58 



NOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[NO. 27. 



at Fort Enterprise about the last of October. Here two more of tlie 

 A^oyagers died, and the whole party must have perished from starva- 

 tion but for the Indians under the chief Agiatcho, who supplied them 

 with food. The explorers were shortly afterward conveyed to Fort 

 Providence, and thence to the trading post on Moose Deer Island 

 (near Fort Resolution). In the spring of 1822, the party left Great 

 Slave Lake, and proceeding by the same route followed when enter- 

 ing the countr}^, returned to England. 



The fauna of Melville Island was made known by the first expedi- 

 tion of William Edward Parry, in the Flecla and the Griper. This 

 navigator, entering Barrow Strait for the first time, passed through 

 it to the westward and discovered Melville Island about the last of 

 August, 1819. Coasting along its southern shore, the expedition was 

 stopped by the ice on September 24, and went into winter quarters in 

 Winter Harbor, where it remained until the following August. In 

 June, 1820, the ships being still fast in the ice, an exploring party 

 sent out to the northward crossed the island and discovered and 

 named Liddon Gulf and Hecla and Griper Bay, and other parties 

 made shorter trips in the same direction. On August 1 the ships were 

 freed from the ice, and working slowly westward reached Cape 

 ,Dundas a few days later. From this point, land (Banks Land) was 

 discerned to the southwestward, but being unable to reach it on ac- 

 count of the ice, or to penetrate farther to the westward. Parry re- 

 traced his course through Barrow Strait and returned to England. 

 ]Man3^ notes on the natural history of the region appear in Parry's 

 narrative of the voyage, and an account of the mammals and birds 

 observed and collected was prepared by Edward Sabine, naturalist 

 to the expedition, and published as a supplement to the narrative. 

 The narrative of Alexander Fisher, surgeon to the expedition, also 

 contains a great ma.ny notes on natural history. 



In May, 1821, Parry left England in the Hecla and Fiii^y on his 

 third voyage to the Arctic; his second voyage, in 1821 and 1822, 

 penetrated only as far westward as Melville Peninsula, and need not 

 be noticed in detail. He reached Lancaster Sound on September 

 10, 1824, and Port Bowen, on the east side of Prince Regent Inlet, 

 about the last of the month. Nearly a year was spent in the vicinity, 

 and the expedition then returned to England. Reports on the nat- 

 ural history were published by J. C. Ross. 



Franklin's second expedition to the Polar Sea was sent out to 

 explore the coast line to the westward of the mouth of the Mackenzie 

 and eastward to the Coppermine. The principal members were 

 John Franklin; George Back, second in command; John Richardson, 

 surgeon and naturalist ; Thomas Drummond, assistant naturalist ; 

 E. N. Kendall, and P. W. Dease, who was afterwards associated with 

 Thomas Simpson in explorations west of the Mackenzie and east of 



