162 FRANKLIN'S SECOND LAND EXPEDITION. 



he would shoot the first man who ventured to approach 

 within musket-range. 



An amicable leave was, however, afterwards taken 

 of these people, and on the 13th of July Franklin put 

 to sea. On the 27th he came to the mouth of a wide 

 river, to which, as it proceeded from the British range 

 of mountains, and was near the line of demarkation 

 between Great Britain and Russia, Franklin gave the 

 name of Clarence. They were now in lat. 70 5", long. 

 143 55'. The further they advanced westerly the more 

 dense became the fogs ; the temperature descended to 

 35, and the gales of wind became more constant; at 

 night the water froze ; and, the middle of August having 

 arrived, the winter might here be said to have set in ; 

 the more early, probably, from the vicinity of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and the extensive swampy plains between 

 them and the sea. The men had suffered much, and on 

 the 18th Franklin set out on his return to the Macken- 

 zie, from the extreme point gained, named by him the 

 Return Reef, in lat. 10 24' N., long. 149 31' W. 



About this time, as it afterward appeared, the Blos- 

 som's boat, sent by Beechey from Behring's Strait, 

 arrived on the coast, on which Franklin observes : 

 " Could I have known, or by possibility imagined, that 

 a party from the Blossom had been at the distance 

 of only one hundred and sixty miles from me, no diffi- 

 culties, dangers, or discouraging circumstances, should 

 have prevailed on me to return ; but, taking into account 

 the uncertainty of all voyages in a sea obstructed by 

 ice, I had no right to expect that the Blossom had 

 advanced beyond Kotzebue Inlet, or that any party 

 from her had doubled the Icy Cape. 7 ' 



Franklin states the distance traced westerly from 

 the mouth of the Mackenzie River to have been three 

 hundred and seventy-four miles, along one of the most 



