'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎34] (145/258)

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DR. G. BUIST
who had some time before this returned to England, resolved to be made to
discover the Northwest Passage, or to penetrate to the Great Polar Basin ;
and the Erebus and Terror ,—the former under the command of the gallant
officer just named, the latter in charge of Captain Crozier, who had shortly
before returned from the Antarctic, where he commanded the same vessel
under Captain Ross—were accordingly prepared for dispatch. They sailed
in May, and were attended as far as Barra and Rona in the Hebrides by
the steamer Rattler : the transport Baretto Junior accompanied them to the
ice with a supply of spare stores, which were then put on board of them.
They were provided with steam engines of small power and screw propellers,
which gave them a speed of three miles an hour. In August they were to the
northwest of Greenland, where it is believed they passed the winter. The
remains of their camp were discovered at Fort Rielly in 1850 (p. 37.)
These were the last accounts received from the expedition, and the long
continued silence began towards the close of the year 1847 to excite appre
hensions regarding them. The following spring Sir John Richardson, the
medical attendant, naturalist, companion and coadjutor, of Franklin in his
overland expeditions of 1819 and 1825, resolved to proceed in quest of him.
He left Liverpool in March 1848, accompanied by Dr. Rae—an able and ex
perienced officer of the Hudson’s Bay Company. They proceeded by New
York, Lake Superior, and so on by Slave Lake and Great Bear Lake, to
McKenzie River, which they descended to the sea ; the shores of which they
reached on the 3rd August. On the 10th they rounded Cape Bathursb
70° 37’ N. The winter set in prematurely, and on the 3rd September
they found themselves compelled to return to Fort Confidence. The Es
quimaux whom they met in with stated that they had neither seen nor
heard anything of the ships or of white men in those seas, so that the journey
was fruitless as to its principal object. They resumed their labours in May
and June the following year, but equally without results. Sir John Richard
son returned to England in the end of the year—Dr. Rae, having been
appointed to the charge of the McKenzie River District by the Hudson’s
Bay Company, remained behind, bent on continuing his inquiries to the last.
He pursued his investigations as late in the season as the weather permitted,
but could learn nothing of the missing voyagers. While Dr. Rae was examin
ing the coast from the McKenzie River, westward, a very adventurous jour
ney of a similar description was being performed by Captain Pullen to the
east as far as Herschell Island, 104 ° W., the vast extent of coast examined
on these four several occasions furnishing no trace or whisper of Franklin.
Captain Pullen renewed his searches in 1850, but found the ice so hunmockey
that he was unable to reach Fort Bathurst, and wrote in October that his la-