those animals mentioned by preceding writers, which did not come
.under the notice of the Expedition; always carefully acknowledging
the source of my quotations.
Sir John Franklin’s narratives of his two journeys contain full
information respecting the districts through which the Expedition
travelled; but, to save reference, and to enable the reader of this work
the more readily to discover the particular habitats, and to trace the
geographical distribution of the species described in it, I have thought
it proper to give a summary account of our route, followed by some
compendious topographical notices.
■ The First of the two N o r t h e r n L a n d E x p e d i t io n s disembarked in
the month of August, 1819, at York Factory, in Hudson’s Bay, which
is 90° of longitude east of the meridian of Greenwich. From
thencë, travelling between the 57th and 53d parallels of latitude, by
•Hayes’ River, Lake Winipeg, and the Saskatchewan, it proceeded
to Cumberland-house, situated beyond the 102d meridian, where it
arrived towards the end of October. Early in January,- 1820, the
‘Commanding Officer, accompanied by Mr. (now Captain) Back, set out,
to travel on snow-shoes up the Saskatchewan, nearly West-south-west
to Carlton-house, in the 106th degree of longitude; and from thence,
on a northerly and somèwhat westerly course, by Green Lake, the
Beaver River, Isle a la Crosse, and Buffalo lakes, across the Methy
portage, and down the Elk River, to Fort Chepewyan, on the Atha-
pescow or Athabascow Lake,’ or Lake of the Hills, as it is named by Sir
Alexander Mackenzie. Thé other twö officers of the Expedition
(Lieutenant Hood and myself) stayed, during the remainder of the
winter, at Cumberland-house; and after I had paid a visit in May to
the plains of Carlton, and collected all the specimens of plants and
animals I could procure at that season, set out in the month of June,
to travel in canoe to Fort Chepewyan by the route of Beaver Lake,
Missinippi or English River, Black-bear Island Lake, Isle a la Crosse,
Buffalo Lake and Elk River. Having rejoined our companions, the
whole party left Fort Chepewyan on the 18th of July, 1820; and,
descending the Slave River, crossed Great Slave Lake, and ascended
the Yellow-knife River, to the banks of Winter Lake, situated in
latitude 64£°, and in the 113th degree of longitude, which it reached
on the 19th day of August. A winter of nine months’ duration was
spent at this place in a log building, which was named Fort Enterprise;
and in the beginning of June, 1821, while the snow was still
lying on the ground, and the ice covering the river, the Expedition
resumed its march. After the baggage and canoes had been dragged
over ice and snow for one hundred and twenty miles to the north
end of Point Lake, we embarked on the Coppermine River on the 1st
of July, and on the 21st of the same month reached the Arctic Sea,
when, turning to the eastward, we performed a coasting voyage
of six hundred and twenty-six statute miles, to Point Turnagain,
which is, owing to the deep indentations of the coast, only six
degrees and a half of longitude to the eastward of the mouth of the
Coppermine River. The rapid approach of winter now rendered it
necessary to abandon the further pursuit of the enterprise; and on
the 22d of August we retraced our course as far as Hood’s River,
which we ascended for a short way, and then set out to travel overland
to Point Lake, on our way back to Fort Enterprise. Winter, clothed
with all the terrors of an arctic climate, overtook the party early in
September: it suffered dreadfully from famine, no supplies were
obtained at Fort Enterprise, the majority of the party perished,
and the survivors were on the verge of the grave, when the
Indians brought supplies of provision, and conducted them to Fort
Providence, the nearest of the Hudson Bay Company’s posts. The
want of the means of carriage, even at the most flattering periods of
this disastrous journey, prevented us from attempting to preserve any
bulky objects of natural history; but all the plants gathered previous
to our reaching the mouth of the Coppermine River were saved,
having been given in charge to five of the party who were sent back
from thence. Those collected on the sea-coast, after having been
carried for many days through the snow, were at length, on our
strength being completely exhausted, reluctantly abandoned. The