THE WILBERFORCE FALLS 155 



he had landed in America, went on his voyage to the 

 eastward to enter at last on the work he had been sent 

 to do. But the survey of this lofty rocky coast was no 

 easy matter ; the sea was rough, the weather tempestu- 

 ous, the canoes were lightly built and only suited for 

 river work, and, in short, it was a most risky enterprise. 

 Tracing the shore of Coronation Gulf and coasting up 

 and out of Bathurst Inlet, Franklin reached Point Turn- 

 again in 109 25' W., at the entrance of Dease Strait, on 

 the 16th of August, 1821. Though the voyage had 

 extended over only six and a half degrees of longitude, 

 he had sailed 555 geographical miles ; and then, as his 

 resources did not permit of his going further or of his 

 returning to the Coppermine, and in his own words 

 " Our scanty stock of provisions rendering it necessary 

 to make for a nearer place," he, on the 22nd, turned 

 back to ascend the Hood River. 



Here they soon reached the Wilberforce Falls, 

 beautiful and remarkable, but not easy of navigation. 

 " In the evening," says Franklin in his journal, " we 

 encamped at the lower end of a narrow chasm through 

 which the river flows for upwards of a mile. The walls 

 of this chasm are upwards of two hundred feet high, 

 quite perpendicular, and in some places only a few yards 

 apart. The river precipitates itself into it over a rock 

 forming two magnificent and picturesque falls close to 

 each other. The upper fall is about sixty feet high, 

 and the lower one at least one hundred, but perhaps 

 considerably more, for the narrowness of the chasm 

 into which it fell prevented us from seeing its bottom 

 and we could merely discern the top of the spray far 

 beneath our feet. The lower fall is divided into two by 



