in high spirits, being heartily glad that the time had at length arrived when their course was to be directed towards the Polar Sea, and through a line of country which had not previously been visited by any European. The expedition was then composed of Lieutenant Franklin, Dr. Richardson, Messrs. Back, Hood, and Wentzel, John Hepburn, sixteen Canadian voyageurs, one Iroquois, and two interpreters, – three women accompanied their husbands, in a small canoe, for the purpose of making shoes and clothes for the whole party, at the winter establishment; and there were also three children belonging to two of these women: – total 31 persons, old and young. “Our provision,” says Lieutenant Franklin, “was two casks of flour, two hundred dried reindeer tongues, some dried moose meat, portable soup, and arrowroot, sufficient in the whole for ten days’ consumption, besides two cases of chocolate, and two canisters of tea.” Several of the Copper-Indians’ canoes were managed by women, who proved to be noisy companions, for they quarrelled frequently, and the weakest was generally profuse in her lamentations.
So great and so numerous were the difficulties experienced from the want of provisions, and from the impediments in the navigation of the numerous rivers and lakes, on account of the rapids of the one and the shallows of the other, together with the frequent portages, that their progress was exceedingly slow and tedious; and they did not arrive at the spot where it was found necessary to hut themselves for the winter, which was situated in lat. 64° 28' N., long. 113° 6' W., and distant from Fort Chipewyan only 553 miles, before the 20th of August. With regard to the interruptions from the portages, they became more frequent, and the dragging of the boats more fatiguing, in proportion as they advanced to the northward; and thus the sufferings of the Canadians from want of sufficient sustenance were greatly aggravated. It not unfrequently happened, that in one day they had to land the stores and reload the canoes with them five or six times. The united length of the portages they crossed between Fort Providence and the spot chosen for their winter residence, was 21½ statute miles; and as they had to traverse
