nk about. But, captain, I think we ought to drop anchor
here."

"Very well," answered Hatteras, and he gave his orders in consequence.
The _Forward_ was in a little bay naturally sheltered on the north,
east, and south, and at about a cable's length from the coast.

"Mr. Wall," said Hatteras, "have the long boat got ready to transport
the coal on board. I shall land in the pirogue with the doctor and
the boatswain. Will you accompany us, Mr. Shandon?"

"As you please," answered Shandon.

A few minutes later the doctor, armed as a sportsman and a _savant_,
took his place in the pirogue along with his companions; in ten minutes
they landed on a low and rocky coast.

"Lead the way, Johnson," said Hatteras. "You know it, I suppose?"

"Perfectly, sir; only there's a monument here that I did not expect
to find!"

"That!" cried the doctor; "I know what it is; let us go up to it;
the stone itself will tell us."

The four men advanced, and the doctor said, after taking off his hat--

"This, my friends, is a monument in memory of Franklin and his
companions."

Lady Franklin had, in 1855, confided a black marble tablet to Doctor
Kane, and in 1858 she gave a second to McClintock to be raised on
Beechey Island. McClintock accomplished this duty religiously, and
placed the stone near a funeral monument erected to the memory of
Bellot by Sir John Barrow.

The tablet bore the following inscription:

"TO THE MEMORY OF
FRANKLIN, CROZIER, FITZ-JAMES,
AND ALL THEIR VALIANT BRETHREN
OFFICERS AND FAITHFUL COMPANIONS
who suffered for the cause of science and for their country's glory.

"This stone is erected near the place where they passed their first
Arctic winter, and from whence they departed to conquer obstacles
or to die.

"It perpetuates the regret of their countrymen and friends who admire
them, and the anguish, conquered by Faith, of her who lost in the
chief of the expedition the most devoted and most affectionate of
husbands.

"It is thus that He led them to the supreme haven where all men take
their rest.

"1855."

This stone, on a forlorn coast of these far-off regions, appealed
mournfully to the heart; the doctor, in presence of these touching
regrets, felt his eyes fill with tears. At the very same place which
Franklin and his companions passed full of energy and hope, there
only remai