50 MILES LONG,
180 FEET ABOVE SEA-LEVEL, AND 1000 FEET THICK. From Ross's _Voyage
in Antarctic Regions_.]

April found them back again in Van Diemen's land, and though Ross sailed
again the following autumn into southern latitudes, he only reached
a point some few miles farther than before--being again stopped by
a great wall barrier of thick ice. After this he took his ship home
by way of Cape Horn, and "the shores of Old England came into view
on the 2nd of September 1843." After an absence of four years Ross
was welcomed home, and honours were showered on him, including the
award of the Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of Paris.

"Till then they had deemed that the Austral earth,
With a long, unbroken shore,
Ran on to the Pole Antarctic,
For such was the old sea lore."

CHAPTER LXI

FRANKLIN DISCOVERS THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE

The whole coast-line of North America had now been charted, but the
famous North-West Passage, for which so many lives had been laid down,
had yet to be found. Sir John Barrow, "the father of modern Arctic
discovery," Secretary to the Admiralty, now decided to dispatch
another expedition to forge this last link and to connect, if possible,
the chain of all former discoveries.

Many were the volunteers who came forward to serve in the new Arctic
expedition. But Sir John Franklin claimed the command as his special
right.

"No service," he declared, "is nearer to my heart."

He was reminded that rumour put his age at sixty, and that after a
long life of hard work he had earned some rest.

"No, no!" cried the explorer; "I am only fifty-nine!"

This decided the point, and Franklin was appointed to the _Erebus_
and _Terror_, recently returned from the Antarctic expedition of Sir
James Ross. The ships were provisioned for three years, and with a
crew of one hundred and twenty-nine men and several officers, Sir John
Franklin left England for the last time on 19th May 1845. He was never
seen again!

All were in the highest spirits, determined to solve the mystery of
the North-West Passage once and for all! So certain were they of success
that one of the officers wrote to a friend: "Write to Panama and the
Sandwich Islands every six months."

On 4th July the ships anchored near the island of Disco on the west
coast of Greenland. After which all is silence. The rest of the story,
"one of the saddest ever told in connection with Arctic exploration,"
is dov