Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 7.djvu/293

 that time peculiarly desirable in connexion with the magnetical inquiries then in progress.

The history and fate of the Expedition, which left our shores in May 1845, are still veiled in obscurity; this, however, we know, that every thing was done to render it efficient,— that the officers under Sir John Franklin were men of experience and zeal, and that the last accounts which were received from them represent their commander as animated by all the ardour and spirit which characterized his early Arctic exertions.

It would have been unjust to have expected less from such a man, and as his instructions contained the usual discretionary latitude given in these documents, there is too much reason to fear that in his great anxiety and daring attempts to solve the problem of the North-west Passage, his ships became inextricably entangled in the thick-ribbed ice of the Arctic regions, and his attempts to reach the North American continent were rendered abortive.

But although the few facts that have reached us point to the dreary shores of the Arctic regions as the final resting-place of our lamented Fellow and his brave companions, his memory will ever be enshrined on British land within British hearts, as an explorer as eminent in discovery, as he was patient under trial and privation, and kind and good in all the relations of life.  , the companion of Sir John Franklin on his last and fatal voyage, and second in the command of the expedition, was eminently qualified for the post by long experience in the navigation of the icy seas.

He accompanied Sir W. E. Parry on his last three voyages to the Arctic Regions, and was made Commander for his services as First Lieutenant of H.M.S. 'Cove,' under Captain James Clark Ross, and despatched in the depth of winter to afford assistance to the missing whalers supposed to have been frozen in the pack of Davis Strait.

Again, as second in command to Captain J. C. Ross, he obtained post rank for the first season's successful operations of the expedition sent, at the recommendation of the Royal Society and British Association, for purposes of scientific research and geographical discovery to the Antarctic Ocean.

Captain Crozier was distinguished for devotion to his duties as an 