hor, and this
conjecture was much borne out by the relative positions of the other
traces found; and besides this, a small cairn on the crest of Beechey
Island appears to have been intended as a meridian mark, and, if so,
Franklin's squadron undoubtedly lay where I would place it, far and
effectually removed from all risk of being swept out of the bay, which,
by the bye, from the fact of the enclosed area being many times broader
than the entrance of "Erebus and Terror Bay," was about as probable as
any stout gentleman being blown out of a house through the keyhole. In
the one case the stout individual would have to be cut up small, in the
other case the ice would have to be well broken up; and if so, it was
not likely Franklin would allow himself to be taken out of harbour,
_nolens volens_, whilst he had anchors to hook the ground with, and
ice-saws, with which his crews could have cut through _a mile of ice
three feet thick in twenty-four hours_.

[Headnote: _GRAVES OF SEAMEN._]

The graves next attracted our attention; they, like all that English
seamen construct, were scrupulously neat. Go where you will over the
globe's surface, afar in the East, or afar in the West, down amongst
the coral-girded isles of the South Sea, or here where the grim North
frowns on the sailor's grave, you will always find it alike; it is the
monument raised by rough hands, but affectionate hearts, over the last
home of their messmate; it breathes of the quiet church-yard in some of
England's many nooks, where each had formed his idea of what was due to
departed worth; and the ornaments that Nature decks herself with, even
in the desolation of the Frozen Zone, were carefully culled to mark the
dead seamen's home. The good taste of the officers had prevented the
general simplicity of an oaken head and foot-board to each of the three
graves being marred by any long and childish epitaphs, or the doggerel
of a lower-deck poet, and the three inscriptions were as follows:--

"Sacred to the memory of J. Torrington, who departed this life,
January 1st, 1846, on board of H.M.S. 'Terror,' aged 20 years."

"Sacred to the memory of Wm. Braine, R.M., of H.M.S. 'Erebus;' died
April 3d, 1846, aged 32 years.

"'Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.'--Josh. xxiv. 15."

"Sacred to the memory of J. Hartwell, A.B., of H.M.S. 'Erebus;'
died January 4th, 1846, aged 25 years.

"'Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your