64 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA. 



[xo. 27. 



The next journey of exploration in this region was that of Thomas 

 Simpson and Peter Warren Dease, officers of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company. TNHiile the object of their expedition was to further geo- 

 graphic knoAvledge, they made many notes on the fauna of the coun- 

 try, as nearly all Arctic travelers do, and secured a considerable 

 collection of plants. 



Simpson left Fort Garry, the site of the present city of Winnipeg, 

 on December 1, 1836, and, traveling on snowshoes, arrived at Fort 

 Chipewj^an, where he joined Dease, on February 1, 1837. They left 

 Fort Chipewyan on June 1, and, descending the Slave and Mac- 

 kenzie rivers, explored the Arctic coast westAvard to Point Barrow. 

 They then returned to the Mackenzie, ascended it and Great Bear 

 River, and, crossing Great Bear Lake, built a post near the mouth 

 of Dease River, naming it Fort Confidence, and there spent the 

 winter of 1837-38. They left here June 6, 1838, and, after ascend- 

 ing Dease River as far as was practicable, portaged to the Copper- 

 mine. They then descended that river to the sea and explored the 

 coast to the eastward as far as Point Turnagain, the farthest point 

 reached by Franklin in 1821. Being unable to proceed farther, they 

 returned to Fort Confidence, where they arrived on September 14, 

 and again wintered there. During the summer of 1839, favored by 

 an early spring, an unusually open sea, and their previous knowl- 

 edge, they again followed the coast to the eastward, reaching the 

 mouth of the stream named by them Castor and Pollux River, to 

 the eastward of Back River. They then returned to Fort Confidence, 

 which they abandoned, crossed Great Bear Lake, and reached Fort 

 Simpson by water. Here Dease remained, while the ill-fated Simp- 

 son (for he met an untimely death soon afterwards) resumed his 

 journey as soon as winter set in and traveled over the snow to Red 

 River. 



THE FRANKLIN SEARCH EXPEDITIONS, 1845-1855. 



An expedition which was to mark the beginning of a most notable 

 epoch in the exploration of Arctic America sailed from England in 

 1845. Sir John Franklin, with two ships, the Erehus and Terror^ 

 and a crew numbering 129 persons, left England May 26, to complete 

 the survey of the north coast of America and to accomplish the North- 

 west Passage. '* The Erehus and Terror w^ere last seen by a whaling 

 captain, Dannett, July 26, 1845, moored to an iceberg, 74° 40' N., 

 66° 13' W., waiting for an opening in the middle ice so as to cross 

 to Lancaster Sound. Thus Franklin and his expedition vanished 

 forever from the sight of civilized man." (Greely.) 



In 1848 and 1849 a party under the command of Dr. John Richard- 

 son, John Rae, of the Hudson's Bay Company, being second in com- 

 mand, made a journey down the Mackenzie and along the Arctic coast, 



