126 FRANKLIN'S FIRST LAND EXPEDITION. 



ing travel, their only nourishment on halting for the 

 night was tripe de roche, or rock-tripe, a species of 

 lichen, a plant of most nauseous taste, and the cause of 

 cruel bowel complaints to the whole party. Daily they 

 became weaker, and less capable of exertion ; one of the 

 canoes was so much broken by a fall, that it was burned 

 to cook a supper ; the resource of fishing, too, was 

 denied them, for some of the men, in the recklessness 

 of misery, threw away the nets. Rivers were to be 

 crossed by wading, or in the canoe ; on one of these 

 occasions Franklin took his seat with two of the voya- 

 geurs in their frail bark, when they were driven by the 

 force of the stream and the wind to the verge of a fright- 

 ful rapid, in which the canoe upset, and, but for a rock 

 on which they found footing, they would there have per- 

 ished. On the 19th, " previous to setting out, the 

 whole party ate the remains of their old shoes, and 

 whatever scraps of leather they had, to strengthen their 

 stomachs for the fatigue of the day's journey. These/ 3 

 adds Franklin, " would have satisfied us in ordinary 

 times, but we were now almost exhausted by slender 

 fare and travel, and our appetites had become ravenous. 

 We looked, however, with humble confidence to the 

 great Author and Giver of all good for a continuance 

 of the support which had hitherto been always supplied 

 to us at our greatest need." 



A day or two afterwards the remaining canoe was left 

 behind ; no entreaties could prevail on the men to carry 

 it further. Dr. Richardson, too, was obliged to abandon 

 his collection of plants and minerals, from inability to 

 endure the burthen. The killing of five small deer at 

 this time, however, enabled them to rest for a couple of 

 days to recruit their exhausted strength. On the 26th 

 they came to the Coppermine, the crossing of which, 

 owing to their weak condition, the loss of the canoe, 



