After separating from McClintock he had tracked the N. and W. shores of King William land almost to Cape. Herschel. Near Cape Felix, the northermost point of the island, he found a ruined cairn, three tents, and other traces of Franklin's party, but no record; two smaller cairns were afterward examined, and on May 6 a large one was observed at Point Victory, where Sir James Ross had touched in 1830. Lying among some stones which had fallen from the top of the structure was a tin case enclosing a record, the first authentic account ever obtained of the history of the lost expedition. It was written on one of the printed forms used in discovery ships for the purpose of being enclosed in bottles and thrown overboard in order to ascertain the direction of the currents. It read as follows:

28 of May. 1847. - II. M. ships Erebus and Terror. Wintered in the ice in lat. 70° 5 N., lon. 98° 23' W. Having wintered in 1846-' 7 at Beechey island in lat. 74° 43' 28" N., lon. 91° 39' 15" W., after having ascended Wellington channel to lat. 77° and returned by the W. side of Cornwallis island. Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition. All well. Party consisting of 2 officers and 0 men left the ships on Monday, 24th May, 1847. Wm. Gore, Lieut.; Chas. F. Des Vœux. Mate.

Around the margin was written in a different hand:

April 25.1848. - II. M. ships Terror and Erebus were deserted on the 22d April, 5 leagues N. N. W. of this, having been beset since 12th Sept. 1846. The officers and crews, consisting of 105 souls, under the command of Captain F. R. M. Crozier. landed here - in lat. 69° 87' 42", lon. 98° 4' 15". This paper was found by Lt. Irving under the cairn supposed to have been built by Sir James Ross in 1831, 4 miles to the northward, where it had been deposited by the late Commander Core in June, 1847. Sir James Boss's pillar has not however been found, and the paper has been transferred to this position, which is that in which Sir J. Ross's pillar was erected. .Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June, 1847, and the total loss by deaths in the expedition has been to thi3 date 9 officers and 15 men.* James Fitzjames. Captain F. E. M. Croziek, II. M. S. Erebus.

Captain and senior offr. and start on to-morrow, 26th, for Back's Fish river.

The date 1846-7 given as that of Franklin's wintering at Beechey island is evidently an error; it should be 1845-'G. Vast quantities of clothing and other articles were found here. The wreck was not seen, nor were any more skeletons found; but this indeed was hardly to have been expected, as the route toward Back river was almost all the way over ice which breaks up in summer. Meeting no more-of the Esquimaux nor further traces of the lost voyagers, and feeling certain that the whole expedition had perished, McClintock returned to his vessel, June 19, carrying a great number of relics, many of which had been purchased from the natives. Besides solving the problem which had engaged arctic enterprise for 11 years, his expedition had completed the delineation of the N. shore of the American continent; laid down the previously unknown outline of Boothia and the coast of King William land; proved the navigability of Bellot strait, the existence of which was before doubted; opened a new and capacious channel extending N. W. from Victoria strait to Parry or Melville sound, and since named at the suggestion of Lady Franklin McClintock channel; observed many interesting facts in terrestrial magnetism; and finally, proved Sir John Franklin to be the discoverer of the northwest passage With the aid of McClintock's narrative we are now able to trace out Franklin's last voyage.

During the first season it was unusually prosperous. Passing up Lancaster sound, he explored Wellington channel (then an unknown sea) to a point further N. than was reached by either Penny, Do Haven, or Belcher; sailed around Cornwallis island, and wintered at Beechey island. In the spring and summer of 1846 he either navigated Bellot strait, or more prob-ably pushed through Peel sound, reaching Victoria strait, where he was finally beset in September, and thus supplied the only link wanting to complete a chain of water communication between the two oceans. The skeletons found in the boat near Cape Crozier show that after the abandonment of the Erebus and Terror a party attempted to return, for what purpose can only be conjectured. The Fox found herself free from ice on Aug. 9, and immediately made sail for home, reaching the Isle of Wight Sept. 20. See McClintock's "Narrative of the Discovery of the Fate of Sir John Franklin and his Companions" (London and Boston, 1860); also "The Search for Sir John Franklin," in the "Cornhill Magazine," No. I., January, 1860 (by Capt. Allen. Young). - Dr. Isaac I. Hayes, a member of Kane's party, and a firm believer in the theory of the open polar sea, soon succeeded, with the aid of private subscriptions, in organizing and fitting out another arctic exploring expedition.

With a company of only 14 men, he left Boston July 6, 1860, in the schooner United States, and proceeded directly to the Greenland ports of Proven and Upernavik; at the latter place he arrived Aug. 12, and besides adding to his crew three Danes and three Esquimaux hunters, he secured sledge dogs for the winter's work. Carruthers, one of the schooner's crew, died at Upernavik. Leaving port, Dr. Hayes's expedition entered Baffin bay about Aug. 20, but was so delayed by ice, among which the schooner was often becalmed, that although the party had hoped to reach some point between lat. 79° and 80°, the schooner was frozen in at a point but little N. of lat. 78°, in a harbor which Hayes named Port Foulke. During the winter Dr. Hayes made several sledge expeditions, but attained no important results until April 3, when,. with several sledges drawn by dogs, a life boat upon another sledge drawn by men, and 12 of the ship's company, he started from Port Foulke to cross Smith sound to Grinnell land; for along the coast of this Hayes had determined to proceed, all progress along the E. shore of the sound being prevented by impassable glaciers.