Contrary to the judgment of many officers of experience in polar explorations, the last and most fatal of all the expeditions was undertaken by Sir John Franklin, with one hundred and thirty-seven picked officers and men, in the ships _Erebus_ and _Terror_. The adventurers left Sheerness on the 26th of May, 1846, the ships having been strengthened in every conceivable way, and found in everything calculated to secure the safety of the expedition. On the 22nd of July the ships were spoken by the whaler _Enterprise_, and, four days later, they were sighted by the _Prince of Wales_, of Hull, moored to an iceberg, waiting an opening to enter Lancaster Sound. There the veil dropped over the ships and their unhappy crews. In 1848, their fate began to excite a lively interest in the public mind. Expedition in search of them succeeded expedition, at immense cost, sent both by the English and American authorities, and by Lady Franklin herself, some of which penetrated the Polar Seas through Behring's Straits, while the majority took Baffin's Bay. In 1850, Captains Ommaney and Penny discovered, at the entrance of Wellington Channel, some vestiges of Franklin, which led to another expedition in 1857, which was got up by private enterprise, of which Captain M'Clintock had the command. Guided by the indications collected in the previous expedition, and intelligence gathered from the Esquimaux by Dr. Rae in his land expedition, Captain M'Clintock in the yacht _Fox_ discovered, on the 6th of May, 1859, upon the north point of King William's Land, a cairn or heap of stones. Several leaves of parchment, which were buried under the stones, bearing date the 28th of April, 1848, solved the fatal enigma. The first, dated the 24th of May, 1847, gave some details ending with "all well." The papers had been dug up twelve months later to record the death of Franklin, on the 11th of June, 1847. The survivors are supposed to have been on their way to the mouth of the River Back, but they must have sunk under the terrible hardships to which they were exposed, in addition to cold and hunger. In September, 1859, Captain M'Clintock returned to England, bringing with him many relics of our lost countrymen, found in the theatre of their misfortunes. It only remains to us to say a few words on the latest voyages undertaken in the Polar Seas. After the return of Captain M'Clintock, in 1850, Captain M'Clure, leaving Behring's Straits, discovered the north-west passage between Melville and Baring's Island, which passage had been sought for without success during so many ages. He saw the thermometer descend fifty degrees below zero. In the month of October, 1854, he returned to England, and at a subsequent period it was ascertained with certainty that, before his death, Franklin knew of the other passage which exists to the north of America, to the south of Victoria Land, and Wollaston.