many companions;
especially of my friend Mr. Hood, to whose zealous and able co-operation
I had been indebted for so much invaluable assistance during the
Expedition, whilst the excellent qualities of his heart engaged my
warmest regard. His scientific observations, together with his maps and
drawings (a small part of which only appear in this work), evince a
variety of talent, which, had his life been spared, must have rendered
him a distinguished ornament to his profession, and which will cause his
death to be felt as a loss to the service.

DR. RICHARDSON'S NARRATIVE.

After Captain Franklin had bidden us farewell we remained seated by the
fire-side as long as the willows the men had cut for us before they
departed, lasted. We had no _tripe de roche_ that day, but drank an
infusion of the country tea-plant, which was grateful from its warmth,
although it afforded no sustenance. We then retired to bed, where we
remained all the next day, as the weather was stormy, and the snow-drift
so heavy, as to destroy every prospect of success in our endeavours to
light a fire with the green and frozen willows, which were our only
fuel. Through the extreme kindness and forethought of a lady, the party,
previous to leaving London, had been furnished with a small collection
of religious books, of which we still retained two or three of the most
portable, and they proved of incalculable benefit to us. We read
portions of them to each other as we lay in bed, in addition to the
morning and evening service, and found that they inspired us on each
perusal with so strong a sense of the omnipresence of a beneficent God,
that our situation, even in these wilds, appeared no longer destitute;
and we conversed, not only with calmness, but with cheerfulness,
detailing with unrestrained confidence the past events of our lives, and
dwelling with hope on our future prospects. Had my poor friend been
spared to revisit his native land, I should look back to this period
with unalloyed delight.

On the morning of the 9th, the weather, although still cold, was clear,
and I went out in quest of _tripe de roche_, leaving Hepburn to cut
willows for a fire, and Mr. Hood in bed. I had no success, as
yesterday's snow-drift was so frozen on the surface of the rocks that I
could not collect any of the weed; but on my return to the tent, I found
that Michel, the Iroquois, had come with a note from Mr. Franklin, which
stated, that this man and Jean Baptis