114 SHORT ON WESTERN BOTANY. 



brought them supplies of provisions, and conducted them to 

 the nearest post of the Hudson's Bay Company. 



By this disaster all the extensive collections made on their 

 outward journey were lost — the enterprise was abandoned, 

 and in the summer of 1822 the small remnant of the party 

 returned to Europe. 



On the return of Capt. Franklin and Dr Richardson from 

 an expeditfon where they had purchased so dearly the glories 

 of discovery, it was not asked, nor even expected by their 

 native country, that they should again brave the perils of those 

 distant and terrible shores. Yet so high was the ardour 

 with which they were inspired, that scarcely had they 

 breathed from their voyage, before they presented a new- 

 scheme for completing the outline which they had only 

 begun to sketch. The British government cordially embraced 

 the proposal, and furnished most liberally every means of 

 prosecuting the undertaking with success, and escaping the 

 evils which had before pressed on them so heavily. Three 

 large boats were constructed of mahogany, so light that they 

 could be carried on men's shoulders across the portages, yet 

 so firmly knit together that they were able to face the waves 

 of the northern ocean. Provision was laid in (consisting 

 chiefly of pemmican, a light, portable, and highly nutritious 

 article), calculated for two years subsistence ; and the boats 

 being sent forward by the way of Hudson's Bay, the officers 

 took the more agreeable route of New York. 



In the spring of 1825, Franklin and Richardson, accom- 

 panied by iNIr Thomas Drummond, as assistant naturalist, 

 proceeded from New York along the chain of inland seas 

 from Ontario to Lake Winnipeg, where meeting with their 

 boats and the rest of the detachment, they proceeded north- 

 ward until they fell on the Mackenzie river, and embarking 

 on its waters, reached in due time the Polar Sea; the shores 

 of which, through more than forty degrees, and under the 

 70th of latitude, were diligently explored during the briet 

 interval of one arctic summer. 



In the progress of this expedition, Mr Drummond visited 



