June, was come, and the nights were cold. It was
decided that Burke and King should go out and look for natives. Wills
was unable to go with them, and was given a small supply of seeds and
water.

After two days slow travelling Burke could go no farther. King shot a
crow, which they ate, but Burke's strength was exhausted. One evening he
said to his servant, "I hope that you will remain with me until I am
really dead. Then leave me without burying me." Next morning he was
dead.

Then King hurried back to Wills and found him dead also. The last words
he had entered, four days before, in his journal were: "Can live four or
five days longer at most, if it keeps warm. Pulse 48, very weak."

When the travellers were not heard of, the worst fears were entertained,
and relief expeditions were despatched from Melbourne, Adelaide, and
Brisbane, and in Sydney and other towns Burke's fate was discussed with
anxiety. At length they found King, who had gained the confidence of the
natives and had sojourned with them for two months, living as they did.
He was unrecognisable and half out of his mind, but he recovered under
the careful treatment he received. The two dead men were buried, Burke
wrapped in the Union Jack. Later on his remains were carried to
Melbourne, where a fine monument marks his grave. This is almost all
that remains of an expedition which started out with such fair
prospects, but which came to grief at the foot of Mount Hopeless.

VI

THE NORTH POLAR REGIONS

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN AND THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE

We have now surveyed the earth's mainland, islands, and seas. We have
seen how man by his endurance and thirst for knowledge has penetrated
everywhere, how he has wandered over the hottest deserts and the coldest
mountains. The nearer we come to our own times, the more eager have
explorers become, and we no longer suffer blank patches to exist on our
maps. The most obstinate resistance to the advance of man has been
presented by the Poles and their surroundings, where the margin of the
eternal ice seems to call out a peremptory "Thus far shalt thou come,
but no farther." But even the boundless ice-packs could not deter the
bold and resolute seafarers. One vessel after another was lost, crew and
all, but the icy sea was constantly ploughed by fresh keels. The North
Pole naturally exercised the greater attraction, for it lies nearer to
Europe, amidst the Arctic Ocean, which is enclosed between the coa