t to west. The currents of the sea and the drift-wood
that they carried proved it beyond a doubt. Exploration had almost
proved it also. Ships and boats had made their way from Bering Strait
to the Coppermine. North of this they had gone from Baffin Bay through
Lancaster Sound and on westward to a great sea called Melville Sound, a
body of water larger than the Irish Sea. The two lines east and west
overlapped widely. All that was needed now was to find a channel north
and south to connect the two. This done, the North-West Passage, the
will-o'-the-wisp of three hundred and fifty years, had been found.

A glance at the map will make clear the instructions given to Sir John
Franklin. He was to go into the Arctic by way of Baffin Bay, and to
proceed westward along the parallel of 74 deg. 15' north latitude, which
would take him through the already familiar waters of Lancaster Sound
and Barrow Strait, leading into Melville Sound. This line he was to
follow as far as Cape Walker in longitude 98 deg., from which point it was
known that waters were to be found leading southward. Beyond this
position Franklin was left to his own {116} discretion, his
instructions being merely to penetrate to the southward and westward in
a course as direct to Bering Strait as the position of the land and the
condition of the ice should allow.

The _Erebus_ and the _Terror_ sailed from England on June 19, 1845.
The officers and sailors who manned their decks were the very pick of
the Royal Navy and the merchant service, men inured to the perils of
the northern ocean, and trained in the fine discipline of the service.
Captain Crozier of the _Terror_ was second in command. He had been
with Ross in the Antarctic. Commander Fitzjames, Lieutenants
Fairholme, Gore and others were tried and trained men. The ships were
so heavily laden with coal and supplies that they lay deep in the
water. Every inch of stowage had been used, and even the decks were
filled up with casks. A transport sailed with them across the Atlantic
carrying further supplies. Thus laden they made their way to the Whale
Fish Islands, near Disco, on the west coast of Greenland. Here the
transport unloaded its stores and set sail for England. It carried
with it five men of Franklin's company, leaving one hundred and
twenty-nine in the ill-fated expedition.

{117}

The ships put out from the coast of Greenland on, or about, July 12,
1845, to make their way across