158 THE AMERICAN MAINLAND 



Warren Dease of the Hudson's Bay Company, who 

 had joined the expedition to look after the local 

 arrangements, were sent off' to build a house to winter 

 in on the banks of the Great Bear Lake, in Keith's Bay, 

 where the river leaves it ; Richardson also left to explore 

 the northern shore of the lake, and Franklin and 

 Kendall continuing down the Mackenzie reached the 

 sea before the week was out in less than six months 

 from their departure from Liverpool. And on the 5th 

 of September they had returned upstream and were at 

 their winter quarters at the new house on the lake, 

 which Back had named Fort Franklin, to find that 

 Richardson had been along the northern shore and 

 noted as being the nearest point to the Coppermine the 

 entrance of the river he had named after Dease, which 

 was to be of so much service to him later on. 



During the winter another boat, the Reliance, was 

 built on the lines of the Lion, the largest of the Wool- 

 wich boats, and leaving Dease to complete the stores 

 for another comfortable winter, the expedition started 

 on the 24th of June. At Point Separation, at the 

 head of the Mackenzie delta, Franklin in the Lion 

 with Back in the Reliance our old friend Robert 

 Spinks being his coxswain took the western arm, and 

 Richardson in the Dolphin and Kendall in the Union, 

 carrying the Walnut Shell with them, took the eastern 

 arm. 



Richardson, with a few more or less threatening 

 encounters with the Eskimos, ending fairly well owing 

 to Ooligbuck, and in constant danger of wreck avoided 

 by careful navigation, rounded Cape Bathurst in 70 36' 

 and discovered Wollaston Land, the coast-line of which 



