ce as Arctic heroes of the first water received a sad
downfall when we were first asked by a kind friend, what the deuce we
came home for? We had a good many _becauses_ ready, but he overturned
them altogether; so we had resort to the usual resource of men in such
a position: we said, "There was a barrier of ice across Wellington
Channel in 1850." Our friend said, "I deny it was a permanent one, for
the Americans drifted through it!" "Indeed!" we exclaimed, "at any rate
there was one there in 1851." "Yes, granted, on the 12th of August; but
you know there was a month of open season left: and, like an honest
man, say how long it would take for that barrier, fifteen or twenty
miles wide, to disperse." "As many hours!" was our reply: "and we have
forsworn in future barriers of ice as well as barriers of land."

What the deuce we came home for? and why we deserted Franklin? were
pleasant questions; and at first we felt inclined to be angry. Those,
however, who asked them had cause and reason for doing so. We were in
the dark as to much that had been arrived at in England. We knew but of
our own limited personal experience, and had had neither time nor
opportunity to compare notes with others. The public at home sat down
with the accumulated evidence of two British expeditions and an
American one. They passed a verdict that Franklin had gone up
Wellington Channel, and that, having gone up there, in obedience to his
country's orders, it was the duty of that country to send after him,
save him, or solve his fate. I for one knew I had done my duty in the
sphere allotted to me, although feeling at first that the public
verdict reflected somewhat upon me as well as others. But "Vox populi,
vox Dei." I bowed tacitly to its decision, until attempts were made to
damp the hopes of the more sanguine,--in fact, to save our credit at
the expense of Franklin's existence. It was time then to reconsider in
all its points the subject of farther search, to compare my own recent
impression of things with facts that were now before the world, and
then to judge for myself whether any one had a right to declaim against
farther efforts to save Franklin's expedition.

Need I say I found none. On comparing the information, the phenomena
observed in our own squadron with those of Captain Penny's, and the
Americans under Lieutenant De Haven, I saw more and more clearly that a
northern sea, an open water, must have been close to us in 1850 and
1851,