The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-16 00:00:00

N°. 18,116.] LONDON, WEDNESDAI
T ' "4"'
•, - .
OCTOBER 16, 1850.
A., • e 4;. s.t
7

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SIR J. FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION.
The following reports have been received at the
Admiralty on the various substances brought from
Cape Riley by Captain Forsyth, supposed to be evi-
dences that Sir John Franklin and his expedition had
made some stay at that spot :
ITaslar Hospital, Oct. 11, 1850.
Sir,—On receiving your letter of the 7th inst., and
the box containing bones, canvas, rope, and wood re-
cently found at Cape Riley, upon which their Lord-
ships desire a report from Sir John Richardson and
myself, I considered the best way of complying with
their Lordships' wishes would be to refer the bones
and wood for examination to Sir John Richardson,
whos'e skill and experience in such matters are greatly
superior to mine, and to give my own attention more
particularly to the pieces of rope and canvas.
I bane now the honour to enclose Sir John Richard-
son's report, and to offer the following suggestions of

my own :
The only questions of any material interest are two-
2. Were the articles left at Cape Riley by any of
Sir John Franklin's people ?
2. If so, about what period ?
Independently of Sir John Franklin's expedition,
there are, prima facie, only three possible ways of
accounting for the rope and canvas being found at
Cipe Riley :-
1. They might have been left by the parties under
the command of Lieutenants Beechey and Hoppner,
whom I sent to examine the coast on our first disco-
very of it, on the 22d of August, 1819.
2. If the rope and canvas beloniaed'to the Fury
when we lost her in Prince Regent's Inlet in 1825
(having landed all her stores on the beach for heaving
the ship down), it is possible that ;these articles may
have been discovered by the Esquimaux, appropriated
to their own use, and carried to Cape Riley in the
course of their peregrinations.
3. The articles might have been conveyed by one
of Sir James Ross's travelling parties detached from
his ships in Port Leopold, in the spring of the year
1849.
In dealing with these possibilities, we may, I
think, arrive at the following conclusions :-
1. It is quite •-certain that no encampment was
formed at Cape Riley by, Lieutenants Beechey and
Hoppner, the parties were on shore only a few
minutes, having been, recalled in consequence of a
fair wind springing up. Nor could the piece of rope
have been left by them, since the yellow worsted
thread is pronounced by the officers of Chatham yard
to fix, beyond all doubt, the date of its manufacture
"subsequent to the year 1824, as the order assigning
different coloured worsteds to each yard bears date
April 21 of that year."
2. The order just referred to was issued exactly
three weeks before I left England with the Hecla
and Fury, on that voyage in which the latter vessel
was lost in Prince Regent's Inlet—that is, I left the
Nore on the 19:11 of May of the same year (1824),
having quitted Deptford on the Bth. These dates
coincide so nearly with that of the order above quoted,
that I deemed it advisable to write to Captain
Richards, superintendent of Chatham Dockyard, to
inquire whether he thought it possible that the new
regulations of inserting the yellow worsted may, as a
special case, have been anticipated in furnishing rope
to the Hecla and Fury.
Captain Richard's very clear and satisfactory reply
(of which I enclose a copy) proves, beyond all doubt,
that the rope was not supplied to the Fury ; while the
circumstance of its having been made of Hungarian
hemp shows that it was not manufactured prior
to 1841.
3. The third and last question is merely one of fact;
and it has, I understand, been ascertained from Sir
James Ross that the party he sent out to the north-
ward from Port Leopold did not land quite so far
westward as Cape Hurd, so that they never approached
Cape Riley within thirty miles.
The above facts appear to me to lead to the in-
evitable conclusion that the rope was left at Cape
Riley by Sir John Franklin's expedition, and in all
probability the canvas likewise, as that also bears the
Queen's mark.
With respect to the period at which this occurred,
which can only be conjectured by the state and ap-
pearance of the several articles picked up, their Lord-
ships will observe from Sir John Richardson's very
interesting report that, so far as the question admits
of solution, there is at least a strong probability of
their having been left at Cape Riley about the year
1845.
I would, therefore, submit to their Lordships what
appears to me the most probable conclusion, namely,
that Sir John Franklin's ships having reached this
neighbourhood on their way out in 1845, and being
stopped there for a time by the state of the ice (as I
was, and as we know the present searching expeditions
have been), a couple of boats may have been detached
from each ship to land at Cape Riley to make the
usual observations, collect specimens, and examine the
coast—a common occurrence in all such expeditions.
If detained for a night, each boat's crew may have
pitched its own tent, and one for the officers, making
five in all. The only circumstance which I cannot
explain (supposing the encampment to have been
formed by Sir John Franklin's people) is, the large
size of the tents, which Mr. Snow has just described
to us as twelve feet in diameter and upwards, and
which is certainly very large for tents generally used
on such occasions. This may, in part, perhaps, be
explained by the stones being thrown from the centre
and the circle thus considerably enlarged when
' striking the tents.
At the commencement of their enterprise (which,
looking to former discoveries, the entrance to Wel-
lington Inlet may fairly be considered), a party from
the Erebus and Terror might not think it of any im-
portance to leave a notice of their visit, though it is
much to be wished that they had ; and I should hope
that at some more advanced position Captain Om-
manney and the other officers will have succeeded in
discovering some such notice, affording positive infer-
are likely to have pursued.
On the other hand I feel confident, that if the ex-
pedition, or any portion of the people,
mation of the missing ships, and of the route they
lied landed
at Cape Riley at a more advanced period, when suc-
cess began to be doubtful, and especially if in distress,
or with a view to effect their escape from the ice,
some distinct notice of the facts would have been left
at a point so prominent and so likely to be visited as
Cape Riley. I may
add that under such circum-
stances it is very highly
improbable that provisions
so heavy and bulky as salt beef and pork wouldvisions
have
formed a part of their supply ; and mutton would, of
course, have been wholly out of the question.
We have received from Commander Forsyth and
ro
Mr. Snow (who, according to their Lordships' direc-
tions, arrived here this morning) all the information
they possess relating to our present inquiry.
The box containing the several articles found at
Cape Riley will be returned to your address by rail-
way this evening.—I have the honour to be, sir, your
most obedient servant,
WILLIAM EDWARD PARRY, Captain, R.N.
To the Secretary of the Admiralty, 6"

1-11:Fisirl:scArsr;:now,
of the
ON CAPE
REPORT ON CERTAIN SUBSTANCES
of the Admi-
ralty, OF IhsLAa
RILEY, IN AUGUST LAST, AND
LAND lii CAPTAIN FORSYTH, BROUGHT TO ENG-
LAND
to have been
PRINCE
OFFOUNTDHE
ALBERT, BY JOHN RICHARDSON, MEDICAL IN-
Se
Secretary
you, I proceed
Prince
Royal Hospital, Haslar, 10th October, 1850.
rbaylSttyihr,,e—ofmltehnmecoolahnpildinuasnmtcaenotfw, itathhdedthe instructions conveyed
pickedt o repo rut
po
on then
Cape following l
Riley,ow ing articles,
Albert.
No. 1. A piece of bone four and a half inches long,
being the head and part of the shaft of the fourth rib
of the left side of an ox. This has been chopped from
the other end by the blow of an axe.
No. 2. Six inches and a half of the upper end of
the seventh rib of the right side of an ox. The lower
end of the rib has been sawed off, and the head broken
off. A large part of the surface of this hone is cor-
roded, as if from the action of salt. This is the rib of
a larger animal than that to which No. 1 belonged,
and the head has been broken off recently—that is,
subsequently to the alterations of the rest of the sur-
face by exposure, &c.
No. 8. Part of the seventh dorsal vertebra of an
ox, being the piece that articulates with the head of
the rib.
No. 4 is the lower articular process of the left
shoulder bone of a small hog.
No. 5 is the upper end of the right thigh bone of
a sheep, probably of the Orkney or Highland breed,
and rather old. The bone is of a hard compact tex-
ture, which excited a suspicion in my mind of its
being part of the thigh bone of a 504511 northern rein-
deer; but, having no corresponding bone of that
animal for comparison, this is a mere suspicion, and it
corresponds closely with the bone of a small sheep,
to which, therefore, I am inclined to refer it. It has
been notched by the corner of a hatchet, or other
sharp cutting instrument.
These five pieces of bone are all that bear on the
present inquiry. They have lost little of their original
weight ; and indurated animal matter, showing
large nucleated and common fat globules under the
microscope, is contained in the cancellated structure
of Nos. 1 and 2. There is a quantity of animal fat
in the bottom of the shaft of No. 5. A few granular

and simple fat cells, analogous to those existing in
marrow, can still be perceived in this fat when exa-
mined with the microscope : but probably, from ex-
posure to cold, this marrow, which I conclude it to be,
has undergone considerable deterioration.

All the'five bones have been much worn or rounded
by attrition ; most probably by rolling among gravel
in a water course, or on the beach within the wash of
the sea. The sharp edges of the sawn and notched
pieces are smoothed off, and the softer ends of the
bones rubbed down. The head of rib No. 2 alone
has been broken since the rest of the bone was ex-
posed to friction. Taking the climate into considera-
tion, and particularly the shortness of each season to
which the bones can have been exposed to atmosphe-
rical influences, or to the action of water, they being,
of course, covered with snow for ten months in each
year, I should say that they cannot have been re-
duced to their present state in less than four or five
years since the flesh was removed from them ; and
that they are not much older than that time. A small
depterous insect had taken shelter in one of the cells
of No. 2, and died there.
The other bones—viz., No. 6, a portion of the right
shin-bone of a young walrus; No. 7, the lumbar
vertebra of a reindeer;` No. 8, the left shoulder-bone
of a young seal ; No. 9, a portion of the rib of a
walrus, are of very old date, have lost much of their
animal matter, are more or less disintegrated, are
partially clothed with ancient lichens, and have been
most probably exposed to the weather for a half or a
whole century, or even longer. They appear to
have been imbedded in soil partially or wholly, or
lying amongst moist grass, and not on clear gravel,
where I conclude, from their condition, the others
were found.

None of the bones bear the mark of a tooth, as
they would unquestionably have done had the place
been visited by Esquimaux with dogs since they were
deposited there.
The other articles picked up at the same place, and
sent to be reported on, are—
No. 10. A piece of 1f-inch rope, now measuring
44 inches in length, and having an eye spliced at one
end, but which is said to have been found when a
foot longer, with an eye at both ends. It is bleached
on the surface, but is fresh within, so that in some
places there remains enough of tar to soil the finger.
This rope has been fully reported upon from Chatham,
and the date of its manufacture fixed as subsequent
to 1841.
No. 11. A piece of old canvas, with the Queen's
mark, seemingly part of a boat's swab, the length
corresponding, and the nail-hole to which it has been
fastened to the handle remaining.
o. 12. A chip of drift timber, the surface of a
knot, which has been exposed for very many years to
the action of the atmosphere, so as to break down
greatly the connexions of its woo4y fibres. Subse-
quently to this exposure, and recently, it has been cut
from the piece of drift timber to which it belonged by
an axe, or other sharp cutting instrument—not a
stone hatchet. It has all the external character of
wood grown in an arctic climate. On being examined
under the microscope its structure was found to differ
essentially from that of a coniferous tree, or of any
other tree that grows on the banks of the American
rivers flowing into the Arctic Seas—from pines and
firs in the absence of glandular discs, and from the
others in the size and form of the ducts and their
markings. It corresponds most closely with the wood
of the ash ; and from the amount of intra-cellular de-
posit in the specimen, it is inferred to have belonged
to a tree of considerable age. It has most probably
drifted from the Asiatic coast, and its being:found at
Cape Riley bears on the currents and passages of the
Arctic Sea. The mark of the axe which it bears in-
dicates the visit of Europeans to the spot where it
was found, as it does not appear to have been long
exposed since the cut was made—that is, not very
many years.
As the recent bones have all been rolled and worn
down, there is a possibility of their having been cast
ashore by the ice. Had they been left at the time of '
Captain Beechey's visit to the same place, on the 22d
of August, 1819, I do not think that the oily matter
in their cavities would have been found so fresh. But
we have no certain observations on the effects of so
rigorous a climate in preserving animal matter, and
it is to be observed that while the interval between
the thawing and freezing of the bones again does not
exceed six weeks in each year, 31 years' exposure
would be equivalent to only two or three years in the
temperate climate of England.
The beef bones, almost without doubt, belong to
the ordinary pieces of salt beef supplied to the navy
—as their length and the way in which they have
been chopped and sawed correspond closely with
bones from a beef-cask which I examined at Clarence-
yard. No. 4, lam inclined, with as little doubt, to
consider as the remains of a piece of pork. No. 5
may be the relic of an officer's dinner on mutton. The
whole evidence to be derived from their condition
points to their deposit subsequent to Captain
Beechey's visit, and prior to Sir James Ross's win-
tering at Cape Leopold, and therefore indicates that
they were left by parties from Sir John Franklin's
ships in the first year of his voyage, when the ships
probably were detained waiting for an opening in
the ice, and officers had landed from them to make
observations.

Since the above report was drawn up, I have had
the advantage of an interview with Captain For-
syth and Mr. Snow, in the presence of Sir Edward
Parry, and have not found it necessary to modify the
conclusions I had previously come to.
From Mr. Snow I learnt that the crescentic spit,
or low point which runs out from the bluff headland
of Cape Riley, has a convex surface, rising in the
middle and towards the foot of the cliff 12 or 14 feet
above the water. The cliff formed in that part of the
earth, mixed with fragments of the adjacent and
underlying limestone, is ascended by successive ter-
races, and on the first, six feet above the spit, or 20
feet above the water, the piece of rope was found. It
had escaped the notice of Captain Ommanney, who
on the preceding day collected and carried away the
evidences that he found of the visit of Sir John
Franklin's people, for such is the tenor of the note
which he left.

The bones were picked up by the seamen of Mr.
Snow's boat, around certain rings of stones on the
spit, while that gentleman was busy transcribing
Captain Ommanney's note of the 24th, with Lieutenant
de Haven's on the 25th, and adding to the originals a
notice of his own visit. Captain Forsyth, on interro-
gating the seamen, learnt that they left behind many
birds' bones, and brought away only the beet bones
and such as looked most like the relics of ships' pro-
visions.

The tide rises there from three to four feet, and
Captain Beechey found the rocks worn smooth and
hollowed out by the action of the waves and ice to the
height of 13 feet. The influences of these agents, with
the effects of the strong rills emanating from melting
snow, and pouring down the sides of the cliff, will
account fully for the bones having been so rolled since
they were left.
The rings of stones, five in number, vary, Mr.
Snow says, from 12 feet in diameter to twice as
much. They did not strike his eye on landing, but
his attention was called to them by the men, who
also observed two or three stones placed so as to rest
a kettle on. Captain Beechey says, that had circular
stones been on the spit when he landed he would
have noticed them. Their subsequent formation
points to the visit of Sir John Franklin's party. On
the other hand, if that party made fires either of coal
or wood the remains of the fires, if sought for, would
certainly be found. The Esquimaux use oil lamps,
which produce much smoke, for cooking, and place
stones for the support of their stone kettles, so that
unless the encampments had been examined with re-
ference to these points, and to the indications given
by the surfaces of the stones as to whether they had
been turned within a few years, no very certain de-
ductions can be made, especially as the rings were
not so conspicuous as to strike the eye.at once. But
there is nothing to invalidate the opinion formed on
other grounds of the spot affording traces of the dis-
covery ships.
In the examination of the wood and animal matters
I have availed myself of the experience of my assis-
tant, Dr. Clark, in the use of the microscope, and beg
to enclose a note of some of his observations.
I have the honour to be, sir, your most
obedient servant,
JOHN RICHARDSON.

MEMORANDUM OF SOME OF THE MICROSCOPIC OBSER-
VATIONS MADE ON THE WOOD, AND ANIMAL MATTER
OF THE BONES, BROUGHT BY CAPTAIN FORSYTH
FROM CAPE RILEY, BY ANDREW CLARK, M. 1).,
ASSISTANT-SURGEON.
Examined with the naked eye, the portion of wood
submitted to me for examination appeared of a pale
ashen-grey colour, contorted, gnarled, and disposed
in wavy fibrous fasciculi. It was much shrivelled
also. The surface had a shining, a most silvery ap-
pearance, and there were other indications of its pro-
longed subjection to the influence of air and water.
It resembled a piece of oak, in fact, after long
exposure.
At the suggestion of Sir John ,Richardson, I made
it my first ohj2ct to determine whether the wood
belonged to any indigenous tree.
From the size of the woody fibres—pleurenchyma
—and the absence of the so-called "glandular discs,"
the wood evidently belonged to none of the coniferee.
From the birch, the specimen under examination

[PRICE SD.

differed in the size of the woody fibres and in the
character of the porous vessels or ducts—bothren-
chyme. In the birch, the woody fibres are short and
spindle-shaped • the porous vessels are larger; one
side of many Of them is barred or scalariform, and
the markings upon them are larger and more regular
than in the specimen examined.
From the willow also the wood under examination
is distinguished by the character of its porous vessels.
In the former the vessels are larger; the markings
upon them are pretty regular hexagonal—each hexa-
gonal spot being about 1.1,200 of an inch in diameter,
and having a central, sometimes double diffractive
nuclear spot, which by transmitted light is of a bright
yellowish brown colour.
The structure of the wood of the poplar resembles
that of the willow, except that the markings on the
ducts are larger, baing about 1.900 of an inch in dia-
meter, and that there is but one central oblong
nuclear spot. The willow also, therefore, differed
essentially from the wood in question.
From the oak, which it resembled externally, it
was found to differ essentially in its minute structure.
In the oak, the porous tissue is more abundant, its
transverse diameter is smaller, and the markings upon
it not only larger and more irregular in shape and
size than, but different in character from the specimen
sent for examination. The markings of the porous
ducts in the oak consist of a central yellowish diffrac-
tive spot surrounded by a fine black cireumferential
line. The spot is oblong, and about one-fourth the
size of the investing ring.
In the size and character of its woody fibres and
porous ducts, the specimen under examination cor-
responds almost exactly with those of the ash. The
only perceptible difference between them is in the
amount of intra-cellular deposit—that being by far
the greatest in the specimen under examination. From
that circumstance I infer that the wood has been
removed from a tree of considerable age.
I have compared sections of the wood sent with
those of various other trees; but as the results are
irrelevant to the object in view, I forbear giving them
expression.
From the examinations made, no doubt is left in my
mind as to the character of the wood sent for inspec-
tion ; it is a piece of old ash.
From the disposition of the histological elements of
the wood, and from the presence of much refractive
matter around the woody fibres, I am disposed to be-
lieve that the specimen sent has been removed from
the immediate neighbourhood of a knotty excresence
at or near the root of the stem. The position of the
knot I infer from the amount of porous tissue present
in the specimen, and the disposition of it around the
ligneous fibres.
The matter removed from the bones was whitish,
had a meliceritious appearance, and was readily melted
by the heat of the hand. It contained, along with a
very considerable quantity of organic debris, three
different kinds of fat cells—two of them almost pecu-
liar to the marrow of bones. Associated with these
was much fatty granular matter and fatty crystals—
the results, doubtless, of the disintegration of the cells.
From the presence of this matter in the cancelli of the
bones, and from the character it exhibited under the
microscope, I infer that it cannot have been many
years since the flesh was removed from them. The
matter removed from the bones I believe to be mar-
row modified in structure and appearance by the
influence of the various physical agencies to which it
must have been exposed.
ANDREW CLARK.
Museum, Hasler Hospital, Oct.

Chatham Yard, Oct. 9, 1850.

Sir,—l have the honour to acknowledge the receipt
of your letter of yesterday's date, and in reply thereto
have to inform you that a close examination of the re-
cords of this yard shows :-
1. That the first supply of yellow worsted for mak-
ing rope was received at this yard from the contractor
on the 11th of June, 1824, and was issued to the
ropery for use on the 14th of the same month.
2. That there is no reason whatever to suppose that
yellow worsted could have been used prior to the
14th of June, in anticipation of the order of the 28th
of April, 1824, as up to the 19th of February in that
year white worsted was supplied from the store to the
ropery, and no further supply occurred till the 14th
of June, 1824, when the yellow came into use.
3. Not any cordage from 1 to 2 inch was supplied
front this yard to Deptford or Woolwich between the
Ist of January, 1824, and the sailing of the expedi •
tion under your command on the 19th of May fol-
lowing, which is accounted for by the Woolwich
ropery being then in operation.
4. Any cordage supplied from Woolwich at that
time must have borne the mark of white worsted,
then used as a universal mark, and after the order of
the 28th of April, 1824, it continued the distinguish-
ing mark at that yard : the remaining store of 'white
worsted was transferred from this yard to Woolwich,
to be there consumed.

The clearness and accuracy of the storekeeper's re-
port to me, and the great care he has taken in search-
ing the records of his office, establish these facts as
indisputable, and leave no room whatever for doubt
as to the rope found at Cape Riley (a specimen of
which was sent me fur examination) having been ma-
nufactured in this yard after the 14th of June, 1824,
and therefore it could not possibly have been any part
of the supply furnished to either of the ships com-
posing the expedition to the Arctic Seas under your
command, which sailed in May of that year.
Indeed, I may go further, and give it as my decided
opinion that the rope found at Cape Riley by Com-
mander Forsyth must have been made in this yard
subsequently to 1841.
The hemp used in its manufacture is clearly recog-
nized as Hungariat by the master ropemaker, a man
of much ability in his calling, and who, after ample
time for the fullest consideration, repeats his opinion
as to its character most clearly and decidedly, and it
stands proved that no hemp of that growth was re-
ceived into this yard prior to 1841.
I hope this statement will prove satisfactory to
you , • hut if you wish to refer further to the records
of this yard, I shall have great pleasure in attending
to your communication.—l have, &.c.,
PETER RICHARDS, Captain-Superintendent.
Captain-Superintendent, Sir E. Parry,
Hadar Hospital.

r A term day is one day in the month on which it
was pre-arranged that simultaneous magnetic obeerva-
tions should be made in all parts of the world; these
days were known to Sir John Franklin, and they were
the only days on which during the se:ton of ❑avigation
those magnetic instruments requiring the tents above
alluded towould be employed,

LARGE HAWK.—The largest hawk that we recol-
lect ever having seen in the lowlands of Scotland was shot a
few weeks ago on the Boquban Moors, Stirlingshire, by Mr.
John Fletcher, of Saltoun. The gallant bird rose from the
cleft of a rock, on the high hill nearly opposite to Bollecklain,
carrying along with it in its claws the body of a young rabbit.
The shot, having passed right through the tip of the left
wing, caused the bird to fall, when it was immedia ely cap-
tured by the gamekeeper, and carried to Boquhan House,
where it now is, having nearly recovered. Although quite
young, this bird is certainly a noble specimen of the genus
falco peregrimis; the length of its wings when expanded
measures from tip to tip no less than four feet four inches,
and from the beak to the tip of the tail, one foot six inches.
Its beak is strong and hooked, the toes long,- and furnished,
with powerful claws, and the tail is long and very broad. It
is of a dark brown colour, and in excellent plumage.—
, Scotsman.