expedition to the mouth of the Mackenzie
River, where the party was to divide, half of them going to the east
and half to the west. Nothing daunted by his recent sufferings,
Franklin accepted the supreme command, and amid the foremost
volunteers for service were his old friends, Back and Richardson. The
officers of the expedition left England in February 1825, and,
travelling by way of New York and Canada, they reached Fort Cumberland
the following June; a month later they were at Fort Chipewyan on the
shores of Lake Athabasca, and soon they had made their way to the banks
of the Great Bear Lake River, which flows out of that lake into the
Mackenzie River, down which they were to descend to the sea. They
decided to winter on the shores of the Bear Lake; but Franklin could
never bear inaction, so he resolved to push on to the mouth of the
Great River with a small party in order to prospect for the coming
expedition.

So correct had been Mackenzie's survey of this Great River, as it was
called, that Franklin, "in justice to his memory," named it the
Mackenzie River after its "eminent discoverer," which name it has
borne ever since. In a little English boat, with a fair wind and a
swift current, Franklin accomplished three hundred and twelve miles
in about sixty hours. The saltness of the water, the sight of a
boundless horizon, and the appearance of porpoises and whales were
encouraging signs. They had reached the Polar sea at last--the "sea
in all its majesty, entirely free from ice and without any visible
obstruction to its navigation."

On reaching the coast a silken Union Jack worked by Franklin's dying
wife was unfurled. She had died a few days after he left England, but
she had insisted on her husband's departure in the service of his
country, only begging him not to unfurl her flag till he arrived at
the Polar shores. As it fluttered in the breeze of these desolate shores,
the little band of Englishmen cheered and drank to the health of the
King.

"You can imagine," says Franklin, "with what heartfelt emotion I first
saw it unfurled; but in a short time I derived great pleasure in looking
at it."

It was too late to attempt navigation for this year, although the
weather in August was "inconveniently warm," so on 5th September,
Franklin returned to winter quarters on the Great Bear Lake. During
his absence a comfortable little settlement had grown up to
accommodate some fifty persons, including Canadian and I