-boat," said Petersen. He was
right. From the men they learned the news of the Crimean War, and the
discovery of the remains of Franklin's party a thousand miles south of
the places they had explored.

Next day they gained Upernavik in safety, after eighty-four days'
travelling; in the open air all the time. In Upernavik they remained
until the 6th of September, and then embarked for the Shetland Isles.
On the way they fell in with some American vessels which had been
dispatched to search for them, and they were soon welcomed in New York.

From a scientific point of view Doctor Kane's expedition had most
important results in the discovery of a large channel to the north-west,
and in many other discoveries and surveys of the American and Greenland
coasts.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.

THE "FOX" EXPEDITION.

Expeditions in search of Franklin--The _Fox_ commissioned by Sir L.
McClintock--The search by Hobson--Relics found--The fate of Sir John
Franklin's expedition--The North-West Passage discovered.

While Doctor Kane was away in 1853 the North-West Passage had been
demonstrated by Captains McClure and Collinson, who it may be remembered
went on in 1850 in the _Investigator_ and _Resolute_ to carry out the
"Behring Strait Expedition." In 1853 Lady Franklin sent out the
_Rattlesnake_ and _Isabel_ to find McClure. Captain Inglefield also
went out, as already stated, to aid Sir E. Belcher in Barrow Strait. It
was on this voyage that Lieutenant Bellot was lost (August, 1853).
Belcher found no traces of Franklin, but they found McClure and his
ships' company, who had been in the ice for three years. They had gone
in by Behring's Strait and returned by Baffin's Bay, which established
the fact of the so long doubted passage parallel with the American coast
between these pieces of water. In 1854 the ships _Assistance_,
_Resolute_, _Pioneer_, _Intrepid_, and the _Investigator_ were all
abandoned. The crews were taken on board the _Talbot_, _Phoenix_, and
_North Star_, and reached England in 1854 without having found any true
trace of Franklin, though it had been ascertained that he wintered upon
Beachey Island in 1845-6.

The crews of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were given up. War was
threatening in Europe, and the relics of Franklin were obscured in the
smoke of the Crimean battles. Nevertheless, the idea that Sir John
Franklin and his devoted followers were in the Arctic regions, and still
alive, was entertained by