388 Arctic Land Expedition. 
Bay ; they had met with some heavy icebergs, and considerable 
obstructions from the ice, which was then melting fast, but were 
past these inconveniences, and pursuing their voyage of discovery 
up the inlet at the north of the bay. The officers and men were 
all in the highest health and spirits, and most amply found in 
every kind of provision and comfort, and delighted with the se- 
curity and excellence of their ships ; which, though so deeply 
laden, had proved themselves most lively and obedient sea 
boats. Canes 
ARCTIC LAND EXPEDITION. 
Soon after the expedition under Lieutenant Franklin, R. N. had 
arrived on the coast of Hudson’s Bay, they proceeded from York 
Factory, the grand depot of the Hudson’s Bay Company, to- 
wards their wintering ground at Cumberland, the central post of 
the interior, a distance of about 900 miles from the coast.— 
Lieutenant Franklin, Dr. Richardson, Mr. Back, and Mr. Hood, 
attended by the hardy Orkneymen who had been engaged to man 
the boats in the rivers of the interior, had worked in the Com- 
pany’s service several years, and understood the language of 
many of the Indian tribes, left the factory on the 7th of Sep- 
tember 1819, with a fair wind, under a salute from the depot, 
and amidst the acclamations of the officers and men of the Com- 
pany. Of the immense quantity and variety of provisions sup- 
plied by Government for the use of the expedition, the greater 
part was left at the factory ; those who knew the country, and 
the difficulty of travelling through it, having represented the im- 
possibility of conveying European food, which at the Bay re- 
ceives the name of luxuries, to any considerable distance. The 
hardships attending the progress of travellers were, in fact, 
shown to be so great, as would render it absurd to calculate upon 
such a thing as the slightest change of diet in the winter season ; 
and when it was mentioned by Lieutenant Franklin, that he had 
brought with him preserved meats and soups in portable cases, 
‘to support the expedition in the cheerless regions through which 
they were to pass, there was a general laugh amongst the officers 
of the Company, at the idea of associating any thing like comfort 
with the formidable character of the enterprise. Some of these 
difficulties may be estimated from the account of the sufferings 
of the adventurers, in their advance towards Cumberland, to 
which place the writer of this article accompanied them. On 
the third day after their departure from the factory, the boats 
of the Company, which were proceeding to the various trading- 
posts in the interior, came up with the expedition in the Steel 
River, distant about sixty miles from the place at which they set 
out. Most of the rivers in that part of America abound with 
rapids 
