Such a state of affairs could scarcely have occurred on their southern
trip, and is a strong indication of a return party. Lieutenant Irving's
death had not occurred when they first left the vicinity of Cape Jane
Franklin, or it would have been mentioned in Captain Crozier's record,
which was written the day before they started for Back's River. That
the boat on Erebus Bay drifted in, is evident from its being found just
at high-water mark, where the debris are still visible. At the time the
party returned under Lieutenant Irving the sleds could not have been
dragged along that line, as the snow would have been off the ground
just then, and probably was gone when the large party got so far on
their way south, as the testimony of the natives who met them in
Washington Bay shows that they moved exceedingly slow by. That there
were men on the ship that drifted down Victoria Strait is additional
reason for believing that they returned, for Captain Crozier in his
record accounts for all the survivors being with him. It is possible
that those who went out to the ship were caught there by the ice
breaking up, and could not rejoin their companions on the shore, if
indeed there were any there, which is doubtful, for we saw no skeletons
at the camping place except Lieutenant Irving's. The ice broke up in
Erebus Bay and Victoria Strait the year we were there on the 24th of
July, and it is probable that it was as late in the season when the
return party reached the camp near Lieutenant Irving's grave.
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