Here they soon reached the Wilberforce Falls, beautiful and remarkable, but not easy of navigation. "In the evening," says Franklin in his journal, "we encamped at the lower end of a narrow chasm through which the river flows for upwards of a mile. The walls of this chasm are upwards of two hundred feet high, quite perpendicular, and in some places only a few yards apart. The river precipitates itself into it over a rock forming two magnificent and picturesque falls close to each other. The upper fall is about sixty feet high, and the lower one at least one hundred, but perhaps considerably more, for the narrowness of the chasm into which it fell prevented us from seeing its bottom and we could merely discern the top of the spray far beneath our feet. The lower fall is divided into two by an insulated column of rock which rises about forty feet above it." As the river above the falls appeared too rapid and shallow for the large canoes they were taken to pieces, and two smaller ones built from their materials. The voyage in these lasted but three days, when the river was abandoned as trending too far to the west, and the party, carrying the canoes, proceeded overland to Point Lake on their struggle of starvation across the Barren Grounds. For days they had nothing to eat but lichens—species of _Gyrophora_ or _Umbilicaria_ known as tripe-de-roche—a diet varied with leather, burnt bones and skins, an occasional ptarmigan, and, once, a musk ox, until they were so weak that when a herd of reindeer went strolling past they had not strength enough to shoot at them. The tragedy need not be lingered over. Back was again sent for help, and, finding no stores at Fort Enterprise, was on his way to Fort Providence when he fell in with Akaitcho, who at once hurried to the rescue; and on the 14th of July, 1822, Franklin, Richardson, Back, and Hepburn the seaman, who had behaved as a hero all through, returned to York Factory after a three years' journey, fraught with peril and horror, by land and water, of over six thousand three hundred statute miles. After he had been at home a year, Franklin suggested that another attempt should be made to survey the northern coast while Parry was at work in search of the North-West Passage. The suggestion was accepted. Accompanied by Richardson and Back, and by E. N. Kendall as assistant surveyor—who had been out with Captain Lyon in the same capacity—and by Thomas Drummond as assistant naturalist, he left Liverpool on the 26th of February, 1825. [Illustration: PREPARING AN ENCAMPMENT ON THE BARREN GROUNDS]