LOST RECORDS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 57, 30 November 1934, Page 3

LOST RECORDS

Franklin Expedition Disaster QUEST BY MAN AND DOG All Canada is amazed at the announcement made by a young Englishman. Mr. E. K. Pease, that be intends to seek, with no other company than his terrier. Jill, the base where Sir John Franklin deposited diaries of his ill-fated expedition 87 years ago. Mr. Pease is now on his way north, his objective a small island in the vicinity of the Magnetic Pole. From Chesterfield lie intends to travel by dog team to the southern tip of Boothia Peninsula, from which, he says, his island is 50 miles distant. "Those 50 miles may take four weeks of slow, painful travel, especially if the summer blizzard causes a hoid-up,” Mr. Pease observed. "Once on Hie island, exploration work will start immediately. Its area is about 20 miles by 15 miles. From a base in the centre I shall cover every foot of its surface, setting out for the shore line, and reluming with a change of direction each day. It is my belief that, after Franklin’s ships broke up, lie divided bis party into three sections.

“At Franklin’s base there must be a full explanation, written in logbooks or diaries. I am prepared to remain, if necessary, three years, until I find the records. How did those 125 men die? We have learned from Eskimos that four of the party reached Chesterfield Inlet, but died of food poisoning before they could speak. The answer to the riddle lies in the hidden log-books, and I am confident 1 can find them.” An Explorer of Experience. Mr. Pease is not new to the Arctic. He was a member of the Discovery

expedition, six years ago. Tie is acquainted with tlie facts of the successive searches for Franklin. lie is also aware, from the record of the latest expedition that the Government of Canada believes that “an extensive and systematic investigation by a. party of many persons would have to be most fortun’ite to locate the records of the Franklin expedition.” To the authentic record of the possible final resting place of approximately fifty of the personnel of Sir John' Franklin’s expedition a new •locument was recently added with the issue of a Blue Book by the Government of Canada, containing the chronicle of explorations made in 1923-6, 1928-9, and 1930 by Major L. T. Burwash, F.K.G.S., Investigator, Northwest Territories. Major Burwasli’s report, accompanied by relics of the expedition found by him in 1,930. tendered on the eve of his retirement, on December 31, 1931, amends, in certain material instances, the conclusions arrived at by the preceding investigation groups: McClintock. 185 S-9: Captain Hall, 1864-9: Lieutenant Schwatka. 1878-9: Knud Rasmussen. 1923; and Veter Norberg, 1926. Major Burwash harmonises his own theory with that of McClintock and Schwatka to arrive ■it the conclusion that the untraced portion of Franklin's personnel, and the complete records of’the expedition will be found with the ship’s logs when they are finally located. Major Burwasli’s Record. “Burwash of the Arctic’ has been earning and going in the Far North for 39 years. On the Western Arctic he is the accepted authority in Canada. , Since his retirement he has been operating claims at Great Bear Lake Oil his last tour of exploration he made a notable contribution to topo graphical and scientific data by photographing 2000 miles of coastline from :hc air, and visiting the Magnetic Pole on Boothia Peninsula. A postscript added in ISIS Io the record that was deposited on shore at

that point in 1847 states that all the remaining personnel from' both ships were proceeding south along the west coast of King William Island, with the mouth of Back River, and eventually Great Slave Lake, as their objectives. From native reports gathered some years later, the party was seen following their proposed route at a point far south of Victory Point.

Yt many places along the coastline from Franklin Point, fifteen miles south of Adelaide Peninsula, to Starvation Cove, at the north-east angle of Adelaide Peninsula, graves have been found, and not a few skeletons of white men. whose comrades were evidently in too serious a condition to bury them.