CHAPTER XIX.
PARRY"S BOAT AND SLEDGE EXPEDITION.
Parry"s Attempt at the Pole-Hecla Cove-Boat and Sledge Expedition-Mode of Travelling-Their Camps-Laborious Efforts-Broken Ice-Midnight Dinners and Afternoon Breakfasts-Labours of Sisyphus-Drifting Ice-Highest Lat.i.tude Reached-Return Trip to the Ship-Parry"s Subsequent Career-Wrangell"s Ice Journeys.
Undaunted by the comparative failure of his last voyage, we find Parry in 1826 proposing an attempt to reach the North Pole with sledge-boats over the ice. The reports of several navigators who had visited Spitzbergen agreed in one point-that the ice to the northward was of a nature favourable to such a project. In the two narratives descriptive of Captain Phipps"s expedition in 1773 the ice was mentioned as "flat and unbroken,"
"one continued plain," and so forth. Scoresby the younger, speaking of the ice in the same region, stated that he once saw a field so free from fissure or hummock that he imagined, "had it been free from snow, a coach might have been driven many leagues over it in a direct line without obstruction or danger." Franklin had previously mooted a very similar proposition to that now made by Parry, and his plans were followed in many essential particulars when the sanction of the Admiralty had been given to the attempt. Two twenty-feet boats were specially constructed, nearly resembling what were called "troop-boats," having great flatness of floor, with an even width almost to bows and stern. They were provided with strong "runners," shod with steel in the manner of a sledge, and their construction generally was such as to combine lightness with strength. A bamboo mast, a large sail-answering also for an awning-fourteen paddles, a steer-oar, and a boat-hook, formed an essential part of the equipment of each.
The _Hecla_ left the Nore April 4th, 1827, on this her fourth Arctic voyage; and the expedition reached Hammerfest April 19th, where eight reindeer(32) were taken on board, with a supply of moss for their provender. A number of snow-shoes and "kamoogas" (leather shoes, intended to be worn with the former) were also obtained. On May 14th the _Hecla_ reached Hakluyt"s Headland, where a severe gale was encountered, which almost laid the ship on her beam-ends, and her canvas had to be reduced to her maintop-sail and storm-sails. Shortly afterwards the vessel was driven into a most perilous position, almost on to the packed ice. It was deemed advisable to try the dangerous and almost last resort of running the ship into the pack, and a tolerably open part of the margin having been found, the ship was forced into it under all sail. The plan succeeded, and the _Hecla_ was soon in a secure situation half a mile inside the ice-field, with which she drifted vaguely about for many days. It was not till June 18th that a secure harbour for the vessel was found on the northern Spitzbergen coast, which was named accordingly Hecla Cove.
Having made all necessary arrangements for the safety of the vessel, Parry left the station on June 21st with the two boats, which were named the _Enterprise_ and the _Endeavour_, Lieutenant (afterwards Sir) James Clarke Ross having command of the second. Lieutenant Crozier accompanied the boats to Low and Walden Islands, where depots of provisions were made.
Provisions for seventy-one days were taken, which, including the boats and all necessary gear, made up a weight of 260 lbs. per man. Four officers and twenty-four men const.i.tuted the party. The boats made good progress until stopped by the ice at noon on the 24th, when they were hauled upon a small floe, the lat.i.tude by observation being 81 12" 51". The plan of travelling on the ice was much as follows: Night-if the term can be used at all in connection with the long Arctic summer day-was selected for travelling, partly because the snow was harder, and they also avoided the glare on its surface produced by the rays of the sun at its greatest alt.i.tude, which is the immediate cause of snow blindness. Greater warmth was enjoyed during the hours of rest, and it also gave them a better chance of drying their clothes. "This travelling by night and sleeping by day," says Parry, "so completely inverted the natural order of things that it was difficult to persuade ourselves of the reality. Even the officers and myself, who were all furnished with pocket chronometers, could not always bear in mind at what part of the twenty-four hours we had arrived; and there were several of the men who declared-and I believe truly-that they never knew night from day during the whole excursion." The day was always commenced by prayers, after which they took off their fur sleeping-dresses, and put on those for travelling. Breakfast was rather a light meal, consisting only of warm cocoa and biscuit. After stowing the boats, &c., so as to secure them from wet, they usually travelled five to five and a half hours, halted an hour for dinner, and then again travelled four, five, or even six hours. After this they halted for the "night,"-usually early in the morning-selecting the largest surface of ice in the vicinity for hauling the boats on, in order to lessen the danger of collision with other ma.s.ses or from its breaking up. The boats were placed close alongside each other, and the sails, supported by the bamboo masts and three paddles, formed awnings over them. Supper over, the officers and men smoked their pipes, usually raising the temperature of their lodging 10 or 15; the men told their stories and "fought all their battles o"er again, and the labours of the day, unsuccessful as they too often were, were forgotten." The day was concluded with prayer, after which they retired for the night, a watch being set for bears or for the breaking up of the ice. The cook roused them with a bugle call after seven hours"
rest, and the work of the day commenced as before. The dietary scale seems to have been very light for such hard work in that severe climate-ten ounces of biscuit, nine ounces of pemmican, and one ounce of sweetened cocoa-powder, with one gill of rum per day each man. The fuel used consisted exclusively of spirits of wine, the cocoa, or pemmican soup, being cooked in an iron pot over a shallow lamp with seven wicks.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE EDGE OF THE PACK.]
The journey commenced with very slow and laborious travelling, the pieces of ice at the margin of the pack being of small extent and very rugged.
This obliged them to make three, and sometimes four, journeys with the boats and baggage, and to launch frequently over narrow pools of water. In other words, in making a distance of two miles they had to travel six or eight, and their progress was very tedious. Fog and rain hindered them somewhat, while the condition of much of the ice over which they pa.s.sed rendered their journey very fatiguing. Much of it "presented a very curious appearance and structure, being composed, on its upper surface, of numberless irregular, needle-like crystals, placed vertically and nearly close together, their length varying, in different pieces of ice, from five to ten inches." A vertical section of it resembled satin-spar and asbestos when falling to pieces. This kind of ice affords pretty firm footing early in the season, but as the summer advances the needles become loose and movable, rendering progress very difficult, besides cutting into the boots and feet. The men called these ice-spikes "pen-knives." This peculiar formation of ice Parry attributed to the infiltration of rain-water from above. The water was standing in pools on the ice, and they had often to wade through it. On the 28th the party arrived at a floe covered with high and rugged hummocks in successive tiers, and the boats had to be dragged up and down places which were almost perpendicular.
While performing this laborious work, one of the men was nearly crushed by a boat falling upon him from one of the hummocks. As an example of the hara.s.sing nature of this service, we find them on the 29th, in making a mile of northing by a circuitous route among the ice-ma.s.ses and open pools, travelling and re-travelling about _ten_ miles in order to keep the party and supplies together. They tried for soundings, and found no bottom at two hundred fathoms (1,200 feet); later, a four hundred fathom line gave no bottom. On the 30th snowy and inclement weather rendered the atmosphere so thick that they were obliged to halt; later in the same day they made five miles by rowing in a very winding channel.
"As soon," says Parry, "as we landed on a floe-piece, Lieutenant Ross and myself generally went on ahead, while the boats were unloading and hauling up, in order to select the easiest road for them. The sledges then followed in our track, Messrs. Beverly and Bird accompanying them, by which the snow was much trodden down, and the road thus improved for the boats. As soon as we arrived at the other end of the floe, or came to any difficult place, we mounted one of the highest hummocks of ice near at hand (many of which were from fifteen to five-and-twenty feet above the sea), in order to obtain a better view around us; and nothing could well exceed the dreariness which such a view presented. The eye wearied itself in vain to find an object but ice and sky to rest upon; and even the latter was often hidden from our view by the dense and dismal fogs which so generally prevailed. For want of variety, the most trifling circ.u.mstances engaged a more than ordinary share of our attention-a pa.s.sing gull or a ma.s.s of ice of unusual form became objects which our situation and circ.u.mstances magnified into ridiculous importance; and we have since often smiled to remember the eager interest with which we regarded many insignificant occurrences. It may well be imagined, then, how cheering it was to turn from this scene of inanimate desolation to our two little boats in the distance, to see the moving figures of our men winding among the hummocks, and to hear once more the sound of human voices breaking the stillness of this icy wilderness. In some cases Lieutenant Ross and myself took separate routes to try the ground, which kept us almost continually floundering among deep snow and water." The soft snow encountered was a great hindrance; on one occasion it took the party two hours to make a distance of 150 yards! They had been deviating from their night travelling, and were otherwise feeling the effects of it in that inflammation of the eyes which ends in snow-blindness. The night travelling was therefore resumed. On July 3rd their way at first lay across a number of small loose pieces of ice, most of which were from five to twenty yards apart, or just sufficiently separated to give them all the trouble of launching and hauling up the boats _without_ the advantage of making any progress by water. Sometimes the boats were used as a kind of bridge, by which the men crossed from one ma.s.s to another. By this means they at length reached a floe about a mile in length, on which the snow lay to the depth of five inches or so, under which, again, there was about the same depth of water. Parry says that snow-shoes would not have been of the least service, as the surface was so irregular that the men would have been thrown down at every other step. Among the hummocks noted at this time were smooth, regular cones of ice, "resembling in shape the aromatic pastiles sold by chemists; this roundness and regularity of form indicate age, all the more recent ones being sharp and angular."
Day after day they laboured on, with little variation in the circ.u.mstances detailed above. The men worked with great cheerfulness and goodwill, "being animated with the hope of soon reaching the more continuous body which had been considered as composing the "main ice" to the northward of Spitzbergen," which Captain Lutwidge had described as "one continued plain of smooth, unbroken ice, bounded only by the horizon."(33) They certainly deserved to reach it, if it existed at all; but it is more than probable that this apparently continuous level, mentioned by several navigators, had been seen from an elevation, the "crow"s nest" on board ship, or some hill ash.o.r.e, and that a nearer inspection would have shown it to be full of hummocks and breaks.
It is amusing to read of them _breakfasting_ at five p.m., _dining_ at midnight, and _taking supper_ at six or seven o"clock in the morning! On July 11th, having halted an hour at midnight for dinner, they were again hara.s.sed by a heavy rainfall, but although drenched to the skin they made better progress soon after, traversing twelve miles, and making seven and a half in a northerly direction. They had now reached the lat.i.tude of 82 11" 51". Next day"s exertions only enabled them to make three and a half miles of direct northing, and the following day but two and a half. Much thin ice was encountered; it was often a nervous thing to see their whole means of subsistence lying on a decayed sheet, with holes quite through it, and which would have broken up with the slightest motion among the surrounding ma.s.ses. One day the ice on one side of a boat, heavy with provisions and stores, gave way, almost upsetting her; a number of the men jumped upon the ice and restored the balance temporarily. A rain-storm of twenty-one hours" duration is recorded on the 14th and 15th, which was, as generally the case, succeeded by a thick wet fog. On the 16th the narrative records "the unusual comfort of putting on dry stockings, and the no less rare luxury of delightfully pleasant weather." It was so warm in the sun that the tar exuded from the seams of the boats. Even the sea-water, though loaded with ice, had a temperature of 34. At this time the ice-floes were larger, though none are recorded over three miles in length. On the 18th, after eleven hours" actual labour, "requiring, for the most part," says Parry, "our whole strength to be exerted, we had travelled over a s.p.a.ce not exceeding four miles, of which only two were made good in a NNW. direction." The men, exhausted by their day"s work, were treated to a little extra hot cocoa. They were also put into good spirits by having killed a small seal, which next night gave them an excellent supper. "The meat of these young animals is tender," says Parry, "and free from oiliness; but it certainly has a smell and a look which would not have been agreeable to any but very hungry people like ourselves." They utilised its blubber for fuel, after the Esquimaux manner. Some few birds-rotges, dovekies, looms, mollemucks, and ivory and Ross gulls-were very occasionally seen and shot; and one day _a couple of small flies_ were found upon the ice, which to them was an event of ridiculous importance, and as so is recorded in the narrative. This at least gives an insight into the terrible monotony of their existence at this period.
Hitherto they had been favoured by the wind, but on the 19th a northerly breeze set in, which, while it was the means of opening several lanes of water, counterbalanced this advantage by drifting the ice-and, by consequence, the party on it-in a southerly direction. Great was their mortification at noon on the 20th to find by observation that since the same hour on the 17th they had only advanced five miles in a northerly direction. Although they had apparently made good progress in the intervening time, their efforts had been nullified by the ice drifting southward. These facts were carefully concealed from the men. On the 21st the floe broke under the weight of the boats and sledges; some of the men went completely through, and one of them was only held up by his drag-belt being attached to a sledge which happened to be on firmer ice. This day they made nearly seven miles by travelling, and drifted back four and a half; or, in other words, their observation of the lat.i.tude showed them to have, in reality, advanced only two miles and a quarter. Under these circ.u.mstances we can understand their anxiety when, after a calm of short duration, fog-banks were observed rising both to the southward and north.
Which would prevail? That from the south came first, with a light air from that quarter, but soon after the weather became perfectly calm and clear.
Next night they made the best travelling during the expedition. The floes were large and tolerably level, and some good lanes of water occurring, they believed that they must have _advanced_ ten or eleven miles in a NNE.
direction, having traversed a distance of about seventeen. They had done so-_on the ice_; but the ice itself had drifted so much to the southward that they found, to their great disappointment and disgust, by observation of the lat.i.tude, that they had only made _four_ miles. Still worse was it on the 26th, when they found themselves in lat.i.tude 82 40" 23"; since their last observation on the 22nd they had, though travelling almost incessantly, _lost_ by drift no less than thirteen miles and a half, and were more than three miles to the southward of their earlier position. The men unsuspiciously remarked that they "were a long time getting to this 83!" ignorant of the fact that the current was now taking them faster south than all their labours advanced them north. Unlike Sisyphus, they were but exerting an honourable ambition, but like him they were rolling a stone up-hill which constantly rolled back again. The eighty-third parallel had been for some time past the limit of Parry"s ambition, but although he never reached it, he had the proud satisfaction of having hoisted the British flag in a higher lat.i.tude than ever attained before.
Markham has since beaten him. Parry reached 82 45", and in reaching it the party had, in the necessarily circuitous course taken, and counting the constant retracing of their steps, travelled a distance nearly sufficient to have reached the North Pole itself in a direct line.
It became evident that the nature and drift of the ice were such as to preclude the possibility of a final success greater than that recorded.
They had now been absent from the ship thirty-five days, and one-half their supplies were exhausted. Parry therefore determined to give the party a day"s rest, and then set out on the return. He says:-"Dreary and cheerless as were the scenes we were about to leave, we never turned homewards with so little satisfaction as on this occasion." Still, the southern current was now an advantage, and they knew that every mile would tell. The return was made successfully and without any very serious casualties. Lieutenant Ross shot a fat she-bear which had approached within twenty yards. Before the animal had done biting the snow, one of the men was alongside of her with an open knife, cutting out the heart and liver for the pot which happened to be then boiling their supper. Hardly had the bear been dead an hour when all hands were employed in discussing its merits as a viand, and some of them very much over-gorged themselves, and were ill in consequence, though they "attributed this effect to the quality, and not the quant.i.ty, of meat they had eaten." On the morning of August 11th the first sound of the ocean swell was heard under the hollow margins of the ice, and they soon reached the open sea, which was dashing with heavy surges against the outer ma.s.ses. Sailing and paddling, fifty miles further brought them to Table Island, where they found that bears had devoured all the bread left at the depot, as arranged at the commencement of their voyage. The men navely remarked, says Parry, that "Bruin was only square with us." From a doc.u.ment deposited there during his absence, he learned that on July 7th the _Hecla_ had been forced on sh.o.r.e by the ice breaking up, but that she had been hove off safely.
Taking advantage of a favourable breeze, they steered their boats for Walden Island, but _en route_ had bad weather, reaching it completely drenched and worn-out, having had no rest for fifty-six hours. They had barely strength to haul the boats ash.o.r.e above the surf; but a hot supper, a blazing fire of drift-wood, and a few hours" quiet rest soon restored them. The party arrived at the ship on August 21st, having been absent sixty-one days. Allowing for the number of times they had to return for their baggage during most of the journeys on the ice, Parry estimated their actual travelling at eleven hundred and twenty-seven statute miles; and as they were constantly exposed to wet, cold, and fatigue, as well as to considerable peril, it was matter for thankfulness that all of the party returned in excellent health, two only requiring some little medical care for trifling ailments.
The future career of Parry was of a very different nature. After being knighted, and feted by the people of England, in the spring of 1829 he was appointed Commissioner of the Australian Agricultural Company in New South Wales; and one who visited the country a few years later wrote:-"At Port Stephens Sir Edward Parry found a wilderness, but left a land of hope and promise." Returning to England in 1835, he was appointed a.s.sistant Commissioner of Poor Law in the county of Norfolk, but after a year and a half was forced to resign through ill-health. He was afterwards made Comptroller of Steam Machinery to the Admiralty, a post which he held for nearly nine years, during which time the duties of his office became every day more arduous; and in December, 1846, he received the appointment to the post of Captain Superintendent of the Royal Clarence Yard and of the Naval Hospital at Haslar. He took a prominent part in the founding of a sailors" home at Portsmouth; and in 1852 had to resign his post at Haslar in consequence of attaining his rear-admiral"s flag. At the close of the following year he was made Governor of Greenwich Hospital, and died on the 8th of July, 1855, at Ems. His remains were brought to England and buried in the mausoleum at Greenwich Hospital.
Parry"s Polar journey can hardly be dismissed without some reference to the remarkable expeditions made by Wrangell, the great Russian explorer.
Between 1820 and 1823 inclusive he made four expeditions on the ice northward from the Siberian coast, starting from the town or settlement of Nijni Kolymsk, on the Kolyma River. These excursions were made with dog sledges, and the condition of the ice must therefore have been much superior to that encountered by Parry, who found that the reindeers he had intended for the same purpose could not be employed at all. The provisions taken by Wrangell were rye-biscuit, meat, and portable soup; smoked fish; the great Russian speciality, tea; spirits; and tobacco. A conical tent of reindeer skin, _inside_ of which a fire was lighted, was part of the outfit. He proceeded on one occasion 140 miles, and on another 170 miles, from the land to the margin of the open sea, having often to cross ridges of broken and hummocky ice sometimes eighty and ninety feet above the general level. At the edge of the frozen field the ice was found to be rotten and unsafe; and on his last journey, when the ice on which he travelled was broken up by a gale while he was seventy miles from land, nothing but the swiftness of his dogs, who tore over the opening gaps, saved him from destruction. A very thankful man was Wrangell when he reached _terra firma_ once more.
CHAPTER XX.
THE MAGNETIC POLE.-A LAND JOURNEY TO THE POLAR SEA.
Sir John Ross and the _Victory_-First Steam Vessel employed in the Arctic-Discovery of the Magnetic Pole-The British Flag waving over it-Franklin and Richardson"s Journeys to the Polar Sea-The Coppermine River-Sea Voyage in Birch-bark Canoes-Return Journey-Terrible Sufferings-Starvation and Utter Exhaustion-Deaths by the Way-A Brave Feat-Relieved at length-Journey to the Mouth of the Mackenzie-Fracas with the Esquimaux-Peace Restored.
Immediately after the return of Parry"s expedition in 1827, Sir John Ross submitted to the Admiralty the plans for the voyage of which we are about to speak. Hitherto all voyages of discovery in the Arctic seas had been made in sailing vessels. Ross deserves the credit of having been the first to urge the employment of a steam-ship in that service. His proposals were not accepted, and he therefore laid the scheme before a wealthy friend, Mr. Sheriff Booth. At that time the Parliamentary reward of 20,000 was still outstanding to the discoverer of a north-west pa.s.sage, and Mr. Booth declined to embark "in what might be deemed by others a mere mercantile speculation." Not long afterwards, the Government reward being withdrawn, Mr. Booth immediately empowered Ross to provide, at his own private expense, all that was necessary for the expedition. A paddle-wheel steamer, the _Victory_, was purchased. The vessel was strengthened and many other improvements made. She was provisioned for a thousand days, and was to have been accompanied for some distance by a store-ship. The men on the latter mutinied at Loch Ryan, and the larger part of them immediately left the ship, which, to make a long story short, never proceeded on this voyage. Misfortune befell the _Victory_; her engines proved a total failure, and at the commencement of the voyage were the cause of much anxiety and worry to the commander. It must be remembered that _sea-going_ steamers were then of very recent introduction, while long _ocean voyages_ in steam-ships were almost unthought of. Symington"s first _river_ steamer had indeed made her first trip on the Clyde as early as 1788, but the earliest _sea-going_ steamboat of which we have record did not make a trip till 1815. The voyage was only from Glasgow to London. As we have seen, an American steamer crossed the Atlantic Ocean to Liverpool in 1819; but it was not till 1838, when the _Great Western_ and _Sirius_ crossed the Atlantic, that this great steamship route was really opened. Ross was therefore very early in the field, and should be regarded as a man of penetration for his epoch. Nowadays, as we all know, vessels with at least auxiliary, if not complete steam power, are nearly always employed in Government expeditions, and even by whalers in the Arctic seas.
The expedition left England May 23rd, 1829, and arrived home again on October 18th, 1833, having thus been absent for the lengthened period of four years and five months. The coast surveys made by Ross of King William"s Land and Boothia Felix (named after the munificent merchant who had so liberally provided the expedition) were careful, and doubtless accurate, but not very extensive. The most interesting feature of all was the determination of the exact locality of the Magnetic Pole, which was accomplished by the nephew of Sir John Ross (later Sir James Ross) on June 1st, 1831.
Before leaving the vessel it was perfectly understood that they were in the immediate vicinity of the Magnetic Pole; and, indeed, it was afterwards proved that Commander Ross had been, in a preceding land journey in 1830, within ten miles of the spot, but had been unprovided with the necessary instruments to determine that fact. The weather on the trip was tempestuous and bl.u.s.tering, but no special disaster occurred, and on the morning of May 31st they found themselves within fourteen miles of the calculated position. Leaving behind the larger part of their baggage and provisions on the beach, the party hurried forward in a state of excitement pardonable under the circ.u.mstances. At eight o"clock the next morning their journey was at an end, and never, doubtless, were exhausted men more thoroughly happy. It will interest the reader to learn how the Magnetic Pole looks.
"The land," wrote Ross the younger, "at this place is very low near the coast, but it rises into ridges of fifty or sixty feet high about a mile inland. We could have wished that a place so important had possessed more of mark or note. It was scarcely censurable to regret that there was not a mountain to indicate a spot to which so much of interest must ever be attached; and I could even have pardoned any one among us who had been so romantic or absurd as to expect that the Magnetic Pole was an object as conspicuous and mysterious as the fabled mountain of Sinbad, that it was even a mountain of iron, or a magnet as large as Mont Blanc. But Nature had here erected no monument to denote the spot which she had chosen as the centre of one of her great and dark powers, and where we could do little ourselves toward this end.... We were, however, fortunate in here finding some huts of Esquimaux that had not long been abandoned." A series of scientific observations were at once made, the most conspicuous results of which were as follows:-At their observatory the amount of the dip, as indicated by the dipping-needle, was 89 59", being thus within one minute of the vertical, while the proximity of the Magnetic Pole was confirmed by the absolute inaction of the several horizontal needles. "These were suspended in the most delicate manner possible, but there was not one which showed the slightest effort to move from the position in which it was placed." In other words, the magnetic force was dead in that very spot to which millions of compa.s.ses are ever pointing.
The British flag was fixed on the spot, and the discoverers took possession of the Magnetic Pole in the name of Great Britain and King William IV. A limestone cairn was erected, in which a canister containing the record of the visit of Ross and his companions was deposited. Ross says that "had it been a pyramid as large as that of Cheops, I am not quite sure that it would have done more than satisfy our ambition under the feelings of that exciting day. The lat.i.tude of this spot is 70 5"
17", and its longitude 96 46" 45" W." On the return journey to the ship they encountered blinding snow-storms, but eventually reached it in safety, after an absence of twenty-eight days.
[Ill.u.s.tration: DR. (AFTERWARDS SIR) JOHN RICHARDSON.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FORT ENTERPRISE.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: RICHARDSON"S ADVENTURE WITH WHITE WOLVES.]
In 1819-22 Franklin made a most remarkable and perilous land and river journey to the sh.o.r.es of the Polar Sea, which will be only briefly noticed here for obvious reasons. The party consisted of Franklin, Dr. Richardson, Back, Hood, and a sailor named Hepburn, who is very highly commended in the narrative. They left England May 22nd, 1819, and reached York Factory, Hudson"s Bay, at the end of August. Thence they proceeded to c.u.mberland House, whence Franklin, Back, and Hepburn, travelled to Carlton House and Chipewyan, a winter journey of 857 miles; the others followed, and a number of _voyageurs_ were engaged. In the spring they again started, reaching Fort Providence on July 28th, 1820, from which place they proceeded to a point situated by Winter Lake, where they determined to erect a house and pa.s.s the winter. The house, or post, was named Fort Enterprise. Back and others travelled backwards and forwards this winter 1,104 miles in order to fetch up a sufficient quant.i.ty of provisions for their next summer"s work, and suffered severely from the intense cold and from something like starvation on many occasions. The last day of June, 1821, the party reached and embarked upon the Coppermine River, and eighteen days later reached the sea-coast, about 317 miles from their last winter quarters. The canoes and baggage had been dragged over snow and ice for 117 miles of this distance, and they had successfully pa.s.sed many rapids. They were now in the country of the Esquimaux, and exposed to fresh anxieties from the unfriendly feeling which existed between them and the Indians. Dr. Richardson, one night, whilst on the first watch, had seated himself on a hill overhanging the river; his thoughts were possibly engaged with far distant scenes, when he was roused by an indistinct noise behind him, and, on looking round, perceived that nine white wolves had ranged themselves in the form of a crescent, and were advancing, apparently with the intention of driving him into the river. On his rising up they halted, and when he advanced, they made way for his pa.s.sage down to the tents. He had his gun in his hand, but forbore to fire, lest he should alarm any Esquimaux who might possibly be in the neighbourhood. The Canadian _voyageurs_ were delighted with their first view of the sea, and amused at the sight of the seals gambolling and swimming about, but were not unnaturally terrified at the idea of the voyage, through an icy sea, now proposed by Franklin. On July 21st, with only fifteen days" provisions on board, they commenced an eastward trip of 550 miles, which is little less than the direct distance between the Coppermine River and Repulse Bay, which Franklin had at one time fondly hoped to reach. Storms arose; their canoes were badly shattered and their provisions nearly exhausted, and at a position now marked on the map as Point Turnagain they desisted from further attempts. He determined to steer westward at once for Arctic Sound, and by Hood"s River attempt to reach their old quarters at Fort Enterprise. They had a somewhat chilling prospect before them, for as early as August 20th the pools were frozen over, snow on the ground, and the thermometer down to freezing point at noon. The hunters were unsuccessful, and they made "a scanty meal off a handful of pemmican, after which only half a bag remained." Bad as were the canoes, and worse as was the weather, they managed to paddle along bravely till, on the 26th, they reached Hood"s River. "Here," says Franklin, "terminated our voyage on the Arctic Sea, during which we had gone over 650 geographical miles." "Our Canadian voyagers," Franklin mentions, "could not restrain their joy at having turned their backs on the sea, and they spent the evening in talking over their past adventures with much humour and no little exaggeration. It is due to their character to mention that they displayed much courage in encountering the dangers of the sea, magnified to them by their novelty." They proceeded a few miles up the river, and then encamped.
Two small canoes having been constructed from the remains of the older and now almost useless ones, they, on the 1st of September, left the river, the commander having determined to make a direct line for Point Lake, 149 miles distant. Having proceeded a dozen or so miles, they encountered a severe snow-storm, which obliged them to encamp, and it raged so violently that they were obliged to stop there, m.u.f.fled up in their blankets and skins, for nearly a week. On the 3rd of September the _last_ piece of pemmican and a small quant.i.ty of arrowroot were served out, and with no fire, a temperature below freezing, and wet garments, they were in a miserable plight. The storm abated on the 7th, but when they attempted to proceed Franklin was seized with a fainting fit, in consequence of sudden exposure and exhaustion. Several of the men, with much kindness, urged him to eat a morsel of portable soup, the small and only remaining meal, which, after much hesitation, he did, and was much revived. The canoe-carriers were so weak that they were constantly blown down, and one of their little boats was crushed to pieces by a fall. They utilised it by making a fire to cook the remnant of portable soup and arrowroot-their last meal. For the next two days they had to live on the lichen named by the Canadians _tripe de roche_, but on the 10th they killed a large musk ox-which, by-the-bye, was a cow-and they enjoyed a good meal. Soon again all supplies failed them, and a fatal despondency settled upon many of the men, who, giving up all hope, left behind articles of incalculable value to the expedition, including the second canoe and their fishing-nets. It must be remembered that they were pa.s.sing over a most rugged country, where they had constantly to cross streams and rivers, and were living mainly on a scanty supply of _tripe de roche_. At this depressing moment a fine trait of disinterestedness occurred. As the officers stood together round a small fire, enduring the very intensity of hunger, Perrault, one of the Canadians, presented each of them with a piece of meat out of a little store which he had saved from his allowance. "It was received,"
says Franklin, "with great thankfulness, and such an instance of self-denial and kindness filled our eyes with tears." Back, the most active and vigorous of the party, was sent forward with some of the hunters to apprise the people at Fort Enterprise of the approach of the rest. Credit and Junius followed them, also to hunt. Credit returned, but Junius was missing and was never after heard of. They had now reached a branch of the Coppermine River, and it became necessary to make a raft of willows, which occupied them to the 29th. Then all attempts to cross the river in it failed.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PERRAULT DIVIDING HIS LITTLE STORE.]
"In this hopeless condition," says Franklin, "with certain starvation staring them in the face, Dr. Richardson, actuated by the n.o.ble desire of making a last effort for the safety of the party, and of relieving his suffering companions from a state of misery which could only terminate, and that speedily, in death, volunteered to make the attempt to swim across the stream, carrying with him a line by which the raft might be hauled over.
"He launched into the stream with the line round his middle, but when he had got to a short distance from the opposite bank his arms became benumbed with cold, and he lost the power of moving them; still he persevered, and turning on his back, had nearly gained the opposite sh.o.r.e, when his legs also became powerless, and to our infinite alarm we beheld him sink; we instantly hauled upon the line, and he came again on the surface, and was gradually drawn ash.o.r.e in an almost lifeless state. Being rolled up in blankets, he was placed before a good fire of willows, and fortunately was just able to speak sufficiently to give some slight directions respecting the manner of treating him. He recovered strength gradually, and through the blessing of G.o.d was enabled in the course of a few hours to converse, and by the evening was sufficiently recovered to remove into the tent. We then regretted to learn that the skin of his whole left side was deprived of feeling, in consequence of exposure to too great heat. He did not perfectly recover the sensation of that side until the following summer. I cannot describe what every one felt at beholding the skeleton which the doctor"s debilitated frame exhibited when he stripped; the Canadians simultaneously exclaimed, "_Ah! que nous sommes maigres!_" I shall best explain his state and that of the party by the following extract from his journal:-
""It may be worthy of remark that I should have had little hesitation in any former period of my life at plunging into water even below 38 Fahrenheit; but at this time I was reduced almost to skin and bone, and, like the rest of the party, suffered from degrees of cold that would have been disregarded in health and vigour. During the whole of our march we experienced that no quant.i.ty of clothing would keep us warm whilst we fasted; but on those occasions on which we were enabled to go to bed with full stomachs we pa.s.sed the night in a warm and comfortable manner.""
Franklin adds:-"In following the detail of our friend"s narrow escape, I have omitted to mention that when he was about to step into the water he put his foot on a dagger, which cut him to the bone; but this misfortune could not stop him from attempting the execution of his generous undertaking."
But although they had crossed the river they had much before them, and a fearful amount of despondency prevailed. Franklin wishing one day to reach one of his men three-quarters of a mile distant, spent _three hours_ in a vain attempt to wade through the snow. Hood was reduced to a perfect skeleton, Richardson was lame as well as exhausted, and even Back, the energetic and unconquerable, had to use a stick. The _voyageurs_ were somewhat stronger, but seem to have given up all hope; Hepburn alone seems to have remained cheerful and resigned, and he was indefatigable in collecting _tripe de roche_. On October 4th it was determined that Franklin, with eight of his party, should push forward, and endeavour to send back a.s.sistance. Four of these broke down almost immediately, and endeavoured to return to the last camp; only one arrived; the other three _were no more heard of_. Franklin succeeded in reaching Fort Enterprise, where they found neither inhabitants nor supplies. On the way they had literally eaten a part of their boots, and at the house were only too glad to boil bones and pieces of skin for their sustenance. It is almost impossible to give the reader in few words a fair idea of the terrible condition in which they were. Franklin determined to push forward to the next fort, but found that he had made but four miles in the first six hours" travel, and he, therefore, reluctantly returned to the house, letting two of the Canadians proceed. Eighteen days elapsed, and then Dr.
Richardson and Hepburn arrived. Mr. Hood had, meantime, been shot by Michel, one of their Indians, who it was believed had also been the murderer of the three exhausted men who had been missing. He had remained in strong and vigorous condition when the rest were utterly exhausted. Dr.
Richardson, being thoroughly convinced of these facts, killed Michel with a pistol-shot shortly afterwards. "The emaciated countenances of the doctor and Hepburn" gave evidence of their debilitated state. "The doctor," says Franklin, "particularly remarked the sepulchral tones of our voices, which he requested of us to make more cheerful, if possible, unconscious that his own partook of the same key." Hepburn had shot a partridge on the way, and the _sixth part of this_ was the first morsel of flesh Franklin and his three companions had tasted for thirty-one days. At length the long-expected relief from Back arrived by three Indians, but not till two of the Canadians had succ.u.mbed. Back himself, in spite of his splendid const.i.tution, had suffered privations hardly second to those recorded above. But from this period no great difficulties were encountered on the return to Fort York, and Franklin and his brave companions, poor Hood excepted, eventually reached England in safety.
Many would have been content to rest on their laurels; not so Franklin, Richardson, or Back, who almost immediately afterwards volunteered to again dare the perils of these same regions. The "second expedition to the sh.o.r.es of the Polar Sea" was not marked by those disasters which had befallen the previous one, but was none the less remarkable and daring. It was, however, much better provided. Three light boats were built at Woolwich specially for this expedition, and a fourth, covered with india-rubber canvas, called the _Walnut Sh.e.l.l_, was taken for the purpose of crossing rivers and for easy transportation.
Pa.s.sing over all previous matters, suffice it to say that Franklin and his party successfully reached the mouth of the great Mackenzie River, where, on Garry Island, says Franklin"s narrative, "the men had pitched the tent on the beach, and I caused the silk union flag to be hoisted which my deeply-lamented wife(34) had made and presented to me as a parting gift, under the express injunction that it was not to be unfurled before the expedition reached the sea. I will not attempt to describe my emotions as it expanded to the breeze; however natural, and, for the moment, irresistible, I felt that it was my duty to suppress them, and that I had no right, by an indulgence of my own sorrows, to cloud the animated countenances of my companions. Joining, therefore, with the best grace that I could command, in the general excitement, I endeavoured to return, with corresponding cheerfulness, their warm congratulations on having thus planted the British flag on this remote island of the Polar Sea.
"Some spirits which had been saved for the occasion were issued to the men, and with three fervent cheers they drank to the health of our beloved monarch and to the continued success of our enterprise. Mr. Kendall and I had also reserved a little of our brandy in order to celebrate this interesting event; but Baptisto, in his delight at beholding the sea, had set before us some salt water, which, having been mixed with the brandy before the mistake was discovered, we were reluctantly obliged to forego the intended draught, and to use it in the more cla.s.sical form of a libation poured on the ground."