36 Biology in America 



wilds too offered a rich reward to the scientific explorer. Its 

 dangers and hardships however presented an effective barrier 

 to all but the most resolute and dauntless. Vivid pictures of 

 this life, with its fascinating beauty and danger, the intense 

 rivalry of the different fur companies, the savage attack and 

 wanton ravage of the lurking Indians, the midnight revel 

 about the roaring camp tire, the g^nnes and frolics, feuds and 

 friendships of men without rcsti-aiut ; the challenge of the 

 chase, the elk's whistle and the howling wolf, the magnificence 

 of boundless plain, of towering peak and roaring river, the 

 glory of the sunset and the starlit sky and the terror of the 

 tempest, have been drawn for us by many writers, especially 

 Irving in his "Astoria" and "Captain Bonneville"; and the 

 journals of these early adventurere are as full of enthralling 

 interest as they are of historical and scientific information. 



In the early days of American exploration, adventurous 

 eyes were turned to the frozen north, and in the Elizabethan 

 age of English glory her mariners penetrated the frozen seas 

 as far as latitude 72° N., leaving a record of their daring in 

 the names of Frobisher's and Davis' Straits. In the following 

 century. Sir Henry Hudson explored the bay which bears his 

 name, and perished upon its inhospitable waters. A shorter 

 route to India, through the Northwest Passage, was one of the 

 motives of these early voyages. It was on this quest that the 

 famous voyages of Ross and Parry were made, early in the 

 last century. 



In 1819-22 Sir John Franklin, who had been second in 

 command of Buchan 's polar expedition of the preceding year, 

 undertook the exploration of the Canadian Coast bordering 

 the Arctic Sea. On this expedition he was accompanied by 

 Richardson as surgeon and naturalist, whose name was 

 destined to become famous in the annals of early American 

 biology. The party left York Factory on Hudson Bay on Sep- 

 tember 9, reaching Cumberland House on October 23, where 

 they wintered. The following year, greatly handicapped by 

 lack of provisions, Franklin and his party pushed northward 

 to Fort Enterprise, where they spent the second winter, and 

 in the summer descended the Coppermine River to the Arctic 

 Sea, whose coast they explored as far as Bathurst Iidet. On 

 the return to Fort Enterprise the party suffered untold hard- 

 ships, a glimpse of which may be obtained from Franklin's 

 own narrative. The fifth of September, without food or fire, 

 was spent in bed, while a raging storm covered them with 

 several inches of snow. "Our sufferings (writes Franklin) 

 from cold, in a comfortless canvas tent in such weather, with 

 the temperature at 20°, and without fire, will easily be 

 imagined ; it was, however, less than that which we felt from 



