460 THE FRANKLIN SEARCH— 184:8-51. 



was not untU the 28tli April (1850) that the first wild goose of the approach- 

 ing season flew over Fort Simpson from the south, and gladdened its inmates 

 with the intelligence that an early spring was at hand. In the beginning of 

 May, great flocks of geese and ducks passed the station, flying northward. 

 Many were shot, and there were " great doings " in the kitchen once more. 

 The ice of the Mackenzie broke up on the 11th. "All was now bustle and 

 activity," says Pullen. "Boats were being fitted out, furs pressed, and 

 every one was fully employed in preparing for the transport of goods to the 

 Methy Portage, and thence to York Factory, for shipment to England. On 

 the 20th of May, Mr Eae went off with one boat to Forts Norman and . 

 Good Hope to bring up the furs that were to go out with the next brigade 

 of boats, and which we were to accompany on our way to England." But 

 the explorer was not destined to see England and home so soon as he ex- 

 pected. 



On the 1st June, Lieutenant Hooper, PuUen's first oflBcer, arrived from 

 the fishing station of New Fort Franklin on Great Bear Lake, where he and 

 the greater number of the men of the expedition had spent the winter. 

 This young officer, whose name is invested with a peculiar interest, on 

 account of his services, his fine talents, and his premature and melancholy 

 fate, demands some passing notice here. W. H. Hooper was born in 1826, 

 entered the navy at an early age, and joined the " Plover " as mate under 

 Moore in 1849, and wintered in that vessel in an inlet of the Gulf of Ana- 

 dyr, near the extreme north-east point (East Cape) of the Asiatic continent. 

 His experiences among the Tchutski tribes who inhabit this region, are ably 

 recorded in his most readable work, " Ten Months among the Tents of the 

 Tuski." The special interest of this singularly fresh and vigorously-written 

 volume is due to the circumstance that it describes the appearance, man- 

 ners, customs, etc., of " a people of whom less is known than any on the 

 face of the habitable globe, if we except, perhaps, some of the tribes in 

 the interior of Africa." While sojourning among the Tuski or Tchutski, the 

 principal object of the expedition on which the "Plover " was engaged — the 

 search for Sir John Franklin — was never for a moment forgotten by the 

 officers of that vessel; but, imprisoned as they were in Emma Harbour, 

 south-west of Cape Tchutskoi (lat. about 64° 30'), and still many miles from 

 Behring Strait, they had no opportunity of prosecuting the search. We 

 dare not, therefore, linger with Hooper among the curious tents of the 

 Tuski. In the summer of 1849 the young officer was appointed to the 

 command of the " Plover's " cutter, in the boat expedition under Lieutenant 

 PuUen from Icy Cape to the Mackenzie River. He afterwards passed two 

 successive winters at the stations of the Hudson's Bay Company, and in 

 these bleak forts he contracted an illness, of which he died in 1853^ at 

 the early age of twenty-seven. 



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