| lbs. | |
|---|---|
| Hard bread | 500 |
| Pork | 200 |
| Compressed corned beef | 200 |
| Corn starch | 80 |
| Oleomargarine | 40 |
| Cheese | 40 |
| Coffee | 40 |
| Tea | 5 |
| Molasses | 20 |
This, it will be seen, was only about one month’s rations for seventeen people, and was, in fact, nearly exhausted by the time the party reached King William Land. Dependence was placed on the hunting and abundance of game; five hundred and twenty-two reindeer, besides musk-oxen, polar bears, and seals were secured in the course of the entire journey.
Travelling overland to the Back River, the party experienced all the fatigues incident to sledge progress, especially the Americans, who, unaccustomed to long marches, suffered greatly from blistered feet and muscular soreness. The country seemed alive with game, and on the 11th of May seven reindeer were killed and on the 13th as many as nine.
The northern shore of the Back River is bounded by high hills, almost a mountain range, and inland could be seen rocky hills piled together, barren and forbidding. About noon on the 14th, the party came upon some freshly cut blocks of snow turned up on end,—a sure sign of natives in the vicinity,—and farther on footprints in the snow as well as a cache of musk-ox meat. Following the tracks after breaking camp the next day, the party soon reached several igloos, and communication was immediately established with the inhabitants. The chief spokesman was an Okjoolik, who with his family comprised all that was left of the tribe which formerly occupied the western coast of Adelaide Peninsula and King William Land. From this interesting and important witness much information about the Franklin party was gained. When quite a little boy he had seen some white men alive, and from the description it might have been Lieutenant Back and his party. Years later, he saw a white man dead in the bunk of a big ship, which was frozen in near an island about five miles west of Grant Point on Adelaide Peninsula. He and his son had seen the tracks of white men on the mainland. The natives had boarded the ship at intervals, and, not knowing how to use the doors, had cut a hole in the side on a level with the ice and entered for the purpose of stealing wood and iron. In the following spring, the ship had filled with water and sunk. There were evidences that people had lived aboard the ship, as some cans of fresh meat mixed with tallow were found. There were knives, forks, spoons, pans, cups, and plates aboard, and afterwards a few articles were found on shore after the vessel had gone down.
Another native described seeing two boats on the Back River containing white men, and he also saw a stone monument on Montreal Island containing a pocket knife, a pair of scissors, and some fish hooks, but no papers of any description.
After an encampment of two days and a half, Lieutenant Schwatka continued his journey accompanied by some of these natives as guides.
In native encampments beyond Ogle Point and Richardson Point, an old woman was found who proved an interesting witness; she had been one of a party who had met some of the survivors of the Erebus and Terror on Washington Bay. She described seeing ten white men dragging a sledge with a boat on it. The Innuits encamped near the white men and stayed in their company about five days. The natives had killed some seals which they shared with the white men. In return, the old woman’s husband had been given a knife and other articles now lost. The white men looked very thin, and their mouths were dry and hard and black. The natives moved on, but the white men could not keep up with them, and remained behind. The following spring, the old woman had seen a tent standing on the shore at the head of Terror Bay. In it were dead bodies, and outside were others covered with sand. There was no flesh on them,—nothing but bones and clothes. About the tent were knives, forks, spoons, watches, and many books, besides clothing and other personal articles.
Lieutenant Schwatka visited the cairn erected by Captain Hall over the bones of two of Franklin’s men, near the Pfeffer River; a few relics were gathered up in the vicinity of Adelaide Peninsula, one a bunk fixture with the initials “L. F.” in brass tacks upon it.
Cape Herschel, on King William Island, was reached in June. Lieutenant Schwatka made a thorough examination of the western shore of the island as far as Cape Felix. At Cape Jane Franklin, Captain Crozier’s camp was found, where the entire company of the two abandoned ships had remained some time; strewn about were many relics of the party and the grave of Lieutenant Irving. Gilt buttons were found among the rotting cloth and mould at the bottom of the grave, and upon one of the stones at the foot of the grave was found a silver medal, two and a half inches in diameter, with a bas-relief portrait of George IV surrounded by the words—
Georgius IIII, D. G. Brittanniarum
Rex, 1820