Taught by experience, the expedition was better managed in every way. Instead of driving ahead regardless of the season or the trade routine, the ordinary conditions of local travel were kept in view throughout, and the results were more in proportion to the effort. Three boats were specially built at Woolwich on Franklin's design and under Buchan's superintendence. They were of mahogany with timbers of ash, both ends alike, steerable by oar or rudder, the largest 26 ft. by 5 ft. 4 ins., the two others 24 ft. by 4 ft. 10 ins., and with them Colonel Pasley's portable boat, known as the _Walnut Shell_ from its shape, 9 ft. long and half as wide, with frames of ash fastened with thongs and covered with canvas. The canvas was "waterproofed by Mr. Macintosh, of Glasgow"—the first instance of its use—and for the first time also what we know as macintosh coats and overalls were issued as part of the outfit, the process having been patented in 1824. The boats and stores were sent on ahead by way of York Factory in 1824, and Franklin and his party, travelling by New York and the lakes, caught them up on the Methye River at sunrise on the 29th of June. With them were several old friends, not the least delighted being the two Eskimo interpreters, Augustus and Ooligbuck, who were to be of the utmost importance throughout. On the 8th of August they had got along so well that they were at the junction of the Bear Lake River with the Mackenzie. Here Back and Peter Warren Dease of the Hudson's Bay Company, who had joined the expedition to look after the local arrangements, were sent off to build a house to winter in on the banks of the Great Bear Lake, in Keith's Bay, where the river leaves it; Richardson also left to explore the northern shore of the lake, and Franklin and Kendall continuing down the Mackenzie reached the sea before the week was out in less than six months from their departure from Liverpool. And on the 5th of September they had returned upstream and were at their winter quarters at the new house on the lake, which Back had named Fort Franklin, to find that Richardson had been along the northern shore and noted as being the nearest point to the Coppermine the entrance of the river he had named after Dease, which was to be of so much service to him later on. During the winter another boat, the _Reliance_, was built on the lines of the _Lion_, the largest of the Woolwich boats, and leaving Dease to complete the stores for another comfortable winter, the expedition started on the 24th of June. At Point Separation, at the head of the Mackenzie delta, Franklin in the _Lion_ with Back in the _Reliance_—our old friend Robert Spinks being his coxswain—took the western arm, and Richardson in the _Dolphin_ and Kendall in the _Union_, carrying the _Walnut Shell_ with them, took the eastern arm. [Illustration: Yours faithfully John Richardson]