Answer.—The cairn containing the written record left by the Franklin exploring party was discovered at Point Victory on the coast of King William’s Island. This discovery was made in 1859 (fourteen years after Franklin’s death), by Lieutenant Hobson of the British yacht Fox, purchased and fitted out by Lady Franklin, and commanded by Captain Leopold McClintock. The principal facts stated in the record are that her Majesty’s ships Terror and Erebus spent the winter of 1845-6 at Beechey Island, off the southwest coast of North Devon, having ascended Wellington Channel to latitude 77 deg., and returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island. Lieutenant Gore and Charles F. De Voeux had left the ships with six men, on an exploring expedition, May 24, 1847, and on the 28th left this written statement of their journeyings. Franklin had sailed westward to longitude 98 deg., then up Wellington Channel—the course specially commended to him, but upon trying to reach the American coast he was prevented by the masses of ice sweeping southward through McClintock Channel. The record concludes with these words, in the handwriting of Captain Fitz James: “April 25, 1848—H. M. ships Terror and Erebus were deserted on 22d April, five leagues n. n. w. of this, having been beset since 12th September, 1846. The officers and crews, consisting of 105 souls, under the command of Captain F. R. M. Crozier, landed here in lat. 69 deg. 37 min. 42 sec. n., long. 98 deg. 41 min. w. Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June, 1847; and the total loss by deaths in the expedition has been to this date 9 officers and 15 men.” Captain Crozier added the important statement: “We shall start on to-morrow, 26th April, 1848, for Back’s Fish River.” This record proved the identity of Sir John Franklin’s party with a party seen by the Esquimaux pressing southward along Fish River to reach the settlements of the Hudson Bay Company. Later many skeletons were found on the south and west coasts of King William’s Island. It is certain, according to the recent reports of Captain Hall and Lieutenant Schwatka, that all of the party perished from hunger and exposure.
STEPHEN GIRARD.
James White, Fairfield, Pa.—Stephen Girard was born near Bordeaux, France, May 24, 1750; took to a seafaring life, became master of a sailing vessel, then owner of several ships in the American coasting and West India trade, in which business he amassed a fortune, the greater part of which was left to found and endow Girard College for Orphans, near Philadelphia, and other charitable institutions. He was regarded, at the time of his death, as the wealthiest man in the United States, although, compared with the money kings of the present time, he had but a moderate fortune, probably not to exceed $9,000,000. No one knows what William H. Vanderbilt or Jay Gould is worth, but it is safe to say that it is not less in either case than $150,000,000, and some say more than $200,000,000.
ELEVATION OF WESTERN SIGNAL STATIONS.
Fairmount, Ill.
Please give in Our Curiosity Shop the elevation above sea level of Huron, D.T., St. Paul, Minn., Madison, Wis., and Chicago.
E. Halladay.
Answer.—The best we can do is to give the elevations of the barometers of the United States Signal Service above sea-level at the several points specified, as computed for that service. That these are not certainly exact is admitted by the Chief of the Signal Service, who says, on page 1,178 of his report for 1881: “When the elevations of these planes above mean sea-level have been determined by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, it is expected that we shall be able to greatly improve on the elevations at present adopted.” The Signal Service barometer at Huron, D. T., stands at 1,300 feet above mean sea-level—marked (?) or doubtful. The barometer at St. Paul is 810.9 feet, at Madison 949.2 feet, at Chicago 660.9 feet, above sea level. The elevation of these barometers above the ground varies between thirty and seventy-five feet. As to your other question you are mistaken; Huron still appears in the “Weather Reports” printed in The Inter Ocean.