RELICS OF THE DEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 220, 17 September 1930, Page 7

RELICS OF THE DEAD.

Canadian Explorer Finds Camp * Of Sir John Franklin. DISAPPEARED 83 YEARS AGO. (Britleh Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 10. , Major Burwash, Canadian explorer, who, with his pilot, Mr. W. E. Gilbert, in the course of an aerial survey, of the North Magnetic Pole and the hitherto unexplored Arctic coastline, found traces of Sir John Franklin's expedition, which disappeared 83 years ago, has sent back several relics. He has retained the documents found in order to prepare a report about them for the Canadian Government.

It is hoped that these documents may contain- some of Franklin's records of his search for the North-West Passage. Franklin's two vessels, Erebus and Terror, were abandoned in 1840 and no member of his party ever returned, all, it is assumed, having died from starvation or disease.

Sir John Franklin was born in 1786, and early resolved to "go to sea. He attained the rank of commander at the age of 35, and of captain at 36. For his two overland expeditions from Hudson .Bay to the Arctic Sea in 1819 and 1826, he received a knighthood and other honours. For seven years (1836-1843), he did excellent work as lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), fostering the social and political advancement of the colony. In pursuance of his life-long desire of discovering the firmly-belieyed-in North-west Passage to India and the East, Franklin was laet seen on July 26, 1845, by a whaler in Baffin Bay, proceeding surely on his way. Within the next twelve years .39 expeditions were sent out in search of Franklin's party, but without success, until in 1857 McClintoclc discovered trfioes and records o'f the expedition sufficient to show'that the explorers had, before their deaths, actually found the North-we«t Paesapre. although the fact that they had been unable to traverse it proved it worthless to commerce.