The unusual earliness of this winter became manifest to us from the state of things at this spot. Last year at the same season, and still later there had been very little snow on the ground, and we were surrounded by vast herds of rein-deer; now there were but few recent tracks of these animals, and the snow was upwards of two feet deep. Winter River was then open, now it was frozen two feet thick.
John Franklin
Fort Enterprize
October 11, 1821
Commemorating the 200th anniversary of Franklinʼs historic overland journey to the shores of the polar sea