Chap. X. FRANKLIN AND RICHARDSON'S JOURNEY. 381 



stiffened by frost, the ground covered with ice and 

 snow, they were in a very unfit condition for 

 travelling in sach a country. On trying to proceed, 

 Franklin was seized with a fainting fit, in conse- 

 quence of exhaustion and sudden exposure to the 

 wind ; but on eating a morsel of portable soup he 

 recovered. " I was unwilling," says this brave 

 fellow, " at first to take this morsel of soup, which 

 was diminishing the small and only remaining 

 meal for the party, but several of the men urged me 

 to it, with much kindness." The canoe-carriers 

 were frequently blown down, and one of these 

 machines was broken to pieces, which, however, 

 was turned to the best account, by making a fire of 

 it to cook the remnant of portable soup and arrow- 

 root — a scanty meal after three days' fasting, but it 

 served to allay the pangs of hunger. 



The next two davs the surface of the barren 

 grounds was covered with large stones, bearing a 

 lichen which the Canadians call tripe de roche, or 

 rock -tripe, a substance to which the present tra- 

 vellers may be said to owe their safety and exist- 

 ence ; without it they must have died of starvation. 

 By botanists this plant is called Gyrophora, from its 

 circular form, and the surface of the leaf being marked 

 with curved lines, and of which Dr. Richardson 

 has described and engraved four species, with this 

 observation : — " We used all four as articles of food ; 

 but not having the means of extracting the bitter 



