“In the first place, the record paper was one of the printed forms usually supplied to discovery ships for the purpose of being enclosed in bottles and thrown overboard at sea, in order to ascertain the set of the currents, blanks being left for the date and position; any person finding one of these records is requested to forward it to the Secretary of the Admiralty, with a note of time and place; and this request is printed upon it in six different languages. Upon it was written, apparently by Lieutenant Gore, as follows:— “‘28 of May, 1847 “‘H. M. ships _Erebus_ and _Terror_ wintered in the ice in lat. 70° 05´ N.; long. 98° 23´ W. “‘Having wintered in 1846-7, at Beechey Island, in lat. 74° 43´ 28´´ N., long. 91° 39´ 15´´ W., after having ascended Wellington Channel to lat. 77° and returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island. “‘Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition. “‘All well. “‘Party consisting of 2 officers and 6 men left the ships on Monday, 24th May, 1847. “‘Gm. Gore, Lieut. ”‘Chas. F. Des Vœux, Mate.’ “There is an error in the above document, namely, that the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ wintered at Beechey Island in 1846-7, the correct dates should have been 1845-6; a glance at the date at the top and bottom of the record proves this, but in all other respects the tale is told in as few words as possible, of their wonderful success up to that date, May, 1847. “We find that after the last intelligence of Sir John Franklin was received by us (bearing date of July, 1845), from the whalers in Melville Bay, that his expedition passed on to Lancaster Sound, and entered Wellington Channel, of which the southern entrance had been discovered by Sir Edward Parry in 1819. The _Erebus_ and _Terror_ sailed up that strait for one hundred and fifty miles, and reached in the autumn of 1845 the same latitude as was attained eight years subsequently by H. M. S. _Assistance_ and _Pioneer_. Whether Franklin intended to pursue this northern course, and was only stopped by ice in that latitude of 77° north, or purposely relinquished a route which seemed to lead away from the known seas off the coast of America, must be a matter of opinion; but this document assures us that Sir John Franklin’s expedition, having accomplished this examination, returned southward from latitude 77° north, which is at the head of Wellington Channel, and re-entered Barrow’s Strait by a new channel between Bathhurst and Cornwallis Islands.