had passed away; after many a good ship had been crushed in the ice or foundered at sea; after unheard-of hardships and the sacrifice of brave lives; after all the attempts of heroic adventurers, ambitious discoverers, and selfish and greedy men, still, as late as 1845, the North-West Passage was a mystery to be solved. Still the problem was propounded: Could a ship sail from Europe, along the coast of North America, to reach the Indies or China; or did the lands stretch northwards to the Pole, as some supposed; or did the ice-fields of the frozen sea present an impassable barrier, as others affirmed?

Early in 1845, two ships, the Erebus and Terror, under the respective commands of Sir John Franklin and Captain Crozier, set sail under favourable circumstances. The ships were carefully equipped for the voyage, the crews, numbering 137 men, were carefully selected, and a three years' provision store laid in. Sir John Franklin, from his previous experience and well-known ability, was well fitted to take the chief command.

Gladly sailed the gallant ships from the Thames on that spring morning; but the rest of the story will never be told on earth, for but little of those two vessels and their noble crews was ever heard again. The only positive intelligence we have is, that about the 25th of July they were seen by some whalers, struggling with the ice, at the mouth of Lancaster Sound; after which no tidings from the living were heard. Darkness, like a funeral pall, seems to have settled upon them. Although the searches after these ships brought much melancholy information to light, the exact fate of the crews and their commander will probably never be known until that day when the sea shall give up

its dead, and even the icy fingers of the frozen monarch unlock themselves and yield the secrets so long contained within their grasp.

When three years had passed without receiving intelligence from the exploring parties, considerable alarm was felt; the discovery of the North-West Passage was forgotten, and the anxiety was for the safety of Sir John Franklin and his men. And yet, strange to say (if we may anticipate a little), the very search after them resulted in finding the longsought-for North-West Passage, which had baffled at least 125 well-directed attempts, extending over a period of 300 years.

The British Government offered a reward of £20,000 to any one (no nation excluded) who should find and relieve the lost explorers. Lady Franklin, the devoted wife, from her own private means, sent out again and again parties in search of her husband. In the year 1850 at least a dozen ships must have been out on this exciting mission; and in order to ensure success, if possible, the plans of operation were laid in several directions. Dr. Rae made for Banks Island, overland; Captains Collinson and M'Clure took through Behring Strait, and were to sail eastward; several went direct to Lancaster Sound to follow in Franklin's track; whilst others directed their courses to such points as favoured their speculations on the matter. To follow the accounts of all these, or even of many of them, would more than fill this book; for, up to 1853, at least thirty vessels were engaged in the search, at a cost of something like a million pounds paid out of the national exchequer. We can, therefore, only summarize the results, and pick out one or two of the expeditions that have the greatest interest attached to them.

The first trace of the missing vessels was found by Captain Penny of the Lady Franklin, on Beechey Island. He found a cairn filled with meat tins, and three graves, upon which were inscribed the names of the ships Erebus and Terror. By pre-arrangement many of the searching vessels from the west met at Beechey Island, and during the winter (while the ships were laid up) numerous sledging parties were organised and sent in all directions. The conduct of the crew of one vessel in particular (the Advance, an American brig, under Lieutenant De Haven) was most daring and praiseworthy; so enthusiastic was the surgeon, Dr. Kane (of whom you will read more in the next lesson), that they styled him the mad Yankee.' He firmly believed that Franklin had pushed through Wellington Channel into the Polar Sea; others thought he had sailed west, and was ice-bound in Melville Island. No traces further, however, of the lost navigators could be found, and the ships of this detachment returned dispiritedly home.

Meanwhile Collinson and M'Clure had been engaged more successfully (in one respect) in the search from the eastward; that is, they had entered the Arctic Ocean through Behring Strait. To make a long story short, M'Clure in his ship the Investigator had solved the great geographical problem of the North-West Passage. The account of this voyage, as published by Mr. Murray, and written by Sherard Osborne, is of unusual interest, and will well repay a careful perusal. In a few sentences we will sum up the result. After the passage of Behring Strait, the ice presented greater difficulties than had been encountered on the opposite coast of America. Pressing on eastward, M'Clure discovered Banks Land, and a water passage between this and

Prince Albert Land. He spent the winter near the north opening of this strait, which he named Prince of Wales Strait, and then discovered the grand secret that the frozen sea beyond was but the channel that divided Banks Land from Melville Island, this last-named island having been already reached by Parry and M'Clintock. This, he surmised, would be a water-course for ships when the ice broke up. Such was actually found to be the case, and the key to the problem which had puzzled the maritime world for centuries was found. We have not space to follow the account, which goes on to describe the misery and hardships which the brave crew and braver commander of the Investigator endured for two more seasons, until the providential (almost miraculous) relief of Lieutenant Pim, from the ship Resolute, lying off Melville Island, secured their safe return to England. What concerns us just now is, that no authentic record of the fate of Franklin and his crew could be found.

And now that the north-west mystery has been cleared, comes the question, Cui bono? What advantage to commerce or wealth has it brought? Simply none at all. It would take longer to make the journey to India by it, under the most favourable circumstances, than to circumnavigate the whole globe. Science has undoubtedly reaped many benefits from it; but has that been worth the vast expenditure of time, money, and men? Upon such a question as this there is much difference of opinion, of course; but it is well to consider the price that has been paid for some of the knowledge we possess.

Poor Lady Franklin all this time was in great suspense. She still hoped against hope; but the

crushing news came that the British Government, seeing the poor results obtained from so large an expenditure of money and men, had resolved to risk no more lives in what was considered a fruitless search. But hope springs eternal in the human breast,' and Lady Franklin, with an unquenchable love and a dauntless zeal, resolved to spend the remainder of her private fortune in one more attempt. She purchased a strongly built little screw ship called the Fox, equipped it for the dangerous voyage, and give it in charge of Captain M'Clintock.

We must now go back three or four years to notice an expedition sent out by our American friends. Although this division of our subject has only to do with British expeditions, our transatlantic cousins are so British in their language and race, that we have included one sent out from the United States of America. But this we must reserve for our next lesson.