1908.] 



PKEVIOUS EXPLORATIONS FRANKLIN. 



57 



tember, 1793. The narratives of these voyages, published in 1801, 

 contain many interesting notes on the natural history of the region 

 traversed. 



FRANKLIN, 1819, TO SIMPSON, 1839. 



The first journey of Captain (afterwards Sir John) Franklin to 

 the Polar Sea was the beginning of a series of explorations which 

 resulted in the accumulation of a vast amount of information relat- 

 ing to the fanna of the region. The party, including Franklin, John 

 Richardson, George Back, Robert Hood, and John Hepburn, an 

 English seaman, left York Factory on September 9, 1819, and travel- 

 ing by way of Oxford House and Norway House, arrived on October 

 22 at Cumberland House, where they went into winter quarters. In 

 order to arrange in advance for the further progress of the expedi- 

 tion. Franklin, accompanied by Back, left Cumberland House on 

 Januaiy 18, 1820, and traveling by way of Carlton House, Isle a la 

 Crosse, and Methye Portage, arrived at Fort Chipewyan, their objec- 

 tive point, ~on March 26. With the opening of navigation the re- 

 mainder of the party pursued practically the same route and joined 

 Franklin at Fort Chipewyan on July 13, and the entire party leaving 

 five days later, reached Great Slave Lake on July 24. Starting 

 from Moose Deer (now Mission) Island three clays later, the party 

 crossed Great Slave Lake to Fort Providence on the Xorthern Arm, 

 where Indian g'uides and hunters for the descent of the Coppermine 

 were engaged. The party left Fort Providence on August 2, ascended 

 Yellowknife River, and traversing a series of lakes, established win- 

 ter quarters on Winter River, after making a preliminary trip as far 

 as the banks of the Coppermine. After passing the winter of 1820-21 

 here they resumed their travels on June 14, 1821, dragging their 

 boats and baggage on the ice. On July 1, at Red Rock Lake, the}^ 

 commenced the descent of the Coppermine, and on July 18 reached 

 its mouth, the Indians turning back from this point. Leaving here 

 July 21, the party, now numbering twenty persons, explored the 

 coast to the eastward as far as Point Turnagain, which was reached 

 August 16. Further progress in that direction being impossible, the 

 return journe}^ was commenced on August 22. Retracing their way 

 along the coast to the mouth of Hood River, the party attempted to 

 ascend that stream with the large canoes, but this being found im- 

 possible, the journey toward Fort Enterprise was undertaken on foot, 

 two small canoes, made from the material of the large ones, being 

 carried for the purpose of crossing the rivers encountered. Owing 

 mainly to the abandoning of their canoes hj those deputized to carry 

 them, the party experienced intense suffering from starvation and ex- 

 posure. Several of the voyagers wandered and died, and Hood was 

 murdered by one of the party, an Iroquois. The survivors assembled 



