Glasgow Courier. — 1850-10-10 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

THE ARCTIC EXPEDITION.  (From the Morning herald of Saturday.)  There can be no doubt now in the mind of any one that the Arctic searching expeditions have at length come upon traces, if not the track, of Sir John Franklin. The letter which appeared in our journal yesterday, from Captain Forsyth of the Prince Albert discovery-ship, must have at least satisfied the most desponding that there is still hope left— that the ships have not foundered in Baffin's Bay, at the outset of the voyage, nor been crushed in the ice, and burnt by a savage tribe of Esquimaux, who had murdered the crew. That the former might have happened; all must admit; but to the latter, few, we imagine, will give their assent. Mr. Saunders describes the natives of Wolstenbolme Sound as the most miserable and helpless of mortals. They had no articles obtained from Europeans; and lie was of opinion that there were no settlements farther north; and if there were, doubtless they would be even more hapotent than those wretched beings. That the ships might have foundered all must admit. The President did so with many a gallant soul on board. The Avenger ran on the Sorelli, and 300 brave fellows, in an instant, met with a watery grave; and till the sea shall give up her dead, who can count the thousands that he beneath the billows of the mighty ocean? We have now certain evidence that Franklin's ships did not founder—not, at least, in Baffin's Bay; and our own belief is that the pendant still floats in the northern breeze, amidst eternal regions of snow and ice. The discovery of the encampment, or remains of one, on Cape Riley, which is the easternmost cape at the entrance of the Wellington Channel, Cape Hotham being the westernmost, is of the most thrilling interest. What articles Capt. Ommanney may have collected we are at present not informed of—but he had evidently no doubt upon his mind that they belonged to some party of the missing expedition; and, indeed, they could have belonged to no other. Capt. Forsyth, after Capt. Ommanney had left, discovered pieces of rope and canvass, and bones of beef and pork, and of some birds. He has brought home some of these with him, and we have seen a piece of the rope. The latter ie evidently Government rope, and has in it the yellow thread generally called inc ^ rogue s y ant, answering the purpose of the broad arrow, the yarn being run through the centre, and of a different colour to the rest of the rope. It is pronounced, we believe, to be a piece of the rope from Chatham-yard, and was, in all probability; supplied with other stores sent up from thence to Woolwich, where the Erebus and Terror were fitted out. The rope is well bleached, but in the interior it is fresh, and smells strongly of tar, which no rope exposed to the weather for a series of years would do. When Parry sailed past Wellington Channel, he did not land on Cape Riley, and no man-of-war has been there since. Whale-ships have fished , there, but they are not likely to possess the Government I rope, nor such stores as Captain Ommanney has collected. I The remains of the encampment consist of five circular rows of stones, which would appear to have held down the sides of tents. They are immediately under a range of table land, of about 300 or 400 feet high, from which Cape Riley abuts. When Captain Forsyth parted company, Capt. Ommanney • was standing over towards Cape Hotham, carrying a heavy press of sail, with the Intrepid steamer (Bertie Cator), much in advance, Captain Penny's two brigs, and the two Americans, also in company. God grant them the success they deserve! The steamers seem, by all accounts, to have answered admirably, "charging the ice at full speed, and cracking it in all directions, and in open water saving all the labour of tracking."