Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition. All well. [Illustration: THE FRANKLIN RECORD] Party, consisting of 2 officers and 6 men, left the ships on Monday, 24th May 1847. GM. GORE, Lieut. CHAS. F. DES VŒUX, Mate.” The following notes were written round the margin:— “April 25th, 1848.—H.M. ships _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were deserted on the 22nd April, 5 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 F.R.M. Crozier, landed here in lat. 69° 37´ 42´´ N., long. 98° 41´ W. Sir John Franklin died on 11th June 1847; and the total loss by death in the expedition has been, to this date, 9 officers and 15 men. (Signed) F. R. M. CROZIER, Captain and Senior Officer. (Signed) JAMES FITZJAMES, Capt. H.M.S. _Erebus_. And start on to-morrow, 26th, for Back’s Fish River.” “This paper was found by Lieutenant Irving under the cairn supposed to have been built by Sir James Ross in 1831, four miles to the northward, where it had been deposited by the late Commander Gore in June 1847. Sir James Ross’s pillar has not, however, been found; and the paper has been transferred to this position, which is that in which Sir James Ross’s pillar was erected.” From this paper it will be seen that Franklin had made the most remarkable voyage ever recorded in the annals of Arctic exploration. After being sighted in Baffin’s Bay on July 26, 1845, he had sailed through Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait, and up Wellington Channel as far as 77° N. He had then returned to the mouth of the channel via the west coast of Cornwallis Island, and had wintered off Beechey Island in 1845-46 (the date given in the paper is obviously wrong). As soon as he was released he had attempted to make his way south to the American coast, but had been caught in the pack, never again to be released. The winter of 1846-47 was passed at a point about fifteen miles north-west of Cape Felix, the most northerly point of King William Island; and in the spring, when all on board were reported to be well, two officers and six men started off on an expedition, the direction and purpose of which are not stated. A fortnight later death spared Franklin the pain of knowing that his party could never again reach home, and of seeing his men dying of cold and starvation, one by one, before his eyes. The summer brought no prospects of escape, and during the following winter the two ships drifted southward with the ice for a distance of about thirty miles. As early in the spring as the conditions permitted, all the survivors left the ship in an effort to win their way back to civilisation, but not a single one of them succeeded in accomplishing his task. “So sad a tale,” says M’Clintock, “was never told in fewer words. There is something deeply touching in their extreme simplicity, and they show in the strongest manner that both the leaders of this retreating