Chap. X. FRANKLIN AND RICHARDSON'S JOURNEY. 343 



1820, Sir John Franklin, Mr. Back, and John 

 Hepburn left Cumberland House for Carlton House, 

 to proceed from thence to Fort Chipewyan, there 

 to make preparation for proceeding to the northern 

 coast. A circumstantial account is given of the 

 mode of travelling, of the rivers, lakes, and portages, 

 of the posts of the two Companies, of the snows 

 that fell, and the numerous hardships that the 

 traveller in winter must necessarily undergo, daily 

 and nightly, till he arrives at his destination, and 

 the close of the spring mitigates the severity of the 

 temperature. What the state of that temperature 

 had been from the 18th of January to the 26th of 

 March, when the party reached Chipewyan, there 

 is no record, for a reason explained by Franklin, 

 who says that " this evening (18th January) we 

 found the mercury of our thermometer had sunk 

 into the bulb, and was frozen. It rose again into 

 the tube on being held to the fire, but quickly re- 

 descended into the bulb on being removed into the 

 air; we could not, therefore, ascertain by it the 

 temperature of the atmosphere, either then or 

 during our journey. Mr. Hood, however, who made 

 a journey from Cumberland House to the Basquian 

 Hill, not far from the former, states in his Journal, 

 that on the 25th March the thermometer fell in 

 the open air to 15° below zero, although it rose the 

 following day to 60° above it. The sudden changes 

 that take place in the northern parts of North 



