he plain unvarnished tale of the gallant American--a tale of calm
heroism under no ordinary trials, which stamps the document as the
truthful narration of a gentleman and a sailor. He says, after
describing the being beset by young ice in the mouth of Wellington
Channel, and drifting northward, owing to southerly winds,--

"On the 18th September we were above Cape Bowden.... To account for
this drift, the fixed ice of Wellington Channel, which we had observed
in passing to the _westward_, must have been broken up, and driven to
the southward by the heavy gale the 12th (September).

"We continued to drift slowly to the N.N.W. until the 22d, when our
progress appeared to be arrested by a small low island, which was
discovered about seven miles distant.

* * * * *

"_Between Cornwallis Island and some distant high land visible in the
north, appeared a wide channel, leading to the westward._ A dark,
misty-looking cloud which hung over it (technically termed frost-smoke)
was indicative of much open water in that direction.

"Nor was the open water the only indication that presented itself in
confirmation of theoretical conjecture as to a milder climate in that
direction. As we entered Wellington Channel the signs of animal life
became more abundant."

So much, then, for the barrier of ice in Wellington Channel in 1850.
Let us now speak of what was there in 1851. On the 11th of August about
as much fixed floe was remaining in Wellington Channel as had been
found by us on the previous year, _a month later in the season_. On
that occasion, late as it was, we have the evidence of Lieutenant De
Haven to prove the channel opened: why should we doubt it doing so in
1851? An open sea existed on both sides of a belt of ice, rotten, full
of holes, unfit to travel over (as Penny's officers reported it), full
thirty days before the winter set in; is there an Arctic navigator
hardy enough to say he believes that that belt would have been found
there on the next spring-tide after our squadron was liberated from
Griffith's Island? Then, I repeat, if it is allowed that Wellington
Channel was open in 1819, 1820, 1850, and 1851, it is natural to infer
that it was open when Franklin wished to pass through it in 1846, and
that, under such circumstances, he would, in obedience to his orders,
have gone by it to the N.W.

The day has not long passed by when it was tried to be proved, on
_undoubted t