He says that of the
last survivors of Franklin's party the majority were officers, arguing
that the watches and silver relics found with their skeletons go far to
prove their rank. These statements have been doubted. The accuracy of
the thermometers being questioned, they were tested and found to be
curiously exact. The facilities for procuring game were assisted by the
use of improved weapons; and besides, as Sir Leopold McClintock has
justly shown, it was merely a tradition, not an ascertained fact, that
these sub-arctic regions were destitute of animal life. The method by
which the official position of the bodies was determined is
indisputably open to objection. "Watches and silver relics," writes
Vice-admiral Sir George Richards, "do not necessarily indicate a
corresponding number of officers. Such light valuable articles would
naturally be taken by the survivors."
But the point which has provoked more criticism than all the rest is
the native evidence that the distressed crews were in the last resort
reduced to cannibalism. This is set down just as it was heard, being
worth neither more nor less than any testimony on an event which
happened so many years ago. Between the risk of giving pain to living
relatives, and the reproach of having suppressed essential parts of the
story, no traveller should hesitate for an instant.
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