Ross, was directed to examine the unexplored part of the cast coast of North America, within the Arctic circle, and to endeavour to pass along the northern shore of that continent to Behring’s Strait.
On his return from the above service, of which an authentic account will be found in our memoir of the officer who conducted it. Lieutenant Franklin volunteered to attempt reaching the North Pole, from the shores of Spitzbergen, by travelling with sledge-boats over the ice, or through any spaces of open water that might occur. The plan which he then suggested was afterwards followed up, in its most essential particulars, by Captain Parry, whose proceedings we have related at pp. 365–374 of Suppl. Part IV.
In the beginning of 1819, Lieutenant Franklin was appointed by Earl Bathurst to the command of an expedition, destined to proceed over land from the shores of Hudson’s Bay to the Arctic Ocean, in order to amend the very defective geography of the northern part of North America; but more particularly to ascertain the actual position of the mouth of the Copper mine River, and the exact trending of the shores of the Polar Sea to the eastward of that river. The gentlemen selected by the Admiralty to accompany him were Dr. John Richardson, a naval surgeon, well skilled in natural history, mineralogy, &c.; and Messrs. George Back and Richard Hood, midshipmen; with whom he embarked on board the ship Prince of Wales, at Gravesend, May 23d, and, after a narrow escape from being wrecked on Resolution Island, arrived in safety at York Factory, the principal depôt of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Aug. 30th, 1819: he was also accompanied thither by two English sailors, and four Orkney boatmen, the latter of whom he had engaged at Stromness, to assist his progress as far as Lake Athabasca. Having communicated to Mr. Williams, the governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s posts, the objects of the expedition, and that he had been directed to consult with him, and the several district masters, as to the best mode of proceeding, Lieutenant Franklin was gratified by his assurance that every possible assistance should be given to facilitate
