L908.] PREVIOUS EXPLORATIONS — RAE. 65 



the primary object being to search for the party under Sir John 

 Franklin, who had not been heard from since the summer of 1845. 

 They traveled by way of New York, Montreal, the Great Lakes, and 

 Lake Winnipeg, and reached Methye Portage, where for present pur- 

 poses their journey may be said to have commenced, on June 28, 1848. 

 Here they joined another detachment of the expedition in charge of 

 John Bell, a chief trader of the Hudson's Bay Company. This 

 party had ascended the rivers from York Factory during the pre- 

 vious autumn and had wintered at Cedar Lake, on the Saskatchewan. 

 Crossing Methye Portage, the party descended the Clearwater, Atha- 

 baska, Slave, and Mackenzie rivers. The two detachments having 

 separated at the rapids of Slave River, Richardson and Rae pushed 

 on with all possible speed, leaving the heavier boats to follow with 

 the winter supplies, and skirted the Arctic coast eastward to the 

 mouth of Coppermine River. Thence they traveled overland to the 

 mouth of Dease River. Great Bear Lake. Near this point, on the 

 site of Fort Confidence, established by Dease and Simpson, Bell, 

 whose detachment had ascended Great Bear River and crossed Great 

 Bear Lake for this purpose, had erected houses, and here the entire 

 party passed the winter of 1848^49. As early in the spring of 1849 

 as the season allowed the party divided, since but one boat was avail- 

 able for further exploration on the Arctic Sea, and Richardson 

 returned to England, while Rae made an attempt to reach Wollaston 

 Land. Failing in this, he returned to Fort Confidence and ascended 

 the Mackenzie to Fort Simpson. Doctor Richardson's narrative of 

 the journey, which was published in 1851, is replete with information 

 regarding the natural history, geology, botany, and physiography of 

 the region. 



In the summer of 1851, under the auspices of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, Rae made a journey of exploration along the southern 

 coasts of Wollaston and Victoria lands, still searching for the Frank- 

 lin expedition. He left Fort Confidence on April 25 and traveled 

 overland to Kendall River. Proceeding northward from here with 

 dog sleds, with only two companions, he reached the Arctic coast near 

 Point Lockyer, and crossing to Wollaston Land, now first visited by 

 a white man. he traced it - const eastward to near Byron Bay and 

 northwestward to Cape Baring, after which he returned to Kendall 

 River. Meeting here his boat party from Fort Confidence, he de- 

 scended the Coppermine as soon as it opened sufficiently, .and trav- 

 eling eastward through Dease Strait to Cape Alexander, crossed to 

 Victoria Land and explored its coast eastward, partly by boat and 

 partly on foot, to Point Pelly, near its eastern extremity. Unable to 

 cross Victoria Strait, he returned westward and reached the mouth of 

 the Coppermine on August 2'.). His reports on the sledge journey and 



44131— No. 21— OS 5 



