Though the British government no longer desired to pursue the search, Lady Franklin, whose remarkable tenacity of purpose and loyal devotion had awakened so much admiration and respect, decided to expend the last remnant of her fortune to outfit the small screw steamer _Fox_ under the able direction of the gallant M’Clintock, aided by Lieutenant Hobson, and send it to solve the mystery that still clung about the fate of her beloved husband. At first it seemed as if all the elements had conspired to make this expedition a failure, for in the summer of 1857 the _Fox_ found herself drifting at the mercy of the ice off Melville Bay, and after a dreary winter the pack had carried her nearly twelve hundred geographical miles in the Atlantic. Not until April 25, 1858, did the _Fox_ get free, and then, securing such stores and provisions as could be procured at the small Danish settlement of Holstenburg, she sailed into Barrow Strait. Early the following spring parties under M’Clintock and Lieutenant Hobson undertook two sledge journeys. At Cape Victoria on the southwest coast of Boothia, they fell in with Eskimos, who informed them that some years back a large ship had been crushed in the ice out in the sea west of King William Land. On April 20, they again met these same Eskimos, who informed them with great reluctance that a second ship had been forced on shore, where they supposed she still remained, but much broken. They added that it was in the fall of the year, that is, August or September, when the ships were destroyed; that all the white people landed safely and went away to the Great Fish River, taking a boat or boats with them. The following year their bones were found upon the trail. M’Clintock and Hobson separated upon reaching Cape Victoria, and the former took up the search of the east coast in a southerly direction, while Hobson made a diligent examination of the western coast. [Sidenote: _THE FOX’S VOYAGE UNDER M’CLINTOCK_] On May 7, 1859, M’Clintock writes:— “To avoid snow-blindness, we commenced night marching. Crossing over from Malty Island towards the King William Land shore, we continued our march southward until midnight, when we had the good fortune to arrive at an inhabited snow-village. We found here ten or twelve huts and thirty or forty natives of King William Island; I do not think any of them had ever seen white people alive before, but they evidently knew us to be friends. We halted at a little distance, and pitched our tent, the better to secure small articles from being stolen whilst we bartered with them.