and Mr. Rae was reluctantly compelled to give the order to return to the Coppermine River. In ascending this river to the Bloody Fall, the company met the misfortune of losing Albert, their Esquimaux interpreter, and one of the most useful members of the expedition. He was drowned in attempting to extricate the boat from a dangerous eddy into which it had been drawn. The boat was lost with him. They then commenced their journey on foot across the land toward Great Bear Lake, each man carrying a weight of about eighty pounds. After seven days' march from the Bloody Fall the party reached Fort Confidence, whence the expedition had started. They had failed to discover any traces of Sir John Franklin, and had not even reached Wollaston Land, the proposed terminus of their journey, in consequence of the strait being filled with impassable ice.

Meanwhile Captain Richardson and the rest of the men belonging to the expedition, explored Bear Lake and Cape McDonald. They then reached Fort Franklin. The only vestige of the latter which remained, was the foundation of the chimney-stack. Thence they proceeded to Fort Norman. They then embarked on Bear Lake River and descended with the current to its mouth. Retracing the route which they had pursued in their outward journey during the preceding year, the company eventually reached Methy Lake; where Captain Richardson received his first letters from England, which had been brought up from Canada by the governor's canoe, which annually leaves La Chine in May. He arrived at Norway House on the 13th of August, and there the men composing the expedition were discharged. The Europeans among them were sent down to York factory to sail to England in one of the ships of the Hudson Bay company.

Captain Richardson himself returned by way of Boston to Liverpool; and thus ended this additional attempt to discover Sir John Franklin's fate, without

1

having obtained the slightest clue of them; although the plan of search pursued possessed some novel and very considerable advantages in its favor.

THE SECOND VOYAGE OF THE PRINCE ALBERT IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN, UNDER THE COMMAND OF WILLIAM KENNEDY, IN 1853.

THIS expedition was fitted out for the second time by the liberality of Lady Franklin. The vessel was small, but had proved herself, on a former voyage to the Polar seas, well adapted to the service.* That voyage resulted in discovering traces of the the missing ships at the entrance of Wellington Channel; and on its return Lady Franklin instantly resolved to equip the present undertaking, with hopes of more complete success; and Captain Kennedy was invited by her to take the command.

In May, 1851, the Prince Albert lay in the harbor of Aberdeen ready for sea. Along the sides from the keel to about two feet above the water-line, there had been placed a doubling of planking two and a half inches thick. The bows and stern-posts were sheathed in wrought iron, a quarter of an inch in thickness. Her hold had been strengthened with a perfect labyrinth of cross-beams, for the purpose of better enabling her to endure the immense pressure of the ice. The object of this second expedition of the Prince Albert, was to continue the search by way of Prince Regent's Inlet, an important portion of the Polar region, which neither Captain Penny nor Captain Austin had explored, nor any other Arctic voyager previous to that period.

The crew of the Prince Albert consisted of the commanding officer and seventeen men. She was furnished with two large and valuable boats, one of gutta-percha, and the other of mahogany; together

• See page 848 of this volume for the details of this voyage.

with several smaller ones. The vessel was provisioned for two years. On the 22d of May she left Aberdeen Harbor. Lady Franklin was then on board, and as she left the ship after expressing all her wishes and hopes for the success of the gallant crew, was loudly and enthusiastically cheered, as she deserved to be, as she descended the vessel's side to return to the shore. On the 23d of June they made Hoy Sound, and soon reached Cape Farewell. Captain Kennedy had been instructed to examine Prince Regent's Inlet, and the passages connecting it with the Western Sea, south-west of Cape Walker. To the latter point, strong probabilities in favor of finding traces of Sir John Franklin concentrated; inasmuch as it was supposed to be likely that he abandoned his vessels to the south-west of Cape Walker; from the fact that he himself entertained the opinion that an open passage was to be found from the westward into the south part of Regent's Inlet; and because this region of country was known to possess considerable animal life, and he would have the stores placed at Fury Beach soon within his reach. It was also thought that he would have pursued this route, inasmuch as he more probably expected assistance to be sent him by way of Lancaster Sound and Barrow Straits, into which Regent's Inlet opened, than by any other direction.

By the 1st of July Captain Kennedy was in full view of the shores of Greenland. They then presented a spectacle of more than ordinary interest and sublimity. As far as the eye could reach, they seemed a sterile and iron-bound coast, diversified here and there with huge cliffs of rock and ice, ascending sternly into the wintry heavens a thousand feet in height. Often gloomy caverns were seen in the ice which were portals for the discharge of some halffrozen stream into the ocean, filled with small icebergs which were but rolling and tossing in the flood. The vessel soon passed Capes Desolation and Com

fort; and by the 8th of July they were three-fourths of their way up Baffin's Bay, and nearly opposite to the Danish village of Upernavick. At this village they took on board six powerful Esquimaux dogs, and sealskin boats adapted to the Arctic regions.

On the 13th, the Prince Albert fell in with the American squadron which had just escaped from their extraordinary drift of eight months in the heart of the pack, through Lancaster Sound and Baffin's Bay. Finding Melville Bay completely closed by the ice, Captain Kennedy determined to attempt a passage further south. After four days of difficult and perilous navigation, they succeeded in effecting an advance of 120 miles through the packed ice, and reached West Water on the 21st of August. This was a very perilous exploit, and is one which has proved the destruction of many a bold adventurer in those seas. The small dimensions of the Prince Albert seem to have given her great advantages over her more bulky associates. On the 26th of August they were off Pond's Bay, and were here for the last time visited by a small company of Esquimaux. The extreme rarity of the atmosphere in these northern climes, was proved by the fact, that the voices of the Esquimaux could be clearly heard as they approached the vessel, at the distance of eight miles.

From Pond's Bay Captain Kennedy steered through Lancaster Sound. On the 3d of September he reached Barrow Straits. At this point he attempted to reach Cape Riley, in hope of there finding traces of Sir John Franklin; but after bearing up repeatedly for the North Land through heavy fogs, snow, and gales, was compelled to abandon the purpose. On the 4th of September Captain Kennedy arrived at the mouth of Prince Regent's Inlet, one of the special objects of his search. He there found an unbroken barrier of ice extending as far down the west side of Prince Regent's Inlet as the eye could see, piled up in dense masses on the shore. The eastern side and

middle of the inlet were comparatively open. This state of the ice forbade further progress in the intended direction. They attempted to run into Leopold Harbor, but found that also impossible. Thence they ran down to Elwin Bay to Batty Bay, and to Fury Beach, finding them all closed. They were very nearly involved in the position which had proved the destruction of the Fury-in a narrow lane between the shore and an extensive field of moving ice. Being thus excluded entirely from the western shore of the inlet, they were compelled to sail to the opposite. After making a circuit of some forty hours along a high and dead wall of ice, they reached Port Bowen on the 5th. Landing here, Captain Kennedy found a few traces of Sir E. Parry's party. These were several cairns, a fire-place of stones, pieces of canvas, nails, and broken pipes. There was here, also, a single grave, the lonely resting-place of one John Cottrell, a seaman of the Fury, who was buried in July, 1825, aged thirty-nine.

It was still regarded as of the utmost importance to reach Port Leopold, and there effect a landing. On the 9th having crossed the inlet, and brought the ship to within several miles of Cape Seppings, the southern point of Port Leopold, Captain Kennedy determined to land with the gutta-percha boat, and four seamen, for the purpose of making explorations. He found a narrow lane of water which brought them quickly to the shore. On ascending the cliffs on Cape Seppings, the appearance of the ice was such as to induce Captain Kennedy to conclude that very soon the Regent's Inlet would become clear and navigable. After an hour spent on shore, he prepared to return to the ship, but found his progress entirely cut off by the ice, which, during his delay, had entirely changed its position. Night soon came on. The ocean was covered with huge masses of ice; grinding, tossing and rearing furiously on every side. To attempt to reach the ship then, was directly to court destruction