402 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. X. 



more than twenty times, and says, at length he 

 became so exhausted as to be unable to stand. 

 " If Hepburn had not exerted himself beyond his 

 strength, and speedily made the encampment, and 

 kindled a fire, I must have perished on the spot." 



On the sixth day (the 29th October) they were 

 approaching Fort Enterprise, and, as they came in 

 sight of it at dark, Dr. Richardson, in concluding 

 his mournful narrative, says : — 



" It is impossible to describe our sensations, when, on 

 attaining the eminence that overlooks it, we beheld the smoke 

 issuing from one of the chimneys. From not having met 

 with any footsteps in the snow, as we drew nigh our once 

 cheerful residence, we had been agitated by many melan- 

 choly forebodings. Upon entering the now desolate build- 

 ing, we had the satisfaction of embracing Captain Franklin ; 

 but no words can convey an idea of the filth and wretched- 

 ness that met our eyes on looking around. Our own misery 

 had stolen upon us by degrees, and we were accustomed to 

 the contemplation of each other's emaciated figures ; but 

 the ghastly countenances, dilated eye-balls, and sepulchral 

 voices of Mr. Franklin and those with him, were more than 

 we could at first bear." — p. 461. 



The melancholy situation of poor Franklin was 

 still augmented, if possible, by the helpless and 

 exhausted state of two of his most faithful Cana- 

 dians, Peltier and Samandre, who died two days 

 after the arrival of Richardson and Hepburn, when, 

 had they not fortunately come, Franklin would 

 have been left with one solitary companion, sick 

 and helpless as himself, and both so utterly unable 



