450 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. XI. 



by an application of Lord Haddington to Sir James 

 Graham, to solicit Her Majesty to confer on him 

 the honour of knighthood, which has been gra- 

 ciously granted. 



To return to the general narrative, of which 

 little now remains to be said : The end of September 

 having arrived, it was deemed expedient to pass a 

 great part of another winter at Fort Franklin. It 

 proved a severe one. By a record in Franklin's 

 journal, the thermometer on the morning of the 

 7th of February descended to —58°; it had been 

 — 57 J *5, and — 57°'3, thrice in the course of this 

 and the preceding day ; between the 5th and 8th, 

 its general state was from —48° to —52°, though 

 it occasionally rose to —43°. 



No time, however, was lost in the commencement 

 of breaking up the party. Dr. Richardson was the 

 first to depart ; he quitted in December, for the 

 purpose of joining Mr. Drummond, the assistant 

 botanist, in the Saskatchawan River, that he might 

 have the benefit of an earlier spring than at Fort 

 Franklin to collect plants. On the 16th of Fe- 

 bruary, Augustus and two Dog-Rib Indians were 

 sent forward. On the 20th, Captain Franklin 

 quitted the fort, accompanied by five of his men 

 and two Indians ; and Commander Back was di- 

 rected to proceed to York factory, thence by the 

 Hudson's Bay ship to England, taking with him 

 the British party, and sending the Canadians to 

 Montreal. 



