The First Point Of This Graduated
Scale Is The Meridian Of The Coppermine River Of Hearne, And Whatever Ship
Reaches
This is entitled to a reward of 5000l. Government were so convinced
that Captain Ross's voyage had increased the probability
Of a north-west
passage, that they determined to lose no time in making another attempt to
discover it; and in order to afford every chance of success to this second
attempt, they also determined, not only to send out a maritime expedition,
to follow out the route which Captain Ross had so unaccountably and
provokingly abandoned, but also to send out a land expedition, to
co-operate in the same grand object.
The latter, under the command and direction of Lieutenant Franklin, was
ordered to proceed from Fort York, on the shores of Hudson's Bay, to the
mouth of the Coppermine River; and from thence along the shores of the
Polar Sea, either to the east or to the north, as circumstances might
determine: they were expressly to have in view the determination of the
question regarding the position of the northeastern extremity of the
continent of America. As the route of this land expedition lay for a great
part of it through those districts within which the Hudson's Bay Company
were accustomed to travel and trade, their co-operation and assistance was
requested and obtained. The exact results of this land expedition are not
yet fully and clearly known; but it is generally understood, that after
having undergone infinite hardships and sufferings, they have been enabled
to confirm Hearne and Mackenzie's discoveries or conjectures respecting the
Coppermine River, and to ascertain other points connected with the
geography and natural history of these remote and almost inaccessible
regions, though the most important and leading points of the expedition
have not been settled.
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