kney Islands and on Midsummer Day saw the
southern extremity of Greenland, Cape Farewell, disappear to windward.
Next day they encountered the first ice, huge floating icebergs of wild,
jagged form or washed into rounded lumps by the action of the waves, and
ten days later the ships anchored near Disko Island, on the west coast
of Greenland. Here they met another vessel which had come up north with
an additional store of provisions and equipment. Its captain, the last
man who spoke with Franklin and the members of the expedition, said that
he had never seen a finer set of men so well prepared and so eager for
their work. He thought that they could go anywhere.

On July 26 the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were seen, for the last time, by an
English whaler. After that day the fate of the most unfortunate of all
Polar expeditions was involved in an obscurity much denser than that
which surrounded Gordon in Khartum after the telegraph line was cut.
What is known only came to light many years later through the relief
expeditions that were sent out, or was communicated by parties of
wandering Eskimos.

Meanwhile the voyage was continued north-westwards between two large
islands into Lancaster Sound. Soon progress was delayed by masses of
pack ice, and the engines were found to be so weak that they could be
used only in smooth, open water. In another sound, to the north, the
water was open, and here the ships managed to sail 150 miles before the
ice set fast again. Then they passed through another open sound back to
the south. Early autumn had now come, and all the hills and mountains
were covered with snow and fresh ice was forming in the sound. Here
Franklin laid the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ up for the winter, having found
fairly sheltered anchorage at a small island.

What kind of life the men led on board during the long winter we do not
know. We can only conjecture that the officers read and studied, and
that the men were employed in throwing up banks of snow reaching up
above the bulwarks to keep in the warmth; that snow huts were built on
the ice and on land for scientific observations; and that a hole was
kept open day and night that water might always be procurable in case of
fire when the pumps were frozen into pillars of ice. When the long night
was over and February came with a faint illumination to the south, and
when the sky grew brighter day by day till at last the expedition
welcomed the return of the sun, probably men