THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION.

Otago Witness, Issue 941, 11 December 1869, Page 9

THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION.

The New York papers of September 15 contain the following i— San Francisoo, September 13.— A party, vouched for v refi. able, writes to the Bulletin from San Buenaventura, that a document had boen found on the beach at that place on August 30, very badly mutilated. On the document was found a request for the finder to forward it to the Secretary of the Admiralty at London, or the British Consul at the nearest port, the request being printed in six commercial languages on the margin. Evo»y vacant portion was filled with writing relating to Sir John Franklin and his party. The document was evidently cast in the water in latitude 69 deg. 37 mm. 42 sea, and longitude 98 deg. 4 mm. 5 sec. It gives an account ci the desertion of the ships Erebus and Terror. Tae party numered 105 at the time of the desertion, under the command of F. R. M. Crosier. Thoy had succeeded in reaching the above latitude and longitude, where they had found roKos of the lato Sir John Ross. Tho document states that the party had wintered at Beoohy I Island in 1846 and 1847, and that Sir John Franklin had died on June 11, 1847. Ib contains many interesting incidents con. ncotcd with the expedition. Another account, published recently, fixos tho lati> tude at 6*9^, but this is evidently an error. It is not stated in what man* nor the document w/>a washed upon the shorn, whether in a bottlo or hermetically sealed oin, but it will probably provo to be an exact duplicate of the papers found by Dm party of Captain M'Clintoox ou tho western extremity of King William's Land in May, > 1859. Tho extraordinary part of the nutter is thftfc tho doontnont was touml about by the waves for twontyono yo»r», th*t it most ot nooessity have boon carried along that mysterious North-we*,! Passago about whloh so rauoh has been writton. nm> to establish whioh so. many VAlno>blo Itves have bten thrown away, and that it was oml up on i tho strand of the Pacirlo Oooan, at a dit> ! Unoe of more than eight thousand tnilei from tho spot where it was committed to the Ma The inoidont of the bottle in rifommc qulßtl, whioh enolosod tho soorot of Owyn»lain«'« noble birth, and wa« hnffotteda^oak for mor« than twenty years by the unqnieb waters of the Channel, fos«« its improbubility by the light of this rooonfe disoovery. Dr HalU the Arctic explorer, arrived at New Bodford, on September 20, from Kepula* Bay after an ab«eno« of nve yoars. Ho discorsred the skoletons ofStoveml of Bit John Fraok* lin's party at King Wiiliim's Land, and h» brings aunwroas rtltos o( the Fruiklitt #V