New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-09-15
YFWs FROM SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.


the Franklin expedition, supposed to nave
been thrown overheard among tue liolch
waters of the Arctic circle, and atter twenty
one years to have been cast ashore something
like 5000 miles from the place where IL was
launched, is full of a melancholy interest,"
though there is little probability that the doc-
ument, even if authentic, Will ada much "
what we already know of the last days Oh
Franklin's gallant band. In all Likelihood the
record is merely duplicate OF the one winch
McClintock discovered on King Williams
Island in 1859. Sir Leopold it will be remem-
bered. found there the only authentic account
of Franklin's fate which, up to the present
time, has ever reached us. In cairD, erect
ed twenty eight years before oy DIT
John Ross he found, inclOsed in tin case
a record of Sir Johns last cruise up TO the 2oth
of April, 1S4S. Franklin had died on the llth
of June 1S47. The ships Erebus and Terror
had been frozen in for 10 months, and the sur
viyors of the crew, 105 in number, under COM
mand of Captain Crozier, had abandoned them
and set out over land for the Great Fish RIVER
of British North America McClntOck heard
from the Esquimaux how the white men had
ono by one dropped down and died on the
way. He found the skeletons of two or three,
with their abandoned sledges, boats, and guns;
he satisfied himself that the remainder had per-
ished miserably among the frozen straits, ana
their bones had been lost in the waters when
the short Summer thaw set in; aud
though there has since been rumor
that Crozer and some of his men were alive
several years later among the Esquimaux, ana
NAV even vet be wandering in those lnacces-
sible regions where the foot of no other CIVIL
lied man has ever trOd, there can DC hItle
doubt that McClintock's conclusions were JUS
titled and that no later record of the most
memorable of all Arctic voyages Will ever
reach us.
The document said to have been found on
| the California coast appears to nave peen
written. as that found on King Williams
| Island was, on one of the printed forms fur
nished by the British Admiralty to all dis
covery ships, for the purpose of being inclosed
| in bottles and thrown overheard In order 10
| ascertain the direction of ocean currents. 80
exact indeed, Judging from the telegraphlc re-
| port, is its resemblance to the McClntock
! relic, that we should have little hesitation
| in pronouncng it a forgery inspired by
| that document, were it not probable that
n forger would have invented some va
ration, and given the record later date.
The latitude is the same as that in
which Crozier deposited the writing in the tin
case; the longitude differs by ten seconds,
Crozier giving 9S' A ~, and the California re-
port go A. 5",-but this discrepancy may be
owing to photographic blunder.
| IL this waif was really committed to the
waves by the crews of the Erebus and Terror
when they set out upon their awful land
| Journey in the Spring of 1913, it must have
hoated through that North West Passage which
80 many lives and so many years of heroism
were expended in seeking, and which it is now
known that Franklin was the first to discover,
though the knowledge of il was not brought
back to the civilized world until Sir Leopold
McClintock returned from his search. 1t must
| have foated through Behring's Strait, been
tossed about the shores of British America,
perhaps crossed and recrossed the Pacific, be-
fore chance threw it upon the beach of San
Buenaventura. Such a course would be an in
| teresting confirmation of the theory that while
there is warm oceanic current setting North
ward from the equator through Behring's
Strait, there is cold counter current under
running it, which carries Oft the waters OF the
Pole to be heated under the tropical sun and
again sent Northwards.