed, and every scrap of clothing gathered up. A pocket-book afforded strong grounds for hope that some information might be subsequently obtained respecting the unfortunate owner and the calamitous march of the lost crews, but at the time it was frozen hard. The substance of that which we gleaned upon the spot may thus be summed up :

"The victim was a young man, slightly built, and perhaps above the common height; the dress appeared to be that of a steward or officer's servant, the loose bow-knot, in which his neckhandkerchief was tied, not being used by seamen or

officers. In every particular the dress confirmed our conjectures as to his rank or office in the late expedition-the blue jacket with slashed sleeves and braided edging, and the pilot-cloth greatcoat with plain covered buttons. We found, also, a clothes-brush near, and a horn pocket-comb. This poor man seems to have selected the bare ridge top, as affording the least tiresome walking, and to have fallen upon his face in the position in which we found him."

It was a melancholy truth that the old woman spoke when she said, "they fell down and died as they walked along." The Esquimaux had, apparently, never discovered this skeleton.