IRVING'S GRAVE.
The next day we stayed at Cape Jane Franklin to make a preliminary
search of the vicinity. Lieutenant Schwatka and I went up Collinson
Inlet, but saw no traces of white men. Henry and Frank, who had been
sent up the coast, were more fortunate. About a mile and a half above
camp they came upon the camp made by Captain Crozier, with his entire
command from the two ships, after abandoning the vessels. There were
several cooking stoves, with their accompanying copper kettles, besides
clothing, blankets, canvas, iron and brass implements, and an open
grave, wherein was found a quantity of blue cloth, part of which seemed
to have been a heavy overcoat, and a part probably wrapped around the
body. There was also a large quantity of canvas in and around the
grave, with coarse stitching through it and the cloth, as though the
body had been incased as if for burial at sea. Several gilt buttons
were found among the rotting cloth and mould in the bottom of the
grave, and a lens, apparently the object-glass of a marine telescope.
Upon one of the stones at the foot of the grave Henry found a medal,
which was thickly covered with grime, and was so much the color of
the clay stone on which it rested as to nearly escape detection. It
proved to be a silver medal, two and a half inches in diameter, with
a bass-relief portrait of George IV., surrounded by the words,
GEORGIUS IIII., D. G. BRITTANNIARUM
REX, 1820.
on the obverse, and on the reverse a laurel wreath surrounded by
SECOND MATHEMATICAL PRIZE, ROYAL
NAVAL COLLEGE,
and inclosing
AWARDED TO JOHN IRVING. MID-
SUMMER, 1830.
This at once identified the grave as that of Lieutenant John Irving,
third officer of the 'Terror'. Under the head was found a figured
silk pocket-handkerchief, neatly folded, the colors and pattern in a
remarkable state of preservation. The skull and a few other bones only
were found in and near by the grave. They were carefully gathered
together, with a few pieces of the cloth and the other articles, to be
brought away for interment where they may hereafter rest undisturbed. A
re-burial on King William Land would be only until the grave was again
found by the natives, when it would certainly be again torn open and
despoiled.
The day after this discovery was made by the men we moved camp to the
vicinity of the grave, and spent two days in searching for other
matters of interest; but there was still some snow on the ground, and
little ponds in the vicinity of the articles were partly frozen, so
that an exhaustive search was impossible. Upon our return from Cape
Felix, on the 11th of July, we found the snow entirely gone, and the
ponds near the shore nearly all dry; we therefore had little difficulty
in completing the search at that time. Among the various articles found
was a brush with the name "H. Wilks" cut in the side, a two-gallon
stone jug stamped "R. Wheatley, wine and spirit merchant, Greenhithe,
Kent," several tin cans, a pickle bottle, and a canvas pulling strap, a
sledge harness marked with a stencil plate "T 11," showing it to have
belonged to the 'Terror'. We also found a stocking, rudely made of
a piece of blanket, showing that they were in need of good stockings,
which are so essential to the comfort of the Arctic traveller. For this
purpose nothing is so good as the fur of the reindeer, but next to that
well-made woollen stockings are the best. It was heart-rending to see
this mute testimony to their destitution.
At our second visit Toolooah's wife found in a pile of stones, where
had formerly stood the cairn seen by Lieutenant Hobson, a piece of
paper which had weathered the storms of more than twenty Arctic
winters. It was with much difficulty that I could open it without
tearing it, while all stood around in anxious expectancy, confident
that it was an additional record from Captain Crozier, as it was in a
tattered and weather-beaten condition.
It, however, proved to be a copy of the Crozier record found by
Lieutenant Hobson, of McClintock's expedition, and was in the
handwriting of Sir Leopold McClintock. The document was written with a
lead pencil on note-paper, and was partially illegible from exposure.
It was literally as follows:--
MAY 7, 1859,
Lat. 69 deg. 38 min., long. 98 deg. 41 min. W.
This cairn was found yesterday by a party from Lady Frank-
lin's discovery yacht 'Fox', now wintering in Bellot Strait * *
* * * * * * a notice of which the following
is * * * removed:--
28TH MAY, 1847.
H. M. ships 'Erebus' and 'Terror' wintered in the ice in lat. 70 deg.
05 min. N., long. 98 deg. 23 min. W., having wintered at Beechy Island,
in lat. 74 deg. 43 min. 28 sec. N., long. 91 deg. 39 min. 15 sec. W.,
after having ascended Wellington Channel to lat. 77 deg., and returned
by the west side of Cornwallis Island.
Sir John Franklin commanding the expedition. All well. A
party of two officers and six men left the ships on Monday, the
24th May.
GRAHAM GORE.
CHARLES F. DES V * * *.
* * * * * into a * * * * *
printed form, which was a request in six languages, that if
picked up it might be forwarded to the British Admiralty.
Round the margin of this paper was:--
THE 25TH APRIL, 1848.
H. M. ships 'Terror' and 'Erebus', were deserted on the 22d
April * * opens to the N. N. Wd. of this, having been beset
since 12th Sept., 1846. The officers and crews, consisting of 105
souls, under the command of Captain F. M. Crozier, landed here
in lat. 69 deg. 37 min. 42 sec. N., long. 98 deg. 41 min. W.
This paper was found by Lieutenant Irving, under the cairn
supposed to have been built by Sir James Ross in 1831, four
miles to the northward, where it had been deposited by the late
Commander Gore in June, 1847. Sir James Ross' pillar has not,
however, been found * * the paper has been transferred
* * * this position which * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * was
erected.
Sir John Franklin died on the 7th of June, 1847, and the total
loss by deaths in the expedition has been * * officers
and fifteen men.
F. M. CROZIER, Captain and Senior Officer.
JAMES FITZ JAMES, Captain H. M. S. 'Erebus'.
And start to-morrow for Back's Fish River.
At this cairn, which we reached * * noon yesterday; the
last cairn appear to have made a selection of gear for travelling--
leaving all that was superfluous strewn about its vicinity. I re-
mained at this spot until nearly noon of to-day, searching for
relics, etc. No other papers * * been found.
It is my intention to follow the land to the S. W., in quest of
the wreck of a ship said by the Esquimaux to be on the beach.
Three other cairns have been found between this and Cape Felix
* * * they contain no infor * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * about it.
WILLIAM R. HOBSON,
Lieut. in charge of party.
This paper is a copy of a record left here by Captain Crozier
when retreating with the crews of the 'Erebus' and 'Terror' to the
Great Fish River--the information of its discovery by Lieut. W.
R. Hobson is intended for me. As the natives appear to have
pulled down a cairn erected here in 1831, I purpose burying a
record at ten feet true north from the centre of this cairn, and at
one foot below the surface.
F. L. McCLINTOCK, Capt. R. N.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The asterisks in the foregoing copy indicate illegible words, the paper
being much torn and soiled by exposure.
We at once set about digging for the record that Captain McClintock
proposed to bury ten feet true north from the centre of the cairn, and
a foot below the surface; but though we dug a deep trench four feet
wide from the centre of the cairn, due north, for a distance of twenty
feet, nothing was found, and the inference is that Captain McClintock
either failed to deposit the record, or that changes in the surface of
the ground have brought it to light, and it has either been stolen by
natives or washed into the sea. Some of the articles found were strewn
along the beach for a long distance on either side of the pile of
clothing and heavy implements, and were covered up with snow when we
first visited the spot. There was a large quantity of cask hoops near
by, but no wood. Even the handles of the shovels and pickaxes had been
sawed off, probably by the natives who first found the place.
This was evidently the spot where the crews landed when they abandoned
the ships, and, as Lieutenant Hobson says, it appears as if they had
selected only what was necessary for their sledge journey. It would
further appear that when the party reached the southern coast of King
William Land after a tedious and wasting journey, and found themselves
fast fading away without being able to reach the main-land, a small
party was sent back to the ships for provisions. The testimony of the
Ookjoolik, who saw the ship that sank off Grant Point, showed that
there were some stores on board even then, though only a small
quantity. It is probable that Lieutenant Irving was the officer in
charge of this return party, and that he died after reaching the camp.
It is also probable that these people, who, according to the Ookjoolik
testimony, drifted with the ship to the island of Grant Point, were
also of this party, and, with the sailors' instinct, preferred to stick
to the ship to returning to the already famishing party which they left
with scarcely any better prospects on the south coast. The appearance
of the boat place on Erebus Bay seems to indicate that it floated
ashore after the ice broke up, and had previously been abandoned by
those who were able to walk. That skeletons were found in the boat by
those who saw it before it was destroyed, and near by by our party,
would seem to indicate that the whole party were in a desperate
condition at the time, otherwise the helpless ones would not have been
abandoned.
Such a state of affairs could scarcely have occurred on their southern
trip, and is a strong indication of a return party. Lieutenant Irving's
death had not occurred when they first left the vicinity of Cape Jane
Franklin, or it would have been mentioned in Captain Crozier's record,
which was written the day before they started for Back's River. That
the boat on Erebus Bay drifted in, is evident from its being found just
at high-water mark, where the debris are still visible. At the time the
party returned under Lieutenant Irving the sleds could not have been
dragged along that line, as the snow would have been off the ground
just then, and probably was gone when the large party got so far on
their way south, as the testimony of the natives who met them in
Washington Bay shows that they moved exceedingly slow by. That there
were men on the ship that drifted down Victoria Strait is additional
reason for believing that they returned, for Captain Crozier in his
record accounts for all the survivors being with him. It is possible
that those who went out to the ship were caught there by the ice
breaking up, and could not rejoin their companions on the shore, if
indeed there were any there, which is doubtful, for we saw no skeletons
at the camping place except Lieutenant Irving's. The ice broke up in
Erebus Bay and Victoria Strait the year we were there on the 24th of
July, and it is probable that it was as late in the season when the
return party reached the camp near Lieutenant Irving's grave.
We left Irving Bay on the 30th of June, caching all our heavy stuff in
order to lighten the sled as much as possible, and reached Cape Felix
on the 3d of July, having lain over one day on the north side of Wall
Bay. We saw no traces of the Franklin expedition until we arrived at
our place of encampment, near Cape Felix. The walking, however, was
developing new tortures for us every day. We were either wading through
the hill-side torrents or lakes, which, frozen on the bottom, made the
footing exceedingly treacherous, or else with seal skin boots, rendered
soft by constant wetting, painfully plodding over sharp clay stones,
set firmly in the ground, with the edges pointing up, or lying flat and
slipping as we stepped upon them and sliding the unwary foot into a
crevice that would seemingly wrench it from the body. These are some of
the features of a walk on King William Land, and yet we moved about ten
miles a day, and made as thorough a search as was possible. All rocky
places that looked anything like opened graves or torn-down cairns--in
fact, all places where stones of any kind seemed to have been gathered
together by human hands--were examined, and by spreading out at such
intervals as the nature of the ground indicated, covered the greatest
amount of territory. Lieutenant Schwatka carried his double-barrelled
shotgun and killed a great many ducks and geese, and I, with my Sharp's
rifle, got an occasional reindeer. We were now on a meat diet
exclusively, and, as most of it was eaten almost as soon as killed, we
all suffered more or less from diarrhoea. Nor did we have any other
food until nine months later, when we reached the ship 'George and
Mary', at Marble Island, except a few pounds of corn starch, which
we had left at Cape Herschel when we started for Cape Felix on the 17th
of June. In due course of time, however, we got used to the diet, and
experienced no greater inconvenience from it than did our native
companions.
Where we encamped, which was about three miles south of Cape Felix,
was what appeared to be a torn-down cairn, and a quantity of canvas
and coarse red woollen stuff, pieces of blue cloth, broken bottles,
and other similar stuff, showing that there had been a permanent
camping place here from the vessels, while a piece of an ornamented
china tea-cup, and cans of preserved potatoes showed that it was in
charge of an officer.
Our flag waved from the highest point of King William Land throughout
the day following, which we were altogether too patriotic to forget was
Independence Day. After firing a national salute from our rifles and
shotguns our day's work was resumed. Henry and Frank were sent to
explore the two points further along the coast, while Lieutenant
Schwatka and I searched the vicinity of the camp and about a mile
inland. It was a dismal, foggy day, but we derived great comfort from
occasional glimpses of our country's flag through the lifting fog, the
only inspiriting sight in this desolate wilderness--a region that fully
illustrates "the abomination of desolation" spoken of by Jeremiah the
prophet.
The next day Lieutenant Schwatka went further inland, Frank and Henry
down the coast, and I took Toolooah, with the sled, and went around the
point toward Cape Sidney, keeping well out on the ice, to see if any
cairn might have been erected to attract attention from that direction.
On the way we stopped and took down a cairn that I had seen on the day
of our arrival. We found nothing in it, though, the earth beneath it
being soft, we dug far down in the hope of finding something to account
for its existence, as Toolooah believed, though he was not certain,
that it was a white man's cairn. I did not go as far as Cape Sidney,
which had been my intention, as a thick fog, which came up as we left
the cairn, rendered the trip useless for the purpose intended, as we
could only get occasional glimpses of the shore, and could not see
inland at all.
Lieutenant Schwatka found a well-built cairn or pillar seven feet high,
on a high hill about two miles back from the coast, and took it down
very carefully without meeting with any record or mark whatever. It was
on a very prominent hill, from which could plainly be seen the trend of
the coast on both the eastern and western shores, and would most
certainly have attracted the attention of any vessels following in the
route of the 'Erebus' and 'Terror', though hidden by intervening hills
from those walking along the coast. The next day Frank, Toolooah, and
I went with Lieutenant Schwatka to take another look in the vicinity of
the cairn, and to see if, with a spy-glass, we could discover any other
cairn looking from that hill, but without success. It seemed unfortunate
that probably the only cairn left standing on King William Land, built
by the hands of white men, should have had no record left in it, as
there it might have been well preserved. When satisfied that no document
had been left there, the inference was that it had been erected in the
pursuit of the scientific work of the expedition, or that it had been
used in alignment with some other object to watch the drift of the
ships. Before leaving we rebuilt the cairn, and deposited in it a record
of the work of the Franklin search party to date.