ut only the corpses on the ice. A
great number of relics--telescopes, guns, compasses, spoons, forks, and
so on--were gathered by the natives, and of these Dr Rae {129}
forwarded a large quantity to England. They left no doubt as to the
identity of the unfortunate victims. There was a small silver plate
engraved 'Sir John Franklin, K.C.B.', and a spoon with a crest and the
initials F.R.M.C. (those of Captain Crozier), and a great number of
articles easily recognized as coming from the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_.

One may well imagine the intense interest which Dr Rae's discoveries
aroused in England. Rae had been unable, it is true, to make his way
to the actual scene of the disaster as described by the Eskimos, but it
was now felt that at last certain tidings had been received of the
death of Franklin and his men. Dr Rae and his party received the ten
thousand pounds which the government had offered to whosoever should
bring correct news of the fate of the expedition.

In all except a few hearts hope was now abandoned. It was felt that
all were dead. Anxious though the government was to obtain further
details of the tragedy, it was not thought proper at such a national
crisis as the Crimean War to dispatch more ships to the Arctic.
Something, however, was done. A chief factor of the Hudson's Bay
Company, named Anderson, was sent overland in 1855 to explore {130} the
mouth of the Back river. He found in and around Montreal Island, at
the mouth of the river, numerous relics of the disaster. A large
quantity of chips and shavings seemed to indicate the place where the
savages had broken up the boat. But no documents or papers were found
nor any bodies of the dead. Anderson had no interpreter, and could
only communicate by signs with the savages whom he found alone on the
island. But he gathered from them that the white men had all died for
want of food.

For two years nothing more was done. Then, as the war cloud passed
away, the unsolved mystery began again to demand solution. Some faint
hope too struggled to life. It was argued that perhaps some of the
white men were still alive. The imagination conjured up a ghastly
picture of a few survivors, still alive when, with the coming of the
wild fowl, life and warmth returned. With what horror must they have
turned their backs upon the hideous scene of their sufferings, leaving
the dead as they lay, and preferring to leave unwritten the chronicle
of an exp