not able to reach the Enterprize and Investigator in their quarters at Port Leopold, last year, which she would doubtless have done, had the season of 1849 been as favourable as the last for the navigation of the Arctic seas.

The Prince Albert brought still later news of the Arctic squadron, and as her voyage may be considered to embrace all the points of interest connected with the other ships, a short outline of it will put us in possession of the whole case, as it stands, more clearly than if we followed the lengthy despatches from each individual ship. She came up with Captains Austin and Ommanney, Mr. Penny, and Sir John Ross, on the 26th July, in Baffin's Bay; and from that date, to the 9th of August, the whole fleet of eight vessels were working night and day, struggling on, one against the other, to be in the van of the search. The steamers were of the greatest service during this unequal contest.

66

The squadron arrived off Cape York, on the 18th August, and here took place the memorable interview with some natives, who were said to have asserted that two ships were nipped in the ice, in the year 1846, "a good way off," (pointing towards Cape Dudley Diggs) the whole of the crews of which had been murdered by a fierce and numerous tribe. It is difficult to say whether this report originated with the Eskimaux, who, in their own minds, connected the enquiries of the "Kablunas," for missing ships, with the wintering of the North Star, and the death of four of her crew, of which they were well aware ; or with Adam Beek, the Danish Interpreter, picked up by Sir John Ross, at Holsteinborg, who translated this horrid story;-or with his English medium, the captain's steward of the Prince Albert;-or whether, as some suppose, the report of the natives had truth

in it, inasmuch as when they pointed towards Cape Diggs, "a good way off," in a straight line, would mean somewhere to the north of Wellington Channel, where such an accident would assuredly be more likely to occur:-certain it is, that but for the importance attached to it by the veteran commander of the Felix, the whole report, whether it originated in error or falsehood, would have been allowed to fall unheeded to the ground, after its complete elucidation by Mr. Petersen of the Lady Franklin, instead of causing, as it has done, so much pain and anxiety.

On the 17th of August the Prince Albert parted company with the fleet, having previously arranged with Captain Austin to undertake the examination of the south shore of Lancaster Sound and Barrow's Straits. On the 21st she arrived off Port Leopold harbour, but could not get in. From thence she stood up Prince Regent's Inlet; but finding, as she approached Fury Beach, that the land ice gradually extended off the shore until it stretched in large heavy hummocks right across the inlet, towards Port Bowen, and that large quantities of drift-ice were setting up the Inlet, without any port to take refuge in, Captain Forsyth stood out to the northward, intending to coast the western side of North Somerset. On reaching Leopold Island, however, he found the pack extending right across to the north shore of Barrow's Strait, and the little vessel had great difficulty in making her way through it towards Wellington Channel. On landing at Cape Riley and Beechey Island on the afternoon of Sunday the 25th August, traces were discovered of a supposed encampment, besides a piece of old rope, bearing the Woolwich Dockyard mark, a piece of canvass, beef, mutton, seals' bones, and some decayed wood. The following memorandum was also found from Captain

Ommanney, who had been there two days previously:

"This is to certify that Captain Ommanney, with the officers of H. M. S. Assistance and Intrepid, landed at Cape Riley on the 23rd of August, 1850, where he found traces of an encampment, and collected the remains of materials which evidently prove that some party belonging to Her Majesty's ships have been detained on this spot. Beechy Island was also examined, where traces were found of the same party. This is also to give notice that a supply of provisions and fuel is at Port Leopold. H. M. S. Assistance and Intrepid were detached from the squadron under Captain Austin, off Wolstenholme [Sound], on the 15th instant, since when they have examined the north shores of Lancaster Sound and Barrow's Straits, without meeting any other traces. Captain Ommanney proceeds to Cape Hotham and Cape Walker in search for further traces of Sir John Franklin's expedition.

"Dated on board H. M. S. Assistance, off Cape Riley, Aug. 23, 1850. "ERASMUS OMMANNEY."

Another notice found, stated that the American brig Advance had touched there on the morning of the 25th, and was proceeding to Cape Hotham, where she hoped to meet her consort, the Rescue. The Advance was aground, while the Prince Albert was lying to for her boat engaged in the examination of the encampment, but no injury was apprehended, and the assistance offered by Captain Forsyth was declined.

6

Captain Forsyth had now reasons amply sufficient to justify his return. Independent of the awkward position in which he was placed by the conduct of his icemasters, the insignificant size of his vessel, and her unfitness for encountering a winter in the ice, besides the great expense he would have entailed on Lady Franklin, and the questionable advantage to be derived from such a course, determined him, after mature consideration, to return to England.

The Prince Albert last saw the fleet, at noon, on the 25th August, when, from the masthead, Cape Hotham, enveloped in a thick haze, could faintly be perceived, and the Assistance, Lady Franklin, Sophia, 6 Morning Herald, 4th October, 1850.

and Rescue all standing on towards it under press of sail. All the vessels were among heavy ice, and the whole of the Wellington Channel as far as the eye could reach appeared to be filled with one solid pack, excepting here and there a small lane of water. "Turning," says Captain Forsyth, "towards Cape Bowden, I could perceive beyond it, and apparently trending to the north-westward, some high land, but the haze and distance was too great to enable me to determine with accuracy. Land, however, was there, but its continuance I could not make out, nor yet the entire connection of the coast between Point Innes and Cape Bowden."

The supposed traces of Franklin found at Cape Riley, of which Captain Ommanney speaks in his memorandum so decidedly, were referred to Sir Edward Parry and Sir John Richardson for examination. Sir Edward, in an admirably lucid report,? after going into the whole question of the age and manufacture of the rope, &c., says: "The facts lead to the inevitable conclusion that the rope was left at Cape Riley by Sir John Franklin on his outward voyage, and, in all probability, the canvass likewise, as that also bears the Queen's mark;" and Sir John Richardson's opinion is equally decisive-as far as human opinion can be decisive in such a matter.

--

Thus, then, the case stands, and we are doomed to remain in our old state of anxiety for a few more months, when we earnestly and may reasonably hope for tidings from our long lost friends. Whether

Captain Ommanney has found at Cape Hotham something more tangible and requiring less theoretical reasoning to prove what we are but too happy to believe; whether the search will be up Wellington

7 Times, 16th October, 1850.

Channel, or still on the west; whether we shall hear anything from Commander Pullen, who received orders last June to attempt an exploration of the coast westward from the Coppermine to Cape Bathurst, at the head of Liverpool Bay, and thence out to sea in the direction of Bank's Land; or from Dr. Rae, who will next summer" endeavour to blot out the memory of his last year's failure" by again trying to reach Victoria and Wollaston Lands by the Coppermine,is mere idle conjecture. All that can be done has been done; and with that conviction it is our duty to bear up, and still hope on.

LONDON, DEC. 20, 1850.