winter of 1821-22 was passed at Fort Resolution, on the south side of
Great Slave L ake; and the summer of 1822 was consumed in returning
by the route we had before travelled to York Factory, where we
embarked for England in the month of September. The most
interesting of the quadrupeds and birds collected on this Expedition
were described by Joseph Sabine, Esq., in the Appendix to
Sir John Franklin’s narrative, and I published a list of the plants in
the same work.
The Second or Last N o r t h e r n L a n d E x p e d i t io n commenced, as far
as regards the objects of natural history described in this work, at Pene-
tanguishene, on St. George’s day, the 23d of April, 1825, and having
performed a coasting voyage along the northern sides of Lakes Huron
and Superior, arrived at Fort William, a post of the Hudson s Bay
Company, situated in Thunder Bay of the last-mentioned lake. From
thence it ascended the Kamenistiguia to Dog Lake, and crossing a
height of land of no great elevation at the source of the Dog River,
and only between twenty and thirty miles from the shores of Lake
Superior, it descended by a series of rocky rivers, interrupted by
numerous cascades and portages, to Rainy Lake, the Lake of the
Woods, and Lake Winipeg. On entering the Saskatchewan River,
which falls into the last-mentioned lake, on its east side, the Second
Expedition came upon the route of the first one already described,
which it kept till its arrival at Fort Resolution, on Great Slave Lake.
At Cumberland-house, Mr. Drummond, the Assistant Naturalist, was
detached up the Saskatchewan to examine the plains of Carlton, and
the eastern declivity of the Rocky Mountains, near the sources of
the Peace River. His labours will be more particularly mentioned
hereafter : at present I proceed to trace the progress of the Expedition,
which, on its arrival at Fort Resolution, instead of directing its course
across Great Slave Lake, as on the first journey, turned to the westward,
along the south shore of the lake, and entered the Mackenzie,
by far the largest of all the American rivers which fall into the Polar
Sea, and which originating in the same elevated part of the Rocky
Mountain chain with the Columbia, the Missouri, and the Saskatchewan,
or Nelson Rivers, flows under the names of Elk, Slavé, or
Mackenzie River, on a north-north-west general course, through
fifteen degrees of latitude, until it discharges itself into the sea by a
mouth extending from the 133d to the 137th degree of longitude.
When the Expedition reached the 65 th degree of latitude in its
descent of the Mackenzie, it turned to the eastward for seventy miles
up a river to Great Bear Lake, where a winter residence was erected,
on which the appellation of Fort Franklin was bestowed. Excursions
were made down the Mackenzie and along Bear Lake while the
navigation continued open, but the whole party were assembled at
their ■winter-quarters on the 5th of September. The extent of country
examined this first season may be judged of by the length of the route
of the Expedition, from its leaving Penetanguishene in the month of
April till its assembling at Great Bear Lake in September, which,
including Mr. Drummond’s journey to the Rocky Mountains, Sir
John Franklin’s voyage down the Mackenzie to the sea, and a voyagé
round Great Bear Lake by myself, exceeded six thousand miles.
Towards the end of the month of June 1826, the Expedition left its
winter-quarters, and proceeded down the Mackenzie to the sea ;
and the Commanding Officer, turning to the westward, sailed
along the coast until he attained the 70^° of latitude, and nearly
the 150th degree of longitude, when the lateness of the season
prohibiting a further advance, he retraced his way to Great Bear
Lake. In the mean time, a detachment under my charge had sailed
from the mouth of the Mackenzie eastward, round Cape Bathurst, in
latitude 71° 36' north, to the mouth of the Coppermine River, whence
it travelled on foot to the north-east end of Great Bear Lake, and
from thence, in a canoe, to Fort Franklin. The extent of sea-coast
examined by the two branches of the Expedition exceeded twelve
hundred miles, and the whole distance travelled by them from the
time of their departure from Fort Franklin till their return to it again,
was upwards of four thousand miles. A collection of plants formed
by Captain Back, who accompanied Sir John Franklin, is peculiarly