224 <d rctic and A nt arctic Exploration [part i 
Coppermine eastward. The party reached York Factory 
in Hudson's Bay in August, 1819, and Fort Chipewyan 
early, in 1820. In July they were at Fort Providence on 
the north-east side of the Great Slave Lake, and early in 
August they set out for the Coppermine river, wintering 
at a station which was built on Winter Lake, and called 
Fort Enterprise. The fatigue and difficulty of travelling 
thus far were enormous. Franklin calculated that all the 
portages, each having to be traversed four times, made 
together 150 miles. 
One of the North West Co/s men having joined the 
expedition, the party now consisted of six Englishmen 
and twenty-six others, principally Canadian voyageurs. 
Franklin arranged with the Indians that, on his return, 
there should be supplies of food and Indians at Fort 
Enterprise. 
The descent of the Coppermine river was then com- 
menced, and the mouth was reached on the 21st of July, 
1 82 1. Franklin and his gallant companions then em- 
barked on the polar sea in their frail bark canoes. It was 
a rock-bound coast, fringed with masses of ice which 
rose and fell with every motion of the tempestuous sea, 
and the undertaking was in the highest degree perilous 
in canoes only fit for lake navigation. Franklin never- 
theless persevered in the discovery of the coast-line until 
the 18th of August, when he felt obliged to begin the 
return voyage. Their provisions were nearly run out, 
and they were disappointed at not meeting with any 
Eskimos, from whom they might have obtained supplies. 
Their furthest point was named Point Turnagain, and was 
6^° of longitude to the east of the mouth of the Copper- 
mine. Franklin decided to land in Arctic Sound, at the 
mouth of a river he had named after Hood, and make 
direct for Fort Enterprise, rather than return by the 
Coppermine. He hoped to find more game by the new 
route. The canoes were broken up in order to construct 
smaller and lighter boats for carrying round the portages, 
and they left the banks of the Hood river on the 3rd of 
September, making straight for Fort Enterprise. The 
country proved to be stony and barren, there was no 
game, and their stock of provisions was soon exhausted. 
All they had to subsist on was tripe de roche, a noxious 
