The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1878-08-03


You are undoubtedly actuated by a
high sense of public duty" in fact by
cold blooded patriotism such as you only
possess and as no other man will probably
ever have.
JOHN T. LANTER,
THOs. T. TAYLOR,
ARCTIC EXPLORATION.
Harper's Weekly.
Little Is needed at any time to rouse
enthusiasm in regard to an expedition
which has for its purpose the discovery Of
particulars concerning the voyage Of the
Inflated Franklin, whose mysterious dis
appearance amid the frozen regions OF the
North has been the cause of so much pub
lie and private lamentatiOn. At present,
however, unusual interest is felt in the
matter from the fact that within the past
six years certain information has been
gathered by Northern explorers which
leads to the conclusion that there may
even yet be q chance OF obtaining full re-
cords OF all that happened to the daring
crew who, with their beloved leader, per-
ished In the arctic expedition OF 1S45.
In 1872 Captain Potter, in command Of
an American whaler in Hudson Bay, met
some Esquimaux Of the Nachili tribe, near
Whale Point, to the south Of Repulse Bay.
The Nachilis are natives of the BOOthla
Isthmus, often mentioned In the narrative
of Sir John Ross. They told Captain
Potter that a party Of white men came, a
long time before. to place in the Gulf Of
BOothia, where tho Nachili were then
wintering, and they oil died there. The
Captain also obtained some silve and other
things belonging to the Franklin expedi-
ton from these people. In 1877 Mr..
Thomas F. Barry, In the whaler,- j.
Houg ht0n, belonging to Messrs. Morrison
& Brown, of New York, wintered at Mar
BILE Island, off the mouth of the Wager
River. He was visited by other Esquimaux
of the Nachili tribe, from whom he OBJ
tanned spoon with Sir John Franklin's
crest upon it. They told him exactly the
same story as had been told to Captain
Potter five years before. Two, who were
between fifty and sixty years Of age. said
that they had seen the white men. They
added that the white men had q leader, but
that when the spring came they were all
dead. After good many had died, the
rest made cairn, and put under it some
things like the book in which Barry was
writing, and which the Nachili examined.
They offered to go and point out the spot
where the cairn still remains, with the
books under it; but it involved a journey Of
several hundred miles, and Barry was I'M
able to undertake it. When asked to point
out the position of the island where the
white men died, on the map, they always
put their fingers on spot in the unexplo-
ded part of the Gulf Of >BOothia, north
west of the entrance to Fury and Hecla
Strait, In the direction Of Felix HarbOr of
Ross, on the cast coast of BoOthia.
Upon the return Of Captain Barry the
interest Of several influential gentlemen
was awakened in the cairn and the valua-
bic relics it Is supposed to cover. 1t was
determined, II possible, to send vessel
to the North for the purpose Of discover
ing the repository, and the accumulation
Of q fund for the purpose was Immediately
begun. In the mean time the business of
testing the evidence of the existence OF
the cairn, and the probability of its being
situated in the place indicated, was intrust-
ed to Chief Justice DAILY, Of New York
City. This gentleman had long and
satisfactory conversation with Captain
Barry, and at the same time heard from
Joe, the faithful champion of Captain Hall,
who gave his testimony in regard to Cap
tain Barry g familiarity with the Esquimaux
language. The result Of further investi-
cation seemed to prove conclusively that
the supposed position of the cairn is pre-
cisely at that point whittier the doomed
party would have naturally made their
way during that stage Of the fatal journey
Of which We have no record. The result
Of the inquiry was such as to convince
r hat