On 4 November, 1854, The Illustrated London News ran a full-page spread (p. 433) on the Franklin Expedition relics recovered by Hudson's Bay Company physician Dr. John Rae from Inuit hunters on the north shore of King William's Land in what is now the Canadian Arctic. Reporting from Repulse Bay on 29 July 1854, Rae recounted for the Secretary of the Admiralty the fate of the lost polar explorers who set sail on the "Erebus" and "Terror" on 19 May 1845: "Some of the [thirty] bodies had been buried (probably those of the first victims of famine), some were in a tent or tents, others under the boat which had been turned over to form a shelter, and several lay scattered about in different directions. Of those found on the island one was supposed to have been an officer, as he had a telescope strapped over his shoulders, and his double-barrelled gun lay underneath him." (p. 421)
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Content last modified 20 November 2010