"At your orders," answered Shandon.
A few minutes later the doctor, with gun and baskets for any specimens he might find, took his place in the gig with his companions; ten minutes later they stepped out on a low, rocky shore.
"Lead the way, Johnson," said Hatteras; "do you remember it?"
"Perfectly, Captain; only here is a monument which I did not expect to find here."
"That," shouted the doctor, "I know what it is; let's go look at it; it will tell us of itself why it was put here."
The four men went up to it, and the doctor, baring his head, said,—
"This, my friends, is a monument raised to the memory of Franklin and his companions."
In fact, Lady Franklin having, in 1855, sent a tablet of black marble to Dr. Kane, gave another in 1858 to MacClintock to be placed on Beechey Island. MacClintock discharged his duty, and placed this tablet near a funeral pile raised to the memory of Bellot by Sir John Barrow.
This tablet bore the following inscription:—