The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-02 00:00:00

THE ARCTIC SEARCH.

The public mind can hardly have been prepared for
the closing scene in the drama of Arctic search. It is
with pain that we are under the necessity of announcing,
not only the return of Sir Edward Belcher, but the fact
that he has abandoned, while they were yet uninjured
and available for further sevice, the four fine vessels
placed under his command ; and, what is of far higher
import, that he has left the gallant Collinson to effect
his own retreat.

It is to be presumed that Sir Edward Belcher will
fully explain his proceedings as respects his own search
for poor Franklin's party ; and we conceive that the
public will claim also to be fully informed why her Ma-
jesty's ships have been thus abandoned, in the face of
instructions laid before the House of Commons and
conveyed to Sir E. Belcher by the Phoenix in the
present summer. These instructions, if they did not
positively require extended search on behalf of Frank-
lin's parties, most unmistakeably enjoined such measures
as might secure the safety of Captain Collinson's, for
the accomplishment of which the amplest means were
placed at the dispOsal of Sir E. Belcher, and in pursuance
of which he was further instructed to consult with the
very able officers who accompanied him. Rumour is
already busy, and it is said that Sir E.Belcher's return to
England is to be followed by courts-martial, and in-
quiries into disputes with his officers. It is not, we
trust, owing to causes so ignoble as these that the public
service has suffered and the claims of humanity been
sacrificed.
Of the proceedings of the search we have as yet only
gathered that the division under Captain Kellett had
effected all that was anticipated, Commander M'Clintook
having completed a very extended sledge journey to the
westward from Melville Island, occupying about 100
days, during which he found abundance of musk oxen
and reindeer. The movements of Sir E. Belcher appear
to have been limited, since the date of his despatches
received last year to his retreat upon Beechey Island ;
and the promising lands to the north and north-east-of
Wellington Channel remain, therefore, unvisited.
But amidst all the gloom which hangs over the
search for Franklin and his unfortunate companions,
we may heartily congratulate the friends of Captain
Cullinson upon his presumed safety, notwithstanding
the detention to which Sir Edward Belcher's return
has probably consigned him. As we have always
:anticipated, his course was precisely that of Captain
M'Clure's, whose first winter resting place was at-
tained in the following year by the Enterprise, four days
after it had been vacated by M'Clure. Failing, as his
predecessor had done, to accomplish the north-west pas-
sage through Investigator Strait, Captain Collinson
ultimately found his first winter harbour, in 1851-2, in
Walker Bay, on the south side of Prince Albert Land,
and he is known to have pursued in the following sum-
mer an easterly course along the North American shore,
through Dolphin and Union Strait. He may thus pos-
sibly be able to carry his ship through Victoria Strait
and Peel Sound into Barrow Strait, which would be
effecting the north-west passage, though not by the chan
nel that-bas been sighted, and so nearly accomplished
by Captain M'Clure. Our knowledge of these circum-
stances is derived from the records deposited by Cap-
tam Collinson, and discovered by Lieutenant Me-
cham. They further develope the singular facts that
the same places were visited the same season by parties
from the Investigator and from the Enterprise, starting
from widely different positions, and that the same point
was actually seen by both within a few miles of each
other; the spot where these records were deposited hav-
ing been repeatedly, yet unconsciously, traversed by
parties from all the searching ships. Such facts as these
cannot but shake any inferences drawn from the ap-
parent absence of records.
Once more we may invite attention to the consolatory
absence of all disaster in the returning Arctic expedi-
tion, or of mortality reaching even isa the usual average ;
and again, too, it may be reiterated that the case of
the Franklin expedition • remains unaffected except
negatively. We do know that our missing countrymen
have not been thrown upon the north-western shores of
Melville Island, but we remain in doubt whether, after
passing up Wellington Channel, their course was not di-
rected to the unsearched lands then in sight rather than
towards the northern shore of Melville Island. It is,
therefore, upon the zeal, ability, and singlo•mindedpess
of Dr. Kane, in command of the American expedition,
that we now mainly depend, since his intended course,
after passing up Smith Sound, will be towards the un-
explored lands seen by Sir E. Belcher's expedition, lying
to the north of Wellington Channel.