. The book of the long trail. and baggage were dragged over snow andice. The first objective of the expedition had beengained. The second was to be the survey of the coast-lineto the East, but this no longer appeared so simple asit had done when planned in England ; the difficultyof food supply was now realised. The British officers,however, were delighted to see the sea again, and thoughtthey could hardly fail to do better on their own started therefore in high spirits on what can onlybe described as a months naval picnic. Every daythey made what progress they could along the dee
. The book of the long trail. and baggage were dragged over snow andice. The first objective of the expedition had beengained. The second was to be the survey of the coast-lineto the East, but this no longer appeared so simple asit had done when planned in England ; the difficultyof food supply was now realised. The British officers,however, were delighted to see the sea again, and thoughtthey could hardly fail to do better on their own started therefore in high spirits on what can onlybe described as a months naval picnic. Every daythey made what progress they could along the deeplyindented coast line, mapping all the headlands and bays,and naming them after friends at home. Every nightthey came ashore to sleep and kill game ; at times theylived well, at times they nearly starved; they ateanything and everything : deer, reindeer, fish, fat bears,lean bears, wild swans, cranes, musk-oxen, geese—evenseals and white foxes. But the time came when thishand-to-mouth picnic had to end ; the weather became. Akaitcho alone kept his head, and shot the beast dead, 24 THE BOOK OF THE LONG TRAIL extremely rough, the Canadian voyageurs, who wereonly freshwater sailors, were terrified by the height ofthe waves, and the canoes had to keep near the shore,where they found calmer water but were in danger ofsunken rocks. Franklin saw that he could do no furthersurveying, for he could not pass with any hope of safetyoutside the eastern end of the great sound in which hehad hitheHo been sailing—the bay now called BathurstSound, but named by the expedition George IVsCoronation Gulf. He had also to think of his returnto Fort Enterprise ; and there was a reason beyond allthese, which gave him great pain—he discovered thathis men, who had hitherto shown courage beyond hisexpectation, had now so completely lost their nerve thatthey expressed their fear even in the presence of theirofficers. On August 12, after consulting his staff, hedecided to turn in four days time; the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectexplorers, bookyear19
