The Express.
London, England, 1850-03-27 00:00:00

THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION.

The landoonvirpondesoe relating to the
Ass* CrillExpoditlon have just been publahed. This
eellestlea eseeprees a variety of sensaaaleatioas from the
litikeiggegilmg to the Admiralty, and the principal Arens
omen motel the eserativ, sof Sir James Rom, Sir John
Mid Kellet and Moo, which an
she Mesa the pa It re
is satisfactory to leans that all
are inaLlisessly of opinion that Sir John
!reeds
Yeenlain are
aye till in existence.
Ile
01 These us tear ways only in which it is likely that this
Meeks sad Terror would have been lost—by Are, by sunken
mein, by stern, or by being crushed between two fields of
ilea. Both weeds would scarcely hays taken Sr. together ;
oee of them had struck on a rock, the other would have
avoided the danger. Storms in those narrow seas, encum-
bered with is., ralee no swell, and could produce no such
disaster ; and, therefore, by the fourth cause alone amid the
two vends have been at onto destroyed ; cad even in that
ewe the crews would have escaped upon the ice (es happens
every year to the whalers); they would have iaved their
loose boats, and reached some part of the Ausarten' shores.
As no traces of any such event have been found on any part
of those shores, it may therefore be safely affirmed that can
skip at least, mad may
the crews arestill in existence;
and therefore the point where they now are is the
matter for coasideratlon. Their orders would
greata carried them towards Melville Island, and then out
to the westward, where it is therefore probable that they are
entangl-cl amongst islands and 11:19. For, should they have
bun arrested at some intermediate place, for instance, Cape
Walker, or at one of the northern chain of islands, they
would undoubtedly, in the course of the three following
years, have contrived soma method of sending notices of their
position to the shores of North Somerset or to Barrow
Straits If they had reached much to the southward of
Banks's Lend, they would surely have communicated with
the tribes on Mackenzie River ; and if, failing to get to
the westward or southward, they had returned with the
intention of penetrating through Wellington Channel,
they would surely have detached parties on the ice to-
wards Barrow S:raits in order to leave deposited state-
ments of their intentions. The general conclusion, there-
fore, remains, that they are still locked up in the Archipe-
lago to the westward of Melville Nucl."
Captain Sir E. W Parry considers it " I.kely Ow the ships
have been pushing on suo.mer after summer in the
direction of Bebrings' Straits, and are detained •omewhere
in the spate south-westward of Banks's Land. On the
other bend, should they, after the first or second summer
have ,been unsuccessful is that direction, they may have
attempted to proceed to the northward, either through
Wellington Channel or through some of the other openings
in the same group cf islands." " Under these circum-
stances," he considers it "expedient still to prosecute the
search in both directions." bat he looks " with the strongest
hope," to Behring's Straits."
Sir James Rees states his concurrence in all the main
taints contained in the report of the hydrographer of the
Admiralty, suggesting another expedition in search of Sir
John Franklin. He says:
" With respect to the probable position of the Erebus and
Terror, I consider that it is hardly possible they can be any-
where to the eastward of Melville Island, or within 300
miles of Leopold Island, for it that were the case, they
would assuredly, during the last spring, have made their
way to that point, with the hope of receiving assistance from
the whale: ships which for several years previous to the
departure of that expedition from England Mad been in the
habit of visiting Prince Regent's Inlet in pursuit of whales,
and in that case they must have been met witb, or marks of
their encampments have been found by some of the numerous
parties detached from the Enterprise and Investigator along
the shores of that vicinity daring the only period at the
season in which travelling is practicable in those regions.
It is probable, therefore, that during their first summer,
which was remarkably favourable for the navigation cf those
seas, they have been enabled (in obedience t, their orders)
to push their ships to the westward of Banks' Land, and
have there become involved in the heavy pack ot ice which
was observed from Melville Island always to be setting pest
its westernmoit point in a south-nut direction, and from
which pack they may not have been able to extricate their
ships If this be assumed as the present position of
the Erebus and Terror, it w Add manifestly be far mote easy
and safe to afford them relief by means of an expedi-
tion entering Sebring** Straihs than lrom any other di-
rection."

Capt. Beechey agrees with Sir F. Beaufort sad Sir E. Parry:
" That the expedition is probably hampered am ingst the
ice somewhere to the southwestward of Melville Island; but
there is yet a possibility which does not appear to have been
contemplated, which it, that of the scurvy having spread
among the crew, and incapacitated a large proper ion of
them from making any exertion towards their release, or that
the whole, in a debilitated s:ate, may yet be clinging by
their vessels, existing sparingly upon the provision which a
large mortality may have spun out, in the hope of relief. . ."
"Of the measures which can be resorted to on the northern
coast of America, the officers who have had experience there,
aad the Hudson's Bay Company, will be able to judge ; but
I am of opinion that noting ahoeld be neglected in that
quarter; for it seems to me almost certain that Sir John
Franklin and his crew, if able to travel, have abandoned
their ships and made for the continent, and if they have not
succeeded in gaining the Hudson's Bay outposts, they have
been overtaken by winter before they could accomplish their
purpose."
Fru John Richardson argues, with the hydrographer, that.
It is desirable that the western shores of the Archipelago of
Parry 'e,ls/ ands should be searched in a high latitude. He says:
"The climate of Arctic America improves in • sensible
manner with an increase of western longitude. On the
Mackenzie, on the 135th meridian, the summer is warmer
than its any district of the continent in the same parallel,
and it is still finer and the vegetation more luxuriant on
the banks of the Yucon, on the 150th meridian. This
superiori'y of climate leads me to infer that ships well
fortified against drift ice will find the navigation of the
Arctic Seas more practicable in its western portion than it
has been found to the eastward. This inference is supported
by my own
ipersonal experience, as far as it goes. I met
with no ice n the month of August on my late voyage till
I attained the 123rd meridian, and which I was led, from
that circumstance, to suppose coincided with the western
limits of Parry's Archipelago."
He adds that an interpreter is desirable ; and suggests the
employment of one of the 2d iravian brethren to that office—
as it is not probable that a native Esquimau.: could be ob-
tained in time. On this suggestion Mr. Miertoching, nee of
the Moravian brethren, from the establishment of Hernnhut,
in Saxony, has ban appointed to accompany Captain Col-
limate's expedition. He is stated to be ,' in the prime of
life, about 30 years of age, of robust health, inured, by a
service of five years in Labrador, to the hardships and priva-
tions of the Arctic regions, aad sufficiently acquainted with
the language and manners of the Esquimau: to be obis to
hold friendly and unreserved intercourse with them,"
From the mass of memoranda sad correspondenoe on the
subject of Captain Collinsoe's expedition, we select a few
pinups :
Sir F. Beaufort is distinctly of opinion that the only
method of rendering the examination ;prompt and efficient Is
through the medium of steam.
While only useless experts and reiterated disapdointment
will attend the best efforts of sailing vessels, leaving the
lingering survivors of the lost ships, as well as their relatives
in England, in equal despair. Had Sir James Roes been in
a steam-vessel, he would not have been surrounded by ice
and swept out of the Strait, bat by shooting under the pro-
tection of Leopold Island, he would have waited there till
that fatal field had passed to the eastward, and he then would
have found a perfectly open sea up to Melville Island. The
best application of steam to in-going vessels would be Erie.-
son's screw , but the screw or paddles of any of our mo-
derateceizoi vessels might be made to elevate with facility.
Vessels so fitted would not require to be fortified in an
extraordinary degree, not more than common whalers. From
the leg-like quiescence with which • sailing vessel must await
the crush of two approaching floes, they must be as strong as
wood and Iron can make them ; but the steamer slips out of
the reach of the collision, waits till the shock is past, and
then profiting by their mutual recoil, darts at once through
the transient opening. Two such vessels, and each of them
attended by two tenders laden with coals and proviii,u,
would be sufficient for the main lines of search. Every
lrominent point of land where notices might hove been
eft would be visited, details of their own proceedings would
be deposited, and each of the four tenders would be left in
proper positions as points of rendezvous on which to fall
back. Besides these two branches of the expedition, it would
be well to allow the whaling Captain (Penny) to carry oat
his proposed undertaking. His local knowledge, his thorough
acquaintance with all the myscerias of the ice navigation
and his well known skill and resources, seem to point him
out as a most valuable auxiliary."
Col. Sabine, after stating the various courses which it is pos
Bible Sir J. Franklin may have token, cosaidere it most probable
" That his advance from Melville Island in the season of
1847 may have been limited to • distance of 50, or perhaps
100 miles at farthest, and that in 1848 he may have en-
deavoured to retrace his steps, but only with partial success
It is, I apprehend, quite a oonceivable cue, that under these
ciromatanus, incapable of extricating the ships from the ice,
the crews may have beat at length obliged to quit them, and
attempt • retreat,_ not towards the continent, because too
distant, but to Melville Island, where certainly food, and
probably fuel (seals), might be obtained, and where they
would naturally suppose that vessels despatched from
Englud fee their relief would, in the first instance, seek
them. It ia quite conceivable also, I apprehend, that the
circumstances might be such that their retreat may have
been made without their boat,, and probably in the Aptil or
May of 1849. Where the Rsqainisaz have lived, there
Englishmen may live, and no valid argument spinet the
attempt to relieve can, I think, be founded on the improba-
bility of finding Englishmen alive in 1850, who may have
made a retreat to Melville Island in the spring of 1849 ; nor
would the view of the cue be altered is any material degree,
if we suppose their retreat to have been made in 1843 er
1819 to Banks's Land, which may afford facilities of food and
fuel equal or superior to Melville Island, and a further
retreat in the following year to the latter island as the point
at which they would more probably look out for succour."
In one of the letters It ie stated that Bir J. Franklin, be-
fore his departure from England, expressed himself deter-
, mined to try a pimps by Jones's Sound Instead of Din-
outer Sound. This, however, is act goaaidered probable in
most quarters. Sir John Franklin is described as one
who would not be likely to treat his orders with levity.
The ereimated expense of the proposed expedition for the
relief of T. Franklla'z empedition 115,2151
beim f
la gulag,
other

Is these

of -relict

relief of air klba's exped.tion is 6,flbf. .1. d.—
being for the three vsesela, the Aep, the Isla, and the Muy
In fitting, stores, and provisions, fur two years ; wages, and
other items, will of Course be added to this.
In these returns will be found a varlet; of interesticg plena
of relief, but they are too long to quote.
The Chancellor of the Exchequeiind Lady Mary
Wood left town yesterday fur their residenee, Hickleton
Hall, near Demeter.
•