Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the Years 1825, 1826, and 1827

by John Franklin; Sir John Richardson

We saw no ice that would have much impeded a ship, except between Sir George Clerk's Island and Cape Bexley, where it was heavy and closely packed. The appearance, however, of lanes of open water towards Wollaston Land, opposite to Cape Bexley, induced us to think that there might be a good passage for a ship on the outside of the ice, which lined the south shore, and which seems to have been packed into the indentations of the coast by the strong north-west winds that had prevailed for some days. A ship would find shelter amongst the islands of George the Fourth's Coronation Gulf, in Back's Inlet, in Darnley Bay, and amongst Booth's Islands, lying off Cape Parry; but the bottom, at the latter place, is rocky, and there are many sunken rocks along the whole of that coast. To the westward of Cape Parry, we saw no ship harbours, and the many sand-banks skirting the outlets of Esquimaux Lake would render it dangerous for a ship to approach the shore in that quarter. There is such an abundance of drift-timber on almost every part of the coast, that a sufficient supply of fuel for a ship might easily be collected, and wherever we landed on the main shore we found streams or small lakes of fresh water. Should the course of events ever introduce a steam-vessel into those seas, it may be important to know that in coasting the shores between Cape Bathurst and the Mackenzie, fire-wood sufficient for her daily consumption may be gathered, and that near the Babbage River, to the westward of the Mackenzie, a tertiary pitch-coal exists of excellent quality, which Captain Franklin describes as forming extensive beds.

The height to which the drift-timber is thrown up on the shores at the western entrance of the Dolphin and Union Straits is, I think, an indication of an occasional great rise in the sea, which, as the tides are in comparison so insignificant, I can ascribe only to the north-west winds driving the waters of an open sea towards the funnel-shaped entrance of the straits. If this view is correct, Wollaston Land probably extends far to the north, and closely adjoins to Banks' Land, or is connected with it. Captain Parry found the strait between Melville Island and Banks' Land obstructed by ice, and this will naturally be generally the case, both there and in the Dolphin and Union Straits, if they form the principal openings through a range of extensive islands, which run north and south, and bound a large tract of sea, comparatively free from land. The heat of the summer in that quarter seems to be always or almost always sufficient to admit of the ice breaking up, but not powerful enough to dissolve it entirely. Hence the loose ice driven about by the winds, and carried to the lee-side of the wider expanses of sea, is firmly packed in the narrow straits and winding passages amongst the islands, from whence it can be dislodged only by a concurrence of very favourable circumstances, and where the waste by the solar rays is replaced by every breeze blowing from the open sea. The north-west winds being the strongest and most prevalent in the latter part of the summer, it is at the western end of a strait that the ice is most frequently and closely packed. Captain Parry remarks that "there was something peculiar about the south-west extremity of Melville Island, which made the icy sea there extremely unfavourable to navigation, and which seemed to bid defiance to all efforts to proceed farther to the westward in that parallel of latitude." The Dolphin and Union Straits hold out greater prospects of success for a similar attempt, not only from their more southern position, but from the strong current of flood and ebb which flows through them and keeps the ice in motion.

We noticed on the coast about one hundred and seventy phænogamous, or flowering plants, being one-fifth of the number of species which exist fifteen degrees of latitude farther to the southward. The grasses, bents, and rushes, constitute only one-fifth of the number of species on the coast, but the two former tribes actually cover more ground than all the rest of the vegetation. The cruciferous, or cress-like tribes afford one-seventh of the species, and the compound flowers are nearly as numerous. The shrubby plants that reach the sea-coast are the common juniper, two species of willow, the dwarf Birch (betula glandulosa), the common alder, the hippophae, a gooseberry, the red bearberry (arbutus uva ursi), the Labrador tea plant, (ledum palustre,) the Lapland rose (rhododendron lapponicum,) the bog whortleberry (vaccinium uliginosum,) and the crow-berry (empetrum nigrum.) The kidney-leaved oxyria grows in great luxuriance there, and occasionally furnished us with an agreeable addition to our meals, as it resembles the garden sorrel in flavour, but is more juicy and tender. It is eaten by the natives, and must, as well as many of the cress-like plants, prove an excellent corrective of the gross, oily, rancid, and frequently putrid meat, on which they subsist. The small bulbs of the Alpine bistort (polygonum viviparum,) and the long, succulent, and sweet roots of many of the astragaleæ, which grow on the sandy shores, are eatable; but we did not learn that the Esquimaux were acquainted with their use. A few clumps of white spruce-fir, with some straggling black spruces and canoe birches, grow at the distance of twenty or thirty miles from the sea, in sheltered situations, on the banks of rivers.

ABSTRACT of the Meteorological Register, kept by the Eastern Detachment, in their Voyage between the Mouths of the Mackenzie and Coppermine Rivers.

Date.	Temperature in the Shade.			Direction of the Winds.	Weather andRemarks.
	Lowest.	Highest.	Mean.
July 9	32	38	35	East; NEbE.	Fresh breezes.Clear sky with fog over the ice.
10	45	57	51	ESE.	Strong breezes, clearweather.
11	42	51	43	East.	Strong breezes, clear sky, and bright sun.
12	45	50	47	Do.	Ditto, ditto.
13	46	57	52	East; SE.	Moderate breezes. Clear sky; rain in the night.
14	42	42	42	West.	Heavy gales. Thick fog.
15	53	57	55	Nearly calm.	Veryfine weather.
16	38	55	47	South.	Moderate breezes. Cloudy a.m., clear p.m.
17	50	62	54	West; North.	Fog a.m. When wind veered to north cleared up.Temperature of sea 55°.
18	45	56	50	South; East.	Light airs a.m.; freshbreezes p.m.; calm in the night.
19	44	54	49	East; West.	Fresh breezes andcloudy a.m. Four p.m. West wind and foggy weather.
20	46	50	48	NW.,WNW.	Foggy; fresh breezes a.m. Increased to a strong gale p.m.
21	42	48	46	WNW.; NW.	Fresh breezes and foggy a.m. Fine and clearp.m.
22	45	47	46	South.	Fresh breezes a.m. Fine weather p.m.
23	46	58	52	SW.	Moderate and cloudy. Many Musquitoes.

Meteorological Register, &c.—Concluded.

Date.	Temperature in the Shade.			Direction of the Winds.	Weather andRemarks.
	Lowest.	Highest.	Mean.
July 24	50	76	66	West.	Moderate breezes. Foggya.m. Occasionally hazy p.m. Myriads of Musquitoes.
25	45	66	55	South;NE.	Fine a.m. Strong gales and partial fogs p.m.
26	35	47	41	NE.	Strong galesand clear. Temperature of sea 35°.
27	35	45	40	ENE.	Moderate.
28	35	50	42	Calm; North.	Fine clear weather.
29	37	41	38	WNW.	Moderatebreezes; foggy.
30	36	40	38	WNW.	Fog hanging over the ice; clear inland;moderate breezes.
31	38	45	41	NW.	Moderate breezes; occasionally hazy, fogover the ice.
Aug. 1	43	50	48	West.	Moderate breezes; hazy to seaward.
2	34	50	41	West; variable.	Hazy and occasionally foggy.
3	38	43	40	NE.; East.	Light breezes and clear.
4	38	55	46	NE.; ESE.	Fineclear weather.
5	39	56	47	EbS.;WSW.	Do. Moderate p.m.
6	42	56	47	South;variable.	Do.
7	36	68	52	SSE.	Fine and very clear. Temperature in the sun86°.
8	44	60	52	North.	Do.
	41.45	51.92	46.48

FOOTNOTES:

[9]The appearance of whales on the north coast, nearly midway between the nearest passages into Behring's and Barrow's Straits, and upwards of a thousand miles distant from either, affords subject for interesting speculation. It is known that they must come frequently to the surface to breathe, and the following questions naturally arise:—Are there at all seasons large spaces of open water in the Arctic Seas? or do these animals travel from the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans immediately on the breaking up of the ice off Cape Bathurst, and so early in the season as the middle of July; while the sea, to the eastward and westward, is still covered with ice? if the latter is the fact, it is a very curious part of the natural history of these animals. The Esquimaux informed us, that they are rarely seen when the ice lies close, and in accordance with this remark Captain Franklin saw few to the westward, and we also lost them as we approached the Coppermine River, and met with more ice.

[10]Since the above passage was written, the world has had to mourn the loss of this distinguished statesman and philosopher.