In 1847, though there was no real public anxiety as to the fate of the expedition, preparations began to be made for the possible necessity of sending relief. As time passed, however, and no tidings reached England, the search began in earnest, and from 1848 onwards expedition after expedition was despatched in quest of the missing explorers. The work of these expeditions forms a story of achievement which has no parallel in maritime annals, and resulted in the discovery and exploration of thousands of miles of new land within the grim Arctic regions, the development of the system of sledge travelling, and the discovery of a second North-West Passage in 1850 (see Polar Regions). Here it is only necessary to mention the results so far as the search for Franklin was concerned. In this great national undertaking Lady Franklin's exertions were unwearied, and she exhausted her private funds in sending out auxiliary vessels to quarters not comprised in the public search, and by her pathetic appeals roused the sympathy of the whole civilized world. The first traces of the missing ships, consisting of a few scattered articles, besides three graves, were discovered at Franklin's winter quarters (1845-1846) on Beechey Island, by Captain (afterwards Sir) Erasmus Ommanney of the "Assistance," in August 1851, and were brought home by the "Prince Albert," which had been fitted out by Lady Franklin. No further tidings were obtained until the spring of 1854, when Dr John Rae, then conducting a sledging expedition of the Hudson's Bay Company from Repulse Bay, was told by the Eskimo that (as was inferred) in 1850 white men, to the number of about forty, had been seen dragging a boat southward along the west shore of King William's Island, and that later in the same season the bodies of the whole party were found by the natives at a point a short distance to the north-west of Back's Great Fish river, where they had perished from the united effects of cold and famine. The latter statement was afterwards disproved by the discovery of skeletons upon the presumed line of route; but indisputable proof was given that the Eskimo had communicated with members of the missing expedition, by the various articles obtained from them and brought home by Dr Rae. In consequence of the information obtained by Dr Rae, a party in canoes, under Messrs Anderson and Stewart, was sent by government down the Great Fish river in 1855, and succeeded in obtaining from the Eskimo at the mouth of the river a considerable number of articles which had evidently belonged to the Franklin expedition; while others were picked up on Montreal Island a day's march to the northward. It was clear, therefore, that a party from the "Erebus" and "Terror" had endeavoured to reach the settlements of the Hudson's Bay Company by the Fish river route, and that in making a southerly course it had been arrested within the channel into which the Great Fish river empties itself.