“It was a melancholy truth that the old woman spoke when she said, ‘They fell down and died as they walked along.’
“I do not think the Esquimaux had discovered this skeleton, or they would have carried off the brush and comb. Superstition prevents them from disturbing their own dead, but would not keep them from appropriating the property of the white man, if in any way useful to them. Dr. Rae obtained a piece of flannel marked ‘F. D. V., 1845,’ from the Esquimaux of Boothia or Repulse Bay; it had doubtless been a part of poor Des Vœux’s garments.”
It is impossible with the space at command to give in detailed form the interesting narrative of M’Clintock’s and Hobson’s careful explorations. “The Voyage of the Fox” should [pg 229]be read in the original by all interested in Arctic adventure, for the modest and graphic account of it given by M’Clintock bears the impress of absolute truth, without the slightest attempt at fine writing or exaggeration.
RELICS BROUGHT BACK BY THE FRANKLIN SEARCH EXPEDITION.
About twelve miles from Cape Herschel M’Clintock found a small cairn, built by Hobson’s party, and containing a note for the commander. He had reached this, his extreme point, six days previously, without having seen anything of the wreck or of natives, but he had found a record—the record, so ardently sought for, of the Franklin expedition—at Point Victory, on the north-west coast of King William’s Land. It read as follows:—
“ ‘28th May, 1847.—H.M. ships Erebus and Terror wintered in the ice in lat. 70° 05′ N., long. 98° 23′ W.
“ ‘Having wintered, in 1846-7, at Beechey Island, in lat. 74° 43′ 28″ N., long. 91° 39′ 15″ W., after having ascended Wellington Channel to lat. 77°, and returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island.
“ ‘All well.
“ ‘Party, consisting of two officers and six men, left the ships on Monday, 24th May, 1847.