le the
dead and dying fell around him.

Between these two dates Franklin had accompanied an exploring voyage to
Australia on board the _Investigator_, gaining in that expedition not
only a great store of facts to be treasured up for use in his eager and
retentive mind, but those habits of observation which were to be of the
greatest service to him in after-years. On his return home in another
vessel--the _Porpoise_--Franklin and his companions were wrecked upon a
coral reef, where ninety-four persons remained for seven weeks on a
narrow sand-bank less than a quarter of a mile in length, and only four
feet above the surface of the water!

It was in 1818 that the young lieutenant first set sail for the Polar
Sea, as second commander of the _Trent_, under Captain Buchan. The aim
was to cross between Spitzbergen and Greenland; but the companion
vessel, the _Dorothea_, being greatly injured by the ice, the two had to
return to England, after reaching the eightieth degree of latitude.

A year later lieutenants Franklin and Parry were placed at the head of
expeditions, the latter to carry on the exploration through Baffin's
Bay, and to find an outlet, if possible, by Lancaster Sound. This was
splendidly done, and the North-west Passage practically discovered. The
task of Franklin was more arduous. He had to traverse the vast solitary
wastes of North-eastern America, with their rivers and lakes, to descend
to the mouth of the Coppermine River, and to survey the coast eastward.
The toil and hardship of this wonderful expedition, and the brave
endurance of Franklin and his friend Richardson, and their trusty
helpers, have often been related. They had to contend with famine and
illness, with the ignorance and treachery of the Indians, who murdered
three of the party. The land journey altogether extended over 5,500
miles, occupying a year and six months.

In less than two years after their return to England, Franklin,
Richardson, and Back volunteered for another expedition to the same
region.

In 1825 this second expedition started, Franklin mournfully leaving the
death-bed of his wife, to whom he had been married after his last return
to England. This brave lady not only let him go, though she knew she was
dying, but begged him not to delay one day for her! At New York Franklin
heard of her death, but manfully concealed his grief, and pressed on to
the northern wastes. As before, his object was to survey the northern
shore,