By July 12 they had reached the boundaries of the Eskimo territory, and the Indians, who were at constant war with these natives, refused point blank to go any further; so all that Franklin could do was to dismiss them, after extracting from them a solemn promise to lay in a good stock of provisions at Fort Enterprise against their return. A few hours later the sea was reached, and here Franklin parted with Wentzel and two of the Canadians, thus reducing his party to twenty men. His plan was to explore the coast as far east of the Coppermine as possible. If the conditions allowed he would return to the river; if not, he intended to strike north across a rocky desert known as the Barren Grounds, and to make for Fort Enterprise. Wentzel was requested to see that an ample supply of meat was provided at the fort for the party on its return.
The band of twenty now found themselves at the mouth of the Coppermine, 334 miles from their headquarters, with only sufficient provisions for fifteen days. On July 21 they launched their two frail canoes and set out upon the eastward voyage. It is scarcely necessary for us to concern ourselves with the details of this trip. That it was dangerous goes without saying, for the thin sides of their vessels afforded but the most inadequate protection against the masses of ice which they were constantly encountering. For five weeks, however, they pressed onwards, taking observations and naming all the principal capes, islands, and bays for 650 miles along the coast. It was on August 16 when they had reached Point Turnagain, lat. 68° 18′ N. long. 109° 25′ W., that Franklin determined that it was time to put about. The open season was wearing on, the canoes were in a terrible state of disrepair, and the shortage of provisions was such as to cause serious anxiety. During the earlier part of the voyage the interpreters, St Germain and Adam, had been very successful with the gun, but their bags were growing smaller by degrees and beautifully less, the fact of the matter being, of course, that they had always regarded the expedition with strong disapproval and were anxious to compel it to return.
Consequently the canoes put about, and, after a most perilous journey, they entered Hood’s River on August 25. The river, unfortunately, was too shallow and swift to allow them to proceed further by water, so Franklin took his canoes to pieces and constructed out of the materials two smaller canoes, each of them easily portable. By the last day of the month these preparations were completed, and the impedimenta, which consisted of ammunition, nets, hatchets, ice-chisels, astronomical instruments, three kettles, two canoes, and a tent, were divided up among the members of the party, each of whom had to carry a burden of about ninety pounds.
For the first few days of their journey they followed the course of the Hood, but soon the river curved westward and it was found necessary to strike inland across the desolate Barren Grounds, whose only recommendation was that they were comparatively flat, and that the heavily burdened party was spared the necessity of stumbling up hills and down valleys such as lined the course of the stream. Apart from this, the land over which they had to journey was as unattractive as could well be imagined. For miles and miles ahead and on either side of them stretched a vast, stony waste, on which not a trace of a living creature was to be seen. Of vegetation there was little or none, wood was conspicuous by its absence, and it was only on the rarest occasions that they were able to indulge in the luxury of a fire. The prospect was truly most uninviting.
They had only been a single day on their journey across this forbidding country when the terrible truth dawned upon them that the winter had set in unusually early, and that their dangers and sufferings were, in consequence, to be increased a hundredfold. The first news of this was brought to them by a terrible gale which arose in the night, and continued to blow with such violence that it was useless for them to attempt to fight against it, and they had no choice but to remain in their tents. For two days they lay in their blankets, shivering with the cold and with the pangs of hunger gnawing at them, for their provisions were now well nigh exhausted, and they had little left but some portable soup and arrowroot, which they were obliged to husband with the utmost care. By the morning of the 7th the gale had abated but little, and the cold was still intense. However, they had to choose between two alternatives. Either they must push on in the teeth of the hurricane, or they must be frozen to death where they lay, and the former naturally seemed preferable. Heavily laden as they were, in the most favourable circumstances they could only march at the rate of a mile an hour, but now their progress was infinitely slower, for the ground was covered a foot deep with snow, and the marshes and swamps were crusted with a thin coating of ice which frequently gave way beneath them.
The storm was still raging so violently that the Canadians, who took it in turn to carry the boats, were often blown down, and the larger of the two boats was soon smashed to pieces. From what Franklin knew of the character of the voyagers he was inclined to believe that the accident was by no means a mere misadventure, but that the canoe had been broken purposely to save the labour of further transportation. However, he could only make the best of a bad business, so he built a fire of the fragments, and over it he cooked the last of his arrowroot and soup.
So for many tedious days they plodded wearily on, subsisting as best they could upon an occasional partridge and a species of edible lichen called tripe de roche, which grew upon the boulders—a poor sustenance for twenty starving men. The lichen, moreover, though it allayed the pangs of hunger for a while, was exceedingly bitter to the palate and positively noxious to several members of the hapless party.
CROSSING THE BARREN GROUNDS
FROM A DRAWING BY CAPT. BACK
Their physical sufferings grew more and more terrible every day. Hunger was not the only hardship with which they had to contend, for their course was constantly intersected by swamps through which they had to wade, and, as the thermometer was always below freezing point, their wet clothes were instantly frozen as stiff as boards, making walking more painful than ever. Once or twice they were fortunate enough to fall in with a herd of musk-oxen or a stray deer, but the supply was totally inadequate to the demand, and for the most part they were obliged to subsist on tripe de roche, which hardly a single member of the little band could now eat without becoming ill. On September 10 they came upon a large lake, and Franklin’s drooping hopes were revived by the prospect of being able to supplement his provisions with a supply of fish. To his dismay, however, he now learnt that the Canadians, with criminal selfishness, had thrown away the nets and burnt the floats in order to decrease the burdens which they had to carry, an action which was all the more amazing seeing that, in their capacity of voyagers to the trading companies, they frequently found themselves in situations where they were obliged to depend on fishing for their means of subsistence.