In 1850 M'Clintock was a officer on the Assistance during a search, and Captain Ommanney.went ashore to examine a cairn that had been noticed on Beechey Island. It was then that the first traces of the lost expedition were found.
When, in April, 1857, the Government decided to abandon the search, Lady Franklin purchased the small three-masted yacht Fox, of 177 tons, and M'Clintock was chosen as commander. The Fox had a crew of twenty-five (seventeen of them experienced Arctic men), and she sailed that July.
The ice prevented the Fox making Barrow Strait that year. She became ice-bound in Baffin's Bay, narrowly escaping disaster herself on several occasions. Sir Leopold's journal of their experiences, written as a duty, and a mere record of the day's work to tier submit to those at home who had employed them, is live English, every word of it. Talk of style and art! It is surprising how near even a plain man can get to making literature when he has something to say. Here, for instance This evening we gathered round the remains of poor Scott, reposing under the Union Jack, and read the burial service by the light of lanterns, The greater part of the burial service was read on board; the body was then placed ona sledge, and drawn by his messmates to a short distance from the ship, where a hole had been cut in the ice; it was then committed to the deep.
What a scene it was. The lonely Fox, almost buried in snow, completely isolated from the habitable world, her colours half-mast high and her bell mournfully tolling; our little process sion slowly marching over the rough risioo: and frozen sea, guided by lanterns, amid the dark and dreary depth of Arctic winter; the death-like stillness, the intense cold, the threatening aspect of a murky, overcast sky, and all this heightened by one of those strange phenomena which are but seldom seen even here, a complete halo encircling the moon, through which passed a horizontal band of pale light that encompassed the heavens."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.