But it is altogether probable that before the final
catastrophe overtook them they had endeavoured to place somewhere a
record of their achievements and their {135} sufferings. Such a record
may still lie buried among the stones of the desolate region where they
died, and it may well be that some day the chance discovery of an
explorer will bring it to light. But it can tell us little more than
we already know by inference of the tragic but inspiring disaster that
overwhelmed the men of the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_.

{136}

CHAPTER VI

EPILOGUE. THE CONQUEST OF THE POLE

It is no part of the present narrative to follow in detail the
explorations and discoveries made in the polar seas in recent times.
After the great episode of the loss of Franklin, and the search for his
ships, public interest in the North-West Passage may be said to have
ended. The journey made by Sir Robert M'Clure and his men, after
abandoning their ship, had proved that such a water-way existed, but
the knowledge of the northern regions acquired in the attempt to find
the survivors of the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_ made it clear that the
passage was valueless, not merely for commerce, but even for the uses
of exploration. For the time being a strong reaction set in, and
popular opinion condemned any further expenditure of life and money in
the frozen regions of the Arctic. But, although the sensational aspect
of northern discovery had thus largely disappeared, a new incentive
{137} began to make itself increasingly felt; the progress of physical
science, the rapid advance in the knowledge of electricity and
magnetism, and the rise of the science of biology were profoundly
altering the whole outlook of the existing generation towards the globe
that they inhabited. The sea itself, like everything else, became an
object of scientific study. Its currents and its temperature, its
relation to the land masses which surrounded it, acquired a new
importance in the light of geological and physical research. The polar
waters offered a fruitful field for the new investigations. In place
of the adventurous explorers of Frobisher's day, searching for fabled
empires and golden cities, there appeared in the seas of the north the
inquisitive man of science, eagerly examining the phenomena of sea and
sky, to add to the stock of human knowledge. Very naturally there grew
up under such conditions an increasing desire to reach the Pole itself,
and