Noilk-'wesi Land ExpeJillon. 323 



RETURN OF THE NORTH-AVEST LAND EXPEDITION. 



The late accounts of this Expedition which reached Great Britain through 

 Montreal, prepared us, in some degree, to expect its return by the annual 

 Hudson's Bay fleet. On Friday the 16th, Captain Franklin, Dr.. Richard- 

 son, and other officers of the Land Expedition, arrived in Edinburgh, 

 having posted from the north, where they were landed from the Hudson's 

 Bay ships. Their discoveries, we inulerstand, will entirely alter our present 

 \ne\vs of the geography of the northern regions of North America. We are 

 also informed, that the Gentlemen of the Expedition one of whom (Doctor 

 Richardson) is a native of this city, are of opinion that Capt. Parry will in 

 all jirobability be able to double Icy Cape, and reach the South Sea. — 

 Edinhiirgli Observer. 



The Expedition was fitted out in the summer of 1819, and in the course 

 of the following year was enabled, by a liberal aid and reinforcement from 

 the North West Company, to advance to the shores of the Great Bear 

 Lake, situated in about 6(i degrees north latitude, where it encamped and 

 wintered. In the ensuing spring it approached the Copper-Mine River, which 

 it descended until it fell into the Ocean. Plitherto the Expedition was ac- 

 companied by Mr. Wintzel, a clerk to the North West Company, with ten 

 Indian hunters ; but the open sea, which appeared at the confluence of the 

 river with the Ocean, elated the travellers so much with the hope of ulti- 

 mate success, that it was thought proper to dispense with the further at- 

 tendance of Mr. Wintzel and his hunters, who returned up the river, leav- 

 ing the ExpecUtion to proceed in two canoes to survey the coast of the Po- 

 lar Sea, eastward from the mouth of the Copper-Mine River, towards Hud- 

 son's Bay. But in consequence of the approach of winter so early as the 

 end of August, heavy falls of snow, dense mists, and an extremely bare 

 wardrobe, the Expedition was prevented exploring further than about 500 

 miles of the coast to the north-east of the Copper-Mine River, and ascei"- 

 taining that the sea before them was quite open and free of ice. 



As the Expedition returned, its wants became alarming in the extreme, 

 and it soon required the utmost fortitude and exertions to brave the hard- 

 ships which presented themselves. In approaching that part of the Copper- 

 Mine River from which it set out, it was necessary to double an immense 

 point of land, which would occupy a great length of time ; it was therefore 

 deemed necessary to set the canoes adrift, and cut a direct course over land 

 to the Copi)er-Mine River. They crossed, after much difficulty, in a canoe 

 constructed with the skins of elks which they had killed ; but in making their 

 way to the Great Bear Lake, they fell completely short of provisions, and 

 •were for many days under the necessity of subsisting upon sea-weeds, and the 

 powdered bones of the food they had already consumed. In this situation 

 Mr. Hood, nine (.'anadians, and an Esrjuimau, fell victims; and had not 

 tlie survivors exerted tlicmselves by a super-human effort to reach the Great 

 Bear Lake, it is probable; they would have all ])eris!ied. Here they found 

 the heads and bones of the animals that served them for last winter's pro- 

 visions, which preserveil them until their arrival at some post belonging to 

 the Hudson's Bay Company. 



Further I'lirlii-tilars. — Captain Franklin has succeeded in surveying the 

 northern coast of North America, from the month of Co[)per Mine River, 

 for more tluin 500 miles to the eastward. I Ic foiuid the mouth of that river 

 in hit. f!7 ileg. 48 niin. which is four deg. less than what Hearne made it, 

 and no point of the coast to the eastward exceeded fiS deg. '20 niin. : in 

 one place it came down to (i(i deg. ;50 mil), to the Arctic Circle. The sea 

 wiis studded with inmnncrable islands, between vvliich and liie main lahd 

 was an open chiumel of water four or five miles wide, and from fen to forty 



S s 3 fathoms 



