Sir John
Ross, in his search of the North-West Passage in 1829, and following
years, early stopped the issue of spirits to his men, and with a most
beneficial result. Therefore, the entire consumption of the stock of
spirits on board Sir John Franklin's ships must not be regarded as a
deficiency of any serious moment.
We shall then presume, that for upwards of two years the adventurers
have been wholly dependent on wild animals, birds, and fish for their
support. Here it becomes an essential element of consideration to form
some approximate idea of the particular locality in which the missing
expedition is probably frozen. Captain Penny tracked it up Wellington
Strait and thence into Victoria Channel--a newly-discovered lake or
sea of unknown extent, which reaches, for anything that can be
demonstrated to the contrary, to the pole. It has long been noticed,
that the mere latitude in the arctic regions is far from being a
certain indication of the degree of cold which might naturally be
expected from a nearer approach to the pole.
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