INTRODUCTION. xxxi 



who had been made a commander during his absence, was 

 now raised to the rank of captain, and elected a Fellow of 

 the Royal Society. 



Undaunted by his late bitter experience, Franklin started 

 again in 1825 at the head of another canoe expedition (of 

 which he had submitted the plan to Government), and in 

 which he was again accompanied by his friend Richardson, 

 w T ho acted in this, as in the former search, as surgeon and 

 naturalist and second in command. 



By their united exertions, though in separate parties, 

 thirty-seven degrees of longitude were surveyed along the 

 arctic shore of the American continent ; and the conviction 

 must have been more and more impressed upon their minds 

 that this was the real pathway for ships striving to get from 

 sea to sea, if only a gap to the eastward, which would 

 connect it with the older discoveries on the Atlantic side, 

 could be found. 



On their return, Franklin enjoyed an interval of two or 

 three years of repose, and during this time received with 

 his friend Parry (who had secured a world-wide fame by 

 his arctic discoveries in a higher latitude) the honour of 

 knighthood, and that of the honorary degree of D.C.L. 

 conferred upon them both by the University of Oxford. 

 The Geographical Society of Paris also adjudged its annual 

 gold medal to Franklin. He met with less liberality at 

 home from the Board of Longitude, which declined to 

 admit his and Richardson's claims to the pecuniary reward 

 which had been offered for attaining certain degrees of longi- 

 tude (or portions of the North-West Passage), on the ground, 

 mainly, that their work had been performed in boats in- 

 stead of ships ! l 



1 Twenty thousand pounds had by the same Act of Parliament been 



