Note 5 — PREFACE.

For a résumé of all the plans of research and the speculations of seamen and geographers, see the interesting and most useful volume of Mr. John Brown, entitled, 'The North-West Passage and Search after Sir John Franklin,' 1858. In an Appendix to this work we learn, that from the earliest Polar researches by John Cabot, at the end of the 15th century, to the voyage of M'Clintock, there have been about 130 expeditions, illustrated by 250 books and printed documents, of which 150 have been issued in England. Amidst the various recent publications, it is but rendering justice to Dr. King, the former companion of Sir George Back, to state that he suggested and always maintained the necessity of a search for the missing navigators at or near the mouth of the Back River.