by the canadian institute for historical microreproductions transcriber's note: the character = preceeding a vowel is used to indicate that the vowel is to be pronounced long. the character ~ preceeding a vowel is used to indicate that the vowel is to be pronounced short. these characters do not occur otherwise. three voyages for the discovery of a northwest passage from the atlantic to the pacific, and narrative of an attempt to reach the north pole, volume ii by sir w. e. parry, capt. r.n., f.r.s. in two volumes. new-york: harper & brothers, cliff-street. contents of the second volume. second voyage continued. chapter x. departure from winter island.--meet with some esquimaux travelling to the northward.--obstruction and danger from the ice and tides.--discovery of the barrow river, and its fall.--favourable passage to the northward.--arrival off the strait of the fury and hecla.--progress opposed by a fixed barrier of ice.--communicate with the natives of igloolik.--unsuccessful attempt to get between the ice and the land.--land upon the calthorpe islands.--the fury drifted by the ice between two islands.--account of a journey performed in sledges up an inlet to the westward. chapter xi. a whale killed.--other charts drawn by the esquimaux.--account of a journey to the narrows of the strait.--discovery of the sea to the westward.--total disruption of the ice at the eastern entrance of the strait.--instance of local attraction on the compasses.--sail through the narrows, and again stopped by fixed ice.--account of several land journeys and boat excursions.--observations on the tides.--continued obstacles from fixed ice. chapter xii. a journey performed along the south shore of cockburn island.--confirmation of an outlet to the polar sea.--partial disruption of the old ice, and formation of new.--return through the narrows to the eastward.--proceed to examine the coast to the northeastward.--fury's anchor broken.--stand over to igloolik to look for winter-quarters.--excursion to the head of quilliam creek.--ships forced to the westward by gales of wind.--a canal sawed through the ice, and the ships secured in their winter station.--continued visits of the esquimaux, and arrival of some of the winter island tribe.--proposed plan of operations in the ensuing spring. chapter xiii. preparations for the winter.--various meteorological phenomena to the close of the year .--sickness among the esquimaux.--meteorological phenomena to the end of march. chapter xiv. various journeys to the esquimaux stations.--preparations for the hecla's return to england.--remarkable halos, &c.--shooting parties stationed at arlagnuk.--journeys to quilliam creek.--arrival of esquimaux from the northward.--account of a journey to the westward for the purpose of reaching the polar sea.--the esquimaux report two fishing-ships having been wrecked.--a journey performed to cockburn island.--discovery of murray maxwell inlet chapter xv. extraordinary disruption of ice in quilliam creek.--some appearance of scurvy among the seamen and marines--discovery of gifford river.--commence cutting the ice outside the ships to release them from their winter-quarters.--considerations respecting the return of the expedition to england.--unfavourable state of the ice at the eastern entrance of the strait.--proceed to the southward.--ships beset and drifted up lyon inlet.--decease of mr. george fife.--final release from the ice, and arrival in england.--remarks upon the practicability of a northwest passage. third voyage introduction chapter i. passage to the whale-fish islands, and removal of stores from the transport.--enter the ice in baffin's bay.--difficulties of penetrating to the westward.--quit the ice in baffin's bay.--remarks on the obstructions encountered by the ships, and on the severity of the season. chapter ii. enter sir james lancaster's sound.--land at cape warrender.--meet with young ice.--ships beset and carried near the shore.--driven back to navy-board inlet.--run to the westward, and enter prince regent's inlet.--arrival at port bowen. chapter iii. winter arrangements.--improvements in warming and ventilating the ships.--masquerades adopted as an amusement to the men.--establishment of schools.--astronomical observations.--meteorological phenomena chapter iv. re-equipment of the ships.--several journeys undertaken.--open water in the offing.--commence sawing a canal to liberate the ships.--disruption of the ice.--departure from port bowen. chapter v. sail over towards the western coast of prince regent's inlet.--stopped by the ice.--reach the shore about cape seppings.--favourable progress along the land.--fresh and repeated obstructions from ice.--both ships driven on shore.--fury seriously damaged.--unsuccessful search for a harbour for heaving her down to repair. chapter vi. formation of a basin for heaving the fury down.--landing of the fury's stores, and other preparations.--the ships secured within the basin.--impediments from the pressure of the ice.--fury, hove down.--securities of the basin destroyed by a gale of wind.--preparations to tow the fury out.--hecla re-equipped, and obliged to put to sea.--fury again driven on shore.--rejoin the fury; and find it necessary finally to abandon her. chapter vii. some remarks upon the loss of the fury--and on the natural history, &c, of the coast of north somerset.--arrive at neill's harbour.--death of john page.--leave neill's harbour.--recross the ice in baffin's bay.--heavy gales.--temperature of the sea.--arrival in england. account of the esquimaux narrative of an attempt to reach the north pole in boats [illustration] second voyage for the discovery of a northwest passage. continued. chapter x. departure from winter island.--meet with some esquimaux travelling to the northward.--obstruction and danger from the ice and tides.--discovery of the barrow river, and its fall.--favourable passage to the northward.--arrival off the strait of the fury and hecla.--progress opposed by a fixed barrier of ice.--communicate with the natives of igloolik.--unsuccessful attempt to get between the ice and the land--land upon the calthorpe islands.--the fury drifted by the ice between two islands.--account of a journey performed in sledges up an inlet to the westward. the gale, which had for some time been blowing from the northward, veered to the n.w.b.w., and increased in strength on the st of july, which soon began to produce the effect of drifting the ice off the land. at six o'clock on the d, the report from the hill being favourable, and the wind and weather now also sufficiently so, we moved out of our winter's dock, which was, indeed, in part broken to pieces by the swell that had lately set into the bay. at seven we made sail, with a fresh breeze from w.n.w., and having cleared the rocks at the entrance of the bay, ran quickly to the northward and eastward. the ice in the offing was of the "hummocky" kind, and drifting rapidly about with the tides, leaving us a navigable channel varying in width from two miles to three or four hundred yards. the closeness of the ice again obliging us to make fast on the d, we soon after perceived a party of people with a sledge upon the land-floe. i therefore sent mr. bushnan, with some of our men, to meet them and to bring them on board, being desirous of ascertaining whereabout, according to their geography, we now were. we found the party to consist, as we expected, of those who had taken leave of us forty days before on their departure to the northward, and who now readily accompanied our people to the ships; leaving only togolat's idiot-boy by the sledge, tying him to a dog and the dog to the ice. as soon as they came under the bows, they halted in a line, and, according to their former promise, gave three cheers, which salutation a few of us on the forecastle did not fail to return. as soon as they got on board they expressed extreme joy at seeing us again, repeated each of our names with great earnestness, and were, indeed, much gratified by this unexpected encounter. ewerat being now mounted on the plank which goes across the gunwales of our ships for conning them conveniently among the ice, explained, in a very clear and pilot-like manner, that the island which we observed to lie off cape wilson was that marked by iligliuk in one of her charts, and there called _awlikteewik_, pronounced by ewerat _ow-l=itt~ee-week_. on asking how many days' journey it was still to amitioke, they all agreed in saying ten; and back to winter island _oon=o=oktoot_ (a great many), so that we had good reason to hope we were not far from the former place. i may at once remark, however, that great caution is requisite in judging of the information these people give of the distances from one place to another, as expressed by the number of _se=eniks_ (sleeps) or days' journeys, to which, in other countries, a definite value is affixed. no two esquimaux will give the same account in this respect, though each is equally desirous of furnishing correct information; for, besides their deficiency as arithmeticians, which renders the enumeration of ten a labour, and of fifteen almost an impossibility to many of them, each individual forms his idea of the distance according to the season of the year, and, consequently, the mode of travelling in which his own journey has been performed. instances of this kind will be observed in the charts of the esquimaux, in which they not only differ from each other in this respect, but the same individual differs from himself at different times. it is only, therefore, by a careful comparison of the various accounts, and by making allowances for the different circumstances under which the journeys have been made, that these apparent inconsistencies can be reconciled, and an approximation to the truth obtained. many of our officers and men cordially greeted these poor people as old acquaintances they were glad to see again, and they were loaded, as usual, with numerous presents, of which the only danger to be apprehended was lest they should go mad on account of them. the women screamed in a convulsive manner at everything they received, and cried for five minutes together with the excess of their joy; and to the honour of "john bull" be it recorded, he sent by one of the men as he left the ship a piece of sealskin, as a present to _parree_, being the first offering of real gratitude, and without any expectation of return, that i had ever received from any of them. i never saw them express more surprise than on being assured that we had left winter island only a single day; a circumstance which might well excite their wonder, considering that they had themselves been above forty in reaching our present station. they had obtained one reindeer, and had now a large seal on their sledge, to which we added a quantity of bread-dust, that seemed acceptable enough to them. as our way lay in the same direction as theirs, i would gladly have taken their whole establishment on board the ships to convey them to amitioke, but for the uncertain nature of this navigation, which might eventually have put it out of my power to land them at the precise place of their destination. the ice again opening, we were now obliged to dismiss them, after half an hour's visit, when, having run to the hecla's bows to see captain lyon and his people, they returned to their sledge as fast as their loads of presents would allow them. we continued our progress northward, contending with the flood-tide and the drifting masses of ice; and the difficulties of such a navigation may be conceived from the following description of what happened to us on the th. at half past eight on the morning of the th, a considerable space of open water being left to the northward of us by the ice that had broken off the preceding night, i left the fury in a boat for the purpose of sounding along the shore in that direction, in readiness for moving whenever the hecla should be enabled to rejoin us. i found the soundings regular in almost every part, and had just landed to obtain a view from an eminence, when i was recalled by a signal from the fury, appointed to inform me of the approach of any ice. on my return, i found the external body once more in rapid motion to the southward with the flood-tide, and assuming its usual threatening appearance. for an hour or two the fury was continually grazed, and sometimes heeled over by a degree of pressure which, under any other circumstances, would not have been considered a moderate one, but which the last two or three days' navigation had taught us to disregard, when compared with what we had reason almost every moment to expect. a little before noon a heavy floe, some miles in length, being probably a part of that lately detached from the shore, came driving down fast towards us, giving us serious reason to apprehend some more fatal catastrophe than any we had yet encountered. in a few minutes it came in contact, at the rate of a mile and a half an hour, with a point of the land-ice left the preceding night by its own separation, breaking it up with a tremendous crash, and forcing numberless immense masses, perhaps many tons in weight, to the height of fifty or sixty feet, from whence they again rolled down on the inner or land side, and were quickly succeeded by a fresh supply. while we were obliged to be quiet spectators of this grand but terrific sight, being within five or six hundred yards of the point, the danger to ourselves was twofold; first, lest the floe should now swing in, and serve us much in the same manner; and, secondly, lest its pressure should detach the land-ice to which we were secured, and thus set us adrift and at the mercy of the tides. happily, however, neither of these occurred, the floe remaining stationary for the rest of the tide, and setting off with the ebb which made soon after. in the mean while the hecla had been enabled to get under sail, and was making considerable progress towards us, which determined me to move the fury as soon as possible from her present situation into the bight i had sounded in the morning, where we made fast in five and a half fathoms alongside some very heavy grounded ice, one third of a mile from a point of land lying next to the northward of cape wilson, and which is low for a short distance next the sea. at nine o'clock a large mass of ice fell off the land-floe and struck our stern; and a "calf" lying under it, having lost its superincumbent weight, rose to the surface with considerable force, lifting our rudder violently in its passage, but doing no material injury. on the th, observing an opening in the land like a river, i left the ship in a boat to examine the soundings of the coast. on approaching the opening, we found so strong a current setting out of it as to induce me to taste the water, which proved scarcely brackish; and a little closer in, perfectly fresh, though the depth was from fourteen to fifteen fathoms. as this stream was a sufficient security against any ice coming in, i determined to anchor the ships somewhere in its neighbourhood; and, having laid down a buoy in twelve fathoms, off the north point of the entrance, returned on board, when i found all the boats ahead endeavouring to tow the ships in-shore. this could be effected, however, only by getting them across the stream of the inlet to the northern shore; and here, finding some land-ice, the ships were secured late at night, after several hours of extreme labour to the people in the boats. on the morning of the th, the ice being still close in with the land just to the northward of us, i determined on examining the supposed river in the boats, and, at the same time, to try our luck with the seines, as the place appeared a likely one for salmon. immediately on opening the inlet we encountered a rapid current setting outward, and, after rowing a mile and a half to the n.w.b.w., the breadth of the stream varying from one third of a mile to four or five hundred yards, came to some shoal water extending quite across. landing on the south shore and hauling the boats up above high-water mark, we rambled up the banks of the stream, which are low next the water, but rise almost immediately to the height of about two hundred feet. as we proceeded we gradually heard the noise of a fall of water; and being presently obliged to strike more inland, as the bank became more precipitous, soon obtained a fresh view of the stream running on a much higher level than before, and dashing with great impetuosity down two small cataracts. just below this, however, where the river turns almost at a right angle, we perceived a much greater spray, as well as a louder sound; and, having walked a short distance down the bank, suddenly came upon the principal fall, of whose magnificence i am at a loss to give any adequate description. at the head of the fall, or where it commences its principal descent, the river is contracted to about one hundred and fifty feet in breadth, the channel being hollowed out through a solid rock of gneiss. after falling about fifteen feet at angle of ° with a vertical line, the width of the stream is still narrowed to about forty yards, and then, as if mustering its whole force previous to its final descent, is precipitated, in one vast, continuous sheet of water, almost perpendicular for ninety feet more. the dashing of the water from such a height produced the usual accompaniment of a cloud of spray broad columns of which were constantly forced up like the successive rushes of smoke from a vast furnace, and on this, near the top, a vivid _iris_ or rainbow was occasionally formed by the bright rays of an unclouded sun. the basin that receives the water at the foot of the fall is nearly of a circular form, and about four hundred yards in diameter, being rather wider than the river immediately below it. after remaining nearly an hour, fixed, as it were, to the spot by the novelty and magnificence of the scene before us, we continued our walk upward along the banks; and after passing the two smaller cataracts, found the river again increased in width to above two hundred yards, winding in the most romantic manner imaginable among the hills, and preserving, a smooth and unruffled surface for a distance of three or four miles that we traced it to the southwest above the fall. what added extremely to the beauty of this picturesque river, which captain lyon and myself named after our friend mr. barrow, secretary to the admiralty, was the richness of the vegetation on its banks, the enlivening brilliancy of a cloudless sky, and the animation given to the scene by several reindeer that were grazing beside the stream. our sportsmen were fortunate in obtaining four of these animals; but we had no success with the seines, the ground proving altogether too rocky to use them with advantage or safety. we returned on board at thirty minutes past two p.m., after the most gratifying visit we had ever paid to the shore in these regions. we found on our return that a fresh, southerly breeze, which had been blowing for several hours, had driven the ice to some distance from the land; so that at four p.m., as soon as the flood-tide had slackened, we cast off and made all possible sail to the northward, steering for a headland, remarkable for having a patch of land towards the sea, that appeared insular in sailing along shore. as we approached this headland, which i named after my friend mr. penrhyn, the prospect became more and more enlivening; for the sea was found to be navigable in a degree very seldom experienced in these regions, and, the land trending two or three points to the westward of north, gave us reason to hope we should now be enabled to take a decided and final turn in that anxiously desired direction. as we rounded cape penrhyn at seven p.m., we began gradually to lose sight of the external body of ice, sailing close along that which was still attached in very heavy floes to this part of the coast. both wind and tide being favourable, our progress was rapid, and unobstructed, and nothing could exceed the interest and delight with which so unusual an event was hailed by us. before midnight the wind came more off the land, and then became light and variable, after which it settled in the northwest, with thick weather for several hours. in the course of this day the walruses became more and more numerous every hour, lying in large herds upon the loose pieces of drift-ice; and it having fallen calm at one p.m., we despatched our boats to kill some for the sake of the oil which they afford. on approaching the ice, our people found them huddled close to, and even lying upon, one another, in separate droves of from twelve to thirty, the whole number near the boats being perhaps about two hundred..most of them waited quietly to be fired at: and even after one or two discharges did not seem to be greatly disturbed, but allowed the people to land on the ice near them, and, when approached, showed an evident disposition to give battle. after they had got into the water, three were struck with harpoons and killed from the boats. when first wounded they became quite furious, and one, which had been struck from captain lyon's boat, made a resolute attack upon her and injured several of the planks with its enormous tusks. a number of the others came round them, also repeatedly striking the wounded animals with their tusks, with the intention either of getting them away, or else of joining in the attack upon them. many of these animals had young ones, which, when assaulted, they either took between their fore-flippers to carry off, or bore away on their backs. both of those killed by the fury's boats were females, and the weight of the largest was fifteen hundred and two quarters nearly; but it was by no means remarkable for the largeness of its dimensions. the peculiar barking noise made by the walrus when irritated, may be heard, on a calm day, with great distinctness at the distance of two miles at least. we found musket-balls the most certain and expeditious way of despatching them after they had been once struck with the harpoon, the thickness of their skin being such that whale-lances generally bend without penetrating it. one of these creatures being accidentally touched by one of the oars in lieutenant nias's boat, took hold of it between its flippers, and, forcibly twisting it out of the man's hand, snapped it in two. they produced us very little oil, the blubber being thin and poor at this season, but were welcomed in a way that had not been anticipated; for some quarters of this "marine beef," as captain cook has called it, being hung up for steaks, the meat was not only eaten, but eagerly sought after on this and every other occasion throughout the voyage, by all those among us who could overcome the prejudice arising chiefly from the dark colour of the flesh. in no other respect that i could ever discover, is the meat of the walrus, when fresh-killed, in the slightest degree unpalatable. the heart and liver are indeed excellent. after an unobstructed night's run, during which we met with no ice except in some loose "streams," the water became so much shoaler as to make it necessary to proceed with greater caution. about this time, also, a great deal of high land came in sight to the northward and eastward, which, on the first inspection of the esquimaux charts, we took to be the large portion of land called _ke=iyuk-tar-ruoke_,[ ] between which and the continent the promised strait lay that was to lead us to the westward. so far all was satisfactory; but, after sailing a few miles farther, it is impossible to describe our disappointment and mortification in perceiving an unbroken sheet of ice extending completely across the supposed passage from one land to the other. this consisted of a floe so level and continuous, that a single glance was sufficient to assure us of the disagreeable fact, that it was the ice formed in its present situation during the winter, and still firmly attached to the land on every side. it was certain, from its continuous appearance for some miles that we ran along its edge, that it had suffered no disruption this season, which circumstance involved the necessity of our awaiting that operation, which nature seemed scarcely yet to have commenced in this neighbourhood, before we could hope to sail round the northeastern point of the american continent. at thirty minutes past nine a.m. we observed several tents on the low shore immediately abreast of us, and presently afterward five canoes made their appearance at the edge of the land-ice intervening between us and the beach. we soon found, by the cautious manner in which the canoes approached us, that our winter island friends had not yet reached this neighbourhood. in a few minutes after we had joined them, however, a few presents served to dissipate all their apprehensions, if, indeed, people could be said to entertain any who thus fearlessly met us half way; and we immediately persuaded them to turn back with us to the shore. being under sail in the boat, with a fresh breeze, we took two of the canoes in tow, and dragged them along at a great rate, much to the satisfaction of the esquimaux, who were very assiduous in piloting us to the best landing-place upon the ice, where we were met by several of their companions and conducted to the tents. before we had reached the shore, however, we had obtained one very interesting piece of information, namely, that it was igloolik on which we were now about to land, and that we must therefore have made a very near approach to the strait which, as we hoped, was to conduct us once more into the polar sea. we found here two divisions of tents, there being eleven where we landed, and five more about half a mile to the northward. by the time we reached the tents we were surrounded by a crowd of men, women, and children, all carrying some trifling article, which they offered in barter, a business they seemed to understand as well, and to need much more than their countrymen to the southward. we were, of course, not backward in promoting a good understanding by means of such presents as we had brought with us, but they seemed to have no idea of our giving them anything _gratis_, always offering some trifle in exchange, and expressing hesitation and surprise when we declined accepting it. this was not to be wondered at among people who scarcely know what a free gift is among themselves; but they were not long in getting rid of all delicacy or hesitation on this score. the tents, which varied in size according to the number of occupants, consisted of several seal and walrus skins, the former dressed without the hair, and the latter with the thick outer coat taken off, and the rest shaved thin, so as to allow of the transmission of light through it. these were put together in a clumsy and irregular patchwork, forming a sort of bag of a shape rather oval than round, and supported near the middle by a rude tent-pole composed of several deer's horns or the bones of other animals lashed together. at the upper end of this is attached another short piece of bone at right angles, for the purpose of extending the skins a little at the top, which is generally from six to seven feet from the ground. the lower part of the tent-pole rests on a large stone, to keep it from sinking into the ground, and, being no way secured, is frequently knocked down by persons accidentally coming against it, and again replaced upon the stone. the lower borders of the skins are held down by stones laid on them outside; and, to keep the whole fabric in an erect position, a line of thong is extended from the top, on the side where the door is, to a larger stone placed at some distance. the door consists merely of two flaps, contrived so as to overlap one another, and to be secured by a stone laid upon them at the bottom. this entrance faces the south or southeast; and as the wind was now blowing fresh from that quarter, and thick snow beginning to fall, these habitations did not impress us at first sight with a very favourable idea of the comfort and accommodation afforded by them. the interior of the tents may be described in few words. on one side of the end next the door is the usual stone lamp, resting on rough stones, with the _ootkooseek_, or cooking pot, suspended over it; and round this are huddled together, in great confusion, the rest of the women's utensils, together with great lumps of raw seahorse flesh and blubber, which at this season they enjoyed in most disgusting abundance. at the inner end of the tent, which is also the broadest, and occupying about one third of the whole apartment, their skins are laid as a bed, having under them some of the _andromeda tetragona_ when the ground is hard, but in this case placed on the bare dry shingle. comfortless as these simple habitations appeared to us in a snowstorm, they are, in general, not deficient in warmth as summer residences; and, being easily removed from place to place, they are certainly well suited to the wants and habits of this wandering people. when a larger habitation than usual is required, they contrive, by putting two of these together, to form a sort of double tent somewhat resembling a marquee, and supported by two poles. the difference between these tents and the one i had seen in lyon inlet the preceding autumn, struck me as remarkable, these having no _wall_ of stones around them, as is usual in many that we have before met with, nor do i know their reason for adopting this different mode of construction. even if it were not the natural and happy disposition of these people to be pleased, and to place implicit confidence wherever kind treatment is experienced, that confidence would soon have been ensured by our knowledge of their friends and relations to the southward, and the information which we were enabled to give respecting their late and intended movements. this, while it excited in them extreme surprise, served also at once to remove all distrust or apprehension, so that we soon found ourselves on the best terms imaginable. in return for all this interesting information, they gave us the names of the different portions of land in sight, many of which being recognised in their countrymen's charts, we no longer entertained a doubt of our being near the entrance of the strait to which all our hopes were directed. we now found also that a point of land in sight, a few miles to the southward of the tents, was near that marked _ping-=it-k~a-l~ik_ on ewerat's chart, and that, therefore, the low shore along which we had been constantly sailing the preceding night was certainly a part of the continent. by the time we had distributed most of our presents, and told some long stories about winter island, to all which they listened with eager delight and interest, we found the weather becoming so inclement as to determine us to make the best of our way on board, and to take a more favourable opportunity of renewing our visit to the esquimaux. after pulling out for an hour and a half, captain lyon, who had a boat's crew composed of officers, and had, unfortunately, broken one of his oars, was under the necessity of returning to the shore. my anxiety lest the ships should be ventured too near the shore, from a desire to pick up the boats, induced me to persevere an hour longer, when the wind having increased to a gale, which prevented our hearing any of the guns, i reluctantly bore up for our former landing-place. captain lyon and his party having quartered themselves at the southern tents, we took up our lodgings at the others, to which we were welcomed in the kindest and most hospitable manner. that we might incommode the esquimaux as little as possible, we divided into parties of two in each tent, though they would willingly have accommodated twice that number. immediately on our arrival they offered us dry boots, and it was not long before we were entirely "rigged out" in their dresses, which, thoroughly drenched as we were by the sea, proved no small comfort to us. with these, and a sealskin or two as a blanket, we kept ourselves tolerably warm during a most inclement night; and the tents, which but a few hours before we had looked upon as the most comfortless habitations imaginable, now afforded us a sufficient and most acceptable shelter. the evening was passed in dealing out our information from the southward, and never did any arrival excite more anxious inquiries than those we were now obliged to answer. so intimate was the knowledge we possessed respecting many of their relationships, that, by the help of a memorandum-book in which these had been inserted, i believe we almost at times excited a degree of superstitious alarm in their minds. this sort of gossip, and incessant chattering and laughing, continued till near midnight, when the numerous visitors in our tents began to retire to their own and to leave us to our repose. awaking at four a.m. on the th, i found that the weather had moderated and cleared up, and the ships soon after appearing in sight, we called our boat's crew up, and sent one of the esquimaux round to the other tents to inform captain lyon of our setting out. several of the natives accompanied us to our boat, which they cheerfully helped us to launch, and then went round to another part of the beach for their own canoes. a thick fog had come on before this time, notwithstanding which, however, we managed to find the ships, and got on board by seven o'clock. five canoes arrived soon after, and the wind being now light and variable, we lay-to for an hour to repay our kind friends for the hospitable reception they had given us. after supplying them abundantly with tin canisters, knives, and pieces of iron hoop, we hauled to the northeastward to continue our examination of the state of the ice, in hopes of finding that the late gale had in this respect done us some service. finding that a farther examination of the eastern lands could not at present be carried on, without incurring the risk of hampering the ships at a time when, for aught that we knew, the ice might be breaking up at the entrance of the strait, we stood back to the westward, and, having fetched near the middle of igloolik, were gratified in observing that a large "patch" of the fixed ice[ ] had broken off and drifted out of sight during our absence. at nine a.m. we saw eleven canoes coming off from the shore, our distance from the tents being about four miles. we now hoisted two of them on board, their owners k=a-k~ee and n~u-y=ak-k~a being very well pleased with the expedient, to avoid damaging them alongside. above an hour was occupied in endeavouring to gain additional information respecting the land to the westward, and the time when we might expect the ice to break up in the strait, after which we dismissed them with various useful presents, the atmosphere becoming extremely thick with snow, and threatening a repetition of the same inclement weather as we had lately experienced. on the d we went on shore to pay another visit to the esquimaux, who came down on the ice in great numbers to receive us, repeatedly stroking down the front of their jackets with the palm of the hand as they advanced, a custom not before mentioned, as we had some doubt about it at winter island, and which they soon discontinued here. they also frequently called out _tima_, a word which, according to hearne, signifies in the esquimaux language, "what cheer!" and which captain franklin heard frequently used on first accosting the natives at the mouth of the coppermine river. it seems to be among these people a salutation equivalent to that understood by these travellers, or at least some equally civil and friendly one, for nothing could exceed the attention which they paid us on landing. some individual always attached himself to each of us immediately on our leaving the boat, pointing out the best road, and taking us by the hand or arm to help us over the streams of water or fissures in the ice, and attending us wherever we went during our stay on shore. the day proving extremely fine and pleasant, everything assumed a different appearance from that at our former visit, and we passed some hours on shore very agreeably. about half a mile inland of the tents, and situated upon the rising ground beyond the swamps and ponds before mentioned, we found the ruins of several winter habitations, which, upon land so low as igloolik, formed very conspicuous objects at the distance of several miles to seaward. these were of the same circular and dome-like form as the snow-huts, but built with much more durable materials, the lower part or foundation being of stones, and the rest of the various bones of the whale and walrus, gradually inclining inward and meeting at the top. the crevices, as well as the whole of the outside, were then covered with turf, which, with the additional coating of snow in the winter, serves to exclude the cold air very effectually. the entrance is towards the south, and consists of a passage ten feet long, and not more than two in height and breadth, built of flat slabs of stone, having the same external covering as that of the huts. the beds are raised by stones two feet from the ground, and occupy about one third of the apartment at the inner end; and the windows and a part of the roofs had been taken away for the convenience of removing their furniture in the spring. it was a natural inference, from the nature of these habitations, that these people, or at least a portion of them, were constant residents on this spot, which, indeed, seemed admirably calculated to afford in luxurious profusion all that constitutes esquimaux felicity. this, however, did not afterward prove to be absolutely the case; for though igloolik (as perhaps the name may imply) is certainly one of their principal and favourite rendezvous, yet we subsequently found the inland entirely deserted by them at the same season. in every direction around the huts were lying innumerable bones of walruses and seals, together with sculls of dogs, bears, and foxes, on many of which a part of the putrid flesh still remaining sent forth the most offensive effluvia. we were not a little surprised to find also a number of human sculls lying about among the rest, within a few yards of the huts; and were somewhat inclined to be out of humour on this account with our new friends, who not only treated the matter with the utmost indifference, but, on observing that we were inclined to add some of them to our collections, went eagerly about to look for them, and tumbled, perhaps, the craniums of some of their own relations into our bag, without delicacy or remorse. in various other parts of the island we soon after met with similar relics no better disposed of; but we had yet to learn how little pains these people take to place their dead out of the reach of hungry bears or anatomical collectors. the account we gave of our visit to the shore naturally exciting the curiosity and interest of those who had not yet landed, and the ice remaining unchanged on the th, a couple of boats were despatched from each ship, with a large party of the officers and men, while the ships stood off and on. on the return of the boats in the evening, i found from lieutenant reid that a new family of the natives had arrived to-day from the main land, bringing with them a quantity of fine salmon and venison, of which some very acceptable samples were procured for both ships. being desirous of following up so agreeable a kind of barter, i went on shore the next morning for that purpose, but could only procure a very small quantity of fish from the tent of the new-comer, a middle-aged, noisy, but remarkably intelligent and energetic man named _t=o=ol~em~ak_. after some conversation, we found from this man that, in order to obtain a fresh supply of fish, three days would be required; this prevented my putting in execution a plan of going out to the place where the fish were caught, which we at first understood to be near at hand. we therefore employed all our eloquence in endeavouring to procure a supply of this kind by means of the esquimaux themselves, in which we at length so far succeeded, that toolemak promised, for certain valuable considerations of wood and iron, to set out on this errand the following day. shortly, after i returned on board captain lyon made the signal "to communicate with me," for the purpose of offering his services to accompany our fisherman on his proposed journey, attended by one of the hecla's men; to which, in the present unfavourable state of the ice, i gladly consented, as the most likely means of procuring information of interest during this our unavoidable detention. being equipped with a small tent, blankets, and four days' provision, captain lyon left us at ten p.m., when i made sail to re-examine the margin of the ice. it blew fresh from the eastward during the night of the th, with continued rain, all which we considered favourable for dissolving and dislodging the ice, though very comfortless for captain lyon on his excursion. the weather at length clearing up in the afternoon, i determined on beating to the eastward, to see if any more of the land in that direction could be made out than the unfavourable position of the ice would permit at our last visit. the fury then made sail and stood to the eastward, encountering the usual strength of tide off the southwest point of tangle island, and soon after a great quantity of heavy drift-ice, apparently not long detached from some land. i determined to avoid, if possible, the entanglement of the fury among the ice, which now surrounded her on every side, and to stand back to igloolik, to hear what information captain lyon's journey might have procured for us. at the distance of one third of a mile from tangle island, where we immediately gained the open sea beyond, we observed the hecla standing towards us, and rejoined her at a quarter before eleven, when captain lyon came on board to communicate the result of his late journey, of which he furnished me with the following account, accompanied by a sketch of the lands he had seen, as far as the extremely unfavourable state of the weather would permit. "accompanied by george dunn, i found toolemak on landing, who welcomed us to his tent, in which for two hours it was scarcely possible to move, in consequence of the crowd who came to gaze at us. a new deerskin was spread for me, and dunn having found a corner for himself, we all lay down to sleep, not, however, until our host, his wife, their little son, and a dog, had turned in beside me, under cover of a fine warm skin, all naked except the lady, who, with the decorum natural to her sex, kept on a part of her clothes. at ten a.m. we started, and found the sledge on a beach near the southern ice. four men were to accompany us on this vehicle, and the good-natured fellows volunteered to carry our luggage. a second sledge was under the charge of three boys who had eight dogs, while our team consisted of eleven. the weather was so thick that at times we could not see a quarter of a mile before us, but yet went rapidly forward to the w.n.w., when, after about six hours, we came to a high, bold land, and a great number of islands of reddish granite, wild and barren in the extreme. we here found the ice in a very decayed state, and in many places the holes and fissures were difficult if not dangerous to pass. at the expiration of eight hours, our impediments in this respect had increased to such a degree as to stop our farther progress. dunn, the old man, and myself therefore walked over a small island, beyond which we saw a sheet of water, which precluded any farther advance otherwise than by boats. "in the hope that the morning would prove more favourable for our seeing the land, the only advantage now to be derived from our visit, since the fishing place was not attainable, it was decided to pass the night on one of the rocky islands. the esquimaux having brought no provisions with them, i distributed our four days' allowance of meat in equal proportions to the whole party, who afterward lay down to sleep on the rocks, having merely a piece of skin to keep the rain from their faces. in this comfortless state they remained very quietly for eight hours. our little hunting-tent just held dunn and myself, although not in a very convenient manner; but it answered the purpose of keeping us dry, except from a stream of water that ran under us all night. "the morning of the th was rather fine for a short time, and we saw above thirty islands, which i named coxe's group, varying in size from one hundred yards to a mile or more in length. two deer were observed on the northern land, which was called _khead-laghioo_ by the esquimaux, and toolemak accompanied dunn in chase of them. on crossing to bring over our game, we found the old esquimaux had skinned and broken up the deer after his own manner, and my companions being without food, i divided it into shares. "arriving on the ice, a skin was taken from the sledge as a seat, and we all squatted down to a repast which was quite new to me. in ten minutes the natives had picked the deer's bones so clean that even the hungry dogs disdained to gnaw them a second time. dunn and myself made our breakfast on a choice slice cut from the spine, and found it so good, the windpipe in particular, that at dinner-time we preferred the same food to our share of the preserved meat which we had saved from the preceding night. "as we sat i observed the moschetoes to be very numerous, but they were lying in a half torpid state on the ice, and incapable of molesting us. soon after noon we set forward on our return, and, without seeing any object but the flat and decaying ice, passed from land to land with our former celerity, dashing through large pools of water much oftener than was altogether agreeable to men who had not been dry for above thirty hours, or warm for a still longer period. our eleven dogs were large, fine-looking animals, and an old one of peculiar sagacity was placed at their head by having a longer trace, so as to lead them over the safest and driest places, for these animals have a great dread of water. the leader was instant in obeying the voice of the driver, who did not beat, but repeatedly talked and called it by name. it was beautiful to observe the sledges racing to the same object, the dogs and men in full cry, and the vehicles splashing through the water with the velocity of rival stage-coaches. "we were joyfully welcomed to the dwelling of ooyarra, whose guest i was now to become, and the place of honour, the deerskin seat, was cleared for my reception. his two wives, _k~ai-m=o=o-khi~ak_ and _aw~a-r=un-n~i_ occupied one end, for it was a double tent; while at the opposite extremity the parents of the senior wife were established. the old mother n=ow-k~it-y~oo assisted the young woman in pulling off our wet clothes and boots, which latter being of native manufacture, she new-soled and mended without any request on our side, considering us as a part of the family. dunn slept in the little tent to watch our goods, and i had a small portion of ooyarra's screened off for me by a seal's skin. my host and his wives having retired to another tent, and my visitors taking compassion on me, i went comfortably to sleep; but at midnight was awakened by a feeling of great warmth, and, to my surprise, found myself covered by a large deerskin, under which lay my friend, his two wives, and their favourite puppy, all fast asleep and stark naked. supposing this was all according to rule, i left them to repose in peace, and resigned myself to sleep. "on rising, dunn and i washed with soap in a pond, which caused great speculations among the by-standers, on some of whom we afterward performed miracles in the cleansing way. a large assemblage being collected to hear me talk of ney-uning-eitua, or winter island, and to see us eat, the women volunteered to cook for us; and, as we preferred a fire in the open air to their lamps, the good-natured creatures sat an hour in the rain to stew some venison which we had saved from our shares of the deer. the fires in summer, when in the open air, are generally made of bones previously well rubbed with blubber, and the female who attends the cooking chews a large piece, from which, as she extracts the oil, she spirts it on the flame. "after noon, as i lay half asleep, a man came, and, taking me by the hand, desired dunn to follow. he led to a tent, which, from the stillness within, i conjectured was untenanted. several men stood near the door, and, on entering, i found eighteen women assembled and seated in regular order, with the seniors in front. in the centre, near the tent-pole, stood two men, who, when i was seated on a large stone, walked slowly round, and one began dancing in the usual manner, to the favourite tune of 'amna aya.' the second person, as i soon found, was the dancer's assistant; and, when the principal had pretty well exhausted himself, he walked gravely up to him, and, taking his head between his hands, performed a ceremony called _k=o=on~ik_, which is rubbing noses, to the great amusement and amid the plaudits of the whole company. after this, as if much refreshed, he resumed his performance, occasionally, however, taking a koonik to enliven himself and the spectators. the rub-_bee_, if i may be excused the expression, was at length brought forward and put in the place of the first dancer, who rushed out of the tent to cool himself. in this manner five or six couples exhibited alternately, obtaining more or less applause, according to the oddity of their grimaces. at length a witty fellow, in consequence of some whispering and tittering among the ladies, advanced and gave me the koonik, which challenge i was obliged to answer by standing up to dance, and my nose was in its turn most severely rubbed, to the great delight of all present. "having been as patient as could be wished for above an hour, and being quite overpowered by the heat of the crowded tent, i made a hasty retreat, after having distributed needles to all the females, and exacting kooniks from all the prettiest in return. a general outcry was now made for dunn, a most quiet north countryman, to exhibit also; but he, having seen the liberties which had been taken with my nose, very prudently made his retreat, anticipating what would be his fate if he remained. "during a short, interval of fine weather, we hung out our clothes to dry, and the contents of our knapsacks, instruments, knives, and beads were strewed on the ground, while we went inland to shoot a few ducks. we cautioned no one against thieving, and were so much at their mercy that everything might have been taken without a possibility of detection; yet not a single article was found to have been removed from its place at our return. at night i was attended by the same bedfellows as before; the young puppy, however, being now better acquainted, took up his quarters in my blanket-bag, as from thence he could the more easily reach a quantity of walrus-flesh which lay near my head; and i was awakened more than once by finding him gnawing a lump by my side. "on the morning of the th i was really glad to find that the ships were not yet in sight, as i should be enabled to pass another day among the hospitable natives. while making my rounds i met several others, who were also visiting, and who each invited me to call at his tent in its turn. wherever i entered, the master rose and resigned his seat next his wife or wives, and stood before me or squatted on a stone near the door. i was then told to 'speak!' or, in fact, to give a history of all i knew of the distant tribe, which, from constant repetition, i could now manage pretty well. in one tent i found a man mending his paddle, which was ingeniously made of various little scraps of wood, ivory, and bone, lashed together. he put it into my hands to repair, taking it for granted that a kabloona would succeed much better than himself. an hour afterward the poor fellow came and took me by the hand to his tent, where i found a large pot of walrus-flesh evidently cooked for me. his wife licked a piece and offered it, but, on his saying something to her, took out another, and, having pared off the outside, gave me the clean part, which, had it been carrion, i would not have hurt these poor creatures by refusing. the men showed me some curious puzzles with knots on their fingers, and i did what i could in return. the little girls were very expert in a singular but dirty amusement, which consisted in drawing a piece of sinew up their nostrils and producing the end out of their mouths. the elder people were, for the most part, in chase of the tormentors, which swarmed in their head and clothes; and i saw, for the first time, an ingenious contrivance for detaching them from the back, or such parts of the body as the hands could not reach. this was the rib of a seal, having a bunch of the whitest of a deer's hair attached to one end of it, and on this rubbing the places which require it, the little animals stick to it; from their colour they are easily detected, and, of course, consigned to the mouths of the hunters. "the weather clearing in the afternoon, one ship was seen in the distance, which diffused a general joy among the people, who ran about screaming and dancing with delight. while lounging along the beach, and waiting the arrival of the ship, i proposed a game at 'leap frog,' which was quite new to the natives, and in learning which some terrible falls were made. even the women with the children at their backs would not be outdone by the men, and they formed a grotesque party of opposition jumpers. tired with a long exhibition, i retreated to the tent, but was allowed a very short repose, as i was soon informed that the people from the farthest tents were come to see my performance, and, on going out, i found five men stationed at proper distances with their heads down for me to go over them, which i did amid loud cries of _koyenna_ (thanks). "as the ship drew near in the evening, i perceived her to be the hecla, but, not expecting a boat so late, lay down to sleep. i soon found my mistake, for a large party came drumming on the side of the tent, and crying out that a 'little ship' was coming, and, in fact, i found the boat nearly on shore. ooyarra's senior wife now anxiously begged to tattoo a little figure on my arm, which she had no sooner done than the youngest insisted on making the same mark; and while all around were running about and screaming in the greatest confusion, these two poor creatures sat quietly down to embellish me. when the boat landed, a general rush was made for the privilege of carrying our things down to it. awarunni, who owned the little dog which slept with me, ran and threw him as a present into the boat; when, after a general koonik, we pushed off, fully sensible of the kind hospitality we had received. toolemak and ooyarra came on board in my boat, in order to pass the night and receive presents, and we left the beach under three hearty cheers." chapter xi. a whale killed.--other charts drawn by the esquimaux.--account of a journey to the narrows of the strait.--discovery of the sea to the westward.--total disruption of the ice at the eastern entrance of the strait.--instance of local attraction on the compasses.--sail through the narrows, and again stopped by fixed ice.--account of several land journeys and boat excursions.--observations on the tides.--continued obstacles from fixed ice. _aug._ .--the information obtained by captain lyon on his late journey with the esquimaux served very strongly to confirm all that had before been understood from those people respecting the existence of the desired passage to the westward in this neighbourhood, though the impossibility of captain lyon's proceeding farther in that direction, combined with our imperfect knowledge of the language, still left us in some doubt as to the exact position of the strait in question. while, therefore, captain lyon was acquainting me with his late proceedings, we shaped a course for igloolik, in order to continue our look-out upon the ice, and made the tents very accurately by the compass, after a run of five leagues. the present state of the ice, which was thin and "rotten,", served no less to excite our surprise than to keep alive our hopes and expectations. the spaces occupied respectively by ice and holes were about equal; and so extensive and dangerous were the latter, that the men could with extreme difficulty walk twenty or thirty yards from the ship to place the anchors, and that at no small risk of falling through. we were astonished, therefore, to find with what tenacity a field of ice, whose parts appeared thus loosely joined, still continued to hang together, notwithstanding the action of the swell that almost constantly set upon its margin. we had for several days past occasionally seen black whales about the ships, and our boats were kept in constant readiness to strike one, for the sake of the oil, in which endeavour they at length succeeded this morning. the usual signal being exhibited, all the boats were sent to their assistance, and in less than an hour and a half had killed and secured the fish, which proved a moderate-sized one of above "nine feet bone," exactly suiting our purpose. the operation of "flinching" this animal, which was thirty-nine feet and a half in length, occupied most of the afternoon, each ship taking half the blubber and hauling it on the ice, "to make off" or put into casks. as soon as we had completed the stowage of the blubber, and washed the ships and people's clothes, we cast off on the th, taking in tow the carcass of the whale (technically called the "crang") for our friends at igloolik. the wind dying away when the ships were off the northeast end of the island, the boats were despatched to tow the whale on shore, while captain lyon and myself went ahead to meet some of the canoes that were paddling towards us. we soon joined eleven of them, and on our informing the esquimaux of the prize the boats were bringing them, they paddled off with great delight. when they arrived at the spot, and had civilly asked permission to eat some of it, they dropped their canoes astern to the whale's tail, from which they cut off enormous lumps of flesh and ravenously devoured it; after which they followed our boats in-shore, where the carcass was made fast to a mass of grounded ice for their future disposal. as we made several tacks off the island next to the northward of igloolik, called by the esquimaux _neerlo-nackto_, two canoes came off to us, in one of which was toolemak. he and his companions came on board the fury, when i employed him for a couple of hours in drawing a chart of the strait. toolemak, though a sensible and intelligent man, we soon found to be no draughtsman, so that his performance in this way, if taken alone, was not a very intelligible delineation of the coast. by dint, however, of a great deal of talking on his part, and some exercise of patience on ours, we at length obtained a copious verbal illustration of his sketch, which confirmed all our former accounts respecting the existence of a passage to the westward in this immediate neighbourhood, and the large extent of land on the northern side of the strait. toolemak also agreed with our other esquimaux informants in stating, that from the coast of akkoolee no land is visible to the westward; nor was any ever heard of in that direction by the esquimaux. this fact they uniformly assert with a whine of sorrow, meaning thereby to intimate that their knowledge and resources are there both at an end. the disruption of the ice continued to proceed slowly till early on the morning of the th; the breeze having freshened from the northwest, another floe broke away from the fixed ice, allowing us to gain about half a mile more to the westward; such was the vexatious slowness with which we were permitted to advance towards the object of our most anxious wishes! on the th i left the ship with mr. richards and four men, and furnished with provisions for ten days, intending, if possible, to reach the main land at a point where we could overlook the strait. in this we succeeded after a journey of four days, arriving on the morning of the th at the extreme northern point of a peninsula, overlooking the narrowest part of the desired strait, which lay immediately below us in about an east and west direction, being two miles in width, apparently very deep, and with a tide or current of at least two knots, setting the loose ice through to the eastward. beyond us, to the west, the shores again separated to the distance of several leagues; and for more than three points of the compass, in that direction, no land could be seen to the utmost limits of a clear horizon, except one island six or seven miles distant. over this we could not entertain a doubt of having discovered the polar sea; and, loaded as it was with ice, we already felt as if we were on the point of forcing our way through it along the northern shores of america. after despatching one of our party to the foot of the point for some of the sea-water, which was found extremely salt to the taste, we hailed the interesting event of the morning by three hearty cheers and by a small extra allowance of grog to our people, to drink a safe and speedy passage through the channel just discovered, which i ventured to name, by anticipation, the strait of the fury and hecla. having built a pile of stones upon the promontory, which, from its situation with respect to the continent of america, i called cape northeast, we walked back to our tent and baggage, these having, for the sake of greater expedition, been left two miles behind; and, after resting a few hours, set out at three p.m. on our return. we reached the ships at ten o'clock p.m. on tuesday the th. on almost all the shores both of the main land and islands that we visited, some traces of the esquimaux were found; but they were less numerous than in any other places on which we had hitherto landed. this circumstance rather seemed to intimate, as we afterward found to be the case, that the shores of the strait and its immediate neighbourhood are not a frequent resort of the natives during the summer months. we got under way on the st, were off cape northeast on the th, and i gave the name of cape ossory to the eastern point of the northern land of the narrows; but on that day, after clearing two dangerous shoals, and again deepening our soundings, we had begun to indulge the most flattering hopes of now making such a rapid progress as would in some degree compensate for all our delays and disappointments, when, at once to crush every expectation of this sort, it was suddenly announced from the crow's nest that another barrier of _fixed_ ice stretched completely across the strait, a little beyond us, in one continuous and impenetrable field, still occupying its winter station. in less than an hour we had reached its margin, when, finding this report but too correct, and that, therefore, all farther progress was at present as impracticable as if no strait existed, we ran the ships under all sail for the floe, which proved so "rotten" and decayed that the ships forced themselves three or four hundred yards through it before they stopped. keeping all our canvass spread, we then tried to break the thin edges about the numerous holes, by dropping weights over the bows, as well as by various other equally ineffectual expedients; but the ice was "tough" enough to resist every effort of this kind, though its watery state was such as to increase, if possible, our annoyance at being stopped by it. the passage to the northward of the island was not even so clear as this by above two miles of ice, so that in every respect our present route was to be preferred to the other; and thus, after a vexatious delay of six weeks at the eastern entrance of the strait, and at a time when we had every reason to hope that nature, though hitherto tardy in her annual disruption of the ice, had at length made an effort to complete it, did we find our progress once more opposed by a barrier of the same continuous, impenetrable, and hopeless nature as at first! as soon as the anchors were dropped, my attention was once more turned to the main object of the expedition, from which it had for a moment been diverted by the necessity of exerting every effort for the immediate safety of the ships. this being now provided for, i had leisure to consider in what manner, hampered as the ships were by the present state of the ice, our means and exertions might, during this unavoidable detention, be employed to the greatest advantage, or, at least, with the best prospect of ultimate utility. whatever doubts might at a distance have been entertained respecting the identity, or the contrary, of the place visited by captain lyon with that subsequently discovered by myself, there could be none on a nearer view; as, independently of the observed latitude, captain lyon could not, on approaching the narrows, recognise a single feature of the land; our present channel being evidently a much wider and more extensive one than that pointed out by toolemak, on the journey. it became, therefore, a matter of interest, now that this point was settled and our progress again stopped by an insuperable obstacle, to ascertain the extent and communication of the southern inlet; and, should it prove a second strait, to watch the breaking up of the ice about its eastern entrance, that no favourable opportunity might be missed of pushing through it to the westward. i therefore determined to despatch three separate parties, to satisfy all doubts in that quarter, as well as to gain every possible information as to the length of the strait, and the extent of the fixed ice now more immediately before us. with this view, i requested captain lyon to take with him mr. griffiths and four men, and proceed overland in a s.b.e. direction, till he should determine, by the difference of latitude, which amounted only to sixteen miles, whether there was or was not a strait leading to the westward, about the parallel of ° ', being nearly that in which the place called by the esquimaux _kh=emig_ had been found by observation to lie. in the mean time, lieutenant palmer was directed to proceed in a boat to igloolik, or neerlo-nackto, as might be necessary, to ascertain whether the passage leading towards kh=emig was yet clear of ice; and, should he find any one of the esquimaux willing to accompany him to the ships with his canoe, to bring him on board as a pilot. the third party consisted of mr. bushnan, with three men, under the command of lieutenant reid, who was instructed to proceed along the continental coast to the westward, to gain as much information as possible respecting the termination of our present strait, the time of his return to the ships being limited to four days, at the expiration of which the other two parties might also be expected to reach us. on the morning of the th, the wind being light from the eastward, but the weather much more clear than before, we weighed and stood over to the mainland with the intention of putting our travellers on shore, but found that coast now so lined with the ice which had lately broken adrift that it was not possible for a boat to approach it. standing off to the westward, to see what service the late disruption had done us, we found that a considerable floe had separated, exactly in a line between the island off which we lay and a second to the westward of it, subsequently named in honour of lord amherst. tacking at the newly-formed margin of the fixed ice, we observed, not only that it was still firmly attached to the shores, but that it was now almost entirely "hummocky," and heavier than any we had seen since making igloolik; some of the hummocks, as we afterward found, measuring from eight to ten feet above the surface of the sea. the different character now assumed by the ice, while it certainly damped our hopes of the passage being cleared this season by the gradual effects of dissolution, confirmed, however, in a very satisfactory manner, the belief of our being in a broad channel communicating with a western sea. as the conclusions we immediately drew from this circumstance may not be so obvious to others, i shall here briefly explain that, from the manner in which the hummocky floes are formed, it is next to impossible that any of these of considerable extent can ever be produced in a mere inlet having a narrow communication with the sea. there is, in fact, no ice to which the denomination of "sea-ice" may be more strictly and exclusively applied than this; and we therefore felt confident that the immense floes which now opposed our progress must have come from the sea on one side or the other; while the current, which we had observed to run in an easterly direction in the narrows, of this strait, precluded the possibility of such ice having found its way in from that quarter. the only remaining conclusion was, that it must have been set into the strait from the westward towards the close of a summer, and cemented in its present situation by the frost of the succeeding winter. a great deal of snow having fallen in the last two days, scarcely a dark patch was now to be seen on any part of the land, so that the prospect at daylight on the th was as comfortless as can well be imagined for the parties who were just about to find their way among the rocks and precipices. soon after four a.m., however, when we had ascertained that the drift-ice was no longer lying in their way, they were all despatched in their different directions. for each of the land-parties a depôt of several days' provision and fuel was, in case of accidents, established on the beach; and lieutenant palmer took in his boat a supply for nine days. on the st the wind blew fresh and cold from the northwest, which caused a quantity of ice to separate from the fixed floe in small pieces during the day, and drift past the ships. early in the morning, a she-bear and her two cubs were observed floating down on one of these masses, and, coming close to the hecla, were all killed. the female proved remarkably small, two or three men being able to lift her into a boat. at half past nine on the morning of the st of september, one of our parties was descried at the appointed rendezvous on shore, which, on our sending a boat to bring them on board, proved to be captain lyon and his people. from their early arrival we were in hopes that some decisive information had at length been obtained; and our disappointment may therefore be imagined, in finding that, owing to insuperable obstacles, on the road, he had not been able to advance above five or six miles to the southward, and that with excessive danger and fatigue, owing to the depth of the snow, and the numerous lakes and precipices. at nine a.m. on the d, lieutenant reid and his party were descried at their landing-place, and a boat being sent for them, arrived on board at half past eleven. he reported that the ice seemed to extend from amherst island as far as they could see to the westward, presenting one unbroken surface from the north to the south shore of the strait. notwithstanding every exertion on the part of our travellers, their labours had not thrown much light on the geography of this part of the coast, nor added any information that could be of practical use in directing the operations of the ships. the important question respecting a second passage leading to the westward still remained as much a matter of mere conjecture as at first; while the advanced period of the season, and the unpromising appearance of the ice now opposing our progress, rendered it more essential than ever that this point should, if possible, be decided. under this impression it occurred to me, that the desired object might possibly be accomplished by pursuing the route along the head or western shore of richards's bay, part of which i had already traversed on my former journey, and found it much less laborious walking than that experienced by captain lyon on the higher and more rugged mountains inland. i determined, therefore, to make this attempt, taking with me mr. richards and most of my former companions. this night proved the coldest we had experienced during the present season, and the thermometer stood at ° when i left the ships at four a.m. on the d, having previously directed captain lyon to remain as near their present station as might be consistent with safety, and carefully watch for any alteration that might occur in the western ice. being favoured by a strong northwesterly breeze, we reached the narrows at half past six a.m., and immediately encountered a race or ripple, so heavy and dangerous that it was only by carrying a press of canvass on the boat that we succeeded in keeping the seas from constantly breaking into her. this rippling appeared to be occasioned by the sudden obstruction which the current meets at the western mouth of the narrows, aided, in the present instance, by the strong breeze that blew directly upon the corner forming the entrance on the south side. having landed at cape northeast, i made sail for the isthmus at ten a.m., where we arrived after an hour's run; and hauling the boat up on the rocks, and depositing the greater part of our stores near her, set off at one p.m. along the shore of richards's bay, being equipped with only three days' provision, and as small a weight of clothing as possible. the coast, though not bad for travelling, led us so much more to the westward than i expected, in consequence of its numerous indentations, that, after above five hours' hard walking, we had only made good a w.s.w. course, direct distance six miles. we obtained on every eminence a distinct view of the ice the whole way down to neerlo-nakto, in which space not a drop of clear water was discernible; the whole of richards's bay was filled with ice as before. we moved at six p.m. on the th, and soon came to a number of lakes from half a mile to two miles in length occurring in chains of three or four together, round which we had to walk, at the expense of much time and labour. at half past six, on gaining a sight of the sea from the top of a hill, we immediately recognised to the eastward the numerous islands of red granite described by captain lyon; and now perceived, what had before been surmised, that the south shore of richards's bay formed the northern coast of the inlet, up which his journey with the esquimaux had been pursued. our latitude, by account from noon, being now ° ', we felt confident that a short walk directly to the south must bring us to any strait communicating with that inlet, and we therefore pushed on in confident expectation of being near our journey's end. at seven p.m., leaving the men to pitch the tent in a sheltered valley, mr. richards and myself ascended the hill that rose beyond it, and, on reaching its summit, found ourselves overlooking a long and narrow arm of the sea communicating with the inlet before seen to the eastward, and appearing to extend several miles nearly in an east and west direction, or parallel to the table-land before described, from which it is distant three or four miles. that the creek we now overlooked was a part of the same arm of the sea which captain lyon had visited, the latitude, the bearings of igloolik, which was now plainly visible, and the number and appearance of the coxe islands, which were too remarkable to be mistaken, all concurred in assuring us; and it only, therefore, remained for us to determine whether it would furnish a passage for the ships. having made all the remarks which the lateness of the evening would permit, we descended to the tent at dusk, being directed by a cheerful, blazing fire of the _andromeda tetragona_, which, in its present dry state, served as excellent fuel for warming our provisions. setting forward at five a.m. on the th, along some pleasant valleys covered with grass and other vegetation, and the resort of numerous reindeer, we walked six or seven miles in a direction parallel to that of the creek; when, finding the latter considerably narrowed, and the numerous low points of its south shore rendering the water too shoal, to all appearance, even for the navigation of a sloop of ten tons, i determined to waste no more time in the farther examination of so insignificant a place. the farther we went to the westward, the higher the hills became; and the commanding prospect thus afforded enabled us distinctly to perceive with a glass that, though the ice had become entirely dissolved in the creek, and for half a mile below it, the whole sea to the eastward, even as far as igloolik, was covered with one continuous and unbroken floe. having now completely satisfied myself, that, as respected both ice and land, there was no navigable passage for ships about this latitude, no time was lost in setting out on our return. at half past eight we arrived on board, where i was happy to find that all our parties had returned without accident, except that lieutenant palmer had been wounded in his hand and temporarily blinded by a gun accidentally going off, from which, however, he fortunately suffered no eventual injury. the result of our late endeavours, necessarily cramped as they had been, was to confirm, in the most satisfactory manner, the conviction that we were now in the only passage leading to the westward that existed in this neighbourhood. notwithstanding, therefore, the present unpromising appearance of the ice, i had no alternative left me but patiently to await its disruption, and instantly to avail myself of any alteration that nature might yet effect in our favour. chapter xii. a journey performed along the south shore of cockburn island.--confirmation of an outlet to the polar sea.--partial disruption of the old ice, and formation of new.--return through the narrows to the eastward.--proceed to examine the coast to the northeastward.--fury's anchor broken.--stand over to igloolik to look for winter-quarters.--excursion to the head of quilliam creek.--ships forced to the westward by gales of wind--a canal sawed through the ice, and the ships secured in their winter station.--continued visits of the esquimaux, and arrival of some of the winter island tribe.--proposed plan of operations in the ensuing spring. a light air springing up from the eastward on the morning of the th, we took advantage of it to run up the margin of the fixed ice, which was now, perhaps, half a mile farther to the westward, in consequence of small pieces being occasionally detached from it, than it had been when we tacked off it ten days before. the pools on the floes were now so hardly frozen, that skating and sliding were going on upon them the whole day, though but a week before it had been dangerous to venture upon them. this latter circumstance, together with the fineness of the weather, and the tempting appearance of the shore of cockburn island, which seemed better calculated for travelling than any that we had seen, combined to induce me to despatch another party to the westward, with the hope of increasing, by the only means within our reach, our knowledge of the lands and sea in that direction. lieutenant reid and mr. bushnan were once more selected for that service, to be accompanied by eight men, a large number being preferred, because by this means only is it practicable to accomplish a tolerably long journey, especially on account of the additional weight of warm clothing which the present advanced state of the season rendered indispensable. lieutenant reid was furnished with six days' provisions, and directed to land where most practicable on the northern shore, and thence to pursue his journey to the westward as far as his resources would admit, gaining all possible information that might be useful or interesting. on the th, while an easterly breeze continued, the water increased very much in breadth to the westward of the fixed floe to which we were attached; several lanes opening out, and leaving in some places a channel not less than three miles in width. at two p.m., the wind suddenly shifting to the westward, closed up every open space in a few hours, leaving not a drop of water in sight from the masthead in that direction. to this, however, we had no objection; for being now certain that the ice was at liberty to move in the western part of the strait, we felt confident that, if once our present narrow barrier were also detached, the ordinary changes of wind and tide would inevitably afford us opportunities of making progress. the westerly wind was accompanied by fine snow, which continued during the night, rendering the weather extremely thick, and our situation, consequently, very precarious, should the ice give way during the hours of darkness. at four p.m. on the th we discovered our travellers upon the ice. a fresh party being despatched to meet and to relieve them of their knapsacks, lieutenant reid arrived safely on board at seven p.m., having, by a quick and most satisfactory journey, ascertained the immediate junction of the strait of the fury and hecla with the polar sea. the weather continuing very thick, with small snow, and there being now every reason to suppose a final disruption of the fixed ice at hand, i determined to provide against the danger to which, at night, this long-wished-for event would expose the ships, by adopting a plan that had often before occurred to me as likely to prove beneficial in an unknown and critical navigation such as this. this was nothing more than the establishment of a temporary lighthouse on shore during the night, which, in case of our getting adrift, would, together with the soundings, afford us that security which the sluggish traversing of the compasses otherwise rendered extremely doubtful. for this purpose, two steady men, provided with a tent and blankets, were landed on the east point of amherst island at sunset, to keep up some bright lights during the eight hours of darkness, and to be sent for at daylight in the morning. on the th the wind freshened almost to a gale from the northwest, with thicker and more constant snow than before. the thermometer fell to - / ° at six a.m., rose no higher than ° in the course of the day, and got down to ° at night, so that the young ice began now to form about us in great quantities. appearances had now become so much against our making any farther progress this season, as to render it a matter of very serious consideration whether we ought to risk being shut up during the winter in the middle of the strait, where, from whatever cause it might proceed, the last year's ice was not yet wholly detached from the shores, and where a fresh formation had already commenced, which there was too much reason to believe would prove a permanent one. our wintering in the strait involved the certainty of being frozen up for eleven months; a sickening prospect under any circumstances, but in the present instance, probably, fatal to our best hopes and expectations. the young ice had now formed so thick about the fury, that it became rather doubtful whether we should get her out without an increase of wind to assist in extricating her, or a decrease of cold. at ten a.m., however, we began to attempt it, but by noon had not moved the ship more than half her own length. as soon as we had reached the outer point of the floe, in a bay of which we had been lying, we had no longer the means of applying a force from without, and, if alone, should therefore have been helpless, at least for a time. the hecla, however, being fortunately unencumbered, in consequence of having lain in a less sheltered place, sent her boats with a hawser to the margin of the young ice; and ours being carried to meet it, by men walking upon planks, at considerable risk of going through, she at length succeeded in pulling us out; and, getting into clear water, or, rather, into less tough ice, at three p.m. we shaped a course to the eastward. in our return to igloolik we encountered a severe gale, but we luckily discovered it at half past ten a.m., though such was the difficulty of distinguishing this from neerlo-nakto, or either from the mainland, on account of the snow that covered them, that, had it not been for the esquimaux huts, we should not easily have recognised the place. at noon on the th we arrived off the point where the tents had first been pitched, and were immediately greeted by a number of esquimaux, who came running down to the beach, shouting and jumping with all their might. as soon as we had anchored i went on shore, accompanied by several of the officers, to pay the esquimaux a visit, a crowd of them meeting us, as usual, on the beach, and greeting us with every demonstration of joy. they seemed disappointed that we had not reached akkolee, for they always receive with eagerness any intelligence of their distant country people. many of them, and toolemak among the number, frequently repeated the expressions "_owyak na-o_!" (no summer), "_took-too na-o!_" (no reindeer), which we considered at the time as some confirmation of our own surmises respecting the badness of the past summer. when we told them we were come to winter among them, they expressed very great, and, doubtless, very sincere delight, and even a few _koyennas_ (thanks) escaped them on the first communication of this piece of intelligence. we found these people already established in their winter residences, which consisted principally of the huts before described, but modified in various ways both as to form and materials. the roofs, which were wholly wanting in the summer, were now formed by skins stretched tight across from side to side. this, however, as we soon afterward found, was only a preparation for the final winter covering of snow; and, indeed, many of the huts were subsequently lined in the same way within, the skins being attached to the sides and roof by slender threads of whalebone, disposed in large and regular stitches. before the passages already described, others were now added, from ten to fifteen feet in length, and from four to five feet high, neatly constructed of large flat slabs of ice, cemented together by snow and water. some huts also were entirely built of this material, of a rude circular or octangular form, and roofed with skins like the others. the light and transparent effect within these singular habitations gave one the idea of being in a house of ground glass, and their newness made them look clean, comfortable, and wholesome. not so the more substantial bone huts, which, from their extreme closeness and accumulated filth, emitted an almost insupportable stench, to which an abundant supply of raw and half-putrid walrus' flesh in no small degree contributed. the passages to these are so low as to make it necessary to crawl on the hands and knees to enter them; and the floors of the apartments were in some places so slippery, that we could with difficulty pass and repass, without the risk of continually falling among the filth with which they were covered. these were the dirtiest, because the most durable, of any esquimaux habitations we had yet seen; and it may be supposed they did not much improve during the winter. some bitches with young were very carefully and conveniently lodged in small square kennels, made of four upright slabs of ice covered with a fifth, and having a small hole as a door in one of the sides. the canoes were also laid upon two slabs of this kind, like tall tombstones standing erect; and a quantity of spare slabs lying in different places, gave the ground an appearance somewhat resembling that of a statuary's yard. large stores of walrus' and seals' flesh, principally the former, were deposited under heaps of stones all about the beach, and, as we afterward found, in various other parts of the island, which showed that they had made some provision for the winter, though, with their enormous consumption of food, it proved a very inadequate one. leaving the fury at seven a.m. on the th, and being favoured by a fresh easterly breeze, we soon cleared the southwest point of igloolik; and, having passed the little island of _oogli=aghioo_, immediately perceived to the w.n.w. of us a group of islands, so exactly answering the description of coxe's group, both in character and situation, as to leave no doubt of our being exactly in captain lyon's former track. being still favoured by the wind and by the total absence of fixed ice, we reached the islands at eleven a.m., and, after sailing a mile or two among them, came at once in sight of two bluffs, forming the passage pointed out by toolemak, and then supposed to be called _khemig_. the land to the north, called by the esquimaux _khiadlaghioo_, was now found to be, as we had before conjectured, the southern shore of richards's bay. the land on our left or to the southward proved an island, five miles and a quarter in length, of the same bold and rugged character as the rest of this numerous group, and by far the largest of them all. to prevent the necessity of reverting to this subject, i may at once add, that two or three months after this, on laying before ewerat our own chart of the whole coast, in order to obtain the esquimaux names, we discovered that the island just mentioned was called _khemig_, by which name ormond island was _also_ distinguished; the word expressing, in the esquimaux language, anything stopping up the mouth of a place or narrowing its entrance, and applied also more familiarly to the cork of a bottle, or a plug of any kind. and thus were reconciled all the apparent inconsistencies respecting this hitherto mysterious and incomprehensible word, which had occasioned us so much perplexity. at daylight on the th we crossed to a small island at the margin of the ice; and leaving the boat there in charge of the coxswain and two of the crew, mr. ross and myself, accompanied by the other two, set out across the ice at seven a.m. to gain the main land, with the intention of determining the extent of the inlet by walking up its southern bank. after an hour's good travelling, we landed at eight a.m., and had scarcely done so when we found ourselves at the very entrance, being exactly opposite the place from which mr. richards and myself had obtained the first view of the inlet. the patch of ice on which we had been walking, and which was about three miles long, proved the only remains of last year's formation; so forcibly had nature struggled to get rid of this before the commencement of a fresh winter. walking quickly to the westward along this shore, which afforded excellent travelling, we soon perceived that our business was at an end, the inlet terminating a very short distance beyond where i had first traced it, the apparent turn to the northward being only that of a shallow bay. having thus completed our object, we set out on our return, and reached the boat at three p.m., after a walk of twenty miles. the weather fortunately remaining extremely mild, no young ice was formed to obstruct our way, and we arrived on board at noon the following day, after an examination peculiarly satisfactory, inasmuch as it proved the non-existence of _any_ water communication with the polar sea, however small and unfit for the navigation of ships, to the southward of the strait of the fury and hecla. i found from captain lyon on my return, that, in consequence of some ice coming in near the ships, he had shifted them round the point into the berths-where it was my intention to place them during the winter; where they now lay in from eleven to fourteen fathoms, at the distance of three cables' length from the shore. it was not till the afternoon of the th that the whole was completed, and the fury placed in the best berth for the winter that circumstances would permit. an early release in the spring could here be scarcely expected, nor, indeed, did the nature of the ice about us, independently of situation, allow us to hope for it; but both these unfavourable circumstances had been brought about by a contingency which no human power or judgment could have obviated, and at which, therefore, it would have been unreasonable, as well as useless, to repine. we lay here in rather less than five fathoms, on a muddy bottom, at the distance of one cable's length from the eastern shore of the bay. the whole length of the canal we had sawed through was four thousand three hundred and forty-three feet; the thickness of the ice, in the level and regular parts, being from twelve to fourteen inches, but in many places, where a separation had occurred, amounting to several feet. i cannot sufficiently do justice to the cheerful alacrity with which the men continued this laborious work during thirteen days, the thermometer being frequently at _zero_, and once as low as - ° in that interval. it was satisfactory, moreover, to find, that in the performance of this, not a single addition had been made to the sick-list of either ship, except by the accident of one man's falling into the canal, who returned to his duty a day or two afterward. while our people were thus employed, the esquimaux had continued to make daily visits to the ships, driving down on sledges with their wives and children, and thronging on board in great numbers, as well to gratify their curiosity, of which they do not, in general, possess much, as to pick up whatever trifles we could afford to bestow upon them. these people were at all times ready to assist in any work that was going on, pulling on the ropes, heaving at the windlass, and sawing the ice, sometimes for an hour together. they always accompanied their exertions by imitating the sailors in their peculiar manner of "singing out" when hauling, thus, at least, affording the latter constant amusement, if not any very material assistance, during their labour. among the numerous young people at igloolik, there were some whose activity on this and other occasions particularly struck us. of these i shall, at present, only mention two: _n=o=ogloo_, an adopted son of toolemak, and _k=ong~ol~ek_, a brother of "john bull." these two young men, who were from eighteen to twenty years of age, and stood five feet seven inches in height, displayed peculiar _tact_ in acquiring our method of heaving at the windlass, an exercise at which _k=ong~ol~ek_ became expert after an hour or two's practice. the countenances of both were handsome and prepossessing, and their limbs well-formed and muscular; qualities which, combined with their activity and manliness, rendered them (to speak like a naturalist), perhaps, as fine specimens of the human race as almost any country can produce. some of our winter island friends had now arrived also, being the party who left us there towards the end of the preceding may, and whom we had afterward overtaken on their journey to the northward. they were certainly all very glad to see us again, and, throwing off the esquimaux for a time, shook us heartily by the hand, with every demonstration of sincere delight. ewerat, in his quiet, sensible way, which was always respectable, gave us a circumstantial account of every event of his journey. on his arrival at _owlitteweek_, near which island we overtook him, he had buried the greater part of his baggage under heaps of stones, the ice no longer being fit for dragging the sledge upon. here also he was happily eased of a still greater burden, by the death of his idiot boy, who thus escaped the miseries to which a longer life must, among these people, have inevitably exposed him. as for that noisy little fellow, "john bull" (_kooillitiuk_), he employed almost the whole of his first visit in asking every one, by name, "how d'ye do, mr. so and so?" a question which had obtained him great credit among our people at winter island. being a very important little personage, he also took great pride in pointing out various contrivances on board the ships, and explaining to the other esquimaux their different uses, to which the latter did not fail to listen with all the attention due to so knowing an oracle. chapter xiii. preparations for the winter.--various meteorological phenomena to the close of the year .--sickness among the esquimaux.--meteorological phenomena to the end of march. _november_.--the measures now adopted for the security of the ships and their stores, for the maintenance of economy, cleanliness, and health, and for the prosecution of the various observations and experiments, being principally the same as those already detailed in the preceding winter's narrative, i shall be readily excused for passing them over in silence. the daily visits of the esquimaux to the ships throughout the winter afforded, both to officers and men, a fund of constant variety and never-failing amusement, which no resources of our own could possibly have furnished. our people were, however, too well aware of the advantage they derived from the schools not to be desirous of their re-establishment, which accordingly took place soon after our arrival at igloolik; and they were glad to continue this as their evening occupation during the six succeeding months. the year closed with the temperature of - °, the mean of the month of december having been ° ', which, taken in connexion with that of november, led us to expect a severe winter. about the middle of the month of december several of the esquimaux had moved from the huts at igloolik, some taking up their quarters on the ice at a considerable distance to the northwest, and the rest about a mile outside the summer station of the tents. at the close of the year from fifty to sixty individuals had thus decamped, their object being, like that of other savages on _terra firma_, to increase their means of subsistence by covering more ground; their movements were arranged so quietly that we seldom heard of their intentions till they were gone. at the new stations they lived entirely in huts of snow; and the northerly and easterly winds were considered by them most favourable for their fishing, as these served to bring in the loose ice, on which they principally kill the walruses. towards the latter end of january [ ], the accounts from the huts, as well from the esquimaux as from our own people, concurred in stating that the number of the sick, as well as the seriousness of their complaints, was rapidly increasing there. we had, indeed, scarcely heard of the illness of a woman named _kei-m=o=o-seuk_, who, it seemed, had lately miscarried, when an account arrived of her death. she was one of the two wives of _ooyarra_, one of captain lyon's fellow-travellers in the summer, who buried her in the snow, about two hundred yards from the huts, placing slabs of the same perishable substance over the body, and cementing them by pouring a little water in the interstices. such an interment was not likely to be a very secure one; and, accordingly, a few days after, the hungry dogs removed the snow and devoured the body. captain lyon gave me the following account of the death and burial of another poor woman and her child: "the mother, poo-too-alook, was about thirty-five years of age, the child about three years--yet not weaned, and a female; there was also another daughter, shega, about twelve or thirteen years of age, who, as well as her father, was a most attentive nurse. my hopes were but small, as far as concerned the mother; but the child was so patient that i hoped, from its docility, soon to accustom it to soups and nourishing food, as its only complaint was actual starvation. i screened off a portion of my cabin, and arranged some bedding for them, in the same manner as the esquimaux do their own. warm broth, dry bedding, and a comfortable cabin, did wonders before evening, and our medical men gave me great hopes. as an introduction to a system of cleanliness, and preparatory to washing the sick, who were in a most filthy state, i scrubbed shega and her father from head to foot, and dressed them in new clothes. during the night i persuaded both mother and child, who were very restless, and constantly moaning, to take a few spoonfuls of soup. on the morning of the th the woman appeared considerably improved, and she both spoke and ate a little. as she was covered with so thick a coating of dirt that it could be taken off in scales, i obtained her assent to wash her face and hands a little before noon. the man and his daughter now came to my table to look at some things i had laid out to amuse them; and, after a few minutes, shega lifted up the curtain to look at her mother, when she again let it fall, and tremblingly told us she was dead. "the husband sighed heavily, the daughter burst into tears, and the poor little infant made the moment more distressing by calling in a plaintive tone on its mother, by whose side it was lying. i determined on burying the woman on shore, and the husband was much pleased at my promising that the body should be drawn on a sledge by men instead of dogs; for, to our horror, takkeelikkeeta had told me that dogs had eaten part of keimooseuk, and that, when he left the huts with his wife, one was devouring the body as he passed it. "takkeelikkeeta now prepared to dress the dead body, and, in the first place, stopped his nose with deer's hair and put on his gloves, seeming unwilling that his naked hand should come in contact with the corpse. i observed, in this occupation, his care that every article of dress should be as carefully placed as when his wife was living; and, having drawn the boots on the wrong legs, he pulled them off again and put them properly. this ceremony finished, the deceased was sewed up in a hammock, and, at the husband's urgent request, her face was left uncovered. an officer who was present at the time agreed with me in fancying that the man, from his words and actions, intimated a wish that the living child might be enclosed with its mother. we may have been mistaken, but there is an equal probability that we were right in our conjecture; for, according to crantz and egede, the greenlanders were in the habit of burying their motherless infants, from a persuasion that they must otherwise starve to death, and also from being unable to bear the cries of the little ones while lingering for several days without sustenance; for no woman will give them any share of their milk, which they consider as the exclusive property of their own offspring. my dogs being carefully tied up at the man's request, a party of our people, accompanied by me, drew the body to the shore, where we made a grave, about a foot deep, being unable to get lower on account of the frozen earth. the body was placed on its back, at the husband's request, and he then stepped into the grave and cut all the stitches of the hammock, although without throwing it open, seeming to imply that the dead should be left unconfined. i laid a woman's knife by the side of the body, and we filled up the grave, over which we also piled a quantity of heavy stones, which no animal could remove. when all was done and we returned to the ship, the man lingered a few minutes behind us and repeated two or three sentences, as if addressing himself to his departed wife; he then silently followed. we found shega quite composed, and attending her little sister, between whose eyebrows she had made a spot with soot, which i learned was because, being unweaned, it must certainly die. during the night my little charge called on its mother without intermission, yet the father slept as soundly until morning as if nothing had happened. "all who saw my patient on the morning of the th gave me great hopes; she could swallow easily, and was even strong enough to turn or sit upright without assistance, and in the forenoon slept very soundly. at noon, the sister of the deceased, ootooguak, with her husband and son, came to visit me. she had first gone to the fury, and was laughing on deck, and, at her own request, was taken below, not caring to hurry herself to come to the house of mourning. even when she came to the hecla she was in high spirits, laughing and capering on deck as if nothing had happened; but, on being shown to my cabin, where shega, having heard of her arrival, was sitting crying in readiness, she began with her niece to howl most wofully. i, however, put a stop to this ceremony, for such it certainly was, under the plea of disturbing the child. the arrival of a pot of smoking walrus-flesh soon brought smiles on all faces but that of takkeelikkeeta, who refused food and sat sighing deeply; the others ate, chatted, and laughed as if nothing but eating was worth thinking of. dinner being over, i received thanks for burying the woman in such a way that 'neither wolves, dogs, nor foxes could dig her up and eat her,' for all were full of the story of keimooseuk, and even begged some of our officers to go to igloolik and shoot the offending dogs. a young woman named ablik, sister to ooyarra, was induced, after much entreaty and a very large present of beads, to offer her breast to the sick child, but the poor little creature pushed it angrily away. another woman was asked to do the same; but, although her child was half weaned, she flatly refused. "the aunt of my little one seeming anxious to remain, and shega being now alone, i invited her to stop the night. in the evening the child took meat and jelly, and sat up to help itself, but it soon after resumed its melancholy cry for its mother. at night my party had retired to sleep; yet i heard loud sighing occasionally, and, on lifting the curtain, i saw takkeelikkeeta standing and looking mournfully at his child. i endeavoured to compose him, and he promised to go to bed; but, hearing him again sighing in a few minutes, i went and found the poor infant was dead, and that its father had been some time aware of it. he now told me it had seen its mother the last time it called on her, and that she had beckoned it to khil-la (heaven), on which it instantly died. he said it was 'good' that the child was gone; that no children outlived their mothers; and that the black spot, which shega had frequently renewed, was quite sufficient to ensure the death of the infant. "my party made a hearty breakfast on the th, and i observed they did not scruple to lay the vessel containing the meat on the dead child, which i had wrapped in a blanket; and this unnatural table excited neither disgust nor any other feeling among them more than a block of wood could have done. we now tied up all the dogs, as takkeelikkeeta had desired, and took the child about a quarter of a mile astern of the ships, to bury it in the snow; for the father assured me that her mother would cry in her grave if any weight of stones or earth pressed on her infant. she herself, he feared, had already felt pain from the monument of stones which we had laid upon her. the snow in which we dug the child's grave was not above a foot deep, yet we were not allowed to cut into the ice, or even use any slabs of it in constructing the little tomb. the body, wrapped in a blanket, and having the face uncovered, being placed, the father put the slings by which its deceased mother had carried it on the right side, and, in compliance with the esquimaux custom of burying toys and presents with their dead, i threw in some beads. a few loose slabs of snow were now placed so as to cover, without touching, the body, and with this very slight sepulchre the father was contented, although a fox could have dug through it in half a minute. we, however, added more snow, and cemented all by pouring about twenty buckets of water, which were brought from the ship, on every part of the mound. i remarked that, before our task was completed, the man turned and walked quietly to the ships. "during the last two days i obtained some information with respect to mourning ceremonies, or, at all events, such as related to the loss of a mother of a family; three days were to be passed by the survivors without their walking on the ice, performing any kind of work, or even having anything made for them. washing is out of the question with esquimaux at most times, but now i was not allowed to perform the necessary ablutions of their hands and faces, however greasy or dirty they might be made by their food; the girl's hair was not to be put into pig-tails, and everything was neglected; takkeelikkeeta was not to go sealing until the summer. with the exception of an occasional sigh from the man, there were no more signs of grief; our mourners ate, drank, and were merry, and no one would have supposed they ever had wife, mother, or sister. when the three days (and it is singular that such should be the time) were expired, the man was to visit the grave; and, having talked with his wife, all duties were to be considered as over. the th was our third day, but a heavy northerly gale and thick drift prevented our visiting the grave. the th, although not fine, was more moderate, and i accompanied him at an early hour. arriving at the grave, he anxiously walked up to it and carefully sought for foot-tracks on the snow; but, finding none, repeated to himself, 'no wolves, no dogs, no foxes; thank ye, thank ye.' he now began a conversation, which he directed entirely to his wife. he called her twice by name, and twice told her how the wind was blowing, looking at the same time in the direction from whence the drift was coming. he next broke forth into a low monotonous chant, and, keeping his eyes fixed upon the grave, walked slowly round it in the direction of the sun four or five times, and at each circuit he stopped a few moments at the head. his song was, however, uninterrupted. at the expiration of about eight minutes he stopped, and, suddenly turning round to me, exclaimed, '_tugw~a_' (that's enough), and began walking back to the ship. in the song he chanted i could frequently distinguish the word _koyenna_ (thank you), and it was occasionally coupled with the kabloonas. two other expressions, both the names of the spirits or familiars of the annatko, toolemak, were used a few times; but the whole of the other words were perfectly unintelligible to me. "i now sent shega and her father home, well clothed and in good case. the week they had passed on board was sufficient time to gain them the esteem of every one, for they were the most quiet, inoffensive beings i ever met with; and, to their great credit, they never once begged. the man was remarkable for his extraordinary fondness for treacle, sugar, salt, acids, and spruce-beer, which the others of the tribe could not even smell without disgust; and he walked about to the different messes in hopes of being treated with these delicacies. shega was a timid, well-behaved girl, and generally remained eating in my cabin, for i am confident of speaking far within bounds when i say she got through eight pounds of solids per diem. as far as gratitude could be shown by esquimaux, which is saying 'koyenna' on receiving a present, my friends were sensible of the attentions i had shown them." _march_ th.--the esquimaux were about this time rather badly off for food, in consequence of the winds having of late been unfavourable for their fishery; but this had only occurred two or three times in the course of the winter, and never so much as to occasion any great distress. it is certain, indeed, that the quantity of meat which they procured between the st of october and the st of april was sufficient to furnish about double the population of working people who were moderate eaters, and had any idea of providing for a future day; but to individuals who can demolish four or five pounds at a sitting, and at least ten in the course of a day,[ ] and who never bestow a thought on to-morrow, at least with a view to provide for it by economy, there is scarcely any supply which could secure them from occasional scarcity. it is highly probable that the alternate feasting and fasting to which the gluttony and improvidence of these people so constantly subject them, may have occasioned many of the complaints that proved fatal during the winter; and on this account we hardly knew whether to rejoice or not at the general success of their fishery. certain it is, that on a particular occasion of great plenty, one or two individuals were seen lying in the huts, so distended by the quantity of meat they had eaten that they were unable to move, and were suffering considerable pain, arising solely from this cause. indeed, it is difficult to assign any other probable reason for the lamentable proportion of deaths that took place during our stay at igloolik, while, during a season of nearly equal severity, and of much greater privation as to food, at winter island, not a single death occurred. notwithstanding their general plenty, there were times in the course of this winter, as well as the last, when our bread-dust was of real service to them, and they were always particularly desirous of obtaining it for their younger children. they distinguished this kind of food by the name of _k=an~ibr~o~ot_, and biscuit or soft bread by that of _sh=eg~al~ak_, the literal meaning of which terms we never could discover, but supposed them to have some reference to their respective qualities. our lengthened acquaintance with the esquimaux and their language, which a second winter passed among them afforded, gave us an opportunity of occasionally explaining to them in some measure in what direction our country lay, and of giving them some idea of its distance, climate, population, and productions. it was with extreme difficulty that these people had imbibed any correct idea of the superiority of rank possessed by some individuals among us; and when at length they came into this idea, they naturally measured our respective importance by the riches they supposed each to possess. the ships they considered, as a matter of course, to belong to captain lyon and myself, and on this account distinguished them by the names of _lyon-oomiak_ and _paree-oomiak_; but they believed that the boats and other parts of the furniture were the property of various other individuals among us. they were, therefore, not a little surprised to be seriously assured that neither the one nor the other belonged to any of us, but to a much richer and more powerful person, to whom we all paid respect and obedience, and at whose command we had come to visit and enrich the _innuees_. ewerat, on account of his steadiness and intelligence, as well as the interest with which he listened to anything relating to _kabloonas_, was particularly fit to receive information of this nature; and a general chart of the atlantic ocean, and of the lands on each side, immediately conveyed to his mind an idea of the distance we had come, and the direction in which our home lay. this and similar information was received by ewerat and his wife with the most eager astonishment and interest, not merely displayed in the "hei-ya!" which constitutes the usual extent of esquimaux admiration, but evidently enlarging their notion respecting the other parts of the world, and creating in them ideas which could never before have entered their minds. by way of trying their inclinations, i asked them if they would consent to leave their own country, and, taking with them their children, go to live in ours, where they would see no more _innuees_, and never eat any more seal or walrus. to all this they willingly agreed, and with an earnestness that left no doubt of their sincerity; togolat adding, in an emphatic manner, "_shagloo ooagoot nao_" (we do not tell a falsehood), an expression of peculiar force among them. the eagerness with which they assented to this proposal made me almost repent my curiosity, and i was glad to get out of the scrape by saying, that the great personage of whom i had spoken would not be pleased at my taking them home without having first obtained his permission. information of the kind alluded to was subsequently given to many of the other esquimaux, some of whom could at length pronounce the name of "king george" so as to be tolerably intelligible. the weather was now so pleasant, and the temperature in the sun so comfortable to the feelings when a shelter could be found from the wind, that we set up various games for the people, such as cricket, football, and quoits, which some of them played for many hours during the day. at the close of the month of march, we were glad to find that its mean temperature, being - . °, when taken in conjunction with those of january and february, appeared to constitute a mild winter for this latitude. there were, besides, some other circumstances, which served to distinguish this winter from any preceding one we had passed in the ice. one of the most remarkable of these was the frequent occurrence of hard, well-defined clouds, a feature we had hitherto considered as almost unknown in the winter sky of the polar regions. it is not improbable that these may have, in part, owed their origin to a large extent of sea keeping open to the southeastward throughout the winter, though they not only occurred with the wind from that quarter, but also with the colder weather, usually accompanying northwesterly breezes. about the time of the sun's reappearance, and for a week or two after it, these clouds were not more a subject of admiration to us on account of their novelty, than from the glowing richness of the tints with which they were adorned. it is, indeed, scarcely possible for nature, in any climate, to produce a sky exhibiting greater splendour and richness of colouring than we at times experienced in the course of this spring. the edges of the clouds near the sun often presented a fiery or burning appearance, while the opposite side of the heavens was distinguished by a deep purple about the horizon, gradually softening upward into a warm yet delicate rose-colour of inconceivable beauty. these phenomena have always impressed us the most forcibly about the time of the sun's permanent setting and that of his reappearance, especially the latter, and have invariably furnished a particular subject of conversation to us at those periods; but i do not know whether this is to be attributed so much to the colouring of the sky exactly at the times alluded to, as to our habit of setting on every enjoyment a value proportioned to its scarceness and novelty. another peculiarity observed in this winter was the rare occurrence of the aurora borealis, and the extraordinary poorness of its display whenever it did make its appearance. it was almost invariably seen to the southward, between an e.s.e. and a w.s.w. bearing, generally low, the stationary patches of it having a tendency to form an irregular arch, and not unfrequently with coruscations shooting towards the zenith. when more diffused it still kept, in general, on the southern side of the zenith; but never exhibited any of those rapid and complicated movements observed in the course of the preceding winter, nor, indeed, any feature that renders it necessary to attempt a particular description. the electrometer was frequently tried, by mr. fisher, at times when the state of the atmosphere appeared the most favourable, but always without any sensible effect being produced on the gold leaf. the difference in the temperature of the day and night began to be sensible as early as the first week in march, and the daily range of the thermometer increased considerably from that time. the increase in the average temperature of the atmosphere, however, is extremely slow in these regions, long after the sun has attained a considerable meridian altitude; but this is in some degree compensated by the inconceivable rapidity with which the days seem to lengthen when once the sun has reappeared. there is, indeed, no change which continues to excite so much surprise as that from almost constant darkness to constant day; and this is, of course, the more sudden and striking, in proportion to the height of the latitude. even in this comparatively low parallel, the change seemed sufficiently remarkable; for, soon after the middle of march, only ten weeks after the sun's reappearance above the horizon, a bright twilight appeared at midnight in the northern heavens. chapter xiv. various journeys to the esquimaux stations.--preparations for the hecla's return to england.--remarkable halos, &c.--shooting parties stationed at arlagnuk.--journeys to quilliam creek.--arrival of esquimaux from the northward.--account of a journey to the westward for the purpose of reaching the polar sea.--the esquimaux report two fishing-ships having been wrecked.--a journey performed to cockburn island.--discovery of murray maxwell inlet. about the first and second weeks in april, the esquimaux were in the habit of coming up the inlet, to the southward of the ships, to kill the _neitiek,_ or small seal, which brings forth its young at this season, and probably retires into sheltered places for that purpose. besides the old seals, which were taken in the manner before explained, the esquimaux also caught a great number of young ones, by fastening a hook to the end of a staff, and hooking them up from the sea-hole after the mother had been killed. our large fishhooks were useful to them for this purpose, and the beautiful silvery skins of these young animals were occasionally brought to the ships as articles of barter: those of the foetus of the _neitiek_ are more yellow than the others, and, indeed, both in colour and texture, very much resemble raw silk. the first ducks noticed by the esquimaux were mentioned to us on the th, and a few days afterward immense flocks appeared, all of the king-duck species, about the open water near the margin of the ice; but our distance from this was so great, that we never saw any of them, and the weather was yet too cold to station a shooting-party in that neighbourhood. dovekies were now also numerous, and a gull or two, of the silvery species, had been seen. on the th, after divine service, i took the opportunity of captain lyon and his people being on board the fury, to communicate to the assembled officers and ships' companies my intentions respecting the future movements of the expedition; at the same time requesting captain lyon to furnish me with a list of any of the hecla's men that might volunteer to remain out, as it would be necessary to fill up, or, perhaps, even to increase the complement of the fury. our preparations were therefore immediately commenced, a twelvemonths' provision and other stores being received by the fury, and various necessary exchanges made in anchors, cables, and boats; and, in the course of a single fortnight, the whole of these were transported from ship to ship without any exposure or labour to the men outside their respective ships, our invaluable dogs having performed it for us with astonishing ease and expedition. it was a curious sight to watch these useful animals walking off with a bower-anchor, a boat, or a topmast, without any difficulty; and it may give some idea of what they are able to perform, to state, that nine dogs of captain lyon's dragged sixteen hundred and eleven pounds a distance of seventeen hundred and fifty yards in nine minutes, and that they worked in a similar way between the ships for seven or eight hours a day. the road was, however, very good at this time, and the dogs the best that could be procured. the wind settling to the southward for a few days near the end of april, brought an increased, and, to us a comfortable degree of warmth; and it was considered an event of some interest, that the snow which fell on the th dissolved as it lay on our decks, being the first time that it had done so this season. we now also ventured to take off some of the hatches for an hour or two in the day, and to admit some fresh air, a luxury which we had not known for six months. the esquimaux, about this time, began to separate more than before, according to their usual custom in the spring; some of them, and especially our winter island acquaintance, setting off to the little islands called oolglit, and those in our neighbourhood removing to the northeast end of igloolik, to a peninsula called _keiyuk-tarruoke_, to which, the open water was somewhat nearer. these people now became so much incommoded by the melting of their snow-huts, that they were obliged to substitute skins as the roofs, retaining, however, the sides and part of the passages of the original habitations. these demi-tents were miserable enough while in this state, some of the snow continually falling in, and the floor being constantly wet by its thawing. favourable as the first part of the month of may had appeared with respect to temperature, its close was by no means equally promising, and on the first of june, at two a.m., the thermometer stood at + °. this unusually low temperature, much exceeding in severity anything we had experienced at melville island at the same season, rendered it necessary to defer for a time a journey which it was proposed that captain lyon should undertake, across the land to the westward at the head of quilliam creek, and thence, by means of the ice, along the shores of the polar sea, in the direction towards akkoolee. the object of this journey, like that of most of the others which had been performed in various directions, was to acquire all the information within our reach of those parts of the continental coast to which the ships were denied access; and it was hoped that, at the coming season, some judgment might be formed of the probable state of the ice along that shore in the summer, by which the future movements of the fury might be influenced. captain lyon was to be accompanied by two men, and a complete supply of every kind for a month's travelling was to be drawn on a sledge by ten excellent dogs, which he had taken great pains to procure and train for such occasions. as i was desirous of ascertaining, beyond any doubt, the identity of the _khemig_, to which i had sailed in the autumn, with that seen by captain lyon on his journey with the esquimaux, i determined to accompany the travellers on my sledge as far as the head of quilliam creek, and by victualling them thus far on their journey, enable them to gain a day or two's resources in advance. another object which i had in view was to endeavour to find a lake mentioned by toolemak; who assured me that, if i could dig holes in the ice, which was five feet thick, plenty of large salmon might be caught with hooks, an experiment which seemed at least well worth the trying. on the th, the weather being more favourable than before, captain lyon and myself set out to the westward at half past eleven a.m., and the ice proving level, reached khemig at half past five; when it was satisfactory to find that the route followed by captain lyon on his journey with toolemak was precisely that which i had supposed, every feature of the land, of which the fog had before scarcely allowed him a glimpse, being now easily recognised, and every difficulty cleared up. proceeding at eight a.m. on the th, we soon met with numerous tracks of deer upon the ice, which, together with the seals that lay in great numbers near their holes, expedited our journey very considerably, the dogs frequently setting off at full gallop on sniffing one of them. landing at the head of quilliam creek at half past one, we took up an advantageous position for looking about us, in order to determine on the direction of captain lyon's route over land, which all the esquimaux concurred in representing as a laborious one. we met with several reindeer immediately on our landing; and, while in pursuit of them, captain lyon discovered a lake two or three miles long and a quarter of a mile broad, a short distance from the tents, which we concluded to be that of which i was in search. as some of our party were suffering from snow-blindness, and, what is scarcely less painful, severe inflammation of the whole face, occasioned by the heat of the sun, we remained here for the rest of this day to make our final arrangements. at nine a.m. on: the th we struck the tents, and captain lyon set off to the southward, while we drove over to the lake, which is one mile n.n.w. of the head of the creek, and, after three or four hours' labour, completed a hole through the ice, which was very dark-coloured, brittle, and transparent, and, as toolemak had said, about five feet thick. the water, which was eleven fathoms deep, flowed up within a couple of inches of the surface, over which lay a covering of snow eighteen inches in depth. in confident hope of now obtaining some fish, we proceeded exactly according to toolemak's instructions; but, after four-and-twenty hours' trial at all depths, not even a single nibble rewarded our labour. coasting the south shore, on which i wished to obtain observations and angles for the survey, we the next day entered a small bay, where we pitched our tent; our whole party being now so snow-blind with endeavouring to distinguish the land from the ice (so entirely were both covered with snow), that we could literally no longer muster one eye among three of us to direct the sledge. i found a handkerchief tied close, but not too tightly, round the eyes for a whole night, to be a more effectual remedy for this disagreeable complaint than any application of eyewater; and my companions being induced to try the same experiment, derived equal benefit from it. reaching arlagnuk towards evening of the th, we found that our parties had each thirty or forty ducks ready for the ships; and that the esquimaux had lately altogether deserted this station, owing to the scarcity of walruses, and had removed to ooglit, where these animals were said to be abundant at this season. leaving our people on the morning of the th, i returned on board soon after noon, where i found that nothing worthy of particular notice had occurred during my absence. on the th three or four other esquimaux, strangers to us, arrived at igloolik from the northward, and we found from two young men who visited us on the following day, that they came from _too-n=o=o-nek_, a place undoubtedly situated somewhere on the western coast of baffin's bay, or about some of the inlets communicating with it, as they had there seen several _kabloona_ ships employed in killing whales. it is not improbable, from the various accounts of the direction and distance of toonoonek, communicated by the esquimaux through the usual medium of their charts, that the part of the seacoast so named lies at no great distance from pond's bay, in lat. - / °, which has lately become a common rendezvous of our davis's strait fishermen. of this fact we had, in the course of the winter, received intimation from these people from time to time, and had even some reason to believe that our visit to the esquimaux of the river clyde in was known to them; but what most excited our interest at this time was the sledge brought by the new comers, the runner being composed of large single pieces of wood, one of them painted black over a lead-coloured priming, and the cross-bars consisting of heading-pieces of oak-buts, one flat board with a hinge-mark upon it the upper end of a skid or small boat's davit, and others that had evidently and recently been procured from some ship. on one of the heading-pieces we distinguished the letters _brea_--, showing that the cask had, according to the custom of the whalers, contained bread on the outward passage. the nature of all these materials led us to suppose that it must have been procured from some vessel wrecked or damaged on the coast; and this suspicion was on the following day confirmed by our obtaining information that, at a place called akk=o=odneak, a single day's journey beyond toonoonek, two ships like ours had been driven on shore by the ice, and that the people had gone away in boats equipped for the purpose, leaving one ship on her beam ends, and the other upright, in which situation the vessels were supposed still to remain.[ ] we observed on this occasion as on our first arrival at igloolik, that the new esquimaux were obliged to have recourse to the others to interpret to them our meaning, which circumstance, as it still appeared to me, was to be attributed, as before, to our speaking a kind of broken esquimaux that habit had rendered familiar to our old acquaintance, rather than to any essential difference in the true languages of the two people. toolemak having some time before promised to accompany me to the fishing-place, taking with him his wife, together with his sledge, dogs, and tent, made his appearance from ooglit on the d, bringing, however, only the old lady and abundance of meat. having lent him a tent and two of our dogs, and hired others to complete his establishment, we set out together at five a.m. on the th, my own party consisting of mr. crozier and a seaman from each ship. arriving at khemig towards noon, we found among the islands that the ice was quite covered with water, owing, probably, to the radiation of heat from the rocks. the weather proved, indeed, intensely hot this day, the thermometer in the shade, at the ships, being as high as °, and the land in this neighbourhood preventing the access of wind from any quarter. the travelling being good beyond this, we arrived within four or five miles of the head of quilliam creek at ten p.m., where we pitched the tents for the night. in this day's journey ten dogs had drawn my sledge a distance of forty statute miles since the morning, the weight on the sledge being about twelve hundred pounds, and half of the road very indifferent. it is the custom of the esquimaux, even when meat is most abundant, to feed these invaluable animals only once a day, and that in the evening, which they consider to agree with them better than more frequent meals; we always observed the same practice with ours, and found that they performed their journeys the better for it. on the morning of the th, while passing close to a point of land, toolemak suddenly stopped his sledge, and he and his wife walked to the shore, whither i immediately followed them. the old woman, preceding her husband, went up to a circle of stones, of which there were two or three on the spot, and, kneeling down within it, cried most loudly and bitterly for the space of two or three minutes, while toolemak also shed abundant tears, but without any loud lamentation. on inquiring presently after, i found that this was the spot on which their tent had been pitched in the summer, and that the bed-place on which the old woman knelt had been that of their adopted son _noogloo_, whose premature death we had all so much regretted. the grief displayed on this occasion seemed to have much sincerity in it, and there was something extremely touching in this quiet but unaffected tribute of sorrow on the spot, which so forcibly reminded them of the object of their parental affection. i have much gratification in adding, in this place, another circumstance, which, though trifling in itself, deserves to be noticed as doing honour to these people's hearts. they had always shown particular attachment to a dog they had sold me, and which bore the same name as a young man, a son of their own, whom they had formerly lost. in the course of this journey, the old woman would constantly call the dog "eerninga" (son), which the affectionate animal never failed to repay by jumping up and licking her face all over, whenever his trace would allow him; and at night, after toolemak had fed his own dogs, he frequently brought to our tent an extra piece of meat, expressly for _ann=owtalik_, to whom these poor people seemed to take a mournful pleasure in now transferring their affection. landing close to the head of the inlet on the south shore, we proceeded with difficulty a couple of miles over land till we came to a river, the limits of which the warmth of the weather was just rendering discernible, and which, our guides informed us was to be our fishing place. it was interesting to observe that, in every case of doubt as to the situation of a place, the best route, or the most advisable method of overcoming any difficulty, toolemak invariably referred to his wife; and a consultation of some minutes was held by these two before they would determine on what was to be done, or even return an answer to our questions respecting it. pitching our tents upon the banks of the river, we went upon the ice, which was still quite solid except close to the shores, and soon made two or three holes for a hook and line, the thickness of the ice in the middle being from six to seven feet. the esquimaux fishhook is generally composed of a piece of ivory, having a hook of pointed iron, without a barb, let into it. the ivory they consider useful in attracting the salmon, but they also bait the hook with a piece of blubber well cleared of its oil by chewing, and securely tied on with a thread of sinew, so as to cover nearly the whole of the hook. a small piece of bone, reindeer's horn, or wood, serves as a rod, and with this they keep the bait constantly in motion up and down, the bait being from one to three feet below the surface of the ice. previous, however, to commencing the fishery, the old lady, who took the principal part in this employment, muttered some words, to me altogether incomprehensible, over the hole, to which toolemak, in a formal manner, added something about fish and _kabloonas_; and the whole of this preparatory ceremony seemed intended to propitiate the spirit to whose department the salmon particularly belonged. the lady (for it seems she is a female) did not, however, appear to lend a very favourable ear to our wants or toolemak's rhetoric; for, after many hours' patient trial on this and the following day, only two fish were seen and one caught to repay our labour. on the th toolemak and his wife went over to a small shallow lake, on the opposite side of the river, where they caught three or four fish of the salmon kind, but none more than one pound in weight. he then came back to the tent, and made a small spear according to their own fashion; but with this, to his great disappointment, he could not strike a single fish. a sort of _fish-gig_, which we made out of four large hooks lashed back to back at the end of a light staff, succeeded much better, the bait being played in the usual manner to attract the fish, which were then hooked up with great ease and certainty by this instrument. in this manner we soon caught a dozen of the same kind as before; and the rest of our party had in the mean time killed a deer. toolemak began now to be extremely impatient to return home, his principal anxiety arising, i believe, from a childish desire to know what i should give him for his trouble; and when, in writing a note to lieutenant nias, i enumerated the articles i intended to present to him, he expressed more delight than i had ever before seen escape him. among these was one of the rifle-guns supplied as presents, together with a sufficient quantity of ammunition to last him one summer, after which the gun would probably become useless itself for want of cleaning. it was astonishing to see the readiness with which these people learned to fire at a mark, and the tact they displayed in everything relating to this art. boys from twelve to sixteen years of age would fire a fowling-piece, for the first time, with perfect steadiness; and the men, with very little practice, would very soon become superior marksmen.[ ] as, however, the advantage they could derive from the use of firearms must be of very short duration, and the danger to any careless individuals very considerable, we did not, on any other occasion, consider it prudent to furnish them in this manner. on the morning of the th toolemak had left us for the ships, carrying with him our venison to be left there, and having first explained when and where the esquimaux catch the fish with which he had supplied us the preceding summer; for it now appeared that they were not found in great abundance, or of that magnitude, in the river, but at the mouth of a very small stream about two miles lower down the creek on the same side. their method is, to place in the bed of the stream, which is quite narrow, and seldom or never so deep as a man's middle, though running with great force, two or three separate piles of stones, which serve the double purpose of keeping off the force of the stream from themselves, and of narrowing the passage through which the fish have to pass in coming up from the sea to feed; thus giving the people an opportunity of striking them with their spears, and throwing them on the shore without much difficulty. on the afternoon of the st of july we shifted our tents overland, and down the creek as far as the salmon stream. in performing this short journey over bare ground, i was enabled to form some conception of the difficulties likely to be encountered by captain lyon and his companions; for, even with our light load, the dogs could scarcely move at times. one of the strongest of eleven fell down in a fit occasioned by over exertion; the poor animal lay on his side, foaming at the mouth for a minute or two, but soon recovered sufficiently to be able to walk; and, being taken out of the sledge, was quite strong again the next day. we had scarcely arrived at the stream, when toolemak's account was very satisfactorily confirmed by our finding on the ice near its mouth part of two fine salmon, above two feet in length, that had been thrown up by the force of the torrent, and a similar one was seen in the water. our provisions being now out, we prepared for returning to the ships the following day; and i determined in a short time to send out mr. crozier with a larger party, well equipped with everything necessary for procuring us both fish and deer. we therefore left our tent, spare ammunition, and various other articles that would be required here, buried under a heap of stones near the stream, and on the morning of the d set out for the ships. the change which one week had made upon the ice it is quite impossible to conceive, the whole surface being now checkered with large and deep pools of water, where not a symptom of thawing had before appeared. this continued the whole way to the ships, which we reached at eight p.m., finding captain lyon and his party returned, after a laborious but unsuccessful endeavour to penetrate overland to the westward. on my arrival at the ships i found several new esquimaux on board, who, to the number of twenty, had lately arrived from _toon=o=onee-r=o=ochiuk_, a place situated to the westward and northward of igloolik, and somewhere upon the opposite coast of cockburn island. this party confirmed the former account respecting the two ships that had been forced on shore; and, indeed, as an earnest of its truth, one man named _adloo_, who was said to have actually seen them in this state, was a day or two afterward met by our people at arlagnuk, while travelling to the southward, and having on his sledge a great deal of wood of the same kind as that before described. this information having excited considerable interest, lieutenant hoppner, who had taken great pains to ascertain the facts correctly, volunteered his services to accompany some of the esquimaux, who were said to be going northward very shortly, and to obtain every information on this and other subjects which might be within the scope of such a journey. on the night of the th, having heard that a party of the esquimaux intended setting out the following morning, lieutenant hoppner and his people went out to their tents to be in readiness to accompany them. we were surprised to find the next day, that not only lieutenant hoppner's intended guide, but the whole of the rest of these people, had altogether left the island, and, as it afterward proved, permanently for the summer. we were now, therefore, for the first time since our arrival here, entirely deserted by the natives, only two or three of whom again visited the ships during the remainder of our stay. it appears probable, indeed, that these wandering people are in the habit of residing at their various stations only at particular intervals of time, perhaps with the intention of not scaring the walruses and seals too much by a very long residence at one time upon the same spot. what made this appear still more likely was the present state of their winter habitations at igloolik, which, though offensive enough at about the same time the preceding year, were then wholesome and comfortable in comparison. besides quantities of putrid walrus flesh, blubber, and oil, carcasses of dogs, and even of human beings recently deceased, were now to be seen exposed in their neighbourhood. what remained of the corpse of keim=o=oseuk was of course wholly uncovered; a second, of a child, on which the wolves had feasted, was also lying about; and a third, of a newly-born infant, was discovered in the middle of a small lake by mr. richards, who caused them all to be buried under ground. our stock of meat for the dogs being nearly expended, and no seahorses having yet been seen near the shore, i sent mr. ross with a sledge to tern island on the th, in expectation of being supplied by the esquimaux. mr. ross returned on the th without success, the whole of the natives having left the island after plundering the birds' nests, as they had done the preceding year. finding that our valuable dogs must be now wholly dependant on our own exertions in providing meat, a boat from each ship was carried down to the neighbourhood of the open water, and shortly afterward two others, to endeavour to kill walruses for them. this was the more desirable from the probability of the fury's passing her next winter where no natives were resident, and the consequent necessity of laying in our stock for that long and dreary season during the present summer. our people, therefore, pitched their tents near the old esquimaux habitations; and thus were four boats constantly employed, whenever the weather would permit, for the three succeeding weeks. on the th lieutenant hoppner and his party returned to the ships, having only been enabled to travel to the south shore of cockburn island, on account of their guides not yet proceeding any farther. two of the esquimaux accompanied our travellers back to igloolik, and, being loaded with various useful presents from the ships, returned home the following day. chapter xv. extraordinary disruption of ice in quilliam creek.--some appearance of scurvy among the seamen and marines.--discovery of gifford river.--commence cutting the ice outside the ships to release them from their winter-quarters.--considerations respecting the return of the expedition to england.--unfavourable state of the ice at the eastern entrance of the strait.--proceed to the southward.--ships beset and drifted up lyon inlet.--decease of mr. george fife.--final release from the ice, and arrival in england.--remarks upon the practicability of a northwest passage. among the various changes which the warmth of the returning summer was now producing around us, none was more remarkable than that noticed by captain lyon in an excursion to quilliam creek, and which, in a note received from him by the return of the sledges on the th, he thus describes: "between the two points forming the entrance of the creek, we saw a high wall of ice extending immediately across from land to land, and on arriving at it, found that, by some extraordinary convulsion, the floe had burst upward, and that immense masses of ice had been thrown in every direction. several blocks, eight or nine feet in thickness, and many yards in diameter, were lying on the level solid floe; yet we were for some time at a loss to discover whence they had been ejected, till at length we found a hole or pool, which appeared so small as to be hardly capable of containing the immense fragments near it; yet from this place alone must they have been thrown." captain lyon subsequently added, that "the water, which was found to be quite fresh, was running rapidly to seaward in this opening; and it seemed probable that the vast accumulation from the streams at the head of the creek, although at about ten miles distance, had burst a passage, and thus ejected the ice. the force employed for this purpose may be conceived, when i mention that, of several masses of ice, one in particular was above eight feet thick, full forty yards in circumference, and lay more than five hundred yards from the pool. no traces could be found of the manner in which these bodies had been transported, as not a single small fragment was seen lying about, to warrant the supposition that they had fallen with a shock. neither were there any marks observable on the smooth uncracked floe to cause a suspicion that they had slidden over it, the general appearance of the floe at this place being the same as at all other parts of the inlet, and bearing no marks of having had any rush of water over it." the weather was now, at times, extremely sultry, bringing out swarms of moschetoes, that soon became very troublesome, even on board the ships. a thermometer suspended in the middle of the observatory, and exposed to the sun's rays, was observed by mr. fisher to stand at ° at five p.m. on the th. on the th captain lyon returned from quilliam creek, bringing with him the whole of our party stationed there, the ice being now so broken up in that neighbourhood as to render the fishing dangerous without proper boats. on this journey, which it took two days to perform, eleven dogs drew a weight of two thousand and fifty pounds, of which six hundred and forty were salmon, and ninety-five venison, procured by our people. the fish had all been caught in the trawl; and treble the quantity might easily have been taken with a seine, had we known how wide the mouth of the stream was to become. they varied in length from twenty to twenty six inches, and one of the largest, when cleaned, weighed eight pounds and a half; but their average weight in this state did not exceed two pounds and a quarter. the distance of the fishing-place from the ships, the dangerous state of the ice, and the soreness of the dogs' feet from travelling on the rough, honey-combed ice, prevented our taking any farther advantage of this very acceptable change of diet. nothing worthy of notice occurred till the th, when a patch of ice, a mile broad, separated from the outer margin of our barrier and drifted away. the canal formed by laying sand on the ice was now quite through in most places, showing that the plan would, in this latitude at least, always ensure a ship's escape at an earlier season than by the regular course of nature, provided it could be carried the whole way down to the open water. i am now under the disagreeable necessity of entering on a subject which i had at one time ventured to hope need scarcely occupy any part of this narrative: i mean that of the scurvy, some slight but unequivocal symptoms of which disease were this day reported to me, by mr. edwards, to have appeared among four or five of the fury's men, rendering it necessary, for the first time during the voyage, to have recourse to antiscorbutic treatment among the seamen and marines. it will, perhaps, be considered a curious and singular fact in the history of sea-scurvy, that during the whole of the preceding part of this voyage, none among us but officers were in the slightest degree affected by it, a circumstance directly contrary to former experience. to whatever causes this might be attributed, it could not, however, but be highly gratifying to be thus assured that the various means employed to preserve the health of the seamen and marines had proved even beyond expectation efficacious. that a ship's company began to evince symptoms of scurvy after twenty-seven months' entire dependance upon the resources contained within their ship (an experiment hitherto unknown, perhaps, in the annals of navigation, even for one fourth part of that period), could scarcely, indeed, be a subject of wonder, though it was at this particular time a matter of very sincere regret. from the health enjoyed by our people during two successive winters, unassisted as we had been by any supply of _fresh_ antiscorbutic plants or other vegetables, i had began to indulge a hope that, with a continued attention to their comforts, cleanliness, and exercise, the same degree of vigour might, humanly speaking, be ensured at least as long as our present liberal resources should last. present appearances, however, seemed to indicate differently; for, though our sick-list had scarcely a name upon it, and almost every individual was performing his accustomed duty, yet we had at length been impressed with the unpleasant conviction that a strong predisposition to disease existed among us, and that no very powerful exciting cause was wanting to render it more seriously apparent. such a conviction at the present crisis was peculiarly disagreeable; for i could not but lament any circumstance tending to weaken the confidence in our strength and resources at a time when more than ordinary exertion was about to be required at our hands. the st of august had now arrived; and yet, incredible as it may appear, the ships were as securely confined in the ice as in the middle of winter, except that a pool of water, about twice their own length in diameter, was now opened around them. i determined, therefore, notwithstanding the apparent hopelessness of sawing our way through four or five miles of ice, to begin that laborious process; not, indeed, with the hope of cutting a canal sufficiently large to allow the passage of the ships to sea, but with a view to weaken it so much as in some measure to assist its disruption whenever any swell should set in upon its margin. on this and the following day, therefore, all the gear was carried down for that purpose, and a large tent pitched for the ships' companies to dine in, the distance being too great to allow them to return on board to their meals. on the d, however, we were saved a great deal of unnecessary labour, by the ice opening out at the crack before mentioned, so that our sawing might now be commenced within a mile of the fury. after divine service, therefore, all hands were sent from both ships to bring back the tent and tools to the point of oongalooyat, and the parties were recalled from the walrus-fishery, except a single boat's crew: these also returned on board a few days after, the whole number of seahorses killed being eight, and one large seal. on the th our sawing work was commenced, with the usual alacrity on the part of the officers and men, and three hundred and fifty yards of ice were got out before night, its thickness varying from one to four feet, but very irregular on account of the numerous pools and holes. an equal length was accomplished on the following day, though not without excessive fatigue and constant wet to the men, several of whom fell into the water by the ice breaking under them. on the th, the register-thermometer, which had been placed in the ground in the winter, was taken up, though, to our astonishment, the ground above and about it had become nearly as hard and compactly frozen as when we dug the hole to put it down. how this came about we were quite at a loss to determine; for the earth had been thrown in quite loosely, whereas its present consolidated state implied its having been thoroughly thawed and frozen again. it occupied two men ten days to extricate it, which, as they approached the thermometer, was done by a chisel and mallet, to avoid injury by jarring. this, however, was not sufficient to prevent mischief, the instrument being so identified with the frozen earth as to render it impossible to strike the ground near it without communicating the shock to the tubes, two of which were in consequence found to be broken. thus ended our experiment for ascertaining the temperature of the earth during the winter; an experiment which it would seem, from this attempt, scarcely practicable to make in any satisfactory manner without some apparatus constructed expressly for the purpose. on the th the work was continued as before, and about four hundred yards of ice were sawn through and floated out, leaving now a broad canal, eleven hundred yards in length, leading from the open water towards that formed by the gravelled space. when the lateness of the season to which the ships had now been detained in the ice is considered, with reference to the probability of the fury's effecting anything of importance during the short remainder of the present summer, it will not be wondered at that, coupling this consideration with that of the health of my officers and men, i began to entertain doubts whether it would still be prudent to adopt the intended measure of remaining out in the fury as a single ship; whether, in short, under existing circumstances, the probable evil did not far outweigh the possible good. in order to assist my own judgment on this occasion upon one of the most material points, i requested the medical officers of the fury to furnish me with their opinions "as to the probable effect that a third winter passed in these regions would produce on the health of the officers, seamen, and marines of that ship, taking into consideration every circumstance connected with our situation." their answer was decidedly adverse to remaining; and it was fortified with such good reasons, connected with the health of the officers and crews, as scarcely to leave me at liberty to adopt any other course than that of returning to england with both vessels. enclosing to captain lyon the replies of the medical gentlemen, i now also requested his opinion whether, under existing circumstances, he still considered it expedient to adopt the measure originally intended, with respect to the separation of the two ships. i had scarcely despatched a letter to this effect, when, at a.m. on the th, the ice about the fury began to move, the pools breaking up, and the gravelled canal soon entirely closing. a breeze springing up from the northward at this time, all sail was made upon the ship, and the ice gradually driving out as it detached itself from the shore, the fury got into open water about one p.m. the hecla, however, still remained in the middle of her winter's floe, which, though it moved a little with the rest at first, did not come out of the bay. in the course of the afternoon, finding her still stationary, i determined to occupy the time in stretching over to the northward, for the purpose of examining the state of the fixed ice at the eastern mouth of the strait; and, arriving at its margin by ten p.m., found it attached to both shores from the northeastern part of neerlo-naktoo across to murray maxwell inlet. it was the general opinion that this ice was in a more solid state than at the same time and place the preceding year, but its situation did not, i believe, differ half a mile from what it had then been. as the sun went down nearly in the direction of the strait, we obtained from the masthead a distinct and extensive view in that quarter, and it is impossible to conceive a more hopeless prospect than this now presented. one vast expanse of level solid ice occupied the whole extent of sea visible to the westward, and the eye wearied itself in vain to discover a single break upon its surface. having finished this examination, which at once destroyed every hope i had never ceased to indulge of a passage through the strait, we returned towards igloolik to rejoin the hecla. it was not, however, till the morning of the th that we observed her to be moving out of the bay, when at length (for the first time, perhaps, that such an event ever occurred) she drove to sea in the middle of the floe. thus at the mercy of the ice, she was carried over the shoals off the southeast point of igloolik in six and a half fathoms, but was then fortunately drifted into deeper water. the swell on the outside was all that was wanting to break up her icy prison, which, separating at seven a.m., finally released her from confinement. having soon afterward received captain lyon's answer to my communication, it was necessary for me to come to a final determination on the subject therein alluded to. for various reasons, he advised that the fury and hecla should return to england together, as soon as such arrangements respecting the removal of stores and provisions, as i might judge proper to make, should be completed. under such circumstances, to which may be added the uncertainty of the hecla's liberation from the ice to the southward before the close of the season, i no longer considered it prudent or justifiable, upon the slender chance of eventual success now before us, to risk the safety of the officers and men committed to my charge, and whom it was now my first wish to reconduct in good health to their country and their friends. having communicated my intentions to the officers and ships' companies, i directed several additions to be made to their ordinary allowance of provisions, particularly in the various antiscorbutics, which had hitherto been reserved for cases of emergency; and then beating up to our winter station, which i named turton bay, we anchored there in the afternoon in ten fathoms, and immediately commenced our preparations for lightening the fury. seven months' provisions, a bower anchor, and a few other stores, were received by the hecla, some of her water, before filled as ballast, being started to make room for them; and such other arrangements made as circumstances would permit for improving the stowage of the fury's hold. the bay was now entirely clear of ice in every part; and so changed was its appearance in the course of the last four-and-twenty hours, that it was scarcely possible to believe it the same place that we had been accustomed daily to look upon for the ten preceding months. the conveyance and stowage of the stores had scarcely been completed, when some loose ice drifting into the bay with the tide on the night of the th, obliged us hastily to get under way and stand out. on the following morning i ran across to the main land in the fury, for the purpose of erecting, in compliance with my instructions, a flagstaff fifty-six feet in height, having at its top a ball, made of iron hoops and canvass, ten feet in diameter, and a cylinder buried near its foot, containing a parchment with some account of our visit to this place. in the mean time, i requested captain lyon to stand over to the point of igloolik, where our walruses had been landed, and to bring off these, as well as our boats and tents remaining there. the ice soon after coming in upon the point, it was not without risk of the hecla's being dangerously beset that captain lyon succeeded in bringing off everything but one boat. this was, indeed, no great loss to us, though a great acquisition to the esquimaux; for, being almost worn out, i had intended to break her up previously to leaving the ice. besides this, we purposely left our sledges, and a quantity of wood in pieces of a convenient size for bows, spears, and paddles, distributing them about in several places, that one or two individuals might not make a prize of the whole. the hecla rejoining us on the morning of the th, we stood out to the eastward, and finally took our departure from igloolik. in the course of the night the favourable breeze failed us, and on the morning of the th was succeeded by a southerly wind, the ships being close to another island called ooglit, about twelve leagues to the s.s.w. of the others. we were here immediately visited by our old acquaintance the esquimaux, several of whom came off in their canoes in the course of the morning, as if determined to loose no opportunity of profiting by us. among these was our worthy old friend nannow, to whom everybody was glad to give something; and, indeed, they all received as many presents as their canoes could safely carry or tow on shore. their tents, nine in number were pitched on the main land, a little to the northward of ooglit, at a station they call _ag-wis-se-=o-wik_, of which we had often heard them speak at igloolik. they now also pointed out to us amitioke, at the distance of four or five leagues to the southward and westward, which proved to be the same piece of low land that we had taken for it in first coming up this coast. the esquimaux told us that a number of their younger men were inland in pursuit of deer, and that the rest had abundant supplies of walrus, which animals we saw in considerable numbers about this place. we were now for some days all but beset in this neighbourhood, calms or light southerly and easterly breezes constantly prevailing. during this time the main body of ice remained, in most parts, close to the shore, leaving us only a "hole" of water to work about in, and much nearer to the land than on this shoal and shelving coast was altogether safe for the ships. notwithstanding this, however, we had soon occasion to observe that they not only kept their ground, but even drew to the southward, owing, no doubt, to the current before found to set in that direction along the coast. the ice remained close the whole of the th; but we continued, as usual, to drift generally to the southward, and the next morning, being off owlitteeweek, were enabled to cast off and make sail, the ice being rather more open than before. being favoured by a commanding northerly breeze, we ran a considerable distance to the southward, having, however, only just room to sail between the points of the closely packed ice and a flat, dangerous shore. without escaping for a moment, from our confined situation, and almost without perceiving any motion of the masses of ice among themselves, we had, at noon on the th, drifted down within a mile of a small island lying near the northeast point of winter island. on the st the tide took us through between these, the breadth of the passage being three quarters of a mile, in no less than sixteen fathoms water. we then passed within a dangerous reef of rocks, lying a full mile from the shore, and having numerous heavy masses of grounded ice upon it. after clearing this in a good depth of water, we were, by the evening, carried along shore within a mile of cape fisher. thus had we, in a most singular manner, once more arrived at our old winter-quarters, with scarcely a single successful exertion on our parts towards effecting that object. the distance from ooglit to our present station was about one hundred and sixty miles along the coast. of this we had never _sailed_ above forty, the rest of the distance having been accomplished, while we were immoveably beset, by mere drifting. the interval thus employed having been barely eight days, gives an average drift to the southward of above fifteen miles per day. in the afternoon of the th i was much pained at being informed by telegraph from the hecla, that mr. fife, greenland master of that ship, had just expired, an event which for some days past there had been but too much reason to apprehend; the scurvy having within the last three weeks continued to increase considerably upon him. it is proper for me, however, both in justice to the medical officers under whose skilful and humane care he was placed, and to the means with which we were in this way so liberally supplied, to state, that during a part of that time mr. fife had taken so great a dislike to the various antiscorbutics which were administered to him, that he could seldom be induced to use any of them. the disease, in consequence, reduced him to a state of extreme debility, which at length carried him off almost without pain. the hecla being at the time closely beset, and in a situation of great danger among the shoals off winter island, captain lyon caused the remains of the deceased to be committed to the sea with all the solemnity which circumstances would permit. in the night of the th, the ships, which had before nearly closed each other, were again separated to the distance of several miles, though no motion was perceptible in the masses of ice about them. on the evening of the th, however, the wind at length began to freshen from the northwest, when the ice immediately commenced driving down the inlet at the rate of a mile an hour, carrying the fury with it, and within half a mile of the rocks, the whole way down to cape martineau, but keeping her in deep water. in the mean time the hecla had been swept into much more dangerous situations, passing along the east and south sides of winter island; and, after driving nearly up to five-hawser bay, being carried near some dangerous shoals about cape edwards, where captain lyon expected every other tide that she would take the ground. on the th, when the ships had closed each other within a mile, we could see the clear water from the masthead, and the hecla could now have been easily extricated. such, however, are the sudden changes that take place in this precarious navigation, that not long afterward the fury was quite at liberty to sail out of the ice, while the hecla was now, in her turn, so immoveably fast set, and even cemented between several very heavy masses, that no power that could be applied was sufficient to move her an inch. in this situation she remained all the th, without our being able to render her any assistance; and the frost being now rather severe at night, we began to consider it not improbable that we might yet be detained for another winter. we were perhaps, indeed, indebted for our escape to a strong westerly breeze, which blew for several hours on the th, when, the ice being sufficiently close to allow our men to walk to the assistance of the hecla, we succeeded, after seven hours' hard labour, in forcing her into clear water, when all sail was made to the eastward, and our course shaped for the trinity islands in a perfectly open sea. we thus finally made our escape from the ice after having been almost immoveably beset in it for twenty-four days out of the last twenty-six, in the course of which time the ships had been taken over no less than one hundred and forty leagues of ground, generally very close to the shore, and always unable to do anything towards effecting their escape from danger. we made the trinity islands on the th, and ran down hudson's strait with a favourable breeze, reaching the orkneys on the morning of oct. th. it can scarcely, perhaps, be imagined by those who have not been similarly situated, with what eager interest one or two vessels were this day descried by us, being the first trace of civilized man that we had seen for the space of seven-and-twenty months. the breeze increasing to a fresh gale from the southward in the course of the night, with a heavy sea from the same quarter, rendering it impossible for us to make any progress in that direction, i determined to put into lerwick in the shetland islands, to procure refreshments, and await a change in our favour. we accordingly bore up for that harbour early on the morning of the th, and at thirty minutes past ten a.m. anchored there, where we were immediately visited by a great number of the inhabitants, anxious to greet us on our return to our native country. i feel it utterly impossible adequately to express, the kindness and attention we received for the three or four days that we were detained in bressay sound by a continuance of unfavourable winds. on the first information of our arrival the bells of lerwick were set ringing, the inhabitants flocked from every part of the country to express their joy at our unexpected return, and the town was at night illuminated, as if each individual had a brother or a son among us. on the th, a breeze springing up from the northward, we took leave of our kind and hospitable friends, deeply sensible of the cordial and affectionate reception we had experienced; and, being still favoured by the wind, were abreast of buchaness the following evening. on the th, being off whitby, i went on shore there, and, after receiving the cordial greetings of a great number of the worthy inhabitants of whitby, who had assembled to meet us on landing, set off for london, and arrived at the admiralty on the morning of the th. third voyage for the discovery of a northwest passage. introduction. notwithstanding the want of success of the late expedition to the polar seas, it was resolved to make another attempt to effect a passage by sea, between the atlantic and pacific oceans. the chief alterations in the equipment of the present expedition consisted in the placing of sylvester's warming stove in the very bottom of the ship's hold, in substituting a small quantity of salt beef for a part of the pork, and in furnishing a much larger supply of newly corned beef. preserved carrots and parsnips, salmon, cream, pickles of onions, beet-root, cabbage, and, to make the most of our stowage, _split_ peas, instead of whole ones, were supplied. a small quantity of beef pemmican, made by pounding the meat with a certain portion of fat, as described by captain franklin, was also furnished. chapter i. passage to the whale-fish islands, and removal of stores from the transport.--enter the ice in baffin's bay.--difficulties of penetrating to the westward.--quit the ice in baffin's bay.--remarks on the obstructions encountered by the ships, and on the severity of the season. the equipment of the hecla and fury, and the loading of the william harris transport, being completed, we began to move down the river from deptford on the th of may, , and on the th, by the assistance of the steamboat, the three ships had reached northfleet, where they received their powder and their ordnance stores. early on the morning of the d of july, the whole of our stores being removed, and lieutenant pritchard having received his orders, together with our despatches and letters for england, the william harris weighed with a light wind from the northward, and was towed out to sea by our boats. light northerly winds, together with the dull sailing of our now deeply-laden ships, prevented our making much progress for several days, and kept us in the neighbourhood of numerous icebergs, which it is dangerous to approach when there is any swell. we counted from the deck, at one time, no less than one hundred and three of these immense bodies, some of them from one to two hundred feet in height above the sea; and it was necessary, in one or two instances, to tow the ships clear of them with the boats. from this time, indeed, the obstructions from the quantity, magnitude, and closeness of the ice were such as to keep our people almost constantly employed in heaving, warping, or sawing through it; and yet with so little success, that, at the close of the month of july, we had only penetrated seventy miles to the westward, or the longitude of about ° '. _sept_. th.--i shall, doubtless, be readily excused for not having entered in this journal a detailed narrative of the obstacles we met with, and of the unwearied exertions of the officers and men to overcome them, during the tedious eight weeks employed in crossing this barrier. the constant besetment of the ships, and our daily observations for latitude and longitude, afforded a favourable opportunity for ascertaining precisely the set of any currents by which the whole body of ice might be actuated. by attending very carefully to all the circumstances, it was evident that a daily set to the southward obtained when the wind was northerly, differing in amount from two or three, to eight or ten miles per day, according to the strength of the breeze; but a northerly current was equally apparent, and fully to the same amount, whenever the wind blew from the southward. a circumstance more remarkable than these, however, forced itself strongly upon my notice at this time, which was, that a _westerly_ set was very frequently apparent, even against a fresh breeze blowing from that quarter. i mention the circumstance in this place, because i may hereafter have to offer a remark or two on this fact, in connexion with some others of a similar nature noticed elsewhere. with respect to the dimensions of the ice through which we had now scrambled our way, principally by warping and towing, a distance of between three and four hundred miles, i remarked that it for the most part increased, as well in the thickness as the extent of the floes, as we advanced westward about the parallel of °. during our subsequent progress to the north, we also met with some of enormous dimensions, several of the floes, to which we applied our hawsers and the power of the improved capstan, being at their margin more than twenty feet above the level of the sea; and over some of these we could not see from the masthead. upon the whole, however, the magnitude of the ice became somewhat less towards the northwest, and within thirty miles of that margin the masses were comparatively small, and their thickness much diminished. bergs were in sight during the whole passage, but they were more numerous towards the middle of the "pack," and rather the most so to the southward. chapter ii. enter sir james lancaster's sound.--land at cape warrender.--meet with young ice.--ships beset and carried near the shore.--driven back to navy-board inlet.--run to the westward, and enter prince regent's inlet.--arrival at port bowen. all our past obstacles were in a moment forgotten when we once more saw an open sea before us; but it must be confessed that it was not so easy to forget that the middle of september was already near at hand, without having brought us even to the entrance of sir james lancaster's sound. that not a moment might be lost, however, in pushing to the westward, a press of canvass was crowded, and, being happily favoured with an easterly breeze, on the morning of sept. th we caught a glimpse of the high bold land on the north side of the magnificent inlet up which our course was once more to be directed. from the time of our leaving the main body of ice, we met with none of any kind, and the entrance to the sound was, as usual, entirely free from it, except here and there a berg, floating about in that solitary grandeur, of which these enormous masses, when occurring in the midst of an extensive sea, are calculated to convey so sublime an idea. on the morning of the th we were once more favoured with a breeze from the eastward, but so light and unsteady that our progress was vexatiously slow; and on the th, when within seven leagues of cape york, we had the mortification to perceive the sea ahead of us covered with young ice, the thermometer having, for two days past, ranged only from ° to °. the next breeze sprung up from the westward, drawing also from the southward, at times, out of prince regent's inlet, and for three days we were struggling with the young ice to little or no purpose, now and then gaining half a mile of ground to windward in a little "hole" of open water, then losing as much by the necessity of bearing up or wearing (for the ice was too strong to allow us to tack), sallying from morning to night with all hands, and with the watch at night, two boats constantly under the bows; and, after all, rather losing ground than otherwise, while the young ice was every hour increasing in thickness. towards sunset on the th we became more and more hampered, and were eventually beset during the night. the sea was covered with ice between us and the shore, all of this year's formation, but now of considerable thickness and formidable appearance. the wind continuing strong, the whole body was constantly pressed in upon the land, bearing the ships along with it, and doubling one sheet over another, sometimes to a hundred thicknesses. we quickly shoaled the water from seventy to forty fathoms, the latter depth occurring about a mile from the beach; and after this we drifted but little, the ice being blocked up between the point and a high perpendicular berg lying aground off it. under such circumstances, it evidently became expedient to endeavour, by sawing, to get the ships as close in-shore as possible, so as to secure them either to grounded ice, or by anchoring within the shelter of a bay at no great distance inside of us; for it now seemed not unlikely that winter was about to put a premature stop to all farther operations at sea for this season. at all events, it was necessary to consult the immediate safety of the ships, and to keep them from being drifted back to the eastward. i therefore gave orders for endeavouring to get the ships in towards the bay, by cutting through what level floes still remained. so strong had been the pressure while the ice was forcing in upon us, that on the th, after liberating the hecla on one side, she was as firmly cemented to it on the other, as after a winter's formation; and we could only clear her by heavy and repeated "sallying." after cutting in two or three hundred yards, while the people were at dinner on the st, our canal closed by the external pressure coming upon the parts which we had weakened, and in a few minutes the whole was once more in motion, or, as the seamen not inaptly expressed it, "alive," mass doubling under mass, and raising those which were uppermost to a considerable height. the ice thus pressed together was now about ten feet in thickness in some places, and on an average not less than four or five, so that, while thus forced in upon a ship, although soft in itself, it caused her to tremble exceedingly; a sensation, indeed, commonly experienced in forcing through young ice of considerable thickness. we were now once more obliged to be quiet spectators of what was going on around us, having, with extreme difficulty, succeeded in saving most of our tools that were lying on the ice when the squeezing suddenly began. a sudden motion of the ice, on the morning of the d, occasioned by a change of the wind to the s.e., threatened to carry us directly off the land. it was now, more than ever, desirable to hold on, as this breeze was likely to clear the shore, and, at the same time, to give us a run to the westward. hawsers were therefore run out to the land-ice, composed of some heavy masses, almost on the beach. with the hecla this succeeded, but the fury being much farther from the shore, soon began to move out with the whole body of ice, which, carrying her close to the large berg off the point, swept her round the latter, where, after great exertion, captain hoppner succeeded in getting clear, and then made sail to beat back to us. in the mean time the strain put upon the hecla's hawsers being too great for them, they snapped one after another, and a bower-anchor was let go as a last resource. it was one of hawkins's, with the double fluke, and immediately brought up, not merely the ship, but a large floe of young ice which had just broken our stream-cable. all hands were sent upon the floe to cut it up ahead, and the whole operation was a novel, and, at times, a fearful one; for the ice, being weakened by the cutting, would suddenly gather fresh way astern, carrying men and tools with it, while the chain cable continued to plough through it in a manner which gave one the idea of something alive, and continually renewing its attacks. the anchor held surprisingly; and after this tremendous strain had been put upon it for above an hour, we had fairly cut the floe in two, and the ship was riding in clear water about half a mile from the shore. i was in hopes we should make some progress, for a large channel of clear water was left open in-shore; a breeze blew off the land, and the temperature of the atmosphere had again risen considerably. we had not sailed five miles, however, when a westerly wind took us aback, and a most dangerous swell set directly upon the shore, obliging me immediately to stand off the land; and the fury being still to the eastward of the point, i ran round it in order to rejoin her before sunset. after midnight on the th the wind began to moderate, and, by degrees, also drew more to the southward than before. at daylight, therefore, we found ourselves seven or eight miles from the land; but no ice was in sight, except the "sludge," of honey-like consistence, with which almost the whole sea was covered. a strong blink, extending along the eastern horizon, pointed out the position of the main body of ice, which was farther distant from the eastern shore of the inlet than i ever saw it. being assisted by a fine working breeze, which, at the same time, prevented the formation of any more ice to obstruct us, we made considerable progress along the land, and at noon were nearly abreast of jackson inlet, which we now saw to be considerably larger than our distant view of it on the former voyage had led us to suppose. a few more tacks brought us to the entrance of port bowen, which, for two or three days past, i had determined to make our wintering-place, if, as there was but little reason to expect, we should be so fortunate as to push the ships thus far. beating up, therefore, to port bowen, we found it filled with "old" and "hummocky" ice, attached to the shores on both sides, as low down as about three-quarters of a mile below stony island. here we made fast in sixty-two fathoms water, running our hawsers far in upon the ice, in case of its breaking off at the margin. chapter iii. winter arrangements.--improvements in warming and ventilating the ships.--masquerades adopted as an amusement to the men.--establishment of schools.--astronomical observations.--meteorological phenomena. _oct_.--our present winter arrangements so closely resembled, in general, those before adopted, that a fresh description of them would prove little more than a repetition of that already contained in the narratives of our former voyages. to those who read, as well as to those who describe, the account of a winter passed in these regions can no longer be expected to afford the interest of novelty it once possessed; more especially in a station already delineated with tolerable geographical precision on our maps, and thus, as it were, brought near to our firesides at home. independently, indeed, of this circumstance, it is hard to conceive any one thing more like another than two winters passed in the higher latitudes of the polar regions, except when variety happens to be afforded by intercourse with some other branch of "the whole family of man." winter after winter, nature here assumes an aspect so much alike, that cursory observation can scarcely detect a single feature of variety. the winter of more temperate climates, and even in some of no slight severity, is occasionally diversified by a thaw, which at once gives variety and comparative cheerfulness to the prospect. but here, when once the earth is covered, all is dreary, monotonous whiteness; not merely for days or weeks, but for more than half a year together. whichever way the eye is turned, it meets a picture calculated to impress upon the mind an idea of inanimate stillness, of that motionless torpor with which our feelings have nothing congenial; of anything, in short, but life. in the very silence there is a deadness with which a human spectator appears _out of keeping_. the presence of man seems an intrusion on the dreary solitude of this wintry desert, which even its native animals have for a while forsaken. i am persuaded, therefore, that i shall be excused in sparing the dulness of another winter's diary, and confining myself exclusively to those facts which appear to possess any scientific interest, to the few incidents which _did_ diversify our confinement, and to such remarks as may contribute to the health and comfort of any future sojourners in these dreary regions. it may well be supposed that, in this climate, the principal desideratum which art is called upon to furnish for the promotion of health, is warmth, as well in the external air as in the inhabited apartments. exposure to a cold atmosphere, _when the body is well clothed_, produces no bad effect whatever beyond a frostbitten cheek, nose, or finger. as for any injury to healthy lungs from the breathing of cold air, or from sudden changes from this into a warm atmosphere, or _vice versa_, it may with much confidence be asserted that, with due attention to external clothing, there is nothing in this respect to be apprehended. this inference, at least, would appear legitimate, from the fact that our crews, consisting of one hundred and twenty persons, have for four winters been constantly undergoing, for months together, a change of from eighty to a hundred degrees of temperature, in the space of time required for opening two doors (perhaps less than half a minute), without incurring any pulmonary complaints at all. in speaking of the external clothing sufficient for health in this climate, it must be confessed that, in severe exposure, quite a _load_ of woollen clothes, even of the best quality, is insufficient to retain a comfortable degree of warmth; a strong breeze carrying it off so rapidly, that the sensation is that of the cold piercing through the body. a jacket made very long, like those called by seamen "pea-jackets," and lined with fur throughout, would be more effectual than twice the weight of woollen clothes, and is, indeed, almost weather-proof. for the prevention of lumbago, to which our seamen are especially liable, from their well-known habit of leaving their loins imperfectly clothed, every man should be strictly obliged to wear, under his outer clothes, a canvass belt a foot broad, lined with flannel, and having straps to go over the shoulder.[ ] it is certain, however, that no precautions in clothing are sufficient to maintain health during a polar winter, without a due degree of warmth in the apartments we inhabit. most persons are apt to associate with the idea of warmth, something like the comfort derived from a good fire on a winter's evening at home; but in these regions the case is inconceivably different: here it is not simple comfort, but health, and, therefore, ultimately life, that depends upon it. the want of a constant supply of warmth is here immediately followed by a condensation of all the moisture, whether from the breath, victuals, or other sources, into abundant drops of water, very rapidly forming on all the coldest parts of the deck. a still lower temperature modifies, and perhaps improves, the annoyance by converting it into ice, which again an occasional increase of warmth dissolves into water. nor is this the amount of the evil, though it is the only visible part of it; for not only is a moist atmosphere thus incessantly kept up, but it is rendered stagnant also by the want of that ventilation which warmth alone can furnish. with an apartment in this state, the men's clothes and bedding are continually in a moist and unwholesome condition, generating a deleterious air, which there is no circulation to carry off; and, whenever these circumstances combine for any length of time together, so surely may the scurvy, to say nothing of other diseases, be confidently expected to exhibit itself. every attention was, as usual, paid to the occupation and diversion of the men's minds, as well as to the regularity of their bodily exercise. our former amusements being almost worn threadbare, it required some ingenuity to devise any plan that should possess the charm of novelty to recommend it. this purpose was completely answered by a proposal of captain hoppner, to attempt a _masquerade_, in which officers and men should alike take a part, but which, without imposing any restraint whatever, would leave every one to his own choice whether to join in this diversion or not. it is impossible that any idea could have proved more happy, or more exactly suited to our situation. admirably dressed characters of various descriptions readily took their parts, and many of these were supported with a degree of spirit and genuine humour which would not have disgraced a more refined assembly; while the latter might not have disdained, and would not have been disgraced by, copying the good order, decorum, and inoffensive cheerfulness which our humble masquerade presented. it does especial credit to the dispositions and good sense of our men, that, though all the officers entered fully into the spirit of these amusements, which took place once a month, no instance occurred of anything that could interfere with the regular discipline, or at all weaken the respect of the men towards their superiors. ours were masquerades without licentiousness; carnivals without excess. but an occupation not less assiduously pursued, and of infinitely more eventual benefit, was furnished by the re-establishment of our schools, under the voluntary superintendence of my friend mr. hooper in the hecla, and of mr. mogg in the fury. by the judicious zeal of mr. hooper, the hecla's school was made subservient, not merely to the improvement of the men in reading and writing (in which, however, their progress was surprisingly great), but also to the cultivation of that religious feeling which so essentially improves the character of a seaman, by furnishing the highest motives for increased attention to every other duty. nor was the benefit confined to the eighteen or twenty individuals whose want of scholarship brought them to the school-table, but extended itself to the rest of the ship's company, making the whole lower-deck such a scene of quiet rational occupation as i never before saw on board a ship. and i do not speak lightly when i express my thorough persuasion, that to the moral effects thus produced upon the minds of the men, were owing, in a very high degree, the constant yet sober cheerfulness, the uninterrupted good order, and even, in some measure, the extraordinary state of health which prevailed among us during this winter. the extreme facility with which sounds are heard at a considerable distance in severely cold weather, has often been a subject of remark; but a circumstance occurred at port bowen which deserves to be noticed, as affording a sort of measure of this facility, or, at least, conveying to others some definite idea of the fact. lieutenant foster having occasion to send a man from the observatory to the opposite shore of the harbour, a measured distance of feet, or about one statute mile and two tenths, in order to fix a meridian mark, had placed a second person half way between, to repeat his directions; but he found, on trial, that this precaution was unnecessary, as he could, without difficulty, keep up a conversation with the man at the distant station. the thermometer was at this time- °, the barometer . inches, and the weather nearly calm, and quite clear and serene. about one o'clock on the morning of the d february, the aurora appeared over the hills in a south direction, presenting a brilliant mass of light. the rolling motion of the light laterally was very striking, as well as the increase of its intensity thus occasioned. the light occupied horizontally about a point of the compass, and extended in height scarcely a degree above the land, which seemed, however, to conceal from us a part of the phenomenon. it was always evident enough that the most attenuated light of the aurora sensibly dimmed the stars, like a thin veil drawn over them. we frequently listened for any sound proceeding from this phenomenon, but never heard any. our variation needles, which were extremely light, suspended in the most delicate manner, and, from the weak directive energy, susceptible of being acted upon by a very slight disturbing force, were never, in a single instance, sensibly affected by the aurora, which could scarcely fail to have been observed at some time or other, had any such disturbance taken place, the needles being visited every hour for several months, and oftener when anything occurred to make it desirable. the meteors called falling stars were much more frequent during this winter than we ever before saw them, and particularly during the month of december. chapter iv. re-equipment of the ships.--several journeys undertaken.--open water in the offing.--commence sawing a canal to liberate the ships.--disruption of the ice.--departure from port bowen. the height of the land about port bowen deprived us longer than usual of the sun's presence above our horizon. some of our gentlemen, indeed, who ascended a high hill for the purpose, caught a glimpse of him on the d of february; on the th it became visible at the observatory, but at the ships not till the d, after an absence of one hundred and twenty-one days. it is very long after the sun's reappearance in these regions, however, that the effect of his rays, as to warmth, becomes perceptible; week passes after week, with scarcely any rise in the thermometer except for an hour or two during the day; and it is at this period more than any other, perhaps, that the lengthened duration of a polar winter's cold is most wearisome, and creates the most impatience. towards the third week in march, thin flakes of snow lying upon black painted wood or metal, and exposed to the sun's direct rays in a sheltered situation, readily melted. in the second week of april any very light covering of sand or ashes upon the snow close to the ships might be observed to make its way downward into holes; but a coat of sand laid upon the unsheltered ice, to the distance of about two thirds of a mile, for dissolving a canal to hasten our liberation, produced no such sensible effect till the beginning of may. even then the dissolution was very trifling till about the first week in june, when pools of water began to make their appearance, and not long after this a small boat would have floated down it. on shore the effect is, in general, still more tardy, though some deception is there occasioned by the dissolution of the snow next the ground, while its upper surface is to all appearance undergoing little or no change. thus a greater alteration is sometimes produced in the aspect of the land by a single warm day in an advanced part of the season, than in many weeks preceding, in consequence of the last crust of snow being dissolved, leaving the ground at length entirely bare. we could now perceive the snow beginning to leave the stones from day to day, as early as the last week in april. towards the end of may a great deal of snow was dissolved daily; but, owing to the porous nature of the ground, which absorbed it as fast as it was formed, it was not easy to procure water for drinking on shore, even as late as the th of june. in the ravines, however, it could be heard trickling under stones before that time; and about the th, many considerable streams were formed, and constantly running both night and day. after this the thawing proceeded at an inconceivably rapid rate, the whole surface of the floes being covered with large pools of water rapidly increasing in size and depth. the animals seen at port bowen may now be briefly noticed. the principal of these seen during the winter were bears, of which we killed twelve from october to june, being more than during all the other voyages taken together; and several others were seen. one of these animals was near proving fatal to a seaman of the fury, who, having straggled from his companions, when at the top of a high hill saw a large bear coming towards him. being unarmed, he prudently made off, taking off his boots to enable him to run the faster, but not so prudently precipitated himself over an almost perpendicular cliff, down which he was said to have rolled or fallen several hundred feet; here he was met by some of the people in so lacerated a condition as to be in a very dangerous state for some time after. a she-bear, killed in the open water on our first arrival at port bowen, afforded a striking instance of maternal affection in her anxiety to save her two cubs. she might herself easily have escaped the boat, but would not forsake her young, which she was actually "towing" off, by allowing them to rest on her back, when the boat came near them. a second similar instance occurred in the spring, when two cubs having got down into a large crack in the ice, their mother placed herself before them, so as to secure them from the attacks of our people, which she might easily have avoided herself. one or two foxes (_canis lagopus_) were killed, and four caught in traps during the winter, weighing from four pounds and three quarters to three pounds and three quarters. the colour of one of these animals, which lived for some time on board the fury, and became tolerably tame, was nearly pure white till the month of may, when he shed his winter coat, and became of a dirty chocolate colour, with two or three light brown spots. only three hares (_lepus variabilis_) were killed from october to june, weighing from six to eight pounds and three quarters. their fur was extremely thick, soft, and of the most beautiful whiteness imaginable. we saw no deer near port bowen at any season, neither were we visited by their enemies the wolves. a single ermine and a few mice (_mus hudsonius_) complete, i believe, our scanty list of quadrupeds at this desolate and unproductive place. towards the end of june, the dovekies (_colymbus grylle_) were extremely numerous in the cracks of the ice at the entrance of port bowen; and as these were the only fresh supply of any consequence that we were able to procure at this unproductive place, we were glad to permit the men to go out occasionally with guns, after the ships were ready for sea, to obtain for their messes this wholesome change of diet; while such excursions also contributed essentially to their general health and cheerfulness. many hundreds of these birds were thus obtained in the course of a few days. on the evening of the th of july, however, i was greatly shocked at being informed by captain hoppner that john cotterell,[ ] a seaman of the fury, had been found drowned in one of the cracks of the ice by two other men belonging to the same party, who had been with him but a few minutes before. we could never ascertain precisely in what manner this accident happened, but it was supposed that he must have overreached himself in stooping for a bird that he had killed. his remains were committed to the earth on sunday the th, with every solemnity which the occasion demanded, and our situation would allow; and a tomb of stones, with a suitable inscription, was afterward erected over the grave. in order to obtain oil for another winter's consumption, before the ships could be released from the ice, and our travelling parties having seen a number of black whales in the open water to the northward, two boats from each ship were, with considerable labour, transported four miles along shore in that direction, to be in readiness for killing a whale and boiling the oil on the beach, whenever the open water should approach sufficiently near. notwithstanding these preparations, however, it was vexatious to find that on the th of july the water was still three miles distant from the boats, and at least seven from port bowen. on the th, the ice in our neighbourhood began to detach itself, and the boats, under the command of lieutenants sherer and ross, being launched on the following day, succeeded almost immediately in killing a small whale of "five feet bone," exactly answering our purpose. almost at the same time, and, as it turned out, very opportunely, the ice at the mouth of our harbour detached itself at an old crack, and drifted off, leaving only about one mile and a quarter between us and the sea. half of this distance being occupied by the gravelled canal, which was dissolved quite through the ice in many parts, and had become very thin in all, every officer and man in both ships were set to work without delay to commence a fresh canal from the open water to communicate with the other. this work proved heavier than we expected, the ice being generally from five to eight feet, and in many places from ten to eleven in thickness. it was continued, however, with the greatest cheerfulness and alacrity from seven in the morning till seven in the evening daily, the dinner being prepared on the ice, and eaten under the lee of a studding sail erected as a tent. on the afternoon of the th, a very welcome stop was put to our operations by the separation of the floe entirely across the harbour, and about one third from the ships to where we were at work. all hands being instantly recalled by signal, were, on their return, set to work to get the ships into the gravelled canal, and to saw away what still remained in it to prevent our warping to sea. this work, with only half an hour's intermission for the men's supper, was continued till half past six the following morning, when we succeeded in getting clear. the weather being calm, two hours were occupied in towing the ships to sea, and thus the officers and men were employed at a very laborious work for twenty-six hours, during which time there were, on one occasion, fifteen of them overboard at once; and, indeed, several individuals met with the same accident three times. it was impossible, however, to regret the necessity of these comparatively trifling exertions, especially as it was now evident that to saw our way out without any canal would have required at least a fortnight of heavy and fatiguing labour. chapter v. sail over towards the western coast of prince regent's inlet.--stopped by the ice.--reach the shore about cape seppings.--favourable progress along the land.--fresh and repeated obstructions from ice.--both ships driven on shore.--fury seriously damaged.--unsuccessful search for a harbour for heaving her down to repair. _july_ .--on standing out to sea, we sailed, with a light southerly wind, towards the western shore of prince regent's inlet, which it was my first wish to gain, on account of the evident advantage to be derived from coasting the southern part of that portion of land called in the chart "north somerset," as far as it might lead to the westward; which, from our former knowledge, we had reason to suppose it would do as far at least as the longitude of °, in the parallel of about - / °. after sailing about eight miles, we were stopped by a body of close ice lying between us and a space of open water beyond. we were shortly after enveloped in one of the thick fogs which had, for several weeks past, been observed almost daily hanging over some part of the sea in the offing, though we had scarcely experienced any in port bowen until the water became open at the mouth of the harbour. on the clearing up of the fog on the st, we could perceive no opening of the ice leading towards the western land, nor any appearance of the smallest channel to the southward along the eastern shore. i was determined, therefore, to try at once a little farther to the northward, the present state of the ice appearing completely to accord with that observed in , its breadth increasing as we advanced from prince leopold's islands to the southward. light winds detained us very much, but, being at length favoured by a breeze, we carried all sail to the northwest, the ice very gradually leading us towards the leopold isles. having arrived off the northernmost on the morning of the nd, it was vexatious, however curious, to observe the exact coincidence of the present position of the ice with that which it occupied a little later in the year . the whole body of it seemed to cling to the western shore, as if held there by some strong attraction, forbidding, for the present, any access to it. after running all night, with light and variable winds, through loose and scattered ice, we suddenly found ourselves, on the clearing up of a thick fog through which we had been sailing on the morning of the th, within one third of a mile of cape seppings, the land just appearing above the fog in time to save us from danger, the soundings being thirty-eight fathoms, on a rocky bottom. the fury being apprized by guns of our situation, both ships were hauled off the land, and the fog soon after dispersing, we had the satisfaction to perceive that the late gale had blown the ice off the land, leaving us a fine navigable channel from one to two miles wide, as far as we could see from the masthead along the shore. we were able to avail ourselves of this but slowly, however, in consequence of a light southerly breeze still blowing against us. the land here, when closely viewed, assumes a very striking, and magnificent character; the strata of limestone, which are numerous and quite horizontally disposed, being much more regular than on the eastern shore of prince regent's inlet, and retaining nearly their whole perpendicular height of six or seven hundred feet close to the sea. i may here remark, that the whole of barrow's strait, as far as we could see to the n.n.e. of the islands, was entirely free from ice; and, from whatever circumstance it may proceed, i do not think that this part of the polar sea is at any season very much encumbered with it. it was the general feeling at this period among us, that the voyage had but now commenced. the labours of a bad summer, and the tedium of a long winter, were forgotten in a moment when we found ourselves upon ground not hitherto explored, and with every apparent prospect before us of making as rapid a progress as the nature of this navigation will permit, towards the final accomplishment of our object. a breeze enabling us again to make some progress, and an open channel still favouring us, of nearly the same breadth as before, we passed, during the night of the th, a second bay, about the same size as the other, and also appearing open to the sea; it lies in latitude (by account from the preceding and following noon) ° ' ", and its width is one mile and a half. we now perceived that the ice closed completely in with the land a short distance beyond us; and, having made all the way we could, were obliged to stand off and on during the day in a channel not three quarters of a mile wide. a light southerly breeze on the morning of the th gradually cleared the shore, and a fresh wind from the n.w. then immediately succeeded. we instantly took advantage of this circumstance, and, casting off at six a.m., ran eight or nine miles without obstruction, when we were stopped by the ice, which, in a closely packed and impenetrable body, stretched close into the shore as far as the eye could reach from the crow's nest. being anxious to gain every foot of distance that we could, and perceiving some grounded ice which appeared favourable for making fast to, just at a point where the clear water terminated, the ships were run to the utmost extent of it, and a boat prepared from each to examine the water at the intended anchoring place. just as i was about to leave the hecla for that purpose, the ice was observed, to be in rapid motion towards the shore. the fury was immediately hauled in by some grounded masses, and placed to the best advantage; but the hecla, being more advanced, was immediately beset in spite of every exertion, and, after breaking two of the largest ice-anchors in endeavouring to heave in to the shore, was obliged to drift with the ice, several masses of which had fortunately interposed themselves between us and the land. the ice slackening around us a little in the evening, we were enabled, with considerable labour, to get to some grounded masses, where we lay much exposed, as the fury also did. in this situation, our latitude being ° ' ", we saw a comparatively low point of land three or four leagues to the southward, which proved to be near that which terminated our view of this coast in . the ice opening for a mile and a half alongshore on the th, we shifted the hecla's berth about that distance to the southward, chiefly to be enabled to see more distinctly round a point which before obstructed our view, though our situation as regarded the security of the ship was much altered for the worse. in the afternoon it blew a hard gale, with constant rain, from the northward, the clouds indicating an easterly wind in other parts. this wind, which was always the troublesome one to us, soon brought the ice closer and closer, till it pressed with very considerable violence on both ships, though the most upon the fury, which lay in a very exposed situation. early on the morning of the st, as soon as a communication could be effected, captain hoppner sent to inform me that the fury had been forced on the ground, where she still lay; but that she would probably be hove off without much difficulty at high water, provided the external ice did not prevent it. a large party of hands from the hecla being sent round to the fury towards high water, she came off the ground with very little strain, so that, upon the whole, considering the situation in which the ships were lying, we thought ourselves fortunate in having incurred no very serious injury. a shift of wind to the southward in the afternoon at length began gradually to slacken it, but it was not till six a.m. on the st of august that there appeared a prospect of making any progress. the signal to that effect was immediately made; but, while the sails were setting, the ice, which had at first been three quarters of a mile distant from us, was observed to be closing the shore the ships were cast with all expedition, in hopes of gaining the broader channel before the ice had time to shut us up. so rapid, however, was the latter in this its sudden movement, that we had but just got the ships' heads the right way when the ice came boldly in upon us, being doubtless set in motion by a very sudden freshening of the wind almost to a gale in the course of a few minutes. the ships were now almost instantly beset, and in such a manner as to be literally helpless and unmanageable. the sails were, however, kept set; and, as the body of ice was setting to the southward withal, we went with it some little distance in that direction. the hecla, after thus driving, and now and then forcing her way through the ice, in all about three quarters of a mile, quite close to the shore, at length struck the ground forcibly several times in the space of a hundred yards, and being then brought up by it, remained immoveable, the depth of water under her keel abaft being sixteen feet, or about a foot less than she drew. the fury, continuing to drive, was now irresistibly carried past us, and we escaped, only by a few feet, the damage invariably occasioned by ships coming in contact under such circumstances. she had, however, scarcely passed us a hundred yards, when it was evident, by the ice pressing her in, as well as along the shore, that she must soon be stopped like the hecla; and having gone about two hundred yards farther, she was observed to receive a severe pressure from a large floe-piece forcing her directly against a grounded mass of ice upon the beach. after setting to the southward for an hour or two longer, the ice became stationary, no open water being anywhere visible from the masthead, and the pressure on the ships remaining undiminished during the day. just as i had ascertained the utter impossibility of moving the hecla a single foot, and that she must lie aground fore and aft as soon as the tide fell, i received a note from captain hoppner, informing me that the fury had been so severely "nipped" and strained as to leak a good deal, apparently about four inches an hour; that she was still heavily pressed both upon the ground and against the large mass of ice within her; that the rudder was at present very awkwardly situated; and that one boat had been much damaged. however, about high water, the ice very opportunely slacking, the hecla was hove off with great ease, and warped to a floe in the offing, to which we made fast at midnight. the fury was not long after us in coming off the ground, when i was in hopes of finding that any twist or strain by which her leaks might have been occasioned, would, in some measure, close when she was relieved from pressure and once more fairly afloat. my disappointment and mortification, therefore, may in some measure be imagined, at being informed by telegraph, about two a.m. on the d, that the water was gaining on two pumps, and that a part of the doubling had floated up. presently after, perceiving from the masthead something like a small harbour nearly abreast of us, every effort was made to get once more towards the shore. in this the ice happily favoured us; and, after making sail, and one or two tacks, we got in with the land, when i left the ship in a boat to sound the place and search for shelter. the whole shore was more or less lined with grounded masses of ice; but, after examining the soundings within more than twenty of them, in the space of about a mile, i could only find two that would allow the ships to float at low water, and that by some care in placing and keeping them there. having fixed a flag on each berg, the usual signal for the ships taking their stations, i rowed on board the fury, and found four pumps constantly going to keep the ship free, and captain hoppner, his officers and men, almost exhausted with the incessant labour of the last eight-and-forty hours. the instant the ships were made fast, captain hoppner and myself set out in a boat to survey the shore still farther south, there being a narrow lane of water about a mile in that direction; for it had now become too evident that the fury could proceed no farther without repairs, and that the nature of those repairs would in all probability involve the disagreeable, i may say the ruinous, necessity of heaving the ship down. after rowing about three quarters of a mile, we considered ourselves fortunate in arriving at a bolder part of the beach, where three grounded masses of ice, having from three to four fathoms water at low tide within them, were so disposed as to afford, with the assistance of art, something like shelter. returning to the ships, we were setting the sails in order to run to the appointed place, when the ice closed in and prevented our moving, and in a short time there was once more no open water to be seen. we were therefore under the necessity of remaining in our present berths, where the smallest external pressure must inevitably force us ashore, neither ship having more than two feet of water to spare. one watch of the hecla's crew were sent round to assist at the fury's pumps, which required one third of her ship's company to be constantly employed at them. the more leisure we obtained to consider the state of the fury, the more apparent became the absolute, however unfortunate, necessity of heaving her down. four pumps were required to be at work without intermission to keep her free, and this in perfectly smooth water, showing that she was, in fact, so materially injured as to be very far from seaworthy. one third of her working men were constantly employed, as before remarked, in this laborious operation, and some of their hands had become so sore from the constant friction of the ropes, that they could hardly handle them any longer without the use of mittens, assisted by the unlaying of the ropes to make them soft. as, therefore, not a moment could be lost, we took advantage of a small lane of water, deep enough for boats, which kept open within the grounded masses along the shore, to convey to the hecla some of the fury's dry provisions, and to land a quantity of heavy iron work, and other stores not perishable; for the moment this measure was determined on, i was anxious, almost at any risk, to commence the lightening of the ship as far as our present insecurity and our distance from the shore would permit. at two a.m. on the th, the ice began to slacken near the ships, and, as soon as a boat could be rowed alongshore to the southward, i set out, accompanied by a second from the fury, for the purpose of examining the state of our intended harbour since the recent pressure, and to endeavour to prepare for the reception of the ships by clearing out the loose ice. the fury was detained some time by a quantity of loose ice, which had wedged itself in in such a manner as to leave her no room to move outward; but she arrived about seven o'clock, when both ships were made fast in the best berths we could find, but they were excluded from their intended place by the quantity of ice which had fixed itself there. within twenty minutes after our arrival, the whole body of ice again came in, entirely closing up the shore, so that our moving proved most opportune. chapter vi. formation of a basin for heaving the fury down.--landing of the fury's stores, and other preparations.--the ships secured within the basin.--impediments from the pressure of the ice.--fury hove down.--securities of the basin destroyed by a gale of wind.--preparations to tow the fury out.--hecla re-equipped, and obliged to put to sea.--fury again driven on shore.--rejoin the fury; and find it necessary finally to abandon her. as there was now no longer room for floating the ice out of the proposed basin, all hands were immediately employed in preparing the intended securities against the incursions of the ice. these consisted of anchors carried to the beach, having bower-cables attached to them, passing quite round the grounded masses, and thus enclosing a small space of just sufficient size to admit both ships. the cables we proposed floating by means of the two hand-masts and some empty casks lashed to them as buoys, with the intention of thus making them receive the pressure of the ice a foot or two below the surface of the water. by uncommon exertions on the part of the officers and men, this laborious work was completed before night as far as was practicable until the loose ice should set out; and all the tents were set up on the beach for the reception of the fury's stores. the ice remaining quite close on the th, every individual in both ships, with the exception of those at the pumps, was employed in landing provisions from the fury, together with the spars, boats, and everything from off her upper deck. on the following day, the ice remaining as before, the work was continued without intermission, and a great quantity of things landed. the armorer was also set to work on the beach in forging bolts for the martingales of the outriggers. in short, every living creature among us was somehow or other employed, not even excepting our dogs, which were set to drag up the stores on the beach; so that our little dock-yard soon exhibited the most animated scene imaginable. the fury was thus so much lightened in the course of the day, that two pumps were now nearly sufficient to keep her free, and this number continued requisite until she was hove down. at night, just as the people were going to rest, the ice began to move to the southward, and soon after came in towards the shore, pressing the fury over on her side to so alarming a degree, as to warn us that it would not be safe to lighten her much more in her present insecure situation. one of our bergs also shifted its position by this pressure, so as to weaken our confidence in the pier-heads of our intended basin; and a long "tongue" of one of them forcing itself under the hecla's forefoot, while the drifting ice was also pressing her forcibly from astern, she once more sewed three or four feet forward at low water, and continued to do so, notwithstanding repeated endeavours to haul her off, for four successive tides, the ice remaining so close and so much doubled under the ship, as to render it impossible to move her a single inch. notwithstanding the state of the ice, however, we did not remain idle on the th, all hands being employed in unrigging the fury, and landing all her spars, sails, booms, boats, and other top weight. the ice still continuing very close on the th, all hands were employed in attempting, by saws and axes, to clear the hecla, which still grounded on the tongue of ice every tide. after four hours' labour, they succeeded in making four or five feet of room astern, when the ship suddenly slid down off the tongue with considerable force, and became once more afloat. as it very opportunely happened, the external ice slackened to the distance of about a hundred yards outside of us on the morning of the th, enabling us, by a most tedious and laborious operation, to clear the ice out of our basin piece by piece. our next business was to tighten the cables sufficiently by means of purchases, and to finish the floating of them in the manner and for the purpose before described. after this had been completed, the ships had only a few feet in length, and nothing in breadth to spare, but we had now great hopes of going on with our work with increased confidence and security. the fury, which was placed inside, had something less than eighteen feet at low water; the hecla lay in four fathoms, the bottom being strewed with large and small fragments of limestone. while thus employed in securing the ships, the smoothness of the water enabled us to see, in some degree, the nature of the fury's damage; and it may be conceived how much pain it occasioned us plainly to discover that both the sternpost and forefoot were broken and turned up on one side with the pressure. we also could perceive, as far as we were able to see along the main keel, that it was much torn, and we had therefore much reason to conclude that the damage would altogether prove very serious. we also discovered that several feet of the hecla's false keel were torn away abreast of the forechains, in consequence of her grounding forward so frequently. being favoured with fine weather, we continued our work very quickly, so that on the th every cask was landed, and also the powder; and the spare sails and clothing put on board the hecla. the coals and preserved meats were the principal things now remaining on board the fury, and these we continued landing by every method we could devise as the most expeditious. early on the morning of the th, the ice slackening a little in our neighbourhood, we took advantage of it, though the people were much fagged, to tighten the cables, which had stretched and yielded considerably by the late pressure. it was well that we did so; for in the course of this day we were several times interrupted in our work by the ice coming with a tremendous strain on the north cables, the wind blowing strong from the n.n.w., and the whole "pack" outside of us setting rapidly to the southward. indeed, notwithstanding the recent tightening and readjustment of the cables, the bight was pressed in so much as to force the fury against the berg astern of her twice in the course of the day. from this trial of the efficacy of our means of security, it was plain that the fury could not possibly be hove down under circumstances of such frequent and imminent risk: i therefore directed a fourth anchor, with two additional cables, to be carried out, with the hope of breaking some of the force of the ice by its offering a more oblique resistance than the other, and thus, by degrees, turning the direction of the pressure from the ships. we had scarcely completed this new defence, when the largest floe we had seen since leaving port bowen came sweeping along the shore, having a motion to the southward of not less than a mile and a half an hour; and a projecting point of it, just grazing our outer berg, threatened to overturn it, and would certainly have dislodged it from its situation but for the cable recently attached to it. the fury being completely cleared at an early hour on the th, we were all busily employed in "winding" the ship, and in preparing the outriggers, shores, purchases, and additional rigging. though we purposely selected the time of high water for turning the ship round, we had scarcely a foot of space to spare for doing it; and indeed, as it was, her forefoot touched the ground, and loosened the broken part of the wood so much as to enable us to pull it up with ropes, when we found the fragments to consist of the whole of the "gripe" and most of the "cutwater." in the evening we received the fury's crew on board the hecla, every arrangement and regulation having been previously made for their personal comfort, and for the preservation of cleanliness, ventilation, and dry warmth throughout the ship. the officers of the fury, by their own choice, pitched a tent on shore for messing and sleeping in, as our accommodation for two sets of officers was necessarily confined. every preparation being made, at three a.m. on the th we began to heave her down on the larboard side; but when the purchases were nearly ablock, we found that the strops under the hecla's bottom, as well as some of the fury's shore-fasts, had stretched or yielded so much that they could not bring the keel out of water within three or four feet. we immediately eased her up again, and readjusted everything as requisite, hauling her farther in-shore than before by keeping a considerable heel upon her, so as to make less depth of water necessary; and we were then in the act of once more heaving her down, when a snowstorm came on and blew with such violence off the land as to raise a considerable sea. the ships had now so much motion as to strain the gear very much, and even to make the lower masts of the fury bend in spite of the shores; we were, therefore, most unwillingly compelled to desist until the sea should go down, keeping everything ready to recommence the instant we could possibly do so with safety. the officers and men were now literally so harassed and fatigued as to be scarcely capable of farther exertion without some rest; and on this and one or two other occasions, i noticed more than a single instance of stupor, amounting to a certain degree of failure in intellect, rendering the individual so affected quite unable at first to comprehend the meaning of an order, though still as willing as ever to obey it. it was therefore, perhaps, a fortunate necessity that produced the intermission of labour which the strength of every individual seemed to require. the gale rather increasing than otherwise during the whole day and night of the th, had, on the following morning, when the wind and sea still continued unabated, so destroyed the bergs on which our sole dependance was placed, that they no longer remained aground at low water; the cables had again become slack about them, and the basin we had taken so much pains in forming had now lost all its defences, at least during a portion of every tide. after a night of most anxious consideration and consultation with captain hoppner, who was now my messmate in the hecla, it appeared but too plain that, should the ice again come in, neither ship could any longer be secured from driving on shore. it was therefore determined instantly to prepare the hecla for sea, making her thoroughly effective in every respect; so that we might at least push _her_ out into comparative safety among the ice when it closed again, taking every person on board her, securing the fury in the best manner we could, and returning to her the instant we were able to do so, to endeavour to get her out, and to carry her to some place of security for heaving down. if, after the hecla was ready, time should still be allowed us, it was proposed immediately to put into the fury all that was requisite, or, at least, as much as she could safely carry, and, towing her out into the ice, to try the effect of "foddering" the leaks by sails under those parts of her keel which we knew to be damaged, until some more effectual means could be resorted to. having communicated to the assembled officers and ships' companies my views and intentions, we commenced our work; and such was the hearty good-will and indefatigable energy with which it was carried on, that by midnight the whole was accomplished. on the th, therefore, the reloading of the fury commenced with recruited strength and spirits, such articles being in the first place selected for putting on board as were essentially requisite for her reequipment; for it was my full determination, could we succeed in completing this, not to wait even for rigging a topmast, or getting a lower yard up, in the event of the ice coming in, but to tow her out among the ice, and there put everything sufficiently to rights for carrying her to some place of security. a few hands were also spared, consisting chiefly of two or three convalescents, and some of the officers, to thrum a sail for putting under the fury's keel; for we were very anxious to relieve the men at the pumps, which constantly required the labour of eight to twelve hands to keep her free. by a long and hard day's labour, the people not going to rest till two o'clock on the morning of the st, we got about fifty tons' weight of coals and provisions on board the fury, which, in case of necessity, we considered sufficient to give her stability. having hauled the ships out a little from the shore, and prepared the hecla for casting by a spring at a moment's notice, all the people except those at the pumps were sent to rest, which, however, they had not enjoyed for two hours, when, at four a.m. on the st, another heavy mass coming violently in contact with the bergs and cables, threatened to sweep away every remaining security. more hawsers were run out, however, and enabled us still to hold on; and, after six hours of disturbed rest, all hands were again set to work to get the fury's anchors, cables, rudder, and spars on board, these being absolutely necessary for her equipment, should we be able to get her out. at two p.m. the crews were called on board to dinner, which they had not finished when several not very large masses of ice drove along the shore near us at a quick rate, and two or three successively coming in violent contact either with the hecla or the bergs to which she was attached, convinced me that very little additional pressure would tear everything away, and drive both ships on shore. i saw that the moment had arrived when the hecla could no longer be kept in her present situation with the smallest chance of safety, and therefore immediately got under sail, despatching captain hoppner with every individual, except a few for working the ship, to continue getting the things on board the fury, while the hecla stood off and on. captain hoppner had scarcely been an hour on board the fury, and was busily engaged in getting the anchors and cables on board, when we observed some large pieces of not very heavy ice closing in with the land near her; and at twenty minutes past four p.m., being an hour and five minutes after the hecla had cast off, i was informed by signal that the fury was on shore. as the navigating of the hecla, with only ten men on board, required constant attention and care, i could not at this time, with propriety, leave the ship to go on board the fury. i therefore directed captain hoppner by telegraph, "if he thought nothing could be done at present, to return on board with all hands until the wind changed;" for this alone, as far as i could see the state of the fury, seemed to offer the smallest chance of clearing the shore, so as to enable us to proceed with our work, or to attempt hauling the ship off the ground. about seven p.m. captain hoppner returned to the hecla, accompanied by all hands, except an officer with a party at the pumps, reporting to me, that the fury had been forced aground by the ice pressing on the masses lying near her, and bringing home, if not breaking, the seaward anchor, so that the ship was soon found to have sewed from two to three feet fore and aft. finding, soon after captain hoppner's return, that the current swept the hecla a long way to the southward while hoisting up the boats, and that more ice was drifting in towards the shore, i was under the painful necessity of recalling the party at the pumps, rather than incur the risk, now an inevitable one, of parting company with them altogether. accordingly, mr. bird, with the last of the people, came on board at eight o'clock in the evening, having left eighteen inches water in the well, and four pumps being requisite to keep her free. in three hours after mr. bird's return, more than half a mile of closely packed ice intervened between the fury and the open water in which we were beating, and before the morning this barrier had increased to four or five miles in breadth. we carried a press of canvass all night, with a fresh breeze from the north, to enable us to keep abreast of the fury, which, on account of the strong southerly current, we could only do by beating at some distance from the land. the breadth of the ice in-shore continued increasing during the day, but we could see no end to the water in which we were beating, either to the southward or eastward. it fell quite calm in the evening, when the breadth of the ice in-shore had increased to six or seven miles. we did not, during the day, perceive any current setting to the southward, but in the course of the night we were drifted four or five leagues to the southwestward. a southerly breeze enabling us to regain our northing, we ran along the margin of the ice, but were led so much to the eastward by it, that we could approach the ship no nearer than before during the whole day. she appeared to us at this distance to have a much greater heel than when the people left her, which made us still more anxious to get near her. the latitude at noon was ° ' ", making our distance from the fury twelve miles, which, by the morning of the th, had increased to at least five leagues, the ice continuing to "pack" between us and the shore. the wind, however, now gradually drew round to the westward, giving us hopes of a change, and we continued to ply about the margin of the ice, in constant readiness for taking advantage of any opening that might occur. it favoured us so much by streaming off in the course of the day, that by seven p.m. we had nearly reached a channel of clear water, which kept open for seven or eight miles from the land. being impatient to obtain a sight of the fury, and the wind becoming light, captain hoppner and myself left the hecla in two boats, and reached the ship at half past nine, or about three quarters of an hour before high water, being the most favourable time of tide for arriving to examine her condition. we found her heeling so much outward, that her main channels were within a foot of the water; and the large floe-piece, which was still alongside of her, seemed alone to support her below water, and to prevent her falling over still more considerably. the ship had been forced much farther up the beach than before, and she had now in her bilge above nine feet of water, which reached higher than the lower-deck beams. the first hour's inspection of the fury's condition too plainly assured me that, exposed as she was, and forcibly pressed up upon an open and stony beach, her holds full of water, and the damage of her hull to all appearance and in all probability more considerable than before, without any adequate means of hauling her off to seaward, or securing her from the farther incursions of the ice, every endeavour of ours to get her off, or _if_ got off, to float her to any known place of safety, would be at once utterly hopeless in itself, and productive of extreme risk to our remaining ship. mr. pulfer, the carpenter of the fury, considered that it would occupy five days to clear the ship of water; that if she were got off, all the pumps would not be sufficient to keep her free, in consequence of the additional damage she seemed to have sustained; and that, if even hove down, twenty days' work, with the means we possessed, would be required for making her sea-worthy. captain hoppner and the other officers were therefore of opinion, that an absolute necessity existed for abandoning the fury. my own opinion being thus confirmed as to the utter hopelessness of saving her, and feeling more strongly than ever the responsibility which attached to me of preserving the hecla unhurt, it was with extreme pain and regret that i made the signal for the fury's officers and men to be sent for their clothes, most of which, had been put on shore with the stores. the whole of the fury's stores were of necessity left either on board her or on shore, every spare corner that we could find in the hecla being now absolutely required for the accommodation of our double complement of officers and men, whose cleanliness and health could only be maintained by keeping the decks as clear and well ventilated as our limited space would permit. the spot where the fury was left is in latitude ° ' "; the longitude by chronometers is ° ' "; the dip of the magnetic needle ° ' "; and the variation ° ' westerly. when the accident first happened to the fury, i confidently expected to be able to repair her damages in good time to take advantage of a large remaining part of the navigable season in the prosecution of the voyage; and while the clearing of the ship was going on with so much alacrity, and the repairs seemed to be within the reach of our means and resources, i still flattered myself with the same hope. those expectations were now at an end. with a twelvemonth's provisions for both ship's companies, extending our resources only to the autumn of the following year, it would have been folly to hope for final success, considering the small progress we had already made, the uncertain nature of this navigation, and the advanced period of the present season. i was therefore reduced to the only remaining conclusion, that it was my duty, under all the circumstances of the case, to return to england in compliance with the plain tenour of my instructions. as soon as the boats were hoisted up, therefore, and the anchor stowed, the ship's head was put to the northeastward, with a light air off the land, in order to gain an offing before the ice should again set in-shore. chapter vii. some remarks upon the loss of the fury--and on the natural history, &c., of the coast of north somerset.--arrive at neill's harbour.--death of john page.--leave neill's harbour.--recross the ice in baffin's bay.--heavy gales.--temperature of the sea.--arrival in england. the accident which had now befallen the fury, and which, when its fatal result was finally ascertained, at once put an end to every prospect of success in the main object of this voyage, is not an event which will excite surprise in the minds of those who are either personally acquainted with the true nature of this precarious navigation, or have had patience to follow me through the tedious and monotonous detail of our operations during seven successive summers. to any persons thus qualified to judge, it will be plain that an occurrence of this nature was at all times rather to be expected than otherwise, and that the only real cause for wonder has been our long exemption from such a catastrophe. the summer of was, beyond all doubt, the warmest and most favourable we had experienced since that of . not more than two or three days occurred, during the months of july and august, in which that heavy fall of snow took place which so commonly converts the aspect of nature in these regions, in a single hour, from the cheerfulness of summer into the dreariness of winter. indeed, we experienced very little either of snow, rain, or fog: vegetation, wherever the soil allowed any to spring up, was extremely luxuriant and forward; a great deal of the old snow, which had laid on the ground during the last season, was rapidly dissolving even early in august; and every appearance of nature exhibited a striking contrast with the last summer, while it seemed evidently to furnish an extraordinary compensation for its rigour and inclemency. we have scarcely ever visited a coast on which so little of animal life occurs. for days together, only one or two seals, a single seahorse, and now and then a flock of ducks, were seen. i have already mentioned, however, as an exception to this scarcity of animals, the numberless kittiwakes which were flying about the remarkable spout of water; and we were one day visited, at the place where the fury was left, by hundreds of white whales, sporting about in the shoal water close to the beach. no black whales were ever seen on this coast. two reindeer were observed by the gentlemen who extended their walks inland; but this was the only summer in which we did not procure a single pound of venison. indeed, the whole of our supplies obtained in this way during the voyage, including fish, flesh, and fowl, did not exceed twenty pounds per man. the weather continuing nearly calm during the th, and the ice keeping at the distance of several miles from the land, gave us an opportunity of clearing decks, and stowing the things belonging to the fury's crew more comfortably for their accommodation and convenience. i now felt more sensibly than ever the necessity i have elsewhere pointed out, of both ships employed on this kind of service being of the same size, equipped in the same manner, and alike efficient in every respect. the way in which we had been able to apply every article for assisting to heave the fury down, without the smallest doubt or selection as to size or strength, proved an excellent practical example of the value of being thus able, at a moment's warning, to double the means and resources of either ship in case of necessity. in fact, by this arrangement, nothing but a harbour to secure the ships was wanted to complete the whole operation in as effectual a manner as in a dockyard; for not a shore, or outrigger, or any other precaution was omitted, that is usually attended to on such occasions, and all as good and effective as could anywhere have been desired. the advantages were now scarcely conspicuous in the accommodation of the officers and men, who in a short time became little less comfortable than in their own ship; whereas, in a smaller vessel, comfort, to say nothing of health, would have been quite out of the question. a breeze from the northward freshening up strong on the th, we stretched over to the eastern shore of prince regent's inlet, and this with scarcely any obstruction from ice. we could, indeed, scarcely believe this the same sea which, but a few weeks before, had been loaded with one impenetrable body of closely-packed ice from shore to shore, and as far as the eye could discern to the southward. having a great deal of heavy work to do in the restowage of the holds, which could not well be accomplished at sea, and also a quantity of water to fill for our increased complement, i determined to take advantage of our fetching the entrance of neill's harbour to put in here, in order to prepare the ship completely for crossing the atlantic. i was desirous also of ascertaining the depth of water in this place, which was wanting to complete lieutenant sherer's survey of it. finding the harbour an extremely convenient one for our purpose, we worked the ship in, and at four p.m. anchored in thirteen fathoms, but afterward shifted out to eighteen, on a bottom of soft mud. almost at the moment of our dropping the anchor, john page, seaman of the fury, departed this life: he had for several months been affected with a scrofulous disorder, and had been gradually sinking for some time. the funeral of the deceased being performed, we immediately commenced landing the casks and filling water; but, notwithstanding the large streams which, a short time before, had been running into the harbour, we could hardly obtain enough for our purpose by sinking a cask with holes in it. this work, together with the entire restowage of all the holds, occupied the whole of the th and th, during which time lieutenant sherer was employed in completing the survey of the harbour, more especially the soundings, which the presence of the ice had before prevented. these arrangements had just been completed, when the northeasterly wind died away, and was succeeded, on the morning of the st, by a light air from the northwest. as soon as we had sent to ascertain that the sea was clear of ice on the outside, and that the breeze which blew in the harbour was the true one, we weighed and stood out, and before noon had cleared the shoals at the entrance. finding the wind at northwest in prince regent's inlet, we were barely able to lie along the eastern coast. as the breeze freshened in the course of the day, a great deal of loose ice, in extensive streams and patches, came drifting down from the leopold islands, occasioning us some trouble in picking our way to the northward. by carrying a press of sail, however, we were enabled, towards night, to get into clearer water, and by four a.m. on the st of september, having beat to windward of a compact body of ice which had fixed itself on the lee shore about cape york, we soon came into a perfectly open sea in barrow's strait, and were enabled to bear away to the eastward. we now considered ourselves fortunate in having got out of harbour when we did, as the ice would probably have filled up every inlet on that shore in a few hours after we left it. being again favoured with a fair wind, we now stretched to the eastward, still in an open sea; and our curiosity was particularly excited to see the present situation of the ice in the middle of baffin's bay, and to compare it with that in . this comparison we were enabled to make the more fairly, because the season at which we might expect to come to it coincided, within three or four days, with that in which we left it the preceding year. the temperature of the sea-water now increased to ° soon after leaving the sound, where it had generally been from ° to °, whereas at the same season last year it rose no higher than ° anywhere in the neighbourhood, and remained even so high as that only for a very short time. this circumstance seemed to indicate the total absence of ice from those parts of the sea which had last autumn been wholly covered by it. accordingly, on the th, being thirty miles beyond the spot in which we had before contended with numerous difficulties from ice, not a piece was to be seen, except one or two solitary bergs; and it was not till the following day, in latitude ° ', and longitude ° ', or about one hundred and twenty-seven miles to the eastward of where we made our escape on the th of september, , that we fell in with a body of ice so loose and open as scarcely to oblige us to alter our course for it. at three p.m. on the th, being in latitude ° ', and longitude ° ', and having, in the course of eighty miles that we had run through it, only made a single tack, we came to the margin of the ice, and got into an open sea on its eastern side. in the whole course of this distance, the ice was so much spread that it would not, if at all closely "packed," have occupied one third of the same space. there were at this time thirty-nine bergs in sight, and some of them certainly not less than two hundred feet in height. on the th, being in latitude ° ', longitude ° ', and close to the margin of the ice, we fell in with the alfred, ellison, and elizabeth, whalers, of hull, all running to the northward, even at this season, to look for whales. as the whaling-ships were not homeward bound, having as yet had indifferent success in the fishery, i did not consider it necessary to send despatches by them. after an hour's communication with them, and obtaining such information of a public nature as could not fail to be highly interesting to us, we made sail to the southward; while we observed them lying to for some time after, probably to consult respecting the unwelcome information with which we had furnished them as to the whales, not one of which, by some extraordinary chance, we had seen since leaving neill's harbour. as this circumstance was entirely new to us, it seems not unlikely that the whales are already beginning to shift their ground, in consequence of the increased attacks which have been made upon them of late years in that neighbourhood. on the th we had an easterly wind, which, gradually freshening to a gale, drew up the strait from the southward, and blew strong for twentyfour hours from that quarter. the wind moderated on the th, but on the following day another gale came on, which for nine or ten hours blew in most tremendous gusts from the same quarter, and raised a heavy sea. we happily came near no ice during the night, or it would scarcely have been possible to keep the ship clear of it. it abated after daylight on the th, but continued to blow an ordinary gale for twelve hours longer. on the th, at noon, we had passed to the southward of the arctic circle, and from this latitude to that of about °, we had favourable winds and weather; but we remarked on this, as on several other occasions during this season, that a northerly breeze, contrary to ordinary observation, brought more moisture with it than any other. in the course of this run, we also observed more driftwood than we had ever done before, which i thought might possibly be owing to the very great prevalence of easterly winds this season driving it farther from the coast of greenland than usual. on, the morning of the th, notwithstanding the continuance of a favourable breeze, we met, in the latitude of - / °, so heavy a swell from the northeastward as to make the ship labour violently for four-and-twenty hours. on the morning of the th we had again an easterly wind, which in a few hours reduced us to the close-reefed topsails and reefed courses. at eight p.m. it freshened to a gale, which brought us under the main-topsail and storm-staysails, and at seven the following morning it increased to a gale of such violence from n.e.b.n. as does not very often occur at sea in these latitudes. the gusts were at times so tremendous as to set the sea quite in a foam, and threatened to tear the sails out of the bolt-ropes. the wind gradually drew to the westward, with dry weather, after the gale began to abate, and at six a.m. we were enabled to bear up and run to the eastward with a strong gale at n.w. the indications of the barometer previous to and during this gale deserve to be noticed, because it is only about cape farewell that, in coming from the northward down davis's strait, this instrument begins to speak a language which has ever been intelligible to us _as a weather glass_. on the th, notwithstanding the change of wind from north to east, the mercury rose from . on that morning, to . at three a.m. the following day, but fell to . by nine p.m. with the strong but not violent breeze then blowing. after this it continued to descend very gradually, and had reached . , which was its minimum, at three p.m. on the th, after which it continued to blow tremendously hard for eleven or twelve hours, the mercury uniformly, though slowly, ascending to . during that interval, and afterward to . as the weather became moderate and fine in the course of the täähree following days. after this gale the atmosphere seemed to be quite cleared, and we enjoyed a week of such remarkably fine weather as seldom occurs at this season of the year. we had then a succession of strong southerly winds, but we were enabled to continue our progress to the eastward, so as to make mould head, towards the northwest end of the orkney islands, at daylight on the th of october. after rounding the north end of the orkneys on the th of october, we were, on the th, met by a strong southerly wind when off peterhead. i therefore immediately landed (for the second time) at that place, and, setting off without delay for london, arrived at the admiralty on the th. the hecla arrived at sheerness on the th of october, where she was detained for a few days for the purpose of captain hoppner, his officers, and ship's company being put upon their trial (according to the customary and indispensable rule in such cases) for the loss of the fury--when, it is scarcely necessary to add, they received an honourable acquittal. the hecla then proceeded to woolwich, and was paid off on the st of november. account of the esquimaux of melville peninsula and the adjoining islands: more particularly of winter island and igloolik. account of the esquimaux. the number of individuals composing the tribe of esquimaux assembled at winter island and igloolik was two hundred and nineteen, of whom sixty-nine were men, seventy-seven women, and seventy-three children. two or three of the men, from their appearance and infirmities, as well as from the age of their children, must have been near seventy; the rest were from twenty to about fifty. the majority of the women were comparatively young, or from twenty to five-and-thirty, and three or four only seemed to have reached sixty. of the children, about one third were under four years old, and the rest from that age upward to sixteen or seventeen. out of one hundred and fifty-five individuals who passed the winter at igloolik, we knew of eighteen deaths and of only nine births. the stature of these people is much below that of europeans in general. one man, who was unusually tall, measured five feet ten inches, and the shortest was only four feet eleven inches and a half. of twenty individuals of each sex measured at igloolik, the range was: men.--from ft. in. to ft. in. the average height, ft. - / in. women.--from ft. - / in. to ft. - / in. the average height, ft. - / in. the women, however, generally appear shorter than they really are, both from the unwieldy nature of their clothes, and from a habit, which they early acquire, of stooping considerably forward in order to balance the weight of the child they carry in their hood. in their figure they are rather well formed than otherwise. their knees are indeed rather large in proportion, but their legs are straight, and the hands and feet, in both sexes, remarkably small. the younger individuals were all plump, but none of them corpulent; the women inclined the most to this last extreme, and their flesh was, even in the youngest individuals, quite loose and without firmness. their faces are generally round and full, eyes small and black, nose also small and sunk far in between the cheek bones, but not much flattened. it is remarkable, that one man t=e-~a, his brother, his wife, and two daughters, had good roman noses, and one of the latter was an extremely pretty young woman. their teeth are short, thick, and close, generally regular, and in the young persons almost always white. the elderly women were still well furnished in this way, though their teeth were usually a good deal worn down, probably by the habit of chewing the sealskins for making boots. in the young of both sexes the complexion is clear and transparent, and the skin smooth. the colour of the latter, when divested of oil and dirt, is scarcely a shade darker than that of a deep brunette, so that the blood is plainly perceptible when it mounts into the cheeks. in the old folks, whose faces were much wrinkled, the skin appears of a much more dingy hue, the dirt being less easily, and, therefore, less frequently dislodged from them. by whatever peculiarities, however, they may in general be distinguished, they are by no means an ill-looking people; and there were among them three or four grown-up persons of each sex, who, when divested of their skin-dresses, their tattooing, and, above all, of their dirt, might have been considered pleasing-looking, if not handsome, people in any town in europe. this remark applies more generally to the children also; several of whom had complexions nearly as fair as that of europeans, and whose little bright black eyes gave a fine expression to their countenances. the hair, both of males and females, is black, glossy, and straight. the men usually wear it rather long, and allow it to hang about their heads in a loose and slovenly manner. the women pride themselves extremely on the length and thickness of their hair; and it was not without reluctance on their part, and the same on that of their husbands, that they were induced to dispose of any of it. some of the women's hair was tolerably fine, but would not, in this respect, bear a comparison with, that of an englishwoman. in both sexes it is full of vermin, which they are in the constant habit of picking out and eating; a man and his wife will sit for an hour together performing for each other that friendly office. the women have a comb, which, however, seems more intended for ornament than use, as we seldom or never observed them comb their hair. when a woman's husband is ill, she wears her hair loose, and cuts it off as a sign of mourning if he dies; a custom agreeing with that of the greenlanders. the men wear the hair on the upper lip and chin from an inch to an inch and a half in length, and some were distinguished by a little tuft between the chin and lower lip. in winter every individual, when in the open air, wears two jackets, of which the outer one (_c=app~e t=egg~a_) has the hair outside, and the inner one (_at-t=e=ega_) next the body. immediately on entering the hut the men take off their outer jacket, beat the snow from it, and lay it by. the upper garment of the females, besides being cut according to a regular and uniform pattern, and sewed with exceeding neatness, which is the case with all the dresses of these people, has also the flaps ornamented in a very becoming manner by a neat border of deerskin, so arranged as to display alternate breadths of white and dark fur. this is, moreover, usually beautified by a handsome fringe, consisting of innumerable long narrow threads of leather hanging down from it. this ornament is not uncommon also in the outer jackets of the men. when seal-hunting, they fasten up the tails of their jackets with a button behind. their breeches, of which in winter they also wear two pairs, and similarly disposed as to the fur, reach below the knee, and fasten with a string drawn tight round the waist. though these have little or no waistband, and do not come very high, the depth of the jackets, which considerably overlap them, serves very effectually to complete the covering of the body. their legs and feet are so well clothed, that no degree of cold can well affect them. when a man goes on a sealing excursion, he first puts on a pair of deerskin boots (_all~ekt=eeg~a_) with the hair inside, and reaching to the knee, where they tie. over these come a pair of shoes of the same material; next a pair of dressed sealskin boots, perfectly water-tight; and over all a corresponding pair of shoes, tying round the instep. these last are made just like the moccasin of a north american indian, being neatly crimped at the toes, and having several serpentine pieces of hide sewn across the sole to prevent wearing. the water-tight boots and shoes are made of the skin of the small seal (_neitiek_), except the soles, which consist of the skin of the large seal (_oguk~e_); this last is also used for their fishing-lines. when the men are not prepared to encounter wet, they wear an outer boot of deerskin, with the hair outside. the inner boot of the women, unlike that of the men, is loose round the leg, coming as high as the knee-joint behind, and in front carried up, by a long pointed flap, nearly to the waist, and there fastened to the breeches. the upper boot, with the hair as usual outside, corresponds with the other in shape, except that it is much more full, especially on the outer side, where it bulges out so preposterously as to give the women the most awkward, bow-legged appearance imaginable. this superfluity of boot has probably originated in the custom, still common among the native women of labrador, of carrying their children in them. we were told that these women sometimes put their children there to sleep; but the custom must be rare among them, as we never saw it practised. these boots, however, form their principal pockets, and pretty capacious ones they are. here, also, as in jackets, considerable taste is displayed in the selection of different parts of the deerskin, alternate strips of dark and white being placed up and down the sides and front by way of ornament. the women also wear a moccasin (_itteeg~eg~a_) over all in the winter time. to judge by the eagerness with which the women received our beads, especially small white ones, as well as any other article of that kind, we might suppose them very fond of personal ornament. yet of all that they obtained from us in this way at winter island, scarcely anything ever made its appearance again during our stay there, except a ring or two on the finger, and some bracelets of beads round the wrist; the latter of these was probably considered as a charm of some kind or other. we found among them, at the time of our first intercourse, a number of black and white beads, disposed alternately on a string of sinew, and worn in this manner. they would also sometimes hang a small bunch of these, or a button or two, in front of their jackets and hair; and many of them, in the course of the second winter, covered the whole front of their jackets with the beads they received from us. among their personal ornaments must be reckoned that mode of marking the body called tattooing, which, of the customs not essential to the comfort or happiness of mankind, is perhaps the most extensively practised throughout the world. among these people it seems to be an ornament of indispensable importance to the women, not one of them being without it. the operation is performed about the age of ten, or sometimes earlier, and has nothing to do with marriage, except that, being considered in the light of a personal charm, it may serve to recommend them as wives. the parts of the body thus marked are their faces, arms, hands, thighs, and in some few women the breasts, but never the feet, as in greenland. the operation, which, by way of curiosity, most of our gentlemen had practised on their arms, is very expeditiously managed by passing a needle and thread, the latter covered with lampblack and oil, under the epidermis, according to a pattern previously marked out upon the skin. several stitches being thus taken at once, the thumb is pressed upon the part while the thread is drawn through, by which means the colouring matter is retained, and a permanent dye of a blue tinge imparted to the skin. a woman expert at this business will perform it very quickly and with great regularity, but seldom without drawing blood in many places, and occasioning some inflammation. where so large a portion of the surface of the body is to be covered, it must become a painful as well as tedious process, especially as, for want of needles, they often use a strip of whalebone as a substitute. for those parts where a needle cannot conveniently be passed under the skin, they use the method by puncture, which is common in other countries, and by which our seamen frequently mark their hands and arms. several of the men were marked on the back part of their hands; and with them we understood it to be considered as a _souvenir_ of some distant deceased person who had performed it. in their winter habitations, i have before mentioned that the only materials employed are snow and ice; the latter being made use of for the windows alone. the work is commenced by cutting from a drift of hard and compact snow a number of oblong slabs, six or seven inches thick and about two feet in length, and laying them edgeways on a level spot, also covered with snow, in a circular form, and of a diameter from eight to fifteen feet, proportioned to the number of occupants the hut is to contain. upon this as a foundation is laid a second tier of the same kind, but with the pieces inclining a little inward, and made to fit closely to the lower slabs and to each other by running a knife adroitly along the under part and sides. the top of this tier is now prepared for the reception of a third, by squaring it off smoothly with a knife, all which is dexterously performed by one man standing within the circle and receiving the blocks of snow from those employed in cutting them without. when the wall has attained a height of four or five feet, it leans so much inward as to appear as if about to tumble every moment; but the workmen still fearlessly lay their blocks of snow upon it, until it is too high any longer to furnish the materials to the builder in this manner. of this he gives notice by cutting a hole close to the ground in that part where the door is intended to be, which is near the south side, and through this the snow is now passed. thus they continue till they have brought the sides nearly to meet in a perfect and well-constructed dome, sometimes nine or ten feet high in the centre; and this they take considerable care in finishing, by fitting the last block or _keystone_ very nicely in the centre, dropping it into its place from the outside, though it is still done by the man within. the people outside are in the mean time occupied in throwing up snow with the _p~oo=all~er=ay_ or snow shovel, and in stuffing in little wedges of snow where holes have been accidentally left. the builder next proceeds to let himself out by enlarging the proposed doorway into the form of a gothic arch, three feet high and two feet and a half wide at the bottom, communicating with which they construct two passages, each from ten to twelve feet long and from four to five feet in height, the lowest being that next the hut. the roofs of these passages are sometimes arched, but more generally made flat by slabs laid on horizontally. in first digging the snow for building the hut, they take it principally from the part where the passages are to be made, which purposely brings the floor of the latter considerably lower than that of the hut, but in no part do they dig till the bare ground appears. the work just described completes the walls of a hut, if a single apartment only be required; but if, on account of relationship, or from any other cause, several families are to reside under one roof, the passages are made common to all, and the first apartment (in that case made smaller) forms a kind of antechamber, from which you go through an arched doorway five feet high into the inhabited apartments. when there are three of these, which is generally the case, the whole building, with its adjacent passages, forms a tolerably regular cross. for the admission of light into the huts, a round hole is cut on one side of the roof of each apartment, and a circular plate of ice, three or four inches thick and two feet in diameter, let into it. the light is soft and pleasant, like that transmitted through ground glass, and it is quite sufficient for every purpose. when, after some time, these edifices become surrounded by drift, it is only by the windows, as i have before remarked, that they could be recognised as human habitations. it may, perhaps, then be imagined how singular is their external appearance at night, when they discover themselves only by a circular disk of light transmitted through the windows from the lamps within. the next thing to be done is to raise a bank of snow, two and a half feet high, all round the interior of each apartment, except on the side next the door. this bank, which is neatly squared off, forms their beds and fireplace, the former occupying the sides, and the latter the end opposite the door. the passage left open up to the fireplace is between three and four feet wide. the beds are arranged by first covering the snow with a quantity of small stones, over which are laid their paddles, tentpoles, and some blades of whalebone: above these they place a number of little pieces of network, made of thin slips of whalebone, and lastly a quantity of twigs of birch[ ] and of the _andromeda tetragona_. their deerskins, which are very numerous, can now be spread without risk of their touching the snow; and such a bed is capable of affording not merely comfort, but luxurious repose, in spite of the rigour of the climate. the skins thus used as blankets are made of a large size and bordered, like some of the jackets, with a fringe of long, narrow slips of leather, in which state a blanket is called _k=eipik_. the fire belonging to each family consists of a single lamp, or shallow vessel of _lapis ollaris_, its form being the lesser segment of a circle. the wick, composed of dry moss rubbed between the hands till it is quite inflammable, is disposed along the edge of the lamp on the straight side, and a greater or smaller quantity lighted, according to the heat required or the fuel that can be afforded. when the whole length of this, which is sometimes above eighteen inches, is kindled, it affords a most brilliant and beautiful light, without any perceptible smoke or any offensive smell. the lamp is made to supply itself with oil, by suspending a long, thin slice of whale, seal, or seahorse blubber near the flame, the warmth of which causes the oil to drip into the vessel until the whole is extracted. immediately over the lamp is fixed a rude and rickety framework of wood, from which their pots are suspended, and serving also to sustain a large hoop of bone, having a net stretched tight within it. this contrivance, called _inn~et~at_, is intended for the reception of any wet things, and is usually loaded with boots, shoes, and mittens. the fireplace just described as situated at the upper end of the apartment, has always two lamps facing different ways, one for each family occupying the corresponding bedplace. there is frequently, also, a smaller and less-pretending establishment on the same model--lamp, pot, net, and all--in one of the corners next the door; for one apartment sometimes contains three families, which are always closely related; and no married woman, or even a widow without children, is without her separate fireplace. with all the lamps lighted and the hut full of people and dogs, a thermometer placed on the net over the fire indicated a temperature of °; when removed two or three feet from this situation, it fell to °; and, placed close to the wall, stood at °, the temperature of the open air at the time being ° below _zero_. a greater degree of warmth than this produces extreme inconvenience by the dropping from the roofs. this they endeavour to obviate by applying a little piece of snow to the place from which a drop proceeds, and this adhering, is for a short time an effectual remedy; but for several weeks in the spring, when the weather is too warm for these edifices, and still too cold for tents, they suffer much on this account. the most important, perhaps, of the domestic utensils, next to the lamp already described, are the _=o=otk~o~os~e~eks_, or stone pots for cooking. these are hollowed out of solid _lapis ollaris_, of an oblong form, wider at the top than at the bottom all made in similar proportion; though of various sizes corresponding with the dimensions of the lamp which burns under it. the pot is suspended by a line of sinew at each end to the framework over the fire, and thus becomes so black on every side that the original colour of the stone is in no part discernible. many of them were cracked quite across in several places, and mended by sewing with sinew or rivets of copper, iron, or lead, so as, with the assistance of a lashing and a due proportion of dirt, to render them quite watertight. besides the ootkooseeks, they have circular and oval vessels of whalebone, of various sizes, which, as well as their ivory knives made out of a walrus's tusk, are precisely similar to those described on the western coast of baffin's bay in . they have also a number of smaller vessels of skin sewed neatly together; and a large basket of the same material, resembling a common sieve in shape, but with the bottom close and tight, is to be seen in every apartment. under every lamp stands a sort of "save-all," consisting of a small skin basket for catching the oil that falls over. almost every family was in possession of a wooden tray very much resembling those used to carry butcher's meat in england, and of nearly the same dimensions, which we understood them to have procured by way of noowook. they had a number of the bowls or cups already once or twice alluded to as being made out of the thick root of the horn of the musk-ox. of the smaller part of the same horn they also form a convenient drinking-cup, sometimes turning it up artificially about one third from the point, so as to be almost parallel to the other part, and cutting it full of small notches as a convenience in grasping it. these or any other vessels for drinking they call _imm=o=ochiuk_. besides the ivory knives, the men were well supplied with a much more serviceable kind, made of iron, and called _panna_. the form of this knife is very peculiar, being seven inches long, two and a quarter broad, quite straight and flat, pointed at the end, and ground equally sharp at both edges; this is firmly secured into a handle of bone or wood about a foot long, by two or three iron rivets, and has all the appearance of a most destructive spearhead, but is nevertheless put to no other purpose than that of a very useful knife, which the men are scarcely ever without, especially on their sealing excursions. for these, and several knives of european form, they are probably indebted to an indirect communication with our factories in hudson's bay. the same may be observed of the best of their women's knives (_ooloo_), on one of which, of a larger size than usual, were the names of "wild and sorby." when of their own manufacture, the only iron part was a little narrow slip let into the bone and secured by rivets. of the horn of the musk-ox they make also very good spoons, much like ours in shape; and i must not omit to mention their marrow spoons (_patt=ekniuk_, from _p=att~ek_, marrow), made out of long, narrow, hollowed pieces of bone, of which every housewife has a bunch of half a dozen or more tied together, and generally attached to her needle-case. for the purpose of obtaining fire, the esquimaux use two lumps of common iron pyrites, from which sparks are struck into a little leathern case containing moss well dried and rubbed between the hands. if this tinder does not readily catch, a small quantity of the white floss of the seed of the ground-willow is laid above the moss. as soon as a spark has caught, it is gently blown till the fire has spread an inch around, when, the pointed end of a piece of oiled wick being applied, it soon bursts into a flame--the whole process having occupied perhaps two or three minutes. in enumerating the articles of their food, we might, perhaps, give a list of every animal inhabiting these regions, as they certainly will, at times, eat any one of them. their principal dependance, however, is on the reindeer (_t=o=okto~o_); musk-ox (_=o=om~ingm~uk_), in the parts where this animal is found; whale (_=agg~aw~ek_); walrus (_=ei-~u-~ek_); the large and small seal (_=og~uke_ and _n~eitiek_); and two sorts of salmon, the _=ew~ee-t=ar~oke_ (_salmo alpinus?_) and _ichl=u~ow~oke_. the latter is taken by hooks in fresh-water lakes, and the former by spearing in the shoal water of certain inlets of the sea. of all these animals, they can only procure in the winter the walrus and small seal upon this part of the coast; and these at times, as we have seen, in scarcely sufficient quantity for their subsistence. they certainly, in general, prefer eating their meat cooked, and, while they have fuel, they usually boil it; but this is a luxury, and not a necessary to them. oily as the nature of their principal food is, yet they commonly take an equal proportion of lean to their fat, and, unless very hungry, do not eat it otherwise. oil they seldom or never use in any way as a part of their general diet; and even our butter, of which they were fond, they would not eat without a due quantity of bread.[ ] they do not like salt meat as well as fresh, and never use salt themselves; but ship's pork or even a red herring did not come amiss to them. of pea-soup they would eat as much as the sailors could afford to give them; and that word was the only one, with the exception of our names, which many of them ever learned in english. among their own luxuries must be mentioned a rich soup called k=ay~o, made of blood, gravy, and water, and eaten quite hot. their only drink is water; and of this, when they can procure it, they swallow an inconceivable quantity; so that one of the principal occupations of the women during the winter is the thawing of snow in the ootkooseeks for this purpose. they cut it into thin slices, and are careful to have it clean, on which account they will bring it from a distance of fifty yards from the huts. they have an extreme dislike to drinking water much above the temperature of °. in eating their meals, the mistress of the family, having previously cooked the meat, takes a large lump out of the pot with her fingers, and hands it to her husband, who, placing a part of it between his teeth, cuts it off with a large knife in that position, and then passes the knife and meat together to his next neighbour. in cutting off a mouthful of meat, the knife passes so close to their lips, that nothing but constant habit could ensure them from the danger of the most terrible gashes; and it would make an english mother shudder to see the manner in which children five or six years old are at all times freely trusted with a knife to be used in this way. the length of one of the best of seven canoes belonging to these esquimaux was twenty-five feet, including a narrow-pointed projection, three feet long at each end, which turns a little upward from the horizontal. the extreme breadth, which is just before the circular hole, was twenty-one inches, and the depth ten inches and a half. the plane of the upper surface of the canoe, except in the two extreme projections, bends downward a little from the centre towards the head and stern, giving it the appearance of what in ships is called "broken-backed." the gunwales are of fir, in some instances of one piece, three or four inches broad in the centre, and tapering gradually away towards the ends. the timbers, as well as the fore-and-aft connecting pieces, are of the same material, the former being an inch square, and sometimes so close together as to require between forty and fifty of them in one canoe: which, when thus "in frame," is one of the prettiest things of the kind that can be imagined. the skin with which the canoe is covered is exclusively that of the _neitiek_, prepared by scraping off the hair and fat with an _ooloo_, and stretching it tight on a frame over the fire; after which and a good deal of chewing, it is sown on by the women with admirable neatness and strength. their paddles have a blade at each end, the whole length being nine feet and a half; the blades are covered with a narrow plate of bone round the ends to secure them from splitting; they are always made of fir, and generally of several pieces scarfed and woolded together. in summer they rest their canoes upon two small stones raised four feet from the ground, and in winter on a similar structure of snow; in one case to allow them to dry freely, and in the other to prevent the snowdrift from covering, and the dogs from eating them. the difficulty of procuring a canoe may be concluded from the circumstance of there being at winter island twenty men able to manage one, and only seven canoes among them. of these, indeed, only three or four were in good repair; the rest being wholly or in part stripped of the skin, of which a good deal was occasionally cut off during the winter, to make boots, shoes, and mittens for our people. we found no _oomiak_, or woman's boat, among them, and understood that they were not in the habit of using them, which may in part be accounted for by their passing so much of the summer in the interior; they knew very well, however, what they were, and made some clumsy models of them for our people. in the weapons used for killing their game there is considerable variety, according to the animal of which they are in pursuit. the most simple of these is the _=o=on~ak_, which they use only for killing the small seal. it consists of a light staff of wood, four feet in length, having at one end the point of a narwhal's horn, from ten to eighteen inches long, firmly secured by rivets and wooldings; at the other end is a smaller and less effective point of the same kind. to prevent losing the ivory part in case of the wood breaking, a stout thong runs along the whole length of the wood, each end passing through a hole in the ivory, and the bight secured in several places to the staff. in this weapon, as far as it has yet been described, there is little art or ingenuity displayed; but a considerable degree of both in an appendage called _si=atk~o_, consisting of a piece of bone three inches long, and having a point of iron at one end, and at the other end a small hole or socket to receive the point of the oonak. through the middle of this instrument is secured the _=allek_, or line of thong, of which every man has, when sealing, a couple of coils, each from four to six fathoms long, hanging at his back. when a seal is seen, the siatko is taken from a little leathern case, in which, when out of use, it is carefully enclosed, and attached by its socket to the point of the spear; in this situation it is retained by bringing the allek tight down and fastening it round the middle of the staff by what seamen call a "slippery-hitch," which may instantly be disengaged by pulling on the other end of the line. as soon as the spear has been thrown and the animal struck, the siatko is thus purposely separated; and being slung by the middle, now performs very effectually the important office of a barb, by turning at right angles to the direction in which it has entered the orifice. this device is in its principle superior even to our barb; for the instant any strain is put upon the line, it acts like a toggle, opposing its length to a wound only as wide as its own breadth. the _=akl~eak_ or _akl=e=eg~a_, used for the large seal, has a blown bladder attached to the staff, for the purpose of impeding the animal in the water. the third and largest weapon is that called _katteelik_, with which the walrus and whale are attacked. the staff of this is not longer, but much stouter than that of the others, especially towards the middle, where there is a small shoulder of ivory securely lashed to it for the thumb to rest against, and thus to give additional force in throwing or thrusting the spear. the ivory point of this weapon is made to fit into a socket at the end of the staff, where it is secured by double thongs in such a manner as steadily to retain its position when a strain is put upon it in the direction of its length, but immediately disengaging itself with a sort of spring when any lateral strain endangers its breaking. the siatko is always used with this spear; and to the end of the allek, when the animal pursued is in open water, they attach a whole sealskin (_h~ow-w=ut-t~a_), inflated like a bladder, for the purpose of tiring it out in its progress through the water. they have a spear called _~ippoo_ for killing deer in the water. they describe it as having a light staff and a small head of iron; but they had none of these so fitted in the winter. the _n=ug~uee_, or dart for birds, has, besides its two ivory prongs at the end of the staff, three divergent ones in the middle of it, with several small double barbs upon them turning inward. the spear for salmon or other fish, called _k=ak~eew~ei_, consists of a wooden staff, with a spike of bone or ivory, three inches long, secured at one end. on each side of the spike is a curved prong, much like that of a pitchfork, but made of flexible horn, which gives them a spring, and having a barb on the inner part of the point turning downward. their fishhooks (_kakli=okio_) consist only of a nail crooked and pointed at one end, the other being let into a piece of ivory to which the line is attached. a piece of deer's horn or curved bone only a foot long is used as a rod, and completes this very rude part of their fishing-gear. of their mode of killing seals in the winter i have already spoken in the course of the foregoing narrative, as far as we were enabled to make ourselves acquainted with it. in their summer exploits on the water, the killing of the whale is the most arduous undertaking which they have to perform; and one cannot sufficiently admire the courage and activity which, with gear apparently so inadequate, it must require to accomplish this business. okotook, who was at the killing of two whales in the course of a single summer, and who described the whole of it quite _con amore_, mentioned the names of thirteen men who, each in his canoe, had assisted on one of these occasions. when a fish is seen lying on the water, they cautiously paddle up astern of him, till a single canoe, preceding the rest, comes close to him on one quarter, so as to enable the man to drive the _katteelik_ into the animal with all the force of both arms. this having the _siatko_, a long _allek_, and the inflated sealskin attached to it, the whale immediately dives, taking the whole apparatus with him except the katteelik, which, being disengaged in the manner before described, floats to the surface, and is picked up by its owner. the animal reappearing after some time, all the canoes again paddle towards him, some warning being given by the sealskin buoy floating on the surface. each man being furnished like the first, they repeat the blows as often as they find opportunity, till perhaps, every line has been thus employed. after pursuing him in this manner sometimes for half a day, he is at length so wearied by the resistance of the buoys, and exhausted by the loss of blood, as to be obliged to rise more and more often to the surface, when, by frequent wounds with their spears, they succeed in killing him, and tow their prize in triumph to the shore. in attacking the walrus in the water they use the same gear, but much more caution than with the whale, always throwing the _katteelik_ from some distance, lest the animal should attack the canoe and demolish it with his tusks. the walrus is, in fact, the only animal with which they use any caution of this kind. they like the flesh better than that of the seal; but venison is preferred by them to either of these, and, indeed, to any other kind of meat. at winter island they carefully preserved the heads of all the animals killed during the winter, except two or three of the walrus, which we obtained with great difficulty. as the blood of the animals which they kill is all used as food of the most luxurious kind, they are careful to avoid losing any portion of it; for this purpose they carry with them on their excursions a little instrument of ivory called _t~oop=o=ot~a_, in form and size exactly resembling a "twenty-penny" nail, with which they stop up the orifice made by the spear, by thrusting it through the skin by the sides of the wound, and securing it with a twist. one of the best of their bows was made of a single piece of fir, four feet eight inches in length, flat on the inner side and rounded on the outer, being five inches in girth about the middle, where, however, it is strengthened on the concave side, when strung, by a piece of bone ten inches long, firmly secured by treenails of the same material. at each end of the bow is a knob of bone, or sometimes of wood covered with leather, with a deep notch for the reception of the string. the only wood which they can procure, not possessing sufficient elasticity combined with strength, they ingeniously remedy the defect by securing to the back of the bow, and to the knobs at each end, a quantity of small lines, each composed of a plat or "sinnet" of three sinews. the number of lines thus reaching from end to end is generally about thirty; but, besides these, several others are fastened with hitches round the bow, in pairs, commencing eight inches from one end, and again united at the same distance from the other, making the number of strings in the middle of the bow sometimes amount to sixty. these being put on with the bow bent somewhat the contrary way, produce a spring so strong as to require considerable force as well as knack in stringing it, and giving the requisite velocity to the arrow. the bow is completed by a woolding round the middle, and a wedge or two, here and there, driven in to tighten it. a bow in one piece is, however, very rare; they generally consist of from two to five pieces of bone of unequal lengths, secured together by rivets and treenails. the arrows vary in length from twenty to thirty inches, according to the materials that can be commanded. about two thirds of the whole length is of fir rounded, and the rest of bone let by a socket into the wood, and having a head of thin iron, or more commonly of slate, secured into a slit by two treenails. towards the opposite end of the arrow are two feathers, generally of the spotted oval, not very neatly lashed on. the bowstring consists of from twelve to eighteen small lines of three-sinew sinnet, having a loose twist, and with a separate becket of the same size for going over the knobs at the end of the bow. we tried their skill in archery by getting them to shoot at a mark for a prize, though with bows in extremely bad order on account of the frost, and their hands very cold. the mark was two of their spears stuck upright in the snow, their breadth being three inches and a half. at twenty yards they struck this every time; at thirty, sent the arrows always within an inch or two of it; and at forty or fifty yards, i should think, would generally hit a fawn if the animal stood still. these weapons are perhaps sufficient to inflict a mortal wound at something more than that distance, for which, however, a strong arm would be required. the animals which they kill with the bow and arrow for their subsistence are principally the musk-ox and deer, and less frequently the bear, wolf, fox, hare, and some of the smaller animals. the reindeer are killed by the esquimaux in great abundance in the summer season, partly by driving them from islands or narrow necks of land into the sea, and then spearing them from their canoes; and partly by shooting them from behind heaps of stones raised for the purpose of watching them, and imitating their peculiar bellow or grunt. among the various artifices which they employ for this purpose, one of the most ingenious consists in two men walking directly _from_ the deer they wish to kill, which almost always follows them. as soon as they arrive at a large stone, one of the men hides behind it with his bow, while the other continuing to walk on, soon leads the deer within range of his companion's arrows. they are also very careful to keep to leeward of the deer, and will scarcely go out after them at all when the weather is calm. for several weeks in the course of the summer, some of these people almost entirely give up their fishery on the coast, retiring to the banks of lakes several miles in the interior, which they represent as large and deep, and abounding with salmon, while the pasture near them affords good feeding to numerous herds of deer. the distance to which these people extend their inland migrations, and the extent of coast of which they possess a personal knowledge, are really very considerable. a great number of them, who were born at amitioke and igloolik, had been to _noowook_, or nearly as far south as chesterfield inlet, which is about the _ne plus ultra_ of their united knowledge in a southerly direction. okotook and a few others of the winter island tribe had extended their peregrinations a considerable distance to the northward, over the large insular piece of land to which we have applied the name of cockburn island; which they described as high land, and the resort of numerous reindeer. by the information afterward obtained when nearer the spot, we had reason to suppose this land must reach beyond the seventy-second degree of latitude in a northerly direction; so that these people possess a personal knowledge of the continent of america and its adjacent islands, from that parallel to chesterfield inlet in - / °, being a distance of more than five hundred miles reckoned in a direct line, besides the numerous turnings and windings of the coast along which they are accustomed to travel. ewerat and some others had been a considerable distance up the wager river; but no record had been preserved among them of captain middleton's visit to that inlet about the middle of the last century. of the indians they know enough by tradition to hold them in considerable dread, on account of their cruel and ferocious manners. when, on one occasion, we related the circumstances of the inhuman massacre described by hearne, they crowded round us in the hut, listening with mute and almost breathless attention; and the mothers drew their children closer to them, as if to guard them from the dreadful catastrophe. the esquimaux take some animals in traps, and by a very ingenious contrivance of this kind they caught two wolves at winter island. it consists of a small house built of ice, at one end of which a door, made of the same plentiful material, is fitted to slide up and down in a groove; to the upper part of this a line is attached, and, passing over the roof, is let down into the trap at the inner end, and there held by slipping an eye in the end of it over a peg of ice left for the purpose. over the peg, however, is previously placed a loose grummet, to which the bait is fastened, and a false roof placed over all to hide the line. the moment the animal drags at the bait, the grummet slips off the peg, bringing with it the line that held up the door, and this, falling down, closes the trap and secures him, a trap for birds is formed by building a house of snow just large enough to contain one person, who closes himself up in it. on the top is left a small aperture, through which the man thrusts one of his hands to secure the bird the moment he alights to take away a bait of meat laid beside it. it is principally gulls that are taken thus; and the boys sometimes amuse themselves in this manner. a trap in which they catch foxes has been mentioned in another place. the sledges belonging to these esquimaux were in general large and heavily constructed, being more adapted to the carriage of considerable burdens than to very quick travelling. they varied in size, being from six feet and a half to nine feet in length, and from eighteen inches to two feet in breadth. some of those at igloolik were of larger dimensions, one being eleven feet in length, and weighing two hundred and sixty-eight pounds, and two or three others above two hundred pounds. the runners are sometimes made of the right and left jaw-bones of a whale; but more commonly of several pieces of wood or bone scarfed and lashed together, the interstices being filled, to make all smooth and firm, with moss stuffed in tight, and then cemented by throwing water to freeze upon it. the lower part of the runner is shod with a plate of harder bone, coated with fresh-water ice to make it run smoothly, and to avoid wear and tear, both which purposes are thus completely answered. this coating is performed with a mixture of snow and fresh water about half an inch thick, rubbed over it till it is quite smooth and hard upon the surface, and this is usually done a few minutes before setting out on a journey. when the ice is only in part worn off, it is renewed by taking some water into the mouth, and spirting it over the former coating. we noticed a sledge which was extremely curious, on account of one of the runners and a part of the other being constructed without the assistance of wood, iron, or bone of any kind. for this purpose, a number of sealskins being rolled up and disposed into the requisite shape, an outer coat of the same kind was sewed tightly round them; this formed the upper half of the runner, the lower part of which consisted entirely of moss moulded while wet into the proper form, and being left to freeze, adhering firmly together and to the skins. the usual shoeing of smooth ice beneath completed the runner, which, for more than six months out of twelve, in this climate, was nearly as hard as any wood; and for winter use, no way inferior to those constructed of more durable materials. the cross-pieces which form the bottom of the sledges are made of bone, wood, or anything they can muster. over these is generally laid a sealskin as a flooring, and in the summer time a pair of deer's horns are attached to the sledge as a back, which in the winter are removed, to enable them, when stopping, to turn the sledge up, so as to prevent the dogs running away with it. the whole is secured by lashings of thong, giving it a degree of strength combined with flexibility which perhaps no other mode of fastening could effect. the colour of the dogs varies from a white, through brindled, to black and white, or almost entirely black. their hair in the winter is from three to four inches long; but, besides this, nature furnishes them, during this rigorous season, with a thick under coating of close, soft wool, which they begin to cast in the spring. while thus provided, they are able to withstand the most inclement weather without suffering from the cold; and, at whatever temperature the atmosphere may be, they require nothing but a shelter from the wind to make them comfortable, and even this they do not always obtain. they are also wonderfully enabled to endure the cold even on those parts of the body which are not thus protected; for we have seen a young puppy sleeping, with its bare paw laid on an ice-anchor, with the thermometer at - °, which, with one of our dogs, would have produced immediate and intense pain, if not subsequent mortification. they never bark, but have a long, melancholy howl like that of the wolf, and this they will sometimes perform in concert for a minute or two together. they are, besides, always snarling and fighting among one another, by which several of them are generally lame. when much caressed and well fed, they become quite familiar and domestic: but this mode of treatment does not improve their qualities as animals of draught. being desirous of ascertaining whether these dogs are wolves in a state of domestication, a question which we understood to have been the subject of some speculation, mr. skeoch, at my request, made a skeleton of each, when the number of all the vertebrae was found to be the same in both,[ ] and to correspond with the well-known anatomy of the wolf. when drawing a sledge, the dogs have a simple harness (_annoo_) of deer or seal skin going round the neck by one bight, and another for each of the fore legs, with a single thong leading over the back and attached to the sledge as a trace. though they appear at first sight to be huddled together without regard to regularity, there is, in fact, considerable attention paid to their arrangement, particularly in the selection of a dog of peculiar spirit and sagacity, which is allowed, by a longer trace, to precede the rest as leader, and to which, in turning to the right or left, the driver usually addresses himself. this choice is made without regard to age or sex, and the rest of the dogs take precedence according to their training or sagacity, the least effective being put nearest the sledge. the leader is usually from eighteen to twenty feet from the fore part of the sledge, and the hindermost dog about half that distance, so that when ten or twelve are running together, several are nearly abreast of each other. the driver sits quite low on the fore part of the sledge, with his feet overhanging the snow on one side, and having in his hand a whip, of which the handle, made either of wood, bone, or whalebone, is eighteen inches, and the lash more than as many feet in length. the part of the thong next the handle is platted a little way down to stiffen it and give it a spring, on which much of its use depends; and that which composes the lash is chewed, by the women to make it flexible in frosty weather. the men acquire from their youth considerable expertness in the use of this whip, the lash of which is left to trail along the ground by the side of the sledge, and with which they can inflict a very severe blow on any dog at pleasure. though the dogs are kept in training entirely by fear of the whip, and indeed without it would soon have their own way, its immediate effect is always detrimental to the draught of the sledge; for not only does the individual that is struck draw back and slacken his trace, but generally turns upon his next neighbour, and this, passing on to the next, occasions a general divergency, accompanied by the usual yelping and showing of teeth. the dogs then come together again by degrees, and the draught of the sledge is accelerated; but even at the best of times, by this rude mode of draught, the traces of one third of the dogs form an angle of thirty or forty degrees on each side of the direction in which the sledge is advancing. another great inconvenience attending the esquimaux method of putting the dogs to, besides that of not employing their strength to the best advantage, is the constant entanglement of the traces by the dogs repeatedly doubling under from side to side to avoid the whip, so that, after running a few miles, the traces always require to be taken off and cleared. in directing the sledge the whip acts no very essential part, the driver for this purpose using certain words, as the carters do with us, to make the dogs turn more to the right or left. to these a good leader attends with admirable precision, especially if his own name be repeated at the same time, looking behind over his shoulder with great earnestness, as if listening to the directions of the driver. on a beaten track, or even where a single foot or sledge mark is occasionally discernible, there is not the slightest trouble in guiding the dogs; for even in the darkest night and in the heaviest snowdrift, there is little or no danger of their losing the road, the leader keeping his nose near the ground, and directing the rest with wonderful sagacity. where, however, there is no beaten track, the best driver among them makes a terribly circuitous course, as all the esquimaux roads plainly show; these generally occupying an extent of six miles, when with a horse and sledge the journey would scarcely have amounted to five. on rough ground, as among hummocks of ice, the sledge would be frequently overturned or altogether stopped if the driver did not repeatedly get off, and, by lifting or drawing it to one side, steer it clear of those accidents. at all times, indeed, except on a smooth and well-made road, he is pretty constantly employed thus with his feet, which, together with his never-ceasing vociferations and frequent use of the whip, renders the driving of one of these vehicles by no means a pleasant or easy task. when the driver wishes to stop the sledge, he calls out "wo, woa," exactly as our carters do; but the attention paid to his command depends altogether on his ability to enforce it. if the weight is small and the journey homeward, the dogs are not to be thus delayed; the driver is therefore obliged to dig his heels into the snow to obstruct their progress; and, having thus succeeded in stopping them, he stands up with one leg before the foremost crosspiece of the sledge, till, by means of laying the whip gently over each dog's head, he has made them all lie down. he then takes care not to quit his position; so that, should the dogs set off, he is thrown upon the sledge, instead of being left behind by them. with heavy loads the dogs draw best with one of their own people, especially a woman, walking a little way ahead; and in this case they are sometimes enticed to mend their pace by holding a mitten to the mouth, and then making the motion of cutting it with a knife, and throwing it on the snow, when the dogs, mistaking it for meat, hasten forward to pick it up. the women also entice them from the huts in a similar manner. the rate at which they travel depends, of course, on the weight they have to draw and the road on which their journey is performed. when the latter is level, and very hard and smooth, constituting what in other parts of north america is called "good sleighing," six or seven dogs will draw from eight to ten hundred weight, at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour for several hours together, and will easily, under those circumstances, perform a journey of fifty or sixty miles a day; on untrodden snow, five-and-twenty or thirty miles would be a good day's journey. the same number of well-fed dogs, with a weight of only five or six hundred pounds (that of the sledge included), are almost unmanageable, and will, on a smooth road, run any way they please at the rate of ten miles an hour. the work performed by a greater number of dogs is, however, by no means in proportion to this; owing to the imperfect mode already described of employing the strength of these sturdy creatures, and to the more frequent snarling and fighting occasioned by an increase of numbers. in the summer, when the absence of snow precludes the use of sledges, the dogs are still made useful on journeys and hunting excursions, by being employed to carry burdens in a kind of saddle-bags laid across their shoulders. a stout dog thus accoutred will accompany his master, laden with a weight of about twenty or twenty-five pounds. the scent of the esquimaux dogs is excellent; and this property is turned to account by their masters in finding the seal-holes, which these invaluable animals will discover entirely by the smell at a very great distance. the track of a single deer upon the snow will in like manner set them off at a full gallop when travelling, at least a quarter of a mile before they arrive at it, when they are with difficulty made to turn in any other direction; and the esquimaux are accustomed to set them after those animals to hunt them down when already wounded with an arrow. in killing bears the dogs act a very essential part; and two or three of them, when led on by a man, will eagerly attack one of those ferocious creatures. an esquimaux seldom uses any other weapon than his spear and _panna_ in this encounter, for which the readiness of the dogs may be implied from the circumstance of the word "nen-nook" (bear) being often used to encourage them when running in a sledge. indeed, the only animal which they are not eager to chase is the wolf, of which the greater part of them seem to have an instinctive dread, giving notice at night of their approach to the huts by a loud and continued howl. there is not one dog in twenty among them that will voluntarily, or, indeed, without a great deal of beating, take the water, if they think it is out of their depth, and the few that would do so were spoken of as extraordinary exceptions. the esquimaux in general treat their dogs much as an unfeeling master does his slaves; that is, they take just as much care of them as their own interest is supposed to require. the bitches with young are in the winter allowed to occupy a part of their own beds, where they are carefully attended and fed by the women, who will even supply the young ones with meat and water from their mouths as they do their own children, and not unfrequently also carry them in their hoods to take care of them. it is probably on this account that the dogs are always so much attached to the women, who can at any time catch them or entice them from the huts when the men fail. two females that were with young on board the fury in the month of february, brought forth six and seven at a litter, and the former number were all females. their feeding, which, both in summer and winter, principally consists of k=a~ow, or the skin and part of the blubber of the walrus, is during the latter season very precarious, their masters having then but little to spare. they therefore become extremely thin at that time of the year, and would scarcely be recognised as the same animals as when regularly fed in the summer. no wonder, therefore, that they will eat almost anything, however tough or filthy, and that neither whipping nor shouting will prevent their turning out of the road, even when going at full speed, to pick up whatever they espy. when at the huts they are constantly creeping in to pilfer what they can, and half the time of the people sitting there is occupied in vociferating their names, and driving them by most unmerciful blows out of the apartments. the dogs have no water to drink during the winter, but lick up some clean snow occasionally as a substitute; nor, indeed, if water be offered them, do they care about it, unless it happens to be oily. they take great pleasure in rolling in clean snow, especially after or during a journey, or when they have been confined in a house during the night. notwithstanding the rough treatment which they receive from their masters, their attachment to them is very great, and this they display after a short absence by jumping up and licking their faces all over with extreme delight. the esquimaux, however, never caress them, and, indeed, scarcely ever take any notice of them but when they offend, and they are not then sparing in their blows. the dogs have all names, to which they attend with readiness, whether drawing in a sledge or otherwise. their names are frequently the same as those of the people, and in some instances are given after the relations of their masters, which seems to be considered an act of kindness among them. upon the whole, notwithstanding the services performed by these valuable creatures, i am of opinion that art cannot well have done less towards making them useful, and that the same means in almost any other hands would be employed to greater advantage. in the disposition of these people, there was, of course, among so many individuals, considerable variety as to the minute points; but in the general features of their character, which with them are not subject to the changes produced by foreign intercourse, one description will nearly apply to all. the virtue which, as respected ourselves, we could most have wished them to possess, is honesty; and the impression derived from the early part of our intercourse was certainly in this respect a favourable one. a great many instances occurred, some of which have been related where they appeared even scrupulous in returning articles that did not belong to them; and this, too, when detection of a theft, or, at least, of the offender, would have been next to impossible. as they grew more familiar with us, and the temptations became stronger, they gradually relaxed in their honesty, and petty thefts were from time to time committed by several individuals, both male and female, among them. the bustle which any search for stolen goods occasioned at the huts was sufficient proof of their understanding the estimation in which the crime was held by us. until the affair was cleared up, they would affect great readiness to show every article which they had got from the ships, repeating the name of the donor with great warmth, as if offended at our suspicions, yet with a half smile on their countenance at our supposed credulity in believing them. there was, indeed, at all times, some, trick, and cunning in this show of openness and candour; and they would at times bring back some very trifling article that had been given them, tendering it as a sort of expiation for the theft of another much more valuable. when a search was making, they would invent all sorts of lies to screen themselves, not caring on whom besides the imputation fell; and more than once they directed our people to the apartments of others who were innocent of the event in question. if they really knew the offender, they were generally ready enough to inform against him, and this with an air of affected secrecy and mysterious importance; and, as if the dishonesty of another constituted a virtue in themselves, they would repeat this information frequently, perhaps for a month afterward, setting up their neighbour's offence as a foil to their own pretended honesty. in appreciating the character of these people for honesty, however, we must not fail to make allowance for the degree of temptation to which they were daily exposed, amid the boundless stores of wealth which our ships appeared to them to furnish. to draw a parallel case, we must suppose an european of the lower class suffered to roam about amid hoards of gold and silver; for nothing less valuable can be justly compared with the wood and iron that everywhere presented themselves to their view on board the ships. the european and the esquimaux, who, in cases so similar, both resist the temptation to stealing, must be considered pretty nearly on a par in the scale of honesty; and, judging in this manner, the balance might possibly be found in favour of the latter, when compared with any similar number of europeans taken at random from the lower class. in what has been hitherto said, regard has been had only to their dealings with _us_. in their transactions among themselves, there is no doubt that, except in one or two privileged cases, such as that of destitute widows, the strictest honesty prevails, and that, as regards the good of their own community, they are generally honest people. we have, in numberless instances, sent presents by one to another, and invariably found that they had been faithfully delivered. the manner in which their various implements are frequently left outside their huts is a proof, indeed, that robbery is scarcely known among them. in the barter of their various commodities, their dealings with us were fair and upright, though latterly they were by no means backward nor inexpert in driving a bargain. the absurd and childish exchanges which they at first made with our people induced them subsequently to complain that the kabloonas had stolen their things, though the profit had eventually been a hundred-fold in their favour. many such complaints were made, when the only fault in the purchaser had been excessive liberality, and frequently, also, as a retort, by way of warding off the imputation of some dishonesty of their own. a trick not uncommon with the women was to endeavour to excite the commiseration, and to tax the bounty of one person, by relating some cruel theft of this kind that had, as they said, been practised upon them by another. one day, after i had bought a knife of togolat, she told captain lyon, in a most piteous tone, that _parree_ had stolen her last _ooloo_, that she did not know what to do without one, and at length, coming to the point, begged him to give her one. presently after this, her husband coming in and asking for something to eat, she handed him some meat, accompanied by a very fine ooloo. her son, being thus reminded of eating, made the same request, upon which a second knife was produced, and immediately after a third of the same kind for herself. captain lyon, having amused himself in watching these proceedings, which so well confirmed the truth of the proverb, that certain people ought to have good memories, now took the knives, one by one, out of their hands, and, holding them up to togolat, asked her if parree had not stolen her last ooloo. a hearty laugh all round was the only notice taken by them of this direct detection of the deceit. the confidence which they really placed in us was daily and hourly evinced by their leaving their fishing gear stuck in the snow all round the ships; and not a single instance occurred, to my knowledge, of any theft committed on their property. the licking of the articles received from us was not so common with them as with esquimaux in general, and this practice was latterly almost entirely left off by them. among the unfavourable traits in their character must be reckoned an extreme disposition to envy, which displayed itself on various occasions during our intercourse with them. if we had made any presents in one hut, the inmates of the next would not fail to tell us of it, accompanying their remarks with some satirical observations, too unequivocally expressed to be mistaken, and generally by some stroke of irony directed against the favoured person. if any individual with whom we had been intimate happened to be implicated in a theft, the circumstance became a subject of satisfaction too manifest to be repressed, and we were told of it with expressions of the most triumphant exultation on every occasion. it was, indeed, curious, though ridiculous, to observe that, even among these simple people, and even in this obscure corner of the globe, that little gossip and scandal so commonly practised in small societies among us were very frequently displayed. this was especially the case with the women, of whom it was not uncommon to see a group sitting in a hut for hours together, each relating her _quota_ of information, now and then mimicking the persons of whom they spoke, and interlarding their stories with jokes evidently at the expense of their absent neighbours, though to their own infinite amusement. i have already, in the course of the foregoing narrative, hinted at the want of gratitude evinced by these people in their transactions with us. some exceptions, for they were only exceptions, and rare ones, to this rule, have been mentioned as they occurred; but in general, however considerable the benefit conferred, it was forgotten in a day; and this forgetfulness was not unfrequently aggravated by their giving out that their benefactor had been so shabby as to make them no present at all. even those individuals who, either from good behaviour or superior intelligence, had been most noticed by us, and particularly such as had slept on board the ships, and whether in health or sickness had received the most friendly treatment from everybody, were in general just as indifferent as the rest; and i do not believe that any one among them would have gone half a mile out of his road, or have sacrificed the most trivial self-gratification to serve us. okotook and iligliuk, whom i had most loaded with presents, and who had never offered me a single free gift in return, put into my hand, at the time of their first removal from winter island, a dirty, crooked model of a spear, so shabbily constructed that it had probably been already refused as an article of barter by many of the ship's company. on my accepting this, from an unwillingness to affront them, they were uneasy and dissatisfied till i had given them something in return, though their hands were full of the presents which i had just made them. selfishness is, in fact, almost without exception, their universal characteristic, and the mainspring of all their actions, and that, too, of a kind the most direct and unamiable that can well be imagined. in the few opportunities we had of putting their hospitality to the test, we had every reason to be pleased with them. both as to food and accommodation, the best they had were always at our service; and their attention, both in kind and degree, was everything that hospitality and even good-breeding could dictate. the kindly offices of drying and mending our clothes, cooking our provision, and thawing snow for our drink, were performed by the women with an obliging cheerfulness which we shall not easily forget, and which commanded its due share of our admiration and esteem. while thus their guest, i have passed an evening not only with comfort, but with extreme gratification; for, with the women working and singing, their husbands quietly mending their lines, the children playing before the door, and the pot boiling over the blaze of a cheerful lamp, one might well forget for the time that an esquimaux hut was the scene of this domestic comfort and tranquillity; and i can safely affirm with cartwright,[ ] that, while thus lodged beneath their roof, i know no people whom i would more confidently trust, as respects either my person or my property, than the esquimaux. the estimation in which women are held among these people is, i think, somewhat greater than is usual in savage life. in their general employments they are by no means the drudges that the wives of the greenlander's are said to be; being occupied only in those cares which may properly be called domestic, and, as such, are considered the peculiar business of the women among the lower classes in civilized society. the wife of one of these people, for instance, makes and attends the fire, cooks the victuals, looks after the children, and is sempstress to her whole family; while her husband is labouring abroad for their subsistence. in this respect it is not even necessary to except their task of cutting up the small seals, which is, in truth, one of the greatest luxuries and privileges they enjoy; and, even if it were esteemed a labour, it could scarcely be considered equivalent to that of the women in many of our own fishing-towns, where the men's business is at an end the moment the boat touches the beach. the most laborious of their tasks occur, perhaps, in making their various journeys, when all their goods and chattels are to be removed at once, and when each individual must undoubtedly perform a full share of the general labour. the women are, however, good walkers and not easily fatigued; for we have several times known a young woman of two-and-twenty, with a child in her hood, walk twelve miles to the ships and back again the same day, for the sake of a little bread-dust and a tin canister. when stationary in the winter, they have really almost a sinecure of it, sitting quietly in their huts, and having little or no employment for the greater part of the day. in short, there are few, if any people, in this state of society among whom the women are so well off. they always sit upon the beds with their legs doubled under them, and are uneasy in the posture usual with us. the men sometimes sit as we do, but more generally with their legs crossed before them. the women do not appear to be, in general, very prolific. illumea indeed had borne seven children, but no second instance of an equal number in one family afterward came to our knowledge; three or four is about the usual number. they are, according to their own account, in the habit of suckling their children to the age of three years; but we have seen a child of five occasionally at the breast, though they are dismissed from the mother's hood at about the former age. it is not uncommon to see one woman suckling the child of another, while the latter happens to be employed in her other domestic occupations. they are in the habit, also, of feeding their younger children from their own mouths, softening the food by mastication, and then turning their heads round so that the infant in the hood may put its lips to theirs. the chill is taken from water for them in the same manner, and some fathers are very fond of taking their children on their knees and thus feeding them. the women are more desirous of having sons than daughters, as on the former must principally depend their support in old age. twelve of the men had each two wives, and some of the younger ones had also two betrothed; two instances occurred of the father and son being married to sisters. the custom of betrothing children in their infancy is commonly practised here, in which respect these people differ from the natives of greenland, where it is comparatively rare. a daughter of arnaneelia, between two and three years old, had long been thus contracted to okotook's son, a hero of six or seven, and the latter used to run about the hut calling his intended by the familiar appellation of _n~o~oll=e-~a_ (wife), to the great amusement of the parents. when a man has two wives there is generally a difference of five or six years in their ages. the senior takes her station next the principal fire, which comes entirely under her management; and she is certainly considered in some respects superior to the other, though they usually live together in the utmost harmony. the men sometimes repudiate their wives without ceremony, in case of real or supposed bad behaviour as in greenland, but this does not often occur. there was a considerable disparity of age between many of the men and their wives, the husband being sometimes the oldest by twenty years or more, and this also when he had never married any former wife. we knew no instance in which the number of a man's wives exceeded two, and, indeed, we had every reason to believe that the practice is never admitted among them. we met with a singular instance of two men having exchanged wives, in consequence merely of one of the latter being pregnant at the time when her husband was about to undertake a long journey. the authority of the husband seems to be sufficiently absolute, depending, nevertheless, in great measure on the dispositions of the respective parties. iligliuk was one of those women who seem formed to manage their husbands; and we one day saw her take okotook to task in a very masterly style, for having bartered away a good jacket for an old useless pistol, without powder or shot. he attempted at first to bluster in his turn, and with most women would probably have gained his point. but with iligliuk this would not do; she saw at once the absurdity of his bargain, and insisted on his immediately cancelling it, which was accordingly done, and no more said about it. in general, indeed, the husband maintains his authority, and in several instances of supposed bad behaviour in a wife, we saw obedience enforced in a very summary manner. it is very rare, however, to see them proceed to this extremity; and the utmost extent of a husband's want of tenderness towards his wife consists in making her walk or lead the dogs, while he takes his own seat in the sledge and rides in comfort. widows, as might be expected, are not so well off as those whose husbands are living, and this difference is especially apparent in their clothes, which are usually very dirty, thin, and ragged; when, indeed, they happen to have no near relatives, their fate, as we have already seen, is still worse than this. i fear we cannot give a very favourable account of the chastity of the women, nor of the delicacy of their husbands in this respect. as for the latter, it was not uncommon for them to offer their wives as freely for sale as a knife or a jacket. some of the young men informed us that, when two of them were absent together on a sealing excursion, they often exchanged wives for the time, as a matter of friendly convenience; and, indeed, without mentioning any other instances of this nature, it may safely be affirmed, that in no country is prostitution carried to greater lengths than among these people. the behaviour of most of the women when their husbands were absent from the huts, plainly evinced their indifference towards them, and their utter disregard of connubial fidelity. the departure of the men was usually the signal for throwing aside restraint, which was invariably resumed on their return. for this event they take care to be prepared by the report of the children, one of whom is usually posted on the outside for the purpose of giving due notice. the affection of parents for their children was frequently displayed by these people, not only in the mere passive indulgence, and abstinence from corporeal punishment, for which esquimaux have before been remarked, but by a thousand playful endearments also, such as parents and nurses practise in our own country. nothing, indeed, can well exceed the kindness with which they treat their children, and this trait in their character deserves to be the more insisted on, because it is, in reality, the only very amiable one which they possess. it must be confessed, indeed, that the gentleness and docility of the children are such as to occasion their parents little trouble, and to render severity towards them quite unnecessary. even from their earliest infancy they possess that quiet disposition, gentleness of demeanour, and uncommon evenness of temper, for which, in more mature age, they are for the most part distinguished. disobedience is scarcely ever known; a word or even a look from a parent is enough; and i never saw a single instance of that frowardness and disposition to mischief which, with our youth, so often requires the whole attention of a parent to watch over and to correct. they never cry from trifling accidents, and sometimes not even from very severe hurts, at which an english child would sob for an hour. it is, indeed, astonishing to see the indifference with which, even as tender infants, they bear the numerous blows they accidentally receive, when carried at their mothers' backs. they are just as fond of play as any other young people, and of the same kind; only that while an english child draws a cart of wood, an esquimaux of the same age has a sledge of whalebone; and for the superb baby-house of the former, the latter builds a miniature hut of snow, and begs a lighted wick from her mother's lamp to illuminate the little dwelling. their parents make for them, as dolls, little figures of men and women, habited in the true esquimaux costume, as well as a variety of other toys, many of them having some reference to their future occupations in life, such as canoes, spears, and bows and arrows. the drum or tambarine, mentioned by crantz, is common among them, and used not only by the children, but by the grown-up people at some of their games. they sometimes serrate the edges of two strips of whalebone and whirl them round their heads, just as boys do in england to make the same peculiar humming sound. they will dispose one piece of wood on another, as an axis, in such a manner that the wind turns it round like the arms of a windmill; and so of many other toys of the same simple kind. these are the distinct property of the children, who will sometimes sell them, while their parents look on without interfering or expecting to be consulted. when not more than eight years old, the boys are taken by their fathers on their sealing excursions, where they begin to learn their future business; and even at that early age they are occasionally intrusted to bring home a sledge and dogs from a distance of several miles over the ice. at the age of eleven we see a boy with his water-tight boots and moccasins, a spear in his hand, and a small coil of line at his back, accompanying the men to the fishery, under every circumstance; and from this time his services daily increase in value to the whole tribe. on our first intercourse with them we supposed that they would not unwillingly part with their children, in consideration of some valuable present, but in this we afterward found that we were much mistaken. happening one day to call myself toolooak's _attata_ (father), and pretend that he was to remain with me on board the ship, i received from the old man, his father, no other answer than what seemed to be very strongly and even satirically implied, by his taking one of our gentlemen by the arm and calling him _his_ son; thus intimating that the adoption which he proposed was as feasible and as natural as my own. the custom of adoption is carried to very great lengths among these people, and served to explain to us several apparent inconsistencies with respect to their relationships. the custom owes its origin entirely to the obvious advantage of thus providing for a man's own subsistence in advanced life; and it is consequently confined almost without exception to the adoption of _sons_, who can alone contribute materially to the support of an aged and infirm parent. when a man adopts the son of another as his own, he is said to "_tego_," or take him; and at whatever age this is done (though it generally happens in infancy), the child then lives with his new parents, calls them father and mother, is sometimes even ignorant of any such transfer having been made, especially if his real parents should be dead; and whether he knows it or not, is not always willing to acknowledge any but those with whom he lives. the agreement seems to be always made between the fathers, and to differ in no respect from the transfer of other property, except that none can equal in value the property thus disposed of. the good sense, good fortune, or extensive claims of some individuals were particularly apparent in this way, from the number of sons they had adopted. toolemak, deriving, perhaps, some advantage from his qualifications as angetkook, had taken care to negotiate for the adoption of some of the finest male children of the tribe; a provision which now appeared the more necessary, from his having lost four children of his own, besides noogloo, who was one of his _tego'd_ sons. in one of the two instances that came to our knowledge of the adoption of a female child, both its own parents were still living, nor could we ascertain the motive for this deviation from the more general custom. in their behaviour to old people, whose age or infirmities render them useless, and, therefore, burdensome to the community, the esquimaux betray a degree of insensibility bordering on inhumanity, and ill repaying the kindness of an indulgent parent. the old man hikkeiera, who was very ill during the winter, used to lie day after day, little regarded by his wife, son, daughter, and other relatives, except that his wretched state constituted, as they well knew, a forcible claim upon our charity; and, with this view, it was sure to excite a whine of sympathy and commiseration whenever we visited or spoke of him. when, however, a journey of ten miles was to be performed over the ice, they left him to find his way with a stick in the best manner he could, while the young and robust ones were many of them drawn on sledges. there is, indeed, no doubt that, had their necessities or mode of life required a longer journey than he could thus have accomplished, they would have pushed on like the indians, and left a fellow-creature to perish. it was certainly considered incumbent on his son to support him, and he was fortunate in that son's being a very good man; but a few more such journeys to a man of seventy would not impose this encumbrance upon him much longer. illumea, the mother of several grown-up children, lived also in the same hut with her other relations. she did not, however, interfere, as in greenland, with the management of her son's domestic concerns, though his wife was half an idiot. she was always badly clothed, and, even in the midst of plenty, not particularly well-fed, receiving everything more as an act of charity than otherwise; and she will probably be less and less attended to, in proportion as she stands more in need of assistance. the different families appear always to live on good terms with each other, though each preserves its own habitation and property as distinct and independent as any housekeeper in england. the persons living under one roof, who are generally closely related, maintain a degree of harmony among themselves which is scarcely ever disturbed. the more turbulent passions which, when unrestrained by religious principle, or unchecked by the dread of human punishment, usually create so much havoc in the world, seem to be very seldom excited in the breasts of these people, which renders personal violence or immoderate anger extremely rare among them; and one may sit in a hut for a whole day, and never observe an angry word or look, except in driving out the dogs. if they take an offence, it is more common for them to show it by the more quiet method of sulkiness, and this they now and then tried as a matter of experiment with us. okotook, who was often in this humour, once displayed it to some of our gentlemen in his own hut, by turning his back and frequently repeating the expression "good-by," as a broad hint to them to go away. toolooak was also a little given to this mood, but never retained it long, and there was no malice mixed with his displeasure. one evening that he slept on board the fury, he either offended mr. skeoch, or thought that he had done so, by this kind of humour; at all events, they parted for the night without any formal reconciliation. the next morning mr. skeoch was awakened at an unusually early hour, by toolooak's entering his cabin and taking hold of his hand to shake it, by way of making up the supposed quarrel. on a disposition thus naturally charitable, what might not christian education and christian principles effect? where a joke is evidently intended, i never knew people more ready to join in it than these are. if ridiculed for any particularity of manner, figure, or countenance, they are sure not to be long behind-hand in returning it, and that very often with interest. if we were the aggressors in this way, some ironical observation respecting the _kabloonas_ was frequently the consequence; and no small portion of wit as well as irony was at times mixed with their raillery. in point of intellect as well as disposition, great variety was, of course, perceptible among the different individuals of this tribe; but few of them were wanting in that respect. some, indeed, possessed a degree of natural quickness and intelligence which, perhaps, could hardly be surpassed in the natives of any country. iligliuk, though one of the least amiable, was particularly thus gifted. when she really wished to develop our meaning, she would desire her husband and all the rest to hold their tongues, and would generally make it out while they were puzzling their heads to no purpose. in returning her answers, the very expression of her countenance, though one of the plainest among them, was almost of itself sufficient to convey her meaning; and there was, in these cases, a peculiarly decisive energy in her manner of speaking which was extremely interesting. this woman would, indeed, have easily learned anything to which she chose to direct her attention; and had her lot been cast in a civilized country instead of this dreary region, which serves alike to "freeze the genial current of the soul" and body, she would probably have been a very clever person. for want of a sufficient object, however, neither she nor any of her companions ever learned a dozen words of english, except our names, with which it was their interest to be familiar, and which, long before we left them, any child could repeat, though in their own style of pronunciation. besides the natural authority of parents and husbands, these people appear to admit no kind of superiority among one another, except a certain degree of superstitious reverence for their _angetkooks_, and their tacitly following the counsel or steps of the most active seal-catcher on their hunting excursions. the word _nallegak_, used in greenland to express "master," and "lord" in the esquimaux translations of the scriptures, they were not acquainted with. one of the young men at winter island appeared to be considered somewhat in the light of a servant to okotook, living with the latter, and quietly allowing him to take possession of all the most valuable presents which he received from us. being a sociable people, they unite in considerable numbers to form a settlement for the winter; but on the return of spring they again separate into several parties, each appearing to choose his own route, without regard to that of the rest, but all making their arrangements without the slightest disagreement or difference of opinion that we could ever discover. in all their movements, they seem to be actuated by one simultaneous feeling that is truly admirable. superior as our arts, contrivances, and materials must unquestionably have appeared to them, and eager as they were to profit by this superiority, yet, contradictory as it may seem, they certainly looked upon us in many respects with profound contempt; maintaining that idea of self-sufficiency which has induced them, in common with the rest of their nation, to call themselves, by way of distinction, innue, or mankind. one day, for instance, in securing some of the gear of a sledge, okotook broke a part of it, composed of a piece of our white line, and i shall never forget the contemptuous sneer with which he muttered in soliloquy the word "kabloona!" in token of the inferiority of our materials to his own. it is happy, perhaps, when people, possessing so few of the good things of this life, can be thus contented with the little allotted them. the men, though low in stature, are not wanting in muscular strength in proportion to their size, or in activity and hardiness. they are good and even quick walkers, and occasionally bear much bodily fatigue, wet, and cold, without appearing to suffer by it, much less to complain of it. whatever labour they have gone through, and with whatever success in procuring game, no individual ever seems to arrogate to himself the credit of having done more than his neighbour for the general good. nor do i conceive there is reason to doubt their personal courage, though they are too good-natured often to excite others to put that quality to the test. it is true, they will recoil with horror at the tale of an indian massacre, and probably cannot conceive what should induce one set of men deliberately and without provocation to murder another. war is not their trade; ferocity forms no part of the disposition of the esquimaux. whatever manly qualities they possess are exercised in a different way, and put to a far more worthy purpose. they are fishermen, and not warriors; but i cannot call that man a coward who, at the age of one-and-twenty, will attack a polar bear single-handed, or fearlessly commit himself to floating masses of ice, which the next puff of wind may drift for ever from the shore. of the few arts possessed by this simple people, some account has already been given in the description of their various implements. as mechanics, they have little to boast when compared with other savages lying under equal disadvantages as to scantiness of tools and materials. as carpenters, they can scarf two pieces of wood together, secure them with pins of whalebone or ivory, fashion the timbers of a canoe, shoe a paddle, and rivet a scrap of iron into a spear or arrow-head. their principal tool is the knife (panna); and, considering the excellence of a great number which they possessed previous to our intercourse with them, the work they do is remarkably coarse and clumsy. their very manner of holding and handling a knife is the most awkward that can be imagined. for the purpose of boring holes, they have a drill and bow so exactly like our own, that they need no farther description, except that the end of the drill handle, which our artists place against their breasts, is rested by these people against a piece of wood or bone held in their mouths, and having a cavity fitted to receive it. with the use of the saw they were well acquainted, but had nothing of this kind in their possession better than a notched piece of iron. one or two small european axes were lashed to handles in a contrary direction to ours, that is, to be used like an adze, a form which, according to the observation of a traveller[ ] well qualified to judge, savages in general prefer. it was said that these people steamed or boiled wood, in order to bend it for fashioning the timbers of their canoes. as fishermen or seamen, they can put on a woolding or seizing with sufficient strength and security, and are acquainted with some of the most simple and serviceable knots in use among us. in all the arts, however, practised by the men, it is observable that the ingenuity lies in the principle, not in the execution. the experience of ages has led them to adopt the most efficacious methods, but their practice as handicrafts has gone no farther than absolute necessity requires; they bestow little labour upon neatness or ornament. in some of the few arts practised by the women there is much more dexterity displayed, particularly in that important branch of a housewife's business, sewing, which, even with their own clumsy needles of bone, they perform with extraordinary neatness. they had, however, several steel needles of a three-cornered shape, which they kept in a very convenient case, consisting of a strip of leather passed through a hollow bone, and having its ends remaining out, so that the needles which are stuck into it may be drawn in and out at pleasure. these cases were sometimes ornamented by cutting; and several thimbles of leather, one of which, in sewing, is worn on the first finger, are usually attached to it, together with a bunch of narrow spoons and other small articles liable to be lost. the thread they use is the sinew of the reindeer (_tooktoo =ew=all~o~o_), or, when they cannot procure this, the swallow-pipe of the _neiliek_. this may be split into threads of different sizes, according to the nature of their work, and is certainly a most admirable material. this, together with any other articles of a similar kind, they keep in little bags, which are sometimes made of the skin of birds' feet, disposed with the claws downward in a very neat and tasteful manner. in sewing, the point of the needle is entered and drawn through in a direction towards the body, and not from it or towards one side, as with our seamstresses. they sew the deerskins with a "round seam," and the water-tight boots and shoes are "stitched." the latter is performed in a very adroit and efficacious manner, by putting the needle only half through the substance of one part of the sealskin, so as to leave no hole for admitting the water. in cutting out the clothes, the women do it after one regular and uniform pattern, which probably descends unaltered from generation to generation. the skin of the deer's head is always made to form the _apex_ of the hood, while that of the neck and shoulders comes down the back of the jacket; and so of every other part of the animal which is appropriated to its particular portion of the dress. to soften the sealskins of which the boots, shoes, and mittens are made, the women chew them for an hour or two together and the young girls are often seen employed in thus preparing the materials for their mothers. the covering of the canoes is a part of the women's business, in which good workmanship is especially necessary to render the whole smooth and water-tight. the skins, which are those of the _neitiek_ only, are prepared by scraping off the hair and the fleshy parts with an _ooloo,_ and stretching them out tight on a frame, in which state they are left over the lamps or in the sun for several days to dry; and after this they are well chewed by the women to make them fit for working. the dressing of leather and of skins in the hair, is an art which the women have brought to no inconsiderable degree of perfection. they perform this by first cleansing the skin from as much of the fat and fleshy matter as the _ooloo_ will take off, and then rubbing it hard for several hours with a blunt scraper, called _si=ak~o~ot_, so as nearly to dry it. it is then put into a vessel containing urine, and left to steep a couple of days, after which a drying completes the process. skins dressed in the hair are, however, not always thus steeped; the women, instead of this, chewing them for hours together till they are quite soft and clean. some of the leather thus dressed looked nearly as well as ours, and the hair was as firmly fixed to the pelt; but there was in this respect a very great difference, according to the art or attention of the housewife. dyeing is an art wholly unknown to them. the women are very expert at platting, which is usually done with three threads of sinew; if greater strength is required, several of these are twisted slackly together, as in the bowstrings. the quickness with which some of the women plat is really surprising; and it is well that they do so, for the quantity required for the bows alone would otherwise occupy half the year in completing it. it may be supposed that, among so cheerful a people as the esquimaux, there are many games or sports practised; indeed, it was rarely that we visited their habitations without seeing some engaged in them. one of these our gentlemen saw at winter island, on an occasion when most of the men were absent from the huts on a sealing excursion, and in this iligliuk was the chief performer. being requested to amuse them in this way, she suddenly unbound her hair, platted it, tied both ends together to keep it out of her way, and then stepping out into the middle of the hut, began to make the most hideous faces that can be conceived, by drawing both lips into her mouth, poking forward her chin, squinting frightfully, occasionally shutting one eye, and moving her head from side to side as if her neck had been dislocated. this exhibition, which they call _=ay=ok~it-t=ak-poke_, and which is evidently considered an accomplishment that few of them possess in perfection, distorts every feature in the most horrible manner imaginable, and would, i think, put our most skilful horse-collar grinners quite out of countenance. the next performance consists in looking steadfastly and gravely forward, and repeating the words _t~ab=ak-tabak, k~eib=o-keibo, k~e-b=ang-~e-n=u-t~o-~e~ek, kebang-enutoeek, ~am=at~am=a-amatama_, in the order in which they are here placed, but each at least four times, and always by a peculiar modulation of the voice, speaking them in pairs as they are coupled above. the sound is made to proceed from the throat in a way much resembling ventriloquism, to which art it is indeed an approach. after the last _amatama_ iligliuk always pointed with her finger towards her body, and pronounced the word _angetkook,_ steadily retaining her gravity for five or six seconds, and then bursting into a loud laugh, in which she was joined by all the rest. the women sometimes produce a much more guttural and unnatural sound, repeating principally the word _=ikk~er~ee-ikkeree_, coupling them as before, and staring in such a manner as to make their eyes appear ready to burst out of their sockets with the exertion. two or more of them will sometimes stand up face to face, and with great quickness and regularity respond to each other, keeping such exact time that the sound appears to come from one throat instead of several. very few of the females are possessed of this accomplishment, which is called _pitkoo-she-r=ak-poke_, and it is not uncommon to see several of the younger females practising it. a third part of the game, distinguished by the word _keit=ik-poke_, consists only in falling on each knee alternately--a piece of agility which they perform with tolerable quickness, considering the bulky and awkward nature of their dress. the last kind of individual exhibition was still performed by iligliuk, to whom in this, as in almost everything else, the other women tacitly acknowledged their inferiority, by quietly giving place to her on every occasion. she now once more came forward, and letting her arms hang down loosely and bending her body very much forward, shook herself with, extreme violence, as if her whole frame had been strongly convulsed, uttering at the same time, in a wild tone of voice, some of the unnatural sounds before mentioned. this being at an end, a new exhibition was commenced, in which ten or twelve women took a part, and which our gentlemen compared to blind-man's buff. a circle being formed, and a boy despatched to look out at the door of the hut, iligliuk, still the principal actress, placed herself in the centre, and after making a variety of guttural noises for about half a minute, shut her eyes and ran about till she had taken hold of one of the others, whose business it then became to take her station in the centre, so that almost every woman in her turn occupied this post; and in her own peculiar way, either by distortion of countenance or other gestures, performed her part in the game. this continued three quarters of an hour; and, from the precaution of placing a look-out, who was withdrawn when it was over, as well as from some very expressive signs which need not here be mentioned, there is reason to believe that it is usually followed by certain indecencies, with which their husbands are not to be acquainted. kaoongut was present, indeed, on this occasion, but his age seemed to render him a privileged person; besides which, his own wife did not join in the game. the most common amusement, however, and to which their husbands made no objection, they performed at winter island expressly for our gratification. the females being collected to the number of ten or twelve, stood in as large a circle as the hut would admit, with okotook in the centre. he began by a sort of half howling, half singing noise, which appeared as if designed to call the attention of the women, the latter soon commencing the _amna aya_ song hereafter described. this they continued without variety, remaining quite still while okotook walked round within the circle; his body was rather bent forward, his eyes sometimes closed, his arms constantly moving up and down, and now and then hoarsely vociferating a word or two, as if to increase the animation of the singers, who, whenever he did this, quitted the chorus and rose into the words of the song. at the end of ten minutes they all left off at once, and after one minute's interval commenced a second act precisely similar and of equal duration; okotook continuing to invoke their muse as before. a third act, which followed this, varied only in his frequently, towards the close, throwing his feet up before and clapping his hands together, by which exertion he was thrown into a violent perspiration. he then retired, desiring a young man (who, as we were informed, was the only individual of several then present thus qualified) to take his place in the centre as master of the ceremonies, when the same antics as before were again gone through. after this description it will scarcely be necessary to remark, that nothing can be poorer in its way than this tedious singing recreation, which, as well as everything in which dancing is concerned, they express by the word m~om=ek-poke. they seem, however, to take great delight in it; and even a number of men, as well as all the children, crept into the hut by degrees to peep at the performance. the esquimaux women and children often amuse themselves with a game not unlike our "skip-rope." this is performed by two women holding the ends of a line, and whirling it regularly round and round, while a third jumps over it in the middle, according to the following order. she commences by jumping twice on both feet, then alternately with the right and left, and next four times with the feet slipped one behind the other, the rope passing once round at each jump. after this she performs a circle on the ground, jumping about half a dozen times in the course of it, which bringing her to her original position, the same thing is repeated as often as it can be done without entangling the line. one or two of the women performed this with considerable agility and adroitness, considering the clumsiness of their boots and jackets, and seemed to pride themselves, in some degree, on the qualification. a second kind of this game consists in two women holding a long rope by its ends, and whirling it round in such a manner, over the heads of two others standing close together near the middle of the bight, that each of these shall jump over it alternately. the art, therefore, which is indeed considerable, depends more on those whirling the rope than on the jumpers, who are, however, obliged to keep exact time, in order to be ready for the rope passing under their feet. the whole of these people, but especially the women, are fond of music, both vocal and instrumental. some of them might be said to be passionately so, removing their hair from off their ears, and bending their heads forward, as if to catch the sounds more distinctly, whenever we amused them in this manner. their own music is entirely vocal, unless, indeed, the drum and tambarine before mentioned be considered an exception. the voices of the women are soft and feminine, and, when singing with the men, are pitched an octave higher than theirs. they have most of them so far good ears, that, in whatever key a song is commenced by one of them, the rest will always join in perfect unison. after singing for ten minutes, the key had usually fallen a full semitone. only two of them, of whom iligliuk was one, could catch the tune as pitched by an instrument, which made it difficult with most of them to complete the writing of the notes; for if they once left off they were sure to recommence in some other key, though a flute or violin was playing at the time. * * * * * during the season passed at winter island, which appears to have been a healthy one with the esquimaux, we had little opportunity of becoming acquainted with the diseases to which they are subject. our subsequent intercourse with a great number of these people at igloolik having unfortunately afforded more frequent and fatal instances of sickness among them, i here insert mr. edwards's remarks on this subject. "our first communication with these people at winter island gave us a more favourable impression of their general health than subsequent experience confirmed. there, however, they were not free from sickness. a catarrhal affection, in the month of february, became generally prevalent, from which they readily recovered after the exciting causes, intemperance and exposure to wet, had ceased to operate. a solitary instance of pleurisy also occurred, which probably might have ended fatally but for timely assistance. our intercourse with them in the summer was more interrupted; but at our occasional meetings they were observed to be enjoying excellent health. it is probable that their certain supplies of food, and the nomade kind of life they lead in its pursuit during that season, are favourable to health. nutrition goes on actively, and an astonishing increase of strength and fulness is acquired. active diseases might now be looked for, but that the powers of nature are providentially exerted with effect. "the unlimited use of stimulating animal food, on which they are from infancy fed, induces at an early age a highly plethoric state of the vascular system. the weaker, over-distended vessels of the nose quickly yield to the increased impetus of the blood, and an active hemorrhage relieves the subject. as the same causes continue to be applied in excess at frequent intervals, and are followed by similar effects, a kind of vicarious hemorrhage at length becomes established by habit; superseding the intervention of art, and having no small share in maintaining a balance in the circulating system. the phenomenon is too constant to have escaped the observation of those who have visited the different esquimaux people; a party of them has, indeed, rarely been seen, that did not exhibit two or three instances of the fact. "about the month of september, the approach of winter induced the esquimaux at igloolik to abandon their tents and to retire into their more established village. the majority were here crowded into huts of a permanent construction, the materials composing the sides being stones and the bones of whales, and the roofs being formed of skins, turf, and snow; the rest of the people were lodged in snow huts. for a while they continued very healthy; in fact, as long as the temperature of the interior did not exceed the freezing point, the vapours of the atmosphere congealed upon the walls, and the air remained dry and tolerably pure; besides, their hard-frozen winter stock of walrus did not at this time tempt them to indulge their appetites immoderately. in january the temperature suffered an unseasonable rise; some successful captures of walrus also took place; and these circumstances, combined perhaps with some superstitious customs of which we were ignorant, seemed the signal for giving way to sensuality. the lamps were accumulated, and the kettles more frequently replenished; and gluttony, in its most disgusting form, became for a while the order of the day. the esquimaux were now seen wallowing in filth, while some, surfeited, lay stretched upon their skins, enormously distended, and with their friends employed in rolling them about, to assist the operations of oppressed nature. the roofs of their huts were no longer congealed, but dripping with wet and threatening speedy dissolution. the air was, in the bone huts, damp, hot, and beyond sufferance offensive with putrid exhalations from the decomposing relics of offals or other animal matter permitted to remain from year to year undisturbed in these horrible sinks. "what the consequences might have been had this state of affairs long continued, it is not difficult to imagine; but, fortunately for them, an early and gradual dispersion took place, so that by the end of january few individuals were left in the village. the rest, in divided bodies, established themselves in snow huts upon the sea-ice at some distance from the land. before this change had been completed, disorders of an inflammatory character had appeared. a few went away sick, some were unable to remove, and others taken ill upon the ice, and we heard of the death of several about this period. "their distance from the ships at once precluded any effectual assistance being rendered them at their huts, and their removal on board with safety; the complaints of those who died at the huts, therefore, did not come under observation. it appears, however, to have been acute inflammation of some of the abdominal viscera, very rapid in its career. in the generality, the disease assumed a more insidious and sub-acute form, under which the patient lingered for a while, and was then either carried off by a diarrhoea, or slowly recovered by the powers of nature. three or four individuals, who, with some risk and trouble, were brought to the ships, we were providentially instrumental in recovering; but two others, almost helpless patients, were so far exhausted before their arrival, that the endeavours used were unsuccessful, and death was probably hastened by their removal. "that affection of the eyes known by the name of snow-blindness, is extremely frequent among these people. with them it scarcely ever goes beyond painful irritation, while among strangers inflammation is sometimes the consequence. i have not seen them use any other remedy besides the exclusion of light; but, as a preventive, a wooden eye-screen is worn, very simple in its construction, consisting of a curved piece of wood, six or seven inches long, and ten or twelve lines broad. it is tied over the eyes like a pair of spectacles, being adapted to the forehead and nose, and hollowed out to favour the motion of the eyelids. a few rays of light only are admitted through a narrow slit an inch long, cut opposite to each eye. "there are, upon the whole, no people more destitute of curative means than these. with the exception of the hemorrhage already mentioned, which they duly appreciate, and have been observed to excite artificially to cure headache, they are ignorant of any rational method of procuring relief. it has not been ascertained that they use a single herb medicinally. as prophylactics, they wear amulets, which are usually the teeth, bones, or hair of some animal, the more rare apparently the more valuable. in absolute sickness they depend entirely upon their angekoks, who, they persuade themselves, have influence over some submarine deities who govern their destiny. the mummeries of these impostors, consisting in pretended consultations with their oracles, are looked upon with confidence, and their mandates, however absurd, superstitiously submitted to. these are constituted of unmeaning ceremonies and prohibitions generally affecting the diet, both in kind and mode, but never in quantity. seal's flesh is forbidden, for instance, in one disease, that of the walrus in the other; the heart is denied to some, and the liver to others. a poor woman, on discovering that the meat she had in her mouth was a piece of fried heart instead of liver, appeared horror-struck; and a man was in equal tribulation at having eaten, by mistake, a piece of meat cooked in his wife's kettle. "personal deformity from malconformation is uncommon; the only instance i remember being that of a young woman, whose utterance was unintelligibly nasal, in consequence of an imperfect development of the palatine bones leaving a gap in the roof of the mouth." * * * * * whatever may be the abundance sometimes enjoyed by these people, and whatever the maladies occasioned by their too frequent abuse of it, it is certain that they occasionally suffer very severely from the opposite extreme. a remarkably intelligent woman informed captain lyon, that two years ago some esquimaux arrived at igloolik from a place near _akkoolee_, bringing information that, during a very grievous famine, one party of men had fallen upon another and killed them; and that they afterward subsisted on their flesh, while in a frozen state, but never cooked or even thawed it. this horrible account was soon after confirmed by toolemak on board the fury; and though he was evidently uneasy at our having heard the story, and conversed upon it with reluctance, yet, by means of our questions, he was brought to name, upon his fingers, five individuals who had been killed upon this occasion. of the fact, therefore, there can be no doubt; but it is certain, also, that we ourselves scarcely regarded it with greater horror than those who related it; and the occurrence may be considered similar to those dreadful instances on record, even among civilized nations, of men devouring one another, in wrecks or boats, when rendered desperate by the sufferings of actual starvation. the ceremony of crying, which has before been mentioned as practised after a person's death, is not, however, altogether confined to those melancholy occasions, but is occasionally adopted in cases of illness, and that of no very dangerous kind. the father of a sick person enters the apartment, and, after looking at him a few seconds without speaking, announces by a kind of low sob his preparation for the coming ceremony. at this signal every other individual present composes his features for crying, and the leader of the chorus then setting up a loud and piteous howl, which lasts about a minute, is joined by all the rest, who shed abundant tears during the process. so decidedly is this a matter of form, unaccompanied by any feeling of sorrow, that those who are not relatives shed just as many tears as those that are; to which may be added, that in the instances which we saw there was no real occasion for crying at all. it must, therefore, be considered in the light of a ceremony of condolence, which it would be either indecorous or unlucky to omit. i have already given several instances of the little care these people take in the interment of their dead, especially in the winter season; it is certain, however, that this arises from some superstitious notion, and particularly from the belief that any heavy weight upon the corpse would have an injurious effect upon the deceased in a future state of existence; for even in the summer, when it would be an easy matter to secure a body from the depredations of wild animals, the mode of burial is not essentially different. the corpse of a child observed by lieutenant palmer, he describes "as being laid in a regular but shallow grave, with its head to the northeast. it was decently dressed in a good deerskin jacket, and a sealskin prepared without the hair was carefully placed as a cover to the whole figure, and tucked in on all sides. the body was covered with flat pieces of limestone, which, however, were so light that a fox might easily have removed them. near the grave were four little separate piles of stones, not more than a foot in height, in one of which we noticed a piece of red cloth and a black silk handkerchief, in a second a pair of child's boots and mittens, and in each of the others a whalebone pot. the face of the child looked unusually clean and fresh, and a few days could only have elapsed since its decease." these esquimaux do not appear to have any idea of the existence of one supreme being, nor indeed can they be said to entertain any notions on this subject which may be dignified with the name of religion. their superstitions, which are numerous, have all some reference to the preternatural agency of a number of _to=orng~ow_ or spirits, with whom, on certain occasions, the _angetkooks_ pretend to hold mysterious intercourse, and who, in various and distinct ways, are supposed to preside over the destinies of the esquimaux. on particular occasions of sickness or want of food, the angetkooks contrive, by means of a darkened hut, a peculiar modulation of the voices and the uttering of a variety of unintelligible sounds, to persuade their countrymen that they are descending to the lower regions for this purpose, where they force the spirits to communicate the desired information. the superstitious reverence in which these wizards are held, and a considerable degree of ingenuity in their mode of performing their mummery, prevent the detection of the imposture, and secure implicit confidence in these absurd oracles. some account of their ideas repecting death, and of their belief in a future state of existence, has already been introduced in the course of the foregoing pages, in the order of those occurrences which furnished us with opportunities of observing them. narrative of an attempt to reach the north pole, in boats fitted for the purpose, and attached to his majesty's ship hecla, in the year . narrative introduction. in april, , i proposed to the right honourable viscount melville, first lord commissioner of the admiralty, to attempt to reach the north pole by means of travelling with sledge-boats over the ice, or through any spaces of open water that might occur. my proposal was soon afterward referred to the president and council of the royal society, who strongly recommended its adoption; and an expedition being accordingly directed to be equipped for this purpose, i had the honour of being appointed to the command of it; and my commission for his majesty's ship the hecla, which was intended to carry us to spitzbergen, was dated the th of november, . two boats were constructed at woolwich, under my superintendence, after an excellent model suggested by mr. peake, and nearly resembling what are called "troop-boats," having great flatness of floor, with the extreme breadth carried well forward and aft, and possessing the utmost buoyancy, as well as capacity for stowage. their length was twenty feet, and their extreme breadth seven feet. the timbers were made of tough ash and hickory, one inch by half an inch square, and a foot apart, with a "half-timber" of smaller size between each two. on the outside of the frame thus formed was laid a covering of macintosh's water-proof canvass, the outer part being covered with tar. over this was placed a plank of fir, only three sixteenths of an inch thick; then a sheet of stout felt; and, over all, an oak plank of the same thickness as the fir; the whole of these being firmly and closely secured to the timbers by iron screws applied from without. the following narrative will show how admirably the elasticity of this mode of construction was adapted to withstand the constant twisting and concussion to which the boats were subject.[ ] on each side of the keel, and projecting considerably below it, was attached a strong "runner," shod with smooth steel, in the manner of a sledge, upon which the boat entirely rested while upon the ice; and, to afford some additional chance of making progress on hard and level fields, we also applied to each boat two wheels, of five feet diameter, and a small one abaft, having a swivel for steering by, like that of a bath chair; but these, owing to the irregularities of the ice, did not prove of any service, and were subsequently relinquished. a "span" of hide-rope was attached to the forepart of the runners, and to this were affixed two strong ropes of horse-hair, for dragging the boat: each individual being furnished with a broad leathern shoulder-belt, which could readily be fastened to or detached from the drag-ropes. the interior arrangement consisted only of two thwarts; a locker at each end for the nautical and other instruments, and for the smaller stores; and a very slight framework along the sides for containing the bags of biscuit and our spare clothes. a bamboo mast nineteen feet long, a tanned duck sail, answering also the purpose of an awning, a spreat, one boat-hook, fourteen paddles, and a steer-oar, completed each boat's equipment. two officers and twelve men (ten of the latter being seamen, and two marines) were selected for each boat's crew. it was proposed to take with us resources for ninety days; to set out from spitzbergen, if possible, about the beginning of june; and to occupy the months of june, july, and august in attempting to reach the pole and returning to the ship; making an average journey of thirteen miles and a half per day. our provisions consisted of biscuit of the best wheaten flour; beef _pemmican_;[ ] sweetened cocoa-powder, and a small proportion of rum, the latter concentrated to fifty-five per cent. above proof, in order to save weight and stowage. the proper instruments were provided, both by the admiralty and the board of longitude, for making such observations as might be interesting in the higher latitudes, and as the nature of the enterprise would permit. six pocket chronometers, the property of the public, were furnished for this service; and messrs. parkinson and frodsham, with their usual liberality, intrusted to our care several other excellent watches, on trial, at their own expense. annexed is a list of the different articles composing the equipment of the boats, together with the actual weight of each. enter- endeav- prise our lbs. lbs. boat . . . . . . . . . bamboo mast, spreat, boat-hook, steer-oar. . - / - / fourteen paddles . . . . . . . sail (or awning) . . . . . . . spare rope and line . . . . . . small sounding line ( fathoms in all) . . . carpenters' tools, screws, nails, &c. . . . copper and felt for repairs . . . . . four fowling pieces,with bayonets. . . . small articles for guns. . . . . . -- ammunition . . . . . . . . - / - / instruments. . . . . . . . books. . . . . . . . . - / s { p {fur suits for sleeping in ( in each boat) . . a {thick-nailed boots ( in each boat) . . . r {esquimaux do., with spare soles ( in each . e { boat . . . . . . . . c {flannel shirts ( in each boat) . . . . - / - / l {guernsey frocks (do. do.) . . . . . - / - / o {thick drawers (do. do.) . . . . t {mittens ( in each boat) . . . . . h {comforters ( in each boat) . . . . e {scotch caps (do. do.) . . . . . s { a bag of small articles for the officers, . including soap, &c., &c. . . . . . do. do. for the men do. . . . . . biscuit . . . . . . . . pemmican . . . . . . . . rum . . . . . . . . cocoa powder, sweetened. . . . . . salt . . . . . . . . . spirits of wine . . . . . . . cooking apparatus. . . . . . . -- tobacco . . . . . . . . medicine chest . -- pannikins, knife, fork, and spoon ( in each boat) . weighing-dials and measures . various small articles for repairs, &c., not mentioned above -- packages for provisions, clothes, &c ---- ---- ) / / weight, per man lbs. exclusive of four sledges, weighing lbs. each. i have not thought it necessary, in the course of this volume, to enter into any examination of the question respecting the approaches to the north pole which had already been effected previous to our late attempt. i shall, therefore, only add that, after carefully weighing the various authorities, from which every individual interested in this matter is at liberty to form his own conclusions, my own impartial conviction, at the time of our setting out on this enterprise, coincided (with a single exception) with the opinion expressed by the commissioners of longitude in their memorial to the king, that "the progress of discovery had not arrived northward, according to any well-authenticated accounts, so far as eighty-one degrees of north latitude." the exception to which i allude is in favour of mr. scoresby, who states his having, in the year , reached the latitude of ° ' " by actual observation, and ° ' by dead reckoning. i therefore consider the latter parallel as, in all probability, the highest which had ever been attained prior to the attempt recorded in the following pages. * * * * * the hecla being ready to proceed down the river, she was taken in tow, at ten a.m. on the th of march, , by the lightning steam-vessel; and having received and returned the cheers of the greenwich pensioners, the children of the naval asylum, and of various ships in the river, she made fast to the moorings at northfleet at three p.m. the following day was occupied in swinging the ship round on the various points of the compass, in order to obtain the amount of the deviation of the magnetic needle produced by the attraction of the ship's iron, and to fix mr. barlow's plate for correcting it.[ ] on the d of april the ship's company received three months' wages in advance, together with their river-pay; and on the following morning, at half past four, we weighed and made sail from the nore. we had at this time remarkably fine weather for the season of the year, and such a continuance of southerly winds that we arrived off the island of soroe, within which hammerfest lies, on the th, without having had occasion to make a tack till we entered the fiord which forms the northern entrance. the wind becoming light from the southward, and very variable, we were occupied the whole of the th in beating up towards hammerfest. in the evening a lapland boat came on board, and one of the men undertook to pilot the ship to the anchorage, which, after beating all night against an ebb tide, we reached at three a.m. on the th. finding that our reindeer had not arrived, i immediately despatched lieutenant crozier, in one of our own boats, to alten, from whence they were expected--a distance of about sixty english miles. at the same time, we landed our observatories and instruments at fugleness, near the establishment of messrs. crowe and woodfall, the british merchants residing here; and lieutenant foster and myself immediately commenced our magnetic and other observations, which were continued during the whole of our stay here. we completed our supply of water, and obtained a small quantity of venison, with abundance of good fish (principally torsk and cod), and some milk. we also purchased a set of snow-shoes for our travelling party, together with the lapland shoes of leather (called kamooga[ ]), which are the most convenient and comfortable for wearing with them; and we practised our people in the manner of walking in them in deep snow, which afforded them fine exercise and amusement. on the d, lieutenant crozier returned in the boat from alten, and was followed the next day by mr. wooodfall, who brought with him eight reindeer for our use, together with a supply of moss for their provender (_cenomyce rangiferina_). as, however, the latter required a great deal of picking, so as to render it fit to carry with us over the ice, and as it was also necessary that we should be instructed in the manner of managing the deer, i determined on remaining a day or two longer for these purposes. nothing can be more beautiful than the training of the lapland reindeer. with a simple collar of skin round his neck, a single trace of the same material attached to the "pulk" or sledge, and passing between his legs, and one rein, fastened like a halter about his neck, this intelligent and docile animal is perfectly under the command of an experienced driver, and performs astonishing journeys over the softest snow. when the rein is thrown over on the off side of the animal, he immediately sets off at a full, trot, and stops short the instant it is thrown back to the near side. shaking the rein over his back is the only whip that is required. in a short time after setting off, they appear to be gasping for breath, as if quite exhausted; but, if not driven too fast at first, they soon recover this, and then go on without difficulty. the quantity of _clean_ moss considered requisite for each deer per day is four pounds; but they will go five or six days without provender, and not suffer materially. as long as they can pick up snow as they go along, which they like to eat quite clean, they require no water; and ice is to them a comfortable bed. it may well be imagined, with such qualifications, how valuable these animals seemed likely to prove to us; and the more we became accustomed, and, i may say, attached to them, the more painful became the idea of the necessity which was likely to exist, of ultimately having recourse to them as provision for ourselves. our preparations were completed on the th, but the wind continuing fresh from the northwestern quarter in the offing, we had no prospect of making any progress till the morning of the th, when we weighed at six a.m. on the th of may, being in latitude ° ', and longitude ° ' e., we met with the first straggling mass of ice, after which, in sailing about miles in a n.n.w. direction, there was always a number of loose masses in sight; but it did not occur in continuous "streams" till the morning of the th, in latitude ° ', a few miles to the eastward of the meridian of greenwich. on the th several whalers were in sight, and mr. bennett, the master of the venerable, of hull, whom we had before met in baffin's bay in , came on board. from him i learned that several of the ships had been in the ice since the middle of april, some of them having been so far to the westward as the island of jan mayen, and that they were now endeavouring to push to the northward. they considered the ice to offer more obstacles to the attainment of this object than it had done for many years past.[ ] none of the ships had yet taken a single whale, which, indeed, they never expect to do to the southward of about °. in the afternoon, after waiting for some time for the ice to open, we again entered it, in company with all the whalers, and by the following morning had succeeded in pushing about fifty miles farther to the northward, though not without some heavy blows in "boring" through the ice. at five a.m. on the th we passed magdalena bay, and by ten o'clock had arrived off hakluyt's headland, round which we hauled to the southeastward, to look, for anchorage in smerenburg harbour. in this, however, we were disappointed, the whole place being occupied by one unbroken floe of ice, still firmly attached to the land on each side. here we made fast, though not without considerable difficulty; the wind, which was now freshening from the southward, blowing in such violent and irregular gusts off the high land that the ship was scarcely manageable. walruses, dovekies, and eider-ducks were very numerous here, especially the former; and four reindeer came down upon the ice near the ship. we now prepared a quantity of provisions and other stores to land at hakluyt's headland, as a supply for my party on our return from the northward; so that, in case of the ship being obliged to go more to the southward, or of our not being able at once to reach her, we should be furnished with a few days' resources of every kind. our intentions were, however, frustrated for the present; for we had scarcely secured our hawsers, when a hard gale came on from the southward, threatening every moment to snap them in two, and drive us from our anchorage. we held on for several hours, till, at nine p.m., some swell having set in upon the margin of the ice, it began to break off and drift away. every possible exertion was instantly made to shift our stream cable farther in upon the floe; but it broke away so quickly as to baffle every endeavour, and at ten the ship went adrift, the wind blowing still harder than before. having hauled in the hawsers and got the boats on board, we set the close-reefed topsails, to endeavour to hang to windward; but the wind blew in such tremendous gusts from the high land as almost to lay the ship on her beam-ends; so that we were obliged to reduce our canvass to the main topsail and stormsails, and let her drive to leeward.[ ] the situation of the ship now appeared a very precarious one, the wind still blowing with unabated violence, and with every appearance of a continuance of stormy weather. under these circumstances, it was the general opinion of the officers, as well as my own, that it was advisable to take advantage of the comparatively smooth water within the stream of ice, and to run the ship into the pack, rather than incur the risk of having to do the same thing in a heavy sea. this plan succeeded remarkably well; a tolerably smooth and open part of the margin being selected, the ship was forced into it at three a.m., when, after encountering a few severe blows from the heavy washed pieces which always occur near the sea-edge, she was gradually carried onward under all sail, and at four a.m. we got into a perfectly smooth and secure situation, half a mile within the margin of a "pack." it was impossible not to consider ourselves highly fortunate in having thus early, and with no great difficulty, succeeded in reaching the highest latitude to which it was our object to take the ship. but, from what we had already seen at smerenburg, it was also impossible not to feel much anxiety as to the prospect of getting her into any secure harbour before the proper time of my departure to the northward should arrive. however, we could only wait patiently for the result of a few more days; and, in the mean time, everybody was busily employed in completing the arrangements for our departure, so that, if an opportunity did offer of securing the ship, we might have nothing else to attend to. our deer were in good order, having been thriving well ever since they came on board; they make excellent sailors, and do not seem to mind bad weather, always lying down quite comfortable whenever there is any sea. in order to try what our chances were, at the present low temperature, of procuring water upon the ice without expense of fuel, we laid a black painted canvass cloth, and also a piece of black felt, upon the surface of the snow; the temperature of the atmosphere being from ° to °. these substances had, in a couple of hours, sunk half an inch into the snow, but no water could be collected. i was desirous, also, of ascertaining whether any part of the real sea-ice was so entirely fresh when melted as to be drunk without injury or inconvenience. for this purpose we cut a block of ice from a large hummock, about ten feet high above the sea; and having broken, pounded, and melted it, without any previous washing, we found it, both by the hydrometer and by the chemical test (nitrate of silver), _more_ free from salt than any which we had in our tanks, and which was procured from hammerfest. i considered this satisfactory, because, in the autumn, the pools of water met with upon the ice generally become very brackish, in consequence of the sea-water being drawn up into them by capillary action as the ice becomes more "rotten" and porous; and we might, therefore, have to depend chiefly on melted ice for our daily supply. no change took place till the st, when, on the weather clearing up, we found that the open water we had left to the westward was now wholly closed up, and that there was none whatever in sight. it was now also so close in-shore, that on the d, lieutenant ross, with a party of officers and men, succeeded in landing without difficulty. they found a small floe of level ice close to the beach, which appeared very lately formed. walking up to a little conspicuous eminence near the eastern end of the beach, they found it to be composed of clay-slate, tinged of a brownish red colour. the few uncovered parts of the beach were strewed with smooth schistose fragments of the same mineral, and in some parts a quantity of thin slates of it lay closely disposed together in a vertical position. on the little hillock were two graves, bearing the dates of and on some of the stones which marked them, and a considerable quantity of fir driftwood lay upon the beach. i now clearly saw that there was, for the present, no reasonable prospect of our getting towards any harbour; and i could not but feel confident that, even if we did get to the entrance of any, some time must be occupied in securing the ship. it may be well imagined how anxious i had now become to delay no longer in setting out upon the main object of the expedition. i felt that a few days at the commencement of the season, short as it is in these regions, might be of great importance as to the result of our enterprise, while the ship seemed to be so far secure from any immediate danger as to justify my leaving her, with a reduced crew, in her present situation. the nature of the ice was, beyond all comparison, the most unfavourable for our purpose that i remember to have ever seen. it consisted only of loose pieces, scarcely any of them fifteen or twenty yards square; and when any so large did occur, their, margins were surrounded by the smaller ones, thrown up by the recent pressure into ten thousand various shapes, and presenting high and sharp angular masses at every other step. the men compared it to a stone-mason's yard, which, except that the stones were of ten times the usual dimensions, it indeed very much resembled. the only inducement to set out over such a road was the certainty that floes and fields lay beyond it, and the hope that they were not _far_ beyond it. in this respect, indeed, i considered our present easterly position as a probable advantage, since the ice was much less likely to have been disturbed to any great extent northward in this meridian than to the westward clear of the land, where every southerly breeze was sure to be making havoc among it. another very important advantage in setting off on this meridian appeared to me to be, that, the land of spitzbergen lying immediately over against the ice, the latter could never drift so much or so fast to the southward as it might farther to the westward. upon these grounds it was that i was anxious to make an attempt, at least, as soon as our arrangements could be completed; and the officers being of the same opinion as myself, we hoisted out the boats early in the morning of the th, and, having put the things into one of them, endeavoured, by way of experiment, to get her to a little distance from the ship. such however, were the irregularities of the ice, that, even with the assistance of an additional party of men, it was obvious that we could not have gained a single mile in a day, and, what was still more important, not without almost certain and serious injury to the boats by their striking against the angular masses. under these circumstances, it was but too evident to every one that it would have been highly imprudent to persist in setting out, since, if the ice, after all, should clear away, even in a week, so as to allow us to get a few miles nearer the main body, time would be ultimately saved by our delay, to say nothing of the wear and tear, and expense of our provisions. i was, therefore, very reluctantly compelled to yield to this necessity, and to order the things to be got on board again. immediately after we had, on the th, proved experimentally the extreme difficulty of transporting our boats and stores over the ice which now surrounded us, i made up my mind to the very great probability there seemed to be of the necessity of adopting such alterations in our original plans as would accommodate them to these untoward circumstances at the outset. the boats forming the main impediment, not so much on account of their absolute weight as from the difficulty of managing so large a body upon a road of this nature, i made preparations for the possible contingency of our having to take only one, continuing the same number of men in our whole party. all that i saw reason to apprehend from having only a single boat on our outward journey, was some occasional delay in ferrying over spaces of water in two trips instead of one; but we considered that this would be much more than compensated by the increased rate at which we should go whenever we were upon the ice, as we expected to be nine days out of ten. the principal disadvantage, therefore, consisted in our not all being able to sleep in the boat, and this we proposed to obviate in the following manner. we constructed out of the lapland snow-shoes fourteen sledges, each sledge consisting of two pairs well fastened together. upon these we proposed dragging almost all the weight, so as to keep the boat nearly without any cargo in her, as we found by experiment that a man could drag about three hundred pounds on one of the sledges with more facility than he could drag the boat when his proportion did not exceed one hundred pounds. upon these sledges we proposed lodging half our party alternately each night, placing them under the lee of the boat, and then stretching over them, as a sloped roof, a second awning, which we fitted for the purpose. upon this plan we likewise could afford to make our boat considerably stronger, adding some stout iron knees to the supports of her runners, and increasing our store of materials for repairing her. the weight reduced by this arrangement would have been above two thousand pounds, without taking away any article conducive to our comfort, except the boat and her gear. i proposed to the officers and men who had been selected to accompany me this change in our equipment; and i need scarcely say that they all clearly saw the probable necessity of it, and cheerfully acquiesced in its adoption, if requisite. on the th i sent lieutenants foster and crozier, with the greater part of the ship's company, and with a third or spare travelling-boat, to endeavour to land her on red beach, together with a quantity of stores, including provisions, as a deposite for us on our return from the northward, should it so happen, as was not improbable, that we should return to the eastward. it is impossible to describe the labour attending this attempt. suffice it to say, that, after working for fourteen hours, they returned on board at midnight, having accomplished about four miles out of the six. the next day they returned to the boat, and, after several hours' exertion, landed her on the beach with the stores. what added to the fatigue of this service was the necessity of taking a small boat to cross pools of water on their return, so that they had to drag this boat both ways, besides that which they went to convey. having, however, had an opportunity of trying what could be done upon a regular and level floe which lay close to the beach, everybody was of opinion, as i had always been, that we could easily travel twenty miles a day on ice of that kind. it will not be wondered at if the apparent hopelessness of getting the ship free for the present again suggested the necessity of my own setting out: and i had once more, on the st of june, after an anxious consultation with my officers, resolved on making a second attempt, when the ice near us, which had opened at regular hours with the tide for three or four days past, began to set us much more rapidly than usual to the eastward, and towards a low point which runs off from red beach, near its western end, causing us to shoal the water in a few hours from fifty-two to twenty fathoms, and on the following morning to fourteen and a half. by sending a lead-line over the ice a few hundred yards beyond us, we found ten fathoms water. however unfavourable the aspect of our affairs seemed before, this new change could not fail to alter it for the worse. the situation of the ship now, indeed, required my whole attention; for the ice occasionally opened and shut within twenty or twenty-five yards of us on the in-shore side, the ship herself was still very firmly imbedded by the turned up masses which pressed upon her on the th, and which, on the other side, as well as ahead and astern, were of considerable extent. thus she formed, as it were, part of a floe, which went drifting about in the manner above described. this was of little importance while she was in sixty fathoms of water, as she was for the first fourteen days of our besetment, and a distance of five or six miles from the land; but now that she had shoaled the water so considerably, and approached the low point within two or three miles, it became a matter of importance to try whether any labour we could bestow upon it would liberate the ship from her present imbedded state, so as to be at least ready to take advantage of slack water, should any occur, to keep her off the shore. all hands were therefore set to work with handspikes, capstan-bars, and axes, it being necessary to detach every separate mass, however small, before the larger ones could be moved. the harassing and laborious nature of this operation is such as nothing but experience can possibly give an idea of, especially when, as in this case, we had only a small pool of clear water near the margin in which the detached pieces could be floated out. however, we continued at work, with only the necessary intermissions for rest and meals, during this and the two following days, and on the evening of the d had accomplished all that the closeness of the ice would permit; but the ship was still by no means free, numberless masses of ice being doubled under her, even below her keel, which could not be moved without more space for working. painful as was this protracted delay in setting out upon the principal object of the expedition, the absolute necessity of it will scarcely, i think, be doubted by any person conversant in such matters. so long as the ship continued undisturbed by the ice, nearly stationary, and in deep water, for several days together, i had, in my anxiety to lose not a moment's time, ventured to flatter myself with the hope that, in a case of such unlooked-for emergency, when every moment of our short and uncertain season was of importance, i might be justified in quitting my ship at sea; and in this opinion the zeal of my officers, both those who were to accompany me and those who were to remain on board, induced them unanimously to concur. but the case was now materially altered; for it had become plain to every seaman in the ship, first, that the safety of the hecla, if thus left with less than half her working hands, could not be reckoned upon for an hour; and, secondly, that no human foresight could enable us to conjecture, should we set out while she was thus situated, when or where we should find her on our return. in fact, it appeared to us at this time, as indeed it was, a very providential circumstance, that the impracticable nature of the ice for travelling had offered no encouragement to persevere in my original intention of setting out a week before this time. for the two following days we continued closely beset, but still driving to the eastward across the mouth of weyde bay, which is here six or seven miles in breadth, and appeared to be very deep, the land in the centre receding to a distance of full eight leagues. in the afternoon of the th, we had driven within five miles of a point of land, beyond which, to the eastward, it seemed to recede considerably; and this appearing to answer tolerably to the situation of muscle or mussel bay, as laid down in most of the charts, i was very anxious to discover whether we could here find shelter for the ship. a lane of water leading towards the land at no great distance from us, i hauled a boat over the ice and then rowed on shore, accompanied by lieutenant foster and some of the other officers, taking with me another small store of provisions, to be deposited here, as a future resource for my party, should we approach this part of the coast. landing at half past six p.m., and leaving mr. bird to bury the provisions, lieutenant foster and myself walked without delay to the eastward, and, on ascending the point, found that there was, as we had supposed, an indentation in the coast on the other side. we now began to conceive the most flattering hopes of discovering something like a harbour for the ship, and pushed on with all possible haste to examine the place farther; but, after three hours walking, were much mortified, on arriving at its head, to find that it was nothing but an open bay, entirely exposed to the inroads of all the northern ice, and therefore quite unfit for the ship. we returned to the boat greatly disappointed, and reached the hecla at . a.m. on the th. i do not remember to have ever experienced in these regions such a continuance of beautiful weather as we now had, during more than three weeks that we had been on the northern coast of spitzbergen. day after day we had a clear and cloudless sky, scarcely any wind, and, with the exception of a few days previous to the d of may, a warm temperature in the shade, and quite a scorching sun. on the d of june we had a shower of rain, and on the th it rained pretty hard for two or three hours. after the st of june we could procure abundance of excellent water upon the ice, and by the end of the first week the floe-pieces were looking blue with it in some parts, and the snow had everywhere become too soft to bear a man's weight. on the th, the ship, still closely beset, had drifted much more to the eastward, being within a mile of the spot where the provisions had been deposited the preceding evening. there was now no other ice between us and the land except the floe to which we had been so long attached; and round this we were occasionally obliged to warp, whenever a little slackening of the ice permitted, in order to prevent our getting too near the rocks. in this situation of suspense and anxiety we still remained until the evening of the th, when a breeze at length springing up from the southward began to open out the ice from the point near which we lay. as soon as the channel was three or four hundred yards wide, we warped into the clear water, and, making sail, rounded the point in safety, having no soundings with twenty fathoms, at one third of a mile from a small rocky islet lying off it. in the mean time the wind had been driving the ice so fast off the land as to form for us a clear communication with the open water before seen to the eastward; and thus we were at length liberated from our confinement, after a close and tedious "besetment" of twenty-four days. the weather continued so thick, that, impatient as we were to stand in towards the eastern land, we could not venture to do so till eleven a.m. on the th, when we made sail towards brandywine bay, the wind being now from the w.s.w., or nearly dead upon that shore. the weather clearing up at . p.m., we saw the eastern land, and soon after discovered the grounded ice off low island; walden's island was also plainly in sight to the n.e. the bay seemed deeply indented, and very likely to afford nooks such as we wanted; and where so large a space of open water, and, consequently, some sea, had been exerting its influence for a considerable time, we flattered ourselves with the most sanguine hopes of now having access to the shores, sufficiently near, at least, for sawing into some place of shelter. how, then, shall i express our surprise and mortification in finding that the whole of the coast, from the islands northward to black point, and apparently also as far as walden's island, was rendered inaccessible by one continuous and heavy floe, everywhere attached to the shores, and to the numberless grounded masses about the island, this immense barrier being in some places six or seven miles in width, and not less than twelve feet in thickness near the margin. the prospect from our masthead at this time was certainly enough to cast a damp over every sanguine expectation i had formed, of being _soon_ enabled to place the hecla in security; and more willingly than ever would i, at this period, have persuaded myself, if possible, that i should be justified in quitting her at sea. such, however, was the nature of this navigation, as regarded the combined difficulties arising from ice and a large extent of shoal and unsurveyed ground, that, even with our full complement of officers and men on board, all our strength and exertions might scarcely have sufficed, in a single gale of wind, to keep the ship tolerably secure, and much less could i have ensured placing her ultimately in any proper situation for picking up an absent party; for, if once again beset, she must, of course, be at the mercy of the ice. the conclusion was, therefore, irresistibly forced upon my mind, that thus to leave the ship would be to expose her to imminent and certain peril, rendering it impossible to conjecture where we should find her on our return, and, therefore, rashly to place all parties in a situation from which nothing but disaster could reasonably be expected to ensue. after beating through much ice, which was all of the drift or broken kind, and had all found its way hither in the last two days, we got into an open space of water in-shore, and about six miles to the northward of low island; and on the morning of the th stretched in towards walden island, around which we found, as we had feared, a considerable quantity of fixed ice. it was certainly much less here, than elsewhere; but the inner, or eastern side of the island was entirely enveloped by it. having from twenty-six to twenty-four fathoms at the distance of four miles from walden island, i was preparing two boats, with the intention of going to sound about its northern point, which was the most clear of ice, and not without a faint hope of finding something like shelter there; but i was prevented by a thick fog coming on. continuing, therefore, to beat to the northward, we passed occasionally a good deal of drift ice, but with every appearance of much clear water in that direction; and the weather clearing about midnight, we observed in latitude ° ' ". the seven islands were in sight to the eastward, and the "little table island" of phipps bore e.n.e. (true) distant about nine or ten miles. it is a mere craggy rock, rising, perhaps, from four to five hundred feet above the level of the sea, and with a small low islet lying off its northern end. this island, being the northernmost known land in the world, naturally excited much of our curiosity; and bleak, and barren, and rugged as it is, one could not help gazing at it with intense interest. at midnight on the th we had reached the latitude ° ' " our longitude by chronometers at this time was ° ' e., little table island bearing s. ° e. (true), distant six or seven leagues, and walden island s. ° e.[ ] the depth of water was ninety-seven fathoms, on a bottom of greenish mud; and the temperature at ninety-five fathoms, by six's thermometer, was . °, that at the surface being °, and of the air °. all that could here be seen to the northward was loose drift-ice. to the northeast it was particularly open, and i have no doubt that we might have gone many miles farther in that direction, had it not been a much more important object to keep the ship free than to push her to the northward. we now stood back again to the southward, in order again to examine the coast wherever we could approach it; but found, on the th, that none of the land was at all accessible, the wind having got round to the w.n.w., and loaded all the shores with drift-ice. walden island being the first part clear of the loose ice, we stretched in for it on the th, and, when within two miles, observed that about half that space was occupied by land-ice, even on its northwestern side, which was the only accessible one, the rest being wholly enclosed by it. however, being desirous of obtaining a better view than our crow's-nest commanded, and also of depositing here a small quantity of provisions, i left the ship at one p.m., accompanied by lieutenant foster in a second boat, and, landing upon the ice, walked over about three quarters of a mile of high and rugged hummocks to the shore. ascending two or three hundred feet, we had a clear and extensive view of the seven islands, and of some land far beyond them to the eastward; and the whole sea was covered with one unbroken land-floe, attached to all the shores extending from the island where we stood, and which formed an abutment for it each way along the land as far as the eye could reach. after this discouraging prospect, which wholly destroyed every hope of finding a harbour among the seven islands, we returned to the place where the men had deposited the provisions, and, after making the necessary observations for the survey, returned immediately on board. observing from the island that the sea was perfectly clear to the northward, we now stood for little table island, with some slight hope that the rock off its northern end might afford shelter for the ship; at all events, being the most exposed, on account of its situation, it was the most likely to be free from ice. a thick fog prevented our getting near it till the morning of the th, when, having approached it within a mile and a half, i sent lieutenant ross on shore to a little islet, which was quite free from ice, where he deposited another small store of provisions, but found nothing like shelter for the ship. having no farther business here, and the easterly wind still continuing, i thought the best thing we could do would be to run again to the southward of low island, and try once more to approach the shores about the entrance of the waygatz strait. we therefore bore up under all sail to the southwest. it would be vain to deny that i had lately begun to entertain the most serious apprehensions as related to the accomplishment of our principal object. the th of june had now arrived, and all that we saw afforded us the most discouraging prospect as to our getting the hecla into harbour; while every day's experience showed how utterly rash a measure it would be to think of quitting her in her present situation, which, even with all her officers and men, was one of extreme precariousness and uncertainty. on the evening of the th, while standing in for the high land to the eastward of verlegen hook, which, with due attention to the lead, may be approached with safety, we perceived from the crow's-nest what appeared a low point, possibly affording some shelter for the ship, and which seemed to answer to an indentation of the coast laid down in an old dutch chart, and there called _treurenburg bay_. on the following morning i proceeded to examine the place, accompanied by lieutenant ross in a second boat, and, to our great joy, found it a considerable bay, with one part affording excellent landlocked anchorage and, what was equally fortunate, sufficiently clear of ice to allow the ship to enter. having sounded the entrance and determined on the anchorage, we returned to the ship to bring her in; and i cannot describe the satisfaction which the information of our success communicated to every individual on board. the main object of our enterprise now appeared almost within our grasp, and everybody seemed anxious to make up, by renewed exertions, for the time we had unavoidably lost. the ship was towed and warped in with the greatest alacrity, and at . a.m. on june th, we dropped the anchor in hecla cove, in thirteen fathoms, on a bottom of very tenacious blue clay, and made some hawsers fast to the land-ice, which still filled all the upper part of the bay. after resting a few hours, we sawed a canal a quarter of a mile in length, through which the ship was removed into a better situation, a bower-cable taken on shore and secured to the rocks, and an anchor, with the chain-cable, laid out the other way. on the morning of the st we hauled the launch up on the beach, it being my intention to direct such resources of every kind to be landed as would render our party wholly independent of the ship, either for returning to england or for wintering, in case of the ship being driven to sea by the ice; a contingency against which, in these regions, no precaution can altogether provide. i directed lieutenant foster, upon whom the charge of the hecla was now to devolve, to land without delay the necessary stores, keeping the ship seaworthy by taking in an equal quantity of ballast; and, as soon as he should be satisfied of her security from ice, to proceed on the survey of the eastern coast; but, should he see reason to doubt her safety with a still farther diminution of her crew to relinquish the survey, and attend exclusively to the ship. i also gave directions that notices should be sent, in the course of the summer, to the various stations where our depots of provisions were established, acquainting me with the situation and state of the ship, and giving me any other information which might be necessary for my guidance on our return from the northward. these and other arrangements being completed, i left the ship at five p.m. with our two boats, which we named the enterprise and endeavour, mr. beverly being attached to my own, and lieutenant ross, accompanied by mr. bird, in the other. besides these, i took lieutenant crozier in one of the ship's cutters, for the purpose of carrying some of our weight as far as walden island, and also a third store of provisions to be deposited on low island, as an intermediate station between walden island and the ship. as it was still necessary not to delay our return beyond the end of august, the time originally intended, i took, with me only seventy-one days provisions; which, including the boats and every other article, made up a weight of lbs. per man; and as it appeared highly improbable, from what we had seen of the very rugged nature of the ice we should first have to encounter, that either the reindeer, the snow-shoes, or the wheels would prove of any service for some time to come, i gave up the idea of taking them. we, however, constructed out of the snow-shoes four excellent sledges for dragging a part of our baggage over the ice; and these proved of invaluable service to us, while the rest of the things just mentioned would only have been an encumbrance. having received the usual salutation of three cheers from those we left behind, we paddled through a quantity of loose ice at the entrance of the bay, and then steered, in a perfectly open sea, and with calm and beautiful weather, for the western part of low island, which we reached at half past two on the morning of the d. having deposited the provisions, we set off at four a.m., paddling watch and watch, to give the people a little rest. it was still quite calm; but there being much ice about the island, and a thick fog coming on, we were several hours groping our way clear of it. the walruses were here very numerous, lying in herds upon the ice, and plunging into the water to follow us as we passed. the sound they utter is something between bellowing and very loud snorting, which, together with their grim, bearded countenances and long tusks, makes them appear, as indeed they are, rather formidable enemies to contend with. under our present circumstances, we were very well satisfied not to molest them, for they would soon have destroyed our boats if one had been wounded; but i believe they are never the first to make the attack. we landed upon the ice still attached to walden island at . a.m. on the d. our flat-bottomed boats rowed heavily with their loads, but proved perfectly safe, and very comfortable. the men being much fatigued, we rested here some hours, and, after making our final arrangements with lieutenant crozier, parted with him at three in the afternoon, and set off for little table island. finding there was likely to be so much open water in this neighbourhood in the autumn, i sent directions to lieutenant foster to have a spare boat deposited at walden island in time for our return, in case of any accident happening to ours. the land-ice, which still adhered to the seven islands, was very little more broken off than when the hecla had been here a week before; and we rowed along its margin a part of the way to little table island, where we arrived at ten p.m. we here examined and re-secured the provisions left on shore, having found our depôt at walden island disturbed by the bears. the prospect to the northward at this time was very favourable, there being only a small quantity of loose ice in sight; and the weather still continuing calm and clear, with the sea as smooth as a mirror, we set off without delay, at half past ten, taking our final leave of the spitzbergen shores, as we hoped, for at least two months. steering due north, we made good progress, our latitude by the sun's meridian altitude at midnight being ° ' ". a beautifully-coloured rainbow appeared for some time, without any appearance of rain falling. we observed that a considerable current was setting us to the eastward just after leaving the land, so that we had made a n.n.e. course, distance about ten miles, when we met with some ice, which soon becoming too close for farther progress, we landed upon a high hummock to obtain a better view. we here perceived that the ice was close to the northward, but to the westward we discovered some open water, which we reached after two or three hours' paddling, and found it a wide expanse, in which we sailed to the northward without obstruction, a fresh breeze having sprung up from the s.w. the weather soon after became very thick, with continued snow, requiring great care in looking out for the ice, which made its appearance after two hours' run, and gradually became closer, till at length we were stopped by it at noon, and obliged to haul the boats upon a small floe-piece, our latitude by observation being ° ' ". our plan of travelling being nearly the same throughout this excursion, after we first entered upon the ice, i may at once give some account of our usual mode of proceeding. it was my intention to travel wholly at night, and to rest by day, there being, of course, constant daylight in these regions during the summer season. the advantages of this plan, which was occasionally deranged by circumstances, consisted, first, in our avoiding the intense and oppressive glare from the snow during the time of the sun's greatest altitude, so as to prevent, in some degree, the painful inflammation in the eyes called "snow blindness," which is common in all snowy countries. we also thus enjoyed greater warmth during the hours of rest, and had a better chance of drying our clothes; besides which, no small advantage was derived from the snow being harder at night for travelling. the only disadvantage of this plan was, that the fogs were somewhat more thick by night than by day, though even in this respect there was less difference than might have been supposed, the temperature during the twenty-four hours undergoing but little variation. this travelling by night and sleeping by day so completely inverted the natural order of things, that it was difficult to persuade ourselves of the reality. even the officers and myself, who were all furnished with pocket chronometers, could not always bear in mind at what part of the twenty-four hours we had arrived; and there were several of the men who declared, and i believe truly, that they, never knew night from day during the whole excursion.[ ] when we rose in the evening, we commenced our day by prayers, after which we took off our fur sleeping-dresses and put on those for travelling; the former being made of camlet, lined with racoon-skin, and the latter of strong blue box-cloth. we made a point of always putting on the same stockings and boots for travelling in, whether they dried during the day or not; and i believe it was only in five or six instances, at the most, that they were not either wet or hard-frozen. this, indeed, was of no consequence, beyond the discomforture of first putting them on in this state, as they were sure to be thoroughly wet in a quarter of an hour after commencing our journey; while, on the other hand, it was of vital importance to keep dry things for sleeping in. being "rigged" for travelling, we breakfasted upon warm cocoa and biscuit, and, after stowing the things in the boats and on the sledges, so as to secure them as much as possible from wet, we set off on our day's journey, and usually travelled from five to five and a half hours, then stopped an hour to dine, and again travelled four, five, or even six hours, according to circumstances. after this we halted for the night, as we called it, though it was usually early in the morning, selecting the largest surface of ice we happened to be near for hauling the boats on, in order to avoid the danger of its breaking up by coming in contact with other masses, and also to prevent drift as much as possible. the boats were placed close alongside each other, with their sterns to the wind, the snow or wet cleared out of them, and the sails, supported by the bamboo masts and three paddles, placed over them as awnings, an entrance being left at the bow. every man then immediately put on dry stockings and fur boots, after which we set about the necessary repairs of boats, sledges, or clothes; and, after serving the provisions for the succeeding day, we went to supper. most of the officers and men then smoked their pipes, which served to dry the boats and awnings very much, and usually raised the temperature of our lodgings ° or °. this part of the twenty-four hours was often a time, and the only one, of real enjoyment to us; the men told their stories and "fought all their battles o'er again," and the labours of the day, unsuccessful as they too often were, were forgotten. a regular watch was set during our resting-time, to look out for bears or for the ice breaking up round us, as well as to attend to the drying of the clothes, each man alternately, taking this duty for one hour. we then concluded our day with prayers, and, having put on our fur-dresses, lay down to sleep with a degree of comfort, which perhaps few persons would imagine possible under such circumstances; our chief inconvenience being that we were somewhat pinched for room, and therefore obliged to stow rather closer than was quite agreeable. the temperature, while we slept, was usually from ° to °, according to the state of the external atmosphere; but on one or two occasions in calm and warm weather, it rose as high as ° to °, obliging us to throw off a part of our fur-dress. after we had slept seven hours, the man appointed to boil the cocoa roused us when it was ready by the sound of a bugle, when we commenced our day in the manner before described. our allowance of provisions for each man per day was as follows: biscuit ounces. pemmican ounces. sweetened cocoa powder ounce, to make one pint. rum gill. tobacco ounces per week. our fuel consisted entirely of spirits of wine, of which two pints formed our daily allowance, the cocoa being cooked in an iron boiler over a shallow iron lamp, with seven wicks; a simple apparatus, which answered our purpose remarkably well. we usually found one pint of the spirits of wine sufficient for preparing our breakfast, that is, for heating twenty-eight pints of water, though it always commenced from the temperature of °. if the weather was calm and fair, this quantity of fuel brought it to the boiling point in about an hour and a quarter; but more generally the wicks began to go out before it had reached. °. this, however, made a very comfortable meal to persons situated as we were. such, with very little variation, was our regular routine during the whole of this excursion. we set off on our first journey over the ice at ten p.m. on the th, table island bearing s.s.w., and a fresh breeze blowing from w.s.w., with thick fog, which afterward changed to rain. the bags of pemmican were placed upon the sledges, and the bread in the boats, with the intention of securing the latter from wet; but this plan we were soon obliged to relinquish. we now commenced upon very slow and laborious travelling, the pieces of ice being of small extent and very rugged, obliging us to make three journeys, and sometimes four, with the boats and baggage, and to launch several times across narrow pools of water. we stopped to dine at five a.m. on the th, having made, by our log (which we kept very carefully, marking the courses by compass, and estimating the distances), about two miles and a half of northing; and, again setting forward, proceeded till eleven a.m., when we halted to rest; our latitude, by observation at noon, being ° ' ". setting out again at half past nine in the evening, we found our way to lie over nothing but small, loose, rugged masses of ice, separated by little pools of water, obliging us constantly to launch and haul up the boats, each of which operations required them to be unloaded, and occupied nearly a quarter of an hour. it came on to rain very hard on the morning of the th; and, finding we were making very little progress (having advanced not more than half a mile in four hours), and that our clothes would be soon wet through, we halted at half past one, and took shelter under the awnings. the weather improving at six o'clock, we again moved forward, and travelled till a quarter past eleven, when we hauled the boats upon the only tolerably large floe-piece in sight. the rain had very much increased the quantity of water lying upon the ice, of which nearly half the surface was now covered with numberless little ponds of various shapes and extent. it is a remarkable fact, that we had already experienced, in the course of this summer, more rain than during the whole of seven previous summers taken together, though passed in latitudes from ° to ° lower than this. a great deal of the ice over which we passed to-day presented a very curious appearance and structure, being composed, on its upper surface, of numberless irregular, needle-like crystals, placed vertically, and nearly close together; their length varying, in different pieces of ice, from five to ten inches, and their breadth in the middle about half an inch, but pointed at both ends. the upper surface of ice having this structure sometimes looks like greenish velvet; a vertical section of it, which frequently occurs at the margin of floes, resembles, while it remains compact, the most beautiful satin-spar, and asbestos when falling to pieces. at this early part of the season, this kind of ice afforded pretty firm footing; but, as the summer advanced, the needles became more loose and moveable, rendering it extremely fatiguing to walk over them, besides cutting our boots and feet, on which account the men called them "penknives." we pursued our journey at half past nine p.m., with the wind at n.e., and thick weather, the ice being so much in motion as to make it very dangerous to cross in loaded boats, the masses being all very small. on this account we halted at midnight, having waded three quarters of a mile through water from two to five inches deep upon the ice. the thermometer was at °. at seven a.m. on the th, we came to a floe covered with high and rugged hummocks, which opposed a formidable obstacle to our progress, occurring in two or three successive tiers, so that we had no sooner crossed one than another presented itself. over one of these we hauled the boats with extreme difficulty by a "standing pull," and the weather being then so thick that we could see no pass across the next tier, we were obliged to stop at nine a.m. while performing this laborious work, which required the boats to be got up and down places almost perpendicular, james parker, my coxswain, received a severe contusion in his back, by the boat falling upon him from a hummock, and the boats were constantly subject to very heavy blows, but sustained no damage.[ ] the weather continued very foggy during the day, but a small lane of water opening out at no great distance from the margin of the floe, we launched the boats at eight in the evening among loose drift-ice, and, after some time, landed on a small floe to the eastward, the only one in sight, with the hope of its leading to the northward. it proved so rugged that we were obliged to make three, and sometimes four journeys with the boats and provisions, and this by a very circuitous route; so that the road, by which we made a mile of northing, was full a mile and a half in length, and over this we had to travel at least five, and sometimes seven times. thus, when we halted to dine at two a.m., after six hours' severe toil, and much risk to the men and boats, we had only accomplished about a mile and a quarter in a n.n.e. direction. after dining we proceeded again till half past six, and then halted, very much fatigued with our day's work, and having made two miles and a half of northing. we were here in latitude, by account, ° ", and in longitude, by the chronometers, ° ' " e., in which situation the variation of the magnetic needle was observed to be ° ' westerly. we now enjoyed the first sunshine since our entering the ice, and a great enjoyment it was, after so much thick and wet weather. we rose at half past four p.m., in the hopes of pursuing our journey; but, after hauling the boats to the edge of the floe, found such a quantity of loose, rugged ice to the northward of us, that there was no possibility, for the present, of getting across or through it. observing a small opening at . p.m., we launched the boats, and hauled them across several pieces of ice, some of them being very light and much decayed. our latitude, by the sun's meridian altitude at midnight, was ° '; so that we had made only eight miles of northing since our last observation at noon on the th. the th commenced with snowy and inclement weather, which soon rendered the atmosphere so thick that we could no longer see our way, obliging us to halt till two p.m., when we crossed several small pools with great labour and loss of time. we had generally very light ice this day, with some heavy, rugged pieces intermixed; and, when hauling across these, we had sometimes to cut with axes a passage for the boats among the hummocks. we also dragged them through a great many pools of fresh water, to avoid the necessity of going round them. the wind freshening up from the s.s.w., we afterward found the ice gradually more and more open, so that, in the course of the day, we made by rowing, though by a very winding channel, five miles of northing; but were again stopped by the ice soon after midnight, and obliged to haul up on the first mass that we could gain, the ice having so much motion that we narrowly escaped being "nipped." we set out at . a.m. on the st july, the wind still fresh from the s.w., and some snow falling: but it was more than an hour before we could get away from the small pieces of ice on which we slept, the masses beyond being so broken up and so much in motion, that we could not, at first, venture to launch the boats. our latitude, observed at noon, was ° ' ". after crossing several pieces, we at length got into a good "lead" of water, four or five miles in length; two or three of which, as on the preceding day, occurred under the lee of a floe, being the second we had yet seen that deserved that name. we then passed over four or five small floes, and across the pools of water that lay between them. the ice was now less broken up, and sometimes tolerably level; but from six to eighteen inches of soft snow lay upon it in every part, making the travelling very fatiguing, and obliging us to make at least two, and sometimes three, journeys with our loads. we now found it absolutely necessary to lighten the boat as much as possible, by putting the bread-bags on the sledges, on account of the "runners" of the boats sinking so much deeper into the snow; but our bread ran a great risk of being wetted by this plan. we halted at eleven p.m. on the st, having traversed from ten to eleven miles, and made good, by our account, seven and half in a n.b.w. direction. we again set forward at ten a.m. on the d, the weather being calm, and the sun oppressively warm, though with a thick fog. the temperature in the shade was ° at noon, and only ° in the sun; but this, together with the glare from the snow, produced so painful a sensation in most of our eyes, as to make it necessary to halt at one p.m., to avoid being blinded. we therefore took advantage of this warm weather to let the men wash themselves, and mend and dry their clothes, and then set out again at half past three. the snow was, however, so soft as to take us up to our knees at almost every other step, and frequently still deeper; so that we were sometimes five minutes together in moving a single empty boat, with all our united strength. it being impossible to proceed under these circumstances, i determined to fall into our night-travelling again, from which we had of late insensibly deviated. we therefore halted at half past five, the weather being now very clear and warm, and many of the people's eyes beginning to fail. we did not set out again till after midnight, with the intention of giving the snow time to harden after so warm a day; but we found it still so soft as to make the travelling very fatiguing. our way lay at first across a number of loose pieces, most of which were from five to twenty yards apart, or just sufficiently separated to give us all the labour of launching and hauling up the boats, without the advantage of making any progress by water; while we crossed, in other instances, from mass to mass, by laying the boats over as bridges, by which the men and the baggage passed. by these means, we at length reached a floe about a mile in length, in a northern direction; but it would be difficult to convey an adequate idea of the labour required to traverse it. the average depth of snow upon the level parts was about five inches, under which lay water four or five inches deep; but, the moment we approached a hummock, the depth to which we sank increased to three feet or more, rendering it difficult at times to obtain sufficient footing for one leg to enable us to extricate the other. the pools of fresh water had now also become very large, some of them being a quarter of a mile in length, and their depth above our knees. through these we were prevented taking the sledges, for fear of wetting all our provisions; but we preferred transporting the boats across them, notwithstanding the severe cold of the snow-water, the bottom being harder for the "runners" to slide upon. on this kind of road we were, in one instance, above two hours in proceeding a distance of one hundred yards. we halted at half past six a.m. to dine; and to empty our boots and wring our stockings, which, to our feelings, was almost like putting on dry ones; and again set out in an hour, getting at length into a "lane" of water a mile and a quarter long, in a n.n.e. direction. we halted for the night at half an hour before midnight, the people being almost exhausted with a laborious day's work, and our distance made good to the northward not exceeding two miles and a quarter. we allowed ourselves this night a hot supper, consisting of a pint of soup per man, made of an ounce of pemmican each, and eight or ten birds, which we had killed in the course of the last week; and this was a luxury which persons thus situated could perhaps alone duly appreciate. we rose and breakfasted at nine p.m.; but the weather had gradually become so inclement and thick, with snow, sleet, and a fresh breeze from the eastward, that we could neither have seen our way, nor have avoided getting wet through had we moved. we therefore remained under cover; and it was as well that we did so, for the snow soon after changed to heavy rain, and the wind increased to a fresh gale, which unavoidably detained us till . p.m. on the th. the rain had produced even a greater effect than the sun in softening the snow. lieutenant ross and myself, in performing our pioneering duty, were frequently so beset in it, that sometimes, after trying in vain to extricate our legs, we were obliged to sit quietly down for a short time to rest ourselves and then make another attempt; and the men, in dragging the sledges, were often under the necessity of crawling upon all-fours to make any progress at all. nor would any kind of snow-shoes have been of the least service, but rather an encumbrance to us, for the surface was so irregular, that they would have thrown us down at every other step. we had hitherto made use of the lapland shoes, or _kamoogas_, for walking in, which are excellent for dry snow; but there being now so much water upon the ice, we substituted the esquimaux boots, which had been made in greenland expressly for our use, and which are far superior to any others for this kind of travelling. just before halting, at six a.m. on the th, the ice at the margin of the floe broke while the men were handing the provisions out of the boats; and we narrowly escaped the loss of a bag of cocoa, which fell overboard, but fortunately rested on a "tongue." the bag being made of mackintosh's waterproof canvass, the cocoa did not suffer the slightest injury. we rose at five p.m., the weather being clear and fine, with a moderate breeze from the south; no land was in sight from the highest hummocks, nor could we perceive anything but broken loose ice in any direction. we hauled across several pieces which were scarcely fit to bear the weight of the boats, and in such cases used the precaution of dividing our baggage, so that, in case of the ice breaking or turning over, we should not lose all at once. the farther we proceeded, the more the ice was broken; indeed, it was much more so here than we had found it since first entering the "pack." after stopping at midnight to dine and to obtain the meridian altitude, we passed over a floe full of hummocks, a mile and a half in length; but any kind of floe was relief to us after the constant difficulty we had experienced in passing over loose ice. after several hours of very beautiful weather, a thick fog came on early on the morning of the th july, and at five a.m. we halted, having got to the end of the floe, and only made good two miles and a half to the northward. the fog continued very thick all day; but, being unwilling to stop on this account, we set out again at half past six in the evening, and passed over several small flat pieces with no great difficulty, but with much loss of time in launching and hauling up the boats. towards the end of our day's journey, we landed on the only really level floe we had yet met with. it was, however, only three quarters of a mile in length, but, being almost clear of snow, afforded such good travelling, that, although much fatigued at the time, we hauled the boats and all the baggage across it at one journey, at the rate of about two miles an hour, and halted at the northern margin at five a.m. on the th. the prospect beyond was still very unfavourable, and at eight in the evening, when we again launched the boats, there was not a piece of large or level ice to be seen in a northern direction. we halted at six a.m. on the th, in time to avoid a great deal of rain which fell during the day, and again proceeded on our journey at eight in the evening, the wind being fresh from the e.s.e., with thick, wet weather. we now met with detached ice of a still lighter kind than before, the only floe in sight being much to the eastward of our course. this we reached after considerable labour, in the hope of its leading to the northward, which it did for about one mile, and we then came to the same kind of loose ice as before. on the morning of the th july, we enjoyed the indescribable comfort of two or three hours' clear, dry weather, but had scarcely hung up our wet clothes, after halting at five a.m., when it again came on to rain; but, as everything was as wet as it could be, we left them out to take their chance. the rain continued most of the day, but we set out at half past seven p.m., crossing loose ice, as usual, and much of the surface consisting of detached vertical needles. after an hour, the rain became so heavy that we halted to save our shirts, which were the only dry clothes' belonging to us. soon after midnight, the rain being succeeded by one of the thickest fogs i ever saw, we again proceeded, groping our way almost yard by yard from one small piece of ice to another, and were very fortunate in hitting upon some with level surfaces, and also a few tolerable-sized holes of water. at half past two we reached a floe which appeared at first a level and large one; but, on landing, we were much mortified to find it so covered with immense ponds, or, rather, small lakes of fresh water, that, to accomplish two miles in a north direction, we were under the necessity of walking from three to four, the water being too deep for wading, and from two hundred yards to one third of a mile in length. we halted at six a.m., having made only one mile and three quarters in a n.n.w. direction, the wind still blowing fresh from the eastward, with a thick fog. we were in latitude ° ' ", and longitude, by chronometers, ° ' e., and we found the variation of the magnetic needle to be ° ' westerly. we moved again at seven p.m., with the weather nearly as foggy as before, our road lying across a very hummocky floe, on which we had considerable difficulty in getting the boats, the ice being extremely unfavourable both for launching and hauling them up. after stopping an hour at midnight to dine, we were again annoyed by a heavy fall of rain, a phenomenon almost as new to us in these regions until this summer, as it was harassing and unhealthy. being anxious, however, to take advantage of a lane of water that seemed to lead northerly, we launched the boats, and by the time that we had crossed it, which gave us only half a mile of northing, the rain had become much harder, and our outer clothes, bread bags, and boats were thoroughly wet. after this we had better travelling on the ice, and also crossed one or two larger holes of water than we had met with for a long time, and halted for our night's rest at half past seven a.m., after nearly twelve hours' hard, but not altogether unsuccessful labour, having traversed about twelve miles, and made good by our account, seven and a half, in a n.w.b.n. direction. the rain ceased soon after we had halted, but was succeeded, by a thick, wet fog, which obliged us, when we continued our journey, to put on our travelling clothes in the same dripping state as when we took them off. the wind continued fresh from the southeastward, and at nine p.m. the weather suddenly cleared up, and gave us once more the inconceivably cheering, i had almost said the blessed, sight of a blue sky, with hard, well-defined white clouds floating across it. we halted at six a.m., after making, by our day's exertions, only three miles and a half of northing, our latitude at this time being ° ' ", and our longitude, by chronometers, ° ' e. the thermometer was from ° to ° in the shade during most of the day, and this, with a clear sky over head, was now absolute luxury to us. setting out again at seven p.m., we crossed a small lane of water to another floe; but this was so intersected by ponds, and by streams running into the sea, that we had to make a very circuitous route, some of the ponds being half-a mile in length. notwithstanding the immense quantity of water still upon the ice, and which always afforded us a pure and abundant supply of this indispensable article, we now observed a mark round the banks of all the ponds, showing that the water was less deep in them, by several inches, than it had been somewhat earlier in the summer; and, indeed, from about this time, some small diminution in its quantity began to be perceptible to ourselves. we halted for our resting-time at six a.m. on the th, having gained only two miles and a half of northing, over a road of about four, and this accomplished by ten hours of fatiguing exertion. we were here in latitude, by the noon observation, ° ' ", and could find no bottom with four hundred fathoms of line. we launched the boats at seven in the evening, the wind being moderate from the e.s.e., with fine, clear weather, and were still mortified in finding that no improvement took place in the road over which we had to travel; for the ice now before us was, if possible, more broken up and more difficult to pass over than ever. much of it was also so thin as to be extremely dangerous for the provisions; and it was often a nervous thing to see our whole means of existence lying on a decayed sheet, having holes quite through it in many parts, and which the smallest motion among the surrounding masses might have instantly broken into pieces. there was, however, no choice, except between this road and the more rugged though safer hummocks, which cost ten times the labour to pass over. mounting one of the highest of these at nine p.m., we could discover nothing to the north, ward but the same broken and irregular surface; and we now began to doubt whether we should at all meet with the solid fields of unbroken ice which every account had led us to expect in a much lower latitude than this. a very strong, yellow ice-blink overspread the whole northern horizon. we stopped to dine at half an hour past midnight, after more than five hours unceasing labour, in the course of which time we had only accomplished a mile and a half due north, though we had traversed from three to four, and walked at least ten, having made three journeys a great part of the way. we had launched and hauled up the boats four times, and dragged them over twenty-five separate pieces of ice. after dinner we continued the same kind of travelling, which was, beyond all description, harrassing to the officers and men. in crossing from mass to mass, several of which were separated about half the length of our sledges, the officers were stationed at the most difficult places to see that no precaution, was omitted which could ensure the safety of the provisions. only one individual was allowed to jump over at a time, or to stand near either margin, for fear of the weight being too great for it; and when three or four men had separately crossed, the sledge was cautiously drawn up to the edge, and the word being given, the men suddenly ran away with the ropes, so as to allow no time for its falling in if the ice should break. having at length succeeded in reaching a small floe, we halted at half past six a.m., much wearied by nearly eleven hours' exertion, by which we had only advanced three miles and a half in a n.n.w. direction. we rose at six p.m., and prepared to set out, but it rained so hard and so incessantly that it would have been impossible to move without a complete drenching. it held up a little at five, and at six we set out; but the rain soon recommenced, though less heavily than before. at eight the rain again became heavier, and we got under shelter of our awnings for a quarter of an hour, to keep our shirts and other flannel clothes dry; these being the only things we now had on which were not thoroughly wet. at nine we did the same, but before ten were obliged to halt altogether, the rain coming down in torrents, and the men being much exhausted by continued wet and cold, though the thermometer was at °, which was somewhat above our usual temperature. at half past seven p.m. we again pursued our journey, and, after much laborious travelling, we were fortunate, considering the fog, in hitting upon a floe which proved the longest we had yet crossed, being three miles from south to north, though alternately rugged and flat. from this we launched into a lane of water half a mile long from east to west, but which only gave us a hundred and fifty yards of northing. the floe on which we stopped to dine, at one a.m. on the th, was not more than four feet thick, and its extent half a mile square; and on this we had the rare advantage of carrying all our loads at one journey. at half past six the fog cleared away, and gave us beautiful weather for drying our clothes, and once more the cheerful sight of the blue sky. we halted at half past seven, after being twelve hours on the road, having made a n.b.w. course, distance only six miles and a quarter, though we had traversed nine miles. we saw, during this last journey, a mallemucke and a second ross gull: and a couple of small flies (to us an event of ridiculous importance) were found upon the ice. we again pursued our way at seven in the evening, having the unusual comfort of putting on dry stockings, and the no less rare luxury of delightfully pleasant weather, the wind being moderate from the s.s.e. it was so warm in the sun, though the temperature in the shade was only °, that the tar was running out of the seams of the boats; and a blackened bulb held against the paint-work raised the thermometer to °. the floes were larger to-day, and the ice, upon the whole, of heavier dimensions than any we had yet met with. the general thickness of the floes, however, did not exceed nine or ten feet, which is not more than the usual thickness of those in baffin's bay and hudson's strait. the th of july being one of the days on which the royal society of edinburgh have proposed to institute a series of simultaneous meteorological observations, we commenced an hourly register of every phenomenon which came under our notice, and which our instruments and other circumstances would permit, and continued most of them throughout the day. our latitude, observed at noon, was ° ' ", being more than a mile to the southward of the reckoning, though the wind had been constantly from that quarter during the twenty-four hours. after midnight the road became, if possible, worse, and the prospect to the northward more discouraging than before; nothing but loose and very small pieces of ice being in sight, over which the boats were dragged almost entirely by a "standing-pull." the men were so exhausted with their day's work, that it was absolutely necessary to give them something hot for supper, and we again served a little cocoa for that purpose. they were also put into good spirits by our having killed a small seal, which, the following night, gave us an excellent supper. the meat of these young animals is tender, and free from oiliness; but it certainly has a smell and a look which would not have been agreeable to any but very hungry people like ourselves. we also considered it a great prize on account of its blubber, which gave us fuel sufficient for cooking six hot messes for our whole party, though the animal only weighed thirty pounds in the whole. setting out at half past seven in the evening, we found the sun more distressing to the eyes than we had ever yet had it, bidding defiance to our crape veils and wire-gauze eye-shades;[ ] but a more effectual screen was afforded by the sun becoming clouded about nine p.m. at half past nine we came to a very difficult crossing among the loose ice, which, however, we were encouraged to attempt by seeing a floe of some magnitude beyond it. we had to convey the sledges and provisions one way, and to haul the boats over by another. one of the masses over which the boats came began to roll about while one of them was upon it, giving us reason to apprehend its upsetting, which must have been attended with some very serious consequence: fortunately, however, it retained its equilibrium long enough to allow us to get the boat past it in safety, not without several of the men falling overboard, in consequence of the long jumps we had to make, and the edges breaking with their weight. on the morning of the th we came to a good deal of ice, which formed a striking contrast with the other, being composed of flat bay-floes, not three feet thick, which would have afforded us good travelling had they not recently been broken into small pieces, obliging us to launch frequently from one to another. these floes had been the product of the last winter only, having probably been formed in some of the interstices left between the larger bodies; and, from what we saw of them, there could be little doubt of their being all dissolved before the next autumnal frost. we halted at seven a.m., having, by our reckoning, accomplished six miles and a half in a n.n.w. direction, the distance traversed being ten miles and a half. it may therefore be imagined how great was our mortification in finding that our latitude, by observation at noon, was only ° ' ", being less than _five_ miles to the northward of our place at noon on the th, since which time we had certainly travelled _twelve_ in that direction. at five a.m. on the st, having gone ahead, as usual, upon a bay-floe, to search for the best road, i heard a more than ordinary noise and bustle among the people who were bringing up the boats behind. on returning to them, i found that we had narrowly, and most providentially, escaped a serious calamity; the floe having broken under the weight of the boats and sledges, and the latter having nearly been lost through the ice. some of the men went completely through, and one of them was only held up by his drag-belt being attached to a sledge which happened to be on firmer ice. fortunately the bread had, by way of security, been kept in the boats, or this additional weight would undoubtedly have sunk the sledges, and probably some of the men with them. as it was, we happily escaped, though we hardly knew how, with a good deal of wetting; and, cautiously approaching the boats, drew them to a stronger part of the ice, after which we continued our journey till half past six a.m., when we halted to rest, having travelled about seven miles n.n.w., our longitude by chronometers being ° ' east, and the latitude ° ' ", being only two miles and a quarter to the northward of the preceding day's observation, or four miles and a half to the southward of our reckoning. our sportsmen had the good fortune to kill another seal to-day, rather larger than the first, which again proved a most welcome addition to our provisions and fuel. indeed, after this supply of the latter, we were enabled to allow ourselves every night a pint of warm water for supper, each man making his own soup from such a portion of his bread and pemmican as he could save from dinner. setting out again at seven in the evening, we were not sorry to find the weather quite calm, which sailors account "half a fair wind;" for it was now evident that nothing but a southerly breeze could enable us to make any tolerable progress, or to regain what we had lately lost. our travelling to-night was the very best we had during this excursion; for though we had to launch and haul up the boats frequently, an operation which, under the most favourable circumstances, necessarily occupies much time, yet the floes being large and tolerably level, and some good lanes of water occurring, we made, according to the most moderate calculation, between ten and eleven miles in a n.n.e. direction, and traversed a distance of about seventeen. we halted at a quarter past eight a.m. after more than twelve hours' actual travelling, by which the people were extremely fatigued; but, while our work seemed to be repaid by anything like progress, the men laboured with great cheerfulness to the utmost of their strength. the ice over which we had travelled was by far the largest and heaviest we met with during our whole journey; this, indeed, was the only occasion on which we saw anything answering in the slightest degree to the descriptions given of the main ice. the largest floe was from two and a half to three miles square, and in some places the thickness of the ice was from to feet. however, it was a satisfaction to observe that the ice had certainly improved; and we now ventured to hope that, for the short time that we could still pursue our outward journey, our progress would be more commensurate with our exertions than it had hitherto proved. in proportion, then, to the hopes we had begun to entertain, was our disappointment in finding, at noon, that we were in latitude ° ' ", or not quite four miles to the northward of yesterday's observation, instead of the ten or eleven which we had travelled! we halted at seven a.m. on the d, after a laborious day's work, and, i must confess, a disheartening one to those who knew to how little effect we were struggling; which, however, the men did not, though they often laughingly remarked that "we were a long time getting to this °!" being anxious to make up, in some measure, for the drift which the present northerly wind was in all probability occasioning, we rose earlier than usual, and set off at half past four in the evening. at half past five p.m. we saw a very beautiful natural phenomenon. a broad white fog-bow first appeared opposite the sun, as was very commonly the case; presently it became strongly tinged with, the prismatic colours, and soon afterward no less than five other complete arches were formed within the main bow, the interior ones being gradually narrower than those without, but the whole of them beautifully coloured. the larger bow, and the one next within it, had the red on the outer or upper part of the circle, the others on the inner side. we halted at a quarter past three on the morning of the th, having made four miles and a half n.n.e., over a road of about seven and a half, most of which we traversed, as usual, three times. we moved again at four p.m. over a difficult road, composed of small and rugged ice. so small was the ice now around us, that we were obliged to halt for the night at two a.m. on the th, being upon the only piece in sight, in any direction, on which we could venture to trust the boats while we rested. such was the ice in the latitude of - / °. the wind had now got round to the w.n.w., with raw, foggy weather, and continued to blow fresh all day. snow came on soon after our halting, and about two inches had fallen when we moved again at half past four p.m. we continued our journey in this inclement weather for three hours, hauling from piece to piece, and not making more than three quarters of a mile progress, till our clothes and bread-bags had become very wet, and the snow fell so thick that we could no longer see our way. it was therefore necessary to halt, which we did at half past seven, putting the awnings over the boats, changing our wet clothes, and giving the men employment for the mere sake of occupying their minds. the weather improving towards noon on the th, we obtained the meridian altitude of the sun, by which we found ourselves in latitude ° ' "; so that, since our last observation (at midnight on the d), we had lost by drift no less than thirteen miles and a half; for we were now more than three miles to the _southward_ of that observation, though we had certainly travelled between ten and eleven due north in this interval! again, we were but one mile to the north of our place at noon on the st, though we had estimated our distance made good at twenty-three miles. thus it appeared that for the last five days we had been struggling against a southerly drift exceeding four miles per day. it had, for some time past, been too evident that the nature of the ice with which we had to contend was such, and its drift to the southward, especially with a northerly wind, so great, as to put beyond our reach anything but a very moderate share of success in travelling to the northward. still, however, we had been anxious to reach the highest latitude which our means would allow, and with this view, although our whole object had long become unattainable, had pushed on to the northward for thirty-five days, or until half our resources were expended, and the middle of our season arrived. for the last few days the eighty-third parallel was the limit to which we had ventured to extend our hopes; but even this expectation had become considerably weakened since the setting in of the last northerly wind, which continued to drive us to the southward, during the necessary hours of rest, nearly as much as we could gain by eleven or twelve hours of daily labour. had our success been at all proportionate to our exertions, it was my full intention to proceed a few days beyond the middle of the period for which we were provided, trusting to the resources we expected to find at table island. but i could not but consider it as incurring useless fatigue to the officers and men, and unnecessary wear and tear for the boats, to persevere any longer in the attempt. i determined, therefore, on giving the people one entire day's rest, which they very much needed, and time to wash and mend their clothes, while the officers were occupied in making all the observations which might be interesting in this latitude; and then to set out on our return on the following day. having communicated my intentions to the people, who were all much disappointed at finding how little their labours had effected, we set about our respective occupations, and were much favoured by a remarkably fine day. the highest latitude we reached was probably at seven a.m. on the d, when, after the midnight observation, we travelled, by our account, something more than a mile and a half, which would carry us a little beyond ° '. some observations for the magnetic intensity were obtained at this station. we here found no bottom with five hundred fathoms of line. at the extreme point of our journey, our distance from the hecla was only miles in a s. ° w. direction. to accomplish this distance, we had traversed, by our reckoning, miles, of which about were performed by water, previous to our entering the ice. as we travelled by far the greater part of our distance on the ice three, and not unfrequently five, times over, we may safely multiply the length of the road by two and a half; so that our whole distance, on a very moderate calculation, amounted to geographical or statute miles, being nearly sufficient to have reached the pole in a direct line. our day of rest ( th of july) proved one of the warmest and most pleasant to the feelings we had yet had upon the ice, though the thermometer was only from ° to ° in the shade, and ° in the sun, with occasional fog; but to persons in the open air, calm and tolerably dry weather affords absolute enjoyment, especially by contrast with what we had lately experienced. our ensigns and pendants were displayed during the day; and, sincerely as we regretted not having been able to hoist the british flag in the highest latitude to which we had aspired, we shall perhaps be excused in having felt some little pride in being the bearers of it to a parallel considerably beyond that mentioned in any other well-authenticated record. at . p.m. on the th, we set out on our return to the southward, and i can safely say that, dreary and cheerless as were the scenes we were about to leave, we never turned homeward with so little satisfaction as on this occasion. to afford a chance of determining the general set of the current from this latitude, we left upon a hummock of ice a paper, sewn up in a water-proof canvass bag, and then enclosed in a water-tight tin canister, giving an account of the place where it was deposited, and requesting any person who should find it to send it to the secretary of the admiralty. nothing worthy of particular notice occurred on this and the following day, on each of which we travelled eleven hours; finding the water somewhat more open and the floes less rugged than usual. two of these were from two to three miles in length, and in one instance the surface was sufficiently level to allow us to drag the boats for three quarters of a mile with the sledges _in tow_. our latitude, observed at noon of the th, was ° ' ", or twelve miles and a half to the southward of the preceding day's observation, though we had travelled only seven by our account; so that the drift of the ice had assisted us in gaining five miles and a half in that interval. setting out to continue our journey at five p.m., we could discover nothing from a high hummock but the kind of bay-ice before noticed, except on the floe on which we had slept. the travelling was very laborious, but we were obliged to go on till we could get to a secure floe for resting upon, which we could not effect till half past four on the st, when, in eleven hours and a half, we had not made more than two miles and a quarter of southing. however, we had the satisfaction, which was denied us on our outward journey, of feeling confident that we should keep all that we gained, and probably make a good deal more; which, indeed, proved to be the case, for at noon we found our latitude, by observation, to be ° ' ", or four miles to the southward of the reckoning. we halted at five a.m. on the st of august, the officers and men being quite knocked up, and having made by our account only two miles of southing over a road not less than five in length. as we came along we had seen some recent bear-tracks, and soon after discovered bruin himself. halting the boats and concealing the people behind them, we drew him almost within gun-shot; but, after making a great many traverses behind some hummocks, and even mounting one of them to examine us more narrowly, he set off and escaped--i must say, to our grievous disappointment; for we had already, by anticipation, consigned a tolerable portion of his flesh to our cooking kettle, over a fire of his own blubber. in the course of our journey, on the d of august, we met with a quantity of snow, tinged, to the depth of several inches, with some red colouring matter, of which a portion was preserved in a bottle for future examination. this circumstance recalled to our recollection our having frequently before, in the course of this journey, remarked that the loaded sledges, in passing over hard snow, left upon it a light, rose-coloured tint, which, at the time, we attributed to the colouring matter being pressed out of the birch of which they were made. today, however, we observed that the runners of the, boats, and even our own footsteps, exhibited the same appearance; and, on watching it more narrowly afterward, we found the same effect to be produced, in a greater or less degree, by heavy pressure, on almost all the ice over which we passed, though a magnifying glass could detect nothing to give it this tinge. halting at seven a.m. on the d, after launching and hauling up the boats a great number of times, we had not only the comfort of drying all our wet clothes, but were even able to wash many of our woollen things, which dried in a few hours. the latitude observed at noon was ° ' ", or twelve miles and a half, to the southward of our place on the st, which was about three more than our log gave, though there had been southing in the wind during the whole interval. we proceeded on our journey southward at eight p.m., and were again favoured with a clear and beautiful night, though the travelling was as slow and laborious as ever, there being scarcely a tolerable floe lying in our road. the sun now became so much lower at night, that we were seldom annoyed by the glare from the snow. it was also a very comfortable change to those who had to look out for the road, to have the sun behind us instead of facing it, as on our outward journey. we stopped to rest at a quarter past six a.m. on the th, after accomplishing three miles in a south direction, over a troublesome road of nearly twice that length. it was almost calm, and to our feelings oppressively warm during the day, the thermometer within the boats rising as high as °, which put our fur dresses nearly "out of commission," though the mercury exposed to the sun outside did not rise above °. pursuing our journey at eight p.m., we paid, as usual, for this comfort by the extreme softness of the snow. the upper crust would sometimes support a man's weight for a short time, and then suddenly let him down two or three feet, so that we could never make sure of our footing for two steps together. several of the men were also suffering much at this time from chilblains, which, from the constant wet and cold, as well as the irritation in walking, became serious sores, keeping them quite lame. with many of our people, also, the epidermis or scarfskin peeled off in large flakes, not merely in the face and hands, which were exposed to the action of the sun and the weather, but in every other part of the body; this, however, was attended with no pain, nor with much inconvenience. a fat bear crossed over a lane of water to visit us, and, approaching the boats within twenty yards, was killed by lieutenant ross. the scene which followed was laughable, even to us who participated in it. before the animal had done biting the snow, one of the men was alongside of him with an open knife; and, being asked what he was about to do, replied that he was about cut out his heart and liver to put into the pot, which happened to be then boiling for our supper. in short, before the bear had been dead an hour, all hands of us were employed, to our great satisfaction, in discussing the merits, not only of the said heart and liver, but a pound per man of the flesh; besides which, some or other of the men were constantly frying steaks during the whole day, over a large fire made of the blubber. the consequence of all this, and other similar indulgences, necessarily was, that some of them complained, for several days after, of the pains usually arising from indigestion; though they all, amusingly enough, attributed this effect to the quality, and not the quantity of meat they had eaten. however, notwithstanding these excesses at first, we were really thankful for this additional supply of meat; for we had observed for some time past, that the men were evidently not so strong as before, and would be the better for more sustenance. the rain continued so hard at our usual time of setting out, that i was obliged to delay doing so till six p.m. on the th, when it ceased a little, after falling hard for twenty-four hours, and less violently for twelve more. when we first launched the boats, our prospect of making progress seemed no better than usual, but we found one small hole of water leading into another in so extraordinary a manner, that, though the space in which we were rowing seemed always to be coming to an end, we continued to creep through narrow passages, and, when we halted to dine at half an hour before midnight, had only hauled the boats up once, and had made, though by a winding channel, four or five miles of southing. this was so unusual a circumstance, that we could not help entertaining some hope of our being at no great distance from the open sea, which seemed the more probable from our having seen seven or eight narwhals, and not less than two hundred rotges, a flock of these little birds occurring in every hole of water. at noon on the th of august, we observed in latitude ° ' ", which was only four miles to the northward of our reckoning from the last observation, although there had been almost constantly southing in the wind ever since, and it had been blowing strong from that quarter for the last thirty hours. this circumstance afforded a last and striking proof of the general tendency of the ice to drift southward, about the meridians on which we had been travelling. another bear came towards the boats in the course of the day, and was killed. we were now so abundantly supplied with meat, that the men would again have eaten immoderately had we not interposed the necessary authority to prevent them. as it was, our encampment became so like an esquimaux establishment, that we were obliged to shift our place upon the floe in the course of the day, for the sake of cleanliness and comfort. the wind falling towards midnight, we launched the boats at half past one a.m. on the th, paddling alternately in large spaces of clear water and among streams of loose "sailing ice." we soon afterward observed such indications of an open sea as could not be mistaken, much of the ice being "washed" as by a heavy sea, with small rounded fragments thrown on the surface, and a good deal of "dirty ice" occurring. after passing through a good deal of loose ice, it became gradually more and more open, till at length, at a quarter before seven a.m., we heard the first sound of the swell under the hollow margins of the ice, and in a quarter of an hour had reached the open sea, which was dashing with heavy surges against the outer masses. we hauled the boats upon one of these, to eat our last meal upon the ice, and to complete the necessary supply of water for our little voyage to table island, from which we were now distant fifty miles, our latitude being ° ', and longitude - / ° e. a light air springing up from the n.w., we again launched the boats, and at eight a.m. finally quitted the ice, after having taken up our abode upon it for forty-eight days. we had some fog during the night, so that we steered entirely by compass, according to our last observations by the chronometers, which proved so correct, that, at five a.m. on the th, on the clearing up of the haze, we made the island right ahead. at eleven a.m. we reached the island, or rather the rock to the northward of it, where our provisions had been deposited; and i cannot describe the comfort we experienced in once more feeling a dry and solid footing. we found that the bears had devoured all the bread (one hundred pounds), which occasioned a remark among the men, with reference to the quantity of these animals' flesh that we had eaten, that "bruin was only square with us." we also found that lieutenant crozier had been here since we left the island, bringing some materials for repairing our boats, as well as various little luxuries to which we had lately been strangers, and depositing in a copper cylinder a letter from lieutenant foster, giving me a detailed account of the proceedings of the ship up to the d of july. by this i learned that the hecla had been forced on shore on the th of july, by the breaking-up of the ice at the head of the bay, which came down upon her in one solid mass; but, by the unwearied and zealous exertions of the officers and men, she had again been hove off without incurring the slightest damage, and placed in perfect security. among the supplies with which the anxious care of our friends on board had now furnished us, some lemon-juice and sugar were not the least acceptable; two or three of the men having for some days past suffered from oedematous swellings of the legs, and evinced other symptoms apparently scorbutic, but which soon improved after administering this valuable specific. having got our stores into the boats, we rowed round table island to look for a place on which to rest, the men being much fatigued; but so rugged and inhospitable is this northern rock, that not a single spot could we find where the boats could possibly be hauled up, or lie afloat in security. i therefore determined to take advantage of the freshening of the n.e. wind, and to bear up for walden island, which we accordingly did at two p.m. we had scarcely made, sail when the weather became extremely inclement, with a fresh gale and very thick snow, which obscured walden island from our view. steering by compass, however, we made a good landfall, the boats behaving well in a sea; and at seven p.m. landed in the smoothest place we could find under the lee of the island. everything belonging to us was now completely drenched by the spray and snow; we had been fifty-six hours without rest, and forty-eight at work in the boats, so that, by the time they were unloaded, we had barely strength left to haul them up on the rock. we noticed, on this occasion, that the men had that wildness in their looks which usually accompanies excessive fatigue; and, though just as willing as ever to obey orders, they seemed at times not to comprehend them. however, by dint of great exertion, we managed to get the boats above the surf; after which, a hot supper, a blazing fire of driftwood, and a few hours' quiet rest, quite restored us. the next morning, the th, i despatched lieutenant ross, with a party of hands, to the n.e. part of the island, to launch the spare boat, which, according to my directions, lieutenant foster had sent for our use, and to bring round the stores deposited there in readiness for our setting off for low island. they found everything quite undisturbed; but, by the time they reached us, the wind had backed to the westward, and the weather become very wet, so that i determined to remain here till it improved. at ten a.m. on the th, the weather being fine, we launched our three boats and left walden island; but the wind backing more to the westward, we could only fetch into a bay on the opposite or southern shore, where we hauled the boats up on very rugged rocks, under cliffs about six hundred feet high, and of the same granite formation as walden island. the wind dying away on the morning of the th, we once more set out for the ship at nine a.m.; but having a second time nearly reached shoal point, were again met by a strong breeze as we opened waygatz strait, and were therefore obliged to land upon the low shore to the southward of low island. on the th of august the wind increased to a strong breeze from the s.w., with rain and sleet, which afterward changed to snow in some of the largest flakes i ever saw, completely changing the whole aspect of the land from summer to winter in a few hours. on the following morning we prepared to move at an early hour, but the wind backed more to the westward, and soon after increased to a gale, raising so much surf on the beach as to oblige us to haul the boats higher up. on the th, tired as we were of this tedious confinement, and anxious to reach the ship, the wind and sea were still too high to allow us to move, and it was not till half past seven a.m. on the following day that we could venture to launch the boats. having now, by means of the driftwood, converted our paddles into oars, and being occasionally favoured by a light breeze, with a perfectly open sea, we made tolerable progress, and at half past four p.m. on the st of august, when within three or four miles of hecla cove, had the gratification of seeing a boat under sail coming out to meet us. mr. weir soon joined us in one of the cutters; and, after hearing good accounts of the safety of the ship, and of the welfare of all on board, together with a variety of details, to us of no small interest, we arrived on board at seven p.m., after an absence of sixty-one days, being received with that warm and cordial welcome which can alone be felt, and not described. i cannot conclude the account of our proceedings without endeavouring to do justice to the cheerful alacrity and unwearied zeal displayed by my companions, both officers and men, in the course of this excursion; and if steady perseverance and active exertion on their parts could have accomplished our object, success would undoubtedly have crowned our labours. i must also mention, to the credit of the officers of woolwich dock-yard, who took so much pains in the construction of our boats, that, notwithstanding the constant and severe trial to which their strength had been put--and a more severe trial could not well be devised--not a timber was sprung, a plank split, or the smallest injury sustained by them; they were, indeed, as tight and as fit for service when we reached the ship as when they were first received on board, and in every respect answered the intended purpose admirably. * * * * * on my arrival on board, i learned from lieutenant crozier that lieutenant foster, finding that no farther disturbance from ice was to be apprehended, and after making an accurate plan of the bay and its neighbourhood, had proceeded on the survey of waygatz strait, and proposed returning by the th of august, the day to which i had limited his absence. i found the ship quite ready for sea, with the exception of getting on board the launch, with the stores deposited by my direction on the beach. lieutenant foster's report informed me that, after the ship had been hauled off the ground, they had again suffered considerable disturbance for several days, in consequence of some heavy masses of ice driving into the bay, which dragged the anchors, and again threatened them with a similar accident. however, after the middle of july, no ice had entered the bay, and, what is still more remarkable, not a piece had been seen in the offing for some weeks past, even after hard northerly and westerly gales. on the d of august, as soon as our people had enjoyed a good night's rest, we commenced bringing the stores on board from the beach, throwing out such a quantity of the stone ballast as was necessary for trimming the ship; after which the cables and hawsers were cast off from the shore, and the ship hauled off to single anchor. lieutenant foster returned on board on the th, having surveyed the greater part of the shores of the strait, as far to the southward as ° ". lieutenant foster saw some seahorses (narwhals) and white whales in the course of this excursion, but no black whales; nor did we, in the whole course of the voyage, see any of these, except on the ground already frequented by our whalers on the western coast of spitzbergen. it is remarkable, however, that the "crown-bones," and other parts of the skeleton of whales, are found in most parts where we landed on this coast. the shores of the strait, like all the rest in spitzbergen, are lined with immense quantities of driftwood, wherever the nature of the coast will allow it to land. the animals met with here during the hecla's stay were principally reindeer, bears, foxes, kittiwakes, glaucus and ivory gulls, tern, eider-ducks, and a few grouse. looms and rotges were numerous in the offing. seventy reindeer were killed, chiefly very small, and, until the middle of august, not in good condition. they were usually met with in herds of from six or eight to twenty, and were most abundant on the west and north sides of the bay. three bears were killed, one of which was somewhat above the ordinary dimensions, measuring eight feet four inches from the snout to the insertion of the tail. the vegetation was tolerably abundant, especially on the western side of the bay, where the soil is good; a considerable collection of plants, as well as minerals, was made by mr. halse, and of birds by mr. m'cormick. the neighbourhood of this bay, like most of the northern shores of spitzbergen, appears to have been much visited by the dutch at a very early period; of which circumstance records are furnished on almost every spot where we landed, by the numerous graves which we met with. there are thirty of these on a point of land on the north side of the bay.[ ] the bodies are usually deposited in an oblong wooden coffin, which, on account of the difficulty of digging the ground, is not buried, but merely covered by large stones; and a board is generally placed near the head, having, either cut or painted upon it, the name of the deceased, with those of his ship and commander, and the month and year of his burial. several of these were fifty or sixty years old; one bore the date of ; and another, which i found on the beach to the eastward of hecla cove, that of ; the inscription distinctly appearing in prominent relief, occasioned by the preservation of the wood by the paint, while the unpainted part had decayed around it. the officers who remained on board the hecla during the summer described the weather as the most beautiful, and the climate altogether the most agreeable, they had ever experienced in the polar regions. indeed, the meteorological journal shows a temperature, both of the air and of the sea water, to which we had before been altogether strangers within the arctic circle, and which goes far towards showing that the climate of spitzbergen is a remarkably temperate one for its latitude.[ ] it must, however, be observed, that this remark is principally applicable to the weather experienced _near the land_, that at sea being rendered of a totally different character by the almost continual presence of fogs; so that some of our most gloomy days upon the ice were among the finest in hecla cove, where, however, a good deal of rain fell in the course of the summer. the hecla was ready for sea on the th of august; but the wind blowing fresh from the northward and westward prevented our moving till the evening of the th, when, the weather improving, we got under way from hecla cove, and, being favoured with a light air from the s.e., stood along the coast to the westward. on the evening of the th, when off red beach, we got on board our boat and other stores which had been left there, finding them undisturbed and in good order. the weather was beautifully fine, and the sun (to us for the first time for about four months) just dipped his lower limb into the sea at midnight, and then rose again. it was really wonderful to see that, upon this whole northern coast of spitzbergen, where in may and june not a "hole" of clear water could be found, it would now have been equally difficult to discover a single mass of ice in any direction. this absence of ice now enabled us to see moffen island, which is so low and flat that it was before entirely hidden from our view by the hummocks. on rounding hakluyt's headland on the th, we came at once into a long swell, such as occurs only in places exposed to the whole range of the ocean, and, except a small or loose stream or two, we after this saw no more ice of any kind. on the st we were off prince charles's foreland, the middle part of which, about cape sietoe, appeared to be much the highest land we had seen in spitzbergen; rising probably to an elevation of above four thousand feet. we had favourable winds to carry us clear of spitzbergen; but after the d of september, and between the parallels of ° and °, were detained by continual southerly and southwesterly breezes for a fortnight. on the evening of the th we made shetland, and on the following day, being close off balta sound, and the wind blowing strong from the s.w., i anchored in the voe at two p.m., to wait a more favourable breeze. we were here received by all that genuine hospitality for which the inhabitants of this northern part of the british dominions are so justly distinguished, and we gladly availed ourselves of the supplies with which their kindness furnished us. early on the morning of the th of september, the wind suddenly shifted to the n.n.w., and almost immediately blew so strong a gale that we could not safely cast the ship until the evening, when we got under way and proceeded to the southward; but had not proceeded farther than fair island, when, after a few hours' calm, we were once more met by a southerly wind. against this we continued to beat till the morning of the d, when, finding that we made but little progress, and that there was no appearance of an alteration of wind, i determined to put into long hope, in the orkney islands, to await a change in our favour, and accordingly ran in and anchored there as soon as the tide would permit. we found lying here his majesty's revenue cutter the chichester; and mr. stuart, her commander, who was bound direct to inverness, came on board as soon as we had anchored, to offer his services in any manner which might be useful. the wind died away in the course of the night of the th, and was succeeded on the following morning by a light air from the northward, when we immediately got under way; but had not entered the pentland firth, when it again fell calm and then backed to the southward, rendering it impossible to make any progress in that direction with a dull-sailing ship. i therefore determined on returning with the hecla to the anchorage, and then taking advantage of mr. stuart's offer; and accordingly left the ship at eight a.m., accompanied by mr. beverly, to proceed to inverness in the chichester, and from thence by land to london, in order to lay before his royal highness the lord high admiral, without farther delay, an account of our proceedings. by the zealous exertions of mr. stuart, for which i feel greatly obliged to that gentleman, we arrived off fort george the following morning, and, landing at inverness at noon, immediately set off for london, and arrived at the admiralty on the morning of the th of september. owing to the continuance of southerly winds, the hecla did not arrive in the river thames until the th of october, when i was sorry, though not surprised, to learn the death of mr. george crawford, the greenland master, who departed this life on the th of september, sincerely lamented by all who knew him, as a zealous, active, and enterprising seaman, and an amiable and deserving man. mr. crawford had accompanied us in five successive voyages to the polar seas, and i truly regret the occasion which demands from me this public testimony of the value of his services and the excellence of his character. * * * * * having finished my narrative of this attempt to reach the north pole, i may perhaps be permitted, in conclusion, to offer such remarks as have lately occurred to me on the nature and practicability of the enterprise. that the object is of still more difficult attainment than was before supposed, even by those persons who were the best qualified to judge of it, will, i believe, appear evident from a perusal of the foregoing pages; nor can i, after much consideration and some experience of the various difficulties which belong to it, recommend any material improvement in the plan lately adopted. among the various schemes suggested for this purpose, it has been proposed to set out from spitzbergen, and to make a rapid journey to the northward with sledges or sledge-boats, drawn wholly by dogs or reindeer; but, however feasible this plan may at first sight appear, i cannot say that our late experience of the nature of the ice which they would probably have to encounter has been at all favourable to it. it would, of course, be a matter of extreme imprudence to set out on this enterprise without the means of crossing, not merely narrow pools and "lanes," but more extensive spaces of open water, such as we met with between the margin of the ice and the spitzbergen shores; and i do not conceive that any boat sufficiently large to be efficient and safe for this purpose could possibly be managed upon the ice, were the power employed to give it motion dependant on dogs or reindeer. on the contrary, it was a frequent subject of remark among the officers, that reason was a qualification scarcely less indispensable than strength and activity in travelling over such a road; daily instances occurring of our having to pass over difficult places, which no other animal than man could have been easily prevailed upon to attempt. indeed, the constant necessity of launching and hauling up the boats (which operations we had frequently to perform eight or ten, and, on one occasion, seventeen times in the same day) would alone render it inexpedient, in my opinion, to depend chiefly upon animals; for it would certainly require more time and labour to get them into and out of the boats, than their services in the intervals, or their flesh ultimately used as food, would be worth; especially when it is considered how large a weight of provender must be carried for their own subsistence.[ ] in case of employing reindeer, which, from their strength, docility, and hardy habits, appear the best suited to this kind of travelling, there would be an evident advantage in setting out much earlier in the year than we did; perhaps about the end of april, when the ice is less broken up, and the snow much harder upon its surface than at a more advanced part of the season. but this, it must be recollected, would involve the necessity of passing the previous winter on the northern coast of spitzbergen, which, even under favourable circumstances, would probably tend to weaken in some degree the energies of the men; while, on the other hand, it would be next to impossible to procure there a supply of provender for a number of tame reindeer, sufficient even to keep them alive, much less in tolerable condition, during a whole winter. in addition to this, it may be observed, that any party setting out earlier must be provided with a much greater weight of warm clothing in order to guard against the severity of cold, and also with an increased proportion of fuel for procuring water by the melting of snow, there being no fresh water upon the ice in these latitudes before the month of june. in the kind of provisions proper to be employed in such enterprises--a very important consideration, where almost the whole difficulty may be said to resolve itself into a question of weight--i am not aware that any improvement could be made upon that with which we were furnished; for i know of none which appears to contain so much nutriment in so small a weight and compass. it may be useful, however, to remark, as the result of absolute experience, that our daily allowance of provisions,[ ] although previously tried for some days on board the ship, and then considered to be enough, proved by no means sufficient to support the strength of men living constantly in the open air, exposed to wet and cold for at least twelve hours a day, seldom enjoying the luxury of a warm meal, and having to perform the kind of labour to which our people were subject. i have before remarked, that, previously to our return to the ship, our strength was considerably impaired; and, indeed, there is reason to believe that, very soon after entering upon the ice, the physical energies of the men were gradually diminishing, although, for the first few weeks, they did not appear to labour under any specific complaint. this diminution of strength, which we considered to be principally owing to the want of sufficient sustenance, became apparent, even after a fortnight, in the lifting of the bread-bags and other heavy weights; and i have no doubt that, in spite of every care on the part of the officers, as well as mr. beverly's skilful and humane attention to their ailments, some of the men, who had begun to fail before we quitted the ice, would, in a week or two longer, have suffered very severely, and become a serious encumbrance, instead of an assistance, to our party. as far as we were able to judge, without farther trial, mr. beverly and myself were of opinion that, in order to maintain the strength of men thus employed for several weeks together, an addition would be requisite of at least one third more to the provisions which we daily issued. i need scarcely remark how much this would increase the difficulty of equipping such an expedition. i cannot dismiss the subject of this enterprise without attempting to explain, as far as i am able, how it may have happened that the ice over which we passed was found to answer so little to the description of that observed by the respectable authorities quoted in a former part of this volume.[ ] it frequently occurred to us, in the course of our daily journeys, that this may, in some degree, have arisen from our navigators' having generally viewed the ice from a considerable height. the only clear and commanding view on board a ship is that from the crow's-nest; and phipps's most important remarks concerning the nature of the ice to the north of spitzbergen were made from a station several hundred feet above the sea; and, as it is well known how much the most experienced eye may thus be deceived, it is possible enough that the irregularities which cost us so much time and labour may, when viewed in this manner, have entirely escaped notice, and the whole surface have appeared one smooth and level plain. it is, moreover, possible, that the broken state in which we unexpectedly found the ice may have arisen, at least in part, from an unusually wet season, preceded, perhaps, by a winter of less than ordinary severity. of the latter we have no means of judging, there being no record, that i am aware of, of the temperature of that or any other winter passed in the higher latitudes; but, on comparing our meteorological register with some others kept during the corresponding season and about the same latitude,[ ] it does appear that, though no material difference is observable in the mean temperature of the atmosphere, the quantity of rain which we experienced is considerably greater than usual; and it is well known how very rapidly ice is dissolved by a fall of rain. at all events, from whatever cause it may have arisen, it is certain that, about the meridian on which we proceeded northward in the boats, the sea was in a totally different state from what phipps experienced, as may be seen from comparing our accounts--his ship being closely beset, near the seven islands, for several days about the beginning of august; whereas the hecla, in the beginning of june, sailed about in the same neighbourhood without obstruction, and, before the close of july, not a piece of ice could be seen from little table island. i may add, in conclusion, that, before the middle of august, when we left the ice in our boats, a ship might have sailed to the latitude, of ° almost without touching a piece of ice; and it was the general opinion among us, that, by the end of that month, it would probably have been no very difficult matter to reach the parallel of °, about the meridian of the seven islands. the end. footnotes [ ] this name being applied by the esquimaux to several other portions of land, all of which are insular, or nearly so, it is probable that the word simply signifies an island. [ ] the expression "fixed ice" appearing better suited to our present obstacle than that of "land ice," i shall in future adopt it in speaking of this barrier. [ ] lest it should be thought that this account is exaggerated, i may here state, that, as a matter of curiosity, we one day tried how much a lad, scarcely full grown, would, if freely supplied, consume in this way. the under-mentioned articles were weighed before being given to him; he was twenty hours in getting through them, and certainly did not consider the quantity extraordinary. lb. oz. seahorse flesh, hard frozen ditto, boiled bread and bread-dust ________ total of solids the fluids were in fair proportion, viz.: rich gravy-soup - / pint. raw spirits wine glasses. strong grog. tumbler. water gallon pint. [ ] we have since heard that these ships were the dexterity, of leith, and the aurora, of hull, which were wrecked on the th of august, , about the latitude of °. [ ] a fine lad, of about sixteen, being one day out in a boat with one of our gentlemen at arlagnuk, reminded him, with a serious face, that he had laid a gun down _full-cocked_. there happened to be no charge in the gun at the time; but this was a proof of the attention the boy had paid to the art of using firearms, as well as an instance of considerate and manly caution, scarcely to have been expected in an individual of that age. [ ] most greenland sailors use these; but many persons, both officers and men, have an absurd prejudice against what they call "wearing stays." [ ] it is remarkable that this poor man had, twice before, within the space of nine months, been very near death; for, besides the accident already mentioned, of falling down the hill when escaping from the bear, he was also in imminent danger of dying of dropsy during the winter. [ ] this birch, they said, had been procured from the southward by way of _noowook_. we never met with any of the same kind in those parts of the country which we visited, except that observed by captain lyon in the deserted habitations of the esquimaux near five hawser bay. [ ] toolooak, who was a frequent visitor at the young gentlemen's mess-table on board the fury, once evinced this taste, and no small cunning at the same time, by asking alternately for a little more bread and a little more butter, till he had made a hearty meal. [ ] cervical, ; dorsal, ; lumbar, ; sacral, ; caudal, . [ ] cartwright's _labrador_, iii., . [ ] ledyard. _proceedings of the african association_, vol i, p. . [ ] the first travelling boat, which was built by way of experiment, was planked differently from these two; the planks, which were of half-inch oak, being ingeniously "tongued" together with copper, in order to save the necessity of caulking in case of the wood shrinking. this was the boat subsequently landed on red beach. [ ] this article of our equipment contains a large proportion of nutriment in a small weight and compass, and is therefore invaluable on such occasions. the process, which requires great attention, consists in drying large thin slices of the lean of the meat over the smoke of wood-fires, then pounding it, and lastly mixing it with about an equal weight of its own fat. in this state it is quite ready for use, without farther cooking. [ ] the merits of this simple but valuable invention being now too well known to require any detailed account of the experiments, it is only necessary for me to remark, in this place, that the compass, having the plate attached to it, gave, under all circumstances, the correct magnetic bearing. [ ] it is remarkable, that the esquimaux word for boot is very like this--kameega. [ ] i find it to be the universal opinion among the most experienced of our whalers, that there is much less ice met with, of late years, in getting to the northward, in these latitudes, than formerly was the case. mr. scoresby, to whose very valuable local information, contained in his "account of the arctic regions," i have been greatly indebted on this occasion, mentions the circumstance as a generally received fact. [ ] it was probably some such gale as this which has given to hakluyt's headland, in an old dutch chart, the appellation of "duyvel's hoek." [ ] i have been thus particular in noticing the hecla's position, because our observations would appear to be, with one exception, the most northern on record at that time. the commissioners of longitude, in their memorial to the king in council, in the year , consider that the "progress of discovery has not arrived northward, according to any well-authenticated accounts, so far as eighty-one degrees of north latitude." mr. scoresby states his having observed in lat. ° ' ". [ ] had we succeeded in reaching the higher latitudes, where the change of the sun's altitude during the twenty-four hours is still less perceptible, it would have been essentially necessary to possess the certain means of knowing this; since an error of twelve hours of time would have carried us, when we intended to return, on a meridian opposite to, or ° from, the right one. to obviate the possibility of this, we had some chronometers constructed by messrs. parkinson and frodsham, of which the hour-hand made only one revolution in the day, the twenty-four hours being marked round the dial-plate. [ ] i may here mention, that, notwithstanding the heavy blows which the boats were constantly receiving, all our nautical and astronomical instruments were taken back to the ship without injury. this circumstance makes it, perhaps, worth while to explain, that they were lashed upon a wooden platform in the after locker of each boat, sufficiently small to be clear of the boat's sides, and playing on strong springs of whalebone, which entirely obviated the effects of the severe concussions to which they would otherwise have been subject. [ ] we found the best preservative against this glare to be a pair of spectacles, having the glass of a bluish-green colour, and with side-screens to them. [ ] perhaps the name of this bay, from the dutch word _treuren_, "to lament, or be mournful," may have some reference to the graves found here. [ ] mr. crowe, of hammerfest, who lately passed a winter on the southwestern coast of spitzbergen, in about latitude °, informed me that he had _rain at christmas_; a phenomenon which would indeed have astonished us at any of our former wintering stations in a much lower latitude. perhaps the circumstance of the reindeer wintering at spitzbergen may also be considered a proof of a comparatively temperate climate. [ ] see p. of this volume. {line "the quantity of clean moss considered requisite for each deer per day is four pounds ..." - transcriber} [ ] see p. of this volume. {line "our allowance of provisions for each man per day was as follows:" - transcriber} [ ] see introduction. {line "introduction." - transcriber} [ ] particularly that of mr. scoresby during the month of july, from to inclusive, and captain franklin's for july and august, . file was produced from images generously made available by the canadian institute for historical microreproductions (www.canadiana.org)) transcriber's notes: there are several inconsistencies in spelling and punctuation in the original. some corrections have been made for obvious typographical errors; they have been noted individually in the text. all changes made by the transcriber are enumerated in braces, for example { }; details of corrections and comments are listed at the end of the text. note that many of the errors were introduced in the third edition, as cross-referencing the second edition has shown. in the original, the "mc" in scottish names is given as "m" followed by what looks like a left single quotation mark (unicode ). this has been changed to "mc" throughout the text. specific spellings that differ from their modern versions and have been retained in this text are "saskatchawan" (modern "saskatchewan"), "esquimaux" (modern "eskimo") and "musquito" (modern "mosquito"). text in italics in the original is shown between _underlines_. for this text version, the oe-ligature (unicode ) has been rendered as "oe". footnote in chapter viii contains several instances of [· ] as a transliteration of the symbol for "sun" (unicode ). * * * * * narrative of a journey to the shores of the polar sea, in the years - - - . by john franklin, capt. r.n., f.r.s., m.w.s., and commander of the expedition. published by authority of the right honourable the earl bathurst. third edition. two vols.--vol. ii. london: john murray, albemarle-street. mdcccxxiv. london: printed by william clowes, northumberland-court. contents of the second volume. chapter viii. page transactions at fort enterprise--mr. back's narrative of his journey to chipewyan, and return chapter ix. continuation of proceedings at fort enterprise--some account of the copper indians--preparations for the journey to the northward chapter x. departure from fort enterprise--navigation of the copper-mine river--visit to the copper mountain--interview with the esquimaux--departure of the indian hunters--arrangements made with them for our return chapter xi. navigation of the polar sea, in two canoes, as far as cape turnagain, to the eastward, a distance exceeding five hundred and fifty miles--observations on the probability of a north-west passage chapter xii. journey across the barren grounds--difficulty and delay in crossing copper-mine river--melancholy and fatal results thereof--extreme misery of the whole party--murder of mr. hood--death of several of the canadians--desolate state of fort enterprise--distress suffered at that place--dr. richardson's narrative--mr. back's narrative--conclusion journey to the shores of the polar sea. * * * * * chapter viii. transactions at fort enterprise--mr. back's narrative of his journey to chipewyan and return. . september. during our little expedition to the copper-mine river, mr. wentzel had made great progress in the erection of our winter-house, having nearly roofed it in. but before proceeding to give an account of a ten months' residence at this place, henceforth designated fort enterprise, i may premise, that i shall omit many of the ordinary occurrences of a north american winter, as they have been already detailed in so able and interesting a manner by ellis[ ], and confine myself principally to the circumstances which had an influence on our progress in the ensuing summer. the observations on the magnetic needle, the temperature of the atmosphere, the aurora borealis, and other meteorological phenomena, together with the mineralogical and botanical notices, being less interesting to the general reader, are omitted in this edition. [ ] voyage to hudson's bay in the dobbs and california. the men continued to work diligently at the house, and by the th of september had nearly completed it for our reception, when a heavy fall of rain washed the greater part of the mud off the roof. this rain was remarked by the indians as unusual, after what they had deemed so decided a commencement of winter in the early part of the month. the mean temperature for the month was - / °, but the thermometer had sunk as low as °, and on one occasion rose to °. besides the party constantly employed at the house, two men were appointed to fish, and others were occasionally sent for meat, as the hunters procured it. this latter employment, although extremely laborious, was always relished by the canadians, as they never failed to use a prescriptive right of helping themselves to the fattest and most delicate parts of the deer. towards the end of the month, the rein-deer began to quit the barren grounds, and came into the vicinity of the house, on their way to the woods; and the success of the hunters being consequently great, the necessity of sending for the meat considerably retarded the building of the house. in the mean time we resided in our canvas tents, which proved very cold habitations, although we maintained a fire in front of them, and also endeavoured to protect ourselves from the piercing winds by a barricade of pine branches. on the th of october, the house being completed, we struck our tents, and removed into it. it was merely a log-building, fifty feet long, and twenty-four wide, divided into a hall, three bed rooms and a kitchen. the walls and roof were plastered with clay, the floors laid with planks rudely squared with the hatchet, and the windows closed with parchment of deer-skin. the clay, which from the coldness of the weather, required to be tempered before the fire with hot water, froze as it was daubed on, and afterwards cracked in such a manner as to admit the wind from every quarter; yet, compared with the tents, our new habitation appeared comfortable; and having filled our capacious clay-built chimney with fagots, we spent a cheerful evening before the invigorating blaze. the change was peculiarly beneficial to dr. richardson, who, having, in one of his excursions, incautiously laid down on the frozen side of a hill when heated with walking, had caught a severe inflammatory sore throat, which became daily worse whilst we remained in the tents, but began to mend soon after he was enabled to confine himself to the more equable warmth of the house. we took up our abode at first on the floor, but our working party, who had shown such skill as house carpenters, soon proved themselves to be, with the same tools, (the hatchet and crooked knife,) excellent cabinet makers, and daily added a table, chair, or bedstead, to the comforts of our establishment. the crooked knife generally made of an old file, bent and tempered by heat, serves an indian or canadian voyager for plane, chisel, and auger. with it the snow-shoe and canoe-timbers are fashioned, the deals of their sledges reduced to the requisite thinness and polish, and their wooden bowls and spoons hollowed out. indeed, though not quite so requisite for existence as the hatchet, yet without its aid there would be little comfort in these wilds. on the th we were gratified by a sight of the sun, after it had been obscured for twelve days. on this and several following days the meridian sun melted the light covering of snow or hoar frost on the lichens, which clothe the barren grounds, and rendered them so tender as to attract great herds of rein-deer to our neighbourhood. on the morning of the th i estimated the numbers i saw during a short walk, at upwards of two thousand. they form into herds of different sizes, from ten to a hundred, according as their fears or accident induce them to unite or separate. the females being at this time more lean and active, usually lead the van. the haunches of the males are now covered to the depth of two inches or more with fat, which is beginning to get red and high flavoured, and is considered a sure indication of the commencement of the rutting season. their horns, which in the middle of august were yet tender, have now attained their proper size, and are beginning to lose their hairy covering which hangs from them in ragged filaments. the horns of the rein-deer vary, not only with its sex and age, but are otherwise so uncertain in their growth, that they are never alike in any two individuals. the old males shed their's about the end of december; the females retain them until the disappearance of the snow enables them to frequent the barren grounds, which may be stated to be about the middle or end of may, soon after which period they proceed towards the sea-coast and drop their young. the young males lose their horns about the same time with the females or a little earlier, some of them as early as april. the hair of the rein-deer falls in july, and is succeeded by a short thick coat of mingled clove, deep reddish, and yellowish browns; the belly and under parts of the neck, _&c._, remaining white. as the winter approaches the hair becomes longer, and lighter in its colours, and it begins to loosen in may, being then much worn on the sides, from the animal rubbing itself against trees and stones. it becomes grayish and almost white, before it is completely shed. the indians form their robes of the skins procured in autumn, when the hair is short. towards the spring the larvæ of the oestrus attaining a large size, produce so many perforations in the skins, that they are good for nothing. the cicatrices only of these holes are to be seen in august, but a fresh set of _ova_ have in the mean time been deposited[ ]. [ ] "it is worthy of remark, that in the month of may a very great number of large larvæ exist under the mucous membrane at the root of the tongue, and posterior part of the nares and pharynx. the indians consider them to belong to the same species with the oestrus, that deposits its ova under the skin: to us the larvæ of the former appeared more flattened than those of the latter. specimens of both kinds, preserved in spirits, were destroyed by the frequent falls they received on the portages."--dr. richardson's _journal_. the rein-deer retire from the sea-coast in july and august, rut in october on the verge of the barren grounds, and shelter themselves in the woods during the winter. they are often induced by a few fine days in winter, to pay a transitory visit to their favourite pastures in the barren country, but their principal movement to the northward commences generally in the end of april, when the snow first begins to melt on the sides of the hills, and early in may, when large patches of the ground are visible, they are on the banks of the copper-mine river. the females take the lead in this spring migration, and bring forth their young on the sea-coast about the end of may or beginning of june. there are certain spots or passes well known to the indians, through which the deer invariably pass in their migrations to and from the coast, and it has been observed that they always travel against the wind. the principal food of the rein-deer in the barren grounds, consists of the _cetraria nivalis_ and _cucullata_, _cenomyce rangiferina_, _cornicularia ochrileuca_, and other lichens, and they also eat the hay or dry grass which is found in the swamps in autumn. in the woods they feed on the different lichens which hang from the trees. they are accustomed to gnaw their fallen antlers, and are said also to devour mice. the weight of a full grown barren-ground deer, exclusive of the offal, varies from ninety to one hundred and thirty pounds. there is, however, a much larger kind found in the woody parts of the country, whose carcase weighs from two hundred to two hundred and forty pounds. this kind never leaves the woods, but its skin is as much perforated by the gad-fly as that of the others; a presumptive proof that the smaller species are not driven to the sea-coast solely by the attacks of that insect. there are a few rein-deer occasionally killed in the spring, whose skins are entire, and these are always fat, whereas the others are lean at that season. this insect likewise infests the red-deer (_wawaskeesh_,) but its ova are not found in the skin of the moose, or buffalo, nor, as we have been informed, of the sheep and goat that inhabit the rocky mountains, although the rein-deer found in those parts, (which are of an unusually large kind,) are as much tormented by them as the barren-ground variety. the herds of rein-deer are attended in their migrations by bands of wolves, which destroy a great many of them. the copper indians kill the rein-deer in the summer with the gun, or taking advantage of a favourable disposition of the ground, they enclose a herd upon a neck of land, and drive them into a lake, where they fall an easy prey; but in the rutting season and in the spring, when they are numerous on the skirts of the woods, they catch them in snares. the snares are simple nooses, formed in a rope made of twisted sinew, which are placed in the aperture of a slight hedge, constructed of the branches of trees. this hedge is so disposed as to form several winding compartments, and although it is by no means strong, yet the deer seldom attempt to break through it. the herd is led into the labyrinth by two converging rows of poles, and one is generally caught at each of the openings by the noose placed there. the hunter, too, lying in ambush, stabs some of them with his bayonet as they pass by, and the whole herd frequently becomes his prey. where wood is scarce, a piece of turf turned up answers the purpose of a pole to conduct them towards the snares. the rein-deer has a quick eye, but the hunter by keeping to leeward and using a little caution, may approach very near; their apprehensions being much more easily roused by the smell than the sight of any unusual object. indeed their curiosity often causes them to come close up and wheel around the hunter; thus affording him a good opportunity of singling out the fattest of the herd, and upon these occasions they often become so confused by the shouts and gestures of their enemy, that they run backwards and forwards with great rapidity, but without the power of making their escape. the copper indians find by experience that a white dress attracts them most readily, and they often succeed in bringing them within shot, by kneeling and vibrating the gun from side to side, in imitation of the motion of a deer's horns when he is in the act of rubbing his head against a stone. the dog-rib indians have a mode of killing these animals, which though simple, is very successful. it was thus described by mr. wentzel, who resided long amongst that people. the hunters go in pairs, the foremost man carrying in one hand the horns and part of the skin of the head of a deer, and in the other a small bundle of twigs, against which he, from time to time, rubs the horns, imitating the gestures peculiar to the animal. his comrade follows treading exactly in his footsteps, and holding the guns of both in a horizontal position, so that the muzzles project under the arms of him who carries the head. both hunters have a fillet of white skin round their foreheads, and the foremost has a strip of the same kind round his wrists. they approach the herd by degrees, raising their legs very slowly, but setting them down somewhat suddenly, after the manner of a deer, and always taking care to lift their right or left feet simultaneously. if any of the herd leave off feeding to gaze upon this extraordinary phenomenon, it instantly stops, and the head begins to play its part by licking its shoulders, and performing other necessary movements. in this way the hunters attain the very centre of the herd without exciting suspicion, and have leisure to single out the fattest. the hindmost man then pushes forward his comrade's gun, the head is dropt, and they both fire nearly at the same instant. the herd scampers off, the hunters trot after them; in a short time the poor animals halt to ascertain the cause of their terror, their foes stop at the same instant, and having loaded as they ran, greet the gazers with a second fatal discharge. the consternation of the deer increases, they run to and fro in the utmost confusion, and sometimes a great part of the herd is destroyed within the space of a few hundred yards. a party who had been sent to akaitcho returned, bringing three hundred and seventy pounds of dried meat, and two hundred and twenty pounds of suet, together with the unpleasant information, that a still larger quantity of the latter article had been found and carried off, as he supposed, by some dog-ribs, who had passed that way. the weather becoming daily colder, all the lakes in the neighbourhood of the house were completely, and the river partially, frozen over by the middle of the month. the rein-deer now began to quit us for more southerly and better-sheltered pastures. indeed, their longer residence in our neighbourhood would have been of little service to us, for our ammunition was almost completely expended, though we had dealt it of late with a very sparing hand to the indians. we had, however, already secured in the store-house the carcases of one hundred deer, together with one thousand pounds of suet, and some dried meat; and had, moreover, eighty deer stowed up at various distances from the house. the necessity of employing the men to build a house for themselves, before the weather became too severe, obliged us to put the latter _en cache_, as the voyagers term it, instead of adopting the more safe plan of bringing them to the house. putting a deer _en cache_, means merely protecting it against the wolves, and still more destructive wolverenes, by heavy loads of wood or stones; the latter animal, however, sometimes digs underneath the pile, and renders the precaution abortive. on the th, mr. back and mr. wentzel set out for fort providence, accompanied by beauparlant, belanger, and two indians, akaiyazza and thoolezzeh, with their wives, the little forehead, and the smiling marten. mr. back had volunteered to go and make the necessary arrangements for transporting the stores we expected from cumberland house, and to endeavour to obtain some additional supplies from the establishments at slave lake. if any accident should have prevented the arrival of our stores, and the establishments at moose-deer island should be unable to supply the deficiency, he was, if he found himself equal to the task, to proceed to chipewyan. ammunition was essential to our existence, and a considerable supply of tobacco was also requisite, not only for the comfort of the canadians, who use it largely, and had stipulated for it in their engagements, but also as a means of preserving the friendship of the indians. blankets, cloth, and iron-work, were scarcely less indispensible to equip our men for the advance next season. mr. wentzel accompanied mr. back, to assist him in obtaining from the traders, on the score of old friendship, that which they might be inclined to deny to our necessities. i forwarded by them letters to the colonial office and admiralty, detailing the proceedings of the expedition up to this period. on the d we were surprised by a visit from a dog; the poor animal was in low condition, and much fatigued. our indians discovered, by marks on his ears, that he belonged to the dog-ribs. this tribe, unlike the chipewyans and copper indians, had preserved that useful associate of man, although from their frequent intercourse with the latter people, they were not ignorant of the prediction alluded to in a former page. one of our interpreters was immediately despatched, with an indian, to endeavour to trace out the dog-ribs, whom he supposed might be concealed in the neighbourhood from their dread of the copper indians; although we had no doubt of their coming to us, were they aware of our being here. the interpreter, however, returned without having discovered any traces of strange indians; a circumstance which led us to conclude, that the dog had strayed from his masters a considerable time before. towards the end of the month the men completed their house, and took up their abode in it. it was thirty-four feet long and eighteen feet wide; was divided into two apartments, and was placed at right angles to the officers' dwelling, and facing the store-house: the three buildings forming three sides of a quadrangle. on the th akaitcho and his party arrived, the hunting in this neighbourhood being terminated for the season, by the deer having retired southward to the shelter of the woods. the arrival of this large party was a serious inconvenience to us, from our being compelled to issue them daily rates of provision from the store. the want of ammunition prevented us from equipping and sending them to the woods to hunt; and although they are accustomed to subsist themselves for a considerable part of the year by fishing, or snaring the deer, without having recourse to fire-arms, yet, on the present occasion, they felt little inclined to do so, and gave scope to their natural love of ease, as long as our store-house seemed to be well stocked. nevertheless, as they were conscious of impairing our future resources, they did not fail, occasionally, to remind us that it was not their fault, to express an ardent desire to go hunting, and to request a supply of ammunition, although they knew that it was not in our power to give it. the summer birds by this time had entirely deserted us, leaving, for our winter companions, the raven, cinereous crow, ptarmigan, and snow-bird. the last of the water-fowl that quitted us was a species of diver, of the same size with the _colymbus arcticus_, but differing from it in the arrangement of the white spots on its plumage, and in having a yellowish white bill. this bird was occasionally caught in our fishing nets. the thermometer during the month of october, at fort enterprise, never rose above °, or fell below °; the mean temperature for the month was °. in the beginning of october a party had been sent to the westward to search for birch to make snow-shoe frames, and the indian women were afterwards employed in netting the shoes and preparing leather for winter-clothing to the men. robes of rein-deer skins were also obtained from the indians, and issued to the men who were to travel, as they are not only a great deal lighter than blankets, but also much warmer, and altogether better adapted for a winter in this climate. they are, however, unfit for summer use, as the least moisture causes the skin to spoil, and lose its hair. it requires the skins of seven deer to make one robe. the finest are made of the skins of young fawns. the fishing, having failed as the weather became more severe, was given up on the th. it had procured us about one thousand two hundred _white fish_, from two to three pounds each. there are two other species of _coregoni_ in winter lake, _back's grayling_ and the _round fish_; and a few _trout_, _pike_, _methye_, and _red carp_, were also occasionally obtained from the nets. it may be worthy of notice here, that the fish froze as they were taken out of the nets, in a short time became a solid mass of ice, and by a blow or two of the hatchet were easily split open, when the intestines might be removed in one lump. if in this completely frozen state they were thawed before the fire, they recovered their animation. this was particularly the case with the carp, and we had occasion to observe it repeatedly, as dr. richardson occupied himself in examining the structure of the different species of fish, and was, always in the winter, under the necessity of thawing them before he could cut them. we have seen a carp recover so far as to leap about with much vigour, after it had been frozen for thirty-six hours. from the th to the th we had fine, and for the season, warm weather; and the deer, which had not been seen since the th of october, reappeared in the neighbourhood of the house, to the surprise of the indians, who attributed their return to the barren grounds to the unusual mildness of the season. on this occasion, by melting some of our pewter cups, we managed to furnish five balls to each of the hunters, but they were all expended unsuccessfully, except by akaitcho, who killed two deer. by the middle of the month winter river was firmly frozen over, except the small rapid at its commencement, which remained open all the winter. the ice on the lake was now nearly two feet thick. after the th we had a succession of cold, snowy, and windy weather. we had become anxious to hear of the arrival of mr. back and his party at fort providence. the indians, who had calculated the period at which a messenger ought to have returned from thence to be already passed, became impatient when it had elapsed, and with their usual love of evil augury tormented us by their melancholy forebodings. at one time they conjectured that the whole party had fallen through{ } the ice; at another, that they had been way-laid and cut off by the dog-ribs. in vain did we urge the improbability of the former accident, or the peaceable character of the dog-ribs, so little in conformity with the latter. "the ice at this season was deceitful," they said, "and the dog-ribs, though unwarlike, were treacherous." these assertions, so often repeated, had some effect upon the spirits of our canadian voyagers, who seldom weigh any opinion they adopt; but we persisted in treating their fears as chimerical, for had we seemed to listen to them for a moment, it is more than probable that the whole of our indians would have gone to fort providence in search of supplies, and we should have found it extremely difficult to have recovered them. the matter was put to rest by the appearance of belanger on the morning of the d, and the indians, now running into the opposite extreme, were disposed to give us more credit for our judgment than we deserved. they had had a tedious and fatiguing journey to fort providence, and for some days were destitute of provisions. belanger arrived alone; he had walked constantly for the last six-and-thirty hours, leaving his indian companions encamped at the last woods, they being unwilling to accompany him across the barren grounds during the storm that had prevailed for several days, and blew with unusual violence on the morning of his arrival. his locks were matted with snow, and he was incrusted with ice from head to foot, so that we scarcely recognised him when he burst in upon us. we welcomed him with the usual shake of the hand, but were unable to give him the glass of rum which every voyager receives on his arrival at a trading post. as soon as his packet was thawed, we eagerly opened it to obtain our english letters. the latest were dated on the preceding april. they came by way of canada, and were brought up in september to slave lake by the north-west company's canoes. we were not so fortunate with regard to our stores; of ten pieces, or bales of lbs. weight, which had been sent from york factory by governor williams, five of the most essential had been left at the grand rapid on the saskatchawan, owing, as far as we could judge from the accounts that reached us, to the misconduct of the officer to whom they were intrusted, and who was ordered to convey them to cumberland-house. being overtaken by some of the north-west company's canoes, he had insisted on their taking half of his charge as it was intended for the service of government. the north-west gentlemen objected, that their canoes had already got a cargo in, and that they had been requested to convey our stores from cumberland house only, where they had a canoe waiting for the purpose. the hudson's-bay officer upon this deposited our ammunition and tobacco upon the beach, and departed without any regard to the serious consequences that might result to us from the want of them. the indians, who assembled at the opening of the packet, and sat in silence watching our countenances, were necessarily made acquainted with the non-arrival of our stores, and bore the intelligence with unexpected tranquillity. we took care, however, in our communications with them to dwell upon the more agreeable parts of our intelligence, and they seemed to receive particular pleasure on being informed of the arrival of two esquimaux interpreters at slave lake, on their way to join the party. the circumstance not only quieted their fears of opposition from the esquimaux on our descent to the sea next season, but also afforded a substantial proof of our influence in being able to bring two people of that nation from such a distance. akaitcho, who is a man of great penetration and shrewdness, duly appreciated these circumstances; indeed he has often surprised us by his correct judgment of the character of individuals amongst the traders or of our own party, although his knowledge of their opinions was, in most instances, obtained through the imperfect medium of interpretation. he was an attentive observer, however, of every action, and steadily compared their conduct with their pretensions. by the newspapers we learned the demise of our revered and lamented sovereign george iii., and the proclamation of george iv. we concealed this intelligence from the indians, lest the death of their great father might lead them to suppose that we should be unable to fulfil our promises to them. the indians who had left fort providence with belanger arrived the day after him, and, amongst other intelligence, informed akaitcho of some reports they had heard to our disadvantage. they stated that mr. weeks, the gentleman in charge of fort providence, had told them, that so far from our being what we represented ourselves to be, the officers of a great king, we were merely a set of dependant wretches, whose only aim was to obtain subsistence for a season in the plentiful country of the copper indians; that, out of charity we had been supplied with a portion of goods by the trading companies, but that there was not the smallest probability of our being able to reward the indians when their term of service was completed. akaitcho, with great good sense, instantly came to have the matter explained, stating at the same time, that he could not credit it. i then pointed out to him that mr. wentzel, with whom they had long been accustomed to trade, had pledged the credit of his company for the stipulated rewards to the party that accompanied us, and that the trading debts due by akaitcho, and his party had already been remitted, which was of itself a sufficient proof of our influence with the north-west company. i also reminded akaitcho, that our having caused the esquimaux to be brought up at a great expense, was evidence of our future intentions, and informed him that i should write to mr. smith, the senior trader in the department, on the subject, when i had no doubt that a satisfactory explanation would be given. the indians retired from the conference apparently satisfied, but this business was in the end productive of much inconvenience to us, and proved very detrimental to the progress of the expedition. in conjunction also with other intelligence conveyed in mr. back's letters respecting the disposition of the traders towards us, particularly a statement of mr. weeks, that he had been desired not to assist us with supplies from his post, it was productive of much present uneasiness to me. on the th st. germain, the interpreter, set out with eight canadian voyagers and four indian hunters to bring up our stores from fort providence. i wrote by him to mr. smith, at moose-deer island, and mr. keith, at chipewyan, both of the north-west company, urging them in the strongest manner to comply with the requisition for stores, which mr. back would present. i also informed mr. simpson, principal agent in the athabasca for the hudson's bay company, who had proffered every assistance in his power, that we should gladly avail ourselves of the kind intentions expressed in a letter which i had received from him. we also sent a number of broken axes to slave lake to be repaired. the dog that came to us on the d of october, and had become very familiar, followed the party. we were in hopes that it might prove of some use in dragging their loads, but we afterwards learned, that on the evening after their departure from the house, they had the cruelty to kill and eat it, although they had no reason to apprehend a scarcity of provision. a dog is considered to be delicate eating by the voyagers. the mean temperature of the air for november was - °. . the greatest heat observed was ° above, and the least ° below, zero. on the st of december the sky was clear, a slight appearance of stratus only being visible near the horizon; but a kind of snow fell at intervals in the forenoon, its particles so minute as to be observed only in the sunshine. towards noon the snow became more apparent, and the two limbs of a prismatic arch were visible, one on each side of the sun near its place in the heavens, the centre being deficient. we have frequently observed this descent of minute icy spiculæ when the sky appears perfectly clear, and could even perceive that its silent but continued action, added to the snowy covering of the ground. having received one hundred balls from fort providence by belanger, we distributed them amongst the indians, informing the leader at the same time, that the residence of so large a party as his at the house, amounting, with women and children, to forty souls, was producing a serious reduction in our stock of provision. he acknowledged the justice of the statement, and promised to remove as soon as his party had prepared snow-shoes and sledges for themselves. under one pretext or other, however, their departure was delayed until the th of the month, when they left us, having previously received one of our fishing-nets, and all the ammunition we possessed. the leader left his aged mother and two female attendants to our care, requesting that if she died during his absence, she might be buried at a distance from the fort, that he might not be reminded of his loss when he visited us. keskarrah, the guide, also remained behind, with his wife and daughter. the old man has become too feeble to hunt, and his time is almost entirely occupied in attendance upon his wife, who has been long affected with an ulcer on the face, which has nearly destroyed her nose. lately he made an offering to the water spirits, whose wrath he apprehended to be the cause of her malady. it consisted of a knife, a piece of tobacco, and some other trifling articles, which were tied up in a small bundle, and committed to the rapid with a long prayer. he does not trust entirely, however, to the relenting of the spirits for his wife's cure, but comes daily to dr. richardson for medicine. upon one occasion he received the medicine from the doctor with such formality, and wrapped it up in his rein-deer robe with such extraordinary carefulness, that it excited the involuntary laughter of mr. hood and myself. the old man smiled in his turn, and as he always seemed proud of the familiar way in which we were accustomed to joke with him, we thought no more upon the subject. but he unfortunately mentioned the circumstance to his wife, who imagined in consequence, that the drug was not productive of its usual good effects, and they immediately came to the conclusion that some bad medicine had been intentionally given to them. the distress produced by this idea, was in proportion to their former faith in the potency of the remedy, and the night was spent in singing and groaning. next morning the whole family were crying in concert, and it was not until the evening of the second day that we succeeded in pacifying them. the old woman began to feel better, and her faith in the medicine was renewed. while speaking of this family, i may remark that the daughter, whom we designated green-stockings from her dress, is considered by her tribe to be a great beauty. mr. hood drew an accurate portrait of her, although her mother was averse to her sitting for it. she was afraid, she said, that her daughter's likeness would induce the great chief who resided in england to send for the original. the young lady, however, was undeterred by any such fear. she has already been an object of contest between her countrymen, and although under sixteen years of age, has belonged successively to two husbands, and would probably have been the wife of many more, if her mother had not required her services as a nurse. the weather during this month, was the coldest we experienced during our residence in america. the thermometer sunk on one occasion to ° below zero, and never rose beyond ° above it; the mean for the month was - °. . during these intense colds, however, the atmosphere was generally calm, and the wood-cutters and others went about their ordinary occupations without using any extraordinary precautions, yet without feeling any bad effects. they had their rein-deer shirts on, leathern mittens lined with blankets, and furred caps; but none of them used any defence for the face, or needed any. indeed we have already mentioned that the heat is abstracted most rapidly from the body during strong breezes, and most of those who have perished from cold in this country, have fallen a sacrifice to their being overtaken on a lake or other unsheltered place, by a storm of wind. the intense colds, were, however, detrimental to us in another way. the trees froze to their very centres and became as hard as stones, and more difficult to cut. some of the axes were broken daily, and by the end of the month we had only one left that was fit for felling trees. by intrusting it only to one of the party who had been bred a carpenter, and who could use it with dexterity, it was fortunately preserved until the arrival of our men with others from fort providence. a thermometer, hung in our bed-room at the distance of sixteen feet from the fire, but exposed to its direct radiation, stood even in the day-time occasionally at ° below zero, and was observed more than once previous to the kindling of the fire in the morning, to be as low as ° below zero. on two of these occasions the chronometers and , which during the night lay under mr. hood's and dr. richardson's pillows, stopped while they were dressing themselves. the rapid at the commencement of the river remained open in the severest weather, although it was somewhat contracted in width. its temperature was °, as was the surface of the river opposite the house, about a quarter of a mile lower down, tried at a hole in the ice, through which water was drawn for domestic purposes. the river here was two fathoms and a half deep, and the temperature at its bottom was at least ° above zero. this fact was ascertained by a spirit thermometer; in which, probably, from some irregularity in the tube, a small portion of the coloured liquor usually remained at ° when the column was made to descend rapidly. in the present instance the thermometer standing at ° below zero, with no portion of the fluid in the upper part of the tube, was let down slowly into the water, but drawn cautiously and rapidly up again, when a red drop at + ° indicated that the fluid had risen to that point or above it. at this period the daily visits of the sun were very short, and owing to the obliquity of his rays, afforded us little warmth or light. it is half past eleven before he peeps over a small ridge of hills opposite to the house, and he sinks in the horizon at half past two. on the th mr. hood, in order to attain an approximation to the quantity of terrestrial refraction, observed the sun's meridian altitude when the thermometer stood at ° below zero, at the imminent hazard of having his fingers frozen. he found the sextant had changed its error considerably, and that the glasses had lost their parallelism from the contraction of the brass. in measuring the error he perceived that the diameter of the sun's image was considerably short of twice the semi-diameter; a proof of the uncertainty of celestial observations made during these intense frosts. the results of this and another similar observation are given at the bottom of the page[ ]. [ ] "the observed meridian altitude of [· ] upper limb was ° ' ". temperature of the air - ° '{ }. by comparing this altitude, corrected by the mean refraction and parallax, with that deduced from the latitude which was observed in autumn, the increase of refraction is found to be ' ", the whole refraction, therefore, for the altitude ° ' " is ' ". admitting that the refraction increases in the same ratio as that of the atmosphere at a mean state of temperature, the horizontal refraction will be ' ". but the diameter of the sun measured immediately after the observation, was only ' ", which shews an increase of refraction at the lower limb of ' ". the horizontal refraction calculated with this difference, and the above-mentioned ratio, is ' ", at the temperature - ° '. so that in the parallel ° ', where if there was no refraction, the sun would be invisible for thirty-four days, his upper limb, with the refraction ' ", is, in fact, above the horizon at every noon. the wind was from the westward a moderate breeze, and the air perfectly clear. january st, . observed meridian altitude of [· ] lower limb ° ' ". [· ] apparent diameter ° '. for apparent altitude ° ' ", the mean refraction is ' " (mackay's tables), and the true, found as detailed above, is ' ": which increasing in the same ratio as that of the atmosphere, at a mean state of temperature, is ' " at the horizon. but the difference of refraction at the upper and lower limbs, increasing also in that ratio, gives ' " for the horizontal refraction. temperature of the air - °. wind north, a light breeze, a large halo visible about the sun. january th, .--observed an apparent meridian altitude [· ] lower limb ° ' ". [· ] apparent diameter ' ". for apparent altitude ° ' ", the mean refraction is ' " (mackay's tables), and the true, found as detailed above, is ' ", which, increasing in the same ratio as that of the atmosphere at a mean state of temperature, is ' " at the horizon. but the difference of refraction between the upper and lower limbs increasing also in that ratio, gives ' " for the horizontal refraction. temperature of the air - °, a light air from the westward, very clear. the extreme coldness of the weather rendered these operations difficult and dangerous; yet i think the observations may be depended upon within ", as will appear by their approximate results in calculating the horizontal refraction; for it must be considered that an error of ", in the refraction in altitude, would make a difference of several minutes in the horizontal refraction."--mr. hood's _journal_. the aurora appeared with more or less brilliancy on twenty-eight nights in this month, and we were also gratified by the resplendent beauty of the moon, which for many days together performed its circle round the heavens, shining with undiminished lustre, and scarcely disappearing below the horizon during the twenty-four hours. during many nights there was a halo round the moon, although the stars shone brightly, and the atmosphere appeared otherwise clear. the same phenomenon{ } was observed round the candles, even in our bed-rooms; the diameter of the halo increasing as the observer receded from the light. these halos, both round the moon and candles, occasionally exhibited faintly some of the prismatic colours. as it may be interesting to the reader to know how we passed our time at this season of the year, i shall mention briefly, that a considerable portion of it was occupied in writing up our journals. some newspapers and magazines, that we had received from england with our letters, were read again and again, and commented upon, at our meals; and we often exercised ourselves with conjecturing the changes that might take place in the world before we could hear from it again. the probability of our receiving letters, and the period of their arrival, were calculated to a nicety. we occasionally paid the woodmen a visit, or took a walk for a mile or two on the river. in the evenings we joined the men in the hall, and took a part in their games, which generally continued to a late hour; in short, we never found the time to hang heavy upon our hands; and the peculiar occupations of each of the officers afforded them more employment than might at first be supposed. i re-calculated the observations made on our route; mr. hood protracted the charts, and made those drawings of birds, plants, and fishes, which cannot appear in this work, but which have been the admiration of every one who has seen them. each of the party sedulously and separately recorded their observations on the aurora; and dr. richardson contrived to obtain from under the snow, specimens of most of the lichens in the neighbourhood, and to make himself acquainted with the mineralogy of the surrounding country. the sabbath was always a day of rest with us; the woodmen were required to provide for the exigencies of that day on saturday, and the party were dressed in their best attire. divine service was regularly performed, and the canadians attended, and behaved with great decorum, although they were all roman catholics, and but little acquainted with the language in which the prayers were read. i regretted much that we had not a french prayer-book, but the lord's prayer and creed were always read to them in their own language. our diet consisted almost entirely of rein-deer meat, varied twice a week by fish, and occasionally by a little flour, but we had no vegetables of any description. on the sunday mornings we drank a cup of chocolate, but our greatest luxury was tea (without sugar,) of which we regularly partook twice a-day. with rein-deer's fat, and strips of cotton shirts, we formed candles; and hepburn acquired considerable skill in the manufacture of soap, from the wood-ashes, fat, and salt. the formation of soap was considered as rather a mysterious operation by our canadians, and, in their hands, was always supposed to fail if a woman approached the kettle in which the ley{ } was boiling. such are our simple domestic details. on the th, two hunters came from the leader, to convey ammunition to him, as soon as our men should bring it from fort providence. the men, at this time, coated the walls of the house on the outside, with a thin mixture of clay and water, which formed a crust of ice, that, for some days, proved impervious to the air; the dryness of the atmosphere, however, was such, that the ice in a short time evaporated, and gave admission to the wind as before. it is a general custom at the forts to give this sort of coating to the walls at christmas time. when it was gone, we attempted to remedy its defect, by heaping up snow against the walls. , january . this morning our men assembled, and greeted us with the customary salutation on the commencement of the new year. that they might enjoy a holiday{ }, they had yesterday collected double the usual quantity of fire-wood, and we anxiously expected the return of the men from fort providence, with some additions to their comforts. we had stronger hope of their arrival before the evening, as we knew that every voyager uses his utmost endeavour to reach a post upon, or previous to, the _jour de l'an_, that he may partake of the wonted festivities. it forms, as christmas is said to have done among our forefathers, the theme of their conversation for months before and after the period of its arrival. on the present occasion we could only treat them with a little flour and fat; these were both considered as great luxuries, but still the feast was defective from the want of rum, although we promised them a little when it should arrive. the early part of january proved mild, the thermometer rose to ° above zero, and we were surprised by the appearance of a kind of damp fog approaching very nearly to rain. the indians expressed their astonishment at this circumstance, and declared the present to be one of the warmest winters they had ever experienced. some of them reported that it had actually rained in the woody parts of the country. in the latter part of the month, however, the thermometer again descended to - °, and the mean temperature for the month proved to be - °. . owing to the fogs that obscured the sky the aurora was visible only upon eighteen nights in the month. on the th seven of our men arrived from fort providence with two kegs of rum, one barrel of powder, sixty pounds of ball, two rolls of tobacco, and some clothing. they had been twenty-one days on their march from slave lake, and the labour they underwent was sufficiently evinced by their sledge-collars having worn out the shoulders of their coats. their loads weighed from sixty to ninety pounds each, exclusive of their bedding and provisions, which at starting must have been at least as much more. we were much rejoiced at their arrival, and proceeded forthwith to pierce the spirit cask, and issue to each of the household the portion of rum which had been promised on the first day of the year. the spirits, which were proof, were frozen, but after standing at the fire for some time they flowed out of the consistency of honey. the temperature of the liquid, even in this state, was so low as instantly to convert into ice the moisture which condensed on the surface of the dram-glass. the fingers also adhered to the glass, and would, doubtless, have been speedily frozen had they been kept in contact with it; yet each of the voyagers swallowed his dram without experiencing the slightest inconvenience, or complaining of tooth-ache. after the men had retired, an indian, who had accompanied them from fort providence, informed me that they had broached the cask on their way up and spent two days in drinking. this instance of breach of trust was excessively distressing to me; i felt for their privations and fatigues, and was disposed to seize every opportunity of alleviating them, but this, combined with many instances of petty dishonesty with regard to meat, shewed how little confidence could be put in a canadian voyager when food or spirits were in question. we had been indeed made acquainted with their character on these points by the traders; but we thought that when they saw their officers living under equal if not greater privations than themselves, they would have been prompted by some degree of generous feeling to abstain from those depredations which, under ordinary circumstances, they would scarcely have blushed to be detected in. as they were pretty well aware that such a circumstance could not long be concealed from us, one of them came the next morning with an artful apology for their conduct. he stated, that as they knew it was my intention to treat them with a dram on the commencement of the new year, they had helped themselves to a small quantity on that day, trusting to my goodness for forgiveness; and being unwilling to act harshly at this period, i did forgive them, after admonishing them to be very circumspect in their future conduct. the ammunition, and a small present of rum, were sent to akaitcho. on the th vaillant, the woodman, had the misfortune to break his axe. this would have been a serious evil a few weeks sooner, but we had just received some others from slave lake. on the th mr. wentzel and st. germain arrived with the two esquimaux, tattannoeuck and hoeootoerock, (the belly and the ear.) the english names, which were bestowed upon them at fort churchill in commemoration of the months of their arrival there, are augustus and junius. the former speaks english. we now learned that mr. back proceeded with beauparlant to fort chipewyan, on the th of december, to procure stores, having previously discharged j. belleau from our service at his own request, and according to my directions. i was the more induced to comply with this man's desire of leaving us, as he proved to be too weak to perform the duty of bowman which he had undertaken. four dogs were brought up by this party, and proved a great relief to our wood-haulers during the remainder of the season. by the arrival of mr. wentzel, who is an excellent musician, and assisted us (_con amore_) in our attempts to amuse the men, we were enabled to gratify the whole establishment with an occasional dance. of this amusement the voyagers were very fond, and not the less so, as it was now and then accompanied by a dram as long as our rum lasted. on the th of february, two canadians came from akaitcho for fresh supplies of ammunition. we were mortified to learn that he had received some further unpleasant reports concerning us from fort providence, and that his faith in our good intentions was somewhat shaken. he expressed himself dissatisfied with the quantity of ammunition we had sent him, accused us of an intention of endeavouring to degrade him in the eyes of his tribe, and informed us that mr. weeks had refused to pay some notes for trifling quantities of goods and ammunition that had been given to the hunters who accompanied our men to slave lake. some powder and shot, and a keg of diluted spirits were sent to him with the strongest assurances of our regard. on the th, another party of six men was sent to fort providence, to bring up the remaining stores. st. germain went to akaitcho for the purpose of sending two of his hunters to join this party on its route. on comparing the language of our two esquimaux with a copy of st. john's gospel, printed for the use of the moravian missionary settlements on the labrador coast, it appeared that the esquimaux who resort to churchill speak a language essentially the same with those who frequent the labrador coast. the red knives, too, recognise the expression _teyma_, used by the esquimaux when they accost strangers in a friendly manner, as similarly pronounced by augustus, and those of his race who frequent the mouth of the copper-mine river. the tribe to which augustus belongs resides generally a little to the northward of churchill. in the spring, before the ice quits the shores, they kill seal, but during winter they frequent the borders of the large lakes near the coast, where they obtain fish, rein-deer, and musk-oxen. there are eighty-four grown men in the tribe, only seven of whom are aged. six chiefs have each two wives; the rest of the men have only one, so that the number of married people may amount to one hundred and seventy. he could give me no certain data whereby i might estimate the number of children. two great chiefs, or _ackhaiyoot_, have complete authority in directing the movements of the party, and in distributing provisions. the _attoogawnoeuck_, or lesser chiefs, are respected principally as senior men. the tribe seldom suffers from want of food, if the chief moves to the different stations at the proper season. they seem to follow the eastern custom respecting marriage. as soon as a girl is born, the young lad who wishes to have her for a wife goes to her father's tent, and proffers himself. if accepted, a promise is given which is considered binding, and the girl is delivered to her betrothed husband at the proper age. they consider their progenitors to have come from the moon. augustus has no other idea of a deity than some confused notions which he has obtained at churchill. when any of the tribe are dangerously ill, a conjurer is sent for, and the bearer of the message carries a suitable present to induce his attendance. upon his arrival he encloses himself in the tent with the sick man, and sings over him for days together without tasting food; but augustus, as well as the rest of the uninitiated, are ignorant of the purport of his songs, and of the nature of the being to whom they are addressed. the conjurers practise a good deal of jugglery in swallowing knives, firing bullets through their bodies, _&c._, but they are at these times generally secluded from view, and the bystanders believe their assertions, without requiring to be eye-witnesses of the fact. sixteen men and three women amongst augustus' tribe are acquainted with the mysteries of the art. the skill of the latter is exerted only on their own sex. upon the map being spread before augustus, he soon comprehended it, and recognised chesterfield inlet to be "the opening into which salt waters enter at spring tides, and which receives a river at its upper end." he termed it _kannoeuck kleenoeuck_. he has never been farther north himself than marble island, which he distinguishes as being the spot where the large ships were wrecked, alluding to the disastrous termination of barlow and knight's voyage of discovery[ ]. he says, however, that esquimaux of three different tribes have traded with his countrymen, and that they described themselves as having come across land from a northern sea. one tribe, who named themselves _ahwhacknanhelett_, he supposes may come from repulse bay; another, designated _ootkooseek-kalingmoeoot_, or stone-kettle esquimaux, reside more to the westward; and the third, the _kang-orr-moeoot_, or white goose esquimaux, describe themselves as coming from a great distance, and mentioned that a party of indians had killed several of their tribe on the summer preceding their visit. upon comparing the dates of this murder with that of the last massacre which the copper indians have perpetrated on these harmless and defenceless people, they appear to differ two years; but the lapse of time is so inaccurately recorded, that this difference in their accounts is not sufficient to destroy their identity; besides the chipewyans, the only other indians who could possibly have committed the deed, have long since ceased to go to war. if this massacre should be the one mentioned by the copper indians, the kang-orr-moeoot must reside near the mouth of the anatessy, or river of strangers. [ ] see introduction to hearne's _journey_, page xxiv. the winter habitations of the esquimaux, who visit churchill are built of snow, and judging from one constructed by augustus to-day, they are very comfortable dwellings. having selected a spot on the river, where the snow was about two feet deep, and sufficiently compact, he commenced by tracing out a circle twelve feet in diameter. the snow in the interior of the circle was next divided with a broad knife, having a long handle, into slabs three feet long, six inches thick, and two feet deep, being the thickness of the layer of snow. these slabs were tenacious enough to admit of being moved about without breaking, or even losing the sharpness of their angles, and they had a slight degree of curvature, corresponding with that of the circle from which they were cut. they were piled upon each other exactly like courses of hewn stone around the circle which was traced out, and care was taken to smooth the beds of the different courses with the knife, and to cut them so as to give the wall a slight inclination inwards, by which contrivance the building acquired the properties of a dome. the dome was closed somewhat suddenly and flatly by cutting the upper slabs in a wedge-form, instead of the more rectangular shape of those below. the roof was about eight feet high, and the last aperture was shut up by a small conical piece. the whole was built from within, and each slab was cut so that it retained its position without requiring support until another was placed beside it, the lightness of the slabs greatly facilitating the operation. when the building was covered in, a little loose snow was thrown over it, to close up every chink, and a low door was cut through the walls with a knife. a bed-place was next formed and neatly faced up with slabs of snow, which was then covered with a thin layer of pine branches, to prevent them from melting by the heat of the body. at each end of the bed a pillar of snow was erected to place a lamp upon, and lastly, a porch was built before the door, and a piece of clear ice was placed in an aperture cut in the wall for a window. the purity of the material of which the house was framed, the elegance of its construction, and the translucency of its walls, which transmitted a very pleasant light, gave it an appearance far superior to a marble building, and one might survey it with feelings somewhat akin to those produced by the contemplation of a grecian temple, reared by phidias; both are triumphs of art, inimitable in their kinds. annexed there is a plan of a complete esquimaux snow-house and kitchen and other apartments, copied from a sketch made by augustus, with the names of the different places affixed. the only fire-place is in the kitchen, the heat of the lamps sufficing to keep the other apartments warm:-- [illustration] references to the plan. a. _ablokeyt_, steps. b. _pahloeuk_, porch. c. _wadl-leek_, passage. d. _haddnoeweek_, for the reception of the sweepings of the house. e. g. _tokheuook_, antechamber, or passage. f. _annarroeartoweek._ h. _eegah_, cooking-house. i. _eegah-natkah_, passage. k. _keidgewack_, for piling wood upon. l. _keek kloweyt_, cooking side. m. _keek loot_, fire-place built of stone.{ } n. _eegloo_, house. o. _kattack_, door. p. _nattoeuck_, clear space in the apartment. a. d. _eekput_, a kind of shelf where the candle stands; and b. c. a pit where they throw their bones, and other offal of their provision. q. _eegl-luck_, bed-place. r. _eegleeteoet_, bed-side or sitting-place. s. bed-place, as on the other side.{ } t. _kietgn-nok_, small pantry. u. _hoergloack_, store-house{ } for provisions. several deer were killed near the house, and we received some supplies from akaitcho. parties were also employed in bringing in the meat that was placed _en cache_ in the early part of the winter. more than one half of these _caches_, however, had been destroyed by the wolves and wolverenes; a circumstance which, in conjunction with the empty state of our store-house, led us to fear that we should be much straitened for provisions before the arrival of any considerable number of rein-deer in this neighbourhood. a good many ptarmigan were seen at this time, and the women caught some in snares, but not in sufficient quantity to make any further alteration in the rations of deers' meat that were daily issued. they had already been reduced from eight, to the short allowance of five pounds. many wolves prowled nightly about the house, and even ventured upon the roof of the kitchen, which is a low building, in search of food; keskarrah shot a very large white one, of which a beautiful and correct drawing was made by mr. hood. the temperature in february was considerably lower than in the preceding month, although not so low as in december, the mean being - °. . the greatest temperature was ° above zero, and the lowest ° below. on the th of march the people returned from slave lake, bringing the remainder of our stores, consisting of a cask of flour, thirty-six pounds of sugar, a roll of tobacco, and forty pounds of powder. i received a letter from mr. weeks, wherein he denied that he had ever circulated any reports to our disadvantage; and stated that he had done every thing in his power to assist us, and even discouraged akaitcho from leaving us, when he had sent him a message, saying, that he wished to do so, if he was sure of being well received at fort providence. we mentioned the contents of the letter to the indians, who were at the house at the time, when one of the hunters, who had attended the men on their journey, stated, that he had heard many of the reports against us from mr. weeks himself, and expressed his surprise that he should venture to deny them. st. germain soon afterwards arrived from akaitcho, and informed us, that he left him in good humour, and, apparently, not harbouring the slightest idea of quitting us. on the th, we sent four men to fort providence; and, on the th mr. back arrived from fort chipewyan, having performed, since he left us, a journey of more than one thousand miles on foot. i had every reason to be much pleased with his conduct on this arduous undertaking; but his exertions may be best estimated by the perusal of the following narrative. "on quitting fort enterprise, with mr. wentzel and two canadians, accompanied by two hunters and their wives, our route lay across the barren hills. we saw, during the day, a number of deer, and, occasionally, a solitary white wolf; and in the evening halted near a small knot of pines. owing to the slow progress made by the wives of the hunters, we only travelled the first day a distance of seven miles and a half. during the night we had a glimpse of the fantastic beauties of the aurora borealis, and were somewhat annoyed by the wolves, whose nightly howling interrupted our repose. early the next morning we continued our march, sometimes crossing small lakes (which were just frozen enough to bear us,) and at other times going large circuits, in order to avoid those which were open. the walking was extremely bad throughout the day; for independent of the general unevenness of the ground, and the numberless large stones which lay scattered in every direction, the unusual warmth of the weather had dissolved the snow, which not only kept us constantly wet, but deprived us of a firm footing, so that the men, with their heavy burdens, were in momentary apprehension of falling. in the afternoon a fine herd of deer was descried, and the indians, who are always anxious for the chase, and can hardly be restrained from pursuing every animal they see, set out immediately. it was late when they returned, having had good success, and bringing with them five tongues, and the shoulder of a deer. we made about twelve miles this day. the night was fine, and the aurora borealis so vivid, that we imagined, more than once, that we heard a rustling noise like that of autumnal leaves stirred by the wind; but after two hours of attentive listening, we were not entirely convinced of the fact. the coruscations were not so bright, nor the transition from one shape and colour to another so rapid, as they sometimes are; otherwise, i have no doubt, from the midnight silence which prevailed, that we should have ascertained this yet undecided point. "the morning of the th was so extremely hazy that we could not see ten yards before us; it was, therefore, late when we started, and during our journey the hunters complained of the weather, and feared they should lose the track of our route. towards the evening it became so thick that we could not proceed; consequently, we halted in a small wood, situated in a valley, having only completed a distance of six miles. "the scenery consisted of high hills, which were almost destitute of trees, and lakes appeared in the valleys. the cracking of the ice was so loud during the night as to resemble thunder, and the wolves howled around us. we were now at the commencement of the woods, and at an early hour, on the st, continued our journey over high hills for three miles, when the appearance of some deer caused us to halt, and nearly the remainder of the day was passed in hunting them. in the evening we stopped within sight of prospect hill, having killed and concealed six deer. a considerable quantity of snow fell during the night. "the surrounding country was extremely rugged; the hills divided by deep ravines, and the valleys covered with broken masses of rocks and stones; yet the deer fly (as it were,) over these impediments with apparent ease, seldom making a false step, and springing from crag to crag with all the confidence of the mountain goat. after passing rein-deer lake, (where the ice was so thin as to bend at every step for nine miles,) we halted, perfectly satisfied with our escape from sinking into the water. while some of the party were forming the encampment one of the hunters killed a deer, a part of which was concealed to be ready for use on our return. this evening we halted in a wood near the canoe track, after having travelled a distance of nine miles. the wind was s.e. and the night cloudy, with wind and rain. "on the th and th we underwent some fatigue from being obliged to go round the lakes, which lay across our route, and were not sufficiently frozen to bear us. several rivulets appeared to empty themselves into the lakes, no animals were killed, and few tracks seen. the scenery consisted of barren rocks and high hills, covered with lofty pine, birch, and larch trees. "_october _.--we continued our journey, sometimes on frozen lakes, and at other times on high craggy rocks. when we were on the lakes we were much impeded in our journey by different parts which were unfrozen. there was a visible increase of wood, consisting of birch and larch, as we inclined to the southward. about ten a.m. we passed icy portage, where we saw various tracks of the moose, bear, and otter; and after a most harassing march through thick woods and over fallen trees, we halted a mile to the westward of fishing lake; our provisions were now almost expended; the weather was cloudy with snow. "on the th we crossed two lakes, and performed a circuitous route, frequently crossing high hills to avoid those lakes which were not frozen; during the day one of the women made a hole through the ice, and caught a fine pike, which she gave to us; the indians would not partake of it, from the idea (as we afterwards learnt,) that we should not have sufficient for ourselves: 'we are accustomed to starvation,' said they, 'but you are not.' in the evening, we halted near rocky lake. i accompanied one of the indians to the summit of a hill, where he shewed me a dark horizontal cloud, extending to a considerable distance along the mountains in the perspective, which he said was occasioned by the great slave lake, and was considered as a good guide to all the hunters in the vicinity. on our return we saw two untenanted bears' dens. "the night was cloudy with heavy snow, yet the following morning we continued our tedious march; many of the lakes remained still open, and the rocks were high and covered with snow, which continued to fall all day, consequently we effected but a trifling distance, and that too with much difficulty. in the evening we halted; having only performed about seven miles. one of the indians gave us a fish which he had caught, though he had nothing for himself; and it was with much trouble that he could be prevailed upon to partake of it. the night was again cloudy with snow. on the th we set out through deep snow and thick woods; and after crossing two small lakes stopped to breakfast, sending the women on before, as they had already complained of lameness, and could not keep pace with the party. it was not long before we overtook them on the banks of a small lake, which though infinitely less in magnitude than many we had passed, yet had not a particle of ice on its surface. it was shoal, had no visible current, and was surrounded by hills. we had nothing to eat, and were not very near an establishment where food could be procured; however, as we proceeded, the lakes were frozen, and we quickened our pace stopping but twice for the hunters to smoke. nevertheless the distance we completed was but trifling, and at night we halted near a lake, the men being tired, and much bruised from constantly falling amongst thick broken wood and loose stones concealed under the snow. the night was blowing and hazy with snow. "on the th we set out with the expectation of gaining the slave lake in the evening; but our progress was again impeded by the same causes as before, so that the whole day was spent in forcing our way through thick woods and over snow-covered swamps. we had to walk over pointed and loose rocks, which sliding from under our feet, made our path dangerous, and often threw us down several feet on sharp-edged stones lying beneath the snow. once we had to climb a towering, and almost perpendicular, rock, which not only detained us, but was the cause of great anxiety for the safety of the women who being heavily laden with furs, and one of them with a child at her back, could not exert themselves with the activity which such a task required. fortunately nothing serious occurred, though one of them once fell with considerable violence. during the day one of the hunters broke through the ice, but was soon extricated; when it became dark we halted near the bow string portage, greatly disappointed at not having reached the lake. the weather was cloudy, accompanied with thick mist and snow. the indians expected to have found here a bear in its den, and to have made a hearty meal of its flesh: indeed it had been the subject of conversation all day, and they had even gone so far as to divide it, frequently asking me what part i preferred; but when we came to the spot--oh! lamentable! it had already fallen a prey to the devouring appetites of some more fortunate hunters, who had only left sufficient evidence that such a thing had once existed, and we had merely the consolation of realizing an old proverb. one of our men, however, caught a fish which with the assistance of some weed scraped from the rocks, (_tripe de roche_,) which forms a glutinous substance, made us a tolerable supper; it was not of the most choice kind, yet good enough for hungry men. while we were eating it i perceived one of the women busily employed scraping an old skin, the contents of which her husband presented us with. they consisted of pounded meat, fat, and a greater proportion of indians' and deers' hair than either; and though such a mixture may not appear very alluring to an english stomach, it was thought a great luxury after three days' privation in these cheerless regions of america. indeed had it not been for the precaution and generosity of the indians, we must have gone without sustenance until we reached the fort. "on the st of november our men began to make a raft to enable us to cross a river which was not even frozen at the edges. it was soon finished, and three of us embarked, being seated up to the ankles in water. we each took a pine branch for a paddle, and made an effort to gain the opposite shore, in which, after some time, (and not without strong apprehensions of drifting into the slave lake,) we succeeded. in two hours the whole party was over, with a comfortable addition to it in the shape of some fine fish, which the indians had caught: of course we did not forget to take these friends with us, and after passing several lakes, to one of which we saw no termination, we halted within eight miles to the fort. the great slave lake was not frozen. "in crossing a narrow branch of the lake i fell through the ice, but received no injury; and at noon we arrived at fort providence, and were received by mr. weeks, a clerk of the north-west company, in charge of the establishment. i found several packets of letters for the officers, which i was desirous of sending to them immediately; but as the indians and their wives complained of illness and inability to return without rest, a flagon of mixed spirits was given them, and their sorrows were soon forgotten. in a quarter of an hour they pronounced themselves excellent hunters, and capable of going any where; however, their boasting ceased with the last drop of the bottle, when a crying scene took place, which would have continued half the night, had not the magic of an additional quantity of spirits dried their tears, and once more turned their mourning into joy. it was a satisfaction to me to behold these poor creatures enjoying themselves, for they had behaved in the most exemplary and active manner towards the party, and with a generosity and sympathy seldom found even in the more civilized parts of the world: and the attention and affection which they manifested towards their wives, evinced a benevolence of disposition and goodness of nature which could not fail to secure the approbation of the most indifferent observer. "the accounts i here received of our goods were of so unsatisfactory a nature, that i determined to proceed, as soon as the lake was frozen, to moose-deer island, or if necessary to the athabasca lake; both to inform myself of the grounds of the unceremonious and negligent manner in which the expedition had been treated, and to obtain a sufficient supply of ammunition and other stores, to enable it to leave its present situation, and proceed for the attainment of its ultimate object. "_november _.--i despatched to fort enterprise one of the men, with the letters and a hundred musquet-balls, which mr. weeks lent me on condition that they should be returned the first opportunity. an indian and his wife accompanied the messenger. lieutenant franklin was made acquainted with the exact state of things; and i awaited with much impatience the freezing of the lake. "_november _.--a band of slave indians came to the fort with a few furs and some bear's grease. though we had not seen any of them, it appeared that they had received information of our being in the country, and knew the precise situation of our house, which they would have visited long ago, but from the fear of being pillaged by the copper indians. i questioned the chief about the great bear and marten lakes, their distance from fort enterprise, &c.; but his answers were so vague and unsatisfactory that they were not worth attention; his description of bouleau's route, (which he said was the shortest and best, and abundant in animals,) was very defective, though the relative points were sufficiently characteristic, had we not possessed a better route. he had never been at the sea; and knew nothing about the mouth of the copper-mine river. in the evening he made his young men dance, and sometimes accompanied them himself. they had four feathers in each hand. one commenced moving in a circular form, lifting both feet at the same time, similar to jumping sideways. after a short time a second and a third joined, and afterwards the whole band was dancing, some in a state of nudity, others half dressed, singing an unmusical wild air with (i suppose,) appropriate words; the particular sounds of which were, ha! ha! ha! uttered vociferously, and with great distortion of countenance, and peculiar attitude of body, the feathers being always kept in a tremulous motion. the ensuing day i made the chief acquainted with the object of our mission, and recommended him to keep at peace with his neighbouring tribes, and to conduct himself with attention and friendship towards the whites. i then gave him a medal, telling him it was the picture of the king, whom they emphatically term 'their great father.' "_november _.--we observed two mock moons at equal distances from the central one; and the whole were encircled by a halo: the colour of the inner edge of the large circle was a light red, inclining to a faint purple. "_november _.--two parhelia were observable with a halo; the colours of the inner edge of the circle were a bright carmine and red lake, intermingled with a rich yellow, forming a purplish orange; the outer edge was pale gamboge. "_december _.--a man was sent some distance on the lake, to see if it was sufficiently frozen for us to cross. i need scarcely mention my satisfaction, when he returned with the pleasing information that it was. "_december _.--i quitted fort providence, being accompanied by mr. wentzel, beauparlant, and two other canadians, provided with dogs and sledges. we proceeded along the borders of the lake, occasionally crossing deep bays; and at dusk encamped at the _gros cap_, having proceeded twenty-five miles. "_december _.--we set out on the lake with an excessively cold north-west wind, and were frequently interrupted by large pieces of ice which had been thrown up by the violence of the waves during the progress of congelation, and at dusk we encamped on the rein-deer islands. "the night was fine, with a faint aurora borealis. next day the wind was so keen, that the men proposed conveying me in a sledge that i might be the less exposed, to which, after some hesitation, i consented. accordingly a rein-deer skin and a blanket were laid along the sledge, and in these i was wrapped tight up to the chin, and lashed to the vehicle, just leaving sufficient play for my head to perceive when i was about to be upset on some rough projecting piece of ice. thus equipped, we set off before the wind (a favourable circumstance on a lake), and went on very well until noon; when the ice being driven up in ridges, in such a manner as to obstruct us very much, i was released; and i confess not unwillingly, though i had to walk the remainder of the day. "there are large openings in many parts where the ice had separated; and in attempting to cross one of them, the dogs fell into the water, and were saved with difficulty. the poor animals suffered dreadfully from the cold, and narrowly escaped being frozen to death. we had quickened our pace towards the close of the day, but could not get sight of the land; and it was not till the sun had set that we perceived it about four miles to our left, which obliged us to turn back, and head the wind. it was then so cold, that two of the party were frozen almost immediately about the face and ears. i escaped, from having the good fortune to possess a pair of gloves made of rabbits' skin, with which i kept constantly chafing the places which began to be affected. at six p.m. we arrived at the fishing-huts near stony island, and remained the night there. the canadians were not a little surprised at seeing us whom they had already given up for lost--nor less so at the manner by which we had come--for they all affirmed, that the lake near them was quite free from ice the day before. "_december _.--at{ } an early hour we quitted the huts, lashed on sledges as before, with some little addition to our party; and at three hours thirty minutes p.m. arrived at the north-west fort on moose-deer island, where i was received by mr. smith, with whom i had been acquainted at the athabasca. he said he partly expected me. the same evening i visited messrs. mcvicar and mcauley{ } at hudson's bay fort, when i found the reports concerning our goods were but too true, there being in reality but five packages for us. i also was informed that two esquimaux, augustus the chief, and junius his servant, who had been sent from fort churchill by governor williams, to serve in the capacity of interpreters to the expedition, were at the fort. these men were short of stature but muscular, apparently good-natured, and perfectly acquainted with the purpose for which they were intended. they had built themselves a snow-house on an adjacent island, where they used frequently to sleep. the following day i examined the pieces, and to my great disappointment found them to consist of three kegs of spirits, already adulterated by the voyagers who had brought them; a keg of flour, and thirty-five pounds of sugar, instead of sixty. the ammunition and tobacco,{ } the two greatest requisites, were left behind. "i lost no time in making a demand from both parties; and though their united list did not furnish the half of what was required, yet it is possible that every thing was given by them which could be spared consistently with their separate interests, particularly by mr. mcvicar, who in many articles gave me the whole he had in his possession. these things were sent away immediately for fort enterprise, when an interpreter arrived with letters from lieutenant franklin, which referred to a series of injurious reports said to have been propagated against us by some one at fort providence. "finding a sufficiency of goods could not be provided at moose-deer island, i determined{ } to proceed to the athabasca lake, and ascertain the inclinations of the gentlemen there. with this view i communicated my intentions to both parties; but could only get dogs enough from the north-west company to carry the necessary provisions for the journey. indeed mr. smith informed me plainly he was of opinion that nothing could be spared at fort chipewyan; that goods had never been transported so long a journey in the winter season, and that the same dogs could not possibly go and return; besides, it was very doubtful if i could be provided with dogs there; and finally, that the distance was great, and would take sixteen days to perform it. he added that the provisions would be mouldy and bad, and that from having to walk constantly on snow-shoes, i should suffer a great deal of misery and fatigue. notwithstanding these assertions, on the d of december i left the fort, with beauparlant and a bois-brulé, each having a sledge drawn by dogs, laden with pemmican. we crossed an arm of the lake, and entered the little buffalo river, which is connected with the salt river, and is about fifty yards wide at its junction with the lake--the water is brackish. this route is usually taken in the winter, as it cuts off a large angle in going to the great slave river. in the afternoon we passed two empty fishing-huts, and in the evening encamped amongst some high pines on the banks of the river, having had several snow-showers during the day, which considerably{ } impeded the dogs, so that we had not proceeded more than fifteen miles. "_december _ and _ _.--we continued along the river, frequently making small portages to avoid going round the points, and passed some small canoes, which the indians had left for the winter. the snow was so deep that the dogs were obliged to stop every ten minutes to rest; and the cold so excessive, that both the men were badly frozen on both sides of the face and chin. at length, having come to a long meadow, which the dogs could not cross that night, we halted in an adjoining wood, and were presently joined by a canadian, who was on his return to the fort, and who treated us with some fresh meat in exchange for pemmican. during the latter part of the day we had seen numerous tracks of the moose, buffalo, and marten. "_december _.--the weather was so cold that we were compelled to run to prevent ourselves from freezing; our route lay across some large meadows which appeared to abound in animals, though the indians around slave lake are in a state of great want. about noon we passed a sulphur-stream, which ran into the river; it appeared to come from a plain about fifty yards distant. there were no rocks near it, and the soil through which it took its course was composed of a reddish clay. i was much galled by the strings of the snow-shoes during the day, and once got a severe fall, occasioned by the dogs running over one of my feet, and dragging me some distance, my snow-shoe having become entangled with the sledge. in the evening we lost our way, from the great similarity of appearance in the country, and it was dark before we found it again, when we halted in a thick wood, after having come about sixteen miles from the last encampment. much snow fell during the night. "at an early hour on the th of december, we continued our journey over the surface of a long but narrow lake, and then through a wood, which brought us to the _grand detour_ on the slave river. the weather was extremely cloudy, with occasional falls of snow, which tended greatly to impede our progress, from its gathering in lumps between the dogs' toes; and though they did not go very fast, yet my left knee pained me so much, that i found it difficult to keep up with them. at three p.m. we halted within nine miles of the salt river, and made a hearty meal of mouldy pemmican. "_december _ and _ _.--we had much difficulty in proceeding, owing to the poor dogs being quite worn out, and their feet perfectly raw. we endeavoured to tie shoes on them, to afford them some little relief, but they continually came off when amongst deep snow, so that it occupied one person entirely to look after them. in this state they were hardly of any use among the steep ascents of the portages, when we were obliged to drag the sledges ourselves. we found a few of the rapids entirely frozen. those that were not had holes and large spaces about them, from whence issued a thick vapour, and in passing this we found it particularly cold; but what appeared most curious was the number of small fountains which rose through the ice, and often rendered it doubtful which way we should take. i was much disappointed at finding several falls (which i had intended to sketch) frozen almost even with the upper and lower parts of the stream; the ice was connected by a thin arch, and the rushing of the water underneath might be heard at a considerable distance. on the banks of these rapids there was a constant overflowing of the water, but in such small quantities as to freeze before it had reached the surface of the central ice, so that we passed between two ridges of icicles, the transparency of which was beautifully contrasted by the flakes of snow and the dark green branches of the over-hanging pine. "beauparlant complained bitterly of the cold whilst among the rapids, but no sooner had he reached the upper part of the river than he found the change of the temperature so great, that he vented his indignation against the heat.--"mais c'est terrible," said he, to be frozen and sun-burnt in the same day. the poor fellow, who had been a long time in the country, regarded it as the most severe punishment that could have been inflicted on him, and would willingly have given a part of his wages rather than this disgrace had happened; for there is a pride amongst "old voyagers," which makes them consider the state of being frost-bitten as effeminate, and only excusable in a "pork-eater," or one newly come into the country. i was greatly fatigued, and suffered acute pains in the knees and legs, both of which were much swollen when we halted a little above the dog river. "_december _ and _ _.--our journey these days was by far the most annoying we had yet experienced; but, independent of the vast masses of ice that were piled on one another, as well as the numerous open places about the rapids (and they did not a little impede us,) there was a strong gale from the north-west, and so dreadfully keen, that our time was occupied in rubbing the frozen parts of the face, and in attempting to warm the hands, in order to be prepared for the next operation. scarcely was one place cured by constant friction than another was frozen; and though there was nothing pleasant about it, yet it was laughable enough to observe the dexterity which was used in changing the position of the hand from the face to the mitten, and _vice versâ_. one of the men was severely affected, the whole side of his face being nearly raw. towards sunset i suffered so much in my knee and ankle, from a recent sprain, that it was with difficulty i could proceed with snow-shoes to the encampment on the stony islands. but in this point i was not singular: for beauparlant was almost as bad, and without the same cause. . january . "we set out with a quick step, the wind still blowing fresh from the north-west, which seemed in some measure to invigorate the dogs; for towards sunset they left me considerably behind. indeed my legs and ankles were now so swelled, that it was excessive pain to drag the snow-shoes after me. at night we halted on the banks of stony river, when i gave the men a glass of grog, to commemorate the new year; and the next day, january , we arrived at fort chipewyan, after a journey of ten days and four hours--the shortest time in which the distance had been performed at the same season. i found messrs. g. keith and s. mcgillivray in charge of the fort, who were not a little surprised to see me. the commencement of the new year is the rejoicing season of the canadians, when they are generally intoxicated for some days. i postponed making any demand till this time of festivity should cease; but on the same day i went over to the hudson's bay fort, and delivered lieutenant franklin's letters to mr. simpson. if they were astonished on one side to see me, the amazement was still greater on the other; for reports were so far in advance, that we were said to have already fallen by the spears of the esquimaux. "_january _.--i made a demand from both parties for supplies; such as ammunition, gun-flints, axes, files, clothing, tobacco, and spirits. i stated to them our extreme necessity, and that without their assistance the expedition must be arrested in its progress. the answer from the north-west gentlemen was satisfactory enough; but on the hudson's bay side i was told, "that any farther assistance this season entirely depended on the arrival of supplies expected in a few weeks from a distant establishment." i remained at fort chipewyan five weeks, during which time some laden sledges did arrive, but i could not obtain any addition to the few articles i had procured at first. a packet of letters for us, from england, having arrived, i made preparations for my return, but not before i had requested both companies to send next year, from the depôts, a quantity of goods for our use, specified in lists furnished to them. "the weather, during my abode at chipewyan, was generally mild, with occasional heavy storms, most of which were anticipated by the activity of the aurora borealis; and this i observed had been the case between fort providence and the athabasca in december and january, though not invariably so in other parts of the country. one of the partners of the north-west company related to me the following singular story:--'he was travelling in a canoe in the english river, and had landed near the kettle fall, when the coruscations of the aurora borealis were so vivid and low, that the canadians fell on their faces, and began praying and crying, fearing they should be killed; he himself threw away his gun and knife, that they might not attract the flashes, for they were within two feet from the earth, flitting along with incredible swiftness, and moving parallel to its surface. they continued for upwards of five minutes, as near as he could judge, and made a loud rustling noise, like the waving of a flag in a strong breeze. after they had ceased, the sky became clear, with little wind.' "_february _.--having got every thing arranged, and had a hearty breakfast with a _coupe de l'eau de vie_, (a custom amongst the traders,) i took my departure, or rather attempted to do so, for on going to the gate there was a long range of women, who came to bid me farewell. they were all dressed (after the manner of the country) in blue or green cloth, with their hair fresh greased, separated before, and falling down behind, not in careless tresses, but in a good sound tail, fastened with black tape or riband. this was considered a great compliment, and the ceremony consisted in embracing the whole party. "i had with me four sledges, laden with goods for the expedition, and a fifth belonging to the hudson's bay company. we returned exactly by the same route, suffering no other inconvenience but that arising from the chafing of the snow-shoe, and bad weather. some indians, whom we met on the banks of the little buffalo river, were rather surprised at seeing us, for they had heard that we were on an island, which was surrounded by esquimaux. the dogs were almost worn out, and their feet raw, when, on february the th, we arrived at moose-deer island with our goods all in good order. towards the end of the month two of our men arrived with letters from lieutenant franklin, containing some fresh demands, the major part of which i was fortunate enough to procure without the least trouble. having arranged the accounts and receipts between the companies and the expedition, and sent every thing before me to fort providence, i prepared for my departure; and it is but justice to the gentlemen of both parties at moose-deer island to remark, that they afforded the means of forwarding our stores in the most cheerful and pleasant manner. "_march _.--i took leave of the gentlemen at the forts, and, in the afternoon, got to the fisheries near stony island, where i found mr. mcvicar, who was kind enough to have a house ready for my reception; and i was not a little gratified at perceiving a pleasant-looking girl employed in roasting a fine joint, and afterwards arranging the table with all the dexterity of an accomplished servant. "_march _.--we set out at daylight, and breakfasted at the rein-deer islands. as the day advanced, the heat became so oppressive, that each pulled off his coat and ran till sunset, when we halted with two men, who were on their return to moose-deer island. there was a beautiful aurora borealis in the night; it rose about n.b.w., and divided into three bars, diverging at equal distances as far as the zenith, and then converging until they met in the opposite horizon; there were some flashes at right angles to the bars. "_march _.--we arrived at fort providence, and found our stores safe and in good order. there being no certainty when the indian, who was to accompany me to our house, would arrive, and my impatience to join my companions increasing as i approached it, after making the necessary arrangements with mr. weeks respecting our stores, on march the th i quitted the fort, with two of our men, who had each a couple of dogs and a sledge laden with provision. on the th we met the indian, near icy portage, who was sent to guide me back. on the th we killed a deer, and gave the dogs a good feed; and on the th, at an early hour, we arrived at fort enterprise, having travelled about eighteen miles a-day. i had the pleasure of meeting my friends all in good health, after an absence of nearly five months, during which time i had travelled one thousand one hundred and four miles, on snow-shoes, and had no other covering at night, in the woods, than a blanket and deer-skin, with the thermometer frequently at - °, and once at - °; and sometimes passing two or three days without tasting food." chapter ix. continuation of proceedings at fort enterprise--some account of the copper indians--preparations for the journey to the northward. . march . i shall now give a brief account of the copper indians, termed by the chipewyans, tantsawhot-dinneh, or birch-rind indians. they were originally a tribe of the chipewyans, and, according to their own account, inhabited the south side of great slave lake, at no very distant period. their language, traditions, and customs, are essentially the same with those of the chipewyans, but in personal character they have greatly the advantage of that people; owing, probably, to local causes, or perhaps to their procuring their food more easily and in greater abundance. they hold women in the same low estimation as the chipewyans do, looking upon them as a kind of property, which the stronger may take from the weaker, whenever there is just reason for quarrelling, if the parties are of their own nation, or whenever they meet, if the weaker party are dog-ribs or other strangers. they suffer, however, the kinder affections to shew themselves occasionally; they, in general, live happily with their wives, the women are contented with their lot, and we witnessed several instances of strong attachment. of their kindness to strangers we are fully qualified to speak; their love of property, attention to their interests, and fears for the future, made them occasionally clamorous and unsteady; but their delicate and humane attention to us, in a season of great distress, at a future period, are indelibly engraven on our memories. of their notions of a deity, or future state, we never could obtain any satisfactory account; they were unwilling, perhaps, to expose their opinions to the chance of ridicule. akaitcho generally evaded our questions on these points, but expressed a desire to learn from us, and regularly attended divine service during his residence at the fort, behaving with the utmost decorum. this leader, indeed, and many others of his tribe, possess a laudable curiosity, which might easily be directed to the most important ends; and i believe, that a well-conducted christian mission to this quarter would not fail of producing the happiest effect. old keskarrah alone used boldly to express his disbelief of a supreme deity, and state that he could not credit the existence of a being, whose power was said to extend every where, but whom he had not yet seen, although he was now an old man. the aged sceptic is not a little conceited, as the following exordium to one of his speeches evinces: "it is very strange that i never meet with any one who is equal in sense to myself." the same old man, in one of his communicative moods, related to us the following tradition. the earth had been formed, but continued enveloped in total darkness, when a bear and a squirrel met on the shores of a lake; a dispute arose as to their respective powers, which they agreed to settle by running in opposite directions round the lake, and whichever arrived first at the starting point, was to evince his superiority by some signal act of power. the squirrel beat, ran up a tree, and loudly demanded light, which instantly beaming forth, discovered a bird dispelling the gloom with its wings; the bird was afterwards recognised to be a crow. the squirrel next broke a piece of bark from the tree, endowed it with the power of floating, and said, "behold the material which shall afford the future inhabitants of the earth the means of traversing the waters." the indians are not the first people who have ascribed the origin of nautics to the ingenuity of the squirrel. the copper indians consider the bear, otter, and other animals of prey, or rather some kind of spirits which assume the forms of these creatures, as their constant enemies, and the cause of every misfortune they endure; and in seasons of difficulty or sickness they alternately deprecate and abuse them. few of this nation have more than one wife at a time, and none but the leaders have more than two. akaitcho has three, and the mother of his only son is the favourite. they frequently marry two sisters, and there is no prohibition to the intermarriage of cousins, but a man is restricted from marrying his niece. the last war excursion they made against the esquimaux was ten years ago, when they destroyed about thirty persons, at the mouth of what they term stony-point river, not far from the mouth of the copper-mine river. they now seem desirous of being on friendly terms with that persecuted nation, and hope, through our means, to establish a lucrative commerce with them. indeed, the copper indians are sensible of the advantages that would accrue to them, were they made the carriers of goods between the traders and esquimaux. at the time of hearne's visit, the copper indians being unsupplied with fire-arms, were oppressed by the chipewyans; but even that traveller had occasion to praise their kindness of heart. since they have received arms from the traders, the chipewyans are fearful of venturing upon their lands; and all of that nation, who frequent the shores of great slave lake, hold the name of akaitcho in great respect. the chipewyans have no leader of equal authority amongst themselves. the number of the copper indians may be one hundred and ninety souls, _viz._, eighty men and boys, and one hundred and ten women and young children. there are forty-five hunters in the tribe. the adherents of akaitcho amount to about forty men and boys; the rest follow a number of minor chiefs. for the following notices of the nations on mackenzie's river, we are principally indebted to mr. wentzel, who resided for many years in that quarter. the _thlingcha-dinneh_, or dog-ribs, or, as they are sometimes termed after the crees, who formerly warred against them, _slaves_, inhabit the country to the westward of the copper indians, as far as mackenzie's river. they are of a mild, hospitable, but rather indolent, disposition; spend much of their time in amusements, and are fond of singing and dancing. in this respect, and in another, they differ very widely from most of the other aborigines of north america. i allude to their kind treatment of the women. the men do the laborious work, whilst their wives employ themselves in ornamenting their dresses with quill-work, and in other occupations suited to their sex. mr. wentzel has often known the young married men to bring specimens of their wives' needle-work to the forts, and exhibit them with much pride. kind treatment of the fair sex being usually considered as an indication of considerable progress in civilization, it might be worth while to inquire how it happens, that this tribe has stept so far beyond its neighbours. it has had, undoubtedly, the same common origin with the chipewyans, for their languages differ only in accent, and their mode of life is essentially the same. we have not sufficient data to prosecute the inquiry with any hope of success, but we may recall to the reader's memory what was formerly mentioned, that the dog-ribs say they came from the westward, whilst the chipewyans say that they migrated from the eastward. when bands of dog-ribs meet each other after a long absence, they perform a kind of dance. a piece of ground is cleared for the purpose, if in winter of the snow, or if in summer of the bushes; and the dance frequently lasts for two or three days, the parties relieving each other as they get tired. the two bands commence the dance with their backs turned to each other, the individuals following one another in indian file, and holding the bow in the left hand, and an arrow in the right. they approach obliquely, after many turns, and when the two lines are closely back to back, they feign to see each other for the first time, and the bow is instantly transferred to the right hand, and the arrow to the left, signifying that it is not their intention to employ them against their friends. at a fort they use feathers instead of bows. the dance is accompanied with a song. these people are the dancing-masters of the country. the copper indians have neither dance nor music but what they borrow from them. on our first interview with akaitcho, at fort providence, he treated us, as has already been mentioned, with a representation of the dog-rib dance; and mr. back, during his winter journey, had an opportunity of observing it performed by the dog-ribs themselves. the chief tribe of the dog-rib nation, termed horn mountain indians, inhabit the country betwixt great bear lake, and the west end of great slave lake. they muster about two hundred men and boys capable of pursuing the chase. small detachments of the nation frequent marten lake, and hunt during the summer in the neighbourhood of fort enterprise. indeed this part of the country was formerly exclusively theirs, and most of the lakes and remarkable hills bear the names which they imposed upon them. as the copper indians generally pillage them of their women and furs when they meet, they endeavour to avoid them, and visit their ancient quarters on the barren grounds only by stealth. immediately to the northward of the dog-ribs, on the north side of bear lake river, are the _kawcho-dinneh_, or hare indians, who also speak a dialect of the chipewyan language, and have much of the same manners with the dog-ribs, but are considered both by them and by the copper indians, to be great conjurers. these people report that in their hunting excursions to the northward of great bear lake they meet small parties of esquimaux. immediately to the northward of the hare indians, on both banks of mackenzie's river, are the _tykothee-dinneh_, loucheux, squint-eyes, or quarrellers. they speak a language distinct from the chipewyan. they war often with the esquimaux at the mouth of mackenzie's river, but have occasionally some peaceable intercourse with them, and it would appear that they find no difficulty in understanding each other, there being considerable similarity in their languages. their dress also resembles the esquimaux, and differs from that of the other inhabitants of mackenzie's river. the tykothee-dinneh trade with fort good-hope, situated a considerable distance below the confluence of bear lake river with mackenzie's river, and as the traders suppose, within three days' march of the arctic sea. it is the most northern establishment of the north-west company, and some small pieces of russian copper coin once made their way thither across the continent from the westward. blue or white beads are almost the only articles of european manufacture coveted by the loucheux. they perforate the septum of the nose, and insert in the opening three small shells, which they procure at a high price from the esquimaux. on the west bank of mackenzie's river there are several tribes who speak dialects of the chipewyan language, that have not hitherto been mentioned. the first met with, on tracing the river to the southward from fort good-hope, are the _ambawtawhoot-dinneh_, or sheep indians. they inhabit the rocky mountains near the sources of the dawhoot-dinneh river which flows into mackenzie's, and are but little known to the traders. some of them have visited fort good-hope. a report of their being cannibals may have originated in an imperfect knowledge of them. some distance to the southward of this people are the rocky mountain indians, a small tribe which musters about forty men and boys capable of pursuing the chase. they differ but little from the next we are about to mention, the _edchawtawhoot-dinneh_, strong-bow, beaver, or thick-wood indians, who frequent the _rivière aux liards_, or south branch of mackenzie's river. the strong-bows resemble the dog-ribs somewhat in their disposition; but when they meet they assume a considerable degree of superiority over the latter, who meekly submit to the haughtiness of their neighbours. until the year , when a small party of them, from some unfortunate provocation, destroyed fort nelson on the _rivière aux liards_, and murdered its inmates, the strong-bows were considered to be a friendly and quiet tribe, and esteemed as excellent hunters. they take their names, in the first instance, from their dogs. a young man is the father of a certain dog, but when he is married, and has a son, he styles himself the father of the boy. the women have a habit of reproving the dogs very tenderly when they observe them fighting.--"are you not ashamed," say they, "are you not ashamed to quarrel with your little brother?" the dogs appear to understand the reproof, and sneak off. the strong-bows, and rocky-mountain indians, have a tradition in common with the dog-ribs, that they came originally from the westward, from a level country, where there was no winter, which produced trees, and large fruits, now unknown to them. it was inhabited also by many strange animals, amongst which there was a small one whose visage bore a striking resemblance to the human countenance. during their residence in this land, their ancestors were visited by a man who healed the sick, raised the dead, and performed many other miracles, enjoining them at the same time to lead good lives, and not to eat of the entrails of animals, nor to use the brains for dressing skins until after the third day; and never to leave the skulls of deer upon the ground within the reach of dogs and wolves, but to hang them carefully upon trees. no one knew from whence this good man came, or whither he went. they were driven from that land by the rising of the waters, and following the tracks of animals on the sea-shore, they directed their course to the northward. at length they came to a strait, which they crossed upon a raft, but the sea has since frozen, and they have never been able to return. these traditions are unknown to the chipewyans. the number of men and boys of the strong-bow nation who are capable of hunting, may amount to seventy. there are some other tribes who also speak dialects of the chipewyan, upon the upper branches of the rivière aux liards, such as the _nohhannies_ and the _tsillawdawhoot-dinneh_, or brushwood indians. they are but little known, but the latter are supposed occasionally to visit some of the establishments on peace river. having now communicated as briefly as i could the principal facts that came to our knowledge regarding the indians in this quarter, i shall resume the narrative of events at fort enterprise.--the month of march proved fine. the thermometer rose once to ° above zero, and fell upon another day ° below zero, but the mean was - - / °. on the d the last of our winter's stock of deer's meat was expended, and we were compelled to issue a little pounded meat which we had reserved for making pemmican for summer use. our nets, which were set under the ice on the th, produced only two or three small fish daily. amongst these was the round fish, a species of coregonus, which we had not previously seen. on the following day two indians came with a message from the hook, the chief next to akaitcho in authority amongst the copper indians. his band was between west marten and great bear lakes, and he offered to provide a quantity of dried meat for us on the banks of the copper-mine river in the beginning of summer, provided we sent him goods and ammunition. it was in his power to do this without inconvenience, as he generally spends the summer months on the banks of the river, near the copper mountain; but we had no goods to spare, and i could not venture to send any part of our small stock of ammunition until i saw what the necessities of our own party required. i told them, however, that i would gladly receive either provisions or leather when we met, and would pay for them by notes on the north-west company's post; but to prevent any misunderstanding with mr. weeks, i requested them to take their winter's collection of furs to fort providence before they went to the copper-mine river. they assured me that the hook would watch anxiously for our passing, as he was unwell, and wished to consult the doctor. several circumstances having come lately to my knowledge that led me to suspect the fidelity of our interpreters, they were examined upon this subject. it appeared that in their intercourse with the indians they had contracted very fearful ideas of the danger of our enterprise, which augmented as the time of our departure drew near, and had not hesitated to express their dislike to the journey in strong terms amongst the canadians, who are accustomed to pay much deference to the opinions of an interpreter. but this was not all; i had reason to suspect they had endeavoured to damp the exertions of the indians, with the hope that the want of provision in the spring would put an end to our progress at once. st. germain, in particular, had behaved in a very equivocal way, since his journey to slave lake. he denied the principal parts of the charge in a very dogged manner, but acknowledged he had told the leader that we had not paid him the attention which a chief like him ought to have received; and that we had put a great affront on him in sending him only a small quantity of rum. an artful man like st. germain, possessing a flow of language, and capable of saying even what he confessed, had the means of poisoning the minds of the indians without committing himself by any direct assertion; and it is to be remarked, that unless mr. wentzel had possessed a knowledge of the copper indian language, we should not have learned what we did. although perfectly convinced of his baseness, i could not dispense with his services; and had no other resource but to give him a serious admonition, and desire him to return to his duty; after endeavouring to work upon his fears by an assurance, that i would certainly convey him to england for trial, if the expedition should be stopped through his fault. he replied, "it is immaterial to me where i lose my life, whether in england, or in accompanying you to the sea, for the whole party will perish." after this discussion, however, he was more circumspect in his conduct. on the th we received a small supply of meat from the indian lodges. they had now moved into a lake, about twelve miles from us, in expectation of the deer coming soon to the northward. on the th akaitcho arrived at the house, having been sent for to make some arrangements respecting the procuring of provision, and that we might learn what his sentiments were with regard to accompanying us on our future journey. next morning we had a conference, which i commenced by shewing him the charts and drawings that were prepared to be sent to england, and explaining fully our future intentions. he appeared much pleased at this mark of attention, and, when his curiosity was satisfied, began his speech by saying, that "although a vast number of idle rumours had been floating about the barren grounds during the winter," he was convinced that the representations made to him at fort providence regarding the purport of the expedition were perfectly correct. i next pointed out to him the necessity of our proceeding with as little delay as possible during the short period of the year that was fit for our operations, and that to do so it was requisite we should have a large supply of provisions at starting. he instantly admitted the force of these observations, and promised that he and his young men should do their utmost to comply with our desires: and afterwards, in answer to my questions, informed us that he would accompany the expedition to the mouth of the copper-mine river, or, if we did not meet with esquimaux there, for some distance along the coast; he was anxious, he said, to have an amicable interview with that people; and he further requested, that, in the event of our meeting with dog-ribs on the copper-mine river, we should use our influence to persuade them to live on friendly terms with his tribe. we were highly pleased to find his sentiments so favourable to our views, and, after making some minor arrangements, we parted, mutually content. he left us on the morning of the st, accompanied by augustus, who, at his request, went to reside for a few days at his lodge. on the th of april our men arrived with the last supply of goods from fort providence, the fruits of mr. back's arduous journey to the athabasca lake; and on the th belanger _le gros_ and belanger _le rouge_, for so our men discriminated them, set out for slave lake, with a box containing the journals of the officers, charts, drawings, observations, and letters addressed to the secretary of state for colonial affairs. they also conveyed a letter for governor williams, in which i requested that he would, if possible, send a schooner to wager bay with provisions and clothing to meet the exigencies of the party, should they succeed in reaching that part of the coast. connoyer, who was much tormented with biliary calculi, and had done little or no duty all the winter, was discharged at the same time, and sent down in company with an indian named the belly. the commencement of april was fine, and for several days a considerable thaw took place in the heat of the sun, which laying bare some of the lichens on the sides of the hills, produced a consequent movement of the rein-deer to the northward, and induced the indians to believe that the spring was already commencing. many of them, therefore, quitted the woods, and set their snares on the barren grounds near fort enterprise. two or three days of cold weather, however, towards the middle of the month, damped their hopes, and they began to say that another moon must elapse before the arrival of the wished-for season. in the mean time their premature departure from the woods, caused them to suffer from want of food, and we were in some degree involved in their distress. we received no supplies from the hunters, our nets produced but very few fish, and the pounded meat which we had intended to keep for summer use was nearly expended. our meals at this period were always scanty, and we were occasionally restricted to one in the day. the indian families about the house, consisting principally of women and children, suffered most. i had often requested them to move to akaitcho's lodge, where they were more certain of receiving supplies; but as most of them were sick or infirm, they did not like to quit the house, where they daily received medicines from dr. richardson, to encounter the fatigue of following the movements of a hunting camp. they cleared away the snow on the site of the autumn encampments to look for bones, deer's feet, bits of hide, and other offal. when we beheld them gnawing the pieces of hide, and pounding the bones, for the purpose of extracting some nourishment from them by boiling, we regretted our inability to relieve them, but little thought that we should ourselves be afterwards driven to the necessity of eagerly collecting these same bones a second time from the dunghill. at this time, to divert the attention of the men from their wants, we encouraged the practice of sliding down the steep bank of the river upon sledges. these vehicles descended the snowy bank with much velocity, and ran a great distance upon the ice. the officers joined in the sport, and the numerous overturns we experienced formed no small share of the amusement of the party; but on one occasion, when i had been thrown from my seat and almost buried in the snow, a fat indian woman drove her sledge over me, and sprained my knee severely. on the th at eight in the evening a beautiful halo appeared round the sun when it was about ° high. the colours were prismatic, and very bright, the red next the sun. on the st the ice in the river was measured and found to be five feet thick, and in setting the nets in round rock lake, it was there ascertained to be six feet and a half thick, the water being six fathoms deep. the stomachs of some fish were at this time opened by dr. richardson, and found filled with insects which appear to exist in abundance under the ice during the winter. on the nd a moose-deer was killed at the distance of forty-five miles; st. germain went for it with a dog-sledge, and returned with unusual expedition on the morning of the third day. this supply was soon exhausted, and we passed the th without eating, with the prospect of fasting a day or two longer, when old keskarrah entered with the unexpected intelligence of having killed a deer. it was divided betwixt our own family and the indians, and during the night a seasonable supply arrived from akaitcho. augustus returned with the men who brought it, much pleased with the attention he had received from the indians during his visit to akaitcho. next day mr. wentzel set out with every man that we could spare from the fort, for the purpose of bringing meat from the indians as fast as it could be procured. dr. richardson followed them two days afterwards, to collect specimens of the rocks in that part of the country. on the same day the two belangers arrived from fort providence, having been only five days on the march from thence. the highest temperature in april was + °, the lowest - °, the mean + °. . the temperature of the rapid, examined on the th by messrs. back and hood, was ° at the surface, ° at the bottom. on the th of may, dr. richardson returned. he informed me that the rein-deer were again advancing to the northward, but that the leader had been joined by several families of old people, and that the daily consumption of provision at the indian tents was consequently great. this information excited apprehensions of being very scantily provided when the period of our departure should arrive. the weather in the beginning of may was fine and warm. on the nd some patches of sandy ground near the house were cleared of snow. on the th the sides of the hills began to appear bare, and on the th a large house-fly was seen. this interesting event spread cheerfulness through our residence and formed a topic of conversation for the rest of the day. on the th the approach of spring was still more agreeably confirmed by the appearance of a merganser and two gulls, and some loons, or arctic divers, at the rapid. this day, to reduce the labour of dragging meat to the house, the women and children and all the men, except four, were sent to live at the indian tents. the blue-berries, crow-berries, eye-berries, and cran-berries, which had been covered, and protected by the snow during the winter, might at this time be gathered in abundance, and proved indeed a valuable resource. the ground continued frozen, but the heat of the sun had a visible effect on vegetation; the sap thawed in the pine-trees, and dr. richardson informed me that the mosses were beginning to shoot, and the calyptræ of some of the jungermanniæ already visible. on the th mr. wentzel returned from the indian lodges, having made the necessary arrangements with akaitcho for the drying of meat for summer use, the bringing fresh meat to the fort and the procuring a sufficient quantity of the resin of the spruce fir, or as it is termed by the voyagers _gum_, for repairing the canoes previous to starting, and during the voyage. by my desire, he had promised payment to the indian women who should bring in any of the latter article, and had sent several of our own men to the woods to search for it. at this time i communicated to mr. wentzel the mode in which i meant to conduct the journey of the approaching summer. upon our arrival at the sea, i proposed to reduce the party to what would be sufficient to man two canoes, in order to lessen the consumption of provisions during our voyage, or journey along the coast; and as mr. wentzel had expressed a desire of proceeding no farther than the mouth of the copper-mine river, which was seconded by the indians, who wished him to return with them, i readily relieved his anxiety on this subject; the more so as i thought he might render greater service to us by making deposits of provision at certain points, than by accompanying us through a country which was unknown to him, and amongst a people with whom he was totally unacquainted. my intentions were explained to him in detail, but they were of course to be modified by circumstances. on the th a robin (_turdus migratorius_) appeared; this bird is hailed by the natives as the infallible precursor of warm weather. ducks and geese were also seen in numbers, and the rein-deer advanced to the northward. the merganser, (_mergus serrator_,) which preys upon small fish, was the first of the duck tribe that appeared; next came the teal, (_anas crecca_,) which lives upon small insects that abound in the waters at this season; and lastly the goose, which feeds upon berries and herbage. geese appear at cumberland house, in latitude °, usually about the th of april; at fort chipewyan, in latitude °, on the th of april; at slave lake, in latitude °, on the st of may; and at fort enterprise, in latitude ° ', on the th or th of the same month. on the th a minor chief amongst the copper indians, attended by his son, arrived from fort providence to consult dr. richardson. he was affected with snow-blindness, which was soon relieved by the dropping of a little laudanum into his eyes twice a day. most of our own men had been lately troubled with this complaint, but it always yielded in twenty or thirty hours to the same remedy. on the st all our men returned from the indians, and akaitcho was on his way to the fort. in the afternoon two of his young men arrived to announce his visit, and to request that he might be received with a salute and other marks of respect that he had been accustomed to on visiting fort providence in the spring. i complied with his desire although i regretted the expenditure of ammunition, and sent the young men away with the customary present of powder to enable him to return the salute, some tobacco, vermilion to paint their faces, a comb and a looking-glass. at eleven akaitcho arrived; at the first notice of his appearance the flag was hoisted at the fort, and upon his nearer approach, a number of muskets were fired by a party of our people, and returned by his young men. akaitcho, preceded by his standard-bearer, led the party, and advanced with a slow and stately step to the door where mr. wentzel and i received him. the faces of the party were daubed with vermilion, the old men having a spot on the right cheek, the young ones on the left. akaitcho himself was not painted. on entering he sat down on a chest, the rest placed themselves in a circle on the floor. the pipe was passed once or twice round, and in the mean time a bowl of spirits and water, and a present considerable for our circumstances of cloth, blankets, capots, shirts, _&c._, was placed on the floor for the chief's acceptance, and distribution amongst his people. akaitcho then commenced his speech, but i regret to say, that it was very discouraging, and indicated that he had parted with his good humour, at least since his march visit. he first inquired, whether, in the event of a passage by sea being discovered, we should come to his lands in any ship that might be sent? and being answered, that it was probable but not quite certain, that some one amongst us might come; he expressed a hope that some suitable present should be forwarded to himself and nation; "for," said he, "the great chief who commands where all the goods come from, must see from the drawings and descriptions of us and our country that we are a miserable people." i assured him that he would be remembered, provided he faithfully fulfilled his engagement with us. he next complained of the non-payment of my notes by mr. weeks, from which he apprehended that his own reward would be withheld. "if," said he, "your notes to such a trifling amount are not accepted, whilst you are within such a short distance, and can hold communication with the fort, it is not probable that the large reward which has been promised to myself and party, will be paid when you are far distant, on your way to your own country. it really appears to me," he continued, "as if both the companies consider your party as a third company, hostile to their interests, and that neither of them will pay the notes you give to the indians." afterwards, in the course of a long conference, he enumerated many other grounds of dissatisfaction; the principal of which were our want of attention to him as chief, the weakness of the rum formerly sent to him, the smallness of the present now offered, and the want of the chief's clothing, which he had been accustomed to receive at fort providence every spring. he concluded, by refusing to receive the goods now laid before him. in reply to these complaints it was stated that mr. weeks's conduct could not be properly discussed at such a distance from his fort; that no dependence ought to be placed on the vague reports that floated through the indian territory; that, for our part, although we had heard many stories to his (akaitcho's) disadvantage, we discredited them all; that the rum we had sent him, being what the great men in england were accustomed to drink, was of a milder kind, but, in fact, stronger than what he had been accustomed to receive; and that the distance we had come, and the speed with which we travelled, precluded us from bringing large quantities of goods like the traders; that this had been fully explained to him when he agreed to accompany us; and that, in consideration of his not receiving his usual spring outfit, his debts to the company had been cancelled, and a present, much greater than any he had ever received before, ordered to be got ready for his return. he was further informed, that we were much disappointed in not receiving any dried meat from him, an article indispensable for our summer voyage, and which, he had led us to believe there was no difficulty in procuring; and that, in fact, his complaints were so groundless, in comparison with the real injury we sustained from the want of supplies, that we were led to believe they were preferred solely for the purpose of cloaking his own want of attention to the terms of his engagement. he then shifted his ground, and stated, that if we endeavoured to make a voyage along the sea-coast we should inevitably perish; and he advised us strongly against persisting in the attempt. this part of his harangue being an exact transcript of the sentiments formerly expressed by our interpreters, induced us to conclude that they had prompted his present line of conduct, by telling him, that we had goods or rum concealed. he afterwards received a portion of our dinner, in the manner he had been accustomed to do, and seemed inclined to make up matters with us in the course of the evening, provided we added to the present offered to him.{ } being told, however, that this was impossible,{ } since we had already offered him all the rum we had, and every article of goods we could spare from our own equipment, his obstinacy was a little shaken, and he made some concessions, but deferred giving a final answer, until the arrival of humpy, his elder brother. the young men, however, did not choose to wait so long, and at night came for the rum, which we judged to be a great step towards a reconciliation. st. germain, the most intelligent of our two interpreters, and the one who had most influence with the indians, being informed that their defection was, in a great measure, attributed to the unguarded conversations he had held with them, and which he had in part acknowledged, exerted himself much, on the following day, in bringing about a change in their sentiments, and with some success. the young men, though they declined hunting, conducted themselves with the same good humour and freedom as formerly. akaitcho being, as he said, ashamed to shew himself, kept close in his tent all day. on the th, one of the women who accompanied us from athabasca, was sent down to fort providence, under charge of the old chief, who came some days before for medicine for his eyes. angelique and roulante, the other two women, having families, preferred accompanying the indians during their summer hunt. on the th, clothing, and other necessary articles, were issued to the canadians as their equipment for the ensuing voyage. two or three blankets, some cloth, iron work, and trinkets were reserved for distribution amongst the esquimaux on the sea-coast. laced dresses were given to augustus and junius. it is impossible to describe the joy that took possession of the latter on the receipt of this present. the happy little fellow burst into extatic laughter, as he surveyed the different articles of his gay habiliments[ ]. [ ] these men kept their dresses, and delighted in them. an indian chief, on the other hand, only appears once before the donor in the dress of ceremony which he receives, and then transfers it to some favourite in the tribe whom he desires to reward by this "robe of honour." in the afternoon humpy, the leader's elder brother; annoethai-yazzeh, another of his brothers; and one of our guides, arrived with the remainder of akaitcho's band; as also long-legs, brother to the hook, with three of his band. there were now in the encampment, thirty hunters, thirty-one women, and sixty children, in all one hundred and twenty-one of the copper-indian or red-knife tribe. the rest of the nation were with the hook on the lower part of the copper-mine river. annoethai-yazzeh is remarkable amongst the indians for the number of his descendants; he has eighteen children living by two wives, of whom sixteen were at the fort at this time. in the evening we had another formidable conference. the former complaints were reiterated, and we parted about midnight, without any satisfactory answer to my questions, as to when akaitcho would proceed towards the river, and where he meant to make provision for our march. i was somewhat pleased, however, to find, that humpy and annoethai-yazzeh censured their brother's conduct, and accused him of avarice. on the th the canoes were removed from the places where they had been deposited, as we judged that the heat of the atmosphere was now so great, as to admit of their being repaired, without risk of cracking the bark. we were rejoiced to find that two of them had suffered little injury from the frost during the winter. the bark of the third was considerably rent, but it was still capable of repair. the indians sat in conference in their tents all the morning; and in the afternoon, came into the house charged with fresh matter for discussion. soon after they had seated themselves, and the room was filled with the customary volume of smoke from their calumets, the goods which had been laid aside, were again presented to the leader; but he at once refused to distribute so small a quantity amongst his men, and complained that there were neither blankets, kettles, nor daggers, amongst them; and in the warmth of his anger, he charged mr. wentzel with having advised the distribution of all our goods to the canadians, and thus defrauding the indians of what was intended for them. mr. wentzel, of course, immediately repelled this injurious accusation, and reminded akaitcho again, that he had been told, on engaging to accompany us, that he was not to expect any goods until his return. this he denied with an effrontery that surprised us all, when humpy, who was present at our first interview at fort providence, declared that he heard us say, that no goods could be taken for the supply of the indians on the voyage; and the first guide added, "i do not expect any thing here, i have promised to accompany the white people to the sea, and i will, therefore, go, confidently relying upon receiving the stipulated reward on my return." akaitcho did not seem prepared to hear such declarations from his brothers, and instantly changing the subject, began to descant upon the treatment he had received from the traders in his concerns with them, with an asperity of language that bore more the appearance of menace than complaint. i immediately refused to discuss this topic, as foreign to our present business, and desired akaitcho to recall to memory, that he had told me on our first meeting, that he considered me the father of every person attached to the expedition, in which character it was surely my duty to provide for the comfort and safety of the canadians as well as the indians. the voyagers, he knew, had a long journey to perform, and would in all probability, be exposed to much suffering from cold on a coast destitute of wood; and, therefore, required a greater provision of clothing than was necessary for the indians, who, by returning immediately from the mouth of the river, would reach fort providence in august, and obtain their promised rewards. most of the indians appeared to assent to this argument, but akaitcho said, "i perceive the traders have deceived you; you should have brought more goods, but i do not blame you." i then told him, that i had brought from england only ammunition, tobacco, and spirits; and that being ignorant what other articles the indians required, we were dependent on the traders for supplies; but he must be aware, that every endeavour had been used on our parts to procure them, as was evinced by mr. back's journey to fort chipewyan. with respect to the ammunition and tobacco, we had been as much disappointed as themselves in not receiving them, but this was to be attributed to the neglect of those to whom they had been intrusted. this explanation seemed to satisfy him. after some minutes of reflection, his countenance became more cheerful, and he made inquiry, whether his party might go to either of the trading posts they chose on their return, and whether the hudson's bay company were rich, for they had been represented to him as a poor people? i answered him, that we really knew nothing about the wealth of either company, having never concerned ourselves with trade, but that all the traders appeared to us to be respectable. our thoughts, i added, are fixed solely on the accomplishment of the objects for which we came to the country. our success depends much on your furnishing us with provision speedily, that we may have all the summer to work; and if we succeed a ship will soon bring goods in abundance to the mouth of the copper-mine river. the indians talked together for a short time after this conversation, and then the leader made an application for two or three kettles and some blankets, to be added to the present to his young men; we were unable to spare him any kettles, but the officers promised to give a blanket each from their own beds. dinner was now brought in, and relieved us for a time from their importunity. the leading men, as usual, received each a portion from the table. when the conversation was resumed, the chief renewed his solicitations for goods, but it was now too palpable to be mistaken, that he aimed at getting every thing he possibly could, and leaving us without the means of making any presents to the esquimaux, or other indians we might meet. i resolved, therefore, on steadily refusing every request; and when he perceived that he could extort nothing more, he rose in an angry manner, and addressing his young men, said: "there are too few goods for me to distribute; those that mean to follow the white people to the sea may take them." this was an incautious speech, as it rendered it necessary for his party to display their sentiments. the guides, and most of the hunters, declared their readiness to go, and came forward to receive a portion of the present, which was no inconsiderable assortment. this relieved a weight of anxiety from my mind, and i did not much regard the leader's retiring in a very dissatisfied mood. the hunters then applied to mr. wentzel for ammunition, that they might hunt in the morning, and it was cheerfully given to them. the officers and men amused themselves at prison-bars, and other canadian games till two o'clock in the morning, and we were happy to observe the indians sitting in groups enjoying the sport. we were desirous of filling up the leisure moments of the canadians with amusements, not only for the purpose of enlivening their spirits, but also to prevent them from conversing upon our differences with the indians, which they must have observed. the exercise was also in a peculiar manner serviceable to mr. hood. ever ardent in his pursuits, he had, through close attention to his drawings and other avocations, confined himself too much to the house in winter, and his health was impaired by his sedentary habits. i could only take the part of a spectator in these amusements, being still lame from the hurt formerly alluded to. the sun now sank for so short a time below the horizon, that there was more light at midnight, than we enjoyed on some days at noon in the winter-time. on the th the hunters brought in two rein-deer. many of the indians attended divine service this day, and were attentive spectators of our addresses to the almighty. on the th i had a conversation with long-legs, whose arrival two days before has been mentioned. i acquainted him with the objects of our expedition, and our desire of promoting peace between his nation and the esquimaux, and learned from him, that his brother the hook was by this time on the copper-mine river with his party; and that, although he had little ammunition, yet it was possible he might have some provision collected before our arrival at his tents. i then decorated him with a{ } medal similar to those given to the other chiefs. he was highly pleased with this mark of our regard, and promised to do every thing for us in his power. akaitcho came in during the latter part of our conversation, with a very cheerful countenance. jealousy of the hook, and a knowledge that the sentiments of the young men differed from his own, with respect to the recent discussions, had combined to produce this change in his conduct, and next morning he took an opportunity of telling me that i must not think the worse of him for his importunities. it was their custom, he said, to do so, however strange it might appear to us, and he, as the leader of his party, had to beg for them all; but as he saw we had not deceived him by concealing any of our goods, and that we really had nothing left, he should ask for no more. he then told me that he would set out for the river as soon as the state of the country admitted of travelling. the snow, he remarked, was still too deep for sledges to the northward, and the moss too wet to make fires. he was seconded in this opinion by long-legs, whom i was the more inclined to believe, knowing that he was anxious to rejoin his family as soon as possible. akaitcho now accepted the dress he had formerly refused, and next day clothed himself in another new suit, which he had received from us in the autumn. ever since his arrival at the fort, he had dressed meanly, and pleaded poverty; but, perceiving that nothing more could be gained by such conduct, he thought proper to shew some of his riches to the strangers who were daily arriving. in the afternoon, however, he made another, though a covert, attack upon us. he informed me that two old men had just arrived at the encampment with a little pounded meat which they wished to barter. it was evident that his intention was merely to discover whether we had any goods remaining or not. i told him that we had nothing at present to give for meat, however much we stood in need of it, but that we would pay for it by notes on the north-west company, in any kind of goods they pleased. after much artful circumlocution, and repeated assurances of the necessities of the men who owned the meat, he introduced them, and they readily agreed to give us the provision on our own terms. i have deemed it my duty to give the details of these tedious conversations, to point out to future travellers, the art with which these indians pursue their objects, their avaricious nature, and the little reliance that can be placed upon them when their interests jar with their promises. in these respects they agree with other tribes of northern indians; but as has been already mentioned, their dispositions are not cruel, and their hearts are readily moved by the cry of distress. the average temperature for may was nearly °, the greatest heat was °, the lowest °. we had constant daylight at the end of the month, and geese and ducks were abundant, indeed rather too much so, for our hunters were apt to waste upon them the ammunition that was given to them for killing deer. uncertain as to the length of time that it might be required to last, we did not deem a goose of equal value with the charge it cost to procure it. dr. richardson and mr. back having visited the country to the northward of the slave rock, and reported that they thought we might travel over it, i signified my intention of sending the first party off on monday the th of june. i was anxious to get the indians to move on before, but they lingered about the house, evidently with the intention of picking up such articles as we might deem unnecessary to take. when akaitcho was made acquainted with my purpose of sending away a party of men, he came to inform me that he would appoint two hunters to accompany them, and at the same time requested that dr. richardson, or as he called him, the medicine chief, might be sent with his own band. these indians set a great value upon medicine, and made many demands upon dr. richardson on the prospect of his departure. he had to make up little packets, of the different articles in his chest, not only for the leader, but for each of the minor chiefs, who carefully placed them in their medicine bags, noting in their memories the directions he gave for their use. the readiness with which their requests for medical assistance were complied with, was considered by them as a strong mark of our good intentions towards them; and the leader often remarked, that they owed much to our kindness in that respect; that formerly numbers had died every year, but that not a life had been lost since our arrival amongst them. in the present instance, however, the leader's request could not be complied with. dr. richardson had volunteered to conduct the first party to the copper-mine river, whilst the rest of the officers remained with me to the last moment, to complete our astronomical observations at the house. he, therefore, informed the leader that he would remain stationary at point lake until the arrival of the whole party, where he might be easily consulted if any of his people fell sick, as it was in the neighbourhood of their hunting-grounds. on the nd the stores were packed up in proper-sized bales for the journey. i had intended to send the canoes by the first party, but they were not yet repaired, the weather not being sufficiently warm for the men to work constantly at them, without the hazard of breaking the bark. this day one of the new trading guns, which we had recently received from fort chipewyan, burst in the hands of a young indian; fortunately, however, without doing him any material injury. this was the sixth accident of the kind which had occurred since our departure from slave lake. surely this deficiency in the quality of the guns, which hazards the lives of so many poor indians, requires the serious consideration of the principals of the trading companies. on the th, at three in the morning, the party under the charge of dr. richardson started. it consisted of fifteen voyagers, three of them conducting dog sledges, baldhead and basil, two indian hunters with their wives, akaiyazzeh{ } a sick indian and his wife, together with angelique and roulante; so that the party amounted to twenty-three exclusive of children. the burdens of the men were about eighty pounds each, exclusive of their personal baggage, which amounted to nearly as much more. most of them dragged their loads upon sledges, but a few preferred carrying them on their backs. they set off in high spirits. after breakfast the indians struck their tents, and the women, the boys, and the old men who had to drag sledges, took their departure. it was three p.m., however, before akaitcho and the hunters left us. we issued thirty balls to the leader, and twenty to each of the hunters and guides, with a proportionate quantity of powder, and gave them directions to make all the provision they could on their way to point lake. i then desired mr. wentzel to inform akaitcho, in the presence of the other indians, that i wished a deposit of provision to be made at this place previous to next september, as a resource should we return this way. he and the guides not only promised to see this done, but suggested that it would be more secure if placed in the cellar, or in mr. wentzel's room. the dog-ribs, they said, would respect any thing that was in the house, as knowing it to belong to the white people. at the close of this conversation akaitcho exclaimed with a smile, "i see now that you have really no goods left, (the rooms and stores being completely stripped,) and therefore i shall not trouble you any more, but use my best endeavours to prepare provision for you, and i think if the animals are tolerably numerous, we may get plenty before you can embark on the river." whilst the indians were packing up this morning, one of the women absconded. she belongs to the dog-rib tribe, and had been taken by force from her relations by her present husband, who treated her very harshly. the fellow was in my room when his mother announced the departure of his wife, and received the intelligence with great composure, as well as the seasonable reproof of akaitcho. "you are rightly served," said the chief to him, "and will now have to carry all your things yourself, instead of having a wife to drag them." one hunter remained after the departure of the other indians. on the th the dog-rib woman presented herself on a hill at some distance from the house, but was afraid to approach us, until the interpreter went and told her that neither we nor the indian who remained with us, would prevent her from going where she pleased. upon this she came to solicit a fire-steel and kettle. she was at first low-spirited, from the non-arrival of a country-woman who had promised to elope with her, but had probably been too narrowly watched. the indian hunter, however, having given her some directions as to the proper mode of joining her own tribe, she became more composed, and ultimately agreed to adopt his advice of proceeding at once to fort providence, instead of wandering about the country all summer in search of them, at the imminent hazard of being starved. on the th the wind, shifting to the southward, dispersed the clouds which had obscured the sky for several days, and produced a change of temperature under which the snow rapidly disappeared. the thermometer rose to °, many flies came forth, musquitoes shewed themselves for the first time, and one swallow made its appearance. we were the more gratified with these indications of summer, that st. germain was enabled to commence the repair of the canoes, and before night had completed the two which had received the least injury. augustus killed two deer to-day. on the th the dip of the magnetic needle being observed, shewed a decrease of ' " since last autumn. the repairs of the third canoe were finished this evening. the snow was now confined to the bases of the hills, and our indian hunter told us the season was early. the operations of nature, however, seemed to us very tardy. we were eager to be gone, and dreaded the lapse of summer, before the indians would allow it had begun. on the th the geese and ducks had left the vicinity of fort enterprise, and proceeded to the northward. some young ravens and whiskey-johns made their appearance at this time. on the th winter river was nearly cleared of ice, and on the th the men returned, having left dr. richardson on the borders of point lake. dr. richardson informed me by letter that the snow was deeper in many parts near his encampment than it had been at any time last winter near fort enterprise, and that the ice on point lake had scarcely begun to decay. although the voyagers were much fatigued on their arrival, and had eaten nothing for the last twenty-four hours, they were very cheerful, and expressed a desire to start with the remainder of the stores next morning. the dog-rib woman, who had lingered about the house since the th of june, took alarm at the approach of our men, thinking, perhaps, that they were accompanied by indians, and ran off. she was now provided with a hatchet, kettle, and fire-steel, and would probably go at once to fort providence, in the expectation of meeting with some of her countrymen before the end of summer. chapter x[ ]. [ ] it will be seen hereafter that i had the misfortune to lose my portfolio containing my journals from fort enterprise to the th of september. but the loss has been amply redeemed by my brother officers' journals, from which the narrative up to that period has been chiefly compiled. departure from fort enterprise--navigation of the copper-mine river--visit to the copper mountain--interview with the esquimaux--departure of the indian hunters--arrangements made with them for our return. . june . the trains for the canoes having been finished during the night, the party attached to them commenced their journey at ten this morning. each canoe was dragged by four men assisted by two dogs. they took the route of winter lake, with the intention of following, although more circuitous, the water-course as far as practicable, it being safer for the canoes than travelling over land. after their departure, the remaining stores, the instruments, and our small stock of dried meat, amounting only to eighty pounds, were distributed equally among hepburn, three canadians, and the two esquimaux; with this party and two indian hunters, we quitted fort enterprise, most sincerely rejoicing that the long-wished-for day had arrived, when we were to proceed towards the final object of the expedition. we left in one of the rooms a box, containing a journal of the occurrences up to this date, the charts and some drawings, which was to be conveyed to fort chipewyan by mr. wentzel, on his return from the sea, and thence to be sent to england. the room was blocked up, and, by the advice of mr. wentzel, a drawing representing a man holding a dagger in a threatening attitude, was affixed to the door, to deter any indians from breaking it open. we directed our course towards the dog-rib rock, but as our companions were loaded with the weight of near one hundred and eighty pounds each, we of necessity proceeded at a slow pace. the day was extremely warm, and the musquitoes, whose attacks had hitherto been feeble, issued forth in swarms from the marshes, and were very tormenting. having walked five miles we encamped near a small cluster of pines about two miles from the dog-rib rock. the canoe party had not been seen since they set out. our hunters went forward to marten lake, intending to wait for us at a place where two deer were deposited. at nine p.m. the temperature of the air was °. we resumed our march at an early hour, and crossed several lakes which lay in our course, as the ice enabled the men to drag their burdens on trains formed of sticks and deers' horns, with more ease than they could carry them on their backs. we were kept constantly wet by this operation, as the ice had broken near the shores of the lakes, but this was little regarded as the day was unusually warm: the temperature at two p.m. being at - / °. at marten lake we joined the canoe party, and encamped with them. we had the mortification of learning from our hunters that the meat they had put _en cache_ here, had been destroyed by the wolverenes, and we had in consequence, to furnish the supper from our scanty stock of dried meat. the wind changed from s.e. to n.e. in the evening, and the weather became very cold, the thermometer being at ° at nine p.m. the few dwarf birches we could collect afforded fire insufficient to keep us warm, and we retired under the covering of our blankets as soon as the supper was despatched. the n.e. breeze rendered the night so extremely cold, that we procured but little sleep, having neither fire nor shelter; for though we carried our tents, we had been forced to leave the tent-poles which we could not now replace; we therefore gladly recommenced the journey at five in the morning, and travelled through the remaining part of the lake on the ice. its surface being quite smooth, the canoes were dragged along expeditiously by the dogs, and the rest of the party had to walk very quick to keep pace with them, which occasioned many severe falls. by the time we had reached the end of the lake, the wind had increased to a perfect gale, and the atmosphere was so cold that we could not proceed further with the canoes without the risk of breaking the bark, and seriously injuring them: we therefore crossed winter river in them, and put up in a well-sheltered place on a ridge of sand hills; but as the stock of provision was scanty, we determined on proceeding as quick as possible, and leaving the canoe-party under the charge of mr. wentzel. we parted from them in the afternoon, and first directed our course towards a range of hills, where we expected to find antonio fontano, who had separated from us in the morning. in crossing towards these hills i fell through the ice into the lake, with my bundle on my shoulders, but was soon extricated without any injury; and mr. back, who left us to go in search of the straggler, met with a similar accident in the evening. we put up on a ridge of sand hills, where we found some pines, and made a large fire to apprize mr. back and fontano of our position. st. germain having killed a deer in the afternoon, we received an acceptable supply of meat. the night was stormy and very cold. at five the next morning, our men were sent in different directions after our absent companions; but as the weather was foggy, we despaired of finding them, unless they should chance to hear the muskets our people were desired to fire. they returned, however, at ten, bringing intelligence of them. i went immediately with hepburn to join mr. back, and directed mr. hood to proceed with the canadians, and halt with them at the spot where the hunters had killed a deer. though mr. back was much fatigued he set off with me immediately, and in the evening we rejoined our friends on the borders of the big lake. the indians informed us that fontano only remained a few hours with them, and then continued his journey. we had to oppose a violent gale and frequent snow-storms through the day, which unseasonable weather caused the temperature to descend below the freezing point this evening. the situation of our encampment being bleak, and our fuel stunted green willows, we passed a very cold and uncomfortable night. _june _.--though the breeze was moderate this morning, the air was piercingly keen. when on the point of starting, we perceived mr. wentzel's party coming, and awaited his arrival to learn whether the canoes had received any injury during the severe weather of yesterday. finding they had not, we proceeded to get upon the ice on the lake, which could not be effected without walking up to the waist in water, for some distance from its borders. we had not the command of our feet in this situation, and the men fell often; poor junius broke through the ice with his heavy burden on his back, but fortunately was not hurt. this lake is extensive, and large arms branch from its main course in different directions. at these parts we crossed the projecting points of land, and on each occasion had to wade as before, which so wearied every one, that we rejoiced when we reached its north side and encamped, though our resting-place was a bare rock. we had the happiness of finding fontano at this place. the poor fellow had passed the three preceding days without tasting food, and was exhausted by anxiety and hunger. his sufferings were considered to have been a sufficient punishment for his imprudent conduct in separating from us, and i only admonished him to be more cautious in future. having received information that the hunters had killed a deer, we sent three men to fetch the meat, which was distributed between our party and the canoe-men who had been encamped near to us. the thermometer at three p.m. was °, at nine °. we commenced the following day by crossing a lake about four miles in length, and then passed over a succession of rugged hills for nearly the same distance. the men being anxious to reach some pine-trees, which they had seen on their former journey, walked a quick pace, though they were suffering from swelled legs and rheumatic pains; we could not, however, attain the desired point, and therefore encamped on the declivity of a hill, which sheltered us from the wind; and used the rein-deer moss for fuel, which afforded us more warmth than we expected. several patches of snow were yet remaining on the surrounding hills. the thermometer varied to-day between ° and °. on the th of june we began our march by crossing a small lake, not without much risk, as the surface of the ice was covered with water to the depth of two feet, and there were many holes into which we slipped, in spite of our efforts to avoid them. a few of the men, being fearful of attempting the traverse with their heavy loads, walked round the eastern end of the lake. the parties met on the sandy ridge, which separates the streams that fall into winter lake from those that flow to the northward; and here we killed three deer. near the base of this ridge we crossed a small but rapid stream, in which there is a remarkable cascade of about fifty feet. some indians joined us here, and gave information respecting the situation of dr. richardson's tent, which our hunters considered was sufficient for our guidance, and therefore proceeded as quickly as they could. we marched a few miles farther in the evening, and encamped among some pines; but the comfort of a good fire did not compensate for the torment we suffered from the host of musquitoes at this spot. the temperature was °. we set off next morning at a very early hour. the men took the course of point lake, that they might use their sledges, but the officers pursued the nearest route by land to dr. richardson's tent, which we reached at eleven a.m. it was on the western side of an arm of the lake and near the part through which the copper-mine river runs. our men arrived soon after us, and in the evening mr. wentzel and his party, with the canoes in excellent condition. they were much jaded by their fatiguing journey and several were lame from swellings of the lower extremities. the ice on the lake was still six or seven feet thick, and there was no appearance of its decay except near the edges; and as it was evident that, by remaining here until it should be removed, we might lose every prospect of success in our undertaking, i determined on dragging our stores along its surface, until we should come to a part of the river where we could embark; and directions were given this evening for each man to prepare a train for the conveyance of his portion of the stores. i may remark here, as a proof of the strong effect of radiation from the earth in melting the ice, that the largest holes in the ice were always formed at the base of the high and steep cliffs, which abound on the borders of this lake. we found akaitcho and the hunters encamped here, but their families, and the rest of the tribe, had gone off two days before to the beth-see-to, a large lake to the northward, where they intended passing the summer. long-legs and keskarrah had departed, to desire the hook to collect as much meat as he could against our arrival at his lodge. we were extremely distressed to learn from dr. richardson, that akaitcho and his party had expended all the ammunition they had received at fort enterprise, without having contributed any supply of provision. the doctor had, however, through the assistance of two hunters he kept with him, prepared two hundred pounds of dried meat, which was now our sole dependance for the journey. on the following morning i represented to akaitcho that we had been greatly disappointed by his conduct, which was so opposite to the promise of exertion he had made, on quitting fort enterprise. he offered many excuses, but finding they were not satisfactory, admitted that the greater part of the ammunition had been given to those who accompanied the women to the beth-see-to, and promised to behave better in future. i then told him, that i intended in future to give them ammunition only in proportion to the meat which was brought in, and that we should commence upon that plan, by supplying him with fifteen balls, and each of the hunters with ten. the number of our hunters was now reduced to five, as two of the most active declined going any further, their father, who thought himself dying, having solicited them to remain and close his eyes. these five were furnished with ammunition, and sent forward to hunt on the south border of the lake, with directions to place any meat they might procure near the edge of the lake, and set up marks to guide us to the spots. akaitcho, his brother, the guide, and three other men, remained to accompany us. we were much surprised to perceive an extraordinary difference in climate in so short an advance to the northward as fifty miles. the snow here was lying in large patches on the hills. the dwarf-birch and willows were only just beginning to open their buds, which had burst forth at fort enterprise many days before our departure. vegetation seemed to be three weeks or a month later here than at that place. we had heavy showers of rain through the night of the d, which melted the snow, and visibly wasted the ice. on the d, the men were busily employed in making their trains, and in pounding the meat for pemmican. the situation of the encampment was ascertained, latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., and the variation ° ' " e. the arrangements being completed, we purposed commencing our journey next morning, but the weather was too stormy to venture upon the lake with the canoes. in the afternoon a heavy fall of snow took place, succeeded by sleet and rain. the north-east gale continued, but the thermometer rose to °. _june _.--the wind having abated in the night, we prepared for starting at an early hour. the three canoes were mounted on sledges, and nine men were appointed to conduct them, having the assistance of two dogs to each canoe. the stores and provisions were distributed equally among the rest of our men, except a few small articles which the indians carried. the provision consisted of only two bags of pemmican, two of pounded meat, five of suet, and two small bundles of dried provision, together with fresh meat sufficient for our supper at night. it was gratifying to witness the readiness with which the men prepared for and commenced a journey, which threatened to be so very laborious, as each of them had to drag upwards of one hundred and eighty pounds on his sledge. our course led down the main channel of the lake, which varied in breadth from half a mile to three miles; but we proceeded at a slow pace, as the snow, which fell last night, and still lay on the ice, very much impeded the sledges. many extensive arms branched off on the north side of this channel, and it was bounded on the south by a chain of lofty islands. the hills on both sides rose to six or seven hundred feet, and high steep cliffs were numerous. clusters of pines were occasionally seen in the valleys. we put up, at eight p.m., in a spot which afforded us but a few twigs for fuel. the party was much fatigued, and several of the men were affected by an inflammation on the inside of the thigh attended with hardness and swelling. the distance made to-day was six miles. we started at ten next morning. the day was extremely hot, and the men were soon jaded; their lameness increased very much, and some not previously affected began to complain. the dogs too shewed symptoms of great weakness, and one of them stretched himself obstinately on the ice, and was obliged to be released from the harness. we were, therefore, compelled to encamp at an early hour, having come only four miles. the sufferings of the people in this early stage of our journey were truly discouraging to them, and very distressing to us, whose situation was comparatively easy. i, therefore, determined on leaving the third canoe, which had been principally carried to provide against any accident to the others. we should thus gain three men, to lighten the loads of those who were most lame, and an additional dog for each of the other canoes. it was accordingly properly secured on a stage erected for the purpose near the encampment. dried meat was issued for supper, but in the course of the evening the indians killed two deer, for which we immediately sent. the channel of the lake through which we had passed to-day was bounded on both sides by islands of considerable height, presenting bold and rugged scenery. we were informed by our guide, that a large body of the lake lies to the northward of a long island which we passed. another deer was killed next morning, but as the men breakfasted off it before they started, the additional weight was not materially felt. the burdens of the men being considerably lightened by the arrangements of last evening, the party walked at the rate of one mile and three quarters an hour until the afternoon, when our pace was slackened, as the ice was more rough, and our lame companions felt their sores very galling. at noon we passed a deep bay on the south side, which is said to receive a river. throughout the day's march the hills on each side of the lake bore a strong resemblance, in height and form, to those about fort enterprise. we encamped on the north main shore, among some spruce trees, having walked eight miles and a half. three or four fish were caught with lines through holes, which the water had worn in the ice. we perceived a light westerly current at these places. it rained heavily during the night, and this was succeeded by a dense fog on the morning of the th. being short of provisions we commenced our journey, though the points of land were not discernible beyond a short distance. the surface of the ice, being honeycombed by the recent rains, presented innumerable sharp points, which tore our shoes and lacerated the feet at every step. the poor dogs, too, marked their path with their blood. in the evening the atmosphere became clear, and, at five p.m., we reached the rapid by which point lake communicates with red-rock lake. this rapid is only one hundred yards wide, and we were much disappointed at finding the copper-mine river such an inconsiderable stream. the canoes descended the rapid, but the cargoes were carried across the peninsula, and placed again on the sledges, as the next lake was still frozen. we passed an extensive arm, branching to the eastward, and encamped just below it, on the western bank, among spruce pines, having walked six miles of direct distance. the rolled stones on the beach are principally red clay slate, hence its indian appellation, which we have retained. we continued our journey at the usual hour next morning. at noon the variation was observed to be ° east. our attention was afterwards directed to some pine branches, scattered on the ice, which proved to be marks placed by our hunters, to guide us to the spot where they had deposited the carcasses of two small deer. this supply was very seasonable, and the men cheerfully dragged the additional weight. akaitcho, judging from the appearance of the meat, thought it had been placed here three days ago, and that the hunters were considerably in advance. we put up at six p.m., near the end of the lake, having come twelve miles and three quarters, and found the channel open by which it is connected with the rock-nest lake. a river was pointed out, bearing south from our encampment, which is said to rise near great marten lake. red-rock lake is in general narrow, its shelving banks are well clothed with wood, and even the hills, which attain an elevation of four hundred or five hundred feet, are ornamented half way up, with stunted pines. on june , the men having gummed the canoes, embarked with their burdens to descend the river; but we accompanied the indians about five miles across a neck of land, when we also embarked. the river was about two hundred yards wide, and its course being uninterrupted, we cherished a sanguine hope of now getting on more speedily, until we perceived that the waters of rock-nest lake were still bound by ice, and that recourse must again be had to the sledges. the ice was much decayed, and the party were exposed to great risk of breaking through in making the traverse. in one part we had to cross an open channel in the canoes, and in another were compelled to quit the lake, and make a portage along the land. when the party had got upon the ice again, our guide evinced much uncertainty as to the route. he first directed us towards the west end of the lake; but when we had nearly gained that point, he discovered a remarkable rock to the north-east, named by the indians the rock-nest, and then recollected that the river ran at its base. our course was immediately changed to that direction, but the traverse we had then to make was more dangerous than the former one. the ice cracked under us at every step, and the party were obliged to separate widely to prevent accidents. we landed at the first point we could approach, but having found an open channel close to the shore, were obliged to ferry the goods across on pieces of ice. the fresh meat being expended we had to make another inroad on our pounded meat. the evening was very warm, and the musquitoes numerous. a large fire was made to apprize the hunters of our advance. the scenery of rock-nest lake is picturesque, its shores are rather low, except at the rock's nest, and two or three eminences on the eastern side. the only wood is the pine, which is twenty or thirty feet high, and about one foot in diameter. our distance to-day was six miles. _july _.--our guide directed us to proceed towards a deep bay on the north side of the lake, where he supposed we should find the river. in consequence of the bad state of the ice, we employed all the different modes of travelling we had previously followed in attaining this place; and, in crossing a point of land, had the misfortune to lose one of the dogs, which set off in pursuit of some rein-deer. arriving at the bay, we only found a stream that fell into it from the north-east, and looked in vain for the copper-mine river. this circumstance confused the guide, and he confessed that he was now doubtful of the proper route; we, therefore, halted, and despatched him, with two men, to look for the river from the top of the high hills near the rock-nest. during this delay a slight injury was repaired, which one of the canoes had received. we were here amused by the sight of a wolf chasing two rein-deer on the ice. the pursuer being alarmed at the sight of our men, gave up the chase when near to the hindmost, much to our regret, for we were calculating upon the chance of sharing in his capture. at four p.m. our men returned, with the agreeable information that they had seen the river flowing at the base of the rock-nest. the canoes and stores were immediately placed on the ice, and dragged thither; we then embarked, but soon had to cut through a barrier of drift ice that blocked up the way. we afterwards descended two strong rapids, and encamped near the discharge of a small stream which flows from an adjoining lake. the copper-mine river, at this point, is about two hundred yards wide, and ten feet deep, and flows very rapidly over a rocky bottom. the scenery of its banks is picturesque, the hills shelve to the water-side, and are well covered with wood, and the surface of the rocks is richly ornamented with lichens. the indians say that the same kind of country prevails as far as mackenzie's river in this parallel; but that the land to the eastward is perfectly barren. akaitcho and one of the indians killed two deer, which were immediately sent for. two of the hunters arrived in the night, and we learned that their companions, instead of being in advance, as we supposed, were staying at the place where we first found the river open. they had only seen our fires last evening, and had sent to examine who we were. the circumstance of having passed them was very vexatious, as they had three deer _en cache_, at their encampment. however, an indian was sent to desire those who remained to join us, and bring the meat. we embarked at nine a.m. on july nd, and descended a succession of strong rapids for three miles. we were carried along with extraordinary rapidity, shooting over large stones, upon which a single stroke would have been destructive to the canoes; and we were also in danger of breaking them, from the want of the long poles which lie along their bottoms and equalize their cargoes, as they plunged very much, and on one occasion the first canoe was almost filled with the waves. but there was no receding after we had once launched into the stream, and our safety depended on the skill and dexterity of the bowmen and steersmen. the banks of the river here are rocky, and the scenery beautiful; consisting of gentle elevations and dales wooded to the edge of the stream, and flanked on both sides at the distance of three or four miles by a range of round-backed barren hills, upwards of six hundred feet high. at the foot of the rapids the high lands recede to a greater distance, and the river flows with a more gentle current, in a wider channel, through a level and open country consisting of alluvial sand. in one place the passage was blocked up by drift ice, still deeply covered with snow. a channel for the canoes was made for some distance with the hatchets and poles; but on reaching the more compact part, we were under the necessity of transporting the canoes and cargoes across it; an operation of much hazard, as the snow concealed the numerous holes which the water had made in the ice. this expansion of the river being mistaken by the guide for a lake, which he spoke of as the last on our route to the sea, we supposed that we should have no more ice to cross, and therefore encamped after passing through it, to fit the canoes properly for the voyage, and to provide poles, which are not only necessary to strengthen them when placed in the bottom, but essentially requisite for the safe management of them in dangerous rapids. the guide began afterwards to doubt whether the lake he meant was not further on, and he was sent with two men to examine into the fact, who returned in the evening with the information of its being below us, but that there was an open channel through it. this day was very sultry, and several plants appeared in flower. the men were employed in repairing their canoes to a late hour, and commenced very early next morning, as we were desirous of availing ourselves of every part of this favourable weather. the hunters arrived in the course of the night. it appeared that the dog which escaped from us two days ago came into the vicinity of their encampment, howling piteously; seeing him without his harness, they came to the hasty conclusion that our whole party had perished in a rapid; and throwing away part of their baggage, and leaving the meat behind them, they set off with the utmost haste to join long-legs. our messenger met them in their flight, but too far advanced to admit of their returning for the meat. akaitcho scolded them heartily for their thoughtlessness in leaving the meat, which we so much wanted. they expressed their regret, and being ashamed of their panic, proposed to remedy the evil as much as possible by going forward, without stopping, until they came to a favourable spot for hunting, which they expected to do about thirty or forty miles below our present encampment. akaitcho accompanied them, but previous to setting off he renewed his charge that we should be on our guard against the bears, which was occasioned by the hunters having fired at one this morning as they were descending a rapid in their canoe. as their small canoes would only carry five persons, two of the hunters had to walk in turns along the banks. in our rambles round the encampment, we witnessed with pleasure the progress which vegetation had made within the few last warm days; most of the trees had put forth their leaves, and several flowers ornamented the moss-covered ground; many of the smaller summer birds were observed in the woods, and a variety of ducks, gulls, and plovers, sported on the banks of the river. it is about three hundred yards wide at this part, is deep and flows over a bed of alluvial sand. we caught some trout of considerable size with our lines, and a few white fish in the nets, which maintained us, with a little assistance from the pemmican. the repair of our canoes was completed this evening. before embarking i issued an order that no rapid should in future be descended until the bowman had examined it, and decided upon its being safe to run. wherever the least danger was to be apprehended, or the crew had to disembark for the purpose of lightening the canoe, the ammunition, guns and instruments, were always to be put out and carried along the bank, that we might be provided with the means of subsisting ourselves, in case of any accident befalling the canoes. the situation of our encampment was ascertained to be ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., and the variation ° ' " e. at four in the morning of july th we embarked and descended a succession of very agitated rapids, but took the precaution of landing the articles mentioned yesterday, wherever there appeared any hazard; notwithstanding all our precautions the leading canoe struck with great force against a stone, and the bark was split, but this injury was easily repaired, and we regretted only the loss of time. at eleven we came to an expansion of the river where the current ran with less force, and an accumulation of drift ice had, in consequence, barred the channel; over this the canoes and cargoes were carried. the ice in many places adhered to the banks, and projected in wide ledges several feet thick over the stream, which had hollowed them out beneath. on one occasion as the people were embarking from one of these ledges, it suddenly gave way, and three men were precipitated into the water, but were rescued without further damage than a sound ducking, and the canoe fortunately (and narrowly) escaped being crushed. perceiving one of the indians sitting on the east bank of the river, we landed, and having learned from him that akaitcho and the hunters had gone in pursuit of a herd of musk oxen, we encamped, having come twenty-four miles and a half. in the afternoon they brought us the agreeable intelligence of having killed eight cows, of which four were full grown. all the party were immediately despatched to bring in this seasonable supply. a young cow, irritated by the firing of the hunters, ran down to the river, and passed close to me when walking at a short distance from the tents. i fired and wounded it, when the animal instantly turned, and ran at me, but i avoided its fury by jumping aside and getting upon an elevated piece of ground. in the mean time some people came from the tents, and it took to flight. the musk oxen, like the buffalo, herd together in bands, and generally frequent the barren grounds during the summer months, keeping near the rivers, but retire to the woods in winter. they seem to be less watchful than most other wild animals, and when grazing are not difficult to approach, provided the hunters go against the wind; when two or three men get so near a herd as to fire at them from different points, these animals instead of separating or running away, huddle closer together, and several are generally killed; but if the wound is not mortal they become enraged and dart in the most furious manner at the hunters, who must be very dextrous to evade them. they can defend themselves by their powerful horns against the wolves and bears, which, as the indians say, they not unfrequently kill. the musk oxen feed on the same substances with the rein-deer, and the prints of the feet of these two animals are so much alike, that it requires the eye of an experienced hunter to distinguish them. the largest killed by us did not exceed in weight three hundred pounds. the flesh has a musky disagreeable flavour, particularly when the animal is lean, which unfortunately for us was the case with all that we now killed. during this day's march the river varied in breadth from one hundred to two hundred feet, and except in two open spaces, a very strong current marked a deep descent the whole way. it flows over a bed of gravel, of which also its immediate banks are composed. near to our encampment it is bounded by cliffs of fine sand from one hundred to two hundred feet high. sandy plains extend on a level with the summit of these cliffs, and at the distance of six or seven miles are terminated by ranges of hills eight hundred or one thousand feet high. the grass on these plains affords excellent pasturage for the musk oxen, and they generally abound here. the hunters added two more to our stock in the course of the night. as we had now more meat than the party could consume fresh, we delayed our voyage next day to dry it. the hunters were supplied with more ammunition, and sent forward; but akaitcho, his brother, and another indian, remained with us. it may here be proper to mention, that the officers had treated akaitcho more distantly since our departure from point lake, to mark their opinion of his misconduct. the diligence in hunting, however, which he had evinced at this place, induced us to receive him more familiarly when he came to the tent this evening. during our conversation he endeavoured to excite suspicions in our minds against the hook, by saying, "i am aware that you consider me the worst man of my nation; but i know the hook to be a great rogue, and, i think he will disappoint you." on the morning of the th we embarked, and descended a series of rapids, having twice unloaded the canoes where the water was shallow. after passing the mouth of the fairy[ ] lake river the rapids ceased. the main stream was then about three hundred yards wide, and generally deep, though, in one part, the channel was interrupted by several sandy banks, and low alluvial islands covered with willows. it flows between banks of sand thinly wooded, and as we advanced the barren hills approached the water's edge. [ ] this is an indian name. the northern indian fairies are six inches high, lead a life similar to the indians, and are excellent hunters. those who have had the good fortune to fall in with their tiny encampments have been kindly treated, and regaled on venison. we did not learn with certainty whether the existence of these delightful creatures is known from indian tradition, or whether the indians owe their knowledge of them to their intercourse with the traders, but think the former probable. at ten we rejoined our hunters, who had killed a deer, and halted to breakfast. we sent them forward; one of them, who was walking along the shore afterwards, fired upon two brown bears, and wounded one of them, which instantly turned and pursued him. his companions in the canoes put ashore to his assistance, but did not succeed in killing the bears, which fled upon the reinforcement coming up. during the delay thus occasioned we overtook them, and they continued with us the rest of the day. we encamped at the foot of a lofty range of mountains, which appear to be from twelve to fifteen hundred feet high; they are in general round backed, but the outline is not even, being interrupted by craggy conical eminences. this is the first ridge of hills we have seen in this country, that deserves the appellation of a mountain range; it is probably a continuation of the stony mountains crossed by hearne. many plants appeared in full flower near the tents, and dr. richardson gathered some high up on the hills. the distance we made to-day was fifty miles. there was a hoar frost in the night, and the temperature, at four next morning, was °: embarking at that hour, we glided quickly down the stream, and by seven arrived at the hook's encampment, which was placed on the summit of a lofty sand cliff, whose base was washed by the river. this chief had with him only three hunters, and a few old men and their families, the rest of his band having remained at their snares in bear lake. his brother, long-legs, and our guide, keskarrah, who had joined him three days before, had communicated to him our want of provision, and we were happy to find that, departing from the general practice of indian chiefs, he entered at once upon the business, without making a long speech. as an introductory mark of our regard, i decorated him with a medal similar to those which had been given to the other leaders. the hook began by stating, "that he was aware of our being destitute of provision, and of the great need we had of an ample stock, to enable us to execute our undertaking; and his regret, that the unusual scarcity of animals this season, together with the circumstance of his having only just received a supply of ammunition from fort providence, had prevented him from collecting the quantity of meat he had wished to do for our use. the amount, indeed," he said, "is very small, but i will cheerfully give you what i have: we are too much indebted to the white people, to allow them to want food on our lands, whilst we have any to give them. our families can live on fish until we can procure more meat, but the season is too short to allow of your delaying, to gain subsistence in that manner." he immediately desired, aloud, that the women should bring all the meat they had to us; and we soon collected sufficient to make three bags and a half of pemmican, besides some dried meat and tongues. we were truly delighted by this prompt and cheerful behaviour, and would gladly have rewarded the kindness of himself and his companions by some substantial present, but we were limited by the scantiness of our store to a small donation of fifteen charges of ammunition to each of the chiefs. in return for the provision they accepted notes on the north-west company, to be paid at fort providence; and to these was subjoined an order for a few articles of clothing, as an additional present. i then endeavoured to prevail upon the hook to remain in this vicinity with his hunters until the autumn, and to make deposits of provision in different parts of the course to the sea, as a resource for our party, in the event of our being compelled to return by this route. he required time, however, to consider this matter, and promised to give me an answer next day. i was rejoiced to find him then prepared to meet my wish, and the following plan was agreed upon:--as the animals abound, at all times, on the borders of bear lake, he promised to remain on the east side of it until the month of november, at that spot which is nearest to the copper-mine river, from whence there is a communication by a chain of lakes and portages. there the principal deposit of provision was to be made; but during the summer the hunters were to be employed in putting up supplies of dried meat at convenient distances, not only along the communication from this river, but also upon its banks, as far down as the copper mountain. they were also to place particular marks to guide our course to their lodges. we contracted to pay them liberally, whether we returned by this way or not; if we did, they were to accompany us to fort providence to receive the reward; and, at any rate, i promised to send the necessary documents by mr. wentzel, from the sea-coast, to ensure them an ample remuneration. with this arrangement they were perfectly satisfied, and we could not be less so, knowing they had every motive for fulfilling their promises, as the place they had chosen to remain at is their usual hunting-ground. the uncommon anxiety these chiefs expressed for our safety, appeared to us likely to prompt them to every care and attention, and i record their expressions with gratitude. after representing the numerous hardships we should have to encounter in the strongest manner, though in language similar to what we had often heard from our friend akaitcho, they earnestly entreated we would be constantly on our guard against the treachery of the esquimaux; and no less forcibly desired we would not proceed far along the coast, as they dreaded the consequences of our being exposed to a tempestuous sea in canoes, and having to endure the cold of the autumn on a shore destitute of fuel. the hook, having been an invalid for several years, rejoiced at the opportunity of consulting dr. richardson, who immediately gave him advice, and supplied him with medicine. the pounded meat and fat were converted into pemmican, preparatory to our voyage. the result of our observations at the hook's encampment was, latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., variation of the compass ° ' " e. we embarked at eleven to proceed on our journey. akaitcho and his brother, the guide, being in the first canoe, and old keskarrah in the other. we wished to dispense with the further attendance of two guides, and made a proposition that either of them might remain here, but neither would relinquish the honour of escorting the expedition to the sea. one of our hunters, however, was less eager for this distinction, and preferred remaining with green stockings, keskarrah's fascinating daughter. the other four, with the little singer, accompanied us, two of them conducting their small canoes in turns, and the rest walking along the beach. the river flows over a bed of sand, and winds in an uninterrupted channel of from three quarters to a mile broad, between two ranges of hills, which are pretty even in their outline, and round backed, but having rather steep acclivities. the immediate borders of the stream consist either of high banks of sand, or steep gravel cliffs; and sometimes, where the hills recede to a little distance, the intervening space is occupied by high sandy ridges. at three p.m., after passing along the foot of a high range of hills, we arrived at the portage leading to the bear lake, to which we have previously alluded. its position is very remarkable, being at the most westerly part of the copper-mine river, and at the point where it resumes a northern course, and forces a passage through the lofty ridge of mountains, to which it has run parallel for the last thirty miles. as the indians travel from hence, with their families, in three days to the point where they have proposed staying for us, the distance, i think, cannot exceed forty miles; and admitting the course to be due west, which is the direction the guide pointed, it would place the eastern part of bear lake in - / ° w. longitude. beyond this spot the river is diminished in breadth and a succession of rapids are formed; but as the water was deep, we passed through them without discharging any part of the cargoes. it still runs between high ranges of mountains, though its actual boundaries are banks of mud mixed with clay, which are clothed with stunted pines. we picked up a deer which the hunters had shot, and killed another from the canoe; and also received an addition to our stock of provision of seven young geese, which the hunters had beaten down with their sticks. about six p.m. we perceived a mark on the shore, which on examination was found to have been recently put up by some indians: and, on proceeding further, we discerned stronger proofs of their vicinity; we, therefore, encamped, and made a large fire as a signal, which they answered in a similar way. mr. wentzel was immediately sent, in expectation of getting provision from them. on his return, we learned that the party consisted of three old copper indians, with their families who had supported themselves with the bow and arrow since last autumn, not having visited fort providence for more than a year; and so successful had they been, that they were enabled to supply us with upwards of seventy pounds of dried meat, and six moose skins fit for making shoes, which were the more valuable as we were apprehensive of being barefooted before the journey could be completed. the evening was sultry, and the musquitoes appeared in great numbers. the distance made to-day was twenty-five miles. on the following morning we went down to these indians, and delivered to them notes on the north-west company, for the meat and skins they had furnished; and we had then the mortification of learning, that not having people to carry a considerable quantity of pounded meat, which they had intended for us, they had left it upon the bear lake portage. they promised, however to get it conveyed to the banks of this river before we could return, and we rewarded them with a present of knives and files. after re-embarking we continued to descend the river, which was now contracted between lofty banks to about one hundred and twenty yards wide; the current was very strong. at eleven we came to a rapid which had been the theme of discourse with the indians for many days, and which they had described to us as impassable in canoes. the river here descends for three quarters of a mile, in a deep, but narrow and crooked, channel, which it has cut through the foot of a hill of five hundred or six hundred feet high. it is confined between perpendicular cliffs, resembling stone walls, varying in height from eighty to one hundred and fifty feet, on which lies a mass of fine sand. the body of the river pent within this narrow chasm, dashed furiously round the projecting rocky columns, and discharged itself at the northern extremity in a sheet of foam. the canoes, after being lightened of part of their cargoes, ran through this defile without sustaining any injury. accurate sketches of this interesting scene were taken by messrs. back and hood. soon after passing this rapid, we perceived the hunters running up the east side of the river, to prevent us from disturbing a herd of musk oxen, which they had observed grazing on the opposite bank; we put them across and they succeeded in killing six, upon which we encamped for the purpose of drying the meat. the country below the rocky defile rapid consists of sandy plains; broken by small conical eminences also of sand; and bounded to the westward by a continuation of the mountain chain, which we had crossed at the bear lake portage; and to the eastward and northward, at the distance of twelve miles, by the copper mountains, which mr. hearne visited. the plains are crowned by several clumps of moderately large spruces about thirty feet high. this evening the indians made a large fire, as a signal to the hook's party that we had passed the _terrific_ rapid in safety. the position of our encampment was ascertained to be, latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., variation of the compass ° ' " e., dip of the needle ° ' ". some thunder showers retarded the drying of the meat, and our embarkation was delayed till next day. the hunters were sent forward to hunt at the copper mountains, under the superintendence of adam, the interpreter, who received strict injunctions not to permit them to make any large fires, lest they should alarm straggling parties of the esquimaux. the musquitoes were now very numerous and annoying, but we consoled ourselves with the hope that their season would be short. on the th we started at three a.m., and as the guide had represented the river below our encampment to be full of shoals, some of the men were directed to walk along the shore, but they were assailed so violently by the musquitoes, as to be compelled to embark very soon; and we afterwards passed over the shallow parts by the aid of the poles, without experiencing much interruption. the current ran very rapidly, having been augmented by the waters of the mouse river and several small streams. we rejoined our hunters at the foot of the copper mountains, and found they had killed three musk oxen. this circumstance determined us on encamping to dry the meat, as there was wood at the spot. we availed ourselves of this delay to visit the copper mountains in search of specimens of the ore, agreeably to my instructions{ }; and a party of twenty-one persons, consisting of the officers, some of the voyagers, and all the indians, set{ } off on that excursion. we travelled for nine hours over a considerable space of ground, but found only a few small pieces of native copper. the range we ascended was on the west side of the river, extending w.n.w. and e.s.e. the mountains varied in height from twelve to fifteen hundred feet. the uniformity of the mountains is interrupted by narrow valleys traversed by small streams. the best specimens of metal we procured were among the stones in these valleys, and it was in such situations, that our guides desired us to search most carefully. it would appear, that when the indians see any sparry substance projecting above the surface, they dig there; but they have no other rule to direct them, and have never found the metal in its original repository. our guides reported that they had found copper in large pieces in every part of this range, for two days' walk to the north-west, and that the esquimaux come hither to search for it. the annual visits which the copper indians were accustomed to make to these mountains, when most of their weapons and utensils were made of copper, have been discontinued since they have been enabled to obtain a supply of ice chisels and other instruments of iron by the establishment of trading posts near their hunting grounds. that none of those who accompanied us had visited them for many years was evident, from their ignorance of the spots most abundant in metal. the impracticability of navigating the river upwards from the sea, and the want of wood for forming an establishment, would prove insuperable objections to rendering the collection of copper at this part worthy of mercantile speculation. we had the opportunity of surveying the country from several elevated positions. two or three small lakes only were visible, still partly frozen; and much snow remained on the mountains. the trees were reduced to a scanty fringe on the borders of the river, and every side was beset by naked mountains. the day was unusually warm, and, therefore, favourable for drying the meat. our whole stock of provision, calculated for preservation, was sufficient for fourteen days, without any diminution of the ordinary allowance of three pounds to each man per day. the situation of our tents was ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w. _july{ } _.--the indians knowing the course of the river below this point to be only a succession of rapids, declined taking their canoes any further; but as i conceived one of them would be required, should we be compelled to walk along the coast, two of our men were appointed to conduct it. as we were now entering the confines of the esquimaux country, our guides recommended us to be cautious in lighting fires, lest we should discover ourselves, adding that the same reason would lead them to travel as much as possible in the valleys, and to avoid crossing the tops of the hills. we embarked at six a.m., taking with us only old keskarrah. the other indians walked along the banks of the river. throughout this day's voyage the current was very strong, running four or five miles an hour; but the navigation was tolerable, and we had to lighten the canoes only once, in a contracted part of the river where the waves were very high. the river is in many places confined between perpendicular walls of rock to one hundred and fifty yards in width, and there the rapids were most agitated. large masses of ice twelve or fourteen feet thick, were still adhering to many parts of the bank, indicating the tardy departure of winter from this inhospitable land, but the earth around them was rich with vegetation. in the evening two musk-oxen being seen on the beach, were pursued and killed by our men. whilst we were waiting to embark the meat, the indians rejoined us, and reported they had been attacked by a bear, which sprung upon them whilst they were conversing together. his attack was so sudden that they had not time to level their guns properly, and they all missed except akaitcho, who, less confused than the rest, took deliberate aim, and shot the animal dead. they do not eat the flesh of the bear, but knowing that we had no such prejudice, they brought us some of the choice pieces, which upon trial we found to be excellent meat. the indians having informed us that we were now within twelve miles of the rapid where the esquimaux have invariably been found, we pitched our tents on the beach, under the shelter of a high hill whose precipitous side is washed by the river, intending to send forward some persons to determine the situation of their present abode. some vestiges of an old esquimaux encampment were observed near the tents, and the stumps of the trees bore marks of the stone hatchets they use. a strict watch was appointed, consisting of an officer, four canadians, and an indian, and directions were given for the rest of the party to sleep with their arms by their side. that as little delay as possible might be experienced in opening a communication with the esquimaux, we immediately commenced arrangements for sending forward persons to discover whether there were any in our vicinity. akaitcho and the guides proposed that two of the hunters should be despatched on this service, who had extremely quick sight, and were accustomed to act as scouts, an office which requires equal caution and circumspection. a strong objection, however, lay against this plan, in the probability of their being discovered by a straggling hunter, which would be destructive to every hope of accommodation. it was therefore determined to send augustus and junius, who were very desirous to undertake the service. these adventurous men proposed to go armed only with pistols concealed in their dress, and furnished with beads, looking-glasses, and other articles, that they might conciliate their countrymen by presents. we could not divest our minds of the apprehension, that it might be a service of much hazard, if the esquimaux were as hostile to strangers as the copper indians have invariably represented them to be; and we felt great reluctance in exposing our two little interpreters, who had rendered themselves dear to the whole party, to the most distant chance of receiving injury; but this course of proceeding appeared in their opinion and our own to offer the only chance of gaining an interview. though not insensible to the danger, they cheerfully prepared for their mission, and clothed themselves in esquimaux dresses, which had been made for the purpose at fort enterprise. augustus was desired to make his presents, and to tell the esquimaux that the white men had come to make peace between them and all their enemies, and also to discover a passage by which every article of which they stood in need might be brought in large ships. he was not to mention that we were accompanied by the indians, but to endeavour to prevail on some of the esquimaux to return with him. he was directed to come back immediately if there were no lodges at the rapid. the indians were not suffered to move out of our sight, but in the evening we permitted two of them to cross the river in pursuit of a musk-ox, which they killed on the beach, and returned immediately. the officers, prompted by an anxious solicitude for augustus and junius, crawled up frequently to the summit of the mountain to watch their return. the view, however, was not extensive, being bounded at the distance of eight miles by a range of hills similar to the copper mountains, but not so lofty. the night came without bringing any intelligence of our messengers, and our fears for their safety increased with the length of their absence. as every one had been interested in the welfare of these men through their vivacity and good{ } nature, and the assistance they had cheerfully rendered in bearing their portion of whatever labour might be going on, their detention formed the subject of all our conversation, and numerous conjectures were hazarded as to the cause. dr. richardson, having the first watch, had gone to the summit of the hill and remained seated, contemplating the river that washed the precipice under his feet, long after dusk had hid distant objects from his view. his thoughts were, perhaps, far distant from the surrounding scenery, when he was roused by an indistinct noise behind him, and on looking round, perceived that nine white wolves had ranged themselves in form of a crescent, and were advancing, apparently with the intention of driving him into the river. on his rising up they halted, and when he advanced they made way for his passage down to the tents. he had his gun in his hand, but forbore to fire, lest there should be esquimaux in the neighbourhood. during mr. wentzel's middle watch, the wolves appeared repeatedly on the summit of the hill, and at one time they succeeded in driving a deer over the precipice. the animal was stunned by the fall, but recovering itself, swam across the stream, and escaped up the river. i may remark here, that at midnight it was tolerably dark in the valley of the river at this time, but that an object on the eminence above could be distinctly seen against the sky. the following observations were taken at this encampment, latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., variation ° ' " e. thermometer ° at three p.m. sultry weather. augustus and junius not having returned next morning, we were more alarmed respecting them, and determined on proceeding to find out the cause of their detention, but it was eleven a.m. before we could prevail upon the indians to remain behind, which we wished them to do lest the esquimaux might be suspicious of our intentions, if they were seen in our suite. we promised to send for them when we had paved the way for their reception; but akaitcho, ever ready to augur misfortune, expressed his belief that our messengers had been killed, and that the esquimaux, warned of our approach, were lying in wait for us, and "although," said he, "your party may be sufficiently strong to repulse any hostile attack, my band is too weak to offer effectual resistance when separated from you; and therefore, we are determined to go on with you, or to return to our lands." after much argument, however, he yielded and agreed to stay behind, provided mr. wentzel would remain with him. this gentleman was accordingly left with a canadian attendant, and they promised not to pass a range of hills then in view to the northward, unless we sent notice to them. the river during the whole of this day's voyage flowed between alternate cliffs of loose sand{ } intermixed with gravel, and red sand-stone rocks, and was every where shallow and rapid. as its course was very crooked, much time was spent in examining the different rapids previous to running them, but the canoes descended, except at a single place, without any difficulty. most of the officers and half the men marched along the land to lighten the canoes, and reconnoitre the country, each person being armed with a gun and a dagger. arriving at a range of mountains which had terminated our view yesterday, we ascended it with much eagerness, expecting to see the rapid that mr. hearne visited near its base, and to gain a view of the sea; but our disappointment was proportionably great, when we beheld beyond, a plain similar to that we had just left, terminated by another range of trap hills, between whose tops the summits of some distant blue mountains appeared. our reliance on the information of the guides, which had been for some time shaken was now quite at an end, and we feared that the sea was still far distant. the flat country here is covered with grass, and is devoid of the large stones, so frequent in the barren grounds, but the ranges of trap hills which seem to intersect it at regular distances are quite barren. a few decayed stunted pines were standing on the borders of the river. in the evening we had the gratification of meeting junius, who was hastening back to inform us that they had found four esquimaux tents at the fall which we recognised to be the one described by mr. hearne. the inmates were asleep at the time of their arrival, but rose soon afterwards, and then augustus presented himself, and had some conversation across the river. he told them the white people had come, who would make them very useful presents. the information of our arrival, seemed to alarm them very much, but as the noise of the rapid prevented them from hearing distinctly, one of them approached him in his canoe, and received the rest of the message. he would not, however, land on his side of the river, but returned to the tents without receiving the present. his language differed in some respects from augustus's, but they understood each other tolerably well. augustus trusting for a supply of provision to the esquimaux, had neglected to carry any with him, and this was the main cause of junius's return. we now encamped, having come fourteen miles. after a few hours' rest, junius set off again to rejoin his companion, being accompanied by hepburn, who was directed to remain about two miles above the fall, to arrest the canoes on their passage, lest we should too suddenly surprise the esquimaux. about ten p.m. we were mortified by the appearance of the indians with mr. wentzel, who had in vain endeavoured to restrain them from following us. the only reason assigned by akaitcho for this conduct was, that he wished for a reassurance of my promise to establish peace between his nation and the esquimaux. i took this occasion of again enforcing the necessity of their remaining behind, until we had obtained the confidence and good-will of their enemies. after supper dr. richardson ascended a lofty hill about three miles from the encampment, and obtained the first view of the sea; it appeared to be covered with ice. a large promontory, which i named cape hearne, bore n.e., and its lofty mountains proved to be the blue land we had seen in the forenoon, and which had led us to believe the sea was still far distant. he saw the sun set a few minutes before midnight from the same elevated situation. it did not rise during the half hour he remained there, but before he reached the encampment its rays gilded the tops of the hills. the night was warm, and we were much annoyed by the musquitoes. _july{ } _.--we this morning experienced as much difficulty as before in prevailing upon the indians to remain behind, and they did not consent until i had declared that they should lose the reward which had been promised, if they proceeded any farther, before we had prepared the esquimaux to receive them. we left a canadian with them, and proceeded, not without apprehension that they would follow us, and derange our whole plan by their obstinacy. two of the officers and a party of the men walked on the shore, to lighten the canoes. the river, in this part, flows between high and stony cliffs, reddish slate clay rocks, and shelving banks of white clay, and is full of shoals and dangerous rapids. one of these was termed escape rapid, both the canoes having narrowly escaped foundering in its high waves. we had entered the rapid before we were aware, and the steepness of the cliffs preventing us from landing, we were indebted to the swiftness of our descent for preservation. two waves made a complete breach over the canoes; a third would in all probability have filled and overset them, which must have proved fatal to every one in them. the powder fortunately escaped the water, which was soon discharged when we reached the bottom of the rapid. at noon we perceived hepburn lying on the left bank of the river, and landed immediately to receive his information. as he represented the water to be shoal the whole way to the rapid (below which the esquimaux were,) the shore party were directed to continue their march to a sandy bay at the head of the fall, and there await the arrival of the canoes. the land in the neighbourhood of the rapid, is of the most singular form: large irregular sand-hills bounding both banks, apparently so unconnected that they resemble icebergs; the country around them consisting of high round green hills. the river becomes wide in this part, and full of shoals, but we had no difficulty in finding a channel through them. on regaining the shore party, we regretted to find that some of the men had incautiously appeared on the tops of the hills, just at the time augustus was conversing with one of the esquimaux, who had again approached in his canoe, and was almost persuaded to land. the unfortunate appearance of so many people at this instant, revived his fears, and he crossed over to the eastern bank of the river, and fled, with the whole of his party. we learned from augustus that this party, consisting of four men and as many women, had manifested a friendly disposition. two of the former were very tall. the man who first came to speak to him, inquired the number of canoes that we had with us, expressed himself to be not displeased at our arrival, and desired him to caution us not to attempt running the rapid, but to make the portage on the west side of the river. notwithstanding this appearance of confidence and satisfaction, it seems they did not consider their situation free from danger, as they retreated the first night, to an island somewhat farther down the river, and in the morning they returned and threw down their lodges, as if to give notice to any of their nation that might arrive, that there was an enemy in the neighbourhood. from seeing all their property strewed about, and ten of their dogs left, we entertained the hope that these poor people would return after their first alarm had subsided; and therefore i determined on remaining until the next day, in the expectation of seeing them, as i considered the opening of an early communication a matter of the greatest importance in our state of absolute ignorance respecting the sea-coast. the canoes and cargoes were carried across the portage, and we encamped on the north side of it. we sent augustus and junius across the river to look for the runaways, but their search was fruitless. they put a few pieces of iron and trinkets in their canoes, which were lying on the beach. we also sent some men to put up the stages of fish, and secure them as much as possible from the attacks of the dogs. under the covering of their tents were observed some stone kettles and hatchets, a few fish spears made of copper, two small bits of iron, a quantity of skins, and some dried salmon, which was covered with maggots, and half putrid. the entrails of the fish were spread out to dry. a great many skins of small birds were hung up to a stage, and even two mice were preserved in the same way. thus it would appear that the necessities of these poor people induce them to preserve every article than can be possibly used as food. several human skulls which bore the marks of violence, and many bones were strewed about the ground near the encampment, and as the spot exactly answers the description given by mr. hearne, of the place where the chipewyans who accompanied him perpetrated the dreadful massacre on the esquimaux, we had no doubt of this being the place, notwithstanding the difference in its position as to latitude and longitude given by him, and ascertained by our observation. we have, therefore, preserved the appellation of bloody fall, which he bestowed upon it. its situation by our observations is, in latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., variation ° ' " e. this rapid is a sort of shelving cascade, about three hundred yards in length, having a descent of from ten to fifteen feet. it is bounded on each side by high walls of red sand-stone upon which rests a series of lofty green hills. on its north side, close to the east bank, is the low rocky island which the esquimaux had deserted. the surrounding scenery was accurately delineated in a sketch taken by mr. hood. we caught forty excellent salmon and white fish in a single net below the rapid. we had not seen any trees during this day's journey; our fuel consisted of small willows and pieces of dried wood that were picked up near the encampment. the ground is well clothed with grass, and nourishes most of the shrubs and berry-bearing plants that we have seen north of fort enterprise; and the country altogether has a richer appearance than the barren lands of the copper indians. we had a distinct view of the sea from the summit of a hill behind the tents; it appeared choked with ice and full of islands. on the morning of the th three men were sent up the river to search for dried wood to make floats for the nets. adam, the interpreter, was also despatched with a canadian, to inform akaitcho of the flight of the esquimaux. we were preparing to go down to the sea in one of the canoes, leaving mr. back to await the return of the men who were absent; but just as the crew were putting the canoe in the water, adam returned in the utmost consternation, and informed us that a party of esquimaux were pursuing the men whom we had sent to collect floats. the orders for embarking were instantly countermanded, and we went with a part of our men to their rescue. we soon met our people returning at a slow pace, and learned that they had come unawares upon the esquimaux party, which consisted of six men, with their women and children, who were travelling towards the rapid with a considerable number of dogs carrying their baggage. the women hid themselves on the first alarm, but the men advanced, and stopping at some distance from our men, began to dance in a circle, tossing up their hands in the air, and accompanying their motions with much shouting, to signify, i conceive, their desire of peace. our men saluted them by pulling off their hats, and making bows, but neither party was willing to approach the other; and, at length, the esquimaux retired to the hill, from whence they had descended when first seen. we proceeded in the hope of gaining an interview with them, but lest our appearance in a body should alarm them, we advanced in a long line, at the head of which was augustus. we were led to their baggage, which they had deserted, by the howling of the dogs; and on the summit of the hill we found, lying behind a stone, an old man who was too infirm to effect his escape with the rest. he was much terrified when augustus advanced, and probably expected immediate death; but that the fatal blow might not be unrevenged, he seized his spear, and made a thrust with it at his supposed enemy. augustus, however, easily repressed the feeble effort, and soon calmed his fears by presenting him with some pieces of iron, and assuring him of his friendly intentions. dr. richardson and i then joined them, and, after receiving our presents, the old man was quite composed, and became communicative. his dialect differed from that used by augustus, but they understood each other tolerably well. it appeared that his party consisted of eight men and their families, who were returning from a hunting excursion with dried meat. after being told who we were, he said, that he had heard of white people from different parties of his nation which resided on the sea-coast to the eastward; and to our inquiries respecting the provision and fuel we might expect to get on our voyage, he informed us that the rein-deer frequent the coast during summer, the fish are plentiful at the mouths of the rivers, the seals are abundant, but there are no sea-horses nor whales, although he remembered one of the latter, which had been killed by some distant tribe, having been driven on shore on his part of the coast by a gale of wind. that musk oxen were to be found a little distance up the rivers, and that we should get drift wood along the shore. he had no knowledge of the coast to the eastward beyond the next river, which he called nappa-arktok-towock, or tree river. the old man, contrary to the indian practice, asked each of our names; and, in reply to a similar question on our part, said his name was terregannoeuck, or the white fox; and that his tribe denominated themselves nagge-ook-tormoeoot, or deer-horn esquimaux. they usually frequent the bloody fall during this and the following moons, for the purpose of salting salmon, and then retire to a river which flows into the sea, a short way to the westward, (since denominated richardson's river,) and pass the winter in snow-houses. after this conversation terregannoeuck proposed going down to his baggage, and we then perceived, he was too infirm to walk without the assistance of sticks. augustus, therefore, offered him his arm, which he readily accepted, and, on reaching his store, he distributed pieces of dried meat to each person, which, though highly tainted, were immediately eaten; this being an universal token among the indians of peaceable intention. we then informed him of our desire to procure as much meat as we possibly could, and he told us that he had a large quantity concealed in the neighbourhood, which he would cause to be carried to us when his people returned. i now communicated to him that we were accompanied by some copper indians, who were very desirous to make peace with his nation, and that they had requested me to prevail upon the esquimaux to receive them in a friendly manner; to which he replied, he should rejoice to see an end put to the hostility that existed between the nations, and therefore would most gladly welcome our companions. having despatched adam to inform akaitcho of this circumstance, we left terregannoeuck, in the hope that his party would rejoin him; but as we had doubts whether the young men would venture upon coming to our tents, on the old man's bare representation, we sent augustus and junius back in the evening, to remain with him until they came, that they might fully detail our intentions. the countenance of terregannoeuck was oval, with a sufficiently prominent nose, and had nothing very different from a european face, except in the smallness of his{ } eyes, and, perhaps, in the narrowness of his forehead. his complexion was very fresh and red, and he had a longer beard than i had seen on any of the aboriginal inhabitants of america. it was between two and three inches long, and perfectly white. his face was not tattooed. his dress consisted of a shirt, or jacket with a hood, wide breeches, reaching only to the knee, and tight leggins sewed to the shoes, all of deer skins. the soles of the shoes were made of seal-skin, and stuffed with feathers instead of socks. he was bent with age, but appeared to be about five feet ten inches high. his hands and feet were small in proportion to his height. whenever terregannoeuck received a present, he placed each article first on his right shoulder, then on his left; and when he wished to express still higher satisfaction, he rubbed it over his head. he held hatchets, and other iron instruments, in the highest esteem. on seeing his countenance in a glass for the first time, he exclaimed, "i shall never kill deer more," and immediately put the mirror down. the tribe to which he belongs repair to the sea in spring, and kill seals; as the season advances they hunt deer and musk oxen at some distance from the coast. their weapon is the bow and arrow, and they get sufficiently nigh the deer, either by crawling, or by leading these animals by ranges of turf towards a spot where the archer can conceal himself. their bows are formed of three pieces of fir, the centre piece alone bent, the other two lying in the same straight line with the bowstring; the pieces are neatly tied together with sinew. their canoes are similar to those we saw in hudson's straits, but smaller. they get fish constantly in the rivers, and in the sea as soon as the ice breaks up. this tribe do not make use of nets, but are tolerably successful with the hook and line. their cooking utensils are made of pot-stone, and they form very neat dishes of fir, the sides being made of thin deal, bent into an oval form, secured at the ends by sewing, and fitted so nicely to the bottom as to be perfectly water-tight. they have also large spoons made of the horns of the musk oxen. akaitcho and the indians arrived at our tents in the evening, and we learned that they had seen the esquimaux the day before, and endeavoured, without success, to open a communication with them. they exhibited no hostile intention, but were afraid to advance. akaitcho, keeping out of their sight, followed at a distance, expecting that ultimately finding themselves enclosed between our party and his, they would be compelled to come to a parley with one of us. akaitcho had seen terregannoeuck soon after our departure; he was much terrified, and thrust his spear at him as he had done at augustus; but was soon reconciled after the demonstrations of kindness the indians made, in cutting off the buttons from their dress to present to him. _july _.--we waited all this forenoon in momentary expectation of the return of augustus and junius, but as they did not appear at two p.m., i sent mr. hood with a party of men, to inquire into the cause of their detention, and to bring the meat which terregannoeuck had promised us. he returned at midnight with the information, that none of the esquimaux had yet ventured to come near terregannoeuck except his aged wife, who had concealed herself amongst the rocks at our first interview; and she told him the rest of the party had gone to a river, a short distance to the westward, where there was another party of esquimaux fishing. augustus and junius had erected the tent, and done every thing in their power to make the old man comfortable in their absence. terregannoeuck being unable to walk to the place where the meat was concealed, readily pointed the spot out to mr. hood, who went thither; but after experiencing much difficulty in getting at the column of rock on which it was deposited, he found it too putrid for our use. the features of terregannoeuck's wife were remarkable for roundness and flatness; her face was much tattooed{ }, and her{ } dress differed little from the old man's. in the afternoon a party of nine esquimaux appeared on the east bank of the river, about a mile below our encampment, carrying their canoes and baggage on their backs; but they turned and fled as soon as they perceived our tents. the appearance of so many different bands of esquimaux terrified the indians so much, that they determined on leaving us the next day, lest they should be surrounded and their retreat cut off. i endeavoured, by the offer of any remuneration they would choose, to prevail upon one or two of the hunters to proceed, but in vain; and i had much difficulty even in obtaining their promise to wait at the copper mountains for mr. wentzel and the four men, whom i intended to discharge at the sea. the fears which our interpreters, st. germain and adam, entertained respecting the voyage, were now greatly increased, and both of them came this evening to request their discharge, urging that their services could be no longer requisite, as the indians were going from us. st. germain even said that he had understood he was only engaged to accompany us as long as the indians did, and persisted in this falsehood until his agreement to go with us throughout the voyage had been twice read to him. as these were the only two of the party on whose skill in hunting we could rely, i was unable to listen for a moment to their desire of quitting us, and lest they should leave us by stealth, their motions were strictly watched. this was not an unnecessary precaution, as i was informed that they had actually laid a plan for eloping; but the rest of the men knowing that their own safety would have been compromised had they succeeded, kept a watchful eye over them. we knew that the dread of the esquimaux would prevent these men from leaving us as soon as the indians were at a distance, and we trusted to their becoming reconciled to the journey when once the novelty of a sea voyage had worn off. _july _.--as the indians persevered in their determination of setting out this morning, i reminded them, through mr. wentzel and st. germain, of the necessity of our having the deposit of provision made at fort enterprise, and received a renewed assurance of their attending to that point. they were also desired to put as much meat as they could _en cache_ on the banks of the copper-mine river on their return. we then furnished them with what ammunition we could spare, and they took their departure, promising to wait three days for mr. wentzel at the copper mountains. we afterwards learned that their fears did not permit them to do so, and that mr. wentzel did not rejoin them until they were a day's march to the southward of the mountains. we embarked at five a.m. and proceeded towards the sea, which is about nine miles beyond the bloody fall. after passing a few rapids, the river became wider, and more navigable for canoes, flowing between banks of alluvial sand. we encamped at ten on the western bank at its junction with the sea. the river is here about a mile wide, but very shallow, being barred nearly across by sand banks, which run out from the main land on each side to a low alluvial island that lies in the centre, and forms two channels; of these the westernmost only is navigable even for canoes, the other being obstructed by a stony bar. the islands to seaward are high and numerous, and fill the horizon in many points of the compass; the only open space, seen from an eminence near the encampment, being from n.be. to n.e.bn. towards the east the land was like a chain of islands, the ice apparently surrounding them in a compact body, leaving a channel between its edge and the main of about three miles. the water in this channel was of a clear green colour, and decidedly salt. mr. hearne could have tasted it only at the mouth of the river, when he pronounced it merely brackish. a rise and fall of four inches in the water was observed. the shore is strewed with a considerable quantity of drift timber, principally of the _populus balsamifera_, but none of it of great size. we also picked up some decayed wood far out of the reach of the water. a few stunted willows were growing near the encampment. some ducks, gulls, and partridges were seen this day. as i had to make up despatches for england to be sent by mr. wentzel, the nets were set in the interim, and we were rejoiced to find that they produced sufficient fish for the party. those caught were, the copper-mine river salmon, white fish, and two species of pleuronectes. we felt a considerable change of temperature on reaching the sea-coast, produced by the winds changing from the southward to the n.w. our canadian voyagers complained much of the cold, but they were amused with their first view of the sea, and particularly with the sight of the seals that were swimming about near the entrance of the river, but these sensations gave place to despondency before the evening had elapsed. they were terrified at the idea of a voyage through an icy sea in bark canoes. they speculated on the length of the journey, the roughness of the waves, the uncertainty of provisions, the exposure to cold where we could expect no fuel, and the prospect of having to traverse the barren grounds to get to some establishment. the two interpreters expressed their apprehensions with the least disguise, and again urgently applied to be discharged; but only one of the canadians made a similar request. judging that the constant occupation of their time as soon as we were enabled to commence the voyage would prevent them from conjuring up so many causes of fear, and that familiarity with the scenes on the coast, would in a short time enable them to give scope to their natural cheerfulness, the officers endeavoured to ridicule their fears, and happily succeeded for the present. the manner in which our faithful hepburn viewed the element to which he had been so long accustomed, contributed not a little to make them ashamed of their fears. on the morning of the th, dr. richardson, accompanied by augustus, paid another visit to terregannoeuck, to see if he could obtain any additional information respecting the country to the eastward; but he was disappointed at finding that his affrighted family had not yet rejoined him, and the old man could add nothing to his former communication. the doctor remarked that terregannoeuck had a great dislike to mentioning the name of the copper-mine river, and evaded the question with much dexterity as often as it was put to him; but that he willingly told the name of a river to the eastward, and also of his tribe. he attempted to persuade augustus to remain with him, and offered him one of his daughters for a wife. these esquimaux strike fire with two stones, catching the sparks in the down of the catkins of a willow. the despatches being finished were delivered this evening to mr. wentzel, who parted from us at eight p.m. with parent, gagnier, dumas, and forcier, canadians, whom i had discharged for the purpose of reducing our expenditure of provision as much as possible. the remainder of the party, including officers, amounted to twenty persons. i made mr. wentzel acquainted with the probable course of our future proceedings, and mentioned to him that if we were far distant from this river, when the season or other circumstances rendered it necessary to put a stop to our advance, we should, in all probability be unable to return to it, and should have to travel across the barren grounds towards some established post: in which case i told him that we should certainly go first to fort enterprise, expecting that he would cause the indians to place a supply of dried provision there, as soon as possible after their arrival in its vicinity. my instructions to him were, that he should proceed to point lake, transport the canoe that was left there to fort enterprise, where he was to embark the instruments and books, and carry them to slave lake, and to forward the box containing the journals, &c., with the present despatches, by the next winter packet to england. but before he quitted fort enterprise, he was to be assured of the intention of the indians to lay up the provision we required, and if they should be in want of ammunition for that purpose to procure it if possible from fort providence, or the other forts in slave lake, and send it immediately to them by the hunters who accompanied him thither. i also requested him to ascertain from akaitcho and the other leading indians, where their different parties would be hunting in the months of september and october, and to leave this information in a letter at fort enterprise, for our guidance in finding them, as we should require their assistance. mr. wentzel was furnished with a list of the stores that had been promised to akaitcho and his party as a remuneration for their services, as well as with an official request to the north-west company that these goods might be paid to them on their next visit to fort providence, which they expected to make in the latter part of november. i desired him to mention this circumstance to the indians as an encouragement to exertion in our behalf, and to promise them an additional reward for the supply of provision they should collect at fort enterprise. if mr. wentzel met the hook, or any of his party, he was instructed to assure them that he was provided with the necessary documents to get them payment for any meat they should put _en cache_ for our use; and to acquaint them, that we fully relied on their fulfilling every part of the agreement they had made with us. whenever the indians, whom he was to join at the copper-mountains, killed any animals on their way to fort enterprise, he was requested to put _en cache_ whatever meat could be spared, placing conspicuous marks to guide us to them; and i particularly begged he would employ them in hunting in our service, immediately after his arrival at the house.{ } when mr. wentzel's party had been supplied with ammunition, our remaining stock consisted of one thousand balls, and rather more than the requisite proportion of powder. a bag of small shot was missing, and we afterwards discovered that the canadians had secreted and distributed it among themselves, in order that when provision should become scarce, they might privately procure ducks and geese, and avoid the necessity of sharing them with the officers. the situation of our encampment was ascertained to be, latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., the variation of the compass ° ' " e., and dip of the needle ° ' ". it will be perceived, that the position of the mouth of the river, given by our observations, differs widely from that assigned by mr. hearne; but the accuracy of his description, conjoined with indian information, assured us that we were at the very part he visited. i therefore named the most conspicuous cape we then saw "cape hearne," as a just tribute to the memory of that persevering traveller. i distinguished another cape by the name of mackenzie, in honour of sir alexander mackenzie, the only other european[ ] who had before reached the northern ocean. i called the river which falls into the sea, to the westward of the copper-mine, richardson, as a testimony of sincere regard for my friend and companion dr. richardson; and named the islands which were in view from our encampment, "couper's isles," in honour of a friend of his. the sun set this night at thirty minutes after eleven, apparent time. [ ] captain parry's success was at this time unknown to us. the travelling distance from fort enterprise to the north of the copper-mine river, is about three hundred and thirty-four miles. the canoes and baggage were dragged over snow and ice for one hundred and seventeen miles of this distance. chapter xi. navigation of the polar sea, in two canoes, as far as cape turnagain, to the eastward, a distance exceeding five hundred and fifty miles--observations on the probability of a north-west passage. . july . we intended to have embarked early this morning, and to have launched upon an element more congenial with our habits than the fresh-water navigations, with their numerous difficulties and impediments which we had hitherto encountered, but which was altogether new to our canadian voyagers. we were detained, however, by a strong north-east gale, which continued the whole day, with constant thunder showers; the more provoking as our nets procured but few fish, and we had to draw upon our store of dried meat; which, with other provision for the journey, amounted only to fifteen days' consumption. indeed, we should have preferred going dinnerless to bed rather than encroach on our small stock, had we not been desirous of satisfying the appetites, and cheering the spirits of our canadian companions at the commencement of our voyage. these thoughtless people would, at any time incur the hazard of absolute starvation, at a future period, for the present gratification of their appetites; to indulge which they do not hesitate, as we more than once experienced, at helping themselves secretly; it being,{ } in their opinion, no disgrace to be detected in pilfering food. our only luxury now was a little salt, which had long been our substitute both for bread and vegetables. since our departure from point lake we had boiled the indian tea plant, _ledum palustre_, which produced a beverage in smell much resembling rhubarb; notwithstanding which we found it refreshing, and were gratified to see this plant flourishing abundantly on the sea-shore, though of dwarfish growth. _july _.--the wind, which had blown strong through the night became moderate in the morning, but a dense fog prevented us from embarking until noon, when we commenced our voyage on the hyperborean sea. soon afterwards we landed on an island where the esquimaux had erected a stage of drift timber, and stored up many of their fishing implements and winter sledges, together with a great many dressed seal, musk-ox, and deer skins. their spears headed with bone, and many small articles of the same material, were worked with extreme neatness, as well as their wooden dishes, and cooking utensils of stone; and several articles, very elegantly formed of bone, were evidently intended for some game, but augustus was unacquainted with their use. we took from this deposit four seal-skins to repair our shoes, and left in exchange a copper-kettle, some awls and beads. we paddled all day along the coast to the eastward, on the inside of a crowded range of islands, and saw very little ice; the "blink" of it, however, was visible to the northward, and one small iceberg was seen at a distance. a tide was distinguishable among the islands by the foam floating on the water, but we could not ascertain its direction. in the afternoon st. germain killed on an island a fat deer, which was a great acquisition to us; it was the first we had seen for some months in good condition. having encamped on the main shore, after a run of thirty-seven miles, we set up a pole to ascertain the rise and fall of the water, which was repeated at every halting-place, and hepburn was ordered to attend to the result. we found the coast well covered with vegetation, of moderate height, even in its outline, and easy of approach. the islands are rocky and barren, presenting high cliffs of a columnar structure. i have named the westernmost group of those we passed "berens' isles," in honour of the governor of the hudson's bay company; and the easternmost{ }, "sir graham moore's islands." at the spot where we landed some muscle-shells and a single piece of sea-weed lay on the beach; this was the only spot on the coast where we saw shells. we were rejoiced to find the beach strewed with abundance of small drift wood, none of it recent. it may be remarked that the copper-mine river does not bring down any drift-wood; nor does any other known stream except mackenzie's river; hence, from its appearance on this part of the coast an easterly current may be inferred. this evening we were all in high glee at the progress we had made; the disappearance of the ice, and the continuance of the land in an eastern direction, and our future prospects, formed an enlivening subject of conversation. the thermometer varied during the day between ° and °. the fishing nets were set, but produced nothing. on the nd we embarked at four a.m., and having the benefit of a light breeze continued our voyage along the coast under sail, until eleven, when we halted to breakfast, and to obtain the latitude. the coast up to this point presented the same general appearance as yesterday, namely, a gravelly or sandy beach, skirted by green plains; but as we proceeded, the shore became exceedingly rocky and sterile; and, at last, projecting considerably to the northward, it formed a high and steep promontory. some ice had drifted down upon this cape, which, we feared, might check our progress; but, as the evening was fine, we ventured upon pushing the canoes through the small channels formed among it. after pursuing this kind of navigation, with some danger and more anxiety, we landed and encamped on a smooth rocky point; whence we perceived, with much satisfaction, that the ice consisted only of detached pieces, which would be removed by the first breeze. we sounded in seventeen fathoms, close to the shore, this day. the least depth ascertained by the lead, since our departure from the river, was six fathoms; and any ship might pass safely between the islands and the main. the water is of a light green colour, but not very clear; and much less salt than that of the atlantic, judging from our recollection of its taste. in the course of the day we saw geese and ducks with their young, and two deer; and experienced very great variations of temperature, from the light breezes blowing alternately from the ice and the land. the name of "lawford's islands" was bestowed on a group we passed in the course of the day, as a mark of my respect for vice-admiral lawford, under whose auspices i first entered the naval service. a fresh breeze blowing through the night had driven the ice from the land, and opened a channel of a mile in width; we, therefore, embarked at nine a.m. to pursue our journey along the coast, but at the distance of nine miles were obliged to seek shelter in port epworth, the wind having become adverse, and too strong to admit of our proceeding. the tree river of the esquimaux, which discharges its waters into this bay, appears to be narrow, and much interrupted by rapids. the fishing-nets were set, but obtained only one white fish and a few bull-heads. this part of the coast is the most sterile and inhospitable that can be imagined. one trap-cliff succeeds another with tiresome uniformity, and their _debris_ cover the narrow valleys that intervene, to the exclusion of every kind of herbage. from the summit of these cliffs the ice appeared in every direction. we obtained the following observations during our stay; latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., variation ° ' " e. the wind abating, at eight p.m. we re-embarked, and soon afterwards discovered, on an island, a rein-deer, which the interpreters fortunately killed. resuming our voyage we were much impeded by the ice, and, at length, being unable to force a passage through a close stream that had collected round a cape, we put ashore at four a.m. on the th, several stone fox-traps and other traces of the esquimaux were seen near the encampment. the horizontal refraction varied so much this morning, that the upper limb of the sun twice appeared at the horizon before it finally rose. for the last two days the water rose and fell about nine inches. the tides, however, seemed to be very irregular, and we could not determine the direction of the ebb or flood. a current setting to the eastward was running about two miles an hour during our stay. the ice having removed a short distance from the shore, by eleven a.m. we embarked, and with some difficulty effected a passage; then making a traverse across gray's bay[ ], we paddled up under the eastern shore against a strong wind. the interpreters landed here, and went in pursuit of a deer, but had no success. this part of the coast is indented by deep bays, which are separated by peninsulas formed like wedges, sloping many miles into the sea, and joined by low land to the main: so that often mistaking them for islands, we were led by a circuitous route round the bays. cliffs were numerous on the islands, which were all of the trap formation. [ ] named after mr. gray, principal of the belfast academy.{ } an island which lies across the mouth of this bay bears the name of our english sailor hepburn. at seven, a thunder-storm coming on, we encamped at the mouth of a river about eighty yards wide and set four nets. this stream, which received the name of wentzel, after our late companion, discharges a considerable body of water. its banks are sandy and clothed with herbage. the esquimaux had recently piled up some drift timber here. a few ducks, ravens, and snow birds were seen to-day. the distance made was thirty-one miles. _july _.--we had constant rain with thunder during the night. the nets furnished only three salmon-trout. we attributed the want of greater success to the entrance of some seals into the mouth of the river. embarking at six a.m. we paddled against a cold breeze, until the spreading of a thick fog caused us to land. the rocks here consisted of a beautiful mixture of red and gray granite, traversed from north to south by veins of red felspar, which were crossed in various directions by smaller veins filled with the same substance. at noon the wind coming from a favourable quarter tempted us to proceed, although the fog was unabated. we kept as close as we could to the main shore, but having to cross some bays, it became a matter of doubt whether we had not left the main, and were running along an island. just as we were endeavouring to double a bold cape, the fog partially cleared away, and allowed us an imperfect view of a chain of islands on the outside, and of much heavy ice which was pressing down upon us. the coast near us was so steep and rugged that no landing of the cargoes could be effected, and we were preserved only by some men jumping on the rocks, and thrusting the ice off with poles. there was no alternative but to continue along this dreary shore, seeking a channel between the different masses of ice which had accumulated at the various points. in this operation both the canoes were in imminent danger of being crushed by the ice, which was now tossed about by the waves that the gale had excited. we effected a passage, however, and keeping close to the shore, landed at the entrance of detention harbour, at nine p.m., having come twenty-eight miles. an old esquimaux encampment was traced on this spot; and an ice chisel, a copper knife, and a small iron knife were found under the turf. i named this cape after mr. barrow of the admiralty, to whose exertions are mainly owing the discoveries recently made in arctic geography. an opening on its eastern side received the appellation of inman harbour, after my friend the professor at the royal naval college, portsmouth; and to a group of islands to seaward of it, we gave the name of jameson, in honour of the distinguished professor of mineralogy at edinburgh. we had much wind and rain during the night; and by the morning of the th a great deal of ice had drifted into the inlet. we embarked at four and attempted to force a passage, when the first canoe got enclosed, and remained for some time in a very perilous situation: the pieces of ice, crowded together by the action of the current and wind, pressing strongly against its feeble sides. a partial opening, however, occurring, we landed without having sustained any serious injury. two men were then sent round the bay, and it was ascertained that instead of having entered a narrow passage between an island and the main, we were at the mouth of a harbour, having an island at its entrance; and that it was necessary to return by the way we came, and get round a point to the northward. this was, however, impracticable, the channel being blocked up by drift ice; and we had no prospect of release except by a change of wind. this detention was extremely vexatious, as we were losing a fair wind, and expending our provision. in the afternoon the weather cleared up, and several men went hunting, but were unsuccessful. during the day the ice floated backwards and forwards in the harbour, moved by currents, not regular enough to deserve the name of tide, and which appeared to be governed by the wind. we perceived great diminution by melting in the pieces near us. that none of this ice survived the summer is evident, from the rapidity of its decay; and because no ice of last year's formation was hanging on the rocks. whether any body of it exists at a distance from the shore, we could not determine. the land around cape barrow, and to detention harbour, consists of steep craggy mountains of granite, rising so abruptly from the water's edge, as to admit few landing-places even for a canoe. the higher parts attain an elevation of fourteen or fifteen hundred feet; and the whole is entirely destitute of vegetation. on the morning of the th, the ice remaining stationary at the entrance, we went to the bottom of the harbour, and carried the canoes and cargoes about a mile and a half across the point of land that forms the east side of it; but the ice was not more favourable there for our advancement than at the place we had left. it consisted of small pieces closely packed together by the wind, extending along the shore, but leaving a clear passage beyond the chain of islands with which the whole of this coast is girt. indeed, when we left the harbour we had little hope of finding a passage; and the principal object in moving was, to employ the men, in order to prevent their reflecting upon and discussing the dangers of our situation, which we knew they were too apt to do when leisure permitted. our observations place the entrance of detention harbour in latitude ° ' ", longitude ° ' " w., variation ° ' " e. it is a secure anchorage, being sheltered from the wind in every direction; the bottom is sandy. _july _.--as the ice continued in the same state, several of the men were sent out to hunt; and one of them fired no less than four times at deer, but unfortunately without success. it was satisfactory, however, to ascertain that the country was not destitute of animals. we had the mortification to discover that two of the bags of pemmican, which was our principal reliance, had become mouldy by wet. our beef too had been so badly cured, as to be scarcely eatable, through our having been compelled, from haste, to dry it by fire instead of the sun. it was not, however, the quality of our provision that gave us uneasiness, but its diminution, and the utter incapacity to obtain any addition. seals were the only animals that met our view at this place, and these we could never approach. dr. richardson discovered near the beach a small vein of galena, traversing gneiss rocks, and the people collected a quantity of it in the hope of adding to our stock of balls; but their endeavours to smelt it, were, as may be supposed, ineffectual. the drift timber on this part of the coast consists of pine and taccamahac, (_populus balsamifera_), most probably from mackenzie's, or some other river to the westward of the copper mine. it all appears to have lain long in the water, the bark being completely worn off, and the ends of the pieces rubbed perfectly smooth. there had been a sharp frost in the night, which formed a pretty thick crust of ice in a kettle of water that stood in the tents; and for several nights thin films of ice had appeared on the salt water amongst the cakes of stream ice[ ]. notwithstanding this state of temperature, we were tormented by swarms of musquitoes; we had persuaded ourselves that these pests could not sustain the cold in the vicinity of the sea, but it appears they haunt every part of this country in defiance of climate. mr. back made an excursion to a hill at seven or eight miles' distance, and from its summit he perceived the ice close to the shore as far as his view extended. [ ] this is termed _bay-ice_ by the greenland-men. on the morning of the th the party attended divine service. about noon the ice appearing less compact, we embarked to change our situation, having consumed all the fuel within our reach. the wind came off the land just as the canoes had started, and we determined on attempting to force a passage along the shore; in which we happily succeeded, after seven hours' labour and much hazard to our frail vessels. the ice lay so close that the crews disembarked on it, and effected a passage by bearing against the pieces with their poles; but in conducting the canoes through the narrow channels thus formed, the greatest care was requisite, to prevent the sharp projecting points from breaking the bark. they fortunately received no material injury, though they were split in two places. at the distance of three miles, we came to the entrance of a deep bay, whose bottom was filled by a body of ice so compact as to preclude the idea of a passage through it; whilst at the same time, the traverse across its mouth was attended with much danger, from the approach of a large field of ice, which was driving down before the wind. the dread of further detention, however, prevented us from hesitating; and we had the satisfaction of landing in an hour and a half on the opposite shore, where we halted to repair the canoes and to dine. i have named this bay after my friend mr. daniel moore of lincoln's inn; to whose zeal for science, the expedition was indebted for the use of a most valuable chronometer. its shores are picturesque; sloping hills receding from the beach, and clothed with verdure, bound its bottom and western side; and lofty cliffs of slate clay, with their intervening grassy valleys, skirt its eastern border. embarking at midnight, we pursued our voyage without interruption, passing between the stockport and marcet islands and the main, until six a.m. on july th; when, having rounded point kater, we entered arctic sound, and were again involved in a stream of ice, but after considerable delay extricated ourselves, and proceeded towards the bottom of the inlet in search of the mouth of a river, which we supposed it to receive, from the change in the colour of the water. about ten a.m. we landed, to breakfast on a small deer which st. germain had killed; and sent men in pursuit of some others in sight, but with which they did not come up. re-embarking, we passed the river without perceiving it, and entered a deep arm of the sound; which i have named baillie's cove, in honour of a relative of the lamented mr. hood. as it was too late to return, we encamped, and by walking across the country discovered the river, whose mouth being barred by low sandy islands and banks, was not perceived when we passed it. course and distance from galena point to this encampment were s.e. / s.--forty-one miles. from the accounts of black-meat{ } and boileau at fort chipewyan, we considered this river to be the anatessy; and cape barrow to be the projection which they supposed to be the n.e. termination of america. the outline of the coast, indeed, bears some resemblance to the chart they sketched; and the distance of this river from the copper mine, nearly coincides with what we estimated the anatessy to be, from their statements. in our subsequent journey, however, across the barren grounds we ascertained that this conjecture was wrong, and that the anatessy, which is known to come from rum lake, must fall into the sea to the eastward of this place. our stock of provision being now reduced to eight days' consumption, it had become a matter of the first importance to obtain a supply; and as we had learned from terregannoeuck that the esquimaux frequent the rivers at this season, i determined on seeking a communication with them here, in the hope of obtaining relief for our present wants, or even shelter for the winter if the season should prevent us from returning either to the hook's party, or fort enterprise; and i was the more induced to take this step at this time, as several deer had been seen to-day, and the river appeared good for fishing: which led me to hope we might support the party during our stay, if not add to our stock by our own exertions in hunting and fishing. augustus, junius, and hepburn, were therefore furnished with the necessary presents, and desired to go along the bank of the river as far as they could, on the following day, in search of the natives, to obtain provision and leather, as well as information respecting the coast. they started at four a.m., and at the same time our hunters were sent off in search of deer: and the rest of the party proceeded in the canoes to the first cascade in the river, at the foot of which we encamped, and set four nets. this cascade, produced by a ridge of rocks crossing the stream, is about three or four feet in height, and about two hundred and fifty yards wide. its position by our observations in latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., variation ° ' ", dip ° ' ". i have named this river hood, as a small tribute to the memory of our lamented friend and companion. it is from three to four hundred yards wide below the cascade, but in many places very shallow. the banks, bottom, and adjacent hills, are formed of a mixture of sand and clay. the ground was overspread with small willows and the dwarf birch, both too diminutive for fuel; and the stream brought down no drift wood. we were mortified to find the nets only procured one salmon and five white fish, and that we had to make another inroad upon our dried meat. _august _.--at two this morning the hunters returned with two small deer and a brown bear. augustus and junius arrived at the same time, having traced the river twelve miles further up, without discovering any vestige of inhabitants. we had now an opportunity of gratifying our curiosity respecting the bear so much dreaded by the indians, and of whose strength and ferocity we had heard such terrible accounts. it proved to be a lean male of a yellowish brown colour, and not longer than a common black bear. it made a feeble attempt to defend itself, and was easily despatched. the flesh was brought to the tent, but our fastidious voyagers supposing, from its leanness, that the animal had been sickly, declined eating it; the officers, however, being less scrupulous, boiled the paws, and found them excellent. we embarked at ten a.m., and proceeding down the river, took on board another deer that had been killed by crédit last evening. we then ran along the eastern shore of arctic sound, distinguished by the name of banks' peninsula, in honour of the late right honourable sir joseph banks, president of the royal society; and rounding point wollaston at its eastern extremity, opened another extensive sheet of water; and the remainder of the afternoon was spent in endeavouring to ascertain, from the tops of the hills, whether it was another bay, or merely a passage enclosed by a chain of islands. appearances rather favouring the latter opinion, we determined on proceeding through it to the southward. during the delay four more deer were killed, all young and lean. it appeared that the coast is pretty well frequented by rein-deer at this season; but it was rather singular, that hitherto we had killed none (excepting the first) but young ones of last season, which were all too lean to have been eaten by any but persons who had no choice. we paddled along the western shore with the intention of encamping, but were prevented by the want of drift wood on the beach. this induced us to make a traverse to an island, where we put up at midnight, having found a small bay, whose shores furnished us with a little fire-wood. a heavy gale came on from the westward, attended with constant rain, and one of the squalls overthrew our tents. the course and distance made this day were north-east sixteen miles and a half. i may here mention, that arctic sound appeared the most convenient, and perhaps the best place for ships to anchor that we had seen along the coast; at this season especially, when they might increase their stock of provision, if provided with good marksmen. deer are numerous in its vicinity, musk-oxen also may be found up hood's river, and the fine sandy bottom of the bays promises favourably for fishing with the seine. the hills on the western side are even in their outline and slope gradually to the water's edge. the rocks give place to an alluvial sandy soil, towards the bottom of the sound; but on banks' peninsula rocky eminences again prevail, which are rugged and uneven, but intersected by valleys, at this time green; along their base is a fine sandy beach. from point wollaston to our encampment the coast is skirted with trap cliffs, which have often a columnar form, and are very difficult of access. these cliffs lie in ranges parallel to the shore, and the deer that we killed were feeding in small marshy grassy plats that lie in the valleys between them. being detained by the continuance of the gale, on the d of august some men were sent out to hunt, and the officers visited the tops of the highest hills, to ascertain the best channels to be pursued. the wind abating, at ten p.m., we embarked and paddled round the southern end of the island, and continued our course to the south-east. much doubt at this time prevailed as to the land on the right being the main shore, or merely a chain of islands. the latter opinion was strengthened by the broken appearance of the land, and the extensive view we had up brown's channel, (named after my friend mr. robert brown,) the mouth of which we passed, and were in some apprehension of being led away from the main shore; and, perhaps, after passing through a group of islands, of coming to a traverse greater than we durst venture upon in canoes: on the other hand, the continuous appearance of the land on the north side of the channel, and its tending to the southward excited the fear that we were entering a deep inlet. in this state of doubt we landed often, and endeavoured, from the summits of the highest hills adjoining the shore, to ascertain the true nature of the coast, but in vain, and we continued paddling through the channel all night against a fresh breeze, which, at half-past four, increased to a violent gale, and compelled us to land. the gale diminished a short time after noon on the d, and permitted us to re-embark and continue our voyage until four p.m., when it returned with its former violence, and finally obliged us to encamp, having come twenty-four miles on a south-east three-quarter south course. from the want of drift wood to make a fire we had fasted all day, and were under the necessity, in the evening, of serving out pemmican, which was done with much reluctance, especially as we had some fresh deers' meat remaining. the inlet, when viewed from a high hill adjoining to our encampment, exhibited so many arms, that the course we ought to pursue was more uncertain than ever. it was absolutely necessary, however, to see the end of it before we could determine that it was not a strait. starting at three a.m., on the th, we paddled the whole day through channels, from two to five or six miles wide, all tending to the southward. in the course of the day's voyage we ascertained, that the land which we had seen on our right since yesterday morning, consisted of several large islands, which have been distinguished by the names of goulburn, elliott, and young; but the land on our left preserved its unbroken appearance, and when we encamped, we were still uncertain whether it was the eastern side of a deep sound or merely a large island. it differed remarkably from the main shore, being very rugged, rocky, and sterile, whereas the outline of the main on the opposite side was even, and its hills covered with a comparatively good sward of grass, exhibiting little naked rock. there was no drift timber, but the shores near the encampment were strewed with small pieces of willow, which indicated our vicinity to the mouth of a river. this fuel enabled us to make a hearty supper from a small deer killed this evening. the shallows we passed this day were covered with shoals of _capelin_, the angmaggoeük of the esquimaux. it was known to augustus, who informed us that it frequents the coast of hudson's bay, and is delicate eating. the course and distance made was, south by east-half-east, thirty-three miles. after paddling twelve miles in the morning of the th, we had the mortification to find the inlet terminated by a river; the size of which we could not ascertain, as the entrance was blocked by shoals. its mouth lies in latitude ° ' n., longitude ° ' w. i have named this stream back, as a mark of my friendship for my associate[ ]. we were somewhat consoled for the loss of time in exploring this inlet, by the success of junius in killing a musk-ox, the first we had seen on the coast; and afterwards by the acquisition of the flesh of a bear, that was shot as we were returning up the eastern side in the evening. the latter proved to be a female, in very excellent condition; and our canadian voyagers, whose appetite for fat meat is insatiable, were delighted. [ ] from subsequent conversation with the copper indians, we were inclined to suppose this may be the thlueetessy{ }, described by black-meat, mentioned in a former part of the narrative. we encamped on the shores of a sandy bay, and set the nets; and finding a quantity of dried willows on the beach, we were enabled to cook the bear's flesh, which was superior to any meat we tasted on the coast. the water fell two feet at this place during the night. our nets produced a great variety of fish, namely, a salmon-trout, some round fish, tittameg, bleak, star-fish, several herrings, and a flat fish resembling plaice, but covered on the back with horny excrescences. on the th we were detained in the encampment by stormy weather until five p.m., when we embarked and paddled along the northern shore of the inlet; the weather still continuing foggy, but the wind moderate. observing on the beach a she bear with three young ones, we landed a party to attack them: but being approached without due caution, they took the alarm and scaled a precipitous rocky hill, with a rapidity that baffled all pursuit. at eight o'clock, the fog changing into rain, we encamped. many seals were seen this day, but as they kept in deep water we did not fire at them. on august th the atmosphere was charged with fog and rain all the day, but as the wind was moderate we pursued our journey; our situation, however, was very unpleasant, being quite wet and without room to stretch a limb, much less to obtain warmth by exercise. we passed a cove which i have named after my friend mr. w. h. tinney; and proceeded along the coast until five p.m., when we put up on a rocky point nearly opposite to our encampment on the d, having come twenty-three miles on a north-north-west course. we were detained on the th by a northerly gale, which blew violently throughout the day, attended by fog and rain. some of the men went out to hunt, but they saw no other animal than a white wolf, which could not be approached. the fresh meat being expended, a little pemmican was served out this evening. the gale abated on the morning of the th; and the sea, which it had raised, having greatly subsided, we embarked at seven a.m., and after paddling three or four miles, opened sir j. a. gordon's bay, into which we penetrated thirteen miles, and then discovered from the summit of a hill that it would be vain to proceed in this direction, in search of a passage out of the inlet. our breakfast diminished our provision to two bags of pemmican, and a single meal of dried meat. the men began to apprehend absolute want of food, and we had to listen to their gloomy forebodings of the deer entirely quitting the coast in a few days. as we were embarking, however, a large bear was discovered on the opposite shore, which we had the good fortune to kill; and the sight of this fat meat relieved their fears for the present. dr. richardson found in the stomach of this animal the remains of a seal, several marmots (_arctomys richardsonii_), a large quantity of the liquorice root of mackenzie (_hedysarum_) which is common on these shores, and some berries. there was also intermixed with these substances a small quantity of grass. we got again into the main inlet, and paddled along its eastern shore until forty minutes after eight a.m. when we encamped in a small cove. we found a single log of drift wood; it was pine, and sufficiently large to enable us to cook a portion of the bear, which had a slight fishy taste, but was deemed very palatable. _august _.--we followed up the east border of the inlet about twenty-four miles, and at length emerged into the open sea; a body of islands to the westward concealing the channel by which we had entered. here our progress was arrested by returning bad weather. we killed a bear and its young cub of this year, on the beach near our encampment. we heartily congratulated ourselves at having arrived at the eastern entrance of this inlet, which had cost us nine invaluable days in exploring. it contains several secure harbours, especially near the mouth of back's river, where there is a sandy bottom in forty fathoms. on the d and th of august we observed a fall of more than two feet in the water during the night. there are various irregular and partial currents in the inlet, which may be attributed to the wind. i have distinguished it by the name of bathurst's inlet, after the noble secretary of state, under whose orders i had the honour to act. it runs about seventy-six miles south-east from cape everitt, but in coasting its shores we went about one hundred and seventy-four geographical miles. it is remarkable that none of the indians with whom we had spoken mentioned this inlet; and we subsequently learned, that in their journeys, they strike across from the mouth of one river to the mouth of another, without tracing the intermediate line of coast. _august _.--embarking at five a.m. we rounded point everitt, and then encountered a strong breeze and heavy swell, which by causing the canoes to pitch very much, greatly impeded our progress. some deer being seen grazing in a valley near the beach, we landed and sent st. germain and adam in pursuit of them, who soon killed three which were very small and lean. their appearance, however, quite revived the spirits of our men, who had suspected that the deer had retired to the woods. it would appear, from our not having seen any in passing along the shores of bathurst's inlet, that at this season they confine themselves to the sea-coast and the islands. the magpie-berries (_arbutus alpina_) were found quite ripe at this place, and very abundant on the acclivities of the hills. we also descended the highest hill and gained a view of a distant chain of islands, extending as far as the eye could reach, and perceived a few patches of ice still lingering round to some of them; but in every other part the sea was quite open. resuming our voyage after noon, we proceeded along the coast, which is fringed by islands; and at five p.m., entered another bay, where we were for some time involved in our late difficulties by the intricacy of the passages; but we cleared them in the afternoon, and encamped near the northern entrance of the bay, at a spot which had recently been visited by a small party of esquimaux, as the remains of some eggs containing young, were lying beside some half-burnt fire-wood. there were also several piles of stones put up by them. i have named this bay after my friend, captain david buchan, of the royal navy. it appears to be a safe anchorage, well sheltered from the wind and sea, by islands; the bottom is sandy, the shores high, and composed of red sand-stone. two deer were seen on its beach, but could not be approached. the distance we made to-day was eighteen miles and three quarters. embarking at four on the morning of the th, we proceeded against a fresh piercing north-east wind, which raised the waves to a height that quite terrified our people, accustomed only to the navigation of rivers and lakes. we were obliged, however, to persevere in our advance, feeling as we did, that the short season for our operations was hastening away; but after rounding cape croker the wind became so strong that we could proceed no further. the distance we had made was only six miles on a north-east by east course. the shore on which we encamped is formed of the debris of red sand-stone, and is destitute of vegetation. the beach furnished no drift wood, and we dispensed with our usual meal rather than expend our pemmican. several deer were seen, but the hunters could not approach them; they killed two swans. we observed the latitude ° ' ", where we had halted to breakfast this morning. _august _.--though the wind was not much diminished, we were urged, by the want of fire-wood, to venture upon proceeding. we paddled close to the shore for some miles, and then ran before the breeze with reefed sails, scarcely two feet in depth. both the canoes received much water, and one of them struck twice on sunken rocks. at the end of eighteen miles we halted to breakfast in a bay, which i have named after vice-admiral sir william johnstone hope, one of the lords of the admiralty. we found here a considerable quantity of small willows, such as are brought down by the rivers we had hitherto seen; and hence we judged, that a river discharges itself into the bottom of this bay. a paddle was also found, which augustus, on examination, declared to be made after the fashion of the white goose esquimaux, a tribe with whom his countrymen had had some trading communication, as has been mentioned in a former part of the narrative. this morning we passed the embouchure of a pretty large stream, and saw the vestiges of an esquimaux encampment, not above a month old. having obtained the latitude ° ' " n., we recommenced our voyage under sail, taking the precaution to embark all the pieces of willow we could collect, as we had found the drift-wood become more scarce as we advanced. our course was directed to a distant point, which we supposed to be a cape, and the land stretching to the westward of it to be islands; but we soon found ourselves in an extensive bay, from which no outlet could be perceived but the one by which we had entered. on examination, however, from the top of a hill, we perceived a winding shallow passage running to the north-west, which we followed for a short time, and then encamped having come twenty-three miles north by east half east. some articles left by the esquimaux attracted our attention; we found a winter sledge raised upon four stones, with some snow-shovels, and a small piece of whalebone. an ice-chisel, a knife and some beads were left at this pile. the shores of this bay, which i have named after sir george warrender, are low and clayey, and the country for many miles is level, and much intersected with water; but we had not leisure to ascertain whether they were branches of the bay or fresh-water lakes. some white geese were seen this evening, and some young gray ones were caught on the beach being unable to fly. we fired at two rein-deer, but without success. on august th we paddled the whole day along the northern shores of the sound, returning towards its mouth. the land which we were now tracing is generally so flat, that it could not be descried from the canoes at the distance of four miles, and is invisible from the opposite side of the sound, otherwise a short traverse might have saved us some days. the few eminences that are on this side were mistaken for islands when seen from the opposite shore; they are for the most part cliffs of basalt, and are not above one hundred feet high; the subjacent strata are of white sand-stone. the rocks are mostly confined to the capes and shores, the soil inland being flat, clayey, and barren. most of the headlands shewed traces of visits from the esquimaux, but none of them recent. many ducks were seen, belonging to a species termed by the voyagers from their cry, "caccawees." we also saw some gray geese and swans. the only seal we procured during our voyage, was killed this day; it happened to be blind, and our men imagining it to be in bad health would not taste the flesh; we, however, were less nice. we encamped at the end of twenty-four miles' march, on the north-west side of a bay, to which i have given the name of my friend capt. parry, now employed in the interesting research for a north-west passage. drift wood had become very scarce, and we found none near the encampment; a fire, however, was not required, as we served out pemmican for supper, and the evening was unusually warm. on the following morning the breeze was fresh and the waves rather high. in paddling along the west side of parry's bay, we saw several deer, but owing to the openness of the country, the hunters could not approach them. they killed, however, two swans that were moulting, several cranes and many gray geese. we procured also some caccawees, which were then moulting, and assembled in immense flocks. in the evening, having rounded point beechy, and passed hurd's islands, we were exposed to much inconvenience and danger from a heavy rolling sea; the canoes receiving many severe blows, and shipping a good deal of water, which induced us to encamp at five p.m. opposite to cape croker, which we had passed on the morning of the th; the channel which lay between our situation and it, being about seven miles wide. we had now reached the northern point of entrance into this sound, which i have named in honour of lord viscount melville, the first lord of the admiralty. it is thirty miles wide from east to west, and twenty from north to south; and in coasting it we had sailed eighty-seven and a quarter geographical miles. shortly after the tents were pitched, mr. back reported from the steersmen that both canoes had sustained material injury during this day's voyage. i found on examination that fifteen timbers of the first canoe were broken, some of them in two places, and that the second canoe was so loose in the frame that its timbers could not be bound in the usual secure manner, and consequently there was danger of its bark separating from the gunwales if exposed to a heavy sea. distressing as were these circumstances, they gave me less pain than the discovery that our people, who had hitherto displayed in following us through dangers and difficulties no less novel than appalling to them, a courage beyond our expectation, now felt serious apprehensions for their safety, which so possessed their minds that they were not restrained even by the presence of their officers from expressing them. their fears, we imagined, had been principally excited by the interpreters, st. germain and adam, who from the outset had foreboded every calamity; and we now strongly suspected that their recent want of success in hunting had proceeded from an intentional relaxation in their efforts to kill deer in order that{ } the want of provision might compel us to put a period to our voyage. i must now mention that many concurrent circumstances had caused me, during the few last days, to meditate on the approach of this painful necessity. the strong breezes we had encountered for some days, led me to fear that the season was breaking up, and severe weather would soon ensue, which we could not sustain in a country destitute of fuel. our stock of provision was now reduced to a quantity of pemmican only sufficient for three days' consumption, and the prospect of increasing it was not encouraging, for though rein-deer were seen, they could not be easily approached on the level shores we were now coasting, besides it was to be apprehended they would soon migrate to the south. it was evident that the time spent in exploring the arctic and melville sounds, and bathurst's inlet, had precluded the hope of reaching repulse bay, which at the outset of the voyage we had fondly cherished; and it was equally obvious that as our distance from any of the trading establishments would increase as we proceeded, the hazardous traverse across the barren grounds, which we should have to make, if compelled to abandon the canoes upon any part of the coast, would become greater. i this evening communicated to the officers my sentiments on these points, as well as respecting our return, and was happy to find that their opinions coincided with my own. we were all convinced of the necessity of putting a speedy termination to our advance, as our hope of meeting the esquimaux and procuring provision from them, could now scarcely be retained; but yet we were desirous of proceeding, until the land should be seen trending again to the eastward; that we might be satisfied of its separation from what we had conceived, in passing from cape barrow to bathurst's inlet, to be a great chain of islands. as it was needful, however, at all events, to set a limit to our voyage, i announced my determination of returning after four days' examination, unless, indeed, we should previously meet the esquimaux, and be enabled to make some arrangement for passing the winter with them. this communication was joyfully received by the men, and we hoped that the industry of our hunters being once more excited, we should be able to add to our stock of provision. it may here be remarked that we observed the first regular return of the tides in warrender's and parry's bays; but their set could not be ascertained. the rise of water did not amount to more than two feet. course to-day south one quarter east--nine miles and a quarter. _august _.--some rain fell in the night, but the morning was unusually fine. we set forward at five a.m., and the men paddled cheerfully along the coast for ten miles, when a dense fog caused us to land on slate-clay point. here we found more traces of the esquimaux, and the skull of a man placed between two rocks. the fog dispersed at noon, and we discerned a group of islands to the northward, which i have named after vice admiral sir george cockburn, one of the lords of the admiralty. re-embarking, we rounded the point and entered walker's bay, (so called after my friend admiral walker,) where, as in other instances, the low beach which lay between several high trap cliffs, could not be distinguished until we had coasted down the east side nearly to the bottom of the bay. when the continuity of the land was perceived, we crossed to the western shore, and on landing, discovered a channel leading through a group of islands. having passed through this channel, we ran under sail by the porden islands, across riley's bay, and rounding a cape which now bears the name of my lamented friend captain flinders, had the pleasure to find the coast trending north-north-east, with the sea in the offing unusually clear of islands; a circumstance which afforded matter of wonder to our canadians, who had not previously had an uninterrupted view of the ocean. our course was continued along the coast until eight p.m. when a change in the wind and a threatening thunder squall induced us to encamp; but the water was so shallow, that we found some difficulty in approaching the shore. large pieces of drift-wood gave us assurance that we had finally escaped from the bays. our tents were scarcely pitched before we were assailed by a heavy squall and rain, which was succeeded by a violent gale from west-north-west, which thrice overset the tents during the night. the wind blew with equal violence on the following day, and the sea rolled furiously upon the beach. the canadians had now an opportunity of witnessing the effect of a storm upon the sea; and the sight increased their desire of quitting it. our hunters were sent out, and saw many deer, but the flatness of the country defeated their attempts to approach them; they brought, however, a few unfledged geese. as there was no appearance of increasing our stock of provision, the allowance was limited to a handful of pemmican, and a small portion of portable soup to each man per day. the thermometer this afternoon stood to °. the following observations were obtained: latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w.; but ° ' " w. was used in the construction of the chart, as the chronometers were found, on our return to hood's river, to have altered their rates; variation ° ' " e., and dip of the needle ° ' ". on august th the stormy weather and sea continuing, there was no prospect of our being able to embark. dr. richardson, mr. back, and i, therefore, set out on foot to discover whether the land within a day's march, inclined more to the east. we went from ten to twelve miles along the coast, which continued flat, and kept the same direction as the encampment. the most distant land we saw had the same bearing north-north-east, and appeared like two islands, which we estimated to be six or seven miles off; the shore on their side seemingly tended more to the east, so that is it probable point turnagain, for so this spot was named, forms the pitch of a low flat cape. augustus killed a deer in the afternoon, but the men were not able to find it. the hunters found the burrows of a number of white foxes, and hepburn killed one of these animals, which proved excellent eating, equal to the young geese, with which it was boiled, and far superior to the lean deer we had upon the coast. large flocks of geese passed over the tents, flying to the southward. the lowest temperature to-day was °. though it will appear from the chart, that the position of point turnagain is only six degrees and a half to the east of the mouth of the copper-mine river; we sailed, in tracing the deeply-indented coast, five hundred and fifty-five geographic miles, which is little less than the direct distance between the copper-mine river and repulse bay; supposing the latter to be in the longitude assigned to it by middleton. when the many perplexing incidents which occurred during the survey of the coast are considered, in connexion with the shortness of the period during which operations of the kind can be carried on, and the distance we had to travel before we could gain a place of shelter for the winter, i trust it will be judged that we prosecuted the enterprise as far as was prudent, and abandoned it only under a well-founded conviction that a further advance would endanger the lives of the whole party, and prevent the knowledge of what had been done from reaching england. the active assistance i received from the officers, in contending with the fears of the men, demands my warmest gratitude. our researches, as far as they have gone, favour the opinion of those who contend for the practicability of a north-west passage. the general line of coast probably runs east and west, nearly in the latitude assigned to mackenzie's river, the sound into which kotzebue entered, and repulse bay; and i think there is little doubt of a continued sea, in or about that line of direction. the existence of whales too, on this part of the coast, evidenced by the whalebone we found in esquimaux cove, may be considered as an argument for an open sea; and a connexion with hudson's bay is rendered more probable from the same kind of fish abounding on the coasts we visited, and on those to the north of churchill river. i allude more particularly to the capelin or salmo arcticus, which we found in large shoals in bathurst's inlet, and which not only abounds, as augustus told us, in the bays in his country, but swarms in the greenland firths[ ]. the portion of the sea over which we passed is navigable for vessels of any size; the ice we met, particularly after quitting detention harbour, would not have arrested a strong boat. the chain of islands affords shelter from all heavy seas, and there are good harbours at convenient distances. i entertain, indeed, sanguine hopes that the skill and exertions of my friend captain parry will soon render this question no longer problematical. his task is doubtless an arduous one, and, if ultimately successful, may occupy two and perhaps three seasons; but confiding as i do, from personal knowledge, in his perseverance and talent for surmounting difficulties, the strength of his ships, and the abundance of provisions with which they are stored, i have very little apprehension of his safety. as i understand his object was to keep the coast of america close on board, he will find in the spring of the year, before the breaking up of the ice can permit him to pursue his voyage, herds of deer flocking in abundance to all parts of the coast, which may be procured without difficulty; and, even later in the season, additions to his stock of provision may be obtained on many parts of the coast, should circumstances give him leisure to send out hunting parties. with the trawl or seine nets also, he may almost every where get abundance of fish even without retarding his progress. under these circumstances i do not conceive that he runs any hazard of wanting provisions, should his voyage be prolonged even beyond the latest period of time which is calculated upon. drift timber may be gathered at many places in considerable quantities, and there is a fair prospect of his opening a communication with the esquimaux, who come down to the coast to kill seals in the spring, previous to the ice breaking up; and from whom, if he succeeds in conciliating their good-will, he may obtain provision, and much useful assistance. [ ] arctic zoology, vol. ii, p. . if he makes for copper-mine river, as he probably will do, he will not find it in the longitude as laid down on the charts; but he will probably find, what would be more interesting to him, a post, which we erected on the th august at the mouth of hood's river, which is nearly, as will appear hereafter, in that longitude, with a flag upon it, and a letter at the foot of it, which may convey to him some useful information. it is possible, however, that he may keep outside of the range of islands which skirt this part of the coast. chapter xii. journey across the barren grounds--difficulty and delay in crossing copper-mine river--melancholy and fatal results thereof--extreme misery of the whole party--murder of mr. hood--death of several of the canadians--desolate state of fort enterprise--distress suffered at that place--dr. richardson's narrative--mr. back's narrative--conclusion. . august . my original intention, whenever the season should compel us to relinquish the survey, had been to return by the copper-mine river, and in pursuance of my arrangement with the hook to travel to slave lake through the line of woods extending thither by the great bear and marten lakes, but our scanty stock of provision and the length of the voyage rendered it necessary to make for a nearer place. we had already found that the country, between cape barrow and the copper-mine river, would not supply our wants, and this it seemed probable would now be still more the case; besides, at this advanced season, we expected the frequent recurrence of gales, which would cause great detention, if not danger in proceeding along that very rocky part of the coast. i determined, therefore, to make at once for arctic sound, where we had found the animals more numerous than at any other place; and entering hood's river, to advance up that stream as far as it was navigable, and then to construct small canoes out of the materials of the larger ones, which could be carried in crossing the barren grounds to fort enterprise. _august _.--we were almost beaten out of our comfortless abodes by rain during the night, and this morning the gale continued without diminution. the thermometer fell to °. two men were sent with junius to search for the deer which augustus had killed. junius returned in the evening, bringing part of the meat, but owing to the thickness of the weather, his companions parted from him and did not make their appearance. divine service was read. on the th we were presented with the most chilling prospect, the small pools of water being frozen over, the ground covered with snow, and the thermometer at the freezing point at mid-day. flights of geese were passing to the southward. the wind, however, was more moderate, having changed to the eastward. considerable anxiety prevailing respecting belanger and michel, the two men who strayed from junius yesterday, the rest were sent out to look for them. the search was successful, and they all returned in the evening. the stragglers were much fatigued, and had suffered severely from the cold, one of them having his thighs frozen, and what under our present circumstances was most grievous, they had thrown away all the meat. the wind during the night returned to the north-west quarter, blew more violently than ever, and raised a very turbulent sea. the next day did not improve our condition, the snow remained on the ground, and the small pools were frozen. our hunters were sent out, but they returned after a fatiguing day's march without having seen any animals. we made a scanty meal off a handful of pemmican, after which only half a bag remained. the wind abated after midnight, and the surf diminished rapidly, which caused us to be on the alert at a very early hour on the d, but we had to wait until six a.m. for the return of augustus, who had continued out all night on an unsuccessful pursuit of deer. it appears that he had walked a few miles farther along the coast, than the party had done on the th, and from a sketch he drew on the sand, we were confirmed in our former opinion that the shore inclined more to the eastward beyond point turnagain. he also drew a river of considerable size, that discharges its waters into walker's bay; on the banks of which stream he saw a piece of wood, such as the esquimaux use in producing fire, and other marks so fresh that he supposed they had recently visited the spot. we therefore left several iron materials for them; and embarking without delay, prepared to retrace our steps[ ]. our men, cheered by the prospect of returning, shewed the utmost alacrity; and, paddling with unusual vigour, carried us across riley's and walker's bays, a distance of twenty miles, before noon, when we landed on slate-clay{ } point, as the wind had freshened too much to permit us to continue the voyage. the whole party went to hunt, but returned without success in the evening, drenched with the heavy rain which commenced soon after they had set out. several deer were seen, but could not be approached in this naked country; and as our stock of pemmican did not admit of serving out two meals, we went dinnerless to bed. [ ] it is a curious coincidence that our expedition left point turnagain on august d,--on the same day that captain parry sailed out of repulse bay. the parties were then distant from each other miles. soon after our departure this day, a sealed tin-case, sufficiently buoyant to float, was thrown overboard, containing a short account of our proceedings, and the position of the most conspicuous points. the wind blew off the land, the water was smooth, and as the sea is in this part more free from islands than in any other, there was every probability of its being driven off the shore into the current; which as i have before mentioned, we suppose, from the circumstance of mackenzie's river being the only known stream that brings down the wood we have found along the shores, to set to the eastward. _august _.--a severe frost caused us to pass a comfortless night. at two p.m. we set sail, and the men voluntarily launched out to make a traverse of fifteen miles across melville sound, before a strong wind and heavy sea. the privation of food, under which our voyagers were then labouring, absorbed every other terror; otherwise the most powerful persuasion could not have induced them to attempt such a traverse. it was with the utmost difficulty that the canoes were kept from turning their broadsides to the waves, though we sometimes steered with all the paddles. one of them narrowly escaped being overset by this accident, which occurred in a mid-channel, where the waves were so high that the masthead of our canoe was often hid from the other, though it was sailing within hail. the traverse, however, was made; we were then near a high rocky lee shore, on which a heavy surf was beating. the wind being on the beam, the canoes drifted fast to leeward; and, on rounding a point, the recoil of the sea from the rocks was so great that they were with difficulty kept from foundering. we looked in vain for a sheltered bay to land in; but, at length, being unable to weather another point, we were obliged to put ashore on the open beach, which fortunately was sandy at this spot. the debarkation was effected fortunately, without further injury than splitting the head of the second canoe, which was easily repaired. our encampment being near the spot where we killed the deer on the th, almost the whole party went out to hunt, but returned in the evening without having seen any game. the berries, however, were ripe and plentiful, and, with the addition of some country tea, furnished a supper. there were some showers in the afternoon, and the weather was cold, the thermometer being °, but the evening and night were calm and fine. it may be remarked that the musquitoes disappeared when the late gales commenced. _august _.--embarking at three a.m., we stretched across the eastern entrance of bathurst's inlet, and arrived at an island, which i have named after the right hon. colonel barry, of newton barry. some deer being seen on the beach, the hunters went in pursuit of them, and succeeded in killing three females, which enabled us to save our last remaining meal of pemmican. they saw also some fresh tracks of musk-oxen on the banks of a small stream which flowed into a lake in the centre of the island. these animals must have crossed a channel, at least, three miles wide, to reach the nearest of these islands. some specimens of variegated pebbles and jasper were found here imbedded in the amygdaloidal rock. re-embarking at two p.m., and continuing through what was supposed to be a channel between two islands, we found our passage barred by a gravelly isthmus of only ten yards in width; the canoes and cargoes were carried across it, and we passed into bathurst's inlet through another similar channel, bounded on both sides by steep rocky hills. the wind then changing from s.e. to n.w. brought heavy rain, and we encamped at seven p.m., having advanced eighteen miles. _august _.--starting this morning with a fresh breeze in our favour, we soon reached that part of barry's island where the canoes were detained on the d and d of this month, and contrary to what we then experienced, the deer were now plentiful. the hunters killed two, and relieved us from all apprehension of immediate want of food. from their assembling at this time in such numbers on the islands nearest to the coast, we conjectured that they were about to retire to the main shore. those we saw were generally females with their young, and all of them very lean. the wind continued in the same direction until we had rounded point wollaston, and then changed to a quarter, which enabled us to steer for hood's river, which we ascended as high as the first rapid and encamped. here terminated our voyage on the arctic sea, during which we had gone over six hundred and fifty geographical miles. our canadian voyagers could not restrain their joy at having turned their backs on the sea, and passed the evening in talking over their past adventures with much humour and no little exaggeration. the consideration that the most painful, and certainly the most hazardous part of the journey was yet to come, did not depress their spirits at all. it is due to their character to mention that they displayed much courage in encountering the dangers of the sea, magnified to them by their novelty. the shores between cape barrow and cape flinders, including the extensive branches of arctic and melville sounds, and bathurst's inlet, may be comprehended in one great gulf, which i have distinguished by the appellation of george iv.'s coronation gulf, in honour of his most gracious majesty, the latter name being added to mark the time of its discovery. the archipelago of islands which fringe the coast from copper-mine river to point turnagain, i have named in honour of his royal highness the duke of york. it may be deserving of notice that the extremes in temperature of the sea water during our voyage were ° and °, but its general temperature was between ° and °. throughout our return from point turnagain we observed that the sea had risen several feet above marks left at our former encampments. this may, perhaps, be attributed to the north-west gales. _august _.--previous to our departure this morning an assortment of iron materials, beads, looking-glasses, and other articles were put up in a conspicuous situation for the esquimaux, and the english union was planted on the loftiest sand-hill, where it might be seen by any ships passing in the offing. here also, was deposited in a tin box, a letter containing an outline of our proceedings, the latitude and longitude of the principal places, and the course we intended to pursue towards slave lake. embarking at eight a.m. we proceeded up the river which is full of sandy shoals, but sufficiently deep for canoes in the channels. it is from one hundred to two hundred yards wide, and is bounded by high and steep banks of clay. we encamped at a cascade of eighteen or twenty feet high, which is produced by a ridge of rock crossing the river, and the nets were set. a mile below this cascade hood's river is joined by a stream half its own size, which i have called james' branch. bear and deer tracks had been numerous on the banks of the river when we were here before, but not a single recent one was to be seen at this time. crédit, however, killed a small deer at some distance inland, which, with the addition of berries, furnished a delightful repast this evening. the weather was remarkably fine, and the temperature so mild, that the musquitoes again made their appearance, but not in any great numbers. our distance made to-day was not more than six miles. the next morning the net furnished us with ten white fish and trout. having made a further deposit of iron work for the esquimaux we pursued our voyage up the river, but the shoals and rapids in this part were so frequent, that we walked along the banks the whole day, and the crews laboured hard in carrying the canoes thus lightened over the shoals or dragging them up the rapids, yet our journey in a direct line was only about seven miles. in the evening 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. the whole descent of the river at this place probably exceeds two hundred and fifty feet. the rock is very fine felspathose sand-stone{ }. it has a smooth surface and a light red colour. i have named these magnificent cascades "wilberforce falls," as a tribute of my respect for that distinguished philanthropist{ } and christian. messrs. back and hood took beautiful sketches of this majestic scene. the river being surveyed from the summit of a hill, above these falls, appeared so rapid and shallow, that it seemed useless to attempt proceeding any farther in the large canoes. i therefore determined on constructing out of their materials two smaller ones of sufficient size to contain three persons, for the purpose of crossing any river that might obstruct our progress. this operation was accordingly commenced, and by the st both the canoes being finished, we prepared for our departure on the following day. the leather which had been preserved for making shoes was equally divided among the men, two pairs of flannel socks were given to each person, and such articles of warm clothing as remained, were issued to those who most required them. they were also furnished with one of the officers' tents. this being done, i communicated to the men my intention of proceeding in as direct a course as possible to the part of point lake, opposite our spring encampment, which was only distant one hundred and forty-nine miles in a straight line. they received the communication cheerfully, considered the journey to be short, and left me in high spirits, to arrange their own packages. the stores, books, _&c._, which were not absolutely necessary to be carried, were then put up in boxes to be left _en cache_ here, in order that the men's burdens might be as light as possible. the next morning was warm, and very fine. every one was on the alert at an early hour, being anxious to commence the journey. our luggage consisted of ammunition, nets, hatchets, ice chisels, astronomical instruments, clothing, blankets, three kettles, and the two canoes, which were each carried by one man. the officers carried such a portion of their own things as their strength would permit; the weight carried by each man was about ninety pounds, and with this we advanced at the rate of about a mile an hour, including rests. in the evening the hunters killed a lean cow, out of a large drove of musk-oxen; but the men were too much laden to carry more than a small portion of its flesh. the alluvial soil, which towards the mouth of the river spreads into plains, covered with grass and willows, was now giving place to a more barren and hilly country; so that we could but just collect sufficient brushwood{ } to cook our suppers. the part of the river we skirted this day was shallow, and flowed over a bed of sand; its width about one hundred and twenty yards. about midnight our tent was blown down by a squall, and we were completely drenched with rain before it could be re-pitched. on the morning of the st of september a fall of snow took place; the canoes became a cause of delay, from the difficulty of carrying them in a high wind, and they sustained much damage through the falls of those who had charge of them. the face of the country was broken by hills of moderate elevation, but the ground was plentifully strewed with small stones, which, to men bearing heavy burdens, and whose feet were protected only by soft moose skin shoes, occasioned great pain. at the end of eleven miles we encamped, and sent for a musk-ox and a deer, which st. germain and augustus had killed. the day was extremely cold, the thermometer varying between ° and °. in the afternoon a heavy fall of snow took place, on the wind changing from north-west to south-west. we found no wood at the encampment, but made a fire of moss to cook the supper, and crept under our blankets for warmth. at sunrise the thermometer was at °, and the wind fresh from north-west; but the weather became mild in the course of the forenoon, and the snow disappeared from the gravel. the afternoon was remarkably fine, and the thermometer rose to °. one of the hunters killed a musk-ox. the hills in this part are lower, and more round-backed than those we passed yesterday, exhibiting but little naked rock; they were covered with lichens. having ascertained from the summit of the highest hill near the tents, that the river continued to preserve a west course; and fearing that by pursuing it further we might lose much time, and unnecessarily walk over a great deal of ground, i determined on quitting its banks the next day, and making as directly as we could for point lake. we accordingly followed the river on the d, only to the place where the musk-ox had been killed last evening, and after the meat was procured, crossed the river in our two canoes lashed together. we now emerged from the valley of the river, and entered a level, but very barren, country, varied only by small lakes and marshes, the ground being covered with small stones. many old tracks of rein-deer were seen in the clayey soil, and some more recent traces of the musk-ox. we encamped on the borders of wright's river, which flows to the eastward; the direct distance walked to-day being ten miles and three-quarters. the next morning was very fine, and, as the day advanced, the weather became quite warm. we set out at six a.m., and, having forded the river, walked over a perfectly level country, interspersed with small lakes, which communicated with each other, by streams running in various directions. no berry-bearing plants were found in this part, the surface of the earth being thinly covered in the moister places with a few grasses, and on the drier spots with lichens. having walked twelve miles and a half, we encamped at seven p.m., and distributed our last piece of pemmican, and a little arrow-root for supper, which afforded but a scanty meal. this evening was warm, but dark clouds overspread the sky. our men now began to find their burdens very oppressive, and were much fatigued by this day's march, but did not complain. one of them was lame from an inflammation in the knee. heavy rain commenced at midnight, and continued without intermission until five in the morning, when it was succeeded by snow on the wind changing to north-west, which soon increased to a violent gale. as we had nothing to eat, and were destitute of the means of making a fire, we remained in our beds all the day; but the covering of our blankets was insufficient to prevent us from feeling the severity of the frost, and suffering inconvenience from the drifting of the snow into our tents. there was no abatement of the storm next day; our tents were completely frozen, and the snow had drifted around them to a depth of three feet, and even in the inside there was a covering of several inches on our blankets. our suffering from cold, in a comfortless canvass tent in such weather, with the temperature at °, and without fire, will easily be imagined; it was, however, less than that which we felt from hunger. the morning of the th cleared up a little, but the wind was still strong, and the weather extremely cold. from the unusual continuance of the storm, we feared the winter had set in with all its rigour, and that by longer delay we should only be exposed to an accumulation of difficulties; we therefore prepared for our journey, although we were in a very unfit condition for starting, being weak from fasting, and our garments stiffened by the frost. we had no means of making a fire to thaw them, the moss, at all times difficult to kindle, being now covered with ice and snow. a considerable time was consumed in packing up the frozen tents and bed clothes, the wind blowing so strong that no one could keep his hands long out of his mittens. just as we were about to commence our march, i was seized with a fainting fit, in consequence of exhaustion and sudden exposure to the wind; but after eating a morsel of portable soup, i recovered so far as to be able to move on. i was unwilling at first to take this morsel of soup, which was diminishing the small and only remaining meal for the party; but several of the men urged me to it, with much kindness. the ground was covered a foot deep with snow, the margins of the lakes were incrusted with ice, and the swamps over which we had to pass were entirely frozen; but the ice not being sufficiently strong to bear us, we frequently plunged knee-deep in water. those who carried the canoes were repeatedly blown down by the violence of the wind, and they often fell, from making an insecure step on a slippery stone; on one of these occasions, the largest canoe was so much broken as to be rendered utterly unserviceable. this we felt was a serious disaster, as the remaining canoe having through mistake been made too small, it was doubtful whether it would be sufficient to carry us across a river. indeed we had found it necessary in crossing hood's river, to lash the two canoes together. as there was some suspicion that benoit, who carried the canoe, had broken it intentionally, he having on a former occasion been overheard by some of the men to say, that he would do so when he got it in charge, we closely examined him on the point; he roundly denied having used the expressions attributed to him, and insisted that it was broken by his falling accidentally; and as he brought men to attest the latter fact, who saw him tumble, we did not press the matter further. i may here remark that our people had murmured a good deal at having to carry two canoes, though they were informed of the necessity of taking both, in case it should be deemed advisable to divide the party; which it had been thought probable we should be obliged to do if animals proved scarce, in order to give the whole the better chance of procuring subsistence, and also for the purpose of sending forward some of the best walkers to search for indians, and to get them to meet us with supplies of provision. the power of doing this was now at an end. as the accident could not be remedied, we turned it to the best account, by making a fire of the bark and timbers of the broken vessel, and cooked the remainder of our portable soup and arrow-root. this was a scanty meal after three days' fasting, but it served to allay the pangs of hunger, and enabled us to proceed at a quicker pace than before. the depth of the snow caused us to march in indian file, that is in each other's steps; the voyagers taking it in turn to lead the party. a distant object was pointed out to this man in the direction we wished to take, and mr. hood followed immediately behind him, to renew the bearings, and keep him from deviating more than could be helped from the mark. it may be here observed, that we proceeded in this manner throughout our route across the barren grounds. in the afternoon we got into a more hilly country, where the ground was strewed with large stones. the surface of these was covered with lichens of the genus _gyrophora_, which the canadians term _tripe de roche_. a considerable quantity was gathered, and with half a partridge each, (which we shot in the course of the day,) furnished a slender supper, which we cooked with a few willows, dug up from beneath the snow. we passed a comfortless night in our damp clothes, but took the precaution of sleeping upon our socks and shoes to prevent them from freezing. this plan was afterwards adopted throughout the journey. at half past five in the morning we proceeded; and after walking about two miles, came to cracroft's river, flowing to the westward, with a very rapid current over a rocky channel. we had much difficulty in crossing this, the canoe being useless, not only from the bottom of the channel being obstructed by large stones, but also from its requiring gumming, an operation which, owing to the want of wood and the frost, we were unable to perform. however, after following the course of the river some distance we effected a passage by means of a range of large rocks that crossed a rapid. as the current was strong, and many of the rocks were covered with water to the depth of two or three feet, the men were exposed to much danger in carrying their heavy burdens across, and several of them actually slipped into the stream, but were immediately rescued by the others. junius went farther up the river in search of a better crossing-place and did not rejoin us this day. as several of the party were drenched from head to foot, and we were all wet to the middle, our clothes became stiff with the frost, and we walked with much pain for the remainder of the day. the march was continued to a late hour from our anxiety to rejoin the hunters who had gone before, but we were obliged to encamp at the end of ten miles and a quarter, without seeing them. our only meal to-day consisted of a partridge each (which the hunters shot,) mixed with _tripe de roche_. this repast, although scanty for men with appetites such as our daily fatigue created, proved a cheerful one, and was received with thankfulness. most of the men had to sleep in the open air, in consequence of the absence of crédit, who carried their tent; but we fortunately found an unusual quantity of roots to make a fire, which prevented their suffering much from the cold, though the thermometer was at °. we started at six on the th, and at the end of two miles regained our hunters, who were halting on the borders of a lake amidst a clump of stunted willows. this lake stretched to the westward as far as we could see, and its waters were discharged by a rapid stream one hundred and fifty yards wide. being entirely ignorant where we might be led by pursuing the course of the lake, and dreading the idea of going a mile unnecessarily out of the way, we determined on crossing the river if possible; and the canoe was gummed for the purpose, the willows furnishing us with fire. but we had to await the return of junius before we could make the traverse. in the mean time we gathered a little _tripe de roche_, and breakfasted upon it and a few partridges that were killed in the morning. st. germain and adam were sent upon some recent tracks of deer. junius arrived in the afternoon and informed us that he had seen a large herd of musk-oxen on the banks of cracroft's river, and had wounded one of them, but it escaped. he brought about four pounds of meat, the remains of a deer that had been devoured by the wolves. the poor fellow was much fatigued, having walked throughout the night, but as the weather was particularly favourable for our crossing the river, we could not allow him to rest. after he had taken some refreshment we proceeded to the river. the canoe being put into the water was found extremely ticklish, but it was managed with much dexterity by st. germain, adam, and peltier, who ferried over one passenger at a time, causing him to lie flat in its bottom, by no means a pleasant position, owing to its leakiness, but there was no alternative. the transport of the whole party was effected by five o'clock and we walked about two miles further and encamped, having come five miles and three quarters on a south-west course. two young alpine hares were shot by st. germain, which, with the small piece of meat brought in by junius, furnished the supper of the whole party. there was no _tripe de roche_ here. the country had now become decidedly hilly, and was covered with snow. the lake preserved its western direction, as far as i could see from the summit of the highest mountain near the encampment. we subsequently learned from the copper indians, that the part at which we had crossed the river was the _congecatha-wha-chaga_ of hearne, of which i had little idea at the time, not only from the difference of latitude, but also from its being so much further east of the mouth of the copper-mine river, than his track is laid down; he only making one degree and three quarters' difference of longitude, and we, upwards of four. had i been aware of the fact, several days' harassing march, and a disastrous accident would have been prevented by keeping on the western side of the lake, instead of crossing the river. we were informed also, that this river is the anatessy or river of strangers, and is supposed to fall into bathurst's inlet; but although the indians have visited its mouth, their description was not sufficient to identify it with any of the rivers whose mouths we had seen. it probably discharges itself in that part of the coast which was hid from our view by goulbourn's or elliott's islands. _september _.--we had a cold north wind, and the atmosphere was foggy. the thermometer ° at five a.m. in the course of our march this morning, we passed many small lakes; and the ground becoming higher and more hilly as we receded from the river, was covered to a much greater depth with snow. this rendered walking not only extremely laborious, but also hazardous in the highest degree; for the sides of the hills, as is usual throughout the barren grounds, abounding in accumulations of large angular stones, it often happened that the men fell into the interstices with their loads on their backs, being deceived by the smooth appearance of the drifted snow. if any one had broken a limb here, his fate would have been melancholy indeed; we could neither have remained with him, nor carried him on. we halted at ten to gather _tripe de roche_, but it was so frozen, that we were quite benumbed with cold before a sufficiency could be collected even for a scanty meal. on proceeding our men were somewhat cheered, by observing on the sandy summit of a hill, from whence the snow had been blown, the summer track of a man; and afterwards by seeing several deer tracks on the snow. about noon the weather cleared up a little, and to our great joy, we saw a herd of musk-oxen grazing in a valley below us. the party instantly halted, and the best hunters were sent out; they approached the animals with the utmost caution, no less than two hours being consumed before they got within gun-shot. in the mean time we beheld their proceedings with extreme anxiety, and many secret prayers were, doubtless, offered up for their success. at length they opened their fire, and we had the satisfaction of seeing one of the largest cows fall; another was wounded, but escaped. this success infused spirit into our starving party. to skin and cut up the animal was the work of a few minutes. the contents of its stomach were devoured upon the spot, and the raw intestines, which were next attacked, were pronounced by the most delicate amongst us to be excellent. a few willows, whose tops were seen peeping through the snow in the bottom of the valley, were quickly grubbed, the tents pitched, and supper cooked, and devoured with avidity. this was the sixth day since we had had a good meal; the _tripe de roche_, even where we got enough, only serving to allay the pangs of hunger for a short time. after supper, two of the hunters went in pursuit of the herd, but could not get near them. i do not think that we witnessed through the course of our journey a more striking proof of the wise dispensation of the almighty, and of the weakness of our own judgment than on this day. we had considered the dense fog which prevailed throughout the morning, as almost the greatest inconvenience that could have befallen us, since it rendered the air extremely cold, and prevented us from distinguishing any distant object towards which our course could be directed. yet this very darkness enabled the party to get to the top of the hill which bounded the valley wherein the musk-oxen were grazing, without being perceived. had the herd discovered us and taken alarm, our hunters in their present state of debility would in all probability have failed in approaching them. we were detained all the next day by a strong southerly wind, and were much incommoded in the tents by the drift snow. the temperature was °. the average for the last ten days about °. we restricted ourselves to one meal this day, as we were at rest, and there was only meat remaining sufficient for the morrow. the gale had not diminished on the th, and, as we were fearful of its continuance for some time, we determined on going forward; our only doubt regarded the preservation of the canoe, but the men promised to pay particular attention to it, and the most careful persons were appointed to take it in charge. the snow was two feet deep and the ground much broken, which rendered the march extremely painful. the whole party complained more of faintness and weakness than they had ever done before; their strength seemed to have been impaired by the recent supply of animal food. in the afternoon the wind abated, and the snow ceased; cheered with the change, we proceeded forward at a quicker pace, and encamped at six p.m., having come eleven miles. our supper consumed the last of our meat. we set out on the th, in thick hazy weather, and, after an hour's march, had the extreme mortification to find ourselves on the borders of a large lake; neither of its extremities could be seen, and as the portion which lay to the east seemed the widest, we coasted along to the westward portion in search of a crossing-place. this lake being bounded by steep and lofty hills, our march was very fatiguing. those sides which were exposed to the sun, were free from snow, and we found upon them some excellent berries. we encamped at six p.m., having come only six miles and a half. crédit was then missing, and he did not return during the night. we supped off a single partridge and some _tripe de roche_; this unpalatable weed was now quite nauseous to the whole party, and in several it produced bowel complaints. mr. hood was the greatest sufferer from this cause. this evening we were extremely distressed, at discovering that our improvident companions, since we left hood's river had thrown away three of the fishing-nets, and burnt the floats; they knew we had brought them to procure subsistence for the party, when the animals should fail, and we could scarcely believe the fact of their having wilfully deprived themselves of this resource, especially when we considered that most of them had passed the greater part of their servitude in situations where the nets alone had supplied them with food. being thus deprived of our principal resource, that of fishing, and the men evidently getting weaker every day, it became necessary to lighten their burdens of every thing except ammunition, clothing, and the instruments that were required to find our way. i, therefore, issued directions to deposit at this encampment the dipping needle, azimuth compass, magnet, a large thermometer, and a few books we had carried, having torn out of these, such parts as we should require to work the observations for latitude and longitude. i also promised, as an excitement to the efforts in hunting, my gun to st. germain, and an ample compensation to adam, or any of the other men who should kill any animals. mr. hood, on this occasion, lent his gun to michel, the iroquois, who was very eager in the chase, and often successful. _september _.--this morning the officers being assembled round a small fire, perrault presented each of us with a small piece of meat which he had saved from his allowance. it was received with great thankfulness, and such an act of self-denial and kindness, being totally unexpected in a canadian voyager, filled our eyes with tears. in directing our course to a river issuing from the lake, we met crédit, who communicated the joyful intelligence of his having killed two deer in the morning. we instantly halted, and having shared the deer that was nearest to us, prepared breakfast. after which, the other deer was sent for, and we went down to the river, which was about three hundred yards wide, and flowed with great velocity through a broken rocky channel. having searched for a part where the current was most smooth, the canoe was placed in the water at the head of a rapid, and st. germain, solomon belanger, and i, embarked in order to cross. we went from the shore very well, but in mid-channel the canoe became difficult to manage under our burden as the breeze was fresh. the current drove us to the edge of the rapid, when belanger unluckily applied his paddle to avert the apparent danger of being forced down it, and lost his balance. the canoe was overset in consequence in the middle of the rapid. we fortunately kept hold of it, until we touched a rock where the water did not reach higher than our waists; here we kept our footing, notwithstanding the strength of the current, until the water was emptied out of the canoe. belanger then held the canoe steady whilst st. germain placed me in it, and afterwards embarked himself in a very dextrous manner. it was impossible, however, to embark belanger, as the canoe would have been hurried down the rapid, the moment he should have raised his foot from the rock on which he stood. we were, therefore, compelled to leave him in his perilous situation. we had not gone twenty yards before the canoe, striking on a sunken rock, went down. the place being shallow, we were again enabled to empty it, and the third attempt brought us to the shore. in the mean time belanger was suffering extremely, immersed to his middle in the centre of a rapid, the temperature of which was very little above the freezing point, and the upper part of his body covered with wet clothes, exposed in a temperature not much above zero, to a strong breeze. he called piteously for relief, and st. germain on his return endeavoured to embark him, but in vain. the canoe was hurried down the rapid, and when he landed he was rendered by the cold incapable of further exertion, and adam attempted to embark belanger, but found it impossible. an attempt was next made to carry out to him a line, made of the slings of the men's loads. this also failed, the current acting so strongly upon it, as to prevent the canoe from steering, and it was finally broken and carried down the stream. at length, when belanger's strength seemed almost exhausted, the canoe reached him with a small cord belonging to one of the nets, and he was dragged perfectly senseless through the rapid. by the direction of dr. richardson, he was instantly stripped, and being rolled up in blankets, two men undressed themselves and went to bed with him: but it was some hours before he recovered his warmth and sensations. as soon as belanger was placed in his bed, the officers sent over my blankets, and a person to make a fire. augustus brought the canoe over, and in returning he was obliged to descend both the rapids, before he could get across the stream; which hazardous service he performed with the greatest coolness and judgment. it is impossible to describe my sensations as i witnessed the various unsuccessful attempts to relieve belanger. the distance prevented my seeing distinctly what was going on, and i continued pacing up and down upon the rock on which i landed, regardless of the coldness of my drenched and stiffening garments. the canoe, in every attempt to reach him, was hurried down the rapid, and was lost to view amongst the rocky islets, with a rapidity that seemed to threaten certain destruction; once, indeed, i fancied that i saw it overwhelmed in the waves. such an event would have been fatal to the whole party. separated as i was from my companions, without gun, ammunition, hatchet, or the means of making a fire, and in wet clothes, my doom would have been speedily sealed. my companions too, driven to the necessity of coasting the lake, must have sunk under the fatigue of rounding its innumerable arms and bays, which, as we have learned from the indians, are very extensive. by the goodness of providence, however, we were spared at that time, and some of us have been permitted to offer up our thanksgivings, in a civilized land, for the signal deliverances we then and afterwards experienced. by this accident i had the misfortune to lose my portfolio{ }, containing my journal from fort enterprise, together with all the astronomical and meteorological observations made during the descent of the copper-mine river, and along the sea-coast, (except those for the dip and variation.) i was in the habit of carrying it strapped across my shoulders, but had taken it off on entering the canoe, to reduce the upper weight. the results of most of the observations for latitude and longitude, had been registered in the sketch books, so that we preserved the requisites for the construction of the chart. the meteorological observations, not having been copied, were lost. my companions, dr. richardson, mr. back, and mr. hood, had been so careful in noting every occurrence in their journals, that the loss of mine could fortunately be well supplied. these friends immediately offered me their documents, and every assistance in drawing up another narrative, of which kindness i availed myself at the earliest opportunity afterwards. _september _.--the rest of the party were brought across this morning, and we were delighted to find belanger so much recovered as to be able to proceed, but we could not set out until noon, as the men had to prepare substitutes for the slings which were lost yesterday. soon after leaving the encampment we discerned a herd of deer, and after a long chase a fine male was killed by perrault, several others were wounded but they escaped. after this we passed round the north end of a branch of the lake, and ascended the willingham mountains, keeping near the border of the lake. these hills were steep, craggy, and covered with snow. we encamped at seven and enjoyed a substantial meal. the party were in good spirits this evening at the recollection of having crossed the rapid, and being in possession of provision for the next day. besides we had taken the precaution of bringing away the skin of the deer to eat when the meat should fail. the temperature at six p.m. was °. we started at seven next morning and marched until ten, when the appearance of a few willows peeping through the snow induced us to halt and breakfast. recommencing the journey at noon, we passed over a more rugged country, where the hills were separated by deep ravines, whose steep sides were equally difficult to descend and to ascend, and the toil and suffering we experienced were greatly increased. the party was quite fatigued, when we encamped, having come ten miles and three quarters. we observed many summer deer roads, and some recent tracks. some marks that had been put up by the indians were also noticed. we have since learned that this is a regular deer pass, and on that account, annually frequented by the copper indians. the lake is called by them contwoy-to, or rum lake; in consequence of mr. hearne having here given the indians who accompanied him some of that liquor. fish is not found here. we walked next day over a more level country, but it was strewed with large stones. these galled our feet a good deal; we contrived, however, to wade through the snow at a tolerably quick pace until five p.m., having proceeded twelve miles and a half. we had made to-day our proper course, south by east, which we could not venture upon doing before, for fear of falling again upon some branch of the contwoy-to. some deer were seen in the morning, but the hunters failed of killing any, and in the afternoon we fell into the track of a large herd, which had passed the day before, but did not overtake them. in consequence of this want of success we had no breakfast, and but a scanty supper; but we allayed the pangs of hunger, by eating pieces of singed hide. a little _tripe de roche_[ ] was also obtained. these would have satisfied us in ordinary times, but we were now almost exhausted by slender fare and travel, and our appetites had become ravenous. we looked, however, with humble confidence to the great author and giver of all good, for a continuance of the support which had hitherto been always supplied to us at our greatest need. the thermometer varied to-day between ° and °. the wind blew fresh from the south. [ ] the different kinds of _gyrophora_, are termed indiscriminately by the voyagers, _tripe de roche_. on the th the atmosphere was hazy, but the day was more pleasant for walking than usual. the country was level and gravelly, and the snow very deep. we went for a short time along a deeply-beaten road made by the rein-deer, which turned suddenly off to the south-west, a direction so wide of our course that we could not venture upon following it. all the small lakes were frozen, and we marched across those which lay in our track. we supped off the _tripe de roche_ which had been gathered during our halts in the course of the march. thermometer at six p.m. °. showers of snow fell without intermission through the night, but they ceased in the morning, and we set out at the usual hour. the men were very faint from hunger, and marched with difficulty, having to oppose a fresh breeze, and to wade through snow two feet deep. we gained, however, ten miles by four o'clock, and then encamped. the canoe was unfortunately broken by the fall of the person who had it in charge. no _tripe de roche_ was seen to-day, but in clearing the snow to pitch the tents we found a quantity of iceland moss, which was boiled for supper. this weed, not having been soaked, proved so bitter, that few of the party could eat more than a few spoonfuls. our blankets did not suffice this evening to keep us in tolerable warmth; the slightest breeze seeming to pierce through our debilitated frames. the reader will, probably, be desirous to know how we passed our time in such a comfortless situation: the first operation after encamping was to thaw our frozen shoes, if a sufficient fire could be made, and dry ones were put on; each person then wrote his notes of the daily occurrences, and evening prayers were read; as soon as supper was prepared it was eaten, generally in the dark, and we went to bed, and kept up a cheerful conversation until our blankets were thawed by the heat of our bodies, and we had gathered sufficient warmth to enable us to fall asleep. on many nights we had not even the luxury of going to bed in dry clothes, for when the fire was insufficient to dry our shoes, we durst not venture to pull them off, lest they should freeze so hard as to be unfit to put on in the morning, and, therefore, inconvenient to carry. on the th we got into a hilly country, and the marching became much more laborious, even the stoutest experienced great difficulty in climbing the craggy eminences. mr. hood was particularly weak, and was obliged to relinquish his station of second in the line, which dr. richardson now took, to direct the leading man in keeping the appointed course. i was also unable to keep pace with the men, who put forth their utmost speed, encouraged by the hope, which our reckoning had led us to form, of seeing point lake in the evening, but we were obliged to encamp without gaining a view of it. we had not seen either deer or their tracks through the day, and this circumstance, joined to the disappointment of not discovering the lake, rendered our voyagers very desponding, and the meagre supper of _tripe de roche_ was little calculated to elevate their spirits. they now threatened to throw away their bundles, and quit us, which rash act they would probably have committed, if they had known what track to pursue. _september _.--we set out at seven this morning in dark foggy weather, and changed our course two points to the westward. the party were very feeble, and the men much dispirited; we made slow progress, having to march over a hilly and very rugged country. just before noon the sun beamed through the haze for the first time for six days, and we obtained an observation in latitude ° ' " n., which was six miles to the southward of that part of point lake to which our course was directed. by this observation we discovered that we had kept to the eastward of the proper course, which may be attributed partly to the difficulty of preserving a straight line through an unknown country, unassisted by celestial observations, and in such thick weather, that our view was often limited to a few hundred yards; but chiefly to our total ignorance of the amount of the variation of the compass. we altered the course immediately to west-south-west, and fired guns to apprize the hunters who were out of our view, and ignorant of our having done so. after walking about two miles we waited to collect the stragglers. two partridges were killed, and these with some _tripe de roche_, furnished our supper. notwithstanding a full explanation was given to the men of the reasons for altering the course, and they were assured that the observation had enabled us to discover our exact distance from fort enterprise, they could not divest themselves of the idea of our having lost our way, and a gloom was spread over every countenance. at this encampment dr. richardson was obliged to deposit his specimens of plants and minerals, collected on the sea-coast, being unable to carry them any farther. the way made to-day was five miles and a quarter. _september _.--after walking about two miles this morning, we came upon the borders of an extensive lake, whose extremities could not be discerned in consequence of the density of the atmosphere; but as its shores seemed to approach nearer to each other to the southward than to the northward, we determined on tracing it in that direction. we were grieved at finding the lake expand very much beyond the contracted part we had first seen, and incline to the eastward of south. as, however, it was considered more than probable, from the direction and size of the body of water we were now tracing, that it was a branch of point lake; and as, in any case, we knew that by passing round its south end, we must shortly come to the copper-mine river, our course was continued in that direction. the appearance of some dwarf pines and willows, larger than usual, induced us to suppose the river was near. we encamped early, having come eight miles. our supper consisted of _tripe de roche_ and half a partridge each. our progress next day was extremely slow, from the difficulty of managing the canoe in passing over the hills, as the breeze was fresh. peltier who had it in charge, having received several severe falls, became impatient, and insisted on leaving his burden, as it had already been much injured by the accidents of this day; and no arguments we could use were sufficient to prevail on him to continue carrying it. vaillant was, therefore, directed to take it, and we proceeded forward. having found that he got on very well, and was walking even faster than mr. hood could follow, in his present debilitated state, i pushed forward to stop the rest of the party, who had got out of sight during the delay which the discussion respecting the canoe had occasioned. i accidentally passed the body of the men, and followed the tracks of two persons who had separated from the rest, until two p.m., when not seeing any person, i retraced my steps, and on my way met dr. richardson, who had also missed the party whilst he was employed gathering _tripe de roche_, and we went back together in search of them. we found they had halted among some willows, where they had picked up some pieces of skin, and a few bones of deer that had been devoured by the wolves last spring. they had rendered the bones friable by burning, and eaten them as well as the skin; and several of them had added their old shoes to the repast. peltier and vaillant were with them, having left the canoe, which, they said, was so completely broken by another fall, as to be rendered incapable of repair, and entirely useless. the anguish this intelligence occasioned may be conceived, but it is beyond my power to describe it. impressed, however, with the necessity of taking it forward, even in the state these men represented it to be, we urgently desired them to fetch it; but they declined going, and the strength of the officers was inadequate to the task. to their infatuated obstinacy on this occasion, a great portion of the melancholy circumstances which attended our subsequent progress may, perhaps, be attributed. the men now seemed to have lost all hope of being preserved; and all the arguments we could use failed in stimulating them to the least exertion. after consuming the remains of the bones and horns of the deer we resumed our march, and in the evening, reached a contracted part of the lake, which, perceiving it to be shallow, we forded, and encamped on the opposite side. heavy rain began soon afterwards, and continued all night. on the following morning the rain had so wasted the snow, that the tracks of mr. back and his companions, who had gone before with the hunters, were traced with difficulty; and the frequent showers during the day almost obliterated them. the men became furious at the apprehension of being deserted by the hunters, and some of the strongest throwing down their bundles, prepared to set out after them, intending to leave the more weak to follow as they could. the entreaties and threats of the officers, however, prevented their executing this mad scheme; but not before solomon belanger was despatched with orders for mr. back to halt until we should join him. soon afterwards a thick fog came on, but we continued our march and overtook mr. back, who had been detained in consequence of his companions having followed some recent tracks of deer. after halting an hour, during which we refreshed ourselves with eating our old shoes, and a few scraps of leather, we set forward in the hope of ascertaining whether an adjoining piece of water was the copper-mine river or not, but were soon compelled to return and encamp, for fear of a separation of the party, as we could not see each other at ten yards' distance. the fog diminishing towards evening, augustus was sent to examine the water, but having lost his way he did not reach the tents before midnight, when he brought the information of its being a lake. we supped upon, _tripe de roche_, and enjoyed a comfortable fire, having found some pines, seven or eight feet high, in a valley near the encampment. the bounty of providence was most seasonably manifested to us next morning, in our killing five small deer out of a herd, which came in sight as we were on the point of starting. this unexpected supply re-animated the drooping spirits of our men, and filled every heart with gratitude. the voyagers instantly petitioned for a day's rest which we were most reluctant to grant, being aware of the importance of every moment at this critical period of our journey. but they so earnestly and strongly pleaded their recent sufferings, and their conviction, that the quiet enjoyment of two substantial meals, after eight days' famine, would enable them to proceed next day more vigorously, that we could not resist their entreaties. the flesh, the skins, and even the contents of the stomachs of the deer were equally distributed among the party by mr. hood, who had volunteered, on the departure of mr. wentzel, to perform the duty of issuing the provision. this invidious task he had all along performed with great impartiality, but seldom without producing some grumbling amongst the canadians; and, on the present occasion, the hunters were displeased that the heads and some other parts, had not been added to their portions. it is proper to remark, that mr. hood always took the smallest portion for his own mess, but this weighed little with these men, as long as their own appetites remained unsatisfied. we all suffered much inconvenience from eating animal food after our long abstinence, but particularly those men who indulged themselves beyond moderation. the canadians, with their usual thoughtlessness, had consumed above a third of their portions of meat that evening. we set out early on the th, and after walking about three miles along the lake, came to the river which we at once recognised, from its size, to be the copper-mine. it flowed to the northward, and after winding about five miles, terminated in point lake. its current was swift, and there were two rapids in this part of its course, which in a canoe we could have crossed with ease and safety. these rapids, as well as every other part of the river, were carefully examined in search of a ford; but finding none, the expedients occurred, of attempting to cross on a raft made of the willows which were growing there, or in a vessel framed with willows, and covered with the canvass of the tents; but both these schemes were abandoned, through the obstinacy of the interpreters and the most experienced voyagers, who declared that they would prove inadequate to the conveyance of the party, and that much time would be lost in the attempt. the men, in fact, did not believe that this was the copper-mine river, and so little confidence had they in our reckoning, and so much had they bewildered themselves on the march that some of them asserted it was hood's river, and others that it was the bethe-tessy. (a river which rises from a lake to the northward of rum lake, and holds a course to the sea parallel with that of the copper-mine.) in short, their despondency had returned, and they all despaired of seeing fort enterprise again. however, the steady assurances of the officers that we were actually on the banks of the copper-mine river, and that the distance to fort enterprise did not exceed forty miles, made some impression upon them, which was increased upon our finding some bear-berry plants (_arbutus uva ursi_,) which are reported by the indians not to grow to the eastward of that river. they then deplored their folly and impatience in breaking the canoe, being all of opinion, that had it not been so completely demolished on the d, it might have been repaired sufficiently to take the party over. we again closely interrogated peltier and vaillant as to its state, with the intention of sending for it; but they persisted in the declaration, that it was in a totally unserviceable condition. st. germain being again called upon to endeavour to construct a canoe frame with willows, stated that he was unable to make one sufficiently large. it became necessary, therefore, to search for pines of sufficient size to form a raft; and being aware that such trees grow on the borders of point lake, we considered it best to trace its shores in search of them; we, therefore, resumed our march, carefully looking, but in vain, for a fordable part, and encamped at the east end of point lake. as there was little danger of our losing the path of our hunters whilst we coasted the shores of this lake, i determined on again sending mr. back forward, with the interpreters to hunt. i had in view, in this arrangement, the further object of enabling mr. back to get across the lake with two of these men, to convey the earliest possible account of our situation to the indians. accordingly i instructed him to halt at the first pines he should come to, and then prepare a raft; and if his hunters had killed animals, so that the party could be supported whilst we were making our raft, he was to cross immediately with st. germain and beauparlant, and send the indians to us as quickly as possible with supplies of meat. we had this evening the pain of discovering that two of our men had stolen part of the officers' provision, which had been allotted to us with strict impartiality. this conduct was the more reprehensible, as it was plain that we were suffering, even in a greater degree than themselves, from the effects of famine, owing to our being of a less robust habit, and less accustomed to privations. we had no means of punishing this crime, but by the threat that they should forfeit their wages, which had now ceased to operate. mr. back and his companions set out at six in the morning, and we started at seven. as the snow had entirely disappeared, and there were no means of distinguishing the footsteps of stragglers, i gave strict orders, previously to setting out, for all the party to keep together: and especially i desired the two esquimaux not to leave us, they having often strayed in search of the remains of animals. our people, however, through despondency, had become careless and disobedient, and had ceased to dread punishment, or hope for reward. much time was lost in halting and firing guns to collect them, but the labour of walking was so much lightened by the disappearance of the snow, that we advanced seven or eight miles along the lake before noon, exclusive of the loss of distance in rounding its numerous bays. at length we came to an arm, running away to the north-east, and apparently connected with the lake which we had coasted on the nd, rd, and th, of the month. the idea of again rounding such an extensive piece of water and of travelling over so barren a country was dreadful, and we feared that other arms, equally large, might obstruct our path, and that the strength of the party would entirely fail, long before we could reach the only part where we were certain of finding wood, distant in a direct line twenty-five miles. while we halted to consider of this subject, and to collect the party, the carcase of a deer was discovered in the cleft of a rock into which it had fallen in the spring. it was putrid, but little less acceptable to us on that account, in our present circumstances; and a fire being kindled, a large portion was devoured on the spot, affording us an unexpected breakfast, for in order to husband our small remaining portion of meat, we had agreed to make only one scanty meal a day. the men, cheered by this unlooked-for supply, became sanguine in the hope of being able to cross the stream on a raft of willows, although they had before declared such a project impracticable, and they unanimously entreated us to return back to the rapid, a request which accorded with our own opinion, and was therefore acceded to. crédit and junius, however, were missing, and it was also necessary to send notice of our intention to mr. back and his party. augustus being promised a reward, undertook the task, and we agreed to wait for him at the rapid. it was supposed he could not fail meeting with the two stragglers on his way to or from mr. back, as it was likely they would keep on the borders of the lake. he accordingly set out after mr. back, whilst we returned about a mile towards the rapid, and encamped in a deep valley amongst some large willows. we supped on the remains of the putrid deer, and the men having gone to the spot where it was found, scraped together the contents of its intestines which were scattered on the rock, and added them to their meal. we also enjoyed the luxury to-day of eating a large quantity of excellent blue-berries and cran-berries (_vaccinium uliginosum_ and _v. vitis idæa_) which were laid bare by the melting of the snow, but nothing could allay our inordinate appetites. in the night we heard the report of crédit's gun in answer to our signal muskets, and he rejoined us in the morning, but we got no intelligence of junius. we set out about an hour after day-break{ }, and encamped at two p.m. between the rapids, where the river was about one hundred and thirty yards wide, being its narrowest part. eight deer were seen by michel and crédit, who loitered behind the rest of the party, but they could not approach them. a great many shots were fired by those in the rear at partridges, but they missed, or at least did not choose to add what they killed to the common stock. we subsequently learned that the hunters often secreted the partridges they shot, and ate them unknown to the officers. some _tripe de roche_ was collected, which we boiled for supper, with the moiety of the remainder of our deer's meat. the men commenced cutting the willows for the construction of the raft. as an excitement to exertion, i promised a reward of three hundred livres to the first person who should convey a line across the river, by which the raft could be managed in transporting the party. _september _.--strong south-east winds with fog in the morning, more moderate in the evening. temperature of the rapid °. the men began at an early hour to bind the willows in fagots for the construction of the raft, and it was finished by seven; but as the willows were green, it proved to be very little buoyant, and was unable to support more than one man at a time. even on this, however, we hoped the whole party might be transported, by hauling it from one side to the other, provided a line could be carried to the other bank. several attempts were made by belanger and benoit, the strongest men of the party, to convey the raft across the stream, but they failed for want of oars. a pole constructed by tying the tent poles together, was too short to reach the bottom at a short distance from the shore; and a paddle which had been carried from the sea-coast by dr. richardson, did not possess sufficient power to move the raft in opposition to a strong breeze, which blew from the other side. all the men suffered extremely from the coldness of the water, in which they were necessarily immersed up to the waists, in their endeavours to aid belanger and benoit; and having witnessed repeated failures, they began to consider the scheme as hopeless. at this time dr. richardson, prompted by a desire of relieving his suffering companions, proposed to swim across the stream with a line, and to haul the raft over. he launched into the stream with the line round his middle, but when he had got a short distance from the bank, his arms became benumbed with cold, and he lost the power of moving them; still he persevered, and, turning on his back, had nearly gained the opposite bank, when his legs also became powerless, and to our infinite alarm we beheld him sink. we instantly hauled upon the line and he came again on the surface, and was gradually drawn ashore in an almost lifeless state. being rolled up in blankets, he was placed before a good fire of willows, and fortunately was just able to speak sufficiently to give some slight directions respecting the manner of treating him. he recovered strength gradually, and through the blessing of god was enabled in the course of a few hours to converse, and by the evening was sufficiently recovered to remove into the tent. we then regretted to learn, that the skin of his whole left side was deprived of feeling, in consequence of exposure to too great heat. he did not perfectly recover the sensation of that side until the following summer. i cannot describe what every one felt at beholding the skeleton which the doctor's debilitated frame exhibited. when he stripped, the canadians simultaneously exclaimed, "ah! que nous sommes maigres!" i shall best explain his state and that of the party, by the following extract from his journal: "it may be worthy of remark that i should have had little hesitation in any former period of my life, at plunging into water even below ° fahrenheit; but at this time i was reduced almost to skin and bone, and, like the rest of the party, suffered from degrees of cold that would have been disregarded in health and vigour. during the whole of our march we experienced that no quantity of clothing could keep us warm whilst we fasted, but on those occasions on which we were enabled to go to bed with full stomachs, we passed the night in a warm and comfortable manner." in following the detail of our friend's narrow escape, i have omitted to mention, that when he was about to step into the water, he put his foot on a dagger, which cut him to the bone; but this misfortune could not stop him from attempting the execution of his generous undertaking. in the evening augustus came in. he had walked a day and a half beyond the place from whence we turned back, but had neither seen junius nor mr. back. of the former he had seen no traces, but he had followed the tracks of mr. back's party for a considerable distance, until the hardness of the ground rendered them imperceptible. junius was well equipped with ammunition, blankets, knives, a kettle, and other necessaries; and it was the opinion of augustus that when he found he could not rejoin the party, he would endeavour to gain the woods on the west end of point lake, and follow the river until he fell in with the esquimaux, who frequent its mouth. the indians too with whom we have since conversed upon this subject, are confident that he would be able to subsist himself during the winter. crédit, on his hunting excursion to-day, found a cap, which our people recognised to belong to one of the hunters who had left us in the spring. this circumstance produced the conviction of our being on the banks of the copper-mine river, which all the assertions of the officers had hitherto failed in effecting with some of the party; and it had the happy consequence of reviving their spirits considerably. we consumed the last of our deer's meat this evening at supper. next morning the men went out in search of dry willows, and collected eight large fagots, with which they formed a more buoyant raft than the former, but the wind being still adverse and strong, they delayed attempting to cross until a more favourable opportunity. pleased, however, with the appearance of this raft, they collected some _tripe de roche_, and made a cheerful supper. dr. richardson was gaining strength, but his leg was much swelled and very painful. an observation for latitude placed the encampment in ° ' " n., the longitude being ° ' " w., deduced from the last observation. on the morning of the st of october, the wind was strong, and the weather as unfavourable as before for crossing on the raft. we were rejoiced to see mr. back and his party in the afternoon. they had traced the lake about fifteen miles farther than we did, and found it undoubtedly connected, as we had supposed, with the lake we fell in with on the nd of september; and dreading, as we had done, the idea of coasting its barren shores, they returned to make an attempt at crossing here. st. germain now proposed to make a canoe of the fragments of painted canvass in which we wrapped our bedding. this scheme appearing practicable, a party was sent to our encampment of the th and th last, to collect pitch amongst{ } the small pines that grew there, to pay over the seams of the canoe. in the afternoon we had a heavy fall of snow, which continued all night. a small quantity of _tripe de roche_ was gathered; and crédit, who had been hunting, brought in the antlers and back bone of a deer which had been killed in the summer. the wolves and birds of prey had picked them clean, but there still remained a quantity of the spinal marrow which they had not been able to extract. this, although putrid, was esteemed a valuable prize, and the spine being divided into portions, was distributed equally. after eating the marrow, which was so acrid as to excoriate the lips, we rendered the bones friable by burning, and ate them also. on the following morning the ground was covered with snow to the depth of a foot and a half, and the weather was very stormy. these circumstances rendered the men again extremely despondent; a settled gloom hung over their countenances, and they refused to pick _tripe de roche_, choosing rather to go entirely without eating, than to make any exertion. the party which went for gum returned early in the morning without having found any; but st. germain said he could still make the canoe with the willows, covered with canvass, and removed with adam to a clump of willows for that purpose. mr. back accompanied them to stimulate his exertion, as we feared the lowness of his spirits would cause him to be slow in his operations. augustus went to fish at the rapid, but a large trout having carried away his bait, we had nothing to replace it. the snow-storm continued all the night, and during the forenoon of the d. having persuaded the people to gather some _tripe de roche_, i partook of a meal with them; and afterwards set out with the intention of going to st. germain to hasten his operations, but though he was only three quarters of a mile distant, i spent three hours in a vain attempt to reach him, my strength being unequal to the labour of wading through the deep snow; and i returned quite exhausted, and much shaken by the numerous falls i had got. my associates were all in the same debilitated state, and poor hood was reduced to a perfect shadow, from the severe bowel complaints which the _tripe de roche_ never failed to give him. back was so feeble as to require the support of a stick in walking; and dr. richardson had lameness superadded to weakness. the voyagers were somewhat stronger than ourselves, but more indisposed to exertion, on account of their despondency. the sensation of hunger was no longer felt by any of us, yet we were scarcely able to converse upon any other subject than the pleasures of eating. we were much indebted to hepburn at this crisis. the officers were unable from weakness to gather _tripe de roche_ themselves, and samandrè, who had acted as our cook on the journey from the coast, sharing in the despair of the rest of the canadians, refused to make the slightest exertion. hepburn, on the contrary, animated by a firm reliance on the beneficence of the supreme being, tempered with resignation to his will, was indefatigable in his exertions to serve us, and daily collected all the _tripe de roche_ that was used in the officers' mess. mr. hood could not partake of this miserable fare, and a partridge which had been reserved for him was, i lament to say, this day stolen by one of the men. _october _.--the canoe being finished, it was brought to the encampment, and the whole party being assembled in anxious expectation on the beach, st. germain embarked, and amidst our prayers for his success, succeeded in reaching the opposite shore. the canoe was then drawn back again, and another person transported, and in this manner by drawing it backwards and forwards, we were all conveyed over without any serious accident. by these frequent traverses the canoe was materially injured; and latterly it filled each time with water before reaching the shore, so that all our garments and bedding were wet, and there was not a sufficiency of willows upon the side on which we now were, to make a fire to dry them. that no time might be lost in procuring relief, i immediately despatched mr. back with st. germain, solomon belanger, and beauparlant, to search for the indians, directing him to go to fort enterprise, where we expected they would be, or where, at least, a note from mr. wentzel would be found to direct us in our search for them. if st. germain should kill any animals on his way, a portion of the meat was to be put up securely for us, and conspicuous marks placed over it. it is impossible to imagine a more gratifying change than was produced in our voyagers after we were all safely landed on the southern banks of the river. their spirits immediately revived, each of them shook the officers cordially by the hand, and declared they now considered the worst of their difficulties over, as they did not doubt of reaching fort enterprise in a few days, even in their feeble condition. we had, indeed, every reason to be grateful, and our joy would have been complete had it not been mingled with sincere regret at the separation of our poor esquimaux, the faithful junius. the want of _tripe de roche_ caused us to go supperless to bed. showers of snow fell frequently during the night. the breeze was light next morning, the weather cold and clear. we were all on foot by day-break, but from the frozen state of our tents and bed-clothes, it was long before the bundles could be made, and as usual, the men lingered over a small fire they had kindled, so that it was eight o'clock before we started. our advance, from the depth of the snow, was slow, and about noon, coming to a spot where there was some _tripe de roche_, we stopped to collect it, and breakfasted. mr. hood, who was now very feeble, and dr. richardson, who attached himself to him, walked together at a gentle pace in the rear of the party. i kept with the foremost men, to cause them to halt occasionally, until the stragglers came up. resuming our march after breakfast, we followed the track of mr. back's party, and encamped early, as all of us were much fatigued, particularly crédit, who having to-day carried the men's tent, it being his turn so to do, was so exhausted, that when he reached the encampment he was unable to stand. the _tripe de roche_ disagreed with this man and with vaillant, in consequence of which, they were the first whose strength totally failed. we had a small quantity of this weed in the evening, and the rest of our supper was made up of scraps of roasted leather. the distance walked to-day was six miles. as crédit was very weak in the morning, his load was reduced to little more than his personal luggage, consisting of his blanket, shoes, and gun. previous to setting out, the whole party ate the remains of their old shoes, and whatever scraps of leather they had, to strengthen their stomachs for the fatigue of the day's journey. we left the encampment at nine, and pursued our route over a range of black hills. the wind having increased to a strong gale in the course of the morning, became piercingly cold, and the drift rendered it difficult for those in the rear to follow the track over the heights; whilst in the valleys, where it was sufficiently marked, from the depth of the snow, the labour of walking was proportionably great. those in advance made, as usual, frequent halts, yet being unable from the severity of the weather to remain long still, they were obliged to move on before the rear could come up, and the party, of course, straggled very much. about noon samandrè coming up, informed us that crédit and vaillant could advance no further. some willows being discovered in a valley near us, i proposed to halt the party there, whilst dr. richardson went back to visit them. i hoped too, that when the sufferers received the information of a fire being kindled at so short a distance they would be cheered, and use their utmost efforts to reach it, but this proved a vain hope. the doctor found vaillant about a mile and a half in the rear, much exhausted with cold and fatigue. having encouraged him to advance to the fire, after repeated solicitations he made the attempt, but fell down amongst the deep snow at every step. leaving him in this situation, the doctor went about half a mile farther back, to the spot where crédit was said to have halted, and the track being nearly obliterated by the snow drift, it became unsafe for him to go further. returning he passed vaillant, who having moved only a few yards in his absence, had fallen down, was unable to rise, and could scarcely answer his questions. being unable to afford him any effectual assistance, he hastened on to inform us of his situation. when j. b. belanger had heard the melancholy account, he went immediately to aid vaillant, and bring up his burden. respecting crédit, we were informed by samandrè, that he had stopped a short distance behind vaillant, but that his intention was to return to the encampment of the preceding evening. when belanger came back with vaillant's load, he informed us that he had found him lying on his back, benumbed with cold, and incapable of being roused. the stoutest men of the party were now earnestly entreated to bring him to the fire, but they declared themselves unequal to the task; and, on the contrary, urged me to allow them to throw down their loads, and proceed to fort enterprise with the utmost speed. a compliance with their desire would have caused the loss of the whole party, for the men were totally ignorant of the course to be pursued, and none of the officers, who could have directed the march, were sufficiently strong to keep up at the pace they would then walk; besides, even supposing them to have found their way, the strongest men would certainly have deserted the weak. something, however, was absolutely necessary to be done, to relieve them as much as possible from their burdens, and the officers consulted on the subject. mr. hood and dr. richardson proposed to remain behind, with a single attendant, at the first place where sufficient wood and _tripe de roche_ should be found for ten days' consumption; and that i should proceed as expeditiously as possible with the men to the house, and thence send them immediate relief. they strongly urged that this arrangement would contribute to the safety of the rest of the party, by relieving them from the burden of a tent, and several other articles; and that they might afford aid to crédit, if he should unexpectedly come up. i was distressed beyond description at the thought of leaving them in such a dangerous situation, and for a long time combated their proposal; but they strenuously urged, that this step afforded the only chance of safety for the party, and i reluctantly acceded to it. the ammunition, of which we had a small barrel, was also to be left with them, and it was hoped that this deposit would be a strong inducement for the indians to venture across the barren grounds to their aid. we communicated this resolution to the men, who were cheered at the slightest prospect of alleviation to their present miseries, and promised with great appearance of earnestness to return to those officers, upon the first supply of food. the party then moved on; vaillant's blanket and other necessaries were left in the track, at the request of the canadians, without any hope, however, of his being able to reach them. after marching till dusk without seeing a favourable place for encamping, night compelled us to take shelter under the lee of a hill, amongst some willows, with which, after many attempts, we at length made a fire. it was not sufficient, however, to warm the whole party, much less to thaw our shoes; and the weather not permitting the gathering of _tripe de roche_, we had nothing to cook. the painful retrospection of the melancholy events of the day banished sleep, and we shuddered as we contemplated the dreadful effects of this bitterly cold night on our two companions, if still living. some faint hopes were entertained of crédit's surviving the storm, as he was provided with a good blanket, and had leather to eat. the weather was mild next morning. we left the encampment at nine, and a little before noon came to a pretty extensive thicket of small willows, near which there appeared a supply of _tripe de roche_ on the face of the rocks. at this place dr. richardson and mr. hood determined to remain, with john hepburn, who volunteered to stop with them. the tent was securely pitched, a few willows collected, and the ammunition and all other articles were deposited, except each man's clothing, one tent, a sufficiency of ammunition for the journey, and the officers' journals. i had only one blanket, which was carried for me, and two pair of shoes. the offer was now made for any of the men, who felt themselves too weak to proceed, to remain with the officers, but none of them accepted it. michel alone felt some inclination to do so. after we had united in thanksgiving and prayers to almighty god, i separated from my companions, deeply afflicted that a train of melancholy circumstances should have demanded of me the severe trial of parting, in such a condition, from friends who had become endeared to me by their constant kindness and co-operation, and a participation of numerous sufferings. this trial i could not have been induced to undergo, but for the reasons they had so strongly urged the day before, to which my own judgment assented, and for the sanguine hope i felt of either finding a supply of provision at fort enterprise, or meeting the indians in the immediate vicinity of that place, according to my arrangements with mr. wentzel and akaitcho. previously to our starting, peltier and benoit repeated their promises, to return to them with provision, if any should be found at the house, or to guide the indians to them, if any were met. greatly as mr. hood was exhausted, and indeed, incapable as he must have proved, of encountering the fatigue of our very next day's journey, so that i felt his resolution to be prudent, i was sensible that his determination to remain, was chiefly prompted by the disinterested and generous wish to remove impediments to the progress of the rest. dr. richardson and hepburn, who were both in a state of strength to keep pace with the men, besides this motive which they shared with him, were influenced in their resolution to remain, the former by the desire which had distinguished his character, throughout the expedition, of devoting himself to the succour of the weak, and the latter by the zealous attachment he had ever shown towards his officers. we set out without waiting to take any of the _tripe de roche_, and walking at a tolerable pace, in an hour arrived at a fine group of pines, about a mile and a quarter from the tent. we sincerely regretted not having seen these before we separated from our companions, as they would have been better supplied with fuel here, and there appeared to be more _tripe de roche_ than where we had left them. descending afterwards into a more level country, we found the snow very deep, and the labour of wading through it so fatigued the whole party, that we were compelled to encamp, after a march of four miles and a half. belanger and michel were left far behind, and when they arrived at the encampment appeared quite exhausted. the former, bursting into tears, declared his inability to proceed, and begged me to let him go back next morning to the tent, and shortly afterwards michel made the same request. i was in hopes they might recover a little strength by the night's rest, and therefore deferred giving any permission _until_ morning. the sudden failure in the strength of these men cast a gloom over the rest, which i tried in vain to remove, by repeated assurances that the distance to fort enterprise was short, and that we should, in all probability, reach it in four days. not being able to find any _tripe de roche_, we drank an infusion of the labrador tea plant, (_ledum palustre_), and ate a few morsels of burnt leather for supper. we were unable to raise the tent, and found its weight too great to carry it on; we, therefore, cut it up, and took a part of the canvass for a cover. the night was bitterly cold, and though we lay as close to each other as possible, having no shelter, we could not keep ourselves sufficiently warm to sleep. a strong gale came on after midnight, which increased the severity of the weather. in the morning belanger and michel renewed their request to be permitted to go back to the tent, assuring me they were still weaker than on the preceding evening, and less capable of going forward; and they urged, that the stopping at a place where there was a supply of _tripe de roche_ was their only chance of preserving life; under these circumstances, i could not do otherwise than yield to their desire. i wrote a note to dr. richardson and mr. hood, informing them of the pines we had passed, and recommending their removing thither. having found that michel was carrying a considerable quantity of ammunition, i desired him to divide it among my party, leaving him only ten balls and a little shot, to kill any animals he might meet on his way to the tent. this man was very particular in his inquiries respecting the direction of the house, and the course we meant to pursue; he also said, that if he should be able, he would go and search for vaillant, and crédit; and he requested my permission to take vaillant's blanket, if he should find it, to which i agreed, and mentioned it in my notes to the officers. scarcely were these arrangements finished, before perrault and fontano were seized with a fit of dizziness, and betrayed other symptoms of extreme debility. some tea was quickly prepared for them, and after drinking it, and eating a few morsels of burnt leather, they recovered, and expressed their desire to go forward; but the other men, alarmed at what they had just witnessed, became doubtful of their own strength, and, giving way to absolute dejection, declared their inability to move. i now earnestly pressed upon them the necessity of continuing our journey, as the only means of saving their own lives, as well as those of our friends at the tent; and, after much entreaty, got them to set out at ten a.m.: belanger and michel were left at the encampment, and proposed to start shortly afterwards. by the time we had gone about two hundred yards, perrault became again dizzy, and desired us to halt, which we did, until he, recovering, offered to march on. ten minutes more had hardly elapsed before he again desired us to stop, and, bursting into tears, declared he was totally exhausted, and unable to accompany us further. as the encampment was not more than a quarter of a mile distant, we recommended that he should return to it, and rejoin belanger and michel, whom we knew to be still there, from perceiving the smoke of a fresh fire; and because they had not made any preparation for starting when we quitted them. he readily acquiesced in the proposition, and having taken a friendly leave of each of us, and enjoined us to make all the haste we could in sending relief, he turned back, keeping his gun and ammunition. we watched him until he was nearly at the fire, and then proceeded. during these detentions, augustus becoming impatient of the delay had walked on, and we lost sight of him. the labour we experienced in wading through the deep snow induced us to cross a moderate sized lake, which lay in our track, but we found this operation far more harassing. as the surface of the ice was perfectly smooth, we slipt at almost every step, and were frequently blown down by the wind with such force as to shake our whole frames. poor fontano was completely exhausted by the labour of this traverse, and we made a halt until his strength was recruited, by which time the party was benumbed with cold. proceeding again, he got on tolerably well for a little time; but being again seized with faintness and dizziness, he fell often, and at length exclaimed that he could go no further. we immediately stopped, and endeavoured to encourage him to persevere, until we should find some willows to encamp; he insisted, however, that he could not march any longer through this deep snow; and said, that if he should even reach our encampment this evening, he must be left there, provided _tripe de roche_ could not be procured to recruit his strength. the poor man was overwhelmed with grief, and seemed desirous to remain at that spot. we were about two miles from the place where the other men had been left, and as the track to it was beaten, we proposed to him to return thither, as we thought it probable he would find the men still there; at any rate, he would be able to get fuel to keep him warm during the night; and, on the next day, he could follow their track to the officers' tent; and, should the path be covered by the snow, the pines we had passed yesterday would guide him, as they were yet in view. i cannot describe my anguish on the occasion of separating from another companion under circumstances so distressing. there was, however, no alternative. the extreme debility of the rest of the party put the carrying him quite out of the question, as he himself admitted; and it was evident that the frequent delays he must occasion if he accompanied us, and did not gain strength, would endanger the lives of the whole. by returning he had the prospect of getting to the tent where _tripe de roche_ could be obtained, which agreed with him better than with any other of the party, and which he was always very assiduous in gathering. after some hesitation he determined on going back, and set out, having bid each of us farewell in the tenderest manner. we watched him with inexpressible anxiety for some time, and were rejoiced to find, though he got on slowly, that he kept on his legs better than before. antonio fontano was an italian, and had served many years in de meuron's regiment. he had spoken to me that very morning, and after his first attack of dizziness, about his father; and had begged, that should he survive, i would take him with me to england, and put him in the way of reaching home. the party was now reduced to five persons, adam, peltier, benoit, samandrè, and myself. continuing the journey, we came, after an hour's walk, to some willows, and encamped under the shelter of a rock, having walked in the whole four miles and a half. we made an attempt to gather some _tripe de roche_, but could not, owing to the severity of the weather. our supper, therefore, consisted of tea and a few morsels of leather. augustus did not make his appearance, but we felt no alarm at his absence, supposing he would go to the tent if he missed our track. having fire, we procured a little sleep. next morning the breeze was light and the weather mild, which enabled us to collect some _tripe de roche_, and to enjoy the only meal we had had for four days. we derived great benefit from it, and walked with considerably more ease than yesterday. without the strength it supplied, we should certainly have been unable to oppose the strong breeze we met in the afternoon. after walking about five miles, we came upon the borders of marten lake, and were rejoiced to find it frozen, so that we could continue our course straight for fort enterprise. we encamped at the first rapid in winter river amidst willows and alders; but these were so frozen, and the snow fell so thick, that the men had great difficulty in making a fire. this proving insufficient to warm us, or even thaw our shoes, and having no food to prepare, we crept under our blankets. the arrival in a well-known part raised the spirits of the men to a high pitch, and we kept up a cheerful conversation until sleep overpowered us. the night was very stormy, and the morning scarcely less so; but, being desirous to reach the house this day, we commenced our journey very early. we were gratified by the sight of a large herd of rein-deer on the side of the hill near the track, but our only hunter, adam, was too feeble to pursue them. our shoes and garments were stiffened by the frost, and we walked in great pain until we arrived at some stunted pines, at which we halted, made a good fire, and procured the refreshment of tea. the weather becoming fine in the afternoon, we continued our journey, passed the dog-rib rock, and encamped among a clump of pines of considerable growth, about a mile further on. here we enjoyed the comfort of a large fire for the first time since our departure from the sea-coast; but this gratification was purchased at the expense of many severe falls in crossing a stony valley, to get to these trees. there was no _tripe de roche_, and we drank tea and ate some of our shoes for supper. next morning after taking the usual repast of tea, we proceeded to the house. musing on what we were likely to find there, our minds were agitated between hope and fear, and, contrary to the custom we had kept up, of supporting our spirits by conversation, we went silently forward. at length we reached fort enterprise, and to our infinite disappointment and grief found it a perfectly desolate habitation. there was no deposit of provision, no trace of the indians, no letter from mr. wentzel to point out where the indians might be found. it would be impossible to describe our sensations after entering this miserable abode, and discovering how we had been neglected: the whole party shed tears, not so much for our own fate, as for that of our friends in the rear, whose lives depended entirely on our sending immediate relief from this place. i found a note, however, from mr. back, stating that he had reached the house two days before and was going in search of the indians, at a part where st. germain deemed it probable they might be found. if he was unsuccessful, he purposed walking to fort providence, and sending succour from thence: but he doubted whether either he or his party could perform the journey to that place in their present debilitated state. it was evident that any supply that could be sent from fort providence would be long in reaching us, neither could it be sufficient to enable us to afford any assistance to our companions behind, and that the only relief for them must be procured from the indians. i resolved therefore, on going also in search of them: but my companions were absolutely incapable of proceeding, and i thought by halting two or three days they might gather a little strength, whilst the delay would afford us the chance of learning whether mr. back had seen the indians. we now looked round for the means of subsistence, and were gratified to find several deer-skins, which had been thrown away during our former residence. the bones were gathered from the heap of ashes; these with the skins, and the addition of _tripe de roche_, we considered would support us tolerably well for a time. as to the house, the parchment being torn from the windows, the apartment we selected for our abode was exposed to all the rigour of the season. we endeavoured to exclude the wind as much as possible, by placing loose boards against the apertures. the temperature was now between ° and ° below zero. we procured fuel by pulling up the flooring of the other rooms, and water for cooking, by melting the snow. whilst we were seated round the fire, singeing the deer-skin for supper, we were rejoiced by the unexpected entrance of augustus. he had followed quite a different course from ours, and the circumstance of his having found his way through a part of the country he had never been in before, must be considered a remarkable proof of sagacity. 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. when i arose the following morning, my body and limbs were so swollen that i was unable to walk more than a few yards. adam was in a still worse condition, being absolutely incapable of rising without assistance. my other companions happily experienced this inconvenience in a less degree, and went to collect bones, and some _tripe de roche_ which supplied us with two meals. the bones were quite acrid, and the soup extracted from them excoriated the mouth if taken alone, but it was somewhat milder when boiled with _tripe de roche_, and we even thought the mixture palatable, with the addition of salt, of which a cask had been fortunately left here in the spring. augustus to-day set two fishing lines below the rapid. on his way thither he saw two deer, but had not strength to follow them. on the th the wind blew violently from south-east, and the snow drifted so much that the party were confined to the house. in the afternoon of the following day belanger arrived with a note from mr. back, stating that he had seen no trace of the indians, and desiring further instructions as to the course he should pursue. belanger's situation, however, required our first care, as he came in almost speechless, and covered with ice, having fallen into a rapid, and, for the third time since we left the coast, narrowly escaped drowning. he did not recover sufficiently to answer our questions, until we had rubbed him for some time, changed his dress, and given him some warm soup. my companions nursed him with the greatest kindness, and the desire of restoring him to health, seemed to absorb all regard for their own situation. i witnessed with peculiar pleasure this conduct, so different from that which they had recently pursued, when every tender feeling was suspended by the desire of self-preservation. they now no longer betrayed impatience or despondency, but were composed and cheerful, and had entirely given up the practice of swearing, to which the canadian voyagers are so lamentably addicted. our conversation naturally turned upon the prospect of getting relief, and upon the means which were best adapted for obtaining it. the absence of all traces of indians on winter river, convinced me that they were at this time on the way to fort providence, and that by proceeding towards that post we should overtake them, as they move slowly when they have their families with them. this route also offered us the prospect of killing deer, in the vicinity of rein-deer{ } lake, in which neighbourhood, our men in their journey to and fro last winter, had always found them abundant. upon these grounds i determined on taking the route to fort providence as soon as possible, and wrote to mr. back, desiring him to join me at rein-deer lake, and detailing the occurrences since we parted, that our friends might receive relief, in case of any accident happening to me. belanger did not recover sufficient strength to leave us before the th. his answers as to the exact part of round-rock lake in which he had left mr. back, were very unsatisfactory; and we could only collect that it was at a considerable distance, and that he was still going on with the intention of halting at the place where akaitcho was encamped last summer, about thirty miles off. this distance appeared so great, that i told belanger it was very unsafe for him to attempt it alone, and that he would be several days in accomplishing it. he stated, however, that as the track was beaten, he should experience little fatigue, and seemed so confident, that i suffered him to depart with a supply of singed hide. next day i received information which explained why he was so unwilling to acquaint us with the situation of mr. back's party. he dreaded that i should resolve upon joining it, when our numbers would be so great as to consume at once every thing st. germain might kill, if by accident he should be successful in hunting. he even endeavoured to entice away our other hunter, adam, and proposed to him to carry off the only kettle we had, and without which we could not have subsisted two days. adam's inability to move, however, precluded him from agreeing to the proposal, but he could assign no reason for not acquainting me with it previous to belanger's departure. i was at first inclined to consider the whole matter as a fiction of adam's, but he persisted in his story without wavering; and belanger, when we met again, confessed that every part of it was true. it is painful to have to record a fact so derogatory to human nature, but i have deemed it proper to mention it, to shew the difficulties we had to contend with, and the effect which distress had in warping the feelings and understanding of the most diligent and obedient of our party; for such belanger had been always esteemed up to this time. in making arrangements for our departure, adam disclosed to me, for the first time, that he was affected with oedematous swellings in some parts of the body, to such a degree as to preclude the slightest attempt at marching; and upon my expressing my surprise at his having hitherto concealed from me the extent of his malady, among other explanations the details of the preceding story came out. it now became necessary to abandon the original intention of proceeding with the whole party towards fort providence, and peltier and samandrè having volunteered to remain with adam, i determined on setting out with benoit and augustus, intending to send them relief by the first party of indians we should meet. my clothes were so much torn, as to be quite inadequate to screen me from the wind, and peltier and samandrè fearing that i might suffer on the journey in consequence, kindly exchanged with me parts of their dress, desiring me to send them skins in return by the indians. having patched up three pair of snow shoes, and singed{ } a quantity of skin for the journey, we started on the morning of the th. previous to my departure, i packed up the journals of the officers, the charts, and some other documents, together with a letter addressed to the under-secretary of state, detailing the occurrences of the expedition up to this period, which package was given in charge to peltier and samandrè with directions that it should be brought away by the indians who might come to them. i also instructed them to send succour immediately on its arrival to our companions in the rear, which they solemnly promised to do, and i left a letter for my friends, richardson and hood, to be sent at the same time. i thought it necessary to admonish peltier, samandrè, and adam, to eat two meals every day, in order to keep up their strength, which they promised me they would do. no language that i can use could adequately describe the parting scene. i shall only say there was far more calmness and resignation to the divine will evinced by every one than could have been expected. we were all cheered by the hope that the indians would be found by the one party, and relief sent to the other. those who remained entreated us to make all the haste we could, and expressed their hope of seeing the indians in ten or twelve days. at first starting we were so feeble as scarcely to be able to move forwards, and the descent of the bank of the river through the deep snow was a severe labour. when we came upon the ice, where the snow was less deep, we got on better, but after walking six hours we had only gained four miles, and were then compelled by fatigue to encamp on the borders of round-rock lake. augustus tried for fish here, but without success, so that our fare was skin and tea. composing ourselves to rest, we lay close to each other for warmth. we found the night bitterly cold, and the wind pierced through our famished frames. the next morning was mild and pleasant for travelling, and we set out after breakfast. we had not, however, gone many yards before i had the misfortune to break my snow shoes by falling between two rocks. this accident prevented me from keeping pace with benoit and augustus, and in the attempt i became quite exhausted. feeling convinced that their being delayed on my account might prove of fatal consequence to the rest, i resolved on returning to the house, and letting them proceed alone in search of the indians. i therefore halted them only whilst i wrote a note to mr. back, stating the reason of my return, and desiring he would send meat from rein-deer lake by these men, if st. germain should kill any animals there. if benoit should miss mr. back, i directed him to proceed to fort providence, and furnished him with a letter to the gentleman in charge of it, requesting that immediate supplies might be sent to us. on my return to the house, i found samandrè very dispirited, and too weak, as he said, to render any assistance to peltier; upon whom the whole labour of getting wood and collecting the means of subsistence would have devolved. conscious, too, that his strength would have been unequal to these tasks, they had determined upon taking only one meal each day; so that i felt my going{ } back particularly fortunate, as i hoped to stimulate samandrè to exertion, and at any rate could contribute some help to peltier. i undertook the office of cooking, and insisted they should eat twice a day whenever food could be procured; but as i was too weak to pound the bones, peltier agreed to do that in addition to his more fatiguing task of getting wood. we had a violent snow storm all the next day, and this gloomy weather increased the depression of spirits under which adam and samandrè were labouring. neither of them would quit their beds, and they scarcely ceased from shedding tears all day; in vain did peltier and myself endeavour to cheer them. we had even to use much entreaty before they would take the meals we had prepared for them. our situation was indeed distressing, but in comparison with that of our friends in the rear, we thought it happy. their condition gave us unceasing solicitude, and was the principal subject of our conversation. though the weather was stormy on the th, samandrè assisted me to gather _tripe de roche_. adam, who was very ill, and could not now be prevailed upon to eat this weed, subsisted principally on bones, though he also partook of the soup. the _tripe de roche_ had hitherto afforded us our chief support, and we naturally felt great uneasiness at the prospect of being deprived of it, by its being so frozen as to render it impossible for us to gather it. we perceived our strength decline every day, and every exertion began to be irksome; when we were once seated the greatest effort was necessary in order to rise, and we had frequently to lift each other from our seats; but even in this pitiable condition we conversed cheerfully, being sanguine as to the speedy arrival of the indians. we calculated indeed that if they should be near the situation where they had remained last winter, our men would have reached them by this day. having expended all the wood which we could procure from our present dwelling, without danger of its fall, peltier began this day to pull down the partitions of the adjoining houses. though these were only distant about twenty yards, yet the increase of labour in carrying the wood fatigued him so much, that by the evening he was exhausted. on the next day his weakness was such, especially in the arms, of which he chiefly complained, that he with difficulty lifted the hatchet; still he persevered, while samandrè and i assisted him in bringing in the wood, but our united strength could only collect sufficient to replenish the fire four times in the course of the day. as the insides of our mouths had become sore from eating the bone-soup, we relinquished the use of it, and now boiled the skin, which mode of dressing we found more palatable than frying it, as we had hitherto done. on the th, peltier felt his pains more severe, and could only cut a few pieces of wood. samandrè, who was still almost as weak, relieved him a little time, and i aided them in carrying in the wood. we endeavoured to pick some _tripe de roche_, but in vain, as it was entirely frozen. in turning up the snow, in searching for bones, i found several pieces of bark, which proved a valuable acquisition, as we were almost destitute of dry wood proper for kindling the fire. we saw a herd of rein-deer sporting on the river, about half a mile from the house; they remained there a long time, but none of the party felt themselves strong enough to go after them, nor was there one of us who could have fired a gun without resting it. whilst we were seated round the fire this evening, discoursing about the anticipated relief, the conversation was suddenly interrupted by peltier's exclaiming with joy, "_ah! le monde!_" imagining that he heard the indians in the other room; immediately afterwards, to his bitter disappointment, dr. richardson and hepburn entered, each carrying his bundle. peltier, however, soon recovered himself enough to express his delight at their safe arrival, and his regret that their companions{ } were not with them. when i saw them alone my own mind was instantly filled with apprehensions respecting my friend hood, and our other companions, which were immediately confirmed by the doctor's melancholy communication, that mr. hood and michel were dead. perrault and fontano had neither reached the tent, nor been heard of by them. this intelligence produced a melancholy despondency in the minds of my party, and on that account the particulars were deferred until another opportunity. we were all shocked at beholding the emaciated countenances of the doctor and hepburn, as they strongly evidenced their extremely debilitated state. the alteration in our appearance was equally distressing to them, for since the swellings had subsided we were little more than skin and bone. the doctor particularly remarked the sepulchral tone of our voices, which he requested us to make more cheerful if possible, unconscious that his own partook of the same key. hepburn having shot a partridge, which was brought to the house, the doctor tore out the feathers, and having held it to the fire a few minutes divided it into six portions. i and my three companions ravenously devoured our shares, as it was the first morsel of flesh any of us had tasted for thirty-one days, unless, indeed the small gristly particles which we found occasionally adhering to the pounded bones may be termed flesh. our spirits were revived by this small supply, and the doctor endeavoured to raise them still higher by the prospect of hepburn's being able to kill a deer next day, as they had seen, and even fired at, several near the house. he endeavoured, too, to rouse us into some attention to the comfort of our apartment, and particularly to roll up, in the day, our blankets, which (expressly for the convenience of adam and samandrè,) we had been in the habit of leaving by the fire where we lay on them. the doctor having brought his prayer-book and testament, some prayers and psalms, and portions of scripture, appropriate to our situation, were read, and we retired to bed. next morning the doctor and hepburn went out early in search of deer; but though they saw several herds and fired some shots, they were not so fortunate as to kill any, being too weak to hold their guns steadily. the cold compelled the former to return soon, but hepburn persisted until late in the evening. my occupation was to search for skins under the snow, it being now our object immediately to get all that we would, but i had not strength to drag in more than two of those which were within twenty yards of the house until the doctor came and assisted me. we made up our stock to twenty-six, but several of them were putrid, and scarcely eatable, even by men suffering the extremity of famine. peltier and samandrè continued very weak and dispirited, and they were unable to cut fire-wood. hepburn had in consequence that laborious task to perform after he came back. the doctor having scarified the swelled parts of adam's body, a large quantity of water flowed out, and he obtained some ease, but still kept his bed. after our usual supper of singed skin and bone soup, dr. richardson acquainted me with the afflicting circumstances attending the death of mr. hood and michel, and detailed the occurrences subsequent to my departure from them, which i shall give from his journal, in his own words; but i must here be permitted to express the heart-felt sorrow with which i was overwhelmed at the loss of so many companions; especially of my friend mr. hood, to whose zealous and able co-operation i had been indebted for so much invaluable assistance during the expedition, whilst the excellent qualities of his heart engaged my warmest regard. his scientific observations, together with his maps and drawings (a small part of which only appear in this work), evince a variety of talent, which, had his life been spared, must have rendered him a distinguished ornament to his profession, and which will cause his death to be felt as a loss to the service. dr. richardson's narrative. after captain franklin had bidden us farewell we remained seated by the fire-side as long as the willows the men had cut for us before they departed, lasted. we had no _tripe de roche_ that day, but drank an infusion of the country tea-plant, which was grateful from its warmth, although it afforded no sustenance. we then retired to bed, where we remained all the next day, as the weather was stormy, and the snow-drift so heavy, as to destroy every prospect of success in our endeavours to light a fire with the green and frozen willows, which were our only fuel. through the extreme kindness and forethought of a lady, the party, previous to leaving london, had been furnished with a small collection of religious books, of which we still retained two or three of the most portable, and they proved of incalculable benefit to us. we read portions of them to each other as we lay in bed, in addition to the morning and evening service, and found that they inspired us on each perusal with so strong a sense of the omnipresence of a beneficent god, that our situation, even in these wilds, appeared no longer destitute; and we conversed, not only with calmness, but with cheerfulness, detailing with unrestrained confidence the past events of our lives, and dwelling with hope on our future prospects. had my poor friend been spared to revisit his native land, i should look back to this period with unalloyed delight. on the morning of the th, the weather, although still cold, was clear, and i went out in quest of _tripe de roche_, leaving hepburn to cut willows for a fire, and mr. hood in bed. i had no success, as yesterday's snow-drift was so frozen on the surface of the rocks that i could not collect any of the weed; but on my return to the tent, i found that michel, the iroquois, had come with a note from mr. franklin, which stated, that this man and jean baptiste belanger being unable to proceed, were about to return to us, and that a mile beyond our present encampment there was a clump of pine-trees, to which he recommended us to remove the tent. michel informed us that he quitted mr. franklin's party yesterday morning, but, that having missed his way, he had passed the night on the snow a mile or two to the northward of us. belanger, he said, being impatient, left the fire about two hours earlier, and, as he had not arrived, he supposed must have gone astray. it will be seen in the sequel, that we had more than sufficient reason to doubt the truth of this story. michel now produced a hare and a partridge which he had killed in the morning. this unexpected supply of provision was received by us with a deep sense of gratitude to the almighty for his goodness, and we looked upon michel as the instrument he had chosen to preserve all our lives. he complained of cold, and mr. hood offered to share his buffalo robe with him at night: i gave him one of two shirts which i wore, whilst hepburn in the warmth of his heart, exclaimed, "how i shall love this man if i find that he does not tell lies like the others." our meals being finished, we arranged that the greatest part of the things should be carried to the pines the next day; and, after reading the evening service retired to bed full of hope. early in the morning hepburn, michel, and myself, carried the ammunition, and most of the other heavy articles to the pines. michel was our guide, and it did not occur to us at the time that his conducting us perfectly straight was incompatible with his story of having mistaken his road in coming to us. he now informed us that he had, on his way to the tent, left on the hill above the pines a gun and forty-eight balls, which perrault had given to him when with the rest of mr. franklin's party, he took leave of him. it will be seen, on a reference to mr. franklin's journal, that perrault carried his gun and ammunition with him when they parted from michel and belanger. after we had made a fire, and drank a little of the country tea, hepburn and i returned to the tent, where we arrived in the evening, much exhausted with our journey. michel preferred sleeping where he was, and requested us to leave him the hatchet, which we did, after he had promised to come early in the morning to assist us in carrying the tent and bedding. mr. hood remained in bed all day. seeing nothing of belanger to-day, we gave him up for lost. on the th, after waiting until late in the morning for michel, who did not come, hepburn and i loaded ourselves with the bedding, and, accompanied by mr. hood, set out for the pines. mr. hood was much affected with dimness of sight, giddiness, and other symptoms of extreme debility, which caused us to move very slowly, and to make frequent halts. on arriving at the pines, we were much alarmed to find that michel was absent. we feared that he had lost his way in coming to us in the morning, although it was not easy to conjecture how that could have happened, as our footsteps of yesterday were very distinct. hepburn went back for the tent, and returned with it after dusk, completely worn out with the fatigue of the day. michel too arrived at the same time, and relieved our anxiety on his account. he reported that he had been in chase of some deer which passed near his sleeping-place in the morning, and although he did not come up with them, yet that he found a wolf which had been killed by the stroke of a deer's horn, and had brought a part of it. we implicitly believed this story then, but afterwards became convinced from circumstances, the detail of which may be spared, that it must have been a portion of the body of belanger or perrault. a question of moment here presents itself; namely, whether he actually murdered these men, or either of them, or whether he found the bodies in the snow. captain franklin, who is the best able to judge of this matter, from knowing their situation when he parted from them, suggested the former idea, and that both belanger and perrault had been sacrificed. when perrault turned back, captain franklin watched him until he reached a small group of willows, which was immediately adjoining to the fire, and concealed it from view, and at this time the smoke of fresh fuel was distinctly visible. captain franklin conjectures, that michel having already destroyed belanger, completed his crime by perrault's death, in order to screen himself from detection. although this opinion is founded only on circumstances, and is unsupported by direct evidence, it has been judged proper to mention it, especially as the subsequent conduct of the man shewed that he was capable of committing such a deed. the circumstances are very strong. it is not easy to assign any other adequate motive for his concealing from us that perrault had turned back; while his request overnight that we should leave him the hatchet, and his cumbering himself with it when he went out in the morning, unlike a hunter who makes use only of his knife when he kills a deer, seem to indicate that he took it for the purpose of cutting up something that he knew to be frozen. these opinions, however, are the result of subsequent consideration. we passed this night in the open air. on the following morning the tent was pitched; michel went out early, refused my offer to accompany him, and remained out the whole day. he would not sleep in the tent at night, but chose to lie at the fire-side. on the th there was a heavy gale of wind, and we passed the day by the fire. next day, about two p.m., the gale abating, michel set out as he said to hunt, but returned unexpectedly in a very short time. this conduct surprised us, and his contradictory and evasory answers to our questions excited some suspicions, but they did not turn towards the truth. _october th_.--in the course of this day michel expressed much regret that he had stayed behind mr. franklin's party, and declared that he would set out for the house at once if he knew the way. we endeavoured to sooth him, and to raise his hopes of the indians speedily coming to our relief, but without success. he refused to assist us in cutting wood, but about noon, after much solicitation, he set out to hunt. hepburn gathered a kettleful of _tripe de roche_, but froze his fingers. both hepburn and i fatigued ourselves much to-day in pursuing a flock of partridges from one part to another of the group of willows, in which the hut was situated, but we were too weak to be able to approach them with sufficient caution. in the evening michel returned, having met with no success. next day he refused either to hunt or cut wood, spoke in a very surly manner, and threatened to leave us. under these circumstances, mr. hood and i deemed it better to promise if he would hunt diligently for four days, that then we would give hepburn a letter for mr. franklin, a compass, inform him what course to pursue, and let them proceed together to the fort. the non-arrival of the indians to our relief, now led us to fear that some accident had happened to mr. franklin, and we placed no confidence in the exertions of the canadians that accompanied him, but we had the fullest confidence in hepburn's returning the moment he could obtain assistance. on the th i went to conduct michel to where vaillant's blanket was left, and after walking about three miles, pointed out the hills to him at a distance, and returned to the hut, having gathered a bagful of _tripe de roche_ on the way. it was easier to gather this weed on a march than at the tent, for the exercise of walking produced a glow of heat, which enabled us to withstand for a time the cold to which we were exposed in scraping the frozen surface of the rocks. on the contrary, when we left the fire, to collect it in the neighbourhood of the hut, we became chilled at once, and were obliged to return very quickly. michel proposed to remain out all night, and to hunt next day on his way back. he returned in the afternoon of the th, having found the blanket, together with a bag containing two pistols, and some other things which had been left beside it. we had some _tripe de roche_ in the evening, but mr. hood from the constant griping it produced, was unable to eat more than one or two spoonfuls. he was now so weak as to be scarcely able to sit up at the fire-side, and complained that the least breeze of wind seemed to blow through his frame. he also suffered much from cold during the night. we lay close to each other, but the heat of the body was no longer sufficient to thaw the frozen rime formed by our breaths on the blankets that covered him. at this period we avoided as much as possible conversing upon the hopelessness of our situation, and generally endeavoured to lead the conversation towards our future prospects in life. the fact is, that with the decay of our strength, our minds decayed, and we were no longer able to bear the contemplation of the horrors that surrounded us. each of us, if i may be allowed to judge from my own case, excused himself from so doing by a desire of not shocking the feelings of the others, for we were sensible of one another's weakness of intellect though blind to our own. yet we were calm and resigned to our fate, not a murmur escaped us, and we were punctual and fervent in our addresses to the supreme being. on the th michel refused to hunt, or even to assist in carrying a log of wood to the fire, which was too heavy for hepburn's strength and mine. mr. hood endeavoured to point out to him the necessity and duty of exertion, and the cruelty of his quitting us without leaving something for our support; but the discourse, far from producing any beneficial effect, seemed only to excite his anger, and amongst other expressions, he made use of the following remarkable one: "it is no use hunting,{ } there are no animals, you had better kill and eat me." at length, however, he went out, but returned very soon, with a report that he had seen three deer, which he was unable to follow from having wet his foot in a small stream of water thinly covered with ice, and being consequently obliged to come to the fire. the day was rather mild, and hepburn and i gathered a large kettleful of _tripe de roche_; michel slept in the tent this night. _sunday, october _.--in the morning we again urged michel to go a hunting that he might if possible leave us some provision, to-morrow being the day appointed for his quitting us; but he shewed great unwillingness to go out, and lingered about the fire, under the pretence of cleaning his gun. after we had read the morning service i went about noon to gather some _tripe de roche_, leaving mr. hood sitting before the tent at the fire-side arguing with michel; hepburn was employed cutting down a tree at a short distance from the tent, being desirous of accumulating a quantity of fire-wood{ } before he left us. a short time after i went out, i heard the report of a gun, and about ten minutes afterwards hepburn called to me in a voice of great alarm, to come directly. when i arrived i found poor hood lying lifeless at the fire-side, a ball having apparently entered his forehead. i was at first horror-struck with the idea, that in a fit of despondency he had hurried himself into the presence of his almighty judge, by an act of his own hand; but the conduct of michel soon gave rise to other thoughts, and excited suspicions which were confirmed, when upon examining the body, i discovered that the shot had entered the back part of the head, and passed out at the forehead, and that the muzzle of the gun had been applied so close as to set fire to the night-cap behind. the gun, which was of the longest kind supplied to the indians, could not have been placed in a position to inflict such a wound, except by a second person. upon inquiring of michel how it happened, he replied, that mr. hood had sent him into the tent for the short gun, and that during his absence the long gun had gone off, he did not know whether by accident or not. he held the short gun in his hand at the time he was speaking to me. hepburn afterwards informed me that previous to the report of the gun mr. hood and michel were speaking to each other in an elevated angry tone; that mr. hood being seated at the fire-side, was hid from him by intervening willows, but that on hearing the report he looked up and saw michel rising up from before the tent-door, or just behind where mr. hood was seated, and then going into the tent. thinking that the gun had been discharged for the purpose of cleaning it, he did not go to the fire at first; and when michel called to him that mr. hood was dead, a considerable time had elapsed. although i dared not openly to evince any suspicion that i thought michel guilty of the deed, yet he repeatedly protested that he was incapable of committing such an act, kept constantly on his guard, and carefully avoided leaving hepburn and me together. he was evidently afraid of permitting us to converse in private, and whenever hepburn spoke, he inquired if he accused him of the murder. it is to be remarked, that he understood english very imperfectly, yet sufficiently to render it unsafe for us to speak on the subject in his presence. we removed the body into a clump of willows behind the tent, and, returning to the fire, read the funeral service in addition to the evening prayers. the loss of a young officer, of such distinguished and varied talents and application, may be felt and duly appreciated by the eminent characters under whose command he had served; but the calmness with which he contemplated the probable termination of a life of uncommon promise; and the patience and fortitude with which he sustained, i may venture to say, unparalleled bodily sufferings, can only be known to the companions of his distresses. owing to the effect that the _tripe de roche_ invariably had, when he ventured to taste it, he undoubtedly suffered more than any of the survivors of the party. _bickersteth's scripture help_ was lying open beside the body, as if it had fallen from his hand, and it is probable, that he was reading it at the instant of his death. we passed the night in the tent together without rest, every one being on his guard. next day, having determined on going to the fort, we began to patch and prepare our clothes for the journey. we singed the hair off a part of the buffalo robe that belonged to mr. hood, and boiled and ate it. michel tried to persuade me to go to the woods on the copper-mine river, and hunt for deer instead of going to the fort. in the afternoon a flock of partridges coming near the tent, he killed several which he shared with us. thick snowy weather and a head wind prevented us from starting the following day, but on the morning of the d we set out, carrying with us the remainder of the singed robe. hepburn and michel had each a gun, and i carried a small pistol which hepburn had loaded for me. in the course of the march michel alarmed us much by his gestures and conduct, was constantly muttering to himself, expressed an unwillingness to go the fort, and tried to persuade me to go to the southward to the woods, where he said he could maintain himself all the winter by killing deer. in consequence of this behaviour, and the expression of his countenance, i requested him to leave us, and to go to the southward by himself. this proposal increased his ill-nature, he threw out some obscure hints of freeing himself from all restraint on the morrow{ }; and i overheard him muttering threats against hepburn, whom he openly accused of having told stories against him. he also, for the first time, assumed such a tone of superiority in addressing me, as evinced that he considered us to be completely in his power, and he gave vent to several expressions of hatred towards the white people, or as he termed us in the idiom of the voyagers, the french, some of whom, he said, had killed and eaten his uncle and two of his relations. in short, taking every circumstance of his conduct into consideration, i came to the conclusion that he would attempt to destroy us on the first opportunity that offered, and that he had hitherto abstained from doing so from his ignorance of his way to the fort, but that he would never suffer us to go thither in company with him. in the course of the day he had several times remarked that we were pursuing the same course that mr. franklin was doing when he left him, and that by keeping towards the setting sun he could find his way himself. hepburn and i were not in a condition to resist even an open attack, nor could we by any device escape from him. our united strength was far inferior to his, and, beside his gun, he was armed with two pistols, an indian bayonet and a knife. in the afternoon, coming to a rock on which there was some _tripe de roche_, he halted, and said he would gather it whilst we went on, and that he would soon overtake us. hepburn and i were now left together for the first time since mr. hood's death, and he acquainted me with several material circumstances which he had observed of michel's behaviour, and which confirmed me in the opinion that there was no safety for us except in his death, and he offered to be the instrument of it. i determined, however, as i was thoroughly convinced of the necessity of such a dreadful act, to take the whole responsibility upon myself; and immediately upon michel's coming up, i put an end to his life by shooting him through the head with a pistol. had my own life alone been threatened, i would not have purchased it by such a measure; but i considered myself as intrusted also with the protection of hepburn's, a man, who, by his humane attentions and devotedness, had so endeared himself to me, that i felt more anxiety for his safety than for my own. michel had gathered no _tripe de roche_, and it was evident to us that he had halted for the purpose of putting his gun in order, with the intention of attacking us, perhaps, whilst we were in the act of encamping. i have dwelt in the preceding part of the narrative upon many circumstances of michel's conduct, not for the purpose of aggravating his crime, but to put the reader in possession of the reasons that influenced me in depriving a fellow-creature of life. up to the period of his return to the tent, his conduct had been good and respectful to the officers, and in a conversation between captain franklin, mr. hood, and myself, at obstruction rapid, it had been proposed to give him a reward upon our arrival at a post. his principles, however, unsupported by a belief in the divine truths of christianity, were unable to withstand the pressure of severe distress. his countrymen, the iroquois, are generally christians, but he was totally uninstructed and ignorant of the duties inculcated by christianity; and from his long residence in the indian country, seems to have imbibed, or retained the rules of conduct which the southern indians prescribe to themselves. on the two following days we had mild but thick snowy weather, and as the view was too limited to enable us to preserve a straight course, we remained encamped amongst a few willows and dwarf pines, about five miles from the tent. we found a species of _cornicularia_, a kind of lichen, that was good to eat when moistened and toasted over the fire; and we had a good many pieces of singed buffalo hide remaining. on the th, the weather being clear and extremely cold, we resumed our march which was very painful from the depth of the snow, particularly on the margins of the small lakes that lay in our route. we frequently sunk under the load of our blankets, and were obliged to assist each other in getting up. after walking about three miles and a half, however, we were cheered by the sight of a large herd of rein-deer, and hepburn went in pursuit of them; but his hand being unsteady through weakness he missed. he was so exhausted by this fruitless attempt that we were obliged to encamp upon the spot, although it was a very unfavourable one. next day, we had fine and clear, but cold, weather. we set out early, and, in crossing a hill, found a considerable quantity of _tripe de roche_. about noon we fell upon little marten lake, having walked about two miles. the sight of a place that we knew, inspired us with fresh vigour, and there being comparatively little snow on the ice, we advanced at a pace to which we had lately been unaccustomed. in the afternoon we crossed a recent track of a wolverene, which, from a parallel mark in the snow, appeared to have been dragging something. hepburn traced it, and upon the borders of the lake found the spine of a deer, that it had dropped. it was clean picked, and at least one season old; but we extracted the spinal marrow from it, which, even in its frozen state, was so acrid as to excoriate the lips. we encamped within sight of the dog-rib rock, and from the coldness of the night and the want of fuel, rested very ill. on the th we rose at day-break, but from the want of the small fire, that we usually made in the mornings to warm our fingers, a very long time was spent in making up our bundles. this task fell to hepburn's share, as i suffered so much from the cold as to be unable to take my hands out of my mittens. we kept a straight course for the dog-rib rock, but, owing to the depth of the snow in the valleys we had to cross, did not reach it until late in the afternoon. we would have encamped, but did not like to pass a second night without fire; and though scarcely able to drag our limbs after us, we pushed on to a clump of pines, about a mile to the southward of the rock, and arrived at them in the dusk of the evening. during the last few hundred yards of our march, our track lay over some large stones, amongst which i fell down upwards of twenty times, and became at length so exhausted that i was unable to stand. if hepburn had not exerted himself far beyond his strength, and speedily made the encampment and kindled a fire, i must have perished on the spot. this night we had plenty of dry wood. on the th we had clear and fine weather. we set out at sunrise, and hurried on in our anxiety to reach the house, but our progress was much impeded by the great depth of the snow in the valleys. although every spot of ground over which we travelled to-day, had been repeatedly trodden by us, yet we got bewildered in a small lake. we took it for marten lake, which was three times its size, and fancied that we saw the rapids and the grounds about the fort, although they were still far distant. our disappointment when this illusion was dispelled, by our reaching the end of the lake, so operated on our feeble minds as to exhaust our strength, and we decided upon encamping; but upon ascending a small eminence to look for a clump of wood, we caught a glimpse of the big stone, a well-known rock upon the summit of a hill opposite to the fort, and determined upon proceeding. in the evening we saw several large herds of rein-deer, but hepburn, who used to be{ } considered a good marksman, was now unable to hold the gun straight, and although he got near them all his efforts proved fruitless. in passing through a small clump of pines we saw a flock of partridges, and he succeeded in killing one after firing several shots. we came in sight of the fort at dusk, and it is impossible to describe our sensations, when on attaining the eminence that overlooks it, we beheld the smoke issuing from one of the chimneys. from not having met with any footsteps in the snow, as we drew nigh our once cheerful residence, we had been agitated by many melancholy forebodings. upon entering the now desolate building, we had the satisfaction of embracing captain franklin, but no words can convey an idea of the filth and wretchedness that met our eyes on looking around. our own misery had stolen upon us by degrees, and we were accustomed to the contemplation of each others emaciated figures, but the ghastly countenances, dilated eye-balls, and sepulchral voices of captain franklin and those with him were more than we could at first bear. _conclusion of dr. richardson's narrative._ * * * * * the morning of the st was very cold, the wind being strong from the north. hepburn went again in quest of deer, and the doctor endeavoured to kill some partridges: both were unsuccessful. a large herd of deer passed close to the house, the doctor fired once at them, but was unable to pursue them. adam was easier this day, and left his bed. peltier and samandrè{ } were much weaker, and could not assist in the labours of the day. both complained of soreness in the throat, and samandrè suffered much from cramps in his fingers. the doctor and hepburn began this day to cut the wood, and also brought it to the house. being too weak to aid in these laborious tasks, i was employed in searching for bones, and cooking, and attending to our more weakly companions. in the evening peltier, complaining much of cold, requested of me a portion of a blanket to repair his shirt and drawers. the mending of these articles occupied him and samandrè until past one a.m., and their spirits were so much revived by the employment, that they conversed even cheerfully the whole time. adam sat up with them. the doctor, hepburn, and myself, went to bed. we were afterwards agreeably surprised to see peltier and samandrè carry three or four logs of wood across the room to replenish the fire, which induced us to hope they still possessed more strength than we had supposed. _november _.--this day was fine and mild. hepburn went hunting, but was as usual unsuccessful. as his strength was rapidly declining, we advised him to desist from the pursuit of deer; and only to go out for a short time, and endeavour to kill a few partridges for peltier and samandrè. the doctor obtained a little _tripe de roche_, but peltier could not eat any of it, and samandrè only a few spoonfuls, owing to the soreness of their throats. in the afternoon peltier was so much exhausted, that he sat up with difficulty, and looked piteously; at length he slided from his stool upon his bed, as we supposed to sleep, and in this composed state he remained upwards of two hours, without our apprehending any danger. we were then alarmed by hearing a rattling in his throat, and on the doctor's examining him, he was found to be speechless. he died in the course of the night. samandrè sat up the greater part of the day, and even assisted in pounding some bones; but on witnessing the melancholy state of peltier, he became very low, and began to complain of cold and stiffness of the joints. being unable to keep up a sufficient fire to warm him, we laid him down and covered him with several blankets. he did not, however, appear to get better, and i deeply lament to add he also died before daylight. we removed the bodies of the deceased into the opposite part of the house, but our united strength was inadequate to the task of interring them, or even carrying them down to the river. it may be worthy of remark that poor peltier, from the time of benoit's departure, had fixed on the first of november as the time when he should cease to expect any relief from the indians, and had repeatedly said that if they did not arrive by that day, he should not survive. peltier had endeared himself to each of us by his cheerfulness, his unceasing activity, and affectionate care and attentions, ever since our arrival at this place. he had nursed adam with the tenderest solicitude the whole time. poor samandrè was willing to have taken his share in the labours of the party, had he not been wholly incapacitated by his weakness and low spirits. the severe shock occasioned by the sudden dissolution of our two companions rendered us very melancholy. adam became low and despondent, a change which we lamented the more, as we had perceived he had been gaining strength and spirits for the two preceding days. i was particularly distressed by the thought that the labour of collecting wood must now devolve upon dr. richardson and hepburn, and that my debility would disable me from affording them any material assistance; indeed both of them most kindly urged me not to make the attempt. they were occupied the whole of the next day in tearing down the logs of which the store-house was built, but the mud plastered between them was so hard frozen that the labour of separation exceeded their strength, and they were completely exhausted by bringing in wood sufficient for less than twelve hours' consumption. i found it necessary in their absence, to remain constantly near adam, and to converse with him, in order to prevent his reflecting on our condition, and to keep up his spirits as far as possible. i also lay by his side at night. on the d the weather was very cold, though the atmosphere was cloudy. this morning hepburn was affected with swelling in his limbs, his strength as well as that of the doctor, was rapidly declining; they continued, however, to be full of hope. their utmost exertions could only supply wood, to renew the fire thrice, and on making it up the last time we went to bed. adam was in rather better spirits, but he could not bear to be left alone. our stock of bones was exhausted by a small quantity of soup we made this evening. the toil of separating the hair from the skins, which in fact were our chief support, had now become so wearisome as to prevent us from eating as much as we should otherwise have done. _november _.--calm and comparatively mild weather. the doctor and hepburn, exclusive of their usual occupation, gathered some _tripe de roche_. i went a few yards from the house in search of bones, and returned quite fatigued, having found but three. the doctor again made incisions in adam's leg, which discharged a considerable quantity of water, and gave him great relief. we read prayers and a portion of the new testament in the morning and evening, as had been our practice since dr. richardson's arrival; and i may remark that the performance of these duties always afforded us the greatest consolation, serving to re-animate our hope in the mercy of the omnipotent, who alone could save and deliver us. on the th the breezes were light, with dark cloudy weather, and some snow. the doctor and hepburn were getting much weaker, and the limbs of the latter were now greatly swelled. they came into the house frequently in the course of the day to rest themselves, and when once seated, were unable to rise without the help of one another, or of a stick. adam was for the most part in the same low state as yesterday, but sometimes he surprised us by getting up and walking with an appearance of increased strength. his looks were now wild and ghastly, and his conversation was often incoherent. the next day was fine, but very cold. the swellings in adam's limbs having subsided, he was free from pain, and arose this morning in much better spirits, and spoke of cleaning his gun ready for shooting partridges, or any animals that might appear near the house, but his tone entirely changed before the day was half over; he became again dejected, and could scarcely be prevailed upon to eat. the doctor and hepburn were almost exhausted. the cutting of one log of wood occupied the latter half an hour; and the other took as much time to drag it into the house, though the distance did not exceed thirty yards. i endeavoured to help the doctor, but my assistance was very trifling. yet it was evident that, in a day or two, if their strength should continue to decline at the same rate, i should be the strongest of the party. i may here remark that owing to our loss of flesh, the hardness of the floor, from which we{ } were only protected by a blanket, produced soreness over the body, and especially those parts on which the weight rested in lying, yet to turn ourselves for relief was a matter of toil and difficulty. however, during this period, and indeed all along after the acute pains of hunger, which lasted but three or four days, had subsided, we generally enjoyed the comfort of a few hours' sleep. the dreams which for the most part, but not always accompanied it, were usually (though not invariably,) of a pleasant character, being very often about the enjoyments of feasting. in the day-time we fell into the practice of conversing on common and light subjects, although we sometimes discussed with seriousness and earnestness topics connected with religion. we generally avoided speaking directly of our present sufferings, or even of the prospect of relief. i observed, that in proportion as our strength decayed, our minds exhibited symptoms of weakness, evinced by a kind of unreasonable pettishness with each other. each of us thought the other weaker in intellect than himself, and more in need of advice and assistance. so trifling a circumstance as a change of place, recommended by one as being warmer and more comfortable, and refused by the other from a dread of motion, frequently called forth fretful expressions which were no sooner uttered than atoned for, to be repeated perhaps in the course of a few minutes. the same thing often occurred when we endeavoured to assist each other in carrying wood to the fire; none of us were willing to receive assistance, although the task was disproportioned to our strength. on one of these occasions, hepburn was so convinced of this waywardness that he exclaimed, "dear me, if we are spared to return to england, i wonder if we shall recover our understandings." _november _.--adam had passed a restless night, being disquieted by gloomy apprehensions of approaching death, which we tried in vain to dispel. he was so low in the morning as to be scarcely able to speak. i remained in bed by his side to cheer him as much as possible. the doctor and hepburn went to cut wood. they had hardly begun their labour, when they were amazed at hearing the report of a musket. they could scarcely believe that there was really any one near, until they heard a shout, and immediately espied three indians close to the house. adam and i heard the latter noise, and i was fearful that a part of the house had fallen upon one of my companions, a disaster which had in fact been thought not unlikely. my alarm was only momentary, dr. richardson came in to communicate the joyful intelligence that relief had arrived. he and myself immediately addressed thanksgivings to the throne of mercy for this deliverance, but poor adam was in so low a state that he could scarcely comprehend the information. when the indians entered, he attempted to rise but sank down again. but for this seasonable interposition of providence, his existence must have terminated in a few hours, and that of the rest probably in not many days. the indians had left akaitcho's encampment on the th november, having been sent by mr. back with all possible expedition, after he had arrived at their tents. they brought but a small supply of provision that they might travel quickly. it consisted of dried deer's meat, some fat, and a few tongues. dr. richardson, hepburn, and i eagerly devoured the food, which they imprudently presented to us, in too great abundance, and in consequence we suffered dreadfully from indigestion, and had no rest the whole night. adam being unable to feed himself, was more judiciously treated by them, and suffered less; his spirits revived hourly. the circumstance of our eating more food than was proper in our present condition, was another striking proof of the debility of our minds. we were perfectly aware of the danger, and dr. richardson repeatedly cautioned us to be moderate; but he was himself unable to practise the caution he so judiciously recommended. boudel-kell, the youngest of the indians, after resting about an hour, returned to akaitcho with the intelligence of our situation, and he conveyed a note from me to mr. back, requesting another supply of meat as soon as possible. the two others, "crooked-foot and the rat," remained to take care of us, until we should be able to move forward. the note received by the indians from mr. back, communicated a tale of distress, with regard to himself and his party, as painful as that which we had suffered; as will be seen hereafter, by his own narrative. _november _.--the indians this morning requested us to remove to an encampment on the banks of the river, as they were unwilling to remain in the house where the bodies of our deceased companions were lying exposed to view. we agreed, but the day proved too stormy, and dr. richardson and hepburn having dragged the bodies to a short distance, and covered them with snow, the objections of the indians to remain in the house were dissipated, and they began to clear our room of the accumulation of dirt, and fragments of pounded bones. the improved state of our apartment, and the large and cheerful fires they kept up, produced in us a sensation of comfort to which we had long been strangers. in the evening they brought in a pile of dried wood, which was lying on the river-side, and towards which we had often cast a wishful eye, being unable to drag it up the bank. the indians set about every thing with an activity that amazed us. indeed, contrasted with our emaciated figures and extreme debility, their frames appeared to us gigantic, and their strength supernatural. these kind creatures next turned their attention to our personal appearance, and prevailed upon us to shave and wash ourselves. the beards of the doctor and hepburn had been untouched since they left the sea-coast, and were become of a hideous length, and peculiarly offensive to the indians. the doctor and i suffered extremely from distention, and therefore ate sparingly[ ]. hepburn was getting better, and adam recovered his strength with amazing rapidity. [ ] the first alvine discharges after we received food, were, as hearne remarks on a similar occasion, attended with excessive pain. previous to the arrival of the indians the urinary secretion was extremely abundant, and we were obliged to rise from bed in consequence upwards of ten times in a night. this was an extreme annoyance in our reduced state. it may, perhaps, be attributed to the quantity of the country tea that we drank. _november _.--this morning was pleasantly fine. crooked-foot caught four large trout in winter lake, which were very much prized, especially by the doctor and myself, who had taken a dislike to meat, in consequence of our sufferings from repletion, which rendered us almost incapable of moving. adam and hepburn in a good measure escaped this pain. though the night was stormy, and our apartment freely admitted the wind, we felt no inconvenience, the indians were so very careful in covering us up, and in keeping a good fire; and our plentiful cheer gave such power of resisting the cold, that we could scarcely believe otherwise than that the season had become milder. on the th, the weather was stormy, with constant snow. the indians became desponding at the non-arrival of the supply, and would neither go to hunt nor fish. they frequently expressed their fears of some misfortune having befallen boudel-kell; and, in the evening, went off suddenly, without apprizing us of their intention, having first given to each of us a handful of pounded meat, which they had reserved. their departure, at first, gave rise to a suspicion of their having deserted us, not meaning to return, especially as the explanations of adam, who appeared to be in their secret, were very unsatisfactory. at length, by interrogations, we got from him the information, that they designed to march night and day, until they should reach akaitcho's encampment, whence they would send us aid. as we had combated{ } their fears about boudel-kell, they, perhaps, apprehended that we should oppose their determination, and therefore concealed it. we were now left a second time without food, and with appetites recovered, and strongly excited{ } by recent indulgence. on the following day the doctor and hepburn resumed their former occupation of collecting wood, and i was able to assist a little in bringing it into the house. adam, whose expectation of the arrival of the indians had been raised by the fineness of the weather, became, towards night, very desponding, and refused to eat the singed skin. the night was stormy, and there was a heavy fall of snow. the next day he became still more dejected. about eleven, hepburn, who had gone out for the wood, came in with the intelligence that a party appeared upon the river. the room was instantly swept, and in compliance with the prejudices of the indians, every scrap of skin was carefully removed out of sight: for these simple people imagine, that burning deer-skin renders them unsuccessful in hunting. the party proved to be crooked-foot, thooee-yorre, and the fop, with the wives of the two latter dragging provisions. they were accompanied by benoit, one of our own men. we were rejoiced to learn, by a note from mr. back, dated november , that he and his companions had so recruited their strength that they were preparing to proceed to fort providence. adam recovered his spirits on the arrival of the indians and even walked about the room with an appearance of strength and activity that surprised us all. as it was of consequence to get amongst the rein-deer before our present supply should fail we made preparations for quitting fort enterprise the next day; and, accordingly, at an early hour, on the th, having united in thanksgiving and prayer, the whole party left the house after breakfast. our feelings on quitting the fort where we had formerly enjoyed much comfort if not happiness, and, latterly, experienced a degree of misery scarcely to be paralleled, may be more easily conceived than described. the indians treated us with the utmost tenderness, gave us their snow-shoes, and walked without themselves, keeping by our sides, that they might lift us when we fell. we descended winter river, and, about noon, crossed the head of round-rock lake, distant about three miles from the house, where we were obliged to halt, as dr. richardson was unable to proceed. the swellings in his limbs rendered him by much the weakest of the party. the indians prepared our encampment, cooked for us, and fed us as if we had been children; evincing humanity that would have done honour to the most civilized people. the night was mild, and fatigue made us sleep soundly. from this period to the th of november, we gradually improved, through their kindness and attention; and on that day arrived in safety at the abode of our chief and companion akaitcho. we were received by the party assembled in the leader's tent, with looks of compassion, and profound silence, which lasted about a quarter of an hour, and by which they meant to express their condolence for our sufferings. the conversation did not begin until we had tasted food. the chief, akaitcho, shewed us the most friendly hospitality, and all sorts of personal attention, even to cooking for us with his own hands, an office which he never performs for himself. annoethai-yazzeh and humpy, the chief's two brothers, and several of our hunters, with their families, were encamped here, together with a number of old men and women. in the course of the day we were visited by every person of the band, not merely from curiosity, but a desire to evince their tender sympathy in our late distress. we learned that mr. back, with st. germain and belanger, had gone to fort providence; and that, previous to his departure he had left a letter in a _cache_ of pounded meat, which we had missed two days ago. as we supposed that this letter might acquaint us with his intentions more fully than we could gather from the indians, through our imperfect knowledge of their language, augustus, the esquimaux, whom we found here in perfect health, and an indian lad, were despatched to bring it. we found several of the indian families in great affliction, for the loss of three of their relatives who had been drowned in the august preceding, by the upsetting of a canoe near fort enterprise. they bewailed the melancholy accident every morning and evening, by repeating the names of the persons in a loud singing tone, which was frequently interrupted by bursts of tears. one woman was so affected by the loss of her only son, that she seemed deprived of reason, and wandered about the tents the whole day, crying and singing out his name. on the st of december we removed with the indians to the southward. on the th we again set off after the indians about noon, and soon overtook them, as they had halted, to drag from the water, and cut up and share a moose-deer, that had been drowned in a rapid part of the river, partially covered with ice. these operations detained us a long time, which was the more disagreeable, as the weather was extremely unpleasant from cold low fogs. we were all much fatigued at the hour of encampment, which was after dark, though the day's journey did not exceed four miles. at every halt the elderly men of the tribe made holes in the ice and put in their lines. one of them shared the produce of his fishery with us this evening. in the afternoon of the th, belanger, and another canadian, arrived from fort providence, sent by mr. weeks with two trains of dogs, some spirits and tobacco for the indians, a change of dress for ourselves, and a little tea and sugar. they also brought letters for us from england, and from mr. back, and mr. wentzel. by the former we received the gratifying intelligence of the successful termination of captain parry's voyage; and were informed of the promotion of myself and mr. back, and of poor hood, our grief for whose loss was renewed by this intelligence. the letter from mr. back stated, that the rival companies in the fur trade had united; but that, owing to some cause which had not been explained to him, the goods intended as rewards to akaitcho and his band, which we had demanded in the spring from the north-west company, were not sent. there were, however some stores lying for us at moose-deer island, which had been ordered for the equipment of our voyagers; and mr. back had gone across to that establishment, to make a selection of the articles we could spare for a temporary present to the indians. the disappointment at the non-arrival of the goods was seriously felt by us, as we had looked forward with pleasure to the time when we should be enabled to recompense our kind indian friends, for their tender sympathy in our distresses, and the assistance they had so cheerfully and promptly rendered. i now regretted to find, that mr. wentzel and his party, in their return from the sea, had suffered severely on their march along the copper-mine river, having on one occasion, as he mentioned, had no food but _tripe de roche_ for eleven days. all the indians flocked to our encampment to learn the news, and to receive the articles brought for them. having got some spirits and tobacco, they withdrew to the tent of the chief, and passed the greater part of the night in singing. we had now the indescribable gratification of changing our linen, which had been worn ever since our departure from the sea-coast. _december _.--after a long conference with akaitcho, we took leave of him and his kind companions, and set out with two sledges heavily laden with provision and bedding, drawn by the dogs, and conducted by belanger and the canadian sent by mr. weeks. hepburn and augustus jointly dragged a smaller sledge, laden principally with their own bedding. adam and benoit were left to follow with the indians. we encamped on the grassy-lake portage, having walked about nine miles, principally on the yellow knife river. it was open at the rapids, and in these places we had to ascend its banks, and walk through the woods for some distance, which was very fatiguing, especially to dr. richardson, whose feet were severely galled in consequence of some defect in his snow-shoes. on the th, however, we arrived at the fort, which was still under the charge of mr. weeks. he welcomed us in the most kind manner, immediately gave us changes of dress, and did every thing in his power to make us comfortable. our sensations on being once more in a comfortable dwelling, after the series of hardships and miseries we had experienced, may be imagined. our first act was again to return our grateful praises to the almighty for the manifold instances of his mercy towards us. having found here some articles which mr. back had sent across from moose-deer island, i determined on awaiting the arrival of akaitcho and his party, in order to present these to them, and to assure them of the promised reward, as soon as it could possibly be procured. in the afternoon of the th, akaitcho, with his whole band came to the fort. he smoked his customary pipe, and made an address to mr. weeks in the hall previous to his coming into the room in which dr. richardson and i were. we discovered at the commencement of his speech to us, that he had been informed that our expected supplies had not come. he spoke of this circumstance as a disappointment, indeed, sufficiently severe to himself, to whom his band looked up for the protection of their interests, but without attaching any blame to us. "the world goes badly," he said, "all are poor; you are poor, the traders appear to be poor, i and my party, are poor likewise; and since the goods have not come in, we cannot have them. i do not regret having supplied you with provisions, for a copper indian can never permit white men to suffer from want of food on his lands, without flying to their aid. i trust, however, that we shall, as you say, receive what is due next autumn; and at all events," he added, in a tone of good-humour, "it is the first time that the white people have been indebted to the copper indians." we assured him the supplies should certainly be sent to him by the autumn, if not before. he then cheerfully received the small present we made to himself; and, although, we could give a few things only to those who had been most active in our service, the others, who, perhaps, thought themselves equally deserving, did not murmur at being left out in the distribution. akaitcho afterwards expressed a strong desire, that we should represent the character of his nation in a favourable light to our countrymen. "i know," he said, "you write down every occurrence in your books; but probably you have only noticed the bad things we have said and done, and have omitted the good." in the course of the desultory conversation which ensued, he said, that he had been always told by us, to consider the traders in the same light as ourselves; and that, for his part, he looked upon both as equally respectable. this assurance, made in the presence of mr. weeks, was particularly gratifying to us, as it completely disproved the defence that had been set up, respecting the injurious reports circulated against us amongst the indians in the spring; namely, that they were in retaliation for our endeavours to lower the traders in the eyes of the indians. i take this opportunity of stating my opinion, that mr. weeks, in spreading these reports, was actuated by a mistaken idea that he was serving the interest of his employers. on the present occasion, we felt indebted to him for the sympathy he displayed for our distresses, and the kindness with which he administered to our personal wants. after this conference, such indians as were indebted to the company were paid for the provision they had given us, by deducting a corresponding sum from their debts; in the same way we gave a reward of sixteen skins of beaver to each of the persons who had come to our relief at fort enterprise. as the debts of akaitcho and his hunters had been effaced at the time of his engagement with us, we placed a sum equal to the amount of provision they had recently supplied, to their credit on the company's books. these things being, through the moderation of the indians, adjusted with an unexpected facility, we gave them a keg of mixed liquors, (five parts water,) and distributed among them several fathoms of tobacco, and they retired to their tents to spend the night in merriment. adam, our interpreter, being desirous of uniting himself with the copper indians, applied to me for his discharge, which i granted, and gave him a bill on the hudson's bay company for the amount of his wages. these arrangements being completed, we prepared to cross the lake. mr. weeks provided dr. richardson and i with a cariole each, and we set out at eleven a.m., on the th, for moose-deer island. our party consisted of belanger, who had charge of a sledge laden with the bedding, and drawn by two dogs, our two cariole men, benoit, and augustus. previous to our departure, we had another conference with akaitcho, who, as well as the rest of his party, bade us farewell, with a warmth of manner rare among the indians. the badness of belanger's dogs, and the roughness of the ice, impeded our progress very much, and obliged us to encamp early. we had a good fire made of the drift wood, which lines the shores of this lake in great quantities. the next day was very cold. we began the journey at nine a.m., and encamped at the big cape, having made another short march, in consequence of the roughness of the ice. on the th, we encamped on the most southerly of the rein-deer islands. this night was very stormy, but the wind abating in the morning, we proceeded, and by sunset reached the fishing-huts of the company at stony point. here we found mr. andrews, a clerk of the hudson's bay company, who regaled us with a supper of excellent white fish, for which this part of slave lake is particularly celebrated. two men with sledges arrived soon afterwards, sent by mr. mcvicar, who expected us about this time. we set off in the morning before day break, with several companions, and arrived at moose-deer island about one p.m. here we were received with the utmost hospitality by mr. mcvicar, the chief trader of the hudson's bay company in this district, as well as by his assistant mr. mcauley. we had also the happiness of joining our friend, mr. back; our feelings on this occasion can be well imagined, and we were deeply impressed with gratitude to him for his exertions in sending the supply of food to fort enterprise, to which, under divine providence, we felt the preservation of our lives to be owing. he gave us an affecting detail of the proceedings of his party since our separation; the substance of which i shall convey to the reader, by the following extracts from his journal. mr. back's narrative. . october . captain franklin having directed me to proceed with st. germain, belanger, and beauparlant, to fort enterprise, in the hope of obtaining relief for the party, i took leave of my companions, and set out on my journey, through a very swampy country, which with the cloudy state of the weather and a keen north-east wind, accompanied by frequent snow showers, retarded us so much, that we scarcely got more than four miles before we halted for the night, and made a meal of _tripe de roche_ and some old leather. on the th we set out early, amidst extremely deep snow, sinking frequently in it up to the thighs, a labour in our enfeebled and almost worn out state, that nothing but the cheering hopes of reaching the house and affording relief to our friends, could have enabled us to support. as we advanced we found to our mortification, that the _tripe de roche_, hitherto our sole dependence, began to be scarce, so that we could only collect sufficient to make half a kettleful, which, with the addition of a partridge each, that st. germain had killed, yielded a tolerable meal; during this day i felt very weak and sore in the joints, particularly between the shoulders. at eight we encamped among a small clump of willows. on the th we set out at an early hour, pursuing our route over a range of hills at the foot of one of which we saw several large pines, and a great quantity of willows; a sight that encouraged us to quicken our pace, as we were now certain we could not be far from the woods. indeed we were making considerable progress, when belanger unfortunately broke through the ice, and sank up to the hips. the weather being cold, he was in danger of freezing, but some brushwood on the borders of the lake enabled us to make a fire to dry him. at the same time we took the opportunity of refreshing ourselves with a kettle of swamp tea. my increasing debility had for some time obliged me to use a stick for the purpose of extending my arms; the pain in my shoulders being so acute, that i could not bear them to remain in the usual position for two minutes together. we halted at five among some small brushwood, and made a sorry meal of an old pair of leather trowsers, and some swamp tea. the night was cold with a hard frost, and though two persons slept together, yet we could not by any means keep ourselves warm, but remained trembling the whole time. the following morning we crossed several lakes, occasionally seeing the recent tracks of deer, and at noon we fell upon marten lake; it happened to be at the exact spot where we had been the last year with the canoes, yet though i immediately recognised the place, the men would not believe it to be the same; at length, by pointing out several marks, and relating circumstances connected with them, they recovered their memory, and a simultaneous expression of "mon dieu, nous sommes sauvés{ }," broke from the whole. contrary to our expectations the lake was frozen sufficiently to bear us, so that we were excused from making the tours of the different bays. this circumstance seemed to impart fresh vigour to us, and we walked as fast as the extreme smoothness of the ice would permit, intending to reach the slave rock that night; but an unforeseen and almost fatal accident prevented the prosecution of our plan: belanger (who seemed the victim of misfortune) again broke through the ice, in a deep part near the head of the rapid, but was timely saved by our fastening our worsted belts together, and pulling him out. by urging him forwards as quick as his icy garments would admit, to prevent his freezing, we reached a few pines, and kindled a fire; but it was late before he even felt warm, though he was so near the flame as to burn his hair twice; and to add to our distress, (since we could not pursue them,) three wolves crossed the lake close to us. the night of the th was extremely stormy, and about ten the following morning, on attempting to go on, we found it totally impossible, being too feeble to oppose the wind and drift, which frequently blew us over, and on attempting to cross a small lake that lay in our way, drove us faster backwards, than with every effort, we could get forwards; we therefore encamped under the shelter of a small clump of pines, secure from the south-west storm that was raging around us. in the evening, there being no _tripe de roche_, we were compelled to satisfy, or rather allay the cravings of hunger, by eating a gun cover and a pair of old shoes; at this time i had scarcely strength to get on my legs. the wind did not in the least abate during the night, but in the morning of the th it changed to north-east and became moderate. we took advantage of this circumstance, and rising with great difficulty, set out; though had it not been for the hope of reaching the house, i am certain, from the excessive faintness which almost overpowered me, that i must have remained where i was. we passed the slave rock, and making frequent halts, arrived within a short distance of fort enterprise; but as we perceived neither any marks of indians, nor even of animals, the men began absolutely to despair: on a nearer approach, however, the tracks of large herds of deer, which had only passed a few hours, tended a little to revive their spirits, and shortly after we crossed the ruinous threshold of the long-sought spot; but what was our surprise, what our sensations, at beholding every thing in the most desolate and neglected state; the doors and windows of that room in which we expected to find provision, had been thrown down and the wild animals of the woods had resorted there as to a place of shelter and retreat. mr. wentzel had taken away the trunks and papers, but had left no note to guide us to the indians. this was to us the most grievous disappointment: without the assistance of the indians, bereft of every resource, we felt ourselves reduced to the most miserable state, which was rendered still worse, from the recollection that our friends in the rear were as miserable as{ } ourselves. for the moment, however, hunger prevailed, and each began to gnaw the scraps of putrid and frozen meat that were lying about, without waiting to prepare them. a fire, however, was made, and the neck and bones of a deer, found in the house, were boiled and devoured. i determined to remain a day here to repose; then to go in search of the indians, and in the event of missing them, to proceed to the first trading establishment, which was distant about one hundred and thirty miles, and from thence to send succour to my companions. this indeed i should have done immediately, as the most certain manner of executing my purpose, had there been any probability of the river and lakes being frozen to the southward, or had we possessed sufficient strength to have clambered over the rocks and mountains which impeded the direct way; but as we were aware of our inability to do so, i listened to st. germain's proposal, which was, to follow the deer into the woods, (so long as they did not lead us out of our route to the indians,) and if possible to collect sufficient food to carry us to fort providence. we now set about making mittens and snow shoes, whilst belanger searched under the snow, and collected a mass of old bones, which when burned and used with a little salt we found palatable enough, and made a tolerable meal.{ } at night st. germain returned, having seen plenty of tracks, but no animals; the day was cloudy, with fresh breezes, and the river was frozen at the borders. on the th we prepared for our journey, having first collected a few old skins of deer, to serve us as food; and written a note to be left for our commander, to apprize him of our intentions. we pursued the course of the river to the lower lake, when st. germain fell in, which obliged us to encamp directly to prevent his being frozen; indeed we were all glad to rest, for in our meagre and reduced state it was impossible to resist the weather, which at any other time would have been thought fine; my toes were frozen, and although wrapped up in a blanket i could not keep my hands warm. the th was excessively cold with fresh breezes. our meal at night consisted of scraps of old deer skins and swamp tea, and the men complained greatly of their increasing debility. the following morning i sent st. germain to hunt, intending to go some distance down the lake, but the weather becoming exceedingly thick with snow storms, we were prevented from moving. he returned without success, not having seen any animals. we had nothing to eat. in the morning of the th the part of the lake before us was quite frozen. there was so much uncertainty in st. germain's answers as to the chance of any indians being in the direction we were then going, (although he had previously said that the leader had told him he should be there) and he gave me so much dissatisfaction in his hunting excursions, that i was induced to send a note to the commander, whom i supposed to be by this time at fort enterprise, to inform him of our situation; not that i imagined for a moment he could amend it, but that by all returning to the fort we might, perhaps, have better success in hunting; with this view i despatched belanger, much against his inclination, and told him to return as quickly as possible to a place about four miles further on, where we intended to fish, and to await his arrival. the men were so weak this day, that i could get neither of them to move from the encampment; and it was only necessity that compelled them to cut wood for fuel, in performing which operation beauparlant's face became so dreadfully swelled that he could scarcely see; i myself lost my temper on the most trivial circumstances, and was become very peevish; the day was fine but cold, with a freezing north-east wind. we had nothing to eat. _october _.--the night was calm and clear, but it was not before two in the afternoon that we set out; and the one was so weak, and the other so full of complaints, that we did not get more than three-quarters of a mile from our last encampment, before we were obliged to put up; but in this distance we were fortunate enough to kill a partridge, the bones of which were eaten, and the remainder reserved for baits to fish with. we, however, collected sufficient _tripe de roche_ to make a meal: and i anxiously awaited belanger's return, to know what course to take. i was now so much reduced, that my shoulders were as if they would fall from my body, my legs seemed unable to support me, and in the disposition in which i then found myself, had it not been for the remembrance of my friends behind, who relied on me for relief, as well as the persons of whom i had charge, i certainly should have preferred remaining where i was, to the miserable pain of attempting to move. _october _.--we waited until two in the afternoon for belanger; but not seeing any thing of him on the lake, we set out, purposing to encamp at the narrows, the place which was said to be so good for fishing, and where, according to st. germain's account, the indians never failed to catch plenty; its distance at most could not be more than two miles. we had not proceeded far before beauparlant began to complain of increasing weakness; but this was so usual with us that no particular notice was taken of it, for in fact there was little difference, all being alike feeble: among other things, he said whilst we were resting, that he should never get beyond the next encampment, for his strength had quite failed him. i endeavoured to encourage him by explaining the mercy of the supreme being, who ever beholds with an eye of pity those that seek his aid. this passed as common discourse, when he inquired where we were to put up; st. germain pointed to a small clump of pines near us, the only place indeed that offered for fuel. "well," replied the poor man, "take your axe mr. back, and i will follow at my leisure, i shall join you by the time the encampment is made." this is a usual practice of the country, and st. germain and myself went on towards the spot; it was five o'clock and not very cold, but rather milder than we had experienced it for some time, when on leaving the ice, we saw a number of crows perched on the top of some high pines near us. st. germain immediately said there must be some dead animal thereabouts, and proceeded to search, when we saw several heads of deer half buried in the snow and ice, without eyes or tongues: the previous severity of the weather having obliged the wolves and other animals to abandon them. an expression of "oh merciful god! we are saved," broke from us both; and with feelings more easily imagined than described, we shook hands, not knowing what to say for joy. it was twilight, and a fog was rapidly darkening the surface of the lake, when st. germain commenced making the encampment; the task was too laborious for me to render him any assistance, and had we not thus providentially found provision, i feel convinced that the next twenty-four hours would have terminated my existence. but this good fortune in some measure renovated me for the moment, and putting out my whole strength i contrived to collect a few heads, and with incredible difficulty carried them singly about thirty paces to the fire. darkness stole on us apace, and i became extremely anxious about beauparlant; several guns were fired, to each of which he answered. we then called out, and again heard his responses though faintly, when i told st. germain to go and look for him, as i had not strength myself, being quite exhausted. he said, that he had already placed a pine branch on the ice, and he could then scarcely find his way back, but if he went now he should certainly be lost. in this situation i could only hope that as beauparlant had my blanket, and every thing requisite to light a fire, he might have encamped at a little distance from us. _october _.--the night was cold and clear, but we could not sleep at all, from the pains of having eaten. we suffered the most excruciating torments, though i in particular did not eat a quarter of what would have satisfied me; it might have been from using a quantity of raw or frozen sinews of the legs of deer, which neither of us could avoid doing, so great was our hunger. in the morning, being much agitated for the safety of beauparlant, i desired st. germain to go in search of him, and to return with him as quick as possible, when i would have something prepared for them to eat. it was, however, late when he arrived, with a small bundle which beauparlant was accustomed to carry, and with tears in his eyes, told me that he had found our poor companion dead. dead! i could not believe him. "it is so, sir," said st. germain; "after hallooing and calling his name to no purpose, i went towards our last encampment, about three quarters of a mile, and found him stretched upon his back on a sand bank frozen to death, his limbs all extended and swelled enormously, and as hard as the ice that was near him; his bundle was behind him, as if it had rolled away when he fell, and the blanket which he wore around his neck and shoulders thrown on one side. seeing that there was no longer life in him, i threw your covering over him, and placed his snow-shoes on the top of it." i had not even thought of so serious an occurrence in our little party, and for a short time was obliged to give vent to my grief. left with one person and both of us weak, no appearance of belanger, a likelihood that great calamity had taken place amongst our other companions, still upwards of seventeen days' march from the nearest establishment, and myself unable to carry a burden; all these things pressed heavy on me; and how to get to the indians or to the fort i did not know; but that i might not depress st. germain's spirits, i suppressed the feelings to which these thoughts gave rise, and made some arrangements for the journey to fort providence. _october _.--while we were this day occupied in scraping together the remains of some deer's meat, we observed belanger coming round a point apparently scarcely moving. i went to meet him, and made immediate inquiries about my friends. five, with the captain, he said, were at the house, the rest were left near the river, unable to proceed; but he was too weak to relate the whole. he was conducted to the encampment, and paid every attention to, and by degrees we heard the remainder of his tragic tale, at which the interpreter could not avoid crying. he then gave me a letter from my friend the commander, which indeed was truly afflicting. the simple story of belanger i could hear, but when i read it in another language, mingled with the pious resignation of a good man, i could not sustain it any longer. the poor man was much affected at the death of our lamented companion, but his appetite prevailed over every other feeling; and, had i permitted it, he would have done himself an injury; for after two hours' eating, principally skin and sinews, he complained of hunger. the day was cloudy, with snow and fresh breezes from the north-east by east. the last evening, as well as this morning, the th, i mentioned my wishes to the men, that we should proceed towards rein-deer lake, but this proposal met with a direct refusal. belanger stated his inability to move, and st. germain used similar language; adding, for the first time, that he did not know the route, and that it was of no use to go in the direction i mentioned, which was the one agreed upon between the commander and myself. i then insisted that we should go by the known route, and join the commander, but they would not hear of it; they would remain where they were until they had regained their strength; they said{ } i wanted to expose them again to death (_faire perir_). in vain did i use every argument to the contrary, for they were equally heedless to all. thus situated i was compelled to remain; and from this time to the th we employed ourselves in looking about for the remnants of the deer and pieces of skin, which even the wolves had left; and by pounding the bones, we were enabled to make a sort of soup, which strengthened us greatly, though each still complained of weakness. it was not without the greatest difficulty that i could restrain the men from eating every scrap they found, though they were well aware of the necessity there was of being economical in our present situation, and to save whatever they could for our journey; yet they could not resist the temptation, and whenever my back was turned they seldom failed to snatch at the nearest piece to them, whether cooked or raw. we had set fishing-lines, but without any success; and we often saw large herds of deer crossing the lake at full speed, and wolves pursuing them. the night of the th was cold with hard frost. early the next morning i sent the men to cover the body of our departed companion beauparlant with the trunks and branches of trees, which they did; and shortly after their return i opened his bundle, and found it contained two papers of vermilion, several strings of beads, some fire-steels, flints, awls, fish-hooks, rings, linen, and the glass of an artificial horizon. my two men began to recover a little as well as myself, though i was by far the weakest of the three; the soles of my feet were cracked all over, and the other parts were as hard as horn, from constant walking. i again urged the necessity of advancing to join the commander's party, but they said, they were not sufficiently strong. on the th we discovered the remains of a deer, on which we feasted. the night was unusually cold, and ice formed in a pint-pot within two feet of the fire. the coruscations of the aurora were beautifully brilliant; they served to shew us eight wolves, which we had some trouble to frighten away from our collection of deer's bones; and, between their howling and the constant cracking of the ice, we did not get much rest. having collected with great care, and by self-denial, two small packets of dried meat or sinews, sufficient (for men who knew what it was to fast) to last for eight days, at the rate of one indifferent meal per day, we prepared to set out on the th. i calculated that we should be about fourteen days in reaching fort providence; and allowing that we neither killed deer nor found indians, we could but be unprovided with food six days, and this we heeded not whilst the prospect of obtaining full relief was before us. accordingly we set out against a keen north-east wind, in order to gain the known route to fort providence. we saw a number of wolves and some crows on the middle of the lake, and supposing such an assembly was not met idly, we made for them and came in for a share of a deer which they had killed a short time before, and thus added a couple of meals to our stock. by four p.m. we gained the head of the lake, or the direct road to fort providence, and some dry wood being at hand, we encamped; by accident it was the same place where the commander's party had slept on the th, the day on which i supposed they had left fort enterprise; but the encampment was so small, that we feared great mortality had taken place amongst them; and i am sorry to say the stubborn resolution of my men, not to go to the house, prevented me from determining this most anxious point, so that i now almost dreaded passing their encampments, lest i should see some of our unfortunate friends dead at each spot. our fire was hardly kindled when a fine herd of deer passed close to us. st. germain pursued them a short distance, but with his usual want of success, so that we made a meal off the muscles and sinews we had dried, though they were so tough that we could scarcely{ } cut them. my hands were benumbed throughout the march, and we were all stiff and fatigued. the marching of two days weakened us all very much, and the more so on account of our exertion to follow the tracks of our commander's party; but we lost them, and concluded that they were not before us. though the weather was not cold, i was frozen in the face and was so reduced and affected by these constant calamities, as well in mind as in body, that i found much difficulty in proceeding even with the advantages i had enjoyed. _november _.--we set out before day, though, in fact, we were all much fitter to remain, from the excessive pain which we suffered in our joints, and proceeded till one p.m., without halting, when belanger, who was before, stopped, and cried out, "footsteps of indians." it is needless to mention the joy that brightened the countenances of each at this unlooked-for sight; we knew relief must be at hand, and considered our sufferings at an end. st. germain inspected the tracks, and said that three persons had passed the day before; and that he knew the remainder must be advancing to the southward, as was customary with these indians, when they sent to the trading establishment on the first ice. on this information we encamped, and being too weak to walk myself, i sent st. germain to follow the tracks, with instructions to the chief of the indians to provide immediate assistance for such of our friends as might be at fort enterprise, as well as for ourselves, and to lose no time in returning to me. i was now so exhausted, that had we not seen the tracks this day, i must have remained at the next encampment, until the men could have sent aid from fort providence. we had finished our small portion of sinews, and were preparing for rest, when an indian boy made his appearance with meat. st. germain had arrived before sunset at the tents of akaitcho, whom he found at the spot where he had wintered last year; but imagine my surprise when he gave me a note from the commander, and said that benoit and augustus, two of the men, had just joined them. the note was so confused, by the pencil marks being partly rubbed out, that i could not decipher it clearly; but it informed me, that he had attempted to come with the two men, but finding his strength inadequate to the task, he relinquished his design, and returned to fort enterprise, to await relief with the others. there was another note for the gentleman in charge of fort providence, desiring him to send meat, blankets, shoes, and tobacco. akaitcho wished me to join him on the ensuing day, at a place which the boy knew, where they were going to fish; and i was the more anxious to do so, on account of my companions: but particularly that i might hear a full relation of what had happened, and of the commander's true situation, which i suspected to be much worse than he had described. in the afternoon i joined the indians, and repeated to akaitcho what st. germain had told him; he seemed much affected, and said, he would have sent relief directly, though i had not been there; indeed, his conduct was generous and humane. the next morning, at an early hour, three indians, with loaded sledges of meat, skins, shoes, and a blanket, set out for fort enterprise; one of them was to return directly with an answer from captain franklin, to whom i wrote; but in the event of his death, he was to bring away all the papers he could find; and he promised to travel with such haste, as to be able to return to us on the fourth day. i was now somewhat more at ease, having done all in my power to succour my unfortunate companions; but was very anxious for the return of the messenger. the indians brought me meat in small quantities, though sufficient for our daily consumption; and, as we had a little ammunition, many were paid on the spot for what they gave. on the th i had the satisfaction of seeing the indian arrive from fort enterprise. at first he said they were all dead, but shortly after he gave me a note, which was from the commander, and then i learned all the fatal particulars which had befallen them. i now proposed that the chief should immediately send three sledges, loaded with meat, to fort enterprise, should make a _cache_ of provision at our present encampment, and also, that he should here await the arrival of the commander. by noon two large trains, laden with meat, were sent off for fort enterprise. the next day we proceeded on our journey, and arrived at fort providence on the st of november. _conclusion of mr. back's narrative._ * * * * * i have little now to add to the melancholy detail into which i felt it proper to enter; but i cannot omit to state, that the unremitting care and attentions of our kind friends, mr. mcvicar and mr. mcauley, united with our improved diet, to promote to the restoration of our health; so that, by the end of february, the swellings of our limbs, which had returned upon us, entirely subsided, and we were able to walk to any part of the island. our appetites gradually moderated, and we nearly regained our ordinary state of body before the spring. hepburn alone suffered from a severe attack of rheumatism, which confined him to his bed for some weeks. the usual symptoms of spring having appeared, on the th of may we prepared to embark for fort chipewyan. fortunately, on the following morning, a canoe arrived from that place with the whole of the stores which we required for the payment of akaitcho and the hunters. it was extremely gratifying to us to be thus enabled, previous to our departure, to make arrangements respecting the requital of our late indian companions; and the more so, as we had recently discovered that akaitcho, and the whole of his tribe, in consequence of the death of the leader's mother, and the wife of our old guide keskarrah, had broken and destroyed every useful article belonging to them, and were in the greatest distress. it was an additional pleasure to find our stock of ammunition more than sufficient to pay them what was due, and that we could make a considerable present of this most essential article to every individual that had been attached to the expedition. we quitted moose-deer island at five p.m., on the th, accompanied by mr. mcvicar, and mr. mcauley, and nearly all the voyagers at the establishment, having resided there about five months, not a day of which had passed without our having cause of gratitude, for the kind and unvaried attentions of mr. mcvicar and mr. mcauley. these gentlemen accompanied us as far as fort chipewyan, where we arrived on the d of june; here we met mr. wentzel, and the four men, who had been sent with him from the mouth of the copper-mine river; and i think it due to that gentleman, to give his own explanation of the unfortunate circumstances which prevented him from fulfilling my instructions, respecting the provisions to have been left for us at fort enterprise[ ]. [ ] "after you sent me back from the mouth of the copper-mine river, and i had overtaken the leader, guides, and hunters, on the fifth day, leaving the sea-coast, as well as our journey up the river, they always expressed the same desire of fulfilling their promises, although somewhat dissatisfied at being exposed to privation while on our return, from a scarcity of animals; for, as i have already stated in my first communication from moose-deer island, we had been eleven days with no other food but _tripe de roche_. in the course of this time an indian, with his wife and child, who were travelling in company with us, were left in the rear, and are since supposed to have perished through want, as no intelligence had been received of them at fort providence in december last. on the seventh day after i had joined the leader, &c. &c., and journeying on together, all the indians, excepting petit pied and bald-head, left me to seek their families, and crossed point lake at the crow's nest, where humpy had promised to meet his brother ekehcho[ a] with the families, but did not fulfil, nor did any of my party of indians know where to find them; for we had frequently made fires to apprize them of our approach, yet none appeared in return as answers. this disappointment, as might be expected, served to increase the ill-humour of the leader and party, the brooding of which (agreeably to indian custom) was liberally discharged on me, in bitter reproach for having led them from their families, and exposed them to dangers and hardships, which but for my influence, they said, they might have spared themselves. nevertheless, they still continued to profess the sincerest desire of meeting your wishes in making _caches_ of provisions, and remaining until a late season on the road that leads from fort enterprise to fort providence, through which the expedition-men had travelled so often the year before--remarking, however, at the same time, that they had not the least hopes of ever seeing one person return from the expedition. these alarming fears i never could persuade them to dismiss from their minds; they always sneered at what they called 'my credulity.'--'if,' said the gros pied[ b], 'the great chief (meaning captain franklin), or any of his party, should pass at my tents, he or they shall be welcome to all my provisions, or any thing else that i may have.' and i am sincerely happy to understand, by your communication, that in this he had kept his word--in sending you with such promptitude and liberality the assistance your truly dreadful situation required. but the party of indians, on whom i had placed the utmost confidence and dependance, was humpy and the white capot guide, with their sons, and several of the discharged hunters from the expedition. this party was well-disposed, and readily promised to collect provisions for the possible return of the expedition, provided they could get a supply of ammunition from fort providence; for when i came up with them they were actually starving, and converting old axes into ball, having no other substitute--this was unlucky. yet they were well inclined, and i expected to find means at fort providence to send them a supply, in which i was, however, disappointed, for i found that establishment quite destitute of necessaries; and then, shortly after i had left them, they had the misfortune of losing three of their hunters, who were drowned in marten lake: this accident was, of all others, the most fatal that could have happened--a truth which no one, who has the least knowledge of the indian character, will deny; and as they were nearly connected by relationship to the leader, humpy, and white capot guide, the three leading men of this part of the copper indian tribe, it had the effect of unhinging (if i may use the expression) the minds of all these families, and finally destroying all the fond hopes i had so sanguinely conceived of their assisting the expedition, should it come back by the anna-dessé river, of which they were not certain. [ a] akaitcho the leader. [ b] also akaitcho. "as to my not leaving a letter at fort enterprise, it was because, by some mischance, you had forgot to give me paper when we parted[ c]. [ c] i certainly offered mr. wentzel some paper when he quitted us, but he declined it, having then a note-book; and mr. back gave him a pencil. "i, however, wrote this news on a plank, in pencil, and placed it in the top of your former bedstead, where i left it. since it has not been found there, some indians must have gone to the house after my departure, and destroyed it. these details, sir, i have been induced to enter into (rather unexpectedly) in justification of myself, and hope it will be satisfactory." in a subsequent conversation he stated to me, that the two indians, who were actually with him at fort enterprise, whilst he remained there altering his canoe, were prevented from hunting; one by an accidental lameness, the other by the fear of meeting alone some of the dog-rib indians. we were here furnished with a canoe by mr. smith, and a bowman, to act as our guide; and having left fort chipewyan on the th, we arrived, on the th of july, at norway house. finding at this place, that canoes were about to go down to montreal, i gave all our canadian voyagers their discharges, and sent them by those vessels, furnishing them with orders on the agent of the hudson's bay company, for the amount of their wages. we carried augustus down to york factory, where we arrived on the th of july, and were received with every mark of attention and kindness by mr. simpson, the governor, mr. mctavish, and, indeed, by all the officers of the united companies. and thus terminated our long, fatiguing, and disastrous travels in north america, having journeyed by water and by land (including our navigation of the polar sea,) five thousand five hundred and fifty miles. the end. [illustration: route from york factory] [illustration: route from isle à la crosse] [illustration: route from slave lake] * * * * * london: printed by william clowes, northumberland-court. * * * * * transcriber's corrections and comments: . original had "throngh"; corrected to "through". . assume - ° ' means - . °, but possibly this could also be - - / ° . original had "phenemenon"; corrected to "phenomenon". . the context of soap making indicates that "ley" is most likely a misprint for "lye". . original had "holyday"; corrected to "holiday" (as in nd edition). . original list order was "m., l."; changed to "l., m." for consistency. . original list order was "s., r."; changed to "r., s." for consistency. . original had "storehouse"; changed to "store-house" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text. . original had "an"; corrected to "at". . original had "mcaulay"; changed to "mcauley" to be consisten with other occurrences in the text. . added comma missing after "tobacco" in original. . original had "determine"; corrected to "determined". . original had "considerally"; corrected to "considerably" (as in nd edition). . original had comma after "him"; corrected to period. . original had period after "impossible"; corrected to comma. . added "a" missing before "medal" in original. . assume "akaiyazzeh" is the same as "akaiyazza" in chapter viii. . original had "instructions"; corrected to "instructions". . original had "et"; corrected to "set". . original had "june", which doesn't fit into the sequence; corrected to "july". . original had "good-nature" at line break; corrected to "good nature". . original had "looses and"; corrected to "loose sand". . original had "june", which doesn't fit into the sequence; corrected to "july". . original had "this"; corrected to "his". . original had "tattoed"; corrected to "tattooed". . original had "her and"; corrected to "her". . added period missing after "house" in original. . added comma missing after "being" in original. . original had "easernmost"; corrected to "easternmost". . added period missing after "academy" in original. . original had "blackmeat"; changed to "black-meat" to be consistent with other occurrences in this text and in the first volume. . alternative spellings for "thlueetessy" in the first volume are "thlouee-tessy" and "thloueea-tessy". . original had "tha"; corrected to "that". . original had "slate-clay"; changed to "slate-clay" to be consistent with occurrence in chapter xi. . original had "sandstone"; changed to "sand-stone" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text. . original had "philanthrophist"; corrected to "philanthropist". . original had "brush-wood"; changed to "brushwood" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text. . original had "port-folio"; changed to "portfolio" to be consistent with spelling in footnote in chapter x. . original had "daybreak"; changed to "day-break" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text. . original had "amongt"; corrected to "amongst". . original had "rein-deer"; changed to "rein-deer" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text. . original had "signed"; corrected to "singed". . original had "goiug"; corrected to "going". . original had superfluous comma after "companions"; deleted. . added comma missing in original after "hunting". . original had "firewood"; changed to "fire-wood" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text. . original had "morrrow"; corrected to "morrow". . added word "be" missing in phrase "used to considered" in original. . original had "semandrè"; corrected this and all further instances to "samandrè" to be consistent with the spelling used earlier in this text and in the first volume. . original had "w"; corrected to "we". . original had "combatted"; corrected to "combated" (as in nd edition and elsewhere in the text). . original had "exited"; corrected to "excited". . original had "sauvès"; corrected to "sauvés". . superfluous "as" in original; deleted. . added period missing after "meal" in original. . original had superfluous comma after "said"; deleted. . original had "scacrely"; corrected to "scarcely". file was produced from images generously made available by the canadian institute for historical microreproductions (www.canadiana.org)) transcriber's notes: there are several inconsistencies in spelling and punctuation in the original. some corrections have been made for obvious typographical errors; they have been noted individually in the text. all changes made by the transcriber are enumerated in braces, for example { }; details of corrections and comments are listed at the end of the text. note that many of the errors were introduced in the third edition, as cross-referencing the second edition has shown. in the original, the "mc" in scottish names is given as "m" followed by what looks like a left single quotation mark (unicode ). this has been changed to "mc" throughout the text; note that the original also contains a few apparently inconsistent uses of "mac", which have been retained. specific spellings that differ from their modern versions and have been retained in this text are "saskatchawan" (modern "saskatchewan"), "winipeg" (modern "winnipeg"), "esquimaux" (modern "eskimo") and "musquito" (with one instance of "moscheto", modern "mosquito"). text in italics in the original is shown between _underlines_. for this text version, the oe-ligature (unicode ) has been rendered as "oe". footnote in chapter iv contains two transliterations, where [=a] represents latin small letter a with macron (unicode ) and [=o] stands for latin small letter o with macron (unicode d). * * * * * narrative of a journey to the shores of the polar sea, in the years - - - . by john franklin, capt. r.n., f.r.s., m.w.s., and commander of the expedition. published by authority of the right honourable the earl bathurst. third edition. two vols.--vol. i. london: john murray, albemarle-street. mdcccxxiv{ }. london: printed by william clowes, northumberland-court. [illustration: the connected discoveries of captains ross, parry, and franklin in the years , , , , & .] to the right honourable the earl bathurst, k.g., one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state, &c. &c. &c. the following narrative of a journey of discovery to the northern coast of america, undertaken by order and under the auspices of his lordship, is by permission, inscribed with great respect and gratitude by the author. contents of the first volume. page introduction ix chapter i. departure from england--transactions at stromness--enter davis' straits--perilous situation on the shore of resolution island--land on the coast of labrador--esquimaux of savage islands--york factory--preparations for the journey into the interior chapter ii. passage up hayes', steel, and hill rivers--cross swampy lake--jack river--knee lake, and magnetic islet--trout river--holy lake{ }--weepinapannis river--windy lake--white fall lake and river--echemamis and sea rivers--play-green lakes--lake winipeg--river saskatchawan--cross, cedar, and pine island lakes--cumberland house chapter iii. dr. richardson's residence at cumberland-house--his account of the cree indians chapter iv. leave cumberland house--mode of travelling in winter--arrival at carlton house--stone indians--visit to a buffalo pound--goitres--departure from carlton house--isle à{ } la crosse--arrival at fort chipewyan chapter v. transactions at fort chipewyan--arrival of dr. richardson and mr. hood--preparations for our journey to the northward chapter vi. mr. hood's journey to the basquiau hill--sojourns with an indian party--his journey to chipewyan chapter vii. departure from chipewyan--difficulties of the various navigation of the rivers and lakes, and of the portages--slave lake and fort providence--scarcity of provisions, and discontent of the canadian voyagers--difficulties with regard to the indian guides--refusal to proceed--visit of observation to the upper part of copper-mine river--return to the winter-quarters of fort enterprise * * * * * _directions to the binder._ vol. i. i. the chart shewing the connected discoveries of captains ross, parry, and franklin, to face the _title-page_. vol. ii. ii. route from york factory } iii. isle à la crosse } to be placed at the end. iv. slave lake } introduction. his majesty's government having determined upon sending an expedition from the shores of hudson's bay by land, to explore the northern coast of america, from the mouth of the copper-mine river to the eastward, i had the honour to be appointed to this service by earl bathurst, on the recommendation of the lords commissioners of the admiralty; who, at the same time, nominated doctor john richardson, a surgeon in the royal navy, mr. george back, and mr. robert hood, two admiralty midshipmen, to be joined with me in the enterprize. my instructions, in substance, informed me that the main object of the expedition was that of determining the latitudes and longitudes of the northern coast of north america, and the trending of that coast from the mouth of the copper-mine river to the eastern extremity of that continent; that it was left for me to determine according to circumstances, whether it might be most advisable to proceed, at once, directly to the northward till i arrived at the sea-coast, and thence westerly towards the copper-mine river; or advance, in the first instance, by the usual route to the mouth of the copper-mine river, and from thence easterly till i should arrive at the eastern extremity of that continent; that, in the adoption of either of these plans, i was to be guided by the advice and information which i should receive from the wintering servants of the hudson's bay company, who would be instructed by their employers to co-operate cordially in the prosecution of the objects of the expedition, and who would provide me with the necessary escort of indians to act as guides, interpreters, game-killers, &c.; and also with such articles of clothing, ammunition, snow-shoes, presents, &c., as should be deemed expedient for me to take. that as another principal object of the expedition was to amend the very defective geography of the northern part of north america, i was to be very careful to ascertain correctly the latitude and longitude of every remarkable spot upon our route, and of all the bays, harbours, rivers, headlands, &c., that might occur along the northern shore of north america. that in proceeding along the coast, i should erect conspicuous marks at places where ships might enter, or to which a boat could be sent; and to deposit information as to the nature of the coast for the use of lieutenant parry. that in the journal of our route, i should register the temperature of the air at least three times in every twenty-four hours; together with the state of the wind and weather, and any other meteorological phenomena. that i should not neglect any opportunity of observing and noting down the dip and variation of the magnetic needle, and the intensity of the magnetic force; and should take particular notice whether any, and what kind or degree of, influence the aurora borealis might appear to exert on the magnetic needle; and to notice whether that phenomenon were attended with any noise; and to make any other observations that might be likely to tend to the further development of its cause, and the laws by which it is governed. mr. back and mr. hood were to assist me in all the observations above-mentioned, and to make drawings of the land, of the natives, and of the various objects of natural history; and, particularly, of such as dr. richardson, who, to his professional duties, was to add that of naturalist, might consider to be most curious and interesting. i was instructed, on my arrival at, or near, the mouth of the copper-mine river, to make every inquiry as to the situation of the spot whence native copper had been brought down by the indians to the hudson's bay establishment, and to visit and explore the place in question; in order that dr. richardson might be enabled to make such observations as might be useful in a commercial point of view, or interesting to the science of mineralogy. from joseph berens, esq., the governor of the hudson's bay company, and the gentlemen of the committee, i received all kinds of assistance and information, communicated in the most friendly manner previous to my leaving england; and i had the gratification of perusing the orders to their agents and servants in north america, containing the fullest directions to promote, by every means, the progress of the expedition. i most cheerfully avail myself of this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to these gentlemen for their personal kindness to myself and the other officers, as well as for the benefits rendered by them to the expedition; and the same sentiment is due towards the gentlemen of the north-west company, both in england and america, more particularly to simon mcgillivray, esq., of london, from whom i received much useful information, and cordial letters of recommendation to the partners and agents of that company, resident on our line of route. a short time before i left london i had the pleasure and advantage of an interview with the late sir alexander mackenzie, who was one of the two persons who had visited the coast we were to explore. he afforded me, in the most open and kind manner, much valuable information and advice. the provisions, instruments, and other articles, of which i had furnished a list, by direction of the lords commissioners of the admiralty, were embarked on board the hudson's bay company's ship prince of wales, appointed by the committee to convey the expedition to york factory, their principal establishment in hudson's bay. it will be seen, in the course of the narrative how much reason i had to be satisfied with, and how great my obligations are to, all the gentlemen who were associated with me in the expedition, whose kindness, good conduct, and cordial co-operation, have made an impression which can never be effaced from my mind. the unfortunate death of mr. hood is the only drawback which i feel from the otherwise unalloyed pleasure of reflecting on that cordial unanimity which at all times prevailed among us in the days of sunshine, and in those of "sickness and sorrow." to dr. richardson, in particular, the exclusive merit is due of whatever collections and observations have been made in the department of natural history; and i am indebted to him in no small degree for his friendly advice and assistance in the preparation of the present narrative. the charts and drawings were made by lieutenant back, and the late lieutenant hood. both these gentlemen cheerfully and ably assisted me in making the observations and in the daily conduct of the expedition. the observations made by mr. hood, on the various phenomena presented by the aurora borealis[ ], will, it is presumed, present to the reader some new facts connected with this meteor. mr. back was mostly prevented from turning his attention to objects of science by the many severe duties which were required of him, and which obliged him to travel almost constantly every winter that we passed in america; to his personal exertions, indeed, our final safety is mainly to be attributed. and here i must be permitted to pay the tribute, due to the fidelity, exertion and uniform good conduct in the most trying situations, of john hepburn, an english seaman, and our only attendant, to whom in the latter part of our journey we owe, under divine providence, the preservation of the lives of some of the party. [ ] given in the appendix to the quarto edition. i ought, perhaps, to crave the reader's indulgence towards the defective style of this work, which i trust will not be refused when it is considered that mine has been a life of constant employment in my profession from a very early age. i have been prompted to venture upon the task solely by an imperious sense of duty, when called upon to undertake it. in the ensuing narrative the notices of the moral condition of the indians as influenced by the conduct of the traders towards them, refer entirely to the state in which it existed during our progress through the country; but lest i should have been mistaken respecting the views of the hudson's bay company on these points, i gladly embrace the opportunity which a second edition affords me of stating that the junction of the two companies has enabled the directors to put in practice the improvements which i have reason to believe they had long contemplated. they have provided for religious instruction by the appointment of two clergymen of the established church, under whose direction school-masters and mistresses are to be placed at such stations as afford the means of support for the establishment of schools. the offspring of the voyagers and labourers are to be educated chiefly at the expense of the company; and such of the indian children as their parents may wish to send to these schools, are to be instructed, clothed, and maintained at the expense of the church missionary society, which has already allotted a considerable sum for these purposes, and has also sent out teachers who are to act under the superintendence of the rev. mr. west, the principal chaplain of the company. we had the pleasure of meeting this gentleman at york factory, and witnessed with peculiar delight the great benefit which already marked his zealous and judicious conduct. many of the traders, and of the servants of the company, had been induced to marry the women with whom they had cohabited; a material step towards the improvement of the females in that country. mr. west, under the sanction of the directors, has also promoted a subscription for the distribution of the bible in every part of the country where the company's fur trade has extended, and which has met with very general support from the resident chief factors, traders, and clerks. the directors of the company are continuing to reduce the distribution of spirits gradually among the indians, as well as towards their own servants, with a view to the entire disuse of them as soon as this most desirable object can be accomplished. they have likewise issued orders for the cultivation of the ground at each of the posts, by which means the residents will be far less exposed to famine whenever through the scarcity of animals, the sickness of the indians, or any other cause, their supply of meat may fail. it is to be hoped that intentions, so dear to every humane and pious mind, will, through the blessing of god, meet with the utmost success. journey to the shores of the polar sea. * * * * * chapter i. departure from england--transactions at stromness--enter davis' straits--perilous situation on the shore of resolution island--land on the coast of labrador--esquimaux of savage islands--york factory--preparations for the journey into the interior. . may. on sunday, the d of may, the whole of our party embarked at gravesend on board the ship prince of wales, belonging to the hudson's bay company, just as she was in the act of getting under weigh, with her consorts the eddystone and wear. the wind being unfavourable, on the ebb tide being finished, the vessels were again anchored; but they weighed in the night and beat down as far as the warp, where they were detained two days by a strong easterly wind. having learned from some of the passengers, who were the trading officers of the company, that the arrival of the ships at either of the establishments in hudson's bay, gives full occupation to all the boatmen in their service, who are required to convey the necessary stores to the different posts in the interior; that it was very probable a sufficient number of men might not be procured from this indispensable duty; and, considering that any delay at york factory would materially retard our future operations, i wrote to the under secretary of state, requesting his permission to provide a few well-qualified steersmen and bowmen, at stromness, to assist our proceedings in the former part of our journey into the interior. _may _.--the easterly wind, which had retarded the ship's progress so much, that we had only reached hollesley bay after a week's beating about, changed to w.s.w. soon after that anchorage had been gained. the vessels instantly weighed, and, by carrying all sail, arrived in yarmouth roads at seven p.m.; the pilots were landed, and our course was continued through the anchorage. at midnight, the wind became light and variable, and gradually drew round to the n.w.; and, as the sky indicated unsettled weather, and the wind blew from an unfavourable quarter for ships upon that coast, the commander bore up again for yarmouth, and anchored at eight a.m. this return afforded us, at least, the opportunity of comparing the longitude of yarmouth church, as shewn by our chronometers, with its position as laid down by the ordnance trigonometrical survey; and, it was satisfactory to find, from the small difference in their results, that the chronometers had not experienced any alteration in their rates, in consequence of their being changed from an horizontal position in a room, to that of being carried in the pocket. an untoward circumstance, while at this anchorage, cast a damp on our party at this early period of the voyage. emboldened by the decided appearance of the n.w. sky, several of our officers and passengers ventured on shore for a few hours; but, we had not been long in the town before the wind changed suddenly to s.e., which caused instant motion in the large fleet collected at this anchorage. the commander of our ship intimated his intention of proceeding to sea, by firing guns; and the passengers hastened to embark. mr. back, however, had unfortunately gone upon some business to a house two or three miles distant from yarmouth, along the line of the coast; from whence he expected to be able to observe the first symptoms of moving, which the vessels might make. by some accident, however, he did not make his appearance before the captain was obliged to make sail, that he might get the ships through the intricate passage of the cockle gat before it was dark. fortunately, through the kindness of lieutenant hewit, of the protector, i was enabled to convey a note to our missing companion, desiring him to proceed immediately by the coach to the pentland firth, and from thence across the passage to stromness, which appeared to be the only way of proceeding by which he could rejoin the party. _june _.--the wind continuing favourable after leaving yarmouth, about nine this morning we passed the rugged and bold projecting rock, termed johnny groat's house, and soon afterwards duncansby head, and then entered the pentland firth. a pilot came from the main shore of scotland, and steered the ship in safety between the different islands, to the outer anchorage at stromness, though the atmosphere was too dense for distinguishing any of the objects on the land. almost immediately after the ship had anchored, the wind changed to n.w., the rain ceased, and a sight was then first obtained of the neighbouring islands, and of the town of stromness, the latter of which, from this point of view, and at this distance, presented a pleasing appearance. mr. geddes, the agent of the hudson's bay company at this place, undertook to communicate my wish for volunteer boatmen to the different parishes, by a notice on the church-door, which he said was the surest and most direct channel for the conveyance of information to the lower classes in these islands, as they invariably attend divine service there every sunday. he informed me that the kind of men we were in want of would be difficult to procure, on account of the very increased demand for boatmen for the herring fishery, which had recently been established on the shores of these islands; that last year, sixty boats and four hundred men only were employed in this service, whereas now there were three hundred boats and twelve hundred men engaged; and that owing to this unexpected addition to the fishery, he had been unable to provide the number of persons required for the service of the hudson's bay company. this was unpleasant information, as it increased the apprehension of our being detained at york factory the whole winter, if boatmen were not taken from hence. i could not therefore hesitate in requesting mr. geddes to engage eight or ten men well adapted for our service, on such terms as he could procure them, though the secretary of state's permission had not yet reached me. next to a supply of boatmen, our attention was directed towards the procuring of a house conveniently situated for trying the instruments, and examining the rates of the chronometers. mr. geddes kindly offered one of his, which, though in an unfinished state, was readily accepted, being well situated for our purpose, as it was placed on an eminence, had a southern aspect, and was at a sufficient distance from the town to secure us from frequent interruption. another advantage was its proximity to the manse, the residence of the rev. mr. clouston, the worthy and highly respected minister of stromness; whose kind hospitality and the polite attention of his family, the party experienced almost daily during their stay. for three days the weather was unsettled, and few observations could be made, except for the dip of the needle, which was ascertained to be ° ' ", on which occasion a difference of eight degrees and a half was perceived between the observations, when the face of the instrument was changed from the east to the west, the amount being the greatest when it was placed with the face to the west. but, on the th, a westerly wind caused a cloudless sky, which enabled us to place the transit instrument in the meridian, and to ascertain the variation of the compass, to be ° ' west. the sky becoming cloudy in the afternoon, prevented our obtaining the corresponding observations to those gained in the morning; and the next day an impervious fog obscured the sky until noon. on the evening of this day, we had the gratification of welcoming our absent companion, mr. back. his return to our society was hailed with sincere pleasure by every one, and removed a weight of anxiety from my mind. it appears that he had come down to the beach at caistor, just as the ships were passing by, and had applied to some boatmen to convey him on board, which might have been soon accomplished, but they, discovering the emergency of his case, demanded an exorbitant reward which he was not at the instant prepared to satisfy; and, in consequence, they positively refused to assist him. though he had travelled nine successive days, almost without rest, he could not be prevailed upon to withdraw from the agreeable scene of a ball-room, in which he joined us, until a late hour. on the th, the rain having ceased, the observations for ascertaining the dip of the needle were repeated; and the results, compared with the former ones, gave a mean of ° ' ". nearly the same differences were remarked in reversing the face of the instrument as before. an attempt was also made to ascertain the magnetic force, but the wind blew too strong for procuring the observation to any degree of accuracy. the fineness of the following day induced us to set up the different instruments for examination, and to try how nearly the observations made by each of them would agree; but a squall passed over just before noon, accompanied by heavy rain, and the hoped-for favourable opportunity was entirely lost. in the intervals between the observations, and at every opportunity, my companions were occupied in those pursuits to which their attention had been more particularly directed in my instructions. whilst dr. richardson was collecting and examining the various specimens of marine plants, of which these islands furnish an abundant and diversified supply, mr. back and mr. hood took views and sketches of the surrounding scenery, which is extremely picturesque in many parts, and wants only the addition of trees to make it beautiful. the hills present the bold character of rugged sterility, whilst the valleys, at this season, are clothed with luxuriant verdure. it was not till the th, that, by appointment, the boatmen were to assemble at the house of mr. geddes, to engage to accompany the expedition. several persons collected, but to my great mortification, i found they were all so strongly possessed with the fearful apprehension, either that great danger would attend the service, or that we should carry them further than they would agree to go, that not a single man would engage with us; some of them, however, said they would consider the subject, and give me an answer on the following day. this indecisive conduct was extremely annoying to me, especially as the next evening was fixed for the departure of the ships. at the appointed time on the following morning, four men only presented themselves, and these, after much hesitation, engaged to accompany the expedition to fort chipewyan, if they should be required so far. the bowmen and steersmen were to receive forty pounds' wages annually, and the middle men thirty-five pounds. they stipulated to be sent back to the orkney islands, free of expense, and to receive their pay until the time of arrival. only these few men could be procured, although our requisition had been sent to almost every island, even as far as the northernmost point of ronaldsha. i was much amused with the extreme caution these men used before they would sign the agreement; they minutely scanned all our intentions, weighed every circumstance, looked narrowly into the plan of our route, and still more circumspectly to the prospect of return. such caution on the part of the northern mariners forms a singular contrast with the ready and thoughtless manner in which an english seaman enters upon any enterprise, however hazardous, without inquiring, or desiring to know where he is going, or what he is going about. the brig harmony, belonging to the moravian missionary society, and bound to their settlement at nain, on the coast of labrador, was lying at anchor. with the view of collecting some esquimaux words and sentences, or gaining any information respecting the manners and habits of that people, doctor richardson and myself paid her a visit. we found the passengers, who were going out as missionaries, extremely disposed to communicate; but as they only spoke the german and esquimaux languages, of which we were ignorant, our conversation was necessarily much confined: by the aid, however, of an esquimaux and german dictionary, some few words were collected, which we considered might be useful. there were on board a very interesting girl, and a young man, who were natives of disco, in old greenland; both of them had fair complexions, rather handsome features, and a lively manner; the former was going to be married to a resident missionary, and the latter to officiate in that character. the commander of the vessel gave me a translation of the gospel of st. john in the esquimaux language, printed by the moravian society in london. _june _.--the wind being unfavourable for sailing i went on shore with dr. richardson, and took several lunar observations at the place of our former residence. the result obtained was latitude ° ' "{ } n.; longitude ° ' " w.; variation ° ' w.; dip of the magnetic needle, ° ' ". in the afternoon the wind changed in a squall some points towards the north, and the prince of wales made the preparatory signal for sea. at three p.m. the ships weighed, an hour too early for the tide; as soon as this served we entered into the passage between hoy and pomona, and had to beat through against a very heavy swell, which the meeting of a weather tide and a strong breeze had occasioned. some dangerous rocks lie near the pomona shore, and on this side also the tide appeared to run with the greatest strength. on clearing the outward projecting points of hoy and pomona, we entered at once into the atlantic, and commenced our voyage to hudson's bay--having the eddystone, wear, and harmony, missionary brig, in company. the comparisons of the chronometers this day indicated that arnold's nos. and , had slightly changed their rates since they had been brought on board; fortunately the rate of the former seems to have increased nearly in the same ratio as the other has lost, and the mean longitude will not be materially affected. being now fairly launched into the atlantic, i issued a general memorandum for the guidance of the officers during the prosecution of the service on which we were engaged, and communicated to them the several points of information that were expected from us by my instructions. i also furnished them with copies of the signals which had been agreed upon between lieutenant parry and myself, to be used in the event of our reaching the northern coast of america, and falling in with each other. at the end of the month of june, our progress was found to have been extremely slow, owing to a determined n.w. wind and much sea. we had numerous birds hovering round the ship; principally fulmars (_procellaria glacialis_,) and shearwaters, (_procellaria puffinus_,) and not unfrequently saw shoals of grampusses sporting about, which the greenland seamen term finners from their large dorsal fin. some porpoises occasionally appeared, and whenever they did, the crew were sanguine in their expectation of having a speedy change in the wind, which had been so vexatiously contrary, but they were disappointed in every instance. _thursday, july _.--the month of july set in more favourably; and, aided by fresh breezes, we advanced rapidly to the westward, attended daily by numerous fulmars and shearwaters. the missionary brig had parted company on the d of june. we passed directly over that part of the ocean where the "sunken land of buss" is laid down in the old, and continued in the admiralty charts. mr. bell, the commander of the eddystone, informed me, that the pilot who brought his ship down the thames told him that he had gained soundings in twelve feet somewhere hereabout; and i am rather inclined to attribute the very unusual and cross sea we had in this neighbourhood to the existence of a bank, than to the effect of a gale of wind which we had just before experienced; and i cannot but regret that the commander of the ship did not try for soundings at frequent intervals. by the th july we had opened the entrance of davis' straits, and in the afternoon spoke the andrew marvell, bound to england with a cargo of fourteen fish. the master informed us that the ice had been heavier this season in davis' straits than he had ever recollected, and that it lay particularly close to the westward, being connected with the shore to the northward of resolution island, and extending from thence within a short distance of the greenland coast; that whales had been abundant, but the ice so extremely cross, that few could be killed. his ship, as well as several others, had suffered material injury, and two vessels had been entirely crushed between vast masses of ice in latitude ° ' n., but the crews were saved. we inquired anxiously, but in vain, for intelligence respecting lieutenant parry, and the ships under his command; but as he mentioned that the wind had been blowing strong from the northward for some time, which would, probably, have cleared baffin's bay of ice, we were disposed to hope favourably of his progress. the clouds assumed so much the appearance of icebergs this evening, as to deceive most of the passengers and crew; but their imaginations had been excited by the intelligence we had received from the andrew marvell, that she had only parted from a cluster of them two days previous to our meetings. on the th, being in latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., and the weather calm we tried for soundings, but did not reach the bottom. the register thermometer was attached to the line just above the lead, and is supposed to have descended six hundred and fifty fathoms. a well-corked bottle was also fastened to the line, two hundred fathoms above the lead, and went down four hundred and fifty fathoms. the change in temperature, shewn by the register thermometer during the descent, was from ° to . ; and it stood at the latter point, when taken out of the tin case. the temperature of the water brought up in the bottle was °, being half a degree higher at four hundred and fifty than at six hundred and fifty fathoms, and four degrees colder than the water at the surface, which was then at °, whilst that of the air was °. this experiment in shewing the water to be colder at a great depth than at the surface, and in proportion to the increase of the descent, coincides with the observations of captain ross and lieutenant parry, on their late voyage to these seas, but is contrary to the results obtained by captain buchan and myself, on our recent voyage to the north, between spitzbergen and greenland, in which sea we invariably found the water brought from any great depth to be warmer than that at the surface. on the th we tacked, to avoid an extensive stream of sailing ice. the temperature of the water fell to . °{ }, when we were near it, but was at °, when at the distance of half a mile. the thermometer in the air remained steadily at °. thus the proximity of this ice was not so decidedly indicated by the decrease of the temperature of either the air or water, as i have before witnessed, which was probably owing to the recent arrival of the stream at this point, and its passing at too quick a rate for the effectual diffusion of its chilling influence beyond a short distance. still the decrease in both cases was sufficient to have given timely warning for a ship's performing any evolution that would have prevented the coming in contact with it, had the thickness of the weather precluded a distant view of the danger. the approach to ice would be more evidently pointed out in the atlantic, or wherever the surface is not so continually chilled by the passing and the melting of ice as in this sea; and i should strongly recommend a strict hourly attention to the thermometrical state of the water at the surface, in all parts where ships are exposed to the dangerous concussion of sailing icebergs, as a principal means of security. the following day our ship came near another stream of ice, and the approach to it was indicated by a decrease of the temperature of the water at the surface from ° to °. a small pine-tree was picked up much shattered by the ice. in the afternoon of the th, a very dense fog came on; and, about six p.m., when sailing before a fresh breeze, we were suddenly involved in a heavy stream of ice. considerable difficulty was experienced in steering through the narrow channels between the different masses in this foggy weather, and the ship received several severe blows. the water, as usual in the centre of the stream, was quite smooth, but we heard the waves beating violently against the outer edge of the ice. there was some earthy matter on several of the pieces, and the whole body bore the appearance of recent separation from the land. in the space of two hours we again got into the open sea, but had left our two consorts far behind; they followed our track by the guns we discharged. the temperature of the surface water was ° when amongst the ice, ° when just clear of it, and . ° at two miles distant. on the th of august, when in latitude ° ' n., longitude ° ' w., we first fell in with large icebergs; and in the evening were encompassed by several of considerable magnitude, which obliged us to tack the ship in order to prevent our getting entangled amongst them. the estimated distance from the nearest part of the labrador coast was then eighty-eight miles; here we tried for soundings, without gaining the bottom. the ship passed through some strong riplings, which evidently indicated a current, but its direction was not ascertained. we found, however, by the recent observations, that the ship had been set daily to the southward, since we had opened davis' straits. the variation of the compass was observed to be ° ' w. at nine p.m., brilliant coruscations of the aurora borealis appeared, of a pale ochre colour, with a slight tinge of red, in an arched form, crossing the zenith from n.w. to s.e., but afterwards they assumed various shapes, and had a rapid motion. on the th of august, a party of the officers endeavoured to get on one of the larger icebergs, but ineffectually, owing to the steepness and smoothness of its sides, and the swell produced by its undulating motion. this was one of the largest we saw, and mr. hood ascertained its height to be one hundred and forty-nine feet; but these masses of ice are frequently magnified to an immense size, through the illusive medium of a hazy atmosphere, and on this account their dimensions have often been exaggerated by voyagers. in the morning of the th, the island of resolution was indistinctly seen through the haze, but was soon afterwards entirely hidden by a very dense fog. the favourable breeze subsided into a perfect calm, and left the ship surrounded by loose ice. at this time the eddystone was perceived to be driving with rapidity towards some of the larger masses; the stern-boats of this ship and of the wear were despatched to assist in towing her clear of them. at ten, a momentary clearness presented the land distinctly at the distance of two miles; the ship was quite unmanageable, and under the sole governance of the currents, which ran in strong eddies between the masses of ice. our consorts were also seen, the wear being within hail, and the eddystone at a short distance from us. two attempts were ineffectually made to gain soundings, and the extreme density of the fog precluded us from any other means of ascertaining the direction in which we were driving until half past twelve, when we had the alarming view of a barren rugged shore within a few yards, towering over the mast heads. almost instantly afterwards the ship struck violently on a point of rocks, projecting from the island; and the ship's side was brought so near to the shore, that poles were prepared to push her off. this blow displaced the rudder, and raised it several inches, but it fortunately had been previously confined by tackles. a gentle swell freed the ship from this perilous situation, but the current hurried us along in contact with the rocky shore, and the prospect was most alarming. on the outward bow was perceived a rugged and precipitous cliff, whose summit was hid in the fog, and the vessel's head was pointed towards the bottom of a small bay, into which we were rapidly driving. there now seemed to be no probability of escaping shipwreck, being without wind, and having the rudder in its present useless state; the only assistance was that of a boat employed in towing, which had been placed in the water between the ship and the shore, at the imminent risk of its being crushed. the ship again struck in passing over a ledge of rocks, and happily the blow replaced the rudder, which enabled us to take advantage of a light breeze, and to direct the ship's head without the projecting cliff. but the breeze was only momentary, and the ship was a third time driven on shore on the rocky termination of the cliff. here we remained stationary for some seconds, and with little prospect of being removed from this perilous situation; but we were once more extricated by the swell from this ledge also, and carried still farther along the shore. the coast became now more rugged, and our view of it was terminated by another high projecting point on the starboard bow. happily, before we had reached it, a light breeze enabled us to turn the ship's head to seaward, and we had the gratification to find, when the sails were trimmed, that she drew off the shore. we had made but little progress, however, when she was violently forced by the current against a large iceberg lying aground. our prospect was now more alarming than at any preceding period; and it would be difficult for me to portray the anxiety and dismay depicted on the countenances of the female passengers and children, who were rushing on deck in spite of the endeavours of the officers to keep them below, out of the danger which was apprehended if the masts should be carried away. after the first concussion, the ship was driven along the steep and rugged side of this iceberg with such amazing rapidity, that the destruction of the masts seemed inevitable, and every one expected we should again be forced on the rocks in the most disabled state; but we providentially escaped this perilous result, which must have been decisive. the dense fog now cleared away for a short time, and we discovered the eddystone close to some rocks, having three boats employed in towing; but the wear was not visible. our ship received water very fast; the pumps were instantly manned and kept in continual use, and signals of distress were made to the eddystone, whose commander promptly came on board, and then ordered to our assistance his carpenter and all the men he could spare, together with the carpenter and boat's crew of the wear, who had gone on board the eddystone in the morning, and were prevented from returning to their own vessel by the fog. as the wind was increasing, and the sky appeared very unsettled, it was determined the eddystone should take the ship in tow, that the undivided attention of the passengers and crew might be directed to pumping, and clearing the holds to examine whether there was a possibility of stopping the leak. we soon had reason to suppose the principal injury had been received from a blow near the stern-post, and, after cutting away part of the ceiling, the carpenters endeavoured to stop the rushing in of the water, by forcing oakum between the timbers; but this had not the desired effect, and the leak, in spite of all our efforts at the pumps, increased so much, that parties of the officers and passengers were stationed to bail out the water in buckets at different parts of the hold. a heavy gale came on, blowing from the land, as the night advanced; the sails were split, the ship was encompassed by heavy ice, and, in forcing through a closely connected stream, the tow-rope broke, and obliged us to take a portion of the seamen from the pumps, and appoint them to the management of the ship. fatigue, indeed, had caused us to relax in our exertions at the pumps during a part of the night of the th, and on the following morning upwards of five feet water was found in the well. renewed exertions were now put forth by every person, and before eight a.m. the water was so much reduced as to enable the carpenters to get at other defective places; but the remedies they could apply were insufficient to repress the water from rushing in, and our labours could but just keep the ship in the same state throughout the day, until six p.m.; when the strength of every one began to fail, the expedient of thrusting in felt, as well as oakum, was resorted to, and a plank nailed over all. after this operation a perceptible diminution in the water was made, and being encouraged by the change, we put forth our utmost exertion in bailing and pumping; and before night, to our infinite joy, the leak was so overpowered that the pumps were only required to be used at intervals of ten minutes. a sail, covered with every substance that could be carried into the leaks by the pressure of the water, was drawn under the quarter of the ship, and secured by ropes on each side. as a matter of precaution in the event of having to abandon the ship, which was for some time doubtful, the elderly women and children were removed to the eddystone when the wind was moderate this afternoon, but the young women remained to assist at the pumps, and their services were highly valuable, both for their personal labour, and for the encouragement their example and perseverance gave to the men. at day-light, on the th, every eye was anxiously cast around the horizon in search of the wear, but in vain; and the recollection of our own recent peril caused us to entertain considerable apprehensions for her safety. this anxiety quickened our efforts to exchange our shattered sails for new ones, that the ship might be got, as speedily as possible, near to the land, which was but just in sight, and a careful search be made for her along the coast. we were rejoiced to find that our leak did not increase by carrying sail, and we ventured in the evening to remove the sail which had been placed under the part where the injury had been received, as it greatly impeded our advance. we passed many icebergs on the th, and in the evening we tacked from a level field of ice, which extended northward as far as the eye could reach. our leak remained in the same state; the pumps discharged in three minutes the quantity of water which had been received in fifteen. the ship could not be got near to the land before the afternoon of the th. at four p.m. we hove to, opposite to, and about five miles distant from, the spot on which we had first struck on saturday. every glass was directed along the shore (as they had been throughout the day,) to discover any trace of our absent consort; but, as none was seen, our solicitude respecting her was much increased, and we feared the crew might be wrecked on this inhospitable shore. guns were frequently fired to apprize any who might be near of our approach; but, as no one appeared, and no signal was returned, and the loose ice was setting down towards the ship, we bore up to proceed to the next appointed rendezvous. at eight p.m. we were abreast of the s.w. end of the island called cape resolution, which is a low point, but indicated at a distance by a lofty round backed hill that rises above it. we entered hudson's straits soon afterwards. the coast of resolution island should be approached with caution, as the tides appear to be strong and uncertain in their course. some dangerous rocks lie above and below the water's edge, at the distance of five or six miles from east bluff, bearing s. ° e. _august _.--having had a fresh gale through the night, we reached saddleback island by noon--the place of rendezvous; and looked anxiously, but in vain, for the wear. several guns were fired, supposing she might be hid from our view by the land; but, as she did not appear, captain davidson, having remained two hours, deemed further delay inexpedient, and bore up to keep the advantage of the fair wind. the outline of this island is rugged; the hummock on its northern extremity appeared to me to resemble a decayed martello tower more than a saddle. azimuths were obtained this evening that gave the variation ° ' w., which is greater than is laid down in the charts, or than the officers of the hudson's bay ships have been accustomed to allow. we arrived abreast of the upper savage island early in the morning, and as the breeze was moderate, the ship was steered as near to the shore as the wind would permit, to give the esquimaux inhabitants an opportunity of coming off to barter, which they soon embraced. their shouts at a distance intimated their approach sometime before we descried the canoes paddling towards us; the headmost of them reached us at eleven; these were quickly followed by others, and before noon about forty canoes, each holding one man, were assembled around the two ships. in the afternoon, when we approached nearer to the shore, five or six larger ones, containing the women and children, came up. the esquimaux immediately evinced their desire to barter, and displayed no small cunning in making their bargains, taking care not to exhibit too many articles at first. their principal commodities were, oil, sea-horse teeth, whale-bone, seal-skin dresses, caps and boots, deer-skins and horns, and models of their canoes; and they received in exchange small saws, knives, nails, tin-kettles, and needles. it was pleasing to behold the exultation, and to hear the shouts of the whole party, when an acquisition was made by any one; and not a little ludicrous to behold the eagerness with which the fortunate person licked each article with his tongue, on receiving it, as a finish to the bargain, and an act of appropriation. they in no instance omitted this strange practice, however small the article; the needles even passed individually through the ceremony. the women brought imitations of men, women, animals, and birds, carved with labour and ingenuity out of sea-horse teeth. the dresses and the figures of the animals, were not badly executed, but there was no attempt at the delineation of the countenances; and most of the figures were without eyes, ears, and fingers, the execution of which would, perhaps, have required more delicate instruments than they possess. the men set most value on saws; _kuttee-swa-bak_, the name by which they distinguish them, was a constant cry. knives were held next in estimation. an old sword was bartered from the eddystone, and i shall long remember the universal burst of joy on the happy man's receiving it. it was delightful to witness the general interest excited by individual acquisitions. there was no desire shewn by any one to over-reach his neighbour, or to press towards any part of the ship where{ } a bargain was making, until the person in possession of the place had completed his exchange and removed; and, if any article happened to be demanded from the outer canoes, the men nearest assisted willingly in passing the thing across. supposing the party to belong to one tribe, the total number of the tribe must exceed two hundred persons, as there were, probably, one hundred and fifty around the ships, and few of these were elderly persons, or male children. their faces were broad and flat, the eyes small. the men were in general stout. some of the younger women and the children had rather pleasing countenances, but the difference between these and the more aged of that sex, bore strong testimony to the effects which a few years produce in this ungenial climate. most of the party had sore eyes, all of them appeared of a plethoric habit of body; several were observed bleeding at the nose during their stay near the ship. the men's dresses consisted of a jacket of seal-skin, the trowsers of bear-skin, and several had caps of the white fox-skin. the female dresses were made of the same materials, but differently shaped, having a hood in which the infants were carried. we thought their manner very lively and agreeable. they were fond of mimicking our speech and gestures; but nothing afforded them greater amusement than when we attempted to retaliate by pronouncing any of their words. the canoes were of seal-skin, and similar in every respect to those used by the esquimaux in greenland; they were generally new and very complete in their appointments. those appropriated to the women are of ruder construction, and only calculated for fine weather; they are, however, useful vessels, being capable of containing twenty persons with their luggage. an elderly man officiates as steersman, and the women paddle, but they have also a mast which carries a sail, made of dressed whale-gut. when the women had disposed of all their articles of trade they resorted to entreaty; and the putting in practice many enticing gestures was managed with so much address, as to procure them presents of a variety of beads, needles, and other articles in great demand among females. it is probable these esquimaux go from this shore to some part of labrador to pass the winter, as parties of them have been frequently seen by the homeward-bound hudson's bay ships in the act of crossing the strait. they appear to speak the same language as the tribe of esquimaux, who reside near to the moravian settlements in labrador: for we perceived they used several of the words which had been given to us by the missionaries at stromness. towards evening, the captain, being desirous to get rid of his visitors, took an effectual method by tacking from the shore; our friends then departed apparently in high glee at the harvest they had reaped. they paddled away very swiftly, and would, doubtless, soon reach the shore though it was distant ten or twelve miles. not having encountered any of the ice, which usually arrests the progress of ships in their outward passage through the straits, and being consequently deprived of the usual means of replenishing our stock of water, which had become short, the captain resolved on going to the coast of labrador for a supply. dr. richardson and i gladly embraced this opportunity to land, and examine this part of the coast. i was also desirous to observe the variation on shore, as the azimuths, which had been taken on board both ships since our entrance into the straits, had shewn a greater amount than we had been led to expect; but, unluckily the sun became obscured. the beach consisted of large rolled stones of gneiss and syenite{ }, amongst which many pieces of ice had grounded, and it was with difficulty that we effected a landing in a small cove under a steep cliff. these stones were worn perfectly smooth; neither in the interstices, nor at the bottom of the water, which was very clear, were there any vestiges of sea-weed. the cliff was from forty to fifty feet high and quite perpendicular, and had at its base a small slip of soil formed of the debris of a bed of clay-slate. from this narrow spot dr. richardson collected specimens of thirty different species of plants; and we were about to scramble up a shelving part of the rock, and go into the interior, when we perceived the signal of recall, which the master had caused to be made, in consequence of a sudden change in the appearance of the weather. on the evening of the th, we passed digge's islands, the termination of hudson's strait. here the eddystone parted company, being bound to moose factory at the bottom of the bay. a strong north wind came on, which prevented our getting round the north end of mansfield, and, as it continued to blow with equal strength for the next five days, we were most vexatiously detained in beating along the labrador coast, and near the dangerous chain of islands, the sleepers, which are said to extend from the latitude of ° ' to ° ' n. the press of sail, which of necessity we carried caused the leak to increase and the pumps were kept in constant use. a favouring wind at length enabled us, on the th, to shape our course across hudson's bay. nothing worthy of remark occurred during this passage, except the rapid decrease in the variation of the magnetic needle. the few remarks respecting the appearance of the land, which we were able to make in our quick passage through these straits, were transmitted to the admiralty; but as they will not be interesting to the general reader, and may not be sufficiently accurate for the guidance of the navigator, they are omitted in this narrative. on the th we discovered the land to the southward of cape tatnam, which is so extremely low, that the tops of the trees were first discerned; the soundings at the time were seventeen fathoms, which gradually decreased to five as the shore was approached. cape tatnam is not otherwise remarkable than as being the point from which the coast inclines rather more to the westward towards york factory. the opening of the morning of the th presented to our view the anchorage at york flats, and the gratifying sight of a vessel at anchor, which we recognised, after an anxious examination, to be the wear. a strong breeze blowing from the direction of the flats, caused the water to be more shallow than usual on the sandy bar, which lies on the seaward side of the anchorage, and we could not get over it before two p.m., when the tide was nearly at its height. immediately after our arrival, mr. williams, the governor of the hudson's bay company's posts, came{ } on board, accompanied by the commander of the wear. the pleasure we felt in welcoming the latter gentleman can easily be imagined, when it is considered what reason we had to apprehend that he and his crew had been numbered with the dead. we learned that one of the larger masses of ice had providentially drifted between the vessel's side and the rocks just at the time he expected to strike, to which he secured it until a breeze sprang up, and enabled him to pursue his voyage. the governor acquainted me that he had received information from the committee of the hudson's bay company of the equipment of the expedition, and that the officers would come out in their first ship. in the evening dr. richardson, mr. hood, and i, accompanied him to york factory, which we reached after dark; it is distant from the flats seven miles. early next morning the honour of a salute was conferred on the members of the expedition. having communicated to the governor the objects of the expedition, and that i had been directed to consult with him and the senior servants of the company as to the best mode of proceeding towards the execution of the service, i was gratified by his assurance that his instructions from the committee directed that every possible assistance should be given to forward our progress, and that he should feel peculiar pleasure in performing this part of his duty. he introduced me at once to messrs. charles, swaine, and snodie, masters of districts, who, from long residence in the country, were perfectly acquainted with the different modes of travelling, and the obstructions which might be anticipated. at the desire of these gentlemen, i drew up a series of questions respecting the points on which we required information; to which, two days afterwards they had the kindness to return very explicit and satisfactory answers; and on receiving them i requested the governor to favour me with his sentiments on the same subject in writing, which he delivered to me on the following day. having learned that messrs. shaw, mctavish, and several other partners of the n.w. company, were under detention at this place, we took the earliest opportunity of visiting them; when having presented the general circular, and other introductory letters, with which i had been furnished by their agent mr. simon mcgillivray, we received from them the most friendly and full assurance of the cordial endeavours of the wintering partners of their company to promote the interests of the expedition. the knowledge we had now gained of the state of the violent commercial opposition existing in the country, rendered this assurance highly gratifying; and these gentlemen added to the obligation by freely communicating that information respecting the interior of the country, which their intelligence and long residence so fully qualified them to give. i deemed it expedient to issue a memorandum to the officers of the expedition, strictly prohibiting any interference whatever in the existing quarrels, or any that might arise, between the two companies; and on presenting it to the principals of both the parties, they expressed their satisfaction at the step i had taken. the opinions of all the gentlemen were so decidedly in favour of the route by cumberland house, and through the chain of posts to the great slave lake, that i determined on pursuing it, and immediately communicated my intention to the governor, with a request that he would furnish me with the means of conveyance for the party as speedily as possible. it was suggested in my instructions that we might probably procure a schooner at this place, to proceed north as far as wager bay; but the vessel alluded to was lying at moose factory, completely out of repair; independently of which, the route directly to the northward was rendered impracticable by the impossibility of procuring hunters and guides on the coast. i found that as the esquimaux inhabitants had left churchill a month previous to our arrival, no interpreter from that quarter could be procured before their return in the following spring. the governor, however, undertook to forward to us, next season, the only one amongst them who understood english, if he could be induced to go. the governor selected one of the largest of the company's boats for our use on the journey, and directed the carpenters to commence refitting it immediately; but he was only able to furnish us with a steersman; and we were obliged to make up the rest of the crew with the boatmen brought from stromness, and our two attendants. york factory, the principal depôt of the hudson's bay company, stands on the west bank of hayes' river, about five miles above its mouth, on the marshy peninsula which separates the hayes and nelson rivers. the surrounding country is flat and swampy, and covered with willows, poplars, larch, spruce, and birch-trees; but the requisition for fuel has expended all the wood in the vicinity of the fort, and the residents have now to send for it to a considerable distance. the soil is alluvial clay, and contains imbedded rolled stones. though the bank of the river is elevated about twenty feet, it is frequently overflown by the spring-floods, and large portions are annually carried away by the disruption of the ice, which grounding in the stream, have formed several muddy islands. these interruptions, together with the various collection of stones that are hid at high water, render the navigation of the river difficult; but vessels of two hundred tons burthen may be brought through the proper channels as high as the factory. the principal buildings are placed in the form of a square, having an octagonal court in the centre; they are two stories in height, and have flat roofs covered with lead. the officers dwell in one portion of this square, and in the other parts the articles of merchandise are kept: the workshops, storehouses for the furs, and the servants' houses are ranged on the outside of the square, and the whole is surrounded by a stockade twenty feet high. a platform is laid from the house to the pier on the bank for the convenience of transporting the stores and furs, which is the only promenade the residents have on this marshy spot during the summer season. the few indians who now frequent this establishment, belong to the _swampy crees_. there were several of them encamped on the outside of the stockade. their tents were rudely constructed by tying twenty or thirty poles together at the top, and spreading them out at the base so as to form a cone; these were covered with dressed moose-skins. the fire is placed in the centre, and a hole is left for the escape of the smoke. the inmates had a squalid look, and were suffering under the combined afflictions of hooping-cough and measles; but even these miseries did not keep them from an excessive indulgence in spirits, which they unhappily can procure from the traders with too much facility; and they nightly serenaded us with their monotonous drunken songs. their sickness at this time, was particularly felt by the traders, this being the season of the year when the exertion of every hunter is required to procure their winter's stock of geese, which resort in immense flocks to the extensive flats in this neighbourhood. these birds, during the summer, retire far to the north, and breed in security; but, when the approach of winter compels them to seek a more southern climate, they generally alight on the marshes of this bay, and fatten there for three weeks or a month, before they take their final departure from the country. they also make a short halt at the same spots in their progress northwards in the spring. their arrival is welcomed with joy, and the _goose hunt_ is one of the most plentiful seasons of the year. the ducks frequent the swamps all the summer. the weather was extremely unfavourable for celestial observations during our stay, and it was only by watching the momentary appearances of the sun, that we were enabled to obtain fresh rates for the chronometers, and allow for their errors from greenwich time. the dip of the needle was observed to be ° ' ", and the difference produced by reversing the face of the instrument was ° ' ". a succession of fresh breezes prevented our ascertaining the intensity of the magnetic force. the position of york factory, by our observations, is in latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' w. the variation of the compass ° ' " e. chapter ii. passage up hayes', steel, and hill rivers--cross swampy lake--jack river--knee lake and magnetic islet--trout river--holy lake--weepinapannis river--windy lake--white-fall lake and river--echemamis and sea rivers--play-green lakes--lake winipeg--river saskatchawan--cross, cedar, and pine-island lakes--cumberland house. . september. on the th of september, our boat being completed, arrangements were made for our departure as soon as the tide should serve. but, when the stores were brought down to the beach, it was found that the boat would not contain them all. the whole, therefore, of the bacon, and part of the flour, rice, tobacco, and ammunition, were returned into the store. the bacon was too bulky an article to be forwarded under any circumstances; but the governor undertook to forward the rest next season. in making the selection of articles to carry with us, i was guided by the judgment of governor williams, who assured me that tobacco, ammunition, and spirits, could be procured in the interior, otherwise i should have been very unwilling to have left these essential articles behind. we embarked at noon, and were honoured with a salute of eight guns and three cheers from the governor and all the inmates of the fort, who had assembled to witness our departure. we gratefully returned their cheers, and then made sail, much delighted at having now commenced our voyage into the interior of america. the wind and tide failing us at the distance of six miles above the factory, and the current being too rapid for using oars to advantage, the crew had to commence tracking, or dragging the boat by a line, to which they were harnessed. this operation is extremely laborious in these rivers. our men were obliged to walk along the steep declivity of a high bank, rendered at this season soft and slippery by frequent rains, and their progress was often further impeded by fallen trees, which, having slipped from the verge of the thick wood above, hung on the face of the bank in a great variety of directions. notwithstanding these obstacles, we advanced at the rate of two miles an hour, one-half of the crew relieving the other at intervals of an hour and a half. the banks of the river, and its islands, composed of alluvial soil, are well covered with pines, larches, poplars, and willows. the breadth of the stream, some distance above the factory, is about half a mile, and its depth, during this day's voyage, varied from three to nine feet. at sunset we landed, and pitched the tent for the night, having made a progress of twelve miles. a large fire was quickly kindled, supper speedily prepared, and as readily despatched, when we retired with our buffalo robes on, and enjoyed a night of sound repose. it may here be stated, that the survey of the river was made by taking the bearings of every point with a pocket compass, estimating the distances, and making a connected eye-sketch of the whole. this part of the survey was allotted to messrs. back and hood conjointly: mr. hood also protracted the route every evening on a ruled map, after the courses and distances had been corrected by observations for latitude and longitude, taken by myself as often as the weather would allow. the extraordinary talent of this young officer in this line of service proved of the greatest advantage to the expedition, and he continued to perform that duty until his lamented death, with a degree of zeal and accuracy that characterized all his pursuits. the next morning our camp was in motion at five a.m., and we soon afterwards embarked with the flattering accompaniment of a fair wind: it proved, however, too light to enable us to stem the stream, and we were obliged to resume the fatiguing operation of tracking; sometimes under cliffs so steep that the men could scarcely find a footing, and not unfrequently over spots rendered so miry by the small streams that trickled from above, as to be almost impassable. in the course of the day we passed the scene of a very melancholy accident. some years ago, two families of indians, induced by the flatness of a small beach, which lay betwixt the cliff and the river, chose it as the site of their encampment. they retired quietly to rest, not aware that the precipice, detached from the bank, and urged by an accumulation of water in the crevice behind, was tottering to its base. it fell during the night, and the whole party was buried under its ruins. the length of our voyage to-day was, in a direct line, sixteen miles and a quarter, on a s.s.w. course. we encamped soon after sunset, and the tent was scarcely pitched when a heavy rain began, which continued all night. sixteen miles on the th, and five on the following morning, brought us to the commencement of hayes' river, which is formed by the confluence of the shamattawa and steel rivers. our observations place this spot in latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w. it is forty-eight miles and a half from york factory including the windings of the river. steel river, through which our course lay, is about three hundred yards wide at its mouth; its banks have more elevation than those of hayes' river, but they shelve more gradually down to the stream, and afford a tolerably good towing path, which compensates, in some degree, for the rapids and frequent shoals that impede its navigation. we succeeded in getting about ten miles above the mouth of the river, before the close of day compelled us to disembark. we made an effort, on the morning of the th, to stem the current under sail, but as the course of the river was very serpentine, we found that greater progress could be made by tracking. steel river presents much beautiful scenery; it winds through a narrow, but well wooded, valley, which at every turn disclosed to us an agreeable variety of prospect, rendered more picturesque by the effect of the season on the foliage, now ready to drop from the trees. the light yellow of the fading poplars formed a fine contrast to the dark evergreen of the spruce, whilst the willows of an intermediate hue, served to shade the two principal masses of colour into each other. the scene was occasionally enlivened by the bright purple tints of the dogwood, blended with the browner shades of the dwarf birch, and frequently intermixed with the gay yellow flowers of the shrubby cinquefoil. with all these charms, the scene appeared desolate from the want of the human species. the stillness was so great, that even the twittering of the _whiskey-johneesh_, or cinereous crow, caused us to start. our voyage to-day was sixteen miles on a s.w. course. _sept. _.--we had much rain during the night, and also in the morning, which detained us in our encampment later than usual. we set out as soon as the weather cleared up; and in a short time arrived at the head of steel river, where it is formed by the junction of fox and hill rivers. these two rivers are nearly of equal width, but the latter is the most rapid. mr. mcdonald, on his way to red river, in a small canoe, manned by two indians, overtook us at this place. it may be mentioned as a proof of the dexterity of the indians, and the skill with which they steal upon their game, that they had on the preceding day, with no other arms than a hatchet, killed two deer, a hawk, a curlew, and a sturgeon. three of the company's boats joined us in the course of the morning, and we pursued our course up hill river in company. the water in this river was so low, and the rapids so bad, that we were obliged several times, in the course of the day, to jump into the water, and assist in lifting the boat over the large stones which impeded the navigation. the length of our voyage to-day was only six miles and three quarters. the four boats commenced operations together at five o'clock the following morning; but our boat being overladen, we soon found that we were unable to keep pace with the others; and, therefore, proposed to the gentlemen in charge of the company's boats, that they should relieve us of part of our cargo. this they declined doing, under the plea of not having received orders to that effect, notwithstanding that the circular, with which i was furnished by governor williams, strictly enjoined all the company's servants to afford us every assistance. in consequence of this refusal we dropt behind, and our steersman, who was inexperienced, being thus deprived of the advantage of observing the route followed by the guide, who was in the foremost boat, frequently took a wrong channel. the tow-line broke twice, and the boat was only prevented from going broadside down the stream, and breaking to pieces against the stones, by the officers and men leaping into the water, and holding her head to the current until the line could be carried again to the shore. it is but justice to say, that in these trying situations, we received much assistance from mr. thomas swaine, who with great kindness waited for us with the boat under his charge at such places as he apprehended would be most difficult to pass. we encamped at sunset, completely jaded with toil. our distance made good this day was twelve miles and a quarter. the labours of the th commenced at half past five, and for some time the difficulty of getting the boats over the rapids was equal to what we experienced the day before. having passed a small brook, however, termed _half-way creek_, the river became deeper, and although rapid, it was smooth enough to be named by our orkney boatmen _still-water_. we were further relieved by the company's clerks consenting to take a few boxes of our stores into their boats. still we made only eleven miles in the course of the day. the banks of hill river are higher, and have a more broken outline, than those of steel or hayes' rivers. the cliffs of alluvial clay rose in some places to the height of eighty or ninety feet above the stream, and were surmounted by hills about two hundred feet high, but the thickness of the wood prevented us from seeing far beyond the mere banks of the river. _september _.--about half past five in the morning we commenced tracking, and soon came to a ridge of rock which extended across the stream. from this place the boat was dragged up several narrow rocky channels, until we came to the rock portage, where the stream, pent in by a range of small islands, forms several cascades. in ascending the river, the boats with their cargoes are carried over one of the islands, but in the descent they are shot down the most shelving of the cascades. having performed the operations of carrying, launching, and restowing the cargo, we plied the oars for a short distance, and landed at a depôt called rock house. here we were informed that the rapids in the upper parts of hill river were much worse and more numerous than those we had passed, particularly in the present season, owing to the unusual lowness of the water. this intelligence was very mortifying, especially as the gentlemen in charge of the company's boats declared that they were unable to carry any part of our stores beyond this place; and the traders, guides, and most experienced of the boatmen, were of opinion, that unless our boat was still further lightened, the winter would put a stop to our progress before we could reach cumberland house, or any eligible post. sixteen pieces were therefore necessarily left with mr. bunn, the gentleman in charge of the post, to be forwarded by the athabasca canoes next season, this being their place of rendezvous. after this we recommenced our voyage, and having pulled nearly a mile, arrived at borrowick's fall, where the boat was dragged up with a line, after part of the cargo had been carried over a small portage. from this place to the mud portage, a distance of a mile and three quarters, the boats were pushed on with poles against a very rapid stream. here we encamped, having come seven miles during the day on a s.w. course. we had several snow showers in the course of the day, and the thermometer at bed-time stood at °. on the morning of the th, the country was clothed in the livery of winter, a heavy fall of snow having taken place during the night. we embarked at the usual hour, and in the course of the day, crossed the point of rocks and brassa portages, and dragged the boats through several minor rapids. in this tedious way we only made good about nine miles. on sunday the th we hauled the boats up several short rapids, or, as the boatmen term them, expressively enough, _spouts_, and carried them over the portages of lower burntwood and morgan's rocks; on the latter of which we encamped, having proceeded, during the whole day only one mile and three quarters. the upper part of hill river swells out considerably, and at morgan's rocks, where it is three quarters of a mile wide, we were gratified with a more extensive prospect of the country than any we had enjoyed since leaving york factory. the banks of the river here, consisting of low flat rocks with intermediate swamps, permitted us to obtain views of the interior, the surface of which is broken into a multitude of cone-shaped hills. the highest of these hills, which gives a name to the river, has an elevation not exceeding six hundred feet. from its summit, thirty-six lakes are said to be visible. the beauty of the scenery, dressed in the tints of autumn called forth our admiration, and was the subject of mr. hood's accurate pencil. on the th we passed upper burntwood and rocky ledge portages, besides several strong _spouts_; and in the evening arrived at smooth rock portage, where we encamped, having come three miles and a half. it is not easy for any but an eye-witness to form an adequate idea of the exertions of the orkney boatmen in the navigation of this river. the necessity they are under of frequently jumping into the water to lift the boats over the rocks, compels them to remain the whole day in wet clothes, at a season when the temperature is far below the freezing point. the immense loads too, which they carry over the portages, is not more a matter of surprise than the alacrity with which they perform these laborious duties. at six on the morning of the st, we left our encampment, and soon after arrived at the mossy portage, where the cargoes were carried through a deep bog for a quarter of a mile. the river swells out, above this portage, to the breadth of several miles, and as the islands are numerous there are a great variety of channels. night overtook us before we arrived at the _second portage_, so named from its being the second in the passage down the river. our whole distance this day was one mile and a quarter. on the d our route led us amongst many wooded islands, which, lying in long vistas, produced scenes of much beauty. in the course of the day we crossed the upper portage, surmounted the devil's landing place, and urged the boat with poles through groundwater creek. at the upper end of this creek, our bowman having given the boat too great a sheer, to avoid the rock, it was caught on the broadside by the current, and, in defiance of our utmost exertions, hurried down the rapid. fortunately, however, it grounded against a rock high enough to prevent the current from oversetting it, and the crews of the other boats having come to our assistance, we succeeded, after several trials, in throwing a rope to them, with which they dragged our almost sinking vessel stern foremost up the stream, and rescued us from our perilous situation. we encamped in the dusk of the evening amidst a heavy thunder-storm, having advanced two miles and three quarters. about ten in the morning of the d we arrived at the _dramstone_, which is hailed with pleasure by the boats' crews, as marking the termination of the laborious ascent of hill river. we complied with the custom from whence it derives its name, and soon after landing upon sail island prepared breakfast. in the mean time our boatmen cut down and rigged a new mast, the old one having been thrown overboard at the mouth of steel river, where it ceased to be useful. we left sail island with a fair wind, and soon afterwards arrived at a depôt situated on swampy lake, where we received a supply of mouldy _pemmican_[ ]. mr. calder and his attendant were the only tenants of this cheerless abode, and their only food was the wretched stuff with which they supplied us, the lake not yielding fish at this season. after a short delay at this post, we sailed through the remainder of swampy lake, and slept at the lower portage in jack river; the distance sailed to-day being sixteen miles and a half. [ ] buffalo-meat, dried and pounded, and mixed with melted fat. jack river is only eight miles long; but being full of bad rapids, it detained us considerably. at seven in the morning of the th, we crossed the long portage, where the woods, having caught fire in the summer, were still smoking. this is a common accident, owing to the neglect of the indians and voyagers in not putting out their fires, and in a dry season the woods may be seen blazing to the extent of many miles. we afterwards crossed the second, or swampy portage, and in the evening encamped on the upper portage, where we were overtaken by an indian bringing an answer from governor williams to a letter i had written to him on the th, in which he renewed his injunctions to the gentlemen of the boats accompanying us, to afford us every assistance in their power. the aurora borealis appeared this evening in form of a bright arch, extending across the zenith in a n.w. and s.e. direction. the extent of our voyage to-day was two miles. about noon, on the th, we entered knee lake, which has a very irregular form, and near its middle takes a sudden turn, from whence it derives its name. it is thickly studded with islands, and its shores are low and well-wooded. the surrounding country, as far as we could see, is flat, being destitute even of the moderate elevations which occur near the upper part of hill river. the weather was remarkably fine, and the setting sun threw the richest tints over the scene that i remember ever to have witnessed. about half a mile from the bend or _knee_ of the lake, there is a small rocky islet, composed of magnetic iron ore, which affects the magnetic needle at a considerable distance. having received previous information respecting this circumstance, we watched our compasses carefully, and perceived that they were affected at the distance of three hundred yards, both on the approach to and departure from the rock: on decreasing the distance, they became gradually more and more unsteady, and on landing they were rendered quite useless; and it was evident that the general magnetic influence was totally overpowered by the local attraction of the ore. when kater's compass was held near to the ground on the n.w. side of the island, the needle dipped so much that the card could not be made to traverse by any adjustment of the hand; but on moving the same compass about thirty yards to the west part of the islet, the needle became horizontal, traversed freely, and pointed to the magnetic north. the dipping needle being landed on the s.w. point of the islet, was adjusted as nearly as possible on the magnetic meridian by the sun's bearings, and found to vibrate freely, when the face of the instrument was directed to the east or west. the mean dip it gave was ° ' ". when the instrument was removed from the n.w. to the s.e. point, about twenty yards distant, and placed on the meridian, the needle ceased to traverse, but remained steady at an angle of °. on changing the face of the instrument, so as to give a s.e. and n.w. direction to the needle, it hung vertically. the position of the slaty strata of the magnetic ore is also vertical. their direction is extremely irregular, being much contorted. knee lake towards its upper end becomes narrower, and its rocky shores are broken into conical and rounded eminences, destitute of soil, and of course devoid of trees. we slept at the western extremity of the lake, having come during the day nineteen miles and a half on a s.w. course. we began the ascent of trout river early in the morning of the th, and in the course of the day passed three portages and several rapids. at the first of these portages the river falls between two rocks about sixteen feet, and it is necessary to launch the boat over a precipitous rocky bank. this cascade is named the _trout-fall_, and the beauty of the scenery afforded a subject for mr. hood's pencil. the rocks which form the bed of this river are slaty, and present sharp fragments, by which the feet of the boatmen are much lacerated. the second portage, in particular, obtains the expressive name of _knife portage_. the length of our voyage to-day was three miles. on the th we passed through the remainder of trout river; and, at noon, arrived at oxford house, on holey lake. this was formerly a post of some consequence to the hudson's bay company, but at present it exhibits unequivocal signs of decay. the indians have of late years been gradually deserting the low or swampy country, and ascending the saskatchawan, where animals are more abundant. a few crees were at this time encamped in front of the fort. they were suffering under hooping-cough and measles, and looked miserably dejected. we endeavoured in vain to prevail on one of them to accompany us for the purpose of killing ducks, which were numerous, but too shy for our sportsmen. we had the satisfaction, however, of exchanging the mouldy pemmican, obtained at swampy lake, for a better kind, and received, moreover, a small, but very acceptable, supply of fish. holey lake, viewed from an eminence behind oxford house, exhibits a pleasing prospect; and its numerous islands, varying much in shape and elevation, contribute to break that uniformity of scenery which proves so palling to a traveller in this country. trout of a great size, frequently exceeding forty pounds' weight, abound in this lake. we left oxford house in the afternoon, and encamped on an island about eight miles' distant, having come, during the day, nine miles and a quarter. at noon, on the th, after passing through the remainder of holey lake, we entered the weepinapannis, a narrow grassy river, which runs parallel to the lake for a considerable distance, and forms its south bank into a narrow peninsula. in the morning we arrived at the swampy portage, where two of the boats were broken against the rocks. the length of the day's voyage was nineteen miles and a half. in consequence of the accident yesterday evening, we were detained a considerable time this morning, until the boats were repaired, when we set out, and, after ascending a strong rapid, arrived at the portage by john moore's island. here the river rushes with irresistible force through the channels formed by two rocky islands; and we learned, that last year a poor man, in hauling a boat up one of these channels, was, by the breaking of the line, precipitated into the stream and hurried down the cascade with such rapidity, that all efforts to save him were ineffectual. his body was afterwards found, and interred near the spot. the weepinapannis is composed of several branches which separate and unite, again and again, intersecting the country in a great variety of directions. we pursued the principal channel, and having passed the crooked spout, with several inferior rapids, and crossed a small piece of water, named windy lake, we entered a smooth deep stream about three hundred yards wide, which has got the absurd appellation of the rabbit ground. the marshy banks of this river are skirted by low barren rocks, behind which there are some groups of stunted trees{ }. as we advanced, the country becoming flatter, gradually opened to our view, and we at length arrived at a shallow, reedy lake, the direct course through which leads to the hill portage. this route has, however, of late years been disused, and we therefore turned towards the north, and crossing a small arm of the lake, arrived at hill gates by sunset; having come this day eleven miles. _october _.--hill gates is the name imposed on a romantic defile, whose rocky walls, rising perpendicularly to the height of sixty or eighty feet, hem in the stream for three quarters of a mile, in many places so narrowly, that there is a want of room to ply the oars. in passing through this chasm we were naturally led to contemplate the mighty but, probably, slow and gradual effects of the water in wearing down such vast masses of rock; but in the midst of our speculations, the attention was excited anew to a grand and picturesque rapid, which, surrounded by the most wild and majestic scenery, terminated the defile. the brown fishing-eagle had built its nest on one of the projecting cliffs. in the course of the day we surmounted this and another dangerous portage, called, the upper and lower hill gate portages, crossed a small sheet of water, termed the white fall lake, and entering the river of the same name, arrived at the white fall about an hour after sunset, having come fourteen miles on a s.w. course. the whole of the d of october was spent in carrying the cargoes over a portage of thirteen hundred yards in length, and in launching the empty boats over three several ridges of rock which obstruct the channel and produce as many cascades. i shall long remember the rude and characteristic wildness of the scenery which surrounded these falls; rocks piled on rocks hung in rude and shapeless masses over the agitated torrents which swept their bases, whilst the bright and variegated tints of the mosses and lichens, that covered the face of the cliffs, contrasting with the dark green of the pines which crowned their summits, added both beauty and grandeur to the scene. our two companions, back and hood, made accurate sketches of these falls. at this place we observed a conspicuous _lop-stick_, a kind of land-mark, which i have not hitherto noticed, notwithstanding its great use in pointing out the frequented routes. it is a pine-tree divested of its lower branches, and having only a small tuft at the top remaining. this operation is usually performed at the instance of some individual emulous of fame. he treats his companions with rum, and they in return strip the tree of its branches, and ever after designate it by his name. in the afternoon, whilst on my way to superintend the operations of the men, a stratum of loose moss gave way under my feet, and i had the misfortune to slip from the summit of a rock into the river betwixt two of the falls. my attempts to regain the bank were, for a time ineffectual, owing to the rocks within my reach having been worn smooth by the action of the water; but, after i had been carried a considerable distance down the stream, i caught hold of a willow, by which i held until two gentlemen of the hudson's bay company came in a boat to my assistance. the only bad consequence{ } of this accident was an injury sustained by a very valuable chronometer, (no. ,) belonging to daniel moore, esq., of lincoln's inn. one of the gentlemen to whom i delivered it immediately on landing, in his agitation let it fall, whereby the minute-hand was broken, but the works were not in the smallest degree injured, and the loss of the hand was afterwards supplied. during the night the frost was severe; and at sunrise, on the d, the thermometer stood at °. after leaving our encampment at the white fall, we passed through several small lakes connected with each other by narrow deep, grassy streams, and at noon arrived at the painted stone. numbers of musk-rats frequent these streams; and we observed, in the course of the morning, many of{ } their mud-houses rising in a conical form to the height of two or three feet above the grass of the swamps in which they were built. the painted stone is a low rock, ten or twelve yards across, remarkable for the marshy streams which arise on each side of it, taking different courses. on the one side, the water-course which we had navigated from york factory commences. this spot may therefore be considered as one of the smaller sources of hayes' river. on the other side of the stone the echemamis rises, and taking a westerly direction falls into nelson river. it is said that there was formerly a stone placed near the centre of this portage on which figures were annually traced, and offerings deposited, by the indians; but the stone has been removed many years, and the spot has ceased to be held in veneration. here we were overtaken by governor williams, who left york factory on the th of last month in an indian canoe. he expressed much regret at our having been obliged to leave part of our stores at the rock depôt, and would have brought them up with him had he been able to procure and man a boat, or a canoe of sufficient size. having launched the boats over the rock, we commenced the descent of the echemamis. this small stream has its course through a morass, and in dry seasons its channel contains, instead of water, merely a foot or two of thin mud. on these occasions it is customary to build dams that it may be rendered navigable by the accumulation of its waters. as the beavers perform this operation very effectually, endeavours have been made to encourage them to breed in this place, but it has not hitherto been possible to restrain the indians from killing that useful animal whenever they discover its retreats. on the present occasion there was no want of water, the principal impediment we experienced being from the narrowness of the channel, which permitted the willows of each bank to meet over our heads, and obstruct the men at the oars. after proceeding down the stream for some time, we came to a recently-constructed beaver-dam through which an opening was made sufficient to admit the boat to pass. we were assured that the breach would be closed by the industrious creature in a single night. we encamped about eight miles from the source of the river, having come during the day seventeen miles and a half. on the th we embarked amidst a heavy rain, and pursued our route down the echemamis. in many parts the morass, by which the river is nourished, and through which it flows, is intersected by ridges of rock which cross the channel, and require the boat to be lifted over them. in the afternoon we passed through a shallow piece of water overgrown with bulrushes, and hence named hairy lake; and, in the evening, encamped on the banks of blackwater creek, by which this lake empties itself into sea river; having come during the day twenty miles and three quarters. on the morning of the th, we entered sea river, one of the many branches of nelson river. it is about four hundred yards wide, and its waters are of a muddy white colour. after ascending the stream for an hour or two, and passing through carpenter's lake, which is merely an expansion of the river to about a mile in breadth, we came to the sea river portage, where the boat was launched across a smooth rock, to avoid a fall of four or five feet. re-embarking at the upper end of the portage, we ran before a fresh gale through the remainder of sea river, the lower part of play green lake, and entering little jack river, landed and pitched our tents. here there is a small log-hut, the residence of a fisherman, who supplies norway house with trout and sturgeon. he gave us a few of these fish, which afforded an acceptable supper. our voyage this day was thirty-four miles. _october _.--little jack river is the name given to a channel that winds among several large islands which separate upper and lower play green lakes. at the lower end of this channel, big jack river, a stream of considerable magnitude, falls into the lake. play green is a translation of the appellation given to that lake by two bands of indians, who met and held a festival on an island situated near its centre. after leaving our encampment we sailed through upper play green lake, and arrived at norway point in the forenoon. the waters of lake winipeg, and of the rivers that run into it, the saskatchawan in particular, are rendered turbid by the suspension of a large quantity of white clay. play green lake and nelson river, being the discharges of the winipeg, are equally opaque, a circumstance that renders the sunken rocks, so frequent in these waters, very dangerous to boats in a fresh breeze. owing to this, one of the boats that accompanied us, sailing at the rate of seven miles an hour, struck upon one of these rocks. its mast was carried away by the shock, but fortunately no other damage sustained. the indians ascribe the muddiness of these lakes to an adventure of one of their deities, a mischievous fellow, a sort of robin puck, whom they hold in very little esteem. this deity, who is named weesakootchaht, possesses considerable power, but makes a capricious use of it, and delights in tormenting the poor indians. he is not, however, invincible, and was soiled in one of his attempts by the artifice of an old woman, who succeeded in taking him captive. she called in all the women of the tribe to aid in his punishment, and he escaped from their hands in a condition so filthy that it required all the waters of the great lake to wash him clean; and ever since that period it has been entitled to the appellation of winipeg, or muddy water. norway point forms the extremity of a narrow peninsula which separates play green and winipeg lakes. buildings were first erected here by a party of norwegians, who were driven away from the colony at red river by the commotions which took place some time ago. it is now a trading post belonging to the hudson's bay company. on landing at norway house we met with lord selkirk's colonists, who had started from york factory the day before us.--these poor people were exceedingly pleased at meeting with us again in this wild country; having accompanied them across the atlantic, they viewed us in the light of old acquaintances. this post was under the charge of mr. james sutherland, to whom i am indebted for replacing a minute-hand on the chronometer, which was broken at the white fall, and i had afterwards the satisfaction of finding that it went with extraordinary regularity. the morning of the th october was beautifully clear, and the observations we obtained place norway house in latitude ° ' " n., and longitude ° ' " w.; the variation of the magnetic needle ° ' " e., and its dip ° ' ". though our route from york factory has rather inclined to the s.w., the dip, it will be perceived, has gradually increased. the difference produced by reversing the face of the instrument was ° '. there was too much wind to admit of our observing, with any degree of accuracy, the quantity of the magnetic force. we left norway house soon after noon, and the wind being favourable, sailed along the northern shore of lake winipeg the whole of the ensuing night; and on the morning of the th landed on a narrow ridge of sand, which, running out twenty miles to the westward, separates limestone bay from the body of the lake. when the wind blows hard from the southward, it is customary to carry boats across this isthmus, and to pull up under its lee. from norwegian point to limestone bay the shore consists of high clay cliffs, against which the waves beat with violence during strong southerly winds. when the wind blows from the land, and the waters of the lake are low, a narrow sandy beach is uncovered, and affords a landing-place for boats. the shores of limestone bay are covered with small fragments of calcareous stones. during the night the aurora borealis was quick in its motions, and various and vivid in its colours. after breakfasting we re-embarked, and continued our voyage until three p.m., when a strong westerly wind arising, we were obliged to shelter ourselves on a small island, which lies near the extremity of the above-mentioned peninsula. this island is formed of a collection of small rolled pieces of limestone, and was remembered by some of our boatmen to have been formerly covered with water. for the last ten or twelve years the waters of the lake have been low, but our information did not enable us to judge whether the decrease was merely casual, or going on continually, or periodical. the distance of this island from norway house is thirty-eight miles and a half. the westerly winds detained us all the morning of the th, but, at two p.m., the wind chopped round to the eastward; we immediately embarked, and the breeze afterwards freshening, we reached the mouth of the saskatchawan at midnight, having run thirty-two miles. _sunday, october _.--the whole of this day was occupied in getting the boats from the mouth of the river to the foot of the grand rapid, a distance of two miles. there are several rapids in this short distance, during which the river varies its breadth from five hundred yards to half a mile. its channel is stony. at the grand rapid, the saskatchawan forms a sudden bend, from south to east, and works its way through a narrow channel, deeply worn into the limestone strata. the stream, rushing with impetuous force over a rocky and uneven bottom, presents a sheet of foam, and seems to bear with impatience the straitened confinement of its lofty banks. a flock of pelicans, and two or three brown fishing eagles, were fishing in its agitated waters, seemingly with great success. there is a good sturgeon fishery at the foot of the rapid. several golden plovers, canadian grosbeaks, cross-bills, wood-peckers, and pin-tailed grouse, were shot to-day; and mr. back killed a small striped marmot. this beautiful little animal was busily employed in carrying in its distended pouches the seeds of the american vetch to its winter hoards. the portage is eighteen hundred yards long, and its western extremity was found to be in ° ' " north latitude, and ° ' " west longitude. the route from canada to the athabasca joins that from york factory at the mouth of the saskatchawan, and we saw traces of a recent encampment of the canadian voyagers. our companions in the hudson's bay boats, dreading an attack from their rivals in trade, were on the alert at this place. they examined minutely the spot of encampment, to form a judgment of the number of canoes that had preceded them; and they advanced, armed, and with great caution, through the woods. their fears, however, on this occasion, were fortunately groundless. by noon, on the th, the boats and their cargoes having been conveyed across the portage, we embarked, and pursued our course. the saskatchawan becomes wider above the grand rapid, and the scenery improves. the banks are high, composed of white clay and limestone, and their summits are richly clothed with a variety of firs, poplars, birches, and willows. the current runs with great rapidity, and the channel is in many places intricate and dangerous, from broken ridges of rock jutting into the stream. we pitched our tents at the entrance of cross lake, having advanced only five miles and a half. cross lake is extensive, running towards the n.e. it is said, for forty miles. we crossed it at a narrow part, and pulling through several winding channels, formed by a group of islands, entered cedar lake, which, next to lake winipeg, is the largest sheet of fresh water we had hitherto seen. ducks and geese resort hither in immense flocks in the spring and autumn. these birds were now beginning to go off, owing to its muddy shores having become quite hard through the nightly frosts. at this place the aurora borealis was extremely brilliant in the night, its coruscations darting, at times, over the whole sky, and assuming various prismatic tints, of which the violet and yellow were predominant. after pulling, on the th, seven miles and a quarter on the lake, a violent wind drove us for shelter to a small island, or rather a ridge of rolled stones, thrown up by the frequent storms which agitate this lake. the weather did not moderate the whole day, and we were obliged to pass the night on this exposed spot. the delay, however, enabled us to obtain some lunar observations. the wind having subsided, we left our resting-place the following morning, crossed the remainder of the lake, and in the afternoon, arrived at muddy lake, which is very appropriately named, as it consists merely of a few channels, winding amongst extensive mud banks, which are overflowed during the spring floods. we landed at an indian tent, which contained two numerous families, amounting to thirty souls. these poor creatures were badly clothed, and reduced to a miserable condition by the hooping-cough and measles. at the time of our arrival they were busy in preparing a sweating-house for the sick. this is a remedy which they consider, with the addition of singing and drumming, to be the grand specific for all diseases. our companions having obtained some geese, in exchange for rum and tobacco, we proceeded a few more miles, and encamped on devil's drum island, having come, during the day, twenty miles and a half. a second party of indians were encamped on an adjoining island, a situation chosen for the purpose of killing geese and ducks. on the th we proceeded eighteen miles up the saskatchawan. its banks are low, covered with willows, and lined with drift timber. the surrounding country is swampy and intersected by the numerous arms of the river. after passing for twenty or thirty yards through the willow thicket on the banks of the stream, we entered an extensive marsh, varied only by a distant line of willows, which marks the course of a creek or branch of the river. the branch we navigated to-day, is almost five hundred yards wide. the exhalations from the marshy soil produced a low fog, although the sky above was perfectly clear. in the course of the day we passed an indian encampment of three tents, whose inmates appeared to be in a still more miserable condition than those we saw yesterday. they had just finished the ceremony of conjuration over some of their sick companions; and a dog, which had been recently killed as a sacrifice to some deity, was hanging to a tree where it would be left (i was told) when they moved their encampment. we continued our voyage up the river to the th with little variation of scenery or incident, travelling in that time about thirty miles. the near approach of winter was marked by severe frosts, which continued all day unless when the sun chanced to be unusually bright, and the geese and ducks were observed to take a southerly course in large flocks. on the morning of the th we came to a party of indians, encamped behind the bank of the river on the borders of a small marshy lake, for the purpose of killing water-fowl. here we were gratified with the view of a very large tent. its length was about forty feet, its breadth eighteen, and its covering was moose deer leather, with apertures for the escape of the smoke from the fires which are placed at each end; a ledge of wood was placed on the ground on both sides the whole length of the tent, within which were the sleeping-places, arranged probably according to families; and the drums and other instruments of enchantment were piled up in the centre. amongst the indians there were a great many half-breeds, who led an indian life. governor williams gave a dram and a piece of tobacco to each of the males of the party. on the morning of the st a heavy fall of snow took place, which lasted until two in the afternoon. in the evening we left the saskatchawan, and entered the little river, one of the two streams by which pine island lake discharges its waters. we advanced to-day fourteen miles and a quarter. on the d the weather was extremely cold and stormy, and we had to contend against a strong head wind. the spray froze as it fell, and the oars were so loaded with ice as to be almost unmanageable. the length of our voyage this day was eleven miles. the following morning was very cold; we embarked at day-light, and pulled across a part of pine island lake, about three miles and a half to cumberland house. the margin of the lake was so incrusted with ice, that we had to break through a considerable space of it to approach the landing-place. when we considered that this was the effect of only a few days' frost at the commencement of winter, we were convinced of the impractibility of advancing further by water this season, and therefore resolved on accepting governor williams's kind invitation to remain with him at this post. we immediately visited mr. connolly, the resident partner of the north-west company, and presented to him mr. mac gillivray's circular letter. he assured us that he should be most desirous to forward our progress by every means in his power, and we subsequently had ample proofs of his sincerity and kindness. the unexpected addition of our party to the winter residents at this post, rendered an increase of apartments necessary; and our men were immediately appointed to complete and arrange an unfinished building as speedily as possible. _november _.--some mild weather succeeded to the severe frosts we had at our arrival; and the lake had not been entirely frozen before the th; but this morning the ice was sufficiently firm to admit of sledges crossing it. the dogs were harnessed at a very early hour, and the winter operations commenced by sending for a supply of fish from swampy river, where men had been stationed to collect it, just before the frost set in. both men and dogs appeared to enjoy the change; they started in full glee, and drove rapidly along. an indian, who had come to the house on the preceding evening to request some provision for his family, whom he represented to be in a state of starvation, accompanied them. his party had been suffering greatly under the epidemic diseases of hooping-cough and measles; and the hunters were still in too debilitated a state to go out and provide them with meat. a supply was given to him, and the men were directed to bring his father, an old and faithful hunter, to the house, that he might have the comforts of nourishment and warmth. he was brought accordingly, but these attentions were unavailing as he died a few days afterwards. two days before his death i was surprised to observe him sitting for nearly three hours, in a piercingly sharp day, in the saw-pit, employed in gathering the dust, and throwing it by handfuls over his body, which was naked to the waist. as the man was in possession of his mental faculties, i conceived he was performing some devotional act preparatory to his departure, which he felt to be approaching, and induced by the novelty of the incident, i went twice to observe him more closely; but when he perceived that he was noticed, he immediately ceased his operation, hung down his head, and by his demeanour, intimated that he considered my appearance an intrusion. the residents at the fort could give me no information on the subject, and i could not learn that the indians in general observe any particular ceremony on the approach of death. _november _.--the sky had been overcast during the last week; the sun shone forth once only, and then not sufficiently for the purpose of obtaining observations. faint coruscations of the aurora borealis appeared one evening, but their presence did not in the least affect the electrometer or the compass. the ice daily became thicker in the lake, and the frost had now nearly overpowered the rapid current of the saskatchawan river; indeed, parties of men who were sent from both the forts to search for the indians, and procure whatever skins and provisions they might have collected, crossed that stream this day on the ice. the white partridges made their first appearance near the house, which birds are considered as the infallible harbingers of severe weather. _monday, november _.--the saskatchawan, and every other river, were now completely covered with ice, except a small stream not far from the fort through which the current ran very powerfully. in the course of the week we removed into the house our men had prepared since our arrival. we found it at first extremely cold notwithstanding that a good fire was kept in each apartment, and we frequently experienced the extremes of heat and cold on opposite sides of the body. _november _.--we obtained observations for the dip of the needle and intensity of the magnetic force in a spare room. the dip was ° ' ", and the difference produced by reversing the face of the instrument ° ' ". when the needle was faced to the west it hung nearly perpendicular. the aurora borealis had been faintly visible for a short time the preceding evening. some indians arrived in search of provision, having been totally incapacitated from hunting by sickness; the poor creatures looked miserably ill, and they represented their distress to have been extreme. few recitals are more affecting than those of their sufferings during unfavourable seasons, and in bad situations for hunting and fishing. many assurances have been given me that men and women are yet living who have been reduced to feed upon the bodies of their own family, to prevent actual starvation; and a shocking case was cited to us of a woman who had been principal agent in the destruction of several persons, and amongst the number her husband and nearest relatives, in order to support life. _november _.--the atmosphere had been clear every day during the last week, about the end of which snow fell, when the thermometer rose from ° below to ° above zero. the aurora borealis was twice visible, but faint on both occasions. its appearance did not affect the electrometer, nor could we perceive the compass to be disturbed. the men brought supplies of moose meat from the hunter's tent, which is pitched near the basquiau hill, forty or fifty miles from the house, and whence the greatest part of the meat is procured. the residents have to send nearly the same distance for their fish, and on this service horse-sledges are used. nets are daily set in pine island lake which occasionally procure some fine sturgeon, tittameg, and trout, but not more than sufficient to supply the officers' table. _december _.--this day was so remarkably fine, that we procured another set of observations for the dip of the needle in the open air; the instrument being placed firmly on a rock, the results gave ° ' ".{ } the change produced by reversing the face of the instrument, was ° ' ". there had been a determined thaw during the last three days. the ice on the saskatchawan river and some parts of the lake, broke up, and the travelling across either became dangerous. on this account the absence of wilks, one of our men, caused no small anxiety. he had incautiously undertaken the conduct of a sledge and dogs, in company with a person, going to swampy river for fish. on their return, being unaccustomed to driving, he became fatigued, and seated himself on his sledge, where his companion left him, presuming that he would soon rise and hasten to follow his track. he however returned safe in the morning, and reported that, foreseeing night would set in before he could get across the lake, he prudently retired into the woods before dark, where he remained until day-light; when the men, who had been despatched to look for him, met him returning to the house, shivering with cold, he having been unprovided with the materials for lighting a fire; which an experienced voyager never neglects to carry. we had mild weather until the th of december. on the th there had been a decided thaw, that caused the saskatchawan, which had again frozen, to re-open, and the passage across it was interrupted for two days. we now received more agreeable accounts from the indians, who were recovering strength, and beginning to hunt a little; but it was generally feared that their spirits had been so much depressed by the loss of their children and relatives, that the season would be far advanced before they could be roused to any exertion in searching for animals beyond what might be necessary for their own support. it is much to be regretted that these poor men, during their long intercourse with europeans, have not been taught how pernicious is the grief which produces total inactivity, and that they have not been furnished with any of the consolations which the christian religion never fails to afford. this, however, could hardly have been expected from persons who have permitted their own offspring, the half-casts, to remain in lamentable ignorance on a subject of such vital importance. it is probable, however, that an improvement will soon take place among the latter class, as governor williams proposes to make the children attend a sunday school, and has already begun to have divine service performed at his post. the conversations which i had with the gentlemen in charge of these posts, convinced me of the necessity of proceeding during the winter into the athabasca department, the residents of which are best acquainted with the nature and resources of the country to the north of the great slave lake; and whence only guides, hunters, and interpreters can be procured. i had previously written to the partners of the north-west company in that quarter, requesting their assistance in forwarding the expedition, and stating what we should require. but, on reflecting upon the accidents that might delay these letters on the road, i determined on proceeding to the athabasca as soon as i possibly could, and communicated my intention to governor williams and mr. connolly, with a request that i might be furnished, by the middle of january, with the means of conveyance for three persons, intending that mr. back and hepburn should accompany me, whilst dr. richardson and mr. hood remained till the spring at cumberland house. after the th of december the weather{ } became cold, the thermometer constantly below zero. christmas-day was particularly stormy; but the gale did not prevent the full enjoyment of the festivities which are annually given at cumberland house on this day. all the men who had been despatched to different parts in search of provision or furs returned to the fort on the occasion, and were regaled with a substantial dinner and a dance in the evening. . jan. . the new year was ushered in by repeated discharges of musketry; a ceremony which has been observed by the men of both the trading companies for many years. our party dined with mr. connolly, and were treated with a beaver, which we found extremely delicate. in the evening his voyagers were entertained with a dance, in which the canadians exhibited some grace and much agility; and they contrived to infuse some portion of their activity and spirits into the steps of their female companions. the half-breed women are passionately fond of this amusement, but a stranger would imagine the contrary on witnessing their apparent want of animation. on such occasions they affect a sobriety of demeanour which i understand to be very opposite to their general character. _january _.--this day i wrote to governor williams and mr. connolly, requesting them to prepare two canoes, with crews and appointments, for the conveyance of dr. richardson and mr. hood, with our stores to chipewyan as soon as the navigation should open and had the satisfaction of receiving from both these gentlemen renewed assurances of their desire to promote the objects of the expedition. i conceived it to be necessary, previous to my departure, to make some arrangement respecting the men who were engaged at stromness. only one of them was disposed to extend his engagement, and proceed beyond the athabasca lake; and, as there was much uncertainty whether the remaining three could get from the athabasca to york factory sufficiently early to secure them a passage in the next hudson's bay ship, i resolved not to take them forward, unless dr. richardson and mr. hood should fail in procuring other men from these establishments next spring, but to despatch them down to york to bring up our stores to this place: after which they might return to the coast in time to secure their passage in the first ship. i delivered to dr. richardson and mr. hood a memorandum, containing the arrangements which had been made with the two companies, respecting their being forwarded in the spring, and some other points of instruction for their guidance in my absence; together with directions to forward the map of our route which had been finished, since our arrival, by mr. hood, the drawings and the collections of natural history, by the first opportunity to york factory, for conveyance to england[ ]. [ ] as samuel wilks, who had accompanied the expedition from england, proved to be quite unequal to the fatigue of the journey, i directed him to be discharged in the spring, and sent to england by the next ship. the houses of the two companies, at this post are situated close to each other, at the upper extremity of a narrow island, which separates pine island lake from the saskatchawan river, and are about two miles and three quarters from the latter in a northern direction. they are log-houses, built without much regard to comfort, surrounded by lofty stockades, and flanked with wooden bastions. the difficulty of conveying glass into the interior has precluded its use in the windows, where its place is poorly supplied by parchment, imperfectly made by the native women from the skin of the rein-deer. should this post, however, continue to be the residence of governor williams, it will be much improved in a few years, as he is devoting his attention to that point. the land around cumberland house is low, but the soil, from having a considerable intermixture of limestone, is good, and capable of producing abundance of corn, and vegetables of every description. many kinds of pot-herbs have already been brought to some perfection, and the potatoes bid fair to equal those of england. the spontaneous productions of nature would afford ample nourishment for all the european animals. horses feed extremely well even during the winter, and so would oxen if provided with hay, which might be easily done[ ]. pigs also improve, but require to be kept warm in the winter. hence it appears, that the residents might easily render themselves far less dependent{ } on the indians for support, and be relieved from the great anxiety which they too often suffer when the hunters are unsuccessful. the neighbourhood of the houses has been much cleared of wood, from the great demand for fuel; there is, therefore, little to admire in the surrounding scenery, especially in its winter garb; few animated objects occur to enliven the scene; an occasional fox, marten, rabbit, or wolf, and a few birds, contribute the only variety. the birds which remained were ravens, magpies, partridges, cross bills, and woodpeckers. in this universal stillness, the residents at a post feel little disposed to wander abroad, except when called forth by their occupations; and as ours were of a kind best performed in a warm room, we imperceptibly acquired a sedentary habit. in going out, however, we never suffered the slightest inconvenience from the change of temperature, though the thermometer, in the open air, stood occasionally thirty degrees below zero. [ ] "the wild buffalo scrapes away the snow with its feet to get at the herbage beneath, and the horse, which was introduced by the spanish invaders of mexico, and may be said to have become naturalized, does the same; but it is worthy of remark, that the ox more lately brought from europe, has not yet acquired an art so necessary for procuring its food."--(extract from dr. richardson's journal.) the tribe of indians, who reside in the vicinity, and frequent these establishments, is that of the crees, or knisteneaux. they were formerly a powerful and numerous nation, which ranged over a very extensive country, and were very successful in their predatory excursions against their neighbours, particularly the northern indians, and some tribes on the saskatchawan and beaver rivers; but they have long ceased to be held in any fear, and are now perhaps, the most harmless and inoffensive of the whole indian race. this change is entirely to be attributed to their intercourse with europeans; and the vast reduction in their numbers occasioned, i fear, principally, by the injudicious introduction of ardent spirits. they are so passionately fond of this poison, that they will make any sacrifice to obtain it. they are good hunters, and in general active. having laid the bow and arrow altogether aside, and the use of snares, except for rabbits and partridges, they depend entirely on the europeans for the means of gaining subsistence, as they require guns, and a constant supply of powder and shot; so that these indians are probably more completely under the power of the trader than any of the other tribes. as i only saw a few straggling parties of them during short intervals, and under unfavourable circumstances of sickness and famine, i am unable to give, from personal observation, any detail of their manners and customs; and must refer the reader, to dr. richardson's account of them, in the following chapter. that gentleman, during his longer residence at the post, had many opportunities of seeing them, and acquiring their language. _january _.--this morning the sporting part of our society had rather a novel diversion: intelligence having been brought that a wolf had borne away a steel trap, in which he had been caught, a party went in search of the marauder, and took two english bull dogs and a terrier, which had been brought into the country this season. on the first sight of the animal the dogs became alarmed, and stood barking at a distance, and probably would not have ventured to advance, had they not seen the wolf fall by a shot from one of the gentlemen; they then, however, went up, and behaved courageously, and were enraged by the bites they received. the wolf soon died of its wounds, and the body was brought to the house, where a drawing of it was taken by mr. hood, and the skin preserved by dr. richardson. its general features bore a strong resemblance to many of the dogs about the fort, but it was larger and had a more ferocious aspect. mr. back and i were too much occupied in preparing for our departure on the following day to join this excursion. the position of cumberland house, by our observations, is, latitude ° ' " n.; longitude ° ' " w., by the chronometers; variations ° ' " e.; dip of the needle, ° ' ". the whole of the travelling distance between york factory and cumberland house is about six hundred and ninety miles. chapter iii. dr. richardson's residence at cumberland house--his account of the cree indians. . january . from the departure of messrs. franklin and back, on the th of january, for chipewyan, until the opening of the navigation in the spring, the occurrences connected with the expedition were so much in the ordinary routine of a winter's residence at fort cumberland, that they may be, perhaps, appropriately blended with the following general but brief account of that district and its inhabitants. cumberland house was originally built by hearne, a year or two after his return from the copper-mine{ } river, and has ever since been considered by the hudson's bay company as a post of considerable importance. previous to that time, the natives carried their furs down to the shores of hudson's bay, or disposed of them nearer home to the french canadian traders, who visited this part of the country as early as the year . the cumberland house district, extending about one hundred and fifty miles from east to west along the banks of the saskatchawan, and about as far from north to south, comprehends, on a rough calculation, upwards of twenty thousand square miles, and is frequented at present by about one hundred and twenty indian hunters. of these a few have several wives, but the majority only one; and, as some are unmarried, we shall not err greatly in considering the number of married women as only slightly exceeding that of the hunters. the women marry very young, have a custom of suckling their children for several years, and are besides exposed constantly to fatigue and often to famine; hence they are not prolific, bearing upon an average not more than four children, of whom two may attain the age of puberty. upon these data, the amount of each family may be stated at five, and the whole indian population in the district at five hundred. this is but a small population for such an extent of country, yet their mode of life occasionally subjects them to great privations. the winter of our residence at cumberland house proved extremely severe to the indians. the hooping-cough made its appearance amongst them in the autumn, and was followed by the measles, which in the course of the winter spread through the tribe. many died, and most of the survivors were so enfeebled as to be unable to pursue the necessary avocations of hunting and fishing. even those who experienced only a slight attack, or escaped the sickness altogether, dispirited by the scenes of misery which environed them, were rendered incapable of affording relief to their distressed relations, and spent their time in conjuring and drumming to avert the pestilence. those who were able came to the fort and received relief, but many who had retired with their families to distant corners, to pursue their winter hunts, experienced all the horrors of famine. one evening, early in the month of january, a poor indian entered the north-west company's house, carrying his only child in his arms, and followed by his starving wife. they had been hunting apart from the other bands, had been unsuccessful, and whilst in want were seized with the epidemical disease. an indian is accustomed to starve, and it is not easy to elicit from him an account of his sufferings. this poor man's story was very brief; as soon as the fever abated, he set out with his wife for cumberland house, having been previously reduced to feed on the bits of skin and offal, which remained about their encampment. even this miserable fare was exhausted, and they walked several days without eating, yet exerting themselves far beyond their strength that they might save the life of the infant. it died almost within sight of the house. mr. connolly, who was then in charge of the post, received them with the utmost humanity, and instantly placed food before them; but no language can describe the manner in which the miserable father dashed the morsel from his lips and deplored the loss of his child. misery may harden a disposition naturally bad, but it never fails to soften the heart of a good man. the _origin_ of the crees, to which nation the cumberland house indians belong, is, like that of the other aborigines of america, involved in obscurity; but the researches now making into the nature and affinities of the languages spoken by the different indian tribes, may eventually throw some light on the subject. indeed, the american philologists seem to have succeeded already in classing the known dialects into three languages:-- st. the floridean, spoken by the creeks, chickesaws, choctaws, cherokees, pascagoulas, and some other tribes, who inhabit the southern parts of the united states. d. the iroquois, spoken by the mengwe, or six nations, the wyandots, the nadowessies, and asseeneepoytuck. d. the lenni-lenapè, spoken by a great family more widely spread than the other two, and from which, together with a vast number of other tribes, are sprung our crees. mr. heckewelder, a missionary, who resided long amongst these people, and from whose paper, (published in the _transactions of the american philosophical society_,) the above classification is taken, states that the lenapè have a tradition amongst them, of their ancestors having come from the westward, and taken possession of the whole country from the missouri to the atlantic, after driving away or destroying the original inhabitants of the land, whom they termed alligewi. in this migration and contest, which endured for a series of years, the mengwe, or iroquois, kept pace with them, moving in a parallel but more northerly line, and finally settling on the banks of the st. lawrence, and the great lakes from whence it flows. the lenapè, being more numerous, peopled not only the greater part of the country at present occupied by the united states, but also sent detachments to the northward as far as the banks of the river mississippi{ } and the shores of hudson's bay. the principal of their northern tribes are now known under the names of saulteurs or chippeways, and crees; the former inhabiting the country betwixt lakes winipeg and superior, the latter frequenting the shores of hudson's bay, from moose to churchill, and the country from thence as far to the westward as the plains which lie betwixt the forks of the saskatchawan. these crees, formerly known by the french canadian traders under the appellation of knisteneaux, generally designate themselves as eithinyoowuc (_men_), or, when they wish to discriminate themselves from the other indian nations, as nathehwy-withinyoowuc (_southern-men_)[ ]. [ ] much confusion has arisen from the great variety of names, applied without discrimination to the various tribes of saulteurs and crees. heckewelder considers the crees of moose factory to be a branch of that tribe of the lenapè, which is named minsi, or wolf tribe. he has been led to form this opinion, from the similarity of the name given to these people by monsieur jeremie, namely, monsonies; but the truth is, that their real name is mongsoa-eythinyoowuc, or moose-deer indians; hence the name of the factory and river on which it is built. the name knisteneaux, kristeneaux, or killisteneaux, was anciently applied to a tribe of crees, now termed maskegons, who inhabit the river winipeg. this small tribe still retains the peculiarities of customs and dress, for which it was remarkable many years ago, as mentioned by mr. henry, in the interesting account of his journeys in these countries. they are said to be great rascals. the great body of the crees were at that time named opimmitish ininiwuc, or men of the woods. it would, however, be an endless task to attempt to determine the precise people designated by the early french writers. every small band, naming itself from its hunting-grounds, was described as a different nation. the chippeways who frequented the lake of the woods were named from a particular act of pillage--pilliers, or robbers: and the name saulteurs, applied to a principal band that frequented the sault st. marie, has been by degrees extended to the whole tribe. it is frequently pronounced and written _sotoos_. the original character of the crees must have been much modified by their long intercourse with europeans; hence it is to be understood, that we confine ourselves in the following sketch to their present condition, and more particularly to the crees of cumberland house. the moral character of a hunter is acted upon by the nature of the land he inhabits, the abundance or scarcity of food, and we may add, in the present case, his means of access to spirituous liquors. in a country so various in these respects as that inhabited by the crees, the causes alluded to must operate strongly in producing a considerable difference of character amongst the various hordes. it may be proper to bear in mind also, that we are about to draw the character of a people whose only rule of conduct is public opinion, and to try them by a morality founded on divine revelation, the only standard that can be referred to by those who have been educated in a land to which the blessings of the gospel have extended. bearing these considerations in mind then, we may state the crees to be a vain, fickle, improvident, and indolent race, and not very strict in their adherence to truth, being great boasters; but, on the other hand, they strictly regard the rights of property[ ], are susceptible of the kinder affections, capable of friendship, very hospitable, tolerably kind to their women, and withal inclined to peace. [ ] this is, perhaps, true of the cumberland house crees alone: many of the other tribes of crees are stated by the traders to be thieves. much of the faulty part of their character, no doubt, originates in their mode of life; accustomed as a hunter to depend greatly on chance for his subsistence, the cree takes little thought of to-morrow; and the most offensive part of his behaviour--the habit of boasting--has been probably assumed as a necessary part of his armour, which operates upon the fears of his enemies. they are countenanced, however, in this failing, by the practice of the ancient greeks, and perhaps by that of every other nation in its ruder state. every cree fears the medical or conjuring powers of his neighbour; but at the same time exalts his own attainments to the skies. "i am god-like," is a common expression amongst them, and they prove their divinity-ship by eating live coals, and by various tricks of a similar nature. a medicine bag is an indispensable part of a hunter's equipment. it is generally furnished with a little bit of indigo, blue vitriol, vermilion, or some other showy article; and is, when in the hands of a noted conjurer, such an object of terror to the rest of the tribe, that its possessor is enabled to fatten at his ease upon the labours of his deluded countrymen. a fellow of this description came to cumberland house in the winter of . notwithstanding the then miserable state of the indians, the rapacity of this wretch had been preying upon their necessities, and a poor hunter was actually at the moment pining away under the influence of his threats. the mighty conjurer, immediately on his arrival at the house, began to trumpet forth his powers, boasting, among other things, that although his hands and feet were tied as securely as possible, yet when placed in a conjuring-house, he would speedily disengage himself by the aid of two or three familiar spirits, who were attendant on his call. he was instantly taken at his word; and that his exertions might not be without an aim, a _capot_ or great coat was promised as the reward of his success. a conjuring-house having been erected in the usual form, that is, by sticking four willows in the ground and tying their tops to a hoop at the height of six or eight feet, he was fettered completely by winding several fathoms of rope round his body and extremities, and placed in its narrow apartment, not exceeding two feet in diameter. a moose-skin being then thrown over the frame, secluded him from our view. he forthwith began to chant a kind of hymn in a very monotonous tone. the rest of the indians, who seemed in some doubt respecting the powers of a devil when put in competition with those of a white man, ranged themselves around and watched the result with anxiety. nothing remarkable occurred for a long time. the conjurer continued his song at intervals, and it was occasionally taken up by those without. in this manner an hour and a half elapsed; but at length our attention, which had begun to flag, was roused by the violent shaking of the conjuring-house. it was instantly whispered round the circle, that at least one devil had crept under the moose-skin. but it proved to be only the "god-like man" trembling with cold. he had entered the lists, stript to the skin, and the thermometer stood very low that evening. his attempts were continued, however, with considerable resolution for half an hour longer, when he reluctantly gave in. he had found no difficulty in slipping through the noose when it was formed by his countrymen; but, in the present instance, the knot was tied by governor williams, who is an expert sailor. after this unsuccessful exhibition his credit sunk amazingly, and he took the earliest opportunity of sneaking away from the fort. about two years ago a conjurer paid more dearly for his temerity. in a quarrel with an indian he threw out some obscure threats of vengeance which passed unnoticed at the time, but were afterwards remembered. they met in the spring at carlton house, after passing the winter in different parts of the country, during which the indian's child died. the conjurer had the folly to boast that he had caused its death, and the enraged father shot him dead on the spot. it may be remarked, however, that both these indians were inhabitants of the plains, and had been taught, by their intercourse with the turbulent stone indians, to set but comparatively little value on the life of a man. it might be thought that the crees have benefited by their long intercourse with civilized nations. that this is not so much the case as it ought to be, is not entirely their own fault. they are capable of being, and i believe willing to be, taught; but no pains have hitherto been taken to inform their minds[ ], and their white acquaintances seem in general to find it easier to descend to the indian customs, and modes of thinking, particularly with respect to women, than to attempt to raise the indians to theirs. indeed such a lamentable want of morality has been displayed by the white traders in their contests for the interests of their respective companies, that it would require a long series of good conduct to efface from the minds of the native population the ideas they have formed of the white character. notwithstanding the frequent violations of the rights of property they have witnessed, and but too often experienced, in their own persons, these savages, as they are termed, remain strictly honest. during their visits to a post, they are suffered to enter every apartment in the house, without the least restraint, and although articles of value to them are scattered about, nothing is ever missed. they scrupulously avoid moving any thing from its place, although they are often prompted by curiosity to examine it. in some cases, indeed, they carry this principle to a degree of self-denial which would hardly be expected. it often happens that meat, which has been paid for, (if the poisonous draught it procures them can be considered as payment,) is left at their lodges until a convenient opportunity occurs of carrying it away. they will rather pass several days without eating than touch the meat thus intrusted to their charge, even when there exists a prospect of replacing it. [ ] since these remarks were written the union of the rival companies has enabled the gentlemen, who have now the management of the fur trade, to take some decided steps for the religious instruction and improvement of the natives and half-breed indians, which have been more particularly referred to in the introduction. the hospitality of the crees is unbounded. they afford a certain asylum to the half-breed children when deserted by their unnatural white fathers; and the infirm, and indeed every individual in an encampment, share the provisions of a successful hunter as long as they last. fond too as a cree is of spirituous liquors, he is not happy unless all his neighbours partake with him. it is not easy, however, to say what share ostentation may have in the apparent munificence in the latter article; for when an indian, by a good hunt, is enabled to treat the others with a keg of rum, he becomes the chief of a night, assumes no little stateliness of manner, and is treated with deference by those who regale at his expense. prompted also by the desire of gaining a _name_, they lavish away the articles they purchase at the trading posts, and are well satisfied if repaid in praise. gaming is not uncommon amongst the crees of all the different districts, but it is pursued to greater lengths by those bands who frequent the plains, and who, from the ease with which they obtain food, have abundant leisure. the game most in use amongst them, termed _puckesann_, is played with the stones of a species of _prunus_ which, from this circumstance, they term _puckesann-meena_. the difficulty lies in guessing the number of stones which are tossed out of a small wooden dish, and the hunters will spend whole nights at the destructive sport, staking their most valuable articles, powder and shot. it has been remarked by some writers that the aboriginal inhabitants of america are deficient in passion for the fair sex. this is by no means the case with the crees; on the contrary, their practice of seducing each other's wives, proves the most fertile source of their quarrels. when the guilty pair are detected, the woman generally receives a severe beating, but the husband is, for the most part, afraid to reproach the male culprit until they get drunk together at the fort; then the remembrance of the offence is revived, a struggle ensues, and the affair is terminated by the loss of a few handfuls of hair. some husbands, however, feel more deeply the injury done to their honour, and seek revenge even in their sober moments. in such cases it is not uncommon for the offended party to walk with great gravity up to the other, and deliberately seizing his gun, or some other article of value to break it before his face. the adulterer looks on in silence, afraid to make any attempt to save his property. in this respect, indeed, the indian character seems to differ from the european, that an indian, instead of letting his anger increase with that of his antagonist, assumes the utmost coolness, lest he should push him to extremities. although adultery is sometimes punished amongst the crees in the manner above described, yet it is no crime, provided the husband receives a valuable consideration for his wife's prostitution. neither is chastity considered as a virtue in a female before marriage, that is, before she becomes the exclusive property of one hunter. the cree women are not in general treated harshly by their husbands, and possess considerable influence over them. they often eat, and even get drunk, in consort with the men; a considerable portion of the labour, however, falls to the lot of the wife. she makes the hut, cooks, dresses the skins, and for the most part, carries the heaviest load: but, when she is unable to perform her task, the husband does not consider it beneath his dignity to assist her. in illustration of this remark, i may quote the case of an indian who visited the fort in winter. this poor man's wife had lost her feet by the frost, and he was compelled, not only to hunt, and do all the menial offices himself, but in winter to drag his wife with their stock of furniture from one encampment to another. in the performance of this duty, as he could not keep pace with the rest of the tribe in their movements, he more than once nearly perished of hunger. these indians, however, capable as they are of behaving thus kindly, affect in their discourse to despise the softer sex, and on solemn occasions, will not suffer them to eat before them, or even come into their presence. in this they are countenanced by the white residents, most of whom have indian or half-breed wives, but seem afraid of treating them with the tenderness or attention due to every female, lest they should themselves be despised by the indians. at least, this is the only reason they assign for their neglect of those whom they make partners of their beds and mothers of their children. both sexes are fond of, and excessively indulgent to, their children. the father never punishes them, and if the mother, more hasty in her temper, sometimes bestows a blow or two on a troublesome child, her heart is instantly softened by the roar which follows, and she mingles her tears with those that streak the smoky face of her darling. it may be fairly said, then, that restraint or punishment forms no part of the education of an indian child, nor are they early trained to that command over their temper which they exhibit in after years. the discourse of the parents is never restrained by the presence of their children, every transaction between the sexes being openly talked of before them. the crees having early obtained arms from the european traders, were enabled to make harassing inroads on the lands of their neighbours, and are known to have made war excursions as far to the westward as the rocky mountains, and to the northward as far as mackenzie's{ } river; but their enemies being now as well armed as themselves, the case is much altered. they shew great fortitude in the endurance of hunger, and the other evils incident to a hunter's life; but any unusual accident dispirits them at once, and they seldom venture to meet their enemies in open warfare, or to attack them even by surprise, unless with the advantage of superiority of numbers. perhaps they are much deteriorated in this respect by their intercourse with europeans. their existence at present hangs upon the supplies of ammunition and clothing they receive from the traders, and they deeply feel their dependent{ } situation. but their character has been still more debased by the passion for spirituous liquors, so assiduously fostered among them. to obtain the noxious beverage, they descend to the most humiliating entreaties, and assume an abjectness of behaviour which does not seem natural to them, and of which not a vestige is to be seen in their intercourse with each other. their character has sunk among the neighbouring nations. they are no longer the warriors who drove before them the inhabitants of the saskatchawan, and missinippi. the cumberland house crees, in particular, have been long disused to war. betwixt them and their ancient enemies, the slave nations, lie the extensive plains of saskatchawan, inhabited by the powerful asseeneepoytuck, or stone indians, who having whilst yet a small tribe, entered the country under the patronage of the crees, now render back the protection they received. the manners and customs of the crees have, probably since their acquaintance with europeans, undergone a change, at least, equal to that which has taken place in their moral character; and, although we heard of many practices peculiar to them, yet they appeared to be nearly as much honoured in the breach as the observance. we shall however briefly notice a few of the most remarkable customs. when a hunter marries his first wife, he usually takes up his abode in the tent of his father-in-law, and of course hunts for the family; but when he becomes a father, the families are at liberty to separate, or remain together, as their inclinations prompt them. his second wife is for the most part the sister of the first, but not necessarily so, for an indian of another family often presses his daughter upon a hunter whom he knows to be capable of maintaining her well. the first wife always remains the mistress of the tent, and assumes an authority over the others, which is not in every case quietly submitted to. it may be remarked, that whilst an indian resides with his wife's family, it is extremely improper for his mother-in-law to speak, or even look at him; and when she has a communication to make, it is the etiquette that she should turn her back upon him, and address him only through the medium of a third person. this singular custom is not very creditable to the indians, if it really had its origin in the cause which they at present assign for it, namely, that a woman's speaking to her son-in-law is a sure indication of her having conceived a criminal affection for him. it appears also to have been an ancient practice for an indian to avoid eating or sitting down in the presence of the father-in-law. we received no account of the origin of this custom, and it is now almost obsolete amongst the cumberland house crees, though still partially observed by those who frequent carlton. tattooing is almost universal with the crees. the women are in general content with having one or two lines drawn from the corners of the mouth towards the angles of the lower jaw; but some of the men have their bodies covered with a great variety of lines and figures. it seems to be considered by most rather as a proof of courage than an ornament, the operation being very painful, and, if the figures are numerous and intricate, lasting several days. the lines on the face are formed by dexterously running an awl under the cuticle, and then drawing a cord, dipt in charcoal and water, through the canal thus formed. the punctures on the body are formed by needles of various sizes set in a frame. a number of hawk bells attached to this frame serve by their noise to cover the suppressed groans of the sufferer, and, probably for the same reason, the process is accompanied with singing. an indelible stain is produced by rubbing a little finely-powdered willow-charcoal into the punctures. a half-breed, whose arm i amputated, declared, that tattooing was not only the most painful operation of the two, but rendered infinitely more difficult to bear by its tediousness, having lasted in his case three days. a cree woman, at certain periods, is laid under considerable restraint. they are far, however, from carrying matters to the extremities mentioned by hearne in his description of the chipewyans, or northern indians. she lives apart from her husband also for two months if she has borne a boy, and for three if she has given birth to a girl. many of the cree hunters are careful to prevent a woman from partaking of the head of a moose-deer, lest it should spoil their future hunts; and for the same reason they avoid bringing it to a fort, fearing lest the white people should give the bones to the dogs. the games or sports of the crees are various. one termed the game of the mitten, is played with four balls, three of which are plain, and one marked. these being hid under as many mittens, the opposite party is required to fix on that which is marked. he gives or receives a feather according as he guesses right or wrong. when the feathers which are ten in number, have all passed into one hand, a new division is made; but when one of the parties obtains possession of them thrice, he seizes on the stakes. the game of platter is more intricate, and is played with the claws of a bear, or some other animal, marked with various lines and characters. these dice, which are eight in number, and cut flat at their large end, are shook together in a wooden dish, tossed into the air and caught again. the lines traced on such claws as happen to alight on the platter in an erect position, indicate what number of counters the caster is to receive from his opponent. they have, however, a much more manly amusement termed the _cross_, although they do not engage even in it without depositing considerable stakes. an extensive meadow is chosen for this sport, and the articles staked are tied to a post, or deposited in the custody of two old men. the combatants being stript and painted, and each provided with a kind of battledore or racket, in shape resembling the letter p, with a handle about two feet long and a head loosely wrought with net-work, so as to form a shallow bag, range themselves on different sides. a ball being now tossed up in the middle, each party endeavours to drive it to their respective goals, and much dexterity and agility is displayed in the contest. when a nimble runner gets the ball in his cross, he sets off towards the goal with the utmost speed, and is followed by the rest, who endeavour to jostle him and shake it out; but, if hard pressed, he discharges it with a jerk, to be forwarded by his own party, or bandied back by their opponents, until the victory is decided by its passing the goal. of the religious opinions of the crees, it is difficult to give a correct account, not only because they shew a disinclination to enter upon the subject, but because their ancient traditions are mingled with the information they have more recently obtained, by their intercourse with europeans. none of them ventured to describe the original formation of the world, but they all spoke of an universal deluge, caused by an attempt of the fish to drown woesack-ootchacht, a kind of demigod, with whom they had quarrelled. having constructed a raft, he embarked with his family and all kinds of birds and beasts. after the flood had continued for some time, he ordered several water-fowl to dive to the bottom; they were all drowned: but a musk-rat having been despatched on the same errand, was more successful, and returned with a mouthful of mud, out of which woesack-ootchacht, imitating the mode in which the rats construct their houses, formed a new earth. first, a small conical hill of mud appeared above the water; by-and-by its base gradually spreading out, it became an extensive bank, which the rays of the sun at length hardened into firm land. notwithstanding the power that woesack-ootchacht here displayed, his person is held in very little reverence by the indians; and, in return, he seizes every opportunity of tormenting them. his conduct is far from being moral, and his amours, and the disguises he assumes in the prosecution of them, are more various and extraordinary than those of the grecian jupiter himself; but as his adventures are more remarkable for their eccentricity than their delicacy, it is better to pass them over in silence. before we quit him, however, we may remark, that he converses with all kinds of birds and beasts in their own languages, constantly addressing them by the title of brother, but through an inherent suspicion of his intentions, they are seldom willing to admit of his claims of relationship. the indians make no sacrifices to him, not even to avert his wrath. they pay a kind of worship, however, and make offerings to a being, whom they term _kepoochikawn_. this deity is represented sometimes by rude images of the human figure, but more commonly merely by tying the tops of a few willow bushes together; and the offerings to him consist of every thing that is valuable to an indian; yet they treat him with considerable familiarity, interlarding their most solemn speeches with expostulations and threats of neglect, if he fails in complying with their requests. as most of their petitions are for plenty of food, they do not trust entirely to the favour of kepoochikawn, but endeavour, at the same time, to propitiate the _animal_, an imaginary representative of the whole race of larger quadrupeds that are objects of the chase. in the month of may, whilst i was at carlton house, the cree hunter engaged to attend that post, resolved upon dedicating several articles to kepoochikawn, and as i had made some inquiries of him respecting their modes of worship, he gave me an invitation to be present. the ceremony took place in a sweating-house, or as it may be designated from its more important use, a _temple_, which was erected for the occasion by the worshipper's two wives. it was framed of arched willows, interlaced so as to form a vault capable of containing ten or twelve men, ranged closely side by side, and high enough to admit of their sitting erect. it was very similar in shape to an oven or the kraal of a hottentot, and was closely covered with moose skins, except at the east end, which was left open for a door. near the centre of the building there was a hole in the ground, which contained ten or twelve red-hot stones, having a few leaves of the _taccokay-menan_, a species of _prunus_, strewed around them. when the women had completed the preparations, the hunter made his appearance, perfectly naked, carrying in his hand an image of kepoochikawn, rudely carved, and about two feet long. he placed his god at the upper end of the sweating-house, with his face towards the door, and proceeded to tie round its neck his offerings, consisting of a cotton handkerchief, a looking-glass, a tin pan, a piece of riband, and a bit of tobacco, which he had procured the same day, at the expense of fifteen or twenty skins. whilst he was thus occupied, several other crees, who were encamped in the neighbourhood, having been informed of what was going on, arrived, and stripping at the door of the temple, entered, and ranged themselves on each side; the hunter himself squatted down at the right hand of kepoochikawn. the atmosphere of the temple having become so hot that none but zealous worshippers would venture in, the interpreter and myself sat down on the threshold, and the two women remained on the outside as attendants. the hunter, who throughout officiated as high priest, commenced by making a speech to kepoochikawn, in which he requested him to be propitious, told him of the value of the things now presented, and cautioned him against ingratitude. this oration was delivered in a monotonous tone, and with great rapidity of utterance, and the speaker retained his squatting posture, but turned his face to his god. at its conclusion, the priest began a hymn, of which the burthen was, "i will walk with god, i will go with the animal;" and, at the end of each stanza, the rest joined in an insignificant chorus. he next took up a calumet, filled with a mixture of tobacco and bear-berry leaves, and holding its stem by the middle, in a horizontal position, over the hot stones, turned it slowly in a circular manner, following the course of the sun. its mouth-piece being then with much formality, held for a few seconds to the face of kepoochikawn, it was next presented to the earth, having been previously turned a second time over the hot stones; and afterwards, with equal ceremony, pointed in succession to the four quarters of the sky; then drawing a few whiffs from the calumet himself, he handed it to his left-hand neighbour, by whom it was gravely passed round the circle; the interpreter and myself, who were seated at the door, were asked to partake in our turn, but requested to keep the head of the calumet within the threshold of the sweating-house. when the tobacco was exhausted by passing several times round, the hunter made another speech, similar to the former; but was, if possible, still more urgent in his requests. a second hymn followed, and a quantity of water being sprinkled on the hot stones, the attendants were ordered to close the temple, which they did, by very carefully covering it up with moose skins. we had no means of ascertaining the temperature of the sweating-house; but before it was closed, not only those within, but also the spectators without, were perspiring freely. they continued in the vapour bath for thirty-five minutes, during which time a third speech was made, and a hymn was sung, and water occasionally sprinkled on the stones, which still retained much heat, as was evident from the hissing noise they made. the coverings were then thrown off, and the poor half-stewed worshippers exposed freely to the air; but they kept their squatting postures until a fourth speech was made, in which the deity was strongly reminded of the value of the gifts, and exhorted to take an early opportunity of shewing his gratitude. the ceremony concluded by the sweaters scampering down to the river, and plunging into the stream. it may be remarked, that the door of the temple, and, of course, the face of the god, was turned to the rising sun; and the spectators were desired not to block up entirely the front of the building, but to leave a lane for the entrance or exit of some influence of which they could not give me a correct description. several indians, who lay on the outside of the sweating-house as spectators, seemed to regard the proceedings with very little awe, and were extremely free in the remarks and jokes they passed upon the condition of the sweaters, and even of kepoochikawn himself. one of them made a remark, that the shawl would have been much better bestowed upon himself than upon kepoochikawn, but the same fellow afterwards stripped and joined in the ceremony. i did not learn that the indians worship any other god by a specific name. they often refer, however, to the keetchee-maneeto, or great master of life; and to an evil spirit, or maatche-maneeto. they also speak of weettako, a kind of vampyre or devil, into which those who have fed on human flesh are transformed. whilst at carlton, i took an opportunity of asking a communicative old indian, of the blackfoot nation, his opinion of a future state; he replied, that they had heard from their fathers, that the souls of the departed have to scramble with great labour up the sides of a steep mountain, upon attaining the summit of which they are rewarded with the prospect of an extensive plain, abounding in all sorts of game, and interspersed here and there with new tents, pitched in agreeable{ } situations. whilst they are absorbed in the contemplation of this delightful scene, they are descried by the inhabitants of the happy land, who, clothed in new skin-dresses, approach and welcome with every demonstration of kindness those indians who have led good lives; but the bad indians, who have imbrued their hands in the blood of their countrymen, are told to return from whence they came, and without more ceremony precipitated down the steep sides of the mountain. women, who have been guilty of infanticide, never reach the mountain at all, but are compelled to hover round the seats of their crimes, with branches of trees tied to their legs. the melancholy sounds, which are heard in the still summer evenings, and which the ignorance of the white people considers as the screams of the goat-sucker, are really, according to my informant, the moanings of these unhappy beings. the crees have somewhat similar notions, but as they inhabit a country widely different from the mountainous lands of the blackfoot indians, the difficulty of their journey lies in walking along a slender and slippery tree, laid as a bridge across a rapid stream of stinking and muddy water. the night owl is regarded by the crees with the same dread that it has been viewed by other nations. one small species, which is, known to them by its melancholy nocturnal hootings, (for as it never appears in the day, few even of the hunters have ever seen it,) is particularly ominous. they call it the _cheepai-peethees_, or death bird, and never fail to whistle when they hear its note. if it does not reply to the whistle by its hootings, the speedy death of the inquirer is augured. when a cree dies, that part of his property which he has not given away before his death, is burned with him, and his relations take care to place near the grave little heaps of fire-wood, food, pieces of tobacco, and such things as he is likely to need in his journey. similar offerings are made when they revisit the grave, and as kettles, and other articles of value, are sometimes offered, they are frequently carried off by passengers, yet the relations are not displeased, provided sufficient respect has been shewn to the dead, by putting some other article, although of inferior value, in the place of that which has been taken away. the crees are wont to celebrate the returns of the seasons by religious festivals, but we are unable to describe the ceremonial in use on these joyous occasions from personal observation. the following brief notice of a feast, which was given by an old cree chief, according to his annual custom, on the first croaking of the frogs, is drawn up from the information of one of the guests. a large oblong tent, or lodge, was prepared for the important occasion, by the men of the party, none of the women being suffered to interfere. it faced the setting sun, and great care was taken that every thing about it should be as neat and clean as possible. three fire-places were raised within it, at equal distances, and little holes were dug in the corners to contain the ashes of their pipes. in a recess, at its upper end, one large image of kepoochikawn, and many smaller ones, were ranged with their faces towards the door. the food was prepared by the chief's wife, and consisted of _marrow_ pemmican, berries boiled with fat, and various other delicacies that had been preserved for the occasion. the preparations being completed, and a slave, whom the chief had taken in war, having warned the guests to the feast by the mysterious word _peenasheway_, they came, dressed out in their best garments, and ranged themselves according to their seniority, the elders seating themselves next the chief at the upper end, and the young men near the door. the chief commenced by addressing his deities in an appropriate speech, in which he told them, that he had hastened as soon as summer was indicated by the croaking of the frogs to solicit their favour for himself and his young men, and hoped that they would send him a pleasant and plentiful season. his oration was concluded by an invocation to all the animals in the land, and a signal being given to the slave at the door, he invited them severally by their names to come and partake of the feast. the cree chief having by this very general invitation displayed his unbounded hospitality, next ordered one of the young men to distribute a mess to each of the guests. this was done in new dishes of birch bark, and the utmost diligence was displayed in emptying them, it being considered extremely improper in a man to leave any part of that which is placed before him on such occasions. it is not inconsistent with good manners, however, but rather considered as a piece of politeness, that a guest who has been too liberally supplied, should hand the surplus to his neighbour. when the viands had disappeared, each filled his calumet and began to smoke with great assiduity, and in the course of the evening several songs were sung to the responsive sounds of the drum, and seeseequay, their usual accompaniments. the cree drum is double-headed, but possessing very little depth, it strongly resembles a tambourine in shape. its want of depth is compensated, however, by its diameter, which frequently exceeds three feet. it is covered with moose-skin parchment, painted with rude figures of men and beasts, having various fantastic additions, and is beat with a stick. the seeseequay is merely a rattle, formed by enclosing a few grains of shot in a piece of dried hide. these two instruments are used in all their religious ceremonies, except those which take place in a sweating-house. a cree places great reliance on his drum, and i cannot adduce a stronger instance than that of the poor man who is mentioned in a preceding page, as having lost his only child by famine, almost within sight of the fort. notwithstanding his exhausted state, he travelled with an enormous drum tied to his back. many of the crees make vows to abstain from particular kinds of food, either for a specific time, or for the remainder of their life, esteeming such abstinence to be a certain means of acquiring some supernatural powers, or at least of entailing upon themselves a succession of good fortune. one of the wives of the carlton hunter, of whom we have already spoken as the worshipper of kepoochikawn, made a determination not to eat of the flesh of the wawaskeesh, or american stag; but during our abode at that place, she was induced to feed heartily upon it, through the intentional deceit of her husband, who told her that it was buffalo meat. when she had finished her meal, her husband told her of the trick, and seemed to enjoy the terror with which she contemplated the consequences of the involuntary breach of her vow. vows of this nature are often made by a cree before he joins a war party, and they sometimes, like the eastern bonzes, walk for a certain number of days on all fours, or impose upon themselves some other penance, equally ridiculous. by such means the cree warrior becomes _godlike_; but unless he kills an enemy before his return, his newly-acquired powers are estimated to be productive in future of some direful consequence to himself. as we did not witness any of the cree dances ourselves, we shall merely mention, that like the other north american nations, they are accustomed to practise that amusement on meeting with strange tribes, before going to war, and on other solemn occasions. the habitual intoxication of the cumberland house crees has induced such a disregard of personal appearance, that they are squalid and dirty in the extreme; hence a minute description of their clothing would be by no means interesting. we shall, therefore, only remark in a general manner that the dress of the male consists of a blanket thrown over the shoulders, a leathern shirt or jacket, and a piece of cloth tied round the middle. the women have in addition a long petticoat; and both sexes wear a kind of wide hose, which reaching from the ankle to the middle of the thigh, are suspended by strings to the girdle. these hose, or as they are termed, _indian stockings_, are commonly ornamented with beads or ribands, and from their convenience, have been universally adopted by the white residents, as an essential part of their winter clothing. their shoes, or rather short boots, for they tie round the ankle, are made of soft dressed moose-skins, and during the winter they wrap several pieces of blanket round their feet. they are fond of european articles of dress, considering it as mean to be dressed entirely in leather, and the hunters are generally furnished annually with a _capot_ or great coat, and the women with shawls, printed calicoes, and other things very unsuitable to their mode of life, but which they wear in imitation of the wives of the traders; all these articles, however showy they may be at first, are soon reduced to a very filthy condition by the indian custom of greasing the face and hair with soft fat or marrow, instead of washing them with water. this practice they say preserves the skin soft, and protects it from cold in the winter, and the moschetoes in summer, but it renders their presence disagreeable to the olfactory organs of an european, particularly when they are seated in a close tent and near a hot fire. the only peculiarity which we observed, in their mode of rearing children consists in the use of a sort of cradle, extremely well adapted to their mode of life. the infant is placed in the bag having its lower extremities wrapt up in soft sphagnum or bog-moss, and may be hung up in the tent, or to the branch of a tree, without the least danger of tumbling out; or in a journey suspended on the mother's back, by a band which crosses the forehead, so as to leave her hands perfectly free. it is one of the neatest articles of furniture they possess, being generally ornamented with beads, and bits of scarlet cloth, but it bears a very strong resemblance in its form to a mummy case. the sphagnum in which the child is laid, forms a soft elastic bed, which absorbs moisture very readily, and affords such a protection from the cold of a rigorous winter, that its place would be ill supplied by cloth. the mothers are careful to collect a sufficient quantity in autumn for winter use; but when through accident their stock fails, they have recourse to the soft down of the typha, or reed mace, the dust of rotten wood, or even feathers, although none of these articles are so cleanly, or so easily changed as the sphagnum. the above is a brief sketch of such parts of the manners, character and customs of the crees, as we could collect from personal observation, or from the information of the most intelligent half-breeds we met with; and we shall merely add a few remarks on the manner in which the trade is conducted at the different inland posts of the fur companies. the standard of exchange in all mercantile transactions with the natives is a beaver skin, the relative value of which, as originally established by the traders, differs considerably from the present worth of the articles it represents; but the indians are averse to change. three marten, eight musk-rat, or a single lynx, or wolverene skin, are equivalent to one beaver; a silver fox, white fox, or otter, are reckoned two beavers, and a black fox, or large black bear, are equal to four; a mode of reckoning which has very little connexion with the real value of these different furs in the european market. neither has any attention been paid to the original cost of european articles, in fixing the tariff by which they are sold to the indians. a coarse butcher's knife is one skin, a woollen blanket or a fathom of coarse cloth, eight, and a fowling-piece fifteen. the indians receive their principal outfit of clothing and ammunition on credit in the autumn, to be repaid by their winter hunts; the amount intrusted to each of the hunters, varying with their reputations for industry and skill, from twenty to one hundred and fifty skins. the indians are generally anxious to pay off the debt thus incurred, but their good intentions are often frustrated by the arts of the rival traders. each of the companies keeps men constantly employed travelling over the country during the winter, to collect the furs from the different bands of hunters as fast as they are procured. the poor indian endeavours to behave honestly, and when he has gathered a few skins sends notice to the post from whence he procured his supplies, but if discovered in the mean time by the opposite party, he is seldom proof against the temptation to which he is exposed. however firm he may be in his denials at first, his resolutions are enfeebled by the sight of a little rum, and when he has tasted the intoxicating beverage, they vanish like smoke, and he brings forth his store of furs, which he has carefully concealed from the scrutinizing eyes of his visitors. this mode of carrying on the trade not only causes the amount of furs, collected by either of the two companies, to depend more upon the activity of their agents, the knowledge they possess of the motions of the indians, and the quantity of rum they carry, than upon the liberality of the credits they give, but is also productive of an increasing deterioration of the character of the indians, and will probably, ultimately prove destructive to the fur trade itself. indeed the evil has already, in part, recoiled upon the traders; for the indians, long deceived, have become deceivers in their turn, and not unfrequently after having incurred a heavy debt at one post, move off to another, to play the same game. in some cases the rival posts have entered into a mutual agreement, to trade only with the indians they have respectively fitted out; but such treaties, being seldom rigidly adhered to, prove a fertile subject for disputes, and the differences have been more than once decided by force of arms. to carry on the contest, the two companies are obliged to employ a great many servants, whom they maintain often with much difficulty, and always at a considerable expense[ ]. [ ] as the contending parties have united, the evils mentioned in this and the two preceding pages, are now, in all probability, at an end. there are thirty men belonging to the hudson's bay fort at cumberland, and nearly as many women and children. the inhabitants of the north west company's house are still more numerous. these large families are fed during the greatest part of the year on fish, which are principally procured at beaver lake, about fifty miles distant. the fishery commencing with the first frosts in autumn, continues abundant, till january, and the produce is dragged over the snow on sledges, each drawn by three dogs, and carrying about two hundred and fifty pounds. the journey to and from the lake occupies five days, and every sledge requires a driver. about three thousand fish, averaging three pounds a piece, were caught by the hudson's bay fishermen last season; in addition to which a few sturgeon were occasionally caught in pine island lake; and towards the spring a considerable quantity of moose meat was procured from the basquiau hill, sixty or seventy miles distant. the rest of our winter's provision consisted of geese, salted in the autumn, and of dried meats and pemmican, obtained from the provision posts on the plains of the saskatchawan. a good many potatoes are also raised at this post, and a small supply of tea and sugar is brought from the depôt at york factory. the provisions obtained from these various sources were amply sufficient in the winter of - ; but through improvidence this post has in former seasons been reduced to great straits. many of the labourers, and a great majority of the agents and clerks employed by the two companies, have indian or half-breed wives, and the mixed offspring thus produced has become extremely numerous. these métifs, or as the canadians term them, _bois brulés_, are upon the whole a good looking people, and where the experiment has been made, have shewn much aptness in learning, and willingness to be taught; they have, however, been sadly neglected. the example of their fathers has released them from the restraint imposed by the indian opinions of good and bad behaviour; and generally speaking, no pains have been taken to fill the void with better principles. hence it is not surprising that the males, trained up in a high opinion of the authority and rights of the company to which their fathers belonged, and unacquainted with the laws of the civilized world, should be ready to engage in any measure whatever, that they are prompted to believe will forward the interests of the cause they espouse. nor that the girls, taught a certain degree of refinement by the acquisition of an european language, should be inflamed by the unrestrained discourse of their indian relations, and very early give up all pretensions to chastity. it is, however, but justice to remark, that there is a very decided difference in the conduct of the children of the orkney men employed by the hudson's bay company and those of the canadian voyagers. some trouble is occasionally bestowed in teaching the former, and it is not thrown away; but all the good that can be said of the latter is, that they are not quite so licentious as their fathers are. many of the half-breeds, both male and female, are brought up amongst, and intermarry with, the indians; and there are few tents wherein the paler children of such marriages are not to be seen. it has been remarked, i do not know with what truth, that half-breeds shew more personal courage than the pure crees[ ]. [ ] a singular change takes place in the physical constitution of the indian females who become inmates of a fort; namely, they bear children more frequently and longer, but, at the same time, are rendered liable to indurations of the mammæ and prolapsus of the uterus; evils from which they are, in a great measure, exempt whilst they lead a wandering and laborious life. the girls at the forts, particularly the daughters of canadians, are given in marriage very young; they are very frequently wives at twelve years of age, and mothers at fourteen. nay, more than once instance came under our observation of the master of a post having permitted a voyager to take to wife a poor child that had scarcely attained the age of ten years. the masters of posts and wintering partners of the companies deemed this criminal indulgence to the vices of their servants, necessary to stimulate them to exertion for the interest of their respective concerns. another practice may also be noticed, as shewing the state of moral feeling on these subjects amongst the white residents of the fur countries. it was not very uncommon, amongst the canadian voyagers, for one woman to be common to, and maintained at the joint expense of, two men; nor for a voyager to sell his wife, either for a season or altogether, for a sum of money, proportioned to her beauty and good qualities, but always inferior to the price of a team of dogs. the country around cumberland house is flat and swampy, and is much intersected by small lakes. limestone is found every where under a thin stratum of soil, and it not unfrequently shows itself above the surface. it lies in strata generally horizontal, but in one spot near the fort, dipping to the northward at an angle of °. some portions of this rock contain very perfect shells. with respect to the vegetable productions of the district the _populus trepida_, or aspen, which thrives in moist situations, is perhaps the most abundant tree on the banks of the saskatchawan, and is much prized as fire-wood, burning well when cut green. the _populus balsamifera_, or taccamahac, called by the crees _matheh meteos_, or ugly poplar, in allusion to its rough bark and naked stem, crowned in an aged state with a few distorted branches, is scarcely less plentiful. it is an inferior fire-wood, and does not burn well, unless when cut in the spring, and dried during the summer; but it affords a great quantity of potash. a decoction of its resinous buds has been sometimes used by the indians with success in cases of _snow-blindness_, but its application to the inflamed eye produces much pain. of pines, the white spruce is the most common here: the red and black spruce, the balsam of gilead fir, and banksian pine, also occur frequently. the larch is found only in swampy spots, and is stunted and unhealthy. the canoe birch attains a considerable size in this latitude, but from the great demand for its wood to make sledges, it has become rare. the alder abounds on the margin of the little grassy lakes, so common in the neighbourhood. a decoction of its inner bark is used as an emetic by the indians, who also extract from it a yellow dye. a great variety of willows occur on the banks of the streams; and the hazel is met with sparingly in the woods. the sugar maple, elm, ash, and the _arbor vitæ_[ ], termed by the canadian voyagers _cedar_, grow on various parts of the saskatchawan; but that river seems to form their northern boundary. two kinds of prunus also grow here, one of which[ ], a handsome small tree, produces a black fruit, having a very astringent taste, whence the term _choke-cherry_ applied to it. the crees call it _tawquoy-meena_, and esteemed it to be when dried and bruised a good addition to pemmican. the other species[ ] is a less elegant shrub, but is said to bear a bright red cherry, of a pleasant sweet taste. its cree name is _passee-awey-meenan_, and it is known to occur as far north as great slave lake. [ ] thuya occidentalis. [ ] prunus virginiana. [ ] prunus pensylvanica. the most esteemed fruit of the country, however, is the produce of the _aronia ovalis_. under the name of _meesasscootoomeena_ it is a favourite dish at most of the indian feasts, and mixed with pemmican, it renders that greasy food actually palatable. a great variety of currants and gooseberries are also mentioned by the natives, under the name of _sappoom-meena_, but we only found three species in the neighbourhood of cumberland house. the strawberry, called by the crees _otei-meena_, or heart-berry, is found in abundance, and rasps are common on the sandy banks of the rivers. the fruits hitherto mentioned fall in the autumn, but the following berries remained hanging on the bushes in the spring, and are considered as much mellowed by exposure to the colds in winter. the red whortleberry (_vaccinium vitis idea_) is found every where, but is most abundant in rocky places. it is aptly termed by the crees _weesawgum-meena_, sour berry. the common cranberry (_oxycoccos palustris_,) is distinguished from the preceding by its growing on moist sphagnous spots, and is hence called _maskoego-meena_ swamp-berry. the american guelder rose, whose fruit so strongly resembles the cranberry, is also common. there are two kinds of it, (_viburnum oxycoccos_{ }, and _edule_,) one termed by the natives _peepoon-meena_, winter-berry, and the other _mongsoa-meena_, moose-berry. there is also a berry of a bluish white colour, the produce of the white cornel tree, which is named _musqua-meena_, bear-berry, because these animals are said to fatten on it. the dwarf canadian cornel, bears a corymb of red berries, which are highly ornamental to the woods throughout the country, but are not otherwise worthy of notice, for they have an insipid farinaceous taste, and are seldom gathered. the crees extract some beautiful colours from several of their native vegetables. they dye their porcupine quills a beautiful scarlet, with the roots of two species of bed-straw (galium tinctorium, and boreale) which they indiscriminately term _sawoyan_. the roots, after being carefully washed are boiled gently in a clean copper kettle, and a quantity of the juice of the moose-berry, strawberry, cranberry, or arctic raspberry, is added together with a few red tufts of pistils of the larch. the porcupine quills are plunged into the liquor before it becomes quite cold, and are soon tinged of a beautiful scarlet. the process sometimes fails, and produces only a dirty brown, a circumstance which ought probably to be ascribed to the use of an undue quantity of acid. they dye black with an ink made of elder bark, and a little bog-iron-ore, dried and pounded, and they have various modes of producing yellow. the deepest colour is obtained from the dried root of a plant, which from their description appears to be the cow-bane (_cicuta virosa_.) an inferior colour is obtained from the bruised buds of the dutch myrtle, and they have discovered methods of dyeing with various lichens. the quadrupeds that are hunted for food in this part of the country, are the moose and the rein-deer, the former termed by the crees, _mongsoa_, or _moosoa_; the latter _attekh_. the buffalo or bison, (_moostoosh_,) the red-deer or american-stag, (_wawaskeeshoo_,) the _apeesee-mongsoos_, or jumping deer, the _kinwaithoos_, or long-tailed deer, and the _apistatchækoos_, a species of antelope; animals that frequent the plains above the forks of the saskatchawan, are not found in the neighbourhood of cumberland house. of fur-bearing animals, various kinds of foxes (_makkeeshewuc_,) are found in the district, distinguished by the traders under the names of _black_, _silver_, _cross_, _red_, and _blue_ foxes. the two former are considered by the indians to be the same kind, varying accidentally in the colour of the pelt. the black foxes are very rare, and fetch a high price. the cross and red foxes differ from each other only in colour, being of the same shape and size. their shades of colour are not disposed in any determinate manner, some individuals approaching in that respect very nearly to the silver fox, others exhibiting every link of the chain down to a nearly uniform deep or orange-yellow, the distinguishing colour of a pure red fox. it is reported both by indians and traders, that all the varieties have been found in the same litter. the blue fox is seldom seen here, and is supposed to come from the southward. the gray wolf (_mahaygan_) is common here. in the month of march the females frequently entice the domestic dog from the forts, although at other seasons a strong antipathy seemed to subsist between them. some black wolves are occasionally seen. the black and red varieties of the american bear (_musquah_) are also found near cumberland house, though not frequently; a black bear often has red cubs, and _vice versâ_. the grizzly bear, so much dreaded by the indians for its strength and ferocity, inhabits a track of country nearer the rocky mountains. it is extraordinary that although i made inquiries extensively amongst the indians, i met with but one who said that he had killed a she-bear with young in the womb. the wolverene, in cree _okeekoohawgees_, or _ommeethatsees_, is an animal of great strength and cunning, and is much hated by the hunters, on account of the mischief it does to their marten-traps. the canadian lynx (_peeshew_) is a timid but well-armed animal, which preys upon the american hare. its fur is esteemed. the marten (_wapeestan_,) is one of the most common furred animals in the country. the fisher, notwithstanding its name, is an inhabitant of the land, living like the common marten principally on mice. it is the _otchoek_ of the crees, and the _pekan_ of the canadians. the mink, (_atjackash_,) has been often confounded by writers with the fisher. it is a much smaller animal, inhabits the banks of rivers, and swims well; its prey is fish. the otter, (_neekeek_,) is larger than the english species, and produces a much more valuable fur. the musk rat (_watsuss_, or _musquash_,) is very abundant in all the small grassy lakes. they build small conical houses with a mixture of hay and earth; those which build early raising their houses on the mud of the marshes, and those which build later in the season founding their habitations upon the surface of the ice itself. the house covers a hole in the ice, which permits them to go into the water in search of the roots on which they feed. in severe winters when the small lakes are frozen to the bottom, and these animals cannot procure their usual food, they prey upon each other. in this way great numbers are destroyed. the beaver (_ammisk_) furnish the staple fur of the country. many surprising stories have been told of the sagacity with which this animal suits the form of its habitation, retreats, and dam, to local circumstances; and i compared the account of its manners, given by cuvier, in his _régne animal_, with the reports of the indians, and found them to agree exactly. they have been often seen in the act of constructing their houses in the moon-light nights, and the observers agree, that the stones, wood, or other materials, are carried in their teeth, and generally leaning against the shoulder. when they have placed it to their mind, they turn round and give it a smart blow with their flat tail. in the act of diving they give a similar stroke to the surface of the water. they keep their provision of wood under water in front of the house. their favourite food is the bark of the aspen, birch, and willow; they also eat the alder, but seldom touch any of the pine tribe unless from necessity; they are fond of the large roots of the _nuphar lutea_, and grow fat upon it, but it gives their flesh a strong rancid taste. in the season of love their call resembles a groan, that of the male being the hoarsest, but the voice of the young is exactly like the cry of a child. they are very playful, as the following anecdote will shew:--one day a gentleman, long resident in this country, espied five young beavers sporting in the water, leaping upon the trunk of a tree, pushing one another off, and playing a thousand interesting tricks. he approached softly under cover of the bushes, and prepared to fire on the unsuspecting creatures, but a nearer approach discovered to him such a similitude betwixt their gestures and the infantile caresses of his own children, that he threw aside his gun. this gentleman's feelings are to be envied, but few traders in fur would have acted so feelingly. the musk-rat frequently inhabits the same lodge with the beaver, and the otter also thrusts himself in occasionally; the latter, however, is not always a civil guest, as he sometimes devours his host. these are the animals most interesting in an economical point of view. the american hare, and several kinds of grouse and ptarmigan, also contribute towards the support of the natives; and the geese, in their periodical flights in the spring and autumn, likewise prove a valuable resource both to the indians and white residents; but the principal article of food, after the moose-deer, is fish; indeed, it forms almost the sole support of the traders at some of the posts. the most esteemed fish is the coregonus albus, the _attihhawmeg_ of the crees, and the _white-fish_ of the americans. its usual weight is between three and four pounds, but it has been known to reach sixteen or eighteen pounds. three fish of the ordinary size is the daily allowance to each man at the fort, and is considered as equivalent to two geese, or eight pounds of solid moose-meat. the fishery for the attihhawmeg lasts the whole year, but is most productive in the spawning season, from the middle of september to the middle of october. the _ottonneebees_, (coregonus artedi,) closely resembles the last. three species of carp, (catastomus hudsonius, c. forsterianus, and c. lesueurii,) are also found abundantly in all the lakes, their cree names are _namaypeeth_, _meethquawmaypeeth_, and _wapawhawkeeshew_. the _occow_, or river perch, termed also horn-fish, piccarel, or doré, is common, but is not so much esteemed as the attihhawmeg. it attains the length of twenty inches in these lakes. the methy is another common fish; it is the _gadus lota_, or burbot, of europe. its length is about two feet, its gullet is capacious, and it preys upon fish large enough to distend its body to nearly twice its proper size. it is never eaten, not even by the dogs unless through necessity, but its liver and roe are considered as delicacies. the pike is also plentiful, and being readily caught in the winter-time with the hook, is so much prized on that account by the natives, as to receive from them the name of _eithinyoo-cannooshoeoo_, or indian fish. the common trout, or _nammoecous_, grows here to an enormous size, being caught in particular lakes, weighing upwards of sixty pounds; thirty pounds is no uncommon size at beaver lake, from whence cumberland house is supplied. the hioden clodalis, _oweepeetcheesees_, or gold-eye is a beautiful small fish, which resembles the trout, in its habits. one of the largest fish is the _mathemegh_, catfish, or _barbue_. it belongs to the genus _silurus_. it is rare but is highly prized as food. the sturgeon (accipenser ruthenus) is also taken in the saskatchawan, and lakes communicating with it, and furnishes an excellent, but rather rich, article of food. chapter iv. leave cumberland house--mode of travelling in winter--arrival at carlton house--stone indians--visit to a buffalo pound--goitres--departure from carlton house--isle à la crosse--arrival at fort chipewyan. . january . this day we set out from cumberland house for carlton house; but previously to detailing the events of the journey, it may be proper to describe the necessary equipments of a winter traveller in this region, which i cannot do better than by extracting the following brief, but accurate, account of it from mr. hood's journal:-- "a snow-shoe is made of two light bars of wood, fastened together at their extremities, and projected into curves by transverse bars. the side bars have been so shaped by a frame, and dried before a fire, that the front part of the shoe turns up, like the prow of a boat, and the part behind terminates in an acute angle; the spaces between the bars are filled up with a fine netting of leathern thongs, except that part behind the main bar, which is occupied by the feet; the netting is there close and strong, and the foot is attached to the main bar by straps passing round the heel but only fixing the toes, so that the heel rises after each step, and the tail of the shoe is dragged on the snow. between the main bar and another in front of it, a small space is left, permitting the toes to descend a little in the act of raising the heel to make the step forward, which prevents their extremities from chafing. the length of a snow-shoe is from four to six feet and the breadth one foot and a half, or one foot and three quarters, being adapted to the size of the wearer. the motion of walking in them is perfectly natural, for one shoe is level with the snow, when the edge of the other is passing over it. it is not easy to use them among bushes, without frequent overthrows, nor to rise afterwards without help. each shoe weighs about two pounds when unclogged with snow. the northern indian snow-shoes differ a little from those of the southern indians, having a greater curvature on the outside of each shoe; one advantage of which is, that when the foot rises the over-balanced side descends and throws off the snow. all the superiority of european art has been unable to improve the native contrivance of this useful machine. "sledges are made of two or three flat boards, curving upwards in front, and fastened together by transverse pieces of wood above. they are so thin that, if heavily laden, they bend with the inequalities of the surface over which they pass. the ordinary dog-sledges are eight or ten feet long and very narrow, but the lading is secured to a lacing round the edges. the cariole used by the traders is merely a covering of leather for the lower part of the body, affixed to the common sledge, which is painted and ornamented according to the taste of the proprietor. besides snow-shoes, each individual carries his blanket, hatchet, steel, flint, and tinder, and generally fire arms." the general dress of the winter traveller, is a _capot_, having a hood to put up under the fur cap in windy weather, or in the woods, to keep the snow from his neck; leathern trowsers and indian stockings which are closed at the ankles, round the upper part of his _mocassins_, or indian shoes, to prevent the snow from getting into them. over these he wears a blanket, or leathern coat, which is secured by a belt round his waist, to which his fire-bag, knife, and hatchet are suspended. mr. back and i were accompanied by the seaman, john hepburn; we were provided with two carioles and two sledges; their drivers and dogs being furnished in equal proportions by the two companies. fifteen days' provision so completely filled the sledges, that it was with difficulty we found room for a small sextant, one suit of clothes, and three changes of linen, together with our bedding. notwithstanding we thus restricted ourselves, and even loaded the carioles with part of the luggage, instead of embarking in them ourselves, we did not set out without considerable grumbling from the voyagers of both companies, respecting the overlading of their dogs. however, we left the matter to be settled by our friends at the fort, who were more conversant with winter travelling than ourselves. indeed the loads appeared to us so great that we should have been inclined to listen to the complaints of the drivers. the weight usually placed upon a sledge, drawn by three dogs, cannot, at the commencement of a journey, be estimated at less than three hundred pounds, which, however, suffers a daily diminution from the consumption of provisions. the sledge itself weighs about thirty pounds. when the snow is hard frozen, or the track well trodden, the rate of travelling is about two miles and a half an hour, including rests, or about fifteen miles a day. if the snow be loose the speed is necessarily much less and the fatigue greater. at eight in the morning of the th, we quitted the fort, and took leave of our hospitable friend, governor williams, whose kindness and attention i shall ever remember with gratitude. dr. richardson, mr. hood, and mr. connolly, accompanied us along the saskatchawan until the snow became too deep for their walking without snow-shoes. we then parted from our associates, with sincere regret at the prospect of a long separation. being accompanied by mr. mackenzie, of the hudson's bay company, who was going to isle à la crosse, with four sledges under his charge, we formed quite a procession, keeping in an indian file, on the track of the man who preceded the foremost dogs; but, as the snow was deep, we proceeded slowly on the surface of the river, which is about three hundred and fifty yards wide, for the distance of six miles, which we went this day. its alluvial banks and islands are clothed with willows. at the place of our encampment we could scarcely{ } find sufficient{ } pine branches to floor "the hut," as the orkney men term the place where travellers rest. its preparation, however, consists only in clearing away the snow to the ground, and covering that space with pine branches, over which the party spread their blankets and coats, and sleep in warmth and comfort, by keeping a good fire at their feet, without any other canopy than the heaven, even though the thermometer should be far below zero. the arrival at the place of encampment gives immediate occupation to every one of the party; and it is not until the sleeping-place has been arranged, and a sufficiency of wood collected as fuel for the night, that the fire is allowed to be kindled. the dogs alone remain inactive during this busy scene, being kept harnessed to their burdens until the men have leisure to unstow the sledges, and hang upon the trees every species of provision out of their reach. we had ample experience, before morning, of the necessity of this precaution, as they contrived to steal a considerable part of our stores, almost from underneath hepburn's head, notwithstanding{ } their having been well fed at supper. this evening we found the mercury of our thermometer had sunk into the bulb, and was frozen. it rose again into the tube on being held to the fire, but quickly re-descended into the bulb on being removed into the air; we could not, therefore, ascertain by it the temperature of the atmosphere, either then or during our journey. the weather was perfectly clear. _january _.--we arose this morning after the enjoyment of a sound and comfortable repose, and recommenced our journey at sunrise, but made slow progress through the deep snow. the task of beating the track for the dogs was so very fatiguing, that each of the men took the lead in turn, for an hour and a half. the scenery of the banks of the river improved as we advanced to-day; some firs and poplars were intermixed with the willows. we passed through two creeks, formed by islands, and encamped on a pleasant spot on the north shore, having only made six miles and three quarters actual distance. the next day we pursued our course along the river; the dogs had the greatest difficulty in dragging their heavy burdens through the snow. we halted to refresh them at the foot of sturgeon river, and obtained the latitude ° ' " n. this is a small stream, which issues from a neighbouring lake. we encamped near to musquito point, having walked about nine miles. the termination of the day's journey was a great relief to me, who had been suffering during the greater part of it, in consequence of my feet having been galled by the snow-shoes; this, however, is an evil which few escape on their initiation to winter travelling. it excites no pity from the more experienced companions of the journey, who travel on as fast as they can, regardless of your pain. mr. isbester, and an orkney man, joined us from cumberland house, and brought some pemmican that we had left behind; a supply which was very seasonable after our recent loss. the general occupation of mr. isbester during the winter, is to follow or find out the indians, and collect their furs, and his present journey will appear adventurous to persons accustomed to the certainty of travelling on a well-known road. he was going in search of a band of indians, of whom no information had been received since last october, and his only guide for finding them was their promise to hunt in a certain quarter; but he looked at the jaunt with indifference, and calculated on meeting them in six or seven days, for which time only he had provision. few persons in this country suffer more from want of food than those occasionally do who are employed on this service. they are furnished with a sufficiency of provision to serve until they reach the part where the indians are expected to be; but it frequently occurs that, on their arrival at the spot, they have gone elsewhere, and that a recent fall of snow has hidden their track, in which case, the voyagers have to wander about in search of them; and it often happens, when they succeed in finding the indians, that they are unprovided with meat. mr. isbester had been placed in this distressing situation only a few weeks ago, and passed four days without either himself or his dogs tasting food. at length, when he had determined on killing one of the dogs to satisfy his hunger, he happily met with a beaten track, which led him to some indian lodges, where he obtained food. the morning of the st was cold, but pleasant for travelling. we left mr. isbester and his companion, and crossed the peninsula of musquito point, to avoid a detour of several miles which the river makes. though we put up at an early hour, we gained eleven miles this day. our encampment was at the lower extremity of tobin's falls. the snow being less deep on the rough ice which enclosed this rapid, we proceeded, on the d, at a quicker pace than usual, but at the expense of great suffering to mr. back, myself, and hepburn, whose feet were much galled. after passing tobin's falls, the river expands to the breadth of five hundred yards, and its banks are well wooded with pines, poplars, birch, and willows. many tracks of moose-deer and wolves were observed near the encampment. on the d the sky was generally overcast, and there were several snow showers.{ } we saw two wolves and some foxes cross the river in the course of the day, and passed many tracks of the moose and red-deer. soon after we had encamped the snow fell heavily, which was an advantage to us after we had retired to rest, by its affording an additional covering to our blankets. the next morning, at breakfast time, two men arrived from carlton on their way to cumberland. having the benefit of their track, we were enabled, to our great joy, to march at a quick pace without snow-shoes. my only regret was, that the party proceeded too fast to allow of mr. back's halting occasionally, to note the bearings of the points, and delineate the course of the river[ ], without being left behind. as the provisions were getting short, i could not, therefore, with propriety, check the progress of the party; and, indeed, it appeared to me less necessary, as i understood the river had been carefully surveyed. in the afternoon, we had to resume the incumbrance of the snow-shoes, and to pass over a rugged part where the ice had been piled over a collection of stones. the tracks of animals were very abundant on the river, particularly near the remains of an old establishment, called the lower nippéween. [ ] this was afterwards done by dr. richardson during a voyage to carlton in the spring. so much snow had fallen on the night of the th, that the track we intended to follow was completely covered, and our march to-day was very fatiguing. we passed the remains of two red-deer, lying at the bases of perpendicular cliffs, from the summits of which they had, probably, been forced by the wolves. these voracious animals who are inferior in speed to the moose or red-deer are said frequently to have recourse to this expedient in places where extensive plains are bounded by precipitous cliffs. whilst the deer are quietly grazing, the wolves assemble in great numbers, and, forming a crescent, creep slowly towards the herd so as not to alarm them much at first, but when they perceive that they have fairly hemmed in the unsuspecting creatures, and cut off their retreat across the plain, they move more quickly and with hideous yells terrify their prey and urge them to flight by the only open way, which is that towards the precipice; appearing to know that when the herd is once at full speed, it is easily driven over the cliff, the rearmost urging on those that are before. the wolves then descend at their leisure, and feast on the mangled carcasses. one of these animals passed close to the person who was beating the track, but did not offer any violence. we encamped at sunset, after walking thirteen miles. on the th, we were rejoiced at passing the half-way point, between cumberland and carlton. the scenery of the river is less pleasing beyond this point, as there is a scarcity of wood. one of our men was despatched after a red-deer that appeared on the bank. he contrived to approach near enough to fire twice, though without success, before the animal moved away. after a fatiguing march of seventeen miles we put up at the upper nippéween, a deserted establishment; and performed the comfortable operations of shaving and washing for the first time since our departure from cumberland, the weather having been hitherto too severe. we passed an uncomfortable and sleepless night, and agreed next morning to encamp in future, in the open air, as preferable to the imperfect shelter of a deserted house without doors or windows. the morning was extremely cold, but fortunately the wind was light, which prevented our feeling it severely; experience indeed had taught us that the sensation of cold depends less upon the state of temperature, than the force of the wind. an attempt was made to obtain the latitude, which failed, in consequence of the screw, that adjusts the telescope of the sextant, being immoveably fixed, from the moisture upon it having frozen. the instrument could not be replaced in its case before the ice was thawed by the fire in the evening. in the course of the day we passed the confluence of the south branch of the saskatchawan, which rises from the rocky mountains near the sources of the northern branch of the missouri. at coles falls, which commence a short distance from the branch, we found the surface of the ice very uneven, and many spots of open water. we passed the ruins of an establishment, which the traders had been compelled to abandon, in consequence of the intractable{ } conduct and pilfering habits of the assinéboine{ } or stone indians; and we learned that all the residents at a post on the south branch, had been cut off{ } by the same tribe some years ago. we travelled twelve miles to-day. the wolves serenaded us through the night with a chorus of their agreeable howling, but none of them ventured near the encampment. but mr. back's repose was disturbed by a more serious evil: his buffalo robe caught fire, and the shoes on his feet, being contracted by the heat, gave him such pain, that he jumped up in the cold, and ran into the snow as the only means of obtaining relief. on the th we had a strong and piercing wind from n.w. in our faces, and much snow-drift; we were compelled to walk as quick as we could, and to keep constantly rubbing the exposed parts of the skin, to prevent their being frozen, but some of the party suffered in spite of every precaution. we descried three red-deer on the banks of the river, and were about to send the best marksmen after them, when they espied the party, and ran away. a supply of meat would have been very seasonable, as the men's provision had become scanty, and the dogs were without food, except a little burnt leather. owing to the scarcity of wood, we had to walk until a late hour, before a good spot for an encampment could be found, and had then attained only eleven miles. the night was miserably cold; our tea froze in the tin pots before we could drink it, and even a mixture of spirits and water became quite thick by congelation; yet, after we lay down to rest, we felt no inconvenience, and heeded not the wolves, though they were howling within view. the th was also very cold, until the sun burst forth, when the travelling became pleasant. the banks of the river are very scantily supplied with wood through the part we passed to-day. a long track on the south shore, called holms plains, is destitute of any thing like a tree, and the opposite bank has only stunted willows; but, after walking sixteen miles, we came to a spot better wooded, and encamped opposite to a remarkable place, called by the voyagers "the neck of land." a short distance below our encampment, on the peninsula formed by the confluence of the net-setting river with the saskatchawan, there stands a representation of kepoochikawn, which was formerly held in high veneration by the indians, and is still looked upon with some respect. it is merely a large willow bush, having its tops bound into a bunch. many offerings of value such as handsome dresses, hatchets, and kettles, used to be made to it, but of late its votaries have been less liberal. it was mentioned to us as a signal instance of its power, that a sacrilegious moose-deer having ventured to crop a few of its tender twigs was found dead at the distance of a few yards. the bush having now grown old and stunted is exempted from similar violations. on the thirtieth we directed our course round the neck of land, which is well clothed with pines and firs; though the opposite or western bank is nearly destitute of wood. this contrast between the two banks continued until we reached the commencement of what our companions called the barren grounds, when both the banks were alike bare. vast plains extend behind the southern bank, which afford excellent pasturage for the buffalo, and other grazing animals. in the evening we saw a herd of the former, but could not get near to them. after walking fifteen miles we encamped. the men's provision having been entirely expended last night, we shared our small stock with them. the poor dogs had been toiling some days on the most scanty fare; their rapacity, in consequence, was unbounded; they forced open a deal box, containing tea, _&c._, to get at a small piece of meat which had been incautiously placed in it. as soon as daylight permitted, the party commenced their march in expectation of reaching carlton house to breakfast, but we did not arrive before noon, although the track was good. we were received by mr. prudens, the gentleman in charge of the post, with that friendly attention which governor williams's circular was calculated to ensure at every station; and were soon afterwards regaled with a substantial dish of buffalo steaks, which would have been excellent under any circumstances, but were particularly relished by us, after our travelling fare of dried meat and pemmican, though eaten without either bread or vegetables. after this repast, we had the comfort of changing our travelling dresses, which had been worn for fourteen days; a gratification which can only be truly estimated by those who have been placed under similar circumstances. i was still in too great pain from swellings in the ankles to proceed to la montée, the north-west company's establishment, distant about three miles; but mr. hallet, the gentleman in charge, came the following morning, and i presented to him the circular from mr. s. mac gillivray. he had already been furnished, however, with a copy of it from mr. connolly, and was quite prepared to assist us in our advance to the athabasca. mr. back and i having been very desirous to see some of the stone indians, who reside on the plains in this vicinity, learned with regret that a large band of them had left the house on the preceding day; but our curiosity was amply gratified by the appearance of some individuals, on the following and every subsequent day during our stay. the looks of these people would have prepossessed me in their favour, but for the assurances i had received from the gentlemen of the posts, of their gross and habitual treachery. their countenances are affable and pleasing, their eyes large and expressive, nose aquiline, teeth white and regular, the forehead bold, the cheek-bones rather high. their figure is usually good, above the middle size, with slender, but well proportioned, limbs. their colour is a light copper, and they have a profusion of very black hair, which hangs over the ears, and shades the face. their dress, which i think extremely neat and convenient, consists of a vest and trowsers of leather fitted to the body; over these a buffalo robe is thrown gracefully. these dresses are in general cleaned with _white-mud_, a sort of marl, though some use _red earth_, a kind of bog-iron-ore; but this colour neither looks so light, nor forms such an agreeable contrast as the white with the black hair of the robe. their quiver hangs behind them, and in the hand is carried the bow, with an arrow always ready for attack or defence, and sometimes they have a gun; they also carry a bag containing materials for making a fire, some tobacco, the calumet or pipe, and whatever valuables they possess. this bag is neatly ornamented with porcupine quills. thus equipped, the stone indian bears himself with an air of perfect independence. the only articles of european commerce they require in exchange for the meat they furnish to the trading post, are tobacco, knives, ammunition, and spirits, and occasionally some beads, but more frequently buttons, which they string in their hair as ornaments. a successful hunter will probably have two or three dozen of them hanging at equal distances on locks of hair, from each side of the forehead. at the end of these locks, small coral bells are sometimes attached, which tingle at every motion of the head, a noise which seems greatly to delight the wearer; sometimes strings of buttons are bound round the head like a tiara; and a bunch of feathers gracefully crowns the head. the stone indians steal whatever they can, particularly horses; these animals they maintain are common property, sent by the almighty for the general use of man, and therefore may be taken wherever met with; still they admit the right of the owners to watch them, and to prevent theft if possible. this avowed disposition on their part calls forth the strictest vigilance at the different posts; notwithstanding which the most daring attacks are often made with success, sometimes on parties of three or four, but oftener on individuals. about two years ago a band of them had the audacity to attempt to take away some horses which were grazing before the gate of the n.w. company's fort; and, after braving the fire from the few people then at the establishment through the whole day, and returning their shots occasionally, they actually succeeded in their enterprise. one man was killed on each side. they usually strip defenceless persons whom they meet of all their garments, but particularly of those which have buttons, and leave them to travel home in that state, however severe the weather. if resistance be expected, they not unfrequently murder before they attempt to rob. the traders, when they travel, invariably keep some men on guard to prevent surprise, whilst the others sleep; and often practise the stratagem of lighting a fire at sunset, which they leave burning, and move on after dark to a more distant encampment--yet these precautions do not always baffle the depredators. such is the description of men whom the traders of this river have constantly to guard against. it must require a long residence among them, and much experience of their manners, to overcome the apprehensions their hostility and threats are calculated to excite. through fear of having their provision and supplies entirely cut off, the traders are often obliged to overlook the grossest offences, even murder, though{ } the delinquents present themselves with unblushing effrontery{ } almost immediately after the fact, and perhaps boast of it. they do not, on detection, consider themselves under any obligation to deliver up what they have stolen without receiving an equivalent. the stone indians keep in amity with their neighbours the crees from motives of interest; and the two tribes unite in determined hostility against the nations dwelling to the westward, which are generally called slave indians--a term of reproach applied by the crees to those tribes against whom they have waged successful wars. the slave indians are said greatly to resemble the stone indians, being equally desperate and daring in their acts of aggression and dishonesty towards the traders. these parties go to war almost every summer, and sometimes muster three or four hundred horsemen on each side. their leaders, in approaching the foe, exercise all the caution of the most skilful generals; and whenever either party considers that it has gained the best ground, or finds it can surprise the other, the attack is made. they advance at once to close quarters, and the slaughter is consequently great, though the battle may be short. the prisoners of either sex are seldom spared, but slain on the spot with wanton cruelty. the dead are scalped, and he is considered the bravest person who bears the greatest number of scalps from the field. these are afterwards attached to his war dress, and worn as proofs of his prowess. the victorious party, during a certain time, blacken their faces and every part of their dress in token of joy, and in that state they often come to the establishment, if near, to testify their delight by dancing and singing, bearing all the horrid insignia of war, to display their individual feats. when in mourning, they completely cover their dress and hair with white mud. the crees in the vicinity of carlton house have the same cast of countenance as those about cumberland, but are much superior to them in appearance, living in a more abundant country. these men are more docile, tractable, and industrious, than the stone indians, and bring greater supplies of provision and furs to the posts. their general mode of dress resembles that of the stone indians; but sometimes they wear cloth leggins, blankets, and other useful articles, when they can afford to purchase them. they also decorate their hair with buttons. the crees procure guns from the traders, and use them in preference to the bow and arrow; and from them the stone indians often get supplied, either by stealth, gaming, or traffic. like the rest of their nation, these crees are remarkably fond of spirits, and would make any sacrifice to obtain them. i regretted to find the demand for this pernicious article had greatly increased within the few last years. the following notice of these indians is extracted from dr. richardson's journal: "the asseenaboine, termed by the crees asseeneepoytuck, or stone indians, are a tribe of sioux, who speak a dialect of the iroquois, one of the great divisions under which the american philologists have classed the known dialects of the aborigines of north america. the stone indians, or, as they name themselves, _eascab_, originally entered this part of the country under the protection of the crees, and in concert with them attacked and drove to the westward the former inhabitants of the banks of the saskatchawan. they are still the allies of the crees, but have now become more numerous than their former protectors. they exhibit all the bad qualities ascribed to the mengwe or iroquois, the stock whence they are sprung. of their actual number i could obtain no precise information, but it is very great. the crees who inhabit the plains, being fur hunters, are better known to the traders. "they are divided into two distinct bands, the ammisk-watcheéthinyoowuc or beaver hill crees, who have about forty tents, and the sackaweé-thinyoowuc, or thick wood crees, who have thirty-five. the tents average nearly ten inmates each, which gives a population of seven hundred and fifty to the whole. "the nations who were driven to the westward by the eascab and crees are termed, in general, by the latter, yatcheé-thinyoowuc, which has been translated slave indians, but more properly signifies strangers. "they now inhabit the country around fort augustus, and towards the foot of the rocky mountains, and have increased in strength until they have become an object of terror to the eascab themselves. they rear a great number of horses, make use of fire-arms, and are fond of european articles; in order to purchase which they hunt the beaver and other furred animals, but they depend principally on the buffalo for subsistence. "they are divided into five nations:--first, the pawäustic-eythin-yoowuc, or fall indians, so named from their former residence on the falls of the saskatchawan. they are the minetarres, with whom captain lewis's party had a conflict on their return from the missouri. they have about four hundred and fifty or five hundred tents; their language is very guttural and difficult. "second, the peganoo-eythinyoowuc pegans, or muddy river indians, named in their own language peganoe`-koon, have four hundred tents. "third, the meethco-thinyoowuc, or blood indians, named by themselves kainoe`-koon, have three hundred tents. "fourth, the cuskoeteh-waw-thésseetuck, or blackfoot indians, in their own language saxoekoe-koon, have three hundred and fifty tents. "the last three nations, or tribes, the pegans, blood indians, and black-feet speak the same language. it is pronounced in a slow and distinct tone, has much softness, and is easily acquired by their neighbours. i am assured by the best interpreters in the country, that it bears no affinity to the cree, sioux, or chipewyan languages. "lastly, the sassees, or circees, have one hundred and fifty tents; they speak the same language with their neighbours, the snare indians, who are a tribe of the extensive family of the chipewyans[ ]." [ ] "as the subjects may be interesting to philologists, i subjoin a few words of the blackfoot language:-- peestâh kan, tobacco. moohksee, an awl. nappoe-oòhkee, rum. cook keet, give me. eeninee, buffalo. poox[=a]poot, come here. kat oetsits, none, i have none. keet st[=a] kee, a beaver. naum`, a bow. stoo-an, a knife. sassoopats, ammunition. meenee, beads. poommees, fat. miss ta poot, keep off. saw, no. stwee, cold; it is cold. penn[=a]k[=o]mit, a horse. ahseeu, good." on the th of february, we accompanied mr. prudens on a visit to a cree encampment and a buffalo pound, about six miles from the house; we found seven tents pitched within a small cluster of pines, which adjoined the pound. the largest, which we entered, belonged to the chief, who was absent, but came in on learning our arrival. the old man (about sixty) welcomed us with a hearty shake of the hand, and the customary salutation of "what cheer!" an expression which they have gained from the traders. as we had been expected, they had caused the tent to be neatly arranged, fresh grass was spread on the ground, buffalo robes were placed on the side opposite the door for us to sit on, and a kettle was on the fire to boil meat for us. after a few minutes' conversation, an invitation was given to the chief and his hunters to smoke the calumet with us, as a token of our friendship: this was loudly announced through the camp, and ten men from the other tents immediately joined our party. on their entrance the women and children withdrew, their presence on such occasions being contrary to etiquette. the calumet having been prepared and lighted by mr. prudens's clerk, was presented to the chief, who performed the following ceremony before he commenced smoking:--he first pointed the stem to the south, then to the west, north, and east, and afterwards to the heavens, the earth, and the fire, as an offering to the presiding spirits:--he took three whiffs only, and then passed the pipe to his next companion, who took the same number of whiffs, and so did each person as it went round. after the calumet had been replenished, the person who then commenced repeated only the latter part of the ceremony, pointing the stem to the heaven, the earth, and the fire. some spirits, mixed with water, were presented to the old man, who, before he drank, demanded a feather, which he dipped into the cup several times, and sprinkled the moisture on the ground, pronouncing each time a prayer. his first address to the keetchee manitou, or great spirit, was, that buffalo might be abundant every where, and that plenty might come into their pound. he next prayed, that the other animals might be numerous, and particularly those which were valuable for their furs, and then implored that the party present might escape the sickness which was at that time prevalent, and be blessed with constant health. some other supplications followed, which we could not get interpreted without interrupting the whole proceeding; but at every close, the whole indian party assented by exclaiming aha; and when he had finished, the old man drank a little and passed the cup round. after these ceremonies each person smoked at his leisure, and they engaged in a general conversation, which i regretted not understanding, as it seemed to be very humorous, exciting frequent bursts of laughter. the younger men, in particular, appeared to ridicule the abstinence of one of the party, who neither drank{ } nor smoked. he bore their jeering with perfect composure, and assured them, as i was told, they would be better if they would follow his example. i was happy to learn from mr. prudens, that this man was not only one of the best hunters, but the most cheerful and contented of the tribe. four stone indians arrived at this time and were invited into the tent, but one only accepted the invitation and partook of the fare. when mr. prudens heard the others refuse, he gave immediate directions that our horses should be narrowly watched, as he suspected these fellows wished to carry them off. having learned that these crees considered mr. back and myself to be war chiefs, possessing great power, and that they expected we should make some address to them, i desired them to be kind to the traders, to be industrious in procuring them provision and furs, and to refrain from stealing their stores and horses; and i assured them, that if i heard of their continuing to behave kindly, i would mention their good conduct in the strongest terms to their great father across the sea, (by which appellation they designate the king,) whose favourable consideration they had been taught by the traders to value most highly. they all promised to follow my advice, and assured me it was not they, but the stone indians, who robbed and annoyed the traders. the stone indian who was present, heard this accusation against his tribe quite unmoved, but he probably did not understand the whole of the communication. we left them to finish their rum, and went to look round the lodges, and examine the pound. the greatest proportion of labour, in savage life, falls to the women; we now saw them employed in dressing skins, and conveying wood, water, and provision. as they have often to fetch the meat from some distance, they are assisted in this duty by their dogs, which are not harnessed in sledges, but carry their burthens in a manner peculiarly adapted to this level country. two long poles are fastened by a collar to the dog's neck; their ends trail on the ground, and are kept at a proper distance by a hoop, which is lashed between them, immediately behind the dog's tail; the hoop is covered with network, upon which the load is placed. the boys were amusing themselves by shooting arrows at a mark, and thus training to become hunters. the stone indians are so expert with the bow and arrow, that they can strike a very small object at a considerable distance, and will shoot with sufficient force to pierce through the body of a buffalo when near. the buffalo pound was a fenced circular space of about a hundred yards in diameter; the entrance was banked up with snow, to a sufficient height to prevent the retreat of the animals that once have entered. for about a mile on each side of the road leading to the pound, stakes were driven into the ground at nearly equal distances of about twenty yards; these were intended to represent men, and to deter the animals from attempting to break out on either side. within fifty or sixty yards from the pound, branches of trees were placed between these stakes to screen the indians, who lie down behind them to await the approach of the buffalo. the principal dexterity in this species of chase is shewn by the horsemen, who have to manoeuvre round the herd in the plains so as to urge them to enter the roadway, which is about a quarter of a mile broad. when this has been accomplished, they raise loud shouts, and, pressing close upon the animals, so terrify them that they rush heedlessly forward towards the snare. when they have advanced as far as the men who are lying in ambush, they also rise, and increase the consternation by violent shouting and firing guns. the affrighted beasts having no alternative, run directly to the pound, where they are quickly despatched, either with an arrow or gun. there was a tree in the centre of the pound, on which the indians had hung strips of buffalo flesh and pieces of cloth as tributary or grateful offerings to the great master of life; and we were told that they occasionally place a man in the tree to sing to the presiding spirit as the buffaloes are advancing, who must keep his station until the whole that have entered are killed. this species of hunting is very similar to that of taking elephants on the island of ceylon, but upon a smaller scale. the crees complained to us of the audacity of a party of stone indians, who, two nights before, had stripped their revered tree of many of its offerings, and had injured their pound by setting their stakes out of the proper places. other modes of killing the buffalo are practised by the indians with success; of these the hunting them on horseback requires most dexterity. an expert hunter, when well mounted, dashes at the herd, and chooses an individual which he endeavours to separate from the rest. if he succeeds, he contrives to keep him apart by the proper management of his horse, though going at full speed. whenever he can get sufficiently near for a ball to penetrate the beast's hide, he fires, and seldom fails of bringing the animal down; though of course he cannot rest the piece against the shoulder, nor take a deliberate aim. on this service the hunter is often exposed to considerable danger, from the fall of his horse in the numerous holes which the badgers make in these plains, and also from the rage of the buffalo, which, when closely pressed, often turns suddenly, and, rushing furiously on the horse, frequently succeeds in wounding it, or dismounting the rider. whenever the animal shews this disposition, which the experienced hunter will readily perceive, he immediately pulls up his horse, and goes off in another direction. when the buffaloes are on their guard, horses cannot be used in approaching them; but the hunter dismounts at some distance, and crawls in the snow towards the herd, pushing his gun before him. if the buffaloes happen to look towards him, he stops, and keeps quite motionless, until their eyes are turned in another direction; by this cautious proceeding a skilful person will get so near as to be able to kill two or three out of the herd. it will easily be imagined this service cannot be very agreeable when the thermometer stands ° or ° below zero, as sometimes happens in this country. as we were returning from the tents, the dogs that were harnessed to three sledges, in one of which mr. back was seated, set off in pursuit of a buffalo-calf. mr. back was speedily thrown from his vehicle, and had to join me in my horse-cariole. mr. heriot, having gone to recover the dogs, found them lying exhausted beside the calf, which they had baited until it was as exhausted as themselves. mr. heriot, to shew us the mode of hunting on horseback, or, as the traders term it, running of the buffalo, went in chase of a cow, and killed it after firing three shots. the buffalo is a huge and shapeless animal, quite devoid of grace or beauty; particularly awkward in running, but by no means slow; when put to his speed, he plunges through the deep snow very expeditiously; the hair is dark brown, very shaggy, curling about the head, neck, and hump, and almost covering the eye, particularly in the bull, which is larger and more unsightly than the cow. the most esteemed part of the animal is the hump, called by the canadians _bos_, by the hudson's bay people the _wig_; it is merely a strong muscle, on which nature at certain seasons forms a considerable quantity of fat. it is attached to the long spinous processes of the first dorsal vertebræ, and seems to be destined to support the enormous head of the animal. the meat which covers the spinal processes themselves, after the wig is removed, is next in esteem for its flavour and juiciness, and is more exclusively termed the hump by the hunters. the party was prevented from visiting a stone indian encampment by a heavy fall of snow, which made it impracticable to go and return the same day. we were dissuaded from sleeping at their tents by the interpreter at the n.w. post, who told us they considered the hooping-cough and measles, under which they were now suffering, to have been introduced by some white people recently arrived in the country, and that he feared those who had lost relatives, imagining we were the persons, might vent their revenge on us. we regretted to learn that these diseases had been so very destructive among the tribes along the saskatchawan, as to have carried off about three hundred persons, crees and asseenaboines, within the trading circle of these establishments. the interpreter also informed us of another bad trait peculiar to the stone indians. though they receive a visitor kindly at their tents, and treat him very hospitably during his stay, yet it is very probable they will despatch some young men to way-lay and rob him in going towards the post: indeed, all the traders assured us it was more necessary to be vigilantly on our guard on the occasion of a visit to them, than at any other time. carlton house, (which our observations place in latitude ° ' " n., longitude, ° ' " w., variation ° ' " e.) is pleasantly situated about a quarter of a mile from the river's side on the flat ground under the shelter of the high banks that bound the plains. the land is fertile, and produces, with little trouble, ample returns of wheat, barley, oats, and potatoes. the ground is prepared for the reception of these vegetables, about the middle of april, and when dr. richardson visited this place on may th, the blade of wheat looked strong and healthy. there were only five acres in cultivation at the period of my visit. the prospect from the fort must be pretty in summer, owing to the luxuriant verdure of this fertile soil; but in the uniform and cheerless garb of winter, it has little to gratify the eye. beyond the steep bank behind the house, commences the vast plain, whose boundaries are but imperfectly known; it extends along the south branch of the saskatchawan, and towards the sources of the missouri, and asseenaboine rivers, being scarcely interrupted through the whole of this great space by hills, or even rising grounds. the excellent pasturage furnishes food in abundance, to a variety of grazing animals, of which the buffalo, red-deer, and a species of antelope, are the most important. their presence naturally attracts great hordes of wolves, which are of two kinds, the large, and the small. many bears prowl about the banks of this river in summer; of these the grizzle bear is the most ferocious, and is held in dread both by indians and europeans. the traveller, in crossing these plains, not only suffers from the want of food and water, but is also exposed to hazard from his horse stumbling in the numerous badger-holes. in many large districts, the only fuel is the dried dung of the buffalo; and when a thirsty traveller reaches a spring, he has not unfrequently the mortification to find the water salt. carlton house, and la montée, are provision-posts, only an inconsiderable quantity of furs being obtained at either of them. the provisions are procured in the winter season from the indians, in the form of dried meat and fat, and when converted by mixture into pemmican, furnish the principal support of the voyagers, in their passages to and from the depôts in summer. a considerable quantity of it is also kept for winter use, at most of the fur-posts, as the least bulky article that can be taken on a winter journey. the mode of making pemmican is very simple, the meat is dried by the indians in the sun, or over a fire, and pounded by beating it with stones when spread on a skin. in this state it is brought to the forts, where the admixture of hair is partially sifted out, and a third part of melted fat incorporated with it, partly by turning the two over with a wooden shovel, partly by kneading them together with the hands. the pemmican is then firmly pressed into leathern bags, each capable of containing eighty-five pounds, and being placed in an airy place to cool, is fit for use. it keeps in this state, if not allowed to get wet, very well for one year, and with great care it may be preserved good for two. between three and four hundred bags were made here by each of the companies this year. there were eight men, besides mr. prudens and his clerk, belonging to carlton house. at la montée there were seventy canadians and half-breeds, and sixty women and children, who consumed upwards of seven hundred pounds of{ } buffalo meat daily, the allowance per diem for each man being eight pounds: a portion not so extravagant as may at first appear, when allowance is made for bone, and the entire want of farinaceous food or vegetables. there are other provision posts, fort augustus and edmonton farther up the river, from whence some furs are also procured. the stone indians have threatened to cut off the supplies in going up to these establishments, to prevent their enemies from obtaining ammunition, and other european articles; but as these menaces have been frequently made without being put in execution{ }, the traders now hear them without any great alarm, though they take every precaution to prevent being surprised. mr. back and i were present when an old cree communicated to mr. prudens, that the indians spoke of killing all the white people in that vicinity this year, which information he received with perfect composure, and was amused, as well as ourselves, with the man's judicious remark which immediately followed, "a pretty state we shall then be in without the goods you bring us." the following remarks on a well-known disease are extracted from dr. richardson's journal:-- "bronchocele, or goitre, is a common disorder at edmonton. i examined several of the individuals afflicted with it, and endeavoured to obtain every information on the subject from the most authentic sources. the following facts may be depended upon. the disorder attacks those only who drink the water of the river. it is indeed in its worst state confined almost entirely to the half-breed women and children, who reside constantly at the fort, and make use of river water, drawn in the winter through a hole cut in the ice. the men, being often from home on journeys through the plain, when their drink is melted snow, are less affected; and, if any of them exhibit during the winter, some incipient symptoms of the complaint, the annual summer voyage to the sea-coast generally effects a cure. the natives who confine themselves to snow water in the winter, and drink of the small rivulets which flow through the plains in the summer, are exempt from the attacks of this disease. "these facts are curious, inasmuch as they militate against the generally-received opinion that the disease is caused by drinking snow-water; an opinion which seems to have originated from bronchocele being endemial to sub-alpine districts. "the saskatchawan, at edmonton, is clear in the winter, and also in the summer, except during the may and july floods. the distance from the rocky mountains (which i suppose to be of primitive formation,) is upwards of one hundred and thirty miles. the neighbouring plains are alluvial, the soil is calcareous, and contains numerous travelled fragments of limestone. at a considerable distance below edmonton, the river, continuing its course through the plains, becomes turbid, and acquires a white colour. in this state it is drunk by the inmates of carlton house, where the disease is known only by name. it is said that the inhabitants of rocky mountain house, sixty miles nearer the source of the river are more severely affected than those at edmonton. the same disease occurs near the sources of the elk and peace rivers; but, in those parts of the country which are distant from the rocky mountain chain, it is unknown, although melted snow forms the only drink of the natives for nine months of the year. "a residence of a single year at edmonton is sufficient to render a family bronchocelous. many of the goitres acquire great size. burnt sponge has been tried, and found to remove the disease, but an exposure to the same cause immediately reproduces it. "a great proportion of the children of women who have goitres, are born idiots, with large heads, and the other distinguishing marks of _cretins_. i could not learn whether it was necessary that both parents should have goitres, to produce cretin children: indeed the want of chastity in the half-breed women would be a bar to the deduction of any inference on this head." _february _.--having recovered from the swellings and pains which our late march from cumberland had occasioned, we prepared for the commencement of our journey to isle à la crosse, and requisitions were made on both the establishments for the means of conveyance, and the necessary supply of provisions for the party, which were readily furnished. on the th the carioles and sledges were loaded, and sent off after breakfast; but mr. back and i remained till the afternoon, as mr. prudens had offered that his horses should convey us to the encampment. at p.m. we parted from our kind host, and in passing through the gate were honoured with a salute of musketry. after riding six miles, we joined the men at their encampment, which was made under the shelter of a few poplars. the dogs had been so much fatigued in wading through the very deep snow with their heavy burdens, having to drag upwards of ninety pounds' weight each, that they could get no farther. soon after our arrival, the snow began to fall heavily, and it continued through the greater part of the night. our next day's march was therefore particularly tedious, the snow being deep, and the route lying across an unvarying level, destitute of wood, except one small cluster of willows. in the afternoon we reached the end of the plain, and came to an elevation, on which poplars, willows, and some pines grew, where we encamped; having travelled ten miles. we crossed three small lakes, two of fresh water and one of salt, near the latter of which we encamped, and were, in consequence, obliged to use for our tea, water made from snow, which has always a disagreeable taste. we had scarcely ascended the hill on the following morning, when a large herd of red-deer was perceived grazing at a little distance; and, though we were amply supplied with provision, our canadian companions could not resist the temptation of endeavouring to add to our stock. a half-breed hunter was therefore sent after them. he succeeded in wounding one, but not so as to prevent its running off with the herd in a direction wide of our course. a couple of rabbits and a brace of wood partridges were shot in the afternoon. there was an agreeable variety of hill and dale in the scenery we passed through to-day; and sufficient wood for ornament, but not enough to crowd the picture. the valleys were intersected by several small lakes and pools, whose snowy covering was happily contrasted with the dark green of the pine-trees which surrounded them. after ascending a moderately high hill by a winding path through a close wood, we opened suddenly upon lake iroquois, and had a full view of its picturesque shores. we crossed it and encamped. though the sky was cloudless, yet the weather was warm. we had the gratification of finding a beaten track soon after we started on the morning of the th, and were thus enabled to walk briskly. we crossed at least twenty hills, and found a small lake or pool at the foot of each. the destructive ravages of fire were visible during the greater part of the day. the only wood we saw for miles together consisted of pine-trees stript of their branches and bark by this element: in other parts poplars alone were growing, which we have remarked invariably to succeed the pine after a conflagration. we walked twenty miles to-day, but the direct distance was only sixteen. the remains of an indian hut were found in a deep glen, and close to it was placed a pile of wood, which our companions supposed to cover a deposit of provision. our canadian voyagers, induced by their insatiable desire of procuring food, proceeded to remove the upper pieces, and examine its contents; when, to their surprise{ }, they found the body of a female, clothed in leather, which appeared to have been recently placed there. her former garments, the materials for making a fire, a fishing-line, a hatchet, and a bark dish, were laid beside the corpse. the wood was carefully replaced. a small owl, perched on a tree near the spot, called forth many singular remarks from our companions, as to its being a good or bad omen. we walked the whole of the th over flat meadow-land, which is much resorted to by the buffalo at all seasons. some herds of them were seen, which our hunters were too unskilful to approach. in the afternoon we reached the stinking lake, which is nearly of an oval form. its shores are very low and swampy, to which circumstances, and not to the bad quality of the waters, it owes its indian name. our observations place its western part in latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., variation ° ' " e. after a march of fifteen miles and a half, we encamped among a few pines, at the only spot where we saw sufficient wood for making our fire during the day. the next morning, about an hour after we had commenced our march, we came upon a beaten track, and perceived recent marks of snow-shoes. in a short time an iroquois joined us, who was residing with a party of cree-indians, to secure the meat and furs they should collect, for the north-west company. he accompanied us as far as the stage on which his meat was placed, and then gave us a very pressing invitation to halt for the day and partake of his fare; which, as the hour was too early, we declined, much to the annoyance of our canadian companions, who had been cherishing the prospect of indulging their amazing appetites at this well-furnished store, ever since the man had been with us. he gave them, however, a small supply previous to our parting. the route now crossed some ranges of hills, on which fir, birch, and poplar, grew so thickly, that we had much difficulty in getting the sledges through the narrow pathway between them. in the evening we descended from the elevated ground, crossed three swampy meadows, and encamped at their northern extremity, within a cluster of large pine-trees, the branches of which were elegantly decorated with abundance of a greenish yellow lichen. our march was ten miles. the weather was very mild, almost too warm for the exercise we were taking. we had a strong gale from the n.w. during the night, which subsided as the morning opened. one of the sledges had been so much broken the day before in the woods, that we had to divide its cargo among the others. we started after this had been arranged, and finding almost immediately a firm track, soon arrived at some indian lodges to which it led. the inhabitants were crees, belonging to the posts on the saskatchawan, from whence they had come to hunt beaver. we made but a short stay, and proceeded through a swamp to pelican lake. our view to the right was bounded by a range of lofty hills, which extended for several miles in a north and south direction, which, it may be remarked, was that of all the hilly land we had passed since quitting the plain. pelican lake is of an irregular form, about six miles from east to west, and eight from north to south; it decreases to the breadth of a mile towards the northern extremity, and is there terminated by a creek. we went up this creek for a short distance, and then struck into the woods, and encamped among a cluster of the firs, which the canadians term cyprès{ } (_pinus banksiana_,) having come fourteen miles and a half. _february _.--shortly after commencing the journey to-day, we met an indian and his family, who had come from the houses at green lake; they informed us the track was well beaten the whole way. we therefore, put forth our utmost speed in the hope of reaching them by night; but were disappointed, and had to halt at dark, about twelve miles from them, in a fisherman's hut, which was unoccupied. frequent showers of snow fell during the day, and the atmosphere was thick and gloomy. we started at an early hour the following morning, and reached the hudson's bay company's post to breakfast, and were received very kindly by mr. mac farlane, the gentleman in charge. the other establishment, situated on the opposite side of the river, was under the direction of mr. dugald cameron, one of the partners of the north-west company, on whom mr. back and i called soon after our arrival, and were honoured with a salute of musquetry. these establishments are small, but said to be well situated for procuring furs; as the numerous creeks in their vicinity are much resorted to by the beaver, otter, and musquash. the residents usually obtain a superabundant supply of provision. this season, however, they barely had sufficient for their own support, owing to the epidemic which has incapacitated the indians for hunting. the green lake lies nearly north and south, is eighteen miles in length, and does not exceed one mile and a half of breadth in any part. the water is deep, and it is in consequence one of the last lakes in the country that is frozen. excellent tittameg and trout are caught in it from march to december, but after that time most of the fish remove to some larger lake. we remained two days, awaiting the return of some men who had been sent to the indian lodges for meat, and who were to go on with us. mr. back and i did not need this rest, having completely surmounted the pain occasioned by the snow-shoes. we dined twice with mr. cameron, and received from him many useful suggestions respecting our future operations. this gentleman having informed us that provisions would, probably, be very scarce next spring in the athabasca department, in consequence of the sickness of the indians during the hunting season, undertook at my request to cause a supply of pemmican to be conveyed from the saskatchawan to isle à la crosse for our use during the winter, and i wrote to apprize dr. richardson and mr. hood, that they would find it at the latter post when they passed; and also to desire them to bring as much as the canoes would stow from cumberland. the atmosphere was clear and cold during our stay; observations were obtained at the hudson bay fort, lat. ° ' " n., long. ° ' " w., var. ° ' " e. _february _.--having been equipped with carioles, sledges, and provisions, from the two posts, we this day recommenced our journey, and were much amused by the novelty of the salute given at our departure, the guns being principally fired by the women in the absence of the men. our course was directed to the end of the lake, and for a short distance along a small river; we then crossed the woods to the beaver river, which we found to be narrow and very serpentine, having moderately high banks. we encamped about one mile and a half further up among poplars. the next day we proceeded along the river; it was winding, and about two hundred yards broad. we passed the mouths of two rivers whose waters it receives; the latter one, we were informed, is a channel by which the indians go to the lesser slave lake. the banks of the river became higher as we advanced, and were adorned with pines, poplars, and willows. though the weather was very cold, we travelled more comfortably than at any preceding time since our departure from cumberland, as we had light carioles, which enabled us to ride nearly the whole day, warmly covered up with a buffalo robe. we were joined by mr. mcleod, of the north-west company, who had kindly brought some things from green lake, which our sledges could not carry. pursuing our route along the river, we reached at an early hour the upper extremity of the "grand rapid," where the ice was so rough that the carioles and sledges had to be conveyed across a point of land. soon after noon we left the river, inclining n.e., and directed our course n.w., until we reached long lake, and encamped at its northern extremity, having come twenty-three miles. this lake is about fourteen miles long, and from three quarters to one mile and a half broad; its shores and islands low, but well wooded. there were frequent snow-showers during the day. _february _.--the night was very stormy, but the wind became more moderate in the morning. we passed to-day through several nameless lakes and swamps before we came to train lake, which received its name from being the place where the traders procured the birch to make their sledges, or traineaux; but this wood has been all used, and there only remain pines and a few poplars. we met some sledges laden with fish, kindly sent to meet us by mr. clark, of the hudson's bay company, on hearing of our approach. towards the evening the weather became much more unpleasant, and we were exposed to a piercingly cold wind, and much snow-drift, in traversing the isle à la crosse lake; we were, therefore, highly pleased at reaching the hudson's bay house by six p.m. we were received in the most friendly manner by mr. clark, and honoured by volleys of musketry. similar marks of attention were shewn to us on the following day by mr. bethune, the partner in charge of the north-west company's fort. i found here the letters which i had addressed from cumberland, in november last, to the partners of the north-west company, in the athabasca, which circumstance convinced me of the necessity of our present journey. these establishments are situated on the southern side of the lake, and close to each other. they are forts of considerable importance, being placed at a point of communication with the english river, the athabasca, and columbia districts. the country around them is low, and intersected with water, and was formerly much frequented by beavers and otters, which, however, have been so much hunted by the indians, that their number is greatly decreased. the indians frequenting these forts are the crees and some chipewyans; they scarcely ever come except in the spring and autumn; in the former season to bring their winter's collection of furs, and in the latter to get the stores they require. three chipewyan lads came in during our stay, to report what furs the band to which they belonged had collected, and to desire they might be sent for; the indians having declined bringing either furs or meat themselves, since the opposition between the companies commenced. mr. back drew the portrait of one of the boys. isle à la crosse lake receives its name from an island situated near the forts, on which the indians formerly assembled annually to amuse themselves at the game of the cross. it is justly celebrated for abundance of the finest tittameg, which weigh from five to fifteen pounds. the residents live principally upon this most delicious fish, which fortunately can be eaten a long time without disrelish. it is plentifully caught with nets throughout the year, except for two or three months. _march _.--we witnessed the aurora borealis very brilliant for the second time since our departure from cumberland. a winter encampment is not a favourable situation for viewing this phenomenon, as the trees in general hide the sky. arrangements had been made for recommencing our journey to-day, but the wind was stormy, and the snow had drifted too much for travelling with comfort; we therefore stayed and dined with mr. bethune, who promised to render every assistance in getting pemmican conveyed to us from the saskatchawan, to be in readiness for our canoes, when they might arrive in the spring; mr. clark also engaged to procure six bags for us, and to furnish our canoes with any other supplies which might be wanted, and could be spared from his post, and to contribute his aid in forwarding the pemmican to the athabasca, if our canoes could not carry it all. i feel greatly indebted to this gentleman for much valuable information respecting the country and the indians residing to the north of slave lake, and for furnishing me with a list of stores he supposed we should require. he had resided some years on mackenzie's river, and had been once so far towards its mouth as to meet the esquimaux in great numbers. but they assumed such a hostile attitude, that he deemed it unadvisable to attempt opening any communication with them, and retreated as speedily as he could. the observations we obtained here shewed that the chronometers had varied their rates a little in consequence of the jolting of the carioles, but their errors and rates were ascertained previous to our departure. we observed the position of this fort to be latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., by lunars reduced back from fort chipewyan, variation ° ' " w.,{ } dip ° ' ". _march _.--we recommenced our journey this morning, having been supplied with the means of conveyance by both the companies in equal proportions. mr. clark accompanied us with the intention of going as far as the boundary of his district. this gentleman was an experienced winter traveller, and we derived much benefit from his suggestions; he caused the men to arrange the encampment with more attention to comfort and shelter than our former companions had done. after marching eighteen miles we put up on gravel point, in the deep river. at nine the next morning, we came to the commencement of clear lake. we crossed its southern extremes, and then went over a point of land to buffalo lake, and encamped after travelling{ } twenty-six miles. after supper we were entertained till midnight with paddling songs, by our canadians, who required very little stimulus beyond their natural vivacity, to afford us this diversion. the next morning we arrived at the establishments which are situated on the western side of the lake, near a small stream, called the beaver river. they were small log buildings, hastily erected last october, for the convenience of the indians who hunt in the vicinity. mr. mac murray, a partner in the n.w. company, having sent to isle à la crosse an invitation to mr. back and i, our carioles were driven to his post, and we experienced the kindest reception. these posts are frequented by only a few indians, crees, and chipewyans. the country round is not sufficiently stocked with animals to afford support to many families, and the traders subsist almost entirely on fish caught in the autumn, prior to the lake being frozen; but the water being shallow, they remove to a deeper part, as soon as the lake is covered with ice. the aurora borealis was brilliantly displayed on both the nights we remained here, but particularly on the th, when its appearances were most diversified, and the motion extremely rapid. its coruscations occasionally concealed from sight stars of the first magnitude in passing over them, at other times these were faintly discerned through them; once i perceived a stream of light to illumine the under surface of some clouds as it passed along. there was no perceptible noise. mr. mac murray gave a dance to his voyagers and the women; this is a treat which they expect on the arrival of any stranger at the post. we were presented by this gentleman with the valuable skin of a black fox, which he had entrapped some days before our arrival; it was forwarded to england with other specimens. our observations place the north-west company's house in latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., variation ° ' " e. the shores of buffalo lake are of moderate height, and well wooded, but immediately beyond the bank the country is very swampy and intersected with water in every direction. at some distance from the western side there is a conspicuous hill, which we hailed with much pleasure, as being the first interruption to the tediously uniform scene we had for some time passed through. on the th we recommenced our journey after breakfast, and travelled quickly, as we had the advantage of a well-beaten track. at the end of eighteen miles we entered upon the river "loche," which has a serpentine course, and is confined between alluvial banks that support stunted willows and a few pines; we encamped about three miles further on; and in the course of the next day's march perceived several holes on the ice, and many unsafe places for the sledges. our companions said the ice of this river is always in the same insecure state, even during the most severe winter, which they attributed to warm springs. quitting the river, we crossed a portage and came upon the methye lake, and soon afterwards arrived at the trading posts on its western side. these were perfect huts, which had been hastily built after the commencement of the last winter. we here saw two hunters who were chipewyan half-breeds, and made many inquiries of them respecting the countries we expected to visit, but we found them quite ignorant of every part beyond the athabasca lake. they spoke of mr. hearne and of his companion matonnabee, but did not add to our stock of information respecting that journey. it had happened before their birth, but they remembered the expedition of sir alexander mackenzie towards the sea. this is a picturesque lake, about ten miles long and six broad, and receives its name from a species of fish caught in it, but not much esteemed; the residents never eat any part but the liver except through necessity, the dogs dislike even that. the tittameg and trout are also caught in the fall of the year. the position of the houses by our observations is latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., variation ° ' " e. on the th we renewed our journey and parted from mr. clark, to whom we were much obliged for his hospitality and kindness. we soon reached the methye portage, and had a very pleasant ride across it in our carioles. the track was good and led through groups of pines, so happily placed that it would not have required a great stretch of imagination to fancy ourselves in a well-arranged park. we had now to cross a small lake, and then gradually ascended hills beyond it, until we arrived at the summit of a lofty chain of mountains commanding the most picturesque and romantic prospect we had yet seen in this country. two ranges of high hills run parallel to each other for several miles, until the faint blue haze hides their particular characters, when they slightly change their course, and are lost to the view. the space between them is occupied by nearly a level plain, through which a river pursues a meandering course, and receives supplies from the creeks and rills issuing from the mountains on each side. the prospect was delightful even amid the snow, and though marked with all the cheerless characters of winter; how much more charming must it be when the trees are in leaf, and the ground is arrayed in summer verdure! some faint idea of the difference was conveyed to my mind by witnessing the effect of the departing rays of a brilliant sun. the distant prospect, however, is surpassed in grandeur by the wild scenery which appeared immediately below our feet. there the eye penetrates into vast ravines two or three hundred feet in depth, that are clothed with trees, and lie on either side of the narrow pathway descending to the river over eight successive ridges of hills. at one spot termed the cockscomb, the traveller stands insulated as it were on a small slip, where a false step might precipitate him into the glen. from this place mr. back took an interesting and accurate sketch, to allow time for which, we encamped early, having come twenty-one miles. the methye portage is about twelve miles in extent, and over this space the canoes and all their cargoes are carried, both in going to and from the athabasca department. it is part of the range of mountains which separates the waters flowing south from those flowing north. according to sir alexander mackenzie, "this range of hills continues in a s.w. direction until its local height is lost between the saskatchawan and elk rivers, close on the banks of the former, in latitude ° ' n., longitude ° ' w., when it appears to take its course due north." observations, taken in the spring by mr. hood, place the northside of the portage in latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., variation ° ' " e., dip ° ' ". at daylight on the th we began to descend the range of hills leading towards the river, and no small care was required to prevent the sledges from being broken in going down these almost perpendicular heights, or being precipitated into the glens on each side. as a precautionary measure the dogs were taken off, and the sledges guided by the men, notwithstanding which they descended with amazing rapidity, and the men were thrown into the most ridiculous attitudes in endeavouring to stop them. when we had arrived at the bottom i could not but feel astonished at the laborious task which the voyagers have twice in the year to encounter at this place, in conveying their stores backwards and forwards. we went across the clear water river, which runs at the bases of these hills, and followed an indian track along its northern bank, by which we avoided the white mud and good portages. we afterwards followed the river as far as the pine portage, when we passed through a very romantic defile of rocks, which presented the appearance of gothic ruins, and their rude characters were happily contrasted with the softness of the snow, and the darker foliage of the pines which crowned their summits. we next crossed the cascade portage, which is the last on the way to the athabasca lake, and soon afterwards came to some indian tents, containing five families, belonging to the chipewyan tribe. we smoked the calumet in the chiefs tent, whose name was the thumb, and distributed some tobacco and a weak mixture of spirits and water among the men. they received this civility with much less grace than the crees, and seemed to consider it a matter of course. there was an utter neglect of cleanliness, and a total want of comfort in their tents; and the poor creatures were miserably clothed. mr. frazer, who accompanied us from the methye lake, accounted for their being in this forlorn condition by explaining, that this band of indians had recently destroyed every thing they possessed, as a token of their great grief for the loss of their relatives in the prevailing sickness. it appears that no article is spared by these unhappy men when a near relative dies; their clothes and tents are cut to pieces, their guns broken, and every other weapon rendered useless, if some person do not remove these articles from their sight, which is seldom done.--mr. back sketched one of the children, which delighted the father very much, who charged the boy to be very good, since his picture had been drawn by a great chief. we learned that they prize pictures very highly, and esteem any they can get, however badly executed, as efficient charms. they were unable to give us any information respecting the country beyond the athabasca lake, which is the boundary of their peregrinations to the northward. having been apprized of our coming, they had prepared an encampment for us; but we had witnessed too many proofs of their importunity to expect that we could pass the night near them in any comfort, whilst either spirits, tobacco, or sugar remained in our possession; and therefore preferred to go about two miles further along the river, and to encamp among a cluster of fine pine-trees, after a journey of sixteen miles. on the morning of the th, in proceeding along the river we perceived a strong smell of sulphur, and on the north shore found a quantity of it scattered, which seemed to have been deposited by some spring in the neighbourhood: it appeared very pure and good. we continued our course the whole day along the river, which is about four hundred yards wide, has some islands, and is confined between low land, extending from the bases of the mountains on each side. we put up at the end of thirteen miles, and were then joined by a chipewyan, who came, as we supposed, to serve as our guide to pierre au calumet, but as none of the party could communicate with our new friend, otherwise than by signs, we waited patiently until the morning to see what he intended to do. the wind blew a gale during the night, and the snow fell heavily. the next day our guide led us to the pembina river, which comes from the southward, where we found traces of indians, who appeared to have quitted this station the day before; we had, therefore, the benefit of a good track, which our dogs much required, as they were greatly fatigued, having dragged their loads through very deep snow for the last two days. a moose-deer crossed the river just before the party: this animal is plentiful in the vicinity. we encamped in a pleasant well-sheltered place, having travelled fourteen miles. a short distance on the following morning, brought us to some indian lodges, which belonged to an old chipewyan chief, named the sun, and his family, consisting of five hunters, their wives, and children. they were delighted to see us, and when the object of our expedition had been explained to them, expressed themselves much interested in our progress; but they could not give a particle of information respecting the countries beyond the athabasca lake. we smoked with them, and gave each person a glass of mixed spirits and some tobacco. a canadian servant of the north-west company, who was residing with them, informed us that this family had lost numerous relatives, and that the destruction of property, which had been made after their deaths, was the only cause for the pitiable condition in which we saw them, as the whole family were industrious hunters, and, therefore, were usually better provided with clothes, and other useful articles, than most of the indians. we purchased from them a pair of snow-shoes, in exchange for some ammunition. the chipewyans are celebrated for making them good and easy to walk in; we saw some here upwards of six feet long, and three broad. with these unwieldy clogs an active hunter, in the spring, when there is a crust on the surface of the snow, will run down a moose or red deer. we made very slow progress after leaving this party, on account of the deep snow, but continued along the river until we reached its junction with the athabasca or elk river. we obtained observations on an island, a little below the forks, which gave, longitude ° ' " w., variation ° ' " e. very little wood was seen during this day's march. the western shore, near the forks, is destitute of trees; it is composed of lofty perpendicular cliffs, which were now covered with snow. the eastern shore supports a few pines. _march _.--soon after our departure from the encampment, we met two men from the establishment at pierre au calumet, who gave us correct information of its situation and distance. having the benefit of their track, we marched at a tolerably quick pace, and made twenty-two miles in the course of the day, though the weather was very disagreeable for travelling, being stormy, with constant snow. we kept along the river the whole time: its breadth is about two miles. the islands appear better furnished with wood than its banks, the summits of which are almost bare. soon after we had encamped our indian guide rejoined us; he had remained behind the day before, without consulting us, to accompany a friend on a hunting excursion. on his return he made no endeavour to explain the reason of his absence, but sat down coolly, and began to prepare his supper. this behaviour made us sensible that little dependence is to be placed on the continuance of an indian guide, when his inclination leads him away. early the next morning we sent forward the indian and a canadian, to apprize the gentleman in charge of pierre au calumet of our approach; and, after breakfast, the rest of the party proceeded along the river for that station, which we reached in the afternoon. the senior partner of the north-west company in the athabasca department, mr. john stuart, was in charge of the post. though he was quite ignorant until this morning of our being in the country, we found him prepared to receive us with great kindness, and ready to afford every information and assistance, agreeably to the desire conveyed in mr. simon mcgillivray's circular letter. this gentleman had twice traversed this continent, and reached the pacific by the columbia river; he was therefore, fully conversant with the different modes of travelling, and with the obstacles that may be expected in passing through unfrequented countries. his suggestions and advice were consequently very valuable to us, but not having been to the northward of the great slave lake, he had no knowledge of that line of country, except what he had gained from the reports of indians. he was of opinion, however, that positive information, on which our course of proceedings might safely be determined, could be procured from the indians that frequent the north side of the lake, when they came to the forts in the spring. he recommended my writing to the partner in charge of that department, requesting him to collect all the intelligence he could, and to provide guides and hunters from the tribe best acquainted with the country through which we proposed to travel. to our great regret, mr. stuart expressed much doubt as to our prevailing upon any experienced canadian voyagers to accompany us to the sea, in consequence of their dread of the esquimaux; who, he informed us, had already destroyed the crew of one canoe, which had been sent under mr. livingstone, to open a trading communication with those who reside near the mouth of the mackenzie river; and he also mentioned, that the same tribe had driven away the canoes under mr. clark's direction, going to them on a similar object, to which circumstance i have alluded in my remarks at isle à la crosse. this was unpleasant information; but we were comforted by mr. stuart's assurance that himself and his partners would use every endeavour to remove their fears, as well as to promote our views in every other way; and he undertook, as a necessary part of our equipment in the spring, to prepare the bark and other materials for constructing two canoes at this post. mr. stuart informed us that the residents at fort chipewyan, from the recent sickness of their indian hunters, had been reduced to subsist entirely on the produce of their fishing-nets, which did not then yield more than a bare sufficiency for their support; and he kindly proposed to us to remain with him until the spring: but, as we were most desirous to gain all the information we could as early as possible, and mr. stuart assured us that the addition of three persons would not be materially felt in their large family at chipewyan, we determined on proceeding thither, and fixed on the d for our departure. pierre au calumet receives its name from the place where the stone is procured, of which many of the pipes used by the canadians and indians are made. it is a clayey limestone, impregnated with various shells. the house, which is built on the summit of a steep bank, rising almost perpendicular to the height of one hundred and eighty feet, commands an extensive prospect along this fine river, and over the plains which stretch out several miles at the back of it, bounded by hills of considerable height, and apparently better furnished with wood than the neighbourhood of the fort, where the trees grow very scantily. there had been an establishment belonging to the hudson's bay company on the opposite bank of the river, but it was abandoned in december last, the residents not being able to procure provision, from their hunters having been disabled by the epidemic sickness, which has carried off one-third of the indians in these parts. they belong to the northern crees, a name given them from their residing in the athabasca department. there are now but few families of these men, who, formerly, by their numbers and predatory habits, spread terror among the natives of this part of the country. there are springs of bituminous matter on several of the islands near these houses; and the stones on the river-bank are much impregnated with this useful substance. there is also another place remarkable for the production of a sulphureous salt, which is deposited on the surface of a round-backed hill about half a mile from the beach, and on the marshy ground underneath it. we visited these places at a subsequent period of the journey, and descriptions of them will appear in dr. richardson's mineralogical notices. the latitude of the north-west company's house is ° ' " n., but this was the only observation we could obtain, the atmosphere being cloudy. mr. stuart had an excellent thermometer, which indicated the lowest state of temperature to be ° below zero. he told me ° was the lowest temperature he had ever witnessed at the athabasca or great slave lake, after many years' residence. on the st it rose above zero, and at noon attained the height of °; the atmosphere was sultry, snow fell constantly, and there was quite an appearance of a change in the season. on the d we parted from our hospitable friend, and recommenced our journey, but under the expectation of seeing him again in may; at which time the partners of the company usually assemble at fort chipewyan, where we hoped the necessary arrangements for our future proceedings would be completed. we encamped at sunset at the end of fourteen miles, having walked the whole way along the river, which preserves nearly a true north course, and is from four hundred to six hundred yards broad. the banks are high, and well clothed with the liard, spruce, fir, alder, birch-tree, and willows. having come nineteen miles and a half, on the d, we encamped among pines of a great height and girth. showers of snow fell until noon on the following day, but we continued our journey along the river, whose banks and islands became gradually lower as we advanced, and less abundantly supplied with wood, except willows. we passed an old canadian, who was resting his wearied dogs during the heat of the sun. he was carrying meat from some indian lodges to fort chipewyan, having a burden exceeding two hundred and fifty pounds on his sledge, which was dragged by two miserable dogs. he came up to our encampment after dark. we were much amused by the altercation that took place between him and our canadian companions as to the qualifications of their respective dogs. this, however, is such a general topic of conversation among the voyagers in the encampment, that we should not probably have remarked it, had not the old man frequently offered to bet the whole of his wages that his two dogs, poor and lean as they were, would drag their load to the athabasca lake in less time than any three of theirs. having expressed our surprise at his apparent temerity, he coolly said the men from the lower countries did not understand the management of their dogs, and that he depended on his superior skill in driving; and we soon gathered from his remarks, that the voyagers of the athabasca department consider themselves very superior to any other. the only reasons which he could assign were, that they had borne their burdens across the terrible methye portage, and that they were accustomed to live harder and more precariously. _march _.--having now the guidance of the old canadian, we sent forward the indian, and one of our men, with letters to the gentleman at the athabasca lake. the rest of the party set off afterwards, and kept along the river until ten, when we branched off by portages into the embarras river, the usual channel of communication in canoes with the lake. it is a narrow and serpentine stream, confined between alluvial banks which support pines, poplars, and willows. we had not advanced far before we overtook the two men despatched by us this morning. the stormy weather had compelled them to encamp, as there was too much drifting of the snow for any attempt to cross the lake. we were obliged, though most reluctantly, to follow their example; but comforted ourselves with the reflection that this was the first time we had been stopped by the weather during our long journey, which was so near at an end. the gale afterwards increased, the squalls at night became very violent, disburthened the trees of the snow, and gave us the benefit of a continual fall of patches from them, in addition to the constant shower. we therefore quickly finished our suppers, and retired under the shelter of our blankets. _march _.--the boisterous weather continued through the night, and it was not before six this morning that the wind became apparently moderate, and the snow ceased. two of the canadians were immediately sent off with letters to the gentlemen at fort chipewyan. after breakfast we also started, but our indian friend, having a great indisposition to move in such weather, remained by the fire. we soon quitted the river, and after crossing a portage, a small lake, and a point of land, came to the borders of the mamma-wee lake. we then found our error as to the strength of the wind; and that the gale still blew violently, and there was so much drifting of the snow as to cover the distant objects by which our course could be directed. we fortunately got a glimpse through this cloud of a cluster of islands in the direction of the houses, and decided on walking towards them; but in doing this we suffered very much from the cold, and were obliged to halt under the shelter of them, and await the arrival of our indian guide. he conducted us between these islands, over a small lake and by a swampy river, into the athabasca lake, from whence the establishments were visible. at four p.m. we had the pleasure of arriving at fort chipewyan, and of being received by messrs. keith and black, the partners of the north-west company in charge, in the most kind and hospitable manner. thus terminated a winter's journey of eight hundred and fifty-seven miles, in the progress of which there was a great intermixture of agreeable and disagreeable circumstances. could the amount of each be balanced, i suspect the latter would much preponderate; and amongst these the initiation into walking in snow-shoes must be considered as prominent. the suffering it occasions can be but faintly imagined by a person who thinks upon the inconvenience of marching with a weight of between two and three pounds constantly attached to galled feet, and swelled ankles. perseverance and practice only will enable the novice to surmount this pain. the next evil is the being constantly exposed to witness the wanton and unnecessary cruelty of the men to their dogs, especially those of the canadians, who beat them unmercifully, and habitually vent on them the most dreadful and disgusting imprecations. there are other inconveniences which though keenly felt during the day's journey, are speedily forgotten when stretched out in the encampment before a large fire, you enjoy the social mirth of your companions, who usually pass the evening in recounting their former feats in travelling. at this time the canadians are always cheerful and merry, and the only bar to their comfort arises from the frequent interruption occasioned by the dogs, who are constantly prowling about the circle, and snatching at every kind of food that happens to be within their reach. these useful animals are a comfort to them afterwards, by the warmth they impart when lying down by their side or feet, as they usually do. but the greatest gratifications a traveller in these regions enjoys, are derived from the hospitable welcome he receives at every trading post, however poor the means of the host may be; and from being disrobed even for a short time of the trappings of a voyager, and experiencing the pleasures of cleanliness. the following are the estimated distances, in statute miles, which mr. back and i had travelled since our departure from cumberland: from cumberland house to carlton house from carlton to isle à la crosse from isle à la crosse to north side of the methye portage from the methye portage to fort chipewyan ---- miles. chapter v. transactions at fort chipewyan--arrival of dr. richardson and mr. hood--preparations for our journey to the northward. . march . on the day after our arrival at fort chipewyan we called upon mr. mac donald, the gentleman in charge of the hudson's bay establishment called fort wedderburne, and delivered to him governor williams's circular letter, which desired that every assistance should be given to further our progress, and a statement of the requisitions which we should have to make on his post. our first object was to obtain some certain information respecting our future route; and accordingly we received from one of the north-west company's interpreters, named beaulieu, a half-breed, who had been brought up amongst the dog-ribbed and copper indians, some satisfactory information which we afterwards found tolerably correct, respecting the mode of reaching the copper-mine{ } river, which he had descended a considerable way, as well as of the course of that river to its mouth. the copper indians, however, he said, would be able to give us more accurate information as to the latter part of its course, as they occasionally pursue it to the sea. he sketched on the floor a representation of the river, and a line of coast according to his idea of it. just as he had finished, an old chipewyan indian named black meat, unexpectedly came in, and instantly recognised the plan. he then took the charcoal from beaulieu, and inserted a track along the sea-coast, which he had followed in returning from a war excursion, made by his tribe against the esquimaux. he detailed several particulars of the coast and the sea, which he represented as studded with well-wooded islands, and free from ice, close to the shore, in the month of july, but not to a great distance. he described two other rivers to the eastward of the copper-mine{ } river, which also fall into the northern ocean. the anatessy, which issues from the contway-to or rum lake, and the thloueea-tessy or fish river, which rises near the eastern boundary of the great slave lake; but he represented both of them as being shallow, and too much interrupted by barriers for being navigated in any other than small indian canoes. having received this satisfactory intelligence, i wrote immediately to mr. smith, of the north-west company, and mr. mcvicar, of the hudson's bay company, the gentlemen in charge of the posts at the great slave lake, to communicate the object of the expedition, and our proposed route; and to solicit any information they possessed, or could collect, from the indians, relative to the countries we had to pass through, and the best manner of proceeding. as the copper indians frequent the establishment on the north side of the lake, i particularly requested them to explain to that tribe the object of our visit, and to endeavour to procure from them some guides and hunters to accompany our party. two canadians were sent by mr. keith with these letters. the month of april commenced with fine and clear but extremely cold weather; unfortunately we were still without a thermometer, and could not ascertain the degrees of temperature. the coruscations of the aurora were very brilliant almost every evening of the first week, and were generally of the most variable kind. on the d they were particularly changeable. the first appearance exhibited three illuminated beams issuing from the horizon in the north, east, and west points, and directed towards the zenith; in a few seconds these disappeared, and a complete circle was displayed, bounding the horizon at an elevation of fifteen degrees. there was a quick lateral motion in the attenuated beams of which this zone was composed. its colour was a pale yellow, with an occasional tinge of red. on the th of april the indians saw some geese in the vicinity of this lake, but none of the migratory birds appeared near the houses before the th, when some swans flew over. these are generally the first that arrive; the weather had been very stormy for the four preceding days, and this in all probability kept the birds from venturing farther north than where the indians had first seen them. in the middle of the month the snow began to waste daily, and by degrees it disappeared from the hills and the surface of the lake. on the th and th the aurora appeared very brilliant in patches of light, bearing n.w. an old cree indian having found a beaver-lodge near to the fort, mr. keith, back, and i, accompanied him to see the method of breaking into it, and their mode of taking those interesting animals. the lodge was constructed on the side of a rock in a small lake, having the entrance into it beneath the ice. the frames were formed of layers of sticks, the interstices being filled with mud, and the outside was plastered with earth and stones, which the frost had so completely consolidated, that to break through required great labour, with the aid of the ice chisel, and the other iron instruments which the beaver hunters use. the chase however, was unsuccessful, as the beaver had previously vacated the lodge. on the st we observed the first geese that flew near the fort, and some were brought to the house on the th, but they were very lean. on the th flies were seen sporting in the sun, and on the th the athabasca river having broken up, overflowed the lake along its channel; but except where this water spread, there was no appearance of decay in the ice. _may_.--during the first part of this month, the wind blew from the n.w., and the sky was cloudy. it generally thawed during the day, but froze at night. on the nd the aurora faintly gleamed through very dense clouds. we had a long conversation with mr. dease of the north-west company, who had recently arrived from his station at the bottom of the athabasca lake. this gentleman, having passed several winters on the mackenzie's river, and at the posts to the northward of slave lake, possessed considerable information respecting the indians, and those parts of the country to which our inquiries were directed, which he very promptly and kindly communicated. during our conversation, an old chipewyan indian, named the rabbit's head, entered the room, to whom mr. dease referred for information on some point. we found from his answer that he was a step-son of the late chief matonnabee, who had accompanied mr. hearne on his journey to the sea, and that he had himself been of the party, but being then a mere boy, he had forgotten many of the circumstances. he confirmed however, the leading incidents related by hearne, and was positive he reached the sea, though he admitted that none of the party had tasted the water. he represented himself to be the only survivor of that party. as he was esteemed a good indian, i presented him with a medal, which he received gratefully, and concluded a long speech upon the occasion, by assuring me he should preserve it carefully all his life. the old man afterwards became more communicative, and unsolicited began to relate the tradition of his tribe, respecting the discovery of the copper mine, which we thought amusing: and as the subject is somewhat connected with our future researches, i will insert the translation of it which was given at the time by mr. dease, though a slight mention of it has been made by hearne. "the chipewyans suppose the esquimaux originally inhabited some land to the northward which is separated by the sea from this country; and that in the earliest ages of the world a party of these men came over and stole a woman from their tribe, whom they carried to this distant country and kept in a state of slavery. she was very unhappy in her situation, and effected her escape after many years residence among them. the forlorn creature wandered about, for some days, in a state of uncertainty what direction to take, when she chanced to fall upon a beaten path, which she followed and was led to the sea. at the sight of the ocean her hope of being able to return to her native country vanished, and she sat herself down in despair, and wept. a wolf now advanced to caress her, and having licked the tears from her eyes, walked into the water, and she perceived with joy that it did not reach up to the body of the animal; emboldened by this appearance, she instantly arose, provided two sticks to support herself, and determined on following the wolf. the first and second nights she proceeded on, without finding any increase in the depth of the water, and when fatigued, rested herself on the sticks, whose upper ends she fastened together for the purpose. she was alarmed on the third morning, by arriving at a deeper part, but resolved on going forward at any risk, rather than return; and her daring perseverance was crowned with success, by her attaining her native shore on the fifth day. she fortunately came to a part where there was a beaten path, which she knew to be the track made by the rein-deer in their migrations. here she halted and prepared some sort of weapon for killing them; as soon as this was completed, she had the gratification to behold several herds advancing along the road, and had the happiness of killing a sufficient number for her winter's subsistence, which she determined to pass at that place, and therefore formed a house for herself, after the manner she had learned from the esquimaux. when spring came, and she emerged from her subterraneous dwelling, (for such the chipewyans suppose it to have been,) she was astonished by observing a glittering appearance on a distant hill, which she knew was not produced by the reflection of the sun, and being at a loss to assign any other cause for it she resolved on going up to the shining object, and then found the hill was entirely composed of copper. she broke off several pieces, and finding it yielded so readily to her beating, it occurred to her that this metal would be very serviceable to her countrymen, if she could find them again. while she was meditating on what was to be done, the thought struck her that it would be advisable to attach as many pieces of copper to her dress as she could, and then proceed into the interior, in search of some inhabitants, who, she supposed, would give her a favourable reception, on account of the treasure she had brought. "it happened that she met her own relations, and the young men, elated with the account she had given of the hill, made her instantly return with them; which she was enabled to do, having taken the precaution of putting up marks to indicate the path. the party reached the spot in safety, but the story had a melancholy catastrophe. these youths overcome by excess of joy, gave loose to their passions, and offered the grossest insults to their benefactress. she powerfully resisted them for some time, and when her strength was failing, fled to the point of the mountain, as the only place of security. the moment she had gained the summit, the earth opened and ingulphed both herself and the mountain, to the utter dismay of the men, who were not more astonished at its sudden disappearance, than sorrowful for this just punishment of their wickedness. ever since this event, the copper has only been found in small detached pieces on the surface of the earth." on the th of may we were gratified by the appearance of spring, though the ice remained firm on the lake. the anemone (pulsatilla, pasque flower,) appeared this day in flower, the trees began to put forth their leaves, and the musquitoes visited the warm rooms. on the th and th there were frequent showers of rain, and much thunder and lightning. this moist weather caused the ice to waste so rapidly, that by the th it had entirely disappeared from the lake. the gentlemen belonging to both the companies quickly arrived from the different posts in this department, bringing their winter's collection of furs, which are forwarded from these establishments to the depôts. i immediately waited on mr. colin robertson, the agent of the hudson's company, and communicated to him, as i had done before to the several partners of the north-west company, our plan, and the requisitions we should have to make on each company, and i requested of all the gentlemen the favour of their advice and suggestions. as i perceived that the arrangement of their winter accounts, and other business, fully occupied them, i forbore further pressing the subject of our concerns for some days, until there was an appearance of despatching the first brigade of canoes. it then became necessary to urge their attention to them; but it was evident, from the determined commercial opposition, and the total want of intercourse between the two companies, that we could not expect to receive any cordial advice, or the assurance of the aid of both, without devising some expedient to bring the parties together. i therefore caused a tent to be pitched at a distance from both establishments, and solicited the gentlemen of both companies to meet mr. back and myself there, for the purpose of affording us their combined assistance. with this request they immediately complied; and on may th we were joined at the tent by mr. stuart and mr. grant, of the north-west company, and mr. colin robertson, of the hudson's bay company, all of whom kindly gave very satisfactory answers to a series of questions which we had drawn up for the occasion, and promised all the aid in their power. furnished with the information thus obtained, we proceeded to make some arrangements respecting the obtaining of men, and the stores we should require for their equipment, as well as for presents to the indians; and on the following day a requisition was made on the companies for eight men each, and whatever useful stores they could supply. we learned with regret, that, in consequence of the recent lavish expenditure of their goods in support of the opposition, their supply to us would, of necessity, be very limited. the men, too, were backward in offering their services, especially those of the hudson's bay company, who demanded a much higher rate of wages than i considered it proper to grant. _june _.--mr. smith, a partner of the north-west company, arrived from the great slave lake, bearing the welcome news that the principal chief of the copper indians had received the communication of our arrival with joy, and given all the intelligence he possessed respecting the route to the sea-coast by the copper-mine river; and that he and a party of his men, at the instance of mr. wentzel, a clerk of the north-west company, whom they wished might go along with them, had engaged to accompany the expedition as guides and hunters. they were to wait our arrival at fort providence, on the north side of the slave lake. their information coincided with that given by beaulieu. they had no doubt of our being able to obtain the means of subsistence in travelling to the coast. this agreeable intelligence had a happy effect upon the canadian voyagers, many of their fears being removed: several of them seemed now disposed to volunteer; and indeed, on the same evening, two men from the north-west company offered themselves and were accepted. _june _.--this day mr. back and i went over to fort wedderburne, to see mr. robertson respecting his quota of men. we learned from him that, notwithstanding his endeavours to persuade them, his most experienced voyagers still declined engaging without very exorbitant wages. after some hesitation, however, six men engaged with us, who were represented to be active and steady; and i also got mr. robertson's permission for st. germain, an interpreter belonging to this company, to accompany us from slave lake if he should choose. the bowmen and steersmen{ } were to receive one thousand six hundred livres halifax per annum, and the middle men one thousand two hundred, exclusive of their necessary equipments; and they stipulated that their wages should be continued until their arrival in montreal, or their rejoining the service of their present employers. i delivered to mr. robertson an official request, that the stores we had left at york factory and the rock depôt, with some other supplies, might be forwarded to slave lake by the first brigade of canoes which should come in. he also took charge of my letters addressed to the admiralty. five men were afterwards engaged from the north-west company for the same wages, and under the same stipulations as the others, besides an interpreter for the copper indians; but this man required three thousand livres halifax currency, which we were obliged to give him, as his services were indispensable. the extreme scarcity of provision at the posts rendered it necessary to despatch all our men to the mamma-wee{ } lake, where they might procure their own subsistence by fishing. the women and children resident at the fort were also sent away for the same purpose; and no other families were permitted to remain at the houses after the departure of the canoes, than those belonging to the men who were required to carry on the daily duty. the large party of officers and men, which had assembled here from the different posts in the department, was again quickly dispersed. the first brigade of canoes, laden with furs, was despatched to the depôt on may th, and the others followed in two or three days afterwards. mr. stuart, the senior partner of the north-west company, quitted us for the same destination, on june th; mr. robertson, for his depôt, on the next day; and on the th we parted with our friend mr. keith, to whose unremitting kindness we felt much indebted. i intrusted to his care a box containing some drawings by mr. back, the map of our route from cumberland house, and the skin of a black beaver, (presented to the expedition by mr. smith,) with my official letters, addressed to the under secretary of state. i wrote by each of these gentlemen to inform dr. richardson and mr. hood of the scarcity of stores at these posts, and to request them to procure all they possibly could on their route. mr. smith was left in charge of this post during the summer; this gentleman soon evinced his desire to further our progress, by directing a new canoe to be built for our use, which was commenced immediately. _june _.--this day an opportunity offered of sending letters to the great slave lake; and i profited by it, to request mr. wentzel would accompany the expedition agreeably to the desire of the copper indians, communicating to him that i had received permission for him to do so from the partners of the north-west company. should he be disposed to comply with my invitation, i desired that he would go over to fort providence, and remain near the indians whom he had engaged for our service. i feared lest they should become impatient at our unexpected delay, and, with the usual fickleness of the indian character, remove from the establishment before we could arrive. it had been my intention to go to them myself, could the articles, with which they expected to be presented on my arrival, have been provided at these establishments; but as they could not be procured, i was compelled to defer my visit until our canoes should arrive. mr. smith supposed that my appearance amongst them, without the means of satisfying any of their desires, would give them an unfavourable impression respecting the expedition, which would make them indifferent to exertion, if it did not even cause them to withdraw from their engagements. the establishments at this place, forts chipewyan and wedderburne, the chief posts of the companies in this department, are conveniently situated for communicating with the slave and peace rivers, from whence the canoes assemble in the spring and autumn; on the first occasion they bring the collection of furs which has been made at the different out-posts during the winter; and at the latter season they receive a supply of stores for the equipment of the indians in their vicinity. fort wedderburne is a small house, which was constructed on coal island about five years ago, when the hudson's bay company recommenced trading in this part of the country. fort chipewyan has been built many years, and is an establishment of very considerable extent, conspicuously situated on a rocky point of the northern shore; it has a tower which can be seen at a considerable distance. this addition was made about eight years ago, to watch the motions of the indians, who intended, as it was then reported, to destroy the house and all its inhabitants. they had been instigated to this rash design by the delusive stories of one among them, who had acquired great influence over his companions by his supposed skill in necromancy. this fellow had prophesied that there would soon be a complete change in the face of their country; that fertility and plenty would succeed to the present sterility; and that the present race of white inhabitants, unless they became subservient to the indians, would be removed, and their place be filled by other traders, who would supply their wants in every possible manner. the poor deluded wretches, imagining they would hasten this happy change by destroying their present traders, of whose submission there was no prospect, threatened to extirpate them. none of these menaces, however, were put in execution. they were probably deterred from the attempt by perceiving that a most vigilant guard was kept against them. the portion of this extensive lake which is near the establishments, is called "the lake of the hills," not improperly, as the northern shore and the islands are high and rocky. the south side, however, is quite level, consisting of alluvial land, subject to be flooded, lying betwixt the different mouths of the elk river, and much intersected by water. the rocks of the northern shore are composed of syenite over which the soil is thinly spread; it is, however, sufficient to support a variety of firs and poplars, and many shrubs, lichens and mosses. the trees were now in full foliage, the plants generally in flower, and the whole scene quite enlivening. there can scarcely be a higher gratification than that which is enjoyed in this country in witnessing the rapid change which takes place in the course of a few days in the spring; scarcely does the snow disappear from the ground, before the trees are clothed with thick foliage, the shrubs open their leaves, and put forth their variegated flowers, and the whole prospect becomes animating. the spaces between the rocky hills, being for the most part swampy, support willows and a few poplars. these spots are the favourite resort of the musquitoes, which incessantly torment the unfortunate persons who have to pass through them. some of the hills attain an elevation of five or six hundred feet, at the distance of a mile from the house; and from their summits a very picturesque view is commanded of the lake, and of the surrounding country. the land above the great point at the confluence of the main stream of the elk river is six or seven hundred feet high, and stretches in a southern direction behind pierre au calumet. opposite to that establishment, on the west side of the river, at some distance in the interior, the bark mountain rises and ranges to the n.w., until it reaches clear lake, about thirty miles to the southward of these forts, and then goes to the south-westward. the cree indians generally procure from this range their provision, as well as the bark for making their canoes. there is another range of hills on the south shore, which runs towards the peace river. the residents of these establishments depend for subsistence almost entirely on the fish which this lake affords; they are usually caught in sufficient abundance throughout the winter, though at the distance of eighteen miles from the houses; on the thawing of the ice, the fish remove into some smaller lakes, and the rivers on the south shore. though they are nearer to the forts than in winter, it frequently happens that high winds prevent the canoes from transporting them thither, and the residents are kept in consequence without a supply of food for two or three days together. the fish caught in the net are the attihhawmegh{ }, trout, carp, methye, and pike[ ]. [ ] see page - { }. the traders also get supplied by the hunters with buffalo and moose deer meat, (which animals are found at some distance from the forts,) but the greater part of it is either in a dried state, or pounded ready for making pemmican; and is required for the men whom they keep travelling during the winter to collect the furs from the indians, and for the crews of the canoes on their outward passage to the depôts in spring. there was a great want of provision this season, and both the companies had much difficulty to provide a bare sufficiency, for their different brigades of canoes. mr. smith assured me that after the canoes had been despatched he had only five hundred pounds of meat remaining for the use of the men who might travel from the post during the summer, and that five years preceding, there had been thirty thousand pounds in store under similar circumstances. he ascribed this amazing difference more to the indolent habits which the indians had acquired since the commercial struggle commenced, than to their recent sickness, mentioning in confirmation of his opinion that they could now, by the produce of little exertion, obtain whatever they demanded from either establishment. at the opening of the water in spring, the indians resort to the establishments to settle their accounts with the traders, and to procure the necessaries they require for the summer. this meeting is generally a scene of much riot and confusion, as the hunters receive such quantities of spirits as to keep them in a state of intoxication for several days. this spring, however, owing to the great deficiency of spirits, we had the gratification of seeing them generally sober. they belong to the great family of the chipewyan, or northern, indians; dialects of their language being spoken in the peace, and mackenzie's rivers, and by the populous tribes in new caledonia, as ascertained by sir alexander mackenzie in his journey to the pacific. they style themselves generally _dinneh_ men, or indians, but each tribe, or horde, adds some distinctive epithet taken from the name of the river, or lake, on which they hunt, or the district from which they last migrated. those who come to fort chipewyan term themselves saw-eessaw-dinneh, (indians from the rising sun, or eastern indians,) their original hunting grounds being between the athabasca, and great slave lakes, and churchill river. this district, more particularly termed the chipewyan lands, or _barren country_, is frequented by numerous herds of rein-deer, which furnish easy subsistence, and clothing to the indians; but the traders endeavour to keep them in the parts to the westward where the beavers resort. there are about one hundred and sixty hunters who carry their furs to the great slave lake, forty to hay river, and two hundred and forty to fort chipewyan. a few northern indians also resort to the posts at the bottom of the lake of the hills, on red deer lake, and to churchill. the distance, however, of the latter post from their hunting grounds, and the sufferings to which they are exposed in going thither from want of food, have induced those who were formerly accustomed to visit it, to convey their furs to some nearer station. these people are so minutely described by hearne and mackenzie, that little can be added by a passing stranger, whose observations were made during short interviews, and when they were at the forts, where they lay aside many of their distinguishing characteristics, and strive to imitate the manners of the voyagers and traders. the chipewyans are by no means prepossessing in appearance: they have broad faces, projecting cheek-bones and wide nostrils; but they have generally good teeth, and fine eyes. when at the fort they imitate the dress of the canadians, except that, instead of trowsers, they prefer the indian stockings, which only reach from the thigh to the ancle, and in place of the waistband they have a piece of cloth round the middle which hangs down loosely before and behind. their hunting dress consists of a leathern shirt and stockings, over which a blanket is thrown, the head being covered with a fur cap or band. their manner is reserved, and their habits are selfish; they beg with unceasing importunity for every thing they see. i never saw men who either received or bestowed a gift with such bad grace; they almost snatch the thing from you in the one instance, and throw it at you in the other. it could not be expected that such men should display in their tents, the amiable hospitality which prevails generally amongst the indians of this country. a stranger may go away hungry from their lodges, unless he possess sufficient impudence to thrust, uninvited, his knife into the kettle, and help himself. the owner, indeed, never deigns to take any notice of such an act of rudeness, except by a frown, it being beneath the dignity of a hunter, to make disturbance about a piece of meat. as some relief to the darker shades of their character it should be stated that instances of theft are extremely rare amongst them. they profess strong affection for their children, and some regard for their relations, who are often numerous, as they trace very far the ties of consanguinity. a curious instance of the former was mentioned to us, and so well authenticated, that i shall venture to give it in the words of dr. richardson's journal. "a young chipewyan had separated from the rest of his band for the purpose of trenching beaver, when his wife, who was his sole companion, and in her first pregnancy, was seized with the pains of labour. she died on the third day after she had given birth to a boy. the husband was inconsolable, and vowed in his anguish never to take another woman to wife, but his grief was soon in some degree absorbed in anxiety for the fate of his infant son. to preserve its life he descended to the office of nurse, so degrading in the eyes of a chipewyan, as partaking of the duties of a woman. he swaddled it in soft moss, fed it with broth made from the flesh of the deer, and to still its cries applied it to his breast, praying earnestly to the great master of life, to assist his endeavours. the force of the powerful passion by which he was actuated produced the same effect in his case, as it has done in some others which are recorded: a flow of milk actually took place from his breast. he succeeded in rearing his child, taught him to be a hunter, and when he attained the age of manhood, chose him a wife from the tribe. the old man kept his vow in never taking a second wife himself, but he delighted in tending his son's children, and when his daughter-in-law used to interfere, saying, that it was not the occupation of a man, he was wont to reply, that he had promised to the great master of life, if his child were spared, never to be proud, like the other indians. he used to mention, too, as a certain proof of the approbation of providence, that although he was always obliged to carry his child on his back while hunting, yet that it never roused a moose by its cries, being always particularly still at those times. our informant[ ] added that he had often seen this indian in his old age, and that his left breast, even then, retained the unusual size it had acquired in his occupation of nurse." [ ] mr. wentzel. we had proof of their sensibility towards their relations, in their declining to pitch their tents where they had been accustomed for many years, alleging a fear of being reminded of the happy hours they had formerly spent there, in the society of the affectionate relatives whom the sickness had recently carried off. the change of situation, however, had not the effect of relieving them from sorrowful impressions, and they occasionally{ } indulged in very loud lamentations, as they sat in groups, within and without their tents. unfortunately, the spreading of a severe dysentery amongst them, at this time, gave occasion for the renewal of their grief. the medicinal charms of drumming and singing were plentifully applied, and once they had recourse to conjuring over a sick person. i was informed, however, that the northern indians do not make this expedient for the cure of a patient so often as the crees; but when they do, the conjuror is most assiduous, and suffers great personal fatigue. particular persons only, are trained in the mysteries of the art of conjuring, to procure the recovery of the sick, or to disclose future events. on extraordinary occasions the man remains in his narrow conjuring tent, for days without eating, before he can determine the matter to his satisfaction. when he is consulted about the sick, the patient is shut up with him; but on other occasions he is alone, and the poor creature often works his mind up to a pitch of illusion that can scarcely be imagined by one who has not witnessed it. his deluded companions seat themselves round his tent, and await his communication with earnest anxiety, yet during the progress of his manoeuvres, they often venture to question him, as to the disposition of the great spirit. these artful fellows usually gain complete ascendancy over the minds of their companions. they are supported by voluntary contributions of provision, that their minds may not be diverted by the labour of hunting, from the peculiar duties of their profession. the chiefs among the chipewyans are now totally without power. the presents of a flag, and a gaudy dress, still bestowed upon them by the traders, do not procure for them any respect or obedience, except from the youths of their own families. this is to be attributed mainly to their living at peace with their neighbours, and to the facility which the young men find in{ } getting their wants supplied independent of the recommendation of the chiefs, which was formerly required. in war excursions, boldness and intrepidity would still command respect and procure authority; but the influence thus acquired would, probably, cease with the occasion that called it forth. the traders, however, endeavour to support their authority by continuing towards them the accustomed marks of respect, hoisting the flag and firing a salute of musketry on their entering the fort. the chief halts at a distance from the house, and despatches one of his young men to announce his approach, and to bring his flag, which is carried before him when he arrives. the messenger carries back to him some vermilion to ornament the faces of his party, together with a looking-glass and comb, some tobacco, and a few rounds of ammunition, that they may return the salute. these men paint round the eyes, the forehead, and the cheek-bones. the northern indians evince no little vanity, by assuming to themselves the comprehensive title of "the people," whilst they designate all other nations by the name of their particular country. if men were seen at a distance, and a chipewyan was asked who those persons were, he would answer, the people, if he recognised them to belong to his tribe, and never chipewyans; but he would give them their respective names, if they were europeans, canadians, or cree indians. as they suppose their ancestors to come originally from the east, those who happen to be born in the eastern part of their territory, are considered to be of the purest race. i have been informed, that all the indians who trade at the different posts in the north-west parts of america, imagine that their forefathers came from the east, except the dog-ribs, who reside between the copper indian islands and the mackenzie's river, and who deduce their origin from the west, which is the more remarkable, as they speak a dialect of the chipewyan language. i could gather no information respecting their religious opinions, except that they have a tradition of the deluge. the chipewyans are considered to be less expert hunters than the crees, which probably arises from their residing much on the barren lands, where the rein-deer are so numerous that little skill is requisite. a good hunter, however, is highly esteemed among them. the facility of procuring goods, since the commercial opposition commenced, has given great encouragement to their native indolence of disposition, as is manifested by the difference in the amount of their collections of furs and provision between the late and former years. from six to eight hundred packs of furs used formerly to be sent from this department, now the return seldom exceeds half that amount. the decrease in the provision has been already mentioned. the northern indians suppose that they originally sprang from a dog; and about five years ago, a superstitious fanatic so strongly pressed upon their minds the impropriety of employing these animals, to which they were related, for purposes of labour, that they universally resolved against using them any more, and, strange as it may seem, destroyed them. they now have to drag every thing themselves on sledges. this laborious task falls most heavily on the women; nothing can more shock the feelings of a person accustomed to civilized life, than to witness the state of their degradation. when a party is on a march the women have to drag the tent, the meat, and whatever the hunter possesses, whilst he only carries his gun and medicine case. in the evening they form the encampment, cut wood, fetch water, and prepare the supper; and then, perhaps, are not permitted to partake of the fare until the men have finished. a successful hunter sometimes has two or three wives; whoever happens to be the favourite, assumes authority over the others, and has the management of the tent. these men usually treat their wives unkindly, and even with harshness; except, indeed, when they are about to increase the family, and then they shew them much indulgence. hearne charges the chipewyans with the dreadful practice of abandoning, in extremity, their aged and sick people. the only instance that came under our personal notice was attended with some palliating circumstances:--an old woman arrived at fort chipewyan, during our residence, with her son, a little boy, about ten years old, both of whom had been deserted by their relations, and left in an encampment, when much reduced by sickness: two or three days after their departure the woman gained a little strength, and with the assistance of the boy, was enabled to paddle a canoe to the fishing station of this post, where they were supported for some days, until they were enabled to proceed in search of some other relations, who, they expected, would treat them with more kindness. i learned, that the woman bore an extremely bad character, having even been guilty of infanticide, and that her companions considered her offences merited the desertion. this tribe, since its present intimate connexion with the traders, has discontinued its war excursions against the esquimaux, but they still speak of that nation in terms of the most inveterate hatred. we have only conversed with four men who have been engaged in any of those expeditions; all these confirm the statements of black-meat respecting the sea-coast. our observations concerning the half-breed population in this vicinity, coincided so exactly with those which have been given of similar persons in dr. richardson's account of the crees, that any statement respecting them at this place is unnecessary. both the companies have wisely prohibited their servants from intermarrying with pure indian women, which was formerly the cause of many quarrels with the tribes. the weather was extremely variable during the month of june; we scarcely had two clear days in succession, and the showers of rain were frequent; the winds were often strong, and generally blowing from the north-east quarter. on the evening of the th the aurora borealis was visible, but after that date the nights were too light for our discerning it. the musquitoes swarmed in great numbers about the house, and tormented us so incessantly by their irritating stings, that we were compelled to keep our rooms constantly filled with smoke, which is the only means of driving them away: the weather indeed was now warm. having received one of dollond's eighteen-inch spirit thermometers from mr. stuart, which he had the kindness to send us from his post at pierre au calumet, after he had learned that ours had been rendered useless, i observed the temperature, at noon, on the th of june, to be °. on the following morning we made an excursion, accompanied by mr. smith, round the fishing stations on the south side of the lake, for the purpose of visiting our men; we passed several groups of women and children belonging to both the forts, posted wherever they could find a sufficiently dry spot for an encampment. at length we came to our men, pitched upon a narrow strip of land, situated between two rivers. though the portion of dry ground did not exceed fifty yards, yet they appeared to be living very comfortably, having formed huts with the canoe's sail and covering, and were amply supported by the fish their nets daily furnished. they sometimes had a change in their fare, by procuring a few ducks and other water-fowl, which resort in great abundance to the marshes, by which they were surrounded. _july _.--the canoe, which was ordered to be built for our use, was finished. as it was constructed after the manner, described by hearne, and several of the american travellers, a detail of the process will be unnecessary. its extreme length was thirty two feet six inches, including the bow and stern pieces, its greatest breadth was four feet ten inches, but it was only two feet nine inches forward where the bowman sat, and two feet four inches behind where the steersman was placed; and its depth was one foot eleven and a quarter inches. there were seventy-three hoops of thin cedar, and a layer of slender laths of the same wood within the frame. these feeble vessels of bark will carry twenty-five pieces of goods, each weighing ninety pounds, exclusive of the necessary provision and baggage for the crew of five or six men, amounting in the whole to about three thousand three hundred pounds' weight. this great lading they annually carry between the depôts and the posts, in the interior; and it rarely happens that any accidents occur, if they be managed by experienced bowmen and steersmen, on whose skill the safety of the canoe entirely depends in the rapids and difficult places. when a total portage is made, these two men carry the canoe, and they often run with it, though its weight is estimated at about three hundred pounds, exclusive of the poles and oars, which are occasionally left in where the distance is short. on the th, we made an excursion for the purpose of trying our canoe. a heavy gale came on in the evening, which caused a great swell in the lake, and in crossing the waves we had the satisfaction to find that our birchen vessel proved an excellent sea-boat. _july _.--this morning some men, and their families, who had been sent off to search for indians with whom they intended to pass the summer, returned to the fort in consequence of a serious accident having befallen their canoe in the red deer river; when they were in the act of hauling up a strong rapid, the line broke, the canoe was overturned, and two of the party narrowly escaped drowning; fortunately the women and children happened to be on shore, or, in all probability, they would have perished in the confusion of the scene. nearly all their stores, their guns and fishing nets, were lost, and they could not procure any other food for the last four days than some unripe berries. some gentlemen arrived in the evening with a party of chipewyan indians, from hay river, a post between the peace river, and the great slave lake. these men gave distressing accounts of sickness among their relatives, and the indians in general along the peace river, and they said many of them have died. the disease was described as dysentery. on the th and th we had very sultry weather, and were dreadfully tormented by musquitoes. the highest temperature was °. _july _.--this morning mr. back and i had the sincere gratification of welcoming our long-separated friends, dr. richardson and mr. hood, who arrived in perfect health with two canoes, having made a very expeditious journey from cumberland, notwithstanding they were detained near three days in consequence of the melancholy loss of one of their bowmen, by the upsetting of a canoe in a strong rapid; but, as the occurrences of this journey, together with the mention of some other circumstances that happened previous to their departure from cumberland, which have been extracted from mr. hood's narrative, will appear in the following chapter, it will be unnecessary to enter farther into these points now. the zeal and talent displayed by dr. richardson and mr. hood, in the discharge of their several duties since my separation from them, drew forth my highest approbation. these gentlemen had brought all the stores they could procure from the establishments at cumberland and isle à la crosse; and at the latter place they had received ten bags of pemmican from the north-west company, which proved to be mouldy, and so totally unfit for use, that it was left at the methye portage. they got none from the hudson's bay post. the voyagers belonging to that company, being destitute of provision, had eaten what was intended for us. in consequence of these untoward circumstances, the canoes arrived with only one day's supply of this most essential article. the prospect of having to commence our journey from hence, almost destitute of provision, and scantily supplied with stores, was distressing to us, and very discouraging to the men. it was evident, however, that any unnecessary delay here would have been very imprudent, as fort chipewyan did not, at the present time, furnish the means of subsistence for so large a party, much less was there a prospect of our receiving any supply to carry us forward. we, therefore, hastened to make the necessary arrangements for our speedy departure. all the stores were demanded that could possibly be spared from both the establishments; and we rejoiced to find, that when this collection was added to the articles that had been brought up by the canoes, we had a sufficient quantity of clothing for the equipment of the men who had been engaged here, as well as to furnish a present to the indians, besides some few goods for the winter's consumption; but we could not procure any ammunition, which was the most essential article, or spirits, and but little tobacco. we then made a final arrangement respecting the voyagers, who were to accompany the party; and, fortunately, there was no difficulty in doing this, as dr. richardson and mr. hood had taken the very judicious precaution of bringing up ten men from cumberland, who were engaged to proceed forward if their services were required. the canadians, whom they brought, were most desirous of being continued, and we felt sincere pleasure in being able to keep men who were so zealous in the cause, and who had given proofs of their activity on their recent passage to this place, by discharging those men who were less willing to undertake the journey; of these, three were englishmen, one american, and three canadians. when the numbers were completed, which we had been recommended by the traders to take as a protection against the esquimaux, we had sixteen canadian-voyagers, and our worthy and only english attendant john hepburn, besides the two interpreters whom we were to receive at the great slave lake; we were also accompanied by a chipewyan woman. an equipment of goods was given to each of the men who had been engaged at this place, similar to what had been furnished to the others at cumberland; and when this distribution had been made, the remainder were made up into bales, preparatory to our departure, on the following day. we were cheerfully assisted in these and all our occupations by mr. smith, who evinced an anxious desire to supply our wants as far as his means permitted. mr. hood having brought up the dipping needle from cumberland house, we ascertained the dip to be ° ' ", and the difference produced by reversing the face of the instrument was ° ' ". the intensity of the magnetic force was also observed. several observations had been procured on both sides of the moon during our residence at fort chipewyan, the result of which gave for its longitude ° ' " w., its latitude was observed to be ° ' " n., and the variation of the compass ° ' " e. fresh rates were procured for the chronometers and their errors determined for greenwich time, by which the survey to the northward was carried on. chapter vi. mr. hood's journey to the basquiau hill--sojourns with an indian party--his journey to chipewyan. . march. being desirous of obtaining a drawing of a moose-deer, and also of making some observation on the height of the aurora, i set out on the d, to pass a few days at the basquiau hill. two men accompanied me, with dogs and sledges, who were going to the hill for meat. we found the saskatchawan open and were obliged to follow it several miles to the eastward. we did not, then, cross it without wading in water, which had overflowed the ice; and our snow-shoes were encumbered with a heavy weight for the remainder of the day. on the south bank of the saskatchawan were some poplars ten or twelve feet in circumference at the root. beyond the river, we traversed an extensive swamp, bounded by woods. in the evening we crossed the swan lake, about six miles in breadth, and eight in length, and halted on its south side for the night, twenty-four miles s.s.w. of cumberland house. at four in the morning of the th we continued the journey, and crossed some creeks in the woods, and another large swamp. these swamps are covered with water in summer, to the depth of several feet, which arises from the melted snow from the higher grounds. the tracks of foxes, wolves, wolverenes, and martens, were very numerous. the people employed in carrying meat, set traps on their way out, and take possession of their captures at their return, for which they receive a sum from the company, proportioned to the value of the fur. in the evening we crossed the goose lake, which is a little longer than swan lake, and afterwards the river sepanach, a branch of the saskatchawan, forming an island extending thirty miles above, and forty below cumberland house. we turned to the westward on the root river, which enters the sepanach, and halted on its banks having made in direct distance not more than twenty miles since the rd. we passed the shoal lake on the th, and then marched twelve miles through woods and swamps to a hunting tent of the indians. it was situated in a grove of large poplars, and would have been no unpleasant residence if we could have avoided the smoke. a heavy gale from the westward, with snow, confined us for several days to this tent. on the th two indians arrived, one of whom named the warrior, was well known at the house. we endeavoured to prevail upon them to set out in quest of moose, which they agreed to do on receiving some rum. promises were of no avail; the smallest present gratification is preferred to the certainty of ample reward at another period; an unfailing indication of strong animal passions, and a weak understanding. on our compliance with their demand they departed. the next day, i went to the warrior's tent, distant about eleven miles. the country was materially changed: the pine had disappeared, and gentle slopes, with clumps of large poplars, formed some pleasing groups: willows were scattered over the swamps. when i entered the tent, the indians spread a buffalo robe before the fire, and desired me to sit down. some were eating, others sleeping, many of them without any covering except the breech cloth and a blanket over the shoulders; a state in which they love to indulge themselves till hunger drives them forth to the chase. besides the warrior's family, there was that of another hunter named _long-legs_, whose bad success in hunting had reduced him to the necessity of feeding on moose leather for three weeks when he was compassionately relieved by the warrior. i was an unwilling witness of the preparation of my dinner by the indian women. they cut into pieces a portion of fat meat, using for that purpose a knife and their teeth. it was boiled in a kettle, and served in a platter made of birch bark, from which, being dirty, they had peeled the surface. however, the flavour of good moose meat will survive any process that it undergoes in their hands, except smoking. having provided myself with some drawing materials, i amused the indians with a sketch of the interior of the tent and its inhabitants. an old woman, who was relating with great volubility an account of some quarrel with the traders at cumberland house, broke off from her narration when she perceived my design; supposing, perhaps, that i was employing some charm against her; for the indians have been taught a supernatural dread of particular pictures. one of the young men drew, with a piece of charcoal, a figure resembling a frog, on the side of the tent, and by significantly pointing at me, excited peals of merriment from his companions. the caricature was comic; but i soon fixed their attention, by producing my pocket compass, and affecting it with a knife. they have great curiosity, which might easily be directed to the attainment of useful knowledge. as the dirt accumulated about these people was visibly of a communicative nature, i removed at night into the open air, where the thermometer fell to ° below zero, although it was the next day ° above it. in the morning the warrior and his companion arrived; i found that, instead of hunting, they had passed the whole time in a drunken fit, at a short distance from the tent. in reply to our angry questions, the warrior held out an empty vessel, as if to demand the payment of a debt, before he entered into any new negotiation. not being inclined to starve his family, we set out for another indian tent, ten miles to the southward, but we found only the frame, or tent poles, standing, when we reached the spot. the men, by digging where the fire-place had been, ascertained that the indians had quitted it the day before; and as their marches are short, when encumbered with the women and baggage, we sought out their track, and followed it. at an abrupt angle of it, which was obscured by trees, the men suddenly disappeared; and hastening forward to discover the cause, i perceived them both still rolling at the foot of a steep cliff, over which they had been dragged while endeavouring to stop the descent of their sledges. the dogs were gazing silently, with the wreck of their harness about them, and the sledges deeply buried in the snow. the effects of this accident did not detain us long, and we proceeded afterwards with greater caution. the air was warm at noon, and the solitary but sweet notes of the jay, the earliest spring bird, were in every wood. late in the evening we descried the ravens wheeling in circles round a small grove of poplars, and, according to our expectations, found the indians encamped there. the men were absent hunting, and returned unsuccessful. they had been several days without provisions, and thinking that i could depend upon the continuance of their exertions, i gave them a little rum; the next day they set out, and at midnight they swept by us with their dogs in close pursuit. in the morning we found that a moose had eaten the bark of a tree near our fire. the hunters, however, again failed; and they attributed the extreme difficulty of approaching the chase, to the calmness of the weather, which enabled it to hear them at a great distance. they concluded, as usual, when labouring under any affliction, that they were tormented by the evil spirit; and assembled to beat a large tambourine, and sing an address to the manito, or deity, praying for relief, according to the explanation which i received; but their prayer consisted of only three words, constantly repeated. one of the hunters yet remained abroad; and as the wind rose at noon, we had hopes that he was successful. in the evening he made his appearance, and announcing that he had killed a large moose, immediately secured the reward which had been promised. the tidings were received with apparent indifference, by people whose lives are alternate changes from the extremity of want to abundance. but as their countenances seldom betray their emotions, it cannot be determined whether their apathy is real or affected. however, the women prepared their sledges and dogs, with the design of dismembering, and bringing home, the carcass: a proceeding to which, in their necessitous condition, i could have had neither reasonable nor available objections, without giving them a substitute. by much solicitation i obtained an audience, and offered them our own provisions, on condition of their suspending the work of destruction till the next day. they agreed to the proposition, and we set out with some indians for the place where the animal was lying. the night advancing, we were separated by a snow-storm, and not being skilful enough to follow tracks which were so speedily filled up, i was bewildered for several hours in the woods, when i met with an indian, who led me back at such a pace that i was always in the rear, to his infinite diversion. the indians are vain of their local knowledge, which is certainly very wonderful. our companions had taken out the entrails and young of the moose, which they buried in the snow. the indians then returned to the tents, and one of my men accompanied them; he was the person charged with the management of the trade at the hunting tent; and he observed, that the opportunity of making a bargain with the indians, while they were drinking, was too advantageous to be lost. it remained for us to prevent the wolves from mangling the moose; for which purpose we wrapped ourselves in blankets between its feet, and placed the hatchets within our reach. the night was stormy, and apprehension kept me long awake; but finding my companion in so deep a sleep, that nothing could have roused him, except the actual gripe of a wolf, i thought it advisable to imitate his example, as much as was in my power, rather than bear the burthen of anxiety alone. at day-light we shook off the snow, which was heaped upon us, and endeavoured to kindle a fire; but the violence of the storm defeated all our attempts. at length two indians arrived, with whose assistance we succeeded, and they took possession of it, to show their sense of our obligations to them. we were ashamed of the scene before us; the entrails of the moose and its young, which had been buried at our feet, bore testimony to the nocturnal revel of the wolves, during the time we had slept. this was a fresh subject of derision for the indians, whose appetites, however, would not suffer them to waste long upon us a time so precious. they soon finished what the wolves had begun, and with as little aid from the art of cookery, eating both the young moose, and the contents of the paunch, raw. i had scarcely secured myself by a lodge of branches from the snow, and placed the moose in a position for my sketch, when we were stormed by a troop of women and children, with their sledges and dogs. we obtained another short respite from the indians, but our blows could not drive, nor their caresses entice, the hungry dogs from the tempting feast before them. i had not finished my sketch, before the impatient crowd tore the moose to pieces, and loaded their sledges with meat. on our way to the tent, a black wolf rushed out upon an indian, who happened to pass near its den. it was shot; and the indians carried away three black whelps, to improve the breed of their dogs. i purchased one of them, intending to send it to england, but it perished for want of proper nourishment. the latitude of these tents, was ° ' " n., and longitude by chronometers ° ' " w. on the th of april we set out for the hunting tent by our former track, and arrived there in the evening. as the increasing warmth of the weather had threatened to interrupt communication by removing the ice, orders had been sent from cumberland house to the people at the tent, to quit it without delay; which we did on the th. some altitudes of the aurora were obtained. we had a fine view, at sunrise, of the basquiau hill, skirting half the horizon with its white sides, chequered by forests of pine. it is seen from pine island lake, at the distance of fifty miles; and cannot, therefore, be less than three-fourths of a mile in perpendicular height; probably the greatest elevation between the atlantic ocean, and the rocky mountains. a small stream runs near the hunting tent, strongly impregnated with salt. there are several salt springs about it, which are not frozen during the winter.{ } the surface of the snow, thawing in the sun, and freezing at night, had become a strong crust, which sometimes gave way in a circle round our feet, immersing us in the soft snow beneath. the people were afflicted with snow blindness; a kind of ophthalmia occasioned by the reflection of the sun's rays in the spring. the miseries endured during the first journey of this nature, are so great, that nothing could induce the sufferer to undertake a second, while under the influence of present pain. he feels his frame crushed by unaccountable pressure, he drags a galling and stubborn weight at his feet, and his track is marked with blood. the dazzling scene around him affords no rest to his eye, no object to divert his attention from his own agonizing sensations. when he arises from sleep, half his body seems dead, till quickened into feeling by the irritation of his sores. but fortunately for him, no evil makes an impression so evanescent as pain. it cannot be wholly banished, nor recalled with the force of reality, by any act of the mind, either to affect our determinations, or to sympathize with another. the traveller soon forgets his sufferings, and at every future journey their recurrence is attended with diminished acuteness. it was not before the th or th of april, that the return of the swans, geese, and ducks, gave certain indications of the advance of spring. the juice of the maple-tree began to flow, and the women repaired to the woods for the purpose of collecting it. this tree which abounds to the southward, is not, i believe found to the northward of the saskatchawan. the indians obtain the sap by making incisions into the tree. they boil it down, and evaporate the water, skimming off the impurities. they are so fond of sweets that after this simple process, they set an extravagant price upon it. on the th fell the first shower of rain we had seen for six months, and on the th the thermometer rose to ° in the shade. the whole face of the country was deluged by the melted snow. all the nameless heaps of dirt, accumulated in the winter, now floated over the very thresholds, and the long-imprisoned scents dilated into vapours so penetrating, that no retreat was any security from them. the flood descended into the cellar below our house, and destroyed a quantity of powder and tea; a loss irreparable in our situation. the noise made by the frogs which this inundation produced, is almost incredible. there is strong reason to believe that they outlive the severity of winter. they have often been found frozen and revived by warmth, nor is it possible that the multitude which incessantly filled our ears with its discordant notes could have been matured in two or three days. the fishermen at beaver lake, and the other detached parties were ordered to return to the post. the expedients to which the poor people were reduced, to cross a country so beset with waters, presented many uncouth spectacles. the inexperienced were glad to compromise, with the loss of property, for the safety of their persons, and astride upon ill-balanced rafts with which they struggled to be uppermost, exhibited a ludicrous picture of distress. happy were they who could patch up an old canoe, though obliged to bear it half the way on their shoulders, through miry bogs and interwoven willows. but the veteran trader, wedged in a box of skin, with his wife, children, dogs, and furs, wheeled triumphantly through the current, and deposited his heterogeneous cargo safely on the shore. the woods re-echoed with the return of their exiled tenants. an hundred tribes, as gaily dressed as any burnished natives of the south, greeted our eyes in our accustomed walks, and their voices, though unmusical, were the sweetest that ever saluted our ears. from the th to the th the snow once more blighted the resuscitating verdure, but a single day was sufficient to remove it. on the th the saskatchawan swept away the ice which had adhered to its banks, and on the morrow a boat came down from carlton house with provisions. we received such accounts of the state of vegetation at that place, that dr. richardson determined to visit it, in order to collect botanical specimens, as the period at which the ice was expected to admit of the continuation of our journey was still distant. accordingly he embarked on the st of may. in the course of the month the ice gradually wore away from the south side of the lake, but the great mass of it still hung to the north side with some snow visible on its surface. by the st the elevated grounds were perfectly dry, and teeming with the fragrant offspring of the season. when the snow melted, the earth was covered with the fallen leaves of the last year, and already it was green with the strawberry plant, and the bursting buds of the gooseberry, raspberry, and rose bushes, soon variegated by the rose and the blossoms of the choke cherry. the gifts of nature are disregarded and undervalued till they are withdrawn, and in the hideous regions of the arctic zone, she would make a convert of him for whom the gardens of europe had no charms, or the mild beauties of a southern climate had bloomed in vain. mr. williams found a delightful occupation in his agricultural pursuits. the horses were brought to the plough, and fields of wheat, barley, and indian corn, promised to reward his labours. his dairy furnished us with all the luxuries of an english farm. on the th the ice departed from pine island lake. we were, however, informed that beaver lake, which was likewise in our route, would not afford a passage before the th of june. according to directions left by mr. franklin, applications were made to the chiefs of the hudson's bay and north-west companies' posts, for two canoes, with their crews, and a supply of stores, for the use of the expedition. they were not in a condition to comply with this request till the arrival of their respective returns from isle à la crosse and the saskatchawan departments. of the six men whom we brought from england, the most serviceable, john hepburn, had accompanied mr. franklin, and only one other desired to prosecute the journey with us. mr. franklin had made arrangements with mr. williams for the employment of the remaining five men in bringing to cumberland house the ammunition, tobacco, &c., left at york fort, which stores were, if possible, to be sent after us in the summer. on the th dr. richardson returned from carlton house, and on the st the boats arrived belonging to the hudson's bay company's saskatchawan department. we obtained a canoe and two more volunteers. on the st of june the saskatchawan, swelled by the melting of the snow near the rocky mountains, rose twelve feet, and the current of the little rivers bounding pine island ran back into the lake, which it filled with mud. on the th the north-west company's people arrived, and mr. conolly{ } furnished us with a canoe and five canadians. they were engaged to attend us till mr. franklin should think fit to discharge them, and bound under the usual penalties in case of disobedience, or other improper conduct. these poor people entertained such dread of a ship of war, that they stipulated not to be embarked in lieutenant parry's vessels, if we should find them on the coast; a condition with which they would gladly have dispensed had that desirable event taken place. as we required a canadian foreman and steersman for the other canoe, we were compelled to wait for the appearance of the isle à la crosse canoes under mr. clark. on the th mr. williams embarked for york fort. he gave us a circular letter addressed to the chiefs of the hudson's bay company's posts, directing them to afford us all possible assistance on our route, and he promised to exert every endeavour to forward the esquimaux interpreter, upon whom the success of our journey so much depended. he was accompanied by eight boats. with him we sent our collections of plants, minerals, charts, and drawings, to be transmitted to england by the hudson's bay ships. after this period, our detention, though short, cost us more vexation than the whole time we had passed at cumberland house, because every hour of the short summer was invaluable to us. on the th mr. clark arrived, and completed our crews.--he brought letters from mr. franklin, dated march th, at fort chipewyan, where he was engaged procuring hunters and interpreters. a heavy storm of wind and rain from the north-east again delayed us till the morning of the th. the account we had received at york factory of the numerous stores at cumberland house proved to be very erroneous. the most material stores we received did not amount, in addition to our own, to more than two barrels of powder, a keg of spirits, and two pieces of tobacco, with pemmican for sixteen days. the crew of dr. richardson's canoe consisted of three englishmen and three canadians, and the other carried five canadians; both were deeply laden and the waves ran high on the lake. no person in our party being well acquainted with the rivers to the northward, mr. conolly{ } gave us a pilot, on condition that we should exchange him when we met with the athabasca brigade of canoes. at four a.m. we embarked. we soon found that birchen-bark canoes were not calculated to brave rough weather on a large lake, for we were compelled to land on the opposite border, to free them from the water which had already saturated their cargoes. the wind became more moderate, and we were enabled, after traversing a chain of smaller lakes, to enter the mouth of the sturgeon river, at sunset, where we encamped. the lading of the canoes is always, if possible carried on shore at night, and the canoes taken out of the water. the following evening we reached beaver lake, and landed to repair some damages sustained by the canoes. a round stone will displace the lading of a canoe, without doing any injury, but a slight blow against a sharp corner penetrates the bark. for the purpose of repairing it, a small quantity of gum or pitch, bark and pine roots, are embarked, and the business is so expeditiously performed, that the speed of the canoe amply compensates for every delay. the sturgeon river is justly called by the canadians la rivière{ } maligne, from its numerous and dangerous rapids. against the strength of a rapid it is impossible to effect any progress by paddling, and the canoes are tracked, or if the bank will not admit of it, propelled with poles, in the management of which the canadians shew great dexterity. their simultaneous motions were strongly contrasted with the awkward confusion of the inexperienced englishmen, deafened by the torrent, who sustained the blame of every accident which occurred. at sunset we encamped on an island in beaver lake, and at four a.m., the next morning, passed the first portage in the ridge river. beaver lake is twelve miles in length, and six in breadth. the flat limestone country rises into bold rocks on its banks, and at the mouth of the ridge river, the limestone discontinues. the lake is very deep, and has already been noticed for the number and excellence of its fish.{ } the ridge river is rapid and shallow. we had emerged from the muddy channels through an alluvial soil, and the primitive rocks interrupted our way with frequent portages, through the whole route to isle à la crosse lake. at two p.m. we passed the mouth of the hay river, running from the westward; and the ridge above its confluence takes the name of the great river, which rises at the height of land called the frog portage. the thermometer was this day ° in the sun, and the heat was extremely oppressive, from our constant exposure to it. we crossed three portages in the great river, and encamped at the last; here we met the director of the north-west company's affairs in the north, mr. stuart, on his way to fort william, in a light canoe. he had left the athabasca lake only thirteen days, and brought letters from mr. franklin, who desired that we would endeavour to collect stores of every kind at isle à la crosse, and added a favourable account of the country, to the northward of the slave lake. on the th, at three a.m., we continued our course, the river increasing to the breadth of half a mile, with many rapids between the rocky islands. the banks were luxuriantly clothed with pines, poplars, and birch trees, of the largest size: but the different shades of green were undistinguishable at a distance, and the glow of autumnal colours was wanting to render the variety beautiful. having crossed two portages at the different extremities of the island lake, we ran under sail through two extensive sheets of water, called the heron and pelican lakes; the former of which is fifteen miles in length, and the latter five; but its extent to the southward has not been explored. an intricate channel, with four small portages, conducted us to the woody lake. its borders were, indeed, walls of pines, hiding the face of steep and high rocks; and we wandered in search of a landing-place till ten p.m., when we were forced to take shelter from an impending storm, on a small island where we wedged ourselves between the trees. but though we secured the canoes, we incurred a personal evil of much greater magnitude, in the torments inflicted by the musquitoes, a plague which had grown upon us since our departure from cumberland house, and which infested us during the whole summer; we found no relief from their attacks by exposing ourselves to the utmost violence of the wind and rain. our last resource was to plunge ourselves in the water, and from this uncomfortable situation we gladly escaped at day-light, and hoisted our sails. the woody lake is thirteen miles in length, and a small grassy channel at its north-western extremity, leads to the frog portage, the source of the waters descending by beaver lake to the saskatchawan. the distance to the missinippi, or churchill river, is only three hundred and eighty yards; and as its course crosses the height nearly at right angles to the direction of the great river, it would be superfluous to compute the elevation at this place. the portage is in latitude ° ' " n., and longitude ° ' " w. its name, according to sir alexander mackenzie, is derived from the crees having left suspended a stretched frog's skin, in derision of the northern indian mode of dressing the beaver. the part of the missinippi, in which we embarked, we should have mistaken for a lake, had it not been for the rapidity of the current against which we made our way. at four p.m. we passed a long portage occasioned by a ledge of rocks, three hundred yards in length, over which the river falls seven or eight feet. after crossing another portage we encamped. on the th we had rain, wind, and thunder, the whole day; but this weather was much preferable to the heat we had borne hitherto. we passed three portages, and, at six p.m., encamped on the north bank. below the third portage is the mouth of the rapid river, flowing from a large lake to the southward, on which a post was formerly maintained by the north-west company. next morning we found ourselves involved in a confused mass of islands, through the openings of which we could not discern the shore. the guide's knowledge of the river did not extend beyond the last portage, and our perplexity continued, till we observed some foam floating on the water, and took the direction from which it came. the noise of a heavy fall, at the mountain portage, reached our ears, at the distance of four miles, and we arrived there at eight a.m. the portage was a difficult ascent over a rocky island, between which and the main shore were two cataracts and a third in sight above them, making another portage. we surprised a large brown bear which immediately retreated into the woods. to the northward of the second portage we again found the channels intricate, but the shores being sometimes visible, we ventured to proceed. the character of the country was new and more interesting than before. the mountainous and strong elevations receded from the banks, and the woods crept through their openings to the valleys behind; the adventurous pine alone ascending their bases, and braving storms unfelt below. at noon we landed at the otter portage, where the river ran with great velocity for half a mile, among large stones. having carried across the principal part of the cargo, the people attempted to track the canoes along the edge of the rapid. with the first they succeeded, but the other, in which were the foreman and steersman, was overset and swept away by the current. an account of this misfortune was speedily conveyed to the upper end of the portage, and the men launched the remaining canoe into the rapid, though wholly unacquainted with the dangers of it. the descent was quickly accomplished, and they perceived the bottom of the lost canoe above water in a little bay, whither it had been whirled by the eddy. one man had reached the bank, but no traces could be found of the foreman, louis saint jean. we saved the canoe, out of which two guns and a case of preserved meats had been thrown into the rapid[ ]. so early a disaster deeply affected the spirits of the canadians, and their natural vivacity gave way to melancholy forebodings, while they erected a wooden cross in the rocks near the spot where their companion perished. [ ] mr. hood himself was the first to leap into the canoe and incite the men to follow him, and shoot the rapid to save the lives of their companions.--dr. richardson's _journal_. the loss of this man's services, and the necessity of procuring a guide, determined us to wait for the arrival of the north-west company's people from fort chipewyan, and we encamped accordingly. the canoe was much shattered, but as the gunwales were not broken, we easily repaired it. in the evening a n.w. canoe arrived, with two of the partners. they gave us an account of mr. franklin's proceedings and referred us to the brigade following them for a guide. during the th it rained heavily, and we passed the day in anxious suspense confined to our tents. a black bear came to the bank on the opposite side of the river, and on seeing us glided behind the trees. late on the st, mr. robertson, of the hudson's bay company arrived, and furnished us with a guide, but desired that he might be exchanged when we met the northern canoes. we took advantage of the remainder of the day, to cross the next portage, which was three-fourths of a mile in length. on the nd we crossed three small portages, and encamped at the fourth. at one of them we passed some of the hudson's bay company's canoes, and our application to them was unsuccessful. we began to suspect that isle à la crosse was the nearest place at which we might hope for assistance. however, on the morning of the rd, as we were about to embark, we encountered the last brigades of canoes belonging to both the companies, and obtained a guide and foreman from them. thus completely equipped, we entered the black bear island lake, the navigation of which requires a very experienced pilot. its length is twenty-two miles, and its breadth varies from three to five, yet it is so choked with islands, that no channel is to be found through it, exceeding a mile in breadth. at sunset we landed, and encamped on an island, and at six a.m. on the th, left the lake and crossed three portages into another, which has, probably, several communications with the last, as that by which we passed is too narrow to convey the whole body of the missinippi. at one of these portages called the pin portage is a rapid, about ten yards in length, with a descent of ten or twelve feet, and beset with rocks. light canoes sometimes venture down this fatal gulf, to avoid the portage, unappalled by the warning crosses which overhang the brink, the mournful records of former failures. the hudson's bay company's people whom we passed on the rd, going to the rock house with their furs, were badly provided with food, of which we saw distressing proofs at every portage behind them. they had stripped the birch trees of their rind to procure the soft pulpy vessels in contact with the wood, which are sweet, but very insufficient to satisfy a craving appetite. the lake to the westward of the pin portage, is called sandfly lake; it is seven miles long; and a wide channel connects it with the serpent lake, the extent of which to the southward we could not discern. there is nothing remarkable in this chain of lakes, except their shapes, being rocky basins filled by the waters of the missinippi, insulating the massy eminences, and meandering with almost imperceptible current between them. from the serpent to the sandy lake, it is again confined in a narrow space by the approach of its winding banks, and on the th we were some hours employed in traversing a series of shallow rapids, where it was necessary to lighten the canoes. having missed the path through the woods, we walked two miles in the water upon sharp stones, from which some of us were incessantly slipping into deep holes, and floundering in vain for footing at the bottom; a scene highly diverting, notwithstanding our fatigue. we were detained in sandy lake, till one p.m., by a strong gale, when the wind becoming moderate we crossed five miles to the mouth of the river, and at four p.m. left the main branch of it, and entered a little rivulet called the grassy river, running through an extensive reedy swamp. it is the nest of innumerable ducks, which rear their young, among the long rushes, in security from beasts of prey. at sunset we encamped on the banks of the main branch. at three a.m. june th, we embarked in a thick fog occasioned by a fall of the temperature of the air ten degrees below that of the water. having crossed knee lake, which is nine miles in length, and a portage at its western extremity, we entered primeau lake, with a strong and favourable wind, by the aid of which we ran nineteen miles through it, and encamped at the river's mouth. it is shaped like the barb of an arrow, with the point towards the north, and its greatest breadth is about four miles. during the night, a torrent of rain washed us from our beds, accompanied with the loudest thunder i ever heard. this weather continued during the th, and often compelled us to land, and turn the canoes up, to prevent them from filling. we passed one portage, and the confluence of a river, said to afford, by other rivers beyond a height of land, a shorter but more difficult route to the athabasca lake than that which is generally pursued. on the th we crossed the last portage, and at ten a.m. entered the isle à la crosse lake. its long succession of woody points, both banks stretching towards the south, till their forms were lost in the haze of the horizon, was a grateful prospect to us, after our bewildered and interrupted voyage in the missinippi. the gale wafted us with unusual speed, and as the lake increased in breadth, the waves swelled to a dangerous height. a canoe running before the wind is very liable to burst asunder, when on the top of a wave, so that part of the bottom is out of the water; for there is nothing to support the weight of its heavy cargo but the bark, and the slight gunwales attached to it. on making known our exigencies to the gentlemen in charge of the hudson's bay and north-west companies' forts, they made up an assortment of stores, amounting to five bales; for four of which we were indebted to mr. mac leod of the north west company, who shared with us the ammunition absolutely required for the support of his post; receiving in exchange an order for the same quantity upon the cargo which we expected to follow us from york factory. we had heard from mr. stuart that fort chipewyan was too much impoverished to supply the wants of the expedition, and we found isle à la crosse in the same condition; which, indeed, we might have foreseen, from the exhausted state of cumberland house, but could not have provided against. we never had heard before our departure from york, that the posts in the interior only received annually the stores necessary for the consumption of a single year. it was fortunate for us that mr. franklin had desired ten bags of pemmican to be sent from the saskatchawan across the plains to isle à la crosse for our use. this resource was untouched, but we could not embark more than five pieces in our own canoes. however, mr. mac leod agreed to send a canoe after us to the methye portage, with the pemmican, and we calculated that the diminution of our provision would there enable us to receive it. the beaver river enters this lake on the s.e. side, and another river which has not been named, on the s.w. both these rivers are branches of the missinippi, as it is the only outlet from the lake. the banks appeared to be rocky, and the beach in many places sandy, but its waters are yellow and muddy. it produces a variety of fish, among which its white-fish are esteemed the best in the country. the only birds visible at this season, are common to every part of the missinippi; gulls, ducks, pigeons, goatsuckers, and the raven; and geese and swans pay a momentary visit in passing to the north and returning. there was little in the forts differing from the establishments that we had before seen. the ground on which they are erected is sandy, and favourable to cultivation. curiosity, however, was satisfied by the first experiment, and utility alone has been unable to extend it. isle à la crosse is frequented by the crees and the chipewyans. it is not the dread of the indians, but of one another, that has brought the rival companies so close together at every trading post; each party seeking to prevent the other from engaging the affections of the natives, and monopolizing the trade. whenever a settlement is made by the one, the other immediately follows, without considering the eligibility of the place; for it may injure its opponent, though it cannot benefit itself, and that advantage which is the first object of all other commercial bodies, becomes but the second with the fur traders. on the evening of the th we embarked, and entered a wide channel to the northward of the forts, and extending towards the north-west. it gradually decreased in breadth till it became a river, which is the third fork of the missinippi, and its current being almost insensible, we entered the clear lake at ten a.m. on the st of july. of this lake, which is very large, no part is known except the south border, but its extent would lead us to conclude, that its evaporation must be supplied by another river to the northward, especially as the small channel that communicates with buffalo lake is motionless. the existence of such a river is asserted by the indians, and a shorter passage might be found by it across the height of land to clear water river, than the portage from the methye lake. in buffalo lake, the wind was too strong for us to proceed, and we therefore encamped upon a gravel beach thrown up by the waves. we embarked at three a.m. july d, and at four p.m. entered the mouth of the methye river. the lake is thirty-four miles in length, and fourteen in breadth. it is probably very deep, for we saw no islands on this wide expanse, except at the borders. on the south-west side were two forts, belonging to the companies, and near them a solitary hill seven or eight hundred feet high. at eight p.m. we encamped in the methye river, at the confluence of the river pembina. a route has been explored by it to the red willow river, across the height of land, but the difficulties of it were so great, that the ordinary route is preferred. on the d we passed through the methye river, and encamped on the borders of the methye lake. the soil from isle à la crosse to this place is sandy, with some portion of clay, and the trees numerous; but the methye river is stony, and so shallow, that to lighten the canoes, we made two portages of five and two miles. the paths were overflowed with cold spring water, and barricadoed by fallen trees; we should have been contented to immerse ourselves wholly had the puddle been sufficiently deep, for the musquitoes devoured every part that was exposed to them. on the th we crossed the methye lake, and landed at the portage on the north-west side, in one of the sources of the missinippi. the lake is seventeen miles in length, with a large island in the middle. we proceeded to the north side of the portage with two men, carrying a tent and some instruments, leaving the canoes and cargoes to be transported by daily journeys of two or three miles. the distance is fourteen statute miles, and there are two small lakes about five miles from the north side. several species of fish were found in them, though they have no known communication with any other body of water, being situated on the elevation of the height. the road was a gentle ascent, miry from the late rainy weather, and shaded by pines, poplars, birches, and cypresses, which terminated our view. on the north side we discovered through an opening in the trees, that we were on a hill eight or nine hundred feet high, and at the edge of a steep descent. we were prepared to expect an extensive prospect, but the magnificent scene before us was so superior to what the nature of the country had promised, that it banished even our sense of suffering from the musquitoes, which hovered in clouds about our heads. two parallel chains of hills extended towards the setting sun, their various projecting outlines exhibiting the several gradations of distance, and the opposite bases closing at the horizon. on the nearest eminence, the objects were clearly defined by their dark shadows; the yellow rays blended their softening hues with brilliant green on the next, and beyond it all distinction melted into gray and purple. in the long valley between, the smooth and colourless clear water river wound its spiral course, broken and shattered by encroaching woods. an exuberance of rich herbage covered the soil, and lofty trees climbed the precipice at our feet, hiding its brink with their summits. impatient as we were, and blinded with pain, we paid a tribute of admiration, which this beautiful landscape is capable of exciting, unaided by the borrowed charms of a calm atmosphere, glowing with the vivid tints of evening. we descended to the banks of the clear water river, and having encamped, the two men returned to assist their companions. we had sometimes before procured a little rest, by closing the tent, and burning wood, or flashing gunpowder within, the smoke driving the musquitoes into the crannies of the ground. but this remedy was now ineffectual, though we employed it so perseveringly, as to hazard suffocation: they swarmed under our blankets, goring us with their envenomed trunks, and steeping our clothes in blood. we rose at daylight in a fever, and our misery was unmitigated during our whole stay. the musquitoes of america resemble, in shape, those of africa and europe, but differ essentially in size and other particulars. there are two distinct species, the largest of which is brown, and the smallest black. where they are bred cannot easily be determined, for they are numerous in every soil. they make their first appearance in may, and the cold destroys them in september; in july they are most voracious; and fortunately for the traders, the journeys from the trading posts to the factories are generally concluded at that period. the food of the musquito is blood, which it can extract by penetrating the hide of a buffalo; and if it is not disturbed, it gorges itself so as to swell its body into a transparent globe. the wound does not swell, like that of the african musquito, but it is infinitely more painful; and when multiplied an hundred fold, and continued for so many successive days, it becomes an evil of such magnitude, that cold, famine, and every other concomitant of an inhospitable climate, must yield the pre-eminence to it. it chases the buffalo to the plains, irritating him to madness; and the rein-deer to the sea-shore, from which they do not return till the scourge has ceased. on the th the thermometer was ° in the sun, and on the th °. the musquitoes sought the shade in the heat of the day. it was some satisfaction to us to see the havoc made among them by a large and beautiful species of dragon-fly, called the musquito hawk, which wheeled through their retreats, swallowing its prey without a momentary diminution of its speed. but the temporary relief that we had hoped for was only an exchange of tormentors: our new assailant, the horse-fly, or bull-dog, ranged in the hottest glare of the sun, and carried off a portion of flesh at each attack. another noxious insect, the smallest, but not the least formidable, was the sand-fly known in canada by the name of the _brulot_. to such annoyance all travellers must submit, and it would be unworthy to complain of that grievance in the pursuit of knowledge, which is endured for the sake of profit. this detail of it has only been as an excuse for the scantiness of our observations on the most interesting part of the country through which we passed. the north side of the methye portage is in latitude ° ' " n. and longitude ° ' " w. it is, by our course, one hundred and twenty-four miles from isle à la crosse, and considered as a branch of the missinippi, five hundred and ninety-two miles from the frog portage. the clear water river passing through the valley, described above, evidently rises not far to the eastward. the height, computed by the same mode as that of the echiamamis{ }, by allowing a foot for each mile of distance, and six feet on an average, for each fall and rapid, is two thousand four hundred and sixty-seven feet above the level of the sea, admitting it to be nine hundred feet above the clear water river. the country, in a line between it and the mouth of mackenzie's river, is a continual descent, although to the eastward of that line, there may be several heights between it and the arctic sea. to the eastward, the lands descend to hudson's bay; and to the westward also, till the athabasca river cuts through it, from whence it ascends to the rocky mountains. daring was the spirit of enterprise that first led commerce, with her cumbrous train, from the waters of hudson's bay to those of the arctic sea, across an obstacle to navigation so stupendous as this; and persevering has been the industry which drew riches from a source so remote. on the th two men arrived, and informed us, that they had brought us our ten bags of pemmican, from isle à la crosse, but that they were found to be rotten. thus were we unexpectedly deprived of the most essential of our stores, for we knew fort chipewyan to be destitute of provisions, and that mr. franklin depended upon us for a supply, whereas, enough did not remain for our own use. on the th, the canoes and cargoes reached the north side of the portage. our people had selected two bags of pemmican less mouldy than the rest, which they left on the beach. its decay was caused by some defect in the mode of mixing it. on the th, we embarked in the clear water river, and proceeded down the current. the hills, the banks, and bed of the river, were composed of fine yellow sand, with some limestone rocks. the surface soil was alluvial. at eight a.m. we passed a portage on which the limestone rocks were singularly scattered through the woods, bearing the appearance of houses and turrets overgrown with moss. the earth emitted a hollow sound, and the river was divided by rocks, into narrow crooked channels, every object indicating that some convulsion had disturbed the general order of nature at this place. we had passed a portage above it, and after two long portages below it we encamped. near the last was a small stream so strongly impregnated with sulphur, as to taint the air to a great distance around it. we saw two brown bears on the hills in the course of the day. at daylight, on the th, we embarked. the hills continued on both sides to the mouth of the river, varying from eight hundred to one thousand feet in height. they declined to the banks in long green slopes, diversified by woody mounds and copses. the pines were not here in thick impenetrable masses, but perched aloft in single groups on the heights, or shrouded by the livelier hues of the poplar and willow. we passed the mouth of the red willow river on the south bank, flowing through a deep ravine. it is the continuation of the route by the pembina, before mentioned. at noon we entered the majestic athabasca or elk river. its junction with the clear water river is called the forks. its banks were in accessible cliffs, apparently of clay and stones, about two hundred feet high, and its windings in the south were encircled by high mountains. its breadth exceeded half a mile and was swelled to a mile in many places by long muddy islands in the middle covered with trees. no more portages interrupted our course, but a swift current hurried us towards the quarter in which our anticipated discoveries were to commence. the passing cliffs returned a loud confusion of echoes to the sprightly canoe song, and the dashing paddles; and the eagles, watching with half-closed eyes on the pine-tops, started from their airy rest, and prepared their drowsy pinions for the flight. about twenty miles from the forks are some salt pits and plains, said to be very extensive. the height of the banks was reduced to twenty or thirty feet, and the hills ranged themselves at an increased distance from the banks in the same variety as those of the clear water river. at sunset we encamped on a small sandy island, but the next morning made a speedy retreat to the canoes, the water having nearly overflown our encampment. we passed two deserted settlements of the fur traders on opposite banks, at a place called pierre au calumet. beyond it the hills disappeared, and the banks were no longer visible above the trees. the river carries away yearly large portions of soil, which increases its breadth, and diminishes its depth, rendering the water so muddy as to be scarcely drinkable. whole forests of timber are drifted down the stream, and choke up the channels between the islands at its mouth. we observed the traces of herds of buffaloes, where they had crossed the river, the trees being trodden down and strewed, as if by a whirlwind. at four p.m. we left the main branch of the athabasca, entering a small river, called the embarras. it is narrow and muddy, with pines of an enormous size on its banks. some of them are two hundred feet high, and three or four feet in diameter. at nine p.m. we landed and encamped; but finding ourselves in a nest of musquitoes, we continued our journey before day-break; and at eight a.m., emerged into the athabasca lake. a strong wind agitated this sea of fresh water, which, however, we crossed without any accident, and landed on the north side of it, at fort chipewyan; where we had the satisfaction of finding our companions in good health, and of experiencing that sympathy in our anxiety on the state of affairs, which was only to be expected from those who were to share our future fortunes. chapter vii. departure from chipewyan--difficulties of the various navigations of the rivers and lakes, and of the portages--slave lake and fort providence--scarcity of provisions, and discontent of the canadian voyagers--difficulties with regard to the indian guides--refusal to proceed--visit of observation to the upper part of copper-mine river--return to the winter-quarters of fort enterprise. . july . early this morning the stores were distributed to the three canoes. our stock of provision unfortunately did not amount to more than sufficient for one day's consumption, exclusive of two barrels of flour, three cases of preserved meats, some chocolate, arrow-root, and portable soup, which we had brought from england, and intended to reserve for our journey to the coast the next season. seventy pounds of moose meat and a little barley were all that mr. smith was enabled to give us. it was gratifying, however, to perceive that this scarcity of food did not depress the spirits of our canadian companions, who cheerfully loaded their canoes, and embarked in high glee after they had received the customary dram. at noon we bade farewell to our kind friend mr. smith. the crews commenced a lively paddling song on quitting the shore, which was continued until we had lost sight of the houses. we soon reached the western boundary of the lake, and at two entered the stony river, one of the discharges of the athabasca lake into the slave river, and having a favouring current passed swiftly along. this narrow stream is confined between low swampy banks, which support willows, dwarf birch, and alder. at five we passed its conflux with the peace river. the slave river, formed by the union of these streams, is about three quarters of a mile wide. we descended this magnificent river, with much rapidity, and after passing through several narrow channels, formed by an assemblage of islands, crossed a spot where the waters had a violent whirling motion, which, when the river is low, is said to subside into a dangerous rapid; on the present occasion no other inconvenience was felt than the inability of steering the canoes, which were whirled about in every direction by the eddies, until the current carried them beyond their influence. we encamped at seven, on the swampy bank of the river, but had scarcely pitched the tents before we were visited by a terrible thunder-storm; the rain fell in torrents, and the violence of the wind caused the river to overflow its banks, so that we were completely flooded. swarms of musquitoes succeeded the storm, and their tormenting stings, superadded to other inconveniences, induced us to embark, and, after taking a hasty supper to pursue our voyage down the stream during the night. at six on the following morning we passed the rein-deer islands, and at ten reached the entrance of the dog river, where we halted to set the fishing nets. these were examined in the evening, but to our mortification we obtained only four small trout, and were compelled to issue part of our preserved meats for supper. the latitude of the mouth of dog river, was observed ° ' " n. the nets were taken up at daylight, but they furnished only a solitary pike. we lost no time in embarking, and crossed the crooked channel of the dog rapid, when two of the canoes came in such violent contact with each other, that the sternmost had its bow broken off. we were fortunately near the shore or the disabled canoe would have sunk. the injury being repaired in two hours, we again embarked, and having descended another rapid, arrived at the cassette portage of four hundred and sixty paces, over which the cargoes and canoes were carried in about twenty-six minutes. we next passed through a narrow channel full of rapids, crossed the portage d'embarras of seventy yards; and the portage of the little rock, of three hundred yards, at which another accident happened to one of the canoes, by the bowman slipping and letting it fall upon a rock, and breaking it in two. two hours were occupied in sewing the detached pieces together, and covering the seam with pitch; but this being done it was as effective as before. after leaving this place we soon came to the next portage, of two hundred and seventy-three paces; and shortly afterwards to the mountain portage, of one hundred and twenty: which is appropriately named, as the path leads over the summit of a high hill. this elevated situation commands a very grand and picturesque view, for some miles along the river, which at this part is about a mile wide. we next crossed a portage of one hundred and twenty yards; and then the pelican portage, of eight hundred paces. mr. back took an accurate sketch of the interesting scenery which the river presents at this place. after descending six miles further we came to the last portage on the route to slave lake which we crossed, and encamped in its lower end. it is called "_the portage of the drowned_," and it received that name from a melancholy accident which took place many years ago. two canoes arrived at the upper end of the portage, in one of which there was an experienced guide. this man judging from the height of the river, deemed it practicable to shoot the rapid, and determined upon trying it. he accordingly placed himself in the bow of his canoe, having previously agreed, that if the passage was found easy, he should, on reaching the bottom of the rapid, fire a musket, as a signal for the other canoe to follow. the rapid proved dangerous, and called forth all the skill of the guide, and the utmost exertion of his crew, and they narrowly escaped destruction. just as they were landing, an unfortunate fellow seizing the loaded fowling-piece, fired at a duck which rose at the instant. the guide anticipating the consequences, ran with the utmost haste to the other end of the portage, but he was too late: the other canoe had pushed off, and he arrived only to witness the fate of his comrades. they got alarmed in the middle of the rapid, the canoe was upset, and every man perished. the various rapids we passed this day, are produced by an assemblage of islands and rocky ledges, which obstruct the river, and divide it into many narrow channels. two of these channels are rendered still more difficult by accumulations of drift timber; a circumstance which has given a name to one of the portages. the rocks which compose the bed of the river, and the numerous islands, belong to the granite formation. the distance made to-day was thirteen miles. _july _.--we embarked at four a.m. and pursued our course down the river. the rocks cease at the last portage; and below it the banks are composed of alluvial soil, which is held together by the roots of trees and shrubs that crown their summits. the river is about a mile wide, and the current is greatly diminished. at eight we landed at the mouth of the salt river, and pitched our tents, intending to remain there that and the next day for the purpose of fishing. after breakfast, which made another inroad on our preserved meats, we proceeded up the river in a light canoe, to visit the salt springs, leaving a party behind to attend the nets. this river is about one hundred yards wide at its mouth. its waters did not become brackish until we had ascended it seven or eight miles; but when we had passed several rivulets of fresh water which flowed in, the main stream became very salt, at the same time contracting its width to fifteen or twenty yards. at a distance of twenty-two miles, including the windings of the river, the plains commence. having pitched the tent at this spot, we set out to visit the principal springs, and had walked about three miles when the musquitoes compelled us to give up our project. we did not see the termination of the plains toward the east, but on the north and west they are bounded by an even ridge, about six or seven hundred feet in height. several salt springs issue from the foot of this ridge, and spread their waters over the plain, which consists of tenacious clay. during the summer much evaporation takes place, and large heaps of salt are left behind crystallized in the form of cubes. some beds of grayish compact gypsum were exposed on the sides of the hills. the next morning after filling some casks with salt for our use during winter, we embarked to return, and had descended the river a few miles, when turning round a point, we perceived a buffalo plunge into the river before us. eager to secure so valuable a prize, we instantly opened a fire upon him from four muskets, and in a few minutes he fell, but not before he had received fourteen balls. the carcass was towed to the bank, and the canoe speedily laden with meat. after this piece of good fortune, we descended the stream merrily, our voyagers chanting their liveliest songs. on arrival at the mouth of the river, we found that our nets had not produced more than enough to supply a scanty meal to the men whom we had left behind, but this was now of little importance, as the acquisition of meat we had made would enable us to proceed without more delay to slave lake. the _poisson inconnu_ mentioned by mackenzie, is found here. it is a species of the genus salmo, and is said by the indians to ascend from the arctic sea, but being unable to pass the cascade of the slave river, is not found higher than this place. in the evening a violent thunder-storm came on with heavy rain, thermometer °. at a very early hour on the following morning we embarked, and continued to paddle against a very strong wind and high waves, under the shelter of the bank of the rivers, until two p.m., when having arrived at a more exposed part of the stream, the canoes took in so much water that we were obliged to disembark on a small island. the river here is from one mile and a quarter to one mile and three quarters wide. its banks are of moderate height, sandy, and well wooded. _july _.--we made more progress notwithstanding the continuance of the wind. the course of the river is very winding, making in one place a circuit of seven or eight miles round a peninsula, which is joined to the west bank by a narrow isthmus. near the foot of this elbow, a long island occupies the centre of the river, which it divides into two channels. the longitude was obtained near to it ° ' ", and variation ° ' " n.,{ } and the latitude ° ' " n., about four miles farther down. we passed the mouth of a broad channel leading to the north-east, termed la grande rivière de jean, one of the two large branches by which the river pours its waters into the great slave lake; the flooded _delta_ at the mouth of the river is intersected by several smaller channels, through one of which, called the channel of the scaffold, we pursued our voyage on the following morning, and by eight a.m. reached the establishment of the north-west company on moose-deer island. we found letters from mr. wentzel, dated fort providence, a station on the north side of the lake, which communicated to us, that there was an indian guide waiting for us at that post; but, that the chief and the hunters, who were to accompany the party, had gone to a short distance to hunt, having become impatient at our delay. soon after landing, i visited the hudson's bay post on the same island, and engaged pierre st. germain, an interpreter for the copper indians. we regretted to find the posts of both the companies extremely bare of provision; but as the gentlemen in charge had despatched men on the preceding evening, to a band of indians, in search of meat, and they promised to furnish us with whatever should be brought, it was deemed advisable to wait for their return, as the smallest supply was now of importance to us. advantage was taken of the delay to repair effectually the canoe, which had been broken in the dog rapid. on the next evening the men arrived with the meat, and enabled mr. mccleod{ }, of the north-west company, to furnish us with four hundred pounds of dried provisions. mr. mcvicar, of the hudson's bay company, also supplied one hundred and fifty pounds. this quantity we considered would be sufficient, until we could join the hunters. we also obtained three fishing-nets, a gun, and a pair of pistols, which were all the stores these posts could furnish, although the gentlemen in charge were much disposed to assist us. moose-deer island is about a mile in diameter, and rises towards the centre about three hundred feet above the lake. its soil is in general sandy, in some parts swampy. the varieties of the northern berries grow abundantly on it. the north-west company's fort is in latitude ° ' " n.; longitude ° ' " w., being two hundred and sixty statute miles distant from fort chipewyan, by the river course. the variation of the compass is ° ' " e. the houses of the two companies are small, and have a bleak northern aspect. there are vast accumulations of drift wood on the shores of the lake, brought down by the river, which afford plenty of fuel. the inhabitants live principally on the fish, which the lake at certain seasons furnishes in great abundance; of these, the white fish, trout, and _poisson inconnu_ are considered the best. they also procure moose, buffalo, and rein-deer meat occasionally from their hunters; but these animals are generally found at the distance of several days' walk from the forts. the indians who trade here are chipewyans. beavers, martens, foxes, and musk-rats, are caught in numbers in the vicinity of this great body of water. the musquitoes here were still a serious annoyance to us, but less numerous than before. they were in some degree replaced by a small sandfly, whose bite is succeeded by a copious flow of blood, and considerable swelling, but is attended with incomparably less irritation, than the puncture of the musquito. on the th of july we embarked at four a.m., and proceeded along the south shore of the lake, through a narrow channel, formed by some islands, beyond the confluence of the principal branch of the slave river; and as far as stony island, where we breakfasted. this island is merely a rock of gneiss, that rises forty or fifty feet above the lake, and is precipitous on the north side. as the day was fine, and the lake smooth, we ventured upon paddling across to the rein-deer islands, which were distant about thirteen miles in a northern direction, instead of pursuing the usual track by keeping further along the south shore which inclines to the eastward from this point. these islands are numerous, and consist of granite, rising from one hundred to two hundred feet above the water. they are for the most part naked; but towards the centres of the larger ones, there is a little soil, and a few groves of pines. at seven in the evening we landed upon one of them, and encamped. on the following morning we ran before a strong breeze, and a heavy swell, for some hours, but at length were obliged to seek shelter on a large island adjoining to isle à la cache of mackenzie, where the following observations were obtained: latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w., and variation ° ' " e. the wind and swell having subsided in the afternoon, we re-embarked and steered towards the western point of the big-island of mackenzie, and when four miles distant from it, had forty-two fathoms soundings. passing between this island and a promontory of the main shore, termed big cape, we entered into a deep bay, which receives the waters from several rivers that come from the northward; and we immediately perceived a decrease in the temperature of the waters from ° to °. we coasted along the eastern side of the bay, its western shore being always visible, but the canoes were exposed to the hazard of being broken by the numerous sunken rocks, which were scattered in our track. we encamped for the night on a rocky island, and by eight a.m. on the following morning, arrived at fort providence, which is situated twenty-one miles from the entrance of the bay. the post is exclusively occupied by the north-west company, the hudson's bay company having no settlement to the northward of great slave lake. we found mr. wentzel and our interpreter jean baptiste adam here, with one of the indian guides: but the chief of the tribe and his hunters were encamped with their families, some miles from the fort, in a good situation for fishing. our arrival was announced to him by a fire on the top of a hill, and before night a messenger came to communicate his intention of seeing us next morning. the customary present, of tobacco and some other articles, was immediately sent to him. mr. wentzel prepared me for the first conference with the indians by mentioning all the information they had already given to him. the duties allotted to this gentleman were, the management of the indians, the superintendence of the canadian voyagers, the obtaining, and the general distribution, of the provision, and the issue of the other stores. these services he was well qualified to perform, having been accustomed to execute similar duties, during a residence of upwards of twenty years in this country. we also deemed mr. wentzel to be a great acquisition to our party, as a check on the interpreters, he being one of the few traders who speak the chipewyan language. as we were informed that external appearances made lasting impressions on the indians, we prepared for the interview by decorating ourselves in uniform, and suspending a medal round each of our necks. our tents had been previously pitched and over one them a silken union flag was hoisted. soon after noon, on july th, several indian canoes were seen advancing in a regular line, and on their approach, the chief was discovered in the headmost, which was paddled by two men. on landing at the fort, the chief assumed a very grave aspect, and walked up to mr. wentzel with a measured and dignified step, looking neither to the right nor to the left, at the persons who had assembled on the beach to witness his debarkation, but preserving the same immoveability of countenance until he reached the hall, and was introduced to the officers. when he had smoked his pipe, drank a small portion of spirits and water himself, and issued a glass to each of his companions, who had seated themselves on the floor, he commenced his harangue, by mentioning the circumstances that led to his agreeing to accompany the expedition, an engagement which he was quite prepared to fulfil. he was rejoiced, he said, to see such great chiefs on his lands; his tribe were poor, but they loved white men who had been their benefactors; and he hoped that our visit would be productive of much good to them. the report which preceded our arrival, he said, had caused much grief to him. it was at first rumoured that a great medicine chief accompanied us, who was able to restore the dead to life; at this he rejoiced; the prospect of again seeing his departed relatives had enlivened his spirits, but his first communication with mr. wentzel had removed these vain hopes, and he felt as if his friends had a second time been torn from him. he now wished to be informed exactly of the nature of our expedition. in reply to this speech, which i understood had been prepared for many days, i endeavoured to explain the objects of our mission in a manner best calculated to ensure his exertions in our service. with this view, i told him that we were sent out by the greatest chief in the world, who was the sovereign also of the trading companies in the country; that he was the friend of peace, and had the interest of every nation at heart. having learned that his children in the north, were much in want of articles of merchandize, in consequence of the extreme length and difficulty of the present route; he had sent us to search for a passage by the sea, which if found, would enable large vessels to transport great quantities of goods more easily to their lands. that we had not come for the purpose of traffic, but solely to make discoveries for their benefit, as well as that of every other people. that we had been directed to inquire into the nature of all the productions of the countries we might pass through, and particularly respecting their inhabitants. that we desired the assistance of the indians in guiding us, and providing us with food; finally, that we were most positively enjoined by the great chief to recommend that hostilities should cease throughout this country; and especially between the indians and the esquimaux, whom he considered his children, in common with other natives; and by way of enforcing the latter point more strongly, i assured him that a forfeiture of all the advantages which might be anticipated from the expedition would be a certain consequence if any quarrel arose between his party and the esquimaux. i also communicated to him that owing to the distance we had travelled, we had now few more stores than was necessary for the use of our own party, a part of{ } these, however, should be forthwith presented to him; on his return he and his party, should be remunerated with cloth, ammunition, tobacco, and some useful iron materials, besides having their debts to the north-west company discharged. the chief, whose name is akaitcho or big-foot, replied by a renewal of his assurances, that he and his party would attend us to the end of our journey, and that they would do their utmost to provide us with the means of subsistence. he admitted that his tribe had made war upon the esquimaux, but said they were now desirous of peace, and unanimous in their opinion as to the necessity of all who accompanied us abstaining from every act of enmity against that nation. he added, however, that the esquimaux were very treacherous, and therefore recommended that we should advance towards them with caution. the communications which the chief and the guides then gave respecting the route to the copper-mine river, and its course to the sea, coincided in every material point with the statements which were made by boileau and black-meat at chipewyan, but they differed in their descriptions of the coast. the information, however, collected from both sources was very vague and unsatisfactory. none of his tribe had been more than three days' march along the sea-coast to the eastward of the river's mouth. as the water was unusually high this season, the indian guides recommended our going by a shorter route to the copper-mine river than that they had first proposed to mr. wentzel, and they assigned as a reason for the change, that the rein-deer would be sooner found upon this track. they then drew a chart of the proposed route on the floor with charcoal, exhibiting a chain of twenty-five small lakes extending towards the north, about one half of them connected by a river which flows into slave lake, near fort providence. one of the guides, named keskarrah, drew the copper-mine river, running through the upper lake, in a westerly direction towards the great bear lake, and then northerly to the sea. the other guide drew the river in a straight line to the sea from the above-mentioned place, but, after some dispute, admitted the correctness of the first delineation. the latter was elder brother to akaitcho, and he said that he had accompanied mr. hearne on his journey, and though very young at the time, still remembered many of the circumstances, and particularly the massacre committed by the indians on the esquimaux. they pointed out another lake to the southward of the river, about three days' journey distant from it, on which the chief proposed the next winter's establishment should be formed, as the rein-deer would pass there in the autumn and spring. its waters contained fish, and there was a sufficiency of wood for building as well as for the winter's consumption. these were important considerations, and determined me in pursuing the route they now proposed. they could not inform us what time we should take in reaching the lake, until they saw our manner of travelling in the large canoes, but they supposed we might be about twenty days, in which case i entertained the hope that if we could then procure provision we should have time to descend the copper-mine river for a considerable distance if not to the sea itself, and return to the lake before the winter set in. it may here be proper to mention that it had been my original plan to descend the mackenzie's river, and to cross the great bear lake from the eastern side of which, boileau informed me, there is a communication with the copper-mine river by four small lakes and portages, but, under our present circumstances, this course could not be followed, because it would remove us too far from the establishments at the great slave lake, to receive the supplies of ammunition and some other stores in the winter which were absolutely necessary for the prosecution of our journey, or to get the esquimaux interpreter, whom we expected. if i had not deemed these circumstances paramount i should have preferred the route by bear lake. akaitcho and the guides having communicated all the information they possessed on the different points to which our questions had been directed, i placed my medal round the neck of the chief, and the officers presented theirs to an elder brother of his and the two guides, communicating to them that these marks of distinction were given as tokens of our friendship and as pledges of the sincerity of our professions. being conferred in the presence of all the hunters their acquisition was highly gratifying to them, but they studiously avoided any great expression of joy, because such an exposure would have been unbecoming the dignity which the senior indians assume during a conference. they assured us, however, of their being duly sensible of these tokens of our regard, and that they should be preserved during their lives with the utmost care. the chief evinced much penetration and intelligence during the whole of this conversation, which gave us a favourable opinion of his intellectual powers. he made many inquiries respecting the discovery ships, under the command of captain parry, which had been mentioned to him, and asked why a passage had not been discovered long ago, if one existed. it may be stated that we gave a faithful explanation to all his inquiries, which policy would have prompted us to do if a love of truth had not; for whenever these northern nations detect a falsehood in the dealings of the traders, they make it an unceasing subject of reproach, and their confidence is irrecoverably lost. we presented to the chief, the two guides, and the seven hunters, who had engaged to accompany us, some cloth, blankets, tobacco, knives, daggers, besides other useful iron materials, and a gun to each; also a keg of very weak spirits and water, which they kept until the evening, as they had to try their guns before dark, and make the necessary preparations for commencing the journey on the morrow. they, however, did not leave us so soon, as the chief was desirous of being present, with his party, at the dance, which was given in the evening to our canadian voyagers. they were highly entertained by the vivacity and agility displayed by our companions in their singing and dancing: and especially by their imitating the gestures of a canadian, who placed himself in the most ludicrous postures; and, whenever this was done, the gravity of the chief gave way to violent bursts of laughter. in return for the gratification akaitcho had enjoyed, he desired his young men to exhibit the dog-rib indian dance; and immediately they ranged themselves in a circle, and, keeping their legs widely separated, began to jump simultaneously sideways; their bodies were bent, their hands placed on their hips, and they uttered forcibly the interjection _tsa_ at each jump. devoid as were their attitudes of grace, and their music of harmony, we were much amused by the novelty of the exhibition. in the midst of this scene an untoward accident occurred, which for a time interrupted our amusements. the tent in which dr. richardson and i lodged, having caught fire from some embers that had been placed in it to expel the musquitoes, was entirely burnt. hepburn, who was sleeping within it, close to some powder, most providentially awoke in time to throw it clear of the flame, and rescue the baggage, before any material injury had been received. we dreaded the consequences of this disaster upon the fickle minds of the indians, and wished it not to be communicated to them. the chief, however, was soon informed of it by one of his people, and expressed his desire that no future misfortune should be concealed from him. we found he was most concerned to hear that the flag had been burnt, but we removed his anxiety on that point, by the assurance that it could easily be repaired. we were advised by mr. wentzel to recommence the dancing after this event, lest the indians should imagine, by our putting a stop to it, that we considered the circumstance as an unfavourable commencement of our undertaking. we were, however deeply impressed with a grateful sense of the divine providence, in averting the threatened destruction of our stores, which would have been fatal to every prospect of proceeding forward this season. _august _.--this morning the indians set out, intending to wait for us at the mouth of the yellow-knife river. we remained behind to pack our stores, in bales of eighty pounds each, an operation which could not be done in the presence of these indians, as they are in the habit of begging for every thing they see. our stores consisted of two barrels of gunpowder, one hundred and forty pounds of ball and small shot, four fowling-pieces, a few old trading guns, eight pistols, twenty-four indian daggers, some packages of knives, chisels, axes, nails, and fastenings for a boat; a few yards of cloth, some blankets, needles, looking-glasses, and beads; together with nine fishing-nets, having meshes of different sizes. our provision was two casks of flour, two hundred dried rein-deer tongues, some dried moose-meat, portable soup, and arrow-root, sufficient in the whole for ten days' consumption, besides two cases of chocolate, and two canisters of tea. we engaged another canadian voyager at this place, and the expedition then consisted of twenty-eight persons, including the officers, and the wives of three of our voyagers, who were brought for the purpose of making shoes and clothes for the men at the winter establishment; there were also three children, belonging to two of these women[ ]. [ ] the following is the list of the officers and men who composed the expedition on its departure from fort providence: john franklin, lieutenant of the royal navy and commander. john richardson, m.d., surgeon of the royal navy. mr. george back, of the royal navy, admiralty midshipman. mr. robert hood, of the royal navy, admiralty midshipman. mr. frederick wentzel, clerk to the north-west company. john hepburn, english seaman. canadian voyagers. joseph peltier, matthew pelonquin, dit crèdit, solomon belanger, joseph benoit, joseph gagné, pierre dumas, joseph forcier, ignace perrault, francois samandré, gabriel beauparlant, vincenza fontano, registe vaillant, jean baptiste parent, jean baptiste belanger, jean baptiste belleau, emanuel cournoyée, michel teroahauté, an iroquois. interpreters. pierre st. germain, jean baptiste adam, chipewyan bois brulés. our observations place fort providence in latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w.; the variation of the compass is ° ' " e., and dip of the needle ° ' ". it is distant from moose-deer island sixty-six geographic miles. this is the last establishment of the traders in this direction, but the north-west company have two to the northward of it, on the mackenzie river. it has been erected for the convenience of the copper and dog-rib indians, who generally bring such a quantity of rein-deer meat that the residents are enabled, out of their superabundance, to send annually some provision to the fort at moose-deer island. they also occasionally procure moose and buffalo meat, but these animals are not numerous on this side of the lake. few furs are collected. _les poissons inconnus_, trout, pike, carp, and white-fish are very plentiful, and on these the residents principally subsist. their great supply of fish is procured in the latter part of september and the beginning of october, but there are a few taken daily in the nets during the winter. the surrounding country consists almost entirely of coarse grained granite, frequently enclosing large masses of reddish felspar. these rocks form hills which attain an elevation of three hundred or four hundred feet, about a mile behind the house; their surface is generally naked, but in the valleys between them grow a few spruce, aspen, and birch trees, together with a variety of shrubs and berry-bearing plants. on the afternoon of the d of august we commenced our journey, having, in addition to our three canoes, a smaller one to convey the women; we were all in high spirits, being heartily glad that the time had at length arrived when our course was to be directed towards the copper-mine river, and through a line of country which had not been previously visited by any european. we proceeded to the northward, along the eastern side of a deep bay of the lake, passing through various channels, formed by an assemblage of rocky islands; and, at sunset, encamped on a projecting point of the north main shore, eight miles from fort providence. to the westward of this arm, or bay, of the lake, there is another deep bay, that receives the waters of a river, which communicates with great marten lake, where the north-west company had once a post established. the eastern shores of the great slave lake are very imperfectly known: none of the traders have visited them, and the indians give such loose and unsatisfactory accounts, that no estimation can be formed of its extent in that direction. these men say there is a communication from its eastern extremity by a chain of lakes, with a shallow river, which discharges its waters into the sea. this stream they call the thlouee-tessy{ }, and report it to be navigable for indian canoes only. the forms of the south and western shores are better known from the survey of sir alexander mackenzie, and in consequence of the canoes having to pass and repass along these borders annually, between moose-deer island and mackenzie's river. our observations made the breadth of the lake, between stony island, and the north main shore, sixty miles less than it is laid down in arrowsmith's map; and there is also a considerable difference in the longitude of the eastern side of the bay, which we entered. this lake, owing to its great depth, is seldom completely frozen over before the last week in november, and the ice, which is generally seven feet thick, breaks up about the middle of june, three weeks later than that of the slave river. the only known outlet to this vast body of water, which receives so many streams on its north and south shores, is the mackenzie's river. _august _.--we embarked at three a.m. and proceeded to the entrance of the yellow-knife river of the traders, which is called by the natives beg-ho-lo-dessy; or, river of the toothless fish. we found akaitcho, and the hunters with their families, encamped here. there were also several other indians of his tribe, who intended to accompany us some distance into the interior. this party was quickly in motion after our arrival, and we were soon surrounded by a fleet of seventeen indian canoes. in company with them we paddled up the river, which is one hundred and fifty yards wide, and, in an hour, came to a cascade of five feet, where we were compelled to make a portage of one hundred and fifty-eight yards. we next crossed a dilatation of the river, about six miles in length, upon which the name of lake prosperous was bestowed. its shores, though scantily supplied with wood, are very picturesque. akaitcho caused himself to be paddled by his slave, a young man, of the dog-rib nation, whom he had taken by force from his friends; when he thought himself, however, out of reach of our observation, he laid aside a good deal of his state, and assisted in the labour; and after a few days further acquaintance with us, he did not hesitate to paddle in our presence, or even carry his canoe on the portages. several of the canoes were managed by women, who proved to be noisy companions, for they quarrelled frequently, and the weakest was generally profuse in her lamentations, which were not at all diminished, when the husband attempted to settle the difference by a few blows with his paddle. an observation, near the centre of the lake, gave ° ' " w., and ° ' " e., variation. leaving the lake, we ascended a very strong rapid, and arrived at a range of three steep cascades, situated in the bend of the river. here we made a portage of one thousand three hundred yards over a rocky hill, which received the name of the bowstring portage, from its shape. we found that the indians had greatly the advantage of us in this operation; the men carried their small canoes, the women and children the clothes and provisions, and at the end of the portage they were ready to embark; whilst it was necessary for our people to return four times, before they could transport the weighty cargo with which we were burdened. after passing through another expansion of the river, and over the steep portage of one hundred and fifteen yards, we encamped on a small rocky isle, just large enough to hold our party, and the indians took possession of an adjoining rock. we were now thirty miles from fort providence. as soon as the tents were pitched, the officers and men were divided into watches for the night; a precaution intended to be taken throughout the journey, not merely to prevent our being surprised by strangers, but also to shew our companions that we were constantly on our guard. the chief who suffered nothing to escape his observation, remarked, "that he should sleep without anxiety among the esquimaux, for he perceived no enemy could surprise us." after supper we retired to rest, but our sleep was soon interrupted by the indians joining in loud lamentations over a sick child, whom they supposed to be dying. dr. richardson, however, immediately went to the boy, and administered some medicine which relieved his pain, and put a stop to their mourning. the temperatures, this day, were at four a.m., °, three p.m. °, at seven p.m. °. on the th we crossed a small lake, and passed in succession over the blue berry cascade, and double fall portages, where the river falls over ridges of rocks that completely obstruct the passage for canoes. we came to three strong rapids beyond these barriers, which were surmounted by the aid of the poles and lines, and then to a bend of the river in which the cascades were so frequent, that to avoid them we carried the canoes into a chain of small lakes. we entered them by a portage of nine hundred and fifty paces, and during the afternoon traversed three other grassy lakes and encamped on the banks of the river, at the end of the yellow-knife portage, of three hundred and fifty paces. this day's work was very laborious to our men. akaitcho, however, had directed his party to assist them in carrying their burdens on the portages, which they did cheerfully. this morning mr. back caught several fish with a fly, a method of fishing entirely new to the indians; and they were not more delighted than astonished at his skill and success. the extremes of temperature to-day{ } were ° and °. on august th we continued the ascent of the river which varied much in breadth as did the current in rapidity. it flows between high rocky banks on which there is sufficient soil to support pines, birch, and poplars. five portages were crossed, then the rocky lake, and we finished our labours at the end of the sixth portage. the issue of dried meat for breakfast this morning had exhausted all our stock; and no other provision remained but the portable soups, and a few pounds of preserved meat. at the recommendation of akaitcho, the hunters were furnished with ammunition, and desired to go forward as speedily as possible, to the part where the rein-deer were expected to be found; and to return to us with any provision they could procure. he also assured us that in our advance towards them we should come to lakes abounding in fish. many of the indians being likewise in distress for food, decided on separating from us, and going on at a quicker pace than we could travel. akaitcho himself was always furnished with a portion at our meals, as a token of regard which the traders have taught the chiefs to expect, and which we willingly paid. the next morning we crossed a small lake and a portage, before we entered the river; shortly afterwards, the canoes and cargoes were carried a mile along its banks, to avoid three very strong rapids, and over another portage into a narrow lake; we encamped on an island in the middle of it, to set the nets; but they only yielded a few fish, and we had a very scanty supper, as it was necessary to deal out our provision sparingly. the longitude ° ' " w. and variation{ } ° " e., were observed. we had the mortification of finding the nets entirely empty next morning, an untoward circumstance that discouraged our voyagers very much; and they complained of being unable to support the fatigue to which they were daily exposed, on their present scanty fare. we had seen with regret that the portages were more frequent as we advanced to the northward, and feared that their strength would fail, if provision were not soon obtained. we embarked at six, proceeded to the head of the lake, and crossed a portage of two thousand five hundred paces, leading over ridges of sand-hills, which nourished pines of a larger size than we had lately seen. this conducted us to mossy lake, whence we regained the river, after traversing another portage. the birch and poplar portages next followed, and beyond these we came to a part where the river takes a great circuit, and its course is interrupted by several heavy falls. the guide, therefore, advised us to quit it, and proceed through a chain of nine lakes extending to the north-east, which we did, and encamped on icy portage, where the nets were set. the bottom of the valley, through which the track across this portage led, was covered with ice four or five feet thick, the remains of a large iceberg, which is annually formed there, by the snow drifting into the valley, and becoming consolidated into ice by the overflowing of some springs that are warm enough to resist the winter's cold. the latitude is ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w. we were alarmed in the night by our fire communicating to the dry moss, which, spreading by the force of a strong wind, encircled the encampment and threatened destruction to our canoes and baggage. the watch immediately aroused all the men, who quickly removed whatever could be injured to a distant part, and afterwards succeeded in extinguishing the flame. _august _.--during this day we crossed five portages, passing over a very bad road. the men were quite exhausted with fatigue by five p.m., when we were obliged to encamp on the borders of the fifth lake, in which the fishing nets were set. we began this evening to issue some portable soup and arrow-root, which our companions relished very much; but this food is too unsubstantial to support their vigour under their daily exhausting labour, and we could not furnish them with a sufficient quantity even of this to satisfy their desires. we commenced our labours on the next day in a very wet uncomfortable state, as it had rained through the night until four a.m. the fifth grassy lake was crossed, and four others, with their intervening portages, and we returned to the river by a portage of one thousand four hundred and fifteen paces. the width of the stream here is about one hundred yards, its banks are moderately high and scantily covered with wood. we afterwards twice carried the cargoes along its banks to avoid a very stony rapid, and then crossed the first carp portage in longitude ° ' " w., variation of the compass ° ' " e., and encamped on the borders of lower carp lake. the chief having told us that this was a good lake for fishing, we determined on halting for a day or two to recruit our men, of whom three were lame, and several others had swelled legs. the chief himself went forward to look after the hunters, and promised to make a fire as a signal if they had killed any rein-deer. all the indians had left us in the course of yesterday and to-day to seek these animals, except the guide keskarrah. _august _.--the nets furnishing only four carp, we embarked for the purpose of searching for a better spot, and encamped again on the shores of the same lake. the spirits of the men were much revived by seeing some recent traces of rein-deer at this place, which circumstance caused them to cherish the hope of soon getting a supply of meat from the hunters. they were also gratified by finding abundance of blue berries near the encampment, which made an agreeable and substantial addition to their otherwise scanty fare. we were teased by sand-flies this evening, although the thermometer did not rise above °. the country through which we had travelled for some days consists principally of granite, intermixed in some spots with mica-slate, often passing into clay-slate. but the borders of lower carp lake, where the gneiss formation prevails, are composed of hills, having less altitude, fewer precipices, and more rounded summits. the valleys are less fertile, containing a gravelly soil and fewer trees; so that the country has throughout a more barren aspect. _august _.--having caught sufficient trout, white-fish, and carp, yesterday and this morning, to afford the party two hearty meals, and the men having recovered their fatigue, we proceeded on our journey, crossed the upper carp portage, and embarked on the lake of that name, where we had the gratification of paddling for ten miles. we put up at its termination to fish, by the advice of our guide, and the following observations were then taken: longitude ° ' " w., variation of the compass ° ' " e., dip ° ' ". at this place we first perceived the north end of our dipping-needle to pass the perpendicular line when the instrument was faced to the west. we had scarcely quitted the encampment next day before an indian met us, with the agreeable communication, that the hunters had made several fires, which were certain indications of their having killed rein-deer. this intelligence inspired our companions with fresh energy, and they quickly traversed the next portage, and paddled through the rein-deer lake; at the north side of it we found the canoes of our hunters, and learned from our guide, that the indians usually leave their canoes here, as the water communication on their hunting grounds is bad. the yellow-knife river had now dwindled into an insignificant rivulet, and we could not trace it beyond the next lake, except as a mere brook. the latitude of its source ° ' " n., longitude ° ' w., and its length is one hundred and fifty-six statute miles. though this river is of sufficient breadth and depth for navigating in canoes, yet i conceive its course is too much interrupted by cascades and rapids for its ever being used as a channel for the conveyance of merchandise. whilst the crews were employed in making a portage over the foot of prospect hill, we ascended to the top of it, and as it is the highest ground in the neighbourhood, its summit, which is about five hundred feet above the water, commands an extensive view. akaitcho, who was here with his family, pointed out to us the smoke of the distant fires which the hunters had made. the prospect is agreeably diversified by an intermixture of hill and valley, and the appearance of twelve lakes in different directions. on the borders of these lakes a few thin pine groves occur, but the country in general is destitute of almost every vegetable, except a few berry-bearing shrubs and lichens, and has a very barren aspect. the hills are composed of gneiss, but their acclivities are covered with a coarse gravelly soil. there are many large loose stones both on their sides and summits composed of the same materials as the solid rock. we crossed another lake in the evening, encamped, and set the nets. the chief made a large fire to announce our situation to the hunters. _august _.--we caught twenty fish this morning, but they were small, and furnished but a scanty breakfast for the party. whilst this meal was preparing, our canadian voyagers, who had been for some days past murmuring at their meagre diet, and striving to get the whole of our little provision to consume at once, broke out into open discontent, and several of them threatened they would not proceed forward unless more food was given to them. this conduct was the more unpardonable, as they saw we were rapidly approaching the fires of the hunters, and that provision might soon be expected. i, therefore, felt the duty incumbent on me to address them in the strongest manner on the danger of insubordination, and to assure them of my determination to inflict the heaviest punishment on any that should persist in their refusal to go on, or in any other way attempt to retard the expedition. i considered this decisive step necessary, having learned from the gentlemen, most intimately acquainted with the character of the canadian voyagers, that they invariably try how far they can impose upon every new master, and that they will continue to be disobedient and intractable if they once gain any ascendency over him. i must admit, however, that the present hardships of our companions were of a kind which few could support without murmuring, and no one could witness without a sincere pity for their sufferings. after this discussion we went forward until sunset. in the course of the day we crossed seven lakes and as many portages. just as we had encamped we were delighted to see four of the hunters arrive with the flesh of two rein-deer. this seasonable supply, though only sufficient for this evening's and the next day's consumption, instantly revived the spirits of our companions, and they immediately forgot all their cares. as we did not, after this period, experience any deficiency of food during this journey, they worked extremely well, and never again reflected upon us as they had done before, for rashly bringing them into an inhospitable country, where the means of subsistence could not be procured. several blue fish, resembling the grayling, were caught in a stream which flows out of hunter's lake. it is remarkable for the largeness of the dorsal fin and the beauty of its colours. _august _.--having crossed the hunter's portage, we entered the lake of the same name, in latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w; but soon quitted it by desire of the indian guide, and diverged more to the eastward that we might get into the line upon which our hunters had gone. this was the only consideration that could have induced us to remove to a chain of small lakes connected by long portages. we crossed three of these, and then were obliged to encamp to rest the men. the country is bare of wood except a few dwarf birch bushes, which grow near the borders of the lakes, and here and there a few stunted pines; and our fuel principally consisted of the roots of decayed pines, which we had some difficulty to collect in sufficient quantity for cooking. when this material is wanting, the rein-deer lichen and other mosses that grow in profusion on the gravelly acclivities of the hills are used as substitutes. three more of the hunters arrived with meat this evening, which supply came very opportunely as our nets were unproductive. at eight p.m., a faint aurora borealis appeared to the southward, the night was cold, the wind strong from n.w. we were detained some time in the following morning before the fishing-nets, which had sunk in the night, could be recovered. after starting we first crossed the orkney lake, then a portage which brought us to sandy lake, and here we missed one of our barrels of powder, which the steersman of the canoe then recollected had been left the day before. he and two other men were sent back to search for it, in the small canoe. the rest of the party proceeded to the portage on the north side of the grizzle-bear lake, where the hunters had made a deposit of meat, and there encamped to await their return, which happened at nine p.m., with the powder. we perceived from the direction of this lake, that considerable labour would have been spared if we had continued our course yesterday instead of striking off at the guide's suggestion, as the bottom of this lake cannot be far separated from either hunter's lake or the one to the westward of it. the chief and all the indians went off to hunt, accompanied by pierre st. germain, the interpreter. they returned at night, bringing some meat, and reported that they had put the carcases of several rein-deer _en cache_. these were sent for early next morning, and as the weather was unusually warm, the thermometer, at noon, being °, we remained stationary all day, that the women might prepare the meat for keeping, by stripping the flesh from the bones and drying it in the sun over a slow fire. the hunters were again successful, and by the evening we had collected the carcases of seventeen deer. as this was a sufficient store to serve us until we arrived at winter lake, the chief proposed that he and his hunters should proceed to that place and collect some provision against our arrival. he also requested that we would allow him to be absent ten days to provide his family with clothing, as the skin of the rein-deer is unfit for that purpose after the month of september. we could not refuse to grant such a reasonable request, but caused st. germain to accompany him, that his absence might not exceed the appointed time. previous to his departure the chief warned us to be constantly on our guard against the grizzly bears, which he described as being numerous in this vicinity, and very ferocious; one had been seen this day by an indian, to which circumstance the lake owes its appellation. we afterwards learned that the only bear in this part of the country is the brown bear, and that this by no means possesses the ferocity which the indians, with their usual love of exaggeration, ascribe to it. the fierce grizzly bear, which frequents the sources of the missouri, is not found on the barren grounds. the shores of this lake and the neighbouring hills are principally composed of sand and gravel; they are much varied in their outline and present some picturesque scenery. the following observations were taken here: latitude ° ' " n., longitude ° ' " w.; variation of the compass ° ' " e.; and dip of the needle ° ' ". on august the th, having finished drying the meat, which had been retarded by the heavy showers of rain that fell in the morning, we embarked at one p.m. and crossed two lakes and two portages. the last of these was two thousand and sixty-six paces long, and very rugged, so that the men were much fatigued. on the next day we received the flesh of four rein-deer by the small canoe which had been sent for it, and heard that the hunters had killed several more deer on our route. we saw many of these animals as we passed along; and our companions, delighted with the prospect of having food in abundance, now began to accompany their paddling with singing, which they had discontinued ever since our provisions became scarce. we passed from one small lake to another over four portages, then crossed a lake about six miles in diameter, and encamped on its border, where, finding pines, we enjoyed the luxury of a good fire, which we had not done for some days. at ten p.m. the aurora borealis appeared very brilliant in an arch across the zenith, from north-west to south-east, which afterwards gave place to a beautiful corona borealis. _august _.--after crossing a portage of five hundred and ninety-five paces, a small lake and another portage of two thousand paces, which occupied the crews seven hours, we embarked on a small stream, running towards the north-west, which carried us to the lake, where akaitcho proposed that we should pass the winter. the officers ascended several of the loftiest hills in the course of the day, prompted by a natural anxiety to examine the spot which was to be their residence for many months. the prospect, however, was not then the most agreeable, as the borders of the lake seemed to be scantily furnished with wood, and that of a kind too small for the purposes of building. we perceived the smoke of a distant fire which the indians suppose had been made by some of the dog-ribbed tribe, who occasionally visit this part of the country. embarking at seven next morning, we paddled to the western extremity of the lake, and there found a small river, which flows out of it to the s.w. to avoid a strong rapid at its commencement, we made a portage, and then crossed to the north bank of the river, where the indians recommended that the winter establishment should be erected, and we soon found that the situation they had chosen possessed all the advantages we could desire. the trees were numerous, and of a far greater size than we had supposed them to be in a distant view, some of the pines being thirty or forty feet high, and two feet in diameter at the root. we determined on placing the house on the summit of the bank, which commands a beautiful prospect of the surrounding country. the view in the front is bounded at the distance of three miles, by round-backed hills; to the eastward and westward lie the winter and round-rock lakes, which are connected by the winter river, whose banks are well clothed with pines, and ornamented with a profusion of mosses, lichens, and shrubs. in the afternoon we read divine service, and offered our thanksgiving to the almighty for his goodness in having brought us thus far on our journey; a duty which we never neglected, when stationary on the sabbath. the united length of the portages we had crossed, since leaving fort providence, is twenty-one statute miles and a half; and as our men had to traverse each portage four times, with a load of one hundred and eighty pounds, and return three times light, they walked in the whole upwards of one hundred and fifty miles. the total length of our voyage from chipewyan is five hundred and fifty-three miles[ ]. [ ] statute miles. stony and slave rivers slave lake yellow-knife river . barren country between the source of the yellow-knife river and fort enterprise . ----- a fire was made on the south side of the river to inform the chief of our arrival, which spreading before a strong wind, caught the whole wood, and we were completely enveloped in a cloud of smoke for the three following days. on the next morning our voyagers were divided into two parties, the one to cut the wood for the building of a store-house, and the other to fetch the meat as the hunters procured it. an interpreter was sent with keskarrah, the guide, to search for the indians who had made the fire seen on saturday, from whom we might obtain some supplies of provision. an indian was also despatched to akaitcho, with directions for him to come to this place directly, and bring whatever provision he had as we were desirous of proceeding, without delay, to the copper-mine river. in the evening our men brought in the carcases of seven rein-deer, which two hunters had shot yesterday, and the women commenced drying the meat for our journey. we also obtained a good supply of fish from our nets to-day. a heavy rain, on the d, prevented the men from working, either at the building, or going for meat; but on the next day the weather was fine, and they renewed their labours. the thermometer, that day did not rise higher than °, and it fell to ° before midnight. on the morning of the th, we were surprised by some early symptoms of the approach of winter; the small pools were frozen over, and a flock of geese passed to the southward. in the afternoon, however, a fog came on, which afterwards changed into rain, and the ice quickly disappeared. we suffered great anxiety all the next day respecting john hepburn, who had gone to hunt before sunrise on the th, and had been absent ever since. about four hours after his departure the wind changed, and a dense fog obscured every mark by which his course to the tents could be directed, and we thought it probable he had been wandering in an opposite direction to our situation, as the two hunters, who had been sent to look for him, returned at sunset without having seen him. akaitcho arrived with his party, and we were greatly disappointed at finding they had stored up only fifteen rein-deer for us. st. germain informed us, that having heard of the death of the chief's brother-in-law, they had spent several days in bewailing his loss, instead of hunting. we learned also, that the decease of this man had caused another party of the tribe, who had been sent by mr. wentzel to prepare provision for us on the banks of the copper-mine river, to remove to the shores of the great bear lake, distant from our proposed route. mortifying as these circumstances were, they produced less painful sensations than we experienced in the evening, by the refusal of akaitcho to accompany us in the proposed descent of the copper-mine river. when mr. wentzel, by my direction, communicated to him my intention of proceeding at once on that service, he desired a conference with me upon the subject, which being immediately granted, he began, by stating, that the very attempt would be rash and dangerous, as the weather was cold, the leaves were falling, some geese had passed to the southward, and the winter would shortly set in; and that, as he considered the lives of all who went on such a journey would be forfeited, he neither would go himself, nor permit his hunters to accompany us. he said there was no wood within eleven days' march, during which time we could not have any fire, as the moss, which the indians use in their summer excursions, would be too wet for burning, in consequence of the recent rains; that we should be forty days in descending the copper-mine river, six of which would be expended in getting to its banks, and that we might be blocked up by the ice in the next moon; and during the whole journey the party must experience great suffering for want of food, as the rein-deer had already left the river. he was now reminded that these statements were very different from the account he had given, both at fort providence and on the route hither; and that, up to this moment, we had been encouraged by his conversation to expect that the party might descend the copper-mine river, accompanied by the indians. he replied, that at the former place he had been unacquainted with our slow mode of travelling, and that the alteration in his opinion arose from the advance of winter. we now informed him that we were provided with instruments by which we could ascertain the state of the air and water, and that we did not imagine the winter to be so near as he supposed; however, we promised to return on discovering the first change in the season. he was also told that all the baggage being left behind, our canoes, would now, of course, travel infinitely more expeditiously than any thing he had hitherto witnessed. akaitcho appeared to feel hurt, that we should continue to press the matter further, and answered with some warmth: "well, i have said every thing i can urge, to dissuade you from going on this service, on which, it seems, you wish to sacrifice your own lives, as well as the indians who might attend you: however, if after all i have said, you are determined to go, some of my young men shall join the party, because it shall not be said that we permitted you to die alone after having brought you hither; but from the moment they embark in the canoes, i and my relatives shall lament them as dead." we could only reply to this forcible appeal, by assuring him and the indians who were seated around him, that we felt the most anxious solicitude for the safety of every individual, and that it was far from our intention to proceed without considering every argument for and against the proposed journey. we next informed him, that it would be very desirable to see the river at any rate, that we might give some positive information about its situation and size, in our next letters to the great chief; and that we were very anxious to get on its banks, for the purpose of observing an eclipse of the sun, which we described to him, and said would happen in a few days. he received this communication with more temper than the preceding, though he immediately assigned as a reason for his declining to go, that "the indians must now procure a sufficient quantity of deer-skins for winter clothing for themselves, and dresses for the canadians, who would need them if they had to travel in the winter." finding him so averse to proceed, and feeling at the same time, how essential his continuance with us was, not only to our future success, but even to our existence during the winter, i closed the conversation here, intending to propose to him next morning, some modification of the plan, which might meet his approbation. soon after we were gone, however, he informed mr. wentzel, with whom he was in the habit of speaking confidentially, that as his advice was neglected, his presence was useless, and he should, therefore, return to fort providence with his hunters, after he had collected some winter provision for us. mr. wentzel having reported this to me, the night was passed in great anxiety, and after weighing all the arguments that presented themselves to my mind, i came reluctantly to the determination of relinquishing the intention of going any distance down the river this season. i had considered, that could we ascertain what were the impediments to the navigation of the copper-mine{ } river, what wood grew on its banks, if fit for boat building, and whether drift timber existed where the country was naked, our operations next season would be much facilitated; but we had also cherished the hope of reaching the sea this year, for the indians in their conversations with us, had only spoken of two great rapids as likely to obstruct us. this was a hope extremely painful to give up; for, in the event of success, we should have ascertained whether the sea was clear of ice, and navigable for canoes; have learned the disposition of the esquimaux; and might have obtained other information that would have had great influence on our future proceedings. i must confess, however, that my opinion of the probability of our being able to attain so great a desideratum this season had been somewhat altered by the recent changes in the weather, although, had the chief been willing to accompany us with his party, i should have made the attempt; with the intention, however, of returning immediately upon the first decided appearance of winter. on the morning of august th, having communicated my sentiments to the officers, on the subject of the conference last evening, they all agreed that the descent to the sea this season could not be attempted, without hazarding a complete rupture with the indians; but they thought that a party should be sent to ascertain the distance and size of the copper-mine river. these opinions, being in conformity with my own, i determined on despatching messrs. back and hood on that service, in a light canoe, as soon as possible. we witnessed this morning an instance of the versatility of our indian companions, which gave us much uneasiness, as it regarded the safety of our faithful attendant hepburn. when they heard, on their arrival last night, of his having been so long absent, they expressed the greatest solicitude about him, and the whole party immediately volunteered to go in search of him as soon as daylight permitted. their resolutions, however, seem to have been changed, in consequence of the subsequent conversation we had with the chief, and we found all of them indisposed to proceed on that errand this morning; and it was only by much entreaty, that three of the hunters and a boy were prevailed upon to go. they fortunately succeeded in their search, and we were infinitely rejoiced to see hepburn return with them in the afternoon, though much jaded by the fatigue he had undergone. he had got bewildered, as we had conjectured, in the foggy weather on the th, and had been wandering about ever since, except during half an hour that he slept yesterday. he had eaten only a partridge and some berries, for his anxiety of mind had deprived him of appetite; and of a deer which he had shot, he took only the tongue, and the skin to protect himself from the wind and rain. this anxiety, we learned from him, was occasioned by the fear that the party which was about to descend the copper-mine river, might be detained until he was found, or that it might have departed without him. he did not entertain any dread of the white bears, of whose numbers and ferocious attacks the indians had been constantly speaking, since we had entered the barren grounds. our fears for his safety, however, were in a considerable degree excited by the accounts we had received of these animals. having made a hearty supper he retired to rest, slept soundly, and arose next morning in perfect health. on the th of august akaitcho was informed of our intention to send a party to the river, and of the reasons for doing so, of which he approved, when he found that i had relinquished the idea of going myself, in compliance with the desire which he and the indians had expressed; and he immediately said two of the hunters should go to provide them with food on the journey, and to serve as guides. during this conversation we gathered from him, for the first time, that there might still be some of his tribe near to the river, from whom the party could get provision. our next object was to despatch the indians to their hunting-ground to collect provision for us, and to procure the fat of the deer for our use during the winter, and for making the pemmican we should require in the spring. they were therefore furnished with some ammunition, clothing, and other necessary articles, and directed to take their departure as soon as possible. akaitcho came into our tent this evening at supper, and made several pertinent inquiries respecting the eclipse, of which we had spoken last night. he desired to know the effect that would be produced, and the cause of it, which we endeavoured to explain; and having gained this information, he sent for several of his companions, that they might also have it repeated to them. they were most astonished at our knowing the time at which this event should happen, and remarked that this knowledge was a striking proof of the superiority of the whites over the indians. we took advantage of this occasion to speak to them respecting the supreme being, who ordered all the operations of nature, and to impress on their minds the necessity of paying strict attention to their moral duties, in obedience to his will. they readily assented to all these points, and akaitcho assured us that both himself and his young men would exert themselves in obtaining provision for us, in return for the interesting communications we had just made to them. having received a supply of dried meat from the indian lodges, we were enabled to equip the party for the copper-mine river, and at nine a.m., on the th, mr. back and mr. hood embarked on that service in a light canoe, with st. germain, eight canadians and one indian. we could not furnish them with more than eight days' provision, which, with their blankets, two tents, and a few instruments, composed their lading. mr. back, who had charge of the party, was directed to proceed to the river, and if, when he arrived at its banks, the weather should continue to be mild, and the temperature of the water was not lower than °, he might embark, and descend the stream for a few days to gain some knowledge of its course, but he was not to go so far as to risk his being able to return to this place in a fortnight with the canoe. but, if the weather should be severe, and the temperature of the water below °, he was not to embark, but return immediately, and endeavour to ascertain the best track for our goods to be conveyed thither next spring. we had seen that the water decreases rapidly in temperature at this season, and i feared that, if he embarked to descend the river when it was below °, the canoe might be frozen in, and the crew have to walk back in very severe weather. as soon as the canoes had started, akaitcho and the indians took their departure also, except two of the hunters, who staid behind to kill deer in our neighbourhood, and old keskarrah and his family, who remained as our guests. the fishing-nets were this day transferred from the river in which they had been set since our arrival, to winter lake, whither the fish had removed, and the fishermen built a log-hut on its borders to reside in, that they might attend more closely to their occupation. the month of september commenced with very disagreeable weather. the temperature of the atmosphere ranged between ° and ° during the first three days, and that of the water in the river decreased from ° to °. several rein-deer and a large flight of white geese passed to the southward. these circumstances led us to fear for the comfort, if not for the safety, of our absent friends. on the th of september we commenced building our dwelling-house, having cut sufficient wood for the frame of it. in the afternoon of september the th, we removed our tent to the summit of a hill, about three miles distant, for the better observing the eclipse, which was calculated to occur on the next morning. we were prevented, however, from witnessing it by a heavy snow-storm, and the only observation we could then make was to examine whether the temperature of the atmosphere altered during the eclipse, but we found that both the mercurial and spirit thermometers remained steadily at ° for a quarter of an hour previous to its commencement, during its continuance, and for half an hour subsequent to its termination; we remarked the wind increased very much, and the snow fell in heavier flakes just after the estimated time of its commencement. this boisterous weather continued until three p.m., when the wind abated, and the snow changed to rain. as there was now no immediate occasion for my remaining on the spot, the eclipse being over, and the indians having removed to their hunting-grounds, dr. richardson and i determined on taking a pedestrian excursion to the copper-mine river, leaving mr. wentzel in charge of the men, and to superintend the buildings. on the morning of september the th we commenced our journey, under the guidance of old keskarrah, and accompanied by john hepburn and samandré, who carried our blankets, cooking utensils, hatchets, and a small supply of dried meat. our guide led us from the top of one hill to the top of another, making as straight a course to the northward as the numerous lakes, with which the country is intersected, would permit. at noon we reached a remarkable hill, with precipitous sides, named by the copper indians the dog-rib rock, and its latitude, ° ' " s.{ }, was obtained. the canoe-track passes to the eastward of this rock, but we kept to the westward, as being the more direct course. from the time we quitted the banks of winter river we saw only a few detached clumps of trees; but after we passed dog-rib rock even these disappeared, and we travelled through a naked country. in the course of the afternoon keskarrah killed a rein-deer, and loaded himself with its head and skin, and our men also carried off a few pounds of its flesh for supper; but their loads were altogether too great to permit them to take much additional weight. keskarrah offered to us as a great treat the raw marrow from the hind legs of the animal, of which all the party ate except myself, and thought it very good. i was also of the same opinion, when i subsequently conquered my then too fastidious taste. we halted for the night on the borders of a small lake, which washed the base of a ridge of sand-hills, about three hundred feet high, having walked in direct distance sixteen miles. there were four ancient pine-trees here which did not exceed six or seven feet in height, but whose branches spread themselves out for several yards, and we gladly cropped a few twigs to make a bed and to protect us from the frozen ground, still white from a fall of snow which took place in the afternoon. we were about to cut down one of these trees for firewood, but our guide solicited us to spare them, and made us understand by signs that they had been long serviceable to his nation, and that we ought to content ourselves with a few of the smaller branches. as soon as we comprehended his request we complied with it, and our attendants having, with some trouble, grubbed up a sufficient quantity of the roots of the dwarf birch to make a fire, we were enabled to prepare a comfortable supper of rein-deer's meat, which we despatched with the appetites which travelling in this country never fails to ensure. we then stretched ourselves out on the pine brush, and covered by a single blanket, enjoyed a night of sound repose. the small quantity of bed-clothes we carried induced us to sleep without undressing. old keskarrah followed a different plan; he stripped himself to the skin, and having toasted his body for a short time over the embers of the fire, he crept under his deer-skin and rags, previously spread out as smoothly as possible, and coiling himself up in a circular form, fell asleep instantly. this custom of undressing to the skin even when lying in the open air is common to all the indian tribes. the thermometer at sunset stood at °. resuming our journey next morning we pursued a northerly course, but had to make a considerable circuit round the western ends of two lakes whose eastern extremities were hidden from our view. the march was very uncomfortable as the wind was cold, and there was a constant fall of snow until noon; our guide too persisted in taking us over the summit of every hill that lay in the route, so that we had the full benefit of the breeze. we forded two streams in the afternoon flowing between small lakes, and being wet, did not much relish having to halt, whilst keskarrah pursued a herd of rein-deer; but there was no alternative, as he set off and followed them without consulting our wishes. the old man loaded himself with the skin, and some meat of the animal he killed, in addition to his former burden; but after walking two miles, finding his charge too heavy for his strength, he spread the skin on the rock, and deposited the meat under some stones, intending to pick them up on our return. we put up at sunset on the borders of a large lake, having come twelve miles. a few dwarf birches afforded us but a scanty fire, yet being sheltered from the wind by a sandy bank, we passed the night comfortably, though the temperature was °. a number of geese passed over us to the southward. we set off early next morning, and marched at a tolerably quick pace. the atmosphere was quite foggy, and our view was limited to a short distance. at noon, the sun shone forth for a few minutes, and the latitude ° ' " was observed. the small streams that we had hitherto crossed run uniformly to the southward. at the end of sixteen miles and a half we encamped amongst a few dwarf pines, and were much rejoiced at having a good fire, as the night was very stormy and cold. the thermometer fluctuated this day between ° and °. though the following morning was foggy and rainy, we were not sorry to quit the cold and uncomfortable beds of rock upon which we had slept, and commence our journey at an early hour. after walking about three miles, we passed over a steep sandy ridge, and found the course of the rivulets running towards the north and north-west. our progress was slow in the early part of the morning, and we were detained for two hours on the summit of a hill exposed to a very cold wind, whilst our guide went in an unsuccessful pursuit of some rein-deer. after walking a few miles farther, the fog cleared away, and keskarrah pointed out the copper-mine river at a distance, and we pushed towards it with all the speed we could put forth. at noon we arrived at an arm of point lake, an extensive expansion of the river, and observed the latitude ° ' " n. we continued our walk along the south end of this arm for about a mile further, and then halted to breakfast amidst a cluster of pines. here the longitude, ° ' ", was observed. after breakfast we set out and walked along the east-side of the arm towards the main body of the lake, leaving samandré to prepare an encampment amongst the pines against our return. we found the main channel deep, its banks high and rocky, and the valleys on its borders interspersed with clusters of spruce-trees. the latter circumstance was a source of much gratification to us. the temperature of its surface water was °, that of the air being °. having gained all the information we could collect from our guide and from personal observation, we retraced our steps to the encampment; and on the way back hepburn and keskarrah shot several waveys (_anas hyperborea_) which afforded us a seasonable supply, our stock of provision being nearly exhausted. these birds were feeding in large flocks on the crow-berries, which grew plentifully on the sides of the hills. we reached the encampment after dark, found a comfortable hut prepared for our reception, made an excellent supper, and slept soundly though it snowed hard the whole night. the hills in this neighbourhood are higher than those about fort enterprise; they stand, however, in the same detached manner, without forming connected ranges; and the bottom of every valley is occupied, either by a small lake or a stony marsh. on the borders of such of these lakes as communicate with the copper-mine river, there are a few groves of spruce-trees, generally growing on accumulations of sand, on the acclivities of the hills. we did not quit the encampment on the morning of september th until nine o'clock, in consequence of a constant fall of snow; but at that hour we set out on our return to fort enterprise, and taking a route somewhat different from the one by which we came, kept to the eastward of a chain of lakes. soon after noon the weather became extremely disagreeable; a cold northerly gale came on, attended by snow and sleet; and the temperature fell very soon from ° to °. the waveys, alarmed at the sudden change, flew over our heads in great numbers to a milder climate. we walked as quickly as possible to get to a place that would furnish some fuel and shelter; but the fog occasioned us to make frequent halts, from the inability of our guide to trace his way. at length we came to a spot which afforded us plenty of dwarf birches, but they were so much frozen, and the snow fell so thick, that upwards of two hours were wasted in endeavouring to make a fire; during which time our clothes were freezing upon us. at length our efforts were crowned with success, and after a good supper, we laid, or rather sat down to sleep; for the nature of the ground obliged us to pass the night in a demi-erect position, with our backs against a bank of earth. the thermometer was ° at six p.m. after enjoying a more comfortable night's rest than we had expected, we set off at day-break: the thermometer then standing at °. the ground was covered with snow, the small lakes were frozen, and the whole scene had a wintry appearance. we got on but slowly at first, owing to an old sprained ancle, which had been very troublesome to me for the last three days, and was this morning excessively painful. in fording a rivulet, however, the application of cold water gave me immediate relief, and i walked with ease the remainder of the day. in the afternoon we rejoined our track outwards and came to the place where keskarrah had made his deposit of provision, which proved a very acceptable supply, as our stock was exhausted. we then crossed some sand hills, and encamped amidst a few small pines, having walked thirteen miles. the comfort of a good fire made us soon insensible to the fatigue we had experienced through the day, in marching over the rugged stones, whose surface was rendered slippery by the frost. the thermometer at seven p.m. stood at °. we set off at sunrise next morning, and our provision being expended pushed on as fast as we could to fort enterprise, where we arrived at eight p.m., almost exhausted by a harassing day's march of twenty-two miles. a substantial supper of rein-deer steaks soon restored our vigour. we had the happiness of meeting our friends mr. back and mr. hood, who had returned from their excursion on the day succeeding that on which we set out; and i received from them the following account of their journey. they proceeded up the winter river to the north end of the little marten lake, and then the guide, being unacquainted with the route by water to the copper-mine river, proposed that the canoe should be left. upon this they ascended the loftiest hill in the neighbourhood, to examine whether they could discover any large lakes, or water communication in the direction where the guide described the river to be. they only saw a small rivulet, which was too shallow for the canoe, and also wide of the course; and as they perceived the crew would have to carry it over a rugged hilly track, they judiciously decided on leaving it, and proceeding forward on foot. having deposited the canoe among a few dwarf birch bushes, they commenced their march, carrying their tents, blankets, cooking utensils, and a part of the dried meat. st. germain, however, had previously delineated with charcoal, a man and a house on a piece of bark, which he placed over the canoe and the few things that were left, to point out to the dog-ribs that they belonged to white people. the party reached the shores of point lake, through which the copper-mine river runs, on the st of september. the next day was too stormy for them to march, but on the d, they proceeded along its shores to the westward, round a mountainous promontory, and perceiving the course of the lake extending to the w.n.w., they encamped near some pines, and then enjoyed the luxury of a good fire, for the first time since their departure from us. the temperature of the water in the lake was °, and of the air °, but the latter fell to ° in the course of that night. as their principal object was to ascertain whether any arm of the lake branched nearer to fort enterprise than the part they had fallen upon, to which the transport of our goods could be more easily made next spring, they returned on its borders to the eastward, being satisfied, by the appearance of the mountains between south and west, that no further examination was necessary in that direction; and they continued their march until the th at noon, without finding any part of the lake inclining nearer the fort. they therefore encamped to observe the eclipse, which was to take place on the following morning; but a violent snow storm rendering the observation impossible, they commenced their return, and after a comfortless and laborious march regained their canoe on the th, and embarking in it, arrived the same evening at the house. point lake varied, as far as they traced, from one to three miles in width. its main course was nearly east and west, but several arms branched off in different directions. i was much pleased with the able manner in which these officers executed the service they had been despatched upon, and was gratified to learn from them, that their companions had conducted themselves extremely well, and borne the fatigues of their journey most cheerfully. they scarcely ever had more than sufficient fuel to boil the kettle; and were generally obliged to lie down in their wet clothes, and consequently, suffered much from cold. the distance which the parties travelled, in their journey to and from point lake, may be estimated at one hundred and ten statute miles, which being added to the distances given in the preceding pages, amount to one thousand five hundred and twenty miles that the expedition travelled in , up to the time of its residence at fort enterprise. end of vol. i. * * * * * transcriber's corrections and comments: . original had a superfluous "c" in the year of publication ("mdccccxxiv"); corrected to "mdcccxxiv" ( ). . "holy lake" is inconsistent with the three occurrences in the text, which are all spelled "holey lake"; same in chapter sub-header. . added "à" missing in original in "isle à la crosse". . symbol for seconds in original misprinted ( ',); corrected to quotation mark ( "). . original used comma instead of decimal point; corrected to " . °". . original had "were"; corrected to "where". . original had "sienite"; changed to "syenite". . original had "come"; corrected to "came". . original had "tress"; corrected to "trees". . original had "cosequence"; corrected to "consequence". . original had "o"; corrected to "of". . original had comma after ° ' "; corrected to period. . original had "th weeather"; corrected to "the weather". . original had "dependant"; changed to "dependent". . original had "copper-mine"; changed to "copper-mine" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text. . "mississippi" is most likely a misprint for "missinippi", i.e. churchill river. . original had "mckenzie's"; changed to "mackenzie's" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text. . original had "dependant"; changed to "dependent". . original had "agreeble"; corrected to "agreeable". . original had "oxycocoos"; corrected to "oxycoccos". . original had "scarely"; corrected to "scarcely". . original had "sufficent"; corrected to "sufficient". . original had "notwithanding"; corrected to "notwithstanding". . original had comma after "showers"; corrected to period. . original had "intractible"; corrected to "intractable". . "assinéboine" is given as "asseenaboine" elsewhere in the text. . original had "of"; corrected to "off". . original had "thuogh"; corrected to "though". . original had "effrontry"; corrected to "effrontery". . original had "dranked"; corrected to "drank". . original had "o"; corrected to "of". . original had "excution"; corrected to "execution". . original had "suprise"; corrected to "surprise". . deleted superfluous period after "cyprès". . "w." in the variation reading is most likely a misprint for "e."; compare previous and next readings. . original had "traveling"; corrected to "travelling". . original had "copper-mine"; changed to "copper-mine" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text. . original had "copper-mine"; changed to "copper-mine" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text. . original had "bow-men and steers-men"; changed to "bowmen and steersmen" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text. . original had "mammawee"; changed to "mamma-wee" to be consistent with previous occurrence. . the name of the fish "attihhawmegh" is spelled "attihhawmeg" elsewhere. . original reference was to page , which contains nothing about fish or fishing; changed to " - ", where references to fishing can be found. . original had "occasionly"; changed to "occasionally". . original had "it"; corrected to "in". . added period missing in original after "winter". . "conolly" is a possible misprint for "connolly" (as found earlier in the text). . "conolly" is a possible misprint for "connolly". . original had "riviére"; corrected to "rivière". . original had comma after "fish"; corrected to period. . "echiamamis" is probably the same as "echemamis" above. . "n." is most likely a misprint for "e.", as magnetic variation of the compass can only be east or west. . "mccleod" is a possible misprint for "mcleod", as it appears earlier in the text. . original had "or"; corrected to "of". . "thlouee-tessy" is probably the same as "thloueea-tessy" above. . original had "today"; changed to "to-day" to be consistent with other occurrences in the text. . original had "varition"; changed to "variation". . original had "copper-mine-river"; changed to "copper-mine river". . "s." in the latitude reading is very unlikely; almost certainly a misprint for "n." the journey to the polar sea by sir john franklin everyman, i will go with thee, and be thy guide, in thy most need to go by thy side. (this is number of everyman's library) introduction by captain r.f. scott. john franklin, born in . many naval experiences, including trafalgar, before heading an expedition across northern canada in . elected f.r.s. and knighted after a second expedition. lieutenant-governor of van diemen's land, to . last expedition, , was lost, and franklin died in near the arctic. subsequent investigations have established him as the discoverer of the north-west passage. the journey to the polar sea. sir john franklin. introduction. in days of hurried action i have been astonished at the depth of interest which a re-perusal of this wonderful old narrative has held for me. wonderful it is in its simplicity and its revelation of the simplicity of character and faith of the man who wrote it. it is old only by comparison--scarcely ninety years have elapsed since the adventures it described were enacted--yet such a period has never held a fuller measure of change or more speedily passed current events into the limbo of the past. nothing could more vividly impress this change than the narrative itself. we are told that mr. beck missed his ship at yarmouth but succeeded in rejoining her at stromness, having travelled "nine successive days almost without rest." what a vision of post-chaises, sweating horses and heavy roads is suggested! and if the contrast with present-day conditions in our own islands is great, how much greater is it in that vast dominion through which franklin directed his pioneer footsteps. as he followed the lonely trails to fort cumberland, or sailed along the solitary shores of lake winnipeg, how little could he guess that in less than a century a hundred thousand inhabitants would dwell by the shore of the great lake, or that its primeval regions would one day provide largely the bread of his countrymen. there civilisation has followed fast indeed, and ever it presses forward on the tracks of the pioneer. but even today if we follow franklin we must come again to the wild--to the great barren lands and to the ice-bound limit of a continent--regions where for ninety years season has succeeded season without change--where few have passed since his day and nature alone holds sway. for those who would know what is as well as for those who would know what has been, this narrative still holds its original interest; all must appreciate that it records the work of a great traveller and a gallant man whose fame deserves to live. r.f. scott. ... sir john franklin's voyages into the polar seas: f.w. beechey: voyage of discovery toward the north pole in h.m. ships dorothea and trent (with summary of earlier attempts to reach the pacific by the north) . narrative of a journey to the shores of the polar sea, in the years to , by john franklin, , . narrative of a second expedition to the shores of the polar sea in the years to , by john franklin, . publications concerning the search for sir john franklin: report of the committee appointed by the lords commissioners of the admiralty to inquire into and report on the recent arctic expeditions in search of sir john franklin, . papers relative to the recent arctic expeditions in search of sir john franklin and the crews of h.m.s. erebus and terror, . further papers relative to the search, . r. king, the franklin expedition from first to last, . r. huish, recent expeditions to the polar regions, including all the voyages in search of sir j. franklin, . e.k. kane, arctic explorations, the second grinnell expedition in search of sir john franklin, . macclintock, the voyage of the fox in the arctic seas. a narrative of the discovery of the fate of sir john franklin, , , , . sir j. leslie, discovery and adventure in the polar seas, with a narrative of the recent expeditions in search of sir john franklin, . j.a. browne, the north-west passage, and the fate of sir john franklin, . sir allen m. young, the search for sir john franklin, etc., . schwatka's search, sledging in the arctic in search of franklin records, . the search for franklin. american expedition under lieutenant schwatka, to , . j.h. skewes, the true secret of the discovery of the fate of sir john franklin, . life: s. osborn, career, last voyage and fate of sir john franklin (once a week, ) . a brave man and his belongings, by a niece of the first mrs. franklin, . a.h. beesley, sir john franklin; the narrative of his life (the new plutarch) . a.h. markham (the world's great explorers) . g.b. smith, sir john franklin and the romance of the north-west passage, . h.d. traill, . h. harbour, arctic explorers, . e.c. buley, into the polar seas; the story of sir j. franklin, etc., . ... contents. introduction. chapter . departure from england. transactions at stromness. enter davis straits. perilous situation on the shore of resolution island. land on the coast of labrador. esquimaux of savage islands. york factory. preparations for the journey into the interior. chapter . passage up hayes, steel and hill rivers. cross swampy lake. jack river. knee lake and magnetic islet. trout river. holy lake. weepinapannis river. windy lake. white fall lake and river. echemamis and sea rivers. play green lakes. lake winnipeg. river saskatchewan. cross, cedar and pine island lakes. cumberland house. chapter . dr. richardson's residence at cumberland house. his account of the cree indians. chapter . leave cumberland house. mode of travelling in winter. arrival at carlton house. stone indians. visit to a buffalo pound. goitres. departure from carlton house. isle a la crosse. arrival at fort chipewyan. chapter . transactions at fort chipewyan. arrival of dr. richardson and mr. hood. preparations for our journey to the northward. chapter . mr. hood's journey to the basquiau hill. sojourns with an indian party. his journey to chipewyan. chapter . departure from chipewyan. difficulties of the various navigations of the rivers and lakes, and of the portages. slave lake and fort providence. scarcity of provisions, and discontent of the canadian voyagers. difficulties with regard to the indian guides. refusal to proceed. visit of observation to the upper part of copper-mine river. return to the winter quarters of fort enterprise. chapter . transactions at fort enterprise. mr. back's narrative of his journey to chipewyan, and return. chapter . continuation of proceedings at fort enterprise. some account of the copper indians. preparations for the journey to the northward. chapter . departure from fort enterprise. navigation of the copper-mine river. visit to the copper mountain. interview with the esquimaux. departure of the indian hunters. arrangements made with them for our return. chapter . navigation of the polar sea, in two canoes, as far as cape turnagain, to the eastward, a distance exceeding five hundred and fifty miles. observations on the probability of a north-west passage. chapter . journey across the barren grounds. difficulty and delay in crossing copper-mine river. melancholy and fatal results thereof. extreme misery of the whole party. murder of mr. hood. death of several of the canadians. desolate state of fort enterprise. distress suffered at that place. dr. richardson's narrative. mr. back's narrative. conclusion. ... introduction. his majesty's government having determined upon sending an expedition from the shores of hudson's bay by land to explore the northern coast of america from the mouth of the copper-mine river to the eastward, i had the honour to be appointed to this service by earl bathurst, on the recommendation of the lords commissioners of the admiralty; who at the same time nominated doctor john richardson, a surgeon in the royal navy, mr. george back, and mr. robert hood, two admiralty midshipmen, to be joined with me in the enterprise. my instructions in substance informed me that the main object of the expedition was that of determining the latitudes and longitudes of the northern coast of north america, and the trending of that coast from the mouth of the copper-mine river to the eastern extremity of that continent; that it was left for me to determine according to circumstances whether it might be most advisable to proceed at once directly to the northward till i arrived at the sea-coast, and thence westerly towards the copper-mine river; or advance in the first instance by the usual route to the mouth of the copper-mine river, and from thence easterly till i should arrive at the eastern extremity of that continent; that in the adoption of either of these plans i was to be guided by the advice and information which i should receive from the wintering servants of the hudson's bay company, who would be instructed by their employers to cooperate cordially in the prosecution of the objects of the expedition, and who would provide me with the necessary escort of indians to act as guides, interpreters, game-killers, etc.; and also with such articles of clothing, ammunition, snowshoes, presents, etc., as should be deemed expedient for me to take. that as another principal object of the expedition was to amend the very defective geography of the northern part of north america i was to be very careful to ascertain correctly the latitude and longitude of every remarkable spot upon our route, and of all the bays, harbours, rivers, headlands, etc., that might occur along the northern shore of north america. that in proceeding along the coast i should erect conspicuous marks at places where ships might enter, or to which a boat could be sent; and to deposit information as to the nature of the coast for the use of lieutenant parry. that in the journal of our route i should register the temperature of the air at least three times in every twenty-four hours; together with the state of the wind and weather and any other meteorological phenomena. that i should not neglect any opportunity of observing and noting down the dip and variation of the magnetic needle, and the intensity of the magnetic force; and should take particular notice whether any, and what kind or degree of, influence the aurora borealis might appear to exert on the magnetic needle; and to notice whether that phenomenon were attended with any noise; and to make any other observations that might be likely to tend to the further development of its cause and the laws by which it is governed. mr. back and mr. hood were to assist me in all the observations above-mentioned, and to make drawings of the land, of the natives, and of the various objects of natural history; and particularly of such as dr. richardson who, to his professional duties was to add that of naturalist, might consider to be most curious and interesting. i was instructed, on my arrival at or near the mouth of the copper-mine river, to make every inquiry as to the situation of the spot whence native copper had been brought down by the indians to the hudson's bay establishment, and to visit and explore the place in question; in order that dr. richardson might be enabled to make such observations as might be useful in a commercial point of view, or interesting to the science of mineralogy. from joseph berens, esquire, the governor of the hudson's bay company, and the gentlemen of the committee i received all kinds of assistance and information, communicated in the most friendly manner previous to my leaving england; and i had the gratification of perusing the orders to their agents and servants in north america, containing the fullest directions to promote by every means the progress of the expedition. i most cheerfully avail myself of this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to these gentlemen for their personal kindness to myself and the other officers, as well as for the benefits rendered by them to the expedition; and the same sentiment is due towards the gentlemen of the north-west company, both in england and america, more particularly to simon mcgillivray, esquire, of london, from whom i received much useful information and cordial letters of recommendation to the partners and agents of that company resident on our line of route. a short time before i left london i had the pleasure and advantage of an interview with the late sir alexander mackenzie who was one of the two persons who had visited the coast we were to explore. he afforded me, in the most open and kind manner, much valuable information and advice. the provisions, instruments, and other articles, of which i had furnished a list by direction of the lords commissioners of the admiralty, were embarked on board the hudson's bay company's ship prince of wales, appointed by the committee to convey the expedition to york factory, their principal establishment in hudson's bay. it will be seen in the course of the narrative how much reason i had to be satisfied with, and how great my obligations are to, all the gentlemen who were associated with me in the expedition, whose kindness, good conduct, and cordial cooperation have made an impression which can never be effaced from my mind. the unfortunate death of mr. hood is the only drawback which i feel from the otherwise unalloyed pleasure of reflecting on that cordial unanimity which at all times prevailed among us in the days of sunshine, and in those of sickness and sorrow. to dr. richardson in particular the exclusive merit is due of whatever collections and observations have been made in the department of natural history; and i am indebted to him in no small degree for his friendly advice and assistance in the preparation of the present narrative. the charts and drawings were made by lieutenant back and the late lieutenant hood. both these gentlemen cheerfully and ably assisted me in making the observations and in the daily conduct of the expedition. the observations made by mr. hood on the various phenomena presented by the aurora borealis* will it is presumed present to the reader some new facts connected with this meteor. mr. back was mostly prevented from turning his attention to objects of science by the many severe duties which were required of him and which obliged him to travel almost constantly every winter that we passed in america; to his personal exertions, indeed, our final safety is mainly to be attributed. and here i must be permitted to pay the tribute due to the fidelity, exertion and uniform good conduct in the most trying situations of john hepburn, an english seaman and our only attendant, to whom in the latter part of our journey we owe, under divine providence, the preservation of the lives of some of the party. (*footnote. given in the appendix to the quarto edition.) i ought perhaps to crave the reader's indulgence towards the defective style of this work, which i trust will not be refused when it is considered that mine has been a life of constant employment in my profession from a very early age. i have been prompted to venture upon the task solely by an imperious sense of duty when called upon to undertake it. in the ensuing narrative the notices of the moral condition of the indians as influenced by the conduct of the traders towards them refer entirely to the state in which it existed during our progress through the country; but lest i should have been mistaken respecting the views of the hudson's bay company on these points i gladly embrace the opportunity which a second edition affords me of stating that the junction of the two companies has enabled the directors to put in practice the improvements which i have reason to believe they had long contemplated. they have provided for religious instruction by the appointment of two clergymen of the established church under whose direction schoolmasters and mistresses are to be placed at such stations as afford the means of support for the establishment of schools. the offspring of the voyagers and labourers are to be educated chiefly at the expense of the company; and such of the indian children as their parents may wish to send to these schools are to be instructed, clothed, and maintained at the expense of the church missionary society which has already allotted a considerable sum for these purposes and has also sent out teachers who are to act under the superintendence of the reverend mr. west, the principal chaplain of the company. we had the pleasure of meeting this gentleman at york factory, and witnessed with peculiar delight that great benefit which already marked his zealous and judicious conduct. many of the traders and of the servants of the company had been induced to marry the women with whom they had cohabited; a material step towards the improvement of the females in that country. mr. west, under the sanction of the directors, has also promoted a subscription for the distribution of the bible in every part of the country where the company's fur trade has extended, and which has met with very general support from the resident chief factors, traders, and clerks. the directors of the company are continuing to reduce the distribution of spirits gradually among the indians, as well as towards their own servants, with a view to the entire disuse of them as soon as this most desirable object can be accomplished. they have likewise issued orders for the cultivation of the ground at each of the posts, by which means the residents will be far less exposed to famine whenever, through the scarcity of animals, the sickness of the indians, or any other cause, their supply of meat may fail. it is to be hoped that intentions, so dear to every humane and pious mind, will, through the blessing of god, meet with the utmost success. ... franklin's journey to the polar sea. chapter . departure from england. transactions at stromness. enter davis straits. perilous situation on the shore of resolution island. land on the coast of labrador. esquimaux of savage islands. york factory. preparations for the journey into the interior. departure from england. may, . on sunday the rd of may the whole of our party embarked at gravesend on board the ship prince of wales, belonging to the hudson's bay company, just as she was in the act of getting under weigh with her consorts the eddystone and wear. the wind being unfavourable on the ebb tide being finished, the vessels were again anchored; but they weighed in the night and beat down as far as the warp, where they were detained two days by a strong easterly wind. having learned from some of the passengers, who were the trading officers of the company, that the arrival of the ships at either of the establishments in hudson's bay gives full occupation to all the boatmen in their service, who are required to convey the necessary stores to the different posts in the interior; that it was very probable a sufficient number of men might not be procured from this indispensable duty; and, considering that any delay at york factory would materially retard our future operations, i wrote to the under secretary of state requesting his permission to provide a few well-qualified steersmen and bowmen at stromness to assist our proceedings in the former part of our journey into the interior. may . the easterly wind, which had retarded the ship's progress so much that we had only reached hollesley bay after a week's beating about, changed to west-south-west soon after that anchorage had been gained. the vessels instantly weighed and, by carrying all sail, arrived in yarmouth roads at seven p.m.; the pilots were landed and our course was continued through the anchorage. at midnight the wind became light and variable and gradually drew round to the north-west and, as the sky indicated unsettled weather and the wind blew from an unfavourable quarter for ships upon that coast, the commander bore up again for yarmouth and anchored at eight a.m. this return afforded us at least the opportunity of comparing the longitude of yarmouth church, as shown by our chronometers, with its position as laid down by the ordnance trigonometrical survey; and it was satisfactory to find, from the small difference in their results, that the chronometers had not experienced any alteration in their rates in consequence of their being changed from a horizontal position in a room to that of being carried in the pocket. an untoward circumstance while at this anchorage cast a damp on our party at this early period of the voyage. emboldened by the decided appearance of the north-west sky, several of our officers and passengers ventured on shore for a few hours; but we had not been long in the town before the wind changed suddenly to south-east, which caused instant motion in the large fleet collected at this anchorage. the commander of our ship intimated his intention of proceeding to sea by firing guns; and the passengers hastened to embark. mr. back however had unfortunately gone upon some business to a house two or three miles distant from yarmouth along the line of the coast; from whence he expected to be able to observe the first symptoms of moving which the vessels might make. by some accident however he did not make his appearance before the captain was obliged to make sail that he might get the ships through the intricate passage of the cockle gat before it was dark. fortunately, through the kindness of lieutenant hewit of the protector, i was enabled to convey a note to our missing companion, desiring him to proceed immediately by the coach to the pentland firth, and from thence across the passage to stromness, which appeared to be the only way of proceeding by which he could rejoin the party. transactions at stromness. june . the wind continuing favourable after leaving yarmouth, about nine this morning we passed the rugged and bold projecting rock termed johnny groat's house and soon afterwards duncansby head, and then entered the pentland firth. a pilot came from the main shore of scotland and steered the ship in safety between the different islands to the outer anchorage at stromness, though the atmosphere was too dense for distinguishing any of the objects on the land. almost immediately after the ship had anchored the wind changed to north-west, the rain ceased and a sight was then first obtained of the neighbouring islands and of the town of stromness, the latter of which from this point of view and at this distance presented a pleasing appearance. mr. geddes, the agent of the hudson's bay company at this place, undertook to communicate my wish for volunteer boatmen to the different parishes by a notice on the church door, which he said was the surest and most direct channel for the conveyance of information to the lower classes in these islands as they invariably attend divine service there every sunday. he informed me that the kind of men we were in want of would be difficult to procure on account of the very increased demand for boatmen for the herring fishery which had recently been established on the shores of these islands; that last year sixty boats and four hundred men only were employed in this service whereas now there were three hundred boats and twelve hundred men engaged; and that owing to this unexpected addition to the fishery he had been unable to provide the number of persons required for the service of the hudson's bay company. this was unpleasant information as it increased the apprehension of our being detained at york factory the whole winter if boatmen were not taken from hence. i could not therefore hesitate in requesting mr. geddes to engage eight or ten men well adapted for our service on such terms as he could procure them, though the secretary of state's permission had not yet reached me. next to a supply of boatmen our attention was directed towards the procuring of a house conveniently situated for trying the instruments and examining the rates of the chronometers. mr. geddes kindly offered one of his which, though in an unfinished state, was readily accepted, being well situated for our purpose as it was placed on an eminence, had a southern aspect, and was at a sufficient distance from the town to secure us from frequent interruption. another advantage was its proximity to the manse, the residence of the reverend mr. clouston, the worthy and highly respected minister of stromness whose kind hospitality and the polite attention of his family the party experienced almost daily during their stay. for three days the weather was unsettled and few observations could be made except for the dip of the needle which was ascertained to be degrees minutes seconds, on which occasion a difference of eight degrees and a half was perceived between the observations when the face of the instrument was changed from the east to the west, the amount being the greatest when it was placed with the face to the west. but on the th a westerly wind caused a cloudless sky which enabled us to place the transit instrument in the meridian and to ascertain the variation of the compass to be degrees minutes west. the sky becoming cloudy in the afternoon prevented our obtaining the corresponding observations to those gained in the morning; and the next day an impervious fog obscured the sky until noon. on the evening of this day we had the gratification of welcoming our absent companion mr. back. his return to our society was hailed with sincere pleasure by everyone and removed a weight of anxiety from my mind. it appears that he had come down to the beach at caistor just as the ships were passing by and had applied to some boatmen to convey him on board, which might have been soon accomplished but they, discovering the emergency of his case, demanded an exorbitant reward which he was not at the instant prepared to satisfy; and in consequence they positively refused to assist him. though he had travelled nine successive days, almost without rest, he could not be prevailed upon to withdraw from the agreeable scene of a ballroom in which he joined us until a late hour. on the th, the rain having ceased, the observations for ascertaining the dip of the needle were repeated; and the results compared with the former ones gave a mean of degrees minutes seconds. nearly the same differences were remarked in reversing the face of the instrument as before. an attempt was also made to ascertain the magnetic force but the wind blew too strong for procuring the observation to any degree of accuracy. the fineness of the following day induced us to set up the different instruments for examination and to try how nearly the observations made by each of them would agree; but a squall passed over just before noon, accompanied by heavy rain, and the hoped-for favourable opportunity was entirely lost. in the intervals between the observations, and at every opportunity, my companions were occupied in those pursuits to which their attention had been more particularly directed in my instructions. whilst dr. richardson was collecting and examining the various specimens of marine plants, of which these islands furnish an abundant and diversified supply, mr. back and mr. hood took views and sketches of the surrounding scenery which is extremely picturesque in many parts, and wants only the addition of trees to make it beautiful. the hills present the bold character of rugged sterility, whilst the valleys at this season are clothed with luxuriant verdure. it was not till the th that, by appointment, the boatmen were to assemble at the house of mr. geddes to engage to accompany the expedition. several persons collected but, to my great mortification, i found they were all so strongly possessed with the fearful apprehension either that great danger would attend the service, or that we should carry them further than they would agree to go, that not a single man would engage with us; some of them however said they would consider the subject and give me an answer on the following day. this indecisive conduct was extremely annoying to me especially as the next evening was fixed for the departure of the ships. at the appointed time on the following morning four men only presented themselves and these, after much hesitation, engaged to accompany the expedition to fort chipewyan if they should be required so far. the bowmen and steersmen were to receive forty pounds wages annually and the middle men thirty-five pounds. they stipulated to be sent back to the orkney islands free of expense and to receive their pay until the time of their arrival. only these few men could be procured although our requisition had been sent to almost every island, even as far as the northernmost point of ronaldsha. i was much amused with the extreme caution these men used before they would sign the agreement; they minutely scanned all our intentions, weighed every circumstance, looked narrowly into the plan of our route, and still more circumspectly to the prospect of return. such caution on the part of the northern mariners forms a singular contrast with the ready and thoughtless manner in which an english seaman enters upon any enterprise, however hazardous, without inquiring or desiring to know where he is going or what he is going about. the brig harmony, belonging to the moravian missionary society and bound to their settlement at nain on the coast of labrador, was lying at anchor. with the view of collecting some esquimaux words and sentences, or gaining any information respecting the manners and habits of that people, doctor richardson and myself paid her a visit. we found the passengers who were going out as missionaries extremely disposed to communicate; but as they only spoke the german and esquimaux languages, of which we were ignorant, our conversation was necessarily much confined; by the aid however of an esquimaux and german dictionary some few words were collected which we considered might be useful. there were on board a very interesting girl and a young man who were natives of disco in old greenland; both of them had fair complexions, rather handsome features, and a lively manner; the former was going to be married to a resident missionary and the latter to officiate in that character. the commander of the vessel gave me a translation of the gospel of st. john in the esquimaux language printed by the moravian society in london. june . the wind being unfavourable for sailing i went on shore with dr. richardson and took several lunar observations at the place of our former residence. the result obtained was latitude degrees minutes seconds north; longitude degrees minutes seconds west; variation degrees minutes west; dip of the magnetic needle degrees minutes seconds. in the afternoon the wind changed in a squall some points towards the north and the prince of wales made the preparatory signal for sea. at three p.m. the ships weighed, an hour too early for the tide; as soon as this served we entered into the passage between hoy and pomona, and had to beat through against a very heavy swell which the meeting of a weather tide and a strong breeze had occasioned. some dangerous rocks lie near the pomona shore and on this side also the tide appeared to run with the greatest strength. on clearing the outward projecting points of hoy and pomona we entered at once into the atlantic and commenced our voyage to hudson's bay, having the eddystone, wear and harmony, missionary brig, in company. the comparisons of the chronometers this day indicated that arnold's numbers and had slightly changed their rates since they had been brought on board; fortunately the rate of the former seems to have increased nearly in the same ratio as the other has lost, and the mean longitude will not be materially affected. being now fairly launched into the atlantic i issued a general memorandum for the guidance of the officers during the prosecution of the service on which we were engaged, and communicated to them the several points of information that were expected from us by my instructions. i also furnished them with copies of the signals which had been agreed upon between lieutenant parry and myself to be used in the event of our reaching the northern coast of america and falling in with each other. at the end of the month of june our progress was found to have been extremely slow owing to a determined north-west wind and much sea. we had numerous birds hovering round the ship; principally fulmars (procellaria glacialis) and shearwaters (procellaria puffinus) and not unfrequently saw shoals of grampusses sporting about, which the greenland seamen term finners from their large dorsal fin. some porpoises occasionally appeared and whenever they did the crew were sanguine in their expectation of having a speedy change in the wind which had been so vexatiously contrary but they were disappointed in every instance. thursday, july . the month of july set in more favourably; and aided by fresh breezes we advanced rapidly to the westward, attended daily by numerous fulmars and shearwaters. the missionary brig had parted company on the nd of june. we passed directly over that part of the ocean where the sunken land of buss is laid down in the old, and continued in the admiralty charts. mr. bell, the commander of the eddystone, informed me that the pilot who brought his ship down the thames told him that he had gained soundings in twelve feet somewhere hereabout; and i am rather inclined to attribute the very unusual and cross sea we had in this neighbourhood to the existence of a bank than to the effect of a gale of wind which we had just before experienced; and i cannot but regret that the commander of the ship did not try for soundings at frequent intervals. enter davis straits. by the th july we had opened the entrance of davis straits and in the afternoon spoke the andrew marvell, bound to england with a cargo of fourteen fish. the master informed us that the ice had been heavier this season in davis straits than he had ever recollected, and that it lay particularly close to the westward, being connected with the shore to the northward of resolution island and extending from thence within a short distance of the greenland coast; that whales had been abundant but the ice so extremely cross that few could be killed. his ship, as well as several others, had suffered material injury, and two vessels had been entirely crushed between vast masses of ice in latitude degrees minutes north, but the crews were saved. we inquired anxiously but in vain for intelligence respecting lieutenant parry and the ships under his command; but as he mentioned that the wind had been blowing strong from the northward for some time, which would probably have cleared baffin's bay of ice, we were disposed to hope favourably of his progress. the clouds assumed so much the appearance of icebergs this evening as to deceive most of the passengers and crew; but their imaginations had been excited by the intelligence we had received from the andrew marvell that she had only parted from a cluster of them two days previous to our meeting. on the th, being in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west and the weather calm, we tried our soundings but did not reach the bottom. the register thermometer was attached to the line just above the lead, and is supposed to have descended six hundred and fifty fathoms. a well-corked bottle was also fastened to the line two hundred fathoms above the lead and went down four hundred and fifty fathoms. the change in temperature shown by the register thermometer during the descent was from to . degrees; and it stood at the latter point when taken out of the tin case. the temperature of the water brought up in the bottle was degrees, being half a degree higher at four hundred and fifty than at six hundred and fifty fathoms and four degrees colder than the water at the surface which was then at degrees, whilst that of the air was degrees. this experiment in showing the water to be colder at a great depth than at the surface, and in proportion to the increase of the descent, coincides with the observations of captain ross and lieutenant parry on their late voyage to these seas, but is contrary to the results obtained by captain buchan and myself on our recent voyage to the north between spitzbergen and greenland, in which sea we invariably found the water brought from any great depth to be warmer than that at the surface. on the th we tacked to avoid an extensive stream of sailing ice. the temperature of the water fell to . degrees when we were near it, but was at degrees when at the distance of half a mile. the thermometer in the air remained steadily at degrees. thus the proximity of this ice was not so decidedly indicated by the decrease of the temperature of either the air or water as i have before witnessed, which was probably owing to the recent arrival of the stream at this point and its passing at too quick a rate for the effectual diffusion of its chilling influence beyond a short distance. still the decrease in both cases was sufficient to have given timely warning for a ship's performing any evolution that would have prevented the coming in contact with it had the thickness of the weather precluded a distant view of the danger. the approach to ice would be more evidently pointed out in the atlantic, or wherever the surface is not so continually chilled by the passing and the melting of ice as in this sea; and i should strongly recommend a strict hourly attention to the thermometrical state of the water at the surface in all parts where ships are exposed to the dangerous concussion of sailing icebergs, as a principal means of security. the following day our ship came near another stream of ice and the approach to it was indicated by a decrease of the temperature of the water at the surface from to degrees. a small pine-tree was picked up much shattered by the ice. in the afternoon of the th a very dense fog came on; and about six p.m. when sailing before a fresh breeze we were suddenly involved in a heavy stream of ice. considerable difficulty was experienced in steering through the narrow channels between the different masses in this foggy weather, and the ship received several severe blows. the water, as usual in the centre of the stream, was quite smooth, but we heard the waves beating violently against the outer edge of the ice. there was some earthy matter on several of the pieces, and the whole body bore the appearance of recent separation from the land. in the space of two hours we again got into the open sea, but had left our two consorts far behind; they followed our track by the guns we discharged. the temperature of the surface water was degrees when amongst the ice, degrees when just clear of it, and . degrees at two miles distant. on the th of august, when in latitude degrees minutes north, longitude degrees minutes west, we first fell in with large icebergs; and in the evening were encompassed by several of considerable magnitude, which obliged us to tack the ship in order to prevent our getting entangled amongst them. the estimated distance from the nearest part of the labrador coast was then eighty-eight miles; here we tried for soundings without gaining the bottom. the ship passed through some strong ripplings, which evidently indicated a current, but its direction was not ascertained. we found however by the recent observations that the ship had been set daily to the southward since we had opened davis straits. the variation of the compass was observed to be degrees minutes west. at nine p.m. brilliant coruscations of the aurora borealis appeared, of a pale ochre colour with a slight tinge of red, in an arched form, crossing the zenith from north-west to south-east, but afterwards they assumed various shapes and had a rapid motion. on the th of august a party of the officers endeavoured to get on one of the larger icebergs, but ineffectually, owing to the steepness and smoothness of its sides and the swell produced by its undulating motion. this was one of the largest we saw, and mr. hood ascertained its height to be one hundred and forty-nine feet; but these masses of ice are frequently magnified to an immense size through the illusive medium of a hazy atmosphere, and on this account their dimensions have often been exaggerated by voyagers. perilous situation on the shore of resolution island. in the morning of the th the island of resolution was indistinctly seen through the haze but was soon afterwards entirely hidden by a very dense fog. the favourable breeze subsided into a perfect calm and left the ship surrounded by loose ice. at this time the eddystone was perceived to be driving with rapidity towards some of the larger masses; the stern-boats of this ship and of the wear were despatched to assist in towing her clear of them. at ten a momentary clearness presented the land distinctly at the distance of two miles; the ship was quite unmanageable and under the sole governance of the currents which ran in strong eddies between the masses of ice. our consorts were also seen, the wear being within hail and the eddystone at a short distance from us. two attempts were ineffectually made to gain soundings, and the extreme density of the fog precluded us from any other means of ascertaining the direction in which we were driving until half-past twelve when we had the alarming view of a barren rugged shore within a few yards towering over the mastheads. almost instantly afterwards the ship struck violently on a point of rocks projecting from the island; and the ship's side was brought so near to the shore that poles were prepared to push her off. this blow displaced the rudder and raised it several inches but it fortunately had been previously confined by tackles. a gentle swell freed the ship from this perilous situation but the current hurried us along in contact with the rocky shore and the prospect was most alarming. on the outward bow was perceived a rugged and precipitous cliff whose summit was hid in the fog, and the vessel's head was pointed towards the bottom of a small bay into which we were rapidly driving. there now seemed to be no probability of escaping shipwreck, being without wind and having the rudder in its present useless state; the only assistance was that of a boat employed in towing which had been placed in the water between the ship and the shore at the imminent risk of its being crushed. the ship again struck in passing over a ledge of rocks and happily the blow replaced the rudder, which enabled us to take advantage of a light breeze and to direct the ship's head without the projecting cliff. but the breeze was only momentary and the ship was a third time driven on shore on the rocky termination of the cliff. here we remained stationery for some seconds and with little prospect of being removed from this perilous situation; but we were once more extricated by the swell from this ledge also and carried still farther along the shore. the coast became now more rugged and our view of it was terminated by another high projecting point on the starboard bow. happily, before we had reached it, a light breeze enabled us to turn the ship's head to seaward and we had the gratification to find, when the sails were trimmed, that she drew off the shore. we had made but little progress however when she was violently forced by the current against a large iceberg lying aground. our prospect was now more alarming than at any preceding period; and it would be difficult for me to portray the anxiety and dismay depicted on the countenances of the female passengers and children who were rushing on deck in spite of the endeavours of the officers to keep them below, out of the danger which was apprehended if the masts should be carried away. after the first concussion the ship was driven along the steep and rugged side of this iceberg with such amazing rapidity that the destruction of the masts seemed inevitable, and everyone expected we should again be forced on the rocks in the most disabled state; but we providentially escaped this perilous result, which must have been decisive. the dense fog now cleared away for a short time and we discovered the eddystone close to some rocks, having three boats employed in towing; but the wear was not visible. our ship received water very fast; the pumps were instantly manned and kept in continual use, and signals of distress were made to the eddystone, whose commander promptly came on board and then ordered to our assistance his carpenter and all the men he could spare together with the carpenter and boat's crew of the wear, who had gone on board the eddystone in the morning and were prevented from returning to their own vessel by the fog. as the wind was increasing and the sky appeared very unsettled it was determined the eddystone should take the ship in tow, that the undivided attention of the passengers and crew might be directed to pumping and clearing the holds to examine whether there was a possibility of stopping the leak. we soon had reason to suppose the principal injury had been received from a blow near the stern-post, and after cutting away part of the ceiling the carpenters endeavoured to stop the rushing in of the water by forcing oakum between the timbers; but this had not the desired effect and the leak, in spite of all our efforts at the pumps, increased so much that parties of the officers and passengers were stationed to bail out the water in buckets at different parts of the hold. a heavy gale came on, blowing from the land, as the night advanced; the sails were split, the ship was encompassed by heavy ice and, in forcing through a closely-connected stream, the tow-rope broke and obliged us to take a portion of the seamen from the pumps and appoint them to the management of the ship. fatigue indeed had caused us to relax in our exertions at the pumps during a part of the night of the th, and on the following morning upwards of five feet of water was found in the well. renewed exertions were now put forth by every person, and before eight a.m. the water was so much reduced as to enable the carpenters to get at other defective places; but the remedies they could apply were insufficient to repress the water from rushing in, and our labours could but just keep the ship in the same state throughout the day until six p.m.; when the strength of everyone began to fail the expedient of thrusting in felt, as well as oakum, was resorted to, and a plank nailed over all. after this operation a perceptible diminution in the water was made and, being encouraged by the change, we put forth our utmost exertion in bailing and pumping; and before night to our infinite joy the leak was so overpowered that the pumps were only required to be used at intervals of ten minutes. a sail covered with every substance that could be carried into the leaks by the pressure of the water was drawn under the quarter of the ship and secured by ropes on each side. as a matter of precaution in the event of having to abandon the ship, which was for some time doubtful, the elderly women and children were removed to the eddystone when the wind was moderate this afternoon, but the young women remained to assist at the pumps, and their services were highly valuable, both for their personal labour and for the encouragement their example and perseverance gave to the men. at daylight on the th every eye was anxiously cast around the horizon in search of the wear but in vain; and the recollection of our own recent peril caused us to entertain considerable apprehensions for her safety. this anxiety quickened our efforts to exchange our shattered sails for new ones that the ship might be got as speedily as possible near to the land, which was but just in sight, and a careful search be made for her along the coast. we were rejoiced to find that our leak did not increase by carrying sail, and we ventured in the evening to remove the sail which had been placed under the part where the injury had been received as it greatly impeded our advance. we passed many icebergs on the th and in the evening we tacked from a level field of ice which extended northward as far as the eye could reach. our leak remained in the same state; the pumps discharged in three minutes the quantity of water which had been received in fifteen. land on the coast of labrador. the ship could not be got near to the land before the afternoon of the th. at four p.m. we hove to, opposite to and about five miles distant from the spot on which we had first struck on saturday. every glass was directed along the shore (as they had been throughout the day) to discover any trace of our absent consort; but as none was seen our solicitude respecting her was much increased, and we feared the crew might be wrecked on this inhospitable shore. guns were frequently fired to apprise any who might be near of our approach; but as no one appeared and no signal was returned and the loose ice was setting down towards the ship we bore up to proceed to the next appointed rendezvous. at eight p.m. we were abreast of the south-west end of the island called cape resolution, which is a low point but indicated at a distance by a lofty round-backed hill that rises above it. we entered hudson's straits soon afterwards. the coast of resolution island should be approached with caution as the tides appear to be strong and uncertain in their course. some dangerous rocks lie above and below the water's edge at the distance of five or six miles from east bluff bearing south degrees east. august . having had a fresh gale through the night we reached saddleback island by noon--the place of rendezvous; and looked anxiously but in vain for the wear. several guns were fired, supposing she might be hid from our view by the land; but as she did not appear captain davidson, having remained two hours, deemed further delay inexpedient and bore up to keep the advantage of the fair wind. the outline of this island is rugged; the hummock on its northern extremity appeared to me to resemble a decayed martello tower more than a saddle. azimuths were obtained this evening that gave the variation degrees minutes west, which is greater than is laid down in the charts, or than the officers of hudson's bay ships have been accustomed to allow. esquimaux of savage islands. we arrived abreast of the upper savage island early in the morning and, as the breeze was moderate, the ship was steered as near to the shore as the wind would permit to give the esquimaux inhabitants an opportunity of coming off to barter, which they soon embraced. their shouts at a distance intimated their approach some time before we descried the canoes paddling towards us; the headmost of them reached us at eleven; these were quickly followed by others, and before noon about forty canoes, each holding one man, were assembled around the two ships. in the afternoon when we approached nearer to the shore five or six larger ones containing the women and children came up. the esquimaux immediately evinced their desire to barter and displayed no small cunning in making their bargains, taking care not to exhibit too many articles at first. their principal commodities were oil, sea-horse teeth, whalebone, seal-skin dresses, caps and boots, deerskins and horns, and models of their canoes; and they received in exchange small saws, knives, nails, tin-kettles, and needles. it was pleasing to behold the exultation and to hear the shouts of the whole party when an acquisition was made by any one; and not a little ludicrous to behold the eagerness with which the fortunate person licked each article with his tongue on receiving it, as a finish to the bargain and an act of appropriation. they in no instance omitted this strange practice, however small the article; the needles even passed individually through the ceremony. the women brought imitations of men, women, animals, and birds, carved with labour and ingenuity out of sea-horse teeth. the dresses and the figures of the animals were not badly executed, but there was no attempt at the delineation of the countenances; and most of the figures were without eyes, ears and fingers, the execution of which would perhaps have required more delicate instruments than they possess. the men set most value on saws; kutteeswabak, the name by which they distinguish them, was a constant cry. knives were held next in estimation. an old sword was bartered from the eddystone and i shall long remember the universal burst of joy on the happy man's receiving it. it was delightful to witness the general interest excited by individual acquisitions. there was no desire shown by anyone to over-reach his neighbour, or to press towards any part of the ship where a bargain was making until the person in possession of the place had completed his exchange and removed; and if any article happened to be demanded from the outer canoes the men nearest assisted willingly in passing the thing across. supposing the party to belong to one tribe the total number of the tribe must exceed two hundred persons, as there were probably one hundred and fifty around the ships, and few of these were elderly persons or male children. their faces were broad and flat, the eyes small. the men were in general stout. some of the younger women and the children had rather pleasing countenances, but the difference between these and the more aged of that sex bore strong testimony to the effects which a few years produce in this ungenial climate. most of the party had sore eyes, all of them appeared of a plethoric habit of body; several were observed bleeding at the nose during their stay near the ship. the men's dresses consisted of a jacket of seal-skin, the trousers of bear-skin, and several had caps of the white fox-skin. the female dresses were made of the same materials but differently shaped, having a hood in which the infants were carried. we thought their manner very lively and agreeable. they were fond of mimicking our speech and gestures; but nothing afforded them greater amusement than when we attempted to retaliate by pronouncing any of their words. the canoes were of seal-skin and similar in every respect to those used by the esquimaux in greenland; they were generally new and very complete in their appointments. those appropriated to the women are of ruder construction and only calculated for fine weather; they are however useful vessels, being capable of containing twenty persons with their luggage. an elderly man officiates as steersman and the women paddle, but they have also a mast which carries a sail made of dressed whale-gut. when the women had disposed of all their articles of trade they resorted to entreaty; and the putting in practice many enticing gestures was managed with so much address as to procure them presents of a variety of beads, needles, and other articles in great demand among females. it is probable these esquimaux go from this shore to some part of labrador to pass the winter, as parties of them have been frequently seen by the homeward-bound hudson's bay ships in the act of crossing the strait. they appear to speak the same language as the tribe of esquimaux who reside near to the moravian settlements in labrador: for we perceived they used several of the words which had been given to us by the missionaries at stromness. towards evening the captain, being desirous to get rid of his visitors, took an effectual method by tacking from the shore; our friends then departed apparently in high glee at the harvest they had reaped. they paddled away very swiftly and would doubtless soon reach the shore though it was distant ten or twelve miles. not having encountered any of the ice which usually arrests the progress of ships in their outward passage through the straits, and being consequently deprived of the usual means of replenishing our stock of water which had become short, the captain resolved on going to the coast of labrador for a supply. dr. richardson and i gladly embraced this opportunity to land and examine this part of the coast. i was also desirous to observe the variation on shore as the azimuths which had been taken on board both ships since our entrance into the straits had shown a greater amount than we had been led to expect; but unluckily the sun became obscured. the beach consisted of large rolled stones of gneiss and sienite, amongst which many pieces of ice had grounded, and it was with difficulty that we effected a landing in a small cove under a steep cliff. these stones were worn perfectly smooth; neither in the interstices nor at the bottom of the water, which was very clear, were there any vestiges of seaweed. the cliff was from forty to fifty feet high and quite perpendicular, and had at its base a small slip of soil formed of the debris of a bed of clay-slate. from this narrow spot dr. richardson collected specimens of thirty different species of plants; and we were about to scramble up a shelving part of the rock and go into the interior when we perceived the signal of recall which the master had caused to be made in consequence of a sudden change in the appearance of the weather. on the evening of the th we passed digge's islands, the termination of hudson's strait. here the eddystone parted company, being bound to moose factory at the bottom of the bay. a strong north wind came on, which prevented our getting round the north end of mansfield; and as it continued to blow with equal strength for the next five days we were most vexatiously detained in beating along the labrador coast and near the dangerous chain of islands, the sleepers, which are said to extend from the latitude of degrees minutes to degrees minutes north. the press of sail which of necessity we carried caused the leak to increase and the pumps were kept in constant use. a favouring wind at length enabled us on the th to shape our course across hudson's bay. nothing worthy of remark occurred during this passage except the rapid decrease in the variation of the magnetic needle. the few remarks respecting the appearance of the land which we were able to make in our quick passage through these straits were transmitted to the admiralty; but as they will not be interesting to the general reader, and may not be sufficiently accurate for the guidance of the navigator, they are omitted in this narrative. york factory. on the th we discovered the land to the southward of cape tatnam, which is so extremely low that the tops of the trees were first discerned; the soundings at the time were seventeen fathoms, which gradually decreased to five as the shore was approached. cape tatnam is not otherwise remarkable than as being the point from which the coast inclines rather more to the westward towards york factory. the opening of the morning of the th presented to our view the anchorage at york flats, and the gratifying sight of a vessel at anchor, which we recognised after an anxious examination to be the wear. a strong breeze blowing from the direction of the flats caused the water to be more shallow than usual on the sandy bar which lies on the seaward side of the anchorage, and we could not get over it before two p.m. when the tide was nearly at its height. immediately after our arrival mr. williams, the governor of the hudson's bay company's posts, came on board accompanied by the commander of the wear. the pleasure we felt in welcoming the latter gentleman can easily be imagined when it is considered what reason we had to apprehend that he and his crew had been numbered with the dead. we learned that one of the larger masses of ice had providentially drifted between the vessel's side and the rocks just at the time he expected to strike, to which he secured it until a breeze sprang up and enabled him to pursue his voyage. preparations for the journey into the interior. the governor acquainted me that he had received information from the committee of the hudson's bay company of the equipment of the expedition, and that the officers would come out in their first ship. in the evening dr. richardson, mr. hood, and i accompanied him to york factory which we reached after dark; it is distant from the flats seven miles. early next morning the honour of a salute was conferred on the members of the expedition. having communicated to the governor the objects of the expedition, and that i had been directed to consult with him and the senior servants of the company as to the best mode of proceeding towards the execution of the service, i was gratified by his assurance that his instructions from the committee directed that every possible assistance should be given to forward our progress, and that he should feel peculiar pleasure in performing this part of his duty. he introduced me at once to messrs. charles, swaine, and snodie, masters of districts who, from long residence in the country, were perfectly acquainted with the different modes of travelling, and the obstructions which might be anticipated. at the desire of these gentlemen i drew up a series of questions respecting the points on which we required information; to which two days afterwards they had the kindness to return very explicit and satisfactory answers; and on receiving them i requested the governor to favour me with his sentiments on the same subject in writing, which he delivered to me on the following day. having learned that messrs. shaw, mctavish, and several other partners of the north-west company were under detention at this place we took the earliest opportunity of visiting them; when, having presented the general circular and other introductory letters with which i had been furnished by their agent mr. simon mcgillivray, we received from them the most friendly and full assurance of the cordial endeavours of the wintering partners of their company to promote the interests of the expedition. the knowledge we had now gained of the state of the violent commercial opposition existing in the country rendered this assurance highly gratifying; and these gentlemen added to the obligation by freely communicating that information respecting the interior of the country which their intelligence and long residence so fully qualified them to give. i deemed it expedient to issue a memorandum to the officers of the expedition strictly prohibiting any interference whatever in the existing quarrels, or any that might arise, between the two companies; and on presenting it to the principals of both the parties they expressed their satisfaction at the step i had taken. the opinions of all the gentlemen were so decidedly in favour of the route by cumberland house and through the chain of posts to the great slave lake that i determined on pursuing it, and immediately communicated my intention to the governor with a request that he would furnish me with the means of conveyance for the party as speedily as possible. it was suggested in my instructions that we might probably procure a schooner at this place to proceed north as far as wager bay; but the vessel alluded to was lying at moose factory, completely out of repair; independently of which the route directly to the northward was rendered impracticable by the impossibility of procuring hunters and guides on the coast. i found that, as the esquimaux inhabitants had left churchill a month previous to our arrival, no interpreter from that quarter could be procured before their return in the following spring. the governor however undertook to forward to us, next season, the only one amongst them who understood english, if he could be induced to go. the governor selected one of the largest of the company's boats for our use on the journey, and directed the carpenters to commence refitting it immediately; but he was only able to furnish us with a steersman; and we were obliged to make up the rest of the crew with the boatmen brought from stromness and our two attendants. york factory, the principal depot of the hudson's bay company, stands on the west bank of hayes river, about five miles above its mouth, on the marshy peninsula which separates the hayes and nelson rivers. the surrounding country is flat and swampy and covered with willows, poplars, larch, spruce, and birch-trees; but the requisition for fuel has expended all the wood in the vicinity of the fort and the residents have now to send for it to a considerable distance. the soil is alluvial clay and contains imbedded rolled stones. though the bank of the river is elevated about twenty feet it is frequently overflown by the spring floods, and large portions are annually carried away by the disruption of the ice which, grounding in the stream, have formed several muddy islands. these interruptions, together with the various collection of stones that are hid at high-water, render the navigation of the river difficult; but vessels of two hundred tons burden may be brought through the proper channels as high as the factory. the principal buildings are placed in the form of a square having an octagonal court in the centre; they are two storeys in height and have flat roofs covered with lead. the officers dwell in one portion of this square, and in the other parts the articles of merchandise are kept: the workshops, storehouses for the furs, and the servants' houses are ranged on the outside of the square, and the whole is surrounded by a stockade twenty feet high. a platform is laid from the house to the pier on the bank for the convenience of transporting the stores and furs, which is the only promenade the residents have on this marshy spot during the summer season. the few indians who now frequent this establishment belong to the swampy crees. there were several of them encamped on the outside of the stockade. their tents were rudely constructed by tying twenty or thirty poles together at the top, and spreading them out at the base so as to form a cone; these were covered with dressed moose-skins. the fire is placed in the centre and a hole is left for the escape of the smoke. the inmates had a squalid look and were suffering under the combined afflictions of the whooping-cough and measles; but even these miseries did not keep them from an excessive indulgence in spirits, which they unhappily can procure from the traders with too much facility; and they nightly serenaded us with their monotonous drunken songs. their sickness at this time was particularly felt by the traders, this being the season of the year when the exertion of every hunter is required to procure their winter's stock of geese, which resort in immense flocks to the extensive flats in this neighbourhood. these birds during the summer retire far to the north and breed in security; but when the approach of winter compels them to seek a more southern climate they generally alight on the marshes of this bay and fatten there for three weeks or a month before they take their final departure from the country. they also make a short halt at the same spots in their progress northwards in the spring. their arrival is welcomed with joy, and the goose hunt is one of the most plentiful seasons of the year. the ducks frequent the swamps all the summer. the weather was extremely unfavourable for celestial observations during our stay, and it was only by watching the momentary appearances of the sun that we were enabled to obtain fresh rates for the chronometers and allow for their errors from greenwich time. the dip of the needle was observed to be degrees minutes seconds, and the difference produced by reversing the face of the instrument was degrees minutes seconds. a succession of fresh breezes prevented our ascertaining the intensity of the magnetic force. the position of york factory by our observations is in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes west. the variation of the compass degrees minutes seconds east. chapter . passage up hayes, steel and hill rivers. cross swampy lake. jack river. knee lake and magnetic islet. trout river. holy lake. weepinapannis river. windy lake. white fall lake and river. echemamis and sea rivers. play green lakes. lake winnipeg. river saskatchewan. cross, cedar and pine island lakes. cumberland house. passage up hayes, steel, and hill rivers. september . on the th of september, our boat being completed, arrangements were made for our departure as soon as the tide should serve. but when the stores were brought down to the beach it was found that the boat would not contain them all. the whole therefore of the bacon and part of the flour, rice, tobacco, and ammunition were returned into the store. the bacon was too bulky an article to be forwarded under any circumstances; but the governor undertook to forward the rest next season. in making the selection of articles to carry with us i was guided by the judgment of governor williams who assured me that tobacco, ammunition, and spirits could be procured in the interior, otherwise i should have been very unwilling to have left these essential articles behind. we embarked at noon and were honoured with a salute of eight guns and three cheers from the governor and all the inmates of the fort who had assembled to witness our departure. we gratefully returned their cheers and then made sail, much delighted at having now commenced our voyage into the interior of america. the wind and tide failing us at the distance of six miles above the factory, and the current being too rapid for using oars to advantage, the crew had to commence tracking, or dragging the boat by a line to which they were harnessed. this operation is extremely laborious in these rivers. our men were obliged to walk along the steep declivity of a high bank, rendered at this season soft and slippery by frequent rains, and their progress was often further impeded by fallen trees which, having slipped from the verge of the thick wood above, hung on the face of the bank in a great variety of directions. notwithstanding these obstacles we advanced at the rate of two miles an hour, one-half of the crew relieving the other at intervals of an hour and a half. the banks of the river and its islands, composed of alluvial soil, are well covered with pines, larches, poplars, and willows. the breadth of the stream some distance above the factory is about half a mile, and its depth during this day's voyage varied from three to nine feet. at sunset we landed and pitched the tent for the night, having made a progress of twelve miles. a large fire was quickly kindled, supper speedily prepared and as readily despatched, when we retired with our buffalo robes on and enjoyed a night of sound repose. it may here be stated that the survey of the river was made by taking the bearings of every point with a pocket compass, estimating the distances, and making a connected eye-sketch of the whole. this part of the survey was allotted to messrs. back and hood conjointly: mr. hood also protracted the route every evening on a ruled map, after the courses and distances had been corrected by observations for latitude and longitude taken by myself as often as the weather would allow. the extraordinary talent of this young officer in this line of service proved of the greatest advantage to the expedition, and he continued to perform that duty until his lamented death with a degree of zeal and accuracy that characterised all his pursuits. the next morning our camp was in motion at five a.m., and we soon afterwards embarked with the flattering accompaniment of a fair wind: it proved however too light to enable us to stem the stream, and we were obliged to resume the fatiguing operation of tracking; sometimes under cliffs so steep that the men could scarcely find a footing, and not unfrequently over spots rendered so miry by the small streams that trickled from above as to be almost impassable. in the course of the day we passed the scene of a very melancholy accident. some years ago two families of indians, induced by the flatness of a small beach which lay betwixt the cliff and the river, chose it as the site of their encampment. they retired quietly to rest, not aware that the precipice, detached from the bank and urged by an accumulation of water in the crevice behind, was tottering to its base. it fell during the night and the whole party was buried under its ruins. the length of our voyage today was in a direct line sixteen miles and a quarter on a south-south-west course. we encamped soon after sunset and the tent was scarcely pitched when a heavy rain began, which continued all night. sixteen miles on the th and five on the following morning brought us to the commencement of hayes river which is formed by the confluence of the shamattawa and steel rivers. our observations place this spot in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minute seconds west. it is forty-eight miles and a half from york factory including the windings of the river. steel river, through which our course lay, is about three hundred yards wide at its mouth; its banks have more elevation than those of hayes river, but they shelve more gradually down to the stream and afford a tolerably good towing path, which compensates in some degree for the rapids and frequent shoals that impede its navigation. we succeeded in getting about ten miles above the mouth of the river before the close of day compelled us to disembark. we made an effort on the morning of the th to stem the current under sail but, as the course of the river was very serpentine, we found that greater progress could be made by tracking. steel river presents much beautiful scenery; it winds through a narrow but well wooded valley which at every turn disclosed to us an agreeable variety of prospect, rendered more picturesque by the effect of the season on the foliage, now ready to drop from the trees. the light yellow of the fading poplars formed a fine contrast to the dark evergreen of the spruce, whilst the willows of an intermediate hue served to shade the two principal masses of colour into each other. the scene was occasionally enlivened by the bright purple tints of the dogwood, blended with the browner shades of the dwarf birch and frequently intermixed with the gay yellow flowers of the shrubby cinquefoil. with all these charms the scene appeared desolate from the want of human species. the stillness was so great that even the twittering of the whiskey-johneesh, or cinereous crow caused us to start. our voyage today was sixteen miles on a south-west course. september . we had much rain during the night and also in the morning, which detained us in our encampment later than usual. we set out as soon as the weather cleared up and in a short time arrived at the head of steel river where it is formed by the junction of fox and hill rivers. these two rivers are nearly of equal width but the latter is the most rapid. mr. mcdonald, on his way to red river in a small canoe manned by two indians, overtook us at this place. it may be mentioned as a proof of the dexterity of the indians and the skill with which they steal upon their game that they had on the preceding day, with no other arms than a hatchet, killed two deer, a hawk, a curlew, and a sturgeon. three of the company's boats joined us in the course of the morning and we pursued our course up hill river in company. the water in this river was so low and the rapids so bad that we were obliged several times in the course of the day to jump into the water and assist in lifting the boat over the large stones which impeded the navigation. the length of our voyage today was only six miles and three-quarters. the four boats commenced operations together at five o'clock the following morning but, our boat being overladen, we soon found that we were unable to keep pace with the others; and therefore proposed to the gentlemen in charge of the company's boats that they should relieve us of part of our cargo. this they declined doing under the plea of not having received orders to that effect, notwithstanding that the circular with which i was furnished by governor williams strictly enjoined all the company's servants to afford us every assistance. in consequence of this refusal we dropped behind, and our steersman, who was inexperienced, being thus deprived of the advantage of observing the route followed by the guide, who was in the foremost boat, frequently took a wrong channel. the tow-line broke twice and the boat was only prevented from going broadside down the stream and breaking to pieces against the stones by the officers and men leaping into the water and holding her head to the current until the line could be carried again to the shore. it is but justice to say that in these trying situations we received much assistance from mr. thomas swaine who with great kindness waited for us with the boat under his charge at such places as he apprehended would be most difficult to pass. we encamped at sunset, completely jaded with toil. our distance made good this day was twelve miles and a quarter. the labours of the th commenced at half-past five, and for some time the difficulty of getting the boats over the rapids was equal to what we experienced the day before. having passed a small brook however, termed halfway creek, the river became deeper and although rapid it was smooth enough to be named by our orkney boatmen stillwater. we were further relieved by the company's clerks consenting to take a few boxes of our stores into their boats. still we made only eleven miles in the course of the day. the banks of hill river are higher and have a more broken outline than those of steel or hayes rivers. the cliffs of alluvial clay rose in some places to the height of eighty or ninety feet above the stream and were surmounted by hills about two hundred feet high, but the thickness of the wood prevented us from seeing far beyond the mere banks of the river. september . about half-past five in the morning we commenced tracking and soon came to a ridge of rock which extended across the stream. from this place the boat was dragged up several narrow rocky channels until we came to the rock portage where the stream, pent in by a range of small islands, forms several cascades. in ascending the river the boats with their cargoes are carried over one of the islands, but in the descent they are shot down the most shelving of the cascades. having performed the operations of carrying, launching, and restowing the cargo we plied the oars for a short distance and landed at a depot called rock house. here we were informed that the rapids in the upper parts of hill river were much worse and more numerous than those we had passed, particularly in the present season owing to the unusual lowness of the water. this intelligence was very mortifying, especially as the gentlemen in charge of the company's boats declared that they were unable to carry any part of our stores beyond this place; and the traders, guides, and most experienced of the boatmen were of opinion that, unless our boat was still further lightened, the winter would put a stop to our progress before we could reach cumberland house or any eligible post. sixteen pieces we therefore necessarily left with mr. bunn, the gentleman in charge of the post, to be forwarded by the athabasca canoes next season, this being their place of rendezvous. after this we recommenced our voyage and, having pulled nearly a mile, arrived at borrowick's fall, where the boat was dragged up with a line after part of the cargo had been carried over a small portage. from this place to the mud portage, a distance of a mile and three-quarters, the boats were pushed on with poles against a very rapid stream. here we encamped, having come seven miles during the day on a south-west course. we had several snow showers in the course of the day and the thermometer at bedtime stood at degrees. on the morning of the th the country was clothed in the livery of winter, a heavy fall of snow having taken place during the night. we embarked at the usual hour and in the course of the day crossed the point of rocks and brassa portages and dragged the boats through several minor rapids. in this tedious way we only made good about nine miles. on sunday the th we hauled the boats up several short rapids or, as the boatmen term them, expressively enough, spouts, and carried them over the portages of lower burntwood and morgan's rocks, on the latter of which we encamped, having proceeded during the whole day only one mile and three-quarters. the upper part of hill river swells out considerably, and at morgan's rocks where it is three-quarters of a mile wide we were gratified with a more extensive prospect of the country than any we had enjoyed since leaving york factory. the banks of the river here, consisting of low flat rocks with intermediate swamps, permitted us to obtain views of the interior, the surface of which is broken into a multitude of cone-shaped hills. the highest of these hills, which gives a name to the river, has an elevation not exceeding six hundred feet. from its summit thirty-six lakes are said to be visible. the beauty of the scenery, dressed in the tints of autumn, called forth our admiration and was the subject of mr. hood's accurate pencil. on the th we passed upper burntwood and rocky ledge portages besides several strong spouts; and in the evening arrived at smooth rock portage where we encamped, having come three miles and a half. it is not easy for any but an eye-witness to form an adequate idea of the exertions of the orkney boatmen in the navigation of this river. the necessity they are under of frequently jumping into the water to lift the boats over the rocks compels them to remain the whole day in wet clothes at a season when the temperature is far below the freezing-point. the immense loads too which they carry over the portages is not more a matter of surprise than the alacrity with which they perform these laborious duties. cross swampy lake. at six on the morning of the st we left our encampment and soon after arrived at the mossy portage where the cargoes were carried through a deep bog for a quarter of a mile. the river swells out above this portage to the breadth of several miles and as the islands are numerous there are a great variety of channels. night overtook us before we arrived at the second portage, so named from its being the second in the passage down the river. our whole distance this day was one mile and a quarter. on the nd our route led us amongst many wooded islands which, lying in long vistas, produced scenes of much beauty. in the course of the day we crossed the upper portage, surmounted the devil's landing place, and urged the boat with poles through groundwater creek. at the upper end of this creek, our bowman having given the boat too great a sheer to avoid a rock, it was caught on the broadside by the current and in defiance of our utmost exertions hurried down the rapid. fortunately however it grounded against a rock high enough to prevent the current from oversetting it, and the crews of the other boats having come to our assistance we succeeded after several trials in throwing a rope to them with which they dragged our almost sinking vessel stern foremost up the stream and rescued us from our perilous situation. we encamped in the dusk of evening amidst a heavy thunderstorm, having advanced two miles and three-quarters. about ten in the morning of the rd we arrived at the dramstone which is hailed with pleasure by the boats' crews as marking the termination of the laborious ascent of hill river. we complied with the custom from whence it derives its name and soon after landing upon sail island prepared breakfast. in the meantime our boatmen cut down and rigged a new mast, the old one having been thrown overboard at the mouth of steel river, where it ceased to be useful. we left sail island with a fair wind and soon afterwards arrived at a depot situated on swampy lake where we received a supply of mouldy pemmican.* mr. calder and his attendant were the only tenants of this cheerless abode, and their only food was the wretched stuff with which they supplied us, the lake not yielding fish at this season. (*footnote. buffalo meat, dried and pounded and mixed with melted fat.) jack river. after a short delay at this post we sailed through the remainder of swampy lake and slept at the lower portage in jack river; the distance sailed today being sixteen miles and a half. jack river is only eight miles long but, being full of bad rapids, it detained us considerably. at seven in the morning of the th we crossed the long portage where the woods, having caught fire in the summer, were still smoking. this is a common accident owing to the neglect of the indians and voyagers in not putting out their fires, and in a dry season the woods may be seen blazing to the extent of many miles. we afterwards crossed the second, or swampy, portage and in the evening encamped on the upper portage, where we were overtaken by an indian bringing an answer from governor williams to a letter i had written to him on the th in which he renewed his injunctions to the gentlemen of the boats accompanying us to afford us every assistance in their power. the aurora borealis appeared this evening in form of a bright arch extending across the zenith in a north-west and south-east direction. the extent of our voyage today was two miles. knee lake and magnetic islet. about noon on the th we entered knee lake which has a very irregular form and near its middle takes a sudden turn from whence it derives its names. it is thickly studded with islands and its shores are low and well wooded. the surrounding country as far as we could see is flat, being destitute even of the moderate elevations which occur near the upper part of hill river. the weather was remarkably fine and the setting sun threw the richest tints over the scene that i remember ever to have witnessed. about half a mile from the bend, or knee, of the lake there is a small rocky islet composed of magnetic iron ore which affects the magnetic needle at a considerable distance. having received previous information respecting this circumstance we watched our compasses carefully and perceived that they were affected at the distance of three hundred yards both on the approach to and departure from the rock: on decreasing the distance they became gradually more and more unsteady and on landing they were rendered quite useless; and it was evident that the general magnetic influence was totally overpowered by the local attraction of the ore. when kater's compass was held near to the ground on the north-west side of the island the needle dipped so much that the card could not be made to traverse by any adjustment of the hand; but on moving the same compass about thirty yards to the west part of the islet the needle became horizontal, traversed freely, and pointed to the magnetic north. the dipping needle, being landed on the south-west point of the islet, was adjusted as nearly as possible on the magnetic meridian by the sun's bearings, and found to vibrate freely when the face of the instrument was directed to the east or west. the mean dip it gave was degrees minutes seconds. when the instrument was removed from the north-west to the south-east point about twenty yards distant and placed on the meridian the needle ceased to traverse but remained steady at an angle of degrees. on changing the face of the instrument so as to give a south-east and north-west direction to the needle it hung vertically. the position of the slaty strata of the magnetic ore is also vertical. their direction is extremely irregular, being much contorted. knee lake towards its upper end becomes narrower and its rocky shores are broken into conical and rounded eminences, destitute of soil, and of course devoid of trees. we slept at the western extremity of the lake, having come during the day nineteen miles and a half on a south-west course. trout river. we began the ascent of trout river early in the morning of the th and in the course of the day passed three portages and several rapids. at the first of these portages the river falls between two rocks about sixteen feet and it is necessary to launch the boat over a precipitous rocky bank. this cascade is named the trout fall, and the beauty of the scenery afforded a subject for mr. hood's pencil. the rocks which form the bed of this river are slaty and present sharp fragments by which the feet of the boatmen are much lacerated. the second portage in particular obtains the expressive name of knife portage. the length of our voyage today was three miles. holy lake. on the th we passed through the remainder of trout river; and at noon arrived at oxford house on holy lake. this was formerly a post of some consequence to the hudson's bay company but at present it exhibits unequivocal signs of decay. the indians have of late years been gradually deserting the low or swampy country and ascending the saskatchewan where animals are more abundant. a few crees were at this time encamped in front of the fort. they were suffering under whooping-cough and measles and looked miserably dejected. we endeavoured in vain to prevail on one of them to accompany us for the purpose of killing ducks which were numerous but too shy for our sportsmen. we had the satisfaction however of exchanging the mouldy pemmican obtained at swampy lake for a better kind, and received moreover a small but very acceptable supply of fish. holy lake, viewed from an eminence behind oxford house, exhibits a pleasing prospect; and its numerous islands, varying much in shape and elevation, contribute to break that uniformity of scenery which proves so palling to a traveller in this country. trout of a great size, frequently exceeding forty pounds' weight, abound in this lake. we left oxford house in the afternoon and encamped on an island about eight miles distant, having come during the day nine miles and a quarter. weepinapannis river. at noon on the th, after passing through the remainder of holy lake, we entered the weepinapannis, a narrow grassy river which runs parallel to the lake for a considerable distance and forms its south bank into a narrow peninsula. in the morning we arrived at the swampy portage where two of the boats were broken against the rocks. the length of the day's voyage was nineteen miles and a half. in consequence of the accident yesterday evening we were detained a considerable time this morning until the boats were repaired, when we set out and, after ascending a strong rapid, arrived at the portage by john moore's island. here the river rushes with irresistible force through the channels formed by two rocky islands; and we learned that last year a poor man, in hauling a boat up one of these channels, was, by the breaking of the line, precipitated into the stream and hurried down the cascade with such rapidity that all efforts to save him were ineffectual. his body was afterwards found and interred near the spot. the weepinapannis is composed of several branches which separate and unite again and again, intersecting the country in a great variety of directions. windy lake. we pursued the principal channel and, having passed the crooked spout with several inferior rapids and crossed a small piece of water named windy lake, we entered a smooth deep stream about three hundred yards wide which has got the absurd appellation of the rabbit ground. the marshy banks of this river are skirted by low barren rocks behind which there are some groups of stunted trees. as we advanced the country, becoming flatter, gradually opened to our view and we at length arrived at a shallow, reedy lake, the direct course through which leads to the hill portage. this route has however of late years been disused and we therefore turned towards the north and, crossing a small arm of the lake, arrived at hill gates by sunset; having come this day eleven miles. october . hill gates is the name imposed on a romantic defile whose rocky walls, rising perpendicularly to the height of sixty or eighty feet, hem in the stream for three-quarters of a mile, in many places so narrowly that there is a want of room to ply the oars. in passing through this chasm we were naturally led to contemplate the mighty but probably slow and gradual effects of the water in wearing down such vast masses of rock; but in the midst of our speculations the attention was excited anew to a grand and picturesque rapid which, surrounded by the most wild and majestic scenery, terminated the defile. the brown fishing-eagle had built its nest on one of the projecting cliffs. white fall lake and river. in the course of the day we surmounted this and another dangerous portage called the upper and lower hill gate portages, crossed a small sheet of water, termed the white fall lake and, entering the river of the same name, arrived at the white fall about an hour after sunset, having come fourteen miles on a south-west course. the whole of the nd of october was spent in carrying the cargoes over a portage of thirteen hundred yards in length and in launching the empty boats over three several ridges of rock which obstruct the channel and produce as many cascades. i shall long remember the rude and characteristic wildness of the scenery which surrounded these falls; rocks piled on rocks hung in rude and shapeless masses over the agitated torrents which swept their bases, whilst the bright and variegated tints of the mosses and lichens that covered the face of the cliffs, contrasting with the dark green of the pines which crowned their summits, added both beauty and grandeur to the scene. our two companions, back and hood, made accurate sketches of these falls. at this place we observed a conspicuous lop-stick, a kind of landmark which i have not hitherto noticed, notwithstanding its great use in pointing out the frequented routes. it is a pine-tree divested of its lower branches and having only a small tuft at the top remaining. this operation is usually performed at the instance of some individual emulous of fame. he treats his companions with rum and they in return strip the tree of its branches and ever after designate it by his name. in the afternoon, whilst on my way to superintend the operations of the men, a stratum of loose moss gave way under my feet and i had the misfortune to slip from the summit of a rock into the river betwixt two of the falls. my attempts to regain the bank were for a time ineffectual owing to the rocks within my reach having been worn smooth by the action of the water; but after i had been carried a considerable distance down the stream i caught hold of a willow by which i held until two gentlemen of the hudson's bay company came in a boat to my assistance. the only bad consequence of this accident was an injury sustained by a very valuable chronometer (number ) belonging to daniel moore, esquire, of lincoln's inn. one of the gentlemen to whom i delivered it immediately on landing in his agitation let it fall, whereby the minutehand was broken, but the works were not in the smallest degree injured and the loss of the hand was afterwards supplied. during the night the frost was severe; and at sunrise on the rd the thermometer stood at degrees. after leaving our encampment at the white fall we passed through several small lakes connected with each other by narrow, deep, grassy streams, and at noon arrived at the painted stone. numbers of muskrats frequent these streams; and we observed in the course of the morning many of their mud-houses rising in a conical form to the height of two or three feet above the grass of the swamps in which they were built. the painted stone is a low rock, ten or twelve yards across, remarkable for the marshy streams which arise on each side of it, taking different courses. on the one side the watercourse which we had navigated from york factory commences. this spot may therefore be considered as one of the smaller sources of hayes river. echemamis and sea rivers. on the other side of the stone the echemamis rises and, taking a westerly direction, falls into nelson river. it is said that there was formerly a stone placed near the centre of this portage on which figures were annually traced and offerings deposited by the indians; but the stone has been removed many years and the spot has ceased to be held in veneration. here we were overtaken by governor williams who left york factory on the th of last month in an indian canoe. he expressed much regret at our having been obliged to leave part of our stores at the rock depot, and would have brought them up with him had he been able to procure and man a boat, or a canoe, of sufficient size. having launched the boats over the rock we commenced the descent of the echemamis. this small stream has its course through a morass and in dry seasons its channel contains, instead of water, merely a foot or two of thin mud. on these occasions it is customary to build dams that it may be rendered navigable by the accumulation of its waters. as the beavers perform this operation very effectually endeavours have been made to encourage them to breed in this place, but it has not hitherto been possible to restrain the indians from killing that useful animal whenever they discover its retreats. on the present occasion there was no want of water, the principal impediment we experienced being from the narrowness of the channel, which permitted the willows of each bank to meet over our heads and obstruct the men at the oars. after proceeding down the stream for some time we came to a recently-constructed beaver dam through which an opening was made sufficient to admit the boat to pass. we were assured that the breach would be closed by the industrious creature in a single night. we encamped about eight miles from the source of the river, having come during the day seventeen miles and a half. on the th we embarked amidst a heavy rain and pursued our route down the echemamis. in many parts of the morass by which the river is nourished and through which it flows, is intersected by ridges of rock which cross the channel and require the boat to be lifted over them. in the afternoon we passed through a shallow piece of water overgrown with bulrushes and hence named hairy lake; and in the evening encamped on the banks of blackwater creek, by which this lake empties itself into sea river; having come during the day twenty miles and three-quarters. on the morning of the th we entered sea river, one of the many branches of nelson river. it is about four hundred yards wide and its waters are of a muddy white colour. after ascending the stream for an hour or two and passing through carpenter's lake, which is merely an expansion of the river to about a mile in breadth, we came to the sea river portage where the boat was launched across a smooth rock to avoid a fall of four or five feet. play green lakes. reembarking at the upper end of the portage we ran before a fresh gale through the remainder of sea river, the lower part of play green lake and, entering little jack river, landed and pitched our tents. here there is a small log hut, the residence of a fisherman who supplies norway house with trout and sturgeon. he gave us a few of these fish which afforded an acceptable supper. our voyage this day was thirty-four miles. october . little jack river is the name given to a channel that winds among several large islands which separate upper and lower play green lakes. at the lower end of this channel big jack river, a stream of considerable magnitude, falls into the lake. play green is a translation of the appellation given to that lake by two bands of indians who met and held a festival on an island situated near its centre. after leaving our encampment we sailed through upper play green lake and arrived at norway point in the forenoon. lake winnipeg. the waters of lake winnipeg and of the rivers that run into it, the saskatchewan in particular, are rendered turbid by the suspension of a large quantity of white clay. play green lake and nelson river, being the discharges of the winnipeg, are equally opaque, a circumstance that renders the sunken rocks, so frequent in these waters, very dangerous to boats in a fresh breeze. owing to this one of the boats that accompanied us, sailing at the rate of seven miles an hour, struck upon one of these rocks. its mast was carried away by the shock but fortunately no other damage sustained. the indians ascribe the muddiness of these lakes to an adventure of one of their deities, a mischievous fellow, a sort of robin puck, whom they hold in very little esteem. this deity, who is named weesakootchaht, possesses considerable power but makes a capricious use of it and delights in tormenting the poor indians. he is not however invincible and was foiled in one of his attempts by the artifice of an old woman who succeeded in taking him captive. she called in all the women of the tribe to aid in his punishment, and he escaped from their hands in a condition so filthy that it required all the waters of the great lake to wash him clean; and ever since that period it has been entitled to the appellation of winnipeg, or muddy water. norway point forms the extremity of a narrow peninsula which separates play green and winnipeg lakes. buildings were first erected here by a party of norwegians who were driven away from the colony at red river by the commotions which took place some time ago. it is now a trading post belonging to the hudson's bay company. on landing at norway house we met with lord selkirk's colonists who had started from york factory the day before us. these poor people were exceedingly pleased at meeting with us again in this wild country; having accompanied them across the atlantic they viewed us in the light of old acquaintances. this post was under the charge of mr. james sutherland, to whom i am indebted for replacing a minutehand on the chronometer which was broken at the white fall, and i had afterwards the satisfaction of finding that it went with extraordinary regularity. the morning of the th october was beautifully clear and the observations we obtained place norway house in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, and longitude degrees minute seconds west; the variation of the magnetic needle degrees minutes seconds east, and its dip degrees minutes seconds. though our route from york factory has rather inclined to the south-west the dip, it will be perceived, has gradually increased. the difference produced by reversing the face of the instrument was degrees minutes. there was too much wind to admit of our observing with any degree of accuracy the quantity of the magnetic force. we left norway house soon after noon and, the wind being favourable, sailed along the northern shore of lake winnipeg the whole of the ensuing night; and on the morning of the th landed on a narrow ridge of sand which, running out twenty miles to the westward, separates limestone bay from the body of the lake. when the wind blows hard from the southward it is customary to carry boats across this isthmus and to pull up under its lee. from norwegian point to limestone bay the shore consists of high clay cliffs against which the waves beat with violence during strong southerly winds. when the wind blows from the land and the waters of the lake are low a narrow sandy beach is uncovered and affords a landing-place for boats. the shores of limestone bay are covered with small fragments of calcareous stones. during the night the aurora borealis was quick in its motions and various and vivid in its colours. after breakfasting we reembarked and continued our voyage until three p.m., when a strong westerly wind arising we were obliged to shelter ourselves on a small island which lies near the extremity of the above-mentioned peninsula. this island is formed of a collection of small rolled pieces of limestone and was remembered by some of our boatman to have been formerly covered with water. for the last ten or twelve years the waters of the lake have been low, but our information did not enable us to judge whether the decrease was merely casual, or going on continually, or periodical. the distance of this island from norway house is thirty-eight miles and a half. river saskatchewan. the westerly winds detained us all the morning of the th but at two p.m. the wind chopped round to the eastward; we immediately embarked and the breeze afterwards freshening we reached the mouth of the saskatchewan at midnight having run thirty-two miles. sunday, october . the whole of this day was occupied in getting the boats from the mouth of the river to the foot of the grand rapid, a distance of two miles. there are several rapids in this short distance during which the river varies its breadth from five hundred yards to half a mile. its channel is stony. at the grand rapid the saskatchewan forms a sudden bend from south to east and works its way through a narrow channel deeply worn into the limestone strata. the stream, rushing with impetuous force over a rocky and uneven bottom, presents a sheet of foam and seems to bear with impatience the straightened confinement of its lofty banks. a flock of pelicans and two or three brown fishing-eagles were fishing in its agitated waters, seemingly with great success. there is a good sturgeon fishery at the foot of the rapid. several golden plovers, canadian grosbeaks, crossbills, woodpeckers and pin-tailed grouse were shot today; and mr. back killed a small striped marmot. this beautiful little animal was busily employed in carrying in its distended pouches the seeds of the american vetch to its winter hoards. the portage is eighteen hundred yards long and its western extremity was found to be in degrees minutes seconds north latitude and degrees minutes seconds west longitude. the route from canada to the athabasca joins that from york factory at the mouth of the saskatchewan, and we saw traces of a recent encampment of the canadian voyagers. our companions in the hudson's bay boats, dreading an attack from their rivals in trade, were on the alert at this place. they examined minutely the spot of encampment to form a judgment of the number of canoes that had preceded them; and they advanced, armed, and with great caution, through the woods. their fears however on this occasion were fortunately groundless. by noon on the th, the boats and their cargoes having been conveyed across the portage, we embarked and pursued our course. the saskatchewan becomes wider above the grand rapid and the scenery improves. the banks are high, composed of white clay and limestone, and their summits are richly clothed with a variety of firs, poplars, birches and willows. the current runs with great rapidity and the channel is in many places intricate and dangerous from broken ridges of rock jutting into the stream. we pitched our tents at the entrance of cross lake, having advanced only five miles and a half. cross, cedar and pine island lakes. cross lake is extensive, running towards the north-east it is said for forty miles. we crossed it at a narrow part and, pulling through several winding channels formed by a group of islands, entered cedar lake which, next to lake winnipeg, is the largest sheet of fresh water we had hitherto seen. ducks and geese resort hither in immense flocks in the spring and autumn. these birds are now beginning to go off owing to its muddy shores having become quite hard through the nightly frosts. at this place the aurora borealis was extremely brilliant in the night, its coruscations darting at times over the whole sky and assuming various prismatic tints of which the violet and yellow were predominant. after pulling, on the th, seven miles and a quarter on the lake, a violent wind drove us for shelter to a small island, or rather a ridge of rolled stones thrown up by the frequent storms which agitate this lake. the weather did not moderate the whole day and we were obliged to pass the night on this exposed spot. the delay however enabled us to obtain some lunar observations. the wind having subsided we left our resting place the following morning, crossed the remainder of the lake, and in the afternoon arrived at muddy lake which is very appropriately named as it consists merely of a few channels winding amongst extensive mudbanks which are overflowed during the spring floods. we landed at an indian tent which contained two numerous families amounting to thirty souls. these poor creatures were badly clothed and reduced to a miserable condition by the whooping-cough and measles. at the time of our arrival they were busy in preparing a sweating-house for the sick. this is a remedy which they consider, with the addition of singing and drumming, to be the grand specific for all diseases. our companions having obtained some geese in exchange for rum and tobacco, we proceeded a few more miles and encamped on devil's drum island, having come during the day twenty miles and a half. a second party of indians were encamped on an adjoining island, a situation chosen for the purpose of killing geese and ducks. on the th we proceeded eighteen miles up the saskatchewan. its banks are low, covered with willows, and lined with drift timber. the surrounding country is swampy and intersected by the numerous arms of the river. after passing for twenty or thirty yards through the willow thicket on the banks of the stream we entered an extensive marsh, varied only by a distant line of willows which marks the course of a creek or branch of the river. the branch we navigated today is almost five hundred yards wide. the exhalations from the marshy soil produced a low fog although the sky above was perfectly clear. in the course of the day we passed an indian encampment of three tents whose inmates appeared to be in a still more miserable condition than those we saw yesterday. they had just finished the ceremony of conjuration over some of their sick companions; and a dog which had been recently killed as a sacrifice to some deity was hanging to a tree where it would be left (i was told) when they moved their encampment. we continued our voyage up the river to the th with little variation of scenery or incident, travelling in that time about thirty miles. the near approach of winter was marked by severe frosts which continued all day unless when the sun chanced to be unusually bright and the geese and ducks were observed to take a southerly course in large flocks. on the morning of the th we came to a party of indians encamped behind the bank of the river on the borders of a small marshy lake for the purpose of killing waterfowl. here we were gratified with the view of a very large tent. its length was about forty feet, its breadth eighteen, and its covering was moose-deer leather with apertures for the escape of the smoke from the fires which are placed at each end; a ledge of wood was placed on the ground on both sides the whole length of the tent, within which were the sleeping-places, arranged probably according to families; and the drums and other instruments of enchantment were piled up in the centre. amongst the indians there were a great many half-breeds who led an indian life. governor williams gave a dram and a piece of tobacco to each of the males of the party. on the morning of the st a heavy fall of snow took place which lasted until two in the afternoon. in the evening we left the saskatchewan and entered the little river, one of the two streams by which pine island lake discharges its waters. we advanced today fourteen miles and a quarter. on the nd the weather was extremely cold and stormy and we had to contend against a strong head wind. the spray froze as it fell and the oars were so loaded with ice as to be almost unmanageable. the length of our voyage this day was eleven miles. cumberland house. the following morning was very cold; we embarked at daylight and pulled across a part of pine island lake about three miles and a half to cumberland house. the margin of the lake was so encrusted with ice that we had to break through a considerable space of it to approach the landing-place. when we considered that this was the effect of only a few days' frost at the commencement of winter we were convinced of the impractibility of advancing further by water this season, and therefore resolved on accepting governor williams' kind invitation to remain with him at this post. we immediately visited mr. connolly, the resident partner of the north-west company, and presented to him mr. mcgillivray's circular letter. he assured us that he should be most desirous to forward our progress by every means in his power, and we subsequently had ample proofs of his sincerity and kindness. the unexpected addition of our party to the winter residents at this post rendered an increase of apartments necessary; and our men were immediately appointed to complete and arrange an unfinished building as speedily as possible. november . some mild weather succeeded to the severe frosts we had at our arrival; and the lake had not been entirely frozen before the th; but this morning the ice was sufficiently firm to admit of sledges crossing it. the dogs were harnessed at a very early hour and the winter operations commenced by sending for a supply of fish from swampy river where men had been stationed to collect it just before the frost set in. both men and dogs appeared to enjoy the change; they started in full glee and drove rapidly along. an indian who had come to the house on the preceding evening to request some provision for his family, whom he represented to be in a state of starvation, accompanied them. his party had been suffering greatly under the epidemic diseases of whooping-cough and measles; and the hunters were still in too debilitated a state to go out and provide them with meat. a supply was given to him and the men were directed to bring his father, an old and faithful hunter, to the house, that he might have the comforts of nourishment and warmth. he was brought accordingly but these attentions were unavailing as he died a few days afterwards. two days before his death i was surprised to observe him sitting for nearly three hours, in a piercingly sharp day, in the saw-pit, employed in gathering the dust and throwing it by handfuls over his body, which was naked to the waist. as the man was in possession of his mental faculties i conceived he was performing some devotional act preparatory to his departure, which he felt to be approaching and, induced by the novelty of the incident, i went twice to observe him more closely; but when he perceived that he was noticed he immediately ceased his operation, hung down his head and, by his demeanour, intimated that he considered my appearance an intrusion. the residents at the fort could give me no information on the subject and i could not learn that the indians in general observe any particular ceremony on the approach of death. november . the sky had been overcast during the last week; the sun shone forth once only and then not sufficiently for the purpose of obtaining observations. faint coruscations of the aurora borealis appeared one evening but their presence did not in the least affect the electrometer or the compass. the ice daily became thicker in the lake and the frost had now nearly overpowered the rapid current of the saskatchewan river; indeed parties of men who were sent from both the forts to search for the indians and procure whatever skins and provisions they might have collected crossed that stream this day on the ice. the white partridges made their first appearance near the house, which birds are considered as the infallible harbingers of severe weather. monday, november . the saskatchewan and every other river were now completely covered with ice except a small stream not far from the fort through which the current ran very powerfully. in the course of the week we removed into the house our men had prepared since our arrival. we found it at first extremely cold notwithstanding that a good fire was kept in each apartment and we frequently experienced the extremes of heat and cold on opposite sides of the body. november . we obtained observations for the dip of the needle and intensity of the magnetic force in a spare room. the dip was degrees minutes seconds and the difference produced by reversing the face of the instrument degrees minutes seconds. when the needle was faced to the west it hung nearly perpendicular. the aurora borealis had been faintly visible for a short time the preceding evening. some indians arrived in search of provision having been totally incapacitated from hunting by sickness; the poor creatures looked miserably ill and they represented their distress to have been extreme. few recitals are more affecting than those of their sufferings during unfavourable seasons and in bad situations for hunting and fishing. many assurances have been given me that men and women are yet living who have been reduced to feed upon the bodies of their own family to prevent actual starvation; and a shocking case was cited to us of a woman who had been principal agent in the destruction of several persons, and amongst the number her husband and nearest relatives, in order to support life. november . the atmosphere had been clear every day during the last week, about the end of which snow fell, when the thermometer rose from degrees below to degrees above zero. the aurora borealis was twice visible but faint on both occasions. its appearance did not affect the electrometer nor could we perceive the compass to be disturbed. the men brought supplies of moose meat from the hunter's tent which is pitched near the basquiau hill, forty or fifty miles from the house and whence the greatest part of the meat is procured. the residents have to send nearly the same distance for their fish and on this service horse-sledges are used. nets are daily set in pine island lake which occasionally procure some fine sturgeon, tittameg and trout, but not more than sufficient to supply the officers' table. december . this day was so remarkably fine that we procured another set of observations for the dip of the needle in the open air; the instrument being placed firmly on a rock the results gave degrees minutes seconds. the change produced by reversing the face of the instrument was degrees minutes seconds. there had been a determined thaw during the last three days. the ice on the saskatchewan river and some parts of the lake broke up and the travelling across either became dangerous. on this account the absence of wilks, one of our men, caused no small anxiety. he had incautiously undertaken the conduct of a sledge and dogs in company with a person going to swampy river for fish. on their return, being unaccustomed to driving, he became fatigued and seated himself on his sledge where his companion left him, presuming that he would soon rise and hasten to follow his track. he however returned safe in the morning and reported that, foreseeing night would set in before he could get across the lake, he prudently retired into the woods before dark where he remained until daylight, when the men who had been despatched to look for him met him returning to the house, shivering with cold, he having been unprovided with the materials for lighting a fire, which an experienced voyager never neglects to carry. we had mild weather until the th of december. on the th there had been a decided thaw that caused the saskatchewan, which had again frozen, to reopen and the passage across it was interrupted for two days. we now received more agreeable accounts from the indians who were recovering strength and beginning to hunt a little; but it was generally feared that their spirits had been so much depressed by the loss of their children and relatives that the season would be far advanced before they could be roused to any exertion in searching for animals beyond what might be necessary for their own support. it is much to be regretted that these poor men, during their long intercourse with europeans, have not been taught how pernicious is the grief which produces total inactivity, and that they have not been furnished with any of the consolations which the christian religion never fails to afford. this however could hardly have been expected from persons who have permitted their own offspring the half-casts to remain in lamentable ignorance on a subject of such vital importance. it is probable however that an improvement will soon take place among the latter class, as governor williams proposes to make the children attend a sunday school and has already begun to have divine service performed at his post. the conversations which i had with the gentlemen in charge of these posts convinced me of the necessity of proceeding during the winter into the athabasca department, the residents of which are best acquainted with the nature and resources of the country to the north of the great slave lake; and whence only guides, hunters and interpreters can be procured. i had previously written to the partners of the north-west company in that quarter requesting their assistance in forwarding the expedition and stating what we should require. but, on reflecting upon the accidents that might delay these letters on the road, i determined on proceeding to the athabasca as soon as i possibly could, and communicated my intention to governor williams and mr. connolly with a request that i might be furnished by the middle of january with the means of conveyance for three persons, intending that mr. back and hepburn should accompany me whilst dr. richardson and mr. hood remained till the spring at cumberland house. after the th of december the weather became cold, the thermometer constantly below zero. christmas day was particularly stormy but the gale did not prevent the full enjoyment of the festivities which are annually given at cumberland house on this day. all the men who had been despatched to different parts in search of provision or furs returned to the fort on the occasion and were regaled with a substantial dinner and a dance in the evening. january , . the new year was ushered in by repeated discharges of musketry; a ceremony which has been observed by the men of both the trading companies for many years. our party dined with mr. connolly and were treated with a beaver which we found extremely delicate. in the evening his voyagers were entertained with a dance in which the canadians exhibited some grace and much agility; and they contrived to infuse some portion of their activity and spirits into the steps of their female companions. the half-breed women are passionately fond of this amusement but a stranger would imagine the contrary on witnessing their apparent want of animation. on such occasions they affect a sobriety of demeanour which i understand to be very opposite to their general character. january . this day i wrote to governor williams and mr. connolly requesting them to prepare two canoes with crews and appointments for the conveyance of dr. richardson and mr. hood, with our stores, to chipewyan as soon as the navigation should open, and had the satisfaction of receiving from both these gentlemen renewed assurances of their desire to promote the objects of the expedition. i conceived it to be necessary, previous to my departure, to make some arrangement respecting the men who were engaged at stromness. only one of them was disposed to extend his engagement and proceed beyond the athabasca lake and, as there was much uncertainty whether the remaining three could get from the athabasca to york factory sufficiently early to secure them a passage in the next hudson's bay ship, i resolved not to take them forward unless dr. richardson and mr. hood should fail in procuring other men from these establishments next spring, but to despatch them down to york to bring up our stores to this place: after which they might return to the coast in time to secure their passage in the first ship. i delivered to dr. richardson and mr. hood a memorandum containing the arrangements which had been made with the two companies respecting their being forwarded in the spring, and some other points of instruction for their guidance in my absence together with directions to forward the map of our route which had been finished, since our arrival, by mr. hood, the drawing and the collections of natural history by the first opportunity to york factory for conveyance to england.* (*footnote. as samuel wilks, who had accompanied the expedition from england, proved to be quite unequal to the fatigue of the journey i directed him to be discharged in the spring and sent to england by the next ship.) the houses of the two companies at this post are situated close to each other at the upper extremity of a narrow island which separates pine island lake from the saskatchewan river, and are about two miles and three-quarters from the latter in a northern direction. they are log-houses, built without much regard to comfort, surrounded by lofty stockades and flanked with wooden bastions. the difficulty of conveying glass into the interior has precluded its use in the windows where its place is poorly supplied by parchment, imperfectly made by the native women from the skin of the reindeer. should this post however continue to be the residence of governor williams it will be much improved in a few years, as he is devoting his attention to that point. the land around cumberland house is low but the soil, from having a considerable intermixture of limestone, is good and capable of producing abundance of corn and vegetables of every description. many kinds of pot-herbs have already been brought to some perfection and the potatoes bid fair to equal those of england. the spontaneous productions of nature would afford ample nourishment for all the european animals. horses feed extremely well even during the winter and so would oxen if provided with hay which might be easily done.* pigs also improve but require to be kept warm in the winter. hence it appears that the residents might easily render themselves far less dependent on the indians for support and be relieved from the great anxiety which they too often suffer when the hunters are unsuccessful. the neighbourhood of the houses has been much cleared of wood from the great demand for fuel; there is therefore little to admire in the surrounding scenery, especially in its winter garb; few animated objects occur to enliven the scene; an occasional fox, marten, rabbit or wolf and a few birds contribute the only variety. the birds which remained were ravens, magpies, partridges, crossbills and woodpeckers. in this universal stillness the residents at a post feel little disposed to wander abroad except when called forth by their occupations; and as ours were of a kind best performed in a warm room we imperceptibly acquired a sedentary habit. in going out however we never suffered the slightest inconvenience from the change of temperature though the thermometer in the open air stood occasionally thirty degrees below zero. (*footnote. the wild buffalo scrapes away the snow with its feet to get at the herbage beneath, and the horse, which was introduced by the spanish invaders of mexico and may be said to have become naturalised, does the same; but it is worthy of remark that the ox more lately brought from europe has not yet acquired an art so necessary for procuring its food. extract from dr. richardson's journal.) the tribe of indians who reside in the vicinity and frequent these establishments is that of the crees, or knisteneaux. they were formerly a powerful and numerous nation which ranged over a very extensive country and were very successful in their predatory excursions against their neighbours, particularly the northern indians and some tribes on the saskatchewan and beaver rivers; but they have long ceased to be held in any fear and are now perhaps the most harmless and inoffensive of the whole indian race. this change is entirely to be attributed to their intercourse with europeans; and the vast reduction in their numbers occasioned, i fear, principally by the injudicious introduction of ardent spirits. they are so passionately fond of this poison that they will make any sacrifice to obtain it. they are good hunters and in general active. having laid the bow and arrow altogether aside and the use of snares, except for rabbits and partridges, they depend entirely on the europeans for the means of gaining subsistence as they require guns and a constant supply of powder and shot; so that these indians are probably more completely under the power of the trader than any of the other tribes. as i only saw a few straggling parties of them during short intervals, and under unfavourable circumstances of sickness and famine, i am unable to give from personal observation any detail of their manners and customs; and must refer the reader to dr. richardson's account of them in the following chapter. that gentleman during his longer residence at the post had many opportunities of seeing them and acquiring their language. january . this morning the sporting part of our society had rather a novel diversion: intelligence having been brought that a wolf had borne away a steel trap in which he had been caught, a party went in search of the marauder and took two english bulldogs and a terrier which had been brought into the country this season. on the first sight of the animal the dogs became alarmed and stood barking at a distance, and probably would not have ventured to advance had they not seen the wolf fall by a shot from one of the gentlemen; they then however went up and behaved courageously, and were enraged by the bites they received. the wolf soon died of its wounds and the body was brought to the house where a drawing of it was taken by mr. hood and the skin preserved by dr. richardson. its general features bore a strong resemblance to many of the dogs about the fort, but it was larger and had a more ferocious aspect. mr. back and i were too much occupied in preparing for our departure on the following day to join this excursion. the position of cumberland house by our observations is latitude degrees minutes seconds north; longitude degrees minutes seconds west by the chronometers; variations degrees minutes seconds east; dip of the needle degrees minutes seconds. the whole of the travelling distance between york factory and cumberland house is about six hundred and ninety miles. chapter . dr. richardson's residence at cumberland house. his account of the cree indians. dr. richardson's residence at cumberland house. january , . from the departure of messrs. franklin and back on the th of january for chipewyan until the opening of the navigation in the spring the occurrences connected with the expedition were so much in the ordinary routine of a winter's residence at fort cumberland that they may be perhaps appropriately blended with the following general but brief account of that district and its inhabitants. cumberland house was originally built by hearne, a year or two after his return from the copper-mine river, and has ever since been considered by the hudson's bay company as a post of considerable importance. previous to that time the natives carried their furs down to the shores of hudson's bay or disposed of them nearer home to the french canadian traders who visited this part of the country as early as the year . the cumberland house district, extending about one hundred and fifty miles from east to west along the banks of the saskatchewan, and about as far from north to south, comprehends, on a rough calculation, upwards of twenty thousand square miles, and is frequented at present by about one hundred and twenty indian hunters. of these a few have several wives but the majority only one; and as some are unmarried we shall not err greatly in considering the number of married women as only slightly exceeding that of the hunters. the women marry very young, have a custom of suckling their children for several years, and are besides exposed constantly to fatigue and often to famine; hence they are not prolific, bearing upon an average not more than four children, of whom two may attain the age of puberty. upon these data the amount of each family may be stated at five, and the whole indian population in the district at five hundred. this is but a small population for such an extent of country, yet their mode of life occasionally subjects them to great privations. the winter of our residence at cumberland house proved extremely severe to the indians. the whooping-cough made its appearance amongst them in the autumn, and was followed by the measles which, in the course of the winter, spread through the tribe. many died and most of the survivors were so enfeebled as to be unable to pursue the necessary avocations of hunting and fishing. even those who experienced only a slight attack, or escaped the sickness altogether, dispirited by the scenes of misery which environed them, were rendered incapable of affording relief to their distressed relations and spent their time in conjuring and drumming to avert the pestilence. those who were able came to the fort and received relief, but many who had retired with their families to distant corners to pursue their winter hunts experienced all the horrors of famine. one evening early in the month of january a poor indian entered the north-west company's house, carrying his only child in his arms and followed by his starving wife. they had been hunting apart from the other bands, had been unsuccessful and, whilst in want, were seized with the epidemical disease. an indian is accustomed to starve and it is not easy to elicit from him an account of his sufferings. this poor man's story was very brief; as soon as the fever abated he set out with his wife for cumberland house, having been previously reduced to feed on the bits of skin and offal which remained about their encampment. even this miserable fare was exhausted and they walked several days without eating, yet exerting themselves far beyond their strength that they might save the life of the infant. it died almost within sight of the house. mr. connolly, who was then in charge of the post, received them with the utmost humanity and instantly placed food before them; but no language can describe the manner in which the miserable father dashed the morsel from his lips and deplored the loss of his child. misery may harden a disposition naturally bad but it never fails to soften the heart of a good man. his account of the cree indians. the origin of the crees, to which nation the cumberland house indians belong, is, like that of the other aborigines of america, involved in obscurity; but the researches now making into the nature and affinities of the languages spoken by the different indian tribes may eventually throw some light on the subject. indeed the american philologists seem to have succeeded already in classing the known dialects into three languages: . the floridean, spoken by the creeks, chickesaws, choctaws, cherokees, pascagoulas, and some other tribes who inhabit the southern parts of the united states. . the iroquois, spoken by the mengwe, or six nations, the wyandots, the nadowessies, and asseeneepoytuck. . the lenni-lenape, spoken by a great family more widely spread than the other two and from which, together with a vast number of other tribes, are sprung our crees. mr. heckewelder, a missionary who resided long amongst these people and from whose paper (published in the transactions of the american philosophical society) the above classification is taken, states that the lenape have a tradition amongst them of their ancestors having come from the westward and taken possession of the whole country from the missouri to the atlantic, after driving away or destroying the original inhabitants of the land whom they termed alligewi. in this migration and contest, which endured for a series of years, the mengwe, or iroquois, kept pace with them, moving in a parallel but more northerly line, and finally settling on the banks of the st. lawrence and the great lakes from whence it flows. the lenape, being more numerous, peopled not only the greater part of the country at present occupied by the united states, but also sent detachments to the northward as far as the banks of the river mississippi and the shores of hudson's bay. the principal of their northern tribes are now known under the names of saulteurs or chippeways, and crees; the former inhabiting the country betwixt lakes winnipeg and superior, the latter frequenting the shores of hudson's bay from moose to churchill, and the country from thence as far to the westward as the plains which lie betwixt the forks of the saskatchewan. the crees, formerly known by the french canadian traders under the appellation of knisteneaux, generally designate themselves as eithinyoowuc (men) or, when they wish to discriminate themselves from the other indian nations, as nathehwywithinyoowuc (southern-men).* (*footnote. much confusion has arisen from the great variety of names applied without discrimination to the various tribes of saulteurs and crees. heckewelder considers the crees of moose factory to be a branch of that tribe of the lenape which is named minsi, or wolf tribe. he has been led to form this opinion from the similarity of the name given to these people by monsieur jeremie, namely, monsonies; but the truth is that their real name is mongsoaeythinyoowuc, or moose-deer indians; hence the name of the factory and river on which it is built. the name knisteneaux, kristeneaux, or killisteneaux, was anciently applied to a tribe of crees, now termed maskegons, who inhabit the river winnipeg. this small tribe still retains the peculiarities of customs and dress for which it was remarkable many years ago, as mentioned by mr. henry in the interesting account of his journeys in these countries. they are said to be great rascals. the great body of the crees were at that time named opimmitish ininiwuc, or men of the woods. it would however be an endless task to attempt to determine the precise people designated by the early french writers. every small band naming itself from its hunting grounds was described as a different nation. the chippeways who frequented the lake of the woods were named from a particular act of pillage pilliers, or robbers: and the name saulteurs, applied to a principal band that frequented the sault st. marie, has been by degrees extended to the whole tribe. it is frequently pronounced and written sotoos.) the original character of the crees must have been much modified by their long intercourse with europeans; hence it is to be understood that we confine ourselves in the following sketch to their present condition, and more particularly to the crees of cumberland house. the moral character of a hunter is acted upon by the nature of the land he inhabits, the abundance or scarcity of food, and we may add, in the present case, his means of access to spiritous liquors. in a country so various in these respects as that inhabited by the crees the causes alluded to must operate strongly in producing a considerable difference of character amongst the various hordes. it may be proper to bear in mind also that we are about to draw the character of a people whose only rule of conduct is public opinion and to try them by a morality founded on divine revelation, the only standard that can be referred to by those who have been educated in a land to which the blessings of the gospel have extended. bearing these considerations in mind then we may state the crees to be a vain, fickle, improvident, and indolent race, and not very strict in their adherence to truth, being great boasters; but on the other hand they strictly regard the rights of property,* are susceptible of the kinder affections, capable of friendship, very hospitable, tolerably kind to their women, and withal inclined to peace. (*footnote. this is perhaps true of the cumberland house crees alone: many of the other tribes of crees are stated by the traders to be thieves.) much of the faulty part of their character no doubt originates in their mode of life; accustomed as a hunter to depend greatly on chance for his subsistence the cree takes little thought of tomorrow; and the most offensive part of his behaviour--the habit of boasting--has been probably assumed as a necessary part of his armour which operates upon the fears of his enemies. they are countenanced however in this failing by the practice of the ancient greeks, and perhaps by that of every other nation in its ruder state. every cree fears the medical or conjuring powers of his neighbour, but at the same time exalts his own attainments to the skies. "i am god-like," is a common expression amongst them, and they prove their divinity-ship by eating live coals and by various tricks of a similar nature. a medicine bag is an indispensable part of a hunter's equipment. it is generally furnished with a little bit of indigo, blue vitriol, vermilion, or some other showy article, and is, when in the hands of a noted conjurer, such an object of terror to the rest of the tribe that its possessor is enabled to fatten at his ease upon the labours of his deluded countrymen. a fellow of this description came to cumberland house in the winter of . notwithstanding the then miserable state of the indians the rapacity of this wretch had been preying upon their necessities, and a poor hunter was actually at the moment pining away under the influence of his threats. the mighty conjurer, immediately on his arrival at the house, began to trumpet forth his powers, boasting among other things that, although his hands and feet were tied as securely as possible yet, when placed in a conjuring house, he would speedily disengage himself by the aid of two or three familiar spirits who were attendant on his call. he was instantly taken at his word and, that his exertions might not be without an aim, a capot or great coat was promised as the reward of his success. a conjuring-house having been erected in the usual form, that is by sticking four willows in the ground and tying their tops to a hoop at the height of six or eight feet, he was fettered completely by winding several fathoms of rope round his body and extremities and placed in its narrow apartment, not exceeding two feet in diameter. a moose-skin being then thrown over the frame secluded him from our view. he forthwith began to chant a kind of hymn in a very monotonous tone. the rest of the indians, who seemed in some doubt respecting the powers of a devil when put in competition with those of a white man, ranged themselves around and watched the result with anxiety. nothing remarkable occurred for a long time. the conjurer continued his song at intervals and it was occasionally taken up by those without. in this manner an hour and a half elapsed; but at length our attention, which had begun to flag, was roused by the violent shaking of the conjuring-house. it was instantly whispered round the circle that at least one devil had crept under the moose-skin. but it proved to be only the "god-like man" trembling with cold. he had entered the lists stripped to the skin and the thermometer stood very low that evening. his attempts were continued however with considerable resolution for half an hour longer, when he reluctantly gave in. he had found no difficulty in slipping through the noose when it was formed by his countrymen; but in the present instance the knot was tied by governor williams who is an expert sailor. after this unsuccessful exhibition his credit sunk amazingly, and he took the earliest opportunity of sneaking away from the fort. about two years ago a conjurer paid more dearly for his temerity. in a quarrel with an indian he threw out some obscure threats of vengeance which passed unnoticed at the time but were afterwards remembered. they met in the spring at carlton house after passing the winter in different parts of the country, during which the indian's child died. the conjurer had the folly to boast that he had caused its death and the enraged father shot him dead on the spot. it may be remarked however that both these indians were inhabitants of the plains and had been taught, by their intercourse with the turbulent stone indians, to set but comparatively little value on the life of a man. it might be thought that the crees have benefited by their long intercourse with civilised nations. that this is not so much the case as it ought to be is not entirely their own fault. they are capable of being and, i believe, willing to be, taught; but no pains have hitherto been taken to inform their minds,* and their white acquaintances seem in general to find it easier to descend to the indian customs and modes of thinking, particularly with respect to women, than to attempt to raise the indians to theirs. indeed such a lamentable want of morality has been displayed by the white traders in their contests for the interests of their respective companies that it would require a long series of good conduct to efface from the minds of the native population the ideas they have formed of the white character. notwithstanding the frequent violations of the rights of property they have witnessed and but too often experienced in their own persons, these savages, as they are termed, remain strictly honest. during their visits to a post they are suffered to enter every apartment in the house without the least restraint and, although articles of value to them are scattered about, nothing is ever missed. they scrupulously avoid moving anything from its place although they are often prompted by curiosity to examine it. in some cases indeed they carry this principle to a degree of self-denial which would hardly be expected. it often happens that meat which has been paid for (if the poisonous draught it procures them can be considered as payment) is left at their lodges until a convenient opportunity occurs of carrying it away. they will rather pass several days without eating than touch the meat thus entrusted to their charge, even when there exists a prospect of replacing it. (*footnote. since these remarks were written the union of the rival companies has enabled the gentlemen who have now the management of the fur trade to take some decided steps for the religious instruction and improvement of the natives and half-breed indians, which have been more particularly referred to in the introduction.) the hospitality of the crees is unbounded. they afford a certain asylum to the half-breed children when deserted by their unnatural white fathers; and the infirm, and indeed every individual in an encampment, share the provisions of a successful hunter as long as they last. fond too as a cree is of spiritous liquors he is not happy unless all his neighbours partake with him. it is not easy however to say what share ostentation may have in the apparent munificence in the latter article; for when an indian, by a good hunt, is enabled to treat the others with a keg of rum he becomes the chief of the night, assumes no little stateliness of manner, and is treated with deference by those who regale at his expense. prompted also by the desire of gaining a name they lavish away the articles they purchase at the trading posts and are well satisfied if repaid in praise. gaming is not uncommon amongst the crees of all the different districts, but it is pursued to greater lengths by those bands who frequent the plains and who, from the ease with which they obtain food, have abundant leisure. the game most in use amongst them, termed puckesann, is played with the stones of a species of prunus which, from this circumstance, they term puckesann-meena. the difficulty lies in guessing the number of stones which are tossed out of a small wooden dish and the hunters will spend whole nights at the destructive sport, staking their most valuable articles, powder and shot. it has been remarked by some writers that the aboriginal inhabitants of america are deficient in passion for the fair sex. this is by no means the case with the crees; on the contrary their practice of seducing each other's wives proves the most fertile source of their quarrels. when the guilty pair are detected the woman generally receives a severe beating, but the husband is for the most part afraid to reproach the male culprit until they get drunk together at the fort; then the remembrance of the offence is revived, a struggle ensues and the affair is terminated by the loss of a few handfuls of hair. some husbands however feel more deeply the injury done to their honour and seek revenge even in their sober moments. in such cases it is not uncommon for the offended party to walk with great gravity up to the other and, deliberately seizing his gun or some other article of value, to break it before his face. the adulterer looks on in silence, afraid to make any attempt to save his property. in this respect indeed the indian character seems to differ from the european that an indian, instead of letting his anger increase with that of his antagonist, assumes the utmost coolness lest he should push him to extremities. although adultery is sometimes punished amongst the crees in the manner above described yet it is no crime provided the husband receives a valuable consideration for his wife's prostitution. neither is chastity considered as a virtue in a female before marriage, that is before she becomes the exclusive property of one hunter. the cree women are not in general treated harshly by their husbands and possess considerable influence over them. they often eat and even get drunk in consort with the men; a considerable portion of the labour however falls to the lot of the wife. she makes the hut, cooks, dresses the skins, and for the most part carries the heaviest load: but when she is unable to perform her task the husband does not consider it beneath his dignity to assist her. in illustration of this remark i may quote the case of an indian who visited the fort in winter. this poor man's wife had lost her feet by the frost and he was compelled not only to hunt and do all the menial offices himself but in winter to drag his wife with their stock of furniture from one encampment to another. in the performance of this duty as he could not keep pace with the rest of the tribe in their movements he more than once nearly perished of hunger. these indians however, capable as they are of behaving thus kindly, affect in their discourse to despise the softer sex and on solemn occasions will not suffer them to eat before them or even come into their presence. in this they are countenanced by the white residents, most of whom have indian or half-breed wives but seem afraid of treating them with the tenderness or attention due to every female lest they should themselves be despised by the indians. at least this is the only reason they assign for their neglect of those whom they make partners of their beds and mothers of their children. both sexes are fond of and excessively indulgent to their children. the father never punishes them and if the mother, more hasty in her temper, sometimes bestows a blow or two on a troublesome child her heart is instantly softened by the roar which follows and she mingles her tears with those that streak the smoky face of her darling. it may be fairly said then that restraint or punishment forms no part of the education of an indian child, nor are they early trained to that command over their temper which they exhibit in after years. the discourse of the parents is never restrained by the presence of their children, every transaction between the sexes being openly talked of before them. the crees, having early obtained arms from the european traders, were enabled to make harassing inroads on the lands of their neighbours and are known to have made war excursions as far to the westward as the rocky mountains, and to the northward as far as mackenzie's river; but their enemies being now as well armed as themselves the case is much altered. they show great fortitude in the endurance of hunger and the other evils incident to a hunter's life; but any unusual accident dispirits them at once, and they seldom venture to meet their enemies in open warfare or to attack them even by surprise unless with the advantage of superiority of numbers. perhaps they are much deteriorated in this respect by their intercourse with europeans. their existence at present hangs upon the supplies of ammunition and clothing they receive from the traders and they deeply feel their dependent situation. but their character has been still more debased by the passion for spiritous liquors so assiduously fostered among them. to obtain the noxious beverage they descend to the most humiliating entreaties and assume an abjectness of behaviour which does not seem natural to them and of which not a vestige is to be seen in their intercourse with each other. their character has sunk among the neighbouring nations. they are no longer the warriors who drove before them the inhabitants of the saskatchewan and missinippi. the cumberland house crees in particular have been long disused to war. betwixt them and their ancient enemies, the slave nations, lie the extensive plains of saskatchewan, inhabited by the powerful asseeneepoytuck or stone indians who, having whilst yet a small tribe entered the country under the patronage of the crees, now render back the protection they received. the manners and customs of the crees have, probably since their acquaintance with europeans, undergone a change at least equal to that which has taken place in their moral character; and although we heard of many practises peculiar to them yet they appeared to be nearly as much honoured in the breach as the observance. we shall however briefly notice a few of the most remarkable customs. when a hunter marries his first wife he usually takes up his abode in the tent of his father-in-law and of course hunts for the family; but when he becomes a father the families are at liberty to separate or remain together as their inclinations prompt them. his second wife is for the most part the sister of the first but not necessarily so for an indian of another family often presses his daughter upon a hunter whom he knows to be capable of maintaining her well. the first wife always remains the mistress of the tent and assumes an authority over the others which is not in every case quietly submitted to. it may be remarked that whilst an indian resides with his wife's family it is extremely improper for his mother-in-law to speak or even look at him; and when she has a communication to make it is the etiquette that she should turn her back upon him and address him only through the medium of a third person. this singular custom is not very creditable to the indians if it really had its origin in the cause which they at present assign for it namely that a woman's speaking to her son-in-law is a sure indication of her having conceived a criminal affection for him. it appears also to have been an ancient practice for an indian to avoid eating or sitting down in the presence of the father-in-law. we received no account of the origin of this custom and it is now almost obsolete amongst the cumberland house crees, though still partially observed by those who frequent carlton. tattooing is almost universal with the crees. the women are in general content with having one or two lines drawn from the corners of the mouth towards the angles of the lower jaw; but some of the men have their bodies covered with a great variety of lines and figures. it seems to be considered by most rather as a proof of courage than an ornament, the operation being very painful and, if the figures are numerous and intricate, lasting several days. the lines on the face are formed by dextrously running an awl under the cuticle and then drawing a cord, dipped in charcoal and water, through the canal thus formed. the punctures on the body are formed by needles of various sizes set in a frame. a number of hawk bells attached to this frame serve by their noise to cover the suppressed groans of the sufferer and, probably for the same reason, the process is accompanied with singing. an indelible stain is produced by rubbing a little finely-powdered willow-charcoal into the punctures. a half-breed whose arm i amputated declared that tattooing was not only the most painful operation of the two but rendered infinitely more difficult to bear by its tediousness having lasted in his case three days. a cree woman at certain periods is laid under considerable restraint. they are far however from carrying matters to the extremities mentioned by hearne in his description of the chipewyans, or northern indians. she lives apart from her husband also for two months if she has borne a boy and for three if she has given birth to a girl. many of the cree hunters are careful to prevent a woman from partaking of the head of a moose-dear lest it should spoil their future hunts; and for the same reason they avoid bringing it to a fort, fearing lest the white people should give the bones to the dogs. the games or sports of the crees are various. one termed the game of the mitten is played with four balls, three of which are plain and one marked. these being hid under as many mittens the opposite party is required to fix on that which is marked. he gives or receives a feather according as he guesses right or wrong. when the feathers, which are ten in number, have all passed into one hand a new division is made, but when one of the parties obtains possession of them thrice he seizes on the stakes. the game of platter is more intricate and is played with the claws of a bear or some other animal marked with various lines and characters. these dice which are eight in number and cut flat at their large end are shook together in a wooden dish, tossed into the air and caught again. the lines traced on such claws as happen to alight on the platter in an erect position indicate what number of counters the caster is to receive from his opponent. they have however a much more manly amusement termed the cross although they do not engage even in it without depositing considerable stakes. an extensive meadow is chosen for this sport and the articles staked are tied to a post or deposited in the custody of two old men. the combatants, being stripped and painted and each provided with a kind of battledore or racket, in shape resembling the letter p with a handle about two feet long and a head loosely wrought with network so as to form a shallow bag, range themselves on different sides. a ball being now tossed up in the middle each party endeavours to drive it to their respective goals and much dexterity and agility is displayed in the contest. when a nimble runner gets the ball in his cross he sets off towards the goal with the utmost speed and is followed by the rest who endeavour to jostle him and shake it out; but, if hard pressed, he discharges it with a jerk, to be forwarded by his own party or bandied back by their opponents until the victory is decided by its passing the goal. of the religious opinions of the crees it is difficult to give a correct account, not only because they show a disinclination to enter upon the subject but because their ancient traditions are mingled with the information they have more recently obtained by their intercourse with europeans. none of them ventured to describe the original formation of the world but they all spoke of a universal deluge caused by an attempt of the fish to drown woesackootchacht, a kind of demigod with whom they had quarrelled. having constructed a raft he embarked with his family and all kinds of birds and beasts. after the flood had continued for some time he ordered several waterfowl to dive to the bottom; they were all drowned but a muskrat, having been despatched on the same errand, was more successful and returned with a mouthful of mud out of which woesackootchacht, imitating the mode in which the rats construct their houses, formed a new earth. first a small conical hill of mud appeared above the water; by and by, its base gradually spreading out, it became an extensive bank which the rays of the sun at length hardened into firm land. notwithstanding the power that woesackootchacht here displayed his person is held in very little reverence by the indians; and in return he seizes every opportunity of tormenting them. his conduct is far from being moral and his amours and the disguises he assumes in the prosecution of them are more various and extraordinary than those of the grecian jupiter himself; but as his adventures are more remarkable for their eccentricity than their delicacy it is better to pass them over in silence. before we quit him however we may remark that he converses with all kinds of birds and beasts in their own languages, constantly addressing them by the title of brother but, through an inherent suspicion of his intentions, they are seldom willing to admit of his claims of relationship. the indians make no sacrifices to him, not even to avert his wrath. they pay a kind of worship however and make offerings to a being whom they term kepoochikawn. this deity is represented sometimes by rude images of the human figure but more commonly merely by tying the tops of a few willow bushes together; and the offerings to him consist of everything that is valuable to an indian; yet they treat him with considerable familiarity, interlarding their most solemn speeches with expostulations and threats of neglect if he fails in complying with their requests. as most of their petitions are for plenty of food they do not trust entirely to the favour of kepoochikawn but endeavour at the same time to propitiate the animal, an imaginary representative of the whole race of larger quadrupeds that are objects of the chase. in the month of may whilst i was at carlton house the cree hunter engaged to attend that post resolved upon dedicating several articles to kepoochikawn and, as i had made some inquiries of him respecting their modes of worship, he gave me an invitation to be present. the ceremony took place in a sweating-house or, as it may be designated from its more important use, a temple which was erected for the occasion by the worshipper's two wives. it was framed of arched willows, interlaced so as to form a vault capable of containing ten or twelve men ranged closely side by side, and high enough to admit of their sitting erect. it was very similar in shape to an oven or the kraal of a hottentot and was closely covered with moose-skins except at the east end which was left open for a door. near the centre of the building there was a hole in the ground which contained ten or twelve red-hot stones having a few leaves of the taccohaymenan, a species of prunus, strewed around them. when the women had completed the preparations the hunter made his appearance, perfectly naked, carrying in his hand an image of kepoochikawn, rudely carved and about two feet long. he placed his god at the upper end of the sweating-house with his face towards the door and proceeded to tie round its neck his offerings, consisting of a cotton handkerchief, a looking-glass, a tin pan, a piece of riband, and a bit of tobacco which he had procured the same day at the expense of fifteen or twenty skins. whilst he was thus occupied several other crees who were encamped in the neighbourhood, having been informed of what was going on arrived and, stripping at the door of the temple, entered and ranged themselves on each side; the hunter himself squatted down at the right hand of kepoochikawn. the atmosphere of the temple having become so hot that none but zealous worshippers would venture in the interpreter and myself sat down on the threshold and the two women remained on the outside as attendants. the hunter who throughout officiated as high priest commenced by making a speech to kepoochikawn in which he requested him to be propitious, told him of the value of the things now presented, and cautioned him against ingratitude. this oration was delivered in a monotonous tone and with great rapidity of utterance, and the speaker retained his squatting posture but turned his face to his god. at its conclusion the priest began a hymn of which the burden was, "i will walk with god, i will go with the animal"; and at the end of each stanza the rest joined in an insignificant chorus. he next took up a calumet filled with a mixture of tobacco and bear-berry leaves and, holding its stem by the middle in a horizontal position over the hot stones, turned it slowly in a circular manner, following the course of the sun. its mouth-piece being then with much formality held for a few seconds to the face of kepoochikawn it was next presented to the earth, having been previously turned a second time over the hot stones; and afterwards with equal ceremony pointed in succession to the four quarters of the sky then, drawing a few whiffs from the calumet himself, he handed it to his left-hand neighbour by whom it was gravely passed round the circle; the interpreter and myself, who were seated at the door, were asked to partake in our turn but requested to keep the head of the calumet within the threshold of the sweating-house. when the tobacco was exhausted by passing several times round the hunter made another speech, similar to the former but was if possible still more urgent in his requests. a second hymn followed and, a quantity of water being sprinkled on the hot stones, the attendants were ordered to close the temple, which they did by very carefully covering it up with moose-skins. we had no means of ascertaining the temperature of the sweating-house; but before it was closed not only those within but also the spectators without were perspiring freely. they continued in the vapour bath for thirty-five minutes, during which time a third speech was made and a hymn was sung and water occasionally sprinkled on the stones which still retained much heat, as was evident from the hissing noise they made. the coverings were then thrown off and the poor half-stewed worshippers exposed freely to the air; but they kept their squatting postures until a fourth speech was made in which the deity was strongly reminded of the value of the gifts and exhorted to take an early opportunity of showing his gratitude. the ceremony concluded by the sweaters scampering down to the river and plunging into the stream. it may be remarked that the door of the temple and of course the face of the god was turned to the rising sun; and the spectators were desired not to block up entirely the front of the building but to leave a lane for the entrance or exit of some influence of which they could not give me a correct description. several indians, who lay on the outside of the sweating-house as spectators, seemed to regard the proceedings with very little awe and were extremely free in the remarks and jokes they passed upon the condition of the sweaters and even of kepoochikawn himself. one of them made a remark that the shawl would have been much better bestowed upon himself than upon kepoochikawn, but the same fellow afterwards stripped and joined in the ceremony. i did not learn that the indians worship any other god by a specific name. they often refer however to the keetchee-maneeto, or great master of life, and to an evil spirit, or maatche-maneeto. they also speak of weettako, a kind of vampire or devil into which those who have fed on human flesh are transformed. whilst at carlton i took an opportunity of asking a communicative old indian of the blackfoot nation his opinion of a future state; he replied that they had heard from their fathers that the souls of the departed have to scramble with great labour up the sides of a steep mountain, upon attaining the summit of which they are rewarded with the prospect of an extensive plain, abounding in all sorts of game and interspersed here and there with new tents pitched in agreeable situations. whilst they are absorbed in the contemplation of this delightful scene they are descried by the inhabitants of the happy land who, clothed in new skin-dresses, approach and welcome with every demonstration of kindness those indians who have led good lives, but the bad indians, who have imbrued their hands in the blood of their countrymen, are told to return from whence they came and, without more ceremony, precipitated down the steep sides of the mountain. women who have been guilty of infanticide never reach the mountain at all but are compelled to hover round the seats of their crimes with branches of trees tied to their legs. the melancholy sounds which are heard in the still summer evenings and which the ignorance of the white people considers as the screams of the goat-sucker are really, according to my informant, the moanings of these unhappy beings. the crees have somewhat similar notions but, as they inhabit a country widely different from the mountainous lands of the blackfoot indians, the difficulty of their journey lies in walking along a slender and slippery tree laid as a bridge across a rapid stream of stinking and muddy water. the night owl is regarded by the crees with the same dread that it has been viewed by other nations. one small species, which is known to them by its melancholy nocturnal hootings (for as it never appears in the day few even of the hunters have ever seen it) is particularly ominous. they call it the cheepai-peethees, or death bird, and never fail to whistle when they hear its note. if it does not reply to the whistle by its hootings the speedy death of the inquirer is augured. when a cree dies that part of his property which he has not given away before his death is burned with him, and his relations take care to place near the grave little heaps of firewood, food, pieces of tobacco, and such things as he is likely to need in his journey. similar offerings are made when they revisit the grave, and as kettles and other articles of value are sometimes offered they are frequently carried off by passengers, yet the relations are not displeased provided sufficient respect has been shown to the dead by putting some other article, although of inferior value, in the place of that which has been taken away. the crees are wont to celebrate the returns of the seasons by religious festivals but we are unable to describe the ceremonial in use on these joyous occasions from personal observation. the following brief notice of a feast which was given by an old cree chief according to his annual custom on the first croaking of the frogs is drawn up from the information of one of the guests. a large oblong tent or lodge was prepared for the important occasion by the men of the party, none of the women being suffered to interfere. it faced the setting sun and great care was taken that everything about it should be as neat and clean as possible. three fireplaces were raised within it at equal distances and little holes were dug in the corners to contain the ashes of their pipes. in a recess at its upper end one large image of kepoochikawn and many smaller ones were ranged with their faces towards the door. the food was prepared by the chief's wife and consisted of marrow pemmican, berries boiled with fat, and various other delicacies that had been preserved for the occasion. the preparations being completed and, a slave whom the chief had taken in war having warned the guests to the feast by the mysterious word peenasheway, they came, dressed out in their best garments, and ranged themselves according to their seniority, the elders seating themselves next the chief at the upper end and the young men near the door. the chief commenced by addressing his deities in an appropriate speech in which he told them that he had hastened as soon as summer was indicated by the croaking of the frogs to solicit their favour for himself and his young men, and hoped that they would send him a pleasant and plentiful season. his oration was concluded by an invocation to all the animals in the land and, a signal being given to the slave at the door, he invited them severally by their names to come and partake of the feast. the cree chief having by this very general invitation displayed his unbounded hospitality next ordered one of the young men to distribute a mess to each of the guests. this was done in new dishes of birch bark, and the utmost diligence was displayed in emptying them, it being considered extremely improper in a man to leave any part of that which is placed before him on such occasions. it is not inconsistent with good manners however but rather considered as a piece of politeness that a guest who has been too liberally supplied should hand the surplus to his neighbour. when the viands had disappeared each filled his calumet and began to smoke with great assiduity, and in the course of the evening several songs were sung to the responsive sounds of the drum and seeseequay, their usual accompaniments. the cree drum is double-headed but, possessing very little depth, it strongly resembles a tambourine in shape. its want of depth is compensated however by its diameter which frequently exceeds three feet. it is covered with moose-skin parchment, painted with rude figures of men and beasts having various fantastic additions, and is beat with a stick. the seeseequay is merely a rattle formed by enclosing a few grains of shot in a piece of dried hide. these two instruments are used in all their religious ceremonies except those which take place in a sweating-house. a cree places great reliance on his drum and i cannot adduce a stronger instance than that of the poor man who is mentioned in a preceding page as having lost his only child by famine, almost within sight of the fort. notwithstanding his exhausted state he travelled with an enormous drum tied to his back. many of the crees make vows to abstain from particular kinds of food either for a specific time or for the remainder of their life, esteeming such abstinence to be a certain means of acquiring some supernatural powers, or at least of entailing upon themselves a succession of good fortune. one of the wives of the carlton hunter, of whom we have already spoken as the worshipper of kepoochikawn, made a determination not to eat of the flesh of the wawaskeesh or american stag; but during our abode at that place she was induced to feed heartily upon it, through the intentional deceit of her husband who told her that it was buffalo meat. when she had finished her meal her husband told her of the trick and seemed to enjoy the terror with which she contemplated the consequences of the involuntary breach of her vow. vows of this nature are often made by a cree before he joins a war party, and they sometimes, like the eastern bonzes, walk for a certain number of days on all fours or impose upon themselves some other penance equally ridiculous. by such means the cree warrior becomes god-like; but unless he kills an enemy before his return his newly-acquired powers are estimated to be productive in future of some direful consequence to himself. as we did not witness any of the cree dances ourselves we shall merely mention that, like the other north american nations, they are accustomed to practice that amusement on meeting with strange tribes before going to war and on other solemn occasions. the habitual intoxication of the cumberland house crees has induced such a disregard of personal appearance that they are squalid and dirty in the extreme; hence a minute description of their clothing would be by no means interesting. we shall therefore only remark in a general manner that the dress of the male consists of a blanket thrown over the shoulders, a leathern shirt or jacket, and a piece of cloth tied round the middle. the women have in addition a long petticoat; and both sexes wear a kind of wide hose which, reaching from the ankle to the middle of the thigh, are suspended by strings to the girdle. these hose or, as they are termed, indian stockings, are commonly ornamented with beads or ribands, and from their convenience have been universally adopted by the white residents as an essential part of their winter clothing. their shoes, or rather short boots for they tie round the ankle, are made of soft dressed moose-skins, and during the winter they wrap several pieces of blanket round their feet. they are fond of european articles of dress, considering it as mean to be dressed entirely in leather, and the hunters are generally furnished annually with a capot or great coat, and the women with shawls, printed calicoes, and other things very unsuitable to their mode of life but which they wear in imitation of the wives of the traders; all these articles, however showy they may be at first, are soon reduced to a very filthy condition by the indian custom of greasing the face and hair with soft fat or marrow instead of washing them with water. this practice they say preserves the skin soft and protects it from cold in the winter and the mosquitoes in summer, but it renders their presence disagreeable to the olfactory organs of an european, particularly when they are seated in a close tent and near a hot fire. the only peculiarity which we observed in their mode of rearing children consists in the use of a sort of cradle extremely well adapted to their mode of life. the infant is placed in the bag having its lower extremities wrapped up in soft sphagnum or bog-moss, and may be hung up in the tent or to the branch of a tree without the least danger of tumbling out; or in a journey suspended on the mother's back by a band which crosses the forehead so as to leave her hands perfectly free. it is one of the neatest articles of furniture they possess, being generally ornamented with beads and bits of scarlet cloth, but it bears a very strong resemblance in its form to a mummy case. the sphagnum in which the child is laid forms a soft elastic bed which absorbs moisture very readily and affords such a protection from the cold of a rigorous winter that its place would be ill supplied by cloth. the mothers are careful to collect a sufficient quantity in autumn for winter use; but when through accident their stock fails they have recourse to the soft down of the typha, or reed mace, the dust of rotten wood, or even feathers, although none of these articles are so cleanly or so easily changed as the sphagnum. the above is a brief sketch of such parts of the manners, character and customs of the crees as we could collect from personal observation or from the information of the most intelligent half-breeds we met with; and we shall merely add a few remarks on the manner in which the trade is conducted at the different inland posts of the fur companies. the standard of exchange in all mercantile transactions with the natives is a beaver skin, the relative value of which as originally established by the traders differs considerably from the present worth of the articles it represents; but the indians are averse to change. three marten, eight muskrat, or a single lynx or wolverine skin, are equivalent to one beaver; a silver fox, white fox, or otter, are reckoned two beavers, and a black fox or large black bear are equal to four; a mode of reckoning which has very little connection with the real value of these different furs in the european market. neither has any attention been paid to the original cost of european articles in fixing the tariff by which they are sold to the indians. a coarse butcher's knife is one skin, a woollen blanket or a fathom of coarse cloth eight, and a fowling-piece fifteen. the indians receive their principal outfit of clothing and ammunition on credit in the autumn to be repaid by their winter hunts; the amount entrusted to each of the hunters varying with their reputations for industry and skill from twenty to one hundred and fifty skins. the indians are generally anxious to pay off the debt thus incurred but their good intentions are often frustrated by the arts of the rival traders. each of the companies keeps men constantly employed travelling over the country during the winter to collect the furs from the different bands of hunters as fast as they are procured. the poor indian endeavours to behave honestly and, when he has gathered a few skins, sends notice to the post from whence he procured his supplies but, if discovered in the meantime by the opposite party, he is seldom proof against the temptation to which he is exposed. however firm he may be in his denials at first his resolutions are enfeebled by the sight of a little rum and, when he has tasted the intoxicating beverage, they vanish like smoke and he brings forth his store of furs which he has carefully concealed from the scrutinising eyes of his visitors. this mode of carrying on the trade not only causes the amount of furs collected by either of the two companies to depend more upon the activity of their agents, the knowledge they possess of the motions of the indians, and the quantity of rum they carry, than upon the liberality of the credits they give, but is also productive of an increasing deterioration of the character of the indians and will probably ultimately prove destructive to the fur trade itself. indeed the evil has already in part recoiled upon the traders; for the indians, long deceived, have become deceivers in their turn, and not unfrequently, after having incurred a heavy debt at one post, move off to another to play the same game. in some cases the rival posts have entered into a mutual agreement to trade only with the indians they have respectively fitted out, but such treaties, being seldom rigidly adhered to, prove a fertile subject for disputes and the differences have been more than once decided by force of arms. to carry on the contest the two companies are obliged to employ a great many servants whom they maintain often with much difficulty and always at a considerable expense.* (*footnote. as the contending parties have united the evils mentioned in this and the two preceding pages are now in all probability at an end.) there are thirty men belonging to the hudson's bay fort at cumberland and nearly as many women and children. the inhabitants of the north-west company's house are still more numerous. these large families are fed during the greatest part of the year on fish which are principally procured at beaver lake, about fifty miles distant. the fishery, commencing with the first frosts in autumn, continues abundant till january, and the produce is dragged over the snow on sledges, each drawn by three dogs and carrying about two hundred and fifty pounds. the journey to and from the lake occupies five days and every sledge requires a driver. about three thousand fish averaging three pounds apiece were caught by the hudson's bay fishermen last season; in addition to which a few sturgeon were occasionally caught in pine island lake; and towards the spring a considerable quantity of moose meat was procured from the basquiau hill, sixty or seventy miles distant. the rest of our winter's provision consisted of geese, salted in the autumn, and of dried meats and pemmican obtained from the provision posts on the plains of the saskatchewan. a good many potatoes are also raised at this post and a small supply of tea and sugar is brought from the depot at york factory. the provisions obtained from these various sources were amply sufficient in the winter of - ; but through improvidence this post has in former seasons been reduced to great straits. many of the labourers and a great majority of the agents and clerks employed by the two companies have indian or half-breed wives, and the mixed offspring thus produced has become extremely numerous. these metifs, or, as the canadians term them, bois brules, are upon the whole a good-looking people and, where the experiment has been made, have shown much aptness in learning and willingness to be taught; they have however been sadly neglected. the example of their fathers has released them from the restraint imposed by the indian opinions of good and bad behaviour; and generally speaking no pains have been taken to fill the void with better principles. hence it is not surprising that the males, trained up in a high opinion of the authority and rights of the company to which their fathers belonged and, unacquainted with the laws of the civilised world, should be ready to engage in any measure whatever that they are prompted to believe will forward the interests of the cause they espouse. nor that the girls, taught a certain degree of refinement by the acquisition of an european language, should be inflamed by the unrestrained discourse of their indian relations, and very early give up all pretensions to chastity. it is however but justice to remark that there is a very decided difference in the conduct of the children of the orkney men employed by the hudson's bay company and those of the canadian voyagers. some trouble is occasionally bestowed in teaching the former and it is not thrown away, but all the good that can be said of the latter is that they are not quite so licentious as their fathers are. many of the half-breeds both male and female are brought up amongst and intermarry with the indians; and there are few tents wherein the paler children of such marriages are not to be seen. it has been remarked, i do not know with what truth, that half-breeds show more personal courage than the pure crees.* (*footnote. a singular change takes place in the physical constitution of the indian females who become inmates of a fort, namely they bear children more frequently and longer but at the same time are rendered liable to indurations of the mammae and prolapsus of the uterus, evils from which they are in a great measure exempt whilst they lead a wandering and laborious life.) the girls at the forts, particularly the daughters of canadians, are given in marriage very young; they are very frequently wives at twelve years of age and mothers at fourteen. nay, more than once instance came under our observation of the master of a post having permitted a voyager to take to wife a poor child that had scarcely attained the age of ten years. the masters of posts and wintering partners of the companies deemed this criminal indulgence to the vices of their servants necessary to stimulate them to exertion for the interest of their respective concerns. another practice may also be noticed as showing the state of moral feeling on these subjects amongst the white residents of the fur countries. it was not very uncommon amongst the canadian voyagers for one woman to be common to and maintained at the joint expense of two men; nor for a voyager to sell his wife, either for a season or altogether, for a sum of money proportioned to her beauty and good qualities but always inferior to the price of a team of dogs. the country around cumberland house is flat and swampy and is much intersected by small lakes. limestone is found everywhere under a thin stratum of soil and it not unfrequently shows itself above the surface. it lies in strata generally horizontal but in one spot near the fort dipping to the northward at an angle of degrees. some portions of this rock contain very perfect shells. with respect to the vegetable productions of the district the populus trepida, or aspen, which thrives in moist situations, is perhaps the most abundant tree on the banks of the saskatchewan and is much prized as firewood, burning well when cut green. the populus balsamifera or taccamahac, called by the crees matheh meteos, or ugly poplar, in allusion to its rough bark and naked stem, crowned in an aged state with a few distorted branches, is scarcely less plentiful. it is an inferior firewood and does not been well unless when cut in the spring and dried during the summer; but it affords a great quantity of potash. a decoction of its resinous buds has been sometimes used by the indians with success in cases of snow-blindness, but its application to the inflamed eye produces much pain. of pines the white spruce is the most common here: the red and black spruce, the balsam of gilead fir, and banksian pine also occur frequently. the larch is found only in swampy spots and is stunted and unhealthy. the canoe birch attains a considerable size in this latitude but from the great demand for its wood to make sledges it has become rare. the alder abounds on the margin of the little grassy lakes so common in the neighbourhood. a decoction of its inner bark is used as an emetic by the indians who also extract from it a yellow dye. a great variety of willows occur on the banks of the streams and the hazel is met with sparingly in the woods. the sugar maple, elm, ash, and the arbor vitae,* termed by the canadian voyagers cedar, grow on various parts of the saskatchewan but that river seems to form their northern boundary. two kinds of prunus also grow here, one of which,** a handsome small tree, produces a black fruit having a very astringent taste whence the term choke-cherry applied to it. the crees call it tawquoymeena, and esteemed it to be when dried and bruised a good addition to pemmican. the other species*** is a less elegant shrub but is said to bear a bright red cherry of a pleasant sweet taste. its cree name is passeeaweymeenan, and it is known to occur as far north as great slave lake. (*footnote. thuya occidentalis.) (**footnote. prunus virginiana.) (***footnote. prunus pensylvanica.) the most esteemed fruit of the country however is the produce of the aronia ovalis. under the name of meesasscootoomena it is a favourite dish at most of the indian feasts and, mixed with pemmican, it renders that greasy food actually palatable. a great variety of currants and gooseberries are also mentioned by the natives under the name of sappoommeena but we only found three species in the neighbourhood of cumberland house. the strawberry, called by the crees oteimeena, or heart-berry, is found in abundance and rasps are common on the sandy banks of the rivers. the fruits hitherto mentioned fall in the autumn but the following berries remained hanging on the bushes in the spring and are considered as much mellowed by exposure to the colds in winter. the red whortleberry (vaccinium vitis idea) is found everywhere but is most abundant in rocky places. it is aptly termed by the crees weesawgummeena, sour-berry. the common cranberry (oxycoccos palustris) is distinguished from the preceding by its growing on moist sphagnous spots and is hence called maskoegomeena, swamp-berry. the american guelder rose whose fruit so strongly resembles the cranberry is also common. there are two kinds of it (viburnum oxycoccos and edule) one termed by the natives peepoonmeena, winter-berry, and the other mongsoameena, moose-berry. there is also a berry of a bluish white colour, the produce of the white cornel tree, which is named musquameena, bear-berry, because these animals are said to fatten on it. the dwarf canadian cornel bears a corymb of red berries which are highly ornamental to the woods throughout the country but are not otherwise worthy of notice for they have an insipid farinaceous taste and are seldom gathered. the crees extract some beautiful colours from several of their native vegetables. they dye their porcupine quills a beautiful scarlet with the roots of two species of bed-straw (galium tinctorium and boreale) which they indiscriminately term sawoyan. the roots, after being carefully washed, are boiled gently in a clean copper kettle, and a quantity of the juice of the moose-berry, strawberry, cranberry, or arctic raspberry, is added together with a few red tufts of pistils of the larch. the porcupine quills are plunged into the liquor before it becomes quite cold and are soon tinged of a beautiful scarlet. the process sometimes fails and produces only a dirty brown, a circumstance which ought probably to be ascribed to the use of an undue quantity of acid. they dye black with an ink made of elder bark and a little bog-iron-ore, dried and pounded, and they have various modes of producing yellow. the deepest colour is obtained from the dried root of a plant which from their description appears to be cowbane (cicuta virosa). an inferior colour is obtained from the bruised buds of the dutch myrtle and they have discovered methods of dyeing with various lichens. the quadrupeds that are hunted for food in this part of the country are the moose and the reindeer, the former termed by the crees mongsoa, or moosoa, the latter attekh. the buffalo or bison (moostoosh) the red-deer or american stag (wawaskeeshoo) the apeesee-mongsoos, or jumping deer, the kinwaithoos, or long-tailed deer, and the apistat-chaekoos, a species of antelope; animals that frequent the plains above the forks of the saskatchewan are not found in the neighbourhood of cumberland house. of fur-bearing animals various kinds of foxes (makkeeshewuc) are found in the district, distinguished by the traders under the names of black, silver, cross, red, and blue foxes. the two former are considered by the indians to be the same kind, varying accidentally in the colour of the pelt. the black foxes are very rare and fetch a high price. the cross and red foxes differ from each other only in colour being of the same shape and size. their shades of colour are not disposed in any determinate manner, some individuals approaching in that respect very nearly to the silver fox, others exhibiting every link of the chain down to a nearly uniform deep or orange-yellow, the distinguishing colour of a pure red fox. it is reported both by indians and traders that all the varieties have been found in the same litter. the blue fox is seldom seen here and is supposed to come from the southward. the gray wolf (mahaygan) is common here. in the month of march the females frequently entice the domestic dog from the forts although at other seasons a strong antipathy seemed to subsist between them. some black wolves are occasionally seen. the black and red varieties of the american bear (musquah) are also found near cumberland house though not frequently; a black bear often has red cubs, and vice versa. the grizzly bear, so much dreaded by the indians for its strength and ferocity, inhabits a track of country nearer the rocky mountains. it is extraordinary that although i made inquiries extensively amongst the indians i met with but one who said that he had killed a she-bear with young in the womb. the wolverine, in cree okeekoohawgees, or ommeethatsees, is an animal of great strength and cunning and is much hated by the hunters on account of the mischief it does to their marten-traps. the canadian lynx (peeshew) is a timid but well-armed animal which preys upon the american hare. its fur is esteemed. the marten (wapeestan) is one of the most common furred animals in the country. the fisher, notwithstanding its name, is an inhabitant of the land, living like the common marten principally on mice. it is the otchoek of the crees, and the pekan of the canadians. the mink (atjackash) has been often confounded by writers with the fisher. it is a much smaller animal, inhabits the banks of rivers, and swims well; its prey is fish. the otter (neekeek) is larger than the english species and produces a much more valuable fur. the muskrat (watsuss, or musquash) is very abundant in all the small grassy lakes. they build small conical houses with a mixture of hay and earth, those which build early raising their houses on the mud of the marshes, and those which build later in the season founding their habitations upon the surface of the ice itself. the house covers a hole in the ice which permits them to go into the water in search of the roots on which they feed. in severe winters when the small lakes are frozen to the bottom and these animals cannot procure their usual food they prey upon each other. in this way great numbers are destroyed. the beaver (ammisk) furnish the staple fur of the country. many surprising stories have been told of the sagacity with which this animal suits the form of its habitation, retreats, and dam, to local circumstances; and i compared the account of its manners given by cuvier in his regne animal with the reports of the indians and found them to agree exactly. they have been often seen in the act of constructing their houses in the moonlight nights, and the observers agree that the stones, wood, or other materials are carried in their teeth and generally leaning against the shoulder. when they have placed it to their mind they turn round and give it a smart blow with their flat tail. in the act of diving they give a similar stroke to the surface of the water. they keep their provision of wood under water in front of the house. their favourite food is the bark of the aspen, birch and willow; they also eat the alder, but seldom touch any of the pine tribe unless from necessity; they are fond of the large roots of the nuphar lutea, and grow fat upon it but it gives their flesh a strong rancid taste. in the season of love their call resembles a groan, that of the male being the hoarsest, but the voice of the young is exactly like the cry of a child. they are very playful as the following anecdote will show: one day a gentleman, long resident in this country, espied five young beavers sporting in the water, leaping upon the trunk of a tree, pushing one another off and playing a thousand interesting tricks. he approached softly under cover of the bushes and prepared to fire on the unsuspecting creatures, but a nearer approach discovered to him such a similitude betwixt their gestures and the infantile caresses of his own children that he threw aside his gun. this gentleman's feelings are to be envied but few traders in fur would have acted so feelingly. the muskrat frequently inhabits the same lodge with the beaver and the otter also thrusts himself in occasionally; the latter however is not always a civil guest as he sometimes devours his host. these are the animals most interesting in an economical point of view. the american hare and several kinds of grouse and ptarmigan also contribute towards the support of the natives; and the geese, in their periodical flights in the spring and autumn, likewise prove a valuable resource both to the indians and white residents; but the principal article of food after the moose-deer is fish; indeed it forms almost the sole support of the traders at some of the posts. the most esteemed fish is the coregonus albus, the attihhawmeg of the crees and the white-fish of the americans. its usual weight is between three and four pounds, but it has been known to reach sixteen or eighteen pounds. three fish of the ordinary size is the daily allowance to each man at the fort and is considered as equivalent to two geese or eight pounds of solid moose-meat. the fishery for the attihhawmeg lasts the whole year but is most productive in the spawning season from the middle of september to the middle of october. the ottonneebees (coregonus artedi) closely resembles the last. three species of carp (catastomus hudsonius, c. forsterianus, and c. lesueurii) are also found abundantly in all the lakes, their cree names are namaypeeth, meethquawmaypeeth, and wapawhawkeeshew. the occuw, or river perch, termed also horn-fish, piccarel, or dore, is common, but is not so much esteemed as the attihhawmeg. it attains the length of twenty inches in these lakes. the methy is another common fish; it is the gadus lota, or burbot, of europe. its length is about two feet, its gullet is capacious and it preys upon fish large enough to distend its body to nearly twice its proper size. it is never eaten, not even by the dogs, unless through necessity but its liver and roe are considered as delicacies. the pike is also plentiful and, being readily caught in the wintertime with the hook, is so much prized on that account by the natives as to receive from them the name of eithinyoocannooshoeoo, or indian fish. the common trout, or nammoecous, grows here to an enormous size, being caught in particular lakes, weighing upwards of sixty pounds; thirty pounds is no uncommon size at beaver lake, from whence cumberland house is supplied. the hioden clodalis, oweepeetcheesees, or gold-eye, is a beautiful small fish which resembles the trout in its habits. one of the largest fish is the mathemegh, cat-fish, or barbue. it belongs to the genus silurus. it is rare but is highly prized as food. the sturgeon (accipenser ruthenus) is also taken in the saskatchewan and lakes communicating with it and furnishes an excellent but rather rich article of food. chapter . leave cumberland house. mode of travelling in winter. arrival at carlton house. stone indians. visit to a buffalo pound. goitres. departure from carlton house. isle a la crosse. arrival at fort chipewyan. leave cumberland house. january , . this day we set out from cumberland house for carlton house but, previously to detailing the events of the journey, it may be proper to describe the necessary equipments of a winter traveller in this region which i cannot do better than by extracting the following brief but accurate account of it from mr. hood's journal: mode of travelling in winter. a snowshoe is made of two light bars of wood fastened together at their extremities and projected into curves by transverse bars. the side bars have been so shaped by a frame and dried before a fire that the front part of the shoe turns up like the prow of a boat and the part behind terminates in an acute angle; the spaces between the bars are filled up with a fine netting of leathern thongs except that part behind the main bar which is occupied by the feet; the netting is there close and strong, and the foot is attached to the main bar by straps passing round the heel but only fixing the toes so that the heel rises after each step, and the tail of the shoe is dragged on the snow. between the main bar and another in front of it a small space is left, permitting the toes to descend a little in the act of raising the heel to make the step forward, which prevents their extremities from chafing. the length of a snowshoe is from four to six feet and the breadth one foot and a half, or one and three-quarters, being adapted to the size of the wearer. the motion of walking in them is perfectly natural for one shoe is level with the snow when the edge of the other is passing over it. it is not easy to use them among bushes without frequent overthrows, nor to rise afterwards without help. each shoe weighs about two pounds when unclogged with snow. the northern indian snowshoes differ a little from those of the southern indians, having a greater curvature on the outside of each shoe, one advantage of which is that when the foot rises the over-balanced side descends and throws off the snow. all the superiority of european art has been unable to improve the native contrivance of this useful machine. sledges are made of two or three flat boards curving upwards in front and fastened together by transverse pieces of wood above. they are so thin that, if heavily laden, they bend with the inequalities of the surface over which they pass. the ordinary dog-sledges are eight or ten feet long and very narrow, but the lading is secured to a lacing round the edges. the cariole used by the traders is merely a covering of leather for the lower part of the body, affixed to the common sledge which is painted and ornamented according to the taste of the proprietor. besides snowshoes each individual carries his blanket, hatchet, steel, flint, and tinder, and generally firearms. ... the general dress of the winter traveller is a capot, having a hood to put up under the fur cap in windy weather or in the woods to keep the snow from his neck, leathern trousers and indian stockings which are closed at the ankles round the upper part of his moccasins or indian shoes to prevent the snow from getting into them. over these he wears a blanket or leathern coat which is secured by a belt round his waist to which his fire-bag, knife, and hatchet are suspended. mr. back and i were accompanied by the seaman john hepburn; we were provided with two carioles and two sledges, their drivers and dogs being furnished in equal proportions by the two companies. fifteen days' provision so completely filled the sledges that it was with difficulty we found room for a small sextant, one suit of clothes, and three changes of linen, together with our bedding. notwithstanding we thus restricted ourselves and even loaded the carioles with part of the luggage instead of embarking in them ourselves we did not set out without considerable grumbling from the voyagers of both companies respecting the overlading of their dogs. however we left the matter to be settled by our friends at the fort who were more conversant with winter travelling than ourselves. indeed the loads appeared to us so great that we should have been inclined to listen to the complaints of the drivers. the weight usually placed upon a sledge drawn by three dogs cannot at the commencement of a journey be estimated at less than three hundred pounds, which however suffers a daily diminution from the consumption of provisions. the sledge itself weighs about thirty pounds. when the snow is hard frozen or the track well trodden the rate of travelling is about two miles and a half an hour, including rests, or about fifteen miles a day. if the snow be loose the speed is necessarily much less and the fatigue greater. at eight in the morning of the th we quitted the fort and took leave of our hospitable friend governor williams whose kindness and attention i shall ever remember with gratitude. dr. richardson, mr. hood, and mr. connolly accompanied us along the saskatchewan until the snow became too deep for their walking without snowshoes. we then parted from our associates with sincere regret at the prospect of a long separation. being accompanied by mr. mackenzie of the hudson's bay company who was going to isle a la crosse with four sledges under his charge we formed quite a procession, keeping in an indian file on the track of the man who preceded the foremost dogs; but as the snow was deep we proceeded slowly on the surface of the river, which is about three hundred and fifty yards wide, for the distance of six miles which we went this day. its alluvial banks and islands are clothed with willows. at the place of our encampment we could scarcely find sufficient pine branches to floor the hut, as the orkney men term the place where travellers rest. its preparation however consists only in clearing away the snow to the ground and covering that space with pine branches, over which the party spread their blankets and coats and sleep in warmth and comfort by keeping a good fire at their feet without any other canopy than the heaven, even though the thermometer should be far below zero. the arrival at the place of encampment gives immediate occupation to every one of the party; and it is not until the sleeping-place has been arranged and a sufficiency of wood collected as fuel for the night that the fire is allowed to be kindled. the dogs alone remain inactive during this busy scene, being kept harnessed to their burdens until the men have leisure to unstow the sledges and hang upon the trees every species of provision out of their reach. we had ample experience before morning of the necessity of this precaution as they contrived to steal a considerable part of our stores almost from underneath hepburn's head, notwithstanding their having been well fed at supper. this evening we found the mercury of our thermometer had sunk into the bulb and was frozen. it rose again into the tube on being held to the fire but quickly redescended into the bulb on being removed into the air; we could not therefore ascertain by it the temperature of the atmosphere either then or during our journey. the weather was perfectly clear. january . we rose this morning after the enjoyment of a sound and comfortable repose and recommenced our journey at sunrise but made slow progress through the deep snow. the task of beating the track for the dogs was so very fatiguing that each of the men took the lead in turn for an hour and a half. the scenery of the banks of the river improved as we advanced today; some firs and poplars were intermixed with the willows. we passed through two creeks formed by islands, and encamped on a pleasant spot on the north shore, having only made six miles and three-quarters actual distance. the next day we pursued our course along the river; the dogs had the greatest difficulty in dragging their heavy burdens through the snow. we halted to refresh them at the foot of sturgeon river and obtained the latitude degrees minutes seconds north. this is a small stream which issues from a neighbouring lake. we encamped near to mosquito point having walked nine miles. the termination of the day's journey was a great relief to me who had been suffering during the greater part of it in consequence of my feet having been galled by the snowshoes; this however is an evil which few escape on their initiation to winter travelling. it excites no pity from the more experienced companions of the journey who travel on as fast as they can regardless of your pain. mr. isbester and an orkney man joined us from cumberland house and brought some pemmican that we had left behind, a supply which was very seasonable after our recent loss. the general occupation of mr. isbester during the winter is to follow or find out the indians and collect their furs, and his present journey will appear adventurous to persons accustomed to the certainty of travelling on a well-known road. he was going in search of a band of indians of whom no information had been received since last october, and his only guide for finding them was their promise to hunt in a certain quarter; but he looked at the jaunt with indifference and calculated on meeting them in six or seven days, for which time only he had provision. few persons in this country suffer more from want of food than those occasionally do who are employed on this service. they are furnished with a sufficiency of provision to serve until they reach the part where the indians are expected to be; but it frequently occurs that on their arrival at the spot they have gone elsewhere, and that a recent fall of snow has hidden their track, in which case the voyagers have to wander about in search of them; and it often happens when they succeed in finding the indians that they are unprovided with meat. mr. isbester had been placed in this distressing situation only a few weeks ago and passed four days without either himself or his dogs tasting food. at length when he had determined on killing one of the dogs to satisfy his hunger he happily met with a beaten track which led him to some indian lodges where he obtained food. the morning of the st was cold but pleasant for travelling. we left mr. isbester and his companion and crossed the peninsula of mosquito point to avoid a detour of several miles which the river makes. though we put up at an early hour we gained eleven miles this day. our encampment was at the lower extremity of tobin's falls. the snow being less deep on the rough ice which enclosed this rapid we proceeded on the nd at a quicker pace than usual but at the expense of great suffering to mr. back, myself and hepburn, whose feet were much galled. after passing tobin's falls the river expands to the breadth of five hundred yards, and its banks are well wooded with pines, poplars, birch and willow. many tracks of moose-deer and wolves were observed near the encampment. on the rd the sky was generally overcast and there were several snow showers. we saw two wolves and some foxes cross the river in the course of the day and passed many tracks of the moose and red-deer. soon after we had encamped the snow fell heavily which was an advantage to us after we had retired to rest by its affording an additional covering to our blankets. the next morning at breakfast time two men arrived from carlton on their way to cumberland. having the benefit of their track we were enabled, to our great joy, to march at a quick pace without snowshoes. my only regret was that the party proceeded too fast to allow of mr. back's halting occasionally to note the bearings of the points and delineate the course of the river* without being left behind. as the provisions were getting short i could not therefore with propriety check the progress of the party; and indeed it appeared to me less necessary as i understood the river had been carefully surveyed. in the afternoon we had to resume the encumbrance of the snowshoes and to pass over a rugged part where the ice had been piled over a collection of stones. the tracks of animals were very abundant on the river, particularly near the remains of an old establishment called the lower nippeween. (*footnote. this was afterwards done by dr. richardson during a voyage to carlton in the spring.) so much snow had fallen on the night of the th that the track we intended to follow was completely covered and our march today was very fatiguing. we passed the remains of two red-deer lying at the bases of perpendicular cliffs from the summits of which they had probably been forced by the wolves. these voracious animals, who are inferior in speed to the moose or red-deer, are said frequently to have recourse to this expedient in places where extensive plains are bounded by precipitous cliffs. whilst the deer are quietly grazing the wolves assemble in great numbers and, forming a crescent, creep slowly towards the herd so as not to alarm them much at first but, when they perceive that they have fairly hemmed in the unsuspecting creatures and cut off their retreat across the plain, they move more quickly and with hideous yells terrify their prey and urge them to flight by the only open way, which is that towards the precipice, appearing to know that when the herd is once at full speed it is easily driven over the cliff, the rearmost urging on those that are before. the wolves then descend at their leisure and feast on the mangled carcasses. one of these animals passed close to the person who was beating the track but did not offer any violence. we encamped at sunset after walking thirteen miles. on the th we were rejoiced at passing the halfway point between cumberland and carlton. the scenery of the river is less pleasing beyond this point as there is a scarcity of wood. one of our men was despatched after a red-deer that appeared on the bank. he contrived to approach near enough to fire twice, though without success, before the animal moved away. after a fatiguing march of seventeen miles we put up at the upper nippeween, a deserted establishment, and performed the comfortable operations of shaving and washing for the first time since our departure from cumberland, the weather having been hitherto too severe. we passed an uncomfortable and sleepless night and agreed next morning to encamp in future in the open air as preferable to the imperfect shelter of a deserted house without doors or windows. the morning was extremely cold but fortunately the wind was light which prevented our feeling it severely; experience indeed had taught us that the sensation of cold depends less upon the state of temperature than the force of the wind. an attempt was made to obtain the latitude which failed in consequence of the screw that adjusts the telescope of the sextant being immovably fixed from the moisture upon it having frozen. the instrument could not be replaced in its case before the ice was thawed by the fire in the evening. in the course of the day we passed the confluence of the south branch of the saskatchewan, which rises from the rocky mountains near the sources of the northern branch of the missouri. at coles falls, which commence a distance from the branch, we found the surface of the ice very uneven and many spots of open water. we passed the ruins of an establishment which the traders had been compelled to abandon in consequence of the intractable conduct and pilfering habits of the assineboine or stone indians; and we learned that all the residents at a post on the south branch had been cut off by the same tribe some years ago. we travelled twelve miles today. the wolves serenaded us through the night with a chorus of their agreeable howling but none of them ventured near the encampment. but mr. back's repose was disturbed by a more serious evil: his buffalo robe caught fire and the shoes on his feet being contracted by the heat gave him such pain that he jumped up in the cold and ran into the snow as the only means of obtaining relief. on the th we had a strong and piercing wind from north-west in our faces and much snow-drift; we were compelled to walk as quick as we could and to keep constantly rubbing the exposed parts of the skin to prevent their being frozen, but some of the party suffered in spite of every precaution. we descried three red-deer on the banks of the river and were about to send the best marksmen after them when they espied the party and ran away. a supply of meat would have been very seasonable as the men's provision had become scanty and the dogs were without food except a little burnt leather. owing to the scarcity of wood we had to walk until a late hour before a good spot for an encampment could be found and had then attained only eleven miles. the night was miserably cold; our tea froze in the tin pots before we could drink it and even a mixture of spirits and water became quite thick by congelation; yet after we lay down to rest we felt no inconvenience and heeded not the wolves though they were howling within view. the th was also very cold until the sun burst forth when the travelling became pleasant. the banks of the river are very scantily supplied with wood through the part we passed today. a long track on the south shore called holms plains is destitute of anything like a tree and the opposite bank has only stunted willows; but after walking sixteen miles we came to a spot better wooded and encamped opposite to a remarkable place called by the voyagers the neck of land. a short distance below our encampment, on the peninsula formed by the confluence of the net-setting river with the saskatchewan, there stands a representation of kepoochikawn which was formerly held in high veneration by the indians and is still looked upon with some respect. it is merely a large willow bush having its tops bound into a bunch. many offerings of value such as handsome dresses, hatchets, and kettles, used to be made to it, but of late its votaries have been less liberal. it was mentioned to us as a signal instance of its power that a sacrilegious moose-deer, having ventured to crop a few of its tender twigs, was found dead at the distance of a few yards. the bush having now grown old and stunted is exempted from similar violations. on the th we directed our course round the neck of land which is well clothed with pines and firs; though the opposite or western bank is nearly destitute of wood. this contrast between the two banks continued until we reached the commencement of what our companions called the barren grounds when both the banks were alike bare. vast plains extend behind the southern bank which afford excellent pasturage for the buffalo and other grazing animals. in the evening we saw a herd of the former but could not get near to them. after walking fifteen miles we encamped. the men's provision having been entirely expended last night we shared our small stock with them. the poor dogs had been toiling some days on the most scanty fare; their rapacity in consequence was unbounded; they forced open a deal box containing tea, etc. to get at a small piece of meat which had been incautiously placed in it. arrival at carlton house. as soon as daylight permitted the party commenced their march in expectation of reaching carlton house to breakfast, but we did not arrive before noon although the track was good. we were received by mr. prudens, the gentleman in charge of the post, with that friendly attention which governor williams' circular was calculated to ensure at every station; and were soon afterwards regaled with a substantial dish of buffalo steaks which would have been excellent under any circumstances but were particularly relished by us after our travelling fare of dried meat and pemmican, though eaten without either bread or vegetables. after this repast we had the comfort of changing our travelling dresses which had been worn for fourteen days; a gratification which can only be truly estimated by those who have been placed under similar circumstances. i was still in too great pain from swellings in the ankles to proceed to la montee, the north-west company's establishment distant about three miles; but mr. hallet, the gentleman in charge, came the following morning and i presented to him the circular from mr. s. mcgillivray. he had already been furnished however with a copy of it from mr. connolly, and was quite prepared to assist us in our advance to the athabasca. mr. back and i, having been very desirous to see some of the stone indians who reside on the plains in this vicinity, learned with regret that a large band of them had left the house on the preceding day, but our curiosity was amply gratified by the appearance of some individuals on the following and every subsequent day during our stay. the looks of these people would have prepossessed me in their favour but for the assurances i had received from the gentlemen of the posts of their gross and habitual treachery. their countenances are affable and pleasing; their eyes large and expressive, nose aquiline, teeth white and regular, the forehead bold, the cheek-bones rather high. their figure is usually good, above the middle size with slender but well proportioned limbs. their colour is a light copper and they have a profusion of very black hair which hangs over the ears and shades the face. their dress, which i think extremely neat and convenient, consists of a vest and trousers of leather fitted to the body; over these a buffalo robe is thrown gracefully. these dresses are in general cleaned with white-mud, a sort of marl, though some use red-earth, a kind of bog-iron-ore; but this colour neither looks so light nor forms such an agreeable contrast as the white with the black hair of the robe. their quiver hangs behind them and in the hand is carried the bow with an arrow always ready for attack or defence, and sometimes they have a gun; they also carry a bag containing materials for making a fire, some tobacco, the calumet or pipe, and whatever valuables they possess. this bag is neatly ornamented with porcupine quills. thus equipped the stone indian bears himself with an air of perfect independence. the only articles of european commerce they require in exchange for the meat they furnish to the trading post are tobacco, knives, ammunition, and spirits, and occasionally some beads, but more frequently buttons which they string in their hair as ornaments. a successful hunter will probably have two or three dozen of them hanging at equal distances on locks of hair from each side of the forehead. at the end of these locks small coral bells are sometimes attached which tinkle at every motion of the head, a noise which seems greatly to delight the wearer; sometimes strings of buttons are bound round the head like a tiara; and a bunch of feathers gracefully crowns the head. the stone indians steal whatever they can, particularly horses; these animals they maintain are common property sent by the almighty for the general use of man and therefore may be taken wherever met with; still they admit the right of the owners to watch them and to prevent theft if possible. this avowed disposition on their part calls forth the strictest vigilance at the different posts; notwithstanding which the most daring attacks are often made with success, sometimes on parties of three or four but oftener on individuals. about two years ago a band of them had the audacity to attempt to take away some horses which were grazing before the gate of the north-west company's fort and, after braving the fire from the few people then at the establishment through the whole day and returning their shots occasionally, they actually succeeded in their enterprise. one man was killed on each side. they usually strip defenceless persons whom they meet of all their garments, but particularly of those which have buttons, and leave them to travel alone in that state, however severe the weather. if resistance be expected they not unfrequently murder before they attempt to rob. the traders when they travel invariably keep some men on guard to prevent surprise whilst the others sleep; and often practise the stratagem of lighting a fire at sunset, which they leave burning, and move on after dark to a more distant encampment--yet these precautions do not always baffle the depredators. such is the description of men whom the traders of this river have constantly to guard against. it must require a long residence among them and much experience of their manners to overcome the apprehensions their hostility and threats are calculated to excite. through fear of having their provisions and supplies entirely cut off the traders are often obliged to overlook the grossest offences, even murder, though the delinquents present themselves with unblushing effrontery almost immediately after the fact and perhaps boast of it. they do not on detection consider themselves under any obligation to deliver up what they have stolen without receiving an equivalent. stone indians. the stone indians keep in amity with their neighbours the crees from motives of interest; and the two tribes unite in determined hostility against the nations dwelling to the westward which are generally called slave indians--a term of reproach applied by the crees to those tribes against whom they have waged successful wars. the slave indians are said greatly to resemble the stone indians, being equally desperate and daring in their acts of aggression and dishonesty towards the traders. these parties go to war almost every summer and sometimes muster three or four hundred horsemen on each side. their leaders, in approaching the foe, exercise all the caution of the most skilful generals; and whenever either party considers that it has gained the best ground, or finds it can surprise the other, the attack is made. they advance at once to close quarters and the slaughter is consequently great though the battle may be short. the prisoners of either sex are seldom spared but slain on the spot with wanton cruelty. the dead are scalped and he is considered the bravest person who bears the greatest number of scalps from the field. these are afterwards attached to his war dress and worn as proofs of his prowess. the victorious party during a certain time blacken their faces and every part of their dress in token of joy, and in that state they often come to the establishment, if near, to testify their delight by dancing and singing, bearing all the horrid insignia of war, to display their individual feats. when in mourning they completely cover their dress and hair with white mud. the crees in the vicinity of carlton house have the same cast of countenance as those about cumberland but are much superior to them in appearance, living in a more abundant country. these men are more docile, tractable, and industrious than the stone indians and bring greater supplies of provision and furs to the posts. their general mode of dress resembles that of the stone indians; but sometimes they wear cloth leggings, blankets, and other useful articles when they can afford to purchase them. they also decorate their hair with buttons. the crees procure guns from the traders and use them in preference to the bow and arrow; and from them the stone indians often get supplied either by stealth, gaming, or traffic. like the rest of their nation these crees are remarkably fond of spirits and would make any sacrifice to obtain them. i regretted to find the demand for this pernicious article had greatly increased within the last few years. the following notice of these indians is extracted from dr. richardson's journal: the asseenaboine, termed by the crees asseeneepoytuck or stone indians, are a tribe of sioux who speak a dialect of the iroquois, one of the great divisions under which the american philologists have classed the known dialects of the aborigines of north america. the stone indians or, as they name themselves, eascab, originally entered this part of the country under the protection of the crees and, in concert with them, attacked and drove to the westward the former inhabitants of the banks of the saskatchewan. they are still the allies of the crees but have now become more numerous than their former protectors. they exhibit all the bad qualities ascribed to the mengwe or iroquois, the stock whence they are sprung. of their actual number i could obtain no precise information but it is very great. the crees who inhabit the plains, being fur hunters, are better known to the traders. they are divided into two distinct bands, the ammiskwatchhethinyoowuc or beaver hill crees, who have about forty tents and the sackaweethinyoowuc or thick wood crees who have thirty-five. the tents average nearly ten inmates each, which gives a population of seven hundred and fifty to the whole. the nations who were driven to the westward by the eascab and crees are termed, in general, by the latter, yatcheethinyoowuc, which has been translated slave indians but more properly signifies strangers. they now inhabit the country around fort augustus, and towards the foot of the rocky mountains, and have increased in strength until they have become an object of terror to the eascab themselves. they rear a great number of horses, make use of firearms, and are fond of european articles, in order to purchase which they hunt the beaver and other furred animals, but they depend principally on the buffalo for subsistence. they are divided into five nations: first, the pawausticeythinyoowuc, or fall indians, so named from their former residence on the falls of the saskatchewan. they are the minetarres with whom captain lewis's party had a conflict on their return from the missouri. they have about four hundred and fifty or five hundred tents; their language is very guttural and difficult. second, the peganooeythinyoowuc pegans, or muddy river indians named in their own language peganoekoon, have four hundred tents. third, the meethcothinyoowuc, or blood indians, named by themselves kainoekoon, have three hundred tents. fourth, the cuskoetehwawthesseetuck, or blackfoot indians, in their own language saxoekoekoon, have three hundred and fifty tents. the last three nations or tribes, the pegans, blood indians, and blackfeet, speak the same language. it is pronounced in a slow and distinct tone, has much softness, and is easily acquired by their neighbours. i am assured by the best interpreters in the country that it bears no affinity to the cree, sioux, or chipewyan languages. lastly the sassees, or circees, have one hundred and fifty tents; they speak the same language with their neighbours, the snare indians, who are a tribe of the extensive family of the chipewyans.* (*footnote. as the subjects may be interesting to philologists i subjoin a few words of the blackfoot language: peestah kan: tobacco. moohksee: an awl. nappoeoohkee: rum. cook keet: give me. eeninee: buffalo. pooxapoot: come here. kat oetsits: none, i have none. keet sta kee: a beaver. naum: a bow. stooan: a knife. sassoopats: ammunition. meenee: beads. poommees: fat. miss ta poot: keep off. saw: no. stwee: cold; it is cold. pennakomit: a horse. ahseeu: good.) ... visit to a buffalo pound. on the th of february we accompanied mr. prudens on a visit to a cree encampment and a buffalo pound about six miles from the house; we found seven tents pitched within a small cluster of pines which adjoined the pound. the largest, which we entered, belonged to the chief who was absent but came in on learning our arrival. the old man (about sixty) welcomed us with a hearty shake of the hand and the customary salutation of "what cheer!" an expression which they have gained from the traders. as we had been expected they had caused the tent to be neatly arranged, fresh grass was spread on the ground, buffalo robes were placed on the side opposite the door for us to sit on, and a kettle was on the fire to boil meat for us. after a few minutes' conversation an invitation was given to the chief and his hunters to smoke the calumet with us as a token of our friendship: this was loudly announced through the camp and ten men from the other tents immediately joined our party. on their entrance the women and children withdrew, their presence on such occasions being contrary to etiquette. the calumet having been prepared and lighted by mr. prudens' clerk was presented to the chief who performed the following ceremony before he commenced smoking: he first pointed the stem to the south, then to the west, north, and east, and afterwards to the heavens, the earth and the fire, as an offering to the presiding spirits; he took three whiffs only and then passed the pipe to his next companion who took the same number of whiffs and so did each person as it went round. after the calumet had been replenished the person who then commenced repeated only the latter part of the ceremony, pointing the stem to the heavens, the earth and the fire. some spirits mixed with water were presented to the old man who before he drank demanded a feather which he dipped into the cup several times and sprinkled the moisture on the ground, pronouncing each time a prayer. his first address to the keetchee manitou, or great spirit, was that buffalo might be abundant everywhere and that plenty might come into their pound. he next prayed that the other animals might be numerous and particularly those which were valuable for their furs, and then implored that the party present might escape the sickness which was at that time prevalent and be blessed with constant health. some other supplications followed which we could not get interpreted without interrupting the whole proceeding; but at every close the whole indian party assented by exclaiming aha; and when he had finished the old man drank a little and passed the cup round. after these ceremonies each person smoked at his leisure and they engaged in a general conversation which i regretted not understanding as it seemed to be very humorous, exciting frequent bursts of laughter. the younger men in particular appeared to ridicule the abstinence of one of the party who neither drank nor smoked. he bore their jeering with perfect composure and assured them, as i was told, they would be better if they would follow his example. i was happy to learn from mr. prudens that this man was not only one of the best hunters but the most cheerful and contented of the tribe. four stone indians arrived at this time and were invited into the tent but one only accepted the invitation and partook of the fare. when mr. prudens heard the others refuse he gave immediate directions that our horses should be narrowly watched as he suspected these fellows wished to carry them off. having learned that these crees considered mr. back and myself to be war chiefs possessing great power and that they expected we should make some address to them i desired them to be kind to the traders, to be industrious in procuring them provision and furs, and to refrain from stealing their stores and horses; and i assured them that if i heard of their continuing to behave kindly i would mention their good conduct in the strongest terms to their great father across the sea (by which appellation they designate the king) whose favourable consideration they had been taught by the traders to value most highly. they all promised to follow my advice and assured me it was not they but the stone indians who robbed and annoyed the traders. the stone indian who was present heard this accusation against his tribe quite unmoved, but he probably did not understand the whole of the communication. we left them to finish their rum and went to look round the lodges and examine the pound. the greatest proportion of labour in savage life falls to the women; we now saw them employed in dressing skins, and conveying wood, water, and provision. as they have often to fetch the meat from some distance they are assisted in this duty by their dogs which are not harnessed in sledges but carry their burdens in a manner peculiarly adapted to this level country. two long poles are fastened by a collar to the dog's neck; their ends trail on the ground and are kept at a proper distance by a hoop which is lashed between them immediately behind the dog's tail; the hoop is covered with network upon which the load is placed. the boys were amusing themselves by shooting arrows at a mark and thus training to become hunters. the stone indians are so expert with the bow and arrow that they can strike a very small object at a considerable distance and will shoot with sufficient force to pierce through the body of a buffalo when near. the buffalo pound was a fenced circular space of about a hundred yards in diameter; the entrance was banked up with snow to a sufficient height to prevent the retreat of the animals that once have entered. for about a mile on each side of the road leading to the pound stakes were driven into the ground at nearly equal distances of about twenty yards; these were intended to represent men and to deter the animals from attempting to break out on either side. within fifty or sixty yards from the pound branches of trees were placed between these stakes to screen the indians who lie down behind them to await the approach of the buffalo. the principal dexterity in this species of chase is shown by the horsemen who have to manoeuvre round the herd in the plains so as to urge them to enter the roadway which is about a quarter of a mile broad. when this has been accomplished they raise loud shouts and, pressing close upon the animals, so terrify them that they rush heedlessly forward towards the snare. when they have advanced as far as the men who are lying in ambush they also rise and increase the consternation by violent shouting and firing guns. the affrighted beasts having no alternative run directly to the pound where they are quickly despatched either with an arrow or gun. there was a tree in the centre of the pound on which the indians had hung strips of buffalo flesh and pieces of cloth as tributary or grateful offerings to the great master of life; and we were told that they occasionally place a man in the tree to sing to the presiding spirit as the buffaloes are advancing who must keep his station until the whole that have entered are killed. this species of hunting is very similar to that of taking elephants on the island of ceylon but upon a smaller scale. the crees complained to us of the audacity of a party of stone indians who two nights before had stripped their revered tree of many of its offerings and had injured their pound by setting their stakes out of the proper places. other modes of killing the buffalo are practised by the indians with success; of these the hunting them on horseback requires most dexterity. an expert hunter, when well mounted, dashes at the herd and chooses an individual which he endeavours to separate from the rest. if he succeeds he contrives to keep him apart by the proper management of his horse though going at full speed. whenever he can get sufficiently near for a ball to penetrate the beast's hide he fires and seldom fails of bringing the animal down; though of course he cannot rest the piece against the shoulder nor take a deliberate aim. on this service the hunter is often exposed to considerable danger from the fall of his horse in the numerous holes which the badgers make in these plains, and also from the rage of the buffalo which when closely pressed often turns suddenly and, rushing furiously on the horse, frequently succeeds in wounding it or dismounting the rider. whenever the animal shows this disposition which the experienced hunter will readily perceive he immediately pulls up his horse and goes off in another direction. when the buffaloes are on their guard horses cannot be used in approaching them; but the hunter dismounts at some distance and crawls in the snow towards the herd, pushing his gun before him. if the buffaloes happen to look towards him he stops and keeps quite motionless until their eyes are turned in another direction; by this cautious proceeding a skilful person will get so near as to be able to kill two or three out of the herd. it will easily be imagined this service cannot be very agreeable when the thermometer stands or degrees below zero as sometimes happens in this country. as we were returning from the tents the dogs that were harnessed to three sledges, in one of which mr. back was seated, set off in pursuit of a buffalo-calf. mr. back was speedily thrown from his vehicle and had to join me in my horse-cariole. mr. heriot, having gone to recover the dogs, found them lying exhausted beside the calf which they had baited until it was as exhausted as themselves. mr. heriot, to show us the mode of hunting on horseback or as the traders term it, running of the buffalo, went in chase of a cow and killed it after firing three shots. the buffalo is a huge and shapeless animal quite devoid of grace or beauty; particularly awkward in running but by no means slow; when put to his speed he plunges through the deep snow very expeditiously; the hair is dark brown, very shaggy, curling about the head, neck, and hump, and almost covering the eye, particularly in the bull which is larger and more unsightly than the cow. the most esteemed part of the animal is the hump, called by the canadians bos, by the hudson's bay people the wig; it is merely a strong muscle on which nature at certain seasons forms a considerable quantity of fat. it is attached to the long spinous processes of the first dorsal vertebrae and seems to be destined to support the enormous head of the animal. the meat which covers the spinal processes themselves after the wig is removed is next in esteem for its flavour and juiciness and is more exclusively termed the hump by the hunters. the party was prevented from visiting a stone indian encampment by a heavy fall of snow, which made it impracticable to go and return the same day. we were dissuaded from sleeping at their tents by the interpreter at the north-west post who told us they considered the whooping-cough and measles, under which they were now suffering, to have been introduced by some white people recently arrived in the country, and that he feared those who had lost relatives, imagining we were the persons, might vent their revenge on us. we regretted to learn that these diseases had been so very destructive among the tribes along the saskatchewan as to have carried off about three hundred persons, crees and asseenaboines, within the trading circle of these establishments. the interpreter also informed us of another bad trait peculiar to the stone indians. though they receive a visitor kindly at their tents and treat him very hospitably during his stay yet it is very probable they will despatch some young men to waylay and rob him in going towards the post: indeed all the traders assured us it was more necessary to be vigilantly on our guard on the occasion of a visit to them than at any other time. carlton house (which our observations place in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation degrees minutes seconds east) is pleasantly situated about a quarter of a mile from the river's side on the flat ground under the shelter of the high banks that bound the plains. the land is fertile and produces with little trouble ample returns of wheat, barley, oats, and potatoes. the ground is prepared for the reception of these vegetables about the middle of april and when dr. richardson visited this place on may th the blade of wheat looked strong and healthy. there were only five acres in cultivation at the period of my visit. the prospect from the fort must be pretty in summer owing to the luxuriant verdure of this fertile soil; but in the uniform and cheerless garb of winter it has little to gratify the eye. beyond the steep bank behind the house commences the vast plain whose boundaries are but imperfectly known; it extends along the south branch of the saskatchewan and towards the sources of the missouri and asseenaboine rivers, being scarcely interrupted through the whole of this great space by hills or even rising grounds. the excellent pasturage furnishes food in abundance to a variety of grazing animals of which the buffalo, red-deer, and a species of antelope are the most important. their presence naturally attracts great hordes of wolves which are of two kinds, the large, and the small. many bears prowl about the banks of this river in summer; of these the grizzly bear is the most ferocious and is held in dread both by indians and europeans. the traveller in crossing these plains not only suffers from the want of food and water but is also exposed to hazard from his horse stumbling in the numerous badger-holes. in many large districts the only fuel is the dried dung of the buffalo; and when a thirsty traveller reaches a spring he has not unfrequently the mortification to find the water salt. carlton house and la montee are provision-posts, only an inconsiderable quantity of furs being obtained at either of them. the provisions are procured in the winter season from the indians in the form of dried meat and fat and, when converted by mixture into pemmican, furnish the principal support of the voyagers in their passages to and from the depots in summer. a considerable quantity of it is also kept for winter use at most of the fur-posts as the least bulky article that can be taken on a winter journey. the mode of making pemmican is very simple, the meat is dried by the indians in the sun or over a fire, and pounded by beating it with stones when spread on a skin. in this state it is brought to the forts where the admixture of hair is partially sifted out and a third part of melted fat incorporated with it, partly by turning the two over with a wooden shovel, partly by kneading them together with the hands. the pemmican is then firmly pressed into leathern bags, each capable of containing eighty-five pounds and, being placed in an airy place to cool, is fit for use. it keeps in this state if not allowed to get wet very well for one year and with great care it may be preserved good for two. between three and four hundred bags were made here by each of the companies this year. there were eight men besides mr. prudens and his clerk belonging to carlton house. at la montee there were seventy canadians and half-breeds and sixty women and children who consumed upwards of seven hundred pounds of buffalo meat daily, the allowance per diem for each man being eight pounds: a portion not so extravagant as may at first appear when allowance is made for bone and the entire want of farinaceous food or vegetables. there are other provision posts, fort augustus and edmonton farther up the river, from whence some furs are also procured. the stone indians have threatened to cut off the supplies in going up to these establishments to prevent their enemies from obtaining ammunition and other european articles; but as these menaces have been frequently made without being put in execution the traders now hear them without any great alarm though they take every precaution to prevent being surprised. mr. back and i were present when an old cree communicated to mr. prudens that the indians spoke of killing all the white people in that vicinity this year which information he received with perfect composure and was amused as well as ourselves with the man's judicious remark which immediately followed, "a pretty state we shall then be in without the goods you bring us." goitres. the following remarks on a well-known disease are extracted from dr. richardson's journal: bronchocele or goitre is a common disorder at edmonton. i examined several of the individuals afflicted with it and endeavoured to obtain every information on the subject from the most authentic sources. the following facts may be depended upon. the disorder attacks those only who drink the water of the river. it is indeed in its worst state confined almost entirely to the half-breed women and children who reside constantly at the fort and make use of river water drawn in the winter through a hole cut in the ice. the men, being often from home on journeys through the plain, when their drink is melted snow, are less affected; and if any of them exhibit during the winter some incipient symptoms of the complaint the annual summer voyage to the sea-coast generally effects a cure. the natives who confine themselves to snow-water in the winter and drink of the small rivulets which flow through the plains in the summer are exempt from the attacks of this disease. these facts are curious inasmuch as they militate against the generally received opinion that the disease is caused by drinking snow-water; an opinion which seems to have originated from bronchocele being endemial to subalpine districts. the saskatchewan at edmonton is clear in the winter and also in the summer except during the may and july floods. this distance from the rocky mountains (which i suppose to be of primitive formation) is upwards of one hundred and thirty miles. the neighbouring plains are alluvial, the soil is calcareous and contains numerous travelled fragments of limestone. at a considerable distance below edmonton the river, continuing its course through the plains, becomes turbid and acquires a white colour. in this state it is drunk by the inmates of carlton house where the disease is known only by name. it is said that the inhabitants of rocky mountain house, sixty miles nearer the source of the river are more severely affected than those at edmonton. the same disease occurs near the sources of the elk and peace rivers; but in those parts of the country which are distant from the rocky mountain chain it is unknown although melted snow forms the only drink of the natives for nine months of the year. a residence of a single year at edmonton is sufficient to render a family bronchocelous. many of the goitres acquire great size. burnt sponge has been tried and found to remove the disease but an exposure to the same cause immediately reproduces it. a great proportion of the children of women who have goitres are born idiots with large heads and the other distinguishing marks of cretins. i could not learn whether it was necessary that both parents should have goitres to produce cretin children: indeed the want of chastity in the half-breed women would be a bar to the deduction of any inference on this head. ... departure from carlton house. february . having recovered from the swellings and pains which our late march from cumberland had occasioned we prepared for the commencement of our journey to isle a la crosse, and requisitions were made on both the establishments for the means of conveyance and the necessary supply of provisions for the party which were readily furnished. on the th the carioles and sledges were loaded and sent off after breakfast; but mr. back and i remained till the afternoon as mr. prudens had offered that his horses should convey us to the encampment. at three p.m. we parted from our kind host and, in passing through the gate, were honoured with a salute of musketry. after riding six miles we joined the men at their encampment which was made under the shelter of a few poplars. the dogs had been so much fatigued in wading through the very deep snow with their heavy burdens, having to drag upwards of ninety pounds' weight each, that they could get no farther. soon after our arrival the snow began to fall heavily and it continued through the greater part of the night. our next day's march was therefore particularly tedious, the snow being deep and the route lying across an unvarying level, destitute of wood except one small cluster of willows. in the afternoon we reached the end of the plain and came to an elevation on which poplars, willows, and some pines grew, where we encamped, having travelled ten miles. we crossed three small lakes, two of fresh water and one of salt, near the latter of which we encamped and were in consequence obliged to use for our tea water made from snow which has always a disagreeable taste. we had scarcely ascended the hill on the following morning when a large herd of red-deer was perceived grazing at a little distance; and though we were amply supplied with provision our canadian companions could not resist the temptation of endeavouring to add to our stock. a half-breed hunter was therefore sent after them. he succeeded in wounding one but not so as to prevent its running off with the herd in a direction wide of our course. a couple of rabbits and a brace of wood partridges were shot in the afternoon. there was an agreeable variety of hill and dale in the scenery we passed through today, and sufficient wood for ornament but not enough to crowd the picture. the valleys were intersected by several small lakes and pools whose snowy covering was happily contrasted with the dark green of the pine-trees which surrounded them. after ascending a moderately high hill by a winding path through a close wood we opened suddenly upon lake iroquois and had a full view of its picturesque shores. we crossed it and encamped. though the sky was cloudless yet the weather was warm. we had the gratification of finding a beaten track soon after we started on the morning of the th and were thus enabled to walk briskly. we crossed at least twenty hills and found a small lake or pool at the foot of each. the destructive ravages of fire were visible during the greater part of the day. the only wood we saw for miles together consisted of pine-trees stripped of their branches and bark by this element: in other parts poplars alone were growing which we have remarked invariably to succeed the pine after a conflagration. we walked twenty miles today but the direct distance was only sixteen. the remains of an indian hut were found in a deep glen and close to it was placed a pile of wood which our companions supposed to cover a deposit of provision. our canadian voyagers, induced by their insatiable desire of procuring food, proceeded to remove the upper pieces and examine its contents when, to their surprise, they found the body of a female, clothed in leather, which appeared to have been recently placed there. her former garments, the materials for making a fire, a fishing-line, a hatchet, and a bark dish were laid beside the corpse. the wood was carefully replaced. a small owl, perched on a tree near to the spot, called forth many singular remarks from our companions as to its being a good or bad omen. we walked the whole of the th over flat meadow-land which is much resorted to by the buffalo at all seasons. some herds of them were seen which our hunters were too unskilful to approach. in the afternoon we reached the stinking lake which is nearly of an oval form. its shores are very low and swampy to which circumstances and not to the bad quality of the waters it owes its indian name. our observations place its western part in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation degrees minutes seconds east. after a march of fifteen miles and a half we encamped among a few pines at the only spot where we saw sufficient wood for making our fire during the day. the next morning about an hour after we had commenced our march we came upon a beaten track and perceived recent marks of snowshoes. in a short time an iroquois joined us, who was residing with a party of cree indians, to secure the meat and furs they should collect for the north-west company. he accompanied us as far as the stage on which his meat was placed and then gave us a very pressing invitation to halt for the day and partake of his fare which, as the hour was too early, we declined, much to the annoyance of our canadian companions who had been cherishing the prospect of indulging their amazing appetites at this well-furnished store ever since the man had been with us. he gave them however a small supply previous to our parting. the route now crossed some ranges of hills on which fir, birch and poplar grew so thickly that we had much difficulty in getting the sledges through the narrow pathway between them. in the evening we descended from the elevated ground, crossed three swampy meadows, and encamped at their northern extremity within a cluster of large pine-trees, the branches of which were elegantly decorated with abundance of a greenish yellow lichen. our march was ten miles. the weather was very mild, almost too warm for the exercise we were taking. we had a strong gale from the north-west during the night which subsided as the morning opened. one of the sledges had been so much broken the day before in the woods that we had to divide its cargo among the others. we started after this had been arranged and, finding almost immediately a firm track, soon arrived at some indian lodges to which it led. the inhabitants were crees belonging to the posts on the saskatchewan from whence they had come to hunt beaver. we made but a short stay and proceeded through a swamp to pelican lake. our view to the right was bounded by a range of lofty hills which extended for several miles in a north and south direction which, it may be remarked, was that of all the hilly land we had passed since quitting the plain. pelican lake is of an irregular form, about six miles from east to west and eight from north to south; it decreases to the breadth of a mile towards the northern extremity and is there terminated by a creek. we went up this creek for a short distance and then struck into the woods and encamped among a cluster of the firs which the canadians term cypres (pinus banksiana) having come fourteen miles and a half. february . shortly after commencing the journey today we met an indian and his family who had come from the houses at green lake; they informed us the track was well beaten the whole way. we therefore put forth our utmost speed in the hope of reaching them by night but were disappointed, and had to halt at dark about twelve miles from them in a fisherman's hut which was unoccupied. frequent showers of snow fell during the day and the atmosphere was thick and gloomy. we started at an early hour the following morning and reached the hudson's bay company's post to breakfast, and were received very kindly by mr. macfarlane, the gentleman in charge. the other establishment, situated on the opposite side of the river, was under the direction of mr. dugald cameron, one of the partners of the north-west company on whom mr. back and i called soon after our arrival and were honoured with a salute of musketry. these establishments are small but said to be well situated for procuring furs; as the numerous creeks in their vicinity are much resorted to by the beaver, otter and musquash. the residents usually obtain a superabundant supply of provision. this season however they barely had sufficient for their own support, owing to the epidemic which has incapacitated the indians for hunting. the green lake lies nearly north and south, is eighteen miles in length and does not exceed one mile and a half of breadth in any part. the water is deep and it is in consequence one of the last lakes in the country that is frozen. excellent tittameg and trout are caught in it from march to december but after that time most of the fish remove to some larger lake. we remained two days awaiting the return of some men who had been sent to the indian lodges for meat and who were to go on with us. mr. back and i did not need this rest, having completely surmounted the pain occasioned by the snowshoes. we dined twice with mr. cameron and received from him many useful suggestions respecting our future operations. this gentleman, having informed us that provisions would probably be very scarce next spring in the athabasca department in consequence of the sickness of the indians during the hunting season, undertook at my request to cause a supply of pemmican to be conveyed from the saskatchewan to isle a la crosse for our use during the winter, and i wrote to apprise dr. richardson and mr. hood that they would find it at the latter post when they passed, and also to desire them to bring as much as the canoes would stow from cumberland. the atmosphere was clear and cold during our stay; observations were obtained at the hudson's bay fort, latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation degrees minutes seconds east. february . having been equipped with carioles, sledges and provisions from the two posts, we this day recommenced our journey and were much amused by the novelty of the salute given at our departure, the guns being principally fired by the women in the absence of the men. our course was directed to the end of the lake and for a short distance along a small river; we then crossed the woods to the beaver river which we found to be narrow and very serpentine, having moderately high banks. we encamped about one mile and a half farther up among poplars. the next day we proceeded along the river; it was winding and about two hundred yards broad. we passed the mouths of two rivers whose waters it receives; the latter one we were informed is a channel by which the indians go to the lesser slave lake. the banks of the river became higher as we advanced and were adorned with pines, poplars and willows. though the weather was very cold we travelled more comfortably than at any preceding time since our departure from cumberland as we had light carioles which enabled us to ride nearly the whole day warmly covered up with a buffalo robe. we were joined by mr. mcleod of the north-west company who had kindly brought some things from green lake which our sledges could not carry. pursuing our route along the river we reached at an early hour the upper extremity of the grand rapid where the ice was so rough that the carioles and sledges had to be conveyed across a point of land. soon after noon we left the river, inclining north-east, and directed our course north-west until we reached long lake and encamped at its northern extremity, having come twenty-three miles. this lake is about fourteen miles long and from three-quarters to one mile and a half broad, its shores and islands low but well wooded. there were frequent snow-showers during the day. isle a la crosse. february . the night was very stormy but the wind became more moderate in the morning. we passed today through several nameless lakes and swamps before we came to train lake which received its name from being the place where the traders procured the birch to make their sledges or traineaux; but this wood has been all used and there only remain pines and a few poplars. we met some sledges laden with fish, kindly sent to meet us by mr. clark of the hudson's bay company on hearing of our approach. towards the evening the weather became much more unpleasant and we were exposed to a piercingly cold wind and much snowdrift in traversing the isle a la crosse lake; we were therefore highly pleased at reaching the hudson's bay house by six p.m. we were received in the most friendly manner by mr. clark and honoured by volleys of musketry. similar marks of attention were shown to us on the following day by mr. bethune, the partner in charge of the north-west company's fort. i found here the letters which i had addressed from cumberland in november last to the partners of the north-west company in the athabasca, which circumstance convinced me of the necessity of our present journey. these establishments are situated on the southern side of the lake and close to each other. they are forts of considerable importance being placed at a point of communication with the english river, the athabasca and columbia districts. the country around them is low and intersected with water, and was formerly much frequented by beavers and otters which however have been so much hunted by the indians that their number is greatly decreased. the indians frequenting these forts are the crees and some chipewyans; they scarcely ever come except in the spring and autumn, in the former season to bring their winter's collection of furs and in the latter to get the stores they require. three chipewyan lads came in during our stay to report what furs the band to which they belonged had collected and to desire they might be sent for, the indians having declined bringing either furs or meat themselves since the opposition between the companies commenced. mr. back drew a portrait of one of the boys. isle a la crosse lake receives its name from an island situated near the forts on which the indians formerly assembled annually to amuse themselves at the game of the cross. it is justly celebrated for abundance of the finest tittameg, which weigh from five to fifteen pounds. the residents live principally upon this most delicious fish which fortunately can be eaten a long time without disrelish. it is plentifully caught with nets throughout the year except for two or three months. march . we witnessed the aurora borealis very brilliant for the second time since our departure from cumberland. a winter encampment is not a favourable situation for viewing this phenomenon as the trees in general hide the sky. arrangements had been made for recommencing our journey today but the wind was stormy and the snow had drifted too much for travelling with comfort; we therefore stayed and dined with mr. bethune who promised to render every assistance in getting pemmican conveyed to us from the saskatchewan to be in readiness for our canoes when they might arrive in the spring; mr. clark also engaged to procure six bags for us and to furnish our canoes with any other supplies which might be wanted and could be spared from his post, and to contribute his aid in forwarding the pemmican to the athabasca if our canoes could not carry it all. i feel greatly indebted to this gentleman for much valuable information respecting the country and the indians residing to the north of slave lake and for furnishing me with a list of stores he supposed we should require. he had resided some years on mackenzie's river and had been once so far towards its mouth as to meet the esquimaux in great numbers. but they assumed such a hostile attitude that he deemed it unadvisable to attempt opening any communication with them and retreated as speedily as he could. the observations we obtained here showed that the chronometers had varied their rates a little in consequence of the jolting of the carioles, but their errors and rates were ascertained previous to our departure. we observed the position of this fort to be latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, by lunars reduced back from fort chipewyan, variation degrees minutes seconds west, dip degrees minutes seconds. march . we recommenced our journey this morning, having been supplied with the means of conveyance by both the companies in equal proportions. mr. clark accompanied us with the intention of going as far as the boundary of his district. this gentleman was an experienced winter traveller and we derived much benefit from his suggestions; he caused the men to arrange the encampment with more attention to comfort and shelter than our former companions had done. after marching eighteen miles we put up on gravel point in the deep river. at nine the next morning we came to the commencement of clear lake. we crossed its southern extremes and then went over a point of land to buffalo lake and encamped after travelling twenty-six miles. after supper we were entertained till midnight with paddling songs by our canadians who required very little stimulus beyond their natural vivacity to afford us this diversion. the next morning we arrived at the establishments which are situated on the western side of the lake near a small stream called the beaver river. they were small log buildings hastily erected last october for the convenience of the indians who hunt in the vicinity. mr. macmurray, a partner in the north-west company, having sent to isle a la crosse an invitation to mr. back and i, our carioles were driven to his post and we experienced the kindest reception. these posts are frequented by only a few indians, crees, and chipewyans. the country round is not sufficiently stocked with animals to afford support to many families and the traders subsist almost entirely on fish caught in the autumn prior to the lake being frozen but, the water being shallow, they remove to a deeper part as soon as the lake is covered with ice. the aurora borealis was brilliantly displayed on both the nights we remained here, but particularly on the th when its appearances were most diversified and the motion extremely rapid. its coruscations occasionally concealed from sight stars of the first magnitude in passing over them, at other times these were faintly discerned through them; once i perceived a stream of light to illumine the under surface of some clouds as it passed along. there was no perceptible noise. mr. macmurray gave a dance to his voyagers and the women; this is a treat which they expect on the arrival of any stranger at the post. we were presented by this gentleman with the valuable skin of a black fox which he had entrapped some days before our arrival; it was forwarded to england with other specimens. our observations place the north-west company's house in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation degrees minutes seconds east. the shores of buffalo lake are of moderate height and well wooded but immediately beyond the bank the country is very swampy and intersected with water in every direction. at some distance from the western side there is a conspicuous hill which we hailed with much pleasure as being the first interruption to the tediously uniform scene we had for some time passed through. on the th we recommenced our journey after breakfast and travelled quickly as we had the advantage of a well-beaten track. at the end of eighteen miles we entered upon the river loche which has a serpentine course and is confined between alluvial banks that support stunted willows and a few pines; we encamped about three miles farther on and in the course of the next day's march perceived several holes on the ice and many unsafe places for the sledges. our companions said the ice of this river is always in the same insecure state, even during the most severe winter, which they attributed to warm springs. quitting the river we crossed a portage and came upon the methye lake and soon afterwards arrived at the trading posts on its western side. these were perfect huts which had been hastily built after the commencement of the last winter. we here saw two hunters who were chipewyan half-breeds and made many inquiries of them respecting the countries we expected to visit, but we found them quite ignorant of every part beyond the athabasca lake. they spoke of mr. hearne and of his companion matonnabee, but did not add to our stock of information respecting that journey. it had happened before their birth but they remembered the expedition of sir alexander mackenzie towards the sea. this is a picturesque lake about ten miles long and six broad and receives its name from a species of fish caught in it but not much esteemed; the residents never eat any part but the liver except through necessity, the dogs dislike even that. the tittameg and trout are also caught in the fall of the year. the position of the houses by our observations is latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation degrees minutes seconds east. on the th we renewed our journey and parted from mr. clark to whom we were much obliged for his hospitality and kindness. we soon reached the methye portage and had a very pleasant ride across it in our carioles. the track was good and led through groups of pines, so happily placed that it would not have required a great stretch of imagination to fancy ourselves in a well-arranged park. we had now to cross a small lake and then gradually ascended hills beyond it until we arrived at the summit of a lofty chain of mountains commanding the most picturesque and romantic prospect we had yet seen in this country. two ranges of high hills run parallel to each other for several miles until the faint blue haze hides their particular characters, when they slightly change their course and are lost to the view. the space between them is occupied by nearly a level plain through which a river pursues a meandering course and receives supplies from the creeks and rills issuing from the mountains on each side. the prospect was delightful even amid the snow and though marked with all the cheerless characters of winter; how much more charming must it be when the trees are in leaf and the ground is arrayed in summer verdure! some faint idea of the difference was conveyed to my mind by witnessing the effect of the departing rays of a brilliant sun. the distant prospect however is surpassed in grandeur by the wild scenery which appeared immediately below our feet. there the eye penetrates into vast ravines two or three hundred feet in depth that are clothed with trees and lie on either side of the narrow pathway descending to the river over eight successive ridges of hills. at one spot termed the cockscomb the traveller stands insulated as it were on a small slip where a false step might precipitate him into the glen. from this place mr. back took an interesting and accurate sketch to allow time for which we encamped early, having come twenty-one miles. the methye portage is about twelve miles in extent and over this space the canoes and all their cargoes are carried, both in going to and from the athabasca department. it is part of the range of mountains which separates the waters flowing south from those flowing north. according to sir alexander mackenzie "this range of hills continues in a south-west direction until its local height is lost between the saskatchewan and elk rivers, close on the banks of the former in latitude degrees minutes north, longitude degrees minutes west, when it appears to take its course due north." observations taken in the spring by mr. hood place the north side of the portage in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation degrees minutes seconds east, dip degrees minutes seconds. at daylight on the th we began to descend the range of hills leading towards the river, and no small care was required to prevent the sledges from being broken in going down these almost perpendicular heights, or being precipitated into the glens on each side. as a precautionary measure the dogs were taken off and the sledges guided by the men, notwithstanding which they descended with amazing rapidity and the men were thrown into the most ridiculous attitudes in endeavouring to stop them. when we had arrived at the bottom i could not but feel astonished at the laborious task which the voyagers have twice in the year to encounter at this place in conveying their stores backwards and forwards. we went across the clear water river which runs at the bases of these hills, and followed an indian track along its northern bank, by which we avoided the white mud and good portages. we afterwards followed the river as far as the pine portage, when we passed through a very romantic defile of rocks which presented the appearance of gothic ruins, and their rude characters were happily contrasted with the softness of the snow and the darker foliage of the pines which crowned their summits. we next crossed the cascade portage which is the last on the way to the athabasca lake, and soon afterwards came to some indian tents containing five families belonging to the chipewyan tribe. we smoked the calumet in the chief's tent, whose name was the thumb, and distributed some tobacco and a weak mixture of spirits and water among the men. they received this civility with much less grace than the crees, and seemed to consider it a matter of course. there was an utter neglect of cleanliness and a total want of comfort in their tents; and the poor creatures were miserably clothed. mr. frazer, who accompanied us from the methye lake, accounted for their being in this forlorn condition by explaining that this band of indians had recently destroyed everything they possessed as a token of their great grief for the loss of their relatives in the prevailing sickness. it appears that no article is spared by these unhappy men when a near relative dies; their clothes and tents are cut to pieces, their guns broken, and every other weapon rendered useless if some person do not remove these articles from their sight, which is seldom done. mr. back sketched one of the children which delighted the father very much, who charged the boy to be very good since his picture had been drawn by a great chief. we learned that they prize pictures very highly and esteem any they can get, however badly executed, as efficient charms. they were unable to give us any information respecting the country beyond the athabasca lake which is the boundary of their peregrinations to the northward. having been apprised of our coming they had prepared an encampment for us; but we had witnessed too many proofs of their importunity to expect that we could pass the night near them in any comfort whilst either spirits, tobacco or sugar remained in our possession; and therefore preferred to go about two miles farther along the river and to encamp among a cluster of fine pine-trees after a journey of sixteen miles. on the morning of the th, in proceeding along the river, we perceived a strong smell of sulphur, and on the north shore found a quantity of it scattered, which seemed to have been deposited by some spring in the neighbourhood: it appeared very pure and good. we continued our course the whole day along the river, which is about four hundred yards wide, has some islands, and is confined between low land extending from the bases of the mountains on each side. we put up at the end of thirteen miles and were then joined by a chipewyan who came, as we supposed, to serve as our guide to pierre au calumet but, as none of the party could communicate with our new friend otherwise than by signs, we waited patiently until the morning to see what he intended to do. the wind blew a gale during the night and the snow fell heavily. the next day our guide led us to the pembina river which comes from the southward where we found traces of indians who appeared to have quitted this station the day before; we had therefore the benefit of a good track which our dogs much required as they were greatly fatigued, having dragged their loads through very deep snow for the last two days. a moose-deer crossed the river just before the party: this animal is plentiful in the vicinity. we encamped in a pleasant well-sheltered place, having travelled fourteen miles. a short distance on the following morning brought us to some indian lodges which belonged to an old chipewyan chief named the sun and his family consisting of five hunters, their wives and children. they were delighted to see us and, when the object of our expedition had been explained to them, expressed themselves much interested in our progress; but they could not give a particle of information respecting the countries beyond the athabasca lake. we smoked with them and gave each person a glass of mixed spirits and some tobacco. a canadian servant of the north-west company who was residing with them informed us that this family had lost numerous relatives, and that the destruction of property which had been made after their deaths was the only cause for the pitiable condition in which we saw them as the whole family were industrious hunters and therefore were usually better provided with clothes and other useful articles than most of the indians. we purchased from them a pair of snowshoes in exchange for some ammunition. the chipewyans are celebrated for making them good and easy to walk in; we saw some here upwards of six feet long and three broad. with these unwieldy clogs an active hunter, in the spring when there is a crust on the surface of the snow, will run down a moose or red-deer. we made very slow progress after leaving this party on account of the deep snow, but continued along the river until we reached its junction with the athabasca or elk river. we obtained observations on an island a little below the forks which gave longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation degrees minutes seconds east. very little wood was seen during this day's march. the western shore near the forks is destitute of trees; it is composed of lofty perpendicular cliffs which were now covered with snow. the eastern shore supports a few pines. march . soon after our departure from the encampment we met two men from the establishment at pierre au calumet, who gave us correct information of its situation and distance. having the benefit of their track we marched at a tolerably quick pace and made twenty-two miles in the course of the day though the weather was very disagreeable for travelling, being stormy with constant snow. we kept along the river the whole time: its breadth is about two miles. the islands appear better furnished with wood than its banks, the summits of which are almost bare. soon after we had encamped our indian guide rejoined us; he had remained behind the day before without consulting us to accompany a friend on a hunting excursion. on his return he made no endeavour to explain the reason of his absence but sat down coolly and began to prepare his supper. this behaviour made us sensible that little dependence is to be placed on the continuance of an indian guide when his inclination leads him away. early the next morning we sent forward the indian and a canadian to apprise the gentleman in charge of pierre au calumet of our approach; and after breakfast the rest of the party proceeded along the river for that station which we reached in the afternoon. the senior partner of the north-west company in the athabasca department, mr. john stuart, was in charge of the post. though he was quite ignorant until this morning of our being in the country we found him prepared to receive us with great kindness and ready to afford every information and assistance agreeably to the desire conveyed in mr. simon mcgillivray's circular letter. this gentleman had twice traversed this continent and reached the pacific by the columbia river; he was therefore fully conversant with the different modes of travelling and with the obstacles that may be expected in passing through unfrequented countries. his suggestions and advice were consequently very valuable to us but, not having been to the northward of the great slave lake, he had no knowledge of that line of country except what he had gained from the reports of indians. he was of opinion however that positive information on which our course of proceedings might safely be determined could be procured from the indians that frequent the north side of the lake when they came to the forts in the spring. he recommended my writing to the partner in charge of that department, requesting him to collect all the intelligence he could and to provide guides and hunters from the tribe best acquainted with the country through which we proposed to travel. to our great regret mr. stuart expressed much doubt as to our prevailing upon any experienced canadian voyagers to accompany us to the sea in consequence of their dread of the esquimaux who, he informed us, had already destroyed the crew of one canoe which had been sent under mr. livingstone to open a trading communication with those who reside near the mouth of the mackenzie river; and he also mentioned that the same tribe had driven away the canoes under mr. clark's direction, going to them on a similar object, to which circumstance i have alluded in my remarks at isle a la crosse. this was unpleasant information but we were comforted by mr. stuart's assurance that himself and his partners would use every endeavour to remove their fears as well as to promote our views in every other way; and he undertook as a necessary part of our equipment in the spring to prepare the bark and other materials for constructing two canoes at this post. mr. stuart informed us that the residents at fort chipewyan, from the recent sickness of their indian hunters, had been reduced to subsist entirely on the produce of their fishing-nets, which did not yield more than a bare sufficiency for their support; and he kindly proposed to us to remain with him until the spring but, as we were most desirous to gain all the information we could as early as possible and mr. stuart assured us that the addition of three persons would not be materially felt in their large family at chipewyan, we determined on proceeding thither and fixed on the nd for our departure. pierre au calumet receives its name from the place where the stone is procured, of which many of the pipes used by the canadians and indians are made. it is a clayey limestone, impregnated with various shells. the house, which is built on the summit of a steep bank rising almost perpendicular to the height of one hundred and eighty feet, commands an extensive prospect along this fine river and over the plains which stretch out several miles at the back of it, bounded by hills of considerable height and apparently better furnished with wood than the neighbourhood of the fort where the trees grow very scantily. there had been an establishment belonging to the hudson's bay company on the opposite bank of the river but it was abandoned in december last, the residents not being able to procure provision from their hunters having been disabled by the epidemic sickness which has carried off one-third of the indians in these parts. they belong to the northern crees, a name given them from their residing in the athabasca department. there are now but few families of these men who formerly by their numbers and predatory habits spread terror among the natives of this part of the country. there are springs of bituminous matter on several of the islands near these houses; and the stones on the riverbank are much impregnated with this useful substance. there is also another place remarkable for the production of a sulphureous salt which is deposited on the surface of a round-backed hill about half a mile from the beach and on the marshy ground underneath it. we visited these places at a subsequent period of the journey and descriptions of them will appear in dr. richardson's mineralogical notices. the latitude of the north-west company's house is degrees minutes seconds north, but this was the only observation we could obtain, the atmosphere being cloudy. mr. stuart had an excellent thermometer which indicated the lowest state of temperature to be degrees below zero. he told me degrees was the lowest temperature he had ever witnessed at the athabasca or great slave lake after many years' residence. on the st it rose above zero and at noon attained the height of degrees; the atmosphere was sultry, snow fell constantly, and there was quite an appearance of a change in the season. on the nd we parted from our hospitable friend and recommenced our journey, but under the expectation of seeing him again in may, at which time the partners of the company usually assemble at fort chipewyan where we hoped the necessary arrangements for our future proceedings would be completed. we encamped at sunset at the end of fourteen miles, having walked the whole way along the river which preserves nearly a true north course and is from four hundred to six hundred yards broad. the banks are high and well clothed with the liard, spruce, fir, alder, birch-tree and willows. having come nineteen miles and a half on the rd we encamped among pines of a great height and girth. showers of snow fell until noon on the following day but we continued our journey along the river whose banks and islands became gradually lower as we advanced and less abundantly supplied with wood except willows. we passed an old canadian who was resting his wearied dogs during the heat of the sun. he was carrying meat from some indian lodges to fort chipewyan, having a burden exceeding two hundred and fifty pounds on his sledge which was dragged by two miserable dogs. he came up to our encampment after dark. we were much amused by the altercation that took place between him and our canadian companions as to the qualifications of their respective dogs. this however is such a general topic of conversation among the voyagers in the encampment that we should not probably have remarked it had not the old man frequently offered to bet the whole of his wages that his two dogs, poor and lean as they were, would drag their load to the athabasca lake in less time than any three of theirs. having expressed our surprise at his apparent temerity he coolly said the men from the lower countries did not understand the management of their dogs and that he depended on his superior skill in driving, and we soon gathered from his remarks that the voyagers of the athabasca department consider themselves very superior to any other. the only reasons which he could assign were that they had borne their burdens across the terrible methye portage and that they were accustomed to live harder and more precariously. march . having now the guidance of the old canadian we sent forward the indian and one of our men with letters to the gentleman at the athabasca lake. the rest of the party set off afterwards and kept along the river until ten when we branched off by portages into the embarras river, the usual channel of communication in canoes with the lake. it is a narrow and serpentine stream confined between alluvial banks which support pines, poplars and willows. we had not advanced far before we overtook the two men despatched by us this morning. the stormy weather had compelled them to encamp as there was too much drifting of the snow for any attempt to cross the lake. we were obliged, though most reluctantly, to follow their example but comforted ourselves with the reflection that this was the first time we had been stopped by the weather during our long journey which was so near at an end. the gale afterwards increased, the squalls at night became very violent, disburdened the trees of the snow and gave us the benefit of a continual fall of patches from them, in addition to the constant shower. we therefore quickly finished our suppers and retired under the shelter of our blankets. arrival at fort chipewyan. march . the boisterous weather continued through the night and it was not before six this morning that the wind became apparently moderate and the snow ceased. two of the canadians were immediately sent off with letters to the gentlemen at fort chipewyan. after breakfast we also started but our indian friend, having a great indisposition to move in such weather, remained by the fire. we soon quitted the river and, after crossing a portage, a small lake and a point of land, came to the borders of the mammawee lake. we then found our error as to the strength of the wind, and that the gale still blew violently and there was so much drifting of the snow as to cover the distant objects by which our course could be directed. we fortunately got a glimpse through this cloud of a cluster of islands in the direction of the houses, and decided on walking towards them; but in doing this we suffered very much from the cold and were obliged to halt under the shelter of them and await the arrival of our indian guide. he conducted us between these islands, over a small lake, and by a swampy river into the athabasca lake, from whence the establishments were visible. at four p.m. we had the pleasure of arriving at fort chipewyan and of being received by messrs. keith and black, the partners of the north-west company in charge, in the most kind and hospitable manner. thus terminated a winter's journey of eight hundred and fifty-seven miles, in the progress of which there was a great intermixture of agreeable and disagreeable circumstances. could the amount of each be balanced i suspect the latter would much preponderate; and amongst these the initiation into walking in snowshoes must be considered as prominent. the suffering it occasions can be but faintly imagined by a person who thinks upon the inconvenience of marching with a weight of between two and three pounds constantly attached to galled feet and swelled ankles. perseverance and practice only will enable the novice to surmount this pain. the next evil is the being constantly exposed to witness the wanton and unnecessary cruelty of the men to their dogs, especially those of the canadians who beat them unmercifully and habitually vent on them the most dreadful and disgusting imprecations. there are other inconveniences which, though keenly felt during the day's journey, are speedily forgotten when stretched out in the encampment before a large fire, you enjoy the social mirth of your companions who usually pass the evening in recounting their former feats in travelling. at this time the canadians are always cheerful and merry and the only bar to their comfort arises from the frequent interruption occasioned by the dogs who are constantly prowling about the circle and snatching at every kind of food that happens to be within their reach. these useful animals are a comfort to them afterwards by the warmth they impart when lying down by their side or feet as they usually do. but the greatest gratifications a traveller in these regions enjoys are derived from the hospitable welcome he receives at every trading post, however poor the means of the host may be; and from being disrobed even for a short time of the trappings of a voyager and experiencing the pleasures of cleanness. the following are the estimated distances in statute miles which mr. back and i had travelled since our departure from cumberland: from cumberland house to carlton house: . from carlton house to isle a la crosse: . from isle a la crosse to north side of the methye portage: . from the methye portage to fort chipewyan: . total: miles. chapter . transactions at fort chipewyan. arrival of dr. richardson and mr. hood. preparations for our journey to the northward. transactions at fort chipewyan. march , . on the day after our arrival at fort chipewyan we called upon mr. macdonald, the gentleman in charge of the hudson's bay establishment called fort wedderburne, and delivered to him governor williams' circular letter which desired that every assistance should be given to further our progress, and a statement of the requisitions which we should have to make on his post. our first object was to obtain some certain information respecting our future route and accordingly we received from one of the north-west company's interpreters, named beaulieu, a half-breed who had been brought up amongst the dog-ribbed and copper indians, some satisfactory information which we afterwards found tolerably correct respecting the mode of reaching the copper-mine river which he had descended a considerable way, as well as of the course of that river to its mouth. the copper indians however he said would be able to give us more accurate information as to the latter part of its course as they occasionally pursue it to the sea. he sketched on the floor a representation of the river and a line of coast according to his idea of it. just as he had finished an old chipewyan indian named black meat unexpectedly came in and instantly recognised the plan. he then took the charcoal from beaulieu and inserted a track along the sea-coast which he had followed in returning from a war excursion made by his tribe against the esquimaux. he detailed several particulars of the coast and the sea which he represented as studded with well-wooded islands and free from ice close to the shore in the month of july, but not to a great distance. he described two other rivers to the eastward of the copper-mine river which also fall into the northern ocean, the anatessy, which issues from the contwayto or rum lake, and the thloueeatessy or fish river, which rises near the eastern boundary of the great slave lake; but he represented both of them as being shallow and too much interrupted by barriers for being navigated in any other than small indian canoes. having received this satisfactory intelligence i wrote immediately to mr. smith of the north-west company and mr. mcvicar of the hudson's bay company, the gentlemen in charge of the posts at the great slave lake, to communicate the object of the expedition and our proposed route, and to solicit any information they possessed or could collect from the indians relative to the countries we had to pass through and the best manner of proceeding. as the copper indians frequent the establishment on the north side of the lake i particularly requested them to explain to that tribe the object of our visit and to endeavour to procure from them some guides and hunters to accompany our party. two canadians were sent by mr. keith with these letters. the month of april commenced with fine and clear but extremely cold weather; unfortunately we were still without a thermometer and could not ascertain the degrees of temperature. the coruscations of the aurora borealis were very brilliant almost every evening of the first week and were generally of the most variable kind. on the rd they were particularly changeable. the first appearance exhibited three illuminated beams issuing from the horizon in the north, east, and west points, and directed towards the zenith; in a few seconds these disappeared and a complete circle was displayed, bounding the horizon at an elevation of fifteen degrees. there was a quick lateral motion in the attenuated beams of which this zone was composed. its colour was a pale yellow with an occasional tinge of red. on the th of april the indians saw some geese in the vicinity of this lake but none of the migratory birds appeared near the houses before the th when some swans flew over. these are generally the first that arrive; the weather had been very stormy for the four preceding days and this in all probability kept the birds from venturing farther north than where the indians had first seen them. in the middle of the month the snow began to waste daily and by degrees it disappeared from the hills and the surface of the lake. on the th and th the aurora borealis appeared very brilliant in patches of light bearing north-west. an old cree indian having found a beaver-lodge near to the fort, mr. keith, back, and i accompanied him to see the method of breaking into it and their mode of taking those interesting animals. the lodge was constructed on the side of a rock in a small lake having the entrance into it beneath the ice. the frames were formed of layers of sticks, the interstices being filled with mud, and the outside was plastered with earth and stones which the frost had so completely consolidated that to break through required great labour with the aid of the ice chisel and the other iron instruments which the beaver hunters use. the chase however was unsuccessful as the beaver had previously vacated the lodge. on the st we observed the first geese that flew near the fort and some were brought to the house on the th but they were very lean. on the th flies were seen sporting in the sun and on the th the athabasca river, having broken up, overflowed the lake along its channel; but except where this water spread there was no appearance of decay in the ice. may. during the first part of this month the wind blew from the north-west and the sky was cloudy. it generally thawed during the day but froze at night. on the nd the aurora borealis faintly gleamed through very dense clouds. we had a long conversation with mr. dease of the north-west company who had recently arrived from his station at the bottom of the athabasca lake. this gentleman, having passed several winters on the mackenzie's river and at the posts to the northward of slave lake, possessed considerable information respecting the indians and those parts of the country to which our inquiries were directed, which he very promptly and kindly communicated. during our conversation an old chipewyan indian named the rabbit's head entered the room, to whom mr. dease referred for information on some point. we found from his answer that he was a stepson of the late chief matonnabee who had accompanied mr. hearne on his journey to the sea, and that he had himself been of the party but, being then a mere boy, he had forgotten many of the circumstances. he confirmed however the leading incidents related by hearne and was positive he reached the sea, though he admitted that none of the party had tasted the water. he represented himself to be the only survivor of that party. as he was esteemed a good indian i presented him with a medal which he received gratefully and concluded a long speech upon the occasion by assuring me he should preserve it carefully all his life. the old man afterwards became more communicative and unsolicited began to relate the tradition of his tribe respecting the discovery of the copper-mine, which we thought amusing: and as the subject is somewhat connected with our future researches i will insert the translation of it which was given at the time by mr. dease, though a slight mention of it has been made by hearne. the chipewyans suppose the esquimaux originally inhabited some land to the northward which is separated by the sea from this country; and that in the earliest ages of the world a party of these men came over and stole a woman from their tribe whom they carried to this distant country and kept in a state of slavery. she was very unhappy in her situation and effected her escape after many years residence among them. the forlorn creature wandered about for some days in a state of uncertainty what direction to take, when she chanced to fall upon a beaten path which she followed and was led to the sea. at the sight of the ocean her hope of being able to return to her native country vanished and she sat herself down in despair and wept. a wolf now advanced to caress her and, having licked the tears from her eyes, walked into the water, and she perceived with joy that it did not reach up to the body of the animal; emboldened by this appearance she instantly arose, provided two sticks to support herself, and determined on following the wolf. the first and second nights she proceeded on without finding any increase in the depth of the water and, when fatigued, rested herself on the sticks whose upper ends she fastened together for the purpose. she was alarmed on the third morning by arriving at a deeper part, but resolved on going forward at any risk rather than return; and her daring perseverance was crowned with success by her attaining her native shore on the fifth day. she fortunately came to a part where there was a beaten path which she knew to be the track made by the reindeer in their migrations. here she halted and prepared some sort of weapon for killing them; as soon as this was completed she had the gratification to behold several herds advancing along the road, and had the happiness of killing a sufficient number for her winter's subsistence, which she determined to pass at that place, and therefore formed a house for herself after the manner she had learned from the esquimaux. when spring came and she emerged from her subterraneous dwelling (for such the chipewyans suppose it to have been) she was astonished by observing a glittering appearance on a distant hill which she knew was not produced by the reflection of the sun and, being at a loss to assign any other cause for it, she resolved on going up to the shining object and then found the hill was entirely composed of copper. she broke off several pieces and, finding it yielded so readily to her beating, it occurred to her that this metal would be very serviceable to her countrymen if she should find them again. while she was meditating on what was to be done the thought struck her that it would be advisable to attach as many pieces of copper to her dress as she could and then proceed into the interior in search of some inhabitants who, she supposed, would give her a favourable reception on account of the treasure she had brought. it happened that she met her own relations and the young men, elated with the account she had given of the hill, made her instantly return with them, which she was enabled to do, having taken the precaution of putting up marks to indicate the path. the party reached the spot in safety but the story had a melancholy catastrophe. these youths, overcome by excess of joy, gave loose to their passions and offered the grossest insults to their benefactress. she powerfully resisted them for some time and, when her strength was failing, fled to the point of the mountain as the only place of security. the moment she had gained the summit the earth opened and ingulphed both herself and the mountain to the utter dismay of the men who were not more astonished at its sudden disappearance than sorrowful for this just punishment of their wickedness. ever since this event the copper has only been found in small detached pieces on the surface of the earth. ... on the th of may we were gratified by the appearance of spring though the ice remained firm on the lake. the anemone (pulsatilla, pasque flower) appeared this day in flower, the trees began to put forth their leaves, and the mosquitoes visited the warm rooms. on the th and th there were frequent showers of rain and much thunder and lightning. this moist weather caused the ice to waste so rapidly that by the th it had entirely disappeared from the lake. the gentlemen belonging to both the companies quickly arrived from the different posts in this department, bringing their winter's collection of furs which are forwarded from these establishments to the depots. i immediately waited on mr. colin robertson, the agent of the hudson's bay company, and communicated to him, as i had done before to the several partners of the north-west company, our plan and the requisitions we should have to make on each company, and i requested of all the gentlemen the favour of their advice and suggestions. as i perceived that the arrangement of their winter accounts and other business fully occupied them i forbore further pressing the subject of our concerns for some days until there was an appearance of despatching the first brigade of canoes. it then became necessary to urge their attention to them; but it was evident from the determined commercial opposition and the total want of intercourse between the two companies that we could not expect to receive any cordial advice or the assurance of the aid of both without devising some expedient to bring the parties together. i therefore caused a tent to be pitched at a distance from both establishments and solicited the gentlemen of both companies to meet mr. back and myself there for the purpose of affording us their combined assistance. with this request they immediately complied and on may th we were joined at the tent by mr. stuart and mr. grant of the north-west company and mr. colin robertson of the hudson's bay company, all of whom kindly gave very satisfactory answers to a series of questions which we had drawn up for the occasion and promised all the aid in their power. preparations for our journey to the northward. furnished with the information thus obtained we proceeded to make some arrangements respecting the obtaining of men and the stores we should require for their equipment as well as for presents to the indians; and on the following day a requisition was made on the companies for eight men each and whatever useful stores they could supply. we learned with regret that, in consequence of the recent lavish expenditure of their goods in support of the opposition, their supply to us would of necessity be very limited. the men too were backward in offering their services, especially those of the hudson's bay company who demanded a much higher rate of wages than i considered it proper to grant. june . mr. smith, a partner of the north-west company, arrived from the great slave lake bearing the welcome news that the principal chief of the copper indians had received the communication of our arrival with joy and given all the intelligence he possessed respecting the route to the sea-coast by the copper-mine river; and that he and a party of his men, at the instance of mr. wentzel, a clerk of the north-west company whom they wished might go along with them, had engaged to accompany the expedition as guides and hunters. they were to wait our arrival at fort providence on the north side of the slave lake. their information coincided with that given by beaulieu. they had no doubt of our being able to obtain the means of subsistence in travelling to the coast. this agreeable intelligence had a happy effect upon the canadian voyagers, many of their fears being removed: several of them seemed now disposed to volunteer; and indeed on the same evening two men from the north-west company offered themselves and were accepted. june . this day mr. back and i went over to fort wedderburne to see mr. robertson respecting his quota of men. we learned from him that, notwithstanding his endeavours to persuade them, his most experienced voyagers still declined engaging without very exorbitant wages. after some hesitation however six men engaged with us who were represented to be active and steady; and i also got mr. robertson's permission for st. germain, an interpreter belonging to this company, to accompany us from slave lake if he should choose. the bowmen and steersmen were to receive one thousand six hundred livres halifax per annum, and the middle men one thousand two hundred, exclusive of their necessary equipments; and they stipulated that their wages should be continued until their arrival in montreal or their rejoining the service of their present employers. i delivered to mr. robertson an official request that the stores we had left at york factory and the rock depot with some other supplies might be forwarded to slave lake by the first brigade of canoes which should come in. he also took charge of my letters addressed to the admiralty. five men were afterwards engaged from the north-west company for the same wages and under the same stipulations as the others, besides an interpreter for the copper indians; but this man required three thousand livres halifax currency which we were obliged to give him as his services were indispensable. the extreme scarcity of provision at the posts rendered it necessary to despatch all our men to the mammawee lake where they might procure their own subsistence by fishing. the women and children resident at the fort were also sent away for the same purpose; and no other families were permitted to remain at the houses after the departure of the canoes than those belonging to the men who were required to carry on the daily duty. the large party of officers and men which had assembled here from the different posts in the department was again quickly dispersed. the first brigade of canoes laden with furs was despatched to the depot on may th and the others followed in two or three days afterwards. mr. stuart, the senior partner of the north-west company, quitted us for the same destination on june th; mr. robertson for his depot on the next day; and on the th we parted with our friend mr. keith, to whose unremitting kindness we felt much indebted. i entrusted to his care a box containing some drawings by mr. back, the map of our route from cumberland house, and the skin of a black beaver (presented to the expedition by mr. smith) with my official letters addressed to the under-secretary of state. i wrote by each of these gentlemen to inform dr. richardson and mr. hood of the scarcity of stores at these posts and to request them to procure all they possibly could on their route. mr. smith was left in charge of this post during the summer; this gentleman soon evinced his desire to further our progress by directing a new canoe to be built for our use which was commenced immediately. june . this day an opportunity offered of sending letters to the great slave lake and i profited by it to request mr. wentzel would accompany the expedition agreeably to the desire of the copper indians, communicating to him that i had received permission for him to do so from the partners of the north-west company. should he be disposed to comply with my invitation i desired that he would go over to fort providence and remain near the indians whom he had engaged for our service. i feared lest they should become impatient at our unexpected delay and, with the usual fickleness of the indian character, remove from the establishment before we could arrive. it had been my intention to go to them myself, could the articles with which they expected to be presented on my arrival have been provided at these establishments; but as they could not be procured i was compelled to defer my visit until our canoes should arrive. mr. smith supposed that my appearance amongst them without the means of satisfying any of their desires would give them an unfavourable impression respecting the expedition which would make them indifferent to exertion if it did not even cause them to withdraw from their engagements. the establishments at this place, forts chipewyan and wedderburne, the chief posts of the companies in this department, are conveniently situated for communicating with the slave and peace rivers from whence the canoes assemble in the spring and autumn; on the first occasion they bring the collection of furs which has been made at the different outposts during the winter; and at the latter season they receive a supply of stores for the equipment of the indians in their vicinity. fort wedderburne is a small house which was constructed on coal island about five years ago when the hudson's bay company recommenced trading in this part of the country. fort chipewyan has been built many years and is an establishment of very considerable extent, conspicuously situated on a rocky point of the northern shore; it has a tower which can be seen at a considerable distance. this addition was made about eight years ago to watch the motions of the indians who intended, as it was then reported, to destroy the house and all its inhabitants. they had been instigated to this rash design by the delusive stories of one among them who had acquired great influence over his companions by his supposed skill in necromancy. this fellow had prophesied that there would soon be a complete change in the face of their country, that fertility and plenty would succeed to the present sterility, and that the present race of white inhabitants, unless they became subservient to the indians, would be removed and their place be filled by other traders who would supply their wants in every possible manner. the poor deluded wretches, imagining they would hasten this happy change by destroying their present traders, of whose submission there was no prospect, threatened to extirpate them. none of these menaces however were put in execution. they were probably deterred from the attempt by perceiving that a most vigilant guard was kept against them. the portion of this extensive lake which is near the establishments is called the lake of the hills, not improperly as the northern shore and the islands are high and rocky. the south side however is quite level, consisting of alluvial land, subject to be flooded, lying betwixt the different mouths of the elk river and much intersected by water. the rocks of the northern shore are composed of syenite over which the soil is thinly spread; it is however sufficient to support a variety of firs and poplars and many shrubs, lichens and mosses. the trees were now in full foliage, the plants generally in flower, and the whole scene quite enlivening. there can scarcely be a higher gratification than that which is enjoyed in this country in witnessing the rapid change which takes place in the course of a few days in the spring; scarcely does the snow disappear from the ground before the trees are clothed with thick foliage, the shrubs open their leaves and put forth their variegated flowers, and the whole prospect becomes animating. the spaces between the rocky hills, being for the most part swampy, support willows and a few poplars. these spots are the favourite resort of the mosquitoes, which incessantly torment the unfortunate persons who have to pass through them. some of the hills attain an elevation of five or six hundred feet at the distance of a mile from the house; and from their summits a very picturesque view is commanded of the lake and of the surrounding country. the land above the great point at the confluence of the main stream of the elk river is six or seven hundred feet high and stretches in a southern direction behind pierre au calumet. opposite to that establishment, on the west side of the river, at some distance in the interior, the bark mountain rises and ranges to the north-west until it reaches clear lake, about thirty miles to the southward of these forts, and then goes to the south-westward. the cree indians generally procure from this range their provision as well as the bark for making their canoes. there is another range of hills on the south shore which runs towards the peace river. the residents of these establishments depend for subsistence almost entirely on the fish which this lake affords; they are usually caught in sufficient abundance throughout the winter though at the distance of eighteen miles from the houses; on the thawing of the ice the fish remove into some smaller lakes and the rivers to the south shore. though they are nearer to the forts than in winter it frequently happens that high winds prevent the canoes from transporting them thither and the residents are kept in consequence without a supply of food for two or three days together. the fish caught in the net are the attihhawmegh, trout, carp, methye, and pike.* (*footnote. see above.) the traders also get supplied by the hunters with buffalo and moose-deer meat (which animals are found at some distance from the forts) but the greater part of it is either in a dried state or pounded ready for making pemmican and is required for the men whom they keep travelling during the winter to collect the furs from the indians, and for the crews of the canoes on their outward passage to the depots in spring. there was a great want of provision this season, and both the companies had much difficulty to provide a bare sufficiency for their different brigades of canoes. mr. smith assured me that after the canoes had been despatched he had only five hundred pounds of meat remaining for the use of the men who might travel from the post during the summer and that, five years preceding, there had been thirty thousand pounds in store under similar circumstances. he ascribed this amazing difference more to the indolent habits which the indians had acquired since the commercial struggle commenced than to their recent sickness, mentioning in confirmation of his opinion that they could now, by the produce of little exertion, obtain whatever they demanded from either establishment. at the opening of the water in spring the indians resort to the establishments to settle their accounts with the traders and to procure the necessaries they require for the summer. this meeting is generally a scene of much riot and confusion as the hunters receive such quantities of spirits as to keep them in a state of intoxication for several days. this spring however, owing to the great deficiency of spirits, we had the gratification of seeing them generally sober. they belong to the great family of the chipewyan or northern indians, dialects of their language being spoken in the peace and mackenzie's rivers and by the populous tribes in new caledonia, as ascertained by sir alexander mackenzie in his journey to the pacific. they style themselves generally dinneh men or indians, but each tribe or horde adds some distinctive epithet taken from the name of the river or lake on which they hunt, or the district from which they last migrated. those who come to fort chipewyan term themselves saweessawdinneh (indians from the rising sun or eastern indians) their original hunting grounds being between the athabasca and great slave lakes and churchill river. this district, more particularly termed the chipewyan lands or barren country, is frequented by numerous herds of reindeer which furnish easy subsistence and clothing to the indians, but the traders endeavour to keep them in the parts to the westward where the beavers resort. there are about one hundred and sixty hunters who carry their furs to the great slave lake, forty to hay river, and two hundred and forty to fort chipewyan. a few northern indians also resort to the posts at the bottom of the lake of the hills, on red deer lake, and to churchill. the distance however of the latter post from their hunting grounds and the sufferings to which they are exposed in going thither from want of food have induced those who were formerly accustomed to visit it to convey their furs to some nearer station. these people are so minutely described by hearne and mackenzie that little can be added by a passing stranger whose observations were made during short interviews and when they were at the forts, where they lay aside many of their distinguishing characteristics and strive to imitate the manners of the voyagers and traders. the chipewyans are by no means prepossessing in appearance: they have broad faces, projecting cheek-bones and wide nostrils; but they have generally good teeth and fine eyes. when at the fort they imitate the dress of the canadians except that instead of trousers they prefer the indian stockings, which only reach from the thigh to the ankle, and in place of the waistband they have a piece of cloth round the middle which hangs down loosely before and behind. their hunting dress consists of a leathern shirt and stockings over which a blanket is thrown, the head being covered with a fur cap or band. their manner is reserved and their habits are selfish; they beg with unceasing importunity for everything they see. i never saw men who either received or bestowed a gift with such bad grace; they almost snatch the thing from you in the one instance and throw it at you in the other. it could not be expected that such men should display in their tents the amiable hospitality which prevails generally amongst the indians of this country. a stranger may go away hungry from their lodges unless he possess sufficient impudence to thrust uninvited his knife into the kettle and help himself. the owner indeed never deigns to take any notice of such an act of rudeness except by a frown, it being beneath the dignity of a hunter to make disturbance about a piece of meat. as some relief to the darker shades of their character it should be stated that instances of theft are extremely rare amongst them. they profess strong affection for their children and some regard for their relations who are often numerous, as they trace very far the ties of consanguinity. a curious instance of the former was mentioned to us and so well authenticated that i shall venture to give it in the words of dr. richardson's journal: a young chipewyan had separated from the rest of his band for the purpose of trenching beaver when his wife, who was his sole companion and in her first pregnancy, was seized with the pains of labour. she died on the third day after she had given birth to a boy. the husband was inconsolable and vowed in his anguish never to take another woman to wife, but his grief was soon in some degree absorbed in anxiety for the fate of his infant son. to preserve its life he descended to the office of nurse, so degrading in the eyes of a chipewyan as partaking of the duties of a woman. he swaddled it in soft moss, fed it with broth made from the flesh of the deer and, to still its cries, applied it to his breast, praying earnestly to the great master of life to assist his endeavours. the force of the powerful passion by which he was actuated produced the same effect in his case as it has done in some others which are recorded: a flow of milk actually took place from his breast. he succeeded in rearing his child, taught him to be a hunter and, when he attained the age of manhood, chose him a wife from the tribe. the old man kept his vow in never taking a second wife himself but he delighted in tending his son's children and, when his daughter-in-law used to interfere, saying that it was not the occupation of a man, he was wont to reply that he had promised to the great master of life, if his child were spared, never to be proud like the other indians. he used to mention too, as a certain proof of the approbation of providence that, although he was always obliged to carry his child on his back while hunting, yet that it never roused a moose by its cries, being always particularly still at those times. our informant* added that he had often seen this indian in his old age and that his left breast even then retained the unusual size it had acquired in his occupation of nurse. (*footnote. mr. wentzel.) ... we had proof of their sensibility towards their relations in their declining to pitch their tents where they had been accustomed for many years, alleging a fear of being reminded of the happy hours they had formerly spent there in the society of the affectionate relatives whom the sickness had recently carried off. the change of situation however had not the effect of relieving them from sorrowful impressions, and they occasionally indulged in very loud lamentations as they sat in groups within and without their tents. unfortunately the spreading of a severe dysentery amongst them at this time gave occasion for the renewal of their grief. the medicinal charms of drumming and singing were plentifully applied and once they had recourse to conjuring over a sick person. i was informed however that the northern indians do not make this expedient for the cure of a patient so often as the crees; but when they do the conjurer is most assiduous and suffers great personal fatigue. particular persons only are trained in the mysteries of the art of conjuring to procure the recovery of the sick or to disclose future events. on extraordinary occasions the man remains in his narrow conjuring tents for days without eating before he can determine the matter to his satisfaction. when he is consulted about the sick the patient is shut up with him; but on other occasions he is alone and the poor creature often works his mind up to a pitch of illusion that can scarcely be imagined by one who has not witnessed it. his deluded companions seat themselves round his tent and await his communication with earnest anxiety, yet during the progress of his manoeuvres they often venture to question him as to the disposition of the great spirit. these artful fellows usually gain complete ascendancy over the minds of their companions. they are supported by voluntary contributions of provision that their minds may not be diverted by the labour of hunting from the peculiar duties of their profession. the chiefs among the chipewyans are now totally without power. the presents of a flag and a gaudy dress still bestowed upon them by the traders do not procure for them any respect or obedience except from the youths of their own families. this is to be attributed mainly to their living at peace with their neighbours and to the facility which the young men find in getting their wants supplied independent of the recommendation of the chiefs which was formerly required. in war excursions boldness and intrepidity would still command respect and procure authority; but the influence thus acquired would probably cease with the occasion that called it forth. the traders however endeavour to support their authority by continuing towards them the accustomed marks of respect hoisting the flag and firing a salute of musketry on their entering the fort. the chief halts at a distance from the house and despatches one of his young men to announce his approach and to bring his flag, which is carried before him when he arrives. the messenger carries back to him some vermilion to ornament the faces of his party, together with a looking-glass and comb, some tobacco, and a few rounds of ammunition that they may return the salute. these men paint round the eyes, the forehead, and the cheekbones. the northern indians evince no little vanity by assuming to themselves the comprehensive title of the people, whilst they designate all other nations by the name of their particular country. if men were seen at a distance and a chipewyan was asked who those persons were he would answer the people if he recognised them to belong to his tribe and never chipewyans; but he would give them their respective names if they were europeans, canadians, or cree indians. as they suppose their ancestors to come originally from the east those who happen to be born in the eastern part of their territory are considered to be of the purest race. i have been informed that all the indians who trade at the different posts in the north-west parts of america imagine that their forefathers came from the east, except the dog-ribs who reside between the copper indian islands and the mackenzie's river and who deduce their origin from the west, which is the more remarkable as they speak a dialect of the chipewyan language. i could gather no information respecting their religious opinions except that they have a tradition of the deluge. the chipewyans are considered to be less expert hunters than the crees, which probably arises from their residing much on the barren lands where the reindeer are so numerous that little skill is requisite. a good hunter however is highly esteemed among them. the facility of procuring goods since the commercial opposition commenced has given great encouragement to their native indolence of disposition, as is manifested by the difference in the amount of their collections of furs and provision between the late and former years. from six to eight hundred packs of furs used formerly to be sent from this department, now the return seldom exceeds half that amount. the decrease in the provision has been already mentioned. the northern indians suppose that they originally sprang from a dog; and about five years ago a superstitious fanatic so strongly impressed upon their minds the impropriety of employing these animals, to which they were related, for purposes of labour that they universally resolved against using them any more and, strange as it may seem, destroyed them. they now have to drag everything themselves on sledges. this laborious task falls most heavily on the women; nothing can more shock the feelings of a person accustomed to civilised life than to witness the state of their degradation. when a party is on a march the women have to drag the tent, the meat, and whatever the hunter possesses, whilst he only carries his gun and medicine case. in the evening they form the encampment, cut wood, fetch water, and prepare the supper; and then, perhaps, are not permitted to partake of the fare until the men have finished. a successful hunter sometimes has two or three wives; whoever happens to be the favourite assumes authority over the others and has the management of the tent. these men usually treat their wives unkindly and even with harshness; except indeed when they are about to increase the family and then they show them much indulgence. hearne charges the chipewyans with the dreadful practice of abandoning, in extremity, their aged and sick people. the only instance that came under our personal notice was attended with some palliating circumstances: an old woman arrived at fort chipewyan during our residence with her son, a little boy about ten years old, both of whom had been deserted by their relations and left in an encampment when much reduced by sickness: two or three days after their departure the woman gained a little strength and, with the assistance of the boy, was enabled to paddle a canoe to the fishing station of this post where they were supported for some days until they were enabled to proceed in search of some other relations who they expected would treat them with more kindness. i learned that the woman bore an extremely bad character, having even been guilty of infanticide and that her companions considered her offences merited the desertion. this tribe since its present intimate connection with the traders has discontinued its war excursions against the esquimaux, but they still speak of that nation in terms of the most inveterate hatred. we have only conversed with four men who have been engaged in any of those expeditions; all these confirm the statements of black meat respecting the sea-coast. our observations concerning the half-breed population in this vicinity coincided so exactly with those which have been given of similar persons in dr. richardson's account of the crees that any statement respecting them at this place is unnecessary. both the companies have wisely prohibited their servants from intermarrying with pure indian women, which was formerly the cause of many quarrels with the tribes. the weather was extremely variable during the month of june; we scarcely had two clear days in succession, and the showers of rain were frequent; the winds were often strong and generally blowing from the north-east quarter. on the evening of the th the aurora borealis was visible but after that date the nights were too light for our discerning it. the mosquitoes swarmed in great numbers about the house and tormented us so incessantly by their irritating stings that we were compelled to keep our rooms constantly filled with smoke which is the only means of driving them away: the weather indeed was now warm. having received one of dollond's eighteen-inch spirit thermometers from mr. stuart, which he had the kindness to send us from his post at pierre au calumet after he had learned that ours had been rendered useless, i observed the temperature at noon on the th of june to be degrees. on the following morning we made an excursion accompanied by mr. smith round the fishing stations on the south side of the lake for the purpose of visiting our men; we passed several groups of women and children belonging to both the forts, posted wherever they could find a sufficiently dry spot for an encampment. at length we came to our men, pitched upon a narrow strip of land situated between two rivers. though the portion of dry ground did not exceed fifty yards yet they appeared to be living very comfortably, having formed huts with the canoe's sail and covering, and were amply supported by the fish their nets daily furnished. they sometimes had a change in their fare by procuring a few ducks and other waterfowl which resort in great abundance to the marshes by which they were surrounded. july . the canoe which was ordered to be built for our use was finished. as it was constructed after the manner described by hearne and several of the american travellers a detail of the process will be unnecessary. its extreme length was thirty-two feet six inches, including the bow and stern pieces, its greatest breadth was four feet ten inches, but it was only two feet nine inches forward where the bowman sat, and two feet four inches behind where the steersman was placed, and its depth was one foot eleven and a quarter inches. there were seventy-three hoops of thin cedar and a layer of slender laths of the same wood within the frame. these feeble vessels of bark will carry twenty-five pieces of goods, each weighing ninety pounds exclusive of the necessary provision and baggage for the crew of five or six men, amounting in the whole to about three thousand three hundred pounds' weight. this great lading they annually carry between the depots and the posts in the interior; and it rarely happens that any accidents occur if they be managed by experienced bowmen and steersmen, on whose skill the safety of the canoe entirely depends in the rapids and difficult places. when a total portage is made these two men carry the canoe, and they often run with it though its weight is estimated at about three hundred pounds exclusive of the poles and oars which are occasionally left in where the distance is short. on the th we made an excursion for the purpose of trying our canoe. a heavy gale came on in the evening which caused a great swell in the lake and in crossing the waves we had the satisfaction to find that our birchen vessel proved an excellent sea-boat. july . this morning some men and their families, who had been sent off to search for indians with whom they intended to pass the summer, returned to the fort in consequence of a serious accident having befallen their canoe in the red deer river; when they were in the act of hauling up a strong rapid the line broke, the canoe was overturned, and two of the party narrowly escaped drowning; fortunately the women and children happened to be on shore or in all probability they would have perished in the confusion of the scene. nearly all their stores, their guns and fishing nets were lost, and they could not procure any other food for the last four days than some unripe berries. some gentlemen arrived in the evening with a party of chipewyan indians from hay river, a post between the peace river and the great slave lake. these men gave distressing accounts of sickness among their relatives and the indians in general along the peace river, and they said many of them have died. the disease was described as dysentery. on the th and th we had very sultry weather and were dreadfully tormented by mosquitoes. the highest temperature was degrees. arrival of dr. richardson and mr. hood. july . this morning mr. back and i had the sincere gratification of welcoming our long-separated friends, dr. richardson and mr. hood, who arrived in perfect health with two canoes, having made a very expeditious journey from cumberland notwithstanding they were detained near three days in consequence of the melancholy loss of one of their bowmen by the upsetting of a canoe in a strong rapid but, as the occurrences of this journey together with the mention of some other circumstances that happened previous to their departure from cumberland, which have been extracted from mr. hood's narrative, will appear in the following chapter, it will be unnecessary to enter further into these points now. the zeal and talent displayed by dr. richardson and mr. hood in the discharge of their several duties since my separation from them drew forth my highest approbation. these gentlemen had brought all the stores they could procure from the establishments at cumberland and isle a la crosse; and at the latter place they had received ten bags of pemmican from the north-west company, which proved to be mouldy and so totally unfit for use that it was left at the methye portage. they got none from the hudson's bay post. the voyagers belonging to that company, being destitute of provision, had eaten what was intended for us. in consequence of these untoward circumstances the canoes arrived with only one day's supply of this most essential article. the prospect of having to commence our journey from hence almost destitute of provision and scantily supplied with stores was distressing to us and very discouraging to the men. it was evident however that any unnecessary delay here would have been very imprudent as fort chipewyan did not at the present time furnish the means of subsistence for so large a party, much less was there a prospect of our receiving a supply to carry us forward. we therefore hastened to make the necessary arrangements for our speedy departure. all the stores were demanded that could possibly be spared from both the establishments; and we rejoiced to find that, when this collection was added to the articles that had been brought up by the canoes, we had a sufficient quantity of clothing for the equipment of the men who had been engaged here, as well as to furnish a present to the indians, besides some few goods for the winter's consumption; but we could not procure any ammunition which was the most essential article, or spirits, and but little tobacco. we then made a final arrangement respecting the voyagers who were to accompany the party; and fortunately there was no difficulty in doing this as dr. richardson and mr. hood had taken the very judicious precaution of bringing up ten men from cumberland who were engaged to proceed forward if their services were required. the canadians whom they brought were most desirous of being continued, and we felt sincere pleasure in being able to keep men who were so zealous in the cause and who had given proofs of their activity on their recent passage to this place by discharging those men who were less willing to undertake the journey; of these three were englishmen, one american, and three canadians. when the numbers were completed which we had been recommended by the traders to take as a protection against the esquimaux we had sixteen canadian voyagers and our worthy and only english attendant john hepburn, besides the two interpreters whom we were to receive at the great slave lake; we were also accompanied by a chipewyan woman. an equipment of goods was given to each of the men who had been engaged at this place similar to what had been furnished to the others at cumberland; and when this distribution had been made the remainder were made up into bales preparatory to our departure on the following day. we were cheerfully assisted in these and all our occupations by mr. smith who evinced an anxious desire to supply our wants as far as his means permitted. mr. hood having brought up the dipping needle from cumberland house, we ascertained the dip to be degrees minutes seconds, and the difference produced by reversing the face of the instrument was degrees minutes seconds. the intensity of the magnetic force was also observed. several observations had been procured on both sides of the moon during our residence at fort chipewyan, the result of which gave for its longitude degrees minutes seconds west, its latitude was observed to be degrees minutes seconds north, and the variation of the compass degrees minutes seconds east. fresh rates were procured for the chronometers and their errors determined for greenwich time by which the survey to the northward was carried on. chapter . mr. hood's journey to the basquiau hill. sojourns with an indian party. his journey to chipewyan. mr. hood's journey to the basquiau hill. march, . being desirous of obtaining a drawing of a moose-deer, and also of making some observation on the height of the aurora borealis, i set out on the rd to pass a few days at the basquiau hill. two men accompanied me with dogs and sledges who were going to the hill for meat. we found the saskatchewan open and were obliged to follow it several miles to the eastward. we did not then cross it without wading in water which had overflowed the ice, and our snowshoes were encumbered with a heavy weight for the remainder of the day. on the south bank of the saskatchewan were some poplars ten or twelve feet in circumference at the root. beyond the river we traversed an extensive swamp bounded by woods. in the evening we crossed the swan lake, about six miles in breadth and eight in length, and halted on its south side for the night, twenty-four miles south-south-west of cumberland house. at four in the morning of the th we continued the journey and crossed some creeks in the woods and another large swamp. these swamps are covered with water in summer to the depth of several feet which arises from the melted snow from the higher grounds. the tracks of foxes, wolves, wolverines and martens were very numerous. the people employed in carrying meat set traps on their way out and take possession of their captures at their return, for which they receive a sum from the company proportioned to the value of the fur. in the evening we crossed the goose lake which is a little longer than swan lake and afterwards the river sepanach, a branch of the saskatchewan forming an island extending thirty miles above and forty below cumberland house. we turned to the westward on the root river which enters the sepanach and halted on its banks, having made in direct distance not more than twenty miles since the rd. we passed the shoal lake on the th and then marched twelve miles through woods and swamps to a hunting tent of the indians. it was situated in a grove of large poplars and would have been no unpleasant residence if we could have avoided the smoke. a heavy gale from the westward with snow confined us for several days to this tent. on the th two indians arrived, one of whom, named the warrior, was well known at the house. we endeavoured to prevail upon them to set out in quest of moose which they agreed to do on receiving some rum. promises were of no avail; the smallest present gratification is preferred to the certainty of ample reward at another period; an unfailing indication of strong animal passions and a weak understanding. on our compliance with their demand they departed. the next day i went to the warrior's tent distant about eleven miles. the country was materially changed: the pine had disappeared and gentle slopes with clumps of large poplars formed some pleasing groups: willows were scattered over the swamps. when i entered the tent the indians spread a buffalo robe before the fire and desired me to sit down. some were eating, others sleeping, many of them without any covering except the breechcloth and a blanket over the shoulders, a state in which they love to indulge themselves till hunger drives them forth to the chase. besides the warrior's family there was that of another hunter named long-legs whose bad success in hunting had reduced him to the necessity of feeding on moose leather for three weeks when he was compassionately relieved by the warrior. i was an unwilling witness of the preparation of my dinner by the indian women. they cut into pieces a portion of fat meat, using for that purpose a knife and their teeth. it was boiled in a kettle and served in a platter made of birch bark from which, being dirty, they had peeled the surface. however the flavour of good moose meat will survive any process that it undergoes in their hands except smoking. having provided myself with some drawing materials i amused the indians with a sketch of the interior of the tent and its inhabitants. an old woman who was relating with great volubility an account of some quarrel with the traders at cumberland house broke off from her narration when she perceived my design, supposing perhaps that i was employing some charm against her; for the indians have been taught a supernatural dread of particular pictures. one of the young men drew with a piece of charcoal a figure resembling a frog on the side of the tent and, by significantly pointing at me, excited peals of merriment from his companions. the caricature was comic, but i soon fixed their attention by producing my pocket compass and affecting it with a knife. they have great curiosity which might easily be directed to the attainment of useful knowledge. as the dirt accumulated about these people was visibly of a communicative nature i removed at night into the open air where the thermometer fell to degrees below zero although it was the next day degrees above it. in the morning the warrior and his companion arrived; i found that, instead of hunting, they had passed the whole time in a drunken fit at a short distance from the tent. in reply to our angry questions the warrior held out an empty vessel as if to demand the payment of a debt before he entered into any new negotiation. not being inclined to starve his family we set out for another indian tent ten miles to the southward, but we found only the frame or tent poles standing when we reached the spot. the men, by digging where the fireplace had been, ascertained that the indians had quitted it the day before and, as their marches are short when encumbered with the women and baggage, we sought out their track and followed it. at an abrupt angle of it which was obscured by trees the men suddenly disappeared and, hastening forward to discover the cause, i perceived them both still rolling at the foot of a steep cliff over which they had been dragged while endeavouring to stop the descent of their sledges. the dogs were gazing silently with the wreck of their harness about them and the sledges deeply buried in the snow. the effects of this accident did not detain us long and we proceeded afterwards with greater caution. sojourns with an indian party. the air was warm at noon and the solitary but sweet notes of the jay, the earliest spring bird, were in every wood. late in the evening we descried the ravens wheeling in circles round a small grove of poplars and, according to our expectations, found the indians encamped there. the men were absent hunting and returned unsuccessful. they had been several days without provisions and, thinking that i could depend upon the continuance of their exertions, i gave them a little rum; the next day their set out and at midnight they swept by us with their dogs in close pursuit. in the morning we found that a moose had eaten the bark of a tree near our fire. the hunters however again failed; and they attributed the extreme difficulty of approaching the chase to the calmness of the weather, which enabled it to hear them at a great distance. they concluded, as usual when labouring under any affliction, that they were tormented by the evil spirit, and assembled to beat a large tambourine and sing an address to the manito or deity, praying for relief according to the explanation which i received; but their prayer consisted of only three words constantly repeated. one of the hunters yet remained abroad and, as the wind rose at noon, we had hopes that he was successful. in the evening he made his appearance and, announcing that he had killed a large moose, immediately secured the reward which had been promised. the tidings were received with apparent indifference by people whose lives are alternate changes from the extremity of want to abundance. but as their countenances seldom betray their emotions it cannot be determined whether their apathy is real or affected. however the women prepared their sledges and dogs with the design of dismembering and bringing home the carcass, a proceeding to which, in their necessitous condition, i could have had neither reasonable nor available objections without giving them a substitute. by much solicitation i obtained an audience and offered them our own provisions on condition of their suspending the work of destruction till the next day. they agreed to the proposition and we set out with some indians for the place where the animal was lying. the night advancing we were separated by a snowstorm and, not being skilful enough to follow tracks which were so speedily filled up, i was bewildered for several hours in the woods, when i met with an indian who led me back at such a pace that i was always in the rear, to his infinite diversion. the indians are vain of their local knowledge which is certainly very wonderful. our companions had taken out the entrails and young of the moose, which they buried in the snow. the indians then returned to the tents and one of my men accompanied them; he was the person charged with the management of the trade at the hunting tent; and he observed that the opportunity of making a bargain with the indians while they were drinking was too advantageous to be lost. it remained for us to prevent the wolves from mangling the moose; for which purpose we wrapped ourselves in blankets between its feet and placed the hatchets within our reach. the night was stormy and apprehension kept me long awake but, finding my companion in so deep a sleep that nothing could have roused him except the actual gripe of a wolf, i thought it advisable to imitate his example as much as was in my power rather than bear the burden of anxiety alone. at daylight we shook off the snow which was heaped upon us and endeavoured to kindle a fire, but the violence of the storm defeated all our attempts. at length two indians arrived with whose assistance we succeeded, and they took possession of it to show their sense of our obligations to them. we were ashamed of the scene before us; the entrails of the moose and its young, which had been buried at our feet, bore testimony to the nocturnal revel of the wolves during the time we had slept. this was a fresh subject of derision for the indians whose appetites however would not suffer them to waste long upon us a time so precious. they soon finished what the wolves had begun and with as little aid from the art of cookery, eating both the young moose and the contents of the paunch raw. i had scarcely secured myself by a lodge of branches from the snow and placed the moose in a position for my sketch when we were stormed by a troop of women and children with their sledges and dogs. we obtained another short respite from the indians but our blows could not drive, nor their caresses entice, the hungry dogs from the tempting feast before them. i had not finished my sketch before the impatient crowd tore the moose to pieces and loaded their sledges with meat. on our way to the tent a black wolf rushed out upon an indian who happened to pass near its den. it was shot and the indians carried away three black whelps to improve the breed of their dogs. i purchased one of them, intending to send it to england, but it perished for want of proper nourishment. the latitude of these tents was degrees minutes seconds north, and longitude by chronometers degrees minutes seconds west. on the th of april we set out for the hunting tent by our former track and arrived there in the evening. as the increasing warmth of the weather had threatened to interrupt communication by removing the ice orders had been sent from cumberland house to the people at the tent to quit it without delay, which we did on the th. some altitudes of the aurora borealis were obtained. we had a fine view at sunrise of the basquiau hill, skirting half the horizon with its white sides chequered by forests of pine. it is seen from pine island lake at the distance of fifty miles and cannot therefore be less than three-fourths of a mile in perpendicular height; probably the greatest elevation between the atlantic ocean and the rocky mountains. a small stream runs near the hunting tent, strongly impregnated with salt. there are several salt springs about it which are not frozen during the winter. the surface of the snow, thawing in the sun and freezing at night, had become a strong crust which sometimes gave way in a circle round our feet, immersing us in the soft snow beneath. the people were afflicted with snow blindness, a kind of ophthalmia occasioned by the reflection of the sun's rays in the spring. the miseries endured during the first journey of this nature are so great that nothing could induce the sufferer to undertake a second while under the influence of present pain. he feels his frame crushed by unaccountable pressure, he drags a galling and stubborn weight at his feet, and his track is marked with blood. the dazzling scene around him affords no rest to his eye, no object to divert his attention from his own agonising sensations. when he arises from sleep half his body seems dead till quickened into feeling by the irritation of his sores. but fortunately for him no evil makes an impression so evanescent as pain. it cannot be wholly banished nor recalled by the force of reality by any act of the mind, either to affect our determinations or to sympathise with another. the traveller soon forgets his sufferings and at every future journey their recurrence is attended with diminished acuteness. it was not before the th or th of april that the return of the swans, geese, and ducks gave certain indications of the advance of spring. the juice of the maple-tree began to flow and the women repaired to the woods for the purpose of collecting it. this tree which abounds to the southward is not i believe found to the northward of the saskatchewan. the indians obtain the sap by making incisions into the tree. they boil it down and evaporate the water, skimming off the impurities. they are so fond of sweets that after this simple process they set an extravagant price upon it. on the th fell the first shower of rain we had seen for six months, and on the th the thermometer rose to degrees in the shade. the whole face of the country was deluged by the melted snow. all the nameless heaps of dirt accumulated in the winter now floated over the very thresholds, and the long-imprisoned scents dilated into vapours so penetrating that no retreat was any security from them. the flood descended into the cellar below our house and destroyed a quantity of powder and tea; a loss irreparable in our situation. the noise made by the frogs which this inundation produced is almost incredible. there is strong reason to believe that they outlive the severity of winter. they have often been found frozen and revived by warmth, nor is it possible that the multitude which incessantly filled our ears with its discordant notes could have been matured in two or three days. the fishermen at beaver lake and the other detached parties were ordered to return to the post. the expedients to which the poor people were reduced to cross a country so beset with waters presented many uncouth spectacles. the inexperienced were glad to compromise with the loss of property for the safety of their persons and, astride upon ill-balanced rafts with which they struggled to be uppermost, exhibited a ludicrous picture of distress. happy were they who could patch up an old canoe though obliged to bear it half the way on their shoulders through miry bogs and interwoven willows. but the veteran trader, wedged in a box of skin with his wife, children, dogs, and furs, wheeled triumphantly through the current and deposited his heterogeneous cargo safely on the shore. the woods reechoed with the return of their exiled tenants. a hundred tribes, as gaily dressed as any burnished natives of the south, greeted our eyes in our accustomed walks, and their voices, though unmusical, were the sweetest that ever saluted our ears. from the th to the th the snow once more blighted the resuscitating verdure, but a single day was sufficient to remove it. on the th the saskatchewan swept away the ice which had adhered to its banks, and on the morrow a boat came down from carlton house with provisions. we received such accounts of the state of vegetation at that place that dr. richardson determined to visit it in order to collect botanical specimens, as the period at which the ice was expected to admit of the continuation of our journey was still distant. accordingly he embarked on the st of may. in the course of the month the ice gradually wore away from the south side of the lake but the great mass of it still hung to the north side with some snow visible on its surface. by the st the elevated grounds were perfectly dry and teeming with the fragrant offspring of the season. when the snow melted the earth was covered with the fallen leaves of the last year, and already it was green with the strawberry plant and the bursting buds of the gooseberry, raspberry, and rose bushes, soon variegated by the rose and the blossoms of the choke-cherry. the gifts of nature are disregarded and undervalued till they are withdrawn and in the hideous regions of the arctic zone she would make a convert of him for whom the gardens of europe had no charms or the mild beauties of a southern climate had bloomed in vain. mr. williams found a delightful occupation in his agricultural pursuits. the horses were brought to the plough and fields of wheat, barley, and indian corn promised to reward his labours. his dairy furnished us with all the luxuries of an english farm. on the th the ice departed from pine island lake. we were however informed that beaver lake, which was likewise in our route, would not afford a passage before the th of june. according to directions left by mr. franklin applications were made to the chiefs of the hudson's bay and north-west companies' posts for two canoes with their crews and a supply of stores for the use of the expedition. they were not in a condition to comply with this request till the arrival of their respective returns from isle a la crosse and the saskatchewan departments. of the six men whom we brought from england the most serviceable, john hepburn, had accompanied mr. franklin, and only one other desired to prosecute the journey with us. mr. franklin had made arrangements with mr. williams for the employment of the remaining five men in bringing to cumberland house the ammunition, tobacco, etc., left at york fort, which stores were if possible to be sent after us in the summer. on the th dr. richardson returned from carlton house, and on the st the boats arrived belonging to the hudson's bay company's saskatchewan department. we obtained a canoe and two more volunteers. on the st of june the saskatchewan, swelled by the melting of the snow near the rocky mountains, rose twelve feet and the current of the little rivers bounding pine island ran back into the lake, which it filled with mud. on the th the north-west company's people arrived and mr. connolly furnished us with a canoe and five canadians. they were engaged to attend us till mr. franklin should think fit to discharge them and bound under the usual penalties in case of disobedience or other improper conduct. these poor people entertained such dread of a ship of war that they stipulated not to be embarked in lieutenant parry's vessels if we should find them on the coast, a condition with which they would gladly have dispensed had that desirable event taken place. as we required a canadian foreman and steersman for the other canoe we were compelled to wait for the appearance of the isle a la crosse canoes under mr. clark. on the th mr. williams embarked for york fort. he gave us a circular letter addressed to the chiefs of the hudson's bay company's posts directing them to afford us all possible assistance on our route, and he promised to exert every endeavour to forward the esquimaux interpreter, upon whom the success of our journey so much depended. he was accompanied by eight boats. with him we sent our collections of plants, minerals, charts, and drawings to be transmitted to england by the hudson's bay ships. after this period our detention, though short, cost us more vexation than the whole time we had passed at cumberland house because every hour of the short summer was invaluable to us. on the th mr. clark arrived and completed our crews. he brought letters from mr. franklin dated march th at fort chipewyan where he was engaged procuring hunters and interpreters. a heavy storm of wind and rain from the north-east again delayed us till the morning of the th. the account we had received at york factory of the numerous stores at cumberland house proved to be very erroneous. the most material stores we received did not amount in addition to our own to more than two barrels of powder, a keg of spirits, and two pieces of tobacco, with pemmican for sixteen days. the crew of dr. richardson's canoe consisted of three englishmen and three canadians and the other carried five canadians; both were deeply laden and the waves ran high on the lake. no person in our party being well acquainted with the rivers to the northward, mr. connolly gave us a pilot on condition that we should exchange him when we met with the athabasca brigade of canoes. at four a.m. we embarked. we soon found that birchen-bark canoes were not calculated to brave rough weather on a large lake, for we were compelled to land on the opposite border to free them from the water which had already saturated their cargoes. the wind became more moderate and we were enabled, after traversing a chain of smaller lakes, to enter the mouth of the sturgeon river at sunset, where we encamped. the lading of the canoes is always if possible carried on shore at night and the canoes taken out of the water. the following evening we reached beaver lake and landed to repair some damages sustained by the canoes. a round stone will displace the lading of a canoe without doing any injury but a slight blow against a sharp corner penetrates the bark. for the purpose of repairing it, a small quantity of gum or pitch, bark and pine roots are embarked, and the business is so expeditiously performed that the speed of the canoe amply compensates for every delay. the sturgeon river is justly called by the canadians la riviere maligne from its numerous and dangerous rapids. against the strength of a rapid it is impossible to effect any progress by paddling and the canoes are tracked or, if the bank will not admit of it, propelled with poles, in the management of which the canadians show great dexterity. their simultaneous motions were strongly contrasted with the awkward confusion of the inexperienced englishmen, defended by the torrent, who sustained the blame of every accident which occurred. at sunset we encamped on an island in beaver lake and, at four a.m. the next morning, passed the first portage in the ridge river. beaver lake is twelve miles in length and six in breadth. the flat limestone country rises into bold rocks on its banks and at the mouth of the ridge river the limestone discontinues. the lake is very deep and has already been noticed for the number and excellence of its fish. the ridge river is rapid and shallow. we had emerged from the muddy channels through an alluvial soil, and the primitive rocks interrupted our way with frequent portages through the whole route to isle a la crosse lake. at two p.m. we passed the mouth of the hay river, running from the westward, and the ridge above its confluence takes the name of the great river, which rises at the height of land called frog portage. the thermometer was this day degrees in the sun and the heat was extremely oppressive from our constant exposure to it. we crossed three portages in the great river and encamped at the last; here we met the director of the north-west company's affairs in the north, mr. stuart, on his way to fort william in a light canoe. he had left the athabasca lake only thirteen days and brought letters from mr. franklin who desired that we would endeavour to collect stores of every kind at isle a la crosse and added a favourable account of the country to the northward of the slave lake. on the th at three a.m. we continued our course, the river increasing to the breadth of half a mile with many rapids between the rocky islands. the banks were luxuriantly clothed with pines, poplars, and birch trees, of the largest size, but the different shades of green were undistinguishable at a distance and the glow of autumnal colours was wanting to render the variety beautiful. having crossed two portages at the different extremities of the island lake we ran under sail through two extensive sheets of water called the heron and pelican lakes, the former of which is fifteen miles in length and the latter five; but its extent to the southward has not been explored. an intricate channel with four small portages conducted us to the woody lake. its borders were indeed walls of pines, hiding the face of steep and high rocks; and we wandered in search of a landing-place till ten p.m., when we were forced to take shelter from the impending storm on a small island where we wedged ourselves between the trees. but though we secured the canoes we incurred a personal evil of much greater magnitude in the torments inflicted by the mosquitoes, a plague which had grown upon us since our departure from cumberland house and which infested us during the whole summer; we found no relief from their attacks by exposing ourselves to the utmost violence of the wind and rain. our last resource was to plunge ourselves in the water, and from this uncomfortable situation we gladly escaped at daylight, and hoisted our sails. the woody lake is thirteen miles in length and a small grassy channel at its north-western extremity leads to the frog portage, the source of the waters descending by beaver lake to the saskatchewan. the distance to the missinippi or churchill river is only three hundred and eighty yards and, as its course crosses the height nearly at rightangles to the direction of the great river, it would be superfluous to compute the elevation at this place. the portage is in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, and longitude degrees minutes seconds west. its name according to sir alexander mackenzie is derived from the crees having left suspended a stretched frog's skin in derision of the northern indian mode of dressing the beaver. the part of the missinippi in which we embarked we should have mistaken for a lake had it not been for the rapidity of the current against which we made our way. at four p.m. we passed a long portage occasioned by a ledge of rocks three hundred yards in length over which the river falls seven or eight feet. after crossing another portage we encamped. on the th we had rain, wind, and thunder the whole day but this weather was much preferable to the heat we had borne hitherto. we passed three portages and at six p.m. encamped on the north bank. below the third portage is the mouth of the rapid river, flowing from a large lake to the southward, on which a post was formerly maintained by the north-west company. next morning we found ourselves involved in a confused mass of islands through the openings of which we could not discern the shore. the guide's knowledge of the river did not extend beyond the last portage, and our perplexity continued till we observed some foam floating on the water and took the direction from which it came. the noise of a heavy fall at the mountain portage reached our ears at the distance of four miles and we arrived there at eight a.m. the portage was a difficult ascent over a rocky island between which and the main shore were two cataracts and a third in sight above them, making another portage. we surprised a large brown bear which immediately retreated into the woods. to the northward of the second portage we again found the channels intricate but, the shores being sometimes visible, we ventured to proceed. the character of the country was new and more interesting than before. the mountainous and strong elevations receded from the bank and the woods crept through their openings to the valleys behind, the adventurous pine alone ascending their bases and braving storms unfelt below. at noon we landed at the otter portage where the river ran with great velocity for half a mile among large stones. having carried across the principal part of the cargo the people attempted to track the canoes along the edge of the rapid. with the first they succeeded but the other, in which were the foreman and steersman, was overset and swept away by the current. an account of this misfortune was speedily conveyed to the upper end of the portage and the men launched the remaining canoe into the rapid, though wholly unacquainted with the dangers of it. the descent was quickly accomplished and they perceived the bottom of the lost canoe above water in a little bay whither it had been whirled by the eddy. one man had reached the bank but no traces could be found of the foreman louis saint jean. we saved the canoe out of which two guns and a case of preserved meats had been thrown into the rapid.* so early a disaster deeply affected the spirits of the canadians, and their natural vivacity gave way to melancholy forebodings while they erected a wooden cross in the rocks near the spot where their companion perished. (*footnote. mr. hood himself was the first to leap into the canoe and incite the men to follow him and shoot the rapid to save the lives of their companions. dr. richardson's journal.) the loss of this man's services and the necessity of procuring a guide determined us to wait for the arrival of the north-west company's people from fort chipewyan and we encamped accordingly. the canoe was much shattered but, as the gunwales were not broken, we easily repaired it. in the evening a north-west canoe arrived with two of the partners. they gave us an account of mr. franklin's proceedings and referred us to the brigade following them for a guide. during the th it rained heavily and we passed the day in anxious suspense confined to our tents. a black bear came to the bank on the opposite side of the river and, on seeing us, glided behind the trees. late on the st mr. robertson of the hudson's bay company arrived and furnished us with a guide, but desired that he might be exchanged when we met the northern canoes. we took advantage of the remainder of the day to cross the next portage which was three-fourths of a mile in length. on the nd we crossed three small portages and encamped at the fourth. at one of them we passed some of the hudson's bay company's canoes and our application to them was unsuccessful. we began to suspect that isle a la crosse was the nearest place at which we might hope for assistance. however on the morning of the rd, as we were about to embark, we encountered the last brigades of canoes belonging to both the companies and obtained a guide and foreman from them. thus completely equipped we entered the black bear island lake, the navigation of which requires a very experienced pilot. its length is twenty-two miles and its breadth varies from three to five, yet it is so choked with islands that no channel is to be found through it exceeding a mile in breadth. at sunset we landed and encamped on an island, and at six a.m. on the th left the lake and crossed three portages into another which has probably several communications with the last, as that by which we passed is too narrow to convey the whole body of the missinippi. at one of these portages called the pin portage is a rapid about ten yards in length with a descent of ten or twelve feet and beset with rocks. light canoes sometimes venture down this fatal gulf to avoid the portage, unappalled by the warning crosses which overhang the brink, the mournful records of former failures. the hudson's bay company's people whom we passed on the rd going to the rock house with their furs were badly provided with food, of which we saw distressing proofs at every portage behind them. they had stripped the birch trees of their rind to procure the soft pulpy vessels in contact with the wood which are sweet but very insufficient to satisfy a craving appetite. the lake to the westward of the pin portage is called sandfly lake; it is seven miles long and a wide channel connects it with the serpent lake, the extent of which to the southward we could not discern. there is nothing remarkable in this chain of lakes except their shapes, being rocky basins filled by the waters of the missinippi, insulating the massy eminences and meandering with almost imperceptible current between them. from the serpent to the sandy lake it is again confined in a narrow space by the approach of its winding banks, and on the th we were some hours employed in traversing a series of shallow rapids where it was necessary to lighten the canoes. having missed the path through the woods we walked two miles in the water upon sharp stones, from which some of us were incessantly slipping into deep holes and floundering in vain for footing at the bottom, a scene highly diverting notwithstanding our fatigue. we were detained in sandy lake till one p.m. by a strong gale when, the wind becoming moderate, we crossed five miles to the mouth of the river and at four p.m. left the main branch of it and entered a little rivulet called the grassy river, running through an extensive reedy swamp. it is the nest of innumerable ducks which rear their young among the long rushes in security from beasts of prey. at sunset we encamped on the banks of the main branch. at three a.m. june th we embarked in a thick fog occasioned by a fall of the temperature of the air ten degrees below that of the water. having crossed knee lake which is nine miles in length and a portage at its western extremity we entered primeau lake with a strong and favourable wind, by the aid of which we ran nineteen miles through it and encamped at the river's mouth. it is shaped like the barb of an arrow with the point towards the north and its greatest breadth is about four miles. during the night a torrent of rain washed us from our beds accompanied with the loudest thunder i ever heard. this weather continued during the th and often compelled us to land and turn the canoes up to prevent them from filling. we passed one portage and the confluence of a river said to afford by other rivers beyond a height of land a shorter but more difficult route to the athabasca lake than that which is generally pursued. on the th we crossed the last portage and at ten a.m. entered the isle a la crosse lake. its long succession of woody points, both banks stretching towards the south till their forms were lost in the haze of the horizon, was a grateful prospect to us after our bewildered and interrupted voyage in the missinippi. the gale wafted us with unusual speed and as the lake increased in breadth the waves swelled to a dangerous height. a canoe running before the wind is very liable to burst asunder when on the top of a wave so that part of the bottom is out of the water, for there is nothing to support the weight of its heavy cargo but the bark and the slight gunwales attached to it. on making known our exigencies to the gentlemen in charge of the hudson's bay and north-west companies' forts they made up an assortment of stores amounting to five bales, for four of which we were indebted to mr. mcleod of the north-west company who shared with us the ammunition absolutely required for the support of his post, receiving in exchange an order for the same quantity upon the cargo which we expected to follow us from york factory. we had heard from mr. stuart that fort chipewyan was too much impoverished to supply the wants of the expedition and we found isle a la crosse in the same condition; which indeed we might have foreseen from the exhausted state of cumberland house but could not have provided against. we never had heard before our departure from york that the posts in the interior only received annually the stores necessary for the consumption of a single year. it was fortunate for us that mr. franklin had desired ten bags of pemmican to be sent from the saskatchewan across the plains to isle a la crosse for our use. this resource was untouched but we could not embark more than five pieces in our own canoes. however mr. mcleod agreed to send a canoe after us to the methye portage with the pemmican, and we calculated that the diminution of our provision would there enable us to receive it. the beaver river enters this lake on the south-east side, and another river which has not been named on the south-west. both these rivers are branches of the missinippi as it is the only outlet from the lake. the banks appeared to be rocky and the beach in many places sandy but its waters are yellow and muddy. it produces a variety of fish among which its white-fish are esteemed the best in the country. the only birds visible at this season are common to every part of the missinippi; gulls, ducks, pigeons, goatsuckers, and the raven; and geese and swans pay a momentary visit in passing to the north and returning. there was little in the forts differing from the establishments that we had before seen. the ground on which they are erected is sandy and favourable to cultivation. curiosity however was satisfied by the first experiment and utility alone has been unable to extend it. isle a la crosse is frequented by the crees and the chipewyans. it is not the dread of the indians but of one another that has brought the rival companies so close together at every trading post, each party seeking to prevent the other from engaging the affections of the natives and monopolising the trade. whenever a settlement is made by the one the other immediately follows, without considering the eligibility of the place, for it may injure its opponent though it cannot benefit itself, and that advantage, which is the first object of all other commercial bodies, becomes but the second with the fur traders. on the evening of the th we embarked and entered a wide channel to the northward of the forts and extending towards the north-west. it gradually decreased in breadth till it became a river which is the third fork of the missinippi and, its current being almost insensible, we entered the clear lake at ten a.m. on the st of july. of this lake, which is very large, no part is known except the south border, but its extent would lead us to conclude that its evaporation must be supplied by another river to the northward, especially as the small channel that communicates with buffalo lake is motionless. the existence of such a river is asserted by the indians, and a shorter passage might be found by it across the height of land to clear water river than the portage from the methye lake. in buffalo lake the wind was too strong for us to proceed and we therefore encamped upon a gravel beach thrown up by the waves. we embarked at three a.m. july nd and at four p.m. entered the mouth of the methye river. the lake is thirty-four miles in length and fourteen in breadth. it is probably very deep for we saw no islands on this wide expanse except at the borders. on the south-west side were two forts belonging to the companies and near them a solitary hill seven or eight hundred feet high. at eight p.m. we encamped in the methye river at the confluence of the river pembina. a route has been explored by it to the red willow river across the height of land, but the difficulties of it were so great that the ordinary route is preferred. on the rd we passed through the methye river and encamped on the borders of the methye lake. the soil from isle a la crosse to this place is sandy with some portion of clay and the trees numerous; but the methye river is stony and so shallow that, to lighten the canoes, we made two portages of five and two miles. the paths were overflowed with cold spring water and barricaded by fallen trees; we should have been contented to immerse ourselves wholly had the puddle been sufficiently deep for the mosquitoes devoured every part that was exposed to them. on the th we crossed the methye lake and landed at the portage on the north-west side in one of the sources of the missinippi. the lake is seventeen miles in length with a large island in the middle. we proceeded to the north side of the portage with two men carrying a tent and some instruments, leaving the canoes and cargoes to be transported by daily journeys of two or three miles. the distance is fourteen statute miles and there are two small lakes about five miles from the north side. several species of fish were found in them though they have no known communication with any other body of water, being situated on the elevation of the height. the road was a gentle ascent, miry from the late rainy weather and shaded by pines, poplars, birches, and cypresses, which terminated our view. on the north side we discovered through an opening in the trees that we were on a hill eight or nine hundred feet high and at the edge of a steep descent. we were prepared to expect an extensive prospect, but the magnificent scene before us was so superior to what the nature of the country had promised that it banished even our sense of suffering from the mosquitoes which hovered in clouds about our heads. two parallel chains of hills extended towards the setting sun, their various projecting outlines exhibiting the several gradations of distance and the opposite bases closing at the horizon. on the nearest eminence the objects were clearly defined by their dark shadows; the yellow rays blended their softening hues with brilliant green on the next, and beyond it all distinction melted into gray and purple. in the long valley between, the smooth and colourless clear water river wound its spiral course, broken and shattered by encroaching woods. an exuberance of rich herbage covered the soil and lofty trees climbed the precipice at our feet, hiding its brink with their summits. impatient as we were and blinded with pain we paid a tribute of admiration, which this beautiful landscape is capable of exciting unaided by the borrowed charms of a calm atmosphere, glowing with the vivid tints of evening. we descended to the banks of the clear water river and, having encamped, the two men returned to assist their companions. we had sometimes before procured a little rest by closing the tent and burning wood or flashing gunpowder within, the smoke driving the mosquitoes into the crannies of the ground. but this remedy was now ineffectual though we employed it so perseveringly as to hazard suffocation: they swarmed under our blankets, goring us with their envenomed trunks and steeping our clothes in blood. we rose at daylight in a fever and our misery was unmitigated during our whole stay. the mosquitoes of america resemble in shape those of africa and europe but differ essentially in size and other particulars. there are two distinct species, the largest of which is brown and the smallest black. where they are bred cannot easily be determined for they are numerous in every soil. they make their first appearance in may and the cold destroys them in september; in july they are most voracious and, fortunately for the traders, the journeys from the trading posts to the factories are generally concluded at that period. the food of the mosquito is blood which it can extract by penetrating the hide of a buffalo; and if it is not disturbed it gorges itself so as to swell its body into a transparent globe. the wound does not swell like that of the african mosquito, but it is infinitely more painful; and when multiplied a hundredfold and continued for so many successive days it becomes an evil of such magnitude that cold, famine, and every other concomitant of an inhospitable climate must yield the pre-eminence to it. it chases the buffalo to the plains, irritating him to madness; and the reindeer to the seashore, from which they do not return till the scourge has ceased. on the th the thermometer was degrees in the sun and on the th degrees. the mosquitoes sought the shade in the heat of the day. it was some satisfaction to us to see the havoc made among them by a large and beautiful species of dragonfly called the mosquito hawk, which wheeled through their retreats swallowing their prey without a momentary diminution of speed. but the temporary relief that we had hoped for was only an exchange of tormentors: our new assailant, the horsefly, or bulldog, ranged in the hottest glare of the sun and carried off a portion of flesh at each attack. another noxious insect, the smallest but not the least formidable, was the sandfly known in canada by the name of the brulot. to such annoyance all travellers must submit, and it would be unworthy to complain of that grievance in the pursuit of knowledge which is endured for the sake of profit. this detail of it has only been as an excuse for the scantiness of our observations on the most interesting part of the country through which we passed. the north side of the methye portage is in latitude degrees minutes seconds north and longitude degrees minutes seconds west. it is of course one hundred and twenty-four miles from isle a la crosse and considered as a branch of the missinippi, five hundred and ninety-two miles from the frog portage. the clear water river passing through the valley, described above, evidently rises not far to the eastward. the height, computed by the same mode as that of the echiamamis, by allowing a foot for each mile of distance and six feet on an average for each fall and rapid, is two thousand four hundred and sixty-seven feet above the level of the sea, admitting it to be nine hundred feet above the clear water river. the country in a line between it and the mouth of mackenzie's river is a continual descent, although to the eastward of that line there may be several heights between it and the arctic sea. to the eastward the lands descend to hudson's bay, and to the westward also, till the athabasca river cuts through it, from whence it ascends to the rocky mountains. daring was the spirit of enterprise that first led commerce with her cumbrous train from the waters of hudson's bay to those of the arctic sea, across an obstacle to navigation so stupendous as this; and persevering has been the industry which drew riches from a source so remote. his journey to chipewyan. on the th two men arrived and informed us that they had brought us our ten bags of pemmican from isle a la crosse, but that they were found to be rotten. thus were we unexpectedly deprived of the most essential of our stores for we knew fort chipewyan to be destitute of provisions and that mr. franklin depended upon us for a supply, whereas enough did not remain for our own use. on the th the canoes and cargoes reached the north side of the portage. our people had selected two bags of pemmican less mouldy than the rest which they left on the beach. its decay was caused by some defect in the mode of mixing it. on the th we embarked in the clear water river and proceeded down the current. the hills, the banks, and bed of the river were composed of fine yellow sand with some limestone rocks. the surface soil was alluvial. at eight a.m. we passed a portage on which the limestone rocks were singularly scattered through the woods, bearing the appearance of houses and turrets overgrown with moss. the earth emitted a hollow sound and the river was divided by rocks into narrow crooked channels, every object indicating that some convulsion had disturbed the general order of nature at this place. we had passed a portage above it and after two long portages below it we encamped. near the last was a small stream so strongly impregnated with sulphur as to taint the air to a great distance around it. we saw two brown bears on the hills in the course of the day. at daylight on the th we embarked. the hills continued on both sides of the mouth of the river, varying from eight hundred to one thousand feet in height. they declined to the banks in long green slopes diversified by woody mounds and copses. the pines were not here in thick impenetrable masses but perched aloft in single groups on the heights or shrouded by the livelier hues of the poplar and willow. we passed the mouth of the red willow river on the south bank flowing through a deep ravine. it is the continuation of the route by the pembina before mentioned. at noon we entered the majestic athabasca or elk river. its junction with the clear water river is called the forks. its banks were inaccessible cliffs, apparently of clay and stones about two hundred feet high, and its windings in the south were encircled by high mountains. its breadth exceeded half a mile and was swelled to a mile in many places by long muddy islands in the middle covered with trees. no more portages interrupted our course but a swift current hurried us towards the quarter in which our anticipated discoveries were to commence. the passing cliffs returned a loud confusion of echoes to the sprightly canoe song and the dashing paddles and the eagles, watching with half-closed eyes on the pine-tops, started from their airy rest and prepared their drowsy pinions for the flight. about twenty miles from the forks are some salt pits and plains, said to be very extensive. the height of the banks was reduced to twenty or thirty feet and the hills ranged themselves at an increased distance from the banks in the same variety as those of the clear water river. at sunset we encamped on a small sandy island but the next morning made a speedy retreat to the canoes, the water having nearly overflown our encampment. we passed two deserted settlements of the fur traders on opposite banks at a place called pierre au calumet. beyond it the hills disappeared and the banks were no longer visible above the trees. the river carries away yearly large portions of soil which increases its breadth and diminishes its depth, rendering the water so muddy as to be scarcely drinkable. whole forests of timber are drifted down the stream and choke up the channels between the islands at its mouth. we observed the traces of herds of buffaloes where they had crossed the river, the trees being trodden down and strewed as if by a whirlwind. at four p.m. we left the main branch of the athabasca, entering a small river called the embarras. it is narrow and muddy with pines of an enormous size on its banks. some of them are two hundred feet high and three or four feet in diameter. at nine p.m. we landed and encamped but, finding ourselves in a nest of mosquitoes, we continued our journey before daybreak; and at eight a.m. emerged into the athabasca lake. a strong wind agitated this sea of fresh water which however we crossed without any accident, and landed on the north side of it at fort chipewyan where we had the satisfaction of finding our companions in good health, and of experiencing that sympathy in our anxiety on the state of affairs, which was only to be expected from those who were to share our future fortunes. chapter . departure from chipewyan. difficulties of the various navigations of the rivers and lakes, and of the portages. slave lake and fort providence. scarcity of provisions, and discontent of the canadian voyagers. difficulties with regard to the indian guides. refusal to proceed. visit of observation to the upper part of copper-mine river. return to the winter quarters of fort enterprise. departure from chipewyan. july , . early this morning the stores were distributed to the three canoes. our stock of provision unfortunately did not amount to more than sufficient for one day's consumption exclusive of two barrels of flour, three cases of preserved meats, some chocolate, arrowroot, and portable soup, which we had brought from england and intended to reserve for our journey to the coast the next season. seventy pounds of moose meat and a little barley were all that mr. smith was enabled to give us. it was gratifying however to perceive that this scarcity of food did not depress the spirits of our canadian companions who cheerfully loaded their canoes and embarked in high glee after they had received the customary dram. at noon we bade farewell to our kind friend mr. smith. the crews commenced a lively paddling song on quitting the shore which was continued until we had lost sight of the houses. we soon reached the western boundary of the lakem and at two entered the stony river, one of the discharges of the athabasca lake into the slave lake and, having a favouring current, passed swiftly along. this narrow stream is confined between low swampy banks which support willows, dwarf birch, and alder. at five we passed its conflux with the peace river. the slave river, formed by the union of these streams, is about three-quarters of a mile wide. we descended this magnificent river with much rapidity and, after passing through several narrow channels, formed by an assemblage of islands, crossed a spot where the waters had a violent whirling motion which, when the river is low, is said to subside into a dangerous rapid; on the present occasion no other inconvenience was felt than the inability of steering the canoes which were whirled about in every direction by the eddies until the current carried them beyond their influence. we encamped at seven on the swampy bank of the river but had scarcely pitched the tents before we were visited by a terrible thunderstorm; the rain fell in torrents and the violence of the wind caused the river to overflow its banks so that we were completely flooded. swarms of mosquitoes succeeded the storm and their tormenting stings, superadded to other inconveniences, induced us to embark and, after taking a hasty supper, to pursue our voyage down the stream during the night. at six on the following morning we passed the reindeer islands and at ten reached the entrance of the dog river where we halted to set the fishing nets. these were examined in the evening but, to our mortification, we obtained only four small trout and were compelled to issue part of our preserved meats for supper. the latitude of the mouth of dog river was observed degrees minutes seconds north. difficulties of the various navigations of the rivers and lakes, and of the portages. the nets were taken up at daylight but they furnished only a solitary pike. we lost no time in embarking and crossed the crooked channel of the dog rapid when two of the canoes came in such violent contact with each other that the sternmost had its bow broken off. we were fortunately near the shore or the disabled canoe would have sunk. the injury being repaired in two hours we again embarked and, having descended another rapid, arrived at the cassette portage of four hundred and sixty paces, over which the cargoes and canoes were carried in about twenty-six minutes. we next passed through a narrow channel full of rapids, crossed the portage d'embarras of seventy yards, and the portage of the little rock of three hundred yards, at which another accident happened to one of the canoes by the bowman slipping and letting it fall upon a rock and breaking it in two. two hours were occupied in sewing the detached pieces together and covering the seam with pitch but, this being done, it was as effective as before. after leaving this place we soon came to the next portage of two hundred and seventy-three paces; and shortly afterwards to the mountain portage of one hundred and twenty, which is appropriately named as the path leads over the summit of a high hill. this elevated situation commands a very grand and picturesque view for some miles along the river which at this part is about a mile wide. we next crossed a portage of one hundred and twenty yards; and then the pelican portage of eight hundred paces. mr. back took an accurate sketch of the interesting scenery which the river presents at this place. after descending six miles farther we came to the last portage on the route to slave lake which we crossed and encamped in its lower end. it is called the portage of the drowned and it received that name from a melancholy accident which took place many years ago. two canoes arrived at the upper end of the portage in one of which there was an experienced guide. this man, judging from the height of the river, deemed it practicable to shoot the rapid and determined upon trying it. he accordingly placed himself in the bow of his canoe, having previously agreed that, if the passage was found easy, he should, on reaching the bottom of the rapid, fire a musket as a signal for the other canoe to follow. the rapid proved dangerous and called forth all the skill of the guide and the utmost exertion of his crew and they narrowly escaped destruction. just as they were landing an unfortunate fellow, seizing the loaded fowling-piece, fired at a duck which rose at the instant. the guide, anticipating the consequences, ran with the utmost haste to the other end of the portage but he was too late: the other canoe had pushed off and he arrived only to witness the fate of his comrades. they got alarmed in the middle of the rapid, the canoe was upset, and every man perished. the various rapids we passed this day are produced by an assemblage of islands and rocky ledges which obstruct the river and divide it into many narrow channels. two of these channels are rendered still more difficult by accumulations of drift timber, a circumstance which has given a name to one of the portages. the rocks which compose the bed of the river and the numerous islands belong to the granite formation. the distance made today was thirteen miles. july . we embarked at four a.m. and pursued our course down the river. the rocks ceased at the last portage and below it the banks are composed of alluvial soil which is held together by the roots of trees and shrubs that crown their summits. the river is about a mile wide and the current is greatly diminished. at eight we landed at the mouth of the salt river and pitched our tents, intending to remain there that and the next day for the purpose of fishing. after breakfast, which made another inroad on our preserved meats, we proceeded up the river in a light canoe to visit the salt springs, leaving a party behind to attend the nets. this river is about one hundred yards wide at its mouth. its waters did not become brackish until we had ascended it seven or eight miles but, when we had passed several rivulets of fresh water which flowed in, the main stream became very salt, at the same time contracting its width to fifteen or twenty yards. at a distance of twenty-two miles, including the windings of the river, the plains commence. having pitched the tent at this spot we set out to visit the principal springs and had walked about three miles when the mosquitoes compelled us to give up our project. we did not see the termination of the plains toward the east, but on the north and west they are bounded by an even ridge about six or seven hundred feet in height. several salt springs issue from the foot of this ridge and spread their waters over the plain which consists of tenacious clay. during the summer much evaporation takes place and large heaps of salt are left behind crystallised in the form of cubes. some beds of grayish compact gypsum were exposed on the sides of the hills. the next morning after filling some casks with salt for our use during winter we embarked to return, and had descended the river a few miles when, turning round a point, we perceived a buffalo plunge into the river before us. eager to secure so valuable a prize we instantly opened a fire upon him from four muskets and in a few minutes he fell, but not before he had received fourteen balls. the carcass was towed to the bank and the canoe speedily laden with meat. after this piece of good fortune we descended the stream merrily, our voyagers chanting their liveliest songs. on arrival at the mouth of the river we found that our nets had not produced more than enough to supply a scanty meal to the men whom we had left behind, but this was now of little importance as the acquisition of meat we had made would enable us to proceed without more delay to slave lake. the poisson inconnu mentioned by mackenzie is found here. it is a species of the genus salmo, and is said by the indians to ascend from the arctic sea but, being unable to pass the cascade of the slave river, is not found higher than this place. in the evening a violent thunderstorm came on with heavy rain, thermometer degrees. at a very early hour on the following morning we embarked and continued to paddle against a very strong wind and high waves under the shelter of the bank of the rivers until two p.m. when, having arrived at a more exposed part of the stream, the canoes took in so much water that we were obliged to disembark on a small island. the river here is from one mile and a quarter to one mile and three-quarters wide. its banks are of moderate height, sandy, and well wooded. slave lake and fort providence. july . we made more progress notwithstanding the continuance of the wind. the course of the river is very winding, making in one place a circuit of seven or eight miles round a peninsula which is joined to the west bank by a narrow isthmus. near the foot of this elbow a long island occupies the centre of the river which it divides into two channels. the longitude was obtained near to it degrees minutes seconds and variation degrees minutes seconds north, and the latitude degrees minutes seconds north, about four miles farther down. we passed the mouth of a broad channel leading to the north-east termed la grande riviere de jean, one of the two large branches by which the river pours its waters into the great slave lake; the flooded delta at the mouth of the river is intersected by several smaller channels through one of which, called the channel of the scaffold, we pursued our voyage on the following morning and by eight a.m. reached the establishment of the north-west company on moose-deer island. we found letters from mr. wentzel, dated fort providence, a station on the north side of the lake, which communicated to us that there was an indian guide waiting for us at that post; but that the chief and the hunters who were to accompany the party had gone to a short distance to hunt, having become impatient at our delay. soon after landing i visited the hudson's bay post on the same island and engaged pierre st. germain, an interpreter for the copper indians. we regretted to find the posts of both the companies extremely bare of provision but, as the gentlemen in charge had despatched men on the preceding evening to a band of indians in search of meat and they promised to furnish us with whatever should be brought, it was deemed advisable to wait for their return as the smallest supply was now of importance to us. advantage was taken of the delay to repair effectually the canoe which had been broken in the dog rapid. on the next evening the men arrived with the meat and enabled mr. mcleod of the north-west company to furnish us with four hundred pounds of dried provisions. mr. mcvicar of the hudson's bay company also supplied one hundred and fifty pounds. this quantity we considered would be sufficient until we could join the hunters. we also obtained three fishing-nets, a gun, and a pair of pistols, which were all the stores these posts could furnish, although the gentlemen in charge were much disposed to assist us. moose-deer island is about a mile in diameter and rises towards the centre about three hundred feet above the lake. its soil is in general sandy, in some parts swampy. the varieties of the northern berries grow abundantly on it. the north-west company's fort is in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, being two hundred and sixty statute miles distant from fort chipewyan by the river course. the variation of the compass is degrees minutes seconds east. the houses of the two companies are small and have a bleak northern aspect. there are vast accumulations of driftwood on the shores of the lake, brought down by the river, which afford plenty of fuel. the inhabitants live principally on the fish, which the lake at certain seasons furnishes in great abundance; of these the white-fish, trout, and poisson inconnu are considered the best. they also procure moose, buffalo, and reindeer meat occasionally from their hunters; but these animals are generally found at the distance of several days' walk from the forts. the indians who trade here are chipewyans. beavers, martens, foxes, and muskrats are caught in numbers in the vicinity of this great body of water. the mosquitoes here were still a serious annoyance to us but less numerous than before. they were in some degree replaced by a small sandfly, whose bite is succeeded by a copious flow of blood and considerable swelling but is attended with incomparably less irritation than the puncture of the mosquito. on the th of july we embarked at four a.m. and proceeded along the south shore of the lake through a narrow channel, formed by some islands, beyond the confluence of the principal branch of the slave river; and as far as stony island, where we breakfasted. this island is merely a rock of gneiss that rises forty or fifty feet above the lake and is precipitous on the north side. as the day was fine and the lake smooth we ventured upon paddling across to the reindeer islands, which were distant about thirteen miles in a northern direction, instead of pursuing the usual track by keeping farther along the south shore which inclines to the eastward from this point. these islands are numerous and consist of granite, rising from one hundred to two hundred feet above the water. they are for the most part naked; but towards the centres of the larger ones there is a little soil and a few groves of pines. at seven in the evening we landed upon one of them and encamped. on the following morning we ran before a strong breeze and a heavy swell for some hours, but at length were obliged to seek shelter on a large island adjoining to isle a la cache of mackenzie, where the following observations were obtained: latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, and variation degrees minutes seconds east. the wind and swell having subsided in the afternoon we reembarked and steered towards the western point of the big island of mackenzie and, when four miles distant from it, had forty-two fathoms soundings. passing between this island and a promontory of the main shore, termed big cape, we entered into a deep bay which receives the waters from several rivers that come from the northward; and we immediately perceived a decrease in the temperature of the waters from to degrees. we coasted along the eastern side of the bay, its western shore being always visible, but the canoes were exposed to the hazard of being broken by the numerous sunken rocks which were scattered in our track. we encamped for the night on a rocky island and by eight a.m. on the following morning arrived at fort providence which is situated twenty-one miles from the entrance of the bay. the post is exclusively occupied by the north-west company, the hudson's bay company having no settlement to the northward of great slave lake. we found mr. wentzel and our interpreter jean baptiste adam here with one of the indian guides: but the chief of the tribe and his hunters were encamped with their families some miles from the fort in a good situation for fishing. our arrival was announced to him by a fire on the top of a hill, and before night a messenger came to communicate his intention of seeing us next morning. the customary present of tobacco and some other articles was immediately sent to him. mr. wentzel prepared me for the first conference with the indians by mentioning all the information they had already given to him. the duties allotted to this gentleman were the management of the indians, the superintendence of the canadian voyagers, the obtaining and the general distribution of the provision, and the issue of the other stores. these services he was well qualified to perform, having been accustomed to execute similar duties during a residence of upwards of twenty years in this country. we also deemed mr. wentzel to be a great acquisition to our party as a check on the interpreters, he being one of the few traders who speak the chipewyan language. as we were informed that external appearances made lasting impressions on the indians we prepared for the interview by decorating ourselves in uniform and suspending a medal round each of our necks. our tents had been previously pitched and over one of them a silken union flag was hoisted. soon after noon on july th several indian canoes were seen advancing in a regular line and, on their approach, the chief was discovered in the headmost which was paddled by two men. on landing at the fort the chief assumed a very grave aspect and walked up to mr. wentzel with a measured and dignified step, looking neither to the right nor to the left at the persons who had assembled on the beach to witness his debarkation, but preserving the same immovability of countenance until he reached the hall and was introduced to the officers. when he had smoked his pipe, drank a small portion of spirits and water himself, and issued a glass to each of his companions, who had seated themselves on the floor, he commenced his harangue by mentioning the circumstances that led to his agreeing to accompany the expedition, an engagement which he was quite prepared to fulfil. he was rejoiced he said to see such great chiefs on his lands; his tribe were poor but they loved white men who had been their benefactors; and he hoped that our visit would be productive of much good to them. the report which preceded our arrival he said had caused much grief to him. it was at first rumoured that a great medicine chief accompanied us who was able to restore the dead to life; at this he rejoiced; the prospect of again seeing his departed relatives had enlivened his spirits, but his first communication with mr. wentzel had removed these vain hopes and he felt as if his friends had a second time been torn from him. he now wished to be informed exactly of the nature of our expedition. in reply to this speech, which i understood had been prepared for many days, i endeavoured to explain the objects of our mission in a manner best calculated to ensure his exertions in our service. with this view i told him that we were sent out by the greatest chief in the world who was the sovereign also of the trading companies in the country; that he was the friend of peace and had the interest of every nation at heart. having learned that his children in the north were much in want of articles of merchandise, in consequence of the extreme length and difficulty of the present route, he had sent us to search for a passage by the sea which, if found, would enable large vessels to transport great quantities of goods more easily to their lands. that we had not come for the purpose of traffic but solely to make discoveries for their benefit as well as that of every other people. that we had been directed to inquire into the nature of all the productions of the countries we might pass through and particularly respecting their inhabitants. that we desired the assistance of the indians in guiding us and providing us with food; finally that we were most positively enjoined by the great chief to recommend that hostilities should cease throughout this country, and especially between the indians and the esquimaux, whom he considered his children in common with other natives and, by way of enforcing the latter point more strongly, i assured him that a forfeiture of all the advantages which might be anticipated from the expedition would be a certain consequence if any quarrel arose between his party and the esquimaux. i also communicated to him that, owing to the distance we had travelled, we had now few more stores than was necessary for the use of our own party, a part of these, however, should be forthwith presented to him; on his return he and his party should be remunerated with cloth, ammunition, and tobacco, and some useful iron materials, besides having their debts to the north-west company discharged. the chief whose name is akaitcho or big-foot replied by a renewal of his assurances that he and his party would attend us to the end of our journey, and that they would do their utmost to provide us with the means of subsistence. he admitted that his tribe had made war upon the esquimaux but said they were now desirous of peace and unanimous in their opinion as to the necessity of all who accompanied us abstaining from every act of enmity against that nation. he added however that the esquimaux were very treacherous and therefore recommended that we should advance towards them with caution. the communications which the chief and the guides then gave respecting the route to the copper-mine river and its course to the sea coincided in every material point with the statements which were made by boileau and black meat at chipewyan, but they differed in their descriptions of the coast. the information however, collected from both sources, was very vague and unsatisfactory. none of his tribe had been more than three days' march along the sea-coast to the eastward of the river's mouth. as the water was unusually high this season the indian guides recommended our going by a shorter route to the copper-mine river than that they had first proposed to mr. wentzel, and they assigned as a reason for the change that the reindeer would be sooner found upon this track. they then drew a chart of the proposed route on the floor with charcoal, exhibiting a chain of twenty-five small lakes extending towards the north, about one-half of them connected by a river which flows into slave lake near fort providence. one of the guides named keskarrah drew the copper-mine river running through the upper lake in a westerly direction towards the great bear lake and then northerly to the sea. the other guide drew the river in a straight line to the sea from the above-mentioned place but, after some dispute, admitted the correctness of the first delineation. the latter was elder brother to akaitcho and he said that he had accompanied mr. hearne on his journey and, though very young at the time, still remembered many of the circumstances and particularly the massacre committed by the indians on the esquimaux. they pointed out another lake to the southward of the river, about three days' journey distant from it, on which the chief proposed the next winter's establishment should be formed as the reindeer would pass there in the autumn and spring. its waters contained fish and there was a sufficiency of wood for building as well as for the winter's consumption. these were important considerations and determined me in pursuing the route they now proposed. they could not inform us what time we should take in reaching the lake until they saw our manner of travelling in the large canoes, but they supposed we might be about twenty days, in which case i entertained the hope that, if we could then procure provision, we should have time to descend the copper-mine river for a considerable distance, if not to the sea itself, and return to the lake before the winter set in. it may here be proper to mention that it had been my original plan to descend the mackenzie's river and to cross the great bear lake, from the eastern side of which, boileau informed me, there is a communication with the copper-mine river by four small lakes and portages; but under our present circumstances this course could not be followed because it would remove us too far from the establishments at the great slave lake to receive the supplies of ammunition and some other stores in the winter which were absolutely necessary for the prosecution of our journey, or to get the esquimaux interpreter whom we expected. if i had not deemed these circumstances paramount i should have preferred the route by bear lake. akaitcho and the guides having communicated all the information they possessed on the different points to which our questions had been directed i placed my medal round the neck of the chief, and the officers presented theirs to an elder brother of his and the two guides, communicating to them that these marks of distinction were given as tokens of our friendship and as pledges of the sincerity of our professions. being conferred in the presence of all the hunters their acquisition was highly gratifying to them, but they studiously avoided any great expression of joy because such an exposure would have been unbecoming the dignity which the senior indians assume during a conference. they assured us however of their being duly sensible of these tokens of our regard and that they should be preserved during their lives with the utmost care. the chief evinced much penetration and intelligence during the whole of this conversation, which gave us a favourable opinion of his intellectual powers. he made many inquiries respecting the discovery ships under the command of captain parry which had been mentioned to him, and asked why a passage had not been discovered long ago, if one existed. it may be stated that we gave a faithful explanation to all his inquiries, which policy would have prompted us to do if a love of truth had not; for whenever these northern nations detect a falsehood in the dealings of the traders they make it an unceasing subject of reproach, and their confidence is irrecoverably lost. we presented to the chief, the two guides, and the seven hunters who had engaged to accompany us some cloth, blankets, tobacco, knives, daggers, besides other useful iron materials, and a gun to each; also a keg of very weak spirits and water which they kept until the evening as they had to try their guns before dark and make the necessary preparations for commencing the journey on the morrow. they however did not leave us so soon, as the chief was desirous of being present with his party at the dance which was given in the evening to our canadian voyagers. they were highly entertained by the vivacity and agility displayed by our companions in their singing and dancing, and especially by their imitating the gestures of a canadian who placed himself in the most ludicrous postures and, whenever this was done, the gravity of the chief gave way to violent bursts of laughter. in return for the gratification akaitcho had enjoyed he desired his young men to exhibit the dog-rib indian dance; and immediately they ranged themselves in a circle and, keeping their legs widely separated, began to jump simultaneously sideways; their bodies were bent, their hands placed on their hips, and they uttered forcibly the interjection tsa at each jump. devoid as were their attitudes of grace and their music of harmony we were much amused by the novelty of the exhibition. in the midst of this scene an untoward accident occurred which for a time interrupted our amusements. the tent, in which dr. richardson and i lodged having caught fire from some embers that had been placed in it to expel the mosquitoes, was entirely burnt. hepburn, who was sleeping within it close to some powder, most providentially awoke in time to throw it clear of the flame and rescue the baggage before any material injury had been received. we dreaded the consequences of this disaster upon the fickle minds of the indians and wished it not to be communicated to them. the chief however was soon informed of it by one of his people and expressed his desire that no future misfortune should be concealed from him. we found that he was most concerned to hear that the flag had been burnt, but we removed his anxiety on that point by the assurance that it could easily be repaired. we were advised by mr. wentzel to recommence the dancing after this event lest the indians should imagine, by our putting a stop to it, that we considered the circumstance as an unfavourable commencement of our undertaking. we were however deeply impressed with a grateful sense of the divine providence in averting the threatened destruction of our stores, which would have been fatal to every prospect of proceeding forward this season. august . this morning the indians set out, intending to wait for us at the mouth of the yellow-knife river. we remained behind to pack our stores in bales of eighty pounds each, an operation which could not be done in the presence of these indians as they are in the habit of begging for everything they see. our stores consisted of two barrels of gunpowder, one hundred and forty pounds of ball and small shot, four fowling-pieces, a few old trading guns, eight pistols, twenty-four indian daggers, some packages of knives, chisels, nails, and fastenings for a boat; a few yards of cloth, some blankets, needles, looking-glasses, and beads, together with nine fishing-nets, having meshes of different sizes. our provision was two casks of flour, two hundred dried reindeer tongues, some dried moose-meat, portable soup, and arrowroot, sufficient in the whole for ten days' consumption, besides two cases of chocolate, and two canisters of tea. we engaged another canadian voyager at this place and the expedition then consisted of twenty-eight persons, including the officers, and the wives of three of our voyagers, who were brought for the purpose of making shoes and clothes for the men at the winter establishment; there were also three children belonging to two of these women.* (*footnote. the following is the list of the officers and men who composed the expedition on its departure from fort providence: john franklin, lieutenant of the royal navy and commander. john richardson, m.d., surgeon of the royal navy. mr. george back, of the royal navy, admiralty midshipman. mr. robert hood, of the royal navy, admiralty midshipman. mr. frederick wentzel, clerk to the north-west company. john hepburn, english seaman. canadian voyagers: joseph peltier, matthew pelonquin, dit credit, solomon belanger, joseph benoit, joseph gagne, pierre dumas, joseph forcier, ignace perrault, francois samandre, gabriel beauparlant, vincenza fontano, registe vaillant, jean baptiste parent, jean baptiste belanger, jean baptiste belleau, emanuel cournoyee, michel teroahaute, an iroquois, interpreters: pierre st. germain, jean baptiste adam, chipewyan bois brules.) our observations place fort providence in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west; the variation of the compass is degrees minutes seconds east and the dip of the needle degrees minutes seconds. it is distant from moose-deer island sixty-six geographic miles. this is the last establishment of the traders in this direction, but the north-west company have two to the northward of it on the mackenzie river. it has been erected for the convenience of the copper and dog-rib indians who generally bring such a quantity of reindeer meat that the residents are enabled, out of their superabundance, to send annually some provision to the fort at moose-deer island. they also occasionally procure moose and buffalo meat, but these animals are not numerous on this side of the lake. few furs are collected. les poissons inconnus, trout, pike, carp, and white-fish are very plentiful, and on these the residents principally subsist. their great supply of fish is procured in the latter part of september and the beginning of october, but there are a few taken daily in the nets during the winter. the surrounding country consists almost entirely of coarse-grained granite, frequently enclosing large masses of reddish felspar. these rocks form hills which attain an elevation of three hundred or four hundred feet about a mile behind the house; their surface is generally naked but in the valleys between them grow a few spruce, aspen, and birch trees, together with a variety of shrubs and berry-bearing plants. on the afternoon of the nd of august we commenced our journey, having, in addition to our three canoes, a smaller one to convey the women; we were all in high spirits, being heartily glad that the time had at length arrived when our course was to be directed towards the copper-mine river and through a line of country which had not been previously visited by any european. we proceeded to the northward along the eastern side of a deep bay of the lake, passing through various channels formed by an assemblage of rocky islands; and at sunset encamped on a projecting point of the north main shore eight miles from fort providence. to the westward of this arm, or bay of the lake, there is another deep bay that receives the waters of a river which communicates with great marten lake where the north-west company had once a post established. the eastern shores of the great slave lake are very imperfectly known: none of the traders have visited them and the indians give such loose and unsatisfactory accounts that no estimation can be formed of its extent in that direction. these men say there is a communication from its eastern extremity by a chain of lakes with a shallow river which discharges its waters into the sea. this stream they call the thloueetessy, and report it to be navigable for indian canoes only. the forms of the south and western shores are better known from the survey of sir alexander mackenzie and in consequence of the canoes having to pass and repass along these borders annually between moose-deer island and mackenzie's river. our observations made the breadth of the lake between stony island and the north main shore sixty miles less than it is laid down in arrowsmith's map; and there is also a considerable difference in the longitude of the eastern side of the bay, which we entered. this lake, owing to its great depth, is seldom completely frozen over before the last week in november and the ice, which is generally seven feet thick, breaks up about the middle of june, three weeks later than that of the slave river. the only known outlet to this vast body of water which receives so many streams on its north and south shores is the mackenzie river. august . we embarked at three a.m. and proceeded to the entrance of the yellow-knife river of the traders, which is called by the natives begholodessy or river of the toothless fish. we found akaitcho and the hunters with their families encamped here. there were also several other indians of his tribe who intended to accompany us some distance into the interior. this party was quickly in motion after our arrival and we were soon surrounded by a fleet of seventeen indian canoes. in company with them we paddled up the river, which is one hundred and fifty yards wide, and in an hour came to a cascade of five feet where we were compelled to make a portage of one hundred and fifty-eight yards. we next crossed a dilatation of the river, about six miles in length, upon which the name of lake prosperous was bestowed. its shores, though scantily supplied with wood, are very picturesque. akaitcho caused himself to be paddled by his slave, a young man of the dog-rib nation whom he had taken by force from his friends; when he thought himself however out of reach of our observation he laid aside a good deal of his state and assisted in the labour; and after a few days' further acquaintance with us he did not hesitate to paddle in our presence or even carry his canoe on the portages. several of the canoes were managed by women who proved to be noisy companions, for they quarrelled frequently, and the weakest was generally profuse in her lamentations, which were not at all diminished when the husband attempted to settle the difference by a few blows from his paddle. an observation near the centre of the lake gave degrees minutes seconds west and degrees minutes seconds east variation. leaving the lake we ascended a very strong rapid and arrived at a range of three steep cascades situated in the bend of the river. here we made a portage of one thousand three hundred yards over a rocky hill which received the name of the bowstring portage from its shape. we found that the indians had greatly the advantage of us in this operation; the men carried their small canoes, the women and children the clothes and provisions, and at the end of the portage they were ready to embark, whilst it was necessary for our people to return four times before they could transport the weighty cargo with which we were burdened. after passing through another expansion of the river and over the steep portage of one hundred and fifteen yards we encamped on a small rocky isle, just large enough to hold our party, and the indians took possession of an adjoining rock. we were now thirty miles from fort providence. as soon as the tents were pitched the officers and men were divided into watches for the night, a precaution intended to be taken throughout the journey, not merely to prevent our being surprised by strangers but also to show our companions that we were constantly on our guard. the chief, who suffered nothing to escape his observation, remarked that he should sleep without anxiety among the esquimaux for he perceived no enemy could surprise us. after supper we retired to rest but our sleep was soon interrupted by the indians joining in loud lamentations over a sick child whom they supposed to be dying. dr. richardson however immediately went to the boy and administered some medicine which relieved his pain and put a stop to their mourning. the temperatures this day were at four a.m. degrees, three p.m. degrees, at seven p.m. degrees. on the th we crossed a small lake and passed in succession over the blueberry cascade and double fall portages where the river falls over ridges of rocks that completely obstruct the passages for canoes. we came to three strong rapids beyond these barriers, which were surmounted by the aid of the poles and lines, and then to a bend of the river in which the cascades were so frequent that to avoid them we carried the canoes into a chain of small lakes. we entered them by a portage of nine hundred and fifty paces, and during the afternoon traversed three other grassy lakes and encamped on the banks of the river, at the end of the yellow-knife portage, of three hundred and fifty paces. this day's work was very laborious to our men. akaitcho however had directed his party to assist them in carrying their burdens on the portages, which they did cheerfully. this morning mr. back caught several fish with a fly, a method of fishing entirely new to the indians, and they were not more delighted than astonished at his skill and success. the extremes of temperature today were and degrees. scarcity of provisions, and discontent of the canadian voyagers. on august th we continued the ascent of the river, which varied much in breadth, as did the current in rapidity. it flows between high rocky banks on which there is sufficient soil to support pines, birch, and poplars. five portages were crossed, then the rocky lake, and we finished our labours at the end of the sixth portage. the issue of dried meat for breakfast this morning had exhausted all our stock, and no other provision remained but the portable soups and a few pounds of preserved meat. at the recommendation of akaitcho the hunters were furnished with ammunition and desired to go forward as speedily as possible to the part where the reindeer were expected to be found, and to return to us with any provision they could procure. he also assured us that in our advance towards them we should come to some lakes abounding in fish. many of the indians, being likewise in distress for food, decided on separating from us and going on at a quicker pace than we could travel. akaitcho himself was always furnished with a portion at our meals as a token of regard which the traders have taught the chiefs to expect and which we willingly paid. the next morning we crossed a small lake and a portage before we entered the river; shortly afterwards the canoes and cargoes were carried a mile along its banks to avoid three very strong rapids, and over another portage into a narrow lake; we encamped on an island in the middle of it to set the nets; but they only yielded a few fish and we had a very scanty supper as it was necessary to deal out our provision sparingly. the longitude degrees minutes seconds west and variation degrees minutes seconds east were observed. we had the mortification of finding the nets entirely empty next morning, an untoward circumstance that discouraged our voyagers very much; and they complained of being unable to support the fatigue to which they were daily exposed on their present scanty fare. we had seen with regret that the portages were more frequent as we advanced to the northward and feared that their strength would fail if provision were not soon obtained. we embarked at six, proceeded to the head of the lake, and crossed a portage of two thousand five hundred paces leading over ridges of sandhills which nourished pines of a larger size than we had lately seen. this conducted us to mossy lake whence we regained the river after traversing another portage. the birch and poplar portages next followed, and beyond these we came to a part where the river takes a great circuit and its course is interrupted by several heavy falls. the guide therefore advised us to quit it and proceed through a chain of nine lakes extending to the north-east which we did and encamped on icy portage where the nets were set. the bottom of the valley through which the track across this portage led was covered with ice four or five feet thick, the remains of a large iceberg which is annually formed there by the snow drifting into the valley and becoming consolidated into ice by the overflowing of some springs that are warm enough to resist the winter's cold. the latitude is degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west. we were alarmed in the night by our fire communicating to the dry moss which, spreading by the force of a strong wind, encircled the encampment and threatened destruction to our canoes and baggage. the watch immediately aroused all the men who quickly removed whatever could be injured to a distant part and afterwards succeeded in extinguishing the flame. august . during this day we crossed five portages, passing over a very bad road. the men were quite exhausted with fatigue by five p.m. when we were obliged to encamp on the borders of the fifth lake, in which the fishing-nets were set. we began this evening to issue some portable soup and arrowroot which our companions relished very much; but this food is too unsubstantial to support their vigour under their daily exhausting labour, and we could not furnish them with a sufficient quantity even of this to satisfy their desires. we commenced our labours on the next day in a very wet uncomfortable state as it had rained through the night until four a.m. the fifth grassy lake was crossed and four others, with their intervening portages, and we returned to the river by a portage of one thousand four hundred and fifteen paces. the width of the stream here is about one hundred yards, its banks are moderately high and scantily covered with wood. we afterwards twice carried the cargoes along its banks to avoid a very stony rapid and then crossed the first carp portage in longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation of the compass degrees minutes seconds east, and encamped on the borders of lower carp lake. the chief having told us that this was a good lake for fishing we determined on halting for a day or two to recruit our men, of whom three were lame and several others had swelled legs. the chief himself went forward to look after the hunters and promised to make a fire as a signal if they had killed any reindeer. all the indians had left us in the course of yesterday and today to seek these animals except the guide keskarrah. august . the nets furnishing only four carp we embarked for the purpose of searching for a better spot and encamped again on the shores of the same lake. the spirits of the men were much revived by seeing some recent traces of reindeer at this place, which circumstance caused them to cherish the hope of soon getting a supply of meat from the hunters. they were also gratified by finding abundance of blueberries near the encampment, which made an agreeable and substantial addition to their otherwise scanty fare. we were teased by sandflies this evening although the thermometer did not rise above degrees. the country through which we had travelled for some days consists principally of granite, intermixed in some spots with mica-slate, often passing into clay-slate. but the borders of lower carp lake where the gneiss formation prevails are composed of hills having less altitude, fewer precipices, and more rounded summits. the valleys are less fertile, containing a gravelly soil and fewer trees, so that the country has throughout a more barren aspect. august . having caught sufficient trout, white-fish, and carp yesterday and this morning to afford the party two hearty meals, and the men having recovered from their fatigue, we proceeded on our journey, crossed the upper carp portage, and embarked on the lake of that name where we had the gratification of paddling for ten miles. we put up at its termination to fish by the advice of our guide and the following observations were then taken: longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation of the compass degrees minutes seconds east, dip degrees minutes seconds. at this place we first perceived the north end of our dipping-needle to pass the perpendicular line when the instrument was faced to the west. we had scarcely quitted the encampment next day before an indian met us with the agreeable communication that the hunters had made several fires which were certain indications of their having killed reindeer. this intelligence inspired our companions with fresh energy and they quickly traversed the next portage and paddled through the reindeer lake; at the north side of it we found the canoes of our hunters and learned from our guide that the indians usually leave their canoes here as the water communication on their hunting grounds is bad. the yellow-knife river had now dwindled into an insignificant rivulet and we could not trace it beyond the next lake except as a mere brook. the latitude of its source degrees minute seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, and its length is one hundred and fifty-six statute miles. though this river is of sufficient breadth and depth for navigating in canoes yet i conceive its course is too much interrupted by cascades and rapids for its ever being used as a channel for the conveyance of merchandise. whilst the crews were employed in making a portage over the foot of prospect hill we ascended to the top of it and, as it is the highest ground in the neighbourhood, its summit, which is about five hundred feet above the water, commands an extensive view. akaitcho who was here with his family pointed out to us the smoke of the distant fires which the hunters had made. the prospect is agreeably diversified by an intermixture of hill and valley and the appearance of twelve lakes in different directions. on the borders of these lakes a few thin pine groves occur, but the country in general is destitute of almost every vegetable except a few berry-bearing shrubs and lichens, and has a very barren aspect. the hills are composed of gneiss but their acclivities are covered with a coarse gravelly soil. there are many large loose stones both on their sides and summits composed of the same materials as the solid rock. we crossed another lake in the evening, encamped and set the nets. the chief made a large fire to announce our situation to the hunters. difficulties with regard to the indian guides. refusal to proceed. august . we caught twenty fish this morning but they were small and furnished but a scanty breakfast for the party. whilst this meal was preparing our canadian voyagers, who had been for some days past murmuring at their meagre diet and striving to get the whole of our little provision to consume at once, broke out into open discontent, and several of them threatened they would not proceed forward unless more food was given to them. this conduct was the more unpardonable as they saw we were rapidly approaching the fires of the hunters and that provision might soon be expected. i therefore felt the duty incumbent on me to address them in the strongest manner on the danger of insubordination and to assure them of my determination to inflict the heaviest punishment on any that should persist in their refusal to go on, or in any other way attempt to retard the expedition. i considered this decisive step necessary, having learned from the gentlemen most intimately acquainted with the character of the canadian voyagers that they invariably try how far they can impose upon every new master and that they will continue to be disobedient and intractable if they once gain any ascendancy over him. i must admit however that the present hardships of our companions were of a kind which few could support without murmuring, and no one could witness without a sincere pity for their sufferings. after this discussion we went forward until sunset. in the course of the day we crossed seven lakes and as many portages. just as we had encamped we were delighted to see four of the hunters arrive with the flesh of two reindeer. this seasonable supply, though only sufficient for this evening's and the next day's consumption, instantly revived the spirits of our companions and they immediately forgot all their cares. as we did not after this period experience any deficiency of food during this journey they worked extremely well and never again reflected upon us as they had done before for rashly bringing them into an inhospitable country where the means of subsistence could not be procured. several blue fish resembling the grayling were caught in a stream which flows out of hunter's lake. it is remarkable for the largeness of the dorsal fin and the beauty of its colours. august . having crossed the hunter's portage we entered the lake of the same name in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west; but soon quitted it by desire of the indian guide and diverged more to the eastward that we might get into the line upon which our hunters had gone. this was the only consideration that could have induced us to remove to a chain of small lakes connected by long portages. we crossed three of these and then were obliged to encamp to rest the men. the country is bare of wood except a few dwarf birch bushes which grow near the borders of the lakes, and here and there a few stunted pines, and our fuel principally consisted of the roots of decayed pines which we had some difficulty to collect in sufficient quantity for cooking. when this material is wanting the reindeer lichen and other mosses that grow in profusion on the gravelly acclivities of the hills are used as substitutes. three more of the hunters arrived with meat this evening which supply came very opportunely as our nets were unproductive. at eight p.m. a faint aurora borealis appeared to the southward, the night was cold, the wind strong from north-west. we were detained some time in the following morning before the fishing-nets, which had sunk in the night, could be recovered. after starting we first crossed the orkney lake, then a portage which brought us to sandy lake and here we missed one of our barrels of powder which the steersman of the canoe then recollected had been left the day before. he and two other men were sent back to search for it in the small canoe. the rest of the party proceeded to the portage on the north side of the grizzly-bear lake, where the hunters had made a deposit of meat, and there encamped to await their return which happened at nine p.m. with the powder. we perceived from the direction of this lake that considerable labour would have been spared if we had continued our course yesterday, instead of striking off at the guide's suggestion, as the bottom of this lake cannot be far separated from either hunter's lake or the one to the westward of it. the chief and all the indians went off to hunt accompanied by pierre st. germain the interpreter. they returned at night bringing some meat and reported that they had put the carcasses of several reindeer en cache. these were sent for early next morning and, as the weather was unusually warm, the thermometer at noon being degrees, we remained stationary all day that the women might prepare the meat for keeping by stripping the flesh from the bones and drying it in the sun over a slow fire. the hunters were again successful and by the evening we had collected the carcasses of seventeen deer. as this was a sufficient store to serve us until we arrived at winter lake the chief proposed that he and his hunters should proceed to that place and collect some provision against our arrival. he also requested that we would allow him to be absent ten days to provide his family with clothing as the skin of the reindeer is unfit for that purpose after the month of september. we could not refuse to grant such a reasonable request but caused st. germain to accompany him that his absence might not exceed the appointed time. previous to his departure the chief warned us to be constantly on our guard against the grizzly bears which he described as being numerous in this vicinity and very ferocious; one had been seen this day by an indian, to which circumstance the lake owes its appellation. we afterwards learned that the only bear in this part of the country is the brown bear and that this by no means possesses the ferocity which the indians, with their usual love of exaggeration, ascribe to it. the fierce grizzly bear which frequents the sources of the missouri is not found on the barren grounds. the shores of this lake and the neighbouring hills are principally composed of sand and gravel; they are much varied in their outline and present some picturesque scenery. the following observations were taken here: latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west; variation of the compass degrees minutes seconds east; and dip of the needle degrees minutes seconds. on august the th, having finished drying the meat which had been retarded by the heavy showers of rain that fell in the morning, we embarked at one p.m. and crossed two lakes and two portages. the last of these was two thousand and sixty-six paces long and very rugged so that the men were much fatigued. on the next day we received the flesh of four reindeer by the small canoe which had been sent for it and heard that the hunters had killed several more deer on our route. we saw many of these animals as we passed along; and our companions, delighted with the prospect of having food in abundance, now began to accompany their paddling with singing, which they had discontinued ever since our provisions became scarce. we passed from one small lake to another over four portages, then crossed a lake about six miles in diameter and encamped on its border where, finding pines, we enjoyed the luxury of a good fire, which we had not done for some days. at ten p.m. the aurora borealis appeared very brilliant in an arch across the zenith from north-west to south-east which afterwards gave place to a beautiful corona borealis. august . after crossing a portage of five hundred and ninety-five paces, a small lake and another portage of two thousand paces, which occupied the crews seven hours, we embarked on a small stream running towards the north-west which carried us to the lake where akaitcho proposed that we should pass the winter. the officers ascended several of the loftiest hills in the course of the day, prompted by a natural anxiety to examine the spot which was to be their residence for many months. the prospect however was not then the most agreeable as the borders of the lake seemed to be scantily furnished with wood and that of a kind too small for the purposes of building. we perceived the smoke of a distant fire which the indians suppose had been made by some of the dog-ribbed tribe who occasionally visit this part of the country. embarking at seven next morning we paddled to the western extremity of the lake and there found a small river which flows out of it to the south-west. to avoid a strong rapid at its commencement we made a portage and then crossed to the north bank of the river where the indians recommended that the winter establishment should be erected, and we soon found that the situation they had chosen possessed all the advantages we could desire. the trees were numerous and of a far greater size than we had supposed them to be in a distant view, some of the pines being thirty or forty feet high and two feet in diameter at the root. we determined on placing the house on the summit of the bank which commands a beautiful prospect of the surrounding country. the view in the front is bounded at the distance of three miles by round-backed hills; to the eastward and westward lie the winter and round-rock lakes which are connected by the winter river whose banks are well clothed with pines and ornamented with a profusion of mosses, lichens, and shrubs. in the afternoon we read divine service and offered our thanksgiving to the almighty for his goodness in having brought us thus far on our journey; a duty which we never neglected when stationary on the sabbath. the united length of the portages we had crossed since leaving fort providence is twenty-one statute miles and a half and, as our men had to traverse each portage four times, with a load of one hundred and eighty pounds, and return three times light, they walked in the whole upwards of one hundred and fifty miles. the total length of our voyage from chipewyan is five hundred and fifty-three miles.* (*footnote. stony and slave rivers: statute miles. slave lake: statute miles. yellow-knife river: . statute miles. barren country between the source of the yellow-knife river and fort enterprise: . statute miles. total: statute miles.) a fire was made on the south side of the river to inform the chief of our arrival, which, spreading before a strong wind, caught the whole wood, and we were completely enveloped in a cloud of smoke for the three following days. on the next morning our voyagers were divided into two parties, the one to cut the wood for the building of a storehouse and the other to fetch the meat as the hunters procured it. an interpreter was sent with keskarrah the guide to search for the indians who had made the fire seen on saturday, from whom we might obtain some supplies of provision. an indian was also despatched to akaitcho with directions for him to come to this place directly and bring whatever provision he had as we were desirous of proceeding without delay to the copper-mine river. in the evening our men brought in the carcasses of seven reindeer which two hunters had shot yesterday and the women commenced drying the meat for our journey. we also obtained a good supply of fish from our nets today. a heavy rain on the rd prevented the men from working either at the building or going for meat; but on the next day the weather was fine and they renewed their labours. the thermometer that day did not rise higher than degrees and it fell to degrees before midnight. on the morning of the th we were surprised by some early symptoms of the approach of winter; the small pools were frozen over and a flock of geese passed to the southward. in the afternoon however a fog came on which afterwards changed into rain and the ice quickly disappeared. we suffered great anxiety all the next day respecting john hepburn who had gone to hunt before sunrise on the th and had been absent ever since. about four hours after his departure the wind changed and a dense fog obscured every mark by which his course to the tents could be directed, and we thought it probable he had been wandering in an opposite direction to our situation as the two hunters who had been sent to look for him returned at sunset without having seen him. akaitcho arrived with his party and we were greatly disappointed at finding they had stored up only fifteen reindeer for us. st. germain informed us that, having heard of the death of the chief's brother-in-law, they had spent several days in bewailing his loss instead of hunting. we learned also that the decease of this man had caused another party of the tribe, who had been sent by mr. wentzel to prepare provision for us on the banks of the copper-mine river, to remove to the shores of the great bear lake, distant from our proposed route. mortifying as these circumstances were they produced less painful sensations than we experienced in the evening by the refusal of akaitcho to accompany us in the proposed descent of the copper-mine river. when mr. wentzel, by my direction, communicated to him my intention of proceeding at once on that service he desired a conference with me upon the subject which, being immediately granted, he began by stating that the very attempt would be rash and dangerous as the weather was cold, the leaves were falling, some geese had passed to the southward, and the winter would shortly set in and that, as he considered the lives of all who went on such a journey would be forfeited, he neither would go himself nor permit his hunters to accompany us. he said there was no wood within eleven days' march, during which time we could not have any fire as the moss which the indians use in their summer excursions would be too wet for burning in consequence of the recent rains; that we should be forty days in descending the copper-mine river, six of which would be expended in getting to its banks, and that we might be blocked up by the ice in the next moon; and during the whole journey the party must experience great sufferings for want of food as the reindeer had already left the river. he was now reminded that these statements were very different from the account he had given both at fort providence and on the route hither; and that up to this moment we had been encouraged by his conversation to expect that the party might descend the copper-mine river accompanied by the indians. he replied that at the former place he had been unacquainted with our slow mode of travelling and that the alteration in his opinion arose from the advance of winter. we now informed him that we were provided with instruments by which we could ascertain the state of the air and water and that we did not imagine the winter to be so near as he supposed; however we promised to return on discovering the first change in the season. he was also told that, all the baggage being left behind, our canoes would now of course travel infinitely more expeditiously than anything he had hitherto witnessed. akaitcho appeared to feel hurt that we should continue to press the matter further and answered with some warmth: "well, i have said everything i can urge to dissuade you from going on this service on which it seems you wish to sacrifice your own lives as well as the indians who might attend you: however if after all i have said you are determined to go some of my young men shall join the party because it shall not be said that we permitted you to die alone after having brought you hither; but from the moment they embark in the canoes i and my relatives shall lament them as dead." we could only reply to this forcible appeal by assuring him and the indians who were seated around him that we felt the most anxious solicitude for the safety of every individual and that it was far from our intention to proceed without considering every argument for and against the proposed journey. we next informed him that it would be very desirable to see the river at any rate, that we might give some positive information about its situation and size in our next letters to the great chief; and that we were very anxious to get on its banks for the purpose of observing an eclipse of the sun which we described to him and said would happen in a few days. he received this communication with more temper than the preceding, though he immediately assigned as a reason for his declining to go that "the indians must now procure a sufficient quantity of deer-skins for winter clothing for themselves, and dresses for the canadians who would need them if they had to travel in the winter." finding him so averse to proceed and feeling at the same time how essential his continuance with us was, not only to our future success but even to our existence during the winter, i closed the conversation here, intending to propose to him next morning some modification of the plan which might meet his approbation. soon after we were gone however he informed mr. wentzel, with whom he was in the habit of speaking confidentially, that, as his advice was neglected, his presence was useless and he should therefore return to fort providence with his hunters after he had collected some winter provision for us. mr. wentzel having reported this to me the night was passed in great anxiety and, after weighing all the arguments that presented themselves to my mind, i came reluctantly to the determination of relinquishing the intention of going any distance down the river this season. i had considered that, could we ascertain what were the impediments to the navigation of the copper-mine river, what wood grew on its banks, if fit for boat building, and whether drift timber existed where the country was naked, our operations next season would be much facilitated; but we had also cherished the hope of reaching the sea this year for the indians in their conversations with us had only spoken of two great rapids as likely to obstruct us. this was a hope extremely painful to give up for, in the event of success, we should have ascertained whether the sea was clear of ice and navigable for canoes, have learned the disposition of the esquimaux, and might have obtained other information that would have had great influence on our future proceedings. i must confess however that my opinion of the probability of our being able to attain so great a desideratum this season had been somewhat altered by the recent changes in the weather although, had the chief been willing to accompany us with his party, i should have made the attempt, with the intention however of returning immediately upon the first decided appearance of winter. on the morning of august th, having communicated my sentiments to the officers on the subject of the conference last evening, they all agreed that the descent to the sea this season could not be attempted without hazarding a complete rupture with the indians; but they thought that a party should be sent to ascertain the distance and size of the copper-mine river. these opinions being in conformity with my own i determined on despatching messrs. back and hood on that service in a light canoe as soon as possible. we witnessed this morning an instance of the versatility of our indian companions which gave us much uneasiness as it regarded the safety of our faithful attendant hepburn. when they heard on their arrival last night of his having been so long absent they expressed the greatest solicitude about him, and the whole party immediately volunteered to go in search of him as soon as daylight permitted. their resolutions however seem to have been changed in consequence of the subsequent conversation we had with the chief, and we found all of them indisposed to proceed on that errand this morning; and it was only by much entreaty that three of the hunters and a boy were prevailed upon to go. they fortunately succeeded in their search and we were infinitely rejoiced to see hepburn return with them in the afternoon, though much jaded by the fatigue he had undergone. he had got bewildered, as we had conjectured, in the foggy weather on the th, and had been wandering about ever since except during half an hour that he slept yesterday. he had eaten only a partridge and some berries for his anxiety of mind had deprived him of appetite; and of a deer which he had shot he took only the tongue, and the skin to protect himself from the wind and rain. this anxiety we learned from him was occasioned by the fear that the party which was about to descend the copper-mine river might be detained until he was found, or that it might have departed without him. he did not entertain any dread of the white bears of whose numbers and ferocious attacks the indians had been constantly speaking since we had entered the barren grounds. our fears for his safety however were in a considerable degree excited by the accounts we had received of these animals. having made a hearty supper he retired to rest, slept soundly, and arose next morning in perfect health. on the th of august akaitcho was informed of our intention to send a party to the river and of the reasons for doing so, of which he approved when he found that i had relinquished the idea of going myself, in compliance with the desire which he and the indians had expressed; and he immediately said two of the hunters should go to provide them with food on the journey and to serve as guides. during this conversation we gathered from him for the first time that there might still be some of his tribe near to the river from whom the party could get provision. our next object was to despatch the indians to their hunting-ground to collect provision for us, and to procure the fat of the deer for our use during the winter, and for making the pemmican we should require in the spring. they were therefore furnished with some ammunition, clothing, and other necessary articles, and directed to take their departure as soon as possible. akaitcho came into our tent this evening at supper and made several pertinent inquiries respecting the eclipse of which we had spoken last night. he desired to know the effect that would be produced and the cause of it, which we endeavoured to explain and, having gained this information, he sent for several of his companions that they might also have it repeated to them. they were most astonished at our knowing the time at which this event should happen and remarked that this knowledge was a striking proof of the superiority of the whites over the indians. we took advantage of this occasion to speak to them respecting the supreme being, who ordered all the operations of nature, and to impress on their minds the necessity of paying strict attention to their moral duties, in obedience to his will. they readily assented to all these points and akaitcho assured us that both himself and his young men would exert themselves in obtaining provision for us in return for the interesting communications we had just made to them. having received a supply of dried meat from the indian lodges we were enabled to equip the party for the copper-mine river, and at nine a.m. on the th mr. back and mr. hood embarked on that service in a light canoe with st. germain, eight canadians, and one indian. we could not furnish them with more than eight days' provision which, with their blankets, two tents, and a few instruments, composed their lading. mr. back, who had charge of the party, was directed to proceed to the river and, if when he arrived at its banks the weather should continue to be mild and the temperature of the water was not lower than degrees, he might embark and descend the stream for a few days to gain some knowledge of its course, but he was not to go so far as to risk his being able to return to this place in a fortnight with the canoe. but if the weather should be severe and the temperature of the water below degrees he was not to embark but return immediately and endeavour to ascertain the best track for our goods to be conveyed thither next spring. we had seen that the water decreases rapidly in temperature at this season and i feared that if he embarked to descend the river when it was below degrees the canoe might be frozen in and the crew have to walk back in very severe weather. as soon as the canoe had started akaitcho and the indians took their departure also, except two of the hunters who stayed behind to kill deer in our neighbourhood, and old keskarrah and his family who remained as our guests. the fishing-nets were this day transferred from the river in which they had been set since our arrival to winter lake, whither the fish had removed, and the fishermen built a log-hut on its borders to reside in that they might attend more closely to their occupation. the month of september commenced with very disagreeable weather. the temperature of the atmosphere ranged between and degrees during the first three days, and that of the water in the river decreased from to degrees. several reindeer and a large flight of white geese passed to the southward. these circumstances led us to fear for the comfort, if not for the safety, of our absent friends. on the th of september we commenced building our dwelling-house, having cut sufficient wood for the frame of it. in the afternoon of september the th we removed our tent to the summit of a hill about three miles distant for the better observing the eclipse, which was calculated to occur on the next morning. we were prevented however from witnessing it by a heavy snow-storm, and the only observation we could then make was to examine whether the temperature of the atmosphere altered during the eclipse, but we found that both the mercurial and spirit thermometers remained steadily at degrees for a quarter of an hour previous to its commencement, during its continuance, and for half an hour subsequent to its termination; we remarked the wind increased very much and the snow fell in heavier flakes just after the estimated time of its commencement. this boisterous weather continued until three p.m. when the wind abated and the snow changed to rain. visit of observation to the upper part of copper-mine river. as there was now no immediate occasion for my remaining on the spot, the eclipse being over and the indians having removed to their hunting grounds, dr. richardson and i determined on taking a pedestrian excursion to the copper-mine river, leaving mr. wentzel in charge of the men and to superintend the buildings. on the morning of september the th we commenced our journey under the guidance of old keskarrah, and accompanied by john hepburn and samandre, who carried our blankets, cooking utensils, hatchets, and a small supply of dried meat. our guide led us from the top of one hill to the top of another, making as straight a course to the northward as the numerous lakes with which the country is intersected, would permit. at noon we reached a remarkable hill with precipitous sides, named by the copper indians the dog-rib rock, and its latitude, degrees minutes seconds south, was obtained. the canoe-track passes to the eastward of this rock but we kept to the westward as being the more direct course. from the time we quitted the banks of the winter river we saw only a few detached clumps of trees; but after we passed the dog-rib rock even these disappeared and we travelled through a naked country. in the course of the afternoon keskarrah killed a reindeer and loaded himself with its head and skin, and our men also carried off a few pounds of its flesh for supper; but their loads were altogether too great to permit them to take much additional weight. keskarrah offered to us as a great treat the raw marrow from the hind legs of the animal, of which all the party ate except myself and thought it very good. i was also of the same opinion when i subsequently conquered my then too fastidious taste. we halted for the night on the borders of a small lake which washed the base of a ridge of sandhills about three hundred feet high, having walked in direct distance sixteen miles. there were four ancient pine-trees here which did not exceed six or seven feet in height but whose branches spread themselves out for several yards and we gladly cropped a few twigs to make a bed and to protect us from the frozen ground, still white from a fall of snow which took place in the afternoon. we were about to cut down one of these trees for firewood but our guide solicited us to spare them and made us understand by signs that they had been long serviceable to his nation and that we ought to content ourselves with a few of the smaller branches. as soon as we comprehended his request we complied with it and our attendants, having with some trouble grubbed up a sufficient quantity of roots of the dwarf birch to make a fire, we were enabled to prepare a comfortable supper of reindeer's meat which we despatched with the appetites which travelling in this country never fails to ensure. we then stretched ourselves out on the pine brush and, covered by a single blanket, enjoyed a night of sound repose. the small quantity of bed-clothes we carried induced us to sleep without undressing. old keskarrah followed a different plan; he stripped himself to the skin and, having toasted his body for a short time over the embers of the fire, he crept under his deer-skin and rags, previously spread out as smoothly as possible and, coiling himself up in a circular form, fell asleep instantly. this custom of undressing to the skin even when lying in the open air is common to all the indian tribes. the thermometer at sunset stood at degrees. resuming our journey next morning we pursued a northerly course but had to make a considerable circuit round the western ends of two lakes whose eastern extremities were hidden from our view. the march was very uncomfortable as the wind was cold and there was a constant fall of snow until noon; our guide too persisted in taking us over the summit of every hill that lay in the route so that we had the full benefit of the breeze. we forded two streams in the afternoon flowing between small lakes and, being wet, did not much relish having to halt whilst keskarrah pursued a herd of reindeer; but there was no alternative as he set off and followed them without consulting our wishes. the old man loaded himself with the skin and some meat of the animal he killed in addition to his former burden; but after walking two miles, finding his charge too heavy for his strength, he spread the skin on the rock and deposited the meat under some stones, intending to pick them up on our return. we put up at sunset on the borders of a large lake, having come twelve miles. a few dwarf birches afforded us but a scanty fire yet, being sheltered from the wind by a sandy bank, we passed the night comfortably though the temperature was degrees. a number of geese passed over us to the southward. we set off early next morning and marched at a tolerably quick pace. the atmosphere was quite foggy and our view was limited to a short distance. at noon the sun shone forth for a few minutes and the latitude degrees minutes seconds was observed. the small streams that we had hitherto crossed run uniformly to the southward. at the end of sixteen miles and a half we encamped amongst a few dwarf pines and were much rejoiced at having a good fire as the night was very stormy and cold. the thermometer fluctuated this day between and degrees. though the following morning was foggy and rainy we were not sorry to quit the cold and uncomfortable beds of rock upon which we had slept and commence our journey at an early hour. after walking about three miles we passed over a steep sandy ridge and found the course of the rivulets running towards the north and north-west. our progress was slow in the early part of the morning and we were detained for two hours on the summit of a hill exposed to a very cold wind whilst our guide went in an unsuccessful pursuit of some reindeer. after walking a few miles farther the fog cleared away and keskarrah pointed out the copper-mine river at a distance and we pushed towards it with all the speed we could put forth. at noon we arrived at an arm of point lake, an extensive expansion of the river, and observed the latitude degrees minutes seconds north. we continued our walk along the south end of this arm for about a mile farther and then halted to breakfast amidst a cluster of pines. here the longitude degrees minutes seconds was observed. after breakfast we set out and walked along the east side of the arm towards the main body of the lake, leaving samandre to prepare an encampment amongst the pines against our return. we found the main channel deep, its banks high and rocky, and the valleys on its borders interspersed with clusters of spruce-trees. the latter circumstance was a source of much gratification to us. the temperature of its surface water was degrees, that of the air being degrees. having gained all the information we could collect from our guide and from personal observation we retraced our steps to the encampment, and on the way back hepburn and keskarrah shot several waveys (anas hyperborea) which afforded us a seasonable supply, our stock of provision being nearly exhausted. these birds were feeding in large flocks on the crow-berries which grew plentifully on the sides of the hills. we reached the encampment after dark, found a comfortable hut prepared for our reception, made an excellent supper, and slept soundly though it snowed hard the whole night. the hills in this neighbourhood are higher than those about fort enterprise; they stand however in the same detached manner without forming connected ranges; and the bottom of every valley is occupied either by a small lake or a stony marsh. on the borders of such of these lakes as communicate with the copper-mine river there are a few groves of spruce-trees, generally growing on accumulations of sand on the acclivities of the hills. we did not quit the encampment on the morning of september th until nine o'clock in consequence of a constant fall of snow; but at that hour we set out on our return to fort enterprise and, taking a route somewhat different from the one by which we came, kept to the eastward of a chain of lakes. soon after noon the weather became extremely disagreeable; a cold northerly gale came on attended by snow and sleet, and the temperature fell very soon from to degrees. the waveys, alarmed at the sudden change, flew over our heads in great numbers to a milder climate. we walked as quickly as possible to get a place that would furnish some fuel and shelter; but the fog occasioned us to make frequent halts from the inability of our guide to trace his way. at length we came to a spot which afforded us plenty of dwarf birches but they were so much frozen and the snow fell so thick that upwards of two hours were wasted in endeavouring to make a fire, during which time our clothes were freezing upon us. at length our efforts were crowned with success and after a good supper we laid or rather sat down to sleep, for the nature of the ground obliged us to pass the night in a demi-erect position with our backs against a bank of earth. the thermometer was degrees at six p.m. after enjoying a more comfortable night's rest than we had expected we set off at daybreak, the thermometer then standing at degrees. the ground was covered with snow, the small lakes were frozen, and the whole scene had a wintry appearance. we got on but slowly at first owing to an old sprained ankle which had been very troublesome to me for the last three days and was this morning excessively painful. in fording a rivulet however the application of cold water gave me immediate relief and i walked with ease the remainder of the day. in the afternoon we rejoined our track outwards and came to the place where keskarrah had made his deposit of provision, which proved a very acceptable supply as our stock was exhausted. we then crossed some sandhills and encamped amidst a few small pines, having walked thirteen miles. the comfort of a good fire made us soon insensible to the fatigue we had experienced through the day in marching over the rugged stones whose surface was rendered slippery by the frost. the thermometer at seven p.m. stood at degrees. return to the winter quarters of fort enterprise. we set off at sunrise next morning and our provision being expended pushed on as fast as we could to fort enterprise where we arrived at eight p.m., almost exhausted by a harassing day's march of twenty-two miles. a substantial supper of reindeer steaks soon restored our vigour. we had the happiness of meeting our friends mr. back and mr. hood who had returned from their excursion on the day succeeding that on which we set out; and i received from them the following account of their journey. they proceeded up the winter river to the north end of the little marten lake and then the guide, being unacquainted with the route by water to the copper-mine river, proposed that the canoe should be left. upon this they ascended the loftiest hill in the neighbourhood to examine whether they could discover any large lakes or water communication in the direction where the guide described the river to be. they only saw a small rivulet which was too shallow for the canoe and also wide of the course and, as they perceived the crew would have to carry it over a rugged hilly track, they judiciously decided on leaving it and proceeding forward on foot. having deposited the canoe among a few dwarf birch bushes they commenced their march, carrying their tents, blankets, cooking utensils, and a part of the dried meat. st. germain however had previously delineated with charcoal a man and a house on a piece of bark which he placed over the canoe and the few things that were left to point out to the dog-ribs that they belonged to white people. the party reached the shores of point lake through which the copper-mine river runs on the st of september. the next day was too stormy for them to march but on the rd they proceeded along its shores to the westward round a mountainous promontory and, perceiving the course of the lake extending to the west-north-west, they encamped near some pines and then enjoyed the luxury of a good fire for the first time since their departure from us. the temperature of the water in the lake was degrees and of the air degrees, but the latter fell to degrees in the course of that night. as their principal object was to ascertain whether any arm of the lake branched nearer to fort enterprise than the part they had fallen upon, to which the transport of our goods could be more easily made next spring, they returned on its borders to the eastward, being satisfied by the appearance of the mountains between south and west that no further examination was necessary in that direction; and they continued their march until the th at noon without finding any part of the lake inclining nearer the fort. they therefore encamped to observe the eclipse which was to take place on the following morning but, a violent snowstorm rendering the observation impossible, they commenced their return and after a comfortless and laborious march regained their canoe on the th and, embarking in it, arrived the same evening at the house. point lake varied, as far as they traced, from one to three miles in width. its main course was nearly east and west, but several arms branched off in different directions. i was much pleased with the able manner in which these officers executed the service they had been despatched upon, and was gratified to learn from them that their companions had conducted themselves extremely well and borne the fatigues of their journey most cheerfully. they scarcely ever had more than sufficient fuel to boil the kettle and were generally obliged to lie down in their wet clothes and consequently suffered much from cold. the distance which the parties travelled in their journey to and from point lake may be estimated at one hundred and ten statute miles which, being added to the distances given in the preceding pages, amount to one thousand five hundred and twenty miles that the expedition travelled in up to the time of its residence at fort enterprise. chapter . transactions at fort enterprise. mr. back's narrative of his journey to chipewyan, and return. transactions at fort enterprise. september . during our little expedition to the copper-mine river mr. wentzel had made great progress in the erection of our winter-house having nearly roofed it in. but before proceeding to give an account of a ten months' residence at this place, henceforth designated fort enterprise, i may premise that i shall omit many of the ordinary occurrences of a north american winter as they have been already detailed in so able and interesting a manner by ellis* and confine myself principally to the circumstances which had an influence on our progress in the ensuing summer. the observations on the magnetic needle, the temperature of the atmosphere, the aurora borealis, and other meteorological phenomena, together with the mineralogical and botanical notices, being less interesting to the general reader, are omitted in this edition. (*footnote. voyage to hudson's bay in the dobbs and california.) the men continued to work diligently at the house and by the th of september had nearly completed it for our reception when a heavy fall of rain washed the greater part of the mud off the roof. this rain was remarked by the indians as unusual after what they had deemed so decided a commencement of winter in the early part of the month. the mean temperature for the month was / degrees, but the thermometer had sunk as low as degrees and on one occasion rose to degrees. besides the party constantly employed at the house two men were appointed to fish and others were occasionally sent for meat as the hunters procured it. this latter employment, although extremely laborious, was always relished by the canadians as they never failed to use a prescriptive right of helping themselves to the fattest and most delicate parts of the deer. towards the end of the month the reindeer began to quit the barren grounds and came into the vicinity of the house on their way to the woods and, the success of the hunters being consequently great, the necessity of sending for the meat considerably retarded the building of the house. in the meantime we resided in our canvas tents which proved very cold habitations although we maintained a fire in front of them and also endeavoured to protect ourselves from the piercing winds by a barricade of pine branches. on the th of october, the house being completed, we struck our tents and removed into it. it was merely a log building, fifty feet long and twenty-four wide, divided into a hall, three bedrooms and a kitchen. the walls and roof were plastered with clay, the floors laid with planks rudely squared with the hatchet, and the windows closed with parchment of deer-skin. the clay which, from the coldness of the weather, required to be tempered before the fire with hot water, froze as it was daubed on and afterwards cracked in such a manner as to admit the wind from every quarter yet, compared with the tents, our new habitation appeared comfortable and, having filled our capacious clay-built chimney with fagots, we spent a cheerful evening before the invigorating blaze. the change was peculiarly beneficial to dr. richardson who, having in one of his excursions incautiously laid down on the frozen side of a hill when heated with walking, had caught a severe inflammatory sore throat which became daily worse whilst we remained in the tents but began to mend soon after he was enabled to confine himself to the more equable warmth of the house. we took up our abode at first on the floor but our working party, who had shown such skill as house carpenters, soon proved themselves to be, with the same tools (the hatchet and crooked knife) excellent cabinetmakers and daily added a table, chair, or bedstead to the comforts of our establishment. the crooked knife generally made of an old file, bent and tempered by heat, serves an indian or canadian voyager for plane, chisel, and auger. with it the snowshoe and canoe-timbers are fashioned, the deals of their sledges reduced to the requisite thinness and polish, and their wooden bowls and spoons hollowed out. indeed though not quite so requisite for existence as the hatchet yet without its aid there would be little comfort in these wilds. on the th we were gratified by a sight of the sun after it had been obscured for twelve days. on this and several following days the meridian sun melted the light covering of snow or hoarfrost on the lichens which clothe the barren grounds, and rendered them so tender as to attract great herds of reindeer to our neighbourhood. on the morning of the th i estimated the numbers i saw during a short walk at upwards of two thousand. they form into herds of different sizes from ten to a hundred according as their fears or accident induce them to unite or separate. the females being at this time more lean and active usually lead the van. the haunches of the males are now covered to the depth of two inches or more with fat which is beginning to get red and high flavoured and is considered a sure indication of the commencement of the rutting season. their horns, which in the middle of august were yet tender, have now attained their proper size and are beginning to lose their hairy covering which hangs from them in ragged filaments. the horns of the reindeer vary not only with its sex and age but are otherwise so uncertain in their growth that they are never alike in any two individuals. the old males shed theirs about the end of december; the females retain them until the disappearance of the snow enables them to frequent the barren grounds which may be stated to be about the middle or end of may, soon after which period they proceed towards the sea-coast and drop their young. the young males lose their horns about the same time with the females or a little earlier, some of them as early as april. the hair of the reindeer falls in july and is succeeded by a short thick coat of mingled clove, deep reddish and yellowish browns; the belly and under parts of the neck, etc., remaining white. as the winter approaches the hair becomes longer and lighter in its colours and it begins to loosen in may, being then much worn on the sides from the animal rubbing itself against trees and stones. it becomes grayish and almost white before it is completely shed. the indians form their robes of the skins procured in autumn when the hair is short. towards the spring the larvae of the oestrus, attaining a large size, produce so many perforations in the skins that they are good for nothing. the cicatrices only of these holes are to be seen in august but a fresh set of ova have in the meantime been deposited.* (*footnote. "it is worthy of remark that in the month of may a very great number of large larvae exist under the mucous membrane at the root of the tongue and posterior part of the nares and pharynx. the indians consider them to belong to the same species with the oestrus that deposits its ova under the skin: to us the larvae of the former appeared more flattened than those of the latter. specimens of both kinds preserved in spirits were destroyed by the frequent falls they received on the portages." dr. richardson's journal.) the reindeer retire from the sea-coast in july and august, rut in october on the verge of the barren grounds and shelter themselves in the woods during the winter. they are often induced by a few fine days in winter to pay a transitory visit to their favourite pastures in the barren country, but their principal movement to the northward commences generally in the end of april when the snow first begins to melt on the sides of the hills and early in may, when large patches of the ground are visible, they are on the banks of the copper-mine river. the females take the lead in this spring migration and bring forth their young on the sea-coast about the end of may or beginning of june. there are certain spots or passes well-known to the indians, through which the deer invariably pass in their migrations to and from the coast and it has been observed that they always travel against the wind. the principal food of the reindeer in the barren grounds consists of the cetraria nivalis and cucullata, cenomyce rangiferina, cornicularia ochrileuca, and other lichens, and they also eat the hay or dry grass which is found in the swamps in autumn. in the woods they feed on the different lichens which hang from the trees. they are accustomed to gnaw their fallen antlers and are said also to devour mice. the weight of a full-grown barren-ground deer, exclusive of the offal, varies from ninety to one hundred and thirty pounds. there is however a much larger kind found in the woody parts of the country whose carcass weighs from two hundred to two hundred and forty pounds. this kind never leaves the woods but its skin is as much perforated by the gadfly as that of the others, a presumptive proof that the smaller species are not driven to the sea-coast solely by the attacks of that insect. there are a few reindeer occasionally killed in the spring whose skins are entire and these are always fat whereas the others are lean at that season. this insect likewise infests the red-deer (wawaskeesh) but its ova are not found in the skin of the moose or buffalo, nor, as we have been informed, of the sheep and goat that inhabit the rocky mountains, although the reindeer found in those parts (which are of an unusually large kind) are as much tormented by them as the barren-ground variety. the herds of reindeer are attended in their migrations by bands of wolves which destroy a great many of them. the copper indians kill the reindeer in the summer with the gun or, taking advantage of a favourable disposition of the ground, they enclose a herd upon a neck of land and drive them into a lake where they fall an easy prey but, in the rutting season and in the spring, when they are numerous on the skirts of the woods, they catch them in snares. the snares are simple nooses, formed in a rope made of twisted sinew, which are placed in the aperture of a slight hedge constructed of the branches of trees. this hedge is so disposed as to form several winding compartments and, although it is by no means strong, yet the deer seldom attempt to break through it. the herd is led into the labyrinth by two converging rows of poles and one is generally caught at each of the openings by the noose placed there. the hunter too, lying in ambush, stabs some of them with his bayonet as they pass by and the whole herd frequently becomes his prey. where wood is scarce a piece of turf turned up answers the purpose of a pole to conduct them towards the snares. the reindeer has a quick eye but the hunter, by keeping to leeward and using a little caution, may approach very near, their apprehensions being much more easily roused by the smell than the sight of any unusual object. indeed their curiosity often causes them to come close up and wheel around the hunter; thus affording him a good opportunity of singling out the fattest of the herd, and upon these occasions they often become so confused by the shouts and gestures of their enemy that they run backwards and forwards with great rapidity but without the power of making their escape. the copper indians find by experience that a white dress attracts them most readily and they often succeed in bringing them within shot by kneeling and vibrating the gun from side to side in imitation of the motion of a deer's horns when he is in the act of rubbing his head against a stone. the dog-rib indians have a mode of killing these animals which though simple is very successful. it was thus described by mr. wentzel who resided long amongst that people. the hunters go in pairs, the foremost man carrying in one hand the horns and part of the skin of the head of a deer and in the other a small bundle of twigs against which he from time to time rubs the horns, imitating the gestures peculiar to the animal. his comrade follows, treading exactly in his footsteps and holding the guns of both in a horizontal position so that the muzzles project under the arms of him who carries the head. both hunters have a fillet of white skin round their foreheads and the foremost has a strip of the same kind round his wrists. they approach the herd by degrees, raising their legs very slowly but setting them down somewhat suddenly after the manner of a deer, and always taking care to lift their right or left feet simultaneously. if any of the herd leave off feeding to gaze upon this extraordinary phenomenon it instantly stops and the head begins to play its part by licking its shoulders and performing other necessary movements. in this way the hunters attain the very centre of the herd without exciting suspicion and have leisure to single out the fattest. the hindmost man then pushes forward his comrade's gun, the head is dropped, and they both fire nearly at the same instant. the herd scampers off, the hunters trot after them; in a short time the poor animals halt to ascertain the cause of their terror, their foes stop at the same instant and, having loaded as they ran, greet the gazers with a second fatal discharge. the consternation of the deer increases, they run to and fro in the utmost confusion, and sometimes a great part of the herd is destroyed within the space of a few hundred yards. a party who had been sent to akaitcho returned bringing three hundred and seventy pounds of dried meat and two hundred and twenty pounds of suet, together with the unpleasant information that a still larger quantity of the latter article had been found and carried off, as he supposed, by some dog-ribs who had passed that way. the weather becoming daily colder all the lakes in the neighbourhood of the house were completely, and the river partially, frozen over by the middle of the month. the reindeer now began to quit us for more southerly and better-sheltered pastures. indeed their longer residence in our neighbourhood would have been of little service to us, for our ammunition was almost completely expended though we had dealt it of late with a very sparing hand to the indians. we had however already secured in the storehouse the carcasses of one hundred deer together with one thousand pounds of suet and some dried meat, and had moreover eighty deer stowed up at various distances from the house. the necessity of employing the men to build a house for themselves before the weather became too severe obliged us to put the latter en cache, as the voyagers term it, instead of adopting the more safe plan of bringing them to the house. putting a deer en cache means merely protecting it against the wolves and still more destructive wolverines by heavy loads of wood or stones; the latter animal however sometimes digs underneath the pile and renders the precautions abortive. on the th mr. back and mr. wentzel set out for fort providence accompanied by beauparlant, belanger, and two indians, akaiyazza and tholezzeh, with their wives, the little forehead and the smiling marten. mr. back had volunteered to go and make the necessary arrangements for transporting the stores we expected from cumberland house and to endeavour to obtain some additional supplies from the establishments at slave lake. if any accident should have prevented the arrival of our stores and the establishments at moose-deer island should be unable to supply the deficiency he was, if he found himself equal to the task, to proceed to chipewyan. ammunition was essential to our existence and a considerable supply of tobacco was also requisite, not only for the comfort of the canadians, who use it largely and had stipulated for it in their engagements, but also as a means of preserving the friendship of the indians. blankets, cloth, and iron-work were scarcely less indispensable to equip our men for the advance next season. mr. wentzel accompanied mr. back to assist him in obtaining from the traders, on the score of old friendship, that which they might be inclined to deny to our necessities. i forwarded by them letters to the colonial office and admiralty detailing the proceedings of the expedition up to this period. on the nd we were surprised by a visit from a dog; the poor animal was in low condition and much fatigued. our indians discovered by marks on his ears that he belonged to the dog-ribs. this tribe, unlike the chipewyans and copper indians, had preserved that useful associate of man although, from their frequent intercourse with the latter people, they were not ignorant of the prediction alluded to in a former page. one of our interpreters was immediately despatched with an indian to endeavour to trace out the dog-ribs, whom he supposed might be concealed in the neighbourhood from their dread of the copper indians; although we had no doubt of their coming to us were they aware of our being here. the interpreter however returned without having discovered any traces of strange indians, a circumstance which led us to conclude that the dog had strayed from his masters a considerable time before. towards the end of the month the men completed their house and took up their abode in it. it was thirty-four feet long and eighteen feet wide, was divided into two apartments and was placed at rightangles to the officers' dwelling and facing the storehouse, the three buildings forming three sides of a quadrangle. on the th akaitcho and his party arrived, the hunting in this neighbourhood being terminated for the season by the deer having retired southward to the shelter of the woods. the arrival of this large party was a serious inconvenience to us from our being compelled to issue them daily rates of provision from the store. the want of ammunition prevented us from equipping and sending them to the woods to hunt and, although they are accustomed to subsist themselves for a considerable part of the year by fishing or snaring the deer, without having recourse to firearms, yet on the present occasion they felt little inclined to do so and gave scope to their natural love of ease as long as our storehouse seemed to be well stocked. nevertheless as they were conscious of impairing our future resources they did not fail occasionally to remind us that it was not their fault, to express an ardent desire to go hunting, and to request a supply of ammunition although they knew that it was not in our power to give it. the summer birds had by this time entirely deserted us, leaving for our winter companions the raven, cinereous crow, ptarmigan, and snow-bird. the last of the waterfowl that quitted us was a species of diver of the same size with the colymbus arcticus but differing from it in the arrangement of the white spots on its plumage, and in having a yellowish-white bill. this bird was occasionally caught in our fishing-nets. the thermometer during the month of october at fort enterprise never rose above degrees or fell below degrees; the mean temperature for the month was degrees. in the beginning of october a party had been sent to the westward to search for birch to make snowshoe frames, and the indian women were afterwards employed in netting the shoes and preparing leather for winter clothing to the men. robes of reindeer skins were also obtained from the indians and issued to the men who were to travel as they were not only a great deal lighter than blankets but also much warmer and altogether better adapted for a winter in this climate. they are however unfit for summer use as the least moisture causes the skin to spoil and lose its hair. it requires the skins of seven deer to make one robe. the finest are made of the skins of young fawns. the fishing having failed as the weather became more severe was given up on the th. it had procured us about one thousand two hundred white-fish, from two to three pounds each. there are two other species of coregoni in winter lake, back's grayling and the round-fish; and a few trout, pike, methye, and red carp were also occasionally obtained from the nets. it may be worthy of notice here that the fish froze as they were taken out of the nets, in a short time became a solid mass of ice and, by a blow or two of the hatchet, were easily split open, when the intestines might be removed in one lump. if in this completely frozen state they were thawed before the fire they recovered their animation. this was particularly the case with the carp and we had occasion to observe it repeatedly as dr. richardson occupied himself with examining the structure of the different species of fish and was always in the winter under the necessity of thawing them before he could cut them. we have seen a carp recover so far as to leap about with much vigour after it had been frozen for thirty-six hours. from the th to the th we had fine and, for the season, warm weather; and the deer, which had not been seen since the th of october, reappeared in the neighbourhood of the house, to the surprise of the indians who attributed their return to the barren grounds to the unusual mildness of the season. on this occasion, by melting some of our pewter cups, we managed to furnish five balls to each of the hunters, but they were all expended unsuccessfully, except by akaitcho who killed two deer. by the middle of the month winter river was firmly frozen over except the small rapid at its commencement which remained open all the winter. the ice on the lake was now nearly two feet thick. after the th we had a succession of cold, snowy, and windy weather. we had become anxious to hear of the arrival of mr. back and his party at fort providence. the indians, who had calculated the period at which a messenger ought to have returned from thence to be already passed, became impatient when it had elapsed and, with their usual love of evil augury, tormented us by their melancholy forebodings. at one time they conjectured that the whole party had fallen through the ice; at another that they had been waylaid and cut off by the dog-ribs. in vain did we urge the improbability of the former accident, or the peaceable character of the dog-ribs, so little in conformity with the latter. "the ice at this season was deceitful," they said "and the dog-ribs, though unwarlike, were treacherous." these assertions, so often repeated, had some effect upon the spirits of our canadian voyagers who seldom weigh any opinion they adopt, but we persisted in treating their fears as chimerical for, had we seemed to listen to them for a moment, it is more than probable that the whole of our indians would have gone to fort providence in search of supplies, and we should have found it extremely difficult to have recovered them. the matter was put to rest by the appearance of belanger on the morning of the rd and the indians, now running into the opposite extreme, were disposed to give us more credit for our judgment than we deserved. they had had a tedious and fatiguing journey to fort providence and for some days were destitute of provisions. belanger arrived alone; he had walked constantly for the last six-and-thirty hours, leaving his indian companions encamped at the last woods, they being unwilling to accompany him across the barren grounds during the storm that had prevailed for several days and blew with unusual violence on the morning of his arrival. his locks were matted with snow and he was encrusted with ice from head to foot so that we scarcely recognised him when he burst in upon us. we welcomed him with the usual shake of the hand but were unable to give him the glass of rum which every voyager receives on his arrival at a trading post. as soon as his packet was thawed we eagerly opened it to obtain our english letters. the latest were dated on the preceding april. they came by way of canada and were brought up in september to slave lake by north-west company's canoes. we were not so fortunate with regard to our stores; of ten pieces, or bales of pounds weight, which had been sent from york factory by governor williams five of the most essential had been left at the grand rapid on the saskatchewan, owing, as far as we could judge from the accounts that reached us, to the misconduct of the officer to whom they were entrusted and who was ordered to convey them to cumberland house. being overtaken by some of the north-west company's canoes he had insisted on their taking half of his charge as it was intended for the service of government. the north-west gentlemen objected that their canoes had already got a cargo in and that they had been requested to convey our stores from cumberland house only, where they had a canoe waiting for the purpose. the hudson's bay officer upon this deposited our ammunition and tobacco upon the beach and departed without any regard to the serious consequences that might result to us from the want of them. the indians, who assembled at the opening of the packet and sat in silence watching our countenances, were necessarily made acquainted with the non-arrival of our stores and bore the intelligence with unexpected tranquillity. we took care however in our communications with them to dwell upon the more agreeable parts of our intelligence, and they seemed to receive particular pleasure on being informed of the arrival of two esquimaux interpreters at slave lake, on their way to join the party. the circumstance not only quieted their fears of opposition from the esquimaux on our descent to the sea next season, but also afforded a substantial proof of our influence in being able to bring two people of that nation from such a distance. akaitcho, who is a man of great penetration and shrewdness, duly appreciated these circumstances; indeed he has often surprised us by his correct judgment of the character of individuals amongst the traders of our own party, although his knowledge of their opinions was in most instances obtained through the imperfect medium of interpretation. he was an attentive observer however of every action, and steadily compared their conduct with their pretensions. by the newspapers we learned the demise of our revered and lamented sovereign george iii and the proclamation of george iv. we concealed this intelligence from the indians lest the death of their great father might lead them to suppose that we should be unable to fulfil our promises to them. the indians who had left fort providence with belanger arrived the day after him and, amongst other intelligence, informed akaitcho of some reports they had heard to our disadvantage. they stated that mr. weeks, the gentleman in charge of fort providence, had told them that, so far from our being what we represented ourselves to be, the officers of a great king, we were merely a set of dependent wretches whose only aim was to obtain subsistence for a season in the plentiful country of the copper indians, that out of charity we had been supplied with a portion of goods by the trading companies, but that there was not the smallest probability of our being able to reward the indians when their term of service was completed. akaitcho, with great good sense, instantly came to have the matter explained, stating at the same time that he could not credit it. i then pointed out to him that mr. wentzel, with whom they had long been accustomed to trade, had pledged the credit of his company for the stipulated rewards to the party that accompanied us, and that the trading debts due by akaitcho and his party had already been remitted, which was of itself a sufficient proof of our influence with the north-west company. i also reminded akaitcho that our having caused the esquimaux to be brought up at a great expense was evidence of our future intentions, and informed him that i should write to mr. smith, the senior trader in the department, on the subject when i had no doubt that a satisfactory explanation would be given. the indians retired from the conference apparently satisfied, but this business was in the end productive of much inconvenience to us, and proved very detrimental to the progress of the expedition. in conjunction also with other intelligence conveyed in mr. back's letters respecting the disposition of the traders towards us, particularly a statement of mr. weeks that he had been desired not to assist us with supplies from his post, it was productive of much present uneasiness to me. on the th st. germain the interpreter set out with eight canadian voyagers and four indian hunters to bring up our stores from fort providence. i wrote by him to mr. smith at moose-deer island and mr. keith at chipewyan, both of the north-west company, urging them in the strongest manner to comply with the requisition for stores which mr. back would present. i also informed mr. simpson, principal agent in the athabasca for the hudson's bay company who had proffered every assistance in his power, that we should gladly avail ourselves of the kind intentions expressed in a letter which i had received from him. we also sent a number of broken axes to slave lake to be repaired. the dog that came to us on the nd of october and had become very familiar followed the party. we were in hopes that it might prove of some use in dragging their loads but we afterwards learned that on the evening after their departure from the house they had the cruelty to kill and eat it although they had no reason to apprehend a scarcity of provision. a dog is considered to be delicate eating by the voyagers. the mean temperature of the air for november was minus . degrees. the greatest heat observed was degrees above and the least degrees below zero. on the st of december the sky was clear, a slight appearance of stratus only being visible near the horizon, but a kind of snow fell at intervals in the forenoon, its particles so minute as to be observed only in the sunshine. towards noon the snow became more apparent and the two limbs of a prismatic arch were visible, one on each side of the sun near its place in the heavens, the centre being deficient. we have frequently observed this descent of minute icy spiculae when the sky appears perfectly clear, and could even perceive that its silent but continued action added to the snowy covering of the ground. having received one hundred balls from fort providence by belanger we distributed them amongst the indians, informing the leader at the same time that the residence of so large a party as his at the house, amounting with women and children to forty souls, was producing a serious reduction in our stock of provision. he acknowledged the justice of the statement and promised to remove as soon as his party had prepared snowshoes and sledges for themselves. under one pretext or other however their departure was delayed until the th of the month when they left us, having previously received one of our fishing-nets and all the ammunition we possessed. the leader left his aged mother and two female attendants to our care, requesting that if she died during his absence she might be buried at a distance from the fort that he might not be reminded of his loss when he visited us. keskarrah the guide also remained behind with his wife and daughter. the old man has become too feeble to hunt and his time is almost entirely occupied in attendance upon his wife who has been long affected with an ulcer on the face which has nearly destroyed her nose. lately he made an offering to the water spirits whose wrath he apprehended to be the cause of her malady. it consisted of a knife, a piece of tobacco, and some other trifling articles which were tied up in a small bundle and committed to the rapid with a long prayer. he does not trust entirely however to the relenting of the spirits for his wife's cure, but comes daily to dr. richardson for medicine. upon one occasion he received the medicine from the doctor with such formality and wrapped it up in his reindeer robe with such extraordinary carefulness that it excited the involuntary laughter of mr. hood and myself. the old man smiled in his turn and, as he always seemed proud of the familiar way in which we were accustomed to joke with him, we thought no more upon the subject. but he unfortunately mentioned the circumstance to his wife who imagined in consequence that the drug was not productive of its usual good effects and they immediately came to the conclusion that some bad medicine had been intentionally given to them. the distress produced by this idea was in proportion to their former faith in the potency of the remedy and the night was spent in singing and groaning. next morning the whole family were crying in concert and it was not until the evening of the second day that we succeeded in pacifying them. the old woman began to feel better and her faith in the medicine was renewed. while speaking of this family i may remark that the daughter, whom we designated green-stockings from her dress, is considered by her tribe to be a great beauty. mr. hood drew an accurate portrait of her although her mother was averse to her sitting for it. she was afraid she said that her daughter's likeness would induce the great chief who resided in england to send for the original. the young lady however was undeterred by any such fear. she has already been an object of contest between her countrymen and, although under sixteen years of age, has belonged successively to two husbands and would probably have been the wife of many more if her mother had not required her services as a nurse. the weather during this month was the coldest we experienced during our residence in america. the thermometer sank on one occasion to degrees below zero and never rose beyond degrees above it; the mean for the month was minus . degrees. during these intense colds however the atmosphere was generally calm and the woodcutters and others went about their ordinary occupations without using any extraordinary precautions yet without feeling any bad effects. they had their reindeer shirts on, leathern mittens lined with blankets, and furred caps; but none of them used any defence for the face, or needed any. indeed we have already mentioned that the heat is abstracted most rapidly from the body during strong breezes and most of those who have perished from cold in this country have fallen a sacrifice to their being overtaken on a lake or other unsheltered place by a storm of wind. the intense colds were however detrimental to us in another way. the trees froze to their very centres and became as hard as stones and more difficult to cut. some of the axes were broken daily and by the end of the month we had only one left that was fit for felling trees. by entrusting it only to one of the party who had been bred a carpenter and who could use it with dexterity it was fortunately preserved until the arrival of our men with others from fort providence. a thermometer hung in our bedroom at the distance of sixteen feet from the fire but exposed to its direct radiation stood even in the daytime occasionally at degrees below zero, and was observed more than once previous to the kindling of the fire in the morning to be as low as degrees below zero. on two of these occasions the chronometers and which during the night lay under mr. hood's and dr. richardson's pillows stopped while they were dressing themselves. the rapid at the commencement of the river remained open in the severest weather although it was somewhat contracted in width. its temperature was degrees, as was the surface of the river opposite the house about a quarter of a mile lower down tried at a hole in the ice through which water was drawn for domestic purposes. the river here was two fathoms and a half deep and the temperature at its bottom was at least degrees above zero. this fact was ascertained by a spirit thermometer in which, probably from some irregularity in the tube, a small portion of the coloured liquid usually remained at degrees when the column was made to descend rapidly. in the present instance, the thermometer standing at degrees below zero with no portion of the fluid in the upper part of the tube, was let down slowly into the water but drawn cautiously and rapidly up again, when a red drop at plus degrees indicated that the fluid had risen to that point or above it. at this period the daily visits of the sun were very short and, owing to the obliquity of his rays, afforded us little warmth or light. it is half-past eleven before he peeps over a small ridge of hills opposite to the house, and he sinks in the horizon at half-past two. on the th mr. hood, in order to attain an approximation to the quantity of terrestrial refraction, observed the sun's meridian altitude when the thermometer stood at degrees below zero, at the imminent hazard of having his fingers frozen. he found the sextant had changed its error considerably, and that the glasses had lost their parallelism from the contraction of the brass. in measuring the error he perceived that the diameter of the sun's image was considerably short of twice the semi-diameter, a proof of the uncertainty of celestial observations made during these intense frosts. the results of this and another similar observation are given in the footnote.* (*footnote. the observed meridian altitude of sun upper limb was degrees minutes seconds. temperature of the air minus . degrees. by comparing this altitude, corrected by the mean refraction and parallax with that deduced from the latitude which was observed in autumn, the increase of refraction is found to be minutes seconds, the whole refraction therefore for the altitude degrees minutes seconds is minutes seconds. admitting that the refraction increases in the same ratio as that of the atmosphere at a mean state of temperature the horizontal refraction will be degrees seconds. but the diameter of the sun, measured immediately after the observation, was only minutes seconds, which shows an increase of refraction at the lower limb of minutes seconds. the horizontal refraction calculated with this difference and the above-mentioned ratio is minutes seconds at the temperature minus . degrees. so that in the parallel degrees minutes where, if there is no refraction, the sun would be invisible for thirty-four days, his upper limb with the refraction minutes seconds is in fact above the horizon at every noon. the wind was from the westward a moderate breeze and the air perfectly clear. january st, . observed meridian altitude of sun lower limb degrees minutes seconds, sun apparent diameter degrees minutes. for apparent altitude degrees minutes seconds the mean refraction is minutes seconds (mackay's tables) and the true, found as detailed above, is minutes seconds which, increasing in the same ratio as that of the atmosphere at a mean state of temperature, is minutes seconds at the horizon. but the difference of refraction at the upper and lower limbs increasing also in that ratio gives minutes seconds for the horizontal refraction. temperature of the air minus degrees. wind north, a light breeze, a large halo visible about the sun. january th, . observed an apparent meridian altitude sun lower limb degrees minutes seconds. sun apparent diameter minutes seconds. for apparent altitude degrees minutes seconds the mean refraction is minutes seconds (mackay's tables) and the true, found as detailed above, is minutes seconds which, increasing in the same ratio as that of the atmosphere at a mean state of temperature, is minutes seconds at the horizon. but the difference of refraction between the upper and lower limbs increasing also in that ratio gives minutes seconds for the horizontal refraction. temperature of the air minus degrees, a light air from the westward, very clear. the extreme coldness of the weather rendered these operations difficult and dangerous; yet i think the observations may be depended upon within seconds, as will appear by their approximate results in calculating the horizontal refraction, for it must be considered that an error of seconds in the refraction in altitude would make a difference of several minutes in the horizontal refraction. mr. hood's journal.) the aurora borealis appeared with more or less brilliancy on twenty-eight nights of this month and we were also gratified by the resplendent beauty of the moon which for many days together performed its circle round the heavens, shining with undiminished lustre and scarcely disappearing below the horizon during the twenty-four hours. during many nights there was a halo round the moon although the stars shone brightly and the atmosphere appeared otherwise clear. the same phenomenon was observed round the candles even in our bedrooms, the diameter of the halo increasing as the observer receded from the light. these halos, both round the moon and candles, occasionally exhibited faintly some of the prismatic colours. as it may be interesting to the reader to know how we passed our time at this season of the year i shall mention briefly that a considerable portion of it was occupied in writing up our journals. some newspapers and magazines that we had received from england with our letters were read again and again and commented upon at our meals; and we often exercised ourselves with conjecturing the changes that might take place in the world before we could hear from it again. the probability of our receiving letters and the period of their arrival were calculated to a nicety. we occasionally paid the woodmen a visit or took a walk for a mile or two on the river. in the evenings we joined the men in the hall and took part in their games which generally continued to a late hour; in short we never found the time to hang heavy upon our hands; and the peculiar occupations of each of the officers afforded them more employment than might at first be supposed. i recalculated the observations made on our route; mr. hood protracted the charts, and made those drawings of birds, plants and fishes, which cannot appear in this work but which have been the admiration of everyone who has seen them. each of the party sedulously and separately recorded their observations on the aurora borealis; and dr. richardson contrived to obtain from under the snow specimens of most of the lichens in the neighbourhood, and to make himself acquainted with the mineralogy of the surrounding country. the sabbath was always a day of rest with us; the woodmen were required to provide for the exigencies of that day on saturday and the party were dressed in their best attire. divine service was regularly performed and the canadians attended and behaved with great decorum although they were all roman catholics and but little acquainted with the language in which the prayers were read. i regretted much that we had not a french prayer-book but the lord's prayer and creed were always read to them in their own language. our diet consisted almost entirely of reindeer meat, varied twice a week by fish and occasionally by a little flour, but we had no vegetables of any description. on the sunday mornings we drank a cup of chocolate but our greatest luxury was tea (without sugar) of which we regularly partook twice a day. with reindeer's fat and strips of cotton shirts we formed candles; and hepburn acquired considerable skill in the manufacture of soap from the wood-ashes, fat and salt. the formation of soap was considered as rather a mysterious operation by our canadians and in their hands was always supposed to fail if a woman approached the kettle in which the ley was boiling. such are our simple domestic details. on the th two hunters came from the leader to convey ammunition to him as soon as our men should bring it from fort providence. the men at this time coated the walls of the house on the outside with a thin mixture of clay and water which formed a crust of ice that for some days proved impervious to the air; the dryness of the atmosphere however was such that the ice in a short time evaporated and gave admission to the wind as before. it is a general custom at the forts to give this sort of coating to the walls at christmas time. when it was gone we attempted to remedy its defect by heaping up snow against the walls. january , . this morning our men assembled and greeted us with the customary salutation on the commencement of the new year. that they might enjoy a holiday they had yesterday collected double the usual quantity of firewood and we anxiously expected the return of the men from fort providence with some additions to their comforts. we had stronger hope of their arrival before the evening as we knew that every voyager uses his utmost endeavour to reach a post upon or previous to the jour de l'an that he may partake of the wonted festivities. it forms, as christmas is said to have done among our forefathers, the theme of their conversation for months before and after the period of its arrival. on the present occasion we could only treat them with a little flour and fat; these were both considered as great luxuries but still the feast was defective from the want of rum although we promised them a little when it should arrive. the early part of january proved mild, the thermometer rose to degrees above zero, and we were surprised by the appearance of a kind of damp fog approaching very nearly to rain. the indians expressed their astonishment at this circumstance and declared the present to be one of the warmest winters they had ever experienced. some of them reported that it had actually rained in the woody parts of the country. in the latter part of the month however the thermometer again descended to minus degrees and the mean temperature for the month proved to be minus . degrees. owing to the fogs that obscured the sky the aurora borealis was visible only upon eighteen nights in the month. on the th seven of our men arrived from fort providence with two kegs of rum, one barrel of powder, sixty pounds of ball, two rolls of tobacco and some clothing. they had been twenty-one days on their march from slave lake and the labour they underwent was sufficiently evinced by their sledge-collars having worn out the shoulders of their coats. their loads weighed from sixty to ninety pounds each, exclusive of their bedding and provisions which at starting must have been at least as much more. we were much rejoiced at their arrival and proceeded forthwith to pierce the spirit cask and issue to each of the household the portion of rum which had been promised on the first day of the year. the spirits which were proof were frozen but, after standing at the fire for some time, they flowed out with the consistency of honey. the temperature of the liquid even in this state was so low as instantly to convert into ice the moisture which condensed on the surface of the dram-glass. the fingers also adhered to the glass and would doubtless have been speedily frozen had they been kept in contact with it; yet each of the voyagers swallowed his dram without experiencing the slightest inconvenience or complaining of toothache. after the men had retired an indian who had accompanied them from fort providence informed me that they had broached the cask on their way up and spent two days in drinking. this instance of breach of trust was excessively distressing to me; i felt for their privations and fatigues and was disposed to seize every opportunity of alleviating them but this, combined with many instances of petty dishonesty with regard to meat, showed how little confidence could be put in a canadian voyager when food or spirits were in question. we had been indeed made acquainted with their character on these points by the traders; but we thought that when they saw their officers living under equal if not greater privations than themselves they would have been prompted by some degree of generous feeling to abstain from those depredations which under ordinary circumstances they would scarcely have blushed to be detected in. as they were pretty well aware that such a circumstance could not long be concealed from us one of them came the next morning with an artful apology for their conduct. he stated that as they knew it was my intention to treat them with a dram on the commencement of the new year they had helped themselves to a small quantity on that day, trusting to my goodness for forgiveness and, being unwilling to act harshly at this period, i did forgive them after admonishing them to be very circumspect in their future conduct. the ammunition and a small present of rum were sent to akaitcho. on the th vaillant the woodman had the misfortune to break his axe. this would have been a serious evil a few weeks sooner but we had just received some others from slave lake. on the th mr. wentzel and st. germain arrived with the two esquimaux, attannoeuck and hoeootoerock (the belly and the ear). the english names which were bestowed upon them at fort churchill in commemoration of the months of their arrival there are augustus and junius. the former speaks english. we now learned that mr. back proceeded with beauparlant to fort chipewyan on the th of december to procure stores, having previously discharged j. belleau from our service at his own request and according to my directions. i was the more induced to comply with this man's desire of leaving us as he proved to be too weak to perform the duty of bowman which he had undertaken. four dogs were brought up by this party and proved a great relief to our wood-haulers during the remainder of the season. by the arrival of mr. wentzel who is an excellent musician and assisted us (con amore) in our attempts to amuse the men we were enabled to gratify the whole establishment with an occasional dance. of this amusement the voyagers were very fond and not the less so as it was now and then accompanied by a dram as long as our rum lasted. on the th of february two canadians came from akaitcho for fresh supplies of ammunition. we were mortified to learn that he had received some further unpleasant reports concerning us from fort providence and that his faith in our good intentions was somewhat shaken. he expressed himself dissatisfied with the quantity of ammunition we had sent him, accused us of an intention of endeavouring to degrade him in the eyes of his tribe, and informed us that mr. weeks had refused to pay some notes for trifling quantities of goods and ammunition that had been given to the hunters who accompanied our men to slave lake. some powder and shot and a keg of diluted spirits were sent to him with the strongest assurances of our regard. on the th another party of six men was sent to fort providence to bring up the remaining stores. st. germain went to akaitcho for the purpose of sending two of his hunters to join this party on its route. on comparing the language of our two esquimaux with a copy of st. john's gospel printed for the use of the moravian missionary settlements on the labrador coast it appeared that the esquimaux who resort to churchill speak a language essentially the same with those who frequent the labrador coast. the red knives too recognise the expression teyma, used by the esquimaux when they acost strangers in a friendly manner, as similarly pronounced by augustus and those of his race who frequent the mouth of the copper-mine river. the tribe to which augustus belongs resides generally a little to the northward of churchill. in the spring before the ice quits the shores they kill seal but during winter they frequent the borders of the large lakes near the coast where they obtain fish, reindeer, and musk-oxen. there are eighty-four grown men in the tribe only seven of whom are aged. six chiefs have each two wives; the rest of the men have only one; so that the number of married people may amount to one hundred and seventy. he could give me no certain data whereby i might estimate the number of children. two great chiefs or ackhaiyoot have complete authority in directing the movements of the party and in distributing provisions. the attoogawnoeuck or lesser chiefs are respected principally as senior men. the tribe seldom suffers from want of food if the chief moves to the different stations at the proper season. they seem to follow the eastern custom respecting marriage. as soon as a girl is born the young lad who wishes to have her for a wife goes to her father's tent and proffers himself. if accepted a promise is given which is considered binding and the girl is delivered to her betrothed husband at the proper age. they consider their progenitors to have come from the moon. augustus has no other idea of a deity than some confused notions which he has obtained at churchill. when any of the tribe are dangerously ill a conjurer is sent for and the bearer of the message carries a suitable present to induce his attendance. upon his arrival he encloses himself in the tent with the sick man and sings over him for days together without tasting food; but augustus as well as the rest of the uninitiated are ignorant of the purport of his songs and of the nature of the being to whom they are addressed. the conjurors practise a good deal of jugglery in swallowing knives, firing bullets through their bodies, etc., but they are at these times generally secluded from view and the bystanders believe their assertions without requiring to be eye-witnesses of the fact. sixteen men and three women amongst augustus' tribe are acquainted with the mysteries of the art. the skill of the latter is exerted only on their own sex. upon the map being spread before augustus he soon comprehended it and recognised chesterfield inlet to be the opening into which salt-waters enter at spring tides and which receives a river at its upper end. he termed it kannoeuck kleenoeuck. he has never been farther north himself than marble island, which he distinguishes as being the spot where the large ships were wrecked, alluding to the disastrous termination of barlow and knight's voyage of discovery.* he says however that esquimaux of three different tribes have traded with his countrymen and that they described themselves as having come across land from a northern sea. one tribe who named themselves ahwhacknanhelett he supposes may come from repulse bay; another designated ootkooseekkalingmoeoot or stone-kettle esquimaux reside more to the westward; and the third the kangorrmoeoot or white goose esquimaux describe themselves as coming from a great distance and mentioned that a party of indians had killed several of their tribe in the summer preceding their visit. upon comparing the dates of this murder with that of the last massacre which the copper indians have perpetrated on these harmless and defenceless people they appear to differ two years; but the lapse of time is so inaccurately recorded that this difference in their accounts is not sufficient to destroy their identity; besides, the chipewyans, the only other indians who could possibly have committed the deed, have long since ceased to go to war. if this massacre should be the one mentioned by the copper indians the kangorrmoeoot must reside near the mouth of the anatessy, or river of strangers. (footnote. see introduction to hearne's journey page .) the winter habitations of esquimaux who visit churchill are built of snow and, judging from one constructed by augustus today, they are very comfortable dwellings. having selected a spot on the river where the snow was about two feet deep and sufficiently compact he commenced by tracing out a circle twelve feet in diameter. the snow in the interior of the circle was next divided with a broad knife having a long handle into slabs three feet long, six inches thick, and two feet deep, being the thickness of the layer of snow. these slabs were tenacious enough to admit of being moved about without breaking or even losing the sharpness of their angles and they had a slight degree of curvature corresponding with that of the circle from which they were cut. they were piled upon each other exactly like courses of hewn stone around the circle which was traced out and care was taken to smooth the beds of the different courses with the knife, and to cut them so as to give the wall a slight inclination inwards, by which contrivance the building acquired the properties of a dome. the dome was closed somewhat suddenly and flatly by cutting the upper slabs in a wedge-form instead of the more rectangular shape of those below. the roof was about eight feet high, and the last aperture was shut up by a small conical piece. the whole was built from within and each slab was cut so that it retained its position without requiring support until another was placed beside it, the lightness of the slabs greatly facilitating the operation. when the building was covered in a little loose snow was thrown over it to close up every chink and a low door was cut through the walls with a knife. a bed-place was next formed and neatly faced up with slabs of snow, which was then covered with a thin layer of pine branches to prevent them from melting by the heat of the body. at each end of the bed a pillar of snow was erected to place a lamp upon, and lastly a porch was built before the door and a piece of clear ice was placed in an aperture cut in the wall for a window. the purity of the material of which the house was framed, the elegance of its construction, and the translucency of its walls which transmitted a very pleasant light, gave it an appearance far superior to a marble building and one might survey it with feelings somewhat akin to those produced by the contemplation of a grecian temple reared by phidias; both are triumphs of art, inimitable in their kinds. annexed there is a plan of a complete esquimaux snow-house and kitchen and other apartments copied from a sketch made by augustus with the names of the different places affixed. the only fireplace is in the kitchen, the heat of the lamps sufficing to keep the other apartments warm. (not included in this ebook.) references to the plan. a. ablokeyt, steps. b. pahloeuk, porch. c. wadl-leek, passage. d. haddnoeweek, for the reception of the sweepings of the house. e. g. tokheuook, antechamber, or passage. f. annarroeartoweek. h. eegah, cooking-house. i. eegah-natkah, passage. k. keidgewack, for piling wood upon. l. keek kloweyt, cooking side. m. keek loot, fireplace built of stone. n. eegloo, house. o. kattack, door. p. nattoeuck, clear space in the apartment. a. d. eekput, a kind of shelf where the candle stands; and b. c. a pit where they throw their bones and other offal of their provision. q. eegl-luck, bed-place. r. eegleeteoet, bedside or sitting-place. s. bed-place, as on the other side. t. kie'gn-nok, small pantry. u. hoergloack, storehouse for provisions. ... several deer were killed near the house and we received some supplies from akaitcho. parties were also employed in bringing in the meat that was placed en cache in the early part of the winter. more than one half of these caches however had been destroyed by the wolves and wolverines, a circumstance which, in conjunction with the empty state of our storehouse, led us to fear that we should be much straitened for provisions before the arrival of any considerable number of reindeer in this neighbourhood. a good many ptarmigan were seen at this time and the women caught some in snares, but not in sufficient quantity to make any further alteration in the rations of deers' meat that were daily issued. they had already been reduced from eight to the short allowance of five pounds. many wolves prowled nightly about the house and even ventured upon the roof of the kitchen, which is a low building, in search of food; keskarrah shot a very large white one, of which a beautiful and correct drawing was made by mr. hood. the temperature in february was considerably lower than in the preceding month although not so low as in december, the mean being minus . degrees. the greatest temperature was degree above zero and the lowest degrees below. on the th of march the people returned from slave lake bringing the remainder of our stores consisting of a cask of flour, thirty-six pounds of sugar, a roll of tobacco, and forty pounds of powder. i received a letter from mr. weeks wherein he denied that he had ever circulated any reports to our disadvantage, and stated that he had done everything in his power to assist us, and even discouraged akaitcho from leaving us when he had sent him a message saying that he wished to do so if he was sure of being well received at fort providence. we mentioned the contents of the letter to the indians who were at the house at the time, when one of the hunters, who had attended the men on their journey, stated that he had heard many of the reports against us from mr. weeks himself and expressed his surprise that he should venture to deny them. st. germain soon afterwards arrived from akaitcho and informed us that he left him in good humour and apparently not harbouring the slightest idea of quitting us. on the th we sent four men to fort providence, and on the th mr. back arrived from fort chipewyan, having performed since he left us a journey of more than one thousand miles on foot. i had every reason to be much pleased with his conduct on this arduous undertaking, but his exertions may be best estimated by the perusal of the following narrative. mr. back's narrative of his journey to chipewyan, and return. on quitting fort enterprise with mr. wentzel and two canadians, accompanied by two hunters and their wives, our route lay across the barren hills. we saw during the day a number of deer and occasionally a solitary white wolf, and in the evening halted near a small knot of pines. owing to the slow progress made by the wives of the hunters we only travelled the first day a distance of seven miles and a half. during the night we had a glimpse of the fantastic beauties of the aurora borealis and were somewhat annoyed by the wolves whose nightly howling interrupted our repose. early the next morning we continued our march, sometimes crossing small lakes (which were just frozen enough to bear us) and at other times going large circuits in order to avoid those which were open. the walking was extremely bad throughout the day for, independent of the general unevenness of the ground and the numberless large stones which lay scattered in every direction, the unusual warmth of the weather had dissolved the snow which not only kept us constantly wet but deprived us of a firm footing, so that the men with their heavy burdens were in momentary apprehension of falling. in the afternoon a fine herd of deer was descried and the indians, who are always anxious for the chase and can hardly be restrained from pursuing every animal they see, set out immediately. it was late when they returned, having had good success and bringing with them five tongues and the shoulder of a deer. we made about twelve miles this day. the night was fine and the aurora borealis so vivid that we imagined more than once that we heard a rustling noise like that of autumnal leaves stirred by the wind; but after two hours of attentive listening we were not entirely convinced of the fact. the coruscations were not so bright nor the transition from one shape and colour to another so rapid as they sometimes are, otherwise i have no doubt from the midnight silence which prevailed that we should have ascertained this yet undecided point. the morning of the th was so extremely hazy that we could not see ten yards before us; it was therefore late when we started and during our journey the hunters complained of the weather and feared they should lose the track of our route. towards the evening it became so thick that we could not proceed, consequently we halted in a small wood situated in a valley, having only completed a distance of six miles. the scenery consisted of high hills which were almost destitute of trees, and lakes appeared in the valleys. the cracking of the ice was so loud during the night as to resemble thunder and the wolves howled around us. we were now at the commencement of the woods and at an early hour on the st continued our journey over high hills for three miles, when the appearance of some deer caused us to halt and nearly the remainder of the day was passed in hunting them. in the evening we stopped within sight of prospect hill having killed and concealed six deer. a considerable quantity of snow fell during the night. the surrounding country was extremely rugged, the hills divided by deep ravines and the valleys covered with broken masses of rocks and stones; yet the deer fly (as it were) over these impediments with apparent ease, seldom making a false step, and springing from crag to crag with all the confidence of the mountain goat. after passing reindeer lake (where the ice was so thin as to bend at every step for nine miles) we halted, perfectly satisfied with our escape from sinking into the water. while some of the party were forming the encampment one of the hunters killed a deer, a part of which was concealed to be ready for use on our return. this evening we halted in a wood near the canoe track after having travelled a distance of nine miles. the wind was south-east and the night cloudy with wind and rain. on the th and th we underwent some fatigue from being obliged to go round the lakes which lay across our route and were not sufficiently frozen to bear us. several rivulets appeared to empty themselves into the lakes, no animals were killed and few tracks seen. the scenery consisted of barren rocks and high hills covered with lofty pine, birch, and larch trees. october . we continued our journey, sometimes on frozen lakes and at other times on high craggy rocks. when we were on the lakes we were much impeded in our journey by different parts which were unfrozen. there was a visible increase of wood, consisting of birch and larch, as we inclined to the southward. about ten a.m. we passed icy portage where we saw various tracks of the moose, bear and otter and, after a most harassing march through thick woods and over fallen trees, we halted a mile to the westward of fishing lake; our provisions were now almost expended; the weather was cloudy with snow. on the th we crossed two lakes and performed a circuitous route, frequently crossing high hills to avoid those lakes which were not frozen; during the day one of the women made a hole through the ice and caught a fine pike which she gave to us; the indians would not partake of it from the idea (as we afterwards learnt) that we should not have sufficient for ourselves: "we are accustomed to starvation," said they, "but you are not." in the evening we halted near rocky lake. i accompanied one of the indians to the summit of a hill where he showed me a dark horizontal cloud extending to a considerable distance along the mountains in the perspective, which he said was occasioned by the great slave lake and was considered as a good guide to all the hunters in the vicinity. on our return we saw two untenanted bears' dens. the night was cloudy with heavy snow, yet the following morning we continued our tedious march; many of the lakes remained still open and the rocks were high and covered with snow which continued to fall all day, consequently we effected but a trifling distance and that too with much difficulty. in the evening we halted, having only performed about seven miles. one of the indians gave us a fish which he had caught though he had nothing for himself; and it was with much trouble that he could be prevailed upon to partake of it. the night was again cloudy with snow. on the th we set out through deep snow and thick woods and after crossing two small lakes stopped to breakfast, sending the women on before as they had already complained of lameness and could not keep pace with the party. it was not long before we overtook them on the banks of a small lake which, though infinitely less in magnitude than many we had passed, yet had not a particle of ice on its surface. it was shoal, had no visible current, and was surrounded by hills. we had nothing to eat and were not very near an establishment where food could be procured; however as we proceeded the lakes were frozen and we quickened our pace, stopping but twice for the hunters to smoke. nevertheless the distance we completed was but trifling, and at night we halted near a lake, the men being tired and much bruised from constantly falling amongst thick broken wood and loose stones concealed under the snow. the night was blowing and hazy with snow. on the th we set out with the expectation of gaining the slave lake in the evening; but our progress was again impeded by the same causes as before so that the whole day was spent in forcing our way through thick woods and over snow-covered swamps. we had to walk over pointed and loose rocks which, sliding from under our feet, made our path dangerous and often threw us down several feet on sharp-edged stones lying beneath the snow. once we had to climb a towering and almost perpendicular rock which not only detained us but was the cause of great anxiety for the safety of the women who, being heavily laden with furs and one of them with a child at her back, could not exert themselves with the activity which such a task required. fortunately nothing serious occurred though one of them once fell with considerable violence. during the day one of the hunters broke through the ice but was soon extricated; when it became dark we halted near the bow string portage, greatly disappointed at not having reached the lake. the weather was cloudy, accompanied with thick mist and snow. the indians expected to have found here a bear in its den and to have made a hearty meal of its flesh, indeed it had been the subject of conversation all day and they had even gone so far as to divide it, frequently asking me what part i preferred, but when we came to the spot--oh! lamentable! it had already fallen a prey to the devouring appetites of some more fortunate hunters who had only left sufficient evidence that such a thing had once existed, and we had merely the consolation of realising an old proverb. one of our men however caught a fish which, with the assistance of some weed scraped from the rocks (tripe de roche) which forms a glutinous substance, made us a tolerable supper; it was not of the most choice kind yet good enough for hungry men. while we were eating it i perceived one of the women busily employed scraping an old skin, the contents of which her husband presented us with. they consisted of pounded meat, fat, and a greater proportion of indians' and deers' hair than either; and though such a mixture may not appear very alluring to an english stomach it was thought a great luxury after three days' privation in these cheerless regions of america. indeed had it not been for the precaution and generosity of the indians we must have gone without sustenance until we reached the fort. on the st of november our men began to make a raft to enable us to cross a river which was not even frozen at the edges. it was soon finished and three of us embarked, being seated up to the ankles in water. we each took a pine branch for a paddle and made an effort to gain the opposite shore in which, after some time (and not without strong apprehensions of drifting into the slave lake) we succeeded. in two hours the whole party was over, with a comfortable addition to it in the shape of some fine fish which the indians had caught: of course we did not forget to take these friends with us and, after passing several lakes, to one of which we saw no termination, we halted within eight miles to the fort. the great slave lake was not frozen. in crossing a narrow branch of the lake i fell through the ice but received no injury; and at noon we arrived at fort providence and were received by mr. weeks, a clerk of the north-west company in charge of the establishment. i found several packets of letters for the officers, which i was desirous of sending to them immediately but, as the indians and their wives complained of illness and inability to return without rest, a flagon of mixed spirits was given them and their sorrows were soon forgotten. in a quarter of an hour they pronounced themselves excellent hunters and capable of going anywhere; however their boasting ceased with the last drop of the bottle when a crying scene took place which would have continued half the night had not the magic of an additional quantity of spirits dried their tears and once more turned their mourning into joy. it was a satisfaction to me to behold these poor creatures enjoying themselves for they had behaved in the most exemplary and active manner towards the party, and with a generosity and sympathy seldom found even in the more civilised parts of the world, and the attention and affection which they manifested towards their wives evinced a benevolence of disposition and goodness of nature which could not fail to secure the approbation of the most indifferent observer. the accounts i here received of our goods were of so unsatisfactory a nature that i determined to proceed, as soon as the lake was frozen, to moose-deer island or if necessary to the athabasca lake, both to inform myself of the grounds of the unceremonious and negligent manner in which the expedition had been treated and to obtain a sufficient supply of ammunition and other stores to enable it to leave its present situation and proceed for the attainment of its ultimate object. november . i despatched to fort enterprise one of the men with the letters and a hundred musket-balls which mr. weeks lent me on condition that they should be returned the first opportunity. an indian and his wife accompanied the messenger. lieutenant franklin was made acquainted with the exact state of things, and i awaited with much impatience the freezing of the lake. november . a band of slave indians came to the fort with a few furs and some bear's grease. though we had not seen any of them it appeared that they had received information of our being in the country and knew the precise situation of our house, which they would have visited long ago but from the fear of being pillaged by the copper indians. i questioned the chief about the great bear and marten lakes, their distance from fort enterprise, etc., but his answers were so vague and unsatisfactory that they were not worth attention; his description of bouleau's route (which he said was the shortest and best and abundant in animals) was very defective though the relative points were sufficiently characteristic had we not possessed a better route. he had never been at the sea and knew nothing about the mouth of the copper-mine river. in the evening he made his young men dance and sometimes accompanied them himself. they had four feathers in each hand. one commenced moving in a circular form, lifting both feet at the same time, similar to jumping sideways. after a short time a second and third joined and afterwards the whole band was dancing, some in a state of nudity, others half dressed, singing an unmusical wild air with (i suppose) appropriate words, the particular sounds of which were ha! ha! ha! uttered vociferously and with great distortion of countenance and peculiar attitude of body, the feathers being always kept in a tremulous motion. the ensuing day i made the chief acquainted with the object of our mission and recommended him to keep at peace with his neighbouring tribes and to conduct himself with attention and friendship towards the whites. i then gave him a medal, telling him it was the picture of the king whom they emphatically term their great father. november . we observed two mock moons at equal distances from the central one, and the whole were encircled by a halo, the colour of the inner edge of the large circle was a light red inclining to a faint purple. november . two parhelia were observable with a halo; the colours of the inner edge of the circle were a bright carmine and red lake intermingled with a rich yellow, forming a purplish orange; the outer edge was pale gamboge. december . a man was sent some distance on the lake to see if it was sufficiently frozen for us to cross. i need scarcely mention my satisfaction when he returned with the pleasing information that it was. december . i quitted fort providence, being accompanied by mr. wentzel, beauparlant, and two other canadians, provided with dogs and sledges. we proceeded along the borders of the lake, occasionally crossing deep bays, and at dusk encamped at the gros cap, having proceeded twenty-five miles. december . we set out on the lake with an excessively cold north-west wind and were frequently interrupted by large pieces of ice which had been thrown up by the violence of the waves during the progress of congelation, and at dusk we encamped on the reindeer islands. the night was fine with a faint aurora borealis. next day the wind was so keen that the men proposed conveying me in a sledge that i might be the less exposed, to which after some hesitation i consented. accordingly a reindeer skin and a blanket were laid along the sledge and in these i was wrapped tight up to the chin and lashed to the vehicle, just leaving sufficient play for my head to perceive when i was about to be upset on some rough projecting piece of ice. thus equipped we set off before the wind (a favourable circumstance on the lake) and went on very well until noon, when the ice, being driven up in ridges in such a manner as to obstruct us very much, i was released, and i confess not unwillingly though i had to walk the remainder of the day. there are large openings in many parts where the ice had separated and, in attempting to cross one of them, the dogs fell into the water and were saved with difficulty. the poor animals suffered dreadfully from the cold and narrowly escaped being frozen to death. we had quickened our pace towards the close of the day but could not get sight of the land, and it was not till the sun had set that we perceived it about four miles to our left, which obliged us to turn back and head the wind. it was then so cold that two of the party were frozen almost immediately about the face and ears. i escaped from having the good fortune to possess a pair of gloves made of rabbits' skin with which i kept constantly chafing the places which began to be affected. at six p.m. we arrived at the fishing-huts near stony island and remained the night there. the canadians were not a little surprised at seeing us whom they had already given up for lost--nor less so at the manner by which we had come--for they all affirmed that the lake near them was quite free from ice the day before. december . at an early hour we quitted the huts, lashed on sledges as before, with some little addition to our party; and at three hours thirty minutes p.m. arrived at the north-west fort on moose-deer island where i was received by mr. smith with whom i had been acquainted at the athabasca. he said he partly expected me. the same evening i visited messrs. mcvicar and mcaulay at hudson's bay fort when i found the reports concerning our goods were but too true, there being in reality but five packages for us. i also was informed that two esquimaux, augustus the chief, and junius his servant, who had been sent from fort churchill by governor williams to serve in the capacity of interpreters to the expedition, were at the fort. these men were short of stature but muscular, apparently good-natured, and perfectly acquainted with the purpose for which they were intended. they had built themselves a snow-house on an adjacent island where they used frequently to sleep. the following day i examined the pieces and to my great disappointment found them to consist of three kegs of spirits, already adulterated by the voyagers who had brought them, a keg of flour and thirty-five pounds of sugar, instead of sixty. the ammunition and tobacco, the two greatest requisites, were left behind. i lost no time in making a demand from both parties and, though their united list did not furnish the half of what was required, yet it is possible that everything was given by them which could be spared consistently with their separate interests, particularly by mr. mcvicar who in many articles gave me the whole he had in his possession. these things were sent away immediately for fort enterprise, when an interpreter arrived with letters from lieutenant franklin which referred to a series of injurious reports said to have been propagated against us by someone at fort providence. finding a sufficiency of goods could not be provided at moose-deer island i determined to proceed to the athabasca lake and ascertain the inclinations of the gentlemen there. with this view i communicated my intentions to both parties but could only get dogs enough from the north-west company to carry the necessary provisions for the journey. indeed mr. smith informed me plainly he was of opinion that nothing could be spared at fort chipewyan, that goods had never been transported so long a journey in the winter season, and that the same dogs could not possibly go and return; besides it was very doubtful if i could be provided with dogs there; and finally that the distance was great and could take sixteen days to perform it. he added that the provisions would be mouldy and bad and that from having to walk constantly on snowshoes i should suffer a great deal of misery and fatigue. notwithstanding these assertions on the rd of december i left the fort with beauparlant and a bois-brule, each having a sledge drawn by dogs, laden with pemmican. we crossed an arm of the lake and entered the little buffalo river which is connected with the salt river and is about fifty yards wide at its junction with the lake--the water is brackish. this route is usually taken in the winter as it cuts off a large angle in going to the great slave river. in the afternoon we passed two empty fishing-huts and in the evening encamped amongst some high pines on the banks of the river having had several snow-showers during the day which considerably impeded the dogs so that we had not proceeded more than fifteen miles. december and . we continued along the river, frequently making small portages to avoid going round to the points, and passed some small canoes which the indians had left for the winter. the snow was so deep that the dogs were obliged to stop every ten minutes to rest; and the cold so excessive that both the men were badly frozen on both sides of the face and chin. at length, having come to a long meadow which the dogs could not cross that night, we halted in an adjoining wood and were presently joined by a canadian who was on his return to the fort and who treated us with some fresh meat in exchange for pemmican. during the latter part of the day we had seen numerous tracks of the moose, buffalo, and marten. december . the weather was so cold that we were compelled to run to prevent ourselves from freezing; our route lay across some large meadows which appeared to abound in animals, though the indians around slave lake are in a state of great want. about noon we passed a sulphur-stream which ran into the river; it appeared to come from a plain about fifty yards distant. there were no rocks near it and the soil through which it took its course was composed of a reddish clay. i was much galled by the strings of the snowshoes during the day and once got a severe fall occasioned by the dogs running over one of my feet and, dragging me some distance, my snowshoe having become entangled with the sledge. in the evening we lost our way from the great similarity of appearance in the country and it was dark before we found it again when we halted in a thick wood after having come about sixteen miles from the last encampment. much snow fell during the night. at an early hour on the th of december we continued our journey over the surface of a long but narrow lake and then through a wood which brought us to the grand detour on the slave river. the weather was extremely cloudy with occasional falls of snow which tended greatly to impede our progress from its gathering in lumps between the dogs' toes; and though they did not go very fast yet my left knee pained me so much that i found it difficult to keep up with them. at three p.m. we halted within nine miles of the salt river and made a hearty meal of mouldy pemmican. december and . we had much difficulty in proceeding owing to the poor dogs being quite worn out and their feet perfectly raw. we endeavoured to tie shoes on them to afford them some little relief but they continually came off when amongst deep snow so that it occupied one person entirely to look after them. in this state they were hardly of any use among the steep ascents of the portages, when we were obliged to drag the sledges ourselves. we found a few of the rapids entirely frozen. those that were not had holes and large spaces about them from whence issued a thick vapour, and in passing this we found it particularly cold; but what appeared most curious was the number of small fountains which rose through the ice and often rendered it doubtful which way we should take. i was much disappointed at finding several falls (which i had intended to sketch) frozen almost even with the upper and lower parts of the stream; the ice was connected by a thin arch and the rushing of the water underneath might be heard at a considerable distance. on the banks of these rapids there was a constant overflowing of the water but in such small quantities as to freeze before it had reached the surface of the central ice so that we passed between two ridges of icicles, the transparency of which was beautifully contrasted by the flakes of snow and the dark green branches of the overhanging pine. beauparlant complained bitterly of the cold whilst among the rapids but no sooner had he reached the upper part of the river than he found the change of the temperature so great that he vented his indignation against the heat. "mais c'est terrible," said he, to be frozen and sunburnt in the same day. the poor fellow, who had been a long time in the country, regarded it as the most severe punishment that could have been inflicted on him and would willingly have given a part of his wages rather than this disgrace had happened; for there is a pride amongst old voyagers which makes them consider the state of being frost-bitten as effeminate and only excusable in a pork-eater or one newly come into the country. i was greatly fatigued and suffered acute pains in the knees and legs, both of which were much swollen when we halted a little above the dog river. december and . our journey these days was by far the most annoying we had yet experienced but, independent of the vast masses of ice that were piled on one another, as well as the numerous open places about the rapids (and they did not a little impede us) there was a strong gale from the north-west and so dreadfully keen that our time was occupied in rubbing the frozen parts of the face and in attempting to warm the hands in order to be prepared for the next operation. scarcely was one place cured by constant friction than another was frozen; and though there was nothing pleasant about it yet it was laughable enough to observe the dexterity which was used in changing the position of the hand from the face to the mitten and vice versa. one of the men was severely affected, the whole side of his face being nearly raw. towards sunset i suffered so much in my knee and ankle from a recent sprain that it was with difficulty i could proceed with snowshoes to the encampment on the stony islands. but in this point i was not singular for beauparlant was almost as bad and without the same cause. january , . we set out with a quick step, the wind still blowing fresh from the north-west, which seemed in some measure to invigorate the dogs; for towards sunset they left me considerably behind. indeed my legs and ankles were now so swelled that it was excessive pain to drag the snowshoes after me. at night we halted on the banks of stony river, when i gave the men a glass of grog to commemorate the new year, and the next day, january , we arrived at fort chipewyan, after a journey of ten days and four hours--the shortest time in which the distance had been performed at the same season. i found messrs. g. keith and s. mcgillivray in charge of the fort, who were not a little surprised to see me. the commencement of the new year is the rejoicing season of the canadians when they are generally intoxicated for some days. i postponed making any demand till this time of festivity should cease; but on the same day i went over to the hudson's bay fort and delivered lieutenant franklin's letters to mr. simpson. if they were astonished on one side to see me, the amazement was still greater on the other for reports were so far in advance that we were said to have already fallen by the spears of the esquimaux. january . i made a demand from both parties for supplies such as ammunition, gun-flints, axes, files, clothing, tobacco and spirits. i stated to them our extreme necessity and that without their assistance the expedition must be arrested in its progress. the answer from the north-west gentlemen was satisfactory enough; but on the hudson's bay side i was told that any further assistance this season entirely depended on the arrival of supplies expected in a few weeks from a distant establishment. i remained at fort chipewyan five weeks during which time some laden sledges did arrive, but i could not obtain any addition to the few articles i had procured at first. a packet of letters for us from england having arrived i made preparations for my return, but not before i had requested both companies to send next year from the depots a quantity of goods for our use specified in lists furnished to them. the weather during my abode at chipewyan was generally mild with occasional heavy storms, most of which were anticipated by the activity of the aurora borealis; and this i observed had been the case between fort providence and the athabasca in december and january, though not invariably so in other parts of the country. one of the partners of the north-west company related to me the following singular story: he was travelling in a canoe in the english river and had landed near the kettle fall when the coruscations of the aurora borealis were so vivid and low that the canadians fell on their faces and began praying and crying, fearing they should be killed; he himself threw away his gun and knife that they might not attract the flashes for they were within two feet from the earth, flitting along with incredible swiftness and moving parallel to its surface. they continued for upwards of five minutes as near as he could judge and made a loud rustling noise like the waving of a flag in a strong breeze. after they had ceased the sky became clear with little wind. february . having got everything arranged and had a hearty breakfast with a coupe de l'eau de vie (a custom amongst the traders) i took my departure or rather attempted to do so for, on going to the gate, there was a long range of women who came to bid me farewell. they were all dressed (after the manner of the country) in blue or green cloth, with their hair fresh greased, separated before, and falling down behind, not in careless tresses but in a good sound tail, fastened with black tape or riband. this was considered a great compliment and the ceremony consisted in embracing the whole party. i had with me four sledges laden with goods for the expedition and a fifth belonging to the hudson's bay company. we returned exactly by the same route, suffering no other inconvenience but that arising from the chafing of the snowshoe and bad weather. some indians whom we met on the banks of the little buffalo river were rather surprised at seeing us, for they had heard that we were on an island which was surrounded by esquimaux. the dogs were almost worn out and their feet raw when on february the th we arrived at moose-deer island with our goods all in good order. towards the end of the month two of our men arrived with letters from lieutenant franklin containing some fresh demands, the major part of which i was fortunate enough to procure without the least trouble. having arranged the accounts and receipts between the companies and the expedition, and sent everything before me to fort providence, i prepared for my departure; and it is but justice to the gentlemen of both parties at moose-deer island to remark that they afforded the means of forwarding our stores in the most cheerful and pleasant manner. march . i took leave of the gentlemen at the forts and in the afternoon got to the fisheries near stony island where i found mr. mcvicar who was kind enough to have a house ready for my reception; and i was not a little gratified at perceiving a pleasant-looking girl employed in roasting a fine joint and afterwards arranging the table with all the dexterity of an accomplished servant. march . we set out at daylight and breakfasted at the reindeer islands. as the day advanced the heat became so oppressive that each pulled off his coat and ran till sunset when we halted with two men who were on their return to moose-deer island. there was a beautiful aurora borealis in the night; it rose about north by west and divided into three bars, diverging at equal distances as far as the zenith and then converging until they met in the opposite horizon; there were some flashes at rightangles to the bars. march . we arrived at fort providence and found our stores safe and in good order. there being no certainty when the indian who was to accompany me to our house would arrive, and my impatience to join my companions increasing as i approached it, after making the necessary arrangements with mr. weeks respecting our stores, on march the th i quitted the fort with two of our men who had each a couple of dogs and a sledge laden with provision. on the th we met the indian near icy portage who was sent to guide me back. on the th we killed a deer and gave the dogs a good feed; and on the th at an early hour we arrived at fort enterprise, having travelled about eighteen miles a day. i had the pleasure of meeting my friends all in good health after an absence of nearly five months, during which time i had travelled one thousand one hundred and four miles on snowshoes, and had no other covering at night in the woods than a blanket and deer-skin with the thermometer frequently at minus degrees and once at minus degrees, and sometimes passing two or three days without tasting food. ... chapter . continuation of proceedings at fort enterprise. some account of the copper indians. preparations for the journey to the northward. continuation of proceedings at fort enterprise. some account of the copper indians. march , . i shall now give a brief account of the copper indians termed by the chipewyans tantsawhotdinneh, or birch-rind indians. they were originally a tribe of the chipewyans and, according to their own account, inhabited the south side of great slave lake at no very distant period. their language, traditions, and customs, are essentially the same with those of the chipewyans but in personal character they have greatly the advantage of that people, owing probably to local causes or perhaps to their procuring their food more easily and in greater abundance. they hold women in the same low estimation as the chipewyans do, looking upon them as a kind of property which the stronger may take from the weaker whenever there is just reason for quarrelling, if the parties are of their own nation, or whenever they meet if the weaker party are dog-ribs or other strangers. they suffer however the kinder affections to show themselves occasionally; they in general live happily with their wives, the women are contented with their lot, and we witnessed several instances of strong attachment. of their kindness to strangers we are fully qualified to speak; their love of property, attention to their interests, and fears for the future made them occasionally clamorous and unsteady; but their delicate and humane attention to us in a season of great distress at a future period are indelibly engraven on our memories. of their notions of a deity or future state we never could obtain any satisfactory account; they were unwilling perhaps to expose their opinions to the chance of ridicule. akaitcho generally evaded our questions on these points but expressed a desire to learn from us and regularly attended divine service during his residence at the fort, behaving with the utmost decorum. this leader indeed and many others of his tribe possess a laudable curiosity which might easily be directed to the most important ends; and i believe that a well-conducted christian mission to this quarter would not fail of producing the happiest effect. old keskarrah alone used boldly to express his disbelief of a supreme deity and state that he could not credit the existence of a being whose power was said to extend everywhere but whom he had not yet seen, although he was now an old man. the aged sceptic is not a little conceited as the following exordium to one of his speeches evinces: "it is very strange that i never meet with anyone who is equal in sense to myself." the same old man in one of his communicative moods related to us the following tradition: the earth had been formed but continued enveloped in total darkness, when a bear and a squirrel met on the shores of a lake; a dispute arose as to their respective powers, which they agreed to settle by running in opposite directions round the lake, and whichever arrived first at the starting point was to evince his superiority by some signal act of power. the squirrel beat, ran up a tree, and loudly demanded light which, instantly beaming forth, discovered a bird dispelling the gloom with its wings; the bird was afterwards recognised to be a crow. the squirrel next broke a piece of bark from the tree, endowed it with the power of floating, and said, "behold the material which shall afford the future inhabitants of the earth the means of traversing the waters." the indians are not the first people who have ascribed the origin of nautics to the ingenuity of the squirrel. the copper indians consider the bear, otter, and other animals of prey, or rather some kind of spirits which assume the forms of these creatures, as their constant enemies and the cause of every misfortune they endure; and in seasons of difficulty or sickness they alternately deprecate and abuse them. few of this nation have more than one wife at a time and none but the leaders have more than two. akaitcho has three and the mother of his only son is the favourite. they frequently marry two sisters and there is no prohibition to the intermarriage of cousins but a man is restricted from marrying his niece. the last war excursion they made against the esquimaux was ten years ago when they destroyed about thirty persons at the mouth of what they term stony-point river, not far from the mouth of the copper-mine river. they now seem desirous of being on friendly terms with that persecuted nation and hope through our means to establish a lucrative commerce with them. indeed the copper indians are sensible of the advantages that would accrue to them were they made the carriers of goods between the traders and esquimaux. at the time of hearne's visit the copper indians, being unsupplied with firearms, were oppressed by the chipewyans; but even that traveller had occasion to praise their kindness of heart. since they have received arms from the traders the chipewyans are fearful of venturing upon their lands; and all of that nation who frequent the shores of great slave lake hold the name of akaitcho in great respect. the chipewyans have no leader of equal authority among themselves. the number of the copper indians may be one hundred and ninety souls namely eighty men and boys and one hundred and ten women and young children. there are forty-five hunters in the tribe. the adherents of akaitcho amount to about forty men and boys; the rest follow a number of minor chiefs. for the following notices of the nations on mackenzie's river we are principally indebted to mr. wentzel who resided for many years in that quarter. the thlingchadinneh or dog-ribs or as they are sometimes termed after the crees, who formerly warred against them, slaves, inhabit the country to the westward of the copper indians as far as mackenzie's river. they are of a mild, hospitable, but rather indolent disposition; spend much of their time in amusements and are fond of singing and dancing. in this respect and in another they differ very widely from most of the other aborigines of north america. i allude to their kind treatment of the women. the men do the laborious work whilst their wives employ themselves in ornamenting their dresses with quill-work and in other occupations suited to their sex. mr. wentzel has often known the young married men to bring specimens of their wives' needlework to the forts and exhibit them with much pride. kind treatment of the fair sex being usually considered as an indication of considerable progress in civilisation it might be worthwhile to inquire how it happens that this tribe has stepped so far beyond its neighbours. it has had undoubtedly the same common origin with the chipewyans, for their languages differ only in accent, and their mode of life is essentially the same. we have not sufficient data to prosecute the inquiry with any hope of success but we may recall to the reader's memory what was formerly mentioned, that the dog-ribs say they came from the westward, whilst the chipewyans say that they migrated from the eastward. when bands of dog-ribs meet each other after a long absence they perform a kind of dance. a piece of ground is cleared for the purpose, if in winter of the snow, or if in summer of the bushes; and the dance frequently lasts for two or three days, the parties relieving each other as they get tired. the two bands commence the dance with their backs turned to each other, the individuals following one another in indian file and holding the bow in the left hand and an arrow in the right. they approach obliquely after many turns and, when the two lines are closely back to back, they feign to see each other for the first time and the bow is instantly transferred to the right hand and the arrow to the left, signifying that it is not their intention to employ them against their friends. at a fort they use feathers instead of bows. the dance is accompanied with a song. these people are the dancing-masters of the country. the copper indians have neither dance nor music but what they borrow from them. on our first interview with akaitcho at fort providence he treated us as has already been mentioned with a representation of the dog-rib dance; and mr. back during his winter journey had an opportunity of observing it performed by the dog-ribs themselves. the chief tribe of the dog-rib nation, termed horn mountain indians, inhabit the country betwixt great bear lake and the west end of great slave lake. they muster about two hundred men and boys capable of pursuing the chase. small detachments of the nation frequent marten lake and hunt during the summer in the neighbourhood of fort enterprise. indeed this part of the country was formerly exclusively theirs, and most of the lakes and remarkable hills bear the names which they imposed upon them. as the copper indians generally pillage them of their women and furs when they meet they endeavour to avoid them and visit their ancient quarters on the barren grounds only by stealth. immediately to the northward of the dog-ribs, on the north side of bear lake river, are the kawchodinneh or hare indians who also speak a dialect of the chipewyan language and have much of the same manners with the dog-ribs, but are considered both by them and by the copper indians to be great conjurors. these people report that in their hunting excursions to the northward of great bear lake they meet small parties of esquimaux. immediately to the northward of the hare indians on both banks of mackenzie's river are the tykotheedinneh, loucheux, squint-eyes, or quarrellers. they speak a language distinct from the chipewyan. they war often with the esquimaux at the mouth of mackenzie's river but have occasionally some peaceable intercourse with them, and it would appear that they find no difficulty in understanding each other, there being considerable similarity in their languages. their dress also resembles the esquimaux and differs from that of the other inhabitants of mackenzie's river. the tykotheedinneh trade with fort good-hope, situated a considerable distance below the confluence of bear lake river with mackenzie's river and, as the traders suppose, within three days' march of the arctic sea. it is the most northern establishment of the north-west company, and some small pieces of russian copper coin once made their way thither across the continent from the westward. blue or white beads are almost the only articles of european manufacture coveted by the loucheux. they perforate the septum of the nose and insert in the opening three small shells which they procure at a high price from the esquimaux. on the west bank of mackenzie's river there are several tribes who speak dialects of the chipewyan language that have not hitherto been mentioned. the first met with on tracing the river to the southward from fort good-hope are the ambawtawhootdinneh, or sheep indians. they inhabit the rocky mountains near the sources of the dawhootdinneh river which flows into mackenzie's and are but little known to the traders. some of them have visited fort good-hope. a report of their being cannibals may have originated in an imperfect knowledge of them. some distance to the southward of this people are the rocky mountain indians, a small tribe which musters about forty men and boys capable of pursuing the chase. they differ but little from the next we are about to mention, the edchawtawhootdinneh, strong-bow, beaver, or thickwood indians who frequent the riviere aux liards or south branch of mackenzie's river. the strong-bows resemble the dog-ribs somewhat in their disposition; but when they meet they assume a considerable degree of superiority over the latter who meekly submit to the haughtiness of their neighbours. until the year when a small party of them, from some unfortunate provocation, destroyed fort nelson on the riviere aux liards and murdered its inmates, the strong-bows were considered to be a friendly and quiet tribe and esteemed as excellent hunters. they take their names in the first instance from their dogs. a young man is the father of a certain dog but when he is married and has a son he styles himself the father of the boy. the women have a habit of reproving the dogs very tenderly when they observe them fighting: "are you not ashamed," say they, "are you not ashamed to quarrel with your little brother?" the dogs appear to understand the reproof and sneak off. the strong-bows and rocky mountain indians have a tradition in common with the dog-ribs that they came originally from the westward, from a level country where there was no winter, which produced trees and large fruits now unknown to them. it was inhabited also by many strange animals, amongst which there was a small one whose visage bore a striking resemblance to the human countenance. during their residence in this land their ancestors were visited by a man who healed the sick, raised the dead, and performed many other miracles, enjoining them at the same time to lead good lives and not to eat of the entrails of animals, nor to use the brains for dressing skins until after the third day; and never to leave the skulls of deer upon the ground within the reach of dogs and wolves but to hang them carefully upon trees. no one knew from whence this good man came or whither he went. they were driven from that land by the rising of the waters and, following the tracks of animals on the seashore, they directed their course to the northward. at length they came to a strait which they crossed upon a raft but the sea has since frozen and they have never been able to return. these traditions are unknown to the chipewyans. the number of men and boys of the strong-bow nation who are capable of hunting may amount to seventy. there are some other tribes who also speak dialects of the chipewyan upon the upper branches of the riviere aux liards such as the nohhannies and the tsillawdawhootdinneh or brushwood indians. they are but little known but the latter are supposed occasionally to visit some of the establishments on peace river. having now communicated as briefly as i could the principal facts that came to our knowledge regarding the indians in this quarter i shall resume the narrative of events at fort enterprise. the month of march proved fine. the thermometer rose once to degrees above zero and fell upon another day degrees below zero but the mean was minus / degrees. on the rd the last of our winter's stock of deer's meat was expended and we were compelled to issue a little pounded meat which we had reserved for making pemmican for summer use. our nets which were set under the ice on the th produced only two or three small fish daily. amongst these was the round-fish, a species of coregonus which we had not previously seen. on the following day two indians came with a message from the hook, the chief next to akaitcho in authority amongst the copper indians. his band was between west marten and great bear lakes and he offered to provide a quantity of dried meat for us on the banks of the copper-mine river in the beginning of summer, provided we sent him goods and ammunition. it was in his power to do this without inconvenience as he generally spends the summer months on the banks of the river near the copper mountain; but we had no goods to spare and i could not venture to send any part of our small stock of ammunition until i saw what the necessities of our own party required. i told them however that i would gladly receive either provisions or leather when we met and would pay for them by notes on the north-west company's post; but to prevent any misunderstanding with mr. weeks i requested them to take their winter's collection of furs to fort providence before they went to the copper-mine river. they assured me that the hook would watch anxiously for our passing as he was unwell and wished to consult the doctor. several circumstances having come lately to my knowledge that led me to suspect the fidelity of our interpreters they were examined upon this subject. it appeared that in their intercourse with the indians they had contracted very fearful ideas of the danger of our enterprise which augmented as the time of our departure drew near, and had not hesitated to express their dislike to the journey in strong terms amongst the canadians, who are accustomed to pay much deference to the opinions of an interpreter. but this was not all; i had reason to suspect they had endeavoured to damp the exertions of the indians with the hope that the want of provision in the spring would put an end to our progress at once. st. germain in particular had behaved in a very equivocal way since his journey to slave lake. he denied the principal parts of the charge in a very dogged manner but acknowledged he had told the leader that we had not paid him the attention which a chief like him ought to have received; and that we had put a great affront on him in sending him only a small quantity of rum. an artful man like st. germain, possessing a flow of language and capable of saying even what he confessed, had the means of poisoning the minds of the indians without committing himself by any direct assertion; and it is to be remarked that, unless mr. wentzel had possessed a knowledge of the copper indian language, we should not have learned what we did. although perfectly convinced of his baseness i could not dispense with his services; and had no other resource but to give him a serious admonition and desire him to return to his duty, after endeavouring to work upon his fears by an assurance that i would certainly convey him to england for trial if the expedition should be stopped through his fault. he replied, "it is immaterial to me where i lose my life, whether in england or in accompanying you to the sea, for the whole party will perish." after this discussion however he was more circumspect in his conduct. on the th we received a small supply of meat from the indian lodges. they had now moved into a lake about twelve miles from us, in expectation of the deer coming soon to the northward. preparations for the journey to the northward. on the th akaitcho arrived at the house, having been sent for to make some arrangements respecting the procuring of provision and that we might learn what his sentiments were with regard to accompanying us on our future journey. next morning we had a conference which i commenced by showing him the charts and drawings that were prepared to be sent to england, and explaining fully our future intentions. he appeared much pleased at this mark of attention and, when his curiosity was satisfied, began his speech by saying that although a vast number of idle rumours had been floating about the barren grounds during the winter he was convinced that the representations made to him at fort providence regarding the purport of the expedition were perfectly correct. i next pointed out to him the necessity of our proceeding with as little delay as possible during the short period of the year that was fit for our operations, and that to do so it was requisite we should have a large supply of provisions at starting. he instantly admitted the force of these observations and promised that he and his young men should do their utmost to comply with our desires, and afterwards in answer to my questions informed us that he would accompany the expedition to the mouth of the copper-mine river or, if we did not meet with esquimaux there, for some distance along the coast; he was anxious he said to have an amicable interview with that people, and he further requested that, in the event of our meeting with dog-ribs on the copper-mine river, we should use our influence to persuade them to live on friendly terms with his tribe. we were highly pleased to find his sentiments so favourable to our views and, after making some minor arrangements, we parted mutually content. he left us on the morning of the st, accompanied by augustus who, at his request, went to reside for a few days at his lodge. on the th of april our men arrived with the last supply of goods from fort providence, the fruits of mr. back's arduous journey to the athabasca lake, and on the th belanger le gros and belanger le rouge, for so our men discriminated them, set out for slave lake with a box containing the journals of the officers, charts, drawings, observations, and letters addressed to the secretary of state for colonial affairs. they also conveyed a letter for governor williams in which i requested that he would if possible send a schooner to wager bay with provisions and clothing to meet the exigencies of the party should they succeed in reaching that part of the coast. connoyer, who was much tormented with biliary calculi and had done little or no duty all the winter, was discharged at the same time and sent down in company with an indian named the belly. the commencement of april was fine and for several days a considerable thaw took place in the heat of the sun which, laying bare some of the lichens on the sides of the hills, produced a consequent movement of the reindeer to the northward and induced the indians to believe that the spring was already commencing. many of them therefore quitted the woods and set their snares on the barren grounds near fort enterprise. two or three days of cold weather however towards the middle of the month damped their hopes, and they began to say that another moon must elapse before the arrival of the wished-for season. in the meantime their premature departure from the woods caused them to suffer from want of food and we were in some degree involved in their distress. we received no supplies from the hunters, our nets produced but very few fish, and the pounded meat which we had intended to keep for summer use was nearly expended. our meals at this period were always scanty and we were occasionally restricted to one in the day. the indian families about the house, consisting principally of women and children, suffered most. i had often requested them to move to akaitcho's lodge where they were more certain of receiving supplies but, as most of them were sick or infirm, they did not like to quit the house, where they daily received medicines from dr. richardson, to encounter the fatigue of following the movements of a hunting camp. they cleared away the snow on the site of the autumn encampments to look for bones, deer's feet, bits of hide, and other offal. when we beheld them gnawing the pieces of hide and pounding the bones for the purpose of extracting some nourishment from them by boiling we regretted our inability to relieve them, but little thought that we should ourselves be afterwards driven to the necessity of eagerly collecting these same bones a second time from the dunghill. at this time, to divert the attention of the men from their wants, we encouraged the practice of sliding down the steep bank of the river upon sledges. these vehicles descended the snowy bank with much velocity and ran a great distance upon the ice. the officers joined in the sport and the numerous overturns we experienced formed no small share of the amusement of the party, but on one occasion, when i had been thrown from my seat and almost buried in the snow, a fat indian woman drove her sledge over me and sprained my knee severely. on the th at eight in the evening a beautiful halo appeared round the sun when it was about degrees high. the colours were prismatic and very bright, the red next the sun. on the st the ice in the river was measured and found to be five feet thick and, in setting the nets in round rock lake, it was there ascertained to be six feet and a half thick, the water being six fathoms deep. the stomachs of some fish were at this time opened by dr. richardson and found filled with insects which appear to exist in abundance under the ice during the winter. on the nd a moose-deer was killed at the distance of forty-five miles; st. germain went for it with a dog-sledge and returned with unusual expedition on the morning of the third day. this supply was soon exhausted and we passed the th without eating, with the prospect of fasting a day or two longer, when old keskarrah entered with the unexpected intelligence of having killed a deer. it was divided betwixt our own family and the indians and during the night a seasonable supply arrived from akaitcho. augustus returned with the men who brought it, much pleased with the attention he had received from the indians during his visit to akaitcho. next day mr. wentzel set out with every man that we could spare from the fort for the purpose of bringing meat from the indians as fast as it could be procured. dr. richardson followed them two days afterwards to collect specimens of the rocks in that part of the country. on the same day the two belangers arrived from fort providence having been only five days on the march from thence. the highest temperature in april was plus degrees, the lowest minus degrees, the mean plus . degrees. the temperature of the rapid, examined on the th by messrs. back and hood, was degrees at the surface, degrees at the bottom. on the th of may dr. richardson returned. he informed me that the reindeer were again advancing to the northward but that the leader had been joined by several families of old people and that the daily consumption of provision at the indian tents was consequently great. this information excited apprehensions of being very scantily provided when the period of our departure should arrive. the weather in the beginning of may was fine and warm. on the nd some patches of sandy ground near the house were cleared of snow. on the th the sides of the hills began to appear bare and on the th a large house-fly was seen. this interesting event spread cheerfulness through our residence and formed a topic of conversation for the rest of the day. on the th the approach of spring was still more agreeably confirmed by the appearance of a merganser and two gulls, and some loons or arctic divers, at the rapid. this day to reduce the labour of dragging meat to the house the women and children and all the men except four were sent to live at the indian tents. the blueberries, crow-berries, eye-berries, and cranberries, which had been covered and protected by the snow during the winter might at this time be gathered in abundance and proved indeed a valuable resource. the ground continued frozen but the heat of the sun had a visible effect on vegetation; the sap thawed in the pine-trees and dr. richardson informed me that the mosses were beginning to shoot and the calyptrae of some of the jungermanniae already visible. on the th mr. wentzel returned from the indian lodges having made the necessary arrangements with akaitcho for the drying of meat for summer use, the bringing fresh meat to the fort and the procuring a sufficient quantity of the resin of the spruce fir, or as it is termed by the voyagers gum, for repairing the canoes previous to starting and during the voyage. by my desire he had promised payment to the indian women who should bring in any of the latter article and had sent several of our own men to the woods to search for it. at this time i communicated to mr. wentzel the mode in which i meant to conduct the journey of the approaching summer. upon our arrival at the sea i proposed to reduce the party to what would be sufficient to man two canoes in order to lessen the consumption of provisions during our voyage or journey along the coast and, as mr. wentzel had expressed a desire of proceeding no farther than the mouth of the copper-mine river, which was seconded by the indians who wished him to return with them, i readily relieved his anxiety on this subject, the more so as i thought he might render greater service to us by making deposits of provision at certain points than by accompanying us through a country which was unknown to him, and amongst a people with whom he was totally unacquainted. my intentions were explained to him in detail but they were of course to be modified by circumstances. on the th a robin (turdus migratorius) appeared; this bird is hailed by the natives as the infallible precursor of warm weather. ducks and geese were also seen in numbers and the reindeer advanced to the northward. the merganser (mergus serrator) which preys upon small fish, was the first of the duck tribe that appeared; next came the teal (anas crecca) which lives upon small insects that abound in the waters at this season; and lastly the goose which feeds upon berries and herbage. geese appear at cumberland house in latitude degrees usually about the th of april; at fort chipewyan in latitude degrees on the th of april; at slave lake in latitude degrees on the st of may; and at fort enterprise in latitude degrees minutes on the th or th of the same month. on the th a minor chief amongst the copper indians attended by his son arrived from fort providence to consult dr. richardson. he was affected with snow-blindness which was soon relieved by the dropping of a little laudanum into his eyes twice a day. most of our own men had been lately troubled with this complaint but it always yielded in twenty or thirty hours to the same remedy. on the st all our men returned from the indians and akaitcho was on his way to the fort. in the afternoon two of his young men arrived to announce his visit and to request that he might be received with a salute and other marks of respect that he had been accustomed to on visiting fort providence in the spring. i complied with his desire although i regretted the expenditure of ammunition and sent the young man away with the customary present of powder to enable him to return the salute, some tobacco, vermilion to paint their faces, a comb and a looking-glass. at eleven akaitcho arrived; at the first notice of his appearance the flag was hoisted at the fort and upon his nearer approach a number of muskets were fired by a party of our people and returned by his young men. akaitcho, preceded by his standard-bearer, led the party and advanced with a slow and stately step to the door where mr. wentzel and i received him. the faces of the party were daubed with vermilion, the old men having a spot on the right cheek, the young ones on the left. akaitcho himself was not painted. on entering he sat down on a chest, the rest placed themselves in a circle on the floor. the pipe was passed once or twice round and in the meantime a bowl of spirits and water and a present considerable for our circumstances of cloth, blankets, capots, shirts, etc., was placed on the floor for the chief's acceptance and distribution amongst his people. akaitcho then commenced his speech but i regret to say that it was very discouraging and indicated that he had parted with his good humour, at least since his march visit. he first inquired whether, in the event of a passage by sea being discovered, we should come to his lands in any ship that might be sent? and being answered that it was probable but not quite certain that someone amongst us might come, he expressed a hope that some suitable present should be forwarded to himself and nation, "for" said he, "the great chief who commands where all the goods come from must see from the drawings and descriptions of us and our country that we are a miserable people." i assured him that he would be remembered, provided he faithfully fulfilled his engagement with us. he next complained of the non-payment of my notes by mr. weeks, from which he apprehended that his own reward would be withheld. "if," said he, "your notes to such a trifling amount are not accepted whilst you are within such a short distance and can hold communication with the fort, it is not probable that the large reward which has been promised to myself and party will be paid when you are far distant on your way to your own country. it really appears to me," he continued, "as if both the companies consider your party as a third company, hostile to their interests, and that neither of them will pay the notes you give to the indians." afterwards in the course of a long conference he enumerated many other grounds of dissatisfaction, the principal of which were our want of attention to him as chief, the weakness of the rum formerly sent to him, the smallness of the present now offered, and the want of the chief's clothing, which he had been accustomed to receive at fort providence every spring. he concluded by refusing to receive the goods now laid before him. in reply to these complaints it was stated that mr. weeks' conduct could not be properly discussed at such a distance from his fort, that no dependence ought to be placed on the vague reports that floated through the indian territory, that for our part, although we had heard many stories to his (akaitcho's) disadvantage, we discredited them all, that the rum we had sent him, being what the great men in england were accustomed to drink, was of a milder kind but in fact stronger than what he had been accustomed to receive, and that the distance we had come and the speed with which we travelled precluded us from bringing large quantities of goods like the traders, that this had been fully explained to him when he agreed to accompany us and that, in consideration of his not receiving his usual spring outfit, his debts to the company had been cancelled and a present, much greater than any he had ever received before, ordered to be got ready for his return. he was further informed that we were much disappointed in not receiving any dried meat from him, an article indispensable for our summer voyage and which he had led us to believe there was no difficulty in procuring, and that in fact his complaints were so groundless in comparison with the real injury we sustained from the want of supplies that we were led to believe they were preferred solely for the purpose of cloaking his own want of attention to the terms of his engagement. he then shifted his ground and stated that if we endeavoured to make a voyage along the sea-coast we should inevitably perish, and he advised us strongly against persisting in the attempt. this part of his harangue, being an exact transcript of the sentiments formerly expressed by our interpreters, induced us to conclude that they had prompted his present line of conduct by telling him that we had goods or rum concealed. he afterwards received a portion of our dinner in the manner he had been accustomed to do, and seemed inclined to make up matters with us in the course of the evening, provided we added to the present offered to him. being told however that this was impossible since we had already offered him all the rum we had and every article of goods we could spare from our own equipment his obstinacy was a little shaken, and he made some concessions but deferred giving a final answer until the arrival of humpy his elder brother. the young men however did not choose to wait so long and at night came for the rum, which we judged to be a great step towards a reconciliation. st. germain, the most intelligent of our two interpreters and the one who had most influence with the indians, being informed that their defection was in a great measure attributed to the unguarded conversations he had held with them, and which he had in part acknowledged, exerted himself much on the following day in bringing about a change in their sentiments and with some success. the young men, though they declined hunting, conducted themselves with the same good humour and freedom as formerly. akaitcho being as he said ashamed to show himself kept close in his tent all day. on the th one of the women who accompanied us from athabasca was sent down to fort providence under charge of the old chief who came some days before for medicine for his eyes. angelique and roulante, the other two women, having families, preferred accompanying the indians during their summer hunt. on the th clothing and other necessary articles were issued to the canadians as their equipment for the ensuing voyage. two or three blankets, some cloth, ironwork, and trinkets were reserved for distribution amongst the esquimaux on the sea-coast. laced dresses were given to augustus and junius. it is impossible to describe the joy that took possession of the latter on the receipt of this present. the happy little fellow burst into ecstatic laughter as he surveyed the different articles of his gay habiliments.* (*footnote. these men kept their dresses and delighted in them. an indian chief on the other hand only appears once before the donor in the dress of ceremony which he receives and then transfers it to some favourite in the tribe whom he desires to reward by this robe of honour.) in the afternoon humpy the leader's elder brother, annoethaiyazzeh, another of his brothers, and one of our guides arrived with the remainder of akaitcho's band; as also long-legs, brother to the hook, with three of his band. there were now in the encampment thirty hunters, thirty-one women, and sixty children, in all one hundred and twenty-one of the copper indian or red-knife tribe. the rest of the nation were with the hook on the lower part of the copper-mine river. annoethaiyazzeh is remarkable amongst the indians for the number of his descendants; he has eighteen children living by two wives, of whom sixteen were at the fort at this time. in the evening we had another formidable conference. the former complaints were reiterated and we parted about midnight without any satisfactory answer to my questions as to when akaitcho would proceed towards the river and where he meant to make provision for our march. i was somewhat pleased however to find that humpy and annoethaiyazzeh censured their brother's conduct and accused him of avarice. on the th the canoes were removed from the places where they had been deposited as we judged that the heat of the atmosphere was now so great as to admit of their being repaired without risk of cracking the bark. we were rejoiced to find that two of them had suffered little injury from the frost during the winter. the bark of the third was considerably rent but it was still capable of repair. the indians sat in conference in their tents all the morning and in the afternoon came into the house charged with fresh matter for discussion. soon after they had seated themselves and the room was filled with the customary volume of smoke from their calumets the goods which had been laid aside were again presented to the leader, but he at once refused to distribute so small a quantity amongst his men and complained that there were neither blankets, kettles, nor daggers amongst them, and in the warmth of his anger he charged mr. wentzel with having advised the distribution of all our goods to the canadians and thus defrauding the indians of what was intended for them. mr. wentzel of course immediately repelled this injurious accusation and reminded akaitcho again that he had been told on engaging to accompany us that he was not to expect any goods until his return. this he denied with an effrontery that surprised us all, when humpy, who was present at our first interview at fort providence, declared that he heard us say that no goods could be taken for the supply of the indians on the voyage; and the first guide added, "i do not expect anything here, i have promised to accompany the white people to the sea and i will therefore go, confidently relying upon receiving the stipulated reward on my return." akaitcho did not seem prepared to hear such declarations from his brothers and, instantly changing the subject, began to descant upon the treatment he had received from the traders in his concerns with them with an asperity of language that bore more the appearance of menace than complaint. i immediately refused to discuss this topic as foreign to our present business and desired akaitcho to recall to memory that he had told me on our first meeting that he considered me the father of every person attached to the expedition, in which character it was surely my duty to provide for the comfort and safety of the canadians as well as the indians. the voyagers, he knew, had a long journey to perform and would in all probability be exposed to much suffering from cold on a coast destitute of wood, and therefore required a greater provision of clothing than was necessary for the indians who, by returning immediately from the mouth of the river, would reach fort providence in august and obtain their promised rewards. most of the indians appeared to assent to this argument but akaitcho said, "i perceive the traders have deceived you; you should have brought more goods but i do not blame you." i then told him that i had brought from england only ammunition, tobacco, and spirits and that, being ignorant what other articles the indians required, we were dependent on the traders for supplies, but he must be aware that every endeavour had been used on our parts to procure them, as was evinced by mr. back's journey to fort chipewyan. with respect to the ammunition and tobacco we had been as much disappointed as themselves in not receiving them, but this was to be attributed to the neglect of those to whom they had been entrusted. this explanation seemed to satisfy him. after some minutes of reflection his countenance became more cheerful and he made inquiry whether his party might go to either of the trading posts they chose on their return, and whether the hudson's bay company were rich, for they had been represented to him as a poor people? i answered him that we really knew nothing about the wealth of either company, having never concerned ourselves with trade, but that all the traders appeared to us to be respectable. our thoughts i added are fixed solely on the accomplishment of the objects for which we came to the country. our success depends much on your furnishing us with provision speedily, that we may have all the summer to work and, if we succeed, a ship will soon bring goods in abundance to the mouth of the copper-mine river. the indians talked together for a short time after this conversation and then the leader made an application for two or three kettles and some blankets to be added to the present to his young men; we were unable to spare him any kettles but the officers promised to give a blanket each from their own beds. dinner was now brought in and relieved us for a time from their importunity. the leading men as usual received each a portion from the table. when the conversation was resumed the chief renewed his solicitations for goods, but it was now too palpable to be mistaken that he aimed at getting everything he possibly could and leaving us without the means of making any presents to the esquimaux or other indians we might meet. i resolved therefore on steadily refusing every request and, when he perceived that he could extort nothing more, he rose in an angry manner and, addressing his young men, said: "there are too few goods for me to distribute; those that mean to follow the white people to the sea may take them." this was an incautious speech as it rendered it necessary for his party to display their sentiments. the guides and most of the hunters declared their readiness to go and came forward to receive a portion of the present which was no inconsiderable assortment. this relieved a weight of anxiety from my mind and i did not much regard the leader's retiring in a very dissatisfied mood. the hunters then applied to mr. wentzel for ammunition that they might hunt in the morning and it was cheerfully given to them. the officers and men amused themselves at prison-bars and other canadian games till two o'clock in the morning, and we were happy to observe the indians sitting in groups enjoying the sport. we were desirous of filling up the leisure moments of the canadians with amusements, not only for the purpose of enlivening their spirits but also to prevent them from conversing upon our differences with the indians, which they must have observed. the exercise was also in a peculiar manner serviceable to mr. hood. ever ardent in his pursuits he had, through close attention to his drawings and other avocations, confined himself too much to the house in winter, and his health was impaired by his sedentary habits. i could only take the part of a spectator in these amusements, being still lame from the hurt formerly alluded to. the sun now sank for so short a time below the horizon that there was more light at midnight than we enjoyed on some days at noon in the wintertime. on the th the hunters brought in two reindeer. many of the indians attended divine service this day and were attentive spectators of our addresses to the almighty. on the th i had a conversation with long-legs whose arrival two days before has been mentioned. i acquainted him with the objects of our expedition and our desire of promoting peace between his nation and the esquimaux, and learned from him that his brother the hook was by this time on the copper-mine river with his party and that, although he had little ammunition, yet it was possible he might have some provision collected before our arrival at his tents. i then decorated him with a medal similar to those given to the other chiefs. he was highly pleased with this mark of our regard and promised to do everything for us in his power. akaitcho came in during the latter part of our conversation with a very cheerful countenance. jealousy of the hook and a knowledge that the sentiments of the young men differed from his own with respect to the recent discussions had combined to produce this change in his conduct, and next morning he took an opportunity of telling me that i must not think the worse of him for his importunities. it was their custom he said to do so however strange it might appear to us, and he as the leader of his party had to beg for them all; but as he saw we had not deceived him by concealing any of our goods and that we really had nothing left he should ask for no more. he then told me that he would set out for the river as soon as the state of the country admitted of travelling. the snow he remarked was still too deep for sledges to the northward and the moss too wet to make fires. he was seconded in this opinion by long-legs whom i was the more inclined to believe knowing that he was anxious to rejoin his family as soon as possible. akaitcho now accepted the dress he had formerly refused and next day clothed himself in another new suit which he had received from us in the autumn. ever since his arrival at the fort he had dressed meanly and pleaded poverty but, perceiving that nothing more could be gained by such conduct, he thought proper to show some of his riches to the strangers who were daily arriving. in the afternoon however he made another though a covert attack upon us. he informed me that two old men had just arrived at the encampment with a little pounded meat which they wished to barter. it was evident his intention was merely to discover whether we had any goods remaining or not. i told him that we had nothing at present to give for meat, however much we stood in need of it, but that we would pay for it by notes on the north-west company in any kind of goods they pleased. after much artful circumlocution and repeated assurances of the necessities of the men who owned the meat he introduced them and they readily agreed to give us the provision on our own terms. i have deemed it my duty to give the details of these tedious conversations to point out to future travellers the art with which these indians pursue their objects, their avaricious nature, and the little reliance that can be placed upon them when their interests jar with their promises. in these respects they agree with other tribes of northern indians but, as has been already mentioned, their dispositions are not cruel and their hearts are readily moved by the cry of distress. the average temperature for may was nearly degrees, the greatest heat was degrees, the lowest degrees. we had constant daylight at the end of the month and geese and ducks were abundant, indeed rather too much so for our hunters were apt to waste upon them the ammunition that was given to them for killing deer. uncertain as to the length of time that it might be required to last we did not deem a goose of equal value with the charge it cost to procure it. dr. richardson and mr. back having visited the country to the northward of the slave rock and reported that they thought we might travel over it i signified my intention of sending the first party off on monday the th of june. i was anxious to get the indians to move on before, but they lingered about the house, evidently with the intention of picking up such articles as we might deem unnecessary to take. when akaitcho was made acquainted with my purpose of sending away a party of men he came to inform me that he would appoint two hunters to accompany them and at the same time requested that dr. richardson or, as he called him, the medicine chief, might be sent with his own band. these indians set a great value upon medicine and made many demands upon dr. richardson on the prospect of his departure. he had to make up little packets of the different articles in his chest, not only for the leader but for each of the minor chiefs who carefully placed them in their medicine bags, noting in their memories the directions he gave for their use. the readiness with which their requests for medical assistance were complied with was considered by them as a strong mark of our good intentions towards them and the leader often remarked that they owed much to our kindness in that respect, that formerly numbers had died every year but that not a life had been lost since our arrival amongst them. in the present instance however the leader's request could not be complied with. dr. richardson had volunteered to conduct the first party to the copper-mine river whilst the rest of the officers remained with me to the last moment to complete our astronomical observations at the house. he therefore informed the leader that he would remain stationary at point lake until the arrival of the whole party, where he might be easily consulted if any of his people fell sick as it was in the neighbourhood of their hunting grounds. on the nd the stores were packed up in proper-sized bales for the journey. i had intended to send the canoes by the first party but they were not yet repaired, the weather not being sufficiently warm for the men to work constantly at them without the hazard of breaking the bark. this day one of the new trading guns which we had recently received from fort chipewyan burst in the hands of a young indian, fortunately however without doing him any material injury. this was the sixth accident of the kind which had occurred since our departure from slave lake. surely this deficiency in the quality of the guns, which hazards the lives of so many poor indians, requires the serious consideration of the principals of the trading companies. on the th at three in the morning the party under the charge of dr. richardson started. it consisted of fifteen voyagers, three of them conducting dog sledges, baldhead and basil, two indian hunters with their wives, akaiyazzeh a sick indian and his wife, together with angelique and roulante, so that the party amounted to twenty-three exclusive of children. the burdens of the men were about eighty pounds each, exclusive of their personal baggage which amounted to nearly as much more. most of them dragged their loads upon sledges but a few preferred carrying them on their backs. they set off in high spirits. after breakfast the indians struck their tents, and the women, the boys, and the old men who had to drag sledges, took their departure. it was three p.m. however before akaitcho and the hunters left us. we issued thirty balls to the leader and twenty to each of the hunters and guides with a proportionate quantity of powder, and gave them directions to make all the provision they could on their way to point lake. i then desired mr. wentzel to inform akaitcho in the presence of the other indians that i wished a deposit of provision to be made at this place previous to next september as a resource should we return this way. he and the guides not only promised to see this done but suggested that it would be more secure if placed in the cellar or in mr. wentzel's room. the dog-ribs, they said, would respect anything that was in the house as knowing it to belong to the white people. at the close of this conversation akaitcho exclaimed with a smile, "i see now that you have really no goods left (the rooms and stores being completely stripped) and therefore i shall not trouble you any more but use my best endeavours to prepare provision for you, and i think if the animals are tolerably numerous we may get plenty before you can embark on the river." whilst the indians were packing up this morning one of the women absconded. she belongs to the dog-rib tribe and had been taken by force from her relations by her present husband who treated her very harshly. the fellow was in my room when his mother announced the departure of his wife and received the intelligence with great composure as well as the seasonable reproof of akaitcho. "you are rightly served," said the chief to him, "and will now have to carry all your things yourself instead of having a wife to drag them." one hunter remained after the departure of the other indians. on the th the dog-rib woman presented herself on a hill at some distance from the house, but was afraid to approach us until the interpreter went and told her that neither we nor the indian who remained with us would prevent her from going where she pleased. upon this she came to solicit a fire-steel and kettle. she was at first low-spirited from the non-arrival of a countrywoman who had promised to elope with her, but had probably been too narrowly watched. the indian hunter however, having given her some directions as to the proper mode of joining her own tribe, she became more composed and ultimately agreed to adopt his advice of proceeding at once to fort providence instead of wandering about the country all summer in search of them at the imminent hazard of being starved. on the th the wind, shifting to the southward, dispersed the clouds which had obscured the sky for several days and produced a change of temperature under which the snow rapidly disappeared. the thermometer rose to degrees, many flies came forth, mosquitoes showed themselves for the first time, and one swallow made its appearance. we were the more gratified with these indications of summer that st. germain was enabled to commence the repair of the canoes, and before night had completed the two which had received the least injury. augustus killed two deer today. on the th the dip of the magnetic needle, being observed, showed a decrease of minutes seconds since last autumn. the repairs of the third canoe were finished this evening. the snow was now confined to the bases of the hills and our indian hunter told us the season was early. the operations of nature however seemed to us very tardy. we were eager to be gone and dreaded the lapse of summer before the indians would allow it had begun. on the th the geese and ducks had left the vicinity of fort enterprise and proceeded to the northward. some young ravens and whiskey-johns made their appearance at this time. on the th winter river was nearly cleared of ice and on the th the men returned, having left dr. richardson on the borders of point lake. dr. richardson informed me by letter that the snow was deeper in many parts near his encampment than it had been at any time last winter near fort enterprise, and that the ice on point lake had scarcely begun to decay. although the voyagers were much fatigued on their arrival, and had eaten nothing for the last twenty-four hours, they were very cheerful and expressed a desire to start with the remainder of the stores next morning. the dog-rib woman, who had lingered about the house since the th of june, took alarm at the approach of our men, thinking perhaps that they were accompanied by indians, and ran off. she was now provided with a hatchet, kettle, and fire-steel, and would probably go at once to fort providence in the expectation of meeting with some of her countrymen before the end of summer. chapter .* (*footnote. it will be seen hereafter that i had the misfortune to lose my portfolio containing my journals from fort enterprise to the th of september. but the loss has been amply redeemed by my brother officers' journals from which the narrative up to that period has been chiefly compiled.) departure from fort enterprise. navigation of the copper-mine river. visit to the copper mountain. interview with the esquimaux. departure of the indian hunters. arrangements made with them for our return. departure from fort enterprise. june , . the trains for the canoes having been finished during the night the party attached to them commenced their journey at ten this morning. each canoe was dragged by four men assisted by two dogs. they took the route of winter lake with the intention of following, although more circuitous, the watercourse as far as practicable, it being safer for the canoes than travelling overland. after their departure the remaining stores, the instruments, and our small stock of dried meat, amounting only to eighty pounds, were distributed equally among hepburn, three canadians, and the two esquimaux; with this party and two indian hunters we quitted fort enterprise, most sincerely rejoicing that the long-wished-for day had arrived when we were to proceed towards the final object of the expedition. we left in one of the rooms a box containing a journal of the occurrences up to this date, the charts and some drawings, which was to be conveyed to fort chipewyan by mr. wentzel on his return from the sea and thence to be sent to england. the room was blocked up and, by the advice of mr. wentzel, a drawing representing a man holding a dagger in a threatening attitude was affixed to the door to deter any indians from breaking it open. we directed our course towards the dog-rib rock but, as our companions were loaded with the weight of near one hundred and eighty pounds each, we of necessity proceeded at a slow pace. the day was extremely warm and the mosquitoes, whose attacks had hitherto been feeble, issued forth in swarms from the marshes and were very tormenting. having walked five miles we encamped near a small cluster of pines about two miles from the dog-rib rock. the canoe party had not been seen since they set out. our hunters went forward to marten lake, intending to wait for us at a place where two deer were deposited. at nine p.m. the temperature of the air was degrees. we resumed our march at an early hour and crossed several lakes which lay in our course as the ice enabled the men to drag their burdens on trains formed of sticks and deers' horns with more ease than they could carry them on their backs. we were kept constantly wet by this operation as the ice had broken near the shores of the lakes but this was little regarded as the day was unusually warm, the temperature at two p.m. being at / degrees. at marten lake we joined the canoe party and encamped with them. we had the mortification of learning from our hunters that the meat they had put en cache here had been destroyed by the wolverines, and we had in consequence to furnish the supper from our scanty stock of dried meat. the wind changed from south-east to north-east in the evening and the weather became very cold, the thermometer being at degrees at nine p.m. the few dwarf birches we could collect afforded fire insufficient to keep us warm and we retired under the covering of our blankets as soon as the supper was despatched. the north-east breeze rendered the night so extremely cold that we procured but little sleep, having neither fire nor shelter for, though we carried our tents, we had been forced to leave the tent-poles which we could not now replace; we therefore gladly recommenced the journey at five in the morning and travelled through the remaining part of the lake on the ice. its surface being quite smooth the canoes were dragged along expeditiously by the dogs, and the rest of the party had to walk very quick to keep pace with them, which occasioned many severe falls. by the time we had reached the end of the lake the wind had increased to a perfect gale and the atmosphere was so cold that we could not proceed farther with the canoes without the risk of breaking the bark and seriously injuring them; we therefore crossed winter river in them and put up in a well-sheltered place on a ridge of sandhills but, as the stock of provision was scanty, we determined on proceeding as quick as possible and leaving the canoe party under the charge of mr. wentzel. we parted from them in the afternoon, and first directed our course towards a range of hills where we expected to find antonio fontano, who had separated from us in the morning. in crossing towards these hills i fell through the ice into the lake with my bundle on my shoulders but was soon extricated without any injury, and mr. back, who left us to go in search of the straggler, met with a similar accident in the evening. we put up on a ridge of sandhills where we found some pines, and made a large fire to apprise mr. back and fontano of our position. st. germain having killed a deer in the afternoon we received an acceptable supply of meat. the night was stormy and very cold. at five the next morning our men were sent in different directions after our absent companions, but as the weather was foggy we despaired of finding them unless they should chance to hear the muskets our people were desired to fire. they returned however at ten, bringing intelligence of them. i went immediately with hepburn to join mr. back and directed mr. hood to proceed with the canadians and halt with them at the spot where the hunters had killed a deer. though mr. back was much fatigued he set off with me immediately, and in the evening we rejoined our friends on the borders of the big lake. the indians informed us that fontano only remained a few hours with them and then continued his journey. we had to oppose a violent gale and frequent snowstorms through the day, which unseasonable weather caused the temperature to descend below the freezing-point this evening. the situation of our encampment being bleak, and our fuel stunted green willows, we passed a very cold and uncomfortable night. june . though the breeze was moderate this morning the air was piercingly keen. when on the point of starting we perceived mr. wentzel's party coming, and awaited his arrival to learn whether the canoes had received any injury during the severe weather of yesterday. finding they had not we proceeded to get upon the ice on the lake, which could not be effected without walking up to the waist in water for some distance from its borders. we had not the command of our feet in this situation and the men fell often; poor junius broke through the ice with his heavy burden on his back but fortunately was not hurt. this lake is extensive and large arms branch from its main course in different directions. at these parts we crossed the projecting points of land and on each occasion had to wade as before, which so wearied everyone that we rejoiced when we reached its north side and encamped, though our resting-place was a bare rock. we had the happiness of finding fontano at this place. the poor fellow had passed the three preceding days without tasting food and was exhausted by anxiety and hunger. his sufferings were considered to have been a sufficient punishment for his imprudent conduct in separating from us, and i only admonished him to be more cautious in future. having received information that the hunters had killed a deer we sent three men to fetch the meat, which was distributed between our party and the canoe-men who had been encamped near to us. the thermometer at three p.m. was degrees, at nine degrees. we commenced the following day by crossing a lake about four miles in length and then passed over a succession of rugged hills for nearly the same distance. the men, being anxious to reach some pine-trees which they had seen on their former journey, walked at a quick pace though they were suffering from swelled legs and rheumatic pains; we could not however attain the desired point and therefore encamped on the declivity of a hill which sheltered us from the wind, and used the reindeer moss for fuel, which afforded us more warmth than we expected. several patches of snow were yet remaining on the surrounding hills. the thermometer varied today between and degrees. on the th of june we began our march by crossing a small lake, not without much risk as the surface of the ice was covered with water to the depth of two feet and there were many holes into which we slipped in spite of our efforts to avoid them. a few of the men, being fearful of attempting the traverse with their heavy loads, walked round the eastern end of the lake. the parties met on the sandy ridge which separates the streams that fall into winter lake from those that flow to the northward; and here we killed three deer. near the base of this ridge we crossed a small but rapid stream in which there is a remarkable cascade of about fifty feet. some indians joined us here and gave information respecting the situation of dr. richardson's tent, which our hunters considered was sufficient for our guidance, and therefore proceeded as quickly as they could. we marched a few miles farther in the evening and encamped among some pines; but the comfort of a good fire did not compensate for the torment we suffered from the host of mosquitoes at this spot. the temperature was degrees. we set off next morning at a very early hour. the men took the course of point lake that they might use their sledges, but the officers pursued the nearest route by land to dr. richardson's tent, which we reached at eleven a.m. it was on the western side of an arm of the lake and near the part through which the copper-mine river runs. our men arrived soon after us and in the evening mr. wentzel and his party, with the canoes in excellent condition. they were much jaded by their fatiguing journey and several were lame from swellings of the lower extremities. the ice on the lake was still six or seven feet thick and there was no appearance of its decay except near the edges and, as it was evident that, by remaining here until it should be removed, we might lose every prospect of success in our undertaking, i determined on dragging our stores along its surface until we should come to a part of the river where we could embark, and directions were given this evening for each man to prepare a train for the conveyance of his portion of the stores. i may remark here, as a proof of the strong effect of radiation from the earth in melting the ice, that the largest holes in the ice were always formed at the base of the high and steep cliffs which abound on the borders of this lake. we found akaitcho and the hunters encamped here but their families and the rest of the tribe had gone off two days before to the bethseeto, a large lake to the northward where they intended passing the summer. long-legs and keskarrah had departed to desire the hook to collect as much meat as he could against our arrival at his lodge. we were extremely distressed to learn from dr. richardson that akaitcho and his party had expended all the ammunition they had received at fort enterprise without having contributed any supply of provision. the doctor had however, through the assistance of two hunters he kept with him, prepared two hundred pounds of dried meat, which was now our sole dependence for the journey. on the following morning i represented to akaitcho that we had been greatly disappointed by his conduct which was so opposite to the promise of exertion he had made on quitting fort enterprise. he offered many excuses but, finding they were not satisfactory, admitted that the greater part of the ammunition had been given to those who accompanied the women to the bethseeto, and promised to behave better in future. i then told him that i intended in future to give them ammunition only in proportion to the meat which was brought in, and that we should commence upon that plan by supplying him with fifteen balls, and each of the hunters with ten. the number of our hunters was now reduced to five as two of the most active declined going any farther, their father, who thought himself dying, having solicited them to remain and close his eyes. these five were furnished with ammunition and sent forward to hunt on the south border of the lake, with directions to place any meat they might procure near the edge of the lake and set up marks to guide us to the spots. akaitcho, his brother, the guide, and three other men remained to accompany us. we were much surprised to perceive an extraordinary difference in climate in so short an advance to the northward as fifty miles. the snow here was lying in large patches on the hills. the dwarf-birch and willows were only just beginning to open their buds which had burst forth at fort enterprise many days before our departure. vegetation seemed to be three weeks or a month later here than at that place. we had heavy showers of rain through the night of the nd which melted the snow and visibly wasted the ice. on the rd the men were busily employed in making their trains and in pounding the meat for pemmican. the situation of the encampment was ascertained latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, and the variation degrees minutes seconds east. the arrangements being completed we purposed commencing our journey next morning, but the weather was too stormy to venture upon the lake with the canoes. in the afternoon a heavy fall of snow took place, succeeded by sleet and rain. the north-east gale continued but the thermometer rose to degrees. june . the wind having abated in the night we prepared for starting at an early hour. the three canoes were mounted on sledges and nine men were appointed to conduct them, having the assistance of two dogs to each canoe. the stores and provisions were distributed equally among the rest of our men, except a few small articles which the indians carried. the provision consisted of only two bags of pemmican, two of pounded meat, five of suet, and two small bundles of dried provision, together with fresh meat sufficient for our supper at night. it was gratifying to witness the readiness with which the men prepared for and commenced a journey which threatened to be so very laborious, as each of them had to drag upwards of one hundred and eighty pounds on his sledge. our course led down the main channel of the lake, which varied in breadth from half a mile to three miles; but we proceeded at a slow pace as the snow which fell last night and still lay on the ice very much impeded the sledges. many extensive arms branched off on the north side of this channel and it was bounded on the south by a chain of lofty islands. the hills on both sides rose to six or seven hundred feet and high steep cliffs were numerous. clusters of pines were occasionally seen in the valleys. we put up at eight p.m. in a spot which afforded us but a few twigs for fuel. the party was much fatigued and several of the men were affected by an inflammation on the inside of the thigh attended with hardness and swelling. the distance made today was six miles. we started at ten next morning. the day was extremely hot and the men were soon jaded; their lameness increased very much and some not previously affected began to complain. the dogs too showed symptoms of great weakness, and one of them stretched himself obstinately on the ice and was obliged to be released from the harness. we were therefore compelled to encamp at an early hour, having come only four miles. the sufferings of the people in this early stage of our journey were truly discouraging to them and very distressing to us, whose situation was comparatively easy. i therefore determined on leaving the third canoe which had been principally carried to provide against any accident to the others. we should thus gain three men to lighten the loads of those who were most lame, and an additional dog for each of the other canoes. it was accordingly properly secured on a stage erected for the purpose near the encampment. dried meat was issued for supper but in the course of the evening the indians killed two deer for which we immediately sent. the channel of the lake through which we had passed today was bounded on both sides by islands of considerable height, presenting bold and rugged scenery. we were informed by our guide that a large body of the lake lies to the northward of a long island which we passed. another deer was killed next morning but, as the men breakfasted off it before they started, the additional weight was not materially felt. the burdens of the men being considerably lightened by the arrangements of last evening, the party walked at the rate of one mile and three-quarters an hour until the afternoon, when our pace was slackened as the ice was more rough and our lame companions felt their sores very galling. at noon we passed a deep bay on the south side which is said to receive a river. throughout the day's march the hills on each side of the lake bore a strong resemblance in height and form to those about fort enterprise. we encamped on the north main shore among some spruce trees, having walked eight miles and a half. three or four fish were caught with lines through holes which the water had worn in the ice. we perceived a light westerly current at these places. it rained heavily during the night and this was succeeded by a dense fog on the morning of the th. being short of provisions we commenced our journey though the points of land were not discernible beyond a short distance. the surface of the ice, being honeycombed by the recent rains, presented innumerable sharp points which tore our shoes and lacerated the feet at every step. the poor dogs too marked their path with their blood. navigation of the copper-mine river. in the evening the atmosphere became clear and at five p.m. we reached the rapid by which point lake communicates with red-rock lake. this rapid is only one hundred yards wide and we were much disappointed at finding the copper-mine river such an inconsiderable stream. the canoes descended the rapid but the cargoes were carried across the peninsula and placed again on the sledges as the next lake was still frozen. we passed an extensive arm branching to the eastward, and encamped just below it on the western bank among spruce pines, having walked six miles of direct distance. the rolled stones on the beach are principally red clay slate, hence its indian appellation which we have retained. we continued our journey at the usual hour next morning. at noon the variation was observed to be degrees east. our attention was afterwards directed to some pine branches scattered on the ice which proved to be marks placed by our hunters to guide us to the spot where they had deposited the carcasses of two small deer. this supply was very seasonable and the men cheerfully dragged the additional weight. akaitcho, judging from the appearance of the meat, thought it had been placed here three days ago and that the hunters were considerably in advance. we put up at six p.m. near the end of the lake, having come twelve miles and three-quarters, and found the channel open by which it is connected with the rock-nest lake. a river was pointed out bearing south from our encampment, which is said to rise near great marten lake. red-rock lake is in general narrow, its shelving banks are well clothed with wood and even the hills, which attain an elevation of four hundred or five hundred feet, are ornamented halfway up with stunted pines. on june the men, having gummed the canoes, embarked with their burdens to descend the river; but we accompanied the indians about five miles across a neck of land, when we also embarked. the river was about two hundred yards wide and, its course being uninterrupted, we cherished a sanguine hope of now getting on more speedily, until we perceived that the waters of rock-nest lake were still bound by ice and that recourse must again be had to the sledges. the ice was much decayed and the party were exposed to great risk of breaking through in making the traverse. in one part we had to cross an open channel in the canoes, and in another were compelled to quit the lake and make a portage along the land. when the party had got upon the ice again our guide evinced much uncertainty as to the route. he first directed us towards the west end of the lake but, when we had nearly gained that point, he discovered a remarkable rock to the north-east, named by the indians the rock-nest, and then recollected that the river ran at its base. our course was immediately changed to that direction, but the traverse we had then to make was more dangerous than the former one. the ice cracked under us at every step and the party were obliged to separate widely to prevent accidents. we landed at the first point we could approach but, having found an open channel close to the shore, were obliged to ferry the goods across on pieces of ice. the fresh meat being expended we had to make another inroad on our pounded meat. the evening was very warm and the mosquitoes numerous. a large fire was made to apprise the hunters of our advance. the scenery of rock-nest lake is picturesque, its shores are rather low except at the rock-nest, and two or three eminences on the eastern side. the only wood is the pine which is twenty or thirty feet high and about one foot in diameter. our distance today was six miles. july . our guide directed us to proceed towards a deep bay on the north side of the lake where he supposed we should find the river. in consequence of the bad state of the ice we employed all the different modes of travelling we had previously followed in attaining this place and, in crossing a point of land, had the misfortune to lose one of the dogs, which set off in pursuit of some reindeer. arriving at the bay we only found a stream that fell into it from the north-east and looked in vain for the copper-mine river. this circumstance confused the guide and he confessed that he was now doubtful of the proper route; we therefore halted and despatched him with two men to look for the river from the top of the high hills near the rock-nest. during this delay a slight injury was repaired which one of the canoes had received. we were here amused by the sight of a wolf chasing two reindeer on the ice. the pursuer, being alarmed at the sight of our men, gave up the chase when near to the hindmost, much to our regret for we were calculating upon the chance of sharing in his capture. at four p.m. our men returned with the agreeable information that they had seen the river flowing at the base of the rock-nest. the canoes and stores were immediately placed on the ice and dragged thither; we then embarked but soon had to cut through a barrier of drift ice that blocked up the way. we afterwards descended two strong rapids and encamped near the discharge of a small stream which flows from an adjoining lake. the copper-mine river at this point is about two hundred yards wide and ten feet deep, and flows very rapidly over a rocky bottom. the scenery of its banks is picturesque, the hills shelve to the waterside and are well covered with wood, and the surface of the rocks is richly ornamented with lichens. the indians say that the same kind of country prevails as far as mackenzie's river in this parallel, but that the land to the eastward is perfectly barren. akaitcho and one of the indians killed two deer which were immediately sent for. two of the hunters arrived in the night and we learned that their companions, instead of being in advance as we supposed, were staying at the place where we first found the river open. they had only seen our fires last evening and had sent to examine who we were. the circumstance of having passed them was very vexatious as they had three deer en cache at their encampment. however an indian was sent to desire those who remained to join us and bring the meat. we embarked at nine a.m. on july nd and descended a succession of strong rapids for three miles. we were carried along with extraordinary rapidity, shooting over large stones upon which a single stroke would have been destructive to the canoes; and we were also in danger of breaking them, from the want of the long poles which lie along their bottoms and equalise their cargoes, as they plunged very much, and on one occasion the first canoe was almost filled with the waves. but there was no receding after we had once launched into the stream, and our safety depended on the skill and dexterity of the bowmen and steersmen. the banks of the river here are rocky and the scenery beautiful, consisting of gentle elevations and dales wooded to the edge of the stream and flanked on both sides at the distance of three or four miles by a range of round-backed barren hills, upwards of six hundred feet high. at the foot of the rapids the high lands recede to a greater distance and the river flows with a more gentle current in a wider channel through a level and open country consisting of alluvial sand. in one place the passage was blocked up by drift ice still deeply covered with snow. a channel for the canoes was made for some distance with the hatchets and poles but, on reaching the more compact part, we were under the necessity of transporting the canoes and cargoes across it, an operation of much hazard as the snow concealed the numerous holes which the water had made in the ice. this expansion of the river being mistaken by the guide for a lake which he spoke of as the last on our route to the sea, we supposed that we should have no more ice to cross, and therefore encamped after passing through it, to fit the canoes properly for the voyage and to provide poles, which are not only necessary to strengthen them when placed in the bottom, but essentially requisite for the safe management of them in dangerous rapids. the guide began afterwards to doubt whether the lake he meant was not farther on, and he was sent with two men to examine into the fact, who returned in the evening with the information of its being below us but that there was an open channel through it. this day was very sultry and several plants appeared in flower. the men were employed in repairing their canoes to a late hour and commenced very early next morning as we were desirous of availing ourselves of every part of this favourable weather. the hunters arrived in the course of the night. it appeared that the dog which escaped from us two days ago came into the vicinity of their encampment, howling piteously; seeing him without his harness they came to the hasty conclusion that our whole party had perished in a rapid and, throwing away part of their baggage and leaving the meat behind them, they set off with the utmost haste to join long-legs. our messenger met them in their flight but too far advanced to admit of their returning for the meat. akaitcho scolded them heartily for their thoughtlessness in leaving the meat, which we so much wanted. they expressed their regret and, being ashamed of their panic, proposed to remedy the evil as much as possible by going forward without stopping until they came to a favourable spot for hunting, which they expected to do about thirty or forty miles below our present encampment. akaitcho accompanied them but previous to setting off he renewed his charge that we should be on our guard against the bears, which was occasioned by the hunters having fired at one is morning as they were descending a rapid in their canoe. as their small canoes would only carry five persons two of the hunters had to walk in turns along the banks. in our rambles round the encampment we witnessed with pleasure the progress which vegetation had made within the few last warm days; most of the trees had put forth their leaves and several flowers ornamented the moss-covered ground; many of the smaller summer birds were observed in the woods, and a variety of ducks, gulls, and plovers, sported on the banks of the river. it is about three hundred yards wide at this part, is deep and flows over a bed of alluvial sand. we caught some trout of considerable size with our lines, and a few white-fish in the nets, which maintained us with a little assistance from the pemmican. the repair of our canoes was completed this evening. before embarking i issued an order that no rapid should in future be descended until the bowman had examined it and decided upon its being safe to run. wherever the least danger was to be apprehended or the crew had to disembark for the purpose of lightening the canoe, the ammunition, guns, and instruments were always to be put out and carried along the bank, that we might be provided with the means of subsisting ourselves in case of any accident befalling the canoes. the situation of our encampment was ascertained to be degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, and the variation degrees minutes seconds east. at four in the morning of july th we embarked and descended a succession of very agitated rapids, but took the precaution of landing the articles mentioned yesterday wherever there appeared any hazard; notwithstanding all our precautions the leading canoe struck with great force against a stone and the bark was split, but this injury was easily repaired and we regretted only the loss of time. at eleven we came to an expansion of the river where the current ran with less force and an accumulation of drift ice had in consequence barred the channel; over this the canoes and cargoes were carried. the ice in many places adhered to the banks and projected in wide ledges several feet thick over the stream, which had hollowed them out beneath. on one occasion as the people were embarking from one of these ledges it suddenly gave way and three men were precipitated into the water but were rescued without further damage than a sound ducking, and the canoe fortunately (and narrowly) escaped being crushed. perceiving one of the indians sitting on the east bank of the river we landed and, having learned from him that akaitcho and the hunters had gone in pursuit of a herd of musk-oxen, we encamped, having come twenty-four miles and a half. in the afternoon they brought us the agreeable intelligence of having killed eight cows, of which four were full-grown. all the party were immediately despatched to bring in this seasonable supply. a young cow, irritated by the firing of the hunters, ran down to the river and passed close to me when walking at a short distance from the tents. i fired and wounded it, when the animal instantly turned and ran at me, but i avoided its fury by jumping aside and getting upon an elevated piece of ground. in the meantime some people came from the tents and it took to flight. the musk-oxen, like the buffalo, herd together in bands and generally frequent the barren grounds during the summer months, keeping near the rivers, but retire to the woods in winter. they seem to be less watchful than most other wild animals and, when grazing, are not difficult to approach provided the hunters go against the wind; when two or three men get so near a herd as to fire at them from different points these animals, instead of separating or running away, huddle closer together and several are generally killed; but if the wound is not mortal they become enraged and dart in the most furious manner at the hunters, who must be very dextrous to evade them. they can defend themselves by their powerful horns against the wolves and bears which, as the indians say, they not unfrequently kill. the musk-oxen feed on the same substances with the reindeer, and the prints of the feet of these two animals are so much alike that it requires the eye of an experienced hunter to distinguish them. the largest killed by us did not exceed in weight three hundred pounds. the flesh has a musky disagreeable flavour, particularly when the animal is lean which, unfortunately for us, was the case with all that we now killed. during this day's march the river varied in breadth from one hundred to two hundred feet, and except in two open spaces a very strong current marked a deep descent the whole way. it flows over a bed of gravel, of which also its immediate banks are composed. near to our encampment it is bounded by cliffs of fine sand from one hundred to two hundred feet high. sandy plains extend on a level with the summit of these cliffs, and at the distance of six or seven miles are terminated by ranges of hills eight hundred or one thousand feet high. the grass on these plains affords excellent pasturage for the musk-oxen and they generally abound here. the hunters added two more to our stock in the course of the night. as we had now more meat than the party could consume fresh we delayed our voyage next day to dry it. the hunters were supplied with more ammunition and sent forward; but akaitcho, his brother, and another indian remained with us. it may here be proper to mention that the officers had treated akaitcho more distantly since our departure from point lake, to mark their opinion of his misconduct. the diligence in hunting however which he had evinced at this place induced us to receive him more familiarly when he came to the tent this evening. during our conversation he endeavoured to excite suspicions in our minds against the hook by saying, "i am aware that you consider me the worst man of my nation; but i know the hook to be a great rogue and i think he will disappoint you." on the morning of the th we embarked and descended a series of rapids, having twice unloaded the canoes where the water was shallow. after passing the mouth of the fairy lake river* the rapids ceased. the main stream was then about three hundred yards wide and generally deep, though in one part the channel was interrupted by several sandy banks and low alluvial islands covered with willows. it flows between banks of sand thinly wooded and as we advanced the barren hills approached the water's edge. (*footnote. this is an indian name. the northern indian fairies are six inches high, lead a life similar to the indians, and are excellent hunters. those who have had the good fortune to fall in with their tiny encampments have been kindly treated and regaled on venison. we did not learn with certainty whether the existence of these delightful creatures is known from indian tradition or whether the indians own their knowledge of them to their intercourse with the traders, but think the former probable.) at ten we rejoined our hunters who had killed a deer and halted to breakfast. we sent them forward; one of them who was walking along the shore afterwards fired upon two brown bears and wounded one of them, which instantly turned and pursued him. his companions in the canoes put ashore to his assistance but did not succeed in killing the bears, which fled upon the reinforcement coming up. during the delay thus occasioned we overtook them and they continued with us the rest of the day. we encamped at the foot of a lofty range of mountains which appear to be from twelve to fifteen hundred feet high; they are in general round-backed but the outline is not even, being interrupted by craggy conical eminences. this is the first ridge of hills we have seen in this country that deserves the appellation of a mountain range; it is probably a continuation of the stony mountains crossed by hearne. many plants appeared in full flower near the tents and dr. richardson gathered some high up on the hills. the distance we made today was fifty miles. there was a hoar frost in the night and the temperature at four next morning was degrees: embarking at that hour we glided quickly down the stream and by seven arrived at the hook's encampment which was placed on the summit of a lofty sand cliff whose base was washed by the river. this chief had with him only three hunters and a few old men and their families, the rest of the band having remained at their snares in bear lake. his brother long-legs and our guide keskarrah, who had joined him three days before, had communicated to him our want of provision, and we were happy to find that, departing from the general practice of indian chiefs, he entered at once upon the business without making a long speech. as an introductory mark of our regard i decorated him with a medal similar to those which had been given to the other leaders. the hook began by stating that he was aware of our being destitute of provision, and of the great need we had of an ample stock to enable us to execute our undertaking, and his regret that the unusual scarcity of animals this season, together with the circumstance of his having only just received a supply of ammunition from fort providence, had prevented him from collecting the quantity of meat he had wished to do for our use. "the amount indeed," he said, "is very small, but i will cheerfully give you what i have: we are too much indebted to the white people to allow them to want food on our lands whilst we have any to give them. our families can live on fish until we can procure more meat, but the season is too short to allow of your delaying to gain subsistence in that manner." he immediately desired aloud that the women should bring all the meat they had to us; and we soon collected sufficient to make three bags and a half of pemmican, besides some dried meat and tongues. we were truly delighted by this prompt and cheerful behaviour and would gladly have rewarded the kindness of himself and his companions by some substantial present, but we were limited by the scantiness of our store to a small donation of fifteen charges of ammunition to each of the chiefs. in return for the provision they accepted notes on the north-west company to be paid at fort providence, and to these was subjoined an order for a few articles of clothing as an additional present. i then endeavoured to prevail upon the hook to remain in this vicinity with his hunters until the autumn, and to make deposits of provision in different parts of the course to the sea as a resource for our party, in the event of our being compelled to return by this route. he required time however to consider this matter, and promised to give me an answer next day. i was rejoiced to find him then prepared to meet my wish and the following plan was agreed upon: as the animals abound at all times on the borders of bear lake he promised to remain on the east side of it until the month of november, at that spot which is nearest to the copper-mine river, from whence there is a communication by a chain of lakes and portages. there the principal deposit of provision was to be made, but during the summer the hunters were to be employed in putting up supplies of dried meat at convenient distances, not only along the communication from this river, but also upon its banks as far down as the copper mountain. they were also to place particular marks to guide our course to their lodges. we contracted to pay them liberally, whether we returned by this way or not; if we did they were to accompany us to fort providence to receive the reward, and at any rate i promised to send the necessary documents by mr. wentzel from the sea-coast to ensure them an ample remuneration. with this arrangement they were perfectly satisfied and we could not be less so, knowing they had every motive for fulfilling their promises, as the place they had chosen to remain at is their usual hunting ground. the uncommon anxiety these chiefs expressed for our safety appeared to us likely to prompt them to every care and attention, and i record their expressions with gratitude. after representing the numerous hardships we should have to encounter in the strongest manner, though in language similar to what we had often heard from our friend akaitcho, they earnestly entreated we would be constantly on our guard against the treachery of the esquimaux, and no less forcibly desired we would not proceed far along the coast, as they dreaded the consequences of our being exposed to a tempestuous sea in canoes, and having to endure the cold of the autumn on a shore destitute of fuel. the hook having been an invalid for several years rejoiced at the opportunity of consulting dr. richardson, who immediately gave him advice and supplied him with medicine. the pounded meat and fat were converted into pemmican preparatory to our voyage. the result of our observations at the hook's encampment was latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation of the compass degrees minutes seconds east. we embarked at eleven to proceed on our journey. akaitcho and his brother the guide being in the first canoe and old keskarrah in the other. we wished to dispense with the further attendance of two guides and made a proposition that either of them might remain here, but neither would relinquish the honour of escorting the expedition to the sea. one of our hunters however was less eager for this distinction and preferred remaining with green-stockings, keskarrah's fascinating daughter. the other four, with the little singer accompanied us, two of them conducting their small canoes in turns and the rest walking along the beach. the river flows over a bed of sand and winds in an uninterrupted channel of from three-quarters to a mile broad between two ranges of hills, which are pretty even in their outline and round-backed, but having rather steep acclivities. the immediate borders of the stream consist either of high banks of sand or steep gravel cliffs and sometimes, where the hills recede to a little distance, the intervening space is occupied by high sandy ridges. at three p.m., after passing along the foot of a high range of hills, we arrived at the portage leading to the bear lake, to which we have previously alluded. its position is very remarkable, being at the most westerly part of the copper-mine river and at the point where it resumes a northern course and forces a passage through the lofty ridge of mountains to which it has run parallel for the last thirty miles. as the indians travel from hence with their families in three days to the point where they have proposed staying for us, the distance i think cannot exceed forty miles and, admitting the course to be due west, which is the direction the guide pointed, it would place the eastern part of bear lake in / degrees west longitude. beyond this spot the river is diminished in breadth and a succession of rapids are formed but, as the water was deep, we passed through them without discharging any part of the cargoes. it still runs between high ranges of mountains, though its actual boundaries are banks of mud mixed with clay which are clothed with stunted pines. we picked up a deer which the hunters had shot and killed another from the canoe, and also received an addition to our stock of provision of seven young geese which the hunters had beaten down with their sticks. about six p.m. we perceived a mark on the shore which on examination was found to have been recently put up by some indians: and on proceeding farther we discerned stronger proofs of their vicinity; we therefore encamped and made a large fire as a signal which they answered in a similar way. mr. wentzel was immediately sent in expectation of getting provision from them. on his return we learned that the party consisted of three old copper indians with their families, who had supported themselves with the bow and arrow since last autumn, not having visited fort providence for more than a year, and so successful had they been that they were enabled to supply us with upwards of seventy pounds of dried meat, and six moose skins fit for making shoes, which were the more valuable as we were apprehensive of being barefooted before the journey could be completed. the evening was sultry and the mosquitoes appeared in great numbers. the distance made today was twenty-five miles. on the following morning we went down to these indians and delivered to them notes on the north-west company for the meat and skins they had furnished, and we had then the mortification of learning that, not having people to carry a considerable quantity of pounded meat which they intended for us, they had left it upon the bear lake portage. they promised however to get it conveyed to the banks of this river before we could return and we rewarded them with a present of knives and files. after reembarking we continued to descend the river which was now contracted between lofty banks to about one hundred and twenty yards wide; the current was very strong. at eleven we came to a rapid which had been the theme of discourse with the indians for many days, and which they had described to us as impassable in canoes. the river here descends for three-quarters of a mile in a deep but narrow and crooked channel which it has cut through the foot of a hill of five hundred or six hundred feet high. it is confined between perpendicular cliffs resembling stone walls, varying in height from eighty to one hundred and fifty feet, on which lies a mass of fine sand. the body of the river pent within this narrow chasm dashed furiously round the projecting rocky columns and discharged itself at the northern extremity in a sheet of foam. the canoes, after being lightened of part of their cargoes, ran through this defile without sustaining any injury. accurate sketches of this interesting scene were taken by messrs. back and hood. soon after passing this rapid we perceived the hunters running up the east side of the river to prevent us from disturbing a herd of musk-oxen which they had observed grazing on the opposite bank; we put them across and they succeeded in killing six, upon which we encamped for the purpose of drying the meat. the country below the rocky defile rapid consists of sandy plains, broken by small conical eminences also of sand, and bounded to the westward by a continuation of the mountain chain which we had crossed at the bear lake portage, and to the eastward and northward at the distance of twelve miles by the copper mountains, which mr. hearne visited. the plains are crowned by several clumps of moderately large spruces about thirty feet high. this evening the indians made a large fire as a signal to the hook's party that we had passed the terrific rapid in safety. the position of our encampment was ascertained to be latitude degrees minute seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation of the compass degrees minutes seconds east, dip of the needle degrees minutes seconds. some thundershowers retarded the drying of the meat and our embarkation was delayed till the next day. the hunters were sent forward to hunt at the copper mountains under the superintendence of adam the interpreter who received strict injunctions not to permit them to make any large fires lest they should alarm straggling parties of the esquimaux. the mosquitoes were now very numerous and annoying but we consoled ourselves with the hope that their season would be short. visit to the copper mountain. on the th we started at three a.m. and, as the guide had represented the river below our encampment to be full of shoals, some of the men were directed to walk along the shore, but they were assailed so violently by the mosquitoes as to be compelled to embark very soon; and we afterwards passed over the shallow parts by the aid of the poles without experiencing much interruption. the current ran very rapidly, having been augmented by the waters of the mouse river and several small streams. we rejoined our hunters at the foot of the copper mountains and found they had killed three musk-oxen. this circumstance determined us on encamping to dry the meat as there was wood at the spot. we availed ourselves of this delay to visit the copper mountains in search of specimens of the ore, agreeably to my instructions; and a party of twenty-one persons, consisting of the officers, some of the voyagers, and all the indians, set off on that excursion. we travelled for nine hours over a considerable space of ground but found only a few small pieces of native copper. the range we ascended was on the west side of the river extending west-north-west and east-south-east. the mountains varied in height from twelve to fifteen hundred feet. the uniformity of the mountains is interrupted by narrow valleys traversed by small streams. the best specimens of metal we procured were among the stones in these valleys, and it was in such situations that our guides desired us to search most carefully. it would appear that, when the indians see any sparry substance projecting above the surface, they dig there, but they have no other rule to direct them, and have never found the metal in its original repository. our guides reported that they had found copper in large pieces in every part of this range for two days' walk to the north-west, and that the esquimaux come hither to search for it. the annual visits which the copper indians were accustomed to make to these mountains, when most of their weapons and utensils were made of copper, have been discontinued since they have been enabled to obtain a supply of ice chisels and other instruments of iron by the establishment of trading posts near their hunting grounds. that none of those who accompanied us had visited them for many years was evident from their ignorance of the spots most abundant in metal. the impracticability of navigating the river upwards from the sea, and the want of wood for forming an establishment, would prove insuperable objections to rendering the collection of copper at this part worthy of mercantile speculation. we had the opportunity of surveying the country from several elevated positions. two or three small lakes only were visible, still partly frozen, and much snow remained on the mountains. the trees were reduced to a scanty fringe on the borders of the river and every side was beset by naked mountains. the day was unusually warm and therefore favourable for drying meat. our whole stock of provision, calculated for preservation, was sufficient for fourteen days without any diminution of the ordinary allowance of three pounds to each man per day. the situation of our tents was degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west. june . the indians, knowing the course of the river below this point to be only a succession of rapids, declined taking their canoes any farther but, as i conceived one of them would be required, should we be compelled to walk along the coast, two of our men were appointed to conduct it. as we were now entering the confines of the esquimaux country our guides recommended us to be cautious in lighting fires lest we should discover ourselves, adding that the same reason would lead them to travel as much as possible in the valleys, and to avoid crossing the tops of the hills. we embarked at six a.m., taking with us only old keskarrah. the other indians walked along the banks of the river. throughout this day's voyage the current was very strong, running four or five miles an hour, but the navigation was tolerable and we had to lighten the canoes only once, in a contracted part of the river where the waves were very high. the river is in many places confined between perpendicular walls of rock to one hundred and fifty yards in width, and there the rapids were most agitated. large masses of ice twelve or fourteen feet thick were still adhering to many parts of the bank, indicating the tardy departure of winter from this inhospitable land, but the earth around them was rich with vegetation. in the evening two musk-oxen, being seen on the beach, were pursued and killed by our men. whilst we were waiting to embark the meat the indians rejoined us and reported they had been attacked by a bear which sprung upon them whilst they were conversing together. his attack was so sudden that they had not time to level their guns properly, and they all missed except akaitcho who, less confused than the rest, took deliberate aim and shot the animal dead. they do not eat the flesh of the bear but, knowing that we had no such prejudice, they brought us some of the choice pieces which upon trial we found to be very excellent meat. the indians having informed us that we were now within twelve miles of the rapid where the esquimaux have invariably been found, we pitched our tents on the beach under the shelter of a high hill whose precipitous side is washed by the river, intending to send forward some persons to determine the situation of their present abode. some vestiges of an old esquimaux encampment were observed near the tents and the stumps of the trees bore marks of the stone hatchets they use. a strict watch was appointed consisting of an officer, four canadians, and an indian, and directions were given for the rest of the party to sleep with their arms by their side. that as little delay as possible might be experienced in opening a communication with the esquimaux we immediately commenced arrangements for sending forward persons to discover whether there were any in our vicinity. akaitcho and the guides proposed that two of the hunters should be despatched on this service who had extremely quick sight and were accustomed to act as scouts, an office which requires equal caution and circumspection. a strong objection however lay against this plan in the probability of their being discovered by a straggling hunter, which would be destructive to every hope of accommodation. it was therefore determined to send augustus and junius, who were very desirous to undertake the service. these adventurous men proposed to go armed only with pistols concealed in their dress, and furnished with beads, looking-glasses, and other articles, that they might conciliate their countrymen by presents. we could not divest our minds of the apprehension that it might be a service of much hazard if the esquimaux were as hostile to strangers as the copper indians have invariably represented them to be, and we felt great reluctance in exposing our two little interpreters, who had rendered themselves dear to the whole party, to the most distant chance of receiving injury, but this course of proceeding appeared in their opinion and our own to offer the only chance of gaining an interview. though not insensible to the danger they cheerfully prepared for their mission, and clothed themselves in esquimaux dresses which had been made for the purpose at fort enterprise. augustus was desired to make his presents and to tell the esquimaux that the white men had come to make peace between them and all their enemies, and also to discover a passage by which every article of which they stood in need might be brought in large ships. he was not to mention that we were accompanied by the indians but to endeavour to prevail on some of the esquimaux to return with him. he was directed to come back immediately if there were no lodges at the rapid. the indians were not suffered to move out of our sight, but in the evening we permitted two of them to cross the river in pursuit of a musk-ox, which they killed on the beach and returned immediately. the officers, prompted by an anxious solicitude for augustus and junius, crawled up frequently to the summit of the mountain to watch their return. the view however was not extensive, being bounded at the distance of eight miles by a range of hills similar to the copper mountains but not so lofty. the night came without bringing any intelligence of our messengers, and our fears for their safety increased with the length of their absence. as everyone had been interested in the welfare of these men through their vivacity and good nature and the assistance they had cheerfully rendered in bearing their portion of whatever labour might be going on, their detention formed the subject of all our conversation and numerous conjectures were hazarded as to the cause. dr. richardson, having the first watch, had gone to the summit of the hill and remained seated, contemplating the river that washed the precipice under his feet long after dusk had hid distant objects from his view. his thoughts were perhaps far distant from the surrounding scenery, when he was roused by an indistinct noise behind him and, on looking round, perceived that nine white wolves had ranged themselves in form of a crescent and were advancing, apparently with the intention of driving him into the river. on his rising up they halted, and when he advanced they made way for his passage down to the tents. he had his gun in his hand but forbore to fire lest there should be esquimaux in the neighbourhood. during mr. wentzel's middle watch the wolves appeared repeatedly on the summit of the hill, and at one time they succeeded in driving a deer over the precipice. the animal was stunned by the fall but, recovering itself, swam across the stream and escaped up the river. i may remark here that at midnight it was tolerably dark in the valley of the river at this time but that an object on the eminence above could be distinctly seen against the sky. the following observations were taken at this encampment, latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation degrees minutes seconds east. thermometer degrees at three p.m. sultry weather. augustus and junius not having returned next morning we were more alarmed respecting them, and determined on proceeding to find out the cause of their detention, but it was eleven a.m. before we could prevail upon the indians to remain behind, which we wished them to do lest the esquimaux might be suspicious of our intentions if they were seen in our suite. we promised to send for them when we had paved the way for their reception, but akaitcho, ever ready to augur misfortune, expressed his belief that our messengers had been killed and that the esquimaux, warned of our approach, were lying in wait for us, and "although," said he, "your party may be sufficiently strong to repulse any hostile attack, my band is too weak to offer effectual resistance when separated from you, and therefore we are determined to go on with you or to return to our lands." after much argument however he yielded and agreed to stay behind, provided mr. wentzel would remain with him. this gentleman was accordingly left with a canadian attendant and they promised not to pass a range of hills then in view to the northward unless we sent notice to them. the river during the whole of this day's voyage flowed between alternate cliffs of looses and intermixed with gravel and red sandstone rocks, and was everywhere shallow and rapid. as its course was very crooked much time was spent in examining the different rapids previous to running them, but the canoes descended, except at a single place, without any difficulty. most of the officers and half the men marched along the land to lighten the canoes and reconnoitre the country, each person being armed with a gun and a dagger. arriving at a range of mountains which had terminated our view yesterday, we ascended it with much eagerness, expecting to see the rapid that mr. hearne visited near its base, and to gain a view of the sea; but our disappointment was proportionably great when we beheld beyond a plain, similar to that we had just left, terminated by another range of trap hills, between whose tops the summits of some distant blue mountains appeared. our reliance on the information of the guides, which had been for some time shaken, was now quite at an end, and we feared that the sea was still far distant. the flat country here is covered with grass and is devoid of the large stones so frequent in the barren grounds, but the ranges of trap hills which seem to intersect it at regular distances are quite barren. a few decayed stunted pines were standing on the borders of the river. in the evening we had the gratification of meeting junius who was hastening back to inform us that they had found four esquimaux tents at the fall which we recognised to be the one described by mr. hearne. the inmates were asleep at the time of their arrival but rose soon afterwards, and then augustus presented himself and had some conversation across the river. he told them the white people had come, who would make them very useful presents. the information of our arrival seemed to alarm them very much but, as the noise of the rapid prevented them from hearing distinctly, one of them approached him in his canoe and received the rest of the message. he would not however land on his side of the river, but returned to the tents without receiving the present. his language differed in some respects from augustus's but they understood each other tolerably well. augustus, trusting for a supply of provision to the esquimaux, had neglected to carry any with him, and this was the main cause of junius's return. we now encamped, having come fourteen miles. after a few hours' rest junius set off again to rejoin his companion, being accompanied by hepburn who was directed to remain about two miles above the fall to arrest the canoes on their passage, lest we should too suddenly surprise the esquimaux. about ten p.m. we were mortified by the appearance of the indians with mr. wentzel, who had in vain endeavoured to restrain them from following us. the only reason assigned by akaitcho for this conduct was that he wished for a reassurance of my promise to establish peace between his nation and the esquimaux. i took this occasion of again enforcing the necessity of their remaining behind until we had obtained the confidence and goodwill of their enemies. after supper dr. richardson ascended a lofty hill about three miles from the encampment and obtained the first view of the sea; it appeared to be covered with ice. a large promontory, which i named cape hearne, bore north-east and its lofty mountains proved to be the blue land we had seen in the forenoon, and which had led us to believe the sea was still far distant. he saw the sun set a few minutes before midnight from the same elevated situation. it did not rise during the half hour he remained there, but before he reached the encampment its rays gilded the tops of the hills. the night was warm and we were much annoyed by the mosquitoes. june . we this morning experienced as much difficulty as before in prevailing upon the indians to remain behind, and they did not consent until i had declared that they should lose the reward which had been promised if they proceeded any farther before we had prepared the esquimaux to receive them. we left a canadian with them and proceeded, not without apprehension that they would follow us and derange our whole plan by their obstinacy. two of the officers and a party of men walked on the shore to lighten the canoes. the river in this part flows between high and stony cliffs, reddish slate clay rocks, and shelving banks of white clay, and is full of shoals and dangerous rapids. one of these was termed escape rapid, both the canoes having narrowly escaped foundering in its high waves. we had entered the rapid before we were aware and, the steepness of the cliffs preventing us from landing, we were indebted to the swiftness of our descent for preservation. two waves made a complete breach over the canoes; a third would in all probability have filled and overset them, which must have proved fatal to everyone in them. the powder fortunately escaped the water, which was soon discharged when we reached the bottom of the rapid. at noon we perceived hepburn lying on the left bank of the river and landed immediately to receive his information. as he represented the water to be shoal the whole way to the rapid (below which the esquimaux were) the shore party were directed to continue their march to a sandy bay at the head of the fall and there await the arrival of the canoes. the land in the neighbourhood of the rapid is of the most singular form: large irregular sandhills bounding both banks, apparently so unconnected that they resemble icebergs, the country around them consisting of high round green hills. the river becomes wide in this part and full of shoals, but we had no difficulty in finding a channel through them. on regaining the shore party we regretted to find that some of the men had incautiously appeared on the tops of the hills just at the time augustus was conversing with one of the esquimaux, who had again approached in his canoe and was almost persuaded to land. the unfortunate appearance of so many people at this instant revived his fears, and he crossed over to the eastern bank of the river, and fled with the whole of his party. we learned from augustus that this party, consisting of four men and as many women, had manifested a friendly disposition. two of the former were very tall. the man who first came to speak to him inquired the number of canoes that we had with us, expressed himself to be not displeased at our arrival, and desired him to caution us not to attempt running the rapid, but to make the portage on the west side of the river. notwithstanding this appearance of confidence and satisfaction it seems they did not consider their situation free from danger, as they retreated the first night to an island somewhat farther down the river, and in the morning they returned and threw down their lodges, as if to give notice to any of their nation that might arrive that there was an enemy in the neighbourhood. from seeing all their property strewed about, and ten of their dogs left, we entertained the hope that these poor people would return after their first alarm had subsided, and therefore i determined on remaining until the next day, in the expectation of seeing them as i considered the opening of an early communication a matter of the greatest importance in our state of absolute ignorance respecting the sea-coast. the canoes and cargoes were carried across the portage and we encamped on the north side of it. we sent augustus and junius across the river to look for the runaways but their search was fruitless. they put a few pieces of iron and trinkets in their canoes, which were lying on the beach. we also sent some men to put up the stages of fish and secure them as much as possible from the attacks of the dogs. under the covering of their tents were observed some stone kettles and hatchets, a few fish spears made of copper, two small bits of iron, a quantity of skins, and some dried salmon, which was covered with maggots and half putrid. the entrails of the fish were spread out to dry. a great many skins of small birds were hung up to a stage, and even two mice were preserved in the same way. thus it would appear that the necessities of these poor people induce them to preserve every article that can be possibly used as food. several human skulls, which bore the marks of violence, and many bones were strewed about the ground near the encampment and, as the spot exactly answers the description given by mr. hearne of the place where the chipewyans who accompanied him perpetrated the dreadful massacre on the esquimaux, we had no doubt of this being the place, notwithstanding the difference in its position as to latitude and longitude given by him and ascertained by our observation. we have therefore preserved the appellation of bloody fall which he bestowed upon it. its situation by our observations is in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation degrees minutes seconds east. this rapid is a sort of shelving cascade, about three hundred yards in length, having a descent of from ten to fifteen feet. it is bounded on each side by high walls of red sandstone, upon which rests a series of lofty green hills. on its north side close to the east bank is the low rocky island which the esquimaux had deserted. the surrounding scenery was accurately delineated in a sketch taken by mr. hood. we caught forty excellent salmon and white-fish in a single net below the rapid. we had not seen any trees during this day's journey; our fuel consisted of small willows and pieces of dried wood that were picked up near the encampment. the ground is well clothed with grass and nourishes most of the shrubs and berry-bearing plants that we have seen north of fort enterprise; and the country altogether has a richer appearance than the barren lands of the copper indians. we had a distinct view of the sea from the summit of a hill behind the tents; it appeared choked with ice and full of islands. interview with the esquimaux. on the morning of the th three men were sent up the river to search for dried wood to make floats for the nets. adam the interpreter was also despatched with a canadian to inform akaitcho of the flight of the esquimaux. we were preparing to go down to the sea in one of the canoes, leaving mr. back to await the return of the men who were absent but, just as the crew were putting the canoe in the water, adam returned in the utmost consternation and informed us that a party of esquimaux were pursuing the men whom we had sent to collect floats. the orders for embarking were instantly countermanded and we went with a part of our men to their rescue. we soon met our people returning at a slow pace and learned that they had come unawares upon the esquimaux party, which consisted of six men with their women and children, who were travelling towards the rapid with a considerable number of dogs carrying their baggage. the women hid themselves on the first alarm, but the men advanced and, stopping at some distance from our men, began to dance in a circle, tossing up their hands in the air and accompanying their motions with much shouting, to signify i conceive their desire of peace. our men saluted them by pulling off their hats and making bows, but neither party was willing to approach the other, and at length the esquimaux retired to the hill from whence they had descended when first seen. we proceeded in the hope of gaining an interview with them but lest our appearance in a body should alarm them we advanced in a long line, at the head of which was augustus. we were led to their baggage, which they had deserted, by the howling of the dogs, and on the summit of a hill we found lying behind a stone an old man who was too infirm to effect his escape with the rest. he was much terrified when augustus advanced and probably expected immediate death but, that the fatal blow might not be unrevenged, he seized his spear and made a thrust with it at his supposed enemy. augustus however easily repressed the feeble effort and soon calmed his fears by presenting him with some pieces of iron and assuring him of his friendly intentions. dr. richardson and i then joined them and, after receiving our presents, the old man was quite composed and became communicative. his dialect differed from that used by augustus but they understood each other tolerably well. it appeared that his party consisted of eight men and their families who were returning from a hunting excursion with dried meat. after being told who we were he said that he had heard of white people from different parties of his nation which resided on the sea-coast to the eastward and, to our inquiries respecting the provision and fuel we might expect to get on our voyage, he informed us that the reindeer frequent the coast during the summer, the fish are plentiful at the mouths of the rivers, the seals are abundant, but there are no sea-horses nor whales, although he remembered one of the latter, which had been killed by some distant tribe, having been driven on shore on his part of the coast by a gale of wind. that musk-oxen were to be found a little distance up the rivers, and that we should get driftwood along the shore. he had no knowledge of the coast to the eastward beyond the next river, which he called nappaarktoktowock, or tree river. the old man, contrary to the indian practice, asked each of our names and, in reply to a similar question on our part, said his name was terregannoeuck, or the white fox, and that his tribe denominated themselves naggeooktormoeoot, or deer-horn esquimaux. they usually frequent the bloody fall during this and the following moons for the purpose of salting salmon, and then retire to a river which flows into the sea a short way to the westward (since denominated richardson's river) and pass the winter in snow-houses. after this conversation terregannoeuck proposed going down to his baggage, and we then perceived he was too infirm to walk without the assistance of sticks. augustus therefore offered him his arm which he readily accepted and, on reaching his store, he distributed pieces of dried meat to each person which, though highly tainted, were immediately eaten, this being a universal token among the indians of peaceable intention. we then informed him of our desire to procure as much meat as we possibly could and he told us that he had a large quantity concealed in the neighbourhood which he would cause to be carried to us when his people returned. i now communicated to him that we were accompanied by some copper indians who were very desirous to make peace with his nation, and that they had requested me to prevail upon the esquimaux to receive them in a friendly manner, to which he replied he should rejoice to see an end put to the hostility that existed between the nations and therefore would most gladly welcome our companions. having despatched adam to inform akaitcho of this circumstance we left terregannoeuck, in the hope that his party would rejoin him but, as we had doubts whether the young men would venture upon coming to our tents on the old man's bare representation, we sent augustus and junius back in the evening to remain with him until they came, that they might fully detail our intentions. the countenance of terregannoeuck was oval with a sufficiently prominent nose and had nothing very different from a european face, except in the smallness of his eyes and perhaps in the narrowness of his forehead. his complexion was very fresh and red and he had a longer beard than i had seen on any of the aboriginal inhabitants of america. it was between two and three inches long and perfectly white. his face was not tattooed. his dress consisted of a shirt, or jacket with a hood, wide breeches reaching only to the knee, and tight leggings sewed to the shoes, all of deer skins. the soles of the shoes were made of seal-skin and stuffed with feathers instead of socks. he was bent with age but appeared to be about five feet ten inches high. his hands and feet were small in proportion to his height. whenever terregannoeuck received a present he placed each article first on his right shoulder then on his left, and when he wished to express still higher satisfaction he rubbed it over his head. he held hatchets and other iron instruments in the highest esteem. on seeing his countenance in a glass for the first time he exclaimed, "i shall never kill deer more," and immediately put the mirror down. the tribe to which he belongs repair to the sea in spring and kill seals; as the season advances they hunt deer and musk-oxen at some distance from the coast. their weapon is the bow and arrow and they get sufficiently nigh the deer, either by crawling or by leading these animals by ranges of turf towards a spot where the archer can conceal himself. their bows are formed of three pieces of fir, the centrepiece alone bent, the other two lying in the same straight line with the bowstring; the pieces are neatly tied together with sinew. their canoes are similar to those we saw in hudson's straits but smaller. they get fish constantly in the rivers and in the sea as soon as the ice breaks up. this tribe do not make use of nets but are tolerably successful with the hook and line. their cooking utensils are made of pot-stone, and they form very neat dishes of fir, the sides being made of thin deal, bent into an oval form, secured at the ends by sewing, and fitted so nicely to the bottom as to be perfectly water-tight. they have also large spoons made of the horns of the musk-oxen. akaitcho and the indians arrived at our tents in the evening and we learned that they had seen the esquimaux the day before and endeavoured without success to open a communication with them. they exhibited no hostile intention but were afraid to advance. akaitcho, keeping out of their sight, followed at a distance, expecting that, ultimately finding themselves enclosed between our party and his, they would be compelled to come to a parley with one of us. akaitcho had seen terregannoeuck soon after our departure; he was much terrified and thrust his spear at him as he had done at augustus, but was soon reconciled after the demonstrations of kindness the indians made in cutting off the buttons from their dress to present to him. july . we waited all this forenoon in momentary expectation of the return of augustus and junius but as they did not appear at two p.m. i sent mr. hood with a party of men to inquire into the cause of their detention and to bring the meat which terregannoeuck had promised us. he returned at midnight with the information that none of the esquimaux had yet ventured to come near terregannoeuck except his aged wife, who had concealed herself amongst the rocks at our first interview, and she told him the rest of the party had gone to a river a short distance to the westward where there was another party of esquimaux fishing. augustus and junius had erected the tent and done everything in their power to make the old man comfortable in their absence. terregannoeuck, being unable to walk to the place where the meat was concealed, readily pointed the spot out to mr. hood who went thither but, after experiencing much difficulty in getting at the column of rock on which it was deposited, he found it too putrid for our use. the features of terregannoeuck's wife were remarkable for roundness and flatness; her face was much tattooed and her dress differed little from the old man's. in the afternoon a party of nine esquimaux appeared on the east bank of the river about a mile below our encampment, carrying their canoes and baggage on their backs, but they turned and fled as soon as they perceived our tents. the appearance of so many different bands of esquimaux terrified the indians so much that they determined on leaving us the next day lest they should be surrounded and their retreat cut off. i endeavoured, by the offer of any remuneration they would choose, to prevail upon one or two of the hunters to proceed but in vain; and i had much difficulty even in obtaining their promise to wait at the copper mountains for mr. wentzel and the four men, whom i intended to discharge at the sea. the fears which our interpreters, st. germain and adam, entertained respecting the voyage were now greatly increased and both of them came this evening to request their discharge, urging that their services could be no longer requisite as the indians were going from us. st. germain even said that he had understood he was only engaged to accompany us as long as the indians did, and persisted in this falsehood until his agreement to go with us throughout the voyage had been twice read to him. as these were the only two of the party on whose skill in hunting we could rely i was unable to listen for a moment to their desire of quitting us and, lest they should leave us by stealth, their motions were strictly watched. this was not an unnecessary precaution as i was informed that they had actually laid a plan for eloping; but the rest of the men, knowing that their own safety would have been compromised had they succeeded, kept a watchful eye over them. we knew that the dread of the esquimaux would prevent these men from leaving us as soon as the indians were at a distance, and we trusted to their becoming reconciled to the journey when once the novelty of a sea voyage had worn off. departure of the indian hunters. arrangements made with them for our return. july . as the indians persevered in their determination of setting out this morning i reminded them, through mr. wentzel and st. germain, of the necessity of our having the deposit of provision made at fort enterprise, and received a renewed assurance of their attending to that point. they were also desired to put as much meat as they could en cache on the banks of the copper-mine river on their return. we then furnished them with what ammunition we could spare and they took their departure promising to wait three days for mr. wentzel at the copper mountains. we afterwards learned that their fears did not permit them to do so, and that mr. wentzel did not rejoin them until they were a day's march to the southward of the mountains. we embarked at five a.m. and proceeded towards the sea which is about nine miles beyond the bloody fall. after passing a few rapids the river became wider and more navigable for canoes, flowing between banks of alluvial sand. we encamped at ten on the western bank at its junction with the sea. the river is here about a mile wide but very shallow, being barred nearly across by sandbanks which run out from the mainland on each side to a low alluvial island that lies in the centre and forms two channels, of these the westernmost only is navigable even for canoes, the other being obstructed by a stony bar. the islands to seaward are high and numerous and fill the horizon in many points of the compass; the only open space seen from an eminence near the encampment being from north by east to north-east by north. towards the east the land was like a chain of islands, the ice apparently surrounding them in a compact body, leaving a channel between its edge and the main of about three miles. the water in this channel was of a clear green colour and decidedly salt. mr. hearne could have tasted it only at the mouth of the river, when he pronounced it merely brackish. a rise and fall of four inches in the water was observed. the shore is strewed with a considerable quantity of drift timber, principally of the populus balsamifera, but none of it of great size. we also picked up some decayed wood far out of the reach of the water. a few stunted willows were growing near the encampment. some ducks, gulls, and partridges were seen this day. as i had to make up despatches for england to be sent by mr. wentzel the nets were set in the interim and we were rejoiced to find that they produced sufficient fish for the party. those caught were the copper-mine river salmon, white-fish, and two species of pleuronectes. we felt a considerable change of temperature on reaching the sea-coast, produced by the winds changing from the southward to the north-west. our canadian voyagers complained much of the cold but they were amused with their first view of the sea and particularly with the sight of the seals that were swimming about near the entrance of the river, but these sensations gave place to despondency before the evening had elapsed. they were terrified at the idea of a voyage through an icy sea in bark canoes. they speculated on the length of the journey, the roughness of the waves, the uncertainty of provisions, the exposure to cold where we could expect no fuel, and the prospect of having to traverse the barren grounds to get to some establishment. the two interpreters expressed their apprehensions with the least disguise and again urgently applied to be discharged, but only one of the canadians made a similar request. judging that the constant occupation of their time as soon as we were enabled to commence the voyage would prevent them from conjuring up so many causes of fear, and that familiarity with the scenes on the coast would in a short time enable them to give scope to their natural cheerfulness, the officers endeavoured to ridicule their fears and happily succeeded for the present. the manner in which our faithful hepburn viewed the element to which he had been so long accustomed contributed not a little to make them ashamed of their fears. on the morning of the th dr. richardson, accompanied by augustus, paid another visit to terregannoeuck to see if he could obtain any additional information respecting the country to the eastward, but he was disappointed at finding that his affrighted family had not yet rejoined him, and the old man could add nothing to his former communication. the doctor remarked that terreganoeuck had a great dislike to mentioning the name of the copper-mine river, and evaded the question with much dexterity as often as it was put to him, but that he willingly told the name of a river to the eastward and also of his tribe. he attempted to persuade augustus to remain with him and offered him one of his daughters for a wife. these esquimaux strike fire with two stones, catching the sparks in the down of the catkins of a willow. the despatches being finished were delivered this evening to mr. wentzel, who parted from us at eight p.m. with parent, gagnier, dumas, and forcier, canadians whom i discharged for the purpose of reducing our expenditure of provision as much as possible. the remainder of the party including officers amounted to twenty persons. i made mr. wentzel acquainted with the probable course of our future proceedings and mentioned to him that, if we were far distant from this river when the season or other circumstances rendered it necessary to put a stop to our advance, we should in all probability be unable to return to it and should have to travel across the barren grounds towards some established post, in which case i told him that we should certainly go first to fort enterprise, expecting that he would cause the indians to place a supply of dried provision there, as soon as possible after their arrival in its vicinity. my instructions to him were that he should proceed to point lake, transport the canoe that was left there to fort enterprise, where he was to embark the instruments and books and carry them to slave lake, and to forward the box containing the journals, etc., with the present despatches by the next winter packet to england. but before he quitted fort enterprise he was to be assured of the intention of the indians to lay up the provision we required and, if they should be in want of ammunition for that purpose, to procure it if possible from fort providence or the other forts in slave lake, and send it immediately to them by the hunters who accompanied him thither. i also requested him to ascertain from akaitcho and the other leading indians where their different parties would be hunting in the months of september and october, and to leave this information in a letter at fort enterprise for our guidance in finding them, as we should require their assistance. mr. wentzel was furnished with a list of the stores that had been promised to akaitcho and his party as a remuneration for their services, as well as with an official request to the north-west company that these goods might be paid to them on their next visit to fort providence, which they expected to make in the latter part of november. i desired him to mention this circumstance to the indians as an encouragement to exertion in our behalf and to promise them an additional reward for the supply of provision they should collect at fort enterprise. if mr. wentzel met the hook or any of his party he was instructed to assure them that he was provided with the necessary documents to get them payment for any meat they should put en cache for our use, and to acquaint them that we fully relied on their fulfilling every part of the agreement they had made with us. whenever the indians, whom he was to join at the copper mountains, killed any animals on their way to fort enterprise, he was requested to put en cache whatever meat could be spared, placing conspicuous marks to guide us to them, and i particularly begged he would employ them in hunting in our service immediately after his arrival at the house. when mr. wentzel's party had been supplied with ammunition our remaining stock consisted of one thousand balls and rather more than the requisite proportion of powder. a bag of small shot was missing and we afterwards discovered that the canadians had secreted and distributed it among themselves in order that when provision should become scarce they might privately procure ducks and geese and avoid the necessity of sharing them with the officers. the situation of our encampment was ascertained to be latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, the variation of the compass degrees minutes seconds east, and dip of the needle degrees minutes seconds. it will be perceived that the position of the mouth of the river given by our observations differs widely from that assigned by mr. hearne, but the accuracy of his description, conjoined with indian information, assured us that we were at the very part he visited. i therefore named the most conspicuous cape we then saw cape hearne as a just tribute to the memory of that persevering traveller. i distinguished another cape by the name of mackenzie in honour of sir alexander mackenzie, the only other european* who had before reached the northern ocean. i called the river which falls into the sea to the westward of the copper-mine richardson as a testimony of sincere regard for my friend and companion dr. richardson, and named the islands which were in view from our encampment couper's isles in honour of a friend of his. the sun set this night at thirty minutes after eleven apparent time. (*footnote. captain parry's success was at this time unknown to us.) the travelling distance from fort enterprise to the north of the copper-mine river is about three hundred and thirty-four miles. the canoes and baggage were dragged over snow and ice for one hundred and seventeen miles of this distance. chapter . navigation of the polar sea, in two canoes, as far as cape turnagain, to the eastward, a distance exceeding five hundred and fifty miles. observations on the probability of a north-west passage. navigation of the polar sea, in two canoes, as far as cape turnagain, to the eastward, a distance exceeding five hundred and fifty miles. july , . we intended to have embarked early this morning and to have launched upon an element more congenial with our habits than the freshwater navigations with their numerous difficulties and impediments which we had hitherto encountered, but which was altogether new to our canadian voyagers. we were detained however by a strong north-east gale which continued the whole day with constant thundershowers, the more provoking as our nets procured but few fish and we had to draw upon our store of dried meat, which, with other provision for the journey, amounted only to fifteen days' consumption. indeed we should have preferred going dinnerless to bed rather than encroach on our small stock had we not been desirous of satisfying the appetites and cheering the spirits of our canadian companions at the commencement of our voyage. these thoughtless people would at any time incur the hazard of absolute starvation at a future period for the present gratification of their appetites, to indulge which they do not hesitate, as we more than once experienced, at helping themselves secretly, it being in their opinion no disgrace to be detected in pilfering food. our only luxury now was a little salt which had long been our substitute both for bread and vegetables. since our departure from point lake we had boiled the indian tea plant ledum palustre which provided a beverage in smell much resembling rhubarb, notwithstanding which we found it refreshing and were gratified to see this plant flourishing abundantly on the sea shore though of dwarfish growth. july . the wind which had blown strong through the night became moderate in the morning, but a dense fog prevented us from embarking until noon when we commenced our voyage on the hyperborean sea. soon afterwards we landed on an island where the esquimaux had erected a stage of drift timber, and stored up many of their fishing implements and winter sledges, together with a great many dressed seal, musk-ox, and deer skins. their spears, headed with bone and many small articles of the same material, were worked with extreme neatness, as well as their wooden dishes and cooking utensils of stone, and several articles, very elegantly formed of bone, were evidently intended for some game, but augustus was unacquainted with their use. we took from this deposit four seal-skins to repair our shoes and left in exchange a copper-kettle, some awls and beads. we paddled all day along the coast to the eastward on the inside of a crowded range of islands and saw very little ice; the blink of it however was visible to the northward, and one small iceberg was seen at a distance. a tide was distinguishable among the islands by the foam floating on the water but we could not ascertain its direction. in the afternoon st. germain killed on an island a fat deer which was a great acquisition to us; it was the first we had seen for some months in good condition. having encamped on the main shore after a run of thirty-seven miles we set up a pole to ascertain the rise and fall of the water, which was repeated at every halting-place, and hepburn was ordered to attend to the result. we found the coast well covered with vegetation of moderate height, even in its outline, and easy of approach. the islands are rocky and barren, presenting high cliffs of a columnar structure. i have named the westernmost group of those we passed berens' isles in honour of the governor of the hudson's bay company, and the easternmost sir graham moore's islands. at the spot where we landed some mussel-shells and a single piece of seaweed lay on the beach; this was the only spot on the coast where we saw shells. we were rejoiced to find the beach strewed with abundance of small driftwood none of it recent. it may be remarked that the copper-mine river does not bring down any driftwood, nor does any other known stream except mackenzie's river, hence from its appearance on this part of the coast an easterly current may be inferred. this evening we were all in high glee at the progress we had made; the disappearance of the ice and the continuance of the land in an eastern direction and our future prospects formed an enlivening subject of conversation. the thermometer varied during the day between and degrees. the fishing-nets were set but produced nothing. on the nd we embarked at four a.m. and, having the benefit of a light breeze, continued our voyage along the coast under sail until eleven when we halted to breakfast and to obtain the latitude. the coast up to this point presented the same general appearance as yesterday, namely a gravelly or sandy beach skirted by green plains, but as we proceeded the shore became exceedingly rocky and sterile and at last, projecting considerably to the northward, it formed a high and steep promontory. some ice had drifted down upon this cape which we feared might check our progress but, as the evening was fine, we ventured upon pushing the canoes through the small channels formed among it. after pursuing this kind of navigation with some danger and more anxiety we landed and encamped on a smooth rocky point whence we perceived with much satisfaction that the ice consisted only of detached pieces which would be removed by the first breeze. we sounded in seventeen fathoms close to the shore this day. the least depth ascertained by the lead since our departure from the river was six fathoms, and any ship might pass safely between the islands and the main. the water is of a light green colour but not very clear and much less salt than that of the atlantic, judging from our recollection of its taste. in the course of the day we saw geese and ducks with their young and two deer, and experienced very great variations of temperature from the light breezes blowing alternately from the ice and the land. the name of lawford's islands was bestowed on a group we passed in the course of the day as a mark of my respect for vice-admiral lawford, under whose auspices i first entered the naval service. a fresh breeze blowing through the night had driven the ice from the land and opened a channel of a mile in width; we therefore embarked at nine a.m. to pursue our journey along the coast but, at the distance of nine miles were obliged to seek shelter in port epworth, the wind having become adverse and too strong to admit of our proceeding. the tree river of the esquimaux which discharges its waters into this bay appears to be narrow and much interrupted by rapids. the fishing-nets were set but obtained only one white-fish and a few bull-heads. this part of the coast is the most sterile and inhospitable that can be imagined. one trap-cliff succeeds another with tiresome uniformity and their debris cover the narrow valleys that intervene, to the exclusion of every kind of herbage. from the summit of these cliffs the ice appeared in every direction. we obtained the following observations during our stay: latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation degrees minutes seconds east. the wind abating, at eight p.m. we reembarked and soon afterwards discovered on an island a reindeer, which the interpreters fortunately killed. resuming our voyage we were much impeded by the ice and at length, being unable to force a passage through a close stream that had collected round a cape, we put ashore at four a.m. on the th several stone fox-traps and other traces of the esquimaux were seen near the encampment. the horizontal refraction varied so much this morning that the upper limb of the sun twice appeared at the horizon before it finally rose. for the last two days the water rose and fell about nine inches. the tides however seemed to be very irregular and we could not determine the direction of the ebb or flood. a current setting to the eastward was running about two miles an hour during our stay. the ice having removed a short distance from the shore by eleven a.m. we embarked, and with some difficulty effected a passage, then, making a traverse across gray's bay,* we paddled up under the eastern shore against a strong wind. the interpreters landed here and went in pursuit of a deer but had no success. this part of the coast is indented by deep bays which are separated by peninsulas formed like wedges, sloping many miles into the sea and joined by low land to the main, so that, often mistaking them for islands, we were led by a circuitous route round the bays. cliffs were numerous on the islands which were all of the trap formation. (*footnote. named after mr. gray principal of the belfast academy. an island which lies across the mouth of this bay bears the name of our english sailor hepburn.) at seven, a thunderstorm coming on, we encamped at the mouth of a river about eighty yards wide and set four nets. this stream, which received the name of wentzel after our late companion, discharges a considerable body of water. its banks are sandy and clothed with herbage. the esquimaux had recently piled up some drift timber here. a few ducks, ravens, and snow-birds were seen today. the distance made was thirty-one miles. july . we had constant rain with thunder during the night. the nets furnished only three salmon-trout. we attributed the want of greater success to the entrance of some seals into the mouth of the river. embarking at six a.m. we paddled against a cold breeze until the spreading of a thick fog caused us to land. the rocks here consisted of a beautiful mixture of red and gray granite, traversed from north to south by veins of red felspar which were crossed in various directions by smaller veins filled with the same substance. at noon the wind coming from a favourable quarter tempted us to proceed, although the fog was unabated. we kept as close as we could to the main shore but, having to cross some bays, it became a matter of doubt whether we had not left the main and were running along an island. just as we were endeavouring to double a bold cape the fog partially cleared away and allowed us an imperfect view of a chain of islands on the outside, and of much heavy ice which was pressing down upon us. the coast near us was so steep and rugged that no landing of the cargoes could be effected and we were preserved only by some men jumping on the rocks and thrusting the ice off with poles. there was no alternative but to continue along this dreary shore seeking a channel between the different masses of ice which had accumulated at the various points. in this operation both the canoes were in imminent danger of being crushed by the ice which was now tossed about by the waves that the gale had excited. we effected a passage however and, keeping close to the shore, landed at the entrance of detention harbour at nine p.m., having come twenty-eight miles. an old esquimaux encampment was traced on this spot, and an ice chisel, a copper knife, and a small iron knife were found under the turf. i named this cape after mr. barrow of the admiralty to whose exertions are mainly owing the discoveries recently made in arctic geography. an opening on its eastern side received the appellation of inman harbour after my friend the professor at the royal naval college, portsmouth, and to a group of islands to seaward of it we gave the name of jameson in honour of the distinguished professor of mineralogy at edinburgh. we had much wind and rain during the night and by the morning of the th a great deal of ice had drifted into the inlet. we embarked at four and attempted to force a passage, when the first canoe got enclosed and remained for some time in a very perilous situation: the pieces of ice, crowded together by the action of the current and wind, pressing strongly against its feeble sides. a partial opening however occurring we landed without having sustained any serious injury. two men were then sent round the bay and it was ascertained that, instead of having entered a narrow passage between an island and the main, we were at the mouth of a harbour having an island at its entrance, and that it was necessary to return by the way we came and get round a point to the northward. this was however impracticable, the channel being blocked up by drift ice, and we had no prospect of release except by a change of wind. this detention was extremely vexatious as we were losing a fair wind and expending our provision. in the afternoon the weather cleared up and several men went hunting but were unsuccessful. during the day the ice floated backwards and forwards in the harbour, moved by currents not regular enough to deserve the name of tide, and which appeared to be governed by the wind. we perceived great diminution by melting in the pieces near us. that none of this ice survives the summer is evident from the rapidity of its decay and because no ice of last year's formation was hanging on the rocks. whether any body of it exists at a distance from the shore we could not determine. the land around cape barrow and to detention harbour consists of steep craggy mountains of granite rising so abruptly from the water's edge as to admit few landing-places even for a canoe. the higher parts attain an elevation of fourteen or fifteen hundred feet and the whole is entirely destitute of vegetation. on the morning of the th, the ice remaining stationary at the entrance, we went to the bottom of the harbour and carried the canoes and cargoes about a mile and a half across the point of land that forms the east side of it, but the ice was not more favourable there for our advancement than at the place we had left. it consisted of small pieces closely packed together by the wind extending along the shore but leaving a clear passage beyond the chain of islands with which the whole of this coast is girt. indeed when we left the harbour we had little hope of finding a passage, and the principal object in moving was to employ the men in order to prevent their reflecting upon and discussing the dangers of our situation which we knew they were too apt to do when leisure permitted. our observations place the entrance of detention harbour in latitude degrees minutes seconds, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation degrees minutes seconds east. it is a secure anchorage being sheltered from the wind in every direction; the bottom is sandy. july . as the ice continued in the same state several of the men were sent out to hunt, and one of them fired no less than four times at deer but unfortunately without success. it was satisfactory however to ascertain that the country was not destitute of animals. we had the mortification to discover that two of the bags of pemmican which was our principal reliance had become mouldy by wet. our beef too had been so badly cured as to be scarcely eatable through our having been compelled from haste to dry it by fire instead of the sun. it was not however the quality of our provision that gave us uneasiness but its diminution and the utter incapacity to obtain any addition. seals were the only animals that met our view at this place and these we could never approach. dr. richardson discovered near the beach a small vein of galena traversing gneiss rocks, and the people collected a quantity of it in the hope of adding to our stock of balls, but their endeavours to smelt it were as may be supposed ineffectual. the drift timber on this part of the coast consists of pine and taccamahac (populus balsamifera) most probably from mackenzie's or some other river to the westward of the copper-mine. it all appears to have lain long in the water, the bark being completely worn off and the ends of the pieces rubbed perfectly smooth. there had been a sharp frost in the night which formed a pretty thick crust of ice in a kettle of water that stood in the tents, and for several nights thin films of ice had appeared on the salt water amongst the cakes of stream ice.* notwithstanding this state of temperature we were tormented by swarms of mosquitoes; we had persuaded ourselves that these pests could not sustain the cold in the vicinity of the sea but it appears they haunt every part of this country in defiance of climate. mr. back made an excursion to a hill at seven or eight miles distance and from its summit he perceived the ice close to the shore as far as his view extended. (footnote. this is termed bay-ice by the greenland men.) on the morning of the th the party attended divine service. about noon, the ice appearing less compact, we embarked to change our situation, having consumed all the fuel within our reach. the wind came off the land just as the canoes had started and we determined on attempting to force a passage along the shore, in which we happily succeeded after seven hours' labour and much hazard to our frail vessels. the ice lay so close that the crews disembarked on it and effected a passage by bearing against the pieces with their poles, but in conducting the canoes through the narrow channels thus formed the greatest care was requisite to prevent the sharp projecting points from breaking the bark. they fortunately received no material injury though they were split in two places. at the distance of three miles we came to the entrance of a deep bay whose bottom was filled by a body of ice so compact as to preclude the idea of a passage through it, whilst at the same time the traverse across its mouth was attended with much danger from the approach of a large field of ice which was driving down before the wind. the dread of further detention however prevented us from hesitating, and we had the satisfaction of landing in an hour and a half on the opposite shore, where we halted to repair the canoes and to dine. i have named this bay after my friend mr. daniel moore of lincoln's inn, to whose zeal for science the expedition was indebted for the use of a most valuable chronometer. its shores are picturesque, sloping hills receding from the beach and closed with verdure bound its bottom and western side, and lofty cliffs of slate clay with their intervening grassy valleys skirt its eastern border. embarking at midnight we pursued our voyage without interruption, passing between the stockport and marcet islands and the main, until six a.m. on july th when, having rounded point kater, we entered arctic sound and were again involved in a stream of ice, but after considerable delay extricated ourselves and proceeded towards the bottom of the inlet in search of the mouth of a river which we supposed it to receive, from the change in the colour of the water. about ten a.m. we landed to breakfast on a small deer which st. germain had killed, and sent men in pursuit of some others in sight but with which they did not come up. reembarking we passed the river without perceiving it and entered a deep arm of the sound which i have named baillie's cove in honour of a relative of the lamented mr. hood. as it was too late to return we encamped and, by walking across the country, discovered the river whose mouth, being barred by low sandy islands and banks, was not perceived when we passed it. course and distance from galena point to this encampment were south-east / south forty miles. from the accounts of black-meat and boileau at fort chipewyan we considered this river to be the anatessy, and cape barrow to be the projection which they supposed to be the north-east termination of america. the outline of the coast indeed bears some resemblance to the chart they sketched, and the distance of this river from the copper-mine nearly coincides with what we estimated the anatessy to be from their statements. in our subsequent journey however across the barren grounds we ascertained that this conjecture was wrong, and that the anatessy, which is known to come from rum lake, must fall into the sea to the eastward of this place. our stock of provision being now reduced to eight days' consumption it had become a matter of the first importance to obtain a supply and, as we had learned from terregannoeuck that the esquimaux frequent the rivers at this season, i determined on seeking a communication with them here, in the hope of obtaining relief for our present wants or even shelter for the winter if the season should prevent us from returning either to the hook's party or fort enterprise, and i was the more induced to take this step at this time as several deer had been seen today and the river appeared good for fishing, which led me to hope we might support the party during our stay if not add to our stock by our own exertions in hunting and fishing. augustus, junius, and hepburn were therefore furnished with the necessary presents and desired to go along the bank of the river as far as they could on the following day in search of the natives to obtain provision and leather as well as information respecting the coast. they started at four a.m. and at the same time our hunters were sent off in search of deer, and the rest of the party proceeded in the canoes to the first cascade in the river, at the foot of which we encamped and set four nets. this cascade, produced by a ridge of rocks crossing the stream, is about three or four feet in height and about two hundred and fifty yards wide. its position by our observations in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, variation degrees minutes seconds, dip degrees minutes seconds. i have named this river hood as a small tribute to the memory of our lamented friend and companion. it is from three to four hundred yards wide below the cascade but in many places very shallow. the banks, bottom, and adjacent hills are formed of a mixture of sand and clay. the ground was overspread with small willows and the dwarf birch, both too diminutive for fuel, and the stream brought down no driftwood. we were mortified to find the nets only procured one salmon and five white-fish, and that we had to make another inroad upon our dried meat. august . at two this morning the hunters returned with two small deer and a brown bear. augustus and junius arrived at the same time, having traced the river twelve miles farther up without discovering any vestige of inhabitants. we had now an opportunity of gratifying our curiosity respecting the bear so much dreaded by the indians, and of whose strength and ferocity we had heard such terrible accounts. it proved to be a lean male of a yellowish brown colour and not longer than a common black bear. it made a feeble attempt to defend itself and was easily despatched. the flesh was brought to the tent but, our fastidious voyagers supposing, from its leanness, that the animal had been sickly, declined eating it; the officers however being less scrupulous boiled the paws and found them excellent. we embarked at ten a.m. and, proceeding down the river, took on board another deer that had been killed by credit that evening. we then ran along the eastern shore of arctic sound, distinguished by the name of banks' peninsula in honour of the late right honourable sir joseph banks, president of the royal society and, rounding point wollaston at its eastern extremity, opened another extensive sheet of water, and the remainder of the afternoon was spent in endeavouring to ascertain from the tops of the hills whether it was another bay or merely a passage enclosed by a chain of islands. appearances rather favouring the latter opinion we determined on proceeding through it to the southward. during the delay four more deer were killed, all young and lean. it appeared that the coast is pretty well frequented by reindeer at this season, but it was rather singular that hitherto we had killed none (excepting the first) but young ones of last season which were all too lean to have been eaten by any but persons who had no choice. we paddled along the western shore with the intention of encamping but were prevented by the want of driftwood on the beach. this induced us to make a traverse to an island where we put up at midnight, having found a small bay whose shores furnished us with a little firewood. a heavy gale came on from the westward attended with constant rain, and one of the squalls overthrew our tents. the course and distance made this day were north-east sixteen miles and a half. i may here mention that arctic sound appeared the most convenient and perhaps the best place for ships to anchor that we had seen along the coast, at this season especially, when they might increase their stock of provision, if provided with good marksmen. deer are numerous in its vicinity, musk-oxen also may be found up hood's river, and the fine sandy bottom of the bays promises favourably for fishing with the seine. the hills on the western side are even in their outline and slope gradually to the water's edge. the rocks give place to an alluvial sandy soil towards the bottom of the sound, but on banks' peninsula rocky eminences again prevail which are rugged and uneven but intersected by valleys, at this time green; along their base is a fine sandy beach. from point wollaston to our encampment the coast is skirted with trap cliffs which have often a columnar form and are very difficult of access. these cliffs lie in ranges parallel to the shore and the deer that we killed were feeding in small marshy grassy plats that lie in the valleys between them. being detained by the continuance of the gale on the nd of august some men were sent out to hunt and the officers visited the tops of the highest hills to ascertain the best channels to be pursued. the wind abating at ten p.m. we embarked and paddled round the southern end of the island and continued our course to the south-east. much doubt at this time prevailed as to the land on the right being the main shore or merely a chain of islands. the latter opinion was strengthened by the broken appearance of the land and the extensive view we had up brown's channel (named after my friend mr. robert brown) the mouth of which we passed and were in some apprehension of being led away from the main shore and, perhaps after passing through a group of islands, of coming to a traverse greater than we durst venture upon in canoes: on the other hand the continuous appearance of the land on the north side of the channel and its tending to the southward excited the fear that we were entering a deep inlet. in this state of doubt we landed often and endeavoured, from the summits of the highest hills adjoining the shore, to ascertain the true nature of the coast but in vain, and we continued paddling through the channel all night against a fresh breeze, which at half-past four increased to a violent gale and compelled us to land. the gale diminished a short time after noon on the rd and permitted us to reembark and continue our voyage until four p.m., when it returned with its former violence and finally obliged us to encamp, having come twenty-four miles on a south-east three-quarter south course. from the want of driftwood to make a fire we had fasted all day and were under the necessity in the evening of serving out pemmican, which was done with much reluctance, especially as we had some fresh deers' meat remaining. the inlet when viewed from a high hill adjoining to our encampment exhibited so many arms that the course we ought to pursue was more uncertain than ever. it was absolutely necessary however to see the end of it before we could determine that it was not a strait. starting at three a.m. on the th we paddled the whole day through channels from two to five or six miles wide, all tending to the southward. in the course of the day's voyage we ascertained that the land which we had seen on our right since yesterday morning consisted of several large islands which have been distinguished by the names of goulburn, elliott, and young, but the land on our left preserved its unbroken appearance and when we encamped we were still uncertain whether it was the eastern side of a deep sound or merely a large island. it differed remarkably from the main shore, being very rugged, rocky, and sterile, whereas the outline of the main on the opposite side was even and its hills covered with a comparatively good sward of grass exhibiting little naked rock. there was no drift timber but the shores near the encampment were strewed with small pieces of willow which indicated our vicinity to the mouth of a river. this fuel enabled us to make a hearty supper from a small deer killed this evening. the shallows we passed this day were covered with shoals of capelin, the angmaggoeuk of the esquimaux. it was known to augustus who informed us that it frequents the coast of hudson's bay and is delicate eating. the course and distance made was south by east-half-east, thirty-three miles. after paddling twelve miles in the morning of the th we had the mortification to find the inlet terminated by a river, the size of which we could not ascertain as the entrance was blocked by shoals. its mouth lies in latitude degrees minutes north, longitude degrees minutes west. i have named this stream back as a mark of my friendship for my associate.* we were somewhat consoled for the loss of time in exploring this inlet by the success of junius in killing a musk-ox, the first we had seen on the coast; and afterwards by the acquisition of the flesh of a bear that was shot as we were returning up the eastern side in the evening. the latter proved to be a female in very excellent condition; and our canadian voyagers whose appetite for fat meat is insatiable were delighted. (*footnote. from subsequent conversation with the copper indians we were inclined to suppose this may be the thlueetessy described by black meat mentioned in a former part of the narrative.) we encamped on the shores of a sandy bay and set the nets and, finding a quantity of dried willows on the beach, we were enabled to cook the bear's flesh which was superior to any meat we tasted on the coast. the water fell two feet at this place during the night. our nets produced a great variety of fish, namely a salmon trout, some round-fish, tittameg, bleak, star-fish, several herrings and a flat fish resembling plaice, but covered on the back with horny excrescences. on the th we were detained in the encampment by stormy weather until five p.m. when we embarked and paddled along the northern shore of the inlet, the weather still continuing foggy but the wind moderate. observing on the beach a she-bear with three young ones we landed a party to attack them but, being approached without due caution, they took the alarm and scaled a precipitous rocky hill with a rapidity that baffled all pursuit. at eight o'clock, the fog changing into rain, we encamped. many seals were seen this day but as they kept in deep water we did not fire at them. on august th the atmosphere was charged with fog and rain all the day, but as the wind was moderate we pursued our journey; our situation however was very unpleasant, being quite wet and without room to stretch a limb, much less to obtain warmth by exercise. we passed a cove which i have named after my friend mr. w.h. tinney, and proceeded along the coast until five p.m. when we put up on a rocky point nearly opposite to our encampment on the rd, having come twenty-three miles on a north-north-west course. we were detained on the th by a northerly gale which blew violently throughout the day attended by fog and rain. some of the men went out to hunt but they saw no other animal than a white wolf which could not be approached. the fresh meat being expended a little pemmican was served out this evening. the gale abated on the morning of the th and the sea, which it had raised, having greatly subsided, we embarked at seven a.m. and, after paddling three or four miles, opened sir j.a. gordon's bay into which we penetrated thirteen miles and then discovered from the summit of a hill that it would be in vain to proceed in this direction in search of a passage out of the inlet. our breakfast diminished our provision to two bags of pemmican and a single meal of dried meat. the men began to apprehend absolute want of food and we had to listen to their gloomy forebodings of the deer entirely quitting the coast in a few days. as we were embarking however a large bear was discovered on the opposite shore which we had the good fortune to kill, and the sight of this fat meat relieved their fears for the present. dr. richardson found in the stomach of this animal the remains of a seal, several marmots (arctomys richardsonii) a large quantity of the liquorice root of mackenzie (hedysarum) which is common on these shores, and some berries. there was also intermixed with these substances a small quantity of grass. we got again into the main inlet and paddled along its eastern shore until forty minutes after eight a.m. when we encamped in a small cove. we found a single log of driftwood; it was pine and sufficiently large to enable us to cook a portion of the bear which had a slight fishy taste but was deemed very palatable. august . we followed up the east border of the inlet about twenty-four miles and at length emerged into the opens sea, a body of islands to the westward concealing the channel by which we had entered. here our progress was arrested by returning bad weather. we killed a bear and its young cub of this year on the beach near our encampment. we heartily congratulated ourselves at having arrived at the eastern entrance of this inlet which had cost us nine invaluable days in exploring. it contains several secure harbours, especially near the mouth of back's river where there is a sandy bottom in forty fathoms. on the rd and th of august we observed a fall of more than two feet in the water during the night. there are various irregular and partial currents in the inlet which may be attributed to the wind. i have distinguished it by the name of bathurst's inlet after the noble secretary of state under whose orders i had the honour to act. it runs about seventy-six miles south-east from cape everitt but in coasting its shores we went about one hundred and seventy-four geographical miles. it is remarkable that none of the indians with whom we had spoken mentioned this inlet, and we subsequently learned that in their journeys they strike across from the mouth of one river to the mouth of another without tracing the intermediate line of coast. august . embarking at five a.m. we rounded point everitt and then encountered a strong breeze and heavy swell which, by causing the canoes to pitch very much, greatly impeded our progress. some deer being seen grazing in a valley near the beach we landed and sent st. germain and adam in pursuit of them who soon killed three which were very small and lean. their appearance however quite revived the spirits of our men who had suspected that the deer had retired to the woods. it would appear from our not having seen any in passing along the shores of bathurst's inlet that at this season they confine themselves to the sea-coast and the islands. the magpie-berries (arbutus alpina) were found quite ripe at this place, and very abundant on the acclivities of the hills. we also ascended the highest hill and gained a view of a distant chain of islands extending as far as the eye could reach, and perceived a few patches of ice still lingering round to some of them, but in every other part the sea was quite open. resuming our voyage after noon we proceeded along the coast which is fringed by islands, and at five p.m. entered another bay where we were for some time involved in our late difficulties by the intricacy of the passages, but we cleared them in the afternoon and encamped near the northern entrance of the bay at a spot which had recently been visited by a small party of esquimaux, as the remains of some eggs containing young were lying beside some half-burnt firewood. there were also several piles of stones put up by them. i have named this bay after my friend captain david buchan of the royal navy. it appears to be a safe anchorage, well sheltered from the wind and sea by islands; the bottom is sandy, the shores high and composed of red sandstone. two deer were seen on its beach but could not be approached. the distance we made today was eighteen miles and three-quarters. embarking at four on the morning of the th we proceeded against a fresh piercing north-east wind which raised the waves to a height that quite terrified our people, accustomed only to the navigation of rivers and lakes. we were obliged however to persevere in our advance, feeling as we did that the short season for our operations was hastening away, but after rounding cape croker the wind became so strong that we could proceed no farther. the distance we had made was only six miles on a north-east by east course. the shore on which we encamped is formed of the debris of red sandstone and is destitute of vegetation. the beach furnished no driftwood and we dispensed with our usual meal rather than expend our pemmican. several deer were seen but the hunters could not approach them; they killed two swans. we observed the latitude degrees minute seconds where we had halted to breakfast this morning. august . though the wind was not much diminished we were urged by the want of firewood to venture upon proceeding. we paddled close to the shore for some miles and then ran before the breeze with reefed sails scarcely two feet in depth. both the canoes received much water and one of them struck twice on sunken rocks. at the end of eighteen miles we halted to breakfast in a bay which i have named after vice-admiral sir william johnstone hope, one of the lords of the admiralty. we found here a considerable quantity of small willows such as are brought down by the rivers we had hitherto seen, and hence we judged that a river discharges itself into the bottom of this bay. a paddle was also found which augustus on examination declared to be made after the fashion of the white goose esquimaux, a tribe with whom his countrymen had had some trading communication as has been mentioned in a former part of the narrative. this morning we passed the embouchure of a pretty large stream and saw the vestiges of an esquimaux encampment not above a month old. having obtained the latitude degrees minutes seconds north we recommenced our voyage under sail, taking the precaution to embark all the pieces of willow we could collect, as we had found the driftwood become more scarce as we advanced. our course was directed to a distant point which we supposed to be a cape, and the land stretching to the westward of it to be islands, but we soon found ourselves in an extensive bay from which no outlet could be perceived but the one by which we had entered. on examination however from the top of a hill we perceived a winding shallow passage running to the north-west which we followed for a short time and then encamped, having come twenty-three miles north by east half east. some articles left by the esquimaux attracted our attention; we found a winter sledge raised upon four stones, with some snow-shovels and a small piece of whalebone. an ice-chisel, a knife and some beads were left at this pile. the shores of this bay, which i have named after sir george warrender, are low and clayey and the country for many miles is level and much intersected with water, but we had not leisure to ascertain whether they were branches of the bay or freshwater lakes. some white geese were seen this evening and some young gray ones were caught on the beach being unable to fly. we fired at two reindeer but without success. on august th we paddled the whole day along the northern shores of the sound, returning towards its mouth. the land we were now tracing is generally so flat that it could not be descried from the canoes at the distance of four miles and is invisible from the opposite side of the sound, otherwise a short traverse might have saved us some days. the few eminences that are on this side were mistaken for islands when seen from the opposite shore; they are for the most part cliffs of basalt and are not above one hundred feet high; the subjacent strata are of white sandstone. the rocks are mostly confined to the capes and shores, the soil inland being flat, clayey, and barren. most of the headlands showed traces of visits from the esquimaux but none of them recent. many ducks were seen, belonging to a species termed by the voyagers from their cry caccawees. we also saw some gray geese and swans. the only seal we procured during our voyage was killed this day; it happened to be blind and our men imagining it to be in bad health would not taste the flesh; we however were less nice. we encamped at the end of twenty-four miles' march on the north-west side of the bay to which i have given the name of my friend captain parry, now employed in the interesting research for a north-west passage. driftwood had become very scarce and we found none near the encampment; a fire however was not required as we served out pemmican for supper and the evening was unusually warm. on the following morning the breeze was fresh and the waves rather high. in paddling along the west side of parry's bay we saw several deer but, owing to the openness of the country, the hunters could not approach them. they killed however two swans that were moulting, several cranes and many gray geese. we procured also some caccawees which were then moulting and assembled in immense flocks. in the evening, having rounded point beechy and passed hurd's islands, we were exposed to much inconvenience and danger from a heavy rolling sea, the canoes receiving many severe blows and shipping a good deal of water, which induced us to encamp at five p.m. opposite to cape croker which we had passed on the morning of the th; the channel which lay between our situation and it being about seven miles wide. we had now reached the northern point of entrance into this sound which i have named in honour of lord viscount melville, the first lord of the admiralty. it is thirty miles wide from east to west and twenty from north to south, and in coasting it we had sailed eighty-seven and a quarter geographical miles. shortly after the tents were pitched mr. back reported from the steersman that both canoes had sustained material injury during this day's voyage. i found on examination that fifteen timbers of the first canoe were broken, some of them in two places, and that the second canoe was so loose in the frame that its timbers could not be bound in the usual secure manner, and consequently there was danger of its bark separating from the gunwales if exposed to a heavy sea. distressing as were these circumstances they gave me less pain than the discovery that our people, who had hitherto displayed in following us through dangers and difficulties no less novel than appalling to them a courage beyond our expectation, now felt serious apprehensions for their safety which so possessed their minds that they were not restrained even by the presence of their officers from expressing them. their fears we imagined had been principally excited by the interpreters, st. germain and adam, who from the outset had foreboded every calamity; and we now strongly suspected that their recent want of success in hunting had proceeded from an intentional relaxation in their efforts to kill deer in order that the want of provision might compel us to put a period to our voyage. i must now mention that many concurrent circumstances had caused me during the few last days to meditate on the approach of this painful necessity. the strong breezes we had encountered for some days led me to fear that the season was breaking up and severe weather would soon ensue which we could not sustain in a country destitute of fuel. our stock of provision was now reduced to a quantity of pemmican only sufficient for three days' consumption and the prospect of increasing it was not encouraging for, though reindeer were seen, they could not be easily approached on the level shores we were now coasting, besides it was to be apprehended they would soon migrate to the south. it was evident that the time spent in exploring the arctic and melville sounds and bathurst's inlet had precluded the hope of reaching repulse bay, which at the outset of the voyage we had fondly cherished, and it was equally obvious that, as our distance from any of the trading establishments would increase as we proceeded, the hazardous traverse across the barren grounds which we should have to make if compelled to abandon the canoes upon any part of the coast would become greater. i this evening communicated to the officers my sentiments on these points as well as respecting our return and was happy to find that their opinions coincided with my own. we were all convinced of the necessity of putting a speedy termination to our advance as our hope of meeting the esquimaux and procuring provision from them could now scarcely be retained, but yet we were desirous of proceeding until the land should be seen trending again to the eastward, that we might be satisfied of its separation from what we had conceived, in passing from cape barrow to bathurst's inlet, to be a great chain of islands. as it was needful however at all events to set a limit to our voyage i announced my determination of returning after four days' examination, unless indeed we should previously meet the esquimaux and be enabled to make some arrangement for passing the winter with them. this communication was joyfully received by the men and we hoped that the industry of our hunters being once more excited we should be able to add to our stock of provision. it may here be remarked that we observed the first regular return of the tides in warrender's and parry's bays, but their set could not be ascertained. the rise of water did not amount to more than two feet. course today south one quarter east-nine miles and a quarter. august . some rain fell in the night but the morning was unusually fine. we set forward at five a.m. and the men paddled cheerfully along the coast for ten miles when a dense fog caused us to land on slate-clay point. here we found more traces of the esquimaux and the skull of a man placed between two rocks. the fog dispersed at noon and we discerned a group of islands to the northward which i have named after vice-admiral sir george cockburn, one of the lords of the admiralty. reembarking we rounded the point and entered walker's bay (so-called after my friend admiral walker) where as in other instances the low beach which lay between several high trap cliffs could not be distinguished until we had coasted down the east side nearly to the bottom of the bay. when the continuity of the land was perceived we crossed to the western shore and on landing discovered a channel leading through a group of islands. having passed through this channel we ran under sail by the porden islands, across riley's bay and, rounding a cape which now bears the name of my lamented friend captain flinders, had the pleasure to find the coast trending north-north-east, with the sea in the offing unusually clear of islands, a circumstance which afforded matter of wonder to our canadians who had not previously had an uninterrupted view of the ocean. our course was continued along the coast until eight p.m. when a change in the wind and a threatening thunder-squall induced us to encamp, but the water was so shallow that we found some difficulty in approaching the shore. large pieces of driftwood gave us assurance that we had finally escaped from the bays. our tents were scarcely pitched before we were assailed by a heavy squall and rain, which was succeeded by a violent gale from west-north-west which thrice overset the tents during the night. the wind blew with equal violence on the following day and the sea rolled furiously upon the beach. the canadians had now an opportunity of witnessing the effect of a storm upon the sea and the sight increased their desire of quitting it. our hunters were sent out and saw many deer but the flatness of the country defeated their attempts to approach them; they brought however a few unfledged geese. as there was no appearance of increasing our stock of provision the allowance was limited to a handful of pemmican and a small portion of portable soup to each man per day. the thermometer this afternoon stood to degrees. the following observations were obtained: latitude degrees minutes seconds north, longitude degrees minutes seconds west, but degrees minutes seconds west was used in the construction of the chart as the chronometers were found, on our return to hood's river, to have altered their rates; variation degrees minutes seconds east and dip of the needle degrees minutes seconds. on august th, the stormy weather and sea continuing, there was no prospect of our being able to embark. dr. richardson, mr. back, and i therefore set out on foot to discover whether the land within a day's march inclined more to the east. we went from ten to twelve miles along the coast, which continued flat, and kept the same direction as the encampment. the most distant land we saw had the same bearing north-north-east, and appeared like two islands which we estimated to be six or seven miles off; the shore on their side seemingly tended more to the east so that it is probable point turnagain, for so this spot was named, forms the pitch of a low flat cape. augustus killed a deer in the afternoon but the men were not able to find it. the hunters found the burrows of a number of white foxes and hepburn killed one of these animals, which proved excellent eating, equal to the young geese with which it was boiled and far superior to the lean deer we had upon the coast. large flocks of geese passed over the tents flying to the southward. the lowest temperature today was degrees. though it will appear from the chart that the position of point turnagain is only six degrees and a half to the east of the mouth of the copper-mine river, we sailed, in tracing the deeply-indented coast, five hundred and fifty-five geographical miles, which is little less than the direct distance between the copper-mine river and repulse bay, supposing the latter to be in the longitude assigned to it by middleton. when the many perplexing incidents which occurred during the survey of the coast are considered in connection with the shortness of the period during which operations of the kind can be carried on, and the distance we had to travel before we could gain a place of shelter for the winter, i trust it will be judged that we prosecuted the enterprise as far as was prudent and abandoned it only under a well-founded conviction that a farther advance would endanger the lives of the whole party and prevent the knowledge of what had been done from reaching england. the active assistance i received from the officers in contending with the fears of the men demands my warmest gratitude. observations on the probability of a north-west passage. our researches, as far as they have gone, favour the opinion of those who contend for the practicability of a north-west passage. the general line of coast probably runs east and west, nearly in the latitude assigned to mackenzie's river, the sound into which kotzebue entered, and repulse bay, and i think there is little doubt of a continued sea in or about that line of direction. the existence of whales too on this part of the coast, evidenced by the whalebone we found in esquimaux cove, may be considered as an argument for an open sea; and a connection with hudson's bay is rendered more probable from the same kind of fish abounding on the coasts we visited, and on those to the north of churchill river. i allude more particularly to the capelin or salmo arcticus which we found in large shoals in bathurst's inlet and which not only abounds, as augustus told us, in the bays in his country, but swarms in the greenland firths.* the portion of the sea over which we passed is navigable for vessels of any size; the ice we met, particularly after quitting detention harbour, would not have arrested a strong boat. the chain of islands affords shelter from all heavy seas and there are good harbours at convenient distances. i entertain indeed sanguine hopes that the skill and exertions of my friend captain parry will soon render this question no longer problematical. his task is doubtless an arduous one and if ultimately successful may occupy two and perhaps three seasons but, confiding as i do from personal knowledge in his perseverance and talent for surmounting difficulties, the strength of his ships, and the abundance of provisions with which they are stored, i have very little apprehension of his safety. as i understand his object was to keep the coast of america close on board he will find in the spring of the year, before the breaking up of the ice can permit him to pursue his voyage, herds of deer flocking in abundance to all parts of the coast, which may be procured without difficulty, and even later in the season additions to his stock of provision may be obtained on many parts of the coast, should circumstances give him leisure to send out hunting parties. with the trawl or seine nets also he may almost everywhere get abundance of fish even without retarding his progress. under these circumstances i do not conceive that he runs any hazard of wanting provisions should his voyage be prolonged even beyond the latest period of time which is calculated upon. drift timber may be gathered at many places in considerable quantities and there is a fair prospect of his opening a communication with the esquimaux who come down to the coast to kill seals in the spring previous to the ice breaking up, and from whom, if he succeeds in conciliating their goodwill, he may obtain provision and much useful assistance. (*footnote. arctic zoology volume page .) if he makes for copper-mine river, as he probably will do, he will not find it in the longitude as laid down on the charts, but he will probably find what would be more interesting to him, a post which we erected on the th august at the mouth of hood's river which is nearly, as will appear hereafter, in that longitude, with a flag upon it and a letter at the foot of it, which may convey to him some useful information. it is possible however that he may keep outside of the range of islands which skirt this part of the coast. chapter . journey across the barren grounds. difficulty and delay in crossing copper-mine river. melancholy and fatal results thereof. extreme misery of the whole party. murder of mr. hood. death of several of the canadians. desolate state of fort enterprise. distress suffered at that place. dr. richardson's narrative. mr. back's narrative. conclusion. journey across the barren grounds. august , . my original intention, whenever the season should compel us to relinquish the survey, had been to return by the copper-mine river and, in pursuance of my arrangement with the hook, to travel to slave lake through the line of woods extending thither by the great bear and marten lakes, but our scanty stock of provision and the length of the voyage rendered it necessary to make for a nearer place. we had already found that the country between cape barrow and the copper-mine river would not supply our wants, and this it seemed probable would now be still the case, besides at this advanced season we expected the frequent recurrence of gales which would cause great detention if not danger in proceeding along that very rocky part of the coast. i determined therefore to make at once for arctic sound where we had found the animals more numerous than at any other place and, entering hood's river, to advance up that stream as far as it was navigable and then to construct small canoes out of the materials of the larger ones, which could be carried in crossing the barren grounds to fort enterprise. august . we were almost beaten out of our comfortless abodes by rain during the night and this morning the gale continued without diminution. the thermometer fell to degrees. two men were sent with junius to search for the deer which augustus had killed. junius returned in the evening, bringing part of the meat but, owing to the thickness of the weather, his companions parted from him and did not make their appearance. divine service was read. on the th we were presented with the most chilling prospect, the small pools of water being frozen over, the ground covered with snow, and the thermometer at the freezing-point at midday. flights of geese were passing to the southward. the wind however was more moderate, having changed to the eastward. considerable anxiety prevailing respecting belanger and michel, the two men who strayed from junius yesterday, the rest were sent out to look for them. the search was successful and they all returned in the evening. the stragglers were much fatigued and had suffered severely from the cold, one of them having his thighs frozen and, what under our present circumstances was most grievous, they had thrown away all the meat. the wind during the night returned to the north-west quarter, blew more violently than ever, and raised a very turbulent sea. the next day did not improve our condition, the snow remained on the ground, and the small pools were frozen. our hunters were sent out but they returned after a fatiguing day's march without having seen any animals. we made a scanty meal off a handful of pemmican, after which only half a bag remained. the wind abated after midnight and the surf diminished rapidly, which caused us to be on the alert at a very early hour on the nd, but we had to wait until six a.m. for the return of augustus who had continued out all night on an unsuccessful pursuit of deer. it appears that he had walked a few miles further along the coast than the party had done on the th and, from a sketch he drew on the sand, we were confirmed in our former opinion that the shore inclined more to the eastward beyond point turnagain. he also drew a river of considerable size that discharges its waters into walker's bay, on the banks of which stream he saw a piece of wood such as the esquimaux use in producing fire, and other marks so fresh that he supposed they had recently visited the spot. we therefore left several iron materials for them and, embarking without delay, prepared to retrace our steps.* our men, cheered by the prospect of returning, showed the utmost alacrity and, paddling with unusual vigour, carried us across riley's and walker's bays, a distance of twenty miles before noon, when we landed on slate-clay point as the wind had freshened too much to permit us to continue the voyage. the whole party went to hunt but returned without success in the evening, drenched with the heavy rain which commenced soon after they had set out. several deer were seen but could not be approached in this naked country and, as our stock of pemmican did not admit of serving out two meals, we went dinnerless to bed. (*footnote. it is a curious coincidence that our expedition left point turnagain on august --on the same day that captain parry sailed out of repulse bay. the parties were then distant from each other miles.) soon after our departure this day a sealed tin-case, sufficiently buoyant to float, was thrown overboard, containing a short account of our proceedings and the position of the most conspicuous points. the wind blew off the land, the water was smooth and, as the sea is in this part more free from islands than in any other, there was every probability of its being driven off the shore into the current which, as i have before mentioned, we suppose, from the circumstance of mackenzie's river being the only known stream that brings down the wood we have found along the shores, to set to the eastward. august . a severe frost caused us to pass a comfortless night. at two p.m. we set sail and the men voluntarily launched out to make a traverse of fifteen miles across melville sound before a strong wind and heavy sea. the privation of food under which our voyagers were then labouring absorbed every other terror; otherwise the most powerful persuasion could not have induced them to attempt such a traverse. it was with the utmost difficulty that the canoes were kept from turning their broadsides to the waves, though we sometimes steered with all the paddles. one of them narrowly escaped being overset by this accident, which occurred in a mid-channel where the waves were so high that the masthead of our canoe was often hid from the other, though it was sailing within hail. the traverse however was made; we were then near a high rocky lee shore on which a heavy surf was beating. the wind being on the beam, the canoes drifted fast to leeward and, on rounding a point, the recoil of the sea from the rocks was so great that they were with difficulty kept from foundering. we looked in vain for a sheltered bay to land in but at length, being unable to weather another point, we were obliged to put ashore on the open beach which fortunately was sandy at this spot. the debarkation was effected fortunately without further injury than splitting the head of the second canoe, which was easily repaired. our encampment being near the spot where we killed the deer on the th, almost the whole party went out to hunt, but returned in the evening without having seen any game. the berries however were ripe and plentiful and with the addition of some country tea furnished a supper. there were some showers in the afternoon and the weather was cold, the thermometer being degrees, but the evening and night were calm and fine. it may be remarked that the mosquitoes disappeared when the late gales commenced. august . embarking at three a.m. we stretched across the eastern entrance of bathurst's inlet and arrived at an island which i have named after the right honourable colonel barry of newton barry. some deer being seen on the beach the hunters went in pursuit of them and succeeded in killing three females which enabled us to save our last remaining meal of pemmican. they saw also some fresh tracks of musk-oxen on the banks of a small stream which flowed into a lake in the centre of the island. these animals must have crossed a channel at least three miles wide to reach the nearest of these islands. some specimens of variegated pebbles and jasper were found here embedded in the amygdaloidal rock. reembarking at two p.m. and continuing through what was supposed to be a channel between two islands we found our passage barred by a gravelly isthmus of only ten yards in width; the canoes and cargoes were carried across it and we passed into bathurst's inlet through another similar channel bounded on both sides by steep rocky hills. the wind then changing from south-east to north-west brought heavy rain, and we encamped at seven p.m. having advanced eighteen miles. august . starting this morning with a fresh breeze in our favour we soon reached that part of barry's island where the canoes were detained on the nd and rd of this month and, contrary to what we then experienced, the deer were now plentiful. the hunters killed two and relieved us from all apprehension of immediate want of food. from their assembling at this time in such numbers on the islands nearest to the coast we conjectured that they were about to retire to the main shore. those we saw were generally females with their young and all of them very lean. the wind continued in the same direction until we had rounded point wollaston and then changed to a quarter which enabled us to steer for hood's river, which we ascended as high as the first rapid and encamped. here terminated our voyage on the arctic sea during which we had gone over six hundred and fifty geographical miles. our canadian voyagers could not restrain their joy at having turned their backs on the sea, and passed the evening in talking over their past adventures with much humour and no little exaggeration. the consideration that the most painful, and certainly the most hazardous, part of the journey was yet to come did not depress their spirits at all. it is due to their character to mention that they displayed much courage in encountering the dangers of the sea, magnified to them by their novelty. the shores between cape barrow and cape flinders, including the extensive branches of arctic and melville sounds and bathurst's inlet, may be comprehended in one great gulf which i have distinguished by the appellation of george iv's coronation gulf in honour of his most gracious majesty, the latter name being added to mark the time of its discovery. the archipelago of islands which fringe the coast from copper-mine river to point turnagain i have named in honour of his royal highness the duke of york. it may be deserving of notice that the extremes in temperature of the seawater during our voyage were and degrees, but its general temperature was between and degrees. throughout our return from point turnagain we observed that the sea had risen several feet above marks left at our former encampments. this may perhaps be attributed to the north-west gales. august . previous to our departure this morning an assortment of iron materials, beads, looking-glasses, and other articles were put up in a conspicuous situation for the esquimaux and the english union was planted on the loftiest sandhill where it might be seen by any ships passing in the offing. here also was deposited in a tin box a letter containing an outline of our proceedings, the latitude and longitude of the principal places, and the course we intended to pursue towards slave lake. embarking at eight a.m. we proceeded up the river which is full of sandy shoals but sufficiently deep for canoes in the channels. it is from one hundred to two hundred yards wide and is bounded by high and steep banks of clay. we encamped at a cascade of eighteen or twenty feet high which is produced by a ridge of rock crossing the river and the nets were set. a mile below this cascade hood's river is joined by a stream half its own size which i have called james' branch. bear and deer tracks had been numerous on the banks of the river when we were here before but not a single recent one was to be seen at this time. credit however killed a small deer at some distance inland which, with the addition of berries, furnished a delightful repast this evening. the weather was remarkably fine and the temperature so mild that the mosquitoes again made their appearance, but not in any great numbers. our distance made today was not more than six miles. the next morning the net furnished us with ten white-fish and trout. having made a further deposit of ironwork for the esquimaux we pursued our voyage up the river, but the shoals and rapids in this part were so frequent that we walked along the banks the whole day and the crews laboured hard in carrying the canoes thus lightened over the shoals or dragging them up the rapids, yet our journey in a direct line was only about seven miles. in the evening 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. the whole descent of the river at this place probably exceeds two hundred and fifty feet. the rock is very fine felspathose sandstone. it has a smooth surface and a light red colour. i have named these magnificent cascades wilberforce falls as a tribute of my respect for that distinguished philanthropist and christian. messrs. back and hood took beautiful sketches of this majestic scene. the river, being surveyed from the summit of a hill above these falls, appeared so rapid and shallow that it seemed useless to attempt proceeding any farther in the large canoes. i therefore determined on constructing out of their materials two smaller ones of sufficient size to contain three persons for the purpose of crossing any river that might obstruct our progress. this operation was accordingly commenced and by the st, both the canoes being finished, we prepared for our departure on the following day. the leather which had been preserved for making shoes was equally divided among the men, two pairs of flannel socks were given to each person, and such articles of warm clothing as remained were issued to those who most required them. they were also furnished with one of the officers' tents. this being done i communicated to the men my intention of proceeding in as direct a course as possible to the part of point lake opposite our spring encampment, which was only distant one hundred and forty-nine miles in a straight line. they received the communication cheerfully, considered the journey to be short, and left me in high spirits to arrange their own packages. the stores, books, etc., which were not absolutely necessary to be carried were then put up in boxes to be left en cache here, in order that the men's burdens might be as light as possible. the next morning was warm and very fine. everyone was on the alert at an early hour, being anxious to commence the journey. our luggage consisted of ammunition, nets, hatchets, ice chisels, astronomical instruments, clothing, blankets, three kettles, and the two canoes, which were each carried by one man. the officers carried such a portion of their own things as their strength would permit; the weight carried by each man was about ninety pounds, and with this we advanced at the rate of about a mile an hour including rests. in the evening the hunters killed a lean cow out of a large drove of musk-oxen; but the men were too much laden to carry more than a small portion of its flesh. the alluvial soil which, towards the mouth of the river, spreads into plains covered with grass and willows, was now giving place to a more barren and hilly country, so that we could but just collect sufficient brushwood to cook our suppers. the part of the river we skirted this day was shallow and flowed over a bed of sand, its width about one hundred and twenty yards. about midnight our tent was blown down by a squall and we were completely drenched with rain before it could be repitched. on the morning of the st of september a fall of snow took place; the canoes became a cause of delay from the difficulty of carrying them in a high wind, and they sustained much damage through the falls of those who had charge of them. the face of the country was broken by hills of moderate elevation but the ground was plentifully strewed with small stones which, to men bearing heavy burdens and whose feet were protected only by soft moose-skin shoes, occasioned great pain. at the end of eleven miles we encamped and sent for a musk-ox and a deer which st. germain and augustus had killed. the day was extremely cold, the thermometer varying between and degrees. in the afternoon a heavy fall of snow took place on the wind changing from north-west to south-west. we found no wood at the encampment but made a fire of moss to cook the supper and crept under our blankets for warmth. at sunrise the thermometer was at degrees and the wind fresh from north-west, but the weather became mild in the course of the forenoon and the snow disappeared from the gravel. the afternoon was remarkably fine and the thermometer rose to degrees. one of the hunters killed a musk-ox. the hills in this part are lower and more round-backed than those we passed yesterday, exhibiting but little naked rock; they were covered with lichens. having ascertained from the summit of the highest hill near the tents that the river continued to preserve a west course and, fearing that by pursuing it farther we might lose much time and unnecessarily walk over a great deal of ground, i determined on quitting its banks the next day and making as directly as we could for point lake. we accordingly followed the river on the rd only to the place where the musk-ox had been killed last evening and, after the meat was procured, crossed the river in our two canoes lashed together. we now emerged from the valley of the river and entered a level but very barren country, varied only by small lakes and marshes, the ground being covered with small stones. many old tracks of reindeer were seen in the clayey soil and some more recent traces of the musk-ox. we encamped on the borders of wright's river which flows to the eastward, the direct distance walked today being ten miles and three-quarters. the next morning was very fine and as the day advanced the weather became quite warm. we set out at six a.m. and, having forded the river, walked over a perfectly level country interspersed with small lakes which communicated with each other by streams running in various directions. no berry-bearing plants were found in this part, the surface of the earth being thinly covered in the moister places with a few grasses, and on the drier spots with lichens. having walked twelve miles and a half we encamped at seven p.m. and distributed our last piece of pemmican and a little arrowroot for supper which afforded but a scanty meal. this evening was warm but dark clouds overspread the sky. our men now began to find their burdens very oppressive and were much fatigued by this day's march but did not complain. one of them was lame from an inflammation in the knee. heavy rain commenced at midnight and continued without intermission until five in the morning, when it was succeeded by snow on the wind changing to north-west, which soon increased to a violent gale. as we had nothing to eat and were destitute of the means of making a fire, we remained in our beds all the day, but the covering of our blankets was insufficient to prevent us from feeling the severity of the frost and suffering inconvenience from the drifting of the snow into our tents. there was no abatement of the storm next day; our tents were completely frozen and the snow had drifted around them to a depth of three feet, and even in the inside there was a covering of several inches on our blankets. our suffering from cold in a comfortless canvas tent in such weather with the temperature at degrees and without fire will easily be imagined; it was however less than that which we felt from hunger. the morning of the th cleared up a little but the wind was still strong and the weather extremely cold. from the unusual continuance of the storm we feared the winter had set in with all its rigour and that by longer delay we should only be exposed to an accumulation of difficulties; we therefore prepared for our journey although we were in a very unfit condition for starting, being weak from fasting and our garments stiffened by the frost. we had no means of making a fire to thaw them, the moss, at all times difficult to kindle, being now covered with ice and snow. a considerable time was consumed in packing up the frozen tents and bed clothes, the wind blowing so strong that no one could keep his hands long out of his mittens. just as we were about to commence our march i was seized with a fainting fit in consequence of exhaustion and sudden exposure to the wind but, after eating a morsel of portable soup, i recovered so far as to be able to move on. i was unwilling at first to take this morsel of soup, which was diminishing the small and only remaining meal for the party, but several of the men urged me to it with much kindness. the ground was covered a foot deep with snow, the margins of the lakes were encrusted with ice, and the swamps over which we had to pass were entirely frozen but the ice, not being sufficiently strong to bear us, we frequently plunged knee-deep in water. those who carried the canoes were repeatedly blown down by the violence of the wind and they often fell from making an insecure step on a slippery stone; on one of these occasions the largest canoe was so much broken as to be rendered utterly unserviceable. this we felt was a serious disaster as the remaining canoe having through mistake been made too small, it was doubtful whether it would be sufficient to carry us across a river. indeed we had found it necessary in crossing hood's river to lash the two canoes together. as there was some suspicion that benoit, who carried the canoe, had broken it intentionally, he having on a former occasion been overheard by some of the men to say that he would do so when he got it in charge, we closely examined him on the point; he roundly denied having used the expressions attributed to him, and insisted that it was broken by his falling accidentally and, as he brought men to attest the latter fact who saw him tumble, we did not press the matter further. i may here remark that our people had murmured a good deal at having to carry two canoes, though they were informed of the necessity of taking both in case it should be deemed advisable to divide the party, which it had been thought probable we should be obliged to do if animals proved scarce, in order to give the whole the better chance of procuring subsistence, and also for the purpose of sending forward some of the best walkers to search for indians and to get them to meet us with supplies of provision. the power of doing this was now at an end. as the accident could not be remedied we turned it to the best account by making a fire of the bark and timbers of the broken vessel and cooked the remainder of our portable soup and arrowroot. this was a scanty meal after three days' fasting but it served to allay the pangs of hunger and enabled us to proceed at a quicker pace than before. the depth of the snow caused us to march in indian file, that is in each other's steps, the voyagers taking it in turn to lead the party. a distant object was pointed out to this man in the direction we wished to take and mr. hood followed immediately behind him to renew the bearings and keep him from deviating more than could be helped from the mark. it may be here observed that we proceeded in this manner throughout our route across the barren grounds. in the afternoon we got into a more hilly country where the ground was strewed with large stones. the surface of these was covered with lichens of the genus gyrophora which the canadians term tripe de roche. a considerable quantity was gathered and with half a partridge each (which we shot in the course of the day) furnished a slender supper which we cooked with a few willows dug up from beneath the snow. we passed a comfortless night in our damp clothes but took the precaution of sleeping upon our socks and shoes to prevent them from freezing. this plan was afterwards adopted throughout the journey. at half-past five in the morning we proceeded and after walking about two miles came to cracroft's river, flowing to the westward with a very rapid current over a rocky channel. we had much difficulty in crossing this, the canoe being useless, not only from the bottom of the channel being obstructed by large stones, but also from its requiring gumming, an operation which, owing to the want of wood and the frost, we were unable to perform. however after following the course of the river some distance we effected a passage by means of a range of large rocks that crossed a rapid. as the current was strong and many of the rocks were covered with water to the depth of two or three feet, the men were exposed to much danger in carrying their heavy burdens across, and several of them actually slipped into the stream but were immediately rescued by the others. junius went farther up the river in search of a better crossing-place and did not rejoin us this day. as several of the party were drenched from head to foot and we were all wet to the middle, our clothes became stiff with the frost and we walked with much pain for the remainder of the day. the march was continued to a late hour from our anxiety to rejoin the hunters who had gone before, but we were obliged to encamp at the end of ten miles and a quarter without seeing them. our only meal today consisted of a partridge each (which the hunters shot) mixed with tripe de roche. this repast, although scanty for men with appetites such as our daily fatigue created, proved a cheerful one and was received with thankfulness. most of the men had to sleep in the open air in consequence of the absence of credit who carried their tent, but we fortunately found an unusual quantity of roots to make a fire, which prevented their suffering much from the cold though the thermometer was at degrees. we started at six on the th and at the end of two miles regained our hunters who were halting on the borders of a lake amidst a clump of stunted willows. this lake stretched to the westward as far as we could see and its waters were discharged by a rapid stream one hundred and fifty yards wide. being entirely ignorant where we might be led by pursuing the course of the lake, and dreading the idea of going a mile unnecessarily out of the way, we determined on crossing the river if possible, and the canoe was gummed for the purpose, the willows furnishing us with fire. but we had to await the return of junius before we could make the traverse. in the meantime we gathered a little tripe de roche and breakfasted upon it and a few partridges that were killed in the morning. st. germain and adam were sent upon some recent tracks of deer. junius arrived in the afternoon and informed us that he had seen a large herd of musk-oxen on the banks of cracroft's river, and had wounded one of them but it escaped. he brought about four pounds of meat, the remains of a deer that had been devoured by the wolves. the poor fellow was much fatigued, having walked throughout the night but, as the weather was particularly favourable for our crossing the river, we could not allow him to rest. after he had taken some refreshment we proceeded to the river. the canoe being put into the water was found extremely ticklish, but it was managed with much dexterity by st. germain, adam, and peltier, who ferried over one passenger at a time, causing him to lie flat in its bottom, by no means a pleasant position owing to its leakiness, but there was no alternative. the transport of the whole party was effected by five o'clock and we walked about two miles farther and encamped, having come five miles and three-quarters on a south-west course. two young alpine hares were shot by st. germain which with the small piece of meat brought in by junius furnished the supper of the whole party. there was no tripe de roche here. the country had now become decidedly hilly and was covered with snow. the lake preserved its western direction as far as i could see from the summit of the highest mountain near the encampment. we subsequently learned from the copper indians that the part at which we had crossed the river was the congecathawhachaga of hearne, of which i had little idea at the time, not only from the difference of latitude, but also from its being so much farther east of the mouth of the copper-mine river than his track is laid down, he only making one degree and three-quarters' difference of longitude and we upwards of four. had i been aware of the fact several days' harassing march and a disastrous accident would have been prevented by keeping on the western side of the lake instead of crossing the river. we were informed also that this river is the anatessy or river of strangers and is supposed to fall into bathurst's inlet, but although the indians have visited its mouth their description was not sufficient to identify it with any of the rivers whose mouths we had seen. it probably discharges itself in that part of the coast which was hid from our view by goulbourn's or elliott's islands. september . we had a cold north wind and the atmosphere was foggy. the thermometer degrees at five a.m. in the course of our march this morning we passed many small lakes and the ground, becoming higher and more hilly as we receded from the river, was covered to a much greater depth with snow. this rendered walking not only extremely laborious but also hazardous in the highest degree, for the sides of the hills, as is usual throughout the barren grounds, abounding in accumulations of large angular stones, it often happened that the men fell into the interstices with their loads on their backs, being deceived by the smooth appearance of the drifted snow. if anyone had broken a limb here his fate would have been melancholy indeed; we could neither have remained with him nor carried him on. we halted at ten to gather tripe de roche but it was so frozen that we were quite benumbed with cold before a sufficiency could be collected even for a scanty meal. on proceeding our men were somewhat cheered by observing on the sandy summit of a hill, from whence the snow had been blown, the summer track of a man, and afterwards by seeing several deer tracks on the snow. about noon the weather cleared up a little and, to our great joy, we saw a herd of musk-oxen grazing in a valley below us. the party instantly halted and the best hunters were sent out; they approached the animals with the utmost caution, no less than two hours being consumed before they got within gunshot. in the meantime we beheld their proceedings with extreme anxiety, and many secret prayers were doubtless offered up for their success. at length they opened their fire and we had the satisfaction of seeing one of the largest cows fall; another was wounded but escaped. this success infused spirit into our starving party. to skin and cut up the animal was the work of a few minutes. the contents of the stomach were devoured upon the spot, and the raw intestines which were next attacked were pronounced by the most delicate amongst us to be excellent. a few willows whose tops were seen peeping through the snow in the bottom of the valley were quickly grubbed, the tents pitched, and supper cooked and devoured with avidity. this was the sixth day since we had had a good meal, the tripe de roche, even where we got enough, only serving to allay the pangs of hunger for a short time. after supper two of the hunters went in pursuit of the herd but could not get near them. i do not think that we witnessed through the course of our journey a more striking proof of the wise dispensation of the almighty and of the weakness of our own judgment than on this day. we had considered the dense fog which prevailed throughout the morning as almost the greatest inconvenience that could have befallen us, since it rendered the air extremely cold and prevented us from distinguishing any distant object towards which our course could be directed. yet this very darkness enabled the party to get to the top of the hill which bounded the valley wherein the musk-oxen were grazing without being perceived. had the herd discovered us and taken alarm our hunters in their present state of debility would in all probability have failed in approaching them. we were detained all the next day by a strong southerly wind and were much incommoded in the tents by the drift snow. the temperature was degrees. the average for the last ten days about degrees. we restricted ourselves to one meal this day as we were at rest and there was only meat remaining sufficient for the morrow. the gale had not diminished on the th and, as we were fearful of its continuance for some time, we determined on going forward; our only doubt regarded the preservation of the canoe, but the men promised to pay particular attention to it, and the most careful persons were appointed to take it in charge. the snow was two feet deep and the ground much broken, which rendered the march extremely painful. the whole party complained more of faintness and weakness than they had ever done before; their strength seemed to have been impaired by the recent supply of animal food. in the afternoon the wind abated and the snow ceased; cheered with the change we proceeded forward at a quicker pace and encamped at six p.m. having come eleven miles. our supper consumed the last of our meat. we set out on the th in thick hazy weather and, after an hour's march, had the extreme mortification to find ourselves on the borders of a large lake; neither of its extremities could be seen and, as the portion which lay to the east seemed the widest, we coasted along to the westward portion in search of a crossing-place. this lake being bounded by steep and lofty hills our march was very fatiguing. those sides which were exposed to the sun were free from snow and we found upon them some excellent berries. we encamped at six p.m. having come only six miles and a half. credit was then missing and he did not return during the night. we supped off a single partridge and some tripe de roche; this unpalatable weed was now quite nauseous to the whole party and in several it produced bowel complaints. mr. hood was the greatest sufferer from this cause. this evening we were extremely distressed at discovering that our improvident companions since we left hood's river had thrown away three of the fishing-nets and burnt the floats; they knew we had brought them to procure subsistence for the party when the animals should fail, and we could scarcely believe the fact of their having wilfully deprived themselves of this resource, especially when we considered that most of them had passed the greater part of their servitude in situations where the nets alone had supplied them with food. being thus deprived of our principal resource, that of fishing, and the men evidently getting weaker every day, it became necessary to lighten their burdens of everything except ammunition, clothing, and the instruments that were required to find our way. i therefore issued directions to deposit at this encampment the dipping needle, azimuth compass, magnet, a large thermometer, and a few books we had carried, having torn out of these such parts as we should require to work the observations for latitude and longitude. i also promised, as an excitement to the efforts in hunting, my gun to st. germain, and an ample compensation to adam or any of the other men who should kill any animals. mr. hood on this occasion lent his gun to michel the iroquois, who was very eager in the chase and often successful. september . this morning, the officers being assembled round a small fire, perrault presented each of us with a small piece of meat which he had saved from his allowance. it was received with great thankfulness, and such an act of self-denial and kindness being totally unexpected in a canadian voyager filled our eyes with tears. in directing our course to a river issuing from the lake we met credit who communicated the joyful intelligence of his having killed two deer in the morning. we instantly halted and, having shared the deer that was nearest to us, prepared breakfast. after which the other deer was sent for and we went down to the river, which was about three hundred yards wide and flowed with great velocity through a broken rocky channel. having searched for a part where the current was most smooth, the canoe was placed in the water at the head of a rapid, and st. germain, solomon belanger, and i embarked in order to cross. we went from the shore very well, but in mid-channel the canoe became difficult to manage under our burden as the breeze was fresh. the current drove us to the edge of the rapid, when belanger unluckily applied his paddle to avert the apparent danger of being forced down it, and lost his balance. the canoe was overset in consequence in the middle of the rapid. we fortunately kept hold of it until we touched a rock where the water did not reach higher than our waists; here we kept our footing, notwithstanding the strength of the current, until the water was emptied out of the canoe. belanger then held the canoe steady whilst st. germain placed me in it and afterwards embarked himself in a very dexterous manner. it was impossible however to embark belanger, as the canoe would have been hurried down the rapid the moment he should have raised his foot from the rock on which he stood. we were therefore compelled to leave him in his perilous situation. we had not gone twenty yards before the canoe, striking on a sunken rock, went down. the place being shallow we were again enabled to empty it and the third attempt brought us to the shore. in the meantime belanger was suffering extremely, immersed to his middle in the centre of a rapid, the temperature of which was very little above the freezing-point, and the upper part of his body covered with wet clothes, exposed in a temperature not much above zero to a strong breeze. he called piteously for relief and st. germain on his return endeavoured to embark him but in vain. the canoe was hurried down the rapid and when he landed he was rendered by the cold incapable of further exertion and adam attempted to embark belanger but found it impossible. an attempt was next made to carry out to him a line made of the slings of the men's loads. this also failed, the current acting so strongly upon it as to prevent the canoe from steering and it was finally broken and carried down the stream. at length when belanger's strength seemed almost exhausted the canoe reached him with a small cord belonging to one of the nets and he was dragged perfectly senseless through the rapid. by the direction of dr. richardson he was instantly stripped and, being rolled up in blankets, two men undressed themselves and went to bed with him: but it was some hours before he recovered his warmth and sensations. as soon as belanger was placed in his bed the officers sent over my blankets and a person to make a fire. augustus brought the canoe over and in returning he was obliged to descend both the rapids before he could get across the stream, which hazardous service he performed with the greatest coolness and judgment. it is impossible to describe my sensations as i witnessed the various unsuccessful attempts to relieve belanger. the distance prevented my seeing distinctly what was going on and i continued pacing up and down upon the rock on which i landed, regardless of the coldness of my drenched and stiffening garments. the canoe in every attempt to reach him was hurried down the rapid, and was lost to view amongst the rocky islets with a rapidity that seemed to threaten certain destruction; once indeed i fancied that i saw it overwhelmed in the waves. such an event would have been fatal to the whole party. separated as i was from my companions without gun, ammunition, hatchet, or the means of making a fire, and in wet clothes, my doom would have been speedily sealed. my companions too, driven to the necessity of coasting the lake, must have sunk under the fatigue of rounding its innumerable arms and bays which as we have learned from the indians are very extensive. by the goodness of providence however we were spared at that time and some of us have been permitted to offer up our thanksgivings in a civilised land for the signal deliverances we then and afterwards experienced. by this accident i had the misfortune to lose my portfolio containing my journal from fort enterprise together with all the astronomical and meteorological observations made during the descent of the copper-mine river and along the sea-coast (except those for the dip and variation). i was in the habit of carrying it strapped across my shoulders but had taken it off on entering the canoe to reduce the upper weight. the results of most of the observations for latitude and longitude had been registered in the sketch-books so that we preserved the requisites for the construction of the chart. the meteorological observations not having been copied were lost. my companions, dr. richardson, mr. back, and mr. hood, had been so careful in noting every occurrence in their journals that the loss of mine could fortunately be well supplied. these friends immediately offered me their documents and every assistance in drawing up another narrative, of which kindness i availed myself at the earliest opportunity afterwards. september . the rest of the party were brought across this morning and we were delighted to find belanger so much recovered as to be able to proceed, but we could not set out until noon as the men had to prepare substitutes for the slings which were lost yesterday. soon after leaving the encampment we discerned a herd of deer and after a long chase a fine male was killed by perrault, several others were wounded but they escaped. after this we passed round the north end of a branch of the lake and ascended the willingham mountains, keeping near the border of the lake. these hills were steep, craggy, and covered with snow. we encamped at seven and enjoyed a substantial meal. the party were in good spirits this evening at the recollection of having crossed the rapid and being in possession of provision for the next day. besides we had taken the precaution of bringing away the skin of the deer to eat when the meat should fail. the temperature at six p.m. was degrees. we started at seven next morning and marched until ten when the appearance of a few willows peeping through the snow induced us to halt and breakfast. recommencing the journey at noon we passed over a more rugged country where the hills were separated by deep ravines whose steep sides were equally difficult to descend and to ascend, and the toil and suffering we experienced were greatly increased. the party was quite fatigued when we encamped, having come ten miles and three-quarters. we observed many summer deer roads and some recent tracks. some marks that had been put up by the indians were also noticed. we have since learned that this is a regular deer pass and, on that account, annually frequented by the copper indians. the lake is called by them contwoyto or rum lake in consequence of mr. hearne having here given the indians who accompanied him some of that liquor. fish is not found here. we walked next day over a more level country but it was strewed with large stones. these galled our feet a good deal; we contrived however to wade through the snow at a tolerably quick pace until five p.m., having proceeded twelve miles and a half. we had made today our proper course south by east which we could not venture upon doing before for fear of falling again upon some branch of the contwoyto. some deer were seen in the morning but the hunters failed of killing any and in the afternoon we fell into the track of a large herd which had passed the day before but did not overtake them. in consequence of this want of success we had no breakfast and but a scanty supper, but we allayed the pangs of hunger by eating pieces of singed hide. a little tripe de roche* was also obtained. these would have satisfied us in ordinary times but we were now almost exhausted by slender fare and travel and our appetites had become ravenous. we looked however with humble confidence to the great author and giver of all good for a continuance of the support which had hitherto been always supplied to us at our greatest need. the thermometer varied today between and degrees. the wind blew fresh from the south. (*footnote. the different kinds of gyrophora are termed indiscriminately by the voyagers tripe de roche.) on the th the atmosphere was hazy but the day was more pleasant for walking than usual. the country was level and gravelly and the snow very deep. we went for a short time along a deeply-beaten road made by the reindeer which turned suddenly off to the south-west, a direction so wide of our course that we could not venture upon following it. all the small lakes were frozen and we marched across those which lay in our track. we supped off the tripe de roche which had been gathered during our halts in the course of the march. thermometer at six p.m. degrees. showers of snow fell without intermission through the night but they ceased in the morning and we set out at the usual hour. the men were very faint from hunger and marched with difficulty, having to oppose a fresh breeze and to wade through snow two feet deep. we gained however ten miles by four o'clock and then encamped. the canoe was unfortunately broken by the fall of the person who had it in charge. no tripe de roche was seen today but in clearing the snow to pitch the tents we found a quantity of iceland moss which was boiled for supper. this weed not having been soaked proved so bitter that few of the party could eat more than a few spoonfuls. our blankets did not suffice this evening to keep us in tolerable warmth; the slightest breeze seeming to pierce our debilitated frames. the reader will probably be desirous to know how we passed our time in such a comfortless situation: the first operation after encamping was to thaw our frozen shoes if a sufficient fire could be made, and dry ones were put on; each person then wrote his notes of the daily occurrences and evening prayers were read; as soon as supper was prepared it was eaten, generally in the dark, and we went to bed and kept up a cheerful conversation until our blankets were thawed by the heat of our bodies and we had gathered sufficient warmth to enable us to fall asleep. on many nights we had not even the luxury of going to bed in dry clothes for when the fire was insufficient to dry our shoes we durst not venture to pull them off lest they should freeze so hard as to be unfit to put on in the morning and therefore inconvenient to carry. on the th we got into a hilly country and the marching became much more laborious, even the stoutest experienced great difficulty in climbing the craggy eminences. mr. hood was particularly weak and was obliged to relinquish his station of second in the line which dr. richardson now took to direct the leading man in keeping the appointed course. i was also unable to keep pace with the men who put forth their utmost speed, encouraged by the hope which our reckoning had led us to form of seeing point lake in the evening, but we were obliged to encamp without gaining a view of it. we had not seen either deer or their tracks through the day, and this circumstance, joined to the disappointment of not discovering the lake, rendered our voyagers very desponding, and the meagre supper of tripe de roche was little calculated to elevate their spirits. they now threatened to throw away their bundles and quit us, which rash act they would probably have committed if they had known what track to pursue. september . we set out at seven this morning in dark foggy weather and changed our course two points to the westward. the party were very feeble and the men much dispirited; we made slow progress, having to march over a hilly and very rugged country. just before noon the sun beamed through the haze for the first time for six days and we obtained an observation in latitude degrees minutes seconds north, which was six miles to the southward of that part of point lake to the way our course was directed. by this observation we discovered that we had kept to the eastward of the proper course, which may be attributed partly to the difficulty of preserving a straight line through an unknown country, unassisted by celestial observations and in such thick weather that our view was often limited to a few hundred yards, but chiefly to our total ignorance of the amount of the variation of the compass. we altered the course immediately to west-south-west and fired guns to apprise the hunters who were out of our view and ignorant of our having done so. after walking about two miles we waited to collect the stragglers. two partridges were killed and these with some tripe de roche furnished our supper. notwithstanding a full explanation was given to the men of the reasons for altering the course, and they were assured that the observation had enabled us to discover our exact distance from fort enterprise, they could not divest themselves of the idea of our having lost our way, and a gloom was spread over every countenance. at this encampment dr. richardson was obliged to deposit his specimens of plants and minerals collected on the sea-coast, being unable to carry them any farther. the way made today was five miles and a quarter. september . after walking about two miles this morning we came upon the borders of an extensive lake whose extremities could not be discerned in consequence of the density of the atmosphere but, as its shores seemed to approach nearer to each other to the southward than to the northward, we determined on tracing it in that direction. we were grieved at finding the lake expand very much beyond the contracted part we had first seen and incline to the eastward of south. as however it was considered more than probable, from the direction and size of the body of water we were now tracing, that it was a branch of point lake, and as in any case we knew that by passing round its south end we must shortly come to the copper-mine river, our course was continued in that direction. the appearance of some dwarf pines and willows, larger than usual, induced us to suppose the river was near. we encamped early having come eight miles. our supper consisted of tripe de roche and half a partridge each. our progress next day was extremely slow from the difficulty of managing the canoe in passing over the hills as the breeze was fresh. peltier, who had it in charge, having received several severe falls, became impatient and insisted on leaving his burden as it had already been much injured by the accidents of this day, and no arguments we could use were sufficient to prevail on him to continue carrying it. vaillant was therefore directed to take it and we proceeded forward. having found that he got on very well and was walking even faster than mr. hood could follow in his present debilitated state, i pushed forward to stop the rest of the party who had got out of sight during the delay which the discussion respecting the canoe had occasioned. i accidentally passed the body of the men and followed the tracks of two persons who had separated from the rest until two p.m. when, not seeing any person, i retraced my steps, and on my way met dr. richardson who had also missed the party whilst he was employed gathering tripe de roche, and we went back together in search of them. we found they had halted among some willows where they had picked up some pieces of skin and a few bones of deer that had been devoured by the wolves last spring. they had rendered the bones friable by burning and eaten them as well as the skin; and several of them had added their old shoes to the repast. peltier and vaillant were with them, having left the canoe which they said was so completely broken by another fall as to be rendered incapable of repair and entirely useless. the anguish this intelligence occasioned may be conceived but it is beyond my power to describe it. impressed however with the necessity of taking it forward, even in the state these men represented it to be, we urgently desired them to fetch it, but they declined going and the strength of the officers was inadequate to the task. to their infatuated obstinacy on this occasion a great portion of the melancholy circumstances which attended our subsequent progress may perhaps be attributed. the men now seemed to have lost all hope of being preserved and all the arguments we could use failed in stimulating them to the least exertion. after consuming the remains of the bones and horns of the deer we resumed our march, and in the evening reached a contracted part of the lake which, perceiving it to be shallow, we forded and encamped on the opposite side. heavy rain began soon afterwards and continued all night. on the following morning the rain had so wasted the snow that the tracks of mr. back and his companions, who had gone before with the hunters, were traced with difficulty, and the frequent showers during the day almost obliterated them. the men became furious at the apprehension of being deserted by the hunters and some of the strongest, throwing down their bundles, prepared to set out after them, intending to leave the more weak to follow as they could. the entreaties and threats of the officers however prevented their executing this mad scheme, but not before solomon belanger was despatched with orders for mr. back to halt until we should join him. soon afterwards a thick fog came on, but we continued our march and overtook mr. back, who had been detained in consequence of his companions having followed some recent tracks of deer. after halting an hour, during which we refreshed ourselves with eating our old shoes and a few scraps of leather, we set forward in the hope of ascertaining whether an adjoining piece of water was the copper-mine river or not, but were soon compelled to return and encamp for fear of a separation of the party, as we could not see each other at ten yards' distance. the fog diminishing towards evening, augustus was sent to examine the water but, having lost his way, he did not reach the tents before midnight when he brought the information of its being a lake. we supped upon tripe de roche and enjoyed a comfortable fire, having found some pines seven or eight feet high in a valley near the encampment. the bounty of providence was most seasonably manifested to us next morning in our killing five small deer out of a herd which came in sight as we were on the point of starting. this unexpected supply reanimated the drooping spirits of our men and filled every heart with gratitude. the voyagers instantly petitioned for a day's rest which we were most reluctant to grant, being aware of the importance of every moment at this critical period of our journey. but they so earnestly and strongly pleaded their recent sufferings and their conviction that the quiet enjoyment of two substantial meals after eight days' famine would enable them to proceed next day more vigorously, that we could not resist their entreaties. the flesh, the skins, and even the contents of the stomachs of the deer were equally distributed among the party by mr. hood who had volunteered, on the departure of mr. wentzel, to perform the duty of issuing the provision. this invidious task he had all along performed with great impartiality, but seldom without producing some grumbling amongst the canadians, and on the present occasion the hunters were displeased that the heads and some other parts had not been added to their portions. it is proper to remark that mr. hood always took the smallest portion for his own mess, but this weighed little with these men as long as their own appetites remained unsatisfied. we all suffered much inconvenience from eating animal food after our long abstinence, but particularly those men who indulged themselves beyond moderation. the canadians, with their usual thoughtlessness, had consumed above a third of their portions of meat that evening. we set out early on the th and, after walking about three miles along the lake, came to the river which we at once recognised from its size to be the copper-mine. it flowed to the northward and, after winding about five miles terminated in point lake. its current was swift, and there were two rapids in this part of its course which in a canoe we could have crossed with ease and safety. these rapids, as well as every other part of the river, were carefully examined in search of a ford but, finding none, the expedients occurred of attempting to cross on a raft made of the willows which were growing there, or in a vessel framed with willows and covered with the canvas of the tents, but both these schemes were abandoned through the obstinacy of the interpreters and the most experienced voyagers, who declared that they would prove inadequate to the conveyance of the party and that much time would be lost in the attempt. the men in fact did not believe that this was the copper-mine river and, so little confidence had they in our reckoning, and so much had they bewildered themselves on the march, that some of them asserted it was hood's river and others that it was the bethetessy. (a river which rises from a lake to the northward of rum lake and holds a course to the sea parallel with that of the copper-mine.) in short their despondency had returned, and they all despaired of seeing fort enterprise again. however the steady assurances of the officers that we were actually on the banks of the copper-mine river, and that the distance to fort enterprise did not exceed forty miles, made some impression upon them, which was increased upon our finding some bear-berry plants (arbutus uva ursi) which are reported by the indians not to grow to the eastward of that river. they then deplored their folly and impatience in breaking the canoe, being all of opinion that had it not been so completely demolished on the rd it might have been repaired sufficiently to take the party over. we again closely interrogated peltier and vaillant as to its state, with the intention of sending for it; but they persisted in the declaration that it was in a totally unserviceable condition. st. germain, being again called upon to endeavour to construct a canoe frame with willows, stated that he was unable to make one sufficiently large. it became necessary therefore to search for pines of sufficient size to form a raft and, being aware that such trees grow on the borders of point lake, we considered it best to trace its shores in search of them; we therefore resumed our march, carefully looking but in vain for a fordable part, and encamped at the east end of point lake. as there was little danger of our losing the path of our hunters whilst we coasted the shores of this lake i determined on again sending mr. back forward with the interpreters to hunt. i had in view in this arrangement the further object of enabling mr. back to get across the lake with two of these men to convey the earliest possible account of our situation to the indians. accordingly i instructed him to halt at the first pines he should come to and then prepare a raft and, if his hunters had killed animals so that the party could be supported whilst we were making our raft, he was to cross immediately with st. germain and beauparlant and send the indians to us as quickly as possible with supplies of meat. we had this evening the pain of discovering that two of our men had stolen part of the officers' provision which had been allotted to us with strict impartiality. this conduct was the more reprehensible as it was plain that we were suffering even in a greater degree than themselves from the effects of famine, owing to our being of a less robust habit and less accustomed to privations. we had no means of punishing this crime but by the threat that they should forfeit their wages, which had now ceased to operate. mr. back and his companions set out at six in the morning and we started at seven. as the snow had entirely disappeared and there were no means of distinguishing the footsteps of stragglers, i gave strict orders previously to setting out for all the party to keep together, and especially i desired the two esquimaux not to leave us, they having often strayed in search of the remains of animals. our people however, through despondency, had become careless and disobedient and had ceased to dread punishment or hope for reward. much time was lost in halting and firing guns to collect them, but the labour of walking was so much lightened by the disappearance of the snow that we advanced seven or eight miles along the lake before noon, exclusive of the loss of distance in rounding its numerous bays. at length we came to an arm running away to the north-east and apparently connected with the lake which we had coasted on the nd, rd and th of the month. the idea of again rounding such an extensive piece of water and of travelling over so barren a country was dreadful, and we feared that other arms equally large might obstruct our path, and that the strength of the party would entirely fail long before we could reach the only part where we were certain of finding wood, distant in a direct line twenty-five miles. while we halted to consider of this subject and to collect the party, the carcass of a deer was discovered in the cleft of a rock into which it had fallen in the spring. it was putrid but little less acceptable to us on that account in our present circumstances and, a fire being kindled, a large portion was devoured on the spot, affording us an unexpected breakfast for, in order to husband our small remaining portion of meat we had agreed to make only one scanty meal a day. the men, cheered by this unlooked-for supply, became sanguine in the hope of being able to cross the stream on a raft of willows, although they had before declared such a project impracticable, and they unanimously entreated us to return back to the rapid, a request which accorded with our own opinion and was therefore acceded to. credit and junius however were missing, and it was also necessary to send notice of our intention to mr. back and his party. augustus, being promised a reward, undertook the task and we agreed to wait for him at the rapid. it was supposed he could not fail meeting with the two stragglers on his way to or from mr. back, as it was likely they would keep on the borders of the lake. he accordingly set out after mr. back whilst we returned about a mile towards the rapid and encamped in a deep valley amongst some large willows. we supped on the remains of the putrid deer and the men, having gone to the spot where it was found, scraped together the contents of its intestines which were scattered on the rock and added them to their meal. we also enjoyed the luxury today of eating a large quantity of excellent blueberries and cranberries (vaccinium uliginosum and v. vitis idaea) which were laid bare by the melting of the snow, but nothing could allay our inordinate appetites. in the night we heard the report of credit's gun in answer to our signal muskets, and he rejoined us in the morning, but we got no intelligence of junius. we set out about an hour after daybreak, and encamped at two p.m. between the rapids where the river was about one hundred and thirty yards wide, being its narrowest part. difficulty and delay in crossing copper-mine river. eight deer were seen by michel and credit who loitered behind the rest of the party, but they could not approach them. a great many shots were fired by those in the rear at partridges but they missed, or at least did not choose to add what they killed to the common stock. we subsequently learned that the hunters often secreted the partridges they shot and ate them unknown to the officers. some tripe de roche was collected which we boiled for supper with the moiety of the remainder of our deer's meat. the men commenced cutting the willows for the construction of the raft. as an incitement to exertion i promised a reward of three hundred livres to the first person who should convey a line across the river by which the raft could be managed in transporting the party. melancholy and fatal results thereof. september . strong south-east winds with fog in the morning, more moderate in the evening. temperature of the rapid degrees. the men began at an early hour to bind the willows in fagots for the construction of the raft, and it was finished by seven but, as the willows were green, it proved to be very little buoyant, and was unable to support more than one man at a time. even on this however we hoped the whole party might be transported by hauling it from one side to the other, provided a line could be carried to the other bank. several attempts were made by belanger and benoit, the strongest men of the party, to convey the raft across the stream, but they failed for want of oars. a pole constructed by tying the tent poles together was too short to reach the bottom at a short distance from the shore, and a paddle which had been carried from the sea-coast by dr. richardson did not possess sufficient power to move the raft in opposition to a strong breeze which blew from the other side. all the men suffered extremely from the coldness of the water in which they were necessarily immersed up to the waists in their endeavours to aid belanger and benoit and, having witnessed repeated failures, they began to consider the scheme as hopeless. at this time dr. richardson, prompted by a desire of relieving his suffering companions, proposed to swim across the stream with a line and to haul the raft over. he launched into the stream with the line round his middle but when he had got a short distance from the bank his arms became benumbed with cold and he lost the power of moving them; still he persevered and, turning on his back, had nearly gained the opposite bank when his legs also became powerless and, to our infinite alarm, we beheld him sink. we instantly hauled upon the line and he came again on the surface and was gradually drawn ashore in an almost lifeless state. being rolled up in blankets he was placed before a good fire of willows and fortunately was just able to speak sufficiently to give some slight directions respecting the manner of treating him. he recovered strength gradually and through the blessing of god was enabled in the course of a few hours to converse and by the evening was sufficiently recovered to remove into the tent. we then regretted to learn that the skin of his whole left side was deprived of feeling in consequence of exposure to too great heat. he did not perfectly recover the sensation of that side until the following summer. i cannot describe what everyone felt at beholding the skeleton which the doctor's debilitated frame exhibited. when he stripped the canadians simultaneously exclaimed "ah! que nous sommes maigres!" i shall best explain his state and that of the party by the following extract from his journal: "it may be worthy of remark that i should have had little hesitation in any former period of my life at plunging into water even below degrees fahrenheit, but at this time i was reduced almost to skin and bone and, like the rest of the party, suffered from degrees of cold that would have been disregarded in health and vigour. during the whole of our march we experienced that no quantity of clothing would keep us warm whilst we fasted, but on those occasions on which we were enabled to go to bed with full stomachs we passed the night in a warm and comfortable manner." in following the detail of our friend's narrow escape i have omitted to mention that when he was about to step into the water he put his foot on a dagger which cut him to the bone, but this misfortune could not stop him from attempting the execution of his generous undertaking. in the evening augustus came in. he had walked a day and a half beyond the place from whence we turned back but had neither seen junius nor mr. back. of the former he had seen no traces but he had followed the tracks of mr. back's party for a considerable distance until the hardness of the ground rendered them imperceptible. junius was well equipped with ammunition, blankets, knives, a kettle, and other necessaries; and it was the opinion of augustus that when he found he could not rejoin the party he would endeavour to gain the woods on the west end of point lake and follow the river until he fell in with the esquimaux who frequent its mouth. the indians too with whom we have since conversed upon this subject are confident that he would be able to subsist himself during the winter. credit on his hunting excursion today found a cap which our people recognised to belong to one of the hunters who had left us in the spring. this circumstance produced the conviction of our being on the banks of the copper-mine river which all the assertions of the officers had hitherto failed in effecting with some of the party, and it had the happy consequence of reviving their spirits considerably. we consumed the last of our deer's meat this evening at supper. next morning the men went out in search of dry willows and collected eight large fagots with which they formed a more buoyant raft than the former but, the wind being still adverse and strong, they delayed attempting to cross until a more favourable opportunity. pleased however with the appearance of this raft they collected some tripe de roche and made a cheerful supper. dr. richardson was gaining strength but his leg was much swelled and very painful. an observation for latitude placed the encampment in degrees minutes seconds north, the longitude being degrees minutes seconds west, deduced from the last observation. on the morning of the st of october the wind was strong and the weather as unfavourable as before for crossing on the raft. we were rejoiced to see mr. back and his party in the afternoon. they had traced the lake about fifteen miles farther than we did and found it undoubtedly connected, as we had supposed, with the lake we fell in with on the nd of september and, dreading as we had done, the idea of coasting its barren shores, they returned to make an attempt at crossing here. st. germain now proposed to make a canoe of the fragments of painted canvas in which we wrapped our bedding. this scheme appearing practicable, a party was sent to our encampment of the th and th last to collect pitch amongst the small pines that grew there to pay over the seams of the canoe. in the afternoon we had a heavy fall of snow which continued all night. a small quantity of tripe de roche was gathered and credit, who had been hunting, brought in the antlers and back bone of a deer which had been killed in the summer. the wolves and birds of prey had picked them clean but there still remained a quantity of the spinal marrow which they had not been able to extract. this, although putrid, was esteemed a valuable prize and the spine being divided into portions was distributed equally. after eating the marrow, which was so acrid as to excoriate the lips, we rendered the bones friable by burning and ate them also. on the following morning the ground was covered with snow to the depth of a foot and a half and the weather was very stormy. these circumstances rendered the men again extremely despondent; a settled gloom hung over their countenances and they refused to pick tripe de roche, choosing rather to go entirely without eating than to make any exertion. the party which went for gum returned early in the morning without having found any, but st. germain said he could still make the canoe with the willows covered with canvas, and removed with adam to a clump of willows for that purpose. mr. back accompanied them to stimulate his exertion as we feared the lowness of his spirits would cause him to be slow in his operations. augustus went to fish at the rapid but, a large trout having carried away his bait, we had nothing to replace it. the snow-storm continued all the night and during the forenoon of the rd. having persuaded the people to gather some tripe de roche i partook of a meal with them and afterwards set out with the intention of going to st. germain to hasten his operations, but though he was only three-quarters of a mile distant i spent three hours in a vain attempt to reach him, my strength being unequal to the labour of wading through the deep snow, and i returned quite exhausted and much shaken by the numerous falls i had got. my associates were all in the same debilitated state and poor hood was reduced to a perfect shadow from the severe bowel complaints which the tripe de roche never failed to give him. back was so feeble as to require the support of a stick in walking, and dr. richardson had lameness superadded to weakness. the voyagers were somewhat stronger than ourselves but more indisposed to exertion on account of their despondency. the sensation of hunger was no longer felt by any of us, yet we were scarcely able to converse upon any other subject than the pleasures of eating. we were much indebted to hepburn at this crisis. the officers were unable from weakness to gather tripe de roche themselves and samandre, who had acted as our cook on the journey from the coast, sharing in the despair of the rest of the canadians, refused to make the slightest exertion. hepburn on the contrary, animated by a firm reliance on the beneficence of the supreme being, tempered with resignation to his will, was indefatigable in his exertions to serve us and daily collected all the tripe de roche that was used in the officers' mess. mr. hood could not partake of this miserable fare, and a partridge which had been reserved for him was i lament to say this day stolen by one of the men. october . the canoe being finished it was brought to the encampment and, the whole party being assembled in anxious expectation on the beach, st. germain embarked and, amidst our prayers for his success, succeeded in reaching the opposite shore. the canoe was then drawn back again and another person transported, and in this manner, by drawing it backwards and forwards, we were all conveyed over without any serious accident. by these frequent traverses the canoe was materially injured, and latterly it filled each time with water before reaching the shore, so that all our garments and bedding were wet and there was not a sufficiency of willows upon the side on which we now were to make a fire to dry them. that no time might be lost in procuring relief i immediately despatched mr. back with st. germain, solomon belanger, and beauparlant to search for the indians, directing him to go to fort enterprise where we expected they would be or where at least a note from mr. wentzel would be found to direct us in our search for them. if st. germain should kill any animals on his way a portion of the meat was to be put up securely for us and conspicuous marks placed over it. it is impossible to imagine a more gratifying change than was produced in our voyagers after we were all safely landed on the southern banks of the river. their spirits immediately revived, each of them shook the officers cordially by the hand and declared they now considered the worst of their difficulties over as they did not doubt of reaching fort enterprise in a few days, even in their feeble condition. we had indeed every reason to be grateful and our joy would have been complete had it not been mingled with sincere regret at the separation of our poor esquimaux, the faithful junius. extreme misery of the whole party. the want of tripe de roche caused us to go supperless to bed. showers of snow fell frequently during the night. the breeze was light next morning, the weather cold and clear. we were all on foot by daybreak but, from the frozen state of our tents and bedclothes, it was long before the bundles could be made and as usual the men lingered over a small fire they had kindled so that it was eight o'clock before we started. our advance from the depth of the snow was slow, and about noon, coming to a spot where there was some tripe de roche, we stopped to collect it and breakfasted. mr. hood, who was now very feeble, and dr. richardson, who attached himself to him, walked together at a gentle pace in the rear of the party. i kept with the foremost men to cause them to halt occasionally until the stragglers came up. resuming our march after breakfast we followed the track of mr. back's party and encamped early as all of us were much fatigued, particularly credit who, having today carried the men's tent, it being his turn so to do, was so exhausted that when he reached the encampment he was unable to stand. the tripe de roche disagreed with this man and with vaillant in consequence of which they were the first whose strength totally failed. we had a small quantity of this weed in the evening and the rest of our supper was made up of scraps of roasted leather. the distance walked today was six miles. as credit was very weak in the morning his load was reduced to little more than his personal luggage, consisting of his blanket, shoes and gun. previous to setting out the whole party ate the remains of their old shoes and whatever scraps of leather they had to strengthen their stomachs for the fatigue of the day's journey. we left the encampment at nine and pursued our route over a range of black hills. the wind, having increased to a strong gale in the course of the morning, became piercingly cold and the drift rendered it difficult for those in the rear to follow the track over the heights, whilst in the valleys where it was sufficiently marked from the depth of the snow the labour of walking was proportionably great. those in advance made as usual frequent halts, yet being unable from the severity of the weather to remain long still they were obliged to move on before the rear could come up and the party of course straggled very much. about noon, samandre coming up, informed us that credit and vaillant could advance no farther. some willows being discovered in a valley near us i proposed to halt the party there whilst dr. richardson went back to visit them. i hoped too that when the sufferers received the information of a fire being kindled at so short a distance they would be cheered, and use their utmost efforts to reach it, but this proved a vain hope. the doctor found vaillant about a mile and a half in the rear, much exhausted with cold and fatigue. having encouraged him to advance to the fire, after repeated solicitations he made the attempt, but fell down amongst the deep snow at every step. leaving him in this situation the doctor went about half a mile farther back to the spot where credit was said to have halted and, the track being nearly obliterated by the snowdrift, it became unsafe for him to go farther. returning he passed vaillant who, having moved only a few yards in his absence, had fallen down, was unable to rise, and could scarcely answer his questions. being unable to afford him any effectual assistance he hastened on to inform us of his situation. when j.b. belanger had heard the melancholy account he went immediately to aid vaillant and bring up his burden. respecting credit we were informed by samandre that he had stopped a short distance behind vaillant, but that his intention was to return to the encampment of the preceding evening. when belanger came back with vaillant's load he informed us that he had found him lying on his back, benumbed with cold and incapable of being roused. the stoutest men of the party were now earnestly entreated to bring him to the fire, but they declared themselves unequal to the task, and on the contrary urged me to allow them to throw down their loads and proceed to fort enterprise with the utmost speed. a compliance with their desire would have caused the loss of the whole party, for the men were totally ignorant of the course to be pursued, and none of the officers who could have directed the march were sufficiently strong to keep up at the pace they would then walk, besides, even supposing them to have found their way, the strongest men would certainly have deserted the weak. something however was absolutely necessary to be done to relieve them as much as possible from their burdens, and the officers consulted on the subject. mr. hood and dr. richardson proposed to remain behind with a single attendant at the first place where sufficient wood and tripe de roche should be found for ten days' consumption, and that i should proceed as expeditiously as possible with the men to the house and thence send them immediate relief. they strongly urged that this arrangement would contribute to the safety of the rest of the party by relieving them from the burden of a tent and several other articles, and that they might afford aid to credit if he should unexpectedly come up. i was distressed beyond description at the thought of leaving them in such a dangerous situation and for a long time combated their proposal, but they strenuously urged that this step afforded the only chance of safety for the party and i reluctantly acceded to it. the ammunition, of which we had a small barrel, was also to be left with them, and it was hoped that this deposit would be a strong inducement for the indians to venture across the barren grounds to their aid. we communicated this resolution to the men who were cheered at the slightest prospect of alleviation to their present miseries and promised with great appearance of earnestness to return to those officers upon the first supply of food. the party then moved on; vaillant's blanket and other necessaries were left in the track at the request of the canadians, without any hope however of his being able to reach them. after marching till dusk without seeing a favourable place for encamping, night compelled us to take shelter under the lee of a hill amongst some willows, with which, after many attempts, we at length made a fire. it was not sufficient however to warm the whole party, much less to thaw our shoes, and the weather not permitting the gathering of tripe de roche we had nothing to cook. the painful retrospection of the melancholy events of the day banished sleep, and we shuddered as we contemplated the dreadful effects of this bitterly cold night on our two companions, if still living. some faint hopes were entertained of credit's surviving the storm as he was provided with a good blanket and had leather to eat. the weather was mild next morning. we left the encampment at nine and at a little before noon came to a pretty extensive thicket of small willows near which there appeared a supply of tripe de roche on the face of the rocks. at this place dr. richardson and mr. hood determined to remain with john hepburn who volunteered to stop with them. the tent was securely pitched, a few willows collected, and the ammunition and all other articles were deposited, except each man's clothing, one tent, a sufficiency of ammunition for the journey, and the officers' journals. i had only one blanket which was carried for me and two pair of shoes. the offer was now made for any of the men who felt themselves too weak to proceed to remain with the officers but none of them accepted it. michel alone felt some inclination to do so. after we had united in thanksgiving and prayers to almighty god i separated from my companions, deeply afflicted that a train of melancholy circumstances should have demanded of me the severe trial of parting in such a condition from friends who had become endeared to me by their constant kindness and cooperation, and a participation of numerous sufferings. this trial i could not have been induced to undergo but for the reasons they had so strongly urged the day before, to which my own judgment assented and for the sanguine hope i felt of either finding a supply of provision at fort enterprise or meeting the indians in the immediate vicinity of that place, according to my arrangements with mr. wentzel and akaitcho. previously to our starting peltier and benoit repeated their promises to return to them with provision if any should be found at the house or to guide the indians to them if any were met. greatly as mr. hood was exhausted, and indeed incapable as he must have proved of encountering the fatigue of our very next day's journey, so that i felt his resolution to be prudent, i was sensible that his determination to remain was chiefly prompted by the disinterested and generous wish to remove impediments to the progress of the rest. dr. richardson and hepburn, who were both in a state of strength to keep pace with the men besides, this motive which they shared with him, were influenced in their resolution to remain, the former by the desire which had distinguished his character throughout the expedition of devoting himself to the succour of the weak, and the latter by the zealous attachment he had ever shown towards his officers. we set out without waiting to take any of the tripe de roche and, walking at a tolerable pace, in an hour arrived at a fine group of pines about a mile and a quarter from the tent. we sincerely regretted not having seen these before we separated from our companions as they would have been better supplied with fuel here and there appeared to be more tripe de roche than where we had left them. descending afterwards into a more level country we found the snow very deep and the labour of wading through it so fatigued the whole party that we were compelled to encamp after a march of four miles and a half. belanger and michel were left far behind and when they arrived at the encampment appeared quite exhausted. the former, bursting into tears, declared his inability to proceed and begged me to let him go back next morning to the tent and shortly afterwards michel made the same request. i was in hopes they might recover a little strength by the night's rest and therefore deferred giving any permission until morning. the sudden failure in the strength of these men cast a gloom over the rest, which i tried in vain to remove by repeated assurances that the distance to fort enterprise was short and that we should in all probability reach it in four days. not being able to find any tripe de roche we drank an infusion of the labrador tea plant (ledum palustre) and ate a few morsels of burnt leather for supper. we were unable to raise the tent and found its weight too great to carry it on; we therefore cut it up and took a part of the canvas for a cover. the night was bitterly cold and though we lay as close to each other as possible, having no shelter, we could not keep ourselves sufficiently warm to sleep. a strong gale came on after midnight which increased the severity of the weather. in the morning belanger and michel renewed their request to be permitted to go back to the tent, assuring me they were still weaker than on the preceding evening and less capable of going forward, and they urged that the stopping at a place where there was a supply of tripe de roche was their only chance of preserving life; under these circumstances i could not do otherwise than yield to their desire. i wrote a note to dr. richardson and mr. hood informing them of the pines we had passed and recommending their removing thither. having found that michel was carrying a considerable quantity of ammunition i desired him to divide it among my party, leaving him only ten balls and a little shot to kill any animals he might meet on his way to the tent. this man was very particular in his inquiries respecting the direction of the house and the course we meant to pursue; he also said that if he should be able he would go and search for vaillant and credit; and he requested my permission to take vaillant's blanket if he should find it, to which i agreed and mentioned it in my notes to the officers. scarcely were these arrangements finished before perrault and fontano were seized with a fit of dizziness and betrayed other symptoms of extreme debility. some tea was quickly prepared for them and after drinking it and eating a few morsels of burnt leather they recovered and expressed their desire to go forward, but the other men, alarmed at what they had just witnessed, became doubtful of their own strength and, giving way to absolute dejection, declared their inability to move. i now earnestly pressed upon them the necessity of continuing our journey as the only means of saving their own lives as well as those of our friends at the tent, and after much entreaty got them to set out at ten a.m. belanger and michel were left at the encampment and proposed to start shortly afterwards. by the time we had gone about two hundred yards perrault became again dizzy and desired us to halt which we did until he, recovering, offered to march on. ten minutes more had hardly elapsed before he again desired us to stop and, bursting into tears, declared he was totally exhausted and unable to accompany us farther. as the encampment was not more than a quarter of a mile distant we recommended that he should return to it and rejoin belanger and michel whom we knew to be still there from perceiving the smoke of a fresh fire, and because they had not made any preparation for starting when we quitted them. he readily acquiesced in the proposition and, having taken a friendly leave of each of us, and enjoined us to make all the haste we could in sending relief, he turned back, keeping his gun and ammunition. we watched him until he was nearly at the fire and then proceeded. during these detentions augustus becoming impatient of the delay had walked on and we lost sight of him. the labour we experienced in wading through the deep snow induced us to cross a moderate-sized lake which lay in our track, but we found this operation far more harassing. as the surface of the ice was perfectly smooth we slipped at almost every step and were frequently blown down by the wind with such force as to shake our whole frames. poor fontano was completely exhausted by the labour of this traverse and we made a halt until his strength was recruited, by which time the party was benumbed with cold. proceeding again he got on tolerably well for a little time but, being again seized with faintness and dizziness, he fell often and at length exclaimed that he could go no farther. we immediately stopped and endeavoured to encourage him to persevere until we should find some willows to encamp; he insisted however that he could not march any longer through this deep snow, and said that, if he should even reach our encampment this evening, he must be left there, provided tripe de roche could not be procured to recruit his strength. the poor man was overwhelmed with grief and seemed desirous to remain at that spot. we were about two miles from the place where the other men had been left and, as the track to it was beaten, we proposed to him to return thither as we thought it probable he would find the men still there; at any rate he would be able to get fuel to keep him warm during the night, and on the next day he could follow their track to the officers' tent and, should the path be covered by the snow, the pines we had passed yesterday would guide him as they were yet in view. i cannot describe my anguish on the occasion of separating from another companion under circumstances so distressing. there was however no alternative. the extreme debility of the rest of the party put the carrying him quite out of the question, as he himself admitted, and it was evident that the frequent delays he must occasion if he accompanied us and did not gain strength would endanger the lives of the whole. by returning he had the prospect of getting to the tent where tripe de roche could be obtained, which agreed with him better than with any other of the party, and which he was always very assiduous in gathering. after some hesitation he determined on going back and set out, having bid each of us farewell in the tenderest manner. we watched him with inexpressible anxiety for some time, and were rejoiced to find, though he got on slowly, that he kept on his legs better than before. antonio fontano was an italian and had served for many years in de meuron's regiment. he had spoken to me that very morning and after his first attack of dizziness about his father, and had begged that, should he survive, i would take him with me to england and put him in the way of reaching home. the party was now reduced to five persons, adam, peltier, benoit, samandre and myself. continuing the journey we came after an hour's walk to some willows and encamped under the shelter of a rock, having walked in the whole four miles and a half. we made an attempt to gather some tripe de roche but could not, owing to the severity of the weather. our supper therefore consisted of tea and a few morsels of leather. augustus did not make his appearance but we felt no alarm at his absence, supposing he would go to the tent if he missed our track. having fire we procured a little sleep. next morning the breeze was light and the weather mild which enabled us to collect some tripe de roche and to enjoy the only meal we had had for four days. we derived great benefit from it and walked with considerably more ease than yesterday. without the strength it supplied we should certainly have been unable to oppose the strong breeze we met in the afternoon. after walking about five miles we came upon the borders of marten lake and were rejoiced to find it frozen so that we could continue our course straight for fort enterprise. we encamped at the first rapid in winter river amidst willows and alders, but these were so frozen and the snow fell so thick that the men had great difficulty in making a fire. this proving insufficient to warm us or even thaw our shoes, and having no food to prepare, we crept under our blankets. the arrival in a well-known part raised the spirits of the men to a high pitch, and we kept up a cheerful conversation until sleep overpowered us. the night was very stormy and the morning scarcely less so but, being desirous to reach the house this day, we commenced our journey very early. we were gratified by the sight of a large herd of reindeer on the side of the hill near the track, but our only hunter adam was too feeble to pursue them. our shoes and garments were stiffened by the frost and we walked in great pain until we arrived at some stunted pines, at which we halted, made a good fire, and procured the refreshment of tea. the weather becoming fine in the afternoon we continued our journey, passed the dog-rib rock, and encamped among a clump of pines of considerable growth about a mile farther on. here we enjoyed the comfort of a large fire for the first time since our departure from the sea-coast, but this gratification was purchased at the expense of many severe falls in crossing a stony valley to get to these trees. there was no tripe de roche and we drank tea and ate some of our shoes for supper. next morning after taking the usual repast of tea we proceeded to the house. musing on what we were likely to find there our minds were agitated between hope and fear and, contrary to the custom we had kept up of supporting our spirits by conversation, we went silently forward. desolate state of fort enterprise. at length we reached fort enterprise and to our infinite disappointment and grief found it a perfectly desolate habitation. there was no deposit of provision, no trace of the indians, no letter from mr. wentzel to point out where the indians might be found. it would be impossible to describe our sensations after entering this miserable abode and discovering how we had been neglected; the whole party shed tears, not so much for our own fate as for that of our friends in the rear, whose lives depended entirely on our sending immediate relief from this place. i found a note however from mr. back, stating that he had reached the house two days before and was going in search of the indians at a part where st. germain deemed it probable they might be found. if he was unsuccessful he purposed walking to fort providence and sending succour from thence, but he doubted whether either he or his party could perform the journey to that place in their present debilitated state. it was evident that any supply that could be sent from fort providence would be long in reaching us, neither could it be sufficient to enable us to afford any assistance to our companions behind, and that the only relief for them must be procured from the indians. i resolved therefore on going also in search of them, but my companions were absolutely incapable of proceeding and i thought by halting two or three days they might gather a little strength whilst the delay would afford us the chance of learning whether mr. back had seen the indians. distress suffered at that place. we now looked round for the means of subsistence and were gratified to find several deer-skins which had been thrown away during our former residence. the bones were gathered from the heap of ashes; these with the skins and the addition of tripe de roche we considered would support us tolerably well for a time. as to the house, the parchment being torn from the windows, the apartment we selected for our abode was exposed to all the rigour of the season. we endeavoured to exclude the wind as much as possible by placing loose boards against the apertures. the temperature was now between and degrees below zero. we procured fuel by pulling up the flooring of the other rooms, and water for cooking by melting the snow. whilst we were seated round the fire, singeing the deer-skin for supper, we were rejoiced by the unexpected entrance of augustus. he had followed quite a different course from ours and the circumstance of his having found his way through a part of the country he had never been in before must be considered a remarkable proof of sagacity. 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 reindeer; 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. when i arose the following morning my body and limbs were so swollen that i was unable to walk more than a few yards. adam was in a still worse condition, being absolutely incapable of rising without assistance. my other companions happily experienced this inconvenience in a less degree and went to collect bones and some tripe de roche which supplied us with two meals. the bones were quite acrid and the soup extracted from them excoriated the mouth if taken alone, but it was somewhat milder when boiled with tripe de roche and we even thought the mixture palatable with the addition of salt, of which a cask had been fortunately left here in the spring. augustus today set two fishing-lines below the rapid. on his way thither he saw two deer but had not strength to follow them. on the th the wind blew violently from south-east and the snow drifted so much that the party were confined to the house. in the afternoon of the following day belanger arrived with a note from mr. back stating that he had seen no trace of the indians, and desiring further instructions as to the course he should pursue. belanger's situation however required our first care as he came in almost speechless and covered with ice, having fallen into a rapid and, for the third time since we left the coast, narrowly escaped drowning. he did not recover sufficiently to answer our questions until we had rubbed him for some time, changed his dress, and given him some warm soup. my companions nursed him with the greatest kindness and the desire of restoring him to health seemed to absorb all regard for their own situation. i witnessed with peculiar pleasure this conduct, so different from that which they had recently pursued when every tender feeling was suspended by the desire of self-preservation. they now no longer betrayed impatience or despondency but were composed and cheerful and had entirely given up the practice of swearing, to which the canadian voyagers are so lamentably addicted. our conversation naturally turned upon the prospect of getting relief and upon the means which were best adapted for obtaining it. the absence of all traces of indians on winter river convinced me that they were at this time on the way to fort providence and that, by proceeding towards that post, we should overtake them as they move slowly when they have their families with them. this route also offered us the prospect of killing deer in the vicinity of reindeer lake, in which neighbourhood our men in their journey to and fro last winter had always found them abundant. upon these grounds i determined on taking the route to fort providence as soon as possible, and wrote to mr. back, desiring him to join me at reindeer lake and detailing the occurrences since we parted, that our friends might receive relief in case of any accident happening to me. belanger did not recover sufficient strength to leave us before the th. his answers as to the exact part of round-rock lake in which he had left mr. back were very unsatisfactory, and we could only collect that it was at a considerable distance, and that he was still going on with the intention of halting at the place where akaitcho was encamped last summer, about thirty miles off. this distance appeared so great that i told belanger it was very unsafe for him to attempt it alone and that he would be several days in accomplishing it. he stated however that, as the track was beaten, he should experience little fatigue, and seemed so confident that i suffered him to depart with a supply of singed hide. next day i received information which explained why he was so unwilling to acquaint us with the situation of mr. back's party. he dreaded that i should resolve upon joining it when our numbers would be so great as to consume at once everything st. germain might kill, if by accident he should be successful in hunting. he even endeavoured to entice away our other hunter, adam, and proposed to him to carry off the only kettle we had and without which we could not have subsisted two days. adam's inability to move however precluded him from agreeing to the proposal but he could assign no reason for not acquainting me with it previous to belanger's departure. i was at first inclined to consider the whole matter as a fiction of adam's, but he persisted in his story without wavering, and belanger when we met again confessed that every part of it was true. it is painful to have to record a fact so derogatory to human nature but i have deemed it proper to mention it to show the difficulties we had to contend with, and the effect which distress had in warping the feelings and understanding of the most diligent and obedient of our party, for such belanger had been always esteemed up to this time. in making arrangements for our departure adam disclosed to me for the first time that he was affected with oedematous swellings in some parts of the body to such a degree as to preclude the slightest attempt at marching and, upon my expressing my surprise at his having hitherto concealed from me the extent of his malady, among other explanations the details of the preceding story came out. it now became necessary to abandon the original intention of proceeding with the whole party towards fort providence and, peltier and samandre having volunteered to remain with adam, i determined on setting out with benoit and augustus, intending to send them relief by the first party of indians we should meet. my clothes were so much torn as to be quite inadequate to screen me from the wind and peltier and samandre, fearing that i might suffer on the journey in consequence, kindly exchanged with me parts of their dress, desiring me to send them skins in return by the indians. having patched up three pairs of snowshoes and singed a quantity of skin for the journey we started on the morning of the th. previous to my departure i packed up the journals of the officers, the charts, and some other documents, together with a letter addressed to the under-secretary of state detailing the occurrences of the expedition up to this period, which package was given in charge to peltier and samandre with directions that it should be brought away by the indians who might come to them. i also instructed them to send succour immediately on its arrival to our companions in the rear, which they solemnly promised to do, and i left a letter for my friends, richardson and hood, to be sent at the same time. i thought it necessary to admonish peltier, samandre, and adam to eat two meals every day in order to keep up their strength, which they promised me they would do. no language that i can use could adequately describe the parting scene. i shall only say there was far more calmness and resignation to the divine will evince by everyone than could have been expected. we were all cheered by the hope that the indians would be found by the one party and relief sent to the other. those who remained entreated us to make all the haste we could and expressed their hope of seeing the indians in ten or twelve days. at first starting we were so feeble as scarcely to be able to move forwards and the descent of the bank of the river through the deep snow was a severe labour. when we came upon the ice where the snow was less deep we got on better, but after walking six hours we had only gained four miles and were then compelled by fatigue to encamp on the borders of round-rock lake. augustus tried for fish here but without success so that our fare was skin and tea. composing ourselves to rest we lay close to each other for warmth. we found the night bitterly cold and the wind pierced through our famished frames. the next morning was mild and pleasant for travelling and we set out after breakfast. we had not however gone many yards before i had the misfortune to break my snowshoes by falling between two rocks. this accident prevented me from keeping pace with benoit and augustus and in the attempt i became quite exhausted. feeling convinced that their being delayed on my account might prove of fatal consequence to the rest i resolved on returning to the house and letting them proceed alone in search of the indians. i therefore halted them only whilst i wrote a note to mr. back, stating the reason of my return, and desiring he would send meat from reindeer lake by these men if st. germain should kill any animals there. if benoit should miss mr. back i directed him to proceed to fort providence and furnished him with a letter to the gentleman in charge of it, requesting that immediate supplies might be sent to us. on my return to the house i found samandre very dispirited and too weak, as he said, to render any assistance to peltier, upon whom the whole labour of getting wood and collecting the means of subsistence would have devolved. conscious too that his strength would have been unequal to these tasks they had determined upon taking only one meal each day, so that i felt my going back particularly fortunate as i hoped to stimulate samandre to exertion and at any rate could contribute some help to peltier. i undertook the office of cooking and insisted they should eat twice a day whenever food could be procured but, as i was too weak to pound the bones, peltier agreed to do that in addition to his more fatiguing task of getting wood. we had a violent snow-storm all the next day and this gloomy weather increased the depression of spirits under which adam and samandre were labouring. neither of them would quit their beds and they scarcely ceased from shedding tears all day; in vain did peltier and myself endeavour to cheer them. we had even to use much entreaty before they would take the meals we had prepared for them. our situation was indeed distressing but in comparison with that of our friends in the rear we thought it happy. their condition gave us unceasing solicitude and was the principal subject of our conversation. though the weather was stormy on the th samandre assisted me to gather tripe de roche. adam, who was very ill and could not now be prevailed upon to eat this weed, subsisted principally on bones, though he also partook of the soup. the tripe de roche had hitherto afforded us our chief support, and we naturally felt great uneasiness at the prospect of being deprived of it by its being so frozen as to render it impossible for us to gather it. we perceived our strength decline every day and every exertion began to be irksome; when we were once seated the greatest effort was necessary in order to rise, and we had frequently to lift each other from our seats, but even in this pitiable condition we conversed cheerfully, being sanguine as to the speedy arrival of the indians. we calculated indeed that if they should be near the situation where they had remained last winter our men would have reached them by this day. having expended all the wood which we could procure from our present dwelling, without danger of its fall, peltier began this day to pull down the partitions of the adjoining houses. though these were only distant about twenty yards yet the increase of labour in carrying the wood fatigued him so much that by the evening he was exhausted. on the next day his weakness was such, especially in the arms of which he chiefly complained, that he with difficulty lifted the hatchet; still he persevered whilst samandre and i assisted him in bringing in the wood, but our united strength could only collect sufficient to replenish the fire four times in the course of the day. as the insides of our mouths had become sore from eating the bone-soup we relinquished the use of it and now boiled the skin, which mode of dressing we found more palatable than frying it, as we had hitherto done. on the th peltier felt his pains more severe and could only cut a few pieces of wood. samandre, who was still almost as weak, relieved him a little time and i aided them in carrying in the wood. we endeavoured to pick some tripe de roche but in vain as it was entirely frozen. in turning up the snow, in searching for bones, i found several pieces of bark which proved a valuable acquisition as we were almost destitute of dry wood proper for kindling the fire. we saw a herd of reindeer sporting on the river about half a mile from the house; they remained there a long time but none of the party felt themselves strong enough to go after them, nor was there one of us who could have fired a gun without resting it. murder of mr. hood. death of several of the canadians. whilst we were seated round the fire this evening, discoursing about the anticipated relief, the conversation was suddenly interrupted by peltier's exclaiming with joy "ah! le monde!" imagining that he heard the indians in the other room; immediately afterwards to his bitter disappointment dr. richardson and hepburn entered, each carrying his bundle. peltier however soon recovered himself enough to express his delight at their safe arrival and his regret that their companions were not with them. when i saw them alone my own mind was instantly filled with apprehensions respecting my friend hood and our other companions, which were immediately confirmed by the doctor's melancholy communication that mr. hood and michel were dead. perrault and fontano had neither reached the tent nor been heard of by them. this intelligence produced a melancholy despondency in the minds of my party and on that account the particulars were deferred until another opportunity. we were all shocked at beholding the emaciated countenances of the doctor and hepburn as they strongly evidenced their extremely debilitated state. the alteration in our appearance was equally distressing to them for since the swellings had subsided we were little more than skin and bone. the doctor particularly remarked the sepulchral tone of our voices which he requested us to make more cheerful if possible, unconscious that his own partook of the same key. hepburn, having shot a partridge which was brought to the house, the doctor tore out the feathers and, having held it to the fire a few minutes, divided it into six portions. i and my three companions ravenously devoured our shares as it was the first morsel of flesh any of us had tasted for thirty-one days, unless indeed the small gristly particles which we found occasionally adhering to the pounded bones may be termed flesh. our spirits were revived by this small supply and the doctor endeavoured to raise them still higher by the prospect of hepburn's being able to kill a deer next day, as they had seen and even fired at several near the house. he endeavoured too to rouse us into some attention to the comfort of our apartment, and particularly to roll up in the day our blankets which (expressly for the convenience of adam and samandre) we had been in the habit of leaving by the fire where we lay on them. the doctor having brought his prayer-book and testament, some prayers and psalms and portions of scripture appropriate to our situation were read and we retired to bed. next morning the doctor and hepburn went out early in search of deer, but though they saw several herds and fired some shots they were not so fortunate as to kill any, being too weak to hold their guns steadily. the cold compelled the former to return soon but hepburn persisted until late in the evening. my occupation was to search for skins under the snow, it being now our object immediately to get all that we would, but i had not strength to drag in more than two of those which were within twenty yards of the house until the doctor came and assisted me. we made up our stock to twenty-six but several of them were putrid and scarcely eatable, even by men suffering the extremity of famine. peltier and samandre continued very weak and dispirited and they were unable to cut firewood. hepburn had in consequence that laborious task to perform after he came back. the doctor having scarified the swelled parts of adam's body a large quantity of water flowed out, and he obtained some ease but still kept his bed. after our usual supper of singed skin and bone-soup dr. richardson acquainted me with the afflicting circumstances attending the death of mr. hood and michel, and detailed the occurrences subsequent to my departure from them which i shall give from his journal in his own words, but i must here be permitted to express the heart-felt sorrow with which i was overwhelmed at the loss of so many companions, especially of my friend mr. hood to whose zealous and able cooperation i had been indebted for so much invaluable assistance during the expedition, whilst the excellent qualities of his heart engaged my warmest regard. his scientific observations together with his maps and drawings (a small part of which only appear in this work) evince a variety of talent which, had his life been spared, must have rendered him a distinguished ornament to his profession, and which will cause his death to be felt as a loss to the service. ... dr. richardson's narrative. after captain franklin had bidden us farewell we remained seated by the fireside as long as the willows the men had cut for us before they departed lasted. we had no tripe de roche that day but drank an infusion of the country tea-plant, which was grateful from its warmth although it afforded no sustenance. we then retired to bed where we remained all the next day as the weather was stormy, and the snow-drift so heavy as to destroy every prospect of success in our endeavours to light a fire with the green and frozen willows which were our only fuel. through the extreme kindness and forethought of a lady the party, previous to leaving london, had been furnished with a small collection of religious books, of which we still retained two or three of the most portable, and they proved of incalculable benefit to us. we read portions of them to each other as we lay in bed, in addition to the morning and evening service, and found that they inspired us on each perusal with so strong a sense of the omnipresence of a beneficent god that our situation even in these wilds appeared no longer destitute, and we conversed not only with calmness but with cheerfulness, detailing with unrestrained confidence the past events of our lives and dwelling with hope on our future prospects. had my poor friend been spared to revisit his native land i should look back to this period with unalloyed delight. on the morning of the th the weather although still cold was clear, and i went out in quest of tripe de roche, leaving hepburn to cut willows for a fire and mr. hood in bed. i had no success as yesterday's snow-drift was so frozen on the surface of the rocks that i could not collect any of the weed, but on my return to the tent i found that michel the iroquois had come with a note from mr. franklin which stated that, this man and jean baptiste belanger being unable to proceed, were about to return to us, and that a mile beyond our present encampment there was a clump of pine-trees to which he recommended us to remove the tent. michel informed us that he quitted mr. franklin's party yesterday morning but that having missed his way he had passed the night on the snow a mile or two to the northward of us. belanger he said, being impatient, left the fire about two hours earlier and, as he had not arrived, he supposed must have gone astray. it will be seen in the sequel that we had more than sufficient reason to doubt the truth of this story. michel now produced a hare and a partridge which he had killed in the morning. this unexpected supply of provision was received by us with a deep sense of gratitude to the almighty for his goodness, and we looked upon michel as the instrument he had chosen to preserve all our lives. he complained of cold and mr. hood offered to share his buffalo robe with him at night. i gave him one of two shirts which i wore whilst hepburn in the warmth of his heart exclaimed "how i shall love this man if i find that he does not tell lies like the others." our meals being finished we arranged that the greatest part of the things should be carried to the pines the next day and, after reading the evening service, retired to bed full of hope. early in the morning hepburn, michel, and myself, carried the ammunition and most of the other heavy articles to the pines. michel was our guide and it did not occur to us at the time that his conducting us perfectly straight was incompatible with his story of having mistaken his road in coming to us. he now informed us that he had on his way to the tent left on the hill above the pines a gun and forty-eight balls which perrault had given to him when with the rest of mr. franklin's party he took leave of him. it will be seen on a reference to mr. franklin's journal that perrault carried his gun and ammunition with him when they parted from michel and belanger. after we had made a fire and drank a little of the country tea hepburn and i returned to the tent where we arrived in the evening, much exhausted with our journey. michel preferred sleeping where he was and requested us to leave him the hatchet, which we did after he had promised to come early in the morning to assist us in carrying the tent and bedding. mr. hood remained in bed all day. seeing nothing of belanger today we gave him up for lost. on the th, after waiting until late in the morning for michel who did not come, hepburn and i loaded ourselves with the bedding and, accompanied by mr. hood, set out for the pines. mr. hood was much affected with dimness of sight, giddiness, and other symptoms of extreme debility, which caused us to move very slowly and to make frequent halts. on arriving at the pines we were much alarmed to find that michel was absent. we feared that he had lost his way in coming to us in the morning, although it was not easy to conjecture how that could have happened, as our footsteps of yesterday were very distinct. hepburn went back for the tent and returned with it after dusk, completely worn out with the fatigue of the day. michel too arrived at the same time and relieved our anxiety on his account. he reported that he had been in chase of some deer which passed near his sleeping-place in the morning and, although he did not come up with them, yet that he found a wolf which had been killed by the stroke of a deer's horn and had brought a part of it. we implicitly believed this story then, but afterwards became convinced from circumstances, the detail of which may be spared, that it must have been a portion of the body of belanger or perrault. a question of moment here presents itself, namely whether he actually murdered these men, or either of them, or whether he found the bodies in the snow. captain franklin, who is the best able to judge of this matter from knowing their situation when he parted from them, suggested the former idea, and that both belanger and perrault had been sacrificed. when perrault turned back captain franklin watched him until he reached a small group of willows which was immediately adjoining to the fire and concealed it from view, and at this time the smoke of fresh fuel was distinctly visible. captain franklin conjectures that michel, having already destroyed belanger, completed his crime by perrault's death in order to screen himself from detection. although this opinion is founded only on circumstances and is unsupported by direct evidence it has been judged proper to mention it, especially as the subsequent conduct of the man showed that he was capable of committing such a deed. the circumstances are very strong. it is not easy to assign any other adequate motive for his concealing from us that perrault had turned back, while his request overnight that we should leave him the hatchet and his cumbering himself with it when he went out in the morning, unlike a hunter who makes use only of his knife when he kills a deer, seem to indicate that he took it for the purpose of cutting up something that he knew to be frozen. these opinions however are the result of subsequent consideration. we passed this night in the open air. on the following morning the tent was pitched; michel went out early, refused my offer to accompany him, and remained out the whole day. he would not sleep in the tent at night but chose to lie at the fireside. on the th there was a heavy gale of wind and we passed the day by the fire. next day about two p.m., the gale abating, michel set out as he said to hunt but returned unexpectedly in a very short time. this conduct surprised us and his contradictory and evasory answers to our questions excited some suspicions but they did not turn towards the truth. october th. in the course of this day michel expressed much regret that he had stayed behind mr. franklin's party, and declared that he would set out for the house at once if he knew the way. we endeavoured to sooth him and to raise his hopes of the indians speedily coming to our relief but without success. he refused to assist us in cutting wood but about noon, after much solicitation, he set out to hunt. hepburn gathered a kettleful of tripe de roche but froze his fingers. both hepburn and i fatigued ourselves much today in pursuing a flock of partridges from one part to another of the group of willows in which the hut was situated, but we were too weak to be able to approach them with sufficient caution. in the evening michel returned, having met with no success. next day he refused either to hunt or cut wood, spoke in a very surly manner, and threatened to leave us. under these circumstances mr. hood and i deemed it better to promise if he would hunt diligently for four days that then we would give hepburn a letter for mr. franklin, a compass, inform him what course to pursue, and let them proceed together to the fort. the non-arrival of the indians to our relief now led us to fear that some accident had happened to mr. franklin, and we placed no confidence in the exertions of the canadians that accompanied him but we had the fullest confidence in hepburn's returning the moment he could obtain assistance. on the th i went to conduct michel to where vaillant's blanket was left and after walking about three miles pointed out the hills to him at a distance, and returned to the hut, having gathered a bagful of tripe de roche on the way. it was easier to gather this weed on a march than at the tent, for the exercise of walking produced a glow of heat which enabled us to withstand for a time the cold to which we were exposed in scraping the frozen surface of the rocks. on the contrary when we left the fire to collect it in the neighbourhood of the hut we became chilled at once and were obliged to return very quickly. michel proposed to remain out all night and to hunt next day on his way back. he returned in the afternoon of the th, having found the blanket together with a bag containing two pistols and some other things which had been left beside it. we had some tripe de roche in the evening but mr. hood, from the constant griping it produced, was unable to eat more than one or two spoonfuls. he was now so weak as to be scarcely able to sit up at the fireside and complained that the least breeze of wind seemed to blow through his frame. he also suffered much from cold during the night. we lay close to each other but the heat of the body was no longer sufficient to thaw the frozen rime formed by our breaths on the blankets that covered him. at this period we avoided as much as possible conversing upon the hopelessness of our situation and generally endeavoured to lead the conversation towards our future prospects in life. the fact is that with the decay of our strength our minds decayed, and we were no longer able to bear the contemplation of the horrors that surrounded us. each of us, if i may be allowed to judge from my own case, excused himself from so doing by a desire of not shocking the feelings of others, for we were sensible of one another's weakness of intellect though blind to our own. yet we were calm and resigned to our fate, not a murmur escaped us, and we were punctual and fervent in our addresses to the supreme being. on the th michel refused to hunt or even to assist in carrying a log of wood to the fire which was too heavy for hepburn's strength and mine. mr. hood endeavoured to point out to him the necessity and duty of exertion, and the cruelty of his quitting us without leaving something for our support, but the discourse, far from producing any beneficial effect, seemed only to excite his anger and, amongst other expressions, he made use of the following remarkable one: "it is no use hunting, there are no animals, you had better kill and eat me." at length however he went out but returned very soon with a report that he had seen three deer which he was unable to follow from having wet his foot in a small stream of water thinly covered with ice and being consequently obliged to come to the fire. the day was rather mild and hepburn and i gathered a large kettleful of tripe de roche; michel slept in the tent this night. sunday, october . in the morning we again urged michel to go a-hunting that he might if possible leave us some provision, tomorrow being the day appointed for his quitting us, but he showed great unwillingness to go out and lingered about the fire under the pretence of cleaning his gun. after we had read the morning service i went about noon to gather some tripe de roche, leaving mr. hood sitting before the tent at the fireside arguing with michel; hepburn was employed cutting down a tree at a short distance from the tent, being desirous of accumulating a quantity of firewood before he left us. a short time after i went out i heard the report of a gun, and about ten minutes afterwards hepburn called to me in a voice of great alarm to come directly. when i arrived i found poor hood lying lifeless at the fireside, a ball having apparently entered his forehead. i was at first horror-struck with the idea that in a fit of despondency he had hurried himself into the presence of his almighty judge by an act of his own hand, but the conduct of michel soon gave rise to other thoughts, and excited suspicions which were confirmed when, upon examining the body, i discovered that the shot had entered the back part of the head and passed out at the forehead, and that the muzzle of the gun had been applied so close as to set fire to the night-cap behind. the gun, which was of the longest kind supplied to the indians, could not have been placed in a position to inflict such a wound except by a second person. upon inquiring of michel how it happened he replied that mr. hood had sent him into the tent for the short gun and that during his absence the long gun had gone off, he did not know whether by accident or not. he held the short gun in his hand at the time he was speaking to me. hepburn afterwards informed me that previous to the report of the gun mr. hood and michel were speaking to each other in an elevated angry tone, that mr. hood, being seated at the fireside, was hid from him by intervening willows, but that on hearing the report he looked up and saw michel rising up from before the tent-door, or just behind where mr. hood was seated, and then going into the tent. thinking that the gun had been discharged for the purpose of cleaning it he did not go to the fire at first, and when michel called to him that mr. hood was dead a considerable time had elapsed. although i dared not openly to evince any suspicion that i thought michel guilty of the deed, yet he repeatedly protested that he was incapable of committing such an act, kept constantly on his guard, and carefully avoided leaving hepburn and me together. he was evidently afraid of permitting us to converse in private and whenever hepburn spoke he inquired if he accused him of the murder. it is to be remarked that he understood english very imperfectly yet sufficiently to render it unsafe for us to speak on the subject in his presence. we removed the body into a clump of willows behind the tent and, returning to the fire, read the funeral service in addition to the evening prayers. the loss of a young officer of such distinguished and varied talents and application may be felt and duly appreciated by the eminent characters under whose command he had served, but the calmness with which he contemplated the probable termination of a life of uncommon promise, and the patience and fortitude with which he sustained, i may venture to say, unparalleled bodily sufferings, can only be known to the companions of his distresses. owing to the effect that the tripe de roche invariably had when he ventured to taste it, he undoubtedly suffered more than any of the survivors of the party. bickersteth's scripture help was lying open beside the body as if it had fallen from his hand, and it is probable that he was reading it at the instant of his death. we passed the night in the tent together without rest, everyone being on his guard. next day, having determined on going to the fort, we began to patch and prepare our clothes for the journey. we singed the hair off a part of the buffalo robe that belonged to mr. hood and boiled and ate it. michel tried to persuade me to go to the woods on the copper-mine river and hunt for deer instead of going to the fort. in the afternoon, a flock of partridges coming near the tent, he killed several which he shared with us. thick snowy weather and a head-wind prevented us from starting the following day but on the morning of the rd we set out, carrying with us the remainder of the singed robe. hepburn and michel had each a gun and i carried a small pistol which hepburn had loaded for me. in the course of the march michel alarmed us much by his gestures and conduct, was constantly muttering to himself, expressed an unwillingness to go to the fort, and tried to persuade me to go to the southward to the woods where he said he could maintain himself all the winter by killing deer. in consequence of this behaviour and the expression of his countenance i requested him to leave us and to go to the southward by himself. this proposal increased his ill-nature, he threw out some obscure hints of freeing himself from all restraint on the morrow, and i overheard his muttering threats against hepburn whom he openly accused of having told stories against him. he also for the first time assumed such a tone of superiority in addressing me as evinced that he considered us to be completely in his power and he gave vent to several expressions of hatred towards the white people or as he termed us in the idiom of the voyagers, the french, some of whom he said had killed and eaten his uncle and two of his relations. in short, taking every circumstance of his conduct into consideration, i came to the conclusion that he would attempt to destroy us on the first opportunity that offered, and that he had hitherto abstained from doing so from his ignorance of his way to the fort, but that he would never suffer us to go thither in company with him. in the course of the day he had several times remarked that we were pursuing the same course that mr. franklin was doing when he left him and that, by keeping towards the setting sun, he could find his way himself. hepburn and i were not in a condition to resist even an open attack, nor could we by any device escape from him. our united strength was far inferior to his and, beside his gun, he was armed with two pistols, an indian bayonet, and a knife. in the afternoon, coming to a rock on which there was some tripe de roche, he halted and said he would gather it whilst we went on and that he would soon overtake us. hepburn and i were now left together for the first time since mr. hood's death, and he acquainted me with several material circumstances which he had observed of michel's behaviour and which confirmed me in the opinion that there was no safety for us except in his death, and he offered to be the instrument of it. i determined however, as i was thoroughly convinced of the necessity of such a dreadful act, to take the whole responsibility upon myself and, immediately upon michel's coming up, i put an end to his life by shooting him through the head with a pistol. had my own life alone been threatened i would not have purchased it by such a measure, but i considered myself as entrusted also with the protection of hepburn's, a man who, by his humane attentions and devotedness, had so endeared himself to me that i felt more anxiety for his safety than for my own. michel had gathered no tripe de roche and it was evident to us that he had halted for the purpose of putting his gun in order with the intention of attacking us, perhaps whilst we were in the act of encamping. i have dwelt in the preceding part of the narrative upon many circumstances of michel's conduct, not for the purpose of aggravating his crime, but to put the reader in possession of the reasons that influenced me in depriving a fellow-creature of life. up to the period of his return to the tent his conduct had been good and respectful to the officers, and in a conversation between captain franklin, mr. hood, and myself, at obstruction rapid, it had been proposed to give him a reward upon our arrival at a post. his principles however, unsupported by a belief in the divine truths of christianity, were unable to withstand the pressure of severe distress. his countrymen, the iroquois, are generally christians, but he was totally uninstructed and ignorant of the duties inculcated by christianity, and from his long residence in the indian country seems to have imbibed or retained the rules of conduct which the southern indians prescribe to themselves. on the two following days we had mild but thick snowy weather and, as the view was too limited to enable us to preserve a straight course, we remained encamped amongst a few willows and dwarf pines about five miles from the tent. we found a species of cornicularia, a kind of lichen that was good to eat when moistened and toasted over the fire, and we had a good many pieces of singed buffalo hide remaining. on the th, the weather being clear and extremely cold, we resumed our march which was very painful from the depth of the snow, particularly on the margins of the small lakes that lay in our route. we frequently sunk under the load of our blankets and were obliged to assist each other in getting up. after walking about three miles and a half however we were cheered by the sight of a large herd of reindeer and hepburn went in pursuit of them but, his hand being unsteady through weakness, he missed. he was so exhausted by this fruitless attempt that we were obliged to encamp upon the spot although it was a very unfavourable one. next day we had fine and clear but cold weather. we set out early and, in crossing a hill, found a considerable quantity of tripe de roche. about noon we fell upon little marten lake, having walked about two miles. the sight of a place that we knew inspired us with fresh vigour and, there being comparatively little snow on the ice, we advanced at a pace to which we had lately been unaccustomed. in the afternoon we crossed a recent track of a wolverine which, from a parallel mark in the snow, appeared to have been dragging something. hepburn traced it and upon the borders of the lake found the spine of a deer that it had dropped. it was clean picked and at least one season old, but we extracted the spinal marrow from it which, even in its frozen state, was so acrid as to excoriate the lips. we encamped within sight of the dog-rib rock and from the coldness of the night and the want of fuel rested very ill. on the th we rose at daybreak, but from the want of the small fire that we usually made in the mornings to warm our fingers, a very long time was spent in making up our bundles. this task fell to hepburn's share as i suffered so much from the cold as to be unable to take my hands out of my mittens. we kept a straight course for the dog-rib rock but, owing to the depth of the snow in the valleys we had to cross, did not reach it until late in the afternoon. we would have encamped but did not like to pass a second night without fire and, though scarcely able to drag our limbs after us, we pushed on to a clump of pines about a mile to the southward of the rock and arrived at them in the dusk of the evening. during the last few hundred yards of our march our track lay over some large stones amongst which i fell down upwards of twenty times, and became at length so exhausted that i was unable to stand. if hepburn had not exerted himself far beyond his strength and speedily made the encampment and kindled a fire, i must have perished on the spot. this night we had plenty of dry wood. on the th we had clear and fine weather. we set out at sunrise and hurried on in our anxiety to reach the house, but our progress was much impeded by the great depth of the snow in the valleys. although every spot of ground over which we travelled today had been repeatedly trodden by us yet we got bewildered in a small lake. we took it for marten lake, which was three times its size, and fancied that we saw the rapids and the grounds about the fort, although they were still far distant. our disappointment when this illusion was dispelled by our reaching the end of the lake so operated on our feeble minds as to exhaust our strength, and we decided upon encamping but, upon ascending a small eminence to look for a clump of wood, we caught a glimpse of the big stone, a well-known rock upon the summit of a hill opposite to the fort, and determined upon proceeding. in the evening we saw several large herds of reindeer but hepburn, who used to be considered a good marksman, was now unable to hold the gun straight and although he got near them all his efforts proved fruitless. in passing through a small clump of pines we saw a flock of partridges, and he succeeded in killing one after firing several shots. we came in sight of the fort at dusk and it is impossible to describe our sensations when, on attaining the eminence that overlooks it, we beheld the smoke issuing from one of the chimneys. from not having met with any footsteps in the snow as we drew nigh our once cheerful residence we had been agitated by many melancholy forebodings. upon entering the now desolate building we had the satisfaction of embracing captain franklin, but no words can convey an idea of the filth and wretchedness that met our eyes on looking around. our own misery had stolen upon us by degrees and we were accustomed to the contemplation of each other's emaciated figures, but the ghastly countenances, dilated eyeballs, and sepulchral voices of captain franklin and those with him were more than we could at first bear. conclusion of dr. richardson's narrative. ... the morning of the st was very cold, the wind being strong from the north. hepburn went again in quest of deer and the doctor endeavoured to kill some partridges, both were unsuccessful. a large herd of deer passed close to the house, the doctor fired once at them but was unable to pursue them. adam was easier this day and left his bed. peltier and samandre were much weaker and could not assist in the labours of the day. both complained of soreness in the throat and samandre suffered much from cramps in his fingers. the doctor and hepburn began this day to cut the wood and also brought it to the house. being too weak to aid in these laborious tasks i was employed in searching for bones and cooking and attending to our more weakly companions. in the evening peltier, complaining much of cold, requested of me a portion of a blanket to repair his shirt and drawers. the mending of these articles occupied him and samandre until past one a.m. and their spirits were so much revived by the employment that they conversed even cheerfully the whole time. adam sat up with them. the doctor, hepburn, and myself went to bed. we were afterwards agreeably surprised to see peltier and samandre carry three or four logs of wood across the room to replenish the fire, which induced us to hope they still possessed more strength than we had supposed. november . this day was fine and mild. hepburn went hunting but was as usual unsuccessful. as his strength was rapidly declining we advised him to desist from the pursuit of deer, and only to go out for a short time and endeavour to kill a few partridges for peltier and samandre. the doctor obtained a little tripe de roche but peltier could not eat any of it, and samandre only a few spoonfuls, owing to the soreness of their throats. in the afternoon peltier was so much exhausted that he sat up with difficulty and looked piteously; at length he slid from his stool upon his bed, as we supposed to sleep, and in this composed state he remained upwards of two hours without our apprehending any danger. we were then alarmed by hearing a rattling in his throat and on the doctor's examining him he was found to be speechless. he died in the course of the night. samandre sat up the greater part of the day and even assisted in pounding some bones but, on witnessing the melancholy state of peltier, he became very low and began to complain of cold and stiffness of the joints. being unable to keep up a sufficient fire to warm him we laid him down and covered him with several blankets. he did not however appear to get better and i deeply lament to add he also died before daylight. we removed the bodies of the deceased into the opposite part of the house but our united strength was inadequate to the task of interring them or even carrying them down to the river. it may be worthy of remark that poor peltier, from the time of benoit's departure, had fixed on the first of november as the time when he should cease to expect any relief from the indians, and had repeatedly said that if they did not arrive by that day he should not survive. peltier had endeared himself to each of us by his cheerfulness, his unceasing activity, and affectionate care and attentions ever since our arrival at this place. he had nursed adam with the tenderest solicitude the whole time. poor samandre was willing to have taken his share in the labours of the party had he not been wholly incapacitated by his weakness and low spirits. the severe shock occasioned by the sudden dissolution of our two companions rendered us very melancholy. adam became low and despondent, a change which we lamented the more as we had perceived he had been gaining strength and spirits for the two preceding days. i was particularly distressed by the thought that the labour of collecting wood must now devolve upon dr. richardson and hepburn, and that my debility would disable me from affording them any material assistance; indeed both of them most kindly urged me not to make the attempt. they were occupied the whole of the next day in tearing down the logs of which the storehouse was built but the mud plastered between them was so hard frozen that the labour of separation exceeded their strength, and they were completely exhausted by bringing in wood sufficient for less than twelve hours' consumption. i found it necessary in their absence to remain constantly near adam and to converse with him in order to prevent his reflecting on our condition, and to keep up his spirits as far as possible. i also lay by his side at night. on the rd the weather was very cold though the atmosphere was cloudy. this morning hepburn was affected with swelling in his limbs, his strength as well as that of the doctor was rapidly declining; they continued however to be full of hope. their utmost exertions could only supply wood to renew the fire thrice and on making it up the last time we went to bed. adam was in rather better spirits but he could not bear to be left alone. our stock of bones was exhausted by a small quantity of soup we made this evening. the toil of separating the hair from the skins, which in fact were our chief support, had now become so wearisome as to prevent us from eating as much as we should otherwise have done. november . calm and comparatively mild weather. the doctor and hepburn, exclusive of their usual occupation, gathered some tripe de roche. i went a few yards from the house in search of bones and returned quite fatigued, having found but three. the doctor again made incisions in adam's leg which discharged a considerable quantity of water and gave him great relief. we read prayers and a portion of the new testament in the morning and evening, as had been our practice since dr. richardson's arrival, and i may remark that the performance of these duties always afforded us the greatest consolation, serving to reanimate our hope in the mercy of the omnipotent, who alone could save and deliver us. on the th the breezes were light with dark cloudy weather and some snow. the doctor and hepburn were getting much weaker and the limbs of the latter were now greatly swelled. they came into the house frequently in the course of the day to rest themselves and when once seated were unable to rise without the help of one another, or of a stick. adam was for the most part in the same low state as yesterday, but sometimes he surprised us by getting up and walking with an appearance of increased strength. his looks were now wild and ghastly and his conversation was often incoherent. the next day was fine but very cold. the swellings in adam's limbs having subsided he was free from pain and arose this morning in much better spirits, and spoke of cleaning his gun ready for shooting partridges or any animals that might appear near the house, but his tone entirely changed before the day was half over; he became again dejected and could scarcely be prevailed upon to eat. the doctor and hepburn were almost exhausted. the cutting of one log of wood occupied the latter half an hour, and the other took as much time to drag it into the house, though the distance did not exceed thirty yards. i endeavoured to help the doctor but my assistance was very trifling. yet it was evident that in a day or two if their strength should continue to decline at the same rate i should be the strongest of the party. i may here remark that owing to our loss of flesh the hardness of the floor from which we were only protected by a blanket produced soreness over the body, and especially those parts on which the weight rested in lying, yet to turn ourselves for relief was a matter of toil and difficulty. however during this period and indeed all along after the acute pains of hunger, which lasted but three or four days, had subsided, we generally enjoyed the comfort of a few hours' sleep. the dreams which for the most part but not always accompanied it were usually (though not invariably) of a pleasant character, being very often about the enjoyments of feasting. in the daytime we fell into the practice of conversing on common and light subjects, although we sometimes discussed with seriousness and earnestness topics connected with religion. we generally avoided speaking directly of our present sufferings or even of the prospect of relief. i observed that in proportion as our strength decayed our minds exhibited symptoms of weakness, evinced by a kind of unreasonable pettishness with each other. each of us thought the other weaker in intellect than himself, and more in need of advice and assistance. so trifling a circumstance as a change of place, recommended by one as being warmer and more comfortable and refused by the other from a dread of motion, frequently called forth fretful expressions which were no sooner uttered than atoned for, to be repeated perhaps in the course of a few minutes. the same thing often occurred when we endeavoured to assist each other in carrying wood to the fire; none of us were willing to receive assistance although the task was disproportioned to our strength. on one of these occasions hepburn was so convinced of this waywardness that he exclaimed, "dear me, if we are spared to return to england, i wonder if we shall recover our understandings." november . adam had passed a restless night, being disquieted by gloomy apprehensions of approaching death, which we tried in vain to dispel. he was so low in the morning as to be scarcely able to speak. i remained in bed by his side to cheer him as much as possible. the doctor and hepburn went to cut wood. they had hardly begun their labour when they were amazed at hearing the report of a musket. they could scarcely believe that there was really anyone near until they heard a shout and immediately espied three indians close to the house. adam and i heard the latter noise and i was fearful that a part of the house had fallen upon one of my companions, a disaster which had in fact been thought not unlikely. my alarm was only momentary, dr. richardson came in to communicate the joyful intelligence that relief had arrived. he and myself immediately addressed thanksgivings to the throne of mercy for this deliverance but poor adam was in so low a state that he could scarcely comprehend the information. when the indians entered he attempted to rise but sank down again. but for this seasonable interposition of providence his existence must have terminated in a few hours, and that of the rest probably in not many days. the indians had left akaitcho's encampment on the th november, having been sent by mr. back with all possible expedition after he had arrived at their tents. they brought but a small supply of provision that they might travel quickly. it consisted of dried deer's meat, some fat, and a few tongues. dr. richardson, hepburn and i eagerly devoured the food which they imprudently presented to us in too great abundance, and in consequence we suffered dreadfully from indigestion and had no rest the whole night. adam, being unable to feed himself, was more judiciously treated by them and suffered less; his spirits revived hourly. the circumstance of our eating more food than was proper in our present condition was another striking proof of the debility of our minds. we were perfectly aware of the danger, and dr. richardson repeatedly cautioned us to be moderate, but he was himself unable to practise the caution he so judiciously recommended. boudell-kell, the youngest of the indians, after resting about an hour, returned to akaitcho with the intelligence of our situation, and he conveyed a note from me to mr. back, requesting another supply of meat as soon as possible. the two others, crooked-foot and the rat, remained to take care of us until we should be able to move forward. the note received by the indians from mr. back communicated a tale of distress with regard to himself and his party as painful as that which we had suffered, as will be seen hereafter by his own narrative. november . the indians this morning requested us to remove to an encampment on the banks of the river as they were unwilling to remain in the house where the bodies of our deceased companions were lying exposed to view. we agreed but the day proved too stormy and dr. richardson and hepburn, having dragged the bodies to a short distance and covered them with snow, the objections of the indians to remain in the house were dissipated, and they began to clear our room of the accumulation of dirt and fragments of pounded bones. the improved state of our apartment and the large and cheerful fires they kept up produced in us a sensation of comfort to which we had long been strangers. in the evening they brought in a pile of dried wood which was lying on the riverside and towards which we had often cast a wishful eye, being unable to drag it up the bank. the indians set about everything with an activity that amazed us. indeed contrasted with our emaciated figures and extreme debility their frames appeared to us gigantic and their strength supernatural. these kind creatures next turned their attention to our personal appearance and prevailed upon us to shave and wash ourselves. the beards of the doctor and hepburn had been untouched since they left the sea-coast and were become of a hideous length and peculiarly offensive to the indians. the doctor and i suffered extremely from distension and therefore ate sparingly.* hepburn was getting better and adam recovered his strength with amazing rapidity. (*footnote. the first alvine discharges after we received food were, as hearne remarks on a similar occasion, attended with excessive pain. previous to the arrival of the indians the urinary secretion was extremely abundant and we were obliged to rise from bed in consequence upwards of ten times in a night. this was an extreme annoyance in our reduced state. it may perhaps be attributed to the quantity of the country tea that we drank.) november . this morning was pleasantly fine. crooked-foot caught four large trout in winter lake which were very much prized, especially by the doctor and myself, who had taken a dislike to meat in consequence of our sufferings from repletion which rendered us almost incapable of moving. adam and hepburn in a good measure escaped this pain. though the night was stormy and our apartment freely admitted the wind we felt no inconvenience, the indians were so very careful in covering us up and in keeping a good fire, and our plentiful cheer gave such power of resisting the cold, that we could scarcely believe otherwise than that the season had become milder. on the th the weather was stormy with constant snow. the indians became desponding at the non-arrival of the supply and would neither go to hunt nor fish. they frequently expressed their fears of some misfortune having befallen boudel-kell, and in the evening went off suddenly without apprising us of their intention, having first given to each of us a handful of pounded meat which they had reserved. their departure at first gave rise to a suspicion of their having deserted us, not meaning to return, especially as the explanations of adam, who appeared to be in their secret, were very unsatisfactory. at length by interrogations we got from him the information that they designed to march night and day until they should reach akaitcho's encampment whence they would send us aid. as we had combated their fears about boudell-kell they perhaps apprehended that we should oppose their determination and therefore concealed it. we were now left a second time without food, and with appetites recovered and strongly excited by recent indulgence. on the following day the doctor and hepburn resumed their former occupation of collecting wood and i was able to assist a little in bringing it into the house. adam, whose expectation of the arrival of the indians had been raised by the fineness of the weather, became towards night very desponding and refused to eat the singed skin. the night was stormy and there was a heavy fall of snow. the next day he became still more dejected. about eleven hepburn, who had gone out for the wood, came in with the intelligence that a party appeared upon the river. the room was instantly swept and, in compliance with the prejudices of the indians, every scrap of skin was carefully removed out of sight, for these simple people imagine that burning deer-skin renders them unsuccessful in hunting. the party proved to be crooked-foot, thooeeyorre, and the fop, with the wives of the two latter dragging provisions. they were accompanied by benoit, one of our own men. we were rejoiced to learn by a note from mr. back dated november that he and his companions had so recruited their strength that they were preparing to proceed to fort providence. adam recovered his spirits on the arrival of the indians and even walked about the room with an appearance of strength and activity that surprised us all. as it was of consequence to get amongst the reindeer before our present supply should fail we made preparations for quitting fort enterprise the next day and accordingly, at an early hour on the th, having united in thanksgiving and prayer, the whole party left the house after breakfast. our feelings on quitting the fort where we had formerly enjoyed much comfort, if not happiness, and latterly experienced a degree of misery scarcely to be paralleled, may be more easily conceived than described. the indians treated us with the utmost tenderness, gave us their snowshoes, and walked without themselves, keeping by our sides that they might lift us when we fell. we descended winter river and about noon crossed the head of round-rock lake, distant about three miles from the house, where we were obliged to halt as dr. richardson was unable to proceed. the swellings in his limbs rendered him by much the weakest of the party. the indians prepared our encampment, cooked for us, and fed us as if we had been children, evincing humanity that would have done honour to the most civilised people. the night was mild and fatigue made us sleep soundly. from this period to the th of november we gradually improved through their kindness and attention, and on that day arrived in safety at the abode of our chief and companion akaitcho. we were received by the party assembled in the leader's tent with looks of compassion and profound silence which lasted about a quarter of an hour and by which they meant to express their condolence for our sufferings. the conversation did not begin until we had tasted food. the chief akaitcho showed us the most friendly hospitality and all sorts of personal attention, even to cooking for us with his own hands, an office which he never performs for himself. annoethaiyazzeh and humpy, the chief's two brothers, and several of our hunters, with their families were encamped here together with a number of old men and women. in the course of the day we were visited by every person of the band, not merely from curiosity, but a desire to evince their tender sympathy in our late distress. we learned that mr. back with st. germain and belanger had gone to fort providence and that, previous to his departure, he had left a letter in a cache of pounded meat which we had missed two days ago. as we supposed that this letter might acquaint us with his intentions more fully than we could gather from the indians, through our imperfect knowledge of their language, augustus, the esquimaux, whom we found here in perfect health, and an indian lad were despatched to bring it. we found several of the indian families in great affliction for the loss of three of their relatives who had been drowned in the august preceding by the upsetting of a canoe near fort enterprise. they bewailed the melancholy accident every morning and evening by repeating the names of the persons in a loud singing tone which was frequently interrupted by bursts of tears. one woman was so affected by the loss of her only son that she seemed deprived of reason and wandered about the tents the whole day, crying and singing out his name. on the st of december we removed with the indians to the southward. on the th we again set off after the indians about noon, and soon overtook them, as they had halted to drag from the water and cut up and share a moose-deer that had been drowned in a rapid part of the river, partially covered with ice. these operations detained us a long time which was the more disagreeable as the weather was extremely unpleasant from cold low fogs. we were all much fatigued at the hour of encampment, which was after dark, though the day's journey did not exceed four miles. at every halt the elderly men of the tribe made holes in the ice and put in their lines. one of them shared the produce of his fishery with us this evening. in the afternoon of the th belanger and another canadian arrived from fort providence, sent by mr. weeks with two trains of dogs, some spirits and tobacco for the indians, a change of dress for ourselves, and a little tea and sugar. they also brought letters for us from england and from mr. back and mr. wentzel. by the former we received the gratifying intelligence of the successful termination of captain parry's voyage, and were informed of the promotion of myself and mr. back, and of poor hood, our grief for whose loss was renewed by this intelligence. the letter from mr. back stated that the rival companies in the fur trade had united but that, owing to some cause which had not been explained to him, the goods intended as rewards to akaitcho and his band which we had demanded in the spring from the north-west company were not sent. there were however some stores lying for us at moose-deer island, which had been ordered for the equipment of our voyagers, and mr. back had gone across to that establishment to make a selection of the articles we could spare for a temporary present to the indians. the disappointment at the non-arrival of the goods was seriously felt by us as we had looked forward with pleasure to the time when we should be enabled to recompense our kind indian friends for their tender sympathy in our distresses, and the assistance they had so cheerfully and promptly rendered. i now regretted to find that mr. wentzel and his party, in their return from the sea, had suffered severely on their march along the copper-mine river, having on one occasion, as he mentioned, had no food but tripe de roche for eleven days. all the indians flocked to our encampment to learn the news and to receive the articles brought for them. having got some spirits and tobacco they withdrew to the tent of the chief and passed the greater part of the night in singing. we had now the indescribable gratification of changing our linen which had been worn ever since our departure from the sea-coast. december . after a long conference with akaitcho we took leave of him and his kind companions and set out with two sledges, heavily laden with provision and bedding, drawn by the dogs, and conducted by belanger and the canadian sent by mr. weeks. hepburn and augustus jointly dragged a smaller sledge laden principally with their own bedding. adam and benoit were left to follow with the indians. we encamped on the grassy-lake portage, having walked about nine miles, principally on the yellow knife river. it was open at the rapids and in these places we had to ascend its banks and walk through the woods for some distance, which was very fatiguing, especially to dr. richardson whose feet were severely galled in consequence of some defect in his snowshoes. on the th however we arrived at the fort which was still under the charge of mr. weeks. he welcomed us in the most kind manner, immediately gave us changes of dress, and did everything in his power to make us comfortable. our sensations on being once more in a comfortable dwelling after the series of hardships and miseries we had experienced may be imagined. our first act was again to return our grateful praises to the almighty for the manifold instances of his mercy towards us. having found here some articles which mr. back had sent across from moose-deer island i determined on awaiting the arrival of akaitcho and his party in order to present these to them and to assure them of the promised reward as soon as it could possibly be procured. in the afternoon of the th akaitcho with his whole band came to the fort. he smoked his customary pipe and made an address to mr. weeks in the hall previous to his coming into the room in which dr. richardson and i were. we discovered at the commencement of his speech to us that he had been informed that our expected supplies had not come. he spoke of this circumstance as a disappointment indeed sufficiently severe to himself, to whom his band looked up for the protection of their interests, but without attaching any blame to us. "the world goes badly," he said "all are poor; you are poor, the traders appear to be poor, i and my party are poor likewise, and since the goods have not come in we cannot have them. i do not regret having supplied you with provisions for a copper indian can never permit white men to suffer from want of food on his lands without flying to their aid. i trust however that we shall, as you say, receive what is due next autumn, and at all events," he added in a tone of good humour, "it is the first time that the white people have been indebted to the copper indians." we assured him the supplies should certainly be sent to him by the autumn if not before. he then cheerfully received the small present we made to himself and, although we could give a few things only to those who had been most active in our service, the others who perhaps thought themselves equally deserving did not murmur at being left out in the distribution. akaitcho afterwards expressed a strong desire that we should represent the character of his nation in a favourable light to our countrymen. "i know," he said, "you write down every occurrence in your books, but probably you have only noticed the bad things we have said and done, and have omitted the good." in the course of the desultory conversation which ensued he said that he had been always told by us to consider the traders in the same light as ourselves, and that for his part he looked upon both as equally respectable. this assurance, made in the presence of mr. weeks, was particularly gratifying to us as it completely disproved the defence that had been set up respecting the injurious reports circulated against us amongst the indians in the spring, namely that they were in retaliation for our endeavours to lower the traders in the eyes of the indians. i take this opportunity of stating my opinion that mr. weeks, in spreading these reports, was actuated by a mistaken idea that he was serving the interest of his employers. on the present occasion we felt indebted to him for the sympathy he displayed for our distresses, and the kindness with which he administered to our personal wants. after this conference such indians as were indebted to the company were paid for the provision they had given us by deducting a corresponding sum from their debts; in the same way we gave a reward of sixteen skins of beaver to each of the persons who had come to our relief at fort enterprise. as the debts of akaitcho and his hunters had been effaced at the time of his engagement with us we placed a sum equal to the amount of provision they had recently supplied to their credit on the company's books. these things being, through the moderation of the indians, adjusted with an unexpected facility, we gave them a keg of mixed liquors (five parts water) and distributed among them several fathoms of tobacco, and they retired to their tents to spend the night in merriment. adam, our interpreter, being desirous of uniting himself with the copper indians, applied to me for his discharge which i granted, and gave him a bill on the hudson's bay company for the amount of his wages. these arrangements being completed we prepared to cross the lake. mr. weeks provided dr. richardson and i with a cariole each and we set out at eleven a.m. on the th for moose-deer island. our party consisted of belanger who had charge of a sledge laden with the bedding and drawn by two dogs, our two cariole men, benoit and augustus. previous to our departure we had another conference with akaitcho who, as well as the rest of his party, bade us farewell with a warmth of manner rare among the indians. the badness of belanger's dogs and the roughness of the ice impeded our progress very much and obliged us to encamp early. we had a good fire made of the driftwood which lines the shores of this lake in great quantities. the next day was very cold. we began the journey at nine a.m. and encamped at the big cape, having made another short march in consequence of the roughness of the ice. on the th we encamped on the most southerly of the reindeer islands. this night was very stormy but, the wind abating in the morning, we proceeded and by sunset reached the fishing-huts of the company at stony point. here we found mr. andrews, a clerk of the hudson's bay company, who regaled us with a supper of excellent white-fish for which this part of slave lake is particularly celebrated. two men with sledges arrived soon afterwards, sent by mr. mcvicar, who expected us about this time. we set off in the morning before daybreak with several companions and arrived at moose-deer island about one p.m. here we were received with the utmost hospitality by mr. mcvicar, the chief trader of the hudson's bay company in this district, as well as by his assistant mr. mcauley. we had also the happiness of joining our friend mr. back; our feelings on this occasion can be well imagined and we were deeply impressed with gratitude to him for his exertions in sending the supply of food to fort enterprise, to which under divine providence we felt the preservation of our lives to be owing. he gave us an affecting detail of the proceedings of his party since our separation, the substance of which i shall convey to the reader by the following extracts from his journal. mr. back's narrative. october , . captain franklin having directed me to proceed with st. germain, belanger, and beauparlant to fort enterprise, in the hope of obtaining relief for the party, i took leave of my companions and set out on my journey through a very swampy country which, with the cloudy state of the weather and a keen north-east wind, accompanied by frequent snow-showers, retarded us so much that we had scarcely got more than four miles before we halted for the night and made a meal of tripe de roche and some old leather. on the th we set out early amidst extremely deep snow, sinking frequently in it up to the thighs, a labour in our enfeebled and almost worn-out state that nothing but the cheering hopes of reaching the house and affording relief to our friends could have enabled us to support. as we advanced we found to our mortification that the tripe de roche, hitherto our sole dependence, began to be scarce, so that we could only collect sufficient to make half a kettleful which, with the addition of a partridge each that st. germain had killed, yielded a tolerable meal; during this day i felt very weak and sore in the joints, particularly between the shoulders. at eight we encamped among a small clump of willows. on the th we set out at an early hour, pursuing our route over a range of hills at the foot of one of which we saw several large pines and a great quantity of willows, a sight that encouraged us to quicken our pace as we were now certain we could not be far from the woods. indeed we were making considerable progress when belanger unfortunately broke through the ice and sank up to the hips. the weather being cold, he was in danger of freezing, but some brushwood on the borders of the lake enabled us to make a fire to dry him. at the same time we took the opportunity of refreshing ourselves with a kettle of swamp tea. my increasing debility had for some time obliged me to use a stick for the purpose of extending my arms, the pain in my shoulders being so acute that i could not bear them to remain in the usual position for two minutes together. we halted at five among some small brushwood and made a sorry meal of an old pair of leather trousers and some swamp tea. the night was cold with a hard frost and though two persons slept together yet we could not by any means keep ourselves warm, but remained trembling the whole time. the following morning we crossed several lakes, occasionally seeing the recent tracks of deer, and at noon we fell upon marten lake; it happened to be at the exact spot where we had been the last year with the canoes yet, though i immediately recognised the place, the men would not believe it to be the same; at length by pointing out several marks and relating circumstances connected with them they recovered their memory, and a simultaneous expression of "mon dieu, nous sommes sauves," broke from the whole. contrary to our expectations the lake was frozen sufficiently to bear us, so that we were excused from making the tours of the different bays. this circumstance seemed to impart fresh vigour to us and we walked as fast as the extreme smoothness of the ice would permit, intending to reach the slave rock that night, but an unforeseen and almost fatal accident prevented the prosecution of our plan: belanger (who seemed the victim of misfortune) again broke through the ice in a deep part near the head of the rapid, but was timely saved by our fastening our worsted belts together and pulling him out. by urging him forwards as quick as his icy garments would admit to prevent his freezing, we reached a few pines and kindled a fire, but it was late before he even felt warm, though he was so near the flame as to burn his hair twice, and to add to our distress (since we could not pursue them) three wolves crossed the lake close to us. the night of the th was extremely stormy and about ten the following morning, on attempting to go on, we found it totally impossible, being too feeble to oppose the wind and drift which frequently blew us over and, on attempting to cross a small lake that lay in our way, drove us faster backwards than with every effort we could get forwards; we therefore encamped under the shelter of a small clump of pines, secure from the south-west storm that was raging around us. in the evening, there being no tripe de roche we were compelled to satisfy, or rather allay, the cravings of hunger by eating a gun cover and a pair of old shoes; at this time i had scarcely strength to get on my legs. the wind did not in the least abate during the night but in the morning of the th it changed to north-east and became moderate. we took advantage of this circumstance and, rising with great difficulty, set out, though had it not been for the hope of reaching the house i am certain, from the excessive faintness which almost overpowered me, that i must have remained where i was. we passed the slave rock and, making frequent halts, arrived within a short distance of fort enterprise, but as we perceived neither any marks of indians nor even of animals, the men began absolutely to despair, on a nearer approach however the tracks of large herds of deer which had only passed a few hours tended a little to revive their spirits, and shortly after we crossed the ruinous threshold of the long-sought spot, but what was our surprise, what our sensations, at beholding everything in the most desolate and neglected state; the doors and windows of that room in which we expected to find provision had been thrown down and the wild animals of the woods had resorted there as to a place of shelter and retreat. mr. wentzel had taken away the trunks and papers but had left no note to guide us to the indians. this was to us the most grievous disappointment: without the assistance of the indians, bereft of every resource, we felt ourselves reduced to the most miserable state, which was rendered still worse from the recollection that our friends in the rear were as miserable as ourselves. for the moment however hunger prevailed and each began to gnaw the scraps of putrid and frozen meat that were lying about without waiting to prepare them. a fire however was made and the neck and bones of a deer found in the house were boiled and devoured. i determined to remain a day here to repose; then to go in search of the indians and, in the event of missing them, to proceed to the first trading establishment which was distant about one hundred and thirty miles, and from thence to send succour to my companions. this indeed i should have done immediately as the most certain manner of executing my purpose, had there been any probability of the river and lakes being frozen to the southward, or had we possessed sufficient strength to have clambered over the rocks and mountains which impeded the direct way, but as we were aware of our inability to do so i listened to st. germain's proposal, which was to follow the deer into the woods (so long as they did not lead us out of our route to the indians) and if possible to collect sufficient food to carry us to fort providence. we now set about making mittens and snowshoes whilst belanger searched under the snow and collected a mass of old bones which, when burned and used with a little salt, we found palatable enough and made a tolerable meal. at night st. germain returned, having seen plenty of tracks but no animals; the day was cloudy with fresh breezes and the river was frozen at the borders. on the th we prepared for our journey, having first collected a few old skins of deer to serve us as food, and written a note to be left for our commander to apprise him of our intentions. we pursued the course of the river to the lower lake when st. germain fell in, which obliged us to encamp directly to prevent his being frozen; indeed we were all glad to rest for, in our meagre and reduced state, it was impossible to resist the weather which at any other time would have been thought fine; my toes were frozen and, although wrapped up in a blanket, i could not keep my hands warm. the th was exceedingly cold with fresh breezes. our meal at night consisted of scraps of old deer-skins and swamp tea and the men complained greatly of their increasing debility. the following morning i sent st. germain to hunt, intending to go some distance down the lake, but the weather becoming exceedingly thick with snow-storms we were prevented from moving. he returned without success, not having seen any animals. we had nothing to eat. in the morning of the th the part of the lake before us was quite frozen. there was so much uncertainty in st. germain's answers as to the chance of any indians being in the direction we were then going (although he had previously said that the leader had told him he should be there) and he gave so much dissatisfaction in his hunting excursions that i was induced to send a note to the commander, whom i supposed to be by this time at fort enterprise, to inform him of our situation; not that i imagined for a moment he could amend it, but that by all returning to the fort we might perhaps have better success in hunting; with this view i despatched belanger, much against his inclination, and told him to return as quickly as possible to a place about four miles farther on where we intended to fish and to await his arrival. the men were so weak this day that i could get neither of them to move from the encampment, and it was only necessity that compelled them to cut wood for fuel, in performing which operation beauparlant's face became so dreadfully swelled that he could scarcely see; i myself lost my temper on the most trivial circumstances and was become very peevish; the day was fine but cold with a freezing north-east wind. we had nothing to eat. october . the night was calm and clear but it was not before two in the afternoon that we set out, and the one was so weak and the other so full of complaints that we did not get more than three-quarters of a mile from our last encampment before we were obliged to put up, but in this distance we were fortunate enough to kill a partridge, the bones of which were eaten and the remainder reserved for baits to fish with. we however collected sufficient tripe de roche to make a meal and i anxiously awaited belanger's return to know what course to take. i was now so much reduced that my shoulders were as if they would fall from my body, my legs seemed unable to support me and, in the disposition in which i then found myself, had it not been for the remembrance of my friends behind who relied on me for relief as well as the persons of whom i had charge, i certainly should have preferred remaining where i was to the miserable pain of attempting to move. october . we waited until two in the afternoon for belanger but, not seeing anything of him on the lake, we set out, purposing to encamp at the narrows, the place which was said to be so good for fishing and where, according to st. germain's account, the indians never failed to catch plenty; its distance at most could not be more than two miles. we had not proceeded far before beauparlant began to complain of increasing weakness, but this was so usual with us that no particular notice was taken of it, for in fact there was little difference, all being alike feeble: among other things he said whilst we were resting that he should never get beyond the next encampment for his strength had quite failed him. i endeavoured to encourage him by explaining the mercy of the supreme being who ever beholds with an eye of pity those that seek his aid. this passed as common discourse. when he inquired where we were to put up st. germain pointed to a small clump of pines near us, the only place indeed that offered for fuel. "well," replied the poor man, "take your axe, mr. back, and i will follow at my leisure, i shall join you by the time the encampment is made." this is a usual practice of the country and st. germain and myself went on towards the spot; it was five o'clock and not very cold but rather milder than we had experienced it for some time when, on leaving the ice, we saw a number of crows perched on the top of some high pines near us. st. germain immediately said there must be some dead animal thereabouts and proceeded to search, when we saw several heads of deer half buried in the snow and ice without eyes or tongues, the previous severity of the weather having obliged the wolves and other animals to abandon them. an expression of "oh merciful god! we are saved," broke from us both, and with feelings more easily imagined than described we shook hands, not knowing what to say for joy. it was twilight and a fog was rapidly darkening the surface of the lake when st. germain commenced making the encampment; the task was too laborious for me to render him any assistance and, had we not thus providentially found provision, i feel convinced that the next twenty-four hours would have terminated my existence. but this good fortune in some measure renovated me for the moment and, putting out my whole strength, i contrived to collect a few heads and with incredible difficulty carried them singly about thirty paces to the fire. darkness stole on us apace and i became extremely anxious about beauparlant; several guns were fired to each of which he answered. we then called out and again heard his responses though faintly, when i told st. germain to go and look for him as i had not strength myself, being quite exhausted. he said that he had already placed a pine branch on the ice and he could then scarcely find his way back, but if he went now he should certainly be lost. in this situation i could only hope that, as beauparlant had my blanket and everything requisite to light a fire, he might have encamped at a little distance from us. october . the night was cold and clear but we could not sleep at all from the pains of having eaten. we suffered the most excruciating torments though i in particular did not eat a quarter of what would have satisfied me; it might have been from using a quantity of raw or frozen sinews of the legs of deer, which neither of us could avoid doing, so great was our hunger. in the morning, being much agitated for the safety of beauparlant, i desired st. germain to go in search of him and to return with him as quick as possible, when i would have something prepared for them to eat. it was however late when he arrived, with a small bundle which beauparlant was accustomed to carry and, with tears in his eyes, told me that he had found our poor companion dead. dead! i could not believe him. "it is so sir," said st. germain, "after hallooing and calling his name to no purpose i went towards our last encampment about three-quarters of a mile and found him stretched upon his back on a sandbank frozen to death, his limbs all extended and swelled enormously and as hard as the ice that was near him; his bundle was behind him as if it had rolled away when he fell, and the blanket which he wore around his neck and shoulders thrown on one side. seeing that there was no longer life in him i threw your covering over him and placed his snowshoes on the top of it." i had not even thought of so serious an occurrence in our little party and for a short time was obliged to give vent to my grief. left with one person and both of us weak, no appearance of belanger, a likelihood that great calamity had taken place amongst our other companions, still upwards of seventeen days' march from the nearest establishment, and myself unable to carry a burden; all these things pressed heavy on me, and how to get to the indians or to the fort i did not know but, that i might not depress st. germain's spirits, i suppressed the feelings to which these thoughts gave rise and made some arrangements for the journey to fort providence. october . while we were this day occupied in scraping together the remains of some deer's meat we observed belanger coming round a point apparently scarcely moving. i went to meet him and made immediate inquiries about my friends. five, with the captain, he said, were at the house, the rest were left near the river unable to proceed, but he was too weak to relate the whole. he was conducted to the encampment and paid every attention to, and by degrees we heard the remainder of his tragic tale, at which the interpreter could not avoid crying. he then gave me a letter from my friend the commander which indeed was truly afflicting. the simple story of belanger i could hear, but when i read it in another language, mingled with the pious resignation of a good man, i could not sustain it any longer. the poor man was much affected at the death of our lamented companion but his appetite prevailed over every other feeling and, had i permitted it, he would have done himself an injury; for after two hours' eating, principally skin and sinews, he complained of hunger. the day was cloudy with snow and fresh breezes from the north-east by east. the last evening as well as this morning the th i mentioned my wishes to the men that we should proceed towards reindeer lake, but this proposal met with a direct refusal. belanger stated his inability to move and st. germain used similar language, adding for the first time that he did not know the route, and that it was of no use to go in the direction i mentioned, which was the one agreed upon between the commander and myself. i then insisted that we should go by the known route and join the commander, but they would not hear of it; they would remain where they were until they had regained their strength; they said i wanted to expose them again to death (faire perir). in vain did i use every argument to the contrary for they were equally heedless to all. thus situated i was compelled to remain, and from this time to the th we employed ourselves in looking about for the remnants of the deer and pieces of skin which even the wolves had left and, by pounding the bones, we were enabled to make a sort of soup which strengthened us greatly, though each still complained of weakness. it was not without the greatest difficulty that i could restrain the men from eating every scrap they found, though they were well aware of the necessity there was of being economical in our present situation and to save whatever they could for our journey; yet they could not resist the temptation and whenever my back was turned they seldom failed to snatch at the nearest piece to them, whether cooked or raw. we had set fishing-lines but without any success, and we often saw large herds of deer crossing the lake at full speed and wolves pursuing them. the night of the th was cold with hard frost. early the next morning i sent the men to cover the body of our departed companion beauparlant with the trunks and branches of trees which they did and, shortly after their return, i opened his bundle and found it contained two papers of vermilion, several strings of beads, some fire-steels, flints, awls, fish-hooks, rings, linen, and the glass of an artificial horizon. my two men began to recover a little as well as myself, though i was by far the weakest of the three; the soles of my feet were cracked all over and the other parts were as hard as horn from constant walking. i again urged the necessity of advancing to join the commander's party but they said they were not sufficiently strong. on the th we discovered the remains of a deer on which we feasted. the night was unusually cold and ice formed in a pint-pot within two feet of the fire. the coruscations of the aurora borealis were beautifully brilliant; they served to show us eight wolves which we had some trouble to frighten away from our collection of deer's bones and, between their howling and the constant cracking of the ice, we did not get much rest. having collected with great care and by self-denial two small packets of dried meat or sinews sufficient (for men who knew what it was to fast) to last for eight days at the rate of one indifferent meal per day, we prepared to set out on the th. i calculated that we should be about fourteen days in reaching fort providence and, allowing that we neither killed deer nor found indians, we could but be unprovided with food six days and this we heeded not whilst the prospect of obtaining full relief was before us. accordingly we set out against a keen north-east wind in order to gain the known route to fort providence. we saw a number of wolves and some crows on the middle of the lake and, supposing such an assemblage was not met idly, we made for them and came in for a share of a deer which they had killed a short time before, and thus added a couple of meals to our stock. by four p.m. we gained the head of the lake or the direct road to fort providence and, some dry wood being at hand, we encamped; by accident it was the same place where the commander's party had slept on the th, the day on which i supposed they had left fort enterprise, but the encampment was so small that we feared great mortality had taken place amongst them, and i am sorry to say the stubborn resolution of my men not to go to the house prevented me from determining this most anxious point, so that i now almost dreaded passing their encampments lest i should see some of our unfortunate friends dead at each spot. our fire was hardly kindled when a fine herd of deer passed close to us. st. germain pursued them a short distance but with his usual want of success so that we made a meal off the muscles and sinews we had dried, though they were so tough that we could scarcely cut them. my hands were benumbed throughout the march and we were all stiff and fatigued. the marching of two days weakened us all very much and the more so on account of our exertion to follow the tracks of our commander's party, but we lost them and concluded that they were not before us. though the weather was not cold i was frozen in the face and was so reduced and affected by these constant calamities, as well in mind as in body, that i found much difficulty in proceeding even with the advantages i had enjoyed. november . we set out before day, though in fact we were all much fitter to remain from the excessive pain which we suffered in our joints, and proceeded till one p.m. without halting, when belanger who was before stopped and cried out "footsteps of indians." it is needless to mention the joy that brightened the countenances of each at this unlooked-for sight; we knew relief must be at hand and considered our sufferings at an end. st. germain inspected the tracks and said that three persons had passed the day before, and that he knew the remainder must be advancing to the southward as was customary with these indians when they sent to the trading establishment on the first ice. on this information we encamped and, being too weak to walk myself, i sent st. germain to follow the tracks, with instructions to the chief of the indians to provide immediate assistance for such of our friends as might be at fort enterprise, as well as for ourselves, and to lose no time in returning to me. i was now so exhausted that, had we not seen the tracks this day, i must have remained at the next encampment until the men could have sent aid from fort providence. we had finished our small portion of sinews and were preparing for rest when an indian boy made his appearance with meat. st. germain had arrived before sunset at the tents of akaitcho whom he found at the spot where he had wintered last year, but imagine my surprise when he gave me a note from the commander and said that benoit and augustus, two of the men, had just joined them. the note was so confused by the pencil marks being partly rubbed out that i could not decipher it clearly, but it informed me that he had attempted to come with the two men but, finding his strength inadequate to the task, he relinquished his design and returned to fort enterprise to await relief with the others. there was another note for the gentleman in charge of fort providence desiring him to send meat, blankets, shoes, and tobacco. akaitcho wished me to join him on the ensuing day at a place which the boy knew where they were going to fish, and i was the more anxious to do so on account of my companions, but particularly that i might hear a full relation of what had happened and of the commander's true situation, which i suspected to be much worse than he had described. in the afternoon i joined the indians and repeated to akaitcho what st. germain had told him; he seemed much affected and said he would have sent relief directly though i had not been there; indeed his conduct was generous and humane. the next morning at an early hour three indians with loaded sledges of meat, skins, shoes, and a blanket, set out for fort enterprise; one of them was to return directly with an answer from captain franklin to whom i wrote but, in the event of his death, he was to bring away all the papers he could find, and he promised to travel with such haste as to be able to return to us on the fourth day. i was now somewhat more at ease, having done all in my power to succour my unfortunate companions, but was very anxious for the return of the messenger. the indians brought me meat in small quantities though sufficient for our daily consumption and, as we had a little ammunition, many were paid on the spot for what they gave. on the th i had the satisfaction of seeing the indian arrive from fort enterprise. at first he said they were all dead but shortly after he gave me a note which was from the commander and then i learned all the fatal particulars which had befallen them. i now proposed that the chief should immediately send three sledges loaded with meat to fort enterprise, should make a cache of provision at our present encampment, and also that he should here await the arrival of the commander. by noon two large trains laden with meat were sent off for fort enterprise. the next day we proceeded on our journey and arrived at fort providence on the st of november. conclusion of mr. back's narrative. ... conclusion. i have little now to add to the melancholy detail into which i felt it proper to enter, but i cannot omit to state that the unremitting care and attentions of our kind friends mr. mcvicar and mr. mcauley, united with our improved diet to promote to the restoration of our health, so that by the end of february the swellings of our limbs which had returned upon us entirely subsided, and we were able to walk to any part of the island. our appetites gradually moderated and we nearly regained our ordinary state of body before the spring. hepburn alone suffered from a severe attack of rheumatism which confined him to his bed for some weeks. the usual symptoms of spring having appeared, on the th of may we prepared to embark for fort chipewyan. fortunately on the following morning a canoe arrived from that place with the whole of the stores which we required for the payment of akaitcho and the hunters. it was extremely gratifying to us to be thus enabled, previous to our departure, to make arrangements respecting the requital of our late indian companions, and the more so as we had recently discovered that akaitcho and the whole of his tribe, in consequence of the death of the leader's mother and the wife of our old guide keskarrah, had broken and destroyed every useful article belonging to them and were in the greatest distress. it was an additional pleasure to find our stock of ammunition more than sufficient to pay them what was due, and that we could make a considerable present of this most essential article to every individual that had been attached to the expedition. we quitted moose-deer island at five p.m. on the th, accompanied by mr. mcvicar and mr. mcauley and nearly all the voyagers at the establishment, having resided there about five months, not a day of which had passed without our having cause of gratitude for the kind and unvaried attentions of mr. mcvicar and mr. mcauley. these gentlemen accompanied us as far as fort chipewyan where we arrived on the nd of june, here we met mr. wentzel and the four men who had been sent with him from the mouth of the copper-mine river, and i think it due to that gentleman to give his own explanation of the unfortunate circumstances which prevented him from fulfilling my instructions respecting the provisions to have been left for us at fort enterprise. (see below.) in a subsequent conversation he stated to me that the two indians who were actually with him at fort enterprise whilst he remained there altering his canoe were prevented from hunting, one by an accidental lameness, the other by the fear of meeting alone some of the dog-rib indians. we were here furnished with a canoe by mr. smith and a bowman to act as our guide and, having left fort chipewyan on the th, we arrived on the th of july at norway house. finding at this place that canoes were about to go down to montreal i gave all our canadian voyagers their discharges and sent them by those vessels, furnishing them with orders on the agent of the hudson's bay company for the amount of their wages. we carried augustus down to york factory where we arrived on the th of july, and were received with every mark of attention and kindness by mr. simpson the governor, mr. mctavish, and indeed by all the officers of the united companies. and thus terminated our long, fatiguing, and disastrous travels in north america, having journeyed by water and by land (including our navigation of the polar sea) five thousand five hundred and fifty miles. ... mr. wentzel's explanation. after you sent me back from the mouth of the copper-mine river and i had overtaken the leader, guides, and hunters, on the fifth day, leaving the sea-coast, as well as our journey up the river, they always expressed the same desire of fulfilling their promises, although somewhat dissatisfied at being exposed to privation while on our return from a scarcity of animals for, as i have already stated in my first communication from moose-deer island, we had been eleven days with no other food but tripe de roche. in the course of this time an indian with his wife and child, who were travelling in company with us, were left in the rear and are since supposed to have perished through want, as no intelligence had been received of them at fort providence in december last. on the seventh day after i had joined the leader, etc. etc., and journeying on together, all the indians excepting petit pied and bald-head left me to seek their families and crossed point lake at the crow's nest, where humpy had promised to meet his brother ekehcho (akaitcho the leader) with the families but did not fulfil, nor did any of my party of indians know where to find them, for we had frequently made fires to apprise them of our approach yet none appeared in return as answers. this disappointment as might be expected served to increase the ill-humour of the leader and party, the brooding of which (agreeably to indian custom) was liberally discharged on me, in bitter reproach for having led them from their families and exposed them to dangers and hardships which, but for my influence, they said they might have spared themselves. nevertheless they still continued to profess the sincerest desire of meeting your wishes in making caches of provisions and remaining until a late season on the road that leads from fort enterprise to fort providence, through which the expedition-men had travelled so often the year before, remarking however at the same time that they had not the least hopes of ever seeing one person return from the expedition. these alarming fears i never could persuade them to dismiss from their minds; they always sneered at what they called my credulity. "if," said the gros pied (also akaitcho) "the great chief (meaning captain franklin) or any of his party should pass at my tents, he or they shall be welcome to all my provisions or anything else that i may have." and i am sincerely happy to understand by your communication that in this he had kept his word, in sending you with such promptitude and liberality the assistance your truly dreadful situation required. but the party of indians on whom i had placed the utmost confidence and dependence was humpy and the white capot guide with their sons and several of the discharged hunters from the expedition. this party was well-disposed and readily promised to collect provisions for the possible return of the expedition, provided they could get a supply of ammunition from fort providence, for when i came up with them they were actually starving and converting old axes into ball, having no other substitute; this was unlucky. yet they were well inclined and i expected to find means at fort providence to send them a supply, in which i was however disappointed, for i found that establishment quite destitute of necessaries, and then shortly after i had left them they had the misfortune of losing three of their hunters who were drowned in marten lake; this accident was of all others the most fatal that could have happened, a truth which no one who has the least knowledge of the indian character will deny, and as they were nearly connected by relationship to the leader, humpy, and white capot guide, the three leading men of this part of the copper indian tribe, it had the effect of unhinging (if i may use the expression) the minds of all these families and finally destroying all the fond hopes i had so sanguinely conceived of their assisting the expedition, should it come back by the annadesse river of which they were not certain. as to my not leaving a letter at fort enterprise it was because by some mischance you had forgot to give me paper when we parted.* (*footnote. i certainly offered mr. wentzel some paper when he quitted us but he declined it, having then a notebook, and mr. back gave him a pencil.) i however wrote this news on a plank in pencil and placed it in the top of your former bedstead where i left it. since it has not been found there some indians must have gone to the house after my departure and destroyed it. these details, sir, i have been induced to enter into (rather unexpectedly) in justification of myself and hope it will be satisfactory. by the canadian institute for historical microreproductions transcriber's note: the character = preceeding a vowel is used to indicate that the vowel is to be pronounced long. the character ~ preceeding a vowel is used to indicate that the vowel is to be pronounced short. these characters do not occur otherwise. three voyages for the discovery of a northwest passage from the atlantic to the pacific, and narrative of an attempt to reach the north pole, volume i by sir w. e. parry, capt. r.n., f.r.s. in two volumes. [illustration captain w.e. parry r.n.] publishers' advertisement the two volumes herewith presented to the public contain an uninterrupted narrative, in captain parry's own words, of the five voyages made by that distinguished navigator, under the sanction of the british government, in search of a passage from the eastern to the western side of the american continent, through the arctic ocean. although abbreviated, the curtailment has been effected, not by any change in the language of the original writer, but merely by omitting all such details as were not inviting to the general reader; and, in a word, changing the character of the work from that of an official report to that of a narrative. the effort has been to preserve all interesting and amusing particulars; to record all facts and transactions of importance; to present an accurate though brief notice of all valuable accessions to geographic as well as general knowledge, effected in the progress of the voyages; and, at the same time, to keep the reader's attention ever on the alert by the rapid and uninterrupted succession of striking incidents. it is hoped that the aim here designated has been accomplished; and that, in the abridged narrative of parry's voyages, there will be found matter, not only to interest the reader for amusement, but also to improve. the scenes and adventures recorded by the navigator are in the highest degree novel and remarkable; and it cannot be other than profitable to know what perils were encountered, what courage, firmness, and ingenuity were displayed, what moral and physical influences were developed, and what triumphs of human skill were achieved, in the progress of voyages undertaken solely to advance the interests of science. h. & b. new-york, may, . contents of the first volume introduction. chapter i. passage across the atlantic.--enter davis's strait.--unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the ice to the western coast.--voyage up the strait.--passage through the ice to the western coast.--arrival off possession bay, on the southern side of the entrance into sir james lancaster's sound. chapter ii. entrance into sir james lancaster's sound of baffin.--uninterrupted passage to the westward.--discovery and examination of prince regent's inlet.--progress to the southward stopped by ice.--return to the northward.--pass barrow's strait, and enter the polar sea. chapter iii. favourable appearances of an open westerly passage.--land to the northward, a series of islands.--general appearance of them.--meet with some obstruction from low islands surrounded with ice.--remains of esquimaux huts, and natural productions of byam martin island.--tedious navigation from fogs and ice.--difficulty of steering a proper course.--arrival and landing on melville island.--proceed to the westward, and reach the meridian of ° w. long., the first stage in the scale of rewards granted by act of parliament. chapter iv. further examination of melville island.--continuation of our progress to the westward.--long detention by the ice.--party sent on shore to hunt deer and musk-oxen.--return in three days, after losing their way.--anxiety on their account.--proceed to the westward till finally stopped by the ice.--in returning to the eastward, the griper forced on the beach by the ice.--search for, and discovery of, a winter harbour on melville island.--operations for securing the ships in their winter quarters. chapter v. precautions for securing the ships and stores.--for promoting good order, cleanliness, health, and good-humour among the ships' companies.--establishment of a theatre and of the north georgia gazette.--erection of an observatory on shore.--commence our winter's amusements.--state of the temperature, and various meteorological phenomena.--miscellaneous occurrences to the close of the year . chapter vi. first appearance of scurvy.--the aurora borealis and other meteorological phenomena.--visits of the wolves.--reappearance of the sun.--extreme low temperature.--destruction of the house on shore by fire.--severe frostbites occasioned by this accident. chapter vii. more temperate weather.--house rebuilt.--quantity of ice collected on the hecla's lower deck.--meteorological phenomena.--conclusion of theatrical entertainments.--increased sickness on board the griper.--clothes first dried in the open air.--remarkable halos and parhelia.--snow blindness.--cutting the ice round the ships, and other occurrences to the close of may. chapter viii. journey across melville island to the northern shore, and return to the ships by a different route. chapter ix. occurrences at winter harbour in the early part of june.--gradual dissolution of the ice upon the sea and of the snow upon the land.--decease and burial of william scott.--equipment of the ships completed.--temperate weather during the month of july.--breaking up of the ice near the ships.--move to the lower part of the harbour.--separation of the ice at the entrance.--prepare to sail.--abstract of observations made in winter harbour. chapter x. leave winter harbour.--flattering appearance of the sea to the westward.--stopped by the ice near cape hay.--farther progress to the longitude of ° ' . ", being the westernmost meridian hitherto reached in the polar sea, to the north of america.--banks's land discovered.--increased extent and dimensions of the ice.--return to the eastward, to endeavour to penetrate the ice to the southward.--re-enter barrow's strait, and survey its south coast.--pass through sir james lancaster's sound on our return to england. chapter xi. progress down the western coast of baffin's bay.--meet with the whalers.--account of some esquimaux in the inlet called the river clyde.--continue the survey of the coast till stopped by ice in the latitude of ¼°.--obliged to run to the eastward.--fruitless attempts to regain the land, and final departure from the ice.--remarks upon the probable existence and practicability of a northwest passage, and upon the whale fishery.--boisterous weather in crossing the atlantic.--loss of the hecla's bowsprit and foremast.--arrival in england. second voyage. preliminary chapter. chapter i. passage across the atlantic.--removal of stores from the nautilus transport, at the margin of the ice.--departure of the nautilus for england.--enter the ice in hudson's strait.--perilous situation of the hecla, and loss of her anchor.--meet with the hudson's bay ships.--passage up the strait, and communication with the natives inhabiting the northern shores.--pass the trinity islands of fox.--arrival off southampton island, where the researches of the expedition commence. chapter ii. review of the geographical information obtained by the researches of former navigators on the coast of the american continent, in the neighbourhood of wager river.--discover and enter the duke of york's bay, supposing it to be a passage into the sea called the welcome.--leave the duke of york's bay, and proceed to the northwestward.--passage of the frozen strait and arrival in repulse bay.--continuity of land there.--observations on shore.--remarks concerning the geography, tides, and natural history of this part of the continental coast. chapter iii. return to the eastward through the frozen strait.--discovery of hurd channel.--examined in a boat.--loss of the fury's anchor.--providential escape of the fury from shipwreck.--anchor in duckett cove.--farther examination of the coast by boats and walking-parties.--ships proceed through hurd channel.--are drifted by the ice back to southampton island.--unobstructed run to the entrance of a large inlet leading to the northwestward.--ships made fast by hawsers to the rocks.--farther examination of the inlet commenced in the boats. chapter iv. hoppner's inlet entered and surveyed by the boats.--continuity of land there determined.--proceed to examine another opening leading to the westward.--favourable appearance of a continued passage in that direction.--meet with some esquimaux.--arrival in ross bay, being the termination of lyon inlet.--discovery and examination of various creeks.--return to the ships, after finding the land entirely continuous.--some account of the natural history of this part of the coast. chapter v. farther examination in the boats for the purpose of connecting the shores of lyon inlet with that of gore bay.--continuity of the land determined.--fresh detention by the ice.--boats carried over land.--return to the ships.--progress out of the inlet prevented by the ice.--the fury grounds upon a rock.--anchor in safety cove.--heavy easterly gales.--proceed out of the inlet.--arrival in a bay on the south side of winter island.--ships secured in winter-quarters. chapter vi. precautions for the security of the ships and their stores--and for the health and comfort of the crews.--establishment of theatrical entertainments and schools.--erection of an observatory and house on shore.--state of health at this period.--partial disruption of the ice in the bay.--anchors and cables taken to the shore.--gradual increase of cold, appearance of the aurora borealis on several occasions, and various other meteorological phenomena to the close of the year . chapter vii. many foxes caught.--continued open water in the offing.--partial disruption of the ice in the bay.--meteorological phenomena, and temperature of animals.--arrival of a tribe of esquimaux.--first meeting and subsequent intercourse with them.--esquimaux in want of provisions.--supplied with bread-dust.--some account of a sealing excursion with them.--fresh disruption of the ice in the bay.--closing of the winter theatre.--meteorological phenomena till the end of february, . chapter viii. a journey performed across winter island.--sufferings of the party by frost.--departure of some of the esquimaux, and a separate village established on the ice.--various meteorological phenomena.--okotook and his wife brought on board.--anecdotes relating to them.--ships released from the ice by sawing. chapter ix. increased extent of open water in the offing.--a travelling party despatched to the northward.--unsuccessful attempt to raise vegetables on shore.--decease of james pringle.--a party of esquimaux build huts near the ships.--return of the travellers, and account of their journey.--first appearance of the plants.--birds become numerous.--commence cutting a canal through the ice for liberating the ships.--illness and decease of john reid and william souter.--breaking up of the ice in the bay.--account of winter island.--abstract of observations made there. technical terms peculiar to the navigation among ice bay-ice.--ice newly formed upon the surface of the sea. the expression is, however, applied also to ice a foot or two in thickness. beset.--the situation of a ship when closely surrounded by ice. bight.--an indentation in a floe of ice, like a bay, by which name it is sometimes called. blink.--a peculiar brightness in the atmosphere, often assuming an arch-like form, which is generally perceptible over ice or land covered with snow. the blink of land, as well as that over _large_ quantities of ice, is usually of a yellowish cast. bore.--the operation of "boring" through loose ice consists in entering it under a press of sail, and forcing the ship through by separating the masses. calf.--a mass of ice lying under a floe near its margin, and, when disengaged from that position, rising with violence to the surface of the water. see tongue. clear water.--any part of the sea unencumbered with ice. crow's nest.--a small circular house like a cask, fixed at the masthead, in which the look-out man sits, either to guide the ship through the ice or to give notice of whales. dock.--in a floe may be natural or artificial; the former being simply a small "bight," in which a ship is placed to secure her from the danger of external pressure; and the latter, a square space cut out with saws for a similar purpose. field.--a sheet of ice generally of great thickness, and of too great extent to be seen over from a ship's masthead. flinching.--the operation of stripping a sea-animal of its skin and blubber. floe.--the same as a field, except that its extent can be distinguished from a ship's masthead. a "bay-floe" is a floe of ice newly formed. floe-piece.--an expression generally applied to small pieces of floes, not more than a furlong square. a hole or pool of water.--a small space of "clear water," when the rest of the sea is covered with ice. hummock.--a mass of ice rising to a considerable height above the general level of a floe, and forming a part of it. hummocks are originally raised by the pressure of floes against each other. land-ice.--ice attached to the land, either in floes or in heavy grounded masses lying near the shore. lane of water.--a narrow channel among the masses of ice, through which a boat or ship may pass. lead.--a channel through the ice. a ship is said to "take the right lead" when she follows a channel conducting her into a more navigable sea, and _vice versâ_. making-off blubber.--the operation of putting it into casks. nipped.--the situation of a ship when forcibly pressed by ice. pack.--a large body of ice, consisting of separate masses, lying close together, and whose extent cannot be seen. pancake-ice.--newly formed ice, assuming the peculiar conformation of numberless patches of "sludge," and giving the surface of the sea the appearance of a handsome pavement. patch of ice.--the same as a pack, but of small dimensions. sailing-ice.--ice of which the masses are so much separated as to allow a ship to sail among them. sallying a ship.--the operation of causing her to roll, by the men running in a body from side to side, so as to relieve her from the adhesion and friction of the young ice around her. sludge.--ice of the consistence of thick honey, offering little impediment to a ship while in this state, but greatly favouring the formation of a "bay-floe." stream.--a long and narrow, but generally continuous, collection of loose ice. tongue.--a mass of ice projecting under water from an iceberg or floe, and generally distinguishable at a considerable depth of smooth water. it differs from a "calf" in being fixed to, or a part of the larger body. water-sky.--a dark appearance in the sky, indicating "clear water" in that direction, and forming a striking contrast with the "blink" over land or ice. young-ice.--nearly the same as "bay-ice," but generally applied to ice more recently formed than the latter. voyage for the discovery of a northwest passage introduction. lieutenant parry was appointed to the command of his majesty's ship the hecla, a bomb of tons, on the th of january, ; and the griper, gun brig, tons, commissioned by lieutenant matthew liddon, was at the same time directed to put herself under his orders. the object of the expedition was to attempt the discovery of a northwest passage into the pacific. the vessels were rigged after the manner of a bark, as being the most convenient among the ice, and requiring the smallest number of men to work them. they were furnished with provisions and stores for two years; in addition to which, there was a large supply of fresh meats and soups preserved in tin cases, essence of malt and hops, essence of spruce, and other extra stores, adapted to cold climates and a long voyage. the ships were ballasted entirely with coals; an abundance of warm clothing was allowed, a wolfskin blanket being supplied to each officer and man, besides a housing-cloth, similar to that with which wagons are usually covered, to make a sort of tent on board. although the finding a passage from the atlantic to the pacific was the main object of the expedition, yet the ascertaining many points of natural history, geography, &c., was considered a most important object, never to be lost sight of. after they had passed the latitude of ° north, they were from time to time to throw overboard a bottle, closely sealed, containing a paper, stating the date and position at which it was launched. whenever they landed on the northern coast of north america, they were to erect a pole, having a flag, and bury a bottle at the foot of it, containing an abstract of their proceedings and future intentions, for the information of lieutenant franklin, who had been sent on a land expedition to explore that coast from the mouth of the coppermine river of hearne. according to the official instructions, the interests of science were not neglected, and many important facts were made out; among the most curious, it may be mentioned, that it appears to be proved that the north pole is not the coldest point of the arctic hemisphere, but that the place where the expedition wintered is one of the coldest spots on the face of the globe. chapter i. passage across the atlantic.--enter davis's strait.--unsuccessful attempt to penetrate the ice to the western coast.--voyage up the strait.--passage through the ice to the western coast.--arrival off possession bay, on the southern side of the entrance into sir james lancaster's sound. in the beginning of may, , the hecla and griper were towed down the river; the guns and gunner's stores were received on board on the th; and the instruments and chronometers were embarked on the evening of the th, when the two ships anchored at the nore. the griper, being a slower sailer, was occasionally taken in tow by the hecla, and they rounded the northern point of the orkneys, at the distance of two miles and a half; on thursday, the th of the same month. nothing of moment occurred for several days; but the wind veered to the westward on the th, and increased to a fresh gale, with an irregular sea and heavy rain, which brought us under our close-reefed topsails. at half past one, p.m., we began to cross the space in which the "sunken land of buss" is laid down in steel's chart from england to greenland; and, in the course of this and the following day, we tried for soundings several times without success. early in the morning of the th of june, in standing to the northward, we fell in with the first "stream" of ice we had seen, and soon after saw several icebergs. at daylight the water had changed its colour to a dirty brownish tinge. the temperature of the water was ½°, being ° colder than on the preceding night; a decrease that was probably occasioned by our approach to the ice. we ran through a narrow part of the stream, and found the ice beyond it to be "packed" and heavy. the birds were more numerous than usual; and, besides the fulmar peterels, boatswains, and kittiwakes, we saw, for the first time, some rotges, dovekies, or black guillemots, and terns, the latter known best to seamen by the name of the greenland swallow. on the clearing up of a fog on the morning of the th, we saw a long chain of icebergs, extending several miles, in a n.b.w. and s.b.e. direction; and, as we approached them, we found a quantity of "floe-ice" intermixed with them, beyond which, to the westward, nothing but ice could be seen. at noon we had soundings, with one hundred and twenty fathoms of line, on a bottom of fine sand, which makes it probable that most of the icebergs were aground in this place. in the afternoon we sailed within the edge of the ice, as much as a light westerly wind would admit, in order to approach the western land. some curious effects of atmospheric refraction were observed this evening, the low ice being at times considerably raised in the horizon, and constantly altering its appearance. the weather being nearly calm on the morning of the th, all the boats were kept ahead, to tow the ships through the ice to the westward. it remained tolerably open till four p.m., when a breeze, freshening up from the eastward, caused the ice, through which we had lately been towing, to close together so rapidly, that we had scarcely time to hoist up the boats before the ships were immovably "beset." the clear sea which we had left was about four miles to the eastward of us, while to the westward nothing but one extensive field of ice could be seen. it is impossible to conceive a more helpless situation than that of a ship thus beset, when all the power that can be applied will not alter the direction of her head a single degree of the compass. a large black whale, being the first, was seen near the ships. it is usual for these animals to descend head foremost, displaying the broad fork of their enormous tail above the surface of the water; but, on this occasion, the ice was so close as not to admit of this mode of descent, and the fish went down tail foremost, to the great amusement of our greenland sailors. while in this state a large white bear came near the griper, and was killed by her people, but he sunk between the pieces of ice. this animal had probably been attracted by the smell of some red herrings which the men were frying at the time. it is a common practice with the greenland sailors to take advantage of the strong sense of smelling which these creatures possess, by enticing them near the ships in this manner. the swell had somewhat subsided on the th, but the ships remained firmly fixed in the ice as before. in the course of the day we saw land bearing n. ° w. about thirteen leagues distant, appearing from the masthead like a group of islands, and situated near to the entrance of cumberland strait: the soundings were one hundred and thirty-five fathoms; the temperature of the sea at that depth °; that of the surface being the same, and of the air °. on the th the ice began to slacken a little more about the ships; and, after two hours' heaving with a hawser on each bow brought to the capstan and windlass, we succeeded in moving the hecla about her own length to the eastward, where alone any clear sea was visible. the ice continuing to open still more in the course of the day, we were at length enabled to get both ships into open water, after eight hours' incessant labour. on the st and d of july, we continued to keep close to the edge of the ice without perceiving any opening in it. its outer margin consisted of heavy detached masses, much washed by the sea, and formed what is technically called "a pack," this name being given to ice when so closely connected as not to admit the passage of a ship between the masses. within the margin of the pack, it appeared to consist of heavy and extensive floes, having a bright ice-blink over them; but no clear water could be discovered to the westward. the birds, which had hitherto been seen since our first approach to the ice, were fulmar peterels, little auks, looms, and a few gulls. on the morning of the d the wind blew strong from the eastward, with a short, breaking sea, and thick, rainy weather, which made our situation for some hours rather an unpleasant one, the ice being close under our lee. fortunately, however, we weathered it by stretching back a few miles to the southward. in the afternoon the wind moderated, and we tacked again to the northward, crossing the arctic circle at four p.m., in the longitude of ° ' w. we passed at least fifty icebergs in the course of the day, many of them of large dimensions. towards midnight, the wind having shifted to the southwest and moderated, another extensive chain of very large icebergs appeared to the northward: as we approached them the wind died away, and the ships' heads were kept to the northward, only by the steerage way given to them by a heavy southerly swell, which, dashing the loose ice with tremendous force against the bergs, sometimes raised a white spray over the latter to the height of more than one hundred feet, and, being accompanied with a loud noise, exactly resembling the roar of distant thunder, presented a scene at once sublime and terrific. we could find no bottom near these icebergs with one hundred and ten fathoms of line. at four a.m. on the th we came to a quantity of loose ice, which lay straggling among the bergs; and as there was a light breeze from the southward, and i was anxious to avoid, if possible, the necessity of going to the eastward, i pushed the hecla into the ice, in the hope of being able to make our way through it. we had scarcely done so, however, before it fell calm; when the ship became perfectly unmanageable, and was for some time at the mercy of the swell, which drifted us fast towards the bergs. all the boats were immediately sent ahead to tow; and the griper's signal was made not to enter the ice. after two hours' hard pulling, we succeeded in getting the hecla back again into clear water, and to a sufficient distance from the icebergs, which it is very dangerous to approach when there is a swell. at noon we were in lat. ° ' ", long. ° ' ", being near the middle of the narrowest part of davis's strait, which is here not more than fifty leagues across. on the th it was necessary to pass through some heavy streams of ice, in order to avoid the loss of time by going round to the eastward. on this, as on many other occasions, the advantage possessed by a ship of considerable weight in the water, in separating the heavy masses of ice, was very apparent. in some of the streams through which the hecla passed, a vessel of a hundred tons less burden must have been immovably beset. the griper was on this and many other occasions only enabled to follow the hecla by taking advantage of the openings made by the latter. a herd of seahorses being seen lying on a piece of ice, our boat succeeded in killing one of them. these animals usually lie huddled together like pigs, one over the other, and are so stupidly tame as to allow a boat to approach them within a few yards without moving. when at length they are disturbed, they dash into the water in great confusion. it may be worth remarking, as a proof how tenacious the walrus sometimes is of life, that the animal killed to-day struggled violently for ten minutes after it was struck, and towed the boat twenty or thirty yards, after which the iron of the harpoon broke; and yet it was found, on examination, that the iron barb had penetrated both auricles of the heart. a quantity of the blubber was put into casks, as a winter's supply of lamp-oil. a large bear being seen on a piece of ice, near which we were passing on the th, a boat was despatched in pursuit, and our people succeeded in killing and towing it on board. as these animals sink immediately on being mortally wounded, some dexterity is requisite to secure them, by first throwing a rope over the neck, at which many of the greenland seamen are remarkably expert. it is customary for the boats of the whalers to have two or three lines coiled in them, which not only gives them great stability, but, with good management, makes it difficult for a bear, when swimming, to put his paw upon the gunwale, which they generally endeavour to do; whereas, with our boats, which are more light and crank, and therefore very easily heeled over, i have more than once seen a bear on the point of taking possession of them. great caution should therefore be used under such circumstances in attacking these ferocious creatures. we have always found a boarding-pike the most useful weapon for this purpose. the lance used by the whalers will not easily penetrate the skin, and a musket-ball, except when very close, is scarcely more efficacious. on the th, the margin of the ice appearing more open than we had yet seen it, and there being some appearance of a "water-sky" to the northwest, i was induced to run the ships into the ice, though the weather was too thick to allow us to see more than a mile or two in that direction. we were, at noon, in latitude ° ' ", longitude ° ' ", the depth of water being one hundred and ninety fathoms, on a muddy bottom. the wind shortly after died away, as usual, and, after making a number tacks, in order to gain all we could to the westward, we found ourselves so closely, hemmed in by the ice on every side, that there was no longer room to work the ships, and we therefore made them fast to a floe till the weather should clear up. the afternoon was employed in taking on board a supply of water from the floe. it may be proper at once to remark that, from this time till the end of the voyage, snow-water was exclusively made use of on board the ships for every purpose. during the summer months, it is found in abundance in the pools upon the floes and icebergs; and in the winter, snow was dissolved in the coppers for our daily consumption. the fog cleared away in the evening, when we perceived that no farther progress could be made through the ice, into which we sailed to the westward about twelve miles. we were therefore once more under the necessity of returning to the eastward, lest a change of wind should beset the ships in their present situation. a thick fog came on again at night, and prevailed till near noon on the th, when we came to a close but narrow stream of ice, lying exactly across our course, and at right angles to the main body of the ice. as this stream extended to the eastward as far as we could see from the "crow's nest," an endeavour was made to push the ships with all sail through the narrowest part. the facility with which this operation, technically called "boring," is performed, depends chiefly on having a fresh and free wind, with which we were not favoured on this occasion; so that, when we had forced the ships about one hundred yards into the ice, their way was completely stopped. the stream consisted of such small pieces of ice, that, when an attempt was made to warp the ships ahead by fastening lines to some of the heaviest masses near them, the ice itself came home, without the ships being moved forward.--every effort to extricate them from this helpless situation proved fruitless for more than two hours, when the hecla was at length backed out, and succeeded in pushing through another part of the stream in which a small opening appeared just at that moment. all our boats were immediately despatched to the assistance of the griper, which still remained beset, and which no effort could move in any direction we at length resorted to the expedient of sending a whale-line to her from the hecla, and then, making all sail upon the latter ship, we succeeded in towing her out, head to wind, till she was enabled to proceed in clear water. the crossing of this stream of ice, of which, the breadth scarcely exceeded three hundred yards, occupied us constantly for more than five hours, and may serve as an example of the detention to which ships are liable in this kind of navigation. early on the morning of the st the fog cleared away, and discovered to us the land called by davis, hope sanderson and the woman's islands, being the first land we had seen in sailing northward into baffin's bay, from the lat. of ¾°. we found ourselves in the midst of a great number of very high icebergs, of which i counted, from the crow's-nest, eighty-eight, besides many smaller ones. having now reached the latitude of ° without seeing a single opening in the ice, and being unwilling to increase our distance from sir james lancaster's sound by proceeding much farther to the northward, i determined once more to enter the ice in this place, and to try the experiment of forcing our way through it, in order to get into the open sea. being therefore favoured with clear weather, and a moderate breeze from the southeastward, we ran into the ice, which for the first two miles consisted of detached pieces, but afterward of floes of considerable extent, and six or seven feet in thickness. the wind died away towards midnight, and the weather was serene and clear. at six a.m. on the d, a thick fog came on, which rendered it impossible to see our way any farther. we therefore warped to an iceberg, to which the ships were made fast at noon, to wait the clearing up of the fog, being in lat. ° ' ", long. ° ' ". at eight p.m. the weather cleared up, and a few small pools of open water were seen here and there, but the ice was generally as close as before, and the wind being to the westward of north, it was not deemed advisable to move. the weather, being clear in the morning of the th, and a few narrow lanes of water appearing to the westward, the griper was made fast astern of the hecla; and her crew being sent to assist in manning our capstan, we proceeded to warp the ships through the ice. this method, which is often adopted by our whalers, has the obvious advantage of applying the whole united force in separating the masses of ice which lie in the way of the first ship, allowing the second, or even third, to follow close astern, with very little obstruction. in this manner we had advanced about four miles to the westward by eight p.m., after eleven hours of very laborious exertion; and having then come to the end of the clear water, and the weather being again foggy, the ships were secured in a deep "bight," or bay in a floe, called by the sailors a "natural dock." early on the morning of the th there was clear water as far as we could see to the westward, which, on account of the fog, did not exceed the distance of three hundred yards. we made sail, however, and having groped our way for about half a mile, found the ice once more close in every direction except that in which we had been sailing, obliging us to make the ships fast to a floe. at half past three p.m. the weather cleared up, and a few narrow lanes of water being seen to the westward, every exertion was immediately made to get into them. on beginning to heave, however, we found that the "hole" of water in which the hecla lay was now so completely enclosed by ice that no passage out of it could be found. we tried every corner, but to no purpose; all the power we could apply being insufficient to move the heavy masses of ice which had fixed themselves firmly between us and the lanes of water without. in the mean time, lieutenant liddon had succeeded in advancing about three hundred yards, and had placed the griper's bow between two heavy floes, which it was necessary to separate before any farther progress could be made. both ships continued to heave at their hawsers occasionally, as the ice appeared to slacken a little, by which means they were now and then drawn ahead a few inches at a time, but did not advance more than half a dozen yards in the course of the night. by our nearing several bergs to the northward, the ice appeared to be drifting in that direction, the wind being moderate from the southward. about three a.m., tuesday, th, by a sudden motion of the ice, we succeeded in getting the hecla out of her confined situation, and ran her up astern of the griper. the clear water had made so much to the westward, that a narrow neck of ice was all that was now interposed between the ships and a large open space in that quarter. both ships' companies were therefore ordered upon the ice to saw off the neck, when the floes suddenly opened sufficiently to allow the griper to push through under all sail. no time was lost in the attempt to get the hecla through after her; but, by one of those accidents to which this navigation is liable, and which render it so precarious and uncertain, a piece of loose ice, which lay between the two ships, was drawn after the griper by the eddy produced by her motion, and completely blocked the narrow passage through which we were about to follow. before we could remove this obstruction by hauling it back out of the channel, the floes were again pressed together, wedging it firmly and immovably between them: the saws were immediately set to work, and used with great effect; but it was not till eleven o'clock that we succeeded, after seven hours' labour, in getting the hecla into the lanes of clear water which opened more and more to the westward. on the th we had so much clear water, that the ships had a very perceptible pitching motion, which, from the closeness of the ice, does not very often occur in the polar regions, and which is therefore hailed with pleasure as an indication of an open sea. at five p.m. the swell increased considerably, and, as the wind freshened up from the northeast, the ice gradually disappeared; so that by six o'clock we were sailing in an open sea, perfectly free from obstruction of any kind. we now seemed all at once to have got into the headquarters of the whales. they were so numerous that i directed the number to be counted during each watch, and no less than eighty-two are mentioned in this day's log. mr. allison, the greenland master, considered them generally as large ones, and remarked that a fleet of whalers might easily have obtained a cargo here in a few days. in the afternoon the wind broke us of from the n.n.w., which obliged us to cast off the griper, and we carried all sail ahead to make the land. we saw it at half past five p.m., being the high land about possession bay, and at the same time several streams of loose but heavy ice came in sight, which a fresh breeze was drifting fast to the southeastward. the wind increased to a fresh breeze on the morning of the st, which prevented our making much way to the westward. we stood in towards cape byam martin, and sounded in eighty fathoms on a rocky bottom, at the distance of two miles in an east direction from it. we soon after discovered the flagstaff which had been erected on possession mount on the former expedition; an object which, though insignificant in itself, called up every person immediately on deck to look at and to greet it as an old acquaintance. the land immediately at the hack of possession bay rises in a gentle slope from the sea, presenting an open and extensive space of low ground, flanked by hills to the north and south. in this valley, and even on the hills, to the height of six or seven hundred feet above the sea, there was scarcely any snow, but the mountains at the back were completely covered with it. some pieces of birch-bark having been picked up in the bed of this stream in , which gave reason to suppose that wood might be found growing in the interior, i directed mr. fisher to walk up it, accompanied by a small party, and to occupy an hour or two while the griper was coming up, and captain sabine and myself were employed upon the beach, in examining the nature and productions of the country. mr. fisher reported, on his return, that he had followed the stream between three and four miles, where it turned to the southwest, without discovering any indications of a wooded country; but a sufficient explanation respecting the birch-bark was perhaps furnished by his finding, at the distance of a quarter of a mile from the sea, a piece of whalebone two feet ten inches in length and two inches in breadth, having a number of circular holes very neatly and regularly perforated along one of its edges, which had undoubtedly formed part of an esquimaux sledge. this circumstance affording a proof of the esquimaux having visited this part of the coast at no very distant period, it was concluded that the piece of bark above alluded to had been brought hither by these people. from the appearance of the whalebone, it might have been lying there for four or five years. that none of the esquimaux tribe had visited this part of the coast since we landed there in , was evident from the flagstaff then erected still remaining untouched. mr. fisher found every part of the valley quite free from snow as high as he ascended it: and the following fact seems to render it probable that no great quantity either of snow or sleet had fallen here since our last visit. mr. fisher had not proceeded far, till, to his great surprise, he encountered the tracks of human feet upon the banks of the stream, which appeared so fresh that he at first imagined them to have been recently made by some natives, but which, on examination, were distinctly ascertained to be the marks of our own shoes, made eleven months before. chapter ii. entrance into sir james lancaster's sound of baffin.--uninterrupted passage to the westward.--discovery and examination of prince regent's inlet.--progress to the southward stopped by ice.--return to the northward.--pass barrow's strait, and enter the polar sea. we were now about to enter and to explore that great sound or inlet which has obtained a degree of celebrity beyond what it might otherwise have been considered to possess, from the very opposite opinions which have been held with regard to it. to us it was peculiarly interesting, as being the point to which our instructions more particularly directed our attention; and i may add, what i believe we all felt, it was that point of the voyage which was to determine the success or failure of the expedition, according as one or other of the opposite opinions alluded to should be corroborated. it will readily be conceived, then, how great our anxiety was for a change of the westerly wind and swell, which, on the st of august, set down sir james lancaster's sound, and prevented our making much progress. several whales were seen in the course of the day, and mr. allison remarked that this was the only part of baffin's bay in which he had ever seen young whales; for it is a matter of surprise to the whalers in general, that they seldom or never meet with young ones on this fishery, as they are accustomed to do in the seas of spitzbergen. the griper continued to detain us so much, that i determined on making the best of our way to the westward, and ordered the hecla to be hove to in the evening, and sent lieutenant liddon an instruction, with some signals, which might facilitate our meeting in case of fog; and i appointed as a place of rendezvous the meridian of ° west, and as near the middle of the sound as circumstances would permit. as soon, therefore, as the boat returned from the griper, we carried a press of sail, and in the course of the evening saw the northern shore of the sound looming through the clouds which hung over it. the weather being clear in the evening of the d, we had the first distinct view of both sides of the sound; and the difference in the character of the two shores was very apparent; that on the south consisting of high and peaked mountains, completely snow-clad, except on the lower parts, while the northern coast has generally a smoother outline, and had, comparatively with the other, little snow upon it; the difference in this last respect appearing to depend principally on the difference in their absolute height. the sea was open before us, free from ice or land; and the hecla pitched so much from the westerly swell in the course of the day, as to throw the water once or twice into the stern windows; a circumstance which, together with other appearances, we were willing to attribute to an open sea in the desired direction. more than forty black whales were seen during the day. we made little way on the d, but being favoured at length by the easterly breeze which was bringing up the griper, and for which we had long been looking with much impatience, a crowd of sail was set to carry us with all rapidity to the westward. it is more easy to imagine than to describe the almost breathless anxiety which was now visible in every countenance, while, as the breeze continued to a fresh gale, we ran quickly up the sound. the mastheads were crowded by the officers and men during the whole afternoon; and an unconcerned observer, if any could have been unconcerned on such an occasion, would have been amused by the eagerness with which the various reports from the crow's-nest were received; all, however, hitherto favourable to our most sanguine hopes. our course was nearly due west, and the wind still continuing to freshen, took us in a few hours nearly out of sight of the griper. the only ice which we met with consisted of a few large bergs very much washed by the sea; and the weather being remarkably clear, so as to enable us to run with perfect safety, we were by midnight, in a great measure, relieved from our anxiety respecting the supposed continuity of land at the bottom of this magnificent inlet, having reached the longitude of ° ', where the two shores are still above thirteen leagues apart, without the slightest appearance of any land to the westward of us for four or five points of the compass. having made the ship snug, so as to be in readiness to round to should the land be seen ahead, and the griper having come up within a few miles of us, we again bore up at one a.m., the th. at half past three, lieutenant beechey, who had relieved me on deck, discovered from the crow's-nest a reef of rocks, in-shore of us to the northward, on which the sea was breaking. the cliffs on this part of the coast present a singular appearance, being stratified horizontally, and having a number of regular projecting masses of rock, broad at the bottom, and coming to a point at the top, resembling so many buttresses, raised by art at equal intervals. after lying-to for an hour, we again bore up to the westward, and soon after discovered a cape, afterward named by captain sabine, cape fellfoot, which appeared to form the termination of this coast; and as the haze, which still prevailed to the south, prevented our seeing any land in that quarter, and the sea was literally as free from ice as any part of the atlantic, we began to flatter ourselves that we had fairly entered the polar sea, and some of the most sanguine among us had even calculated the bearing and distance of icy cape, as a matter of no very difficult or improbable accomplishment. this pleasing prospect was rendered the more flattering by the sea having, as we thought, regained the usual oceanic colour, and by a long swell which was rolling in from the southward and eastward. at six p.m., however, land was reported to be seen ahead. the vexation and anxiety produced on every countenance by such a report were but too visible, until, on a nearer approach, it was found to be only an island, of no very large extent, and that, on each side of it, the horizon still appeared clear for several points of the compass. at eight p.m. we came to some ice of no great breadth or thickness, extending several miles in a direction nearly parallel to our course; and as we could see clear water over it to the southward, i was for some time in the hope that it would prove a detached stream, from which no obstruction to our progress westerly was to be apprehended. at twenty minutes past ten, however, the weather having become hazy and the wind light, we perceived that the ice, along which we had been sailing for the last two hours, was joined, at the distance of half a mile to the westward of us, to a compact and impenetrable body of floes, which lay across the whole breadth of the strait, formed by the island and the western point of maxwell bay. we hauled our wind to the northward, just in time to avoid being embayed in the ice, on the outer edge of which a considerable surf, the effect of the late gale, was then rolling. while the calm and thick weather lasted, a number of the officers and men amused themselves in the boats, in endeavouring to kill some of the white whales which were swimming about the ships in great numbers; but the animals were so wary, that they would scarcely suffer the boats to approach them within thirty or forty yards without diving. mr. fisher described them to be generally from eighteen to twenty feet in length; and he stated that he had several times heard them emit a shrill, ringing sound, not unlike that of musical glasses when badly played; this sound, he farther observed, was most distinctly heard when they happened to swim directly beneath the boat, even when they were several feet under water, and ceased altogether on their coming to the surface. we saw also, for the first time, one or two shoals of narwhals, called by the sailors sea-unicorns. a steady breeze springing up from the w.n.w. in the afternoon, the ships stood to the northward till we had distinctly made out that no passage to the westward could at present be found between the ice and the land. the weather having become clear about this time, we perceived that there was a large open space to the southward, where no land was visible; and for this opening, over which there was a dark water-sky, our course was now directed. since the time when we first entered sir james lancaster's sound, the sluggishness of the compasses, as well as the amount of their irregularity produced by the attraction of the ship's iron, had been found very rapidly, though uniformly, to increase as we proceeded to the westward; so much, indeed, that, for the last two days, we had been under the necessity of giving up altogether the usual observations for determining the variation of the needle on board the ships. this irregularity became more and more obvious as we now advanced to the southward, which rendered it not improbable that we were making a very near approach to the magnetic pole. for the purposes of navigation, therefore, the compasses were from this time no longer consulted; and in a few days afterward, the binnacles were removed as useless lumber from the deck to the carpenter's storeroom, where they remained during the rest of the season. a dark sky to the southwest had given us hopes of finding a westerly passage to the south of the ice along which we were now sailing; more especially as the inlet began to widen considerably as we advanced in that direction: but at three a.m. on the morning of the th, we perceived that the ice ran close in with a point of land bearing s.b.e. from us, which appeared to form the southern extremity of the eastern shore. with the increasing width of the inlet we had flattered ourselves with increasing hopes; but we soon experienced the mortification of disappointment. the prospect from the crow's-nest began to assume a very unpromising appearance, the whole of the western horizon, from north round to s.b.e., being completely covered with ice, consisting of heavy and extensive floes, beyond which no indication of water was visible; instead of which there was a bright and dazzling iceblink extending from shore to shore. the western coast of the inlet, however, trended much more to the westward than before, and no land was visible to the southwest, though the horizon was so clear in that quarter, that, if any had existed of moderate height, it might have been easily seen at this time at the distance of ten or twelve leagues. from these circumstances, the impression received at the time was, that the land, both on the eastern and western side of this inlet, would be one day found to consist of islands. a breeze sprung up from the northward on the morning of the th, but the weather was so foggy for some hours that we did not know in what direction it was blowing. as soon as the fog cleared away, so as to enable us to see a mile or two around us, we found that the floe to which we had anchored was drifting fast down upon another body of ice to leeward, threatening to enclose the ships between them. we therefore cast off and made sail, in order to beat to the northward, which we found great difficulty in doing, owing to the quantity of loose ice with which this part of the inlet was now covered. a remarkably thick fog obscured the eastern land from our view this evening at the distance of five or six miles, while the western coast was distinctly visible at four times that distance. the weather was beautifully calm and clear on the th, when, being near an opening in the eastern shore, i took the opportunity of examining it in a boat. it proved to be a bay, a mile wide at its entrance, and three miles deep in an e.b.s. direction, having a small but snug cove on the north side, formed by an island, between which and the main land is a bar of rocks, which completely shelters the cove from sea or drift ice. we found the water so deep, that in rowing close along the shore we could seldom get bottom with seven fathoms of line. the cliffs on the south side of this bay, to which i gave the name of port bowen, resemble, in many places, ruined towers and battlements; and fragments of the rocks were constantly falling from above. at the head of the bay is an extensive piece of low flat ground, intersected by numerous rivulets, which, uniting at a short distance from the beach, formed a deep and rapid stream, near the mouth of which we landed. this spot was, i think, the most barren i ever saw, the ground being almost entirely covered with small pieces of slaty limestone, among which no vegetation appeared for more than a mile, to which distance mr. ross and myself walked inland, following the banks of the stream. among the fragments we picked up one piece of limestone, on which was the impression of a fossil-shell. we saw here a great number of young black guillemots, and a flock of ducks, which we supposed to be of the eider species. the narwhals were here very numerous; these animals appear fond of remaining with their backs exposed above the surface of the water, in the same manner as the whale, but for a much longer time, and we frequently also observed their horns erect, and quite stationary for several minutes together. the whole of the th was occupied in an unsuccessful attempt to find an opening in the ice to the westward, which remained perfectly close and compact, with a bright iceblink over it. the ice continued in the same unfavourable state on the th; and being desirous of turning to some account this vexatious but unavoidable detention, i left the ship, accompanied by captain sabine and mr. hooper, in order to make some observations on shore, and directed lieutenant liddon to send a boat from the griper for the same purpose. we landed in one of the numerous valleys or ravines which occur on this part of the coast, and at a few miles' distance very much resemble bays, being bounded by high hills that have the appearance of bluff headlands. we ascended with some difficulty the hill on the south side of the ravine, which is very steep, and covered with innumerable detached blocks of limestone, some of which are constantly rolling down from above, and afford a very insecure footing. from the top of this hill, which is about six or seven feet above the level of the sea, and commands an extensive view to the westward, the prospect was by no means favourable to the immediate accomplishment of our object. no water could be seen over the ice to the northwest, and a bright and dazzling blink covered the whole space comprised between the islands and the north shore. it was a satisfaction, however, to find that no _land_ appeared which was likely to impede our progress; and we had been too much accustomed to the obstruction occasioned by ice, and too well aware of the suddenness with which that obstruction is often removed, to be at all discouraged by present appearances. on the top of this hill we deposited a bottle containing a short notice of our visit, and raised over it a small mound of stones; of these we found no want, for the surface was covered with small pieces of schistose limestone, and nothing like soil or vegetation could be seen. on the th we had a fresh breeze from the s.s.w., with so thick a fog that, in spite of the most unremitting attention to the sails and the steerage, the ships were constantly receiving heavy shocks from the loose masses of ice with which the sea was covered, and which, in the present state of the weather, could not be distinguished at a sufficient distance to avoid them. on the weather clearing up in the afternoon, we saw for the first time a remarkable bluff headland, which forms the northeastern point of the entrance into prince regent's inlet, and to which i gave the name of cape york. a little to the eastward of cape fellfoot, we observed six stripes of snow near the top of the cliff, being very conspicuous at a great distance, when viewed from the southward. these stripes, which are formed by the drift of snow between the buttress-like projections before described, and which remained equally conspicuous on our return the following year, have probably at all times much the same appearance, at least about this season of the year, and may, on this account, perhaps, be deemed worthy of notice as a landmark. there being still no prospect of getting a single mile to the westward, in the neighbourhood of prince leopold's islands, and a breeze having freshened up from the eastward in the afternoon, i determined to stand over once more towards the northern shore, in order to try what could there be done towards effecting our passage; and at nine p.m., after beating for several hours among floes and streams of ice, we got into clear water near that coast, where we found some swell from the eastward. there was just light enough at midnight to enable us to read and write in the cabin. the wind and sea increased on the th, with a heavy fall of snow, which, together with the uselessness of the compasses, and the narrow space in which we were working between the ice and the land, combined to make our situation for several hours a very unpleasant one. on the st we had nothing to impede our progress but the want of wind, the great opening through, which we had hitherto proceeded from baffin's bay being now so perfectly clear of ice, that it was impossible to believe it to be the same part of the sea, which, but a day or two before, had been completely covered with floes to the utmost extent of our view. in the forenoon we picked up a small piece of wood, which appeared to have been the end of a boat's yard, and which caused sundry amusing speculations among our gentlemen; some of whom had just come to the very natural conclusion that a ship had been here before us, and that, therefore, we were not entitled to the honour of the first discovery of that part of the sea on which we were now sailing; when a stop was suddenly put to this and other ingenious inductions by the information of one of the seamen, that he had dropped it out of his boat a fortnight before. i could not get him to recollect exactly the day on which it had been dropped, but what he stated was sufficient to convince me that we were not at that time more than ten or twelve leagues from our present situation; perhaps not half so much; and that, therefore, here was no current setting constantly in any one direction. we perceived, as we proceeded, that the land along which we were sailing, and which, with the exception of some small inlets, had appeared to be hitherto continuous from baffin's bay, began now to trend much to the northward, beyond beechey island, leaving a large open space between that coast and the distant land to the westward, which now appeared like an island, of which the extremes to the north and south were distinctly visible. the latter was a remarkable headland, having at its extremity two small table-hills, somewhat resembling boats turned bottom upward, and was named cape hotham. at sunset we had a clear and extensive view to the northward, between cape hotham and the eastern land. on the latter, several headlands were discovered and named; between the northernmost of these, called cape bowden, and the island to the westward, there was a channel of more than eight leagues in width, in which neither land nor ice could be seen from the masthead. to this noble channel i gave the name of wellington. the arrival off this grand opening was an event for which we had long been looking with much anxiety and impatience; for the continuity of land to the northward had always been a source of uneasiness to us, principally from the possibility that it might take a turn to the southward and unite with the coast of america. the appearance of this broad opening, free from ice, and of the land on each side of it, more especially that on the west, leaving scarcely a doubt on our minds of the latter being an island, relieved us from all anxiety on that score; and every one felt that we were now finally disentangled from the land which forms the western side of baffin's bay; and that, in fact, we had actually entered the polar sea. though two thirds of the month of august had now elapsed, i had every reason to be satisfied with the progress which we had hitherto made. i calculated upon the sea being navigable for six weeks to come, and probably more, if the state of the ice would permit us to edge away to the southward in our progress westerly: our prospects, indeed, were truly exhilarating; the ships had suffered no injury; we had plenty of provisions; crews in high health and spirits; a sea, if not open, at least navigable; and a zealous and unanimous determination, in both officers and men, to accomplish, by all possible means, the grand object on which we had the happiness to be employed. chapter iii. favourable appearances of an open westerly passage.--land to the northward, a series of islands.--general appearance of them.--meet with some obstruction from low islands surrounded with ice.--remains of esquimaux huts, and natural productions of byam martin island.--tedious navigation from fogs and ice.--difficulty of steering a proper course.--arrival and landing on melville island.--proceed to the westward, and reach the meridian of ° w. long., the first stage in the scale of rewards granted by act of parliament. a calm which prevailed during the night kept us quite stationary till three a.m. on the d, when a fresh breeze sprung up from the northward, and all sail was made for cape hotham, to the southward of which it was now my intention to seek a direct passage towards behring's strait. wellington channel, to the northward of us, was as open and navigable to the utmost extent of our view as any part of the atlantic; but as it lay at right angles to our coarse, and there was still an opening at least ten leagues wide to the southward of cornwallis island, i could have no hesitation in deciding which of the two it was our business to pursue. it is impossible to conceive anything more animating than the quick and unobstructed run with which we were favoured, from beechey island across to cape hotham. most men have, probably, at one time or another, experienced that elevation of spirits which is usually produced by rapid motion of any kind; and it will readily be conceived how much this feeling was heightened in us, in the few instances in which it occurred, by the slow and tedious manner in which the greater part of our navigation had been performed in these seas. at noon we had reached the longitude of ° ' ", the latitude by observation being ° ' ", when we found that the land which then formed the western extreme on this side was a second island, which i called griffith island. the ice in this neighbourhood was covered with innumerable "hummocks," and the floes were from seven to ten feet in thickness. after various unsuccessful attempts to get through the ice which now lay in our way, we were at length so fortunate as to accomplish this object by "boring" through a number of heavy "streams," which occasioned the ships to receive many severe shocks; and, at half an hour before midnight, we were able to, pursue our course, through "sailing ice," to the westward. the weather was at this time remarkably serene and clear; and although we saw a line of ice to the southward of us, lying in a direction nearly east and west, or parallel to the course on which we were steering, and some more land appeared to the westward, yet the space of open water was still so broad, and the prospect from the masthead, upon the whole, so flattering, that i thought the chances of our separation had now become greater than before; and i therefore considered it right to furnish lieutenant liddon with fresh instructions, and to appoint some new place of rendezvous in case of unavoidable separation from the hecla. at ten o'clock, after having had a clear view of the ice and of the land about sunset, and finding that there was at present no passage to the westward, we hauled off to the southeast, in the hope of finding some opening in the ice to the southward, by which we might get round in the desired direction. we were encouraged in this hope by a dark "water-sky" to the southward; but, after running along the ice till half past eleven without perceiving any opening, we again bore up. there was in this neighbourhood a great deal of that particular kind of ice called by the sailors "dirty ice," on the surface of which were strewed sand, stones, and, in some instances, moss: ice of this kind must, of course, at one time or other, have been in close contact with the land. at ten a.m. i despatched captain sabine and mr. ross to the eastern point of the island, which we were about to round in the ships, in order to make the necessary observations, and to examine the natural productions of the shore. our latitude at noon was ° ' ", long. ° ' ", and the depth of water forty fathoms. the gentlemen reported, on their return, that they had landed on a sandy beach, near the east point of the island, which they found to be more productive, and altogether more interesting, than any other part of the shores of the polar regions which we had yet visited. the remains of esquimaux habitations were found in four different places. six of these, which captain sabine had an opportunity of examining, and which are situated on a level sandy bank, at the side of a small ravine near the sea, are described by him as consisting of stones rudely placed in a circular, or, rather, an elliptical form. they were from seven to ten feet in diameter; the broad, flat sides of the stones standing vertically, and the whole structure, if such it may be called, being exactly similar to that of the summer huts of the esquimaux which we had seen at hare island the preceding year. attached to each of them was a smaller circle, generally four or five feet in diameter, which had probably been the fireplace. the small circles were placed indifferently as to their direction from the huts to which they belonged; and from the moss and sand which covered some of the lower stones, particularly those which composed the flooring of the huts, the whole encampment appeared to have been deserted for several years. very recent traces of the reindeer and musk-ox were seen in many places; and a head of the latter, with several reindeers' horns, was brought on board. a few patches of snow remained in sheltered situations; the ravines, however, which were numerous, bore the signs of recent and considerable floods, and their bottoms were swampy, and covered with very luxuriant moss and other vegetation, the character of which differed very little from that of the land at the bottom of possession bay. the dip of the magnetic needle was ° ' ", and the variation was now found to have changed from ° ' west, in the longitude of ° ', where our last observations on shore had been made, to ° ' " east, at our present station; so that we had, in sailing over the space included between those two meridians, crossed immediately to the northward of the magnetic pole and had undoubtedly passed over one of those spots upon the globe where the needle would have been found to vary °, or, in other words, where its north pole would have pointed due south. the wind became very light from the eastward, and the weather continued so foggy that nothing could be done during the night but to stand off-and-on, by the soundings, between the ice and the land. on the th, after a few hours of clear weather, the fog came on again as thick as before; fortunately, however, we had previously been enabled to take notice of several pieces of ice, by steering for each of which in succession we came to the edge of a floe, along which our course was to be pursued to the westward. as long as we had this guidance, we advanced with great confidence; but as soon as we came to the end of the floe, which then turned off to the southward, the circumstances under which we were sailing were perhaps such as have never occurred since the early days of navigation. to the northward was the land; the ice, as we supposed, to the southward; the compasses useless; and the sun completely obscured by a fog so thick, that the griper could only now and then be seen at a cable's length astern. we had literally, therefore, no mode, of regulating our course but by once more trusting to the steadiness of the wind; and it was not a little amusing, as well as novel, to see the quartermaster conning the ship by looking at the dogvane. the weather cleared a little at intervals, but not enough to enable us to proceed till nine a.m. on the st, when we cast off from the ice, with a very light air from the northward. we occasionally caught a glimpse of land through the heavy fog-banks with which the horizon was covered, which was sufficient to give us an idea of the true direction in which we ought to steer. soon after noon we were once more enveloped in a fog, which, however, was not so thick as to prevent our having recourse to a new expedient for steering the ships, which circumstances at the time naturally suggested to our minds. before the fog recommenced, and while we were sailing on the course which, by the bearings of the land, we knew to be the right one, the griper was exactly astern of the hecla, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile. the weather being fortunately not so thick as to prevent our still seeing her at that distance, the quartermaster was directed to stand aft, near the taffrail, and to keep her constantly astern of us, by which means we contrived to steer a tolerably straight course to the westward. the griper, on the other hand, naturally kept the hecla right ahead; and thus, however ridiculous it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that we steered one ship entirely by the other for a distance of ten miles out of sixteen and a half, which we sailed between one and eleven p.m. the wind died away on the morning of the st of september, and the fog was succeeded by snow and sleet, which still rendered the atmosphere extremely thick. at a quarter before four a.m., i was informed by the officer of the watch that a breeze had sprung up, and that there was very little ice near the ships. anxious to take advantage of these favourable circumstances, i directed all sail to be made to the westward: there was no difficulty in complying with the first part of this order; but to ascertain which way the wind was blowing, and to which quarter of the horizon the ship's head was to be directed, was a matter of no such easy accomplishment; nor could we devise any means of determining this question till five o'clock, when we obtained a sight of the sun through the fog, and were thus enabled to shape our course, the wind being moderate from the northward. at one a.m. on the d, a star was seen, being the first that had been visible to us for more than two months. as we were making no way to the westward, i left the ship, accompanied by a large party of officers and men, and was soon after joined by the griper's boats. the basis of this land is sandstone; but we met with limestone also, occurring in loose pieces on the surface, and several lumps of coal were brought in by the parties who had traversed the island in different directions. our sportsmen were by no means successful, having seen only two deer, which were too wild to allow them to get near them. the dung of these animals, however, as well as that of the musk-ox, was very abundant, especially in those places where the moss was most luxuriant; every here and there we came to a spot of this kind, consisting of one or two acres of ground, covered with a rich vegetation, which was evidently the feeding-place of those animals, there being quantities of their hair and wool lying scattered about. several heads of the musk-ox were picked up, and one of the hecla's seamen brought to the boat a narwhal's horn, which he found on a hill more than a mile from the sea, and which must have been carried thither by esquimaux or by bears: three or four brace of ptarmigan were killed, and these were the only supply of this kind which we obtained. we found no indication of this part of the island having been inhabited, unless the narwhal's horn be considered as such. the wind continued light and variable till half past eight a.m. on the d, when a breeze from the northward once more enabled us to make some progress. i was the more anxious to do so from having perceived that the main ice had, for the last twenty-four hours, been gradually, though slowly, closing on the shore, thereby contracting the scarcely navigable channel in which we were sailing. the land which formed our western extreme was a low point, five miles to the westward of our place of observation the preceding day, which i named point ross, and the ice had already approached this point so much that there was considerable doubt whether any passage could be found between them. we had scarcely cleared the point when the wind failed us, and the boats were immediately sent ahead to tow, but a breeze springing up shortly after from the westward, obliged us to have recourse to another method of gaining ground, which we had not hitherto practised: this was by using small anchors and whale-lines as warps, by which means we made great progress, till, at forty minutes after noon, we were favoured by a fresh breeze, which soon took us into an open space of clear water to the northward and westward. a little to the westward of point ross there was a barrier of ice, composed of heavy masses firmly fixed to the ground at nearly regular intervals for about a mile, in a direction parallel to the beach. at right angles to this a second tier projected, of the same kind of ice, extending to the shore, so that the two together formed a most complete harbour, within which, i believe, a ship might have been placed in case of necessity, without much danger from the pressure of the external floes of ice. it was natural for us to keep in view the possibility of our being obliged to pass the ensuing winter in such a harbour; and it must be confessed, that the apparent practicability of finding such tolerable security for the ships as this artificial harbour afforded, should we fail in discovering a more safe and regular anchorage, added not a little to the confidence with which our operations were carried on during the remainder of the season. at a quarter past nine p.m. we had the satisfaction of crossing the meridian of ° west from greenwich, in the latitude of ° ' "; by which his majesty's ships under my orders became entitled to the sum of five thousand pounds, being the reward offered to such of his majesty's subjects as might succeed in penetrating thus far to the westward within the arctic circle. in order to commemorate the success which had hitherto attended our exertions, the bluff headland which we had just passed was subsequently called by the men bounty cape; by which name i have therefore distinguished it on the chart. the wind increasing to a fresh gale from the northward in the afternoon, and the ice still continuing to oppose an impenetrable barrier to our farther progress, i determined to beat up to the northern shore of the bay, and, if a tolerable roadstead could be found, to drop our anchors till some change should take place. this was accordingly done at three p.m., in seven fathoms' water. this roadstead, which i called the bay of the hecla and griper, affords very secure shelter with the wind from e.n.e. round by north to s.w., and we found it more free from ice than any other part of the southern coast of the island. the bay of the hecla and griper was the first spot where we had dropped anchor since leaving the coast of norfolk; a circumstance which was rendered the more striking to us at the moment, as it appeared to mark, in a very decided manner, the completion of one stage of our voyage. the ensigns and pendants were hoisted as soon as we had anchored, and it created in us no ordinary feelings of pleasure to see the british flag waving for the first time in these regions, which had hitherto been considered beyond the limits of the habitable part of the world. chapter iv. further examination of melville island.--continuation of our progress to the westward.--long detention by the ice.--party sent on shore to hunt deer and musk-oxen.--return in three days, after losing their way.--anxiety on their account.--proceed to the westward till finally stopped by the ice.--in returning to the eastward, the griper forced on the beach by the ice.--search for, and discovery of, a winter harbour on melville island.--operations for securing the ships in their winter quarters. as the wind still continued to blow strong from the northward on the morning of the th, without any appearance of opening a passage for us past cape hearne, i took the opportunity of sending all our boats from both ships at eight a.m., to bring on board a quantity of moss-peat which our gentlemen reported having found near a small lake at no great distance from the sea, and which i directed to be substituted for part of our usual allowance of coals. captain sabine also went on shore to make the requisite observations; and several of the officers of both ships to sport, and to collect specimens of natural history. the wind beginning to moderate soon after noon, and there being at length some appearance of motion in the ice near cape hearne, the boats were immediately recalled from the shore, and returned at two p.m., bringing some peat, which was found to burn tolerably, but a smaller quantity than i had hoped to procure. we then made sail for cape hearne, which we rounded at six o'clock, having no soundings with from seventeen to twenty fathoms of line, at the distance of a mile and a quarter from the point. i was beginning once more to indulge in those flattering hopes, of which often-repeated disappointments cannot altogether deprive us, when i perceived from the crow's-nest a compact body of ice, extending completely in to the shore near the point which formed the western extreme. we ran sufficiently close to be assured that no passage to the westward could at present be effected, the floes being literally upon the beach, and not a drop of clear water being visible beyond them. i then ordered the ships to be made fast to a floe, being in eighty fathoms' water, at the distance of four or five miles from the beach. the season had now so far advanced as to make it absolutely necessary to secure the ships every night from ten till two o'clock, the weather being too dark during that interval to allow of our keeping under way in such a navigation as this, deprived as we were of the use of compasses. on the morning of the th, there being no prospect of any immediate alteration in the ice, i directed the boats to be sent on shore from both ships, to endeavour to procure some game, as well as to examine the productions of this part of the island. on going to the masthead, shortly after the boats had been despatched, i found that the bight of ice in which the ships were lying was not one floe, but formed by the close junction of two, so that our situation was by no means so secure as i had supposed for this bight was so far from being a protection to us, in case of ice driving on shore, that it would probably be the means of "nipping" us between the floes which formed it. i therefore determined on immediately removing the ships in-shore, and went in a boat to look out for a place for that purpose, there being no alternative between this and our returning some distance to the eastward, into the larger space of clear water which we had there left behind us. i found that a heavy piece of ice aground in twelve fathoms, at the distance of three hundred yards from the beach, would suit our purpose for the hecla, and another, in ten fathoms, still nearer in-shore, was selected for the griper. these masses were from twenty to thirty feet above the sea, and each about the length of the respective ships. at four p.m., the weather being quite calm, the ships were towed in-shore by the boats, and made fast in the places selected for them. impatient and anxious as we were to make the most of the short remainder of the present season, our mortification will easily be imagined at perceiving, on the morning of the th, not only that the ice was as close as ever to the westward, but that the floes in our immediate neighbourhood were sensibly approaching the shore. as there was no chance, therefore, of our being enabled to move, i sent a party on shore at daylight to collect what coal they could find, and in the course of the day, nearly two thirds of a bushel, being about equal to the hecla's daily expenditure, was brought on board. our sportsmen, who were out for several hours, could only procure us a hare and a few ducks. on the th there was no alteration in the ice near the ships and mr. bushnan, whom i despatched at daylight to the western cape, reported on his return, that appearances were equally unpromising in that quarter. mr. dealy was fortunate enough to kill the first musk-ox that our sportsmen had yet been able to get near; but, as it was at the distance of eight or ten miles from the ships, our present situation with regard to the ice would not allow of my sending a party of men to bring it on board. a piece of the meat which mr. dealy brought with him was considered to taste tolerably well, but its smell was by no means tempting. i must now mention an occurrence which had caused considerable apprehension in our minds for the last two days, and the result of which had very nearly proved of very serious importance to the future welfare of the expedition. early on the morning of the th i received a note from lieutenant liddon, acquainting me that, at daylight on the preceding day, mr. fife, with a party of six men, had been despatched from the griper, with the hope of surprising some reindeer and musk-oxen, whose tracks had been seen in a ravine to the westward of the ships. as they had not yet returned, in compliance with the instructions given to mr. fife, and had only been supplied with a small quantity of provisions, it was natural to apprehend that they had lost their way in pursuit of game. i therefore recommended to lieutenant liddon to send a party in search of his people, and messrs. reid, beverly, and wakeham, who immediately volunteered their services on the occasion, were accordingly despatched for this purpose. soon after their departure, however, it began to snow, which rendered the atmosphere so extremely thick, especially on the hills along which they had to travel, that this party also lost their way, in spite of every precaution, but fortunately got sight of our rockets after dark, by which they were directed to the ships, and returned at ten o'clock, almost exhausted with cold and fatigue, without any intelligence of the absentees. at daylight on the following morning, i sent lieutenant hoppner, with the heck's fore-royal-mast rigged as a flagstaff, which he erected on a conspicuous hill four or five miles inland, hoisting upon it a large ensign, which might be seen at a considerable distance in every direction. this expedient occurred to us as a more certain mode of directing our absentees towards the ships than that of sending out a number of parties, which i could not, in common prudence as well as humanity, permit to go to any great distance from the ships; but the snow fell so thick, and the drift was so great during the whole of the th, that no advantage could at that time be expected from it, and another night came without the absent party appearing. our apprehensions on their account was by this time increased to a most painful degree, and i therefore ordered four parties, under the command of careful officers, to be prepared to set out in search of them the following morning. these parties carried with them a number of pikes, having small flags attached to them, which they were directed to plant at regular intervals, and which were intended to answer the double purpose of guiding themselves on their return and of directing the absent party, should they meet with them, to the ships. for the latter purpose a bottle was fixed to each pike, containing the necessary directions for their guidance, and acquainting them that provisions would be found at the large flagstaff on the hill. our searching parties left the ships soon after daylight, the wind still blowing hard from the westward, with incessant snow, and the thermometer at °. this weather continued without intermission during the day, and our apprehensions for the safety of our people were excited to a most alarming degree, when the sun began to descend behind the western hills for the third time since they had left the ship; i will not, therefore, attempt to describe the joyful feelings we suddenly experienced, on the griper's hoisting the signal appointed, to inform us that her men, or a part of them, were seen on their return. soon, after we observed seven persons coming along the beach to the eastward, who proved to be mr. nias and his party, with four out of the seven men belonging to the griper. from the latter, consisting of a corporal of marines and three seamen, we learned that they had lost their way within a few hours after leaving the ship, and had wandered about without anything to guide them till about ten o'clock on the following day, when they descried the large flagstaff at a great distance. at this time the whole party were together; but now unfortunately separated, in consequence of a difference of opinion respecting the flagstaff, which mr. fife mistook for a smaller one that had been erected some days before at a considerable distance to the eastward of our present situation; and with that impression, walked away in a contrary direction, accompanied by two of his men. the other four, who had now returned (of whom two were already much debilitated), determined to make for the flagstaff. when they had walked some distance and were enabled to ascertain what it was, one of them endeavoured to overtake mr. fife, but was too much fatigued, and returned to his comrades. they halted during a part of the night, made a sort of hut of stones and turf to shelter them from the weather, and kindled a little fire with gunpowder and moss to warm their feet; they had never been in actual want of food, having lived upon raw grouse, of which they were enabled to obtain a quantity sufficient for their subsistence. in the morning they once more set forward towards the flagstaff, which they reached within three or four hours after lieutenant beechey had left some provisions on the spot; having eaten some bread, and drunk a little rum and water, a mixture which they described as perfectly tasteless and clammy, they renewed their journey towards the ships, and had not proceeded far, when, notwithstanding the snow which was constantly falling, they met with footsteps which directed them to mr. nias and his party, by whom they were conducted to the ships. the account they gave us of mr. fife and his two companions led us to believe that we should find them, if still living, at a considerable distance to the westward; and some parties were just about to set out in that direction, when the trouble and anxiety which this mistake would have occasioned us were prevented by the arrival of another of the searching parties, with the information that mr. fife and the two men were on their way to the ships, being about five miles to the eastward. some fresh hands were, immediately sent to bring them in, and they arrived on board at ten p.m. after an absence of ninety-one hours, and having been exposed during three nights to the inclemency of the first wintry weather we had experienced. almost the whole of this party were much exhausted by cold and fatigue, and several of them were severely frostbitten in their toes and fingers; but, by the skill and unremitted attention of our medical gentlemen, they were in a few days enabled to return to their duty. at three a.m. of tuesday, the th, the thermometer fell to °; and from this time the commencement of winter may fairly be dated. on the th i considered it a duty incumbent upon me to call for the opinions of the senior officers of the expedition as to the expediency of immediately seeking a harbour in which the ships might securely lie during the ensuing winter. the opinions of the officers entirely concurring with my own as to the propriety of immediately resorting to this measure, i determined, whenever the ice and the weather would allow, to run back to the bay of the hecla and griper, in which neighbourhood alone we had any reason to believe that a suitable harbour might be found. at half past two on the morning of the d, the night signal was made to weigh, and we began to heave at our cables; but such was the difficulty of raising our anchor and of hauling in our hawsers, owing to the stiffness of the ropes from frost and the quantity of ice which had accumulated about them, that it was five o'clock before the ships were under way. our rudder, also, was so choked by the ice which had formed about it, that it could not be moved till a boat had been hauled under the stern, and the ice beaten and cut away from it. we ran along to the eastward without any obstruction, in a channel about five miles wide, till we were within four or five miles of cape hearne, where the bay-ice, in unbroken sheets of about one third of an inch in thickness, began to offer considerable impediment to our progress. we at length, however, struck soundings with twenty-nine fathoms of line, and at eight p.m. anchored in nine fathoms, on a muddy bottom, a little to the eastward of our situation on the th. in going to the westward we passed a shoal and open bay, immediately adjacent to the harbour which we were now about to examine, and soon after came to a reef of rocks, in some parts nearly dry, extending, about three quarters of a mile to the southward of a low point on the southeastern side of the harbour. on rounding the reef, on which a quantity of heavy ice was lying aground, we found that a continuous floe, four or five inches in thickness, was formed over the whole harbour, which in every other respect appeared to be fit for our purpose; and that it would be necessary to cut a canal of two miles in length through the ice, in order to get the ships into a secure situation for the winter. we sounded the channel into the harbour about three quarters of a mile, by making holes in the ice and dropping the lead through, and found the depth from five to six fathoms. the ships weighed at six a.m. on the th. the wind being still at north, and the weather moderate and fine. as soon as the hecla was under sail, i went ahead in a boat to sound, and to select an anchorage for the ships. near the southwestern point of this harbour there is a remarkable block of sandstone, somewhat resembling the roof of a house, on which the ships names were subsequently engraved by mr. fisher. this stone is very conspicuous in coming from the eastward, and, when kept open to the southward of the grounded ice at the end of the reef, forms a good landing mark for the channel into the harbour. off the end of the reef the water deepened to six fathoms, and the hecla's anchor was dropped in eight fathoms, half a mile within the reef, and close to the edge of the ice through which the canal was to be cut. the griper arrived soon after, and by half past eight a.m. both ships were secured in the proper position for commencing the intended operations. as soon as our people had breakfasted, i proceeded with a small party of men to sound and to mark with boarding-pikes upon the ice the most direct channel we could find to the anchorage, having left directions for every other officer and man in both ships to be employed in cutting the canal. this operation was performed by first marking out two parallel lines, distant from each other a little more than the breadth of the larger ship. along each of these lines a cut was then made with an ice saw, and others again at right angles to them, at intervals of from ten to twenty feet; thus dividing the ice into a number of square pieces, which it was again necessary to subdivide diagonally, in order to give room for their being floated out of the canal. on returning from the upper part of the harbour, where i had marked out what appeared to be the best situation for our winter-quarters, i found that considerable progress had been made in cutting the canal and in floating the pieces out of it. to facilitate the latter part of the process, the seamen, who are always fond of doing things in their own way, took advantage of a fresh northerly breeze, by setting some boats sails upon the pieces of ice, a contrivance which saved both time and labour. this part of the operation, however, was by far the most troublesome, principally on account of the quantity of young ice which formed in the canal, and especially about the entrance, where, before sunset, it had become so thick that a passage could no longer be found for the detached pieces without considerable trouble in breaking it. at half past seven p.m. we weighed our anchors and began to warp up the canal, but the northerly wind blew so fresh, and the people were so much fatigued, having been almost constantly at work for nineteen hours, that it was midnight before we reached the termination of our first day's labour. all hands were again set to work on the morning of the th, when it was proposed to sink the pieces of ice, as they were cut, under the floe, instead of floating them out, the latter mode having now become impracticable on account of the lower part of the canal, through which the ships had passed, being, hard frozen during the night. to effect this, it was necessary for a certain number of men to stand upon one end of the piece of ice which it was intended to sink, while other parties, hauling at the same time upon ropes attached to the opposite end, dragged the block under that part of the floe on which the people stood. the officers of both ships took the lead in this employ, several of them standing up to their knees in water frequently during the day, with the thermometer generally at °, and never higher than °. at six p.m. we began to move the ships. the griper was made fast astern of the hecla, and the two ships' companies being divided on each bank of the canal, with ropes from the hecla's gangways, soon drew the ships along to the end of our second day's work. sunday, th.--i should on every account have been glad to make this a day of rest to the officers and men; but the rapidity with which the ice increased in thickness, in proportion as the general temperature of the atmosphere diminished, would have rendered a day's delay of serious importance. i ordered the work, therefore, to be continued at the usual time in the morning; and such was the spirited and cheerful manner in which this order was complied with, as well as the skill which had now been acquired in the art of sawing and sinking the ice, that although the thermometer was at ° in the morning, and rose no higher than ° during the day, we had completed the canal at noon, having effected more in four hours than on either of the two preceding days. the whole length of this canal was four thousand and eighty-two yards, or nearly two miles and one third, and the average thickness of the ice was seven inches. at half past one p.m. we began to track the ships along in the same manner as before, and at a quarter past three we reached our winter-quarters, and hailed the event with three loud and hearty cheers from both ships' companies. the ships were in five fathoms water, a cable's length from the beach on the northwestern side of the harbour, to which i gave the name of winter harbour; and i called the group of islands which we had discovered in the polar sea the north georgian islands. chapter v. precautions for securing the ships and stores.--for promoting good order, cleanliness, health, and good-humour among the ships' companies.--establishment of a theatre and of the north georgia gazette.--erection of an observatory on shore.--commence our winter's amusements.--state of the temperature, and various meteorological phenomena.--miscellaneous occurrences to the close of the year . having, on the th october, reached the station where, in all probability, we were destined to remain for at least eight or nine months, during three of, which we were not to see the face of the sun, my attention was immediately and imperiously called to various important duties; many of them of a singular nature, such as had, for the first time, devolved on any officer in his majesty's navy, and might, indeed, be considered of rare occurrence in the whole history of navigation. the security of the ships and the preservation of the various stores were objects of immediate concern. a regular system to be adopted for the maintenance of good order and cleanliness, as most conducive to the health of the crews during the long, dark, and dreary winter, equally demanded my attention. not a moment was lost, therefore, in the commencement of our operations. the whole of the masts were dismantled except the lower ones and the hecla's main-topmast; the lower yards were lashed fore and aft amidships, to support the planks of the housing intended to be erected over the ships; and the whole of this framework was afterward roofed over with a cloth. the boats, spars, running rigging, and sails were removed on shore; and, as soon as the ships were secured and housed over, my whole attention was directed to the health and comfort of the officers and men. the surgeon reported that not the slightest disposition to scurvy had shown itself in either ship. soon after our arrival in winter harbour, when the temperature of the atmosphere had fallen considerably below zero of fahrenheit, we found that the steam from the coppers, as well as the breath and other vapour generated in the inhabited parts of the ship, began to condense into drops upon the beams and the sides, to such a degree as to keep them constantly wet. in order to remove this serious evil, a large stone oven, cased with cast iron, in which all our bread was baked daring the winter, was placed on the main hatchway, and the stovepipe led fore and aft on one side of the lower deck, the smoke being thus carried up the fore hatchway. on the opposite side of the deck an apparatus had been attached to the galley-range for conveying a current of heated air between decks. this apparatus simply consisted of an iron box, about fifteen inches square, through which passed three pipes of two inches diameter, communicating below with the external air, and uniting above in a metal box, fixed to the side of the galley-range; to this box a copper stovepipe was attached, and conveyed to the middle part of the lower deck. when a fire was made under the air-vessel, the air became heated in its passage through the three pipes, from which it was conveyed through the stovepipe to the men's berths. while this apparatus was in good order, a moderate fire produced a current of air of the temperature of °, at the distance of seventeen feet from the fireplace; and with a pipe of wood, or any other imperfect conductor of heat, which would not allow of its escaping by the way, it might undoubtedly be carried to a much greater distance. by these means we were enabled to get rid of the moisture about the berths where the people messed; but when the weather became more severely cold, it still accumulated in the bed places occasionally to a serious and very alarming degree. among the means employed to prevent the injurious effects arising from this annoyance, one of the most efficacious, perhaps, was a screen made of fearnaught, fixed to the beams round the galley, and dropping within eighteen inches of the deck, which served to intercept the steam from the coppers, and prevent it, as before, from curling along the beams, and condensing upon them into drops. for the preservation of health, and as a necessary measure of economy, a few alterations were made in the quantity and quality of the provisions issued. i directed the allowance of bread to be permanently reduced to two thirds, a precaution which, perhaps, it would have been as well to adopt from the commencement of the voyage. a pound of preserved meat, together with one pint of vegetable or concentrated soup per man, was substituted for one pound of salt beef weekly; a proportion of beer and wine was served in lieu of spirits; and a small quantity of sourkrout and pickles, with as much vinegar as could be used, was issued at regular intervals. the daily proportion of lime-juice and sugar was mixed together, and with a proper quantity of water, was drunk by each man in presence of an officer appointed to attend to this duty. this latter precaution may appear to have been unnecessary to those who are not aware how much sailors resemble children in all those points in which their own health and comfort are concerned. whenever any game was procured, it was directed to be invariably served in lieu of, and not in addition to, the established allowance of other meat, except in a few extraordinary cases; when such an indulgence was allowed; and in no one instance, either in quantity or quality, was the slightest preference given to the officers. great attention was paid to the clothing of the men, and one day in the week was appointed for the examination of the men's shins and gums by the medical gentlemen, in order that any slight appearance of the scurvy might at once be detected, and checked by timely and adequate means. under circumstances of leisure and inactivity, such as we were now placed in, and with every prospect of its continuance for a very large portion of the year, i was desirous of finding some amusement for the men during this long and tedious interval. i proposed, therefore, to the officers to get up a play occasionally on board the hecla, as the readiest means of preserving among our crews that cheerfulness and good-humour which had hitherto subsisted. in this proposal i was readily seconded by the officers of both ships; and lieutenant beechey having been duly elected as stage-manager, our first performance was fixed for the th of november, to the great delight of the ships' companies. in these amusements i gladly undertook a part myself, considering that an example of cheerfulness, by giving a direct countenance to everything that could contribute to it, was not the least essential part of my duty, under the peculiar circumstances in which we were placed. in order still farther to promote good-humour among ourselves, as well as to furnish amusing occupation during the hours of constant darkness, we set on foot a weekly newspaper, which was to be called the _north georgia gazette and winter chronicle_, and of which captain sabine undertook to be the editor, under the promise that it was to be supported by original contributions from the officers of the two ships: and i can safely say, that the weekly contributions had the happy effect of employing the leisure hours of those who furnished them, and of diverting the mind from the gloomy prospect which would sometimes obtrude itself on the stoutest heart. immediately on our arrival in harbour, captain sabine had employed himself in selecting a place for the observatory, which was erected in a convenient spot, about seven hundred yards to the westward of the ships. it was also considered advisable immediately to set about building a house near the beach for the reception of the clocks and instruments. for this purpose we made use of a quantity of fir-plank, which was intended for the construction of spare boats, and which was so cut as not to injure it for that purpose. the ground was so hard frozen that it required great labour to dig holes for the upright posts which formed the support of the sides. the walls of this house being double, with moss placed between the two, a high temperature could, even in the severest weather which we might be doomed to experience, be kept up in it without difficulty by a single stove. after our arrival in port we saw several reindeer and a few coveys of grouse; but the country is so destitute of everything like cover of any kind, that our sportsmen were not successful in their hunting excursions, and we procured only three reindeer previous to the migration of these and the other animals from the island, which took place before the close of the month of october, leaving only the wolves and foxes to bear us company during the winter. the full-grown deer which we killed in the autumn, gave us from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and seventy pounds of meat each, and a fawn weighed eighty-four pounds. on the st of october, captain sabine's servant, having been at some distance from the ships to examine a fox-trap, was pursued by a large white bear, which followed his footsteps the whole way to the ships, where he was wounded by several balls, but made his escape after all. this bear, which was the only one we saw during our stay in winter harbour, was observed to be more purely white than any we had before seen, the colour of these animals being generally that of a dirtyish yellow when contrasted with the whiteness of the ice and snow. some deer being seen near the ships on the th, a party was despatched after them, some of whom having wounded a stag, and being led on by the ardour of pursuit, forgot my order that every person should be on board before sunset, and did not return till late, after we had suffered much apprehension their account. john pearson, a marine belonging to the griper, who was the last that returned on board, had his hands severely frostbitten, having imprudently gone away without mittens, and with a musket in his hand. a party of our people most providentially found him, although the night was very dark, just as he had fallen down a steep bank of snow, and was beginning to feel that degree of torpor and drowsiness which, if indulged, inevitably proves fatal. when he was brought on board his fingers were quite stiff, and bent into the shape of that part of the musket which he had been carrying; and the frost had so far destroyed the animation in his fingers on one hand, that it was necessary to amputate three of them a short time after, notwithstanding all the care and attention paid to him by the medical gentlemen. the effect which exposure to severe frost has in benumbing the mental as well as the corporeal faculties, was very striking in this man, as well as in two of the young gentlemen who returned after dark, and of whom we were anxious to make inquiries respecting pearson. when i sent for them into my cabin, they looked wild, spoke thick and indistinctly, and it was impossible to draw from them a rational answer to any of our questions. after being on board for a short time, the mental faculties appeared gradually to return with the returning circulation, and it was not till then that a looker-on could easily persuade himself that they had not been drinking too freely. in order to guard in some measure against the danger of persons losing their way, which was more and more to be apprehended as the days became shorter and the ground more covered with snow, which gives such a dreary sameness to the country, we erected on all the hills within two or three miles of the harbour, finger-posts pointing towards the ships. i have before remarked that all the water which we made use of while within the polar circle was procured from snow either naturally or artificially dissolved. soon after the ships were laid up for the winter, it was necessary to have recourse entirely to the latter process, which added materially to the expenditure of fuel during the winter months. the snow for this purpose was dug out of the drifts which had formed upon the ice round the ships, and dissolved in the coppers. we found it necessary always to strain the water thus procured, on account of the sand which the heavy snowdrifts brought from the island, after which it was quite pure and wholesome. on the th it blew a strong gale from the northward, accompanied by such a constant snowdrift, that, although the weather was quite clear overhead, the boathouse at the distance of three or four hundred yards could scarcely be seen from the ships. on such occasions no person was permitted on any account to leave the ships. indeed, when this snowdrift occurred, as it frequently did in the winter, with a hard gale and the thermometer very low, i believe that no human being could have remained alive after an hour's exposure to it. in order, therefore, to secure a communication between the two ships, a distance not exceeding half a cable's length, as well as from the ships to the house on shore, a line was kept extended, as a guide from one to the other. the meridian, altitude of the sun was observed this day by an artificial horizon, which i noticed from the circumstance of its being the last time we had an opportunity of observing it for about four months. on the th the sun afforded us sufficient light or writing and reading in my cabin, the stern-windows exactly facing the south, from half past nine till half past two; for the rest of the four-and-twenty hours, we lived, of course, by candle-light. nothing could exceed the beauty of the sky to the southeast and southwest at sunrise and sunset about this period: near the horizon there was generally a rich bluish purple and a bright arch of deep red above, the one mingling imperceptibly with the other. it now became rather a painful experiment to touch any metallic substance in the open air with the naked hand; the feeling produced by it exactly resembling that occasioned by the opposite extreme of intense heat, and taking off the skin from the part affected. we found it necessary, therefore, to use great caution in handling our sextants and other instruments, particularly the eye-pieces of telescopes, which, if suffered to touch the face, occasioned an intense burning pain; but this was easily remedied by covering them over with soft leather. another effect, with regard to the use of instruments, began to appear about this time. whenever any instrument which had been some time exposed to the atmosphere, so as to be cooled down to the same temperature, was suddenly brought below into the cabins, the vapour was instantly condensed all around it, so as to give the instrument the appearance of smoking, and the glasses were covered almost instantly with a thin coating of ice, the removal of which required great caution, to prevent the risk of injuring them, until it had gradually thawed, as they acquired the temperature of the cabin. when a candle was placed in a certain direction from the instrument with respect to the observer, a number of very minute _spiculæ_ of snow were also seen sparkling around the instrument, at the distance of two or three inches from it, occasioned, as we supposed, by the cold atmosphere produced by the low temperature of the instrument almost instantaneously congealing into that form the vapour which floated in its immediate neighbourhood. the th of november being the last day that the sun would, independently of the effects of refraction, be seen above our horizon till the th of february, an interval of ninety-six days, it was a matter of considerable regret to us that the weather about this time was not sufficiently clear to allow us to see and make observations on the disappearance of that luminary, in order that something might be attempted towards determining the amount of the atmospheric refraction at a low temperature. but though we were not permitted to take a last farewell, for at least three months, of that cheering orb, "of this great world both eye and soul," we nevertheless felt that this day constituted an important and memorable epoch in our voyage. we had some time before set about the preparations for our winter's amusements; and the theatre being ready, we opened on the th november, with the representation of _miss in her teens_, which afforded to the men such a fund of amusement as fully to justify the expectations we had formed of the utility of theatrical entertainments under our present circumstances, and to determine me to follow them up at stated periods. i found, indeed, that even the occupation of fitting up the theatre and taking it to pieces again, which employed a number of the men for a day or two before and after each performance, was a matter of no little importance, when the immediate duties of the ship appeared by no means sufficient for that purpose; for i dreaded the want of employment as one of the worst evils that was likely to befall us. about the time of the sun's leaving us, the wolves began to approach the ships more boldly, howling most piteously on the beach near us, sometimes for hours together, and on one or two occasions coming alongside the ships, when everything was quiet at night; but we seldom saw more than one or two together, and therefore could form no idea of their number. these animals were always very shy of coming near our people; and though evidently suffering much from hunger, never attempted to attack any of them. the white foxes used also to visit the ships at night, and one of these was caught in a trap set under the griper's bows. the uneasiness displayed by this beautiful little animal during the time of his confinement, whenever he heard the howling of a wolf near the ships, impressed us with the opinion that the latter is in the habit of hunting the fox as his prey. the temperature of the atmosphere having about this time become considerably lower than before, the cracking of the timbers was very frequent and loud for a time; but generally ceased altogether in an hour or two after this fall had taken place in the thermometer, and did not occur again at the same temperature during the winter. the wind blowing fresh from the northward, with a heavy snowdrift, made the ship very cold below; so that the breath and other vapour accumulated during the night in the bed places and upon the beams, and then immediately froze; hence it often occupied all hands for two or three hours during the day to scrape the ice away, in order to prevent the bedding from becoming wet by the increase of temperature occasioned by the fires. it was therefore found necessary to keep some of the fires in between decks at night, when the thermometer was below - ° or - ° in the open air, especially when the wind was high. to assist in keeping the lower decks warm, as well as to retard, in some slight degree, the formation of ice immediately in contact with the ships' bends, we banked the snow up against their sides as high as the main chains; and canvass screens were nailed round all the hatchways on the lower deck. the stars of the second magnitude in ursa major were just perceptible to the naked eye a little after noon this day, and the aurora borealis appeared faintly in the southwest at night. about this time our medical gentlemen began to remark the extreme difficulty with which sores of every kind healed; a circumstance that rendered it the more necessary to be cautious in exposing the men to frostbites, lest the long inactivity and want of exercise during the cure of sores, in other respects trifling, should produce serious effects upon the general health of the patients. during the following fortnight we were chiefly occupied in observing various phenomena in the heavens, the vivid coruscations of the aurora borealis, the falling of meteors, and in taking lunar distances; but the difficulty of making observations in this climate is inconceivably great; on one occasion the mercury of the artificial horizon froze into a solid mass. about this part of the winter we began to experience a more serious inconvenience from the bursting of the lemon-juice bottles by frost, the whole contents being frequently frozen into a solid mass, except a small portion of highly concentrated acid in the centre, which in most instances was found to have leaked out, so that when the ice was thawed it was little better than water. this evil increased to a very alarming degree in the course of the winter: some cases being opened in which more than two thirds of the lemon-juice was thus destroyed, and the remainder rendered nearly inefficient. it was at first supposed that this accident might have been prevented by not quite filling the bottles, but it was afterward found that the corks flying out did not save them from breaking. we observed that the greatest damage was done in those cases which were stowed nearest to the ship's side, and we therefore removed all the rest amidships; a precaution which, had it been sooner known and adopted, would probably have prevented at least a part of the mischief. the vinegar also became frozen in the casks in the same manner, and lost a great deal of its acidity when thawed. this circumstance conferred an additional value on a few gallons of very highly concentrated vinegar, which had been sent out on trial upon this and the preceding voyage, and which, when mixed with six or seven times its own quantity of water, was sufficiently acid for every purpose. this vinegar, when exposed to the temperature of ° below zero, congealed only into a consistence like that of the thickest honey, but was never sufficiently hard to break any vessel which contained it. there can be no doubt, therefore, that on this account, as well as to save stowage, this kind of vinegar should exclusively be used in these regions; and for similar reasons of still greater importance, the lemon-juice should be concentrated. we had now reached the shortest day, wednesday, the d, and such was the occupation which we had hitherto contrived to find during the first half of our long and gloomy winter, that the quickness with which it had come upon us was a subject of general remark. so far, indeed, were we from wanting that occupation of which i had been apprehensive, especially among the men that it accidentally came to my knowledge about this period that they complained of not having time to mend their clothes. this complaint i was as glad to hear as desirous to rectify; and i therefore ordered that, in future, one afternoon in each week should be set aside for that particular purpose. the circumstances of our situation being such as have never before occurred to the crews of any of his majesty's ships, it may not, perhaps, be considered wholly uninteresting to know in what manner our time was thus so fully occupied throughout the long and severe winter which it was our lot to experience, and particularly during a three months' interval of nearly total darkness. the officers and quartermasters were divided into four watches, which were regularly kept as at sea, while the remainder of the ships' company were allowed to enjoy their night's rest undisturbed. the hands were turned up at a quarter before six, and both decks were well rubbed with stones and warm sand before eight o'clock, at which time, as usual at sea, both officers and men went to breakfast. three quarters of an hour being allowed after breakfast for the men to prepare themselves for muster, we then beat to divisions punctually at a quarter past nine, when every person on board attended on the quarter deck, and a strict inspection of the men took place as to their personal cleanliness, and the good condition, as well as sufficient warmth of their clothing. the reports of the officers having been made to me, the people were then allowed to walk about, or, more usually, to run round the upper deck, while i went down to examine the state of that below. the state of this deck may be said, indeed, to have constituted the chief source of our anxiety, and to have occupied by far the greatest share of our attention at this period. whenever any dampness appeared, or, what more frequently happened, any accumulation of ice had taken place during the preceding night, the necessary means were immediately adopted for removing it; in the former case usually by rubbing the wood with cloths, and then directing the warm airpipe towards the place; and in the latter by scraping off the ice, so as to prevent its wetting the deck by any accidental increase of temperature. in this respect the bed-places were particularly troublesome; the inner partition, or that next the ship's side, being almost invariably covered with more or less dampness or ice, according to the temperature of the deck during the preceding night. this inconvenience might, to a great degree, have been avoided by a sufficient quantity of fuel to keep up two good fires on the lower deck throughout the twenty-four hours; but our stock of coals would by no means permit this, bearing in mind the possibility of our spending a second winter within the arctic circle; and this comfort could only, therefore, be allowed on a few occasions during the most severe part of the winter. in the course of my examination of the lower deck i had always an opportunity of seeing those few men who were on the sick list, and of receiving from mr. edwards a report of their respective cases; as also of consulting that gentleman as to the means of improving the warmth, ventilation, and general comfort of the inhabited parts of the ship. having performed this duty, we returned to the upper deck, where i personally inspected the men; after which they were sent out to walk on shore, when the weather would permit, till noon, when they returned on board to their dinner. when the day was too inclement for them to take this exercise, they were ordered to run round and round the deck, keeping step to the tune of an organ, or, not unfrequently, to a song of their own singing. among the men were a few who did not at first quite like this systematic mode of taking exercise; but when they found that no plea except that of illness was admitted as an excuse, they not only willingly and cheerfully complied, but made it the occasion of much humour and frolic among themselves. the officers, who dined at two o'clock, were also in the habit of occupying one or two hours in the middle of the day in rambling on shore, even in our darkest period, except when a fresh wind and a heavy snowdrift confined them within the housing of the ships. it may well be imagined that, at this period, there was but little to be met with in our walks on shore which could either amuse or interest us. the necessity of not exceeding the limited distance of one or two miles, lest a snowdrift, which often rises very suddenly, should prevent our return, added considerably to the dull and tedious monotony which day after day presented itself. to the southward was the sea, covered with one unbroken surface of ice, uniform in its dazzling whiteness, except that, in some parts, a few hummocks were seen thrown up somewhat above the general level. nor did the land offer much greater variety, being almost entirely covered with snow, except here and there a brown patch of bare ground in some exposed situations, where the wind had not allowed the snow to remain. when viewed from the summit of the neighbouring hills, on one of those calm and clear days which not unfrequently occurred during the winter, the scene was such as to induce contemplations which had, perhaps, more of melancholy than of any other feeling. not an object was to be seen on which the eye could long rest with pleasure, unless when directed to the spot where our ships lay and where our little colony was planted. the smoke which there issued from the several fires, affording a certain indication of the presence of man, gave a partial cheerfulness to this part of the prospect; and the sound of voices, which, during the cold weather, could be heard at a much greater distance than usual, served now and then to break the silence which reigned around us; a silence far different from that peaceable composure which characterizes the landscape of a cultivated country; it was the deathlike stillness of the most dreary desolation, and the total absence of animated existence. such, indeed, was the want of objects to afford relief to the eye or amusement to the mind, that a stone of more than usual size appearing above the snow in the direction in which we were going, immediately became a mark on which our eyes were unconsciously fixed, and towards which we mechanically advanced. we had frequent occasion, in our walks on shore, to remark the deception which takes place in estimating the distance and magnitude of objects when viewed over an unvaried surface of snow. it was not uncommon for us to direct our steps towards what we took for a large mass of stone at the distance of half a mile from us, but which we were able to take up in our hands after one minute's walk. this was more particularly the case when ascending the brow of a hill, nor did we find that the deception became less on account of the frequency with which we experienced its effects. in the afternoon the men were usually occupied in drawing and knotting yarns, and in making points and gaskets; a never-failing resource where mere occupation is required, and which it was necessary to perform entirely on the lower deck, the yarns becoming so hard and brittle, when exposed on deck to the temperature of the atmosphere, as to be too stiff for working, and very easily broken. i may in this place remark, that our lower rigging became extremely slack during the severity of the winter, and gradually tightened again as the spring returned: effects the very reverse of those which we had anticipated, and which i can only account for by the extreme dryness of the atmosphere in the middle of winter, and the subsequent increase of moisture. at half past five in the evening the decks were cleared up, and at six we again beat to divisions, when the same examination of the men and of their berths and bed-places took place as in the morning; the people then went to their supper, and the officers to tea. after this time the men were permitted to amuse themselves as they pleased, and games of various kinds, as well as dancing and singing occasionally, went on upon the lower deck till nine o'clock, when they went to bed and their lights were extinguished. in order to guard against accidents by fire, where so many fires and lights were necessarily in use, the quartermasters visited the lower deck every half hour during the night, and made their report to the officers of the watches that all was, in this respect, safe below; and to secure a ready supply of water in case of fire, a hole was cut twice a day in the ice, close alongside of each ship. it is scarcely necessary to add, that the evening occupations of the officers were of a more rational kind than those which engaged the attention of the men. of these, reading and writing were the principal employments, to which were occasionally added a game of chess, or a tune on the flute or violin, till half past ten, about which time we all retired to rest. such were the employments which usually occupied us for six days in the week, with such exceptions only as circumstances at the time suggested. on sundays divine service was invariably performed, and a sermon read on board both ships; the prayer appointed to be daily used at sea being altered, so as to adapt it to the service in which we were engaged, the success which had hitherto attended our efforts, and the peculiar circumstances under which we were at present placed. the attention paid by the men to the observance of their religious duties was such as to reflect upon them the highest credit, and tended in no small degree to the preservation of that regularity and good conduct for which, with very few exceptions, they were invariably distinguished. our theatrical entertainments took place regularly once a fortnight, and continued to prove a source of infinite amusement to the men. our stock of plays was so scanty, consisting of one or two odd volumes, which happened accidentally to be on board, that it was with difficulty we could find the means of varying the performances sufficiently; our authors, therefore, set to work, and produced, as a christmas piece, a musical entertainment, expressly adapted to our audience, and having such a reference to the service on which we were engaged, and the success we had so far experienced, as at once to afford a high degree of present recreation, and to stimulate, if possible, the sanguine hopes which were entertained by all on board, of the complete accomplishment of our enterprise. we were at one time apprehensive that the severity of the weather would prevent the continuance of this amusement, but the perseverance of the officers overcame every difficulty; and, perhaps for the first time since theatrical entertainments were invented, more than one or two plays were performed on board the hecla with the thermometer below zero on the stage. the _north georgia gazette_, which i have already mentioned, was a source of great amusement, not only to the contributors, but to those who, from diffidence of their own talents or other reasons, could not be prevailed on to add their mite to the little stock of literary composition which was weekly demanded; for those who declined to write were not unwilling to read, and more ready to criticise than those who wielded the pen; but it was that good-humoured sort of criticism that could not give offence. the subjects handled in this paper were of course various, but generally applicable to our own situation. the return of each successive day had been always very decidedly marked by a considerable twilight for some time about noon, that on the shortest day being sufficient to enable us to walk out very comfortably for about two hours.[*] there was usually, in clear weather, a beautiful arch of bright red light overspreading the southern horizon for an hour or two before and after noon, the light increasing, of course, in strength, as the sun approached the meridian. short as the day now was, if, indeed, any part of the twenty-four hours could be properly called by that name, the reflection of light from the snow, aided occasionally by a bright moon, was at all times sufficient to prevent our experiencing, even under the most unfavourable circumstances, anything like the gloomy night which occurs in more temperate climates. especial care was taken, during the time the sun was below the horizon, to preserve the strictest regularity in the time of our meals, and in the various occupations which engaged our attention during the day; and this, together with the gradual and imperceptible manner in which the days had shortened, prevented this kind of life, so novel to us in reality, from appearing very inconvenient, or, indeed, like anything out of the common way. it must be confessed, however, that we were not sorry to arrive, without any serious suffering, at the shortest day; and we watched, with no ordinary degree of pleasure, the slow approach of the returning sun. [footnote: it will, perhaps, give the best idea of the power of the sun's light afforded us on this day, to state, that we could, at noon, read with tolerable ease the same sized type as that in which this note is printed; but this could only be done by turning the book directly towards the south.] on christmas day the weather was raw and cold, with a considerable snowdrift, though the wind was only moderate from the n.w.; but the snow which falls during the severe winter of this climate is composed of spiculæ so extremely minute, that it requires very little wind to raise it and carry it along. to mark the day in the best manner which circumstances would permit divine service was performed on board the ships; and i directed a small increase in the men's usual proportion of fresh meat as a christmas dinner, as well as an additional allowance of grog, to drink the health of their friends in england. the officers also met at a social and friendly dinner, and the day passed with much of the same kind of festivity by which it is usually distinguished at home; and, to the credit of the men be it spoken, without any of that disorder by which it is too often observed by seamen. a piece of english roast-beef, which formed part of the officers' dinner, had been on board since the preceding may, and preserved without salt during that period merely by the antiseptic powers of a cold atmosphere. a great many frostbites occurred about this time, th, principally in the men's feet, even when they had been walking quickly on shore for exercise. on examining their boots, mr. edwards remarked, that the stiffness of the thick leather of which they were made was such as to cramp the feet, and prevent the circulation from going on freely; and that this alone was sufficient to account for their feet having been frostbitten. being very desirous of avoiding these accidents, which, from the increased sluggishness with which the sores healed, were more and more likely to affect the general health of the patients by long confinement, i directed a pair of canvass boots, lined with blanketing or some other woollen stuff, to be made for each man, using raw hide as soles: this completely answered the desired purpose, as scarcely any frostbites in the feet afterward occurred, except under circumstances of very severe exposure. chapter vi. first appearance of scurvy.--the aurora borealis and other meteorological phenomena.--visits of the wolves.--reappearance of the sun.--extreme low temperature.--destruction of the house on shore by fire.--severe frostbites occasioned by this accident. january , .--i received this morning the first unpleasant report of the scurvy having made its appearance among us: mr. scallon, the gunner of the hecla, had for some days past been complaining of pains in his legs, which mr. edwards at first took to be rheumatic, but which, together with the appearance of his gums, now left no doubt of the symptoms being scorbutic. it is so uncommon a thing for this disease to make its first appearance among the officers, that mr. edwards was naturally curious to inquire into the cause of it; and at length discovered that mr. scallon's bedding was in so damp a state, in consequence of the deposite of moisture in his bed-place, which i have before mentioned, as to leave no doubt that to this circumstance, as the immediate exciting cause, his illness might justly be attributed. the difficulty of preventing this deposite of moisture, and the consequent accumulation of ice, was much greater in the officers' bed-places than in those of the men, in consequence of the former being necessarily placed in close contact with the ship's sides, and forming an immediate communication, as it were, with the external atmosphere; whereas in the latter there was a vacant interval of eighteen inches in width interposed between them. to prevent as much as possible, therefore, the injurious effects of this evil upon the health of the officers, i appointed certain days for the airing of their bedding by the fires, as well as for that of the ships' companies. every attention was paid to mr. scallon's case by the medical gentlemen, and all our anti-scorbutics were put in requisition for his recovery: these consisted principally of preserved vegetable soups, lemon-juice, and sugar, pickles, preserved currants and gooseberries, and spruce beer. i began also, about this time, to raise a small quantity of mustard and cress in my cabin, in small shallow boxes filled with mould, and placed along the stovepipe; by these means, even in the severity of winter, we could generally ensure a crop at the end of the sixth or seventh day after sowing the seed, which, by keeping several boxes at work, would give to two or three scorbutic patients nearly an ounce of salad each daily, even though the necessary economy in our coals did not allow of the fire being kept in at night. the mustard and cress thus raised were necessarily colourless, from the privation of light; but, as far as we could judge, they possessed the same pungent aromatic taste as if grown under ordinary circumstances. so effectual were these remedies in mr. scallon's case, that, on the ninth evening from the attack, he was able to walk about on the lower deck for some time, and he assured me that he could then "run a race." at noon on the th, the temperature of the atmosphere had got down to ° below zero, being the greatest degree of cold which we had yet experienced; but the weather being quite calm, we walked on shore for an hour without inconvenience, the sensation of cold depending much more on the degree of wind at the time than on the absolute temperature of the atmosphere as indicated by the thermometer. in several of the accounts given of those countries in which an intense degree of natural cold is experienced, some effects are attributed to it which certainly did not come under our observation in the course of this winter. the first of these is the dreadful sensation said to be produced on the lungs, causing them to feel as if torn asunder when the air is inhaled at a very low temperature. no such sensation was ever experienced by us, though in going from the cabins into the open air, and _vice versâ_, we were constantly in the habit for some months of undergoing a change of from ° to °, and, in several instances, ° of temperature in less than one minute; and, what is still more extraordinary, not a single inflammatory complaint, beyond a slight cold, which was cured by common care in a day or two, occurred during this particular period. the second is, the vapour with which the air of an inhabited room is charged, condensing into a shower of snow immediately on the opening of a door or window communicating with the external atmosphere. this goes much beyond anything that we had an opportunity of observing. what happened with us was simply this: on the opening of the doors at the top and bottom of our hatchway ladders, the vapour was immediately condensed, by the sudden admission of the cold air, into a visible form, exactly resembling a very thick smoke, which settled on all the panels of the doors and bulkheads, and immediately froze, by which means the latter were covered with a thick coating of ice, which it was necessary frequently to scrape off; but we never, to my knowledge, saw the conversion of the vapour into snow during its fall. on the evening of the th, the atmosphere being clear and serene, we were gratified by a sight of the only very brilliant and diversified display of aurora borealis which occurred during the whole winter. i believe it to be almost impossible for words to give an idea of the beauty and variety which this magnificent phenomenon displayed. about this time it had been remarked, that a white setter dog had left the griper for several nights past at the same time, and had regularly returned after some hours' absence. as the daylight increased, we had frequent opportunities of seeing him in company with a she-wolf, with which he kept up an almost daily intercourse for several weeks, till at length he returned no more to the ships; having either lost his way by rambling to too great a distance, or, what is more likely, perhaps, been destroyed by the male wolves. some time after, a large dog of mine, which was also getting into the habit of occasionally remaining absent for some time, returned on board a good deal lacerated and covered with blood, having no doubt maintained a severe encounter with a male wolf, which we traced to a considerable distance by the tracks on the snow. an old dog, of the newfoundland breed, that we had on board the hecla, was also in the habit of remaining out with the wolves for a day or two together; and we frequently watched them keeping company on the most friendly terms. a wolf, which crossed the harbour close to the ships on the th, was observed to be almost entirely white, his body long and extremely lean, standing higher on his legs than any of the esquimaux dogs, but otherwise much resembling them; his tail was long and bushy, and always hanging between his legs, and he kept his head very low in running. it is extraordinary that we could never succeed in killing or catching one of these animals, though we were for months almost constantly endeavouring to do so. on the st and d of february the weather was rather hazy, so that the sun could not have been seen had it been above the horizon; but the d was a beautifully clear and calm day. at eight a.m. a cross, consisting of the usual vertical and horizontal rays, was seen about the moon. at twenty minutes before apparent noon, the sun was seen from the hecla's main-top, at the height of fifty-one feet above the sea, being the first time that this luminary had been visible to us since the th of november, a period of eighty-four days, being twelve days less than the time of its remaining actually beneath the horizon, independently of the effects of atmospherical refraction. on ascending the main-top, i found the sun to be plainly visible over the land to the south; but at noon there was a dusky sort of cloud hanging about the horizon, which prevented our seeing anything like a defined limb, so as to measure or estimate its altitude correctly. at noon on the th we had the first clear view of the sun which we had yet enjoyed since its reappearance above our horizon, and an indistinct parhelion, or mock sun, slightly prismatic, was seen on the eastern side of it, at the distance of °. there was now sufficient daylight, from eight o'clock till four, to enable us to perform with great facility any work outside the ships. i was not sorry to commence upon some of the occupations more immediately connected with the equipment of the ships for sea than those to which we had hitherto been obliged to have recourse as mere employment. we therefore began this day to collect stones for ballast, of which it was calculated that the hecla would require in the spring nearly seventy tons, besides twenty tons of additional water, to make up for the loss of weight by the expenditure of provisions and stores. these stones were brought down on sledges about half a mile to the beach, where they were broken into a convenient size for stowage, and then weighed in scales erected on the beach for the purpose; thus affording to the men a considerable quantity of bodily exercise whenever the weather would permit them to be so employed. the distance at which sounds were heard in the open air, during the continuance of intense cold, was so great as constantly to afford matter of surprise to us, notwithstanding the frequency with which we had occasion to remark it. we have, for instance, often heard people distinctly conversing, in a common tone of voice, at the distance of a mile; and to-day i heard a man singing to himself as he walked along the beach, at even a greater distance than this. another circumstance also occurred to-day, which may perhaps be considered as worthy of notice. lieutenant beechey, and messrs. beverly and fisher, in the course of a walk which led them to a part of the harbour, about two miles directly to leeward of the ships, were surprised by suddenly perceiving a smell of smoke, so strong as even to impede their breathing, till, by walking on a little farther, they got rid of it. this circumstance shows to what a distance the smoke from the ships was carried horizontally, owing to the difficulty with which it rises at a very low temperature of the atmosphere. from four p.m. on the th till half past seven on the following morning, being an interval of fifteen hours and a half, during which time the weather was clear and nearly calm, a thermometer, fixed on a pole between the ships and the shore, never rose above - °, and was once during that interval, namely, at six in the morning, as low as - °. during the lowest temperature above mentioned, which was the most intense degree of cold marked by the spirit-thermometer during our stay in winter harbour, not the slightest inconvenience was suffered from exposure to the open air by a person well clothed, as long as the weather was perfectly calm; but, in walking against a very light air of wind, a smart sensation was experienced all over the face, accompanied by a pain in the middle of the forehead, which soon became rather severe. we amused ourselves in freezing some mercury during the continuance of this cold weather, and by beating it out on an anvil previously reduced to the temperature of the atmosphere; it did not appear to be very malleable when in this state, usually breaking after two or three blows from the hammer. the increased length of the day, and the cheering presence of the sun for several hours above the horizon, induced me, notwithstanding the severity of the weather, to open the dead-lights of my stern windows, in order to admit the daylight, of which, in our occupations below, we had entirely been deprived for more than four months. i had soon, however, occasion to find that this change was rather premature, and that i had not rightly calculated on the length of the winter in melville island. the hecla was fitted with double windows in her stern, the interval between the two sashes being about two feet; and within these some curtains of baize had been nailed close in the early part of the winter. on endeavouring now to remove the curtains, they were found to be so strongly cemented to the windows by the frozen vapour collected between them, that it was necessary to cut them off in order to open the windows; and from the space between the double sashes we removed more than twelve large buckets full of ice or frozen vapour, which had accumulated in the same manner. about noon on the th, a parhelion, faintly prismatic, appeared on each side of the sun, continuing only for half an hour. notwithstanding the low temperature of the external atmosphere, the officers contrived to act, as usual, the play announced for this evening; but it must be confessed that it was almost too cold for either the actors or the audience to enjoy it, especially for those of the former who undertook to appear in female dresses. in the constant hope that each succeeding day would produce some amendment in the weather, we endeavoured contentedly to put up with the cold, which, however, continued to be so intense in the cabin for several weeks after this, that it was impossible to sit there without being warmly wrapped up; and it was not uncommon for us, at this period, to reverse the usual order of things, by throwing off our great coats when we went on deck to warm ourselves by exercise (the only mode we had of doing so), and immediately resuming them on coming below. with our present temperature, the breath of a person at a little distance looked exactly like the smoke of a musket just fired, and that of a party of men employed upon the ice to-day resembled a thick white cloud. at a quarter past ten on thursday, the th, while the men were running round the decks for exercise, and were on that account fortunately well clothed, the house on shore was discovered to be on fire. all the officers and men of both ships instantly ran up to extinguish it; and having, by great exertion, pulled off the roof with ropes, and knocked down a part of the sides, so as to allow snow to be thrown upon the flames, we succeeded in getting it under after three quarters of an hour, and fortunately before the fire had reached that end of the house where the two clocks, together with the transit and other valuable instruments, were standing in their cases. having removed these, and covered the ruins with snow, to prevent any remains of fire from breaking out again, we returned on board till more temperate weather should enable us to dig out the rest of the things, among which nothing of any material consequence was subsequently found to have suffered injury; and, having mustered the ships' companies to see that they had put on dry clothes before going to dinner, they were employed daring the rest of the day in drying those which had been wet. the appearance which our faces presented at the fire was a curious one, almost every nose and cheek having become quite white with frostbites in five minutes after being exposed to the weather; so that it was deemed necessary for the medical gentlemen, together with some others appointed to assist them, to go constantly round while the men were working at the fire, and to rub with snow the parts affected, in order to restore animation. notwithstanding this precaution, which, however, saved many frostbites, we had an addition of no less than sixteen men to the sick lists of both ships in consequence of this accident. among these there were four or five cases which kept the patients confined for several weeks; but john smith, of the artillery, who was captain sabine's servant, and who, together with sergeant martin, happened to be in the house at the time the fire broke out, was unfortunate enough to suffer much more severely. in their anxiety to save the dipping-needle, which was standing close to the stove, and of which they knew the value, they immediately ran out with it; and smith, not having time to put on his gloves, had his fingers in half an hour so benumbed and the animation so completely suspended, that on his being taken on board by mr. edwards, and having his hands plunged into a basin of cold water, the surface of the water was immediately frozen by the intense cold thus suddenly communicated to it; and, notwithstanding the most humane and unremitting attention paid to them by the medical gentlemen, it was found necessary, some time after, to resort to the amputation of a part of four fingers on one hand and three on the other. chapter vii. more temperate weather.--house rebuilt.--quantity of ice collected on the hecla's lower deck.--meteorological phenomena.--conclusion of theatrical entertainments.--increased sickness on board the griper.--clothes first dried in the open air.--remarkable halos and parhelia.--snow blindness.--cutting the ice round the ships, and other occurrences to the close of may. before sunrise on the morning of the st of march, lieutenant beechey remarked so much bright red light near the southeastern horizon, that he constantly thought the sun was rising nearly half an hour before it actually appeared; there was a column of light above the sun similar to those which we had before seen. the day being clear and moderate, a party of men were employed in digging out the things which were buried in the ruins; the clocks were removed on board for examination, and preparations were made to rebuild the house for their reception. the th of march was the most mild and pleasant day we had experienced for several weeks, and after divine service had been performed, almost all the officers and men in both ships were glad to take advantage of it, by enjoying a long walk upon the neighbouring hills. the weather had been hazy, with light snow and some clouds in the morning; but the latter gradually dispersed after noon, affording us the first day to which we could attach the idea of spring. we continued to enjoy the same temperature and enlivening weather on the th, and now began to flatter ourselves in earnest that the season had taken that favourable change for which we had so long been looking with extreme anxiety and impatience. this hope was much strengthened by a circumstance which occurred to-day, and which, trifling as it would have appeared in any other situation than ours, was to us a matter of no small interest and satisfaction. this was no other than the thawing of a small quantity of snow in a favourable situation upon the black paintwork of the ship's stern, which exactly faced the south; being the first time that such an event had occurred for more than five months. the severe weather which, until the last two or three days, we had experienced, had been the means of keeping in a solid state all the vapour which had accumulated and frozen upon the ship's sides on the lower deck. as long as it continued in this state, it did not prove a source of annoyance, especially as it had no communication with the bed-places. the late mildness of the weather, however, having caused a thaw to take place below, it now became necessary immediately to scrape off the coating of ice, and it will, perhaps, be scarcely credited, that we this day removed about one hundred buckets full, each containing from five to six gallons, being the accumulation which had taken place in an interval of less than four weeks. it may be observed, that this vapour must principally have been produced from the men's breath, and from the steam of their victuals during meals, that from the coppers being effectually carried on deck by the screen which i have before mentioned. on the th it blew a hard gale from the northward and westward, raising a snowdrift, which made the day almost as inclement as in the midst of winter. the wind very suddenly ceased in the evening, and while the atmosphere near the ships was so serene and undisturbed that the smoke rose quite perpendicularly, we saw the snowdrift on the hills, at one or two miles' distance, whirled up into the air, in columns several hundred feet high, and carried along by the wind, sometimes to the north, and at others in the opposite direction. the snow thus raised at times resembled waterspouts, but more frequently appeared like smoke issuing from the tops of the hills, and as such was at first represented to me. it blew a strong breeze from the n.b.w., with a heavy snowdrift, on the th, which continued, with little intermission, till near noon on the th; affording us a convincing proof that the hopes with which we had flattered ourselves of the speedy return of spring were not yet to be accomplished. on the th, there being little wind, the weather was again pleasant and comfortable, though the thermometer remained very low. this evening the officers performed the farces of the _citizen_ and the _mayor of garratt_, being the last of our theatrical amusements for this winter, the season having now arrived when there would no longer be a want of occupation for the men, and when it became necessary also to remove a part of the roofing to admit light to the officers' cabins. our poets were again set to work on this occasion, and an appropriate address was spoken on the closing of the north georgia theatre, than which we may, without vanity, be permitted to say, none had ever done more real service to the community for whose benefit it was intended. on the d we found, by digging a hole in the ice, in the middle of the harbour, where the depth of water was four fathoms and a quarter, that its thickness was six feet and a half, and the snow on the surface of it eight inches deep. this may be considered a fair specimen of the average formation of ice in this neighbourhood since the middle of the preceding september: and as the freezing process did not stop for six weeks after this, the produce of the whole winter may, perhaps, be reasonably taken at seven, or seven and a half feet. in chopping this ice with an axe the men found it very hard and brittle, till they arrived within a foot of the lower surface, where it became soft and spongy. being extremely anxious to get rid, as early as possible, of the drying of our washed clothes upon the lower deck, i had to-day a silk handkerchief washed and hung up under the stern, in order to try the effect of the sun's rays upon it. in four hours it became thoroughly dry, the thermometer in the shade being from - ° to - ° at the time. this was the first article that had been dried without artificial heat for six months, and it was yet another month before flannel could be dried in the open air. when this is considered, as well as that, during the same period, the airing of the bedding, the drying of the bed-places, and the ventilation of the inhabited parts of the ship, were wholly dependant on the same means, and this with a very limited supply of fuel, it may, perhaps be conceived, in some degree, what unremitting attention was necessary to the preservation of health, under circumstances so unfavourable and even prejudicial. the morning of april th being very fine, and the thermometer at + °, the ship's company's bedding was hung up to air, between the fore and main rigging, being the first time we had ventured to bring it from the lower deck for nearly eight months. while it was out, the berths and bed-places were fumigated with a composition of gunpowder mixed with vinegar, and known familiarly by the name of _devils_; an operation which had been regularly gone through once a week during the winter. for the last three or four days of april the snow on the black cloth of our housing had begun to thaw a little during a few hours in the middle of the day, and on the th so rapid a change took place in the temperature of the atmosphere, that the thermometer stood at the freezing, or, as it may more properly be termed in this climate, the thawing point, being the first time that such an event had occurred for nearly eight months, or since the th of the preceding september. this temperature was to our feelings, so much like that of summer, that i was under the necessity of using my authority to prevent the men from making such an alteration in their clothing as might have been attended with very dangerous consequences. the thermometer had ranged from - ° to + ° in the course of twenty days. there was, at this period, more snow upon the ground than at any other time of the year, the average depth on the lower parts of the land being four or five inches, but much less upon the hills; while in the ravines a very large quantity had been collected. the snow at this time became so soft, from the influence of the sun upon it, as to make walking very laborious and unpleasant. the fine and temperate weather with which the month of april had concluded, induced captain sabine to set the clocks going, in order to commence his observations for the pendulum, and he now took up his quarters entirely on shore for that purpose. on the first of may, however, it blew a strong gale from the northward, which made it impossible to keep up the desired temperature in the house: and so heavy was the snowdrift, that in a few hours the house was nearly covered, and we were obliged to communicate with captain sabine and his attendants through a small window, from which the snow was, with much labour, cleared away, the door being quite inaccessible. we saw the sun at midnight for the first time this season. the gale and snowdrift continued on the following day, when we had literally to dig out the sentries, who attended the fire at the house, in order to have them relieved. on the th, the thermometer rose no higher than + ½° during the day; but, as the wind was moderate, and it was high time to endeavour to get the ships once more fairly afloat, we commenced the operation of cutting the ice about them. in order to prevent the men suffering from wet and cold feet, a pair of strong boots and boot-stockings were on this occasion served to each. on the th, two or three coveys of ptarmigan were seen, after which they became more and more numerous, and a brace or two were almost daily procured for the sick, for whose use they were exclusively reserved. as it was of the utmost importance, under our present circumstances, that every ounce of game which we might thus procure should be served in lieu of other meat, i now renewed the orders formerly given, that every animal killed was to be considered as public property; and, as such, to be regularly issued like any other kind of provision, without the slightest distinction between the messes of the officers and those of the ships' companies. some of our men having, in the course of their shooting excursions, been exposed for several hours to the glare of the sun and snow, returned at night much affected with that painful inflammation in the eyes occasioned by the reflection of intense light from the snow, aided by the warmth of the sun, and called in america "snow blindness." this complaint, of which the sensation exactly resembles that produced by large particles of sand or dust in the eyes, is cured by some tribes of american indians by holding them over the steam of warm water; but we found a cooling wash, made by a small quantity of acetate of lead mixed with cold water, more efficacious in relieving the irritation, which was always done in three or four days, even in the most severe cases, provided the eyes were carefully guarded from the light. as a preventive of this complaint, a piece of black crape was given to each man, to be worn as a kind of short veil attached to the hat, which we found to be very serviceable. a still more convenient mode, adopted by some of the officers, was found equally efficacious; this consisted in taking the glasses out of a pair of spectacles, and substituting black or green crape, the glass having been found to heat the eyes and increase the irritation. on the th we completed the operation of cutting the ice round the hecla, which was performed in the following manner. we began by digging a large hole under the stern, being the same as that in which the tide-pole was placed, in order to enter the saw, which occupied us nearly two days, only a small number of men being able to work at it. in the mean time, all the snow and rubbish was cleared away from the ship's side, leaving only the solid ice to work upon; and a trench, two feet wide, was cut the whole length of the starboard side, from the stem to the rudder, keeping within an inch or two of the bends; and taking care here and there to leave a dike, to prevent the water which might ooze into one part from filling up the others in which the men were working. in this manner was the trench cut with axes to the depth of about four feet and a half, leaving only eighteen inches for the saws to cut, except in those places where the dikes remained. the saw, being then entered in the hole under the stern, was worked in the usual manner, being suspended by a triangle made of three spars: one cut being made on the outer part of the trench, and a second within an inch or two of the bends, in order to avoid injuring the planks. a small portion of ice being broken off now and then by bars, handspikes, and ice-chisels, floated, to the surface, and was hooked out by piecemeal. this operation was a cold and tedious one and required nine days to complete it. when the workmen had this morning completed the trench within ten or twelve feet of the stern, the ship suddenly disengaged herself from the ice, to which she had before been firmly adhering on the larboard side, and rose in the water about ten inches abaft, and nearly eighteen inches forward, with a considerable surge. this circumstance it was not difficult to explain. in the course of the winter, the strong eddy-winds about the ships had formed round them a drift of snow seven or eight feet deep in some parts, and perhaps weighing a hundred tons; by which the ice, and the ships with it, were carried down much below the natural level at which they would otherwise have floated. in the mean time the ships had become considerably lighter, from expenditure of several months' provisions: so that, on both these accounts, they had naturally a tendency to rise in the water as soon as they were set at liberty. a party of hands were occupied in breaking and weighing the stones for ballast, while others were getting out the sails and boats; and our carpenters, armourers, coopers, and sailmakers having each their respective employments, our little colony now presented the most busy and bustling scene that can be imagined. it was found necessary to caulk every part of the upper works, as well as all the decks, the seams having been so much opened by the frost as to require at least one, and in many parts two threads of oakum, though the ship had scarcely ever laboured at all since she was last caulked. i also at this time laid out a small garden, planting it with radishes, onions, mustard, and cress; and a similar attempt was made by lieutenant liddon; but, notwithstanding every care and attention which could be paid to it, this experiment may be said to have wholly failed, the radishes not exceeding an inch in length by the latter end of july, and the other seeds being altogether thrown away. i may remark, however, that some common ships' peas, which were sown by our people for their amusement, were found to thrive so well, that, had i been sooner aware of it, a great quantity of the leaves at least of this vegetable might have been grown, which, when boiled and eaten as greens, would have been no small treat to persons deprived of fresh vegetable substance for more than ten months. having considered that an examination of the extent and productions of the island might be conducive to the improvement of the geography and natural history of these regions, and the good state of health enjoyed by the crews permitting a certain number of men to be spared from each ship during their equipment for sea, i now determined to undertake a journey into the interior for this purpose, accompanied by a certain number of officers and men who volunteered their services on the occasion; and the st of june was fixed for our departure. early on the morning of the th mr. allison reported that he had felt a few drops of rain fall upon his face, an event which we had scarcely dared to anticipate so soon, but which was hailed with much satisfaction, as nothing appears to be so effectual as rain in producing the dissolution of the ice. the clouds had a watery appearance throughout the day, and at half past eight in the evening we were agreeably surprised by a smart shower of rain, which was shortly after succeeded by several others. early on the morning of the th the wind increased to a fresh gale from the northward and westward, which continued during the day, with a heavy fall of snow and a tremendous drift, that prevented our seeing to the distance of more than twenty yards around the ships. the following day being fine, i took my travelling party to the top of the northeast hill, in order to try the cart which had been constructed for carrying the tents and baggage, and which appeared to answer very well. the view from this hill was not such as to offer much encouragement to our hopes of future advancement to the westward. the sea still presented the same unbroken and continuous surface of solid and impenetrable ice, and this ice could not be less than from six to seven feet in thickness, as we knew it to be about the ships. when to this circumstance was added the consideration that scarcely the slightest symptoms of thawing had yet appeared, and that in three weeks from this period the sun would again begin to decline to the southward, it must be confessed that the most sanguine and enthusiastic among us had some reason to be staggered in the expectations they had formed of the complete accomplishment of our enterprise. chapter viii. journey across melville island to the northern shore, and return to the ships by a different route. the weather being favourable on the morning of the st of june, i made such arrangements as were necessary previous to my departure on our intended journey. i directed lieutenants liddon and beechey to proceed with all possible despatch in the equipment of the ships for sea, having them ready to sail by the end of june, in order that we might be able to take advantage of any favourable alteration in the state of the ice at an earlier period than present appearances allowed us to anticipate. the party selected to accompany me, out of the numerous volunteers on this occasion, consisted of captain sabine, messrs. fisher, nias, reid, and sergeant mcmahon, of the marines, sergeant martin, of the artillery, and three seamen and two marines belonging to both ships, making a total of twelve, including myself. we were supplied with provisions for three weeks, according to the daily proportion of one pound of biscuit, two thirds of a pound of preserved meat, one ounce of salep powder, one ounce of sugar, and half a pint of spirits for each man. two tents, of the kind called in the army horsemen's tents, were made of blankets, with two boarding-pikes fixed across at each end, and a ridge-rope along the top, which, with stones laid upon the foot of the blankets, made a very comfortable and portable shelter. these tents, with the whole of the provisions, together with a _conjuror_ or cooking apparatus, and a small quantity of wood for fuel, amounting on the whole to eight hundred pounds, were carried upon a strong but light cart constructed for the purpose: this method having been decided on as the most convenient for the country in which we were about to travel. each officer and man was also furnished with a blanket made into a bag, with a drawing-string at each end, a pair of spare shoes, and stockings, a flannel shirt, and a cap to sleep in. the clothing and blankets were carried on our backs in knapsacks, those of the officers weighing from seventeen to twenty-four pounds each, and one between every two men weighing twenty-four pounds, to be carried for half a day alternately. at five p.m. we left the ships, accompanied by a large party of officers and men from each, who were desirous of relieving us from the weight of our knapsacks for an hour or two; and, having been cheered by the ships on our departure, we went round the head of the harbour, and ascended the northeast hill, our companions left us at eight p.m., and we proceeded across a level plain almost entirely covered with snow, which, however, was so hard as to make the travelling very good; and the cart was dragged along without difficulty. at eleven p.m. we came to three remarkable round hills; composed entirely of sand and masses of sandstone, and halted to dine close to the northward of them. those parts of the land which were clear of snow appeared to be more productive than those in the immediate neighbourhood of winter harbour, the dwarf-willow, sorrel, and poppy being more abundant, and the moss more luxuriant; we, could not, however, collect a sufficient quantity of the slender wood of the willow, in a dry state, for the purpose of dissolving snow for water, and were therefore obliged to use a part of the fuel which we had provided for that purpose. the thermometer stood at ° at midnight. having set off soon after midnight, at the distance of half a mile in a n.b.e. direction we came to a piece of frozen water, half a mile in length and two hundred yards wide, situated on the south side of the range of hills which bound the prospect from winter harbour. the ice on the surface of this lake or pond was in some parts nearly dissolved, and in all too soft to allow us to cross it. we halted at half past six a.m., and pitched the tents on the hardest ground we could find, but it became quite swampy in the course of the day. we killed seven ptarmigan, and saw two plovers and two deer, being the first we had met with this season, with a fawn so small as to leave no doubt of its having been dropped since the arrival of the female upon the island. they were so wild as not to allow us to approach them within a quarter of a mile. the day was fine, with light and variable airs; the thermometer stood at ° in the shade at seven a.m., at which time it was unfortunately broken. we again set forward at two a.m. on the d, crossing one or two ravines, running e.n.e. and w.s.w., in which there was a large collection of snow, but as yet no appearance of water in the bottom of them. captain sabine and myself, being considerably ahead of the rest of the party, had sat down to wait for them, when a fine reindeer came trotting up, and played round us for a quarter of an hour, within thirty yards. we had no gun, nor do i know that we should have killed it if we had, there being already as much weight upon the cart as the men could well drag, and having no fuel to spare for cooking; besides, we felt it would have been but an ill return for the confidence which he seemed willing to place in us. on hearing our people talking on the opposite side of the ravine, the deer immediately crossed over, and went directly up to them, with very little caution; and they being less scrupulous than we were, one or two shots were immediately fired at him, but without effect; on which he again crossed over to where we were sitting, approaching us nearer than before. as soon as we rose up and walked on, he accompanied us like a dog, sometimes trotting ahead of us, and then returning within forty or fifty yards. when we halted, at six a.m., to make the usual observations, he remained by us till the rest of the party came up, and then trotted off. the reindeer is by no means a graceful animal; its high shoulders, and an awkward stoop in its head, giving it rather a deformed appearance. our new acquaintance had no horns; he was of a brownish colour, with a black saddle, a broad black rim round the eyes, and very white about the tail. we observed that, whenever he was about to set off, he made a sort of playful gambol, by rearing on his hind legs. at two o'clock on the morning of the th we continued our journey to the northward, over the same snowy and level plain as before, than which it is impossible to conceive anything more dreary and uninteresting. it frequently happened that, for an hour together, not a single spot of uncovered ground could be seen. the breeze freshened up to a gale from the s.s.e. as we proceeded, and the men, as if determined not to forget that they were sailors, set a large blanket upon the cart as a sail, which, upon the present level ground, was found to be of material assistance. the snow was deep and rather soft, which made the travelling heavy; and as the wind produced a good deal of snowdrift, most of the bare patches of ground became covered up, so that, when our time for halting had arrived, not a piece of ground could be seen on which to pitch the tents. captain sabine and myself went forward to look out for a spot, and at length were fortunate to meet with one, on which there was just room for our little encampment. it was with some difficulty, by building a wall with stones and our knapsacks, that we prevented its being covered with snow before the party came up, which they did at half past seven a.m., having travelled ten miles in a n.w.b.n. direction. by the time we had secured the tents the wind blew hard, with a continued fall, as well as drift of snow, so that we could not but consider ourselves fortunate in having met with a spot of ground in good time. notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, we found the tents afford us very comfortable and sufficient shelter, the cart being tilted up to windward of them, so as to break up some measure the violence of the wind; and, when wrapped up, or, rather, enclosed in our blanket bags, we were generally quite warm enough to enjoy the most sound and refreshing repose. it continued to blow and snow till seven p.m., when the wind having veered to the s.w., and become more moderate, we struck the tents; and having now placed the men's knapsacks on the cart, to enable them to drag with greater facility, we proceeded on our journey to the northward. we passed a narrow but deep ravine lying across our course, in some parts of which the snow reached nearly to a level with the banks, forming a kind of bridges or causeways, on one of which we crossed without difficulty. the men had hoisted one sail upon the cart at first setting off; but the wind being now, as they expressed it, "on the larboard quarter," a second blanket was rigged as a mainsail, to their great amusement as well as relief. after crossing a second ravine, on the north side of which the ground rose considerably, we entered upon another snowy plain, where there was nothing to be seen in any direction but snow and sky. to make it the more dreary, a thick fog came on as the night advanced; and as this prevented our taking any mark more than fifty or a hundred yards ahead, we had to place the compass, by which we were now entirely travelling, upon the ground every five minutes; and as it traversed with great sluggishness, we made a very crooked and uncertain course. for more than two hours we did not pass a single spot of uncovered ground, nor even a stone projecting above the snow. the fog continued too thick to allow us to move till six a.m., at which time we resumed our journey. there was a broad and distant haze-bow of very white and dazzling light directly opposite the sun. the weather being still too foggy to see more than a quarter of a mile ahead, it was with considerable difficulty that we could proceed on a tolerably straight course. to effect this, it was necessary to determine the point on which we were walking by the bearing of the sun, which was still visible, and the apparent time, and then to take a mark ahead by which our course was to be directed. from the thickness of the weather, however, it was necessary to repeat this operation every five or ten minutes, which, together with the uniform whiteness and intense glare of the snow, became so extremely painful to the eyes, that mr. fisher and myself, who went ahead as guides, soon became affected with snow blindness, and the headmost man at the cart, whose business it was constantly to watch our motions, began to suffer in a similar manner from the same cause. it may, perhaps, be conceived, then, under these circumstances, how pleasing was the relief afforded by our seeing, at eight a.m., a stripe of black or uncovered land ahead, which proved to be the bank of a ravine fifty or sixty feet deep and three hundred yards wide, on the north side of which we pitched the tents, having made good only one mile and a half, the snow being so soft and deep as to make it difficult to drag the cart through it. the latitude observed here was ° ' ", and the longitude, by the chronometer, ° ' "; in which situation a cylinder of tin, containing an account of our visit, was deposited under a pile of stones eight feet high and seven feet broad at the base. the wind increased to a fresh breeze from the s.s.e. on the th, with a sharp frost, making it very cold in the tents, which we therefore struck at four a.m., and at the distance of half a mile came to the summit of a hill overlooking what appeared to be a frozen sea before us. we then descended the hill, with the intention of pushing forward to determine whether the white and level space before us was the sea or not. we had not proceeded far, however, when the clouds began to gather heavily in the southeast, and shortly after snow and sleet began to fall. being unwilling, therefore, to allow the men's clothes to be wet when there was no absolute occasion for it, we halted on a piece of dry ground, and, having built a wall six feet high to shelter us from the weather, pitched the tents very comfortably under the lee of it till the weather should allow us to proceed. at six p.m., the wind having gradually got round to the n.n.e., and the weather being more clear and cold, i set out, accompanied by messrs. nias and reid, and a quartermaster of the griper, with the intention of examining the situation and appearance of the sea to the northward; leaving the rest of the party, several of whom were suffering from snow-blindness, though otherwise in good health, to remain quietly in the tents till our return. having travelled n.n.w. a mile and a half through much deep snow, of which a good deal had fallen during the day, we came to some ice thrown up on the beach, having cracks in it parallel to the line of the shore, which we immediately recognised to be of the same kind as those to which we had so long been accustomed in winter harbour, and which are occasioned by the rise and fall of the tide. we turned to the westward along the beach, and at the distance of two miles ascended a point of land in that direction, from whence we had a commanding view of the objects around us. as soon as we had gained the summit of this point, which is about eighty feet above the sea, we had an additional confirmation that it was the sea which we had now reached, the ice being thrown upon the beach under the point, and as far as we could see to the westward, in large, high, irregular masses, exactly similar to those which had so often afforded us anchorage and shelter upon the southern shores of the island. being desirous, however, of leaving nothing uncertain respecting it, we walked out a few hundred yards upon the ice, and began with a boarding-pike and our knives, which were all the tools we had, to dig a hole in it, in order to taste the water beneath. after nearly two hours' labour, we could only get down as many feet, the ice being very hard, brittle, and transparent; more so, as we imagined, than salt-water ice usually is, which made us the more desirous to get through it. i therefore determined to return to our people, and to remove our encampment hither, for the purpose of completing the hole through the ice with all our hands, while we were obtaining the necessary observations on shore. on our return to the tents, we dined, and rested till one o'clock on the morning of the th, when we set out for the point, at which we did not arrive till half past four, the snow being here so deep as to make the cart an improper, and, indeed, almost impracticable mode of conveying our baggage. it froze all day in the shade, with a fresh breeze from the north; and, though the tents were pitched under the lee of the grounded ice upon the beach, we found it extremely cold; all the pools of water were frozen hard during the night, and, some of our canteens burst from the same cause. the people were allowed to rest after their supper till four p.m., and were then set to work upon the ice and in building a monument on the top of the point. we dined at midnight; and at half past one a.m. on the th struck the tents, and drew the cart to the higher part of the point, where we occupied two hours in completing our monument, which is of a conical form, twelve feet broad at the base, and as many in height. within it were deposited a tin cylinder, containing an account of the party who had left it, and one or two silver and copper english coins. this monument may be seen at several miles' distance from the sea or land side; and, as great pains were taken by mr. fisher in constructing it, it may probably last for a long period of years. having now satisfactorily determined the extent of melville island to the northward upon this meridian, which corresponds very nearly with that of winter harbour, and finished all the requisite observations, i proposed pursuing our journey towards the blue hills, which were still in sight at the distance of several leagues to the westward; and, having advanced to the southwest as long as circumstances should appear to make it interesting or practicable, to return by a circuitous route to the ships. we travelled in a w.½s. direction, in order to keep on a ridge along the coast, which afforded the only tolerable walking, the snow being very deep on the lower parts of the land. we halted at half past seven a.m., on a fine sandy ground, which gave us the softest, as well as the driest bed which we had yet experienced on our journey, and which was situated close to a little hillock of earth and moss, so full of the burrows of hares as to resemble a warren. we tried to smoke them out by burning port-fire, but none appeared; and it is remarkable, that though we constantly met with the dung of these animals, especially in this place, where it occurred very abundantly, we never saw one of them during the journey. as soon as we had halted, we found that mr. reid's knapsack had dropped off the cart; he had therefore to go back to look for it, and did not return till eleven o'clock, being so much affected by snow-blindness as to be scarcely able to see his way to the tents. this circumstance was, sufficient to show the advantage, and even the necessity, of travelling entirely by night under these circumstances, the intense glare of light from the snow during the day inevitably producing this painful irritation in the eyes. at a quarter past five p.m. we resumed our journey to the southwest, and soon after crossed a snowy plain a mile and a quarter in breadth, extending to the sea to the north, and as far as the eye could reach to the south. having travelled s.w.b.w. seven miles, we halted, at half an hour before midnight, at the distance of three or four miles from the sea, the weather being very clear and fine, with a moderate breeze from the s.s.w. having rested after our dinner till half past two a.m., we set out again to the southwest, making, however, a very crooked course on account of the irregularity of the ground. in the first quarter of a mile we passed the first running stream which we had seen this season, and this was but a small one, from six to twelve inches deep. the ground, as well as the pools of water, was frozen hard during the last night, but thawed during the day, which made travelling worse and worse, as the sun acquired power. we passed a few horns of deer, killed three ptarmigans, and saw a pair of ducks. the plumage of the cock grouse was still quite white, except near the tip of the tail, where the feathers were of a fine glossy black; but in every hen which we had lately killed, a very perceptible alteration was apparent, even from day to day, and their plumage had now nearly assumed that speckled colour which, from its resemblance to that of the ground, is so admirably adapted to preserve them from being seen at the season of their incubation. we found it difficult, in general, to get near the hens, which were very wild; but the male birds were at all times stupidly tame. at half past two a.m. on the th we struck the tents, and proceeded to the s.w., the wind having got round to the s.e., with continued snow. at the distance of two miles we entered upon a level plain three miles wide, which, with the exception of a patch here and there, was entirely covered with snow. the uncovered parts of this plain were so wet as to be almost impassable for the cart; and we were now as desirous of keeping on the snow as, at the beginning of our journey from winter harbour, we had been anxious to avoid it. the weather continued hazy, with snow occasionally, but our clothes dried in the sun towards noon; soon after which, however, the snow became more thick and constant, so that we could scarcely see a hundred yards around the tents. we waited for some time in hope of the weather clearing, and then, at a quarter past five, continued our journey; as we were under the necessity, however, of directing our course entirely by compass, which is here a very uncertain and deceitful guide, we made but a slow and tedious progress. the wind freshened up to a gale from the s.e. soon after we had set out, which made it impossible for us any longer to pursue our journey, and we began to look out for a spot on which the tents could be pitched, so as to afford us a dry flooring, if not shelter, during the gale. having crossed three ravines within a mile and a quarter, we at length came to a very deep one, which was nearly perpendicular on each side, with the snow overhanging in some parts, so as to make it dangerous to go near the edge of the bank. we were at length fortunate in finding a narrow, sloping ridge of snow, leading down to the bottom of the ravine; and having descended this with some difficulty, we found such good shelter as to determine me to halt here for the night, which now became more and more inclement. the wind gradually veered to the n.n.w. in the morning, and the weather having cleared up about half past four, we struck the tents and set off to the southward. the south bank of the ravine being nearly as steep, and much higher than the other, it was with considerable labour and difficulty that we were able to get the cart up it, in which, however, we succeeded by six o'clock, when we found that we were travelling on much higher ground than before, overlooking that which we had left the preceding evening. having proceeded four miles over a level country, with much snow upon it, we suddenly and unexpectedly came in sight of the sea or a lake, at the distance of two or three miles before us, just appearing between two high and steep hills, which terminated a deep and broad ravine. we hastened forward to the point of the nearest hill, from whence the prospect was extremely grand and picturesque. we were looking down nearly perpendicular from a height of eight or nine hundred feet, on an extensive plain of ice, of which, to the westward, we could perceive no termination for a distance of five or six leagues, the prospect to the eastward being obstructed by other hills. a thick mist or vapour was at times carried rapidly along by the wind over this ice, to which it was entirely confined, occasionally covering the top of the island with a dense cloud. the impression made upon our minds at the time was, that it was a frozen lake on which we were now looking; but this conjecture, as it afterward appeared, proved erroneous. the ravine at which we had arrived discharges its waters into a snug cove two or three miles deep, at the head of which we now proposed resting, if a place could be found at which our descent into the ravine could be effected. the sides of the ravine, which were very steep, were covered with innumerable blocks, of sandstone of every size and shape, over which alone any road could be found to the cove below. it was necessary, therefore, to make the attempt, but it was impossible for the best built carriage to travel long on such a road; and when we had half descended the bank, which led into the ravine on its north side, the axle-tree broke short in the middle. the baggage was therefore taken off and carried down to the bottom, where the tents were pitched at eleven a.m., the wheels being left where the cart broke down, as sound as at first. the latitude observed here was ° ' ", the longitude, by chronometer, ° ' ", and the variation of the magnetic needle ° ' " easterly. the wind being fresh from the w.n.w., and the weather being cold and raw, we built a wall to the windward of the tents, as a substitute for the usual shelter afforded by the cart; after supper, the people, being a good deal fatigued, were allowed to rest till near midnight, and then employed in arranging the baggage so as to carry it on our shoulders for the rest of the journey. the wood which composed the light framework of the cart being now disposable as fuel, we were glad to make use of it in cooking a few ptarmigan, which afforded us another sumptuous meal. it is not perhaps, easy for those who have never experienced it, to imagine how great a luxury anything warm in this way becomes, after living entirely upon cold provisions for some time in this rigid climate. this change was occasionally the more pleasant to us, from the circumstance of the preserved meats, on which we principally lived, being generally at this time hard frozen when taken out of the canisters. having finished our arrangements with respect to the baggage, which made it necessary that each of the men should carry between sixty and seventy pounds, and the officers from forty to fifty, we struck the tents at half past two on the morning of the th, and proceeded along the eastern shore of the cove, towards a point which forms the entrance on that side. we arrived at the point at five o'clock, and as we could now perceive that the lake or gulf extended a considerable distance to the eastward as well as to the westward, and that it would require a long time to go round in the former direction, i determined to cross it on the ice; and as the distance to the opposite shore seemed too great for one journey, the snow being soft upon the ice, first to visit the island, and, having rested there, to proceed to the southward. having walked five miles in a s.s.w. direction, we landed at seven a.m., near the southeast part of the island. the wind was fresh from the westward, and the tents were pitched near the beach, under the lee of the high part of the island. we rested till six p.m., and then set off across the ice for a point to the e.s.e. the snow had now become so soft after the heat of the day, that, loaded as we were, we often sunk nearly up to the knees, which made travelling very laborious, and we were, therefore, not sorry to get on shore by half past eight, having walked, by our account, three miles and a half. the spot on which we encamped appeared so favourable for obtaining specimens of the different animals which frequent this island, that i determined to remain here one day for the purpose of sporting and examining its natural productions. the sportsmen went out early in the morning, and soon after met with a musk-ox feeding on a spot of luxuriant pasture-ground, covered with the dung of these animals as well as of deer. they fired at him from a considerable distance without wounding him, and he set off at a very quick pace over the hills. the musk-ox has the appearance of a very ill-proportioned little animal, its hair being so long as to make its feet appear only two or three inches in length; they seem, indeed, to be treading upon it at every step, and the individual in question actually did so in some instances, as the hair was found in several of the foot-tracks. when disturbed and hunted, they frequently tore up the ground with their horns, and turned round occasionally to look at their pursuers, but they never attempted to attack any of them. our gentlemen also met with a herd of twelve deer, three only of which had horns, and they were much the largest of the herd, and constantly drove the others away when they attempted to stop. the birds seen by our people were many brent-geese and ptarmigans, several golden plovers, one or two "boatswains," and abundance of snow-buntings. one or two mice were caught; like several others we had seen, these were turning brown about the belly and head, and the back was of a dark gray colour. in every part of the island over which we travelled, the holes and tracks of these little animals were occasionally seen; one of them, which sergeant martin ran after, finding no hole near and that he could not escape, set himself against a stone, as if endeavouring to defend himself, and bit the sergeant's finger when he took hold of him. on a point of land at the distance of three quarters of a mile to the w.b.s. of the tents, and within a hundred yards of the sea, the remains of six esquimaux huts were discovered; they consisted of rude circles, about six feet in diameter, constructed irregularly of stones of all sizes and shapes, and raised to the height of two feet from the ground: they were paved with large slabs of white schistose sandstone, which is here abundant; the moss had spread over this floor, and appeared to be the growth of three or four years. in each of the huts, on one side, was a small separate compartment forming a recess, projecting outward, which had probably been their store-room; and at a few feet from one of the huts was a smaller circle of stones, which had composed the fireplace, the mark of fire being still perceptible upon them. the day was fine and clear, with a moderate wind from the westward till four p.m., when it died away, and was shortly after succeeded by a breeze from the southward, with a fall of snow. we now travelled due south, with the intention of getting sight of the table hills, and returning by that route to the ships, as there appeared to be nothing more within our reach of sufficient interest to detain us any longer from them. at eight p.m., finding that the people's clothes were becoming wet through by the sleet which fell, we halted and pitched the tents. early on the morning of the th the wind veered to the westward, and the weather became gradually more clear; we therefore continued our journey to the southward, and came in sight of the table hills bearing s.e. of us, and at eight a.m. pitched the tents on some dry ground on the bank of a ravine. we moved on towards the table hills at five p.m., and crossed several ravines without much water in them, running generally to the northeastward. we halted between the table hills at ten o'clock, having travelled eight miles over very swampy ground, and with the snow up to our knees in some of the hollows. as soon as the observations were completed, we set off for winter harbour, and having passed over much rich and wet ground, abounding with sorrel, which now began to put forth its leaves with more vigour, arrived on board at seven p.m., having been met, and welcomed most heartily, by almost every officer and man belonging to the ships; and it was no small satisfaction to me to hear it remarked, that the whole of our travelling party appeared in more robust health than when we left them. chapter ix. occurrences at winter harbour in the early part of june.--gradual dissolution of the ice upon the sea and of the snow upon the land.--decease and burial of william scott.--equipment of the ships completed.--temperate weather during the month of july.--breaking up of the ice near the ships.--move to the lower part of the harbour.--separation of the ice at the entrance.--prepare to sail.--abstract of observations made in winter harbour. i had the happiness to find, on my return, that the officers and men in both ships continued to enjoy the same good health as before, with the exception of scott, who was still the only man in the hecla's sick-list, and whose complaint seemed such as to baffle every attempt that had been made to produce an amendment. a constant disposition to fainting and a languid sort of despondency had been, for some time past, the only symptoms which had induced mr. edwards to continue the antiscorbutic treatment; and this it was sometimes absolutely necessary to discontinue for a day or two together, on account of the weak state of his bowels. during my absence he had been much worse than before, notwithstanding the greatest care and attention paid to him; but he was now once more better. he had lived almost entirely on the ptarmigan and ducks, of which a sufficient quantity had been procured to serve the sick and convalescent in both ships abundantly, and none had at this time been issued to any officer or man in the expedition. the equipment of the ships had gone on satisfactorily during my absence, the griper being nearly ready for sea, the hecla not quite so forward, on account of the heavy work with the ballast, of which sixty-five tons had been brought on board, to supply the deficiency of weight in her holds. the survey of the provisions, fuel, and other stores was completed, and the quantity and condition of them, with the exception of the lemon-juice and vinegar before mentioned, were found to be satisfactory. with respect to vermin, i may here mention, that not a mouse, or rat, or maggot of any kind ever appeared on board, to my knowledge, during this voyage. a very perceptible change had taken place in the ice of the harbour on its upper surface, it being covered with innumerable pools of water, chiefly brackish, except close in-shore, where the tides had lifted the ice considerably above the level of the sea. having observed that the sorrel was now so far advanced in foliage as to be easily gathered in sufficient quantity for eating, i gave orders that two afternoons in each week should be occupied by all hands in collecting the leaves of this plant; each man being required to bring in, for the present, one ounce, to be served in lieu of lemon-juice, pickles, and dried herbs, which had been hitherto issued. the growth of the sorrel was from this time so quick, and the quantity of it so great on every part of the ground about the harbour, that we shortly after sent the men out every afternoon for an hour or two; in which time, besides the advantage of a healthy walk, they could, without difficulty, pick nearly a pound each of this valuable antiscorbutic, of which they were all extremely fond. of the good effects produced upon our health by the unlimited use of fresh vegetable substances, thus bountifully supplied by the hand of nature, even where least to be expected, little doubt can be entertained, as it is well known to be a never-failing specific for scorbutic affections, to which all persons deprived of it for a length of time are probably more or less predisposed. by the th of june, the land in the immediate neighbourhood of the ships, and especially in low and sheltered situations, was much covered with the handsome purple flower of the _saxifraga oppositifolia_, which was at this time in great perfection, and gave something like cheerfulness and animation to a scene hitherto indescribably dreary in its appearance. the suddenness with which the changes take place during the short season which may be called summer in this climate, must appear very striking when it is remembered that, for a part of the first week in june, we were under the necessity of thawing artificially the snow which we made use of for water during the early part of our journey to the northward; that, during the second week, the ground was in most parts so wet and swampy that we could with difficulty travel; and that, had we not returned before the end of the third week, we should probably have been prevented doing so for some time, by the impossibility of crossing the ravines without great danger of being carried away by the torrents, an accident that happened to our hunting parties on one or two occasions in endeavouring to return with their game to the ships. on the d, at four p.m., a thermometer, in the shade on board the hecla, stood at °, being the highest temperature we had yet registered this season. on the th we had frequent showers of snow, which occur in this climate more or less at all times of the year; at this season, however, when the earth is warm, it seldom or never lies on the ground for a whole day together. lieutenant beechey, on his return from a hunting excursion at midnight on the th, reported that the ice along shore in that direction appeared in a more forward state of dissolution than near winter harbour, there being almost water enough in some places to allow a boat to pass, with several large cracks in the ice extending from the land some distance to seaward. the deep had now become much more wild near the tents, and it was therefore necessary to shift the ground a little. lieutenant beechey succeeded in killing one of these animals, by lying down quietly, and imitating the voice of a fawn, when the deer immediately came up to him within gunshot. the horns of the deer killed at this season, as mr. fisher remarks, were "covered with a soft skin having a downy pile or hair upon it; the horns themselves were soft, and at the tips flexible and easily broken." the foxes, of which they saw several, "had a black spot or patch on each side of the hind-quarters or hams." on the th, one of the men, in returning on board from the daily occupation of gathering sorrel, found in a hole upon the ice a small fish, which appeared to be of the whiting species; and, on going to examine the place where it was picked up, mr. edwards and myself found two others exactly similar. as there was as yet no communication between the sea and the upper surface of the ice sufficiently large to admit these fish, it became a matter of question in what manner they had got into the situation in which we found them. it appeared most likely that they were frozen on the surface of the water at the beginning of winter, when the frost first commenced, and perhaps, therefore, had been floating there dead. we remarked that, whenever any hard substance is laid upon the ice in small quantities, it soon makes a deep hole for itself, by the heat it absorbs and radiates, by which the ice around it is melted. there were at this time upon the ice innumerable holes of this kind, some forming small, and others large pools of water; and in every one of these, without exception, some extraneous substance, such as seaweed, sand, and not unfrequently a number of small putrid shrimps were found. in one of these holes the fish alluded to were found. it was curious to see how directly contrary was the effect produced upon the ice by a quantity of straw which was put out upon it in the early part of may, and which, by preventing the access of warmth, had now become raised above the general surface more than two feet; affording a strong practical example of the principle on which straw is made use of in ice-houses, and, what was at that time of more importance to us, a proof, how much the upper surface of the ice had been insensibly wasted by dissolution. lieutenant hoppner returned on the evening of the th from his hunting excursion to the southwest, bringing with him some game, and, what was to us much more acceptable, the welcome information that the ice had been observed in motion in the offing on the d. this circumstance was first observed by messrs. skene and fife, who were of lieutenant hoppner's party, and who were awakened by a loud grinding noise, which, as they had soon the satisfaction to find, was occasioned by the heavy field-ice setting rapidly to the eastward, at the distance of five miles from the land, and apparently at the rate of a mile an hour. the wind was at this time moderate, but on the preceding day it had blown a fresh northerly gale. for some days past scott had been gradually growing worse, and on the evening of the th he was so far exhausted that mr. edwards did not expect him to survive through the night. at two a.m. on the th i was informed by that gentleman that scott was dying; and, before i could get my clothes on, he had breathed his last, without any apparent pain. on sunday, the d of july, after divine service had been performed, the body of the deceased was committed to the earth, on a level piece of ground about a hundred yards from the beach; with every solemnity which the occasion demanded, and the circumstances of our situation would permit. the ensigns and pendants were lowered half-mast during the procession, and the remains of our unfortunate shipmate were attended to the grave by every officer and man in both ships. a neat tombstone was afterward placed at the head of the grave by mr. fisher, who carved upon it the name of the deceased, with the other usual information. the dissolution of the ice of the harbour went on so rapidly in the early part of july, that we were greatly surprised, on the th, in finding that, in several of the pools of water on its upper surface, holes were washed quite through to the sea beneath. on examining several of these, we found that the average thickness of the ice in the upper part of the harbour, where the ships were lying, did not exceed two feet, which was much less than we had any idea of. towards the mouth of the harbour, however, where the water was deeper, no such holes made their appearance for some days after this. it must here be remarked, that in all cases we found the ice to be first thawed and broken up in the shoalest water, in consequence, i suppose, of the greater facility with which the ground, at a small depth below the surface of the sea, absorbed and radiated the heat of the sun's rays; and as it is in such situations that water generally freezes the first, this circumstance seems a remarkable instance of the provision of nature for maintaining such a balance in the quantity of ice annually formed and dissolved, as shall prevent any undue or extraordinary accumulation of it in any part of the polar regions of the earth. on unhanging the rudders, and hauling them up on the ice for examination, we found them a good deal shaken and grazed by the blows they had received during the time the ships were beset at the entrance of davis's strait. we found, also, that the rudder-cases in both ships had been fitted too small, occasioning considerable difficulty in getting the rudders down when working, a circumstance by no means disadvantageous (perhaps, indeed, rather the contrary) on ordinary service at sea, but which should be carefully avoided in ships intended for the navigation among ice, as it is frequently necessary to unship the rudder at a short notice, in order to preserve it from injury, as our future experience was soon to teach us. this fault was, however, soon remedied, and the rudders again hung in readiness for sea. on the th a boat passed, for the first time, between the ships and the shore, in consequence of the junction of a number of the pools and holes in the ice; and on the following day the same kind of communication was practicable between the ships. it now became necessary, therefore, to provide against the possibility of the ships being forced on shore by the total disruption of the ice between them and the beach, and the pressure of that without, by letting go a bower-anchor underfoot, which was accordingly done as soon as there was a hole in the ice under the bows of each sufficiently large to allow the anchors to pass through. we had now been quite ready for sea for some days; and a regular and anxious look-out was kept from the crow's-nest for any alteration in the state of the ice which might favour our departure from winter harbour, in which it now became more than probable that we were destined to be detained thus inactively for a part of each month in the whole year, as we had readied it in the latter part of september, and were likely to be prevented leaving it till after the commencement of august. from six a.m. till six p.m. on the th, the thermometer stood generally from ° to °; the latter temperature being the highest which appears in the hecla's meteorological journal during this summer. it will readily be conceived how pleasant such a temperature must have been to our feelings after the severe winter which immediately preceded it. the month of july is, indeed, the only one which can be called at all comfortable in the climate of melville island. on the th, there being a strong breeze from the n.n.e., with fog and rain, all favourable to the dispersion of the ice, that part of it which was immediately around the hecla, and from which she had been artificially detached so long before, at length separated into pieces and floated away, carrying with it the collection of ashes and other rubbish which had been accumulating for the last ten months: so that the ship was now once more fairly riding at anchor, but with the ice still occupying the whole of the centre of the harbour, and within a few yards of her bows: the griper had been set free in a similar manner a few days before. but it was only in that part of the harbour where the ships were lying that the ice had yet separated in this manner at so great a distance from the shore; a circumstance probably occasioned by the greater radiation of heat from the ships, and from the materials of various kinds which we had occasion to deposite upon the ice during the time of our equipment. lieutenant liddon accompanied me in a boat down the west shore of the harbour to the southern point of the entrance, in order to sound along the edge of the ice, where we found from seven to fifteen feet water; the ice about the entrance appeared still very solid and compact, and not a single hole was at this time noticed through any of the pools upon its surface except one, which was made by a seal, and which discovered the thickness of the ice to be there between two and three feet. there was a fresh breeze from the northeastward, with fine clear weather, on the d, which made the hecla swing round into twenty feet water astern; and the ice, being now moveable in the harbour, came home towards the shore with this wind, but not so much as to put any considerable strain on the cable of either ship; and the holding-ground being excellent, there was nothing to apprehend for their security. a fresh gale, which blew from the northward on the morning of the d, caused a great alteration in the appearance of the ice near the ships, but none whatever in that in the offing or at the mouth of the harbour, except that the shores were there more encumbered than before, owing to the quantity of pieces which were separated and driven down from the northward, so that our small boat could not succeed in getting along the shore. on the th the sails were bent, in readiness for starting at a moment's notice, though it must be confessed that the motive for doing so was to make some show of moving rather than any expectation which i dared to entertain of soon escaping from our long and tedious confinement; for it was impossible to conceal from the men the painful fact that, in eight or nine weeks from this period, the navigable season must unavoidably come to a conclusion. i went away in a boat early on the morning of the th, in order to sound the harbour in those parts where the ice would admit the boat, with a view to take advantage of the first favourable change which might present itself. the wind having come round to the southward in the afternoon, caused the separation of a large portion of ice on the northern side of that which now occupied the harbour, and the detached pieces drifting down towards us, rendered it necessary to be on our guard, lest the ships should be forced from their anchorage. on this account, as well as from an anxious and impatient desire to make a move, however trifling, from a spot in which we had now unwillingly, but unavoidably, passed nearly ten months, and of which we had long been heartily tired, i directed lines to be run out for the purpose of warping the ships along the ice in the centre of the harbour, and at half past two p.m. the anchors were weighed. as soon as a strain was put upon the lines, however, we found that the ice to which they were attached came home upon us, instead of the ships being drawn out to the southward; and we were therefore obliged to have recourse to the kedge-anchors, which we could scarcely find room to drop on account of the closeness of the ice. having warped a little way out from the shore, into five fathoms and a half, it was found impossible to proceed any farther without a change of wind, and the anchors were therefore dropped till such a change should take place. in the course of the evening all the loose ice drifted past us to the northward, loading that shore of the harbour with innumerable fragments of it, and leaving a considerable space of clear water along shore to the southward. on the morning of the th it was nearly calm, with continued rain and thick weather; and there being now a space of clear water for nearly three quarters of a mile to the southward of us, we took advantage of a breeze which sprung up from the northward to weigh, at nine a.m., and run down as far as the ice would permit, and then dropped our anchors in the best berths we could select, close to the edge of it, with the intention of advancing step by step, as it continued to separate by piecemeal. the ice across the entrance of the harbour as far as this spot, and the whole of that in the offing, of which we had here a commanding view from the hecla's crow's-nest, was still quite continuous and unbroken, with the same appearance of solidity as it had during the middle of winter, except that the pools of water were numerous upon its surface. the wind being from the s.s.w. during the night of the th, served to close the lane of water which had appeared in the offing the preceding day, which we considered a favourable circumstance, as showing that the external mass of ice was in motion. in the course of the day, the wind shifting to the w.n.w., we once more discovered a small opening between the old and young floes, and at eleven p.m., the whole body of the ice in the harbour was perceived to be moving slowly out to the southeastward, breaking away, for the first time, at the points which form the entrance of the harbour. this sudden and unexpected change rendering it probable that we should at length be released, i sent to captain sabine, who had been desirous of continuing his observations on the pendulum to the last moment, to request that he would have the clocks ready for embarcation at an early hour in the morning. chapter x. leave winter harbour.--flattering appearance of the sea to the westward.--stopped by the ice near cape hay.--farther progress to the longitude of ° ' . ", being the westernmost meridian hitherto reached in the polar sea, to the north of america.--banks's land discovered.--increased extent and dimensions of the ice.--return to the eastward, to endeavour to penetrate the ice to the southward.--re-enter barrow's strait, and survey its south coast.--pass through sir james lancaster's sound on our return to england. the wind still blowing fresh from the northward and westward, the ice continued to drift out slowly from the harbour, till, at eight a.m., august st, it had left the whole space between the ships and cape hearne completely clear, and at eleven o'clock there appeared to be water round the hummocks of ice which lie aground off that point. in the mean time, our boats were employed in embarking the clocks, tents, and observatory, while i sounded the entrance of the harbour in order to complete the survey, which no opportunity had offered of doing before this time. at one p.m., having got everything on board, and the ice appearing to be still leaving the shore, we weighed, and ran out of winter harbour, in which we had actually, as had been predicted, passed ten whole months, and a part of the two remaining ones, september and august. in running along shore towards cape hearne, generally at the distance of half a mile from the land, we had from ten to sixteen fathoms' water, and rounded the hummocks off the point in six and a half fathoms by three p.m. as we opened the point, it was pleasing to see that the coast to the westward of it was more clear of ice (excepting the loose pieces which lay scattered about in every direction, but which would not very materially have impeded the navigation with a fair wind) than it had been when we first arrived off it, a month later in the foregoing year; the main ice having been blown off by the late westerly and northwesterly winds to the distance of four or five miles from the shore, which, from all we have seen on this part of the coast, appears to be its utmost limit. the navigable channel, with a beating wind between the ice and the land, was here from one to two, or two miles and a half in width; and this seemed, from the masthead, to continue as far as the eye could reach along shore to the westward. we found the wind much more westerly after we rounded the point, which made our progress slow and tedious; the more so, as we had every minute to luff for one piece of ice and to bear up for another, by which much ground was unavoidably lost. after a very few tacks, we had the mortification to perceive that the griper sailed and worked much worse than before, notwithstanding every endeavour which lieutenant liddon had been anxiously making, during her re-equipment, to improve those qualities in which she had been found deficient. she missed stays several times in the course of the evening, with smooth water and a fine working breeze, and by midnight the hecla had gained eight miles to windward of her, which obliged me to heave to, notwithstanding the increased width of the navigable channel, the weather having become hazy, so as to endanger our parting company. soon after noon on the d, a breeze sprung up from the s.s.w., which, being rather upon the shore, made it likely that the ice would soon begin to close it; we therefore began to look out for a situation where the ships might be secured in-shore, behind some of the heavy grounded ice which had so often before afforded us shelter under similar circumstances. at one o'clock we perceived that a heavy floe had already closed completely in with the land, at a point a little to the westward of us, preventing all hope of farther progress for the present in that direction. a boat was therefore sent to examine the ice in-shore, and a favourable place having been found for our purpose, the ships were hauled in and secured there, the griper's bow resting on the beach, in order to allow the hecla to lie in security without her. this place was so completely sheltered from the access of the main body of the ice, that i began to think seriously of taking advantage of this situation to remove the griper's crew on board the hecla, in order to prosecute the voyage in the latter vessel singly, and had consulted the officers upon the subject. the circumstances, however, which subsequently occurred rendering such a measure inexpedient, because no longer necessary to the accomplishment of the object in view, by which alone it could be justified, i was induced to give it up, adopting the best means in our power to remedy the evil in question. shortly after our anchoring the griper's people heard the growling of a bear among the ice near them, but the animal did not appear; and this was the only instance of our meeting with a bear during our stay at melville island, except that which followed one of our men to the ships soon after our arrival in winter harbour. both crews were sent on shore to pick sorrel, which was here not less abundant than at our old quarters, but it was now almost too old to be palatable, having nearly lost its acidity and juice. at one a.m. on the th, the loose ice was observed to be drifting in upon us, the wind having veered to the eastward of north; and soon after a floe, of not less than five miles in length and a mile and a half across, was found to be approaching the shore at a quick rate. the ships were immediately hauled as near the shore as possible, and preparation made for unshipping the rudders, if necessary. the floe was brought up, however, by the masses of ice aground outside of us, with which it successively came in contact, and the ships remained in perfect security; the floe, as usual after the first violence is over, moved off again to a little distance from the shore. at noon the heavy floe at the point near us began to quit the land, and at half past one p.m., there being a narrow passage between them, the breadth of which the breeze was constantly increasing, we cast off and stretched to the westward. the channel which opened to us as we proceeded varied in its general breadth from one to two miles; in some places it was not more than half a mile. the wind was variable and squally, but we made great progress, along the land to the s.w.b.w., and the griper, by keeping up tolerably with the hecla, in some measure redeemed her character with us. having arrived off cape providence at eleven p.m., the wind became light and baffling, so that we had just got far enough to see that there was a free and open channel beyond the westernmost point visible of melville island, when our progress was almost entirely stopped for want of a breeze to enable us to take advantage of it. the anxiety which such a detention occasions in a sea where, without any apparent cause, the ice frequently closes the shore in the most sudden manner, can perhaps only be conceived by those who have experienced it. we remarked, in sailing near the ice this evening, while the wind was blowing a fresh breeze off the land, and therefore directly towards the ice, that it remained constantly calm within three or four hundred yards of the latter; this effect i do not remember to have observed before upon the windward side of any collection of ice, though it invariably happens, in a remarkable degree, to leeward of it. i may here mention, as a striking proof of the accuracy with which astronomical bearings of objects may be taken for marine surveys, that the relative bearing of capes providence and hay, as obtained this evening when the two headlands were opening, differed only one minute from that entered in the surveying-book, and found in the same manner the preceding year. at one p.m. on the th, the weather continuing quite calm, and being desirous of examining the ice in-shore, that we might be ready for the floes closing upon us, i left the ship, accompanied by captain sabine and mr. edwards, and landed near one of the numerous deep and broad ravines with which the whole of this part of the island is indented. we were ascending the hill, which was found by trigonometrical measurement to be eight hundred and forty-seven feet above the level of the sea, and on which we found no mineral production but sandstone and clay iron-stone, when a breeze sprung up from the eastward, bringing up the griper, which had been left several miles astern. we only stopped, therefore, to obtain observations for the longitude and the variation of the magnetic needle; the former of which was ° ' ", and the latter ° ' " easterly, and then immediately returned on board and made all sail to the westward. after running for two hours without obstruction, we were once more mortified in perceiving that the ice, in very extensive and unusually heavy floes, closed in with the land a little to the westward of cape hay, and our channel of clear water between the ice and the land gradually diminished in breadth, till at length it became necessary to take in the studding sails, and to haul to the wind to look about us. i immediately left the ship, and went in a boat to examine the grounded ice off a small point of land, such as always occurs on this coast at the outlet of each ravine. i found that this point offered the only possible shelter which could be obtained in case of the ice coming in; and i therefore determined to take the hecla in-shore immediately, and to pick out the best berth which circumstances would admit. as i was returning on board with this intention, i found that the ice was already rapidly approaching the shore; no time was to be lost, therefore, in getting the hecla to her intended station, which was effected by half past eight p.m., being in nine to seven fathoms water, at the distance of twenty yards from the beach, which was lined all round the point with very heavy masses of ice that had been forced by some tremendous pressure into the ground. our situation was a dangerous one, having no shelter from ice coming from the westward, the whole of which, being distant from us less than half a mile, was composed of floes infinitely more heavy than any we had elsewhere met with during the voyage. the griper was three or four miles astern of us at the time when the ice began to close, and i therefore directed lieutenant liddon, by signal, to secure his ship in the best manner he could, without attempting to join the hecla; he accordingly made her fast at eleven p.m., near a point like that at which we were lying, and two or three miles to the eastward. on the whole of this steep coast, wherever we approached the shore, we found a thick stratum of blue and solid ice, firmly imbedded in the beach, at the depth of from six to ten feet under the surface of the water. this ice has probably been the lower part of heavy masses forced aground by the pressure of the floes from without, and still adhering to the viscous mud of which the beach is composed, after the upper part has, in course of time, dissolved. from the tops of the hills in this part of melville island a continuous line of this submarine ice could be distinctly traced for miles along the coast. in running along the shore this evening we had noticed near the sea what at a distance had every appearance of a high wall artificially built, which was the resort of numerous birds. captain sabine being desirous to examine it, as well as to procure some specimens of the birds, set out, as soon as we anchored, for that purpose. the wall proved to be composed of sandstone in horizontal strata, from twenty to thirty feet in height, which had been left standing, so as to exhibit its present artificial appearance, by the decomposition of the rock and earth about it. large flocks of glaucous gulls had chosen this as a secure retreat from the foxes, and every other enemy but man; and when our people first went into the ravine in which it stands, they were so fierce in defence of their young that it was scarcely safe to approach them till a few shots had been fired. on the morning of the th a black whale came up close to the hecla, being the first we had seen since the d of august the preceding year, about the longitude of ¾° w.; it therefore acquired among us the distinctive appellation of _the_ whale. since leaving winter harbour we had also, on two or three occasions, seen a solitary seal. the wind continued fresh from the east and e.n.e. in the morning, and the loose ice came close in upon us, but the main body remained stationary at the distance of nearly half a mile. in the afternoon a man from each mess was sent on shore to pick sorrel, which was here remarkably fine and large, as well as more acid than any we had lately met with. the shelter from the northerly winds afforded by the high land on this part of the coast, together with its southern aspect, renders the vegetation here immediately next the sea much more luxuriant than in most parts of melville island which we visited, and a considerable addition was made to our collection of plants. the easterly breeze died away in the course of the day, and at three p.m. was succeeded by a light air from the opposite quarter; and as this freshened up a little, the loose ice began to drift into our bight, and that on the eastern side of the point to drive off. it became expedient, therefore, immediately to shift the ship round the point, where she was made fast in four fathoms abaft and seventeen feet forward, close alongside the usual ledge of submarine ice, which touched her about seven feet under water, and which, having few of the heavy masses aground upon it, would probably have allowed her to be pushed over it had a heavy pressure occurred from without. it was the more necessary to moor the ship in some such situation, as we found from six to seven fathoms water by dropping the hand-lead down close to her bow and quarter on the outer side. several heavy pieces of floes drove close past us, not less than ten or fifteen feet in thickness, but they were fortunately stopped by a point of land without coming in upon us. at eleven o'clock, however, a mass of this kind, being about half an acre in extent, drove in, and gave the ship a considerable "nip" between it and the land ice, and then grazed past her to the westward. i now directed the rudder to be unhung, and the ship to be swung with her head to the eastward, so that the bow, being the strongest part, might receive the first and heaviest pressure. the ice did not disturb us again till five a.m. on the th, when another floe-piece came in and gave the ship a heavy rub, and then went past, after which it continued slack about us for several hours. everything was so quiet at nine o'clock as to induce me to venture up the hill abreast of us, in order to have a view of the newly-discovered land to the southwest, which, indeed, i had seen indistinctly and much refracted from the hecla's deck in the morning. this land, which extends beyond the th degree of west longitude, and is the most western yet discovered in the polar sea to the northward of the american continent, was honoured with the name of banks's land, out of respect to the late venerable and worthy president of the royal society. on the morning of the th a musk-ox came down to graze on the beach near the ships. a party was despatched in pursuit, and, having hemmed him in under the hill, which was too steep for him to ascend, succeeded in killing him. when first brought on board, the inside of this animal, which was a male, smelled very strong of musk, of which the whole of the meat also tasted more or less, and especially the heart. it furnished us with four hundred and twenty-one pounds of beef, which was served to the crews as usual, in lieu of their salt provisions, and was very much relished by us, notwithstanding the peculiarity of its flavour.[*] the meat was remarkably fat, and, as it hung up in quarters, looked as fine as any beef in an english market. a small seal, killed by the griper's people, was also eaten by them; and it was generally allowed to be very tender and palatable, though not very sightly in its appearance, being of a disagreeable red colour. [footnote: some pieces of this meat which we brought to england were found to have acquired a much more disagreeable flavour than when first killed, though they had not undergone putrefaction in the slightest degree.] at ten p.m. the whole body of ice, which was then a quarter of a mile from us, was found to be drifting in upon the land, and the ship was warped back a little way to the westward, towards that part of the shore which was most favourable for allowing her to be forced up on the beach. at eleven o'clock, the piece of a floe which came near us in the afternoon, and which had since drifted back a few hundred yards to the eastward, received the pressure of the whole body of ice as it came in. it split across in various directions with a considerable crash, and presently after we saw a part, several hundred tons in weight, raised slowly and majestically, as if by the application of a screw, and deposited on another part of the floe from which it had broken, presenting towards us the surface that had split, which was of a fine blue colour, and very solid and transparent. the violence with which the ice was coming in being thus broken, it remained quiet during the night, which was calm, with a heavy fall of snow. the mass of ice which had been lifted up the preceding day being drifted close to us on the morning of the th, i sent lieutenant beechey to measure its thickness, which proved to be forty-two feet; and as it was a piece of a regular floe, this measurement may serve to give some idea of the general thickness of the ice in this neighbourhood. i began to consider whether it would not be advisable, whenever the ice would allow us to move, to sacrifice a few miles of the westing we had already made, and to run along the margin of the floes, in order to endeavour to find an opening leading to the southward, by taking advantage of which we might be enabled to prosecute the voyage to the westward in a lower latitude. i was the more inclined to make this attempt, from its having long become evident to us that the navigation of this part of the polar sea is only to be performed by watching the occasional openings between the ice and the shore; and that, therefore, a continuity of land is essential, if not absolutely necessary, for this purpose. such a continuity of land, which was here about to fail us, must necessarily be furnished by the northern coast of america, in whatsoever latitude it may be found; and, as a large portion of our short season had already been occupied in fruitless attempts to penetrate farther to the westward in our present parallel, under circumstances of more than ordinary risk to the ships, i determined, whenever the ice should open sufficiently, to put into execution the plan i had proposed. at seven p.m. we shipped the rudder and crossed the top-gallant yards in readiness for moving; and then i ascended the hill and walked a mile to the westward, along the brow of it, that not a moment might be lost after the ice to the westward should give us the slightest hope of making any progress by getting under way. although the holes had certainly increased in size and extent, there was still not sufficient room even for one of our boats to work to windward; and the impossibility of the ships' doing so was rendered more apparent, on account of the current which, as i have before had occasion to remark, is always produced in these seas soon after the springing up of a breeze, and which was now running to the eastward at the rate of at least one mile per hour. it was evident that any attempt to get the ships to the westward must, under circumstances so unfavourable, be attended with the certain consequence of their being drifted the contrary way; and nothing could therefore be done but still to watch, which we did most anxiously, every alteration in the state of the ice. the wind, however, decreasing as the night came on, served to diminish the hopes with which we had flattered ourselves of being speedily extricated from our present confined and dangerous situation. the weather was foggy for some hours in the morning of the th, but cleared up in the afternoon as the sun acquired power. the wind increased to a fresh gale from the eastward at nine p.m., being the second time that it had done so while we had been lying at this station; a circumstance which we were the more inclined to notice, as the easterly winds had hitherto been more faint and less frequent than those from the westward. in this respect, therefore, we considered ourselves unfortunate, as experience had already shown us that none but a westerly wind ever produced upon this coast, or, indeed, on the southern coast of any of the north georgian islands, the desired effect of clearing the shores of ice. the gale continued strong during the night, and the ice quite stationary. not a pool of clear water could be seen in any direction, except just under the lee of our point, where there was a space large enough to contain half a dozen sail of ships, till about noon, when the whole closed in upon us without any apparent cause, except that the wind blew in irregular puffs about that time, and at one p.m. it was alongside. the ship was placed in the most advantageous manner for taking the beach, or, rather, the shelf of submarine ice, and the rudder again unshipped and hung across the stem. the ice which came in contact with the ship's side consisted of very heavy loose pieces, drawing twelve or fourteen feet water, which, however, we considered as good "fenders," compared with the enormous fields which covered the sea just without them. everything remained quiet for the rest of the day, without producing any pressure of consequence; the wind came round to n.b.e. at night, but without moving the ice off the land. early in the morning of the th i received by mr. griffiths a message from lieutenant liddon, acquainting me that, at eleven o'clock on the preceding night, the ice had been setting slowly to the westward, and had, at the same time, closed in upon the land where the griper was lying, by which means she was forced against the submarine ice, and her stern lifted two feet out of the water. this pressure, lieutenant liddon remarked, had given her a twist, which made her crack a good deal, but apparently without suffering any material injury in her hull, though the ice was still pressing upon her when mr. griffiths came away. she had at first heeled inward, but, on being lifted higher, fell over towards the deep water. under these circumstances lieutenant liddon had very properly landed all the journals and other documents of importance, and made every arrangement in his power for saving the provisions and stores in case of shipwreck, which he had now every reason to anticipate. convinced as i was that no human art or power could, in our present situation, prevent such a catastrophe whenever the pressure of the ice became sufficient, i was more than ever satisfied with the determination to which i had previously come, of keeping the ships apart during the continuance of these untoward circumstances, in order to increase the chance of saving one of them from accidents of this nature. in the mean time the ice remained so close about the hecla, that the slightest pressure producing in it a motion towards the shore must have placed us in a situation similar to that of the griper; and our attention was therefore diverted to the more important object of providing, by every means in our power, for the security of the larger ship, as being the principal depôt of provisions and other resources. at five p.m. lieutenant liddon acquainted me by letter that the griper had at length righted, the ice having slackened a little around her, and that all the damage she appeared to have sustained was in her rudder, which was badly split, and would require some hours' labour to repair it whenever the ice should allow him to get it on shore. soon after midnight the ice pressed closer in upon the hecla than before, giving her a heel of eighteen inches towards the shore, but without appearing to strain her in the slightest degree. by four p.m. the pressure had gradually decreased, and the ship had only three or four inches heel; in an hour after she had perfectly righted, and the ice remained quiet for the rest of the day. every moment's additional detention now served to confirm me in the opinion i had formed as to the expediency of trying, at all risks, to penetrate to the southward whenever the ice would allow us to move at all, rather than persevere any longer in the attempts we had been lately making, with so little success, to push on directly to the westward. i therefore gave lieutenant liddon an order to run back a certain distance to the eastward whenever he could do so, without waiting for the hecla, should that ship be still detained; and to look out for any opening in the ice to the southward which might seem likely to favour the object i had in view, waiting for me to join him should any such opening occur. the breeze died away in the course of the night, just as the ice was beginning to separate and to drift away from the shore; and, being succeeded by a wind off the land, which is here very unusual, lieutenant liddon was enabled to sail upon the griper at two a.m. on the th, in execution of the orders i had given him. as i soon perceived, however, that she made little or no way, the wind drawing more to the eastward on that part of the coast, and as the clear water was increasing along the shore to the westward much farther than we had yet seen it, i made the signal of recall to the griper, with the intention of making another attempt, which the present favourable appearances seemed to justify, to push forward without delay in the desired direction. at five a.m., therefore, as soon as the snow had cleared away sufficiently to allow the signal to be distinguished, we cast off and ran along shore, the wind having by this time veered to the e.b.n., and blowing in strong puffs out of the ravines as we passed them. we sailed along, generally at the distance of a hundred or a hundred and fifty yards from the beach, our soundings being from ten to seventeen fathoms; and, after running a mile and a half in a n.w.b.w. direction, once more found the ice offering an impenetrable obstacle to our progress westward, at a small projecting point of land just beyond us. we therefore hauled the ship into a berth which we were at this moment fortunate in finding abreast of us, and where we were enabled to place the hecla within a number of heavy masses of grounded ice, such as do not often occur on this steep coast, which, compared with the situation we had lately left, appeared a perfect harbour. in the mean time, the wind had failed our consort when she was a mile and a half short of this place; and lieutenant liddon, after endeavouring in vain to warp up to us, was obliged, by the ice suddenly closing upon him, to place her in-shore, in the first situation he could find, which proved to be in very deep water, as well as otherwise so insecure as not to admit a hope of saving the ship should the ice continue to press upon her. mr. fisher found very good sport in our new station, having returned in the evening, after a few hours' excursion, with nine hares; the birds had, of late, almost entirely deserted us, a flock or two of ptarmigan and snow-buntings, a few glaucous gulls, a raven, and an owl, being all that had been met with for several days. a fog, which had prevailed during the night, cleared away in the morning of the th, and a very fine day succeeded, with a moderate breeze from the westward. in order to have a clear and distinct view of the state of the ice, after twenty-four hours' wind from that quarter, captain sabine, mr. edwards, and myself, walked about two miles to the westward, along the high part of the land next the sea, from whence it appeared but too evident that no passage in this direction was yet to be expected. the ice to the west and southwest was as solid and compact, to all appearance, as so much land; to which, indeed, the surface of so many fields, from the kind of hill and dale i have before endeavoured to describe, bore no imperfect resemblance. i have no doubt that, had it been our object to circumnavigate melville island, or, on the other hand, had the coast continued its westerly direction instead of turning to the northward, we should still have contrived to proceed a little occasionally, as opportunities offered, notwithstanding the increased obstruction which here presented itself; but, as neither of these was the case, there seemed little or nothing to hope for from any farther attempts to prosecute the main object of the voyage in this place. i determined, therefore, no longer to delay the execution of my former intentions, and to make trial, if possible, of a more southern latitude, in which i might follow up the success that had hitherto attended our exertions. the station at which the ships were now lying, and which is the westernmost point to which the navigation of the polar sea to the northward of the american continent has yet been carried, is in latitude ° ' ", and longitude, by chronometer, ° ' . ". the place where the hecla was now secured, being the only one of the kind which could be found, was a little harbour, formed, as usual, by the grounded ice, some of which was fixed to the bottom in ten to twelve fathoms. one side of the entrance to this harbour consisted of masses of floes, very regular in their shape, placed quite horizontally, and broken off so exactly perpendicular as to resemble a handsome, well-built wharf. on the opposite side, however, the masses to which we looked for security were themselves rather terrific objects, as they leaned over so much towards the ship as to give the appearance of their being in the act of falling upon her deck; and as a very trifling concussion often produces the fall of much heavier masses of ice, when in appearance very firmly fixed to the ground, i gave orders that no guns should be fired near the ship during her continuance in this situation. the griper was of necessity made fast near the beach in rather an exposed situation, and her rudder unshipped, in readiness for the ice coming in; it remained quiet, however, though quite close, during the day, the weather being calm and fine. it was again nearly calm on the th, and the weather was foggy for some hours in the morning. in the evening, having walked to cape providence to see if there was any possibility of moving the ships, i found the ice so close that a boat could not have passed beyond the cape; but a light air drifting the ice slowly to the eastward at this time, gave me some hopes of soon being enabled to make our escape from this tedious as well as vexatious confinement. at a quarter past eight it was high water by the shore; about this time the ice ceased driving to the eastward, and shortly after returned in the opposite direction. at half past eleven p.m., some heavy pieces of the grounded ice, to which our bow-hawser was secured, fell off into the water, snapping the rope in two without injuring the ship. as, however, every alteration of this kind must materially change the centre of gravity of the whole mass, which already appeared in a tottering state, i thought it prudent to move the hecla out of her harbour to the place where the griper was lying, considering that a ship might easily be forced on shore by the ice without suffering any serious damage; but that one of those enormous masses falling upon her deck must inevitably crush or sink her. the "young ice" had increased to the thickness of an inch and a half on the morning of the d, and some snow which had fallen in the night served to cement the whole more firmly together. on a breeze springing up from the westward, however, it soon began to acquire a motion to leeward, and at half an hour before noon had slackened about the ships sufficiently to allow us to warp them out, which was accordingly done, and all sail made upon them. the wind having freshened up from the w.n.w., the ships' heads were got the right way, and, by great attention to the sails, kept so till they had got abreast of cape providence, after which they were no longer manageable, the ice being more close than before. i have before remarked that the loose ice in this neighbourhood was heavy in proportion to the floes from which it had been broken; and the impossibility of sailing among such ice, most of which drew more water than the hecla, and could not, therefore, be turned by her weight, was this day rendered very apparent, the ships having received by far the heaviest shocks which they experienced during the voyage. they continued, however, to drive till they were about three miles to the eastward of cape providence, where the low land commences; when, finding that there was not any appearance of open water to the eastward or southward, and that we were now incurring the risk of being beset at sea, without a chance of making any farther progress, we hauled in for the largest piece of grounded ice we could see upon the beach, which we reached at six p.m., having performed six miles of the most difficult navigation i have ever known among ice. the hecla was made fast in from eighteen to twenty feet water close to the beach, and the griper in four fathoms, about half a mile to the westward of us. the situation in which the ships were now placed, when viewed in combination with the shortness of the remaining part of the season, and the period to which our resources of every kind could be extended, was such as to require a more than ordinary consideration, in order to determine upon the measures most proper to be pursued for the advancement of the public service, and the security of the ships and people committed to my charge. judging from the close of the summer of , it was reasonable to consider the th of september as the limit beyond which the navigation of this part of the polar sea could not be performed, with tolerable safety to the ships or with any hope of farther success. impressed, however, with a strong sense of the efforts which it became us to make in the prosecution of our enterprise, i was induced to extend this limit to the th of september, before which day, on the preceding year, the winter might fairly be said to have set in. but even with this extension our prospect was not very encouraging: the direct distance to icy cape was between eight and nine hundred miles, while that which we had advanced towards it this season fell short of sixty miles. by mr. hooper's report of the remains of provisions, it appeared that, at the present reduced allowance (namely, two thirds of the established proportion of the navy), they would last until the th of november, ; and that an immediate reduction, to half allowance, which must, however, tend materially to impair the health and vigour of the officers and men, would only extend our resources to the th of april, ; it therefore became a matter of evident and imperious necessity, that the ships should be cleared from the ice before the close of the season of , so as to reach some station where supplies might be obtained by the end of that, or early in the following year. by the same report, it appeared that the fuel with which we were furnished could only be made to extend to a period of two years and seven months, or to the end of november, ; and this only by resorting to the unhealthy measure of both crews living on board the hecla during six of the ensuing winter months. the ships might be considered almost as effective as when the expedition left england; the wear and tear having been trifling, and the quantity of stores remaining on board being amply sufficient, in all probability, for a much longer period than the provisions and fuel. the health of the officers and men continued also as good, or nearly so, as at the commencement of the voyage. considering, however, the serious loss we had sustained in the lemon-juice, the only effectual antiscorbutic on which we could depend during at least nine months of the year in these regions, as well as the effects likely to result from crowding nearly one hundred persons into the accommodation intended only for fifty-eight, whereby the difficulty of keeping the inhabited parts of the ship in a dry and wholesome state would have been so much increased, there certainly seemed some reason to apprehend that a second winter would not leave us in possession of the same excellent health which we now happily enjoyed, while it is possible that the difficulty and danger of either proceeding or returning might have been increased. a herd of musk-oxen being seen at a little distance from the ships, a party was despatched in pursuit; and messrs. fisher and bushnan were fortunate in killing a fine bull, which separated from the rest of the herd, being too unwieldy to make such good way as the others. he was, however, by no means caught by our people in fair chase; for, though these animals run with a hobbling sort of canter, that makes them appear as if every now and then about to fall, yet the slowest of them can far outstrip a man. in this herd were two calves, much whiter than the rest, the older ones having only the white saddle. in the evening, sergeant martin succeeded in killing another bull; these two animals afforded a very welcome supply of fresh meat, the first giving us three hundred and sixty-nine, and the other three hundred and fifty-two pounds of beef, which was served in the same manner as before.[*] [footnote: the total quantity of game obtained for the use of the expedition during our stay upon the shores of melville island, being a period of nearly twelve months, was as follows: musk oxen, deer, hares, geese, ducks, ptarmigans: affording pounds of meat.] it was gratifying to me to find that the officers unanimously agreed with me in opinion that any farther attempt to penetrate to the westward in our present parallel would be altogether fruitless, and attended with a considerable loss of time, which might be more usefully employed. they also agreed with me in thinking that the plan which i had adopted, of running back along the edge of the ice to the eastward, in order to look out for an opening that might lead us towards the american continent, was in every respect the most advisable; and that, in the event of failing to find any such opening after a reasonable time spent in search, it would be expedient to return to england rather than risk the passing another winter in these seas, without the prospect of attaining any adequate object; namely, that of being able to start from an advanced station at the commencement of the following season. at three p.m. we were abreast of cape hearne; and, as we opened the bay of the hecla and griper, the wind, as usual on this part of the coast, came directly out from the northward; but, as soon as we had stretched over to bounty cape, of which we were abreast at eight p.m., it drew once more along the land from the westward. the distance between the ice and the land increased as we proceeded, and at midnight the channel appeared to be four or five miles wide, as far as the darkness of the night would allow of our judging; for we could at this period scarcely see to read in the cabin at ten o'clock. the snow which fell during the day was observed, for the first time, to remain upon the land without dissolving; thus affording a proof of the temperature of the earth's surface having again fallen below that of freezing, and giving notice of the near approach of another long and dreary winter. at seven p.m., a fog coming on, we hauled up close to the edge of the ice, both as a guide to us in sailing during the continuance of the thick weather, and to avoid passing any opening that might occur in it to the southward. we were, in the course of the evening, within four or five miles of the same spot where we had been on the same day and at the same hour the preceding year; and, by a coincidence perhaps still more remarkable, we were here once more reduced to the same necessity as before, of steering the ships by one another for an hour or two; the griper keeping the hecla ahead, and our quartermaster being directed to keep the griper right astern, for want of some better mode of knowing in what direction we were running. the fog froze hard as it fell upon the rigging, making it difficult to handle the ropes in working the ship, and the night was rather dark for three or four hours. at a quarter past three on the morning of the th, we bore up to the eastward, the wind continuing fresh directly down barrow's strait, except just after passing prince leopold's islands, where it drew into prince regent's inlet, and, as soon as we had passed this, again assumed its former westerly direction; affording a remarkable instance of the manner in which the wind is acted upon by the particular position of the land, even at a considerable distance from it. the islands were encumbered with ice to the distance of four or five miles all found them, but the strait was generally as clear and navigable as any part of the atlantic. having now traced the ice the whole way from the longitude of ° to that of °, without discovering any opening to encourage a hope of penetrating it to the southward, i could not entertain the slightest doubt that there no longer remained a possibility of effecting our object with the present resources of the expedition; and that it was therefore my duty to return to england with the account of our late proceedings, that no time might be lost in following up the success with which we had been favoured, should his majesty's government consider it expedient to do so. having informed the officers and men in both ships of my intentions, i directed the full allowance of provisions to be in future issued, with such a proportion of fuel as might contribute to their comfort; a luxury which, on account of the necessity that existed for the strictest economy in this article, it must be confessed, we had not often enjoyed since we entered sir james lancaster's sound. we had been on two thirds allowance of bread between ten and eleven months, and on the same reduced proportion of the other species of provisions between three and four; and, although this quantity is scarcely enough for working men for any length of time, i believe the reduction of fuel was generally considered by far the greater privation of the two. as it appeared to me that considerable service might be rendered by a general survey of the western coast of baffin's bay, which, from sir james lancaster's sound southward, might one day become an important station for our whalers, i determined to keep as close to that shore during our passage down as the ice and the wind would permit; and as the experience of the former voyage had led us to suppose that this coast would be almost clear of ice during the whole of september, i thought that this month could not be better employed than in the examination of its numerous bays and inlets. such an examination appeared to me more desirable, from the hope of finding some new outlet into the polar sea in a lower latitude than that of sir james lancaster's sound; a discovery which would be of infinite importance towards the accomplishment of the northwest passage. chapter xi. progress down the western coast of baffin's bay.--meet with the whalers.--account of some esquimaux in the inlet called the river clyde.--continue the survey of the coast till stopped by ice in the latitude of ¼°.--obliged to run to the eastward.--fruitless attempts to regain the land, and final departure from the ice.--remarks upon the probable existence and practicability of a northwest passage, and upon the whale fishery.--boisterous weather in crossing the atlantic.--loss of the hecla's bowsprit and foremast.--arrival in england. the wind continuing fresh from the northward on the morning of the st of september, we bore up and ran along the land, taking our departure from the flagstaff in possession bay, bearing w.s.w. five miles, at half past four a.m. the ice led us off very much to the eastward after leaving pond's bay; and the weather became calm, with small snow towards midnight. in this day's run, the compass-courses were occasionally inserted in the logbook, being the first time that the magnetic needle had been made use of on board the hecla, for the purposes of navigation, for more than twelve months. on the morning of the d we passed some of the highest icebergs i have ever seen, one of them being not less than one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above the sea, judging from the height of the griper's masts when near it. the vegetation was tolerably luxuriant in some places upon the low land which borders the sea, consisting principally of the dwarf-willow, sorrel, saxifrage, and poppy, with a few roots of scurvy-grass. there was still a great deal of snow remaining even on the lower parts of the land, on which were numerous ponds of water; on one of these, a pair of young red-throated divers, which could not rise, were killed; and two flocks of geese, one of them consisting of not less than sixty or seventy, were seen by mr. hooper, who described them as being very tame, running along the beach before our people, without rising, for a considerable distance. some glaucous gulls and plovers were killed, and we met with several tracks of bears, deers, wolves, foxes, and mice. the coxswain of the boat found upon the beach part of the bone of a whale, which had been cut at one end by a sharp instrument like an axe, with a quantity of chips lying about it, affording undoubted proof of this part of the coast having been visited at no distant period by esquimaux; it is more than probable, indeed, that they may inhabit the shores of this inlet, which time would not now permit us to examine. more than sixty icebergs of very large dimensions were in sight from the top of the hill, together with a number of extensive floes to the northeast and southeast, at the distance of four or five leagues from the land. while occupied in attending to the soundings, soon after noon, our astonishment may readily be conceived on seeing from the masthead a ship, and soon after two others, in the offing, which were soon ascertained to be whalers, standing in towards the land. they afterward bore up to the northward along the edge of the ice which intervened between us, and we lost sight of them at night. it was now evident that this coast, which had hitherto been considered by the whalers as wholly inaccessible in so high a latitude, had become a fishing station, like that on the opposite or greenland shore; and the circumstance of our meeting so few whales in sir james lancaster's sound this season was at once accounted for by supposing, what, indeed, we afterward found to be the case, that the fishing-ships had been there before us, and had, for a time, scared them from that ground. it was so squally on the morning of the th that we could scarcely carry our double-reefed topsails, while, as we afterward learned from the fishing-ships, which were in sight at daylight, there was scarcely a breath of wind at a few leagues' distance from the land. we coasted this low shore, as we had done in the preceding voyage, at the distance of two or three miles, having from twenty-three to twenty-nine fathoms water. we here met with another of our fishing-ships, which proved to be the lee, of hull, mr. williamson, master; from whom we learned, among other events of a public nature which were altogether new to us, the public calamity which england had sustained in the death of our late venerable and beloved sovereign, and also the death of his royal highness the duke of kent. mr. williamson, among others, had succeeded in getting across the ice to this coast as high as the latitude of °, and had come down to this part in pursuit of the fish. one or two of the ships had endeavoured to return home by running down this coast, but had found the ice so close about the latitude of ½° as to induce most of the others to sail back to the northward, in order to get back in the same way that they came. mr. williamson also reported his having, a day or two before, met with some esquimaux in the inlet named the river clyde in , which was just to the southward of us. considering it a matter of some interest to communicate with these people, who had, probably, not been before visited by europeans, and that it might, at the same time, be useful to examine the inlet, i bore up, as soon as i had sent our despatches and letters on board the lee, and stood in towards the rocky islet, called agnes's monument, passing between it and the low point which forms the entrance to the inlet on the northern side. at six in the evening of the th, being near the outermost of the islands with which we afterward found this inlet to be studded, we observed four canoes paddling towards the ships; they approached with great confidence, and came alongside without the least appearance of fear or suspicion. while paddling towards us, and, indeed, before we could plainly perceive their canoes, they continued to vociferate loudly; but nothing like a song, nor even any articulate sound, which can be expressed by words, could be distinguished. their canoes were taken on board by their own desire, plainly intimated by signs, and with their assistance, and they at once came up the side without hesitation. these people consisted of an old man, apparently much above sixty, and three younger, from nineteen to thirty years of age. as soon as they came on deck, their vociferations seemed to increase with their astonishment, and, i may add, their pleasure; for the reception they met with seemed to create no less joy than surprise. whenever they received a present or were shown anything which excited fresh admiration, they expressed their delight by loud and repeated ejaculations, which they sometimes continued till they were quite hoarse and out of breath with the exertion. this noisy mode of expressing their satisfaction was accompanied by a jumping, which continued for a minute or more, according to the degree of the passion which excited it, and the bodily powers of the person who exercised it; the old man being rather too infirm, but still doing his utmost to go through the performance. after some time passed on deck, during which a few skins and ivory knives were bought from them, they were taken down into the cabin. the younger ones received the proposal to descend somewhat reluctantly, till they saw that their old companion was willing to show them the example, and they then followed without fear. although we were much at a loss for an interpreter, we had no great difficulty in making the old man understand, by showing him an engraved portrait of an esquimaux, that lieutenant beechey was desirous of making a similar drawing of him. he was accordingly placed on a stool near the fire, and sat for more than an hour with very tolerable composure and steadiness, considering that a barter for their clothes, spears, and whalebone was going on at the same time near him. he was, indeed, kept quiet by the presents which were given him from time to time; and when this failed, and he became impatient to move, i endeavoured to remind him that we wished him to keep his position, by placing my hands before me, holding up my head and assuming a grave and demure look. we now found that the old gentleman was a mimic, as well as a very good-natured and obliging man; for, whenever i did this he always imitated me in such a manner as to create considerable diversion among his own people as well as ours, and then very quietly kept his seat. while he was sitting for his picture, the other three stood behind him, bartering their commodities with great honesty, but in a manner which showed them to be no strangers to traffic. if, for instance, a knife was offered for any article, they would hesitate for a short time, till they saw we were determined to give no higher price, and then at once consented to the exchange. in this case, as well as when anything was presented to them, they immediately licked it twice with their tongues, after which they seemed to consider the bargain satisfactorily concluded. the youngest of the party very modestly kept behind the others, and, before he was observed to have done so, missed several presents, which his less diffident, though not importunate companions had received. as the night closed in they became desirous to depart, and they left us before dark, highly delighted with their visit. as i had purchased one of their canoes, a boat was sent to land its late owner, as only one person can sit in each. mr. palmer informed me, that, in going on shore, the canoes could beat our boat very much in rowing whenever the esquimaux chose to exert themselves, but they kept close to her the whole way. during the time that they were on board, we had observed in them a great aptness for imitating certain of our words; and, while going on shore, they took a particular liking to the expression of "hurra, give way!" which they heard mr. palmer use to the boat's crew, and which they frequently imitated, to the great amusement of all parties. soon after we had landed on the th, the old esquimaux and one of his younger companions paddled over from the main land, and joined us upon the island. they brought with them, as before, some pieces of whalebone and sealskin dresses, which were soon disposed of, great care being taken by them not to produce more than one article at a time; returning to their canoes, which were at a little distance from our boat, after the purchase of each of their commodities, till their little stock was exhausted. considering it desirable to keep up among them the ideas of fair and honest exchange, which they already seemed to possess in no ordinary degree, i did not permit them to receive anything as presents till all their commodities had been regularly bought. while we were waiting to obtain the sun's meridian altitude, they amused themselves in the most good-natured and cheerful manner with the boat's crew; and lieutenant hoppner, who, with mr. beverly, had joined us in the griper's boat, took this opportunity of making a drawing of the young man. it required, however, some show of authority, as well as some occasional rewards, to keep him quietly seated on the rock for a time sufficient for this purpose; the inclination they have to jump about, when much pleased, rendering it a penalty of no trifling nature for them to sit still for half an hour together. to show their disposition to do us what little service was in their power, he afterward employed himself in sharpening the seamen's knives, which he did with great expertness on any flat smooth stone, returning each, as soon as finished, to its proper owner, and then making signs for another, which he sharpened and returned in the same way, without any attempt, and apparently without the smallest desire, to detain it. the old man was extremely inquisitive, and directed his attention to those things which appeared useful rather than to those which were merely amusing. an instance of this occurred on my ordering a tin canister of preserved meat to be opened for the boats' crews' dinner. the old man was sitting on the rock, attentively watching the operation, which was performed with an axe struck by a mallet, when one of the men came up to us with a looking-glass. i held it up to each of the esquimaux, who had also seen one on the preceding evening, and then gave it into each of their hands successively. the younger one was quite in raptures, and literally jumped for joy for nearly a quarter of an hour: but the old man, having had one smile at his own queer face, immediately resumed his former gravity, and, returning me the glass, directed his whole attention to the opening of the canister, and, when this was effected, begged very hard for the mallet which had performed so useful an office, without expressing the least wish to partake of the meat, even when he saw us eating it with good appetites. being prevailed on, however, to taste a little of it, with some biscuit, they did not seem at all to relish it, but ate a small quantity, from an evident desire not to offend us, and then deposited the rest safely in their canoes. they could not be persuaded to taste any rum after once smelling it, even when much diluted with water. i do not know whether it be a circumstance worthy of notice, that when a kaleidoscope or a telescope was given them to look into, they immediately shut one eye; and one of them used the right, and the other the left eye. in getting out of their canoes, as well as into them, great care is required to preserve the balance of these frail and unsteady coracles, and in this they generally assist each other. as we were leaving the island, and they were about to follow us, we lay on our oars to observe how they would manage this; and it was gratifying to see that the young man launched the canoe of his aged companion, and, having carefully steadied it alongside the rock till he had safely embarked, carried his own down, and contrived, though with some difficulty, to get into it without assistance. they seem to take especial care, in launching their canoes, not to rub them against the rocks, by placing one end gently in the water, and holding the other up high, till it can be deposited without risk of injury. as soon as we commenced rowing, the esquimaux began to vociferate their newly-acquired expression of "hurra, give way!" which they continued at intervals, accompanied by the most good-humoured merriment, as we crossed over to the main land. there being now a little sea, occasioned by a weather tide, we found that our boats could easily beat their canoes in rowing, notwithstanding their utmost endeavours to keep up with us. the two esquimaux tents which we were now going to visit were situated just within a low point of land, forming the eastern side of the entrance to a considerable branch of the inlet, extending some distance to the northward. the situation is warm and pleasant, having a southwesterly aspect, and being in every respect well adapted for the convenient residence of these poor people. we landed outside the point, and walked over to the tents, sending our boats, accompanied by the two canoes, round the point to meet us. as soon as we came in sight of the tents, every living animal there, men, women, children, and dogs, were in motion; the latter to the top of the hill out of our way, and the rest to meet as with loud and continued shouting; the word _pilletay_ (give me) being the only articulate sound we could distinguish amid the general uproar. besides the four men whom we had already seen, there were four women, one of whom, being about the same age as the old man, was probably his wife; the others were about thirty, twenty-two, and eighteen years of age. the first two of these, whom we supposed to be married to the two oldest of the young men, had infants slung in a kind of bag at their backs, much in the same way as gipsies are accustomed to carry their children. there were also seven children, from twelve to three years of age, besides the two infants in arms, or, rather, behind their mothers' backs; and the woman of thirty was with child. we began, as before, by buying whatever they had to dispose of, giving in exchange knives, axes, brass kettles, needles, and other useful articles, and then added such presents as might be farther serviceable to them. from the first moment of our arrival until we left them, or, rather, till we had nothing left to give, the females were particularly importunate with us, and "pilletay" resounded from the whole troop, wherever we went; they were extremely anxious to obtain our buttons, apparently more on account of the ornament of the crown and anchor which they observed upon them than from any value they set upon their use; and several of these were cut off our jackets to please their fancy. when i first endeavoured to bargain for a sledge, the persons i addressed gave me distinctly to understand by signs that it was not their property, and pointed towards the woman who owned it; though my ignorance in this respect offered a good opportunity of defrauding me, had they been so inclined, by receiving an equivalent for that which did not belong to them: on the owner's coming forward, the bargain was quickly concluded. the pikes which i gave in exchange underwent the usual ceremony of licking, and the sledge was carried to our boat with the most perfect understanding on both sides. in another instance, an axe was offered by some of the griper's gentlemen as the price of a dog, to which the woman who owned the animal consented. to show that we placed full confidence in them, the axe was given to her before the dog was caught, and she immediately went away with a kind of halter or harness of thongs, which, they use for this purpose, and honestly brought one of the finest among them, though nothing would have been easier than to evade the performance of the contract. the readiness, however, with which they generally parted with their commodities, was by no means the effect of fear, nor did it always depend on the value of the articles offered in exchange; for having, as i thought, concluded a bargain for a second canoe belonging to the old woman, i desired the men to hand it down to the boat; but i soon perceived that i had misunderstood her, for she clung fast to the canoe, and cried most piteously till it was set down; i then offered a larger price than before, but she could not be induced to part with it. the stature of these people, like that of esquimaux in general, is much below the usual standard. the height of the old man, who was rather bent by age, was four feet eleven inches; and that of the other men, from five feet four and a half to five feet six inches. their faces are round and plump in the younger individuals; skin smooth; complexion not very dark, except that of the old man; teeth very white; eyes small; nose broad, but not very flat; hair black, straight, and glossy; and their hands and feet extremely diminutive. the old man had a gray beard, in which the black hairs predominated, and wore the hair rather long upon his upper lip, which was also the case with the eldest of the three others. the grown-up females measured from four feet ten to four feet eleven inches. the features of the two youngest were regular; their complexions clear, and by no means dark; their eyes small, black, and piercing; teeth beautifully white and perfect; and, although the form of their faces is round and chubby, and their noses rather flat than otherwise, their countenances might, perhaps, be considered pleasing, even according to the ideas of beauty which habit has taught us to entertain. their hair, which is jet-black, hangs down long and loose about their shoulders, a part of it on each side being carelessly platted, and sometimes rolled up into an awkward lump, instead of being neatly tied on the top of the head, as the esquimaux women in most other parts are accustomed to wear it. the youngest female had much natural bashfulness and timidity, and we considered her to be the only unmarried one, as she differed from the other three in not being tattooed upon the face. two of them had their hands tattooed also, and the old woman had a few marks of the same kind about each wrist. none of the men or children were thus distinguished. the children were generally good-looking, and the eldest boy, about twelve years of age, was a remarkably fine and even handsome lad. they were rather scared at us at first; but kind treatment and a few trifling presents soon removed their fears, and made them almost as importunate as the rest. the dress of the men consists of a sealskin jacket, with a hood, which is occasionally drawn over the head, of which it forms the only covering. the breeches are also generally of sealskin, and are made to reach below the knee; and their boots, which meet the breeches, are made of the same material. in this dress we perceived no difference from that of the other esquimaux, except that the jacket, instead of having a pointed flap before and behind, as usual, was quite straight behind, and had a sort of scallop before in the centre. in the dress of the women there was not so much regard to decency as in that of the men. the jacket is of sealskin, with a short, pointed flap before, and a long one behind, reaching almost to the ground. they had on a kind of drawers, similar to those described by crantz as the summer dress of the greenland women, and no breeches. the drawers cover the middle part of the body, from the hips to one third down the thigh, the rest of which is entirely naked as far as the knee. the boots are like those of the men; and, besides these, they have a pair of very loose leggins, as they may be called, which hang down carelessly upon the top of the boots, suffering their thighs to be exposed in the manner before described, but which may be intended occasionally to fasten up, so as to complete the covering of the whole body. the children are all remarkably well clothed; their dress, both in male and female, being in every respect the same as that of the men, and composed entirely of sealskin very neatly sewed. the tents which compose their summer habitations are principally supported by a long pole of whalebone, fourteen feet high, standing perpendicularly, with four or five feet of it projecting above the skins which form the roof and sides. the length of the tent is seventeen, and its breadth from seven to nine feet, the narrowest part being next the door, and widening towards the inner part, where the bed, composed of a quantity of the small shrubby plant, the _andromeda tetragona_, occupies about one third of the whole apartment. the pole of the tent is fixed where the bed commences, and the latter is kept separate by some pieces of bone laid across the tent from side to side. the door, which faces the southwest, is also formed of two pieces of bone, with the upper ends fastened together, and the skins are made to overlap in that part of the tent, which is much lower than the inner end. the covering is fastened to the ground by curved pieces of bone, being generally parts of the whale; the tents were ten or fifteen yards apart, and about the same distance from the beach. the canoe which i purchased, and which was one of the best of the five that we saw, is sixteen feet eleven inches in length, and its extreme breadth two feet one inch and a half; two feet of its fore end are out of the water when floating. it differs from the canoe of greenland in being somewhat lower at each end, and also in having a higher rim or gunwale, as it may be termed, round the circular hole where the man sits, which may make them somewhat safer at sea. their construction is, in other respects, much the same; the timbers or ribs, which are five or six inches apart, as well as the fore and aft connecting pieces, being of whalebone or drift-wood, and the skins with which they were covered, those of the seal and walrus. when the canoes are taken on the shore, they are carefully placed upon two upright piles or pillars of stones, four feet high from the ground, in order to allow the air to pass under to dry them, and prevent their rotting. the paddle is double and made of fir, the edges of the blade being covered with hard bone to secure them from wearing. the spears or darts which they use in killing seals and other sea animals, consist, like the harpoons of our fishermen, of two parts, a staff, and the spear itself; the former is usually of wood, when so scarce and valuable a commodity can be obtained, from three and a half to five feet in length, and the latter of bone, about eighteen inches long, sometimes tipped with iron, but more commonly ground to a blunt point at one end, while the other fits into a socket in the staff, to which it is firmly secured by thongs. the lines which they attach to their spears are very neatly cut out of sealskins, and, when in a state of preparation, are left to stretch till dry between the tents, and then made up into coils for use. they make use of a bladder fastened to the end of the line, in the same manner as the other esquimaux. besides the spears, we purchased an instrument having a rude hook of iron let into a piece of bone, and secured by thongs to a staff, the hook being sharply pointed, but not barbed. while we were on the island (to which i had applied the name of observation island), it happened that a small bird flew near us, when one of the esquimaux made a sign of shooting it with a bow and arrow in a manner which could not be misunderstood. it is remarkable, therefore, that we could not find about their tents any of these weapons, except a little one of five or six inches long, the bow being made of whalebone and the arrow of fir, with a feather at one end and a blunt point of bone at the other, evidently appearing to be a child's toy, and intended, perhaps, to teach the use of it at an early age. the runners of the only sledge we saw were composed of the right and left jawbones of a young whale, being nine feet nine inches long, and one foot seven inches apart, and seven inches high from the ground. they are connected by a number of parallel pieces, made out of the ribs of the whale, and secured transversely with seizings of whalebone, so as to form the bottom of the sledge, and the back is made of two deers' horns placed in an upright position. the lower part of the runners is shod with a harder kind of bone, to resist the friction against the ground. the whole vehicle is rudely executed, and, being nearly twice the weight of the sledges we saw among the northern esquimaux, is probably intended for carrying heavy burdens. the dogs were not less than fifty or sixty in number, and had nothing about them different from those on the eastern coast of baffin's bay, except they do not stand near so high as those of the latitude of °. they are very shy and wild, and the natives had great difficulty in catching them while we were by, as well as holding them in when caught. some of them have much more of the wolf in their appearance than others, having very long heads and sharp noses, with a brushy tail, almost always carried between the legs; while the bodies of others are less lank, as well as their noses less sharp, and they carry their tails handsomely curled over their backs: their colour varied from quite dark to brindled. the ravenous manner in which they devour their food is almost incredible. both the old and young ones, when a bird is given them, generally swallow feathers and all; and an old dog that i purchased, though regularly fed while on board by a person appointed for that purpose, ate up, with great avidity, a large piece of canvass, a cotton handkerchief, which one of the men had just washed and laid down by his side, and a part of a check shirt. the young dogs will at any time kill themselves by over-eating if permitted. the children appeared to have some right of property in the smaller puppies, or else their parents are very indulgent to them, for several bargains of this kind were made with them, without any objection or interference on the part of the parents, who were standing by at the time. within a few stones, irregularly placed in a corner of each tent, was a lump of oil and moss, and over each of these was suspended a small stone vessel of an oblong shape, and broader at the top than at the bottom, containing a large mess of seahorse flesh, with a great quantity of thick gravy. some ribs of this meat were by no means bad looking; and, but for the blood mixed with the gravy, and the dirt which accompanied the cooking, might perhaps be palatable enough. i bargained with a woman for one of the stone vessels, giving her a brass kettle in exchange. before she gave it into my possession, she emptied the meat into another vessel, and then, with the flap of her jacket, wiped out the remains of the gravy; thus combining with what our notions of cleanliness incline us to consider a filthy act, an intention of decency and a desire to oblige us, which, however inconsistent, it was pleasing to observe. some of their vessels are made of whalebone, in a circular form, one piece being bent into the proper shape for the sides, and another flat piece, of the same material, sewn to it for a bottom, so closely as to make it perfectly water tight. their knives are made of the tusks of the walrus, cut or ground sufficiently thin for the purpose, and retaining the original curve of the tusk, so as to resemble the little swords which children have as toys in england. as they do not appear to have any instrument like a saw, great time and labour must be required in making one of these knives, which seem to answer most of the purposes to which they have occasion to apply them. from the description given to us by mr. williamson, we found that these were the same persons who had been seen by the lee's people; but we had several proofs of their having had some previous communication, directly or indirectly, with the civilized world; such as some light-blue beads, strung by themselves on thin leathern threads; and an instrument for chopping, very much resembling a cooper's adze, which had evidently been secured to a handle of bone for some time past, and of which the iron was part of an old file. the short time we were among them, as well as the want of an interpreter, prevented our obtaining much of the information, which would have been interesting, respecting the language, manners, and number of this tribe of esquimaux. they call the bear _nennook_, the deer _tooktook_, and the hare _ookalik_, being nearly the same words as those used on the eastern coast of baffin's bay. as it was considered a matter of some interest to ascertain whether they were acquainted with the musk-ox, a drawing of that animal was put before the men who were on board. the small size of it seemed, at first sight, to confound them; but, as soon as the real head and horns were produced, they immediately recognised them, and eagerly repeated the word _oomingmack_, which at once satisfied us that they knew the musk-ox, and that this was the animal spoken of by the esquimaux of greenland, under the same name, somewhat differently pronounced. to judge by their appearance, and what is, perhaps, a better criterion, the number of their children, there could be little doubt that the means of subsistence which they possess are very abundant; but of this we had more direct proof by the quantity of seahorses and seals which we found concealed under stones along the shore of the north branch, as well as on observation island. mr. fife reported that, in sounding the north branch, he met with their winter huts above two miles above the tents on the same shore, and that they were partly excavated from a bank facing the sea, and the rest built round with stones. we saw no appearance of disease among the seventeen persons who inhabited the tents, except that the eyes of the old couple were rather blear, and a very young infant looked pale and sickly. the old man had a large scar on one side of his head, which he explained to us very clearly to be a wound he had received from a _nennook_ (bear). upon the whole, these people may be considered in possession of every necessary of life, as well as of most of the comforts and conveniences which can be enjoyed in so rude a state of society. in the situation and circumstances in which the esquimaux of north greenland are placed, there is much to excite compassion for the low state to which human nature appears to be there reduced; a state in few respects superior to that of the bear or the seal which they kill for their subsistence. but, with these, it was impossible not to experience a feeling of a more pleasing kind: there was a respectful decency in their general behaviour, which at once struck us as very different from that of the other untutored esquimaux, and in their persons there was less of that intolerable filth by which these people are so generally distinguished. but the superiority for which they are the most remarkable is, the perfect honesty which characterized all their dealings with us. during the two hours that the men were on board, and for four or five hours that we were subsequently among them on shore (on both which occasions the temptation to steal from us was perhaps stronger than we can well imagine, and the opportunity of doing so by no means wanting), not a single instance occurred, to my knowledge, of their pilfering the most trifling article. it is pleasing to record a fact no less singular in itself than honourable to these simple people. having made the necessary observations, we went to the tents to take leave of our new acquaintance. the old man seemed quite fatigued with the day's exertions; but his eyes sparkled with delight, and we thought with gratitude too, on being presented with another brass kettle to add to the stores with which we had already enriched him. he seemed to understand us when we shook him by the hand; the whole group watched us in silence as we went into the boat, and, as soon as we had rowed a few hundred yards from the beach, quietly returned to their tents. the wind being contrary on the th, we made very little progress to the southward. the soundings continuing as regular as before, we stood in-shore to eleven fathoms, and put the trawl overboard for an hour or two in the afternoon, bringing up a great quantity of sea-eggs, a few very small oysters, and some marine insects, but nothing that could furnish us with a fresh meal. the wind having fallen, we made little progress to the southeast till the morning of the th, when a light breeze springing up from the southwest, all sail was made to examine the state of the ice. on approaching the floes, however, we found such a quantity of bay-ice, the formation of which upon the surface had been favoured by the late calm weather, that the hecla was soon stopped altogether; a circumstance which gave us, as usual, much trouble in extricating ourselves from it, but not very material as regarded our farther progress to the southward, the floes being found to stretch quite close in to the land, leaving no passage whatever between them. the compasses now traversed very freely, and were made use of for the purposes of navigation in the ordinary way. the fog continued so thick on the th as to oblige us to keep the ships fast to the floe. in the afternoon the deep-sea clamms were sent down to the bottom with two thousand and ten fathoms of line, which were fifty-eight minutes in running out, during which time no perceptible check could be observed, nor even any alteration in the velocity with which the line ran out. in hauling it in again, however, which occupied both ships' companies above an hour and a half, we found such a quantity of the line covered with mud as to prove that the whole depth of water was only eight hundred and nine fathoms, the rest of the line having continued to run out by its own weight, after the instrument had struck the ground. i have before had occasion to remark that, on this account, it is not easy to ascertain the actual depth of the sea in the usual manner when it exceeds five or six hundred fathoms. the ships were secured to a berg at six p.m. of the th, and the wind having freshened up to a gale from the n.w.b.n., with some swell, we were much annoyed during the night by the ice which drifted under the lee of it, and on which the ships were constantly striking with a heavy shock, such as no others could have long withstood. this danger is avoided by ships lying very close under the lee of a berg, but a much greater is thereby incurred from the risk of the berg's upsetting; a circumstance which is always to be apprehended in a swell, and which must be attended with certain destruction to a ship moored very near to it. on the th and th we continued our progress to the southward, but without any success in approaching, or even getting sight of, the land; the ice being as close and compact as when we sailed along the margin of it in july of the preceding year. soon after noon on the th we crossed the arctic circle, having been within it fourteen months and three weeks. on the morning of the th we again stood to the westward as much as the ice would allow, but were soon obliged by it to keep away to the southward, precluding every hope of making the land on that part of the coast which it would have been most interesting to explore. in the afternoon, after various attempts to get to the westward, appearances became more unpromising than ever, the packed ice extending from n.b.e. round to s.w. there were, indeed, parts of the ice which, with constant daylight, a ship might have entered with some probability of success; but, with twelve hours' night, the attempt must have been attended with a degree of risk which nothing but a very important object could justify. the wind had now freshened up from the n.n.w., and the mercury in the barometer fell with unusual rapidity, with every other appearance of an approaching gale. i was therefore under the necessity of admitting the conclusion that, under existing circumstances, the season was now too far advanced, and the state of the ice too unfavourable, to allow of any farther examination of the coast; and i determined, therefore, to make the best of my way to england. the boats were accordingly hoisted in, and the ships made snug while in smooth water under the lee of the ice, and a course was then shaped to the e.s.e., in order to obtain an offing before we bore away to the southward. on the second of october, in scudding before the wind under the main-topsail, a heavy sea struck the hecla on the larboard quarter, rendering it necessary to press her forward under more canvass, by which we lost sight of the griper in the course of the morning. as soon as the weather moderated, we hove-to for her; but, as she did not make her appearance, having, as we afterward learned, been obliged to lie-to during the height of the gale, we continued our course out of the straits, and did not again meet with the griper till our return to england. on the afternoon of the th, the sea being very high and irregular, and the ship pitching with considerable violence, the bowsprit was carried away close to the gammoning, and the foremast and main-topmast immediately followed it over the side. the wreck was quickly cleared; and, by the greatest activity and energy on the part of the officers and men, the mainyard and mainmast were saved, the latter having been endangered by the foremast falling across the stay, and the former by the wreck of the main-topmast and top-sail-yard lying upon it. notwithstanding the continuance of the gale, and the uneasy motion of the ship for the next two days, we succeeded in getting up our jury masts so as to make sail on the evening of the th. on the th we made buchaness, and on the following day, the wind having come to the southward, so as to make our progress very slow, i landed at peterhead, accompanied by captain sabine and mr. hooper; having first, in compliance with their lordships' directions, demanded from the officers, petty officers, and all other persons on board the hecla, the logs, journals, charts, drawings, and other documents which the voyage had furnished, and directed lieutenant beechey to proceed with all possible despatch to leith. captain sabine and myself proceeded without delay to london, where we arrived on the morning of the d of november. second voyage for the discovery of a northwest pasage preliminary chapter. the discoveries made by the expedition to the northwest in the years - being such as to afford a strong presumption in favour of the existence of a passage from the atlantic to the pacific in that direction, his majesty commanded another attempt to be made to effect that object; and the lords commissioners of the admiralty were pleased once more to honour me with the command of an expedition, to be equipped at deptford for that purpose. the hecla having been found well adapted to this service, a second ship of precisely the same class was now selected, and i received my commission for his majesty's ship the fury, of three hundred and seventy-seven tons burden, on the th of december, . the hecla was recommissioned by captain george francis lyon on the th of january following. in our official instructions i was directed to proceed, as quickly as might be consistent with every precaution, towards or into hudson's strait until the ice was met with, when the nautilus transport, which was directed by the navy board to be placed at my disposal, was to be cleared of its provisions and stores. we were then to penetrate to the westward, through hudson's strait, until we reached (either in repulse bay, or on other part of the shores of hudson's strait to the north of wager river) some part of the coast, which i felt convinced was a portion of the _continent_ of america. if we happily reached the pacific, we were to proceed to kamschatka, from thence to the sandwich islands or canton, and, having refitted the ships and refreshed the crews, to return to england by such route as might be deemed convenient. chapter i. passage across the atlantic.--removal of stores from the nautilus transport, at the margin of the ice.--departure of the nautilus for england.--enter the ice in hudson's strait.--perilous situation of the hecla, and loss of her anchor.--meet with the hudson's bay ships.--passage up the strait, and communication with the natives inhabiting the northern shores.--pass the trinity islands of fox.--arrival off southampton island, where the researches of the expedition commence. the fury, hecla, and nautilus transport were completed for sea towards the latter part of the month of april, and on the th, at ten a.m., the fury was taken in tow by the eclipse steamboat, which vessel had before taken us down the river on a similar occasion. the hecla reached the moorings on the following day, and the nautilus on the first of may. nothing of consequence happened during our passage across the atlantic; but, after entering davis's straits, we had for several days variable and unsettled weather, the wind blowing principally from the southward, with a heavy swell from the same quarter. on the th we met with the first iceberg, being in lat. ° ', long. ° '. having now reached the situation in which i was directed, by my instructions, to clear the nautilus of our stores, i gave lieutenant scrymgour his instructions to return to england; and at one a.m. on the st of july he parted company, while the fury and hecla stood in towards the ice. a whaler, deeply laden, and apparently homeward bound, was at this time in sight to the eastward. at seven p.m., tuesday, d july, the ice opposed our farther progress to the westward, covering the whole sea as far as the eye could reach in that direction; the ships were therefore, of necessity, hove to, in order to await some change in our favour. the ice here consisted principally of large though loose masses of broken floes, none covering more than a quarter of an acre, and few so much, but having many high hummocks, and drawing a great deal of water. we counted also above thirty bergs in sight at one time, and observed that many of them were carried about by the tides with great rapidity. the wind shifted to the southeastward in the night of the th, with a strong breeze and heavy rain; and, on the following morning, when the ebb-tide opened the ice a little, a considerable swell was admitted from the sea, causing the ships to strike violently and almost constantly on the masses of ice alongside of them. in this situation they continued for several hours so completely beset as to render it impossible to extricate them, and drifting about at random with the tides. the hecla was, by a different set of the stream, separated five or six miles from the fury, while both ships were equally hampered. on the th, both ships' companies were exercised in firing at a target on the ice, as well for the purpose of giving them occupation as of finding out who were the best shots. on the same afternoon we saw two ships beset to the northward, which we supposed to be those bound to the hudson's bay factories. they were joined the next day by a third ship, which afterward proved to be, as we conjectured, the lord wellington, having on board settlers for the red river. the ice being rather less close on the morning of the th, we made sail to the westward at . a.m., and continued "boring" in that situation the whole day, which enabled us to join the three strange ships. they proved to be, as we had supposed, the prince of wales, eddystone, and lord wellington, bound to hudson's bay. i sent a boat to the former to request mr. davidson, the master, to come on board, which he immediately did. from him we learned that the lord wellington having on board one hundred and sixty settlers for the red river, principally foreigners, of both sexes and every age, had now been twenty days among the ice, and had been drifted about in various directions at no small risk to the ship. by the prince of wales we sent our last letters for our friends in england. proceeding slowly to the westward, we had reached at noon on the st the lat. of ° ' ", long., by chronometers, ° ' ". in this situation several islands were in sight to the northward and westward, and, among the rest, a remarkable one called saddle-back on account of its shape. the wind backing to the westward in the afternoon, we anchored the ships to the largest floe-piece we could find, there not being room to beat to the windward. while thus employed we heard voices in-shore, which we soon knew to be those of some esquimaux coming off to us. shortly after, several canoes made their appearance, and seventeen of these people came alongside the fury. having hauled their _kayaks_ (canoes) upon the floe, they began to barter their commodities, consisting of seal and whale blubber, whalebone, spears, lines, and the skins of the seal, bear, fox, deer, and dog. our first endeavour was to procure as much oil as possible, of which, as we had been informed by the hudson's bay ships, several tons are thus almost annually obtained from these people. we soon found that they had been well accustomed to bargain-making, for it was with some difficulty that we could prevail on them to sell the oil for anything of reasonable value. they frequently gave us to understand that they wanted saws and harpoons in exchange for it, and as these were articles which we could not spare, it was not without trouble that we obtained, in the course of the evening, two barrels of blubber in exchange for several knives, large nails, and pieces of iron hoop, which was certainly a dear bargain on our side. if they saw more than one of these at a time, they would try hard to get the whole for the commodity they were offering, though, when we had for some time persisted in refusing, they would not only accept what was offered, but jump for joy at having obtained it. they always licked the articles given them, and in one instance only did we notice any inclination to break the contract after this process had been gone through. shortly after these men had arrived, a large _oomiak_, or woman's boat, made its appearance, containing six or seven females and four men, the oldest of the latter, as is usual among them, steering the boat with a rude oar of wood. the women could not be induced to land upon the floe, but held up skins and small narrow strips of well-tanned leather to exchange, loudly vociferating _pilletay_ (give me) the whole time. there were in this boat several skins of oil and blubber, which i tried hard to purchase, but nothing could induce the old man to part with more than one skin of it; for what reason i could not tell, except that he hoped, by perseverance, to obtain a higher price. on my desiring our men to hand out a second skin of oil, as an equivalent for which i put into the old man's hand a second knife, he resisted most vehemently, pushing our men aside in the boat with a violence i have never seen the esquimaux use on any other occasion. one of the younger men then came forward, and was lifting up the stretcher of their boat to strike our people, who were good-humouredly laughing at the old man's violence, when i thought it high time to interpose, and, raising a boat-hook over the head of the esquimaux, as if about to strike them, soon brought them into a cooler mood; after which, to prevent farther altercation, i ordered our people out of the boat. we had by this time succeeded in purchasing all the oil brought by the first canoes; and as the old fellow, who was commanding officer of the _oomiak_, obstinately persisted in his refusal to sell his, i ordered him away, when he immediately rowed to the hecla, and, as i was afterward informed by captain lyon, sold his oil for less than he might have obtained at first. four other _oomiaks_ afterward came from the shore, from which we were distant five or six miles. each of these contained from fourteen to twenty-six persons, the majority being females and young children. upon the whole, not less than one hundred of the natives visited the ships in the course of the evening. these people possessed in an eminent degree the disposition to steal all they could lay their hands on, which has almost universally been imputed to every tribe of esquimaux hitherto visited by europeans. they tried more than once the art of picking our pockets, and were as bold and unembarrassed as ever immediately after detection. it is impossible to describe the horribly disgusting manner in which they sat down, as soon as they felt hungry, to eat their raw blubber, and to suck the oil remaining on the skins we had just emptied, the very smell of which, as well as the appearance, was to us almost insufferable. the disgust which our seaman could not help expressing at this sight seemed to create in the esquimaux the most malicious amusement; and when our people turned away, literally unable to bear the sight without being sick, they would, as a good joke among themselves, run after them, holding out a piece of blubber or raw seal's flesh dripping with oil and filth, as if inviting them to partake of it. both the men and women were guilty of still more disgusting indecencies, which seemed to afford them amazing diversion. a worse trait even than all these was displayed by two women alongside the hecla, who, in a manner too unequivocal to be misunderstood, offered to barter their children for some article of trifling value, beginning very deliberately to strip them of their clothes, which they did not choose to consider as included in the intended bargain. upon the whole, it was impossible for us not to receive a very unfavourable impression of the general behaviour and moral character of the natives of this part of hudson's strait, who seem to have acquired, by an annual intercourse with our ships for nearly a hundred years, many of the vices which unhappily attend a first intercourse with the civilized world, without having imbibed any of the virtues or refinements which adorn and render it happy. early on the morning of the d a number of canoes repeated their visit to us, the esquimaux having hauled them upon a piece of ice to lodge for the night. in the forenoon an _oomiak_ also came from the shore, and as no intercourse with them was permitted till after divine service, they became very impatient to barter their commodities, and walked on the ice alongside the ships, with a number of trifling things in their hands, vociferating "pilletay" to such a degree that we could hardly hear ourselves speak. some more oil was obtained in exchange for pieces of iron hoop, and, at a quarter before noon, the wind coming more to the southward, and the ice being somewhat less close than before, we cast off and made sail up the strait. the wind and ice combined to favour us more and more as we proceeded, the former both in strength and direction, and the latter by opening into loose streams, so that, for the first time since we entered hudson's strait, we were now enabled to set all the studding-sails, with some prospect of deriving advantage from them. the hudson's bay ships remained at anchor some time after we made sail, and in the course of the evening we finally lost sight of them. from this circumstance, as well as from the unimpeded progress we had just begun to make to the westward, it was now only that we considered our voyage as having fairly commenced. we continued, on the first of august, to beat to the westward, between nottingham island and the north shore, the distance between which is about four leagues, and the latter fringed with numerous islands. in the course of the morning, several canoes and one _oomiak_ came off from the mainland, containing about twenty persons, more than half of whom were women and children. they brought a little oil, some skin dresses, and tusks of the walrus, which they were willing to exchange for any trifle we chose to give them. they had also a number of toys of various kinds, such as canoes with their paddles, spears, and bows and arrows, all on a very large scale. many of the jackets of these people, and particularly those of the females, were lined with the skins of birds, having the feathers inside; and they had also in the boat several other skins in a prepared state, taken from the throat of the _colymbus glacialis_, which splendid bird, though we had twice found its skin in possession of the esquimaux, we had yet not met with ourselves. the expedition being now about to enter upon ground not hitherto explored, it became necessary for me to decide upon the route it would be most advantageous to pursue for the accomplishment of the principal objects pointed out in my instructions. chapter ii. review of the geographical information obtained by the researches of former navigators on the coast of the american continent, in the neighbourhood of wager river.--discover and enter the duke of york's bay, supposing it to be a passage into the sea called the welcome.--leave the duke of york's bay, and proceed to the northwestward.--passage of the frozen strait and arrival in repulse bay.--continuity of land there.--observations on shore.--remarks concerning the geography, tides, and natural history of this part of the continental coast. after the most anxious consideration, i came to the resolution of attempting the direct passage of the frozen strait; though, i confess, not without some apprehension of the risk i was incurring, and of the serious loss of time which, in case of failure either from the non-existence of the strait or from the insuperable obstacles which its name implies, would thus be inevitably occasioned to the expedition. the accounts given by captain middleton of the latitude of the western entrance of the frozen strait are so confused, and even contradictory, that the present appearance of the land perplexed me extremely in deciding whether or not we had arrived at the opposite end of the opening to which he had given that name. that immediately before us to the westward, though it agreed in latitude within five or six miles with the southernmost parallel he has assigned to it, appeared much too narrow to answer his description of the passage we were in search of. upon the whole, however, i thought it most probable that this was the strait in question; and as, at all events, the opening between southampton island and the land to the northward of it, in whatever latitude it might be found, and whether wide or narrow, was the passage through which it was our present object to penetrate into repulse bay, i decided on using our utmost exertions to push through the narrow strait now before us. on the morning of the th we observed something very like smoke rising from about cape welsford, which, being confined to one spot, was thought likely to be occasioned by the fires of natives. nothing could exceed the fineness of the weather about this time; the climate was, indeed, altogether so different from that to which we had before been accustomed in the icy seas, as to be a matter of constant remark. the days were temperate and clear, and the nights not cold, though a very thin plate of ice was usually formed upon the surface of the sea in sheltered places, and in the pools of water upon the floes. after sunset we descried land, appearing very distant, through the middle of the strait, which we considered to be that on the american side of the welcome. at this time, also, we observed some ice in the centre of the strait heavier than that which covered the rest of the sea, and apparently aground in shoal water, as afterward proved to be the case. on the th we were within a league of a remarkable headland on southampton island, which i named cape bylot, as being probably the westernmost land seen by that navigator in . in the mean time, the hecla, still continuing very closely beset, had, in spite of every exertion, drifted back with the ice several miles to the northward and eastward, so that in the course of the evening we lost sight of her altogether. this latter circumstance was, however, owing in great measure to the extraordinary refraction upon the horizon, making terrestrial objects at the distance of six or seven miles appear flattened down or depressed, as well as otherwise much deformed. at six p.m., having beat up within five or six miles of the entrance of the strait, and being anxious to sound the channel, which appeared narrow, but without any ice in it to offer us obstruction, i left the ship in the gig, accompanied by mr. ross, for this purpose. the part of southampton island on which we landed is about a thousand feet high, and composed of gneiss. every here and there along the shore, between the projecting points of rocks, is a small cove or bay, having a beach composed of small pieces of limestone, which make the water almost as white as milk. landing in one of these coves, we carried the boat above high-water mark; and making a tent of her sail, lay very comfortably during the night. when the boat first touched the beach, we observed an innumerable quantity of the little fish called sillocks swimming about, several of which were killed by the boat-hooks or taken in the hand. a great number of white whales, seals, and narwhals were also playing about near the beach during the night. the white whales were the most numerous; the noise these animals made resembled a hoarse, low-toned barking more than any other to which i can compare it; and we remarked that their colour was whiter than any we had before seen. as soon as it was daylight mr. ross and myself ascended the hill above our sleeping-place, from whence we could perceive land stretching round to the westward and northward, so as apparently to leave no opening in that quarter. we were much surprised at the low and yellowish appearance of this land, both of which circumstances we were at a loss to reconcile with captain middleton's description of the bold shore of the american continent, on the western side of the welcome, about this latitude. it was pleasing, however, to observe a large expanse of sea, wholly unencumbered with ice, in the direction we were now about to pursue; and we therefore hastened to the beach to continue the survey of the strait, that no time might be lost in taking advantage of this favourable circumstance. after completing our observations and examination of the channel, we reached the ship by eight a.m., the fury having, with great attention, been kept close off the entrance of the strait during the night. the hecla had at this time just hove in sight, under a press of sail, to the eastward, having at length, with much difficulty, succeeded in getting into clear water. at half past nine on the th we got under way, and stood under all sail to the n.n.e., where alone, as on the preceding evening, there appeared the smallest chance of finding any outlet. having determined the continuity of land all round this magnificent bay, possessing so many advantages that would render it invaluable in a more temperate climate, the officers honoured it with the name of the duke of york's bay, in consequence of the expedition having first entered it on the birthday of his royal highness. it being now evident that the inlet into which, in the course of our endeavours to penetrate to the westward, we had unavoidably been led, would afford us no passage in that direction, i gave orders for weighing at the turn of tide, being determined at once to run back through the narrow channel by which we had entered, and to push to the northward without delay, in search of some more favourable opening. our uncertainty respecting the true situation of the frozen strait, together with the want of observations during the day, left us, at this time, in doubt whether we had already penetrated through that passage, or had still to encounter the difficulties which the former accounts of it had led us to anticipate. we stood up the bay towards daylight, and at seven a.m. i left the fury, accompanied by a large party of officers, having by signal requested captain lyon to join us. we landed upon a point just to the eastward of this bight, in which neighbourhood are several little islands and coves, probably affording good anchorage, but which the more immediate objects we had in view did not permit us to examine. upon the point we found the remains of no less than sixty esquimaux habitations, consisting of stones laid one over the other in very regular circles, eight or nine feet in diameter, besides nearly a hundred other rude, though certainly artificial structures, some of which had been fireplaces, others storehouses, and the rest tolerably-built walls four or five feet high, placed two and two, and generally eight or nine feet apart, which these people use for their canoes, as well as to keep the dogs from gnawing them. a great many circles of stones were also seen more inland. about three miles to the n.n.w. of our landing-place, our people reported having seen fifteen others of the same kind, and what they took to be a burying-ground, consisting of nine or ten heaps of large stones, of three feet in diameter, and as many in height. under these were found a variety of little implements, such as arrow or spear heads tipped with stone or iron, arrows, small models of canoes and paddles, some rough pieces of bone and wood, and one or two strips of asbestos, which, as crantz informs us, is used by the natives of greenland for the wick of their lamps, and for applying hot, in certain diseases, to the afflicted part.[*] under these articles were found smaller stones, placed as a pavement, six or seven feet in length, which, in the part not concealed by the larger stones, was covered with earth. our men had not the curiosity or inclination to dig any deeper, but a human scull was found near the spot. our people also reported that, several miles inland of this, they observed stones set up as marks, many of which we also met with in the neighbourhood of the point. of these marks, which occur so abundantly in every part of the american coast that we visited, we could not then conjecture the probable use, but we afterward learned that the esquimaux set them up to guide them in travelling from place to place, when a covering of snow renders it difficult to distinguish one spot from another. we found among the stones some seals' bones, with the flesh still upon them, which seemed to indicate that the natives had occupied this station during a part of the same season and judging from the number of circles collected in this place, and still more from our subsequent knowledge of these people, it is probable that not less than one hundred and twenty persons had taken up their residence here at the same time. [footnote: crantz, i., . the esquimaux on this part of the coast use it only as sticks for trimming their lamps.] the latitude observed on shore was ° ' ", being the first observation we had yet obtained so near the arctic circle, but far to the southward of that given by captain middleton.[*] the longitude, by chronometers, was ° ' "; the dip of the magnetic needle, ° ' "; and the variation, ° ' " westerly; being only a degree and a half less than that observed by middleton in . [footnote: the difference amounts to about twenty miles. it is but justice, however, to the memory of captain middleton to add, that several miles of this error may have been occasioned by the imperfection of nautical instruments in his day, combined with the unavoidable inaccuracy of observations made by the horizon of the sea when encumbered with much ice. on this latter account, as well as from the extraordinary terrestrial refraction, no observation can be here depended upon, unless made with an artificial horizon.] chapter iii. return to the eastward through the frozen strait.--discovery of hurd channel.--examined in a boat.--loss of the fury's anchor.--providential escape of the fury from shipwreck.--anchor in duckett cove.--farther examination of the coast by boats and walking-parties.--ships proceed through hurd channel.--are drifted by the ice back to southampton island.--unobstructed run to the entrance of a large inlet leading to the northwestward.--ships made fast by hawsers to the rocks.--farther examination of the inlet commenced in the boats. having now satisfactorily determined the non-existence of a passage to the westward through repulse bay, to which point i was particularly directed in my instructions, it now remained for me, in compliance with my orders, to "keep along the line of this coast to the northward, always examining every bend or inlet which might appear likely to afford a practicable passage to the westward." it was here, indeed, that our voyage, as regarded its main object, may be said to have commenced, and we could not but congratulate ourselves on having reached this point so early, and especially at having passed, almost without impediment, the strait to which, on nearly the same day[*] seventy-nine years before, so forbidding a name had been applied. [footnote: middleton discovered the frozen strait on the th august , according to the new style.] all sail was made at daylight on the d along the northern shore of the frozen strait, which here continues about the same height as that of repulse bay, and was at this time quite free from snow. at nine a.m. the weather became squally with thick snow, which rendered great caution necessary in running. there was something in the appearance of this part of the coast which held out so favourable a prospect of a direct passage to the northward, that i determined more closely to examine it. having beat up to the mouth of an opening which, the nearer we approached, assumed a more and more favourable appearance, we found that a body of ice occupied the greater part of the channel, rendering it impracticable then to enter it either with the ships or the boats. the only mode left, therefore, of examining it without loss of time, was to despatch a party equipped for travelling by land, to ascertain enough of its extent and communications to enable me to decide as to our farther progress. as, however, in their present situation, i did not feel myself justified in leaving the ships, i requested captain lyon to undertake this service. he was accompanied by mr. bushnan and two seamen from each ship, and was furnished with a tent, blankets, and four days' provisions. captain lyon, on his return, at the end of two days, reported that he had landed on an island, which he called bushnan's island, had then crossed a strait, to which afterward the name of hurd's channel was given, and landed on a steep point called by him cape montagu. from hence his party proceeded to a high and remarkable hill called brooks's bluff: following the strait to the northward, they passed the remains of many esquimaux habitations; and, though their short journey had been unsatisfactory on account of the badness of the weather, there was still sufficient to cause the most lively interest, and give strong hopes of the existence of some passage to the northeast of the small inlet they had examined. at eight p.m., having shoaled the water from sixty to forty, and then to thirty-two fathoms, and the weather still continuing extremely thick, i suspected that the tide was taking us too close to passage island, which was the nearest land when the fog came on. a large space of open water was at this time not more than a quarter of a mile distant from us in the opposite direction; but, before the ships could be moved by warps or any other means within our power, the tide was observed to be setting her directly between the island and the little yellow-looking rock i have before mentioned as lying on its eastern side. the anchors were kept ready to drop in an instant should the ship drive into shoal water; had we grounded, and the heavy masses of ice continued to drive upon us, little less than the total destruction of the ship was to be apprehended. the natural direction of the stream, however, effected for us that which, hampered as we were, our own exertions must have failed in accomplishing; the ship drove through, at the distance of one hundred yards from the rock and about one hundred and forty from passage island, having no less than twelve fathoms; and soon after deepened the water to thirty-five and forty, and then to no bottom with ninety. after this providential escape we lay-to within the island, in order to drift to the northward and westward of it with the flood tide, which runs stronger here than in any other part of the frozen strait. the night was fine, but extremely dark, so that after ten o'clock we could not distinguish where the land lay, and the compasses could not be depended on. after an ineffectual attempt to push through the ice towards the middle of the strait, in order to avoid the danger of being entangled among the numerous islands lying off this shore, we were literally obliged to let the ship take her chance, keeping the lead going and the anchors in readiness. the hecla having got clear of the ice the preceding evening, and narrowly escaped an adventure similar to that which we had experienced, rejoined us early in the morning, when captain lyon returned to her to prepare a boat for his intended excursion. we then stood in under all sail for the land, and at eleven a.m. captain lyon left the hecla, while the ships tacked off and on to await his return. at nine p.m. captain lyon returned, acquainting me that he had met with a small bay having no stream of tide, and being at present clear of ice, he thought it might answer our purpose, but he wished me to see it before the ships were taken in. a boat from each ship being prepared, captain lyon and myself left the cove at three p.m. to proceed on the proposed examination. we separated at point cheyne, captain lyon having pointed out to me the broad eastern channel from which the tide appeared to come, and which if was my intention to examine, while he directed his attention to the smaller passage he had described as leading to the northward. it was agreed that we should return to the ships with as little delay as was consistent with the object we had in view, namely, to ascertain through which of the two channels it was expedient or practicable to bring the ships. the breeze moderated soon after our landing, and a fine clear night succeeded. at four in the morning mr. ross and myself ascended the nearest hill, in the hope of being able to satisfy ourselves respecting the existence of a passage for the ships in at least one direction. i therefore directed the tents to be struck, and everything to be in readiness for moving on our return. on reaching the summit of the first hill, however, we found, as is not unfrequently the case, that our view was but little improved, and that no prospect could be obtained to the northward without ascending the higher hill seen the preceding evening, which we now found still several miles beyond us. while preparing for this, i felt so much indisposed, that, being apprehensive of laying myself up at a time when i could least afford to do so, i determined to intrust the proposed service to mr. ross, in whose zeal and ability to accomplish it i felt the utmost confidence. mr. ross and his party accordingly set out for the hill at six a.m. on his return in the evening mr. ross reported that, having reached a commanding hill, he found himself overlooking a sea of considerable extent to the eastward, and washing the foot of the hill on which he stood. this sea appeared to have some islands scattered about it, and was much encumbered with ice. to the southeastward there seemed to be several openings between islands, of which the land we stood then upon appeared to form one, the sea sweeping round to the northward and westward, as if to join the strait discovered by captain lyon. mr. ross described the country over which he passed as much intersected by lakes, some of them not less than two or three miles in length, and having in their neighbourhood abundance of grass, moss, and other fine feeding for the deer. the report of mr. ross, accompanied by an eye-sketch made upon the spot, left no doubt of the existence of an outlet to the eastward, and enabled me to decide without hesitation upon attempting the passage of the narrows with the ships, leaving our subsequent route to be determined on according to the report of captain lyon. piles of stones and the remains of esquimaux habitations were everywhere to be seen, and mr. ross met with their marks even on the highest hills; but none appeared of recent date. the reindeer were here very numerous. mr. ross saw above fifty of them in the course of his walk, and several others were met with near the tents. a large one was shot by one of the men, who struck the animal; as he lay on the ground, a blow on the head with the butt end of his piece, and, leaving him for dead, ran towards the tents for a knife to bleed and skin him; when the deer very composedly got on his legs, swam across a lake, and finally escaped. a small fawn was the only one killed. three black whales and a few seals were playing about near the beach. our people being somewhat fatigued with walking, were allowed to rest till half past one in the morning of the th, when, it being high water, the tents were struck and the boat loaded. i found that captain lyon had returned on board the preceding evening, having accomplished his object in a shorter time than was expected. that no time might be lost in running the ships through the narrows, i directed three boats from each to be prepared, for the purpose of sounding every part of this intricate, and, as yet, unknown passage, which i named after captain thomas hurd, of the royal navy, hydrographer to the admiralty. giving to the officer commanding each boat a certain portion to accomplish, i reserved for my own examination the narrowest part of the channel; and at thirty minutes past one p.m., as soon as the flood tide began to slacken, we left the ships and continued our work till late at night, when, having received the reports of the officers, and made out a plan of the channel for each ship, i directed everything to be in readiness for weighing at the last quarter of the ebb on the following morning. much as i lamented this delay, at a period of the season when every moment was precious, it will not appear to have been unnecessary, when it is considered that the channel through which the ships were to be carried did not in some places exceed a mile in breadth, with half of that space encumbered with heavy masses of ice, and with an _ebb_ tide of six knots running through it. at fifteen minutes past three p.m. on the th, a light air of wind springing up from the eastward, we weighed, and, having warped out by kedges till we had cleared the shoal-point of the cove, made sail for the channel, and, with the assistance of the boats, got the fury into the fair set of the tide before it made very strong to the eastward. at a quarter before seven, when in the narrowest part, which is abreast of a bold headland on the south shore, where the tide was now driving the ice along at the rate of five or six knots, the wind came in a sudden gust from the southwest, scarcely allowing us to reduce and trim our sails in time to keep the ship off the north shore, which is not so safe as the other. by carrying a heavy press of canvass, however, we succeeded in forcing through the ice, but the fury was twice turned completely round by eddies, and her sails brought aback against the helm; in consequence of which she gathered such fresh sternway against several heavy floe-pieces, that i apprehended some serious injury to the stern-post and rudder, if not to the whole frame of the ship. the hecla got through the narrows soon after us; but captain lyon, wishing to bring away the flags and staves set up as marks, had sent his little boat away for that purpose during the continuance of the calm weather. when the breeze suddenly came on she was still absent, and, being obliged to wait for some time to pick her up, the hecla was about dusk separated several miles from us. i was sorry to perceive, on the morning of the st of september, that the appearance of the ice was by no means favourable to our object of sailing to the northward, along the sturges bourne islands; but at ten a.m., the edge being rather more slack, we made all sail, with a very light air of southerly wind, and the weather clear, warm, and pleasant. we were at noon in lat. ° ' ", and in long. ° ' ", in which situation a great deal of land was in sight to the northward, though apparently much broken in some places. from n.e. round to s.s.e. there was still nothing to be seen but one wide sea uninterruptedly covered with ice as far as the eye could reach. at forty-five minutes past one p.m. we had come to the end of the clear water, and prepared to shorten sail, to await some alteration in our favour. at this time the weather was so warm that we had just exposed a thermometer to the sun to ascertain the temperature of its rays, which could not have been less than ° or °, when a thick fog, which had for some hours been curling over the hills of vansittart island, suddenly came on, creating so immediate and extreme a change, that i do not remember to have ever experienced a more chilling sensation. as we could no longer see a hundred yards around us in any direction, nothing was to be done but to make the ships fast to the largest piece of ice we could find, which we accordingly did at two p.m., in one hundred and fifty-eight fathoms. just before dark the fog cleared away for a few minutes, when, perceiving that the wind, which was now increasing, was likely to drift us too near the islands, we took advantage of the clear interval to run a mile farther from the land for the night, where we again made fast to a large floe-piece in two hundred fathoms. the wind, drawing round to the northward and westward, on the morning of the d, increased to a fresh gale, which continued to blow during the night, notwithstanding which, i was in hopes that the immense size of the floe to which the ships were attached would enable us to retain our station tolerably. it was mortifying, therefore, to find, on the morning of the d, that we had drifted more than i remember ever to have done before in the same time under any circumstances. it was remarkable, also, that we had not been set exactly to leeward, but past baffin island towards two remarkable hills on southampton island, from which we were at noon not more than seven or eight leagues distant. thus, after a laborious investigation which occupied one month, we had, by a concurrence of unavoidable circumstances, returned to nearly the same spot on which we had been on the th of august. to consider what might have been effected in this interval, which included the very best part of the navigable season, had we been previously aware of the position and extent of the american continent about this meridian, is in itself certainly unavailing; but it may serve to show the value of even the smallest geographical information in seas where not an hour must be thrown away or unprofitably employed. in the afternoon an attempt was made to move, for the mere sake, it must be confessed, of moving and keeping the people on the alert, rather than with the slightest prospect of gaining any ground; but, by the time that we had laid out the hawsers, the small hole of water that had appeared again closed, and we were obliged to remain as before. at four a.m. on the th, we cast off and made sail for the land, with a fresh breeze from the southeast. the ice was closely packed, against the land near the passage i had intended to try, and as it appeared slack to the eastward, i determined to run between the southeast point of baffin island and the smaller islands lying off it. the wind drawing more to the eastward as we approached the channel, we had several tacks to make in getting through, but carried a good depth of water on each side, though its breadth does not exceed three quarters of a mile. as we now advanced to the northward, we found less and less obstruction, the main body of the ice having been carried to the southward and eastward by the late gale, which had in so extraordinary a manner drifted us in the same direction. this was one of the opportunities i have before described as the most favourable that ever occur for making progress in these seas. we had, therefore, a fine run during the day along the east side of sturges bourne islands; for, having found the passages between them still choked with ice, we were obliged to run to the northward with the hope of attaining our present object, till it was time to look out for an anchorage. having first sent the boats to sound, we hauled into a small bay, where we anchored at dusk in seventeen fathoms, good holding-ground, though the bottom was so irregular that we had from five to thirteen close upon our quarter. we had now once more approached a part of the coast, of which the thorough and satisfactory examination could not possibly be carried on in the ships, without incurring constant and, perhaps, useless risk, and a certain and serious loss of time. i determined, therefore, to proceed at once upon this service in two boats, one from each ship. having communicated my intentions to captain lyon, and requested him to move the ships, when practicable, into some more secure situation, i left the fury, accompanied by mr. ross and mr. sherer, taking with us our tents, blankets, and stove, together with four days' provisions and fuel. chapter iv. hoppner's inlet entered and surveyed by the boats.--continuity of land there determined.--proceed to examine another opening leading to the westward.--favourable appearance of a continued passage in that direction.--meet with some esquimaux.--arrival in ross bay, being the termination of lyon inlet.--discovery and examination of various creeks.--return to the ships, after finding the land entirely continuous.--some account of the natural history of this part of the coast. a thick fog unfortunately coming on just before we left the ships, prevented us from making choice of any part of the land which might be the most likely to afford a passage to the northward and westward. we could only, therefore, direct our course northerly, with tolerable certainty, by a compass bearing previously taken on board, and by occasionally obtaining an indistinct glimpse of the land through the fog. having rowed four miles, we came to a high point, round which we turned rather to the westward, and then landed a little beyond it. the tents were struck at thirty minutes past three a.m. on the th and our course directed, up the inlet, the weather being calm and tolerably clear. at three miles and a quarter we passed on our starboard hand a point of land, which, from the bright colour of the rocks, composed chiefly of feldspar, obtained the name of _red point_. opposite to red point was a small opening, which we next proposed to examine. we had not, however, advanced a mile within the entrance when the boats grounded, the water becoming more and more shoal within. as it was plain that no passage could here be found for the ships, which alone it was my present object to discover, i did not choose to wait for the flowing of the tide to enable us farther to explore this place, but determined to prosecute our examination of the other parts of the coast without delay. there were here a great number of stones placed in an upright position in every conspicuous spot, many of them looking like men at a distance. these marks are generally placed without regard to regularity, but there were here several lines of them about fifty yards in length, the stones being four or five yards apart, and each having a smaller one placed on its top. having rowed out of the inlet, we landed at six p.m. in a little bay just outside of the last night's sleeping-place, pitching the tents on a fine shingly beach, which was the kind of ground we usually looked out for towards the conclusion of the day, as affording the softest bed, consistently with dryness, that nature supplies in this country. of such a convenience the men were not sorry to avail themselves, having rowed above thirty miles since the morning. the boats were launched at daylight on the th, and we soon came to a much more promising opening on the same shore, about a mile wide at the entrance, and leading directly to the westward. after rowing four miles in that direction, we arrived at the mouth of a bay from three to five miles wide, out of which there did not appear the least chance of discovering an outlet. as nothing, however, but rowing round the bay would satisfactorily determine this, we were proceeding to do so, when we observed in the northern corner something like a low point overlapping the high land at the back. towards this spot we steered, as the readiest way of completing the circuit of the bay, and half a mile short of it landed to breakfast. in the mean time i sent mr. ross to one hill, and ascended another myself, expecting to save the time and trouble of rowing into the nook. i was not a little astonished to find, from my own and mr. ross's observations, that there was on the other side of the point a broad and apparently navigable channel, through which the tide was setting to the northward, at the rate of three or four miles an hour. i am thus minute in the discovery of this channel, which afterward promised to be of no small importance, to show how nearly such a place may be approached without the slightest suspicion being entertained of its existence, and the consequent necessity of _close_ examination wherever a passage is to be sought for. we continued our examination, and i despatched mr. sherer to the ships for a fresh supply of provisions. on his return on the th we proceeded to the westward. in running along the coast with a fresh and favourable breeze, we observed three persons standing on a hill, and, as we continued our course, they followed us at full speed along the rocks. having sailed into a small sheltered bay, i went up, accompanied by mr. bushnan, to meet them on the hills above us. in sailing along the shore we had heard them call out loudly to us, and observed them frequently lift something which they held in their hands; but, on coming up to them, they remained so perfectly mute and motionless, that, accustomed as we had been to the noisy importunities of their more sophisticated brethren, we could scarcely believe them to be esquimaux. there was, besides, a degree of lankness in the faces of the two men, the very reverse of the plump, round, oily cheeks of those we had before seen. their countenances at the time impressed me with the idea of indian rather than of esquimaux features; but this variety of physiognomy we afterward found not to be uncommon among these people. the men appeared about forty and twenty-two years of age, and were accompanied by a good-looking and good-humoured boy of nine or ten. they each held in their hand a sealskin case or quiver, containing a bow and three or four arrows, with a set of which they willingly parted, on being presented with a knife in exchange. the first looks with which they received us betrayed a mixture of stupidity and apprehension, but both wore off in a few minutes on our making them understand that we wished to go to their habitations. with this request they complied without hesitation, tripping along before us for above two miles over very rough ground, and crossing one or two considerable streams running from a lake into the sea. this they performed with so much quickness that we could with difficulty keep up with them, though they good-naturedly stopped now and then till we overtook them. we were met on our way by two women, from twenty to twenty-five years of age, having each a child at her back; they too accompanied us to their tent, which was situated on a high part of the coast overlooking the sea. it consisted of a rude circular wall of loose stones, from six to eight feet in diameter and three in height, in the centre of which stood an upright pole, made of several pieces of fir-wood lashed together by thongs, and serving as a support to the deerskins that formed the top covering. soon after our arrival we were joined by a good-looking, modest girl of about eight, and a boy five years old. of these nine persons, which were all we now saw, only the elder man and two of the children belonged to this tent, the habitations of the others being a little more inland. the faces of the women were round, plump, tattooed, and, in short, completely esquimaux. the _kayak_ or canoe belonging to this establishment was carefully laid on the rocks close to the seaside, with the paddle and the man's mittens in readiness beside it. the timbers were entirely of wood, and covered, as usual, with sealskin. its length was nineteen feet seven inches, and its extreme breadth two feet; it was raised a little at each end, and the rim or gunwale of the circular hole in the middle was high, and made of whalebone. a handsome sealskin was smoothly laid within as a seat, and the whole was sewn and put together with great neatness. the paddle was double, made of fir, and the ends of the blades tipped with bone, to prevent splitting. the fireplace in the tent consisted of three rough stones carelessly placed on end against one side, and they had several pots of _lapis ollaris_ for culinary purposes. these people seemed to us altogether more cleanly than any esquimaux we had before seen, both in their persons and in the interior of their tent, in neither of which could we discover much of that rancid and pungent smell which is in general so offensive to europeans. one instance of their cleanliness which now occurred, deserves, perhaps, to be noticed, both because this is justly considered rather a rare quality among esquimaux, as well as to show in what way they do sometimes exercise it. when leaving the tent to return to our boats, i desired one of the seamen to tie the articles we had purchased into a single bundle, for the convenience of carrying them; but the elder of the two male esquimaux, who watched the man thus employed, would not permit it to be done without excluding a pot, which, as he explained by wiping the lampblack off with one of his fingers, would soil a clean sealskin jacket that formed part of the bundle. among the few domestic utensils we saw in the tent was the woman's knife of the greenlanders described by crantz, and resembling, in its semicircular shape, that used by shoemakers in england. the most interesting article, however, was a kind of bowl, exactly similar to that obtained by captain lyon from the natives of hudson's strait, being hollowed out of the root of the musk-ox's horn. as soon as i took the cup in my hand, the boy who was our first companion, and had since been our constant attendant, pronounced the word _oomingmuk_, thus affording an additional confirmation to that obtained on the former voyage, of the musk-ox being the animal described by the natives of the west coast of greenland as having occasionally, though rarely, been seen in that country. as soon as the esquimaux became a little more familiar with us, they repeatedly asked for _sowik_ (iron), in answer to which we gave them to understand that they must accompany us to our boats if they wished to obtain any of this precious article. accordingly, the whole group set off with us on our return, the males keeping up with us, and the women a short distance behind. the whole of the children carried bundles of the branches of ground willow, which we had just before seen them bring in for their own use, and which they seemed to consider an article of barter that might be acceptable to us. as we returned i noticed a quantity of the _ledum palustre_, and, having plucked some of it, gave it to the boy to carry; after which, though he very much disliked its smell, he gathered every root of it that we came to, and deposited it at our tents. this lad was uncommonly quick and clever in comprehending our meaning, and seemed to possess a degree of good-humour and docility which, on our short acquaintance, made him a great favourite among us. we had hitherto been much pleased with our new acquaintance, who were certainly a good-humoured, decent sort of people. we therefore loaded them with presents, and endeavoured to amuse them by showing them the manner of rowing our boats, which were hauled up on the beach. while the men and children were occupied in observing this, the women were no less busily employed, near the tents, in pilfering and conveying into their boots some of our cups, spoons, and other small articles, such as they could conveniently secrete. this they accomplished with so much dexterity, that no suspicion would have been excited of their dishonesty had not mr. sherer fortunately missed a cup which was required for supper. a general search being instituted in consequence, and the cargo of the women's boots brought back to our tents, i directed all our presents to be likewise taken from the two offenders; and, dismissing the whole party with great appearance of indignation, thus put an end, for the present, to our communication with these people. we spent the two next days in exploring a creek which we called culgruff, and another on the opposite or eastern shore, which received the name of norman's creek, and returned to the hecla on the evening of the th. i learned from captain lyon that the hecla had just anchored at her present station, the fury still remaining at the former place, into which the ice had lately come so thick as to require the assistance of all hands from both ships to warp and tow the hecla out. proceeding with a fresh boat's crew towards the fury, which we found close beset by thick and heavy ice, we succeeded, after much difficulty, in hauling the boat through it, and arrived on board at ten p.m. as soon as the tide would serve in the offing on the morning of the th, we weighed, and, by means of warping and towing, in which we were assisted by captain lyon's boats, succeeded in joining the hecla at her anchorage at three p.m. chapter v. farther examination in the boats for the purpose of connecting the shores of lyon inlet with that of gore bay.--continuity of the land determined.--fresh detention by the ice.--boats carried over land.--return to the ships.--progress out of the inlet prevented by the ice.--the fury grounds upon a rock.--anchor in safety cove.--heavy easterly gales.--proceed out of the inlet.--arrival in a bay on the south side of winter island.--ships secured in winter-quarters. again leaving the ships on the th, we rowed before sunset between six and seven miles along the high southwestern land, passing what appeared a small harbour, with an island near the middle of the entrance, and landed on a shingly beach near a small bay or creek, extending three quarters of a mile to the w.n.w., and then terminating in a deep, broad valley. we left the shore at half past four a.m. on the th, and in an hour's sailing, with a fresh northwest wind, came to some loose ice, through which we continued to make our way till eleven o'clock, when it became so close that a passage could no longer be found in any direction. there was also so much young ice in every small interval between the loose masses, that the boats were much cut about the water-line in endeavouring to force through it. in order, therefore, to avoid the risk of being altogether driven from the shore, i determined to attempt a passage into the bay, which was three quarters of a mile distant; and in this, after two hours' labour, we at length succeeded. finding that the ice was likely to prove an obstacle of which we could not calculate the extent or continuance, we began at once to reduce our daily expenditure of provisions, in order to meet any contingency. ascending the hill at daylight on the th, we were much disappointed in finding that, though the ice continued to drive a little to the s.e., it was even more compact than before, the loose masses through which we had sailed the preceding day being now closely set together. as soon as it was light enough on the th to make out the situation of the ice, which had now drifted considerably to the southward, we left the bay with a fresh and favourable breeze, and at a quarter past eight a.m., after a quick run through "sailing ice," landed to breakfast on the southeast point of this shore, which afterward received the name cape martineau. proceeding from hence with a strong breeze and a considerable sea ahead, but the flood tide still running slowly with us to the n.w., we rowed several miles close along the shore, and entered at dusk a little cove, where the tents were pitched and the boats moored for the night. the night being cold, clear, and nearly calm, a quantity of "bay-ice," half an inch in thickness, had, on the morning of the th, formed in the cove, and for some distance outside of it, which again cut the boats' planks very much, besides occasioning great loss of time in getting through it. this symptom of approaching winter, which had now for the first time occurred to us, rendered it expedient in future to select the most open beaches for our resting-places at night. after tracing every bend of the shore which here occurred, we landed at the point called by captain lyon point farhill, and, ascending the hill to take angles, obtained a view of gore bay, easily recognising every other feature of the lands discovered by captain lyon. a mile or two of coast was now all that remained to be examined, in order to determine the connexion of gore bay with the rest of the land recently explored. proceeding, therefore, as soon as our observations were finished, we soon after entered the bay, and in the course of an hour had satisfied ourselves on this point. the ice remained closely packed on the st, as far as we could see along shore, so that we were still detained in the same place. some snow which fell in the course of the preceding night, lightly powdering the land, had entirely disappeared before evening, except in places having a northern aspect, where it now permanently remained for the winter. on the morning of the d the ice was not only as close as ever, but had forced its way much higher up towards gore bay. a party was therefore sent out to endeavour to procure game farther inland; and another employed in gathering ground-willow, which was here abundant and in good condition for fuel. two bears, a female and her cub, being probably attracted by the smell of our cooking, came towards the tents upon the ice, but, upon hearing our voices, set off in the opposite direction. a good deal of snow fell in partial showers in the course of the day; it was nearly of that fine kind which usually falls during the winter of these regions, but we had flake snow and even light rain some days after this. the snow, however, now remained undissolved upon the land in all situations. our hunting party returned late in the evening without success, having merely seen a number of reindeer, which the want of cover prevented their approaching. seven days out of the nine for which we were victualled having now elapsed, a party was selected for walking over to the ships on the following day, should the ice still continue in its present state. the ice continuing in the same state, we commenced our work at break of day on the th, and in three journeys had carried all the lighter part of our baggage over land by eleven o'clock. all hands then returned for the two boats, across the gunwales of which the masts and oars were lashed for lifting them, the ground not allowing us to drag them except for a short space here and there. by half past one the first boat had been carried over, and, by the unwearied exertions of the officers and men, we had the satisfaction of launching the second before four o'clock, the distance being a mile and a half, and chiefly over rocky and uneven ground. as soon as we had dined, the boats were reloaded; and at five o'clock we left the shore. a quantity of ice was still aground upon the shoals and islets off cape martineau, through which, however, we fortunately found a passage before dark, when, having cleared every obstacle, we sailed in an open sea and with a fresh breeze to the northward. keeping close along the shore to avoid missing the ships in the dark, our first musket was immediately answered by a blue-light; and, being guided by the lights now shown by the ships, we arrived at nine p.m., where we found that our late detention had excited some alarm for our safety. on the st of october some small rain fell, which, immediately freezing, made the decks and ropes as smooth and slippery as if coated with glass; the thermometer had for several days past permanently fallen below the freezing point, and sometimes as low as ° at night; which change, together with the altered appearance of the land, and the rapid formation of young ice near the shores, gave pretty evident notice of the approach of winter. the commencement of this dreary season in these regions may, indeed, be fairly dated from the time when the earth no longer receives and radiates heat enough to melt the snow which falls upon it. when the land is once covered with this substance, so little calculated to favour the absorption of heat, the frigorific process seems to be carried on with increased vigour, defining very clearly the change from summer to winter, with little or no immediate interval to which the name of autumn can be distinctly assigned. we passed cape edwards on the th; but on the th the formation of young ice upon the surface of the water began most decidedly to put a stop to the navigation of these seas, and warned us that the season of active operations was nearly at an end. when to the ordinary difficulties which the navigation of the polar seas presents were superadded the disadvantages of a temperature at or near _zero_, its necessary concomitant the young ice, and twelve hours of darkness daily, it was impossible any longer to entertain a doubt of the expediency of immediately placing the ships in the best security that could be found for them during the winter, rather than run the risk of being permanently detached from the land by an endeavour to regain the continent. we were in hopes of receiving effectual shelter from the numerous grounded masses, but could only find berths within one of them in five to six fathoms water. we now, for the first time, _walked_ on board the ships; and, before night, had them moved into their places, by sawing a canal for two or three hundred yards through the ice. the average thickness of the new floe was already three inches and a quarter; but being in some places much less, several officers and men fell in, and, from the difficulty of getting a firm place to rest on, narrowly escaped a more serious inconvenience than a thorough wetting. the whole sheet of ice, even in those parts which easily bore a man's weight, had a waving motion under the feet, like that of leather or any other tough flexible substance set afloat, a property which is, i believe, peculiar to salt-water ice. in reviewing the events of this our first season of navigation, and considering what progress we had made towards the accomplishment of our main object, it was impossible, however trifling that progress might appear upon the chart, not to experience considerable satisfaction. small as our actual advance had been towards behring's strait, the extent of coast newly discovered and minutely explored in pursuit of our object, in the course of the last eight weeks, amounted to more than two hundred leagues, nearly half of which belonged to the continent of north america. this service, notwithstanding our constant exposure to the risks which intricate, shoal, and unknown channels, a sea loaded with ice, and a rapid tide concurred in presenting, had providentially been effected without injury to the ships, or suffering to the officers and men; and we had now once more met with tolerable security for the season. above all, however, i derived the most sincere satisfaction from a conviction of having left no part of the coast from repulse bay eastward in a state of doubt as to its connexion with the continent. and as the mainland now in sight from the hills extended no farther to the eastward than about a n.n.e. bearing, we ventured to indulge a sanguine hope of our being very near the northeastern boundary of america, and that the early part of the next season would find us employing our best efforts in pushing along its northern shores. chapter vi. precautions for the security of the ships and their stores--and for the health and comfort of the crews.--establishment of theatrical entertainments and schools.--erection of an observatory and house on shore.--state of health at this period.--partial disruption of the ice in the bay.--anchors and cables taken to the shore.--gradual increase of cold, appearance of the aurora borealis on several occasions, and various other meteorological phenomena to the close of the year . our operations at sea being now at an end for the season, my chief attention was directed to the security of the ships, and to the various internal arrangements which experience suggested as necessary for the preservation of cleanliness, health, and comfort during the winter, as well as for the economical expenditure of provisions, fuel, and other stores. the situation which circumstances obliged us to put up with for our winter-quarters was by no means as secure as could have been wished. the bay, though as fine a roadstead as could have been desired if situated in a more temperate climate, was still only a roadstead; and, being entirely open to the south, was exposed to a pressure from the ice in that direction, unless the solid floe now about to be formed round the ships should shortly become sufficient to guard them from external injury. there was some reason, however, to doubt the efficacy of this protection; for, as the spring-tides approached, the numerous grounded masses around the shores of the bay began to evince symptoms of instability, one or two having fallen over, and others turned round; so that these masses might be looked upon rather as dangerous neighbours, likely to create a premature disruption of the ice, than as the means of security, which, in seas not subject to any considerable rise of tide, they had so often proved to us on former occasions. to these circumstances was added our uncertainty whether very high tides during the winter might not crack the ice, thereby exposing the ships to the double danger of being "nipped" about their water-line, and of being drifted out of the bay by northerly gales. that which was, however, perhaps the most to be apprehended, was the possibility of the ships being forced into shoal water, without detaching themselves from the mass of ice cemented to their bends, the weight of which, hanging upon the sides of a ship left aground by the tide, could not but produce very serious injury. about the time of our arrival in the bay, when the thermometer had fallen nearly to _zero_, the condensation of vapour upon the beams of the lower deck, and in the cabins near the hatchways, commenced just as it had done at a similar temperature before. to remedy this evil, no time was lost in lighting a fire in the warming-stove upon the orlop-deck, everything being previously moved from its neighbourhood that was likely to create danger. the iron tanks in the main hatchway were laid bare on the top, and the interstices between them filled with sand, to form a secure platform in front of the fire; and the sailroom, bulkheads, and stancheons covered with sheet copper. four steady men, of whom one was a petty officer, were appointed to attend the fire in regular watches, being made responsible for the due expenditure of the fuel, and for the safety of everything about the stove. they had likewise particular charge of the fire-engine, buckets, and two tanks of water, all of which were kept in the hatchway in constant readiness in case of accidents. in addition to these precautions, some general regulations were established for stationing the officers and men in the event of fire; and a hole was directed to be kept open in the ice alongside each ship, to ensure at all times a sufficient supply of water. in twelve hours after lighting the stove not a drop of moisture remained. the regulations for the maintenance of due cleanliness among the ships' companies were principally the same as those established on the preceding voyage. as a source of rational amusement to the men, soon after our arrival i proposed to captain lyon and the officers of both ships once more to set on foot a series of theatrical entertainments, from which so much benefit in this way had, on a former occasion, been derived. this proposal was immediately and unanimously acquiesced in; captain lyon obligingly undertook to be our, manager, and, some preparation having been made for this purpose previous to leaving england, everything was soon arranged for performing a play on board the fury once a fortnight. to furnish rational and useful occupation to the men on the other evenings, a school was also established for the instruction of such of the men as were willing to take advantage of this opportunity of learning to read and write, or of improving in those acquirements. while these internal arrangements were making, the interests of science were not neglected. a day or two after our arrival, mr. fisher and myself selected a spot for the portable observatory, which was immediately erected for the purpose of making magnetic observations; and, as soon as the carpenters could be spared from the necessary duties of the ships, a house was built for the reception of the instruments requisite in conducting the other observations and experiments. soon after our arrival here, captain lyon expressed a wish that his officers and men, with himself, should attend divine service on board the fury during the continuance of the ships in winter-quarters. this arrangement was accordingly made, and we formed one congregation for the rest of the winter. our lower deck afforded abundance of accommodation in this respect; some psalm tunes, which had been purposely set upon an organ, were played at the proper intervals of the service, and our little church formed a pleasing and interesting scene to such as are disposed to be interested by scenes of this nature. i have before mentioned the myriads of small shrimps (_cancer nugax_) which for some weeks past had been observed near the surface of the sea. these insects were found to be still as numerous as ever in any hole we made in the ice; and such was the extreme avidity with which they immediately seized upon any meat put overboard, to thaw or soak for the sake of freshness, that captain lyon to-day sent me a goose to look at, belonging to the officers of the hecla, that had been thus deposited within their reach only eight and forty hours, and from which they had eaten every ounce of meat, leaving only a skeleton most delicately cleaned. our men had before remarked that their meat suffered unusual loss of substance by soaking, but did not know to what cause to attribute the deficiency. we took advantage, however, of the hunger of these depredators to procure complete skeletons of small animals, for preservation as anatomical specimens, enclosing them in a net or bag with holes, to which the shrimps could have access, but which prevented the loss of any of the limbs, should the cartilage of the joints be eaten. for want of this latter precaution some specimens were at first rendered imperfect. a pair of snow-boots were now issued _gratis_ to each individual in the expedition, being part of a stock of extra warm clothing liberally furnished by government, to be supplied to the officers and men at my discretion, as occasion should require. these boots were made of strong drab cloth, with thick soles of cork, the slowly conducting property of which substance, together with their large size, allowing a free circulation to the blood, afforded the utmost comfort that could be desired. boots or shoes of _leather_ never retain the warmth long, under circumstances of very severe exposure. the wind veering to the s.e. on the th and th, the thermometer gradually rose to + °. i may possibly incur the charge of affectation in stating that this temperature was much too high to be agreeable to us; but it is nevertheless the fact, that everybody felt and complained of the change. we had often before remarked, that considerable alterations in the temperature of the atmosphere are as sensibly felt by the human frame at a very low part of the scale, as in the higher. the difference consists only in this, that a change from - ° upward to about _zero_ is usually a very welcome one, while from _zero_ to the freezing point, as in the instance just alluded to, it becomes, to persons in our situation, rather an inconvenience than otherwise. this may be more readily imagined by considering that our clothing, bedding, fires, and other precautions against the severity of the climate having been once adapted to a low degree of cold, an increase of temperature renders them oppressive and inconvenient; while any reduction (of the first two, at least) is impracticable with safety. to this must be added, that at this temperature the snow becomes too soft for convenient walking, and the accumulation of ice in the crevices and linings of the officers' cabins is converted into a source of extreme annoyance, which, while it continues solid, is never experienced. it is true that these inconveniences occur in a much greater degree in the spring; but being then hailed as the harbingers of the return of permanent warmth, it is easy to obviate some, and would be hard to complain of any of them. _nov. ._--for several days about this period the weather continued remarkably mild, the thermometer generally rising as high as from + ° to + ° in the course of the day, from the th to the th. most of our necessary arrangements for the security of the ships and stores during the winter being now completed, the people were employed in what they called "rigging the theatre," and on the evening of the th the officers performed the play of the "rivals," to the infinite amusement of both ships' companies. on the st of december there was a space of many miles in which none of the "old ice" was visible. the sea was here for the most part covered with a very thin sheet of "young" ice, probably the formation of a single day, since the westerly wind had driven the 'floes' off the land. the whole of this was in motion with the tide, which, breaking the thin floes, left several spaces of clear water. it was observable that, though a considerable frost-smoke arose from the young ice, it was not so dense as that from the clear water, immediately over every pool of which a little thick cloud floated, corresponding as well in size as in situation with the pond from whence it issued. a number of dovekies were swimming about the point; and it being desirable, if possible, to obtain some of them for the sake of ascertaining their plumage at this season, we hauled the small boat over and launched her. mr. ross succeeded in killing one of the birds, which was preserved as a specimen, but it was with great difficulty that the boat avoided being carried away from the shore by the young ice. i was, on this account, afraid of repeating the attempt during the rest of the winter. one grouse was seen on shore; it appeared entirely white, except having its tail black near the tip. i was this day under the necessity of closing in my stern dead-lights, and fixing cork shutters between the double window-frames of my cabin, the temperature having lately fallen rather low at night; in consequence of which, one of the chronometers had stopped on the th of november. we had before this time banked the snow up against the sides; but it was now thrown higher, and its thickness at the bottom increased to about four feet. besides this, a bed of snow, three feet deep, was subsequently laid on the deck over my cabin, and also on the forecastle over the sick-bay, to assist in retaining the warmth in those parts of the ship; an office which it seemed to perform very effectually. it was impossible, however, as the cold increased, to keep up a tolerably comfortable temperature in the cabin if the fire was suffered to go out for several hours: for instance, the night after the above arrangements had been made, the fire was out for only six hours; and the consequence was, that the thermometer fell to °, and could be got no higher on the following day, in the after part of the cabin, though only nine feet from the stove, than °. this was, indeed, a most inclement day, the temperature of the atmosphere having for the first time fallen to - °, accompanied by a fresh wind from the northward and westward. a great squeezing of the young floes took place at the s.e. point of the island on the th. the noise it makes when heard at a distance very much resembles that of a heavy wagon labouring over a deep gravelly road; but, when a nearer approach is made, it is more like the growling of wild animals, for which it was in one or two instances mistaken. it was, however, rather useful than otherwise, to encourage the belief that bears were abroad, as, without some such idea, people are apt to become careless about going armed. the thermometer rising to - ° in the course of the th, the weather appeared warm to our feelings. it proved favourable also for another play, which had been fixed for this night, and the "poor gentleman" was performed by the officers in so admirable and feeling a manner as to excite uncommon interest among the men, and to convince me more than ever of the utility of our theatrical amusements. the th was a remarkably clear day, without any of that cloudiness which usually hung about the southern horizon. the sun was therefore clearly visible at noon, when such was its oval shape that its horizontal diameter exceeded the vertical by ' ". we had light in the cabin for reading and writing for three hours and a quarter without candles, and about five hours for convenient walking. on the evening of the th, being christmas eve, the ships' companies were amused by the officers performing the two farces of "a roland for an oliver," and the "mayor of garratt." on christmas day, divine service on board the fury was attended by the officers and crews of both ships. a certain increase was also made in the allowance of provisions, to enable the people to partake of christmas festivities to the utmost extent which our situation and means would allow; and the day was marked by the most cheerful hilarity, accompanied by the utmost regularity and good order. among the luxuries which our christmas dinner afforded was that of a joint of english roast beef, of which a few quarters had been preserved for such occasions by rubbing the outside with salt, and hanging it on deck covered with canvass. the low latitude in which our last summer's navigation was performed would have rendered its preservation doubtful without the salt. on the arrival of the last day of the year, it was impossible not to experience very high gratification in observing the excellent health and spirits enjoyed by almost every officer and man in both ships. the only invalid in the expedition was reid, our carpenter's mate, and even he was at this period so much improved, that very sanguine hopes were entertained of his continued amendment. in consequence of the effectual manner in which the men were clothed, particularly about the feet, not a single frostbite had occurred that required medical assistance even for a day; and, what was more important to us, not a scorbutic symptom had appeared. to increase our ordinary issue of anti-scorbutics, liberal as it already was, we had from the commencement of the winter adopted a regular system of growing mustard and cress, which the superior warmth of the ships now enabled us to do on a larger scale than before. each mess, both of the officers and ships' company, was for this purpose furnished with a shallow box filled with mould, in which a crop could generally be raised in from eight to ten days. the quantity thus procured on board the fury now amounted to about fifty pounds' weight, and before the arrival of spring to nearly one hundred pounds; and, trifling as such a supply may appear to those who are in the habit of being more abundantly furnished, it will not be considered to have been without its use, when it is remembered how complete a specific for the scurvy _fresh_ vegetable substance has invariably proved. with respect to the occupations which engaged our time, during this season of unavoidable inactivity, i can add little or nothing to my former account of the manner in which we passed the winter at melville island; for the two situations were so nearly similar, and our resources necessarily so limited in this way, that it was not easy to produce much variety in the employment of them. it may be imagined, and was, indeed, anticipated by ourselves, that want of novelty was on the present occasion a disadvantage likely to render our confinement more tedious than before; but this by no means appeared to be the case: for the men, sufficient employment may always be found to prevent the possibility of their being idle; and i have already noticed the auxiliaries to which we had recourse to assist in promoting this end; while most officers have resources within themselves, of which scarcely any situation or circumstances can divest them. what with reading, writing, making and calculating observations, observing the various natural phenomena, and taking the exercise necessary to preserve our health, nobody, i believe, ever felt any symptoms of _ennui_ during our continuance in winter-quarters. among the recreations which afforded the highest gratification to several among us, i may mention the musical parties we were enabled to muster, and which assembled on stated evenings throughout the winter, alternately in captain lyon's cabin and my own. more skilful amateurs in music might well have smiled at these our humble concerts; but it will not incline them to think less of the science they admire, to be assured that, in these remote and desolate regions of the globe, it has often furnished us with the most pleasurable sensations which our situation was capable of affording: for, independently of the mere gratification afforded to the ear by music, there is, perhaps, scarcely a person in the world really fond of it, in whose mind its sound is not more or less connected with "his far distant home." with our time thus occupied, our comforts so abundant, and the prospect to seaward so enlivening, it would, indeed, have been our own faults had we felt anything but enjoyment in our present state, and the most lively hopes and expectations for the future. chapter vii. many foxes caught.--continued open water in the offing.--partial disruption of the ice in the bay.--meteorological phenomena, and temperature of animals.--arrival of a tribe of esquimaux.--first meeting and subsequent intercourse with them.--esquimaux in want of provisions.--supplied with bread-dust.--some account of a sealing excursion with them.--fresh disruption of the ice in the bay.--closing of the winter theatre.--meteorological phenomena till the end of february, . the first day of the new year was a very severe one in the open air, the thermometer being down to - °, and the wind blowing strong from the northwest. the effect of a breeze upon the feelings is well known to every person, even in comparatively temperate climates, but at low temperatures it becomes painful and almost insupportable. thus, with the thermometer at - °, and no wind stirring, the hands may remain uncovered for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour without inconvenience; while, with a fresh breeze, and the thermometer nearly as high as _zero_, few people can keep them exposed so long without considerable pain. about noon on the d, captain lyon observed a considerable body of snow taken up by the wind and whirled round in a spiral form like that of a water-spout, though with us the breeze was quite light at the time. it increased gradually in size till lost behind the southeast point. as a proof of the difficulty which the hares must find in obtaining subsistence during the winter, these animals were at this time in the habit of coming alongside the ships upon the ice to pick up what they could from our rubbish-heaps. a fox or two still entered the traps occasionally, and our gentlemen informed me that they had always been most successful in catching them after a southerly wind, which they attributed, with great probability, to the smell of the ships being thus more extensively communicated over the island. one or two of these poor creatures had been found in the traps with their tongues almost bitten in two. the traps made use of for catching these beautiful little animals were formed of a small cask, having a sliding door like that of a common mouse-trap, and were baited with oiled meat or blubber. the whole number caught during the winter was between eighty and ninety, of which more than seventy were taken before the end of december. in a single trap of captain lyon's, no less than fifteen were caught in the course of four hours, on the night of the th of november; and the people engaged in watching the trap remarked, that no sooner had one of these animals been taken out, and they themselves retired a few yards, than another entered it. so stupid, indeed, are they in this respect, that, in several instances, those which had escaped from the ships entered, and were recaught in the same traps as before. _jan. ._--an ermine, of which the tracks had been traced the preceding day up the hecla's stern, and even on board her, captain lyon to-day succeeded in catching in a trap. this beautiful creature was entirely white, except a black brush to its tail, and a slight tinge of the usual sulphur or straw colour on the root of the tail, and also on the fore part of the fore legs. the little animal being put into a convenient cage, seemed soon to feel himself perfectly at home, eating, drinking, and sleeping without any apparent apprehension, but evincing a very decided determination to resent a too near approach to the wires of his new habitation. _jan. ._--at a late hour this evening the stovepipe of my cabin caught fire, which gave us a momentary alarm, but, buckets and water being at hand, it was soon extinguished. this accident was occasioned by a quantity of soot collected in the stovepipe, and yet was not altogether to be attributed to neglect in the persons appointed to sweep the whole of them twice a week. as the cause of it is such as is not likely to be anticipated by persons living in temperate climates, and as the knowledge of it may be serviceable to somebody destined for a cold one, i shall here explain it. the smoke of coals contains a certain quantity of water in the state of vapour. this, in temperate climates, and, indeed, till the thermometer falls to about ° below _zero_, is carried up the chimney and principally diffused in the atmosphere. when the cold becomes more intense, however, this is no longer the case; for the vapour is then condensed into water before it can escape from the stovepipes, within which a mass of ice is, in consequence, very speedily formed.[*] the vapour thus arrested must necessarily also detain a quantity of soot, which, being subsequently enclosed in the ice as the latter accumulates, the brush generally used to clean the pipes cannot bring it away. by any occasional increase of temperature, either in the external air or in the fire below, the ice sometimes thaws, pouring down a stream of water into the fire, and bringing with it a most pungent and oppressive smell of soot. for these reasons, as well as to avoid accidents of the nature above alluded to, it is necessary to sweep the pipes much more frequently than in warmer climates, and even occasionally to thaw the ice out of them by a fire made expressly for the purpose. [footnote: when the weather was not very severely cold, and a part of the vapour escaped from the pipe of the galley-fire, the fore-rigging was always coated with ice, from the smoke passing by it.] on the morning of the st of february it was reported to me that a number of strange people were seen to the westward, coming towards the ships over the ice. on directing a glass towards them we found them to be esquimaux, and also discovered some appearance of huts on shore, at the distance of two miles from the ships, in the same direction. i immediately set out, accompanied by captain lyon, an officer from each ship, and two of the men, to meet the natives, who, to the number of five-and-twenty, were drawn up in a line abreast, and still advanced slowly towards us. as we approached nearer they stood still, remaining, as before, in a compact line, from which they did not move for some time after we reached them. nothing could exceed their quiet and orderly behaviour on this occasion, which presented a very striking contrast with the noisy demeanour of the natives of hudson's strait. they appeared at a distance to have arms in their hands; but what we had taken for bows or spears proved to be only a few blades of whalebone, which they had brought either as a peace-offering or for barter, and which we immediately purchased for a few small nails and beads. some of the women, of whom there were three or four, as well as two children, in this party, having handsome clothes on which attracted our attention, they began, to our utter astonishment and consternation, to strip, though the thermometer stood at ° below zero. we soon found, however, that there was nothing so dreadful in this as we at first imagined, every individual among them having on a complete double suit. the whole were of deerskin, and looked both clean and comfortable. however quietly the esquimaux had awaited our approach, and still continued to conduct themselves, there was as little apprehension or distrust visible in their countenances or manner as it was possible for one strange set of persons to evince on meeting another. as soon, therefore, as we had bought all that they had to sell, and made them a number of valuable presents, we expressed by signs our wish to accompany them to their huts, with which they willingly complied, and we immediately set out together. on our way the esquimaux were much amused by our dogs, especially by a large one of the newfoundland breed, that had been taught to fetch and carry; a qualification which seemed to excite unbounded astonishment; and the children could scarce contain themselves for joy when captain lyon gave them a stick to throw for the dog to bring back to them. a child of five or six years old, thus amusing itself, on such a day and in such a climate, formed by no means the least characteristic figure of our motley group. an old and infirm man, supported by a stick, which, indeed, he much needed, was soon left behind us, his companions seeming to take no notice of his infirmities, and leaving him without reluctance or apology to find his way home at his own pace. when we had approached the huts within a few hundred yards, three of the esquimaux went on before us, having previously explained that they were going to confine their dogs, lest, being frightened at our coming, they should run away. when it is remembered that these habitations were fully within sight of the ships, and how many eyes were continually on the look-out among us for anything that could afford variety or interest in our present situation, our surprise may in some degree be imagined at finding an establishment of five huts, with canoes, sledges, dogs, and above sixty men, women, and children, as regularly and, to all appearance, as permanently fixed as if they had occupied the same spot for the whole winter. if the first view of the exterior of this little village was such as to create astonishment, that feeling was in no small degree heightened, on accepting the invitation soon given us to enter these extraordinary houses, in the construction of which we observed that not a single material was used but snow and ice. after creeping through two low passages, having each its arched doorway, we came to a small circular apartment, of which the roof was a perfect arched dome. from this three doorways, also arched, and of larger dimensions than the outer ones, led into as many inhabited apartments, one on each side, and the other facing us as we entered. the interior of these presented a scene no less novel than interesting. the women were seated on the beds at the sides of the huts, each having her little fireplace or lamp with all her domestic utensils about her; the children crept behind their mothers, and the dogs, except the female ones, which were indulged with a part of the beds, slunk out past us in dismay. the construction of this inhabited part of the huts was similar to that of the outer apartment, being a dome formed by separate blocks of snow, laid with great regularity and no small art, each being cut into the shape requisite to form a substantial arch, from seven to eight feet high in the centre, and having no support whatever but what this principle of building supplied. i shall not here farther describe the peculiarities of these curious edifices, remarking only that a cheerful and sufficient light was admitted to them by a circular window of ice neatly fitted into the roof of each apartment. we found our new acquaintance as desirous of pleasing us as we were ready to be pleased; so that we were soon on good terms with them all. while we were engaged in examining every part of their huts, their whole behaviour was in the highest degree orderly, respectful, and good-humoured. they eagerly received the various articles that were given them, either in exchange for their own commodities or as presents, but on no occasion importuned us for anything, nor did the well-known sound of "pilletay" once escape from them. we had also great reason to believe that these people possessed, in no ordinary degree, the quality of honesty; a quality the more desirable to us, as we had on shore, besides the house and observatory, all our boats and other articles, which, had they been disposed to pilfer, it would have required all our vigilance to guard. if we dropped a glove or a handkerchief without knowing it, they would immediately direct our attention to it by pointing; and if the owner had left the hut before they discovered it, would run out after him to return it. numberless instances of a similar kind occurred in the course of our subsequent communication with them, some of which i shall hereafter have an opportunity of relating. after remaining with them a couple of hours, and proposing to spend the following day among them, we set out on our return to the ships. being desirous of trying their disposition to part with their children, i proposed to buy a fine lad, named _toolooak_, for the very valuable consideration of a handsome butcher's knife. his father, apparently understanding our meaning, joyfully accepted the knife, and the boy ran into the hut to fetch his mittens, which seemed to be all that he cared for in leaving his home. he then set off with us in high spirits, and at first assisted in drawing a sledge we had purchased to carry our things; but as he began, by our additional signs, more clearly to comprehend our true meaning, he gradually relaxed in his zeal to accompany our party, and, being afterward overtaken by a number of his companions, he took an opportunity to slink off among some hummocks of ice, so that, when we arrived on board, toolooak was missing. on our reaching the ships, these people expressed much less surprise and curiosity than might naturally have been expected on their first visit, which may, perhaps, in some measure, be attributed to their being in reality a less noisy kind of people than most of the esquimaux to whom we had before been accustomed. quiet and orderly, however, as they were disposed to be, this first visit showed them to be as fond of merriment as their countrymen are usually considered; for, on captain lyon's ordering his fiddler up on the hecla's deck, they danced with the men for an hour, and then returned in high glee and good-humour to their huts. on our return on board we were informed that, during our absence in the morning, a flock of thirteen wolves, the first yet seen, crossed the ice in the bay from the direction of the huts, and passed near the ships. these animals, as we afterward learned, had accompanied or closely followed the esquimaux on their journey to the island the preceding day, and they proved to us the most troublesome part of their _suite_. they so much resemble the esquimaux dogs, that, had it not been for some doubt among the officers who had seen them whether they were so or not, and the consequent fear of doing these poor people an irreparable injury, we might have killed most of them the same evening, for they came boldly to look for food within a few yards of the fury, and remained there for some time. in order to prevent our people from occasioning the esquimaux any disturbance or apprehension, i directed that only six from each ship should be allowed to visit the huts at one time, and that they should then be always accompanied by an officer. a strict prohibition was, at the same time, issued against the smallest article of the ships' stores being given to the people without permission, on pain of severe punishment. at an early hour on the d we set out, with a large party, on our proposed excursion to the huts. the natives received us with great cordiality, though with somewhat more noisy expressions of pleasure than before; and we soon began a more minute examination of their habitations and furniture, in which they readily assisted us, except that they always sat very closely on the deerskins which composed their beds, under which were stowed such articles as they were least willing or able to dispose of. they sold, however, a great number of their things without reluctance; and it was, indeed, astonishing to see with what eagerness they would, for the mere sake of change and variety, barter some of their most indispensable articles for the veriest trifles in our possession. for instance, a single sewing-needle, of which they possessed abundance not much inferior to our own, procured from them a large, well-sharpened _p=anna_, or man's knife, made of stout iron, for which, in point of absolute utility, a hundred needles would not have been a fair equivalent. various other instances of the same kind occurred, by which, indeed, they were not ultimately losers, though they certainly would have been so had our intercourse ended here. we dined in the huts, and the esquimaux gladly partook of our biscuit and meat, and even of a little wine, which, however, they did not relish. we returned on board about sunset, much gratified with the interesting day we had passed; having laid the foundation of that perfect confidence and good understanding which, with little or no interruption, afterward subsisted between us and our new acquaintance. on the morning of the d, a number of these people were observed to set off over the ice to the southwest, to bring, as we conjectured, either some more of their people or of their property from their last place of abode. on walking out to the huts after divine service, however, we found they had been seal-catching, and had succeeded in taking four. the very small quantity of food which they had in their huts at first coming, consisting of a little venison, and the flesh and blubber of the whale and seal, induced us to suppose they had left some of their provision behind, and that they would return for it as occasion demanded. but we now found that even at this rigorous season they were entirely dependant in this way on their daily exertions, and they had only removed into their present quarters on account of the failure of their summer's store, and of the greater facility of obtaining seals at winter island than where the sea was more closely and continually frozen. on the th a number of esquimaux came to the ships, and we took the opportunity of getting them to go through the process of building a snow hut for our amusement and information. from the quickness with which they completed this, our surprise at the sudden appearance of their village ceased; as we now saw that two or three hours would be more than sufficient to complete the whole establishment just as we at first found it. they were then taken on board, and derived great amusement from our organ, and from anything in the shape of music, singing, or dancing, of all which they are remarkably fond. nor can i here omit a striking instance of the honesty of these people which occurred to-day. some of the gentlemen of the hecla had purchased two of their dogs, which had the preceding evening made their escape and returned to the huts. after the departure of the esquimaux to-day, we were surprised to find that they had left two dogs carefully tied up on board the fury, which, on inquiry, proved to be the animals in question, and which had been thus faithfully restored to their rightful owners. on the th a number of the natives came on board, according to promise, to rebuild the hut in a more substantial manner, and to put a plate of ice into the roof, as a window, which they did with great quickness as well as care, several of the women cheerfully assisting in the labour. the men seemed to take no small pride in showing in how expeditious and workmanlike a manner they could perform this; and the hut, with its outer passage, was soon completed. from this time they were in the constant habit of coming freely to the ships; and such as it was not always convenient to admit usually found very profitable employment in examining the heaps of ashes, sand, and other rubbish on the outside, where their trouble was well repaid by picking up small scraps of tin or iron. all that they found in this manner we allowed them to consider as their lawful property; but were very particular in preventing their handling anything on board without permission. the wolves had now begun to do us some damage; for not even the sails that were fastened round the house and observatory could escape their ravenous fangs, and they had thus, in the course of a single night, much injured two of our studding-sails. we set traps for them on the ice, and also large shark-hooks, secured with chains and baited with meat; but the former they entered and destroyed, and the latter was always found broken or bent, without securing the depredators. these animals were indeed so hungry and fearless as to take away some of the esquimaux dogs in a snow-house near the hecla's stern, though the men were at the time within a few yards of them. from the circumstance of captain lyon and myself having accidentally gone into different huts on our first visits to the village (for by this name i believe we must venture to dignify the united abodes of more than sixty human beings), particular individuals among the esquimaux had already, in a manner, attached themselves to each of us. captain lyon now informed me that one of his acquaintance, a remarkably fine and intelligent young man, named _=ay~ok~et_, had given him to understand that he had somewhere or other seen _kabloona_[*] people like ourselves only a few months ago. this being the case, there seemed no reason why, if it were made worth his while, he should not be able to see them again in the course of next summer. anxious to profit by this unexpected mode of communication, i requested captain lyon to endeavour to direct ayoket's attention to the scheme of conveying a letter from us to the persons of whom he spoke. [footnote: european.] on the th i paid another visit to the huts, where i found scarcely anybody but women and children, the whole of the men, with the exception of the two oldest, having gone on a sealing excursion to the northeastern side of the island. one of the women, named _il=igliuk_, a sister of the lad toolooak, who favoured us with a song, struck us as having a remarkably soft voice, an excellent ear, and a great fondness for singing, for there was scarcely any stopping her when she had once begun. we had, on their first visit to the ships, remarked this trait in iligliuk's disposition, when she was listening for the first time to the sound of the organ, of which she seemed never to have enough; and almost every day she now began to display some of that superiority of understanding for which she was so remarkably distinguished. a few of the women learned several of our names to-day, and i believe all thought us angekoks[*] of a very superior class, when we repeated to them all round, by the assistance of our books, the names of all their husbands, obtained on board the preceding day. on our way back to the ships we saw a party of them, with their dogs, returning over the hill from the northeastward; and we afterward met another of eight or ten, who had walked round by the southeast point on the ice, all alike unsuccessful, after being out in the wind for six hours, with the thermometer from to degrees below _zero_. thus hardly did these people obtain their daily subsistence at this severe season of the year. [footnote: sorcerers or wizards, pronounced as written above in greenland; but at winter island _ang-~et-k~ook_; and by the people at igloolik, _an-n~at-k~o_.] a wolf being caught in one of the traps this evening, which was so close as to be easily watched from the ship, a party of the officers ran out to secure the depredator, and fired two balls into the trap at once to despatch him. finding, after this, that he continued to bite a sword that was thrust in, a third shot was fired at him. the trap was then sufficiently opened to get his hind legs firmly tied together, after which, being considered tolerably secure, he was pulled out of the trap, which, however, his head had scarcely cleared, when he furiously flew at mr. richards's throat, and would certainly have done him some serious mischief had not that gentleman, with great presence of mind, seized the animal in his turn by the throat, squeezing him with all his force between both hands. this made the wolf relinquish his first attempt, and mr. richards only suffered by a bite in his arm and another in his knee, which, on account of the thickness of his clothes, were happily not severe ones. as for the wolf, he prudently took to his heels, though two of them were still tied together; and, being favoured by the momentary confusion, occasioned by his late rencounter with mr. richards, succeeded in escaping his pursuers. he was found dead the following day at the distance of three quarters of a mile from the ships. on the th we were visited by a musical party of females, consisting only of a few individuals expressly invited for this purpose. a number of the officers assembled in the cabin to hear this vocal concert, while mr. henderson and myself took down the notes of their songs, for which, indeed, they gave us every opportunity, for i thought they would never leave off. we afterward amused them with our little band of flutes and violins, and also by some songs, with the whole of which they were extremely well pleased. i feared several of them, and especially iligliuk, would go into fits with delight when we introduced into our song some of their names mingled with our own. while most of us were thus employed, captain lyon took the opportunity of making drawings of some of the women, especially of _togolat_, the prettiest of the party, and, perhaps, of the whole village. she was about six-and-twenty years of age, with a face more oval than that of esquimaux in general, very pretty eyes and mouth, teeth remarkably white and regular, and possessing in her carriage and manners a degree of natural gracefulness, which could not be hid even under the disguise of an esquimaux woman's dress, and, as was usual with togolat, the dirtiest face of her whole tribe. her husband, _ewerat_, a little ugly man of about five-and-forty, was the only individual among them laying claim to the title of angetkook, and was, in reality, a sensible, obliging man, and a first-rate seal-catcher. they had two children, one of which, a little girl, togolat still occasionally suckled, and, according to custom, carried in the hood behind her back; the other, a boy about eight years of age, quite an idiot, deaf and dumb from his birth, and squinting most horribly with both eyes. finding that these poor creatures were now really in want of food, for the men had again returned from an unsuccessful excursion, i was happy to avail myself of a hint given to me by captain lyon, to furnish them occasionally with a small supply of bread-dust, of which we had two or three casks in each ship. our present party was therefore, in addition to other articles, supplied with several pounds, which they immediately expressed their intention to take home to their children. several of them visited the ships as usual on the th, and among the rest ka-oong-ut and his son toolooak. the old gentleman was not a favourite with us, being the only one who had yet begun to tease us by constant begging. we had often expressed displeasure at this habit, which, after a day or two's acquaintance, began to be extremely troublesome; but i had to-day to take cognizance of his stealing a nail, of which i determined to take a rather serious notice, as it might otherwise lead to more extensive theft. i therefore collected all the other esquimaux who were on board, and having in their presence expressed great indignation at this conduct, turned the offender away in disgrace. some of those best acquainted with us were afterward taken into the cabin, where our sentiments were more fully explained to them. among these i was not sorry to have toolooak and iligliuk, who would not fail to report at the huts all our proceedings, but who did not appear to consider themselves in the slightest degree implicated in their father's offence, or concerned in his disgrace. the people of the huts being much in want of food, we again distributed some bread-dust among them; taking care to send a portion to the infirm old man, _hik-k~ei-~er= a_, by _ok~otook_, the husband of iligliuk, a fine, active, manly fellow of about two-and-thirty, who, as we were pleased to find the next day, had punctually executed his commission. the esquimaux went out on the th to endeavour to catch seals as usual, but returned unsuccessful after several hours' labour. as it was now evident that their own exertions were not at all times sufficient to procure them food at this season, and that neither indolence nor any idea of dependance on our charity induced them to relax in those exertions, it became incumbent on us carefully to attend to their wants, and, by a timely and judicious application of the slender resources we had set aside for their use, prevent any absolute suffering among them. we therefore sent out a good meal of bread-dust for each individual, to be divided in due proportion among all the huts. the necessity of this supply appeared very strongly from the report of our people, who found some of these poor creatures actually gnawing a piece of hard sealskin with the hair on it, while few of the huts had any lamp alight. it must be remembered that the failure of their seal-fishery always involves a double calamity, for it not only deprives them of food, but of fuel for their lamps. when this is the case, not to mention the want of warmth and light in the huts, they are also destitute of the means of melting snow for water, and can therefore only quench their thirst by eating the snow, which is not only a comfortless, but an ineffectual resource. in consequence of this, it was surprising to see the quantity of water these people drank whenever they came on board; and it was often with difficulty that our coppers could answer this additional demand. i am certain that toolooak one day drank nearly a gallon in less than two hours. besides the bread-dust, we also supplied them to-day with a wolf's carcass, which, raw and frozen as it was, they ate with a good appetite; and, indeed, they had not the means of cooking, or even thawing it. i cannot here omit a pleasing trait in their character, observed by our people who carried out their supplies; not a morsel of which would the grown-up people touch till they had first supplied the wants of their hungry little ones. on the morning of the th, okotook and his uncle _arnaneelia_, a sensible and worthy man of about five-and-forty years of age, coming on board from their fishing, we showed them the stage and scenery that were just put up, and invited them and their wives to the play about to be performed this evening. they accordingly went back and brought the women, who understood they were to be present at some diversion, though they did not well know what. it was enough, however, with iligliuk, just to make the motion of turning the handle of the organ, which, conveying to her mind the idea of music and merriment, was always sure to put her immediately into high spirits. as they came three or four hours before the performance of "john bull" was to commence, they began to grow tired and impatient, especially when it became dusk, and candles were brought into the cabin. the men then explained that it would soon be dark, and that, in returning late to their huts, they should disturb the people who would then be fast asleep there. finding that they grew uneasy, i made no objection to their returning, and sent them off loaded with bread-dust and some oil for each of their lamps. they remained long enough, however, to have a peep at _mrs. brulgruddery_, whose dress, when they were informed it was that of a _kabl=o=ona nooll=e=e-~o_ (european wife), they were very anxious in examining, and seemed to grieve at going away without sharing the diversion which this and other preparations seemed to promise. on the th, our friends at the huts were fortunate in procuring three seals, an event that created great joy at the village. mr. allison, who happened to be there when one of these prizes was announced, informed me that there was a general outcry of joy; all the women hurried to the doors of the huts, and the children rushed to the beach to meet the men dragging along the prize. one of these little urchins, to complete the triumphant exultation with which this event was hailed, instantly threw himself on the animal, and clinging fast to it, was thus dragged to the huts. each woman was observed to bring her _=o=otk~oos~eek_, or cooking-pot, to the hut where the seal was dissected, for the purpose of receiving a share of the meat and blubber. on the th it blew a strong gale from s.w. to w.n.w., and the thermometer, either on account of the strength of the wind or its having occasionally some southing in it, rose to - °, being the highest temperature registered in our journals since the th of december preceding. i had agreed with okotook to accompany him on a sealing excursion, but the day proved too inclement, the esquimaux not going out themselves, though it was not very often that the weather could prevent them. considering it desirable to increase, by all the means in our power, the chances of these people giving information of us, we distributed among several of the men large round medallions of sheet copper, having these words punched through them: "h.b.m.s. fury and hecla, all well, a.d. ." these we suspended by a piece of white line round their necks, giving them to understand that they were to show them to any kabloona people they might ever meet with in future. similar ornaments, but of a smaller size, were subsequently presented to many of the women, having on them the words "fury and hecla, ." early on the morning of the th, observing a party of the esquimaux, equipped with spears, passing near the ships, i joined them, accompanied by mr. bushnan and one or two others. having crossed the point of the island, they walked over the ice to the eastward, where we did not overtake them till they had got above a mile and a quarter from the shore. this party consisted of eight persons, among whom we were glad to find arnaneelia, okotook, toolooak, _pootooalook_ his elder brother, and one or two others whom we knew. they had by this time, however, separated into two or three different parties, stationed at the distance of half a mile from each other, along the edge of the floe, beyond which, to the eastward, there was clear water as far as we could see for frost-smoke. the party we at first joined were seated on a high hummock of ice, with their spears in their hands, looking out for seals. after we had talked to them for a few minutes, okotook suddenly started up and set off along the edge of the ice, without giving us at his companions the least warning. the latter seemed so much accustomed to this, that they took no farther notice than by immediately following him, and we did the same; the whole party walking at a very quick rate, and the natives keeping their heads constantly turned towards the sea to look out for seals. after being thus engaged for an hour and a half, we judged, from the motions of a party at some distance beyond us, that they had game in view. as we approached them, okotook evidently began to be apprehensive that we, who did not understand the matter, would spoil their sport. to prevent this, he did the most civil thing that could well have been devised, which was, to send his companions one by one to the spot, and to remain with us himself, keeping us at such a distance as to allow us to see their proceedings, without alarming the animal they were in pursuit of. the other seven esquimaux, now forming one party, disposed themselves into a single line, so as to make as small an appearance as possible in the direction in which they were going, and in this manner crept very cautiously towards the margin of the floe. on a sudden they all stooped down quite low to hide themselves, and continued thus a quarter of an hour, during which time they prepared their lines and spears; and then, when the animal appeared to be intercepted from their view, again took the opportunity of gaining a few paces upon him, in the same cautious manner as before. when they had been thus occupied for a full hour, alternately creeping and stooping down, the seal, which had been lying on the ice, took the water, and they then gave up their chase. during this time, okotook could scarcely restrain his impatience to be nearer the scene of action; and when we produced a spyglass, which appeared to bring his companions close to us, he had not words to express his surprise and satisfaction. in a short time he held it as steadily as we did, and explained by signs every motion he observed. as soon as they had given up the seal they had been watching, the whole party seemed with one accord to turn their steps homeward, in which direction, being that of the ships also, we were by this time not sorry to accompany them. we were now between three and four miles northeast of the ships, and full a mile and a half from any part of the shore. in the open water beyond the floe, the tide was running two knots to the northward, and as the ice on which we stood had been formed only within the last fortnight, and a sheet as substantial as this had before been carried away by the stream it was impossible not to feel some apprehension lest we might thus be detached from the shore, an accident that has been known to happen to esquimaux ere now,[*] and has probably more frequently befallen them, when none have survived to tell the tale. [footnote: crantz, london edition, , appendix, p. .] as we returned towards the land, we came to a small rising on the level surface of the floe not larger than a common molehill, and of much the same shape, at which one of the esquimaux immediately stopped. his companions, still walking on, called us away, explaining that what we saw was the work of a seal, and that it was probable the animal was about to complete his hole and to come up on the ice, in which case the man would endeavour to kill him. we watched the man at the hole, however, with a glass, for more than half an hour, observing him constantly putting his head down towards the ice, as if in the act of listening for the seal, but without otherwise changing his position; after which he followed us on board without success. if, however, a man has any reason to suppose that a seal is at work beneath, he immediately attaches himself to the place, and seldom leaves it till he has succeeded in killing the animal. for this purpose, he first builds a snow-wall about four feet in height, to shelter him from the wind, and, seating himself under the lee of it, deposites his spear, lines, and other implements upon several little forked sticks inserted into the snow, in order to prevent the smallest noise being made in moving them when wanted. but the most curious precaution to the same effect consists in tying his own knees together with a thong, so securely as to prevent any rustling of his clothes, which might otherwise alarm the animal. in this situation a man will sit quietly sometimes for hours together, attentively listening to any noise made by the seal, and sometimes using the _keip-kuttuk_, an instrument hereafter described, in order to ascertain whether the animal is still at work below. when he supposes the hole to be nearly completed, he cautiously lifts his spear, to which the line has been previously attached, and, as soon as the blowing of the seal is distinctly heard, and the ice consequently very thin, he drives it into him with the force of both arms, and then cuts away with his _panna_ the remaining crust of ice, to enable him to repeat the wounds and get him out. the _neitiek_ is the only seal killed in this manner, and, being the smallest, is held while struggling either simply by hand, or by putting the line round a spear with the point stuck into the ice. for the _oguke_, the line is passed round the man's leg or arm; and for a walrus, round his body, his feet being at the same time firmly set against a hummock of ice, in which position these people can, from habit, hold against a very heavy strain. boys of fourteen or fifteen years of age consider themselves equal to the killing of a _neitiek_, but it requires a full-grown person to master either of the larger animals. on the th, a number of the esquimaux coming before the church service, we gave them to understand, by the sun, that none could be admitted before noon, when they quietly remained outside the ships till divine service had been performed. we then endeavoured to explain to iligliuk that every seventh day they must not come to the ships, for, without any intention of offending, they had become rather an annoyance in this way. they now brought with them a great many little canoes and paddles, sledges, figures of men and women; and other toys, most of them already bespoke by the officers and men, and the rest for sale. toolooak, who now considered himself as quite privileged to find his way into the cabin without a conductor, and was not backward in thus practising his newly-acquired art of opening and shutting the door, sat with me for a couple of hours on the th, quietly drawing faces and animals, an occupation to which he took a great fancy; and we often were reminded, by this circumstance, of a similar propensity displayed by his amiable countryman, our lamented friend john sackhouse. we soon found that toolooak possessed a capacity equal to anything he chose to take an interest in learning; and could he, at his present age, have been voluntarily removed from his companions, and his attention directed to the acquirement of higher branches of knowledge than that of catching seals, he would have amply repaid any pains bestowed upon his education. i had always entertained great objection to taking any such individual from his home, on the doubtful chance of benefiting himself, or of his doing any service to the public as an interpreter. my scruples on this head had hitherto been confined to the consideration due to the individual himself, and to the relatives he leaves behind. in our present case, however, not the smallest public advantage could be derived from it; for it had long ago become evident that we should soon know more of the esquimaux language than any of them were likely to learn of english in any reasonable period of time. i was therefore far from desiring to receive from toolooak an answer in the affirmative, when i to-day plainly put the question to him, whether he would go with me to _kabloona noona_ (european country). never was a more decisive negative given than toolooak gave to this proposal. he eagerly repeated the word _na-o_ (no) half a dozen times, and then told me that if he went away his father would cry. this simple but irresistible appeal to paternal affection, his decisive manner of making it, and the feelings by which his reply was evidently dictated, were just what could have been wished. no more could be necessary to convince those who saw it, that these people may justly lay equal claim with ourselves to these common feelings of our nature; and, having once satisfied myself of this, i determined never again to excite in toolooak's mind another disagreeable sensation, by talking to him on this subject. besides the toys and models i have mentioned above, as articles of barter with these people, we also employed them more usefully in making wooden shades for the eyes, after their own method, as the time was fast approaching when some such precaution would become necessary to guard the eyes from the excessive glare of reflected light. there was also a considerable _trade_ established in mittens, which being made of prepared sealskin, and nearly water-tight, were particularly serviceable to our men when constantly handling the leadlines in the summer. in this manner we contrived to turn our new acquaintance to some little account. among the natives who visited the fury to-day was ewerat; of whom i have already spoken as _ang-et-kook_, or chief sorcerer of the tribe, a distinction with which he had made some of our gentlemen acquainted at one, of their earliest visits to the huts. being desirous of seeing him perform some of the tricks which had acquired for him this pre-eminence, i requested him to indulge me with a sight of them. after some little demur, he began to make his lips quiver, then moved his nose up and down, gradually closed his eyes, and increased the violence of his grimaces till every feature was hideously distorted; at the same time, he moved his head rapidly from side to side, uttering sometimes a snuffling sound, and at others a raving sort of cry. having worked himself into this ridiculous kind of phrensy, which lasted, perhaps, from twenty to thirty seconds, he suddenly discontinued it, and suffered his features to relax into their natural form; but the motion of his head seemed to have so stupified him, as indeed it well might, that there remained an unusual vacancy and a drowsy stare upon his countenance for some time afterward. being pressed to repeat this piece of buffoonery, he did so two or three times; and on one occasion togolat asked him, in a serious tone, some questions respecting me, which he as seriously answered. in general, however, the women paid little attention to his grimaces, and the whole ended with a hearty laugh from all parties. i had to-day some conversation with a woman named appokiuk, whom iligliuk had mentioned as having seen kabloona people before us. this woman was gifted, however, with such a volubility of tongue, that speaking, as she did, in a language very imperfectly known to us, she gave no time for questions, and therefore afforded little information. all we could make out for certain was, that she had, within a year past, seen two _kabloona oomiak_ (whether ships or boats was still doubtful[*]), and that her husband was now far away. from all this we concluded that she had been far enough to the southward to see the hudson's bay ships in the course of their annual voyage; and this account gave us very sanguine hopes of being thus able to communicate with them by means of some of the esquimaux. [footnote: these people apply the word _oomiak_ to any vessel larger than a canoe.] on the th, a number of our new friends having been allowed upon the upper deck, an old woman named _ay=ug-g~a-lo~ok_ stole our cooper's punch, which she was showing to her companions alongside the hecla just afterward, when lieutenant hoppner observed it, and sent her back with an escort. it was impossible not to admit that the fault was chiefly on our side, in permitting these poor people to roam about too freely amid temptations which scarcely anything human could have withstood; but as it was necessary to take some notice of it, i went through nearly the same process as with kaoongut, and dismissed her with great appearance of indignation to the huts. we were glad to find that their wants had there been well supplied to-day, three seals having been caught. they had lately, indeed, been tolerably successful in general, and required but little of our assistance. mr. elder observing one of their dogs attacked by several wolves, and hastening to the spot with his gun, found that these animals had made such quick work in the partition of their prey, that, though he reached the scene of action in a few minutes, and the dog had at first made considerable resistance, only one of its hind legs remained, each wolf having run off with its share. it is remarkable that these creatures had never entered our traps since the moon had declined to the southward, whereas not a night elapsed before that without their going to them. the esquimaux had in theirs caught only a fox. during the eclipse of the sun which took place to-day, the diminution, of light was very considerable, but the weather was unfavourable for observing it for any useful purpose. captain lyon remarked, that some of the esquimaux, who were on alarmed at this phenomenon, which, indeed, made a general bustle among them. two of them were found on the ice lying on their faces, but it was not ascertained whether their superstitions on this subject were the same as those of their brethren in greenland. mr. henderson being desirous of seeing something of the customs of these people during the hours of darkness, obtained my permission to pass the night at the huts, accompanied by mr. griffiths. soon after they left the ships in the evening it came on to blow strong from the northwest, with much snowdrift, so that, losing the tracks, they with difficulty found the village. returning on board in the course of the next forenoon, we were pleased to hear that they had met with every attention, and especially from okotook, with whom they lodged. as they had slept in kaoongut's hut, one side of which was occupied by okotook and his family, the old fellow thought it a good opportunity to make up the quarrel occasioned by his dishonesty; and he accordingly made his appearance on board to-day for the first time since that event. toolooak was deputed to bring his father down into the cabin, where a formal reconciliation took place, to the great satisfaction of the latter, who had found out that to be out of favour with us was attended with the serious consequence of being also out of pocket. it was laughable to observe the pains he now took to impress on the minds of every person he saw that he was no longer a _tigliktoke_, by which name he had lately been distinguished; for he seemed to think that my receiving him again into favour was a perfect absolution from his offense. on the d i paid another visit to the huts, and found the greater part of the men absent on their sealing excursions. we thought, however, that, except on pressing occasions, one man was left in each hut to keep an eye on the conduct of the women, and this was the case to-day. the huts had in the interior assumed a somewhat different appearance since i had last seen them; the roofs were much blackened by the smoke of the lamps, and the warmth had in most parts given them a glazed and honey-combed surface; indeed, the whole of the walls had become much thinner by thawing, so that the light was more plainly visible through them. the snow also, on which the lamps stood, was considerably worn away, so as to destroy, in great measure, the regularity of the original plan of construction. to these changes might be added that of a vast quantity of blood and oil that now defaced the purity of the snowy floor, and emitted effluvia not very agreeable to european noses; so that, upon the whole, it may be imagined that our first impressions of the comfort and cleanliness of these habitations were more favourable than their present state was calculated to excite. to the original apartments they had now also added various small places for stores, communicating with the huts from within, and looking something like our ovens, though without any door to them. in some of these they deposited their upper jackets, which they usually take off in coming into their huts, as we do a greatcoat; while in smaller ones, like little shelves in a recess, they kept various articles of their kabloona riches. these and similar alterations and additions they were constantly making throughout the winter; for their inexhaustible materials being always at hand, it required but little time and labour to adopt any arrangement that might suit their convenience. after distributing a number of presents in the first four huts, i found, on entering the last, that pootooalook had been successful in bringing in a seal, over which two elderly women were standing, armed with large knives, their hands and faces besmeared with blood, and delight and exultation depicted on their countenances. they had just performed the first operation of dividing the animal into two parts, and thus laying open the intestines. these being taken out, and all the blood carefully baled up and put into the _ootkooseek_, or cooking-pot, over the fire, they separated the head and flippers from the carcass, and then divided the ribs. all the loose scraps were put into the pot for immediate use, except such as the two butchers now and then crammed into their mouths, or distributed to the numerous and eager by-standers for still more immediate consumption. of these morsels the children came in for no small share, every little urchin that could find its way to the slaughterhouse running eagerly in, and, between the legs of the men and women, presenting its mouth for a large lump of raw flesh, just as an english child of the same age might do for a piece of sugar-candy. every now and then, also, a dog would make his way towards the reeking carcass, and, when in the act of seizing upon some delicate part, was sent off yelping by a heavy blow with the handles of the knives. when all the flesh is disposed of, for a portion of which each of the women from the other huts usually brings her ootkooseek, the blubber still remains attached to the skin, from which it is separated the last; and the business being now completed, the two parts of the hide are rolled up and laid by, together with the store of flesh and blubber. during the dissection of their seals, they have a curious custom of sticking a thin filament of skin, or of some part of the intestines, upon the foreheads of the boys, who are themselves extremely fond of it, it being intended, as iligliuk afterward informed me, to make them fortunate seal-catchers. the seals which they take during the winter are of two kinds--the _neitiek_, or small seal (_phoca hispida_), and the _oguke_, or large seal (_phoca barbata_). these and the _e=i-~u-~ek_, or walrus, constitute their means of subsistence at this season; but, on this particular part of the coast, the latter are not very abundant, and they chiefly catch the neitiek. the animal we had now seen dissected was of that kind, and with young at the time. a small one taken out of it had a beautiful skin, which, both in softness and colour, very much resembled raw silk; but no inducement could make pootooalook part with it, he having destined it for that night's supper. after quitting this scene of filth, i found, on returning to kaoongut's hut, that toolooak had been no less successful than his brother, and that the same operation was also performing here. having, therefore, explained to iligliuk that none of them were to come to the ships the following day, i had no inclination to see the process repeated, and was glad to take my leave. on the th, okotook and iligliuk coming on board, an occurrence took place, which, as it shows the disposition of the esquimaux, and especially of one of the most intelligent and interesting among them, i may here relate. some time before, iligliuk, who, from the superior neatness and cleanliness with which she performed her work, was by this time in great request as a seamstress, had promised to cover for me a little model of a canoe, and had, in fact, sent it to me by the sergeant of marines, though i had not rightly understood from the latter from which of the women it came. believing that she had failed in her promise, i now taxed her with it, when she immediately defended herself with considerable warmth and seriousness, but without making me comprehend her meaning. finding that she was wasting her words upon me, she said no more till an hour afterward, when the sergeant accidentally coming into the cabin, she, with the utmost composure, but with a decision of manner peculiar to herself, took hold of his arm to engage his attention, and then looking him steadfastly in the face, accused him of not having faithfully executed her commission to me. the mistake was thus instantly explained, and i thanked iligliuk for her canoe; but it is impossible for me to describe the quiet, yet proud satisfaction displayed in her countenance at having thus cleared herself from the imputation of a breach of promise. there being among the presents with which we were supplied a number of pikes, we presented two or three of these from each ship to the most deserving of the esquimaux, to serve as staves for their spears; and valuable ones they proved to them. upon each pike were marked, by small nails driven into the wood, the words "fury and hecla, ." almost the whole of these people were now affected with violent colds and coughs, occasioned by a considerable thawing that had lately taken place in their huts, so as to wet their clothes and bedding; though we had, as yet, experienced no great increase of temperature. from the nature of their habitations, however, their comfort was greater, and their chance of health better, when the cold was more severe. on this account, they began to make fresh alterations in these curious dwelling-places, either by building the former apartments two or three feet higher, or adding others, that they might be less crowded. in building a higher hut, they constructed it over, and, as it were, concentric with the old one, which is then removed from within. it is curious to consider that, in all these alterations, the object kept in view was _coolness_, and this in houses formed of snow! some of them had caught a wolf in their trap; but we found that nothing less than extreme want could have induced them to eat the flesh of that which we had given them, as, now that they had other food, they would not touch it. only four wolves at this time remained alive of the original pack, and these were constantly prowling about near the ships or the village. the month of february closed with the thermometer at - °, and, though the sun had now attained a meridian altitude of nearly sixteen degrees, and enlivened us with his presence above the horizon for ten hours in the day, no sensible effect had yet been produced on the average temperature of the atmosphere. the uniformly white surface of the snow, on which, at this season, the sun's rays have to act, or, rather, leaving them nothing to act upon, is much against the first efforts to produce a thaw; but our former experience of the astonishing rapidity with which this operation is carried on, when once the ground begins to be laid bare, served in some measure to reconcile us to what appeared a protraction of the cold of winter not to have been expected in our present latitude. chapter viii. a journey performed across winter island.--sufferings of the party by frost.--departure of some of the esquimaux, and a separate village established on the ice.--various meteorological phenomena.--okotook and his wife brought on board.--anecdotes relating to them.--ships released from the ice by sawing. our intercourse with the esquimaux continued, and many occasions occurred in which they displayed great good humour, and a degree of archness for which we could have scarcely given them credit. on the th okotook came, according to an appointment previously made, with a sledge and six dogs, to give me a ride to the huts, bringing with him his son sioutkuk, who, with ourselves, made up a weight of near four hundred pounds upon the sledge. after being upset twice, and stopping at least ten times, notwithstanding the incessant bullying of okotook, and, as it seemed to me, more bodily labour on his part to steer us clear of accidents than if he had walked the whole way, we at length arrived at the huts; a distance of two miles, in five-and-twenty minutes. of this equipment and their usual modes of travelling, i shall have occasion to speak more fully in another place. i found that several fresh alterations had been made in the huts since my last visit, all, however, of the same, kind, and having in view the same object as those last described. in these alterations they seem to consult the convenience of the moment, and to do it all by such unanimous consent, that no consultation or difference of opinion ever appears to exist about it. so much snowdrift had now collected about the huts, that their external appearance was as much altered as that of the interior, and it was difficult to trace any resemblance to the original village, or even to perceive its present limits. the snow was now as high as the roofs on every side, so that one might walk completely over them, and, but for the round plates of ice composing the windows, without suspecting the little hive of human beings that was comfortably established below. this, however, was not always done with impunity, when the thawing within had too much weakened the roofs, in which case a leg sometimes made its way through, and discovered in what parts repairs were become necessary. the natives were at this time extremely well furnished with seals' flesh for food and oil for their lamps, and all they would accept from us (except meat, which we could not afford to give) was water, and this they swallowed in such quantities whenever they came to the ships, that it was impossible to furnish them with half as much as they desired. we had before this time communicated to ayoket and his countrymen our intention of sending a party of our people to the northward in the spring; and captain lyon had displayed to him all the charms of a brightly-polished brass kettle, of greater magnitude than had, perhaps, ever entered into an esquimaux imagination, as an inducement, among various others, for him to accompany the kabloonas in their excursion. the prospect of such riches was a temptation almost irresistible; but enterprise is not the genius of an esquimaux; and ayoket, we soon began to perceive, had no fancy for the proposed trip, which all his friends persisted in saying could never be accomplished. this was evidently to be attributed, in no small degree, to jealousy of any one individual among them being thus selected; and the brass kettle was speedily the means of increasing the distance to "iligliuk's country" from sixteen to twenty-four days' journey. we had long, indeed, observed that this feeling of jealousy was easily excited among these people; but, what is extraordinary, it never displayed itself (as is most usual) among themselves, but was entirely vented upon us, who were, though innocently, the authors of it. as an instance of this, a man of the name of _karr~etok_ refused to take from me a strong and useful pair of scissors as a present, because, as he did not hesitate to assure me, i had given okotook a pike, which was _more_ valuable. to show him that this temper was not likely to produce anything to his advantage, i took back the scissors, and, having sent him away, went to my dinner. going accidentally on deck an hour afterward, i found karretok still on board, who, having had time to reflect on his folly, now came up to me with a smiling face, and begged hard for the scissors, which, of course, he did not get. many similar instances occurred, both to captain lyon and myself. to this discouragement on the part of his friends, was added, on that of ayoket, the same wavering and inconstant disposition which most other savages possess, rendering it impossible to place any dependance on his promises and intentions for two hours together. indeed, the more our scheme was pressed upon his attention, and the more he saw of the actual preparations for the journey, the less doubtful his intentions became; and arrangements were therefore made for completing the party without him. for the reasons now given, it was equally impossible even to direct the attention of the esquimaux, with any hope of success, to our scheme of their conveying letters to the hudson's bay settlements. notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather, some of the esquimaux had, by the foot and sledge marks, found their way to the ships on the morning of the th, assuring us, as we found to be too true, that, in consequence of the gale, which prevented their going out for seals, they had not any food, nor a single lamp alight in the village. in the course of the following day, we had farther proofs of the wretchedness which these poor people were enduring at the huts; for, though the weather was little better than before, above forty men and women, besides some children, came down to the ships, and begged with more than their usual earnestness for something to eat. it now once more became an act of humanity, and consequently of duty, to supply them as well as we were able; and all were admitted to partake of as much bread-dust as they could eat, besides a quantity which they took away with them. it had been long since okotook and iligliuk cared to accept this kind of food from us, partly because our respect for the latter generally ensured them something better, and partly because, of late, they had procured plenty of seals; to-day, however, they devoured it eagerly, and seemed very well satisfied to take their share with the others. when the usual time of departure came, they all discovered a wish to remain on board; but, as we could not find lodgings for the whole tribe, they were obliged very reluctantly to return. _nannow_, a fine, quiet young, man, whose native country is near chesterfield inlet, and who, having only a sister here, used to live with okotook, begged very hard to remain on board; but, as i did not like to give the preference to one in particular, he also took his leave. on the th, almost every man from the huts was out seal-hunting, and three or four, as the women informed us, had gone to a considerable distance "for walruses" and with the intention of remaining out for the night in a snow hut. while the men were thus employed, their wives did not fail to use their endeavours also to procure food; and i believe that every female belonging to the village, without a single exception, made her appearance at the ships to-day, and was supplied with a proportion of bread-dust for her family. it was pleasing to observe that they were always punctual in returning the buckets and bags which we lent them for carrying out their provisions. the endeavours we had lately been making to gain from the esquimaux some knowledge of the geographical features of the land to the northward, had at length been crowned with greater success than we had anticipated, and some information of a very gratifying and interesting nature thus obtained. i shall here, therefore, give some account of that information, and of the progressive steps by which it was communicated, which may, at the same time, serve to show the kind and degree of dependence that is to be placed on geographical notices thus obtained. the first attempt made in this way was by placing several sheets of paper before iligliuk, and roughly drawing on a large scale an outline of the land about repulse bay and lyon inlet, and, terminating at our present winter-quarters. iligliuk was not long in comprehending what we desired, and with the pencil continued the outline, making the land trend, as we supposed, to the northeastward, and giving the names of the principal places as we proceeded. the scale being large, it was necessary, when she came to the end of one piece of paper to tack on another, till at length she had filled ten or twelve sheets, and had completely lost the sight of winter island (called _ne-y=uning-e=it-d~u~a_) at the other end of the table. the idea entertained from this first attempt was, that we should find the coast indented by several inlets, and in some parts much loaded with ice, especially at one strait to the northward of her native island amitioke, which seemed to lead in a direction very much to the westward. within a week after this, several other charts were drawn by the natives in a similar way, principally by the desire of captain lyon and mr. griffiths, who took great pains to acquire information of this nature, and sent me copies of these productions. the coast was here delineated as before, on a very large scale, but much more in, detail, many more islands, bays, and names being, inserted. it was observable, however, that no two charts much resembled each other, and that the greater number of them still less resembled the truth in those parts of the coast with which we were well acquainted. early in the morning the esquimaux had been observed in motion at the huts; and several sledges, drawn by dogs and heavily laden, went off to the westward. on going out to the village, we found one half of the people had quitted their late habitations, taking with them every article of their property, and had gone over the ice, we knew not where, in quest of more abundant food. the wretched appearance which the interior of the huts now presented baffles all description. in each of the larger ones some of the apartments were either wholly or in part deserted, the very snow which composed the beds and fireplaces having been turned up, that no article might be left behind. even the bare walls, whose original colour was scarcely perceptible for lampblack, blood, and other filth, were not left perfect, large holes having been made in the sides and roofs for the convenience of handing out the goods and chattels. the sight of a deserted habitation is at all times calculated to excite in the mind a sensation of dreariness and desolation, especially when we have lately seen it filled with cheerful inhabitants; but the feeling is heightened rather than diminished when a small portion of these inhabitants remain behind to endure the wretchedness which such a scene exhibits. this was now the case at the village, where, though the remaining tenants of each hut had combined to occupy one of the apartments, a great part of the bed-places were still bare, and the wind and drift blowing in through the holes which they had not yet taken the trouble to stop up. the old man hikkeiera and his wife occupied a hut by themselves, without any lamp, or a single ounce of meat belonging to them; while three small skins, on which the former was lying, were all that they possessed in the way of blankets. upon the whole, i never beheld a more miserable spectacle, and it seemed a charity to hope that a violent and constant cough, with which the old man was afflicted, would speedily combine with his age and infirmities to release him from his present sufferings. yet, in the midst of all this, he was cheerful, nor was there a gloomy countenance to be seen at the village. almost all the men were out; and some of them had been led so far to sea upon the floating and detached masses of ice in pursuit of walruses, that captain lyon, who observed their situation from the ships, had it in contemplation, in the course of the evening, to launch one of the small boats to go to their assistance. they seemed, however, to entertain no apprehensions themselves, from a confidence, perhaps, that the southeast wind might be depended upon for keeping the ice close home upon the shore. it is certain, notwithstanding, that no degree of precaution, nor any knowledge of the winds and tides, can render this otherwise than a most perilous mode of obtaining subsistence; and it was impossible, therefore, not to admire the fearlessness as well as dexterity with which the esquimaux invariably pursued it. having distributed some bread-dust among the women, we told old illumea and her daughter togolat that we proposed taking up our lodging in their hut for the night. it is a remarkable trait in the character of these people, that they always thank you heartily for this, as well as for eating any of their meat; but board and lodging may be given to _them_ without receiving the slightest acknowledgment either in word or deed. as it was late before the men returned, i asked togolat to get the rest of the women to perform some of their games, with the hope of seeing something that was new. i had scarcely time to make the proposal when she darted out of the hut, and quickly brought every female that was left at the village, not excepting even the oldest of them, who joined in the performance with the same alacrity as the rest. i could, however, only persuade them to go through a tedious song we often before heard, which was now, indeed, somewhat modified by their insisting on our taking our turns in the performance, all which did not fail to create among them never-ceasing merriment and laughter. neither their want of food and fuel, nor the uncertain prospect of obtaining any that night, was sufficient to deprive these poor creatures of that cheerfulness and good-humour which it seems at all times their peculiar happiness to enjoy. the night proved very thick, with small snow, and as disagreeable and dangerous for people adrift upon floating ice as can well be imagined. if the women, however, gave their husbands a thought, or spoke of them to us, it was only to express a very sincere hope that some good news might shortly arrive of their success. our singing party had not long been broken up, when it was suddenly announced by one of the children, the usual heralds on such occasions, that the men had killed something on the ice. the only two men who were at home instantly scrambled on their outer jackets, harnessed their dogs, and set off to assist their companions in bringing home the game, while the women remained for an hour in anxious suspense as to the extent of their husbands' success. at length one of the men arrived with the positive intelligence of two walruses having been taken, and brought with him a portion of these animals as large as he could drag over the snow. if the women were only cheerful before, they were now absolutely frantic. a general shout of joy instantly re-echoed through the village; they ran into each other's huts to communicate the welcome intelligence, and actually hugged one another in an ecstasy of delight by way of congratulation. one of them, _arnal=o=o~a_, a pretty young woman of nineteen or twenty, knowing that a dog belonging to her husband was still at the huts, and that there was no man to take him down on the ice, ran out instantly to perform that office; and, with a hardihood not to be surpassed by any of the men, returned, after two hours' absence, with her load of walrus flesh, and without even the hood thrown over her head to shelter her from the inclemency of the weather. when the first burst of joy had at length subsided, the women crept, one by one, into the apartment where the first portion of the seahorses had been conveyed, which is always that of one of the men immediately concerned in the killing of them. here they obtained blubber enough to set all their lamps alight, besides a few scraps of meat for their children and themselves. from this time, which was nine o'clock, till past midnight, fresh cargoes were continually arriving; the principal part being brought in by the dogs, and the rest by the men, who, tying the thong which held it round their waist, dragged in each his separate portion. before the whole was brought in, however, some of them went out three times to the scene of action, though the distance was a mile and a half. every lamp now swimming with oil, the huts exhibited a blaze of light, and never was there a scene of more joyous festivity than while the operation of cutting up the walruses continued. i took the opportunity, which their present good-humour afforded, to obtain a perfect head and tusks of one of these animals, which we had not been able to do before; and, indeed, so much were their hearts opened by the scene of abundance before them, that i believe they would have given us anything we asked for. this disposition was considerably increased also by their taking into their heads that their success was in some way or other connected with, or even owing to, our having taken up our night's lodging at the huts. after viewing all this festivity for some time, i felt disposed to rest; and, wrapping myself up in my fur coat, lay down on one of the beds which illumea had given up for our accommodation, as well as her _k=eipik_, or large deerskin blanket, which she rolled up for my pillow. the poor old woman herself sat up by her lamp, and in that posture seemed perfectly well satisfied to doze away the night. the singularity of my night's lodging made me awake several times, when i always found some of the esquimaux eating, though, after we lay down, they kept quite quiet for fear of disturbing us. mr. halse, who was still more wakeful, told me that some of them were incessantly employed in this manner for more than three hours. indeed, the quantity of meat that thus they contrive to get rid of is almost beyond belief. having at length enjoyed a sound nap, i found on waking, about five o'clock, that the men were already up, and had gone out to renew their labours on the ice, so that several of them could not have rested more than two or three hours. this circumstance served to correct a notion we had entertained, that, when once abundantly supplied with food, they took no pains to obtain more till want began again to stare them in the face. it was now more pleasing to be assured that, even in the midst of plenty, they did not indolently give themselves up to repose, but were willing to take advantage of every favourable opportunity to increase their store. it is certain, indeed, that, were these people more provident (or, in other words, less gluttonous, for they do not waste much), they might never know what it is to want provisions, even during the most inclement part of the year. the state of the ice was to-day very unfavourable for their purpose, being broken into pieces so small that they could scarcely venture to walk upon it. the morning of the th proved favourable for a journey i had in contemplation to the distant huts, to which iligliuk, who had come to winter island the day before, promised to be my guide. at six o'clock i set out, accompanied by mr. bushnan and two of the men, carrying with us a supply of bread-dust, besides our own provisions and blankets. as the distance was too great for her son sioutkuk to walk, we were uncertain, till the moment of setting out, how this was to be managed, there being no sledge at hand for the purpose. we found, however, that a man, whom we had observed for some time at work among the hummocks of ice upon the beach, had been employed in cutting out of that abundant material a neat and serviceable little sledge, hollowed like a bowl or tray, out of a solid block, and smoothly rounded at the bottom. the thong to which the dogs were attached was secured to a groove cut round its upper edge; and the young seal-catcher, seated in this simple vehicle, was dragged along with great convenience and comfort. the ice over which we travelled was a level floe that had never suffered disturbance since its first formation in the autumn, and with not more than an inch and a half of snow upon it. the path being distinctly marked out by the people, sledges, and dogs that had before travelled upon it, one might, without any great stretch of the imagination, have almost fancied it a road leading over a level and extensive heath towards a more civilized and substantial village than that which we were now approaching, iligliuk walked as nimbly as the best of us: and, after two hours' and a half brisk travelling, we arrived at the huts, and were received by the women (for all the men were absent) with every expression of kindness and welcome. each was desirous of affording us lodging, and we had speedily arranged matters so as to put them to the least possible inconvenience. these huts, four in number, were, in the mode of their construction, exact counterparts of those at winter island on our first visit, but, being new and clean, presented a striking contrast with the latter, in their present disordered and filthy state. what gave a peculiarity, as well as beauty also, to the interior appearance of these habitations, was their being situated on the ice, which, being cleared of the snow, presented a flooring of that splendid blue which is, perhaps, one of the richest colours that nature affords. a seal or two having been lately procured, every lamp was now blazing, and every _=o=otk~ose~ek_ smoking with a hot mess, which, together with the friendly reception we experienced, and a little warmth and fatigue from travelling, combined in conveying to our minds an idea of comfort which we could scarcely believe an esquimaux hut capable of exciting. on the arrival of the men, who came in towards evening with two seals as the reward of their labour, we were once more greeted and welcomed. _arnaneelia_, in particular, who was a quiet, obliging, and even amiable man, was delighted to find my quarters were to be in his apartment, where _an=e=etka_, his wife, a young woman of about twenty-three, had already arranged everything for my accommodation; and both these poor people now vied with each other in their attention to my comfort. the other two apartments of the same hut were occupied by kaoongut and okotook, with their respective wives and families; it being the constant custom of these people thus to unite in family groups whenever the nature of their habitations will allow it. mr. bushnan being established with okotook, and the two men with kaoongut, we were thus all comfortably lodged under the same roof. toolooak having been concerned in killing one of the seals just brought in, it fell to his mother's lot to dissect it, the _neitiek_ being the only animal which the women are permitted to cut up. we had therefore an opportunity of seeing this filthy operation once more performed, and entirely by the old lady herself, who was soon up to her elbows in blood and oil. before a knife is put into the animal, as it lies on its back, they pour a little water into its mouth, and touch each flipper and the middle of the belly with a little lamp-black and oil taken from the under part of the lamp. what benefit was expected from this preparatory ceremony we could not learn, but it was done with a degree of superstitious care and seriousness, that bespoke its indispensable importance. the boys came eagerly into the hut as usual, and held out their foreheads for the old woman to stick the charms upon them; and it was not till now that we learned from iligliuk the efficacy of this very useful custom. as soon as this dirty operation was at an end, during which the numerous by-standers amused themselves in chewing the intestines of the seal, the strangers retired to their own huts, each bearing a small portion of the flesh and blubber, while our hosts enjoyed a hearty meal of boiled meat and hot gravy soup. young sioutkuk ate at least three pounds of solid meat in the first three hours after our arrival at the huts, besides a tolerable proportion of soup, all which his mother gave him whenever he asked it, without the smallest remark of any kind. we now found that they depended on catching seals alone for their subsistence, there being no walruses in this neighbourhood. as they were several miles from any open water, their mode of killing them was entirely confined to watching for the animals coming up in the holes they make through the ice. in the course of the evening our conversation happened to turn on the indians, a people whom none of these esquimaux had ever seen; but with whose ferocity and decided hostility to their own nation they seemed to be well acquainted. they described, also, their peculiar manner of paddling their canoes, and were aware that they made use of the kind of show-shoes which we showed them. when i related to them, as well as i was able, the massacre of the esquimaux recorded by hearne, and gave them to understand that the indians spared neither age nor sex, it seemed to chill them with horror, and i was almost sorry that i had told them the story. _april ._--we were now glad to begin making some show of re-equipping the ships for sea; for though this was a business that might, if necessary, have been very well accomplished in two or three weeks, it was better to employ the men in occupations having an evident and determinate object, than in those less obviously useful ones to which it was necessary to resort during the winter. we therefore brought down some of the boats to the ships to repair, put up the forge on the ice, and built a snow house over it, and set about various other jobs, which made the neighbourhood of the ships assume a busy and bustling appearance. i had to-day a visit from okotook and iligliuk, who, with their son, came in upon their sledge from the distant huts. being desirous of entertaining them well, in return for their late hospitality, we provided abundance to eat, and showed them everything about the ship that we thought likely to amuse them. of all the wonders they had ever seen on board, there was nothing which seemed to impress them so strongly with a sense of our superiority as the forge, and the work which the armourer performed with it. the welding of two pieces of iron especially excited their admiration, and i never saw iligliuk express so much astonishment at anything before. even in this her superior good sense was observable, for it was evident that the utility of what she saw going on was what forced itself upon her mind; and she watched every stroke of the hammer and each blast of the bellows with extreme eagerness, while numbers of the other esquimaux looked stupidly on, without expressing the smallest curiosity or interest in the operation, except by desiring to have some spear-heads fashioned out by this means. iligliuk was always very much entertained also by pictures having any relation to the esquimaux in other parts, and derived great entertainment from a description of any difference in their clothes, utensils, or weapons. of these the sail in an esquimaux boat seemed particularly to attract her notice; but, in general, she had no inclination to admit the inferiority of her, own tribe to any other. she was always extremely inquisitive about her own sex, whether _innuees_[*] or _kabloonas_, listening with eager attention to any account of their dress or occupations, and in common, i believe, with all the rest of the esquimaux, wondered how we came to travel to their country without our wives. the assurance that many among us were not married, they received with evident incredulity. [footnote: esquimaux.] on the th, a number of the natives from the winter island huts formed a second detachment, and set off for the other village. they carried their goods on sledges as before, even to the exclusion of poor old hikkeiera, whom some of our gentlemen overtook crawling after his companions with a stick, and who, but for their remonstrances, might that day have finished his pilgrimage on earth. they insisted, however, on his being placed on one of the sledges, which was accordingly complied with; but, on their arrival at the village, his companions left him lying there till their huts were built. all the esquimaux pressed our gentlemen very strongly to sleep at the village; but one of the women gave mr. bird an indifferent specimen of her hospitality, by picking his pocket of a handkerchief, though not so dexterously as to escape detection. the few who visited the ships to-day told us that they were all about to leave winter island on the morrow; and okotook and iligliuk, who had not yet returned, came on board among the rest to pay a last visit. i gave the former a large piece of oak wood for a bow and two arrows, a second iron spear-head, and various other articles, to add to the stock of wealth he had from time to time received from us. as these good folks found themselves perfectly at home in my cabin, i was usually in the habit of continuing my occupations when they were there, without being disturbed by them. being now engaged in writing, my attention was unexpectedly directed towards them by iligliuk's suddenly starting from her seat, moving quickly towards the door, and, without saying a word either to me or any of the officers present, hastening directly on deck. okotook, indeed, as he followed her out of the cabin, turned round and said "good-by," of which expression he had learned the meaning, and then, without giving us time to return the compliment, they both hurried out of the ship, leaving us in some astonishment at this singular leave-taking, which we then supposed to be the last. we could now begin to perceive, from day to day, that the snow on shore was diminishing. how slow this process was, may, however, be understood by the fact, that it was necessary to make a mark on some stone to be assured it was thus receding. our snow-wall had indeed settled down nearly a foot by the gradual diminution of the blocks of which it was composed; but the thawing had been artificially assisted by the black cloth hung against it. five ravens were seen to-day, all quite black; four of them were flying in pairs. on the d a number of the esquimaux came to the ships with a sledge, and among the rest my late host arnaneelia and his wife, the latter having the front of her jacket adorned with numberless strings of beads that we had given her, arranged with exact uniformity, to which, in the fashion of their dresses and the disposition of their ornaments, these people always rigidly adhere. aneekta had scarcely reached the cabin when she produced a little ivory comb and a pair of handsome mittens, which she presented to mr. edwards, at the same time thanking him for the attention he had shown her on an occasion when she had been taken in a fit alongside the fury, from which she was recovered by bleeding. this expression of gratitude, in which she was heartily joined by her husband, was extremely gratifying to us; as it served, in some degree, to redeem these people in our estimation from the imputation of ingratitude, which is, indeed, one of their greatest failings. they stated having seen two reindeer the preceding day going over the ice to the main land. they spoke of this with great pleasure: and we were ourselves not displeased with the prospect of changing our diet for a little venison. they now became extremely urgent with us for wood to make bows and arrows, most of their own having, with the childishness that accompanied their first barterings, been parted with to our officers and men. having several broken oars which could be turned to little or no account on board, we were enabled, at a small expense of useful stores, to furnish them very abundantly with wood for this purpose. arnaneelia also informed us that okotook, who had been unwell for some days, was now much worse, and seemed, as he described it, to be labouring under a violent pulmonary complaint. on the circumstance being mentioned to mr. skeoch, he kindly volunteered to go to the village, and accordingly took his seat on the sledge, accompanied also by mr. sherer. they carried with them a quantity of bread-dust to be distributed among the esquimaux at the huts, their success in seal-catching having lately been indifferent. a number of esquimaux came to the ships on the th, notwithstanding a strong breeze from the s.w.b.w., with a considerable snowdrift. from these people we learned that okotook's complaint had increased since mr. skeoch's visit, and that he was now extremely ill. mr. bushnan immediately offered to go to the huts for the purpose of bringing him on board, where, by mr. edwards's kind attentions, and the enjoyment of warmth and dryness, we hoped soon to recover him. mr. bushnan, therefore, without waiting for the return of the sledges, set out for the village at an early hour in the forenoon, accompanied by the sergeant of marines. at eleven at night our party returned on board, bringing on a sledge okotook, iligliuk, and their son. that iligliuk would accompany her husband, i, of course, took for granted and wished; but as the boy could do us no good, and was, moreover, a desperate eater, i had desired mr. bushnan to try whether a slight objection to his being of the party would induce okotook to leave him with his other relations. this he had cautiously done; but, the instant the proposal was made, okotook, without any remark, began to take off the clothes he had himself just dressed in to set out. no farther objection being made, however, he again prepared for the journey, iligliuk assisting him with the most attentive solicitude. before the invalid was suffered to leave his apartment, some of the by-standers sent for ewerat, now better known to our people by the undignified appellation of the "conjuror." ewerat, on this occasion, maintained a degree of gravity and reserve calculated to inspire somewhat more respect than we had hitherto been disposed to entertain for him in that capacity. placing himself at the door of the apartment opposite okotook, who was still seated on the bed, he held both his thumbs in his mouth, keeping up a silent but solemn converse with his _toorngow_,[*] the object of which was, as mr. bushnan presently afterward found, to inquire into the efficacy and propriety of the sick man's removal. presently he began to utter a variety of confused and inarticulate sounds; and it being at length understood that a favourable answer had been given, okotook was carried out and placed on the sledge, ewerat still mumbling his thumbs and muttering his incantations as before. when the party took their leave, there were a great many doleful faces among those that remained behind; and mr. bushnan said that the whole scene more resembled the preparations for a funeral than the mere removal of a sick man. when the sledge moved on, ewerat was the only one who had not a "good-by!" ready, he being as seriously engaged as at first, and continuing so as long as our people could observe him. [footnote: familiar spirit.] okotook was extremely ill on his arrival, having been three hours on the sledge, and iligliuk, who, as mr. bushnan told me, had scarcely taken her eyes off her husband's face the whole time, seemed almost worn out with fatigue and anxiety. a bed of wolf skins being prepared for him, okotook was soon placed upon it, and such remedies applied as mr. edwards judged necessary for his complaint, which was inflammation of the lungs to a degree that, if left to itself, or even to ewerat, would soon have proved fatal, or, at best, have terminated in consumption. on the th, a southeast wind brought a heavy fall of snow in flakes much larger than before. the thermometers on the ice at noon stood at ° in both aspects. we heard from illumea, who came to see her son okotook, that a part of the natives had gone still farther to the westward upon the ice, one spot not affording sufficient subsistence for the whole of them. our patient felt much the better for a comfortable night's lodging, and now submitted with great patience to the application of a blister, though i believe his confidence in our mode of cure was afterward shaken for a time by the pain which it occasioned. both he and iligliuk, however, seemed very sensibly to feel the comforts and advantages of their present quarters; and a "coyenna" (thanks) now and then fell from their lips. nothing could exceed the attention which the latter paid to her husband; she kept her eyes almost constantly fixed upon him, and seemed anxious to anticipate every want. one of okotook's brothers had arrived from the huts, bringing with him some walrus-flesh to tempt the appetite of the invalid, whose stomach, however, very fortunately for his complaint, was not disposed to this kind of delicacy. when his brother was about to return, okotook took it into his head to send his son away with him, probably because he heard they had the day before killed two seals, which afforded better feeding than we had to give him; be this as it may, we were not sorry that he went, and the boy himself seemed no less pleased; for, without playfellows or amusement of any kind, his time hung very heavily on his hands while he remained on board. it was amusing to see okotook take a dose of physic for the first time in his life to-day. he knew its taste was not pleasant, but this was certainly not all that he dreaded; for, before he put the cup to his lips with one hand, he held on by his wife with the other, and she by him with both hers, as though they expected an explosion, or some such catastrophe, as the immediate effect of the potion; nor did he venture to relinquish his hold till the taste began to leave his mouth. the quantity of water which he drank in the course of the four-and-twenty hours is beyond conception; and the cabin fire could scarcely, by the melting of snow, furnish enough for their consumption. these people are extremely particular as to the purity of the water they drink. some that had been melted in our steamer, and which i thought very good, neither of them would touch, or, at least, always spat out again. if the water was much above the temperature of °, they also disliked it, and immediately put snow into it to cool it down. iligliuk, who came on board with one side of her hair loose, loosened the other also to-day, in consequence of her fancying okotook worse, though it was only the annoyance of the blister that made him uneasy; for even in this sequestered corner of the globe dishevelled locks bespeak mourning. it was not, however, with her the mere semblance of grief, for she was really much distressed throughout the day, all our endeavours not availing to make her understand how one pain was to be removed by inflicting another. captain lyon being desirous of having some little clothes made as models of the esquimaux costume, and thinking iligliuk's present leisure afforded her a good opportunity of making them, had yesterday obtained her promise that she would do so. okotook being now very much better, and she having herself resumed her usual gayety in consequence, i pressed her to commence her work, and placed the skins before her, when she said that she could not do them here, as she had no needles. these being supplied her, she now complained of, having no _t=o=okt~oo-e-w=all~oo_ (reindeer sinew), their usual thread. this difficulty, unfortunately for iligliuk's credit, was as easily overcome as the other; and when scissors, pattern clothes, and all the other requisites were laid before her, she was at length driven to the excuse that okotook's illness would not permit her to do it. seeing us half laughing at the absurdity of these excuses, and half angry at the selfish indolence which prompted them, she at last flatly asserted that okotook desired her not to work, which, though we knew it to be a falsehood, the latter did not deny. we then supposed that some superstition might be at the bottom of this; but having, a little while after, by way of experiment, thrown iligliuk some loose beads upon the table, she eagerly employed herself for half an hour in stringing them that not one might be lost; which proved that, where her own gratification or interest were concerned, okotook's illness was not suffered to interfere. this anecdote shows, in a strong light, that deep-rooted selfishness, which, in numberless instances, notwithstanding the superiority of iligliuk's understanding, detracted from the amiability of her disposition. the fact was, that she did not feel inclined so far to exert herself as to comply with captain lyon's request; and the slight degree of gratitude and proper feeling which was requisite to overcome that disinclination was altogether wanting. i have related this anecdote just as it occurred, with the hope of showing the true disposition of these people, and not with a view of unduly depreciating the character of our friend iligliuk. i am, however, compelled to acknowledge, that, in proportion as the superior understanding of this extraordinary woman became more and more developed, her head (for what female head is indifferent to praise?) began to be turned with the general attention and numberless presents she received. the superior decency and even modesty of her behaviour had combined, with her intellectual qualities, to raise her, in our estimation, far above her companions; and i often heard others express what i could not but agree in, that for iligliuk alone, of all the esquimaux women, that kind of respect could be entertained which modesty in a female never fails to command in our sex. thus regarded, she had always been freely admitted into the ships, the quartermasters at the gangway never thinking of refusing entrance to the "wise woman," as they called her. whenever any explanation was necessary between the esquimaux and us, iligliuk was sent for as an interpreter; information was chiefly obtained through her, and she thus found herself rising into a degree of consequence to which, but for us, she could never have attained. notwithstanding a more than ordinary share of good sense on her part, it will not, therefore, be wondered at if she became giddy with her exaltation, assuming certain airs which, though infinitely diversified in their operation according to circumstances, perhaps universally attend a too sudden accession of good fortune in every child of adam from the equator to the poles. the consequence was, that iligliuk was soon spoiled; considered her admission into the ships and most of the cabins no longer as an indulgence, but a right; ceased to return the slightest acknowledgment for any kindness or presents; became listless and inattentive in unravelling the meaning of our questions, and careless whether her answers conveyed the information we desired. in short, iligliuk in february and iligliuk in april were confessedly very different persons; and it was at last amusing to recollect, though not very easy to persuade one's self, that the woman who now sat demurely in a chair, so confidently expecting the notice of those around her, and she who had at first, with eager and wild delight, assisted in cutting snow for the building of a hut, and with the hope of obtaining a single needle, were actually one and the same individual. togolat came down to the ships to-day to see her brother okotook; she was accompanied by arnalooa, and on their arrival they were both sent for into the cabin. we observed, however, that they required an unusual degree of solicitation to make them go near okotook, or even to the side of the cabin, where he lay concealed by a screen; and, after all, they remained in the opposite corner next the door; and, having talked freely to the invalid for some time, took their leave without seeing him. in the evening, after they were gone, we found that this unfortunate though well-intended visit was occasioning great distress to okotook, who talked for two hours almost incessantly about "arnalooa's having seen him," which, it seems, ought not to have been the case. what misfortune was to be apprehended in consequent of this event we could not learn; but he spoke of it in a kind of agony, and was evidently labouring under the influence of some powerful though absurd superstition respecting it. towards night he suffered a dreadful bleeding at the nose, followed by much sickness at the stomach, which, together with the phanton of arnalooa, that still haunted his imagination, combined to make him extremely unwell for some hours. the next day, however, he was free from complaint of any kind, and began once more to put on a smiling countenance. the caulking of our bows being now completed, the ships were released from the ice by sawing round them; an operation which caused them to rise in the water six inches and a half, in consequence of the increased buoyancy occasioned by the winter's expenditure. chapter ix. increased extent of open water in the offing.--a travelling party despatched to the northward.--unsuccessful attempt to raise vegetables on shore.--decease of james pringle.--a party of esquimaux build huts near the ships.--return of the travellers, and account of their journey.--first appearance of the plants.--birds become numerous.--commence cutting a canal through the ice for liberating the ships.--illness and decease of john reid and william souter.--breaking up of the ice in the bay.--account of winter island.--abstract of observations made there. as there was an increased extent of open water in the offing, and the weather being now, to all appearance, tolerably settled, i determined on sending away a travelling party under captain lyon. it consisted of lieutenant palmer, five seamen, and three marines, the whole being victualled for twenty days, and furnished with a tent, fuel, and every other convenience of which such a journey would admit. the baggage was placed on light sledges, resembling those used by captain franklin on his late journey to the shores of the polar sea, made out of staves shaved thin, six feet eight inches long, fourteen inches broad, and turned up before. being secured entirely with thongs of hide sunk by grooves into the wood to keep them from wearing, they were perfectly flexible, so as to be in no danger of breaking on uneven ground. each individual of the party was furnished with one of these, which also served to sleep and sit upon; the weight dragged by each of the men being about one hundred and twenty pounds, and that of the officers from ninety to ninety-five. each person had also a pair of snow-shoes, a deerskin jacket and boots for sleeping in, and another pair of boots of water-tight sealskin. the general tenour of captain lyon's instructions was, "after crossing to the continent, to proceed along that coast to the northward, carefully examining any bend or inlet he might meet with, so as to leave no doubt, if possible, of its actual extent and communications, thereby preventing the necessity of the ships entering it on their arrival there." i added, also, the necessary directions for remarking everything of interest relating to the tides, and the natural productions of the country; and i limited captain lyon to the end of the month in returning, to avoid the possibility of detaining the expedition. their preparations being completed, our travellers left the ships under a salute of three cheers from both the crews, and accompanied by a large party of officers and men to assist them, for the first few hours. a day or two after their departures a supply of provisions was lodged on shore, according to a plan previously agreed on, in case of our being forced out to sea with the ice before their return. arrangements were also made for putting an officer and two men on shore, as a guard to this as well as to the clock, tent, or any other articles that might be left behind, in the event of an occurrence of this nature. in the course of the forenoon of the th, a message to our medical gentlemen announced the fall of james pringle, one of the seamen of the hecla, from her mizen-topmast-head to the deck; and in a few minutes after i was much shocked in receiving lieutenant hoppner's report of his death, no sign of life having indeed appeared in him from the first moment after his fall. on examination, it was found that the base of the scull was fractured, and the neck also dislocated. a grave was directed to be dug near the observatory, and arrangements were made for the funeral taking place on the following sunday. on the th, ewerat, with his wife and family, arrived at the ships, bringing with them all their goods and chattels, and with the intention of taking up their abode upon the ice near us. they accordingly built their hut about a hundred yards from the fury's stern, but whether with the view of living upon us, or the seals that frequent the bay, we were at first at a loss to conjecture. ewerat's household consisted not only of his own family, but of appokiuk and itkamuk, the former of whom having no husband, and the latter no relative, they both seemed to be fairly "on the parish." besides this establishment, a second, on a smaller scale, also made its appearance in our neighbourhood, consisting of a very little man, named _koo-il-li-ti-uk_, nicknamed by the sailors "john bull," and his pretty little wife _arnal=o=oa_, whose zeal in bringing up her husband's share of the seahorses i have before described. these persons, being eight in number, had determined on travelling to amitioke for the ensuing summer, influenced probably, in some degree, by the hope of falling in with us again, as they knew that we were going in that direction. be this, however, as it may, it was soon evident that they intended making the most of us while we remained neighbours; for, on the th, though the weather was favourable, and they had no food of their own, they made no effort to procure any, except from the ships, to which the women brought their _ootkooseeks_ for bread-dust. though i objected to encouraging this, and told them we should give them nothing if they did not also labour for themselves, they were all such favourites with our people that i believe they found it answer very well; contriving not only to get plenty of food, but also a number of useful presents. they made, indeed, some return for this, by the usual barter of mittens, of which our people were now furnished with an abundant supply. on the th, after an impressive sermon delivered by mr. fisher, the last mournful duties were performed over the remains of our deceased shipmate. nothing worthy of notice occurred till the evening of the st, when, soon after eight o'clock, captain lyon and his party were seen on their return over the hills, and, being met by a number of the officers and men from the ships, arrived on board before ten, when i was happy to find our travellers in good health, excepting a little snow-blindness and "foot-foundering," of which they soon recovered. the result of this journey of captain lyon's served to excite very reasonable hopes that he had seen the northeastern extreme of the great peninsula, round which we entertained the most sanguine expectations of shortly finding the desired passage into the polar sea. on the d, our neighbours the esquimaux, who had long, by their own account, been setting off for amitioke, at length began in earnest to pack up for their departure. as soon as their preparations were finished, i sent for them all on board, and gave them one of their own sledges, of which they were much in want, for carrying their goods, a couple of boarding-pikes, some knives, and several tin canisters filled with bread-dust, for their journey. these presents had scarcely been made them, when we had reason to apprehend so sudden an influx of wealth might produce serious effects, especially upon the women, whose joy threw them into immoderate fits of laughter, almost amounting to hysterics, which were succeeded by a flood of tears. the men seemed thankful, though less noisy in the expression of their acknowledgments. as soon as some degree of composure was restored, we accompanied them to their baggage, which they had stowed on two of the small travelling sledges given them by captain lyon, but which they now shifted to their own. when all was ready, and some other valuable presents had been added to their stock by captain lyon, they proceeded to the northward, the women assisting to drag the sledge, for they had only one large dog and one puppy. on taking their departure, these good-humoured and ever-cheerful people greeted us with three cheers in the true kabloona style, a mode of salutation they had observed once or twice among us, and frequently practised for their amusement and ours. on the th, we found they had only proceeded a few miles, as "john bull" once more made his appearance on board, and returned to his companions in the evening. from this specimen of their travelling, of which we had, as yet, little experience, we had great reason to hope that their days' journeys would be found but short ones, and that, therefore, our distance round the northeastern point of the american continent was not very considerable. the show fell softer, and more melting was going on to-day than on any before observed, though only a few black tips of the rocks were yet visible on shore. the animals now began to appear in greater numbers; for on the th, a flock of nearly two hundred long-tailed ducks were swimming about in the open water to the southeast of the point. some of the esquimaux who came from the nearest western village also reported having seen a great many reindeer; but they had not yet succeeded in killing any. at the close of the month of may it was a matter of general observation, and, of course, of general regret, how few symptoms of thawing had yet appeared, either on shore or on the ice. naturally pursuing our usual comparison with the circumstances of the former winter passed in these regions, it was impossible not to recollect that melville island had, on the same day two years before, advanced full as far as the country now before us in throwing off its winter covering. the parts of the land which were now the most bare were the smooth round tops of the hills, on which here and there occurred a little pool of water, from which, taking all together within half a mile round the ships, we should at this time have had great difficulty in filling half a tun. there were also on the lower lands, a few dark uncovered patches, looking, when viewed from the hills, like islets in an extensive sea. vegetation seemed labouring to commence, and a few tufts of the _saxifraga oppositifolia_, when closely examined, discovered some signs of life. a botanist, in short, might have considered vegetation as begun, but in the popular acceptation of the word it certainly had not. such was the state of things on shore at the conclusion of the month of may. upon the ice appearances were not more promising. except in the immediate neighbourhood of the ships, where, from the constant trampling and the laying of various stores upon the ice, some heat had artificially been absorbed, it would have been difficult to point out in what respect any advances towards dissolution had been made upon the upper surface, where six or seven inches of snow yet remained in every part. here again, without any undue partiality for our old winter-quarters, it was natural, as well as reasonable, to bear in mind, that before this time we had there experienced several hours of hard rain, than which nothing proves more effectual in dissolving the ice. the consequence was, that for the last week in may, at melville island, the surface of the ice had assumed quite a green appearance; while here it was still as white as a covering of snow could make it. under these circumstances i came to the determination, now that the ships were ready for sea, to try what could be effected towards their release, by sawing and cutting the ice; for it was vexatious to see open water daily in the offing, and not to be able to take advantage of it. arrangements were therefore made for getting everything, except the tent and instruments, on board the next day, and for commencing this more laborious occupation on the following monday. on the st of june, having launched a boat at the mouth of the bay, i went to sound in that neighbourhood and along the eastern side of the island, preparatory to marking out the intended canal. a good deal of ice still remained attached to the land; but as far as we could distinguish to the n.n.e. there was a lane of clear water wide enough for the navigation of the ships. on the morning of the d, at six a.m., both the ships' companies, under their respective officers, were set to work upon the ice. a line was accurately marked out from each of the fury's quarters, where they were fifty feet apart, diverging to two hundred and fifty at the edge of the floe, the latter being distant from the ships two thousand and twenty feet, or just one third of a nautical mile. it was proposed to make a cut through the ice with the saws, along the two lines thus marked out, and then a transverse section here and there, the divergency of the sides being intended to facilitate the removal of the pieces thus detached by first pulling them out with strong purchases, and then floating them down the canal to the sea without. nothing could exceed the alacrity with which this laborious work was undertaken, and continued daily from six in the morning till eight at night, with the intermission only of mealtimes: nor could anything be more lively and interesting than the scene which now presented itself to an observer on the southeast point. the day was beautifully clear, the sea open as far as the eye could stretch to the northward, and the "busy hum" of our people's voices could at times be heard mingling with the cheerful though fantastic songs with which the greenland sailors are accustomed at once to beguile their labour, and to keep the necessary time in the action of sawing the ice. the whole prospect, together with the hopes and associations excited by it, was, to persons cooped up as we had been, exhilarating beyond conception. in the course of the first week we had completed the two side cuts, and also two shorter ones in the space between the ships; making in all a length of two thousand three hundred feet on each side of the intended canal, the thickness of the ice being in general four feet, but in one or two places (where the junction of the sea-ice with the bay-floe occasioned some squeezing) above ten feet and a half, scarcely allowing our longest saws to work. laborious as this part of the operation had been, we soon found it likely to prove the least troublesome of the whole; for, on endeavouring to pull out the pieces in the manner at first intended, every effort failed, till at length we were reduced to the necessity of cutting each block diagonally before it could be moved from its place. after a week's experience, we also learned that much time had been lost in completing the whole of the lateral cuts at once; for these, partly from frost, and partly by the closing together of the sides of the canal, all required sawing a second, and in some places even a third time. it was surprising, also, to see how powerful a resistance was occasioned by the "sludge" produced in sawing, or, as the sailors called it, the "sawdust," continuing in the cut, and appearing to act, like oil interposed between two plates of glass, in keeping the masses united. in some cases, also, a saw was squeezed so tight by the pressure of the ice in the cut, that it became necessary to enter a second in order to release it, by sawing out a circular plug of ice completely round it. fatiguing as this work proved to the men, i directed it to be continued to-day, the sea remaining so open on the outside as to give every encouragement to our exertions. one of our people, in walking over the island, met with a swan's nest, which captain lyon went out to see, and made a drawing of it. it was built of moss-peat, being no less than five feet ten inches in length, four feet nine inches wide, and two feet deep. the hole of entrance in the top was eighteen inches wide. two eggs, each weighing about eight ounces, were found in the nest, in which the old birds were also sitting at first, but too wild to be approached. the eggs are of a cream or brownish white colour, in some parts a little clouded by a darker tinge. the female subsequently laid a third egg, and soon afterward both birds appeared to have wholly deserted the nest. in the second week our progress with the canal had been considerable, it being now completed within two hundred yards of the fury's stern. at the conclusion of the day's labour on the th, we had every prospect of getting to sea in forty-eight hours more; but, early on the following morning, when the ebb or northeasterly tide had made, and was assisted by a breeze from the southward, the whole body of sea-ice came forcibly in contact with the bay-floe, which was now so weakened by our cutting as to split the whole way from the edge up to the hecla's stern, a little to the westward of the canal, the latter being almost immediately closed with a considerable crush, but without affecting the ships which lay beyond it. the closing of our artificial canal had the effect of partially opening a natural one at the place where the ice had just been detached; but, as this was incomplete, coming gradually up to a point astern of the hecla, we were at a loss to know on which of the two our labour would best be employed. an attempt was first made by four strong purchases, stretched from side to side across the new crack, to pull the parts together again, and thus to leave our original canal _in statu quo_. all our power, however, being insufficient to accomplish this, we commenced with the saws upon the upper part of the crack, with the intention of widening it sufficiently for the passage of the ships. in this work we had made considerable progress, when, towards evening, it was perceived that _this_ was now closing, and our former canal reopening by the action of the wind and tide. relinquishing our last attempt, therefore, we lost no time in floating some heavy pieces of ice into the canal, to serve as wedges for keeping the sides apart, in case of any fresh pressure from without again disposing them to close. at two a.m. on the st, the piece of the floe which formed the separation between the two canals drifted bodily outward, as far as the rocks at the mouth of the bay and the ice that lay upon them would permit, taking with it a heavy-grounded mass that lay near the hecla, and on which it had before been turning as on a pile or pivot; shortly after a second mass on the eastern side of the canal broke off, the separation taking place upon the line where the ice had been weakened by the sand we had laid upon it. our work was now at an end, and we had only to wait for a northerly or westerly wind to release us from our present "besetment," for, in fact, it was now nothing more. directions were therefore given for closely watching the motion of the ice, both from the ships as well as by regular visits to the shore at the end of every watch. it now becomes my painful duty to turn from these busy occupations, where animation, cheerfulness, and hope prevailed, to the sad and solemn scenes of sickness and death; for with both of these did it please the almighty to visit us at this period! william souter, quartermaster of the fury, who, in the early part of this week, had complained of a slight sickness at the stomach, and, having been quite relieved, was, in consequence, discharged to duty, was again, on the morning of the st, affected in a similar manner while on deck. on the th, his alarming symptoms had so much subsided, that increasing hopes were entertained of his continuing to do well. these flattering appearances, however, received a sudden check about noon on the th, after which time he began rapidly, though gradually, to droop, and between six and seven in the evening breathed his last. the impossibility of removing souter from the sick bay, after the last alarming change took place, rendered his death, or, rather, the convulsive struggles which for some hours preceded that event, a dreadful trial to poor reid, whose state had for some time past been scarcely better, the difficulty in his breathing having increased to a most distressing degree. when souter was dying, reid remarked that he should not be long after him; and on the th, when mr. fisher had attended and prayed with him, he said that he should go at one bell (half past six), and then enumerated all his clothes to one of the men, who, at his request, wrote them down for him. after four o'clock he did not speak, and, gradually sinking, expired at the time he had mentioned. on the th, the remains of our deceased shipmates were committed to the earth, with every solemnity that so mournful an occasion demanded. they were interred in one grave, on a rising ground a few hundred yards from the sea to the northeastward of the ships. a handsome tomb of stone and mortar was built over the spot, having at one end a stone let in, with the usual information engraved on it. the sides were plastered with a kind of viscous clay found in one of the ponds, and the top covered with tufts of the purple saxifrage. the duties of the ships now permitting it, captain lyon employed his men in building a similar tomb over the grave of pringle. end of vol. i. north-west passage*** transcribed from the cassell & co. edition by david price, email ccx @pglaf.org cassell's national library. voyages in search of the north-west passage. _from the collection of_ richard hakluyt. cassell & company, limited: _london_, _paris & melbourne_. . introduction. thirty-five years ago i made a voyage to the arctic seas in what chaucer calls a little bote no bigger than a manne's thought; it was a phantom ship that made some voyages to different parts of the world which were recorded in early numbers of charles dickens's "household words." as preface to richard hakluyt's records of the first endeavour of our bold elizabethan mariners to find north-west passage to the east, let me repeat here that old voyage of mine from no. of "household words," dated the th of april, : the _phantom_ is fitted out for arctic exploration, with instructions to find her way, by the north-west, to behring straits, and take the south pole on her passage home. just now we steer due north, and yonder is the coast of norway. from that coast parted hugh willoughby, three hundred years ago; the first of our countrymen who wrought an ice-bound highway to cathay. two years afterwards his ships were found, in the haven of arzina, in lapland, by some russian fishermen; near and about them willoughby and his companions--seventy dead men. the ships were freighted with their frozen crews, and sailed for england; but, "being unstaunch, as it is supposed, by their two years' wintering in lapland, sunk, by the way, with their dead, and them also that brought them." ice floats about us now, and here is a whale blowing; a whale, too, very near spitzbergen. when first spitzbergen was discovered, in the good old times, there were whales here in abundance; then a hundred dutch ships, in a crowd, might go to work, and boats might jostle with each other, and the only thing deficient would be stowage room for all the produce of the fishery. now one ship may have the whole field to itself, and travel home with an imperfect cargo. it was fine fun in the good old times; there was no need to cruise. coppers and boilers were fitted on the island, and little colonies about them, in the fishing season, had nothing to do but tow the whales in, with a boat, as fast as they were wanted by the copper. no wonder that so enviable a tom tidler's ground was claimed by all who had a love for gold and silver. the english called it theirs, for they first fished; the dutch said, nay, but the island was of their discovery; danes, hamburghers, bisayans, spaniards, and french put in their claims; and at length it was agreed to make partitions. the numerous bays and harbours which indent the coast were divided among the rival nations; and, to this day, many of them bear, accordingly, such names as english bay, danes bay, and so forth. one bay there is, with graves in it, named sorrow. for it seemed to the fishers most desirable, if possible, to plant upon this island permanent establishments, and condemned convicts were offered, by the russians, life and pardon, if they would winter in spitzbergen. they agreed; but, when they saw the icy mountains and the stormy sea, repented, and went back, to meet a death exempt from torture. the dutch tempted free men, by high rewards, to try the dangerous experiment. one of their victims left a journal, which describes his suffering and that of his companions. their mouths, he says, became so sore that, if they had food, they could not eat; their limbs were swollen and disabled with excruciating pain; they died of scurvy. those who died first were coffined by their dying friends; a row of coffins was found, in the spring, each with a man in it; two men uncoffined, side by side, were dead upon the floor. the journal told how once the traces of a bear excited their hope of fresh meat and amended health; how, with a lantern, two or three had limped upon the track, until the light became extinguished, and they came back in despair to die. we might speak, also, of eight english sailors, left, by accident, upon spitzbergen, who lived to return and tell their winter's tale; but a long journey is before us and we must not linger on the way. as for our whalers, it need scarcely be related that the multitude of whales diminished as the slaughtering went on, until it was no longer possible to keep the coppers full. the whales had to be searched for by the vessels, and thereafter it was not worth while to take the blubber to spitzbergen to be boiled; and the different nations, having carried home their coppers, left the apparatus of those fishing stations to decay. take heed. there is a noise like thunder, and a mountain snaps in two. the upper half comes, crashing, grinding, down into the sea, and loosened streams of water follow it. the sea is displaced before the mighty heap; it boils and scatters up a cloud of spray; it rushes back, and violently beats upon the shore. the mountain rises from its bath, sways to and fro, while water pours along its mighty sides; now it is tolerably quiet, letting crackers off as air escapes out of its cavities. that is an iceberg, and in that way are all icebergs formed. mountains of ice formed by rain and snow--grand arctic glaciers, undermined by the sea or by accumulation over-balanced--topple down upon the slightest provocation (moved by a shout, perhaps), and where they float, as this black-looking fellow does, they need deep water. this berg in height is about ninety feet, and a due balance requires that a mass nine times as large as the part visible should be submerged. icebergs are seen about us now which rise two hundred feet above the water's level. there are above head plenty of aquatic birds; ashore, or on the ice, are bears, foxes, reindeer; and in the sea there are innumerable animals. we shall not see so much life near the north pole, that is certain. it would be worth while to go ashore upon an islet there, near vogel sang, to pay a visit to the eider-ducks. their nests are so abundant that one cannot avoid treading on them. when the duck is driven by a hungry fox to leave her eggs, she covers them with down, in order that they may not cool during her absence, and, moreover, glues the down into a case with a secretion supplied to her by nature for that purpose. the deserted eggs are safe, for that secretion has an odour very disagreeable to the intruder's nose. we still sail northward, among sheets of ice, whose boundaries are not beyond our vision from the masthead--these are "floes;" between them we find easy way, it is fair "sailing ice." in the clear sky to the north a streak of lucid white light is the reflection from an icy surface; that is, "ice-blink," in the language of these seas. the glare from snow is yellow, while open water gives a dark reflection. northward still; but now we are in fog the ice is troublesome; a gale is rising. now, if our ship had timbers they would crack, and if she had a bell it would be tolling; if we were shouting to each other we should not hear, the sea is in a fury. with wild force its breakers dash against a heaped-up wall of broken ice, that grinds and strains and battles fiercely with the water. this is "the pack," the edge of a great ice-field broken by the swell. it is a perilous and an exciting thing to push through pack ice in a gale. now there is ice as far as eye can see, that is "an ice-field." masses are forced up like colossal tombstones on all sides; our sailors call them "hummocks;" here and there the broken ice displays large "holes of water." shall we go on? upon this field, in , parry adventured with his men to reach the north pole, if that should be possible. with sledges and portable boats they laboured on through snow and over hummocks, launching their boats over the larger holes of water. with stout hearts, undaunted by toil or danger, they went boldly on, though by degrees it became clear to the leaders of the expedition that they were almost like mice upon a treadmill cage, making a great expenditure of leg for little gain. the ice was floating to the south with them, as they were walking to the north; still they went on. sleeping by day to avoid the glare, and to get greater warmth during the time of rest, and travelling by night--watch-makers' days and nights, for it was all one polar day--the men soon were unable to distinguish noon from midnight. the great event of one day on this dreary waste was the discovery of two flies upon an ice hummock; these, says parry, became at once a topic of ridiculous importance. presently, after twenty-three miles' walking, they had only gone one mile forward, the ice having industriously floated twenty-two miles in the opposite direction; and then, after walking forward eleven miles, they found themselves to be three miles behind the place from which they started. the party accordingly returned, not having reached the pole, not having reached the eighty-third parallel, for the attainment of which there was a reward of a thousand pounds held out by government. they reached the parallel of eighty-two degrees forty-five minutes, which was the most northerly point trodden by the foot of man. from that point they returned. in those high latitudes they met with a phenomenon, common in alpine regions, as well as at the pole, red snow; the red colour being caused by the abundance of a minute plant, of low development, the last dweller on the borders of the vegetable kingdom. more interesting to the sailors was a fat she bear which they killed and devoured with a zeal to be repented of; for on reaching navigable sea, and pushing in their boats to table island, where some stones were left, they found that the bears had eaten all their bread, whereon the men agreed that "bruin was now square with them." an islet next to table island--they are both mere rocks--is the most northern land discovered. therefore, parry applied to it the name of lieutenant--afterwards sir james--ross. this compliment sir james ross acknowledged in the most emphatic manner, by discovering on his part, at the other pole, the most southern land yet seen, and giving to it the name of parry: "parry mountains." it very probably would not be difficult, under such circumstances as sir w. parry has since recommended, to reach the north pole along this route. then (especially if it be true, as many believe, that there is a region of open sea about the pole itself) we might find it as easy to reach behring straits by travelling in a straight line over the north pole, as by threading the straits and bays north of america. we turn our course until we have in sight a portion of the ice-barred eastern coast of greenland, shannon island. somewhere about this spot in the seventy-fifth parallel is the most northern part of that coast known to us. colonel--then captain--sabine in the _griper_ was landed there to make magnetic, and other observations; for the same purpose he had previously visited sierra leone. that is where we differ from our forefathers. they commissioned hardy seamen to encounter peril for the search of gold ore, or for a near road to cathay; but our peril is encountered for the gain of knowledge, for the highest kind of service that can now be rendered to the human race. before we leave the northern sea, we must not omit to mention the voyage by spitzbergen northward, in , of captain buchan in the _dorothea_, accompanied by lieutenant franklin, in the _trent_. it was sir john franklin's first voyage to the arctic regions. this trip forms the subject of a delightful book by captain beechey. on our way to the south point of greenland we pass near cape north, a point of iceland. iceland, we know, is the centre of a volcanic region, whereof norway and greenland are at opposite points of the circumference. in connection with this district there is a remarkable fact; that by the agency of subterranean forces, a large portion of norway and sweden is being slowly upheaved. while greenland, on the west coast, as gradually sinks into the sea, norway rises at the rate of about four feet in a century. in greenland, the sinking is so well known that the natives never build close to the water's edge, and the moravian missionaries more than once have had to move farther inland the poles on which their boats are rested. our phantom ship stands fairly now along the western coast of greenland into davis straits. we observe that upon this western coast there is, by a great deal, less ice than on the eastern. that is a rule generally. not only the configuration of the straits and bays, but also the earth's rotation from west to east, causes the currents here to set towards the west, and wash the western coasts, while they act very little on the eastern. we steer across davis strait, among "an infinite number of great countreys and islands of yce;" there, near the entrance, we find hudson strait, which does not now concern us. islands probably separate this well-known channel from frobisher strait to the north of it, yet unexplored. here let us recall to mind the fleet of fifteen sail, under sir martin frobisher, in , tossing about and parting company among the ice. let us remember how the crew of the _anne frances_, in that expedition, built a pinnace when their vessel struck upon a rock, stock, although they wanted main timber and nails. how they made a mimic forge, and "for the easier making of nails, were forced to break their tongs, gridiron, and fire-shovel, in pieces." how master captain best, in this frail bark, with its imperfect timbers held together by the metamorphosed gridiron and fire-shovel, continued in his duty, and did depart up the straights as before was pretended." how a terrific storm arose, and the fleet parted and the intrepid captain was towed "in his small pinnesse, at the stern of the _michael_, thorow the raging seas; for the bark was not able to receive, or relieve half his company." the "tongs, gridyron, and fire-shovell," performed their work only for as many minutes as were absolutely necessary, for the pinnesse came no sooner aboard the ship, and the men entred, but she presently shivered and fell in pieces, and sunke at the ship's stern with all the poor men's furniture." now, too, as we sail up the strait, explored a few years after these events by master john davis, how proudly we remember him as a right worthy forerunner of those countrymen of his and ours who since have sailed over his track. nor ought we to pass on without calling to mind the melancholy fate, in , of master john knight, driven, in the _hopewell_, among huge masses of ice with a tremendous surf, his rudder knocked away, his ship half full of water, at the entrance to these straits. hoping to find a harbour, he set forth to explore a large island, and landed, leaving two men to watch the boat, while he, with three men and the mate, set forth and disappeared over a hill. for thirteen hours the watchers kept their post; one had his trumpet with him, for he was a trumpeter, the other had a gun. they trumpeted often and loudly; they fired, but no answer came. they watched ashore all night for the return of their captain and his party, "but they came not at all." the season is advanced. as we sail on, the sea steams like a line-kiln, "frost-smoke" covers it. the water, cooled less rapidly, is warmer now than the surrounding air, and yields this vapour in consequence. by the time our vessel has reached baffin's bay, still coasting along greenland, in addition to old floes and bergs, the water is beset with "pancake ice." that is the young ice when it first begins to cake upon the surface. innocent enough it seems, but it is sadly clogging to the ships. it sticks about their sides like treacle on a fly's wing; collecting unequally, it destroys all equilibrium, and impedes the efforts of the steersman. rocks split on the greenland coast with loud explosions, and more icebergs fall. icebergs we soon shall take our leave of; they are only found where there is a coast on which glaciers can form; they are good for nothing but to yield fresh water to the vessels; it will be all field, pack, and saltwater ice presently. now we are in baffin's bay, explored in the voyages of bylot and baffin, - . when, in , a great movement in the greenland ice caused many to believe that the northern passages would be found comparatively clear; and when, in consequence of this impression, sir john barrow succeeded in setting afoot that course of modern arctic exploration which has been continued to the present day, sir john ross was the first man sent to find the north-west passage. buchan and parry were commissioned at the same the to attempt the north sea route. sir john ross did little more on that occasion than effect a survey of baffin's bay, and prove the accuracy of the ancient pilot. in the extreme north of the bay there is an inlet or a channel, called by baffin smith's sound; this sir john saw, but did not enter. it never yet has been explored. it may be an inlet only; but it is also very possible that by this channel ships might get into the polar sea and sail by the north shore of greenland to spitzbergen. turning that corner, and descending along the western coast of baffin's bay, there is another inlet called jones' sound by baffin, also unexplored. these two inlets, with their very british titles, smith and jones, are of exceeding interest. jones' sound may lead by a back way to melville island. south of jones' sound there is a wide break in the shore, a great sound, named by baffin, lancaster's, which sir john ross, in that first expedition, failed also to explore. like our transatlantic friends at the south pole, he laid down a range of clouds as mountains, and considered the way impervious; so he came home. parry went out next year, as a lieutenant, in command of his first and most successful expedition. he sailed up lancaster sound, which was in that year ( ) unusually clear of ice; and he is the discoverer whose track we now follow in our phantom ship. the whole ground being new, he had to name the points of country right and left of him. the way was broad and open, due west, a most prosperous beginning for a north-west passage. if this continued, he would soon reach behring strait. a broad channel to the right, directed, that is to say, southward, he entered on the prince of wales's birthday, and so called it the "prince regent's inlet." after exploring this for some miles, he turned back to resume his western course, for still there was a broad strait leading westward. this second part of lancaster sound he called after the secretary of the admiralty who had so indefatigably laboured to promote the expeditions, barrow's strait. then he came to a channel, turning to the right or northward, and he named that wellington channel. then he had on his right hand ice, islands large and small, and intervening channels; on the left, ice, and a cape visible, cape walker. at an island, named after the first lord of the admiralty melville island, the great frozen wilderness barred farther progress. there he wintered. on the coast of melville island they had passed the latitude of one hundred and ten degrees, and the men had become entitled to a royal bounty of five thousand pounds. this group of islands parry called north georgian, but they are usually called by his own name, parry islands. this was the first european winter party in the arctic circle. its details are familiar enough. how the men cut in three days, through ice seven inches thick, a canal two miles and a half long, and so brought the ships into safe harbour. how the genius of parry equalled the occasion; how there was established a theatre and a _north georgian gazette_, to cheer the tediousness of a night which continued for two thousand hours. the dreary, dazzling waste in which there was that little patch of life, the stars, the fog, the moonlight, the glittering wonder of the northern lights, in which, as greenlanders believe, souls of the wicked dance tormented, are familiar to us. the she-bear stays at home; but the he-bear hungers, and looks in vain for a stray seal or walrus--woe to the unarmed man who meets him in his hungry mood! wolves are abroad, and pretty white arctic foxes. the reindeer have sought other pasture-ground. the thermometer runs down to more than sixty degrees below freezing, a temperature tolerable in calm weather, but distressing in a wind. the eye-piece of the telescope must be protected now with leather, for the skin is destroyed that comes in contact with cold metal. the voice at a mile's distance can be heard distinctly. happy the day when first the sun is seen to graze the edge of the horizon; but summer must come, and the heat of a constant day must accumulate, and summer wane, before the ice is melted. then the ice cracks, like cannons over-charged, and moves with a loud grinding noise. but not yet is escape to be made with safety. after a detention of ten months, parry got free; but, in escaping, narrowly missed the destruction of both ships, by their being "nipped" between the mighty mass and the unyielding shore. what animals are found on melville island we may judge from the results of sport during ten months' detention. the island exceeds five thousand miles square, and yielded to the gun, three musk oxen, twenty-four deer, sixty-eight hares, fifty-three geese, fifty-nine ducks, and one hundred and forty-four ptarmigans, weighing together three thousand seven hundred and sixty-six pounds--not quite two ounces of meat per day to every man. lichens, stunted grass, saxifrage, and a feeble willow, are the plants of melville island, but in sheltered nooks there are found sorrel, poppy, and a yellow buttercup. halos and double suns are very common consequences of refraction in this quarter of the world. franklin returned from his first and most famous voyage with his men all safe and sound, except the loss of a few fingers, frost-bitten. we sail back only as far as regent's inlet, being bound for behring strait. the reputation of sir john ross being clouded by discontent expressed against his first expedition, felix booth, a rich distiller, provided seventeen thousand pounds to enable his friend to redeem his credit. sir john accordingly, in , went out in the _victory_, provided with steam-machinery that did not answer well. he was accompanied by sir james ross, his nephew. he it was who, on this occasion, first surveyed regent's inlet, down which we are now sailing with our phantom ship. the coast on our right hand, westward, which parry saw, is called north somerset, but farther south, where the inlet widens, the land is named boothia felix. five years before this, parry, in his third voyage, had attempted to pass down regent's inlet, where among ice and storm, one of his ships, the _hecla_, had been driven violently ashore, and of necessity abandoned. the stores had been removed, and sir john was able now to replenish his own vessel from them. rounding a point at the bottom of prince regent's inlet, we find felix harbour, where sir john ross wintered. his nephew made from this point scientific explorations; discovered a strait, called after him the strait of james ross, and on the northern shore of this strait, on the main land of boothia, planted the british flag on the northern magnetic pole. the ice broke up, so did the _victory_; after a hairbreadth escape, the party found a searching vessel and arrived home after an absence of four years and five months, sir john ross having lost his ship, and won his reputation, the friend in need was made a baronet for his munificence; sir john was reimbursed for all his losses, and the crew liberally taken care of. sir james ross had a rod and flag signifying "magnetic pole," given to him for a new crest, by the heralds' college, for which he was no doubt greatly the better. we have sailed northward to get into hudson strait, the high road into hudson bay. along the shore are esquimaux in boats, extremely active, but these filthy creatures we pass by; the esquimaux in hudson strait are like the negroes of the coast, demoralised by intercourse with european traders. these are not true pictures of the loving children of the north. our "phantom" floats on the wide waters of hudson bay--the grave of its discoverer. familiar as the story is of henry hudson's fate, for john king's sake how gladly we repeat it. while sailing on the waters he discovered, in , his men mutinied; the mutiny was aided by henry green, a prodigal, whom hudson had generously shielded from ruin. hudson, the master, and his son, with six sick or disabled members of the crew, were driven from their cabins, forced into a little shallop, and committed helpless to the water and the ice. but there was one stout man, john king, the carpenter, who stepped into the boat, abjuring his companions, and chose rather to die than even passively be partaker in so foul a crime. john king, we who live after will remember you. here on aim island, charlton island, near our entrance to the bay, in , wintered poor captain james with his wrecked crew. this is a point outside the arctic circle, but quite cold enough. of nights, with a good fire in the house they built, hoar frost covered their beds, and the cook's water in a metal pan before the fire was warm on one side and froze on the other. here "it snowed and froze extremely, at which time we, looking from the shore towards the ship, she appeared a piece of ice in the fashion of a ship, or a ship resembling a piece of ice." here the gunner, who hand lost his leg, besought that, "for the little the he had to live, he might drink sack altogether." he died and was buried in the ice far from the vessel, but when afterwards two more were dead of scurvy, and the others, in a miserable state, were working with faint hope about their shattered vessel, the gunner was found to have returned home to the old vessel; his leg had penetrated through a port-hole. they "digged him clear out, and he was as free from noisomeness," the record says, "as when we first committed him to the sea. this alteration had the ice, and water, and time, only wrought on him, that his flesh would slip up and down upon his bones, like a glove on a man's hand. in the evening we buried him by the others." these worthy souls, laid up with the agonies of scurvy, knew that in action was their only hope; they forced their limbs to labour, among ice and water, every day. they set about the building of a boat, but the hard frozen wood had broken their axes, so they made shift with the pieces. to fell a tree, it was first requisite to light in fire around it, and the carpenter could only labour with his wood over a fire, or else it was like stone under his tools. before the boat was made they buried the carpenter. the captain exhorted them to put their trust in god; "his will be done. if it be our fortune to end our days here, we are as near heaven as in england. they all protested to work to the utmost of their strength, and that they would refuse nothing that i should order them to do to the utmost hazard of their lives. i thanked them all." truly the north pole has its triumphs. if we took no account of the fields of trade opened by our arctic explorers, if we thought nothing of the wants of science in comparison with the lives lost in supplying them, is not the loss of life a gain, which proves and tests the fortitude of noble hearts, and teaches us respect for human nature? all the lives that have been lost among these polar regions are less in number than the dead upon a battle-field. the battle-field inflicted shame upon our race--is it with shame that our hearts throb in following these arctic heroes? march st, says captain james, "was very cold, with snow and hail, which pinched our sick men more than any time this year. this evening, being may eve, we returned late from our work to our house, and made a good fire, and chose ladies, and ceremoniously wore their names in our caps, endeavouring to revive ourselves by any means. on the th, i manured a little patch of ground that was bare of snow, and sowed it with pease, hoping to have some shortly to eat, for as yet we could see no green thing to comfort us." those pease saved the party; as they came up the young shoots were boiled and eaten, so their health began to mend, and they recovered from their scurvy. eventually, after other perils, they succeeded in making their escape. a strait, called sir thomas rowe's welcome, leads due north out of hudson bay, being parted by southampton island from the strait through which we entered. its name is quaint, for so was its discoverer, luke fox, a worthy man, addicted much to euphuism. fox sailed from london in the same year in which james sailed from bristol. they were rivals. meeting in davis straits, fox dined on board his friendly rival's vessel, which was very unfit for the service upon which it went. the sea washed over them and came into the cabin, so says fox, "sauce would not have been wanted if there had been roast mutton." luke fox, being ice-bound and in peril, writes, "god thinks upon our imprisonment within a _supersedeas_;" but he was a good and honourable man as wall as euphuist. his "sir thomas rowe's welcome" leads into fox channel: our "phantom ship" is pushing through the welcome passes on the left-hand repulse bay. this portion of the arctic regions, with fox channel, is extremely perilous. here captain lyon, in the _griper_, was thrown anchorless upon the mercy of a stormy sea, ice crashing around him. one island in fox channel is called mill island, from the incessant grinding of great masses of ice collected there. in the northern part of fox channel, on the western shore, is melville peninsula, where parry wintered on his second voyage. here let us go ashore and see a little colony of esquimaux. their limits are built of blocks of snow, and arched, having an ice pane for a window. they construct their arched entrance and their hemispherical roof on the true principles of architecture. those wise men, the egyptians, made their arch by hewing the stones out of shape; the esquimaux have the true secret. here they are, with little food in winter and great appetites; devouring a whole walrus when they get it, and taking the chance of hunger for the next eight days--hungry or full, for ever happy in their lot--here are the esquimaux. they are warmly clothed, each in a double suit of skins sewn neatly together. some are singing, with good voices too. please them, and they straightway dance; activity is good in a cold climate: play to them on the flute, or if you can sing well, sing, or turn a barrel-organ, they are mute, eager with wonder and delight; their love of music is intense. give them a pencil, and, like children, they will draw. teach them and they will learn, oblige them and they will be grateful. "gentle and loving savages," one of our old worthies called them, and the portuguese were so much impressed with their teachable and gentle conduct, that a venetian ambassador writes, "his serene majesty contemplates deriving great advantage from the country, not only on account of the timber of which he has occasion, but of the inhabitants, who are admirably calculated for labour, and are the best i have ever seen." the esquimaux, of course, will learn vice, and in the region visited by whale ships, vice enough has certainly been taught him. here are the dogs, who will eat old coats, or anything; and, near the dwellings, here is a snow-bunting--robin redbreast of the arctic lands. a party of our sailors once, on landing, took some sticks from a large heap, and uncovered the nest of a snow-bunting with young, the bird flew to a little distance, but seeing that the men sat down, and harmed her not, continued to seek food and supply her little ones, with full faith in the good intentions of the party. captain lyon found a child's grave partly uncovered, and a snow-bunting had built its nest upon the infant's bosom. sailing round melville peninsula, we come into the gulf of akkolee, through fury and hecla straits, discovered by parry. so we get back to the bottom of regent's inlet, which we quitted a short time ago, and sailing in the neighbourhood of the magnetic pole, we reach the estuary of back's river, on the north-east coast of america. we pass then through a strait, discovered in by dean and simpson, still coasting along the northern shore of america, on the great stinking lake, as indians call this ocean. boats, ice permitting, and our "phantom ship," of course, can coast all the way to behring strait. the whole coast has been explored by sir john franklin, sir john richardson, and sir george back, who have earned their knighthoods through great peril. as we pass coronation gulf--the scene of franklin, richardson, and back's first exploration from the coppermine river--we revert to the romantic story of their journey back, over a land of snow and frost, subsisting upon lichens, with companions starved to death, where they plucked wild leaves for tea, and ate their shoes for supper; the tragedy by the river; the murder of poor hood, with a book of prayers in his hand; franklin at fort enterprise, with two companions at the point of death, himself gaunt, hollow-eyed, feeding on pounded bones, raked from the dunghill; the arrival of dr. richardson and the brave sailor; their awful story of the cannibal michel;--we revert to these things with a shudder. but we must continue on our route. the current still flows westward, bearing now large quantities of driftwood out of the mackenzie river. at the name of sir alexander mackenzie, also, we might pause, and talk over the bold achievements of another arctic hero; but we pass on, by a rugged and inhospitable coast, unfit for vessels of large draught--pass the broad mouth of the youcon, pass point barrow, icy cape, and are in behring strait. had we passed on, we should have found the russian arctic coast line, traced out by a series of russian explorers; of whom the most illustrious--baron von wrangell--states, that beyond a certain distance to the northward there is always found what he calls the _polynja_ (open water). this is the fact adduced by those who adhere to the old fancy that there is a sea about the pole itself quite free from ice. we pass through behring straits. behring, a dane by birth, but in the russian service, died here in , upon the scene of his discovery. he and his crew, victims of scurvy, were unable to manage their vessel in a storm; and it was at length wrecked on a barren island, there, where "want, nakedness, cold, sickness, impatience, and despair, were their daily guests," behring, his lieutenant, and the master died. now we must put a girdle round the world, and do it with the speed of ariel. here we are already in the heats of the equator. we can do no more than remark, that if air and water are heated at the equator, and frozen at the poles, there will be equilibrium destroyed, and constant currents caused. and so it happens, so we get the prevailing winds, and all the currents of the ocean. of these, some of the uses, but by no means all, are obvious. we urge our "phantom" fleetly to the southern pole. here, over the other hemisphere of the earth, there shines another hemisphere of heaven. the stars are changed; the southern cross, the magellanic clouds, the "coal-sack" in the milky way, attract our notice. now we are in the southern latitude that corresponds to england in the north; nay, at a greater distance from the pole, we find kerguelen's land, emphatically called "the isle of desolation." icebergs float much further into the warm sea on this side of the equator before they dissolve. the south pole is evidently a more thorough refrigerator than the north. why is this? we shall soon see. we push through pack-ice, and through floes and fields, by lofty bergs, by an island or two covered with penguins, until there lies before us a long range of mountains, nine or ten thousand feet in height, and all clad in eternal snow. that is a portion of the southern continent. lieutenant wilkes, in the american exploring expedition, first discovered this, and mapped out some part of the coast, putting a few clouds in likewise--a mistake easily made by those who omit to verify every foot of land. sir james ross, in his most successful south pole expedition, during the years - , sailed over some of this land, and confirmed the rest. the antarctic, as well as the arctic honours he secured for england, by turning a corner of the land, and sailing far southward, along an impenetrable icy barrier, to the latitude of seventy-eight degrees, nine minutes. it is an elevated continent, with many lofty ranges. on the extreme southern point reached by the ships, a magnificent volcano was seen spouting fire and smoke out of the everlasting snow. this volcano, twelve thousand four hundred feet high, was named mount erebus; for the _erebus_ and _terror_ long sought anxiously among the bays, and sounds, and creeks of the north pole, then coasted by the solid ice walls of the south. h. m. a discourse written by sir humphrey gilbert, knight. _to prove a passage by the north-west to cathay and the east indies_. chapter i. to prove by authority a passage to be on the north side of america, to go to cathay and the east indies. when i gave myself to the study of geography, after i had perused and diligently scanned the descriptions of europe, asia, and africa, and conferred them with the maps and globes both antique and modern, i came in fine to the fourth part of the world, commonly called america, which by all descriptions i found to be an island environed round about with the sea, having on the south side of it the strait of magellan, on the west side the mare de sur, which sea runneth towards the north, separating it from the east parts of asia, where the dominions of the cathaians are. on the east part our west ocean, and on the north side the sea that severeth it from greenland, through which northern seas the passage lieth, which i take now in hand to discover. plato in his _timaeus_ and in the dialogue called _critias_, discourses of an incomparable great island then called atlantis, being greater than all africa and asia, which lay westward from the straits of gibraltar, navigable round about: affirming, also, that the princes of atlantis did as well enjoy the governance of all africa and the most part of europe as of atlantis itself. also to prove plato's opinion of this island, and the inhabiting of it in ancient time by them of europe, to be of the more credit: marinaeus siculus, in his chronicle of spain, reporteth that there hath been found by the spaniards in the gold mines of america certain pieces of money, engraved with the image of augustus caesar; which pieces were sent to the pope for a testimony of the matter by john rufus, archbishop of constantinum. moreover, this was not only thought of plato, but by marsilius ficinus, an excellent florentine philosopher, crantor the grecian, proclus, also philo the famous jew (as appeareth in his book _de mundo_, and in the commentaries upon plato), to be overflown, and swallowed up with water, by reason of a mighty earthquake and streaming down of the heavenly flood gates. the like thereof happened unto some part of italy, when by the forcibleness of the sea, called superum, it cut off sicily from the continent of calabria, as appeareth in justin in the beginning of his fourth book. also there chanced the like in zeeland, a part of flanders. and also the cities of pyrrha and antissa, about palus meotis; and also the city burys, in the corinthian gulf, commonly called sinus corinthiacus, have been swallowed up with the sea, and are not at this day to be discerned: by which accident america grew to be unknown, of long time, unto us of the later ages, and was lately discovered again by americus vespucius, in the year of our lord , which some say to have been first discovered by christopher columbus, a genoese, anno . the same calamity happened unto this isle of atlantis six hundred and odd years before plato's time, which some of the people of the south-east parts of the world accounted as nine thousand years; for the manner then was to reckon the moon's period of the zodiac for a year, which is our usual month, depending a luminari minore. so that in these our days there can no other main or island be found or judged to be parcel of this atlantis than those western islands, which now bear the name of america; countervailing thereby the name of atlantis in the knowledge of our age. then, if when no part of the said atlantis was oppressed by water and earthquake, the coasts round about the same were navigable, a far greater hope now remaineth of the same by the north-west, seeing the most part of it was since that time swallowed up with water, which could not utterly take away the old deeps and channels, but, rather, be many occasion of the enlarging of the old, and also an enforcing of a great many new; why then should we now doubt of our north-west passage and navigation from england to india, etc., seeing that atlantis, now called america, was ever known to be an island, and in those days navigable round about, which by access of more water could not be diminished? also aristotle in his book _de mundo_, and the learned german, simon gryneus, in his annotations upon the same, saith that the whole earth (meaning thereby, as manifestly doth appear, asia, africa, and europe, being all the countries then known) to be but one island, compassed about with the reach of the atlantic sea; which likewise approveth america to be an island, and in no part adjoining to asia or the rest. also many ancient writers, as strabo and others, called both the ocean sea (which lieth east of india) atlanticum pelagus, and that sea also on the west coasts of spain and africa, mare atlanticum; the distance between the two coasts is almost half the compass of the earth. so that it is incredible, as by plato appeareth manifestly, that the east indian sea had the name of atlanticum pelagus, of the mountain atlas in africa, or yet the sea adjoining to africa had name oceanus atlanticus, of the same mountain; but that those seas and the mountain atlas were so called of this great island atlantis, and that the one and the other had their names for a memorial of the mighty prince atlas, sometime king thereof, who was japhet, youngest son to noah, in whose time the whole earth was divided between the three brethren, shem, ham, and japhet. wherefore i am of opinion that america by the north-west will be found favourable to this our enterprise, and am the rather emboldened to believe the same, for that i find it not only confirmed by plato, aristotle, and other ancient philosophers, but also by the best modern geographers, as gemma frisius, munsterus, appianus hunterus, gastaldus, guyccardinus, michael tramesinus, franciscus demongenitus, barnardus, puteanus, andreas vavasor, tramontanus, petrus martyr, and also ortelius, who doth coast out in his general map (set out anno ) all the countries and capes on the north-west side of america from hochelega to cape de paramantia, describing likewise the sea-coasts of cathay and greenland, towards any part of america, making both greenland and america islands disjoined by a great sea from any part of asia. all which learned men and painful travellers have affirmed with one consent and voice, that america was an island, and that there lieth a great sea between it, cathay, and greenland, by the which any man of our country that will give the attempt, may with small danger pass to cathay, the moluccas, india, and all other places in the east in much shorter time than either the spaniard or portuguese doth, or may do, from the nearest part of any of their countries within europe. what moved these learned men to affirm thus much i know not, or to what end so many and sundry travellers of both ages have allowed the same; but i conjecture that they would never have so constantly affirmed, or notified their opinions therein to the world, if they had not had great good cause, and many probable reasons to have led them thereunto. now lest you should make small account of ancient writers or of their experiences which travelled long before our times, reckoning their authority amongst fables of no importance, i have for the better assurance of those proofs set down some part of a discourse, written in the saxon tongue, and translated into english by master noel, servant to master secretary cecil, wherein there is described a navigation which one other made, in the time of king alfred, king of wessex, anne , the words of which discourse were these: "he sailed right north, having always the desert land on the starboard, and on the larboard the main sea, continuing his course, until he perceived that the coast bowed directly towards the east or else the sea opened into the land he could not tell how far, where he was compelled to stay until he had a western wind or somewhat upon the north, and sailed thence directly east along the coast, so far as he was able in four days, where he was again enforced to tarry until he had a north wind, because the coast there bowed directly towards the south, or at least opened he knew not how far into the land, so that he sailed thence along the coast continually full south, so far as he could travel in the space of five days, where he discovered a mighty river which opened far into the land, and in the entry of this river he turned back again." whereby it appeareth that he went the very way that we now do yearly trade by s. nicholas into muscovia, which way no man in our age knew for certainty to be sea, until it was since discovered by our englishmen in the time of king edward i., but thought before that time that greenland had joined to normoria byarmia, and therefore was accounted a new discovery, being nothing so indeed, as by this discourse of ochther's it appeareth. nevertheless if any man should have taken this voyage in hand by the encouragement of this only author, he should have been thought but simple, considering that this navigation was written so many years past, in so barbarous a tongue by one only obscure author, and yet we in these our days find by our own experiences his former reports to be true. how much more, then, ought we to believe this passage to cathay to be, being verified by the opinions of all the best, both antique and modern geographers, and plainly set out in the best and most allowed maps, charts, globes, cosmographical tables, and discourses of this our age and by the rest not denied, but left as a matter doubtful. chapter ii. . all seas are maintained by the abundance of water, so that the nearer the end any river, bay, or haven is, the shallower it waxeth (although by some accidental bar it is sometime found otherwise), but the farther you sail west from iceland, towards the place where this strait is thought to be, the more deep are the seas, which giveth us good hope of continuance of the same sea, with mare del sur, by some strait that lieth between america, greenland, and cathay. . also, if that america were not an island, but a part of the continent adjoining to asia, either the people which inhabit mangia, anian, and quinzay, etc., being borderers upon it, would before this time have made some road into it, hoping to have found some like commodities to their own. . or else the syrians and tartars (which oftentimes heretofore have sought far and near for new seats, driven thereunto through the necessity of their cold and miserable countries) would in all this time have found the way to america and entered the same had the passages been never so strait or difficult, the country being so temperate, pleasant, and fruitful in comparison of their own. but there was never any such people found there by any of the spaniards, portuguese, or frenchmen, who first discovered the inland of that country, which spaniards or frenchmen must then of necessity have seen some one civilised man in america, considering how full of civilised people asia is; but they never saw so much as one token or sign that ever any man of the known part of the world had been there. . furthermore, it is to be thought, that if by reason of mountains or other craggy places the people neither of cathay or tartary could enter the country of america, or they of america have entered asia if it were so joined, yet some one savage or wandering-beast would in so many years have passed into it; but there hath not any time been found any of the beasts proper to cathay or tartary, etc., in america; nor of those proper to america in tartary, cathay, etc., or in any part of asia, which thing proveth america not only to be one island, and in no part adjoining to asia, but also that the people of those countries have not had any traffic with each other. . moreover at the least some one of those painful travellers which of purpose have passed the confines of both countries, with intent only to discover, would, as it is most likely, have gone from the one to the other, if there had been any piece of land, or isthmus, to have joined them together, or else have declared some cause to the contrary. . but neither paulus venetus, who lived and dwelt a long time in cathay, ever came into america, and yet was at the sea coasts of mangia over against it, where he was embarked and performed a great navigation along those seas; neither yet veratzanus or franciscus vasquez de coronado, who travelled the north part of america by land, ever found entry from thence by land to cathay, or any part of asia. . also it appeareth to be an island, insomuch as the sea runneth by nature circularly from the east to the west, following the diurnal motion of the _primum mobile_, and carrieth with it all inferior bodies movable, as well celestial as elemental; which motion of the waters is most evidently seen in the sea, which lieth on the south side of africa, where the current that runneth from the east to the west is so strong (by reason of such motion) that the portuguese in their voyages eastward to calicut, in passing by the cape of good hope, are enforced to make divers courses, the current there being so swift, as it striketh from thence, all along westward, upon the straits of magellan, being distant from thence near the fourth part of the longitude of the earth: and not having free passage and entrance through that frith towards the west, by reason of the narrowness of the said strait of magellan, it runneth to salve this wrong (nature not yielding to accidental restraints) all along the eastern coasts of america northwards so far as cape frido, being the farthest known place of the same continent towards the north, which is about four thousand eight-hundred leagues, reckoning therewithal the trending of the land. . so that this current, being continually maintained with such force as jacques cartier affirmeth it to be, who met with the same, being at baccalaos as he sailed along the coasts of america, then, either it must of necessity have way to pass from cape frido through this frith, westward towards cathay, being known to come so far only to salve his former wrongs by the authority before named; or else it must needs strike over upon the coast of iceland, lapland, finmark, and norway (which are east from the said place about three hundred and sixty leagues) with greater force than it did from the cape of good hope upon the strait of magellan, or from the strait of magellan to cape frido; upon which coasts jacques cartier met with the same, considering the shortness of the cut from the said cape frido to iceland, lapland, etc. and so the cause efficient remaining, it would have continually followed along our coasts through the narrow seas, which it doeth not, but is digested about the north of labrador by some through passage there through this frith. the like course of the water, in some respect, happeneth in the mediterranean sea (as affirmeth contorenus), where, as the current which cometh from tanais and the euxine, running along all the coasts of greece, italy, france, and spain, and not finding sufficient way out through gibraltar by means of the straitness of the frith, it runneth back again along the coasts of barbary by alexandria, natolia, etc. it may, peradventure, be thought that this course of the sea doth sometime surcease and thereby impugn this principle, because it is not discerned all along the coast of america in such sort as jacques cartier found it, whereunto i answer this: that albeit in every part of the coast of america or elsewhere this current is not sensibly perceived, yet it hath evermore such like motion, either the uppermost or nethermost part of the sea; as it may be proved true, if you sink a sail by a couple of ropes near the ground, fastening to the nethermost corners two gun chambers or other weights, by the driving whereof you shall plainly perceive the course of the water and current running with such like course in the bottom. by the like experiment you may find the ordinary motion of the sea in the ocean, how far soever you be off the land. . also, there cometh another current from out the north-east from the scythian sea (as master jenkinson, a man of rare virtue, great travel, and experience, told me), which runneth westward towards labrador, as the other did which cometh from the south; so that both these currents must have way through this our strait, or else encounter together and run contrary courses in one line, but no such conflicts of streams or contrary courses are found about any part of labrador or newfoundland, as witness our yearly fishers and other sailors that way, but is there separated as aforesaid, and found by the experience of barnarde de la torre to fall into mare del sur. . furthermore, the current in the great ocean could not have been maintained to run continually one way from the beginning of the world unto this day, had there not been some through passage by the strait aforesaid, and so by circular motion be brought again to maintain itself, for the tides and courses of the sea are maintained by their interchangeable motions, as fresh rivers are by springs, by ebbing and flowing, by rarefaction and condensation. so that it resteth not possible (so far as my simple reason can comprehend) that this perpetual current can by any means be maintained, but only by a continual reaccess of the same water, which passeth through the strait, and is brought about thither again by such circular motion as aforesaid, and the certain falling thereof by this strait into mare del sur is proved by the testimony and experience of barnarde de la torre, who was sent from p. de la natividad to the moluccas, , by commandment of anthony mendoza, then viceroy of nova hispania, which barnarde sailed leagues on the north side of the equator, and there met with a current which came from the north-east, the which drove him back again to tidore. wherefore this current being proved to come from the cape of good hope to the strait of magellan, and wanting sufficient entrance there, is by the necessity of nature's force brought to terra de labrador, where jacques cartier met the same, and thence certainly known not to strike over upon iceland, lapland, etc., and found by barnarde de la torre, in mare del sur, on the backside of america, therefore this current, having none other passage, must of necessity fall out through this strait into mare del sur, and so trending by the moluccas, china, and the cape of good hope, maintaineth itself by circular motion, which is all one in nature with motus ab oriente in occidentem. so that it seemeth we have now more occasion to doubt of our return than whether there be a passage that way, yea or no: which doubt hereafter shall be sufficiently removed; wherefore, in my opinion reason itself grounded upon experience assureth us of this passage if there were nothing else to put us in hope thereof. but lest these might not suffice, i have added in this chapter following some further proof thereof, by the experience of such as have passed some part of this discovery, and in the next adjoining to that the authority of those which have sailed wholly through every part thereof. chapter iii. to prove by experience of sundry men's travels the opening of some part of this north-west passage, whereby good hope remaineth of the rest. . paulus venetus, who dwelt many years in cathay, affirmed that he had sailed , miles upon the coast of mangia and anian, towards the north-east, always finding the seas open before him, not only as far as he went, but also as far as he could discern. . also franciscus vasquez de coronado, passing from mexico by cevola, through the country of quiver to sierra nevada, found there a great sea, where were certain ships laden with merchandise, the mariners wearing on their heads the pictures of certain birds called alcatrarzi, part whereof were made of gold and part of silver; who signified by signs that they were thirty days coming thither, which likewise proveth america by experience to be disjoined from cathay, on that part, by a great sea, because they could not come from any part of america as natives thereof; for that, so far as is discovered, there hath not been found there any one ship of that country. . in like manner, johann baros testifieth that the cosmographers of china (where he himself had been) affirm that the sea coast trendeth from thence north-east to fifty degrees of septentrional latitude, being the farthest part that way, which the portuguese had then knowledge of; and that the said cosmographers knew no cause to the contrary, but that it might continue farther. by whose experiences america is proved to be separate from those parts of asia, directly against the same. and not contented with the judgments of these learned men only, i have searched what might be further said for the confirmation hereof. . and i found that franciscus lopez de gomara affirmeth america to be an island, and likewise greenland; and that greenland is distant from lapland forty leagues, and from terra de labrador fifty. . moreover alvarez nunmius, a spaniard, and learned cosmographer, and jacques cartier, who made two voyages into those parts, and sailed five hundred miles upon the north-east coasts of america. . likewise hieronimus fracastorius, a learned italian, and traveller in the north parts of the same land. . also jacques cartier, having done the like, heard say at hochelaga, in nova francia, how that there was a great sea at saguinay, whereof the end was not known: which they presupposed to be the passage to cathay. furthermore, sebastian cabot, by his personal experience and travel, has set forth and described this passage in his charts which are yet to be seen in the queen's majesty's privy gallery at whitehall, who was sent to make this discovery by king henry vii. and entered the same straits, affirming that he sailed very far westward with a quarter of the north, on the north side of terra de labrador, the th of june, until he came to the septentrional latitude of sixty-seven and a half degrees, and finding the seas still open, said, that he might and would have gone to cathay if the mutiny of the master and mariners had not been. now, as these men's experience have proved some part of this passage, so the chapter following shall put you in full assurance of the rest by their experiences which have passed through every part thereof. chapter iv. to prove by circumstance that the north-west passage hath been sailed throughout. the diversity between brute beasts and men, or between the wise and the simple, is, that the one judgeth by sense only, and gathereth no surety of anything that he hath not seen, felt, heard, tasted, or smelled: and the other not so only, but also findeth the certainty of things, by reason, before they happen to be tried, wherefore i have added proofs of both sorts, that the one and the other might thereby be satisfied. . first, as gemma frisius reciteth, there went from europe three brethren though this passage: whereof it took the name of fretum trium fratrum. . also pliny affirmeth out of cornelius nepos (who wrote fifty-seven years before christ) that there were certain indians driven by tempest upon the coast of germany which were presented by the king of suevia unto quintus metellus celer, then pro-consul of france. . and pliny upon the same saith that it is no marvel, though there be sea by the north, where there is such abundance of moisture; which argueth, that he doubted not of a navigable passage that way, through which those indians came. . and for the better proof that the same authority of cornelius nepos is not by me wrested to prove my opinion of the north-west passage, you shall find the same affirmed more plainly in that behalf by the excellent geographer dominicus marius niger, who showeth how many ways the indian sea stretcheth itself, making in that place recital of certain indians that were likewise driven through the north seas from india, upon the coasts of germany, by great tempest, as they were sailing in trade of merchandise. . also, whiles frederick barbarossa reigned emperor, a.d. , there came certain other indians upon the coast of germany. . likewise othon, in the story of the goths, affirmeth that in the time of the german emperors there were also certain indians cast by force of weather upon the coast of the said country, which foresaid indians could not possibly have come by the south-east, south-west, nor from any part of africa or america, nor yet by the north-east: therefore they came of necessity by this our north-west passage. chapter v. to prove that these indians, aforenamed, came not by the south-east, south-west, nor from any other part of africa or america. . they could not come from the south-east by the cape of good hope, because the roughness of the seas there is such--occasioned by the currents and great winds in that part--that the greatest armadas the king of portugal hath cannot without great difficulty pass that way, much less, then, a canoe of india could live in those outrageous seas without shipwreck, being a vessel but of very small burden, and the indians have conducted themselves to the place aforesaid, being men unexpert in the art of navigation. . also, it appeareth plainly that they were not able to come from along the coast of africa aforesaid to those parts of europe, because the winds do, for the most part, blow there easterly or from the shore, and the current running that way in like sort, would have driven them westward upon some part of america, for such winds and tides could never have led them from thence to the said place where they were found, nor yet could they have come from any of the countries aforesaid, keeping the seas always, without skilful mariners to have conducted them such like courses as were necessary to perform such a voyage. . presupposing also, if they had been driven to the west, as they must have been, coming that way, then they should have perished, wanting supply of victuals, not having any place--once leaving the coast of africa--until they came to america, north of america, until they arrived upon some part of europe or the islands adjoining to it to have refreshed themselves. . also, if, notwithstanding such impossibilities, they might have recovered germany by coming from india by the south-east, yet must they without all doubt have struck upon some other part of europe before their arrival there, as the isles of madeira, portugal, spain, france, england, ireland, etc., which, if they had done, it is not credible that they should or would have departed undiscovered of the inhabitants; but there was never found in those days any such ship or men, but only upon the coasts of germany, where they have been sundry times and in sundry ages cast ashore; neither is it like that they would have committed themselves again to sea, if they had so arrived, not knowing where they were, nor whither to have gone. . and by the south-west it is impossible, because the current aforesaid, which cometh from the east, striketh with such force upon the straits of magellan, and falleth with such swiftness and fury into mare de sur, that hardly any ship--but not possibly a canoe, with such unskilful mariners--can come into our western ocean through that strait from the west seas of america, as magellan's experience hath partly taught us. . and further, to prove that these people so arriving upon the coast of germany were indians, and not inhabiters of any part either of africa or america, it is manifest, because the natives, both of africa and america, neither had, or have at this day, as is reported, other kind of boats than such as do bear neither masts nor sails, except only upon the coasts of barbary and the turks' ships, but do carry themselves from place to place near the shore by the oar only. chapter vi. to prove that those indians came not by the north-east, and that there is no through navigable passage that way. . it is likely that there should be no through passage by the north-east whereby to go round about the world, because all seas, as aforesaid, are maintained by the abundance of water, waxing more shallow and shelving towards the end, as we find it doth, by experience, in the frozen sea, towards the east, which breedeth small hope of any great continuance of that sea to be navigable towards the east, sufficient to sail thereby round about the world. . also, it standeth scarcely with reason that the indians dwelling under the torrid zone could endure the injury of the cold air, about the northern latitude of degrees, under which elevation the passage by the north-east cannot be, as the often experiences had of all the south part of it showeth, seeing that some of the inhabitants of this cold climate, whose summer is to them an extreme winter, have been stricken to death with the cold damps of the air, about degrees, by an accidental mishap, and yet the air in such like elevation is always cold, and too cold for such as the indians are. . furthermore, the piercing cold of the gross thick air so near the pole will so stiffen the sails and ship tackling, that no mariner can either hoist or strike them--as our experience, far nearer the south than this passage is presupposed to be, hath taught us--without the use whereof no voyage can be performed. . also, the air is so darkened with continual mists and fogs so near the pole, that no man can well see either to guide his ship or to direct his course. . also the compass at such elevation doth very suddenly vary, which things must of force have been their destruction, although they had been men of much more skill than the indians are. . moreover, all bays, gulfs, and rivers do receive their increase upon the flood, sensibly to be discerned on the one side of the shore or the other, as many ways as they be open to any main sea, as the mediterranean, the red sea, the persian gulf, sinus bodicus, the thames, and all other known havens or rivers in any part of the world, and each of them opening but on one part to the main sea, do likewise receive their increase upon the flood the same way, and none other, which the frozen sea doth, only by the west, as master jenkinson affirmed unto me, and therefore it followeth that this north-east sea, receiving increase only from the west, cannot possibly open to the main ocean by the east. . moreover, the farther you pass into any sea towards the end of it, of that part which is shut up from the main sea, as in all those above-mentioned, the less and less the tides rise and fall. the like whereof also happeneth in the frozen sea, which proveth but small continuance of that sea toward the east. . also, the farther ye go towards the east in the frozen sea the less soft the water is, which could not happen if it were open to the salt sea towards the east, as it is to the west only, seeing everything naturally engendereth his like, and then must it be like salt throughout, as all the seas are in such like climate and elevation. and therefore it seemeth that this north-east sea is maintained by the river ob, and such like freshets as the pontic sea and mediterranean sea, in the uppermost parts thereof by the river nile, the danube, dnieper, tanais, etc. . furthermore, if there were any such sea at that elevation, of like it should be always frozen throughout--there being no tides to hinder it--because the extreme coldness of the air in the uppermost part, and the extreme coldness of the earth in the bottom, the sea there being but of small depth, whereby the one accidental coldness doth meet with the other; and the sun, not having his reflection so near the pole, but at very blunt angles, it can never be dissolved after it is frozen, notwithstanding the great length of their day: for that the sun hath no heat at all in his light or beams, but proceeding only by an accidental reflection which there wanteth in effect. . and yet if the sun were of sufficient force in that elevation to prevail against this ice, yet must it be broken before it can be dissolved, which cannot be but through the long continue of the sun above their horizon, and by that time the summer would be so far spent, and so great darkness and cold ensue, that no man could be able to endure so cold, dark, and discomfortable a navigation, if it were possible for him then and there to live. . further, the ice being once broken, it must of force so drive with the winds and tides that no ship can sail in those seas, seeing our fishers of iceland and newfoundland are subject to danger through the great islands of ice which fleet in the seas, far to the south of that presupposed passage. . and it cannot be that this north-east passage should be any nearer the south than before recited, for then it should cut off ciremissi and turbi, tartarii, with vzesucani, chisani, and others from the continent of asia, which are known to be adjoining to scythia, tartary, etc., with the other part of the same continent. and if there were any through passage by the north-east, yet were it to small end and purpose for our traffic, because no ship of great burden can navigate in so shallow a sea, and ships of small burden are very unfit and unprofitable, especially towards the blustering north, to perform such a voyage. chapter vii. to prove that the indians aforenamed came only by the north-west, which induceth a certainty of our passage by experience. it is as likely that they came by the north-west as it is unlikely that they should come either by the south-east, south-west, north-east, or from any other part of africa or america, and therefore this north-west passage, having been already so many ways proved by disproving of the others, etc., i shall the less need in this place to use many words otherwise than to conclude in this sort, that they came only by the north-west from england, having these many reasons to lead me thereunto. . first, the one-half of the winds of the compass might bring them by the north-west, veering always between two sheets, with which kind of sailing the indians are only acquainted, not having any use of a bow line or quarter wind, without the which no ship can possibly come, either by the south-east, south-west, or north-east, having so many sundry capes to double, whereunto are required such change and shifts of winds. . and it seemeth likely that they should come by the north-west, because the coast whereon they were driven lay east from this our passage, and all winds do naturally drive a ship to an opposite point from whence it bloweth, not being otherwise guided by art, which the indians do utterly want, and therefore it seemeth that they came directly through this, our strait, which they might do with one wind. . for if they had come by the cape of good hope, then must they, as aforesaid, have fallen upon the south parts of america. . and if by the strait of magellan, then upon the coasts of africa, spain, portugal, france, ireland, or england. . and if by the north-east, then upon the coasts of ciremissi, tartarii, lapland, iceland, labrador, etc., and upon these coasts, as aforesaid, they have never been found. so that by all likelihood they could never have come without shipwreck upon the coasts of germany, if they had first struck upon the coasts of so many countries, wanting both art and shipping to make orderly discovery, and altogether ignorant both of the art of navigation and also of the rocks, flats, sands, or havens of those parts of the world, which in most of these places are plentiful. . and further, it seemeth very likely that the inhabitants of the most part of those countries, by which they must have come any other way besides by the north-west, being for the most part anthropophagi, or men-eaters, would have devoured them, slain them, or, at the leastwise, kept them as wonders for the gaze. so that it plainly appeareth that those indians--which, as you have heard, in sundry ages were driven by tempest upon the shore of germany--came only through our north-west passage. . moreover, the passage is certainly proved by a navigation that a portuguese made, who passed through this strait, giving name to a promontory far within the same, calling it after his own name, promontorium corterialis, near adjoining unto polisacus fluvius. . also one scolmus, a dane, entered and passed a great part thereof. . also there was one salva terra, a gentleman of victoria in spain, that came by chance out of the west indies into ireland, anno , who affirmed the north-west passage from us to cathay, constantly to be believed in america navigable; and further said, in the presence of sir henry sidney, then lord deputy of ireland, in my hearing, that a friar of mexico, called andre urdaneta, more than eight years before his then coming into ireland, told him there that he came from mare del sur into germany through this north-west passage, and showed salva terra--at that time being then with him in mexico--a sea-card made by his own experience and travel in that voyage, wherein was plainly set down and described this north-west passage, agreeing in all points with ortelius' map. and further this friar told the king of portugal (as he returned by that country homeward) that there was of certainty such a passage north-west from england, and that he meant to publish the same; which done, the king most earnestly desired him not in any wise to disclose or make the passage known to any nation. for that (said the king) _if england had knowledge and experience thereof_, _it would greatly hinder both the king of spain and me_. this friar (as salva terra reported) was the greatest discoverer by sea that hath been in our age. also salva terra, being persuaded of this passage by the friar urdaneta, and by the common opinion of the spaniards inhabiting america, offered most willingly to accompany me in this discovery, which of like he would not have done if he had stood in doubt thereof. and now, as these modern experiences cannot be impugned, so, least it might be objected that these things (gathered out of ancient writers, which wrote so many years past) might serve little to prove this passage by the north of america, because both america and india were to them then utterly unknown; to remove this doubt, let this suffice, that aristotle (who was years before christ) named the indian sea. also berosus (who lived before christ) hath these words, _ganges in india_. also in the first chapter of esther be these words: "in the days of ahasuerus, which ruled from india to ethiopia," which ahasuerus lived years before christ. also quintus curtius, where he speaketh of the conquest of alexander, mentioneth india. also arianus philostratus, and sidrach, in his discourses of the wars of the king of bactria, and of garaab, who had the most part of india under his government. all which assumeth us that both india and indians were known in those days. these things considered, we may, in my opinion, not only assure ourselves of this passage by the north-west, but also that it is navigable both to come and go, as hath been proved in part and in all by the experience of divers as sebastian cabot, corterialis, the three brethren above named, the indians, and urdaneta, the friar of mexico, etc. and yet, notwithstanding all which, there be some that have a better hope of this passage to cathay by the north-east than by the west, whose reasons, with my several answers, ensue in the chapter following. chapter viii. certain reasons alleged for the proving of a passage by the north-east before the queen's majesty, and certain lords of the council, by master anthony jenkinson, with my several answers then used to the same. because you may understand as well those things alleged against me as what doth serve for my purpose, i have here added the reasons of master anthony jenkinson, a worthy gentleman, and a great traveller, who conceived a better hope of the passage to cathay from us to be by the north-east than by the north-west. he first said that he thought not to the contrary but that there was a passage by the north-west, according to mime opinion, but he was assured that there might be found a navigable passage by the north-east from england to go to all the east parts of the world, which he endeavoured to prove three ways. the first was, that he heard a fisherman of tartary say in hunting the morse, that he sailed very far towards the south-east, finding no end of the sea, whereby he hoped a through passage to be that way. whereunto i answered that the tartars were a barbarous people, and utterly ignorant in the art of navigation, not knowing the use of the sea-card, compass, or star, which he confessed true; and therefore they could not (said i) certainly know the south-east from the north-east in a wide sea, and a place unknown from the sight of the land. or if he sailed anything near the shore, yet he, being ignorant, might be deceived by the doubling of many points and capes, and by the trending of the land, albeit he kept continually along the shore. and further, it might be that the poor fisherman through simplicity thought that there was nothing that way but sea, because he saw mine land, which proof (under correction) giveth small assurance of a navigable sea by the north-east to go round about the world, for that he judged by the eye only, seeing we in this clear air do account twenty miles a ken at sea. his second reason is, that there was an unicorn's horn found upon the coast of tartary, which could not come (said he) thither by any other means than with the tides, through some strait in the north-east of the frozen sea, there being no unicorns in any part of asia, saving in india and cathay, which reason, in my simple judgment, has as little force. first, it is doubtful whether those barbarous tartars do know an unicorn's horn, yea or no; and if it were one, yet it is not credible that the sea could have driven it so far, it being of such nature that it cannot float. also the tides running to and fro would have driven it as far back with the ebb as it brought it forward with the flood. there is also a beast called asinus indicus (whose horn most like it was), which hath but one horn like an unicorn in his forehead, whereof there is great plenty in all the north parts thereunto adjoining, as in lapland, norway, finmark, etc., as jocobus zeiglerus writeth in his history of scondia. and as albertus saith, there is a fish which hath but one horn in his forehead like to an unicorn, and therefore it seemeth very doubtful both from whence it came, and whether it were an unicorn's horn, yea or no. his third and last reason was, that there came a continual stream or current through the frozen sea of such swiftness, as a colmax told him, that if you cast anything therein, it would presently be carried out of sight towards the west. whereunto i answered, that there doth the like from palus maeotis, by the euxine, the bosphorus, and along the coast of greece, etc., as it is affirmed by contarenus, and divers others that have had experience of the same; and yet that sea lieth not open to any main sea that way, but is maintained by freshets, as by the don, the danube, etc. in like manner is this current in the frozen sea increased and maintained by the dwina, the river ob, etc. now as i have here briefly recited the reasons alleged to prove a passage to cathay by the north-east with my several answers thereunto, so will i leave it unto your judgment, to hope or despair of either at your pleasure. chapter ix. how that the passage by the north-west is more commodious for our traffic than the other by the east, if there were any such. . by the north-east, if your winds do not give you a marvellous speedy and lucky passage, you are in danger (of being so near the pole) to be benighted almost the one half of the year, and what danger that were, to live so long comfortless, void of light (if the cold killed you not), each man of reason or understanding may judge. . also mangia, quinzai, and the moluccas, are nearer unto us by the north-west than by the north-east more than two-fifths, which is almost by the half. . also we may have by the rest a yearly return, it being at all times navigable, whereas you have but four months in the whole year to go by the north-east, the passage being at such elevation as it is formerly expressed, for it cannot be any nearer the south. . furthermore, it cannot be finished without divers winterings by the way, having no havens in any temperate climate to harbour in there, for it is as much as we can well sail from hence to s. nicholas, in the trade of muscovy, and return in the navigable season of the year, and from s. nicholas, ciremissi, tartarii, which standeth degrees of the septentrional latitude, it is at the left leagues, which amounteth scarce to the third part of the way, to the end of your voyage by the north-east. . and yet, after you have doubled this cape, if then there might be found a navigable sea to carry you south-east according to your desire, yet can you not winter conveniently until you come to sixty degrees and to take up one degree running south-east you must sail twenty-four leagues and three four parts, which amounteth to four hundred and ninety-five leagues. . furthermore, you may by the north-west sail thither, with all easterly winds, and return with any westerly winds, whereas you must have by the north-east sundry winds, and those proper, according to the lie of the coast and capes, you shall be enforced to double, which winds are not always to be had when they are looked for; whereby your journey should be greatly prolonged, and hardly endured so near the pole, as we are taught by sir hugh willoughbie, who was frozen to death far nearer the south. . moreover, it is very doubtful whether we should long enjoy that trade by the north-east if there were any such passage that way, the commodities thereof once known to the muscovite, what privilege soever he hath granted, seeing pollice with the maze of excessive gain, to the enriching of himself and all his dominions, would persuade him to presume the same, having so great opportunity, to distribute the commodities of those countries by the naruc. but by the north-west we may safely trade without danger or annoyance of any prince living, christian or heathen, it being out of all their trades. . also the queen's majesty's dominions are nearer the north-west passage than any other great princes that might pass that way, and both in their going and return they must of necessity succour themselves and their ships upon some part of the same if any tempestuous weather should happen. further, no prince's navy of the world is able to encounter the queen's majesty's navy as it is at this present; and yet it should be greatly increased by the traffic ensuing upon this discovery, for it is the long voyages that increase and maintain great shipping. now it seemeth unnecessary to declare what commodities would grow thereby if all these things were as we have heretofore presupposed and thought them to be; which next adjoining are briefly declared. chapter x. what commodities would ensue, this passage once discovered. . it were the only way for our princes to possess the wealth of all the east parts (as they term them) of the world, which is infinite; as appeareth by the experience of alexander the great in the time of his conquest of india and the east parts of the world, alleged by quintus curtius, which would be a great advancement to our country, wonderful enriching to our prince, and unspeakable commodities to all the inhabitants of europe. . for, through the shortness of the voyage, we should be able to sell all manner of merchandise brought from thence far better cheap than either the portuguese or spaniard doth or may do. and, further, share with the portuguese in the east and the spaniard in the west by trading to any part of america through mare del sur, where they can no manner of way offend us. . also we sailed to divers marvellous rich countries, both civil and others, out of both their jurisdictions, trades and traffics, where there is to be found great abundance of gold, silver, precious stones, cloth of gold, silks, all manner of spices, grocery wares, and other kinds of merchandise of an inestimable price, which both the spaniard and portuguese, through the length of their journeys, cannot well attain unto. . also, we might inhabit some part of those countries, and settle there such needy people of our country which now trouble the commonwealth, and through want here at home are enforced to commit outrageous offences, whereby they are daily consumed with the gallows. . moreover, we might from all the aforesaid places have a yearly return, inhabiting for our staple some convenient place of america, about sierra nevada or some other part, whereas it shall seem best for the shortening of the voyage. . beside the exporting of our country commodities, which the indians, etc., much esteem, as appeareth in esther, where the pomp is expressed of the great king of india, ahasuerus, who matched the coloured clothes wherewith his houses and tents were apparelled with gold and silver, as part of his greatest treasure, not mentioning velvets, silks, cloth of gold, cloth of silver, or such like, being in those countries most plentiful, whereby it plainly appeareth in what great estimation they would have the cloths of this our country, so that there would be found a far better vent for them by this means than yet this realm ever had; and that without depending either upon france, spain, flanders, portugal, hamborough, emden, or any other part of europe. . also here we shall increase both our ships and mariners without burdening of the state. . and also have occasion to set poor men's children to learn handicrafts, and thereby to make trifles and such like, which the indians and those people do much esteem; by reason whereof, there should be none occasion to have our country cumbered with loiterers, vagabonds, and such like idle persons. all these commodities would grew by following this our discovery without injury done to any christian prince by crossing them in any of their used trades, whereby they might take any just occasion of offence. thus have i briefly showed you some part of the grounds of my opinion, trusting that you will no longer judge me fantastic in this matter, seeing i have conceived no hope of this voyage, but am persuaded thereunto by the best cosmographers of our age, the same being confirmed both by reason and certain experiences. also this discovery hath been divers times heretofore by others both proposed, attempted, and performed. it hath been proposed by stephen gomez unto carolus, the fifth emperor in the year of our lord , as alphonse ullva testifieth in the story of carolus' life, who would have set him forth in it (as the story mentioneth) if the great want of money, by reason of his long wars, had not caused him to surcease the same. and the king of portugal, fearing lest the emperor would have persevered in this his enterprise, gave him, to leave the matter unattempted, the sum of , crowns; and it is to be supposed that the king of portugal would not have given to the emperor such sums of money for eggs in moonshine. it hath been attempted by corterialis the portuguese, scolmus the dane, and by sebastian cabot in the time of king henry vii. and it hath been performed by the three brethren, the indians aforesaid, and by urdaneta, the friar of mexico. also divers have proposed the like unto the french king, who hath sent two or three times to have discovered the same; the discoverers spending and consuming their victuals in searching the gulfs and bays between florida and labrador, whereby the ice is broken to the after-comers. so that the right way may now be easily found out in short time, and that with little jeopardy and less expenses. for america is discovered so far towards the north as cape frido, which is at degrees, and that part of greenland next adjoining is known to stand but at degrees; so that we have but degrees to sail north and south to put the world out of doubt hereof; and it is likely that the king of spain and the king of portugal would not have sat out all this while but that they are sure to possess to themselves all that trade they now use, and fear to deal in this discovery lest the queen's majesty, having so good opportunity, and finding the commodity which thereby might ensue to the commonwealth, would cut them off and enjoy the whole traffic to herself, and thereby the spaniards and portuguese with their great charges should beat the bush and other men catch the birds; which thing they foreseeing, have commanded that no pilot of theirs, upon pain of death, should seek to discover to the north-west, or plat out in any sea-card any through passage that way by the north-west. now, if you will impartially compare the hope that remaineth to animate me to this enterprise with those likelihoods which columbus alleged before ferdinando, the king of castilia, to prove that there were such islands in the west ocean as were after by him and others discovered, to the great commodity of spain and all the world, you will think then that this north-west passage to be most worthy travel therein. for columbus had none of the west islands set forth unto him either in globe or card, neither yet once mentioned of any writer (plato excepted, and the commentaries upon the same) from years before christ until that day. moreover, columbus himself had neither seen america nor any other of the islands about it, neither understood he of them by the report of any other that had seen them, but only comforted himself with this hope, that the land had a beginning where the sea had an ending. for as touching that which the spaniards do write of a biscaine which should have taught him the way thither, it is thought to be imagined of them to deprive columbus of his honour, being none of their countryman, but a stranger born. and if it were true of the biscaine, yet did he but hit upon the matter, or, at the least, gathered the knowledge of it by conjectures only. and albeit myself have not seen this passage, or any part thereof, but am ignorant of it as touching experience as columbus was before his attempt was made, yet have i both the report, relation, and authority of divers most credible men, which have both seen and passed through some and every part of this discovery, besides sundry reasons for my assurance thereof, all which columbus wanted. these things considered and impartially weighed together, with the wonderful commodities which this discovery may bring, especially to this realm of england, i must needs conclude with learned baptista ramusius, and divers other learned men, who said that this discovery hath been reserved for some noble prince or worthy man, thereby to make himself rich, and the world happy: desiring you to accept in good part this brief and simple discourse, written in haste, which, if i may perceive that it shall not sufficiently satisfy you in this behalf, i will then impart unto you a large discourse, which i have written only of this discovery. and further, because it sufficeth not only to knew that such a thing there is, without ability to perform the same, i will at leisure make you partaker of another simple discourse of navigation, wherein i have not a little travelled, to make myself as sufficient to bring these things to effect as i have been ready to offer myself therein. and therein i have devised to amend the errors of usual sea-cards, whose common fault is to make the degrees of longitude in every latitude of one like bigness. and have also devised therein a spherical instrument, with a compass of variation for the perfect knowing of the longitude. and a precise order to prick the sea-card, together with certain infallible rules for the shortening of any discovery, to know at the first entering of any strait whether it lies open to the ocean more ways than one, how far soever the sea stretcheth itself into the land. desiring you hereafter never to mislike with me for the taking in hand of any laudable and honest enterprise, for if, through pleasure and idleness, we purchase shame, the pleasure vanisheth, but the shame remaineth for ever. and therefore, to give me leave without offence always to live and die in this mind, _that he is not worthy to live at all that for fear or danger of death shunneth his country's service and his own honour_, seeing death is inevitable, and the fame of virtue immortal. wherefore, in this behalf, _mutare vel timere sperno_. certain other reasons or arguments to prove a passage by the north-west. _learnedly written by master richard willes_, _gentleman_. four famous ways there be spoken of to those fruitful and wealthy islands, which we do usually call moluccas, continually haunted for gain, and daily travelled for riches therein growing. these islands, although they stand east from the meridian, distant almost half the length of the world, in extreme heat under the equinoctial line, possessed of infidels and barbarians, yet by our neighbours great abundance of wealth there is painfully sought in respect of the voyage dearly bought, and from thence dangerously brought home to us. our neighbours i call the portuguese, in comparison of the molucchians for nearness unto us, for like situation westward as we have for their usual trade with us; for that the far south-easterings do know this part of europe by no other name than portugal, not greatly acquainted as yet with the other nations thereof. their voyage is very well understood of all men, and the south-eastern way round about africa, by the cape of good hope, more spoken of, better known and travelled, than that it may seem needful to discourse thereof any farther. the second way lieth south-west, between the west indies, or south america, and the south continent, through that narrow strait where magellan, first of all men that ever we do read of, passed these latter years, caving thereunto therefore his name. this way, no doubt, the spaniards would commodiously take, for that it lieth near unto their dominions there, could the eastern current and levant winds as easily suffer men to return as speedily therewith they may be carried thither; for the which difficulty, or rather impossibility of striving against the force both of wind and stream, this passage is little or nothing used, although it be very well known. the third way, by the north-east, beyond all europe and asia, that worthy and renowned knight sir hugh willoughbie sought to his peril, enforced there to end his life for cold, congealed and frozen to death. and, truly, this way consisteth rather in the imagination of geographers than allowable either in reason, or approved by experience, as well it may appear by the dangerous trending of the scythian cape set by ortellius under the th degree north, by the unlikely sailing in that northern sea, always clad with ice and snow, or at the least continually pestered therewith, if haply it be at any time dissolved, beside bays and shelves, the water waxing more shallow towards the east, to say nothing of the foul mists and dark fogs in the cold clime, of the little power of the sun to clear the air, of the uncomfortable nights, so near the pole, five months long. a fourth way to go unto these aforesaid happy islands, the moluccas, sir humphrey gilbert, a learned and valiant knight, discourseth of at large in his new "passage to cathay." the enterprise of itself being virtuous, the fact must doubtless deserve high praise, and whensoever it shall be finished the fruits thereof cannot be small; where virtue is guide, there is fame a follower, and fortune a companion. but the way is dangerous, the passage doubtful, the voyage not thoroughly known, and therefore gainsaid by many, after this manner. first, who can assure us of any passage rather by the north-west than by the north-east? do not both ways lie in equal distance from the north pole? stand not the north capes of either continent under like elevation? is not the ocean sea beyond america farther distant from our meridian by thirty or forty degrees west than the extreme points of cathay eastward, if ortellius' general card of the world be true? in the north-east that noble knight--sir hugh willoughbie perished for cold, and can you then promise a passenger any better hap by the north-west, who hath gone for trial's sake, at any time, this way out of europe to cathay? if you seek the advice herein of such as make profession in cosmography, ptolemy, the father of geography, and his eldest children, will answer by their maps with a negative, concluding most of the sea within the land, and making an end of the world northward, near the rd degree. the same opinion, when learning chiefly flourished, was received in the romans' time, as by their poets' writings it may appear. "et te colet ultima thule," said virgil, being of opinion that iceland was the extreme part of the world habitable toward the north. joseph moletius, an italian, and mercator, a german, for knowledge men able to be compared with the best geographers of our time, the one in his half spheres of the whole world, the other in some of his great globes, have continued the west indies land, even to the north pole, and consequently cut off all passage by sea that way. the same doctors, mercator in other of his globes and maps, moletius in his sea-card, nevertheless doubting of so great continuance of the former continent, have opened a gulf betwixt the west indies and the extreme northern land; but such a one that either is not to be travelled for the causes in the first objection alleged, or clean shut up from us in europe by greenland, the south end whereof moletius maketh firm land with america, the north part continent with lapland and norway. thirdly, the greatest favourers of this voyage cannot deny but that, if any such passage be, it lieth subject unto ice and snow for the most part of the year, whereas it standeth in the edge of the frosty zone. before the sun hath warmed the air and dissolved the ice, each one well knoweth that there can be no sailing; the ice once broken through the continual abode, the sun maketh a certain season in those parts. how shall it be possible for so weak a vessel as a ship is to hold out amid whole islands, as it were, of ice continually beating on each side, and at the mouth of that gulf, issuing down furiously from the north, safely to pass, when whole mountains of ice and snow shall be tumbled down upon her? well, grant the west indies not to continue continent unto the pole, grant there be a passage between these two lands, let the gulf lie nearer us than commonly in cards we find it set, namely, between the sixty-first and sixty-fourth degrees north, as gemma frisius in his maps and globes imagineth it, and so left by our countryman sebastian cabot in his table which the earl of bedford hath at theinies; let the way be void of all difficulties, yet doth it not follow that we have free passage to cathay. for example's sake, you may coast all norway, finmarke, and lapland, and then bow southward to st. nicholas, in moscovy. you may likewise in the mediterranean sea fetch constantinople and the mouth of the don, yet is there no passage by sea through moscovy into pont euxine, now called mare maggiore. again, in the aforesaid mediterranean sea we sail to alexandria in egypt, the barbarians bring their pearl and spices from the moluccas up the red sea and arabian gulf to suez, scarcely three days' journey from the aforesaid haven; yet have we no way by sea from alexandria to the moluccas for that isthmus or little trait of land between the two seas. in like manner, although the northern passage be free at sixty-one degrees latitude, and the west ocean beyond america, usually called mare del sur, known to be open at forty degrees elevation for the island of japan, yea, three hundred leagues northerly of japan, yet may there be land to hinder the through passage that way by sea, as in the examples aforesaid it falleth out, asia and america there being joined together in one continent. nor can this opinion seem altogether frivolous unto any one that diligently peruseth our cosmographers' doings. josephus moletius is of that mind, not only in his plain hemispheres of the world, but also in his sea-card. the french geographers in like manner be of the same opinion, as by their map cut out in form of a heart you may perceive as though the west indies were part of asia, which sentence well agreeth with that old conclusion in the schools, _quid-quid praeter africum et europam est_, _asia est_, "whatsoever land doth neither appertain unto africa nor to europe is part of asia." furthermore, it were to small purpose to make so long, so painful, so doubtful a voyage by such a new found way, if in cathay you should neither be suffered to land for silks and silver, nor able to fetch the molucca spices and pearl for piracy in those seas. of a law denying all aliens to enter into china, and forbidding all the inhabiters under a great penalty to let in any stranger into those countries, shall you read in the report of galeotto petera, there imprisoned with other portuguese, as also in the japanese letters, how for that cause the worthy traveller xavierus bargained with a barbarian merchant for a great sum of pepper to be brought into canton, a port in cathay. the great and dangerous piracy used in those seas no man can be ignorant of that listeth to read the japanese and indian history. finally, all this great labour would be lost, all these charges spent in vain, if in the end our travellers might not be able to return again, and bring safely home into their own native country that wealth and riches they in foreign regions with adventure of goods and danger of their lives have sought for. by the north-east there is no way; the south-east passage the portuguese do hold, as the lords of those seas. at the south-west, magellan's experience hath partly taught us, and partly we are persuaded by reason, how the eastern current striketh so furiously on that strait, and falleth with such force into that narrow gulf, that hardly any ship can return that way into our west ocean out of mare del sur. the which, if it be true, as truly it is, then we may say that the aforesaid eastern current, or levant course of waters, continually following after the heavenly motions, loseth not altogether its force, but is doubled rather by another current from out the north-east, in the passage between america and the north land, whither it is of necessity carried, having none other way to maintain itself in circular motion, and consequently the force and fury thereof to be no less in the strait of anian, where it striketh south into mare del sur beyond america (if any such strait of sea there be), than in the strait of magellan, both straits being of like breadth, as in belognine salterius' table of "new france," and in don diego hermano de toledo's card for navigation in that region, we do find precisely set down. nevertheless, to approve that there lieth a way to cathay at the north-west from out of europe, we have experience, namely of three brethren that went that journey, as gemma frisius recordeth, and left a name unto that strait, whereby now it is called fretum trium fratrum. we do read again of a portuguese that passed this strait, of whom master frobisher speaketh, that was imprisoned therefore many years in lisbon, to verify the old spanish proverb, "i suffer for doing well." likewise, an. urdaneta, a friar of mexico, came out of mare del sur this way into germany; his card, for he was a great discoverer, made by his own experience and travel in that voyage, hath been seen by gentlemen of good credit. now if the observation and remembrance of things breedeth experience, and of experience proceedeth art, and the certain knowledge we have in all faculties, as the best philosophers that ever were do affirm truly the voyage of these aforesaid travellers that have gone out of europe into mare del sur, and returned thence at the north-west, do most evidently conclude that way to be navigable, and that passage free; so much the more we are so to think, for that the first principle and chief ground in all geography, as ptolemy saith, is the history of travel, that is, reports made by travellers skilful in geography and astronomy, of all such things in their journey as to geography do belong. it only remaineth, that we now answer to those arguments that seemed to make against this former conclusion. the first objection is of no force, that general table of the world, set forth by ortellius or mercator, for it greatly skilleth not, being unskilfully drawn for that point, as manifestly it may appear unto any one that compareth the same with gemma frisius' universal map, with his round quartered card, with his globe, with sebastian cabot's table, and ortellius' general map alone, worthily preferred in this case before all mercator's and ortellius' other doings: for that cabot was not only a skilful seaman, but a long traveller, and such a one as entered personally that strait, sent by king henry vii. to make this aforesaid discovery, as in his own discourse of navigation you may read in his card drawn with his own hand, that the mouth of the north-western strait lieth near the th meridian, between and degrees in the elevation, continuing the same breadth about ten degrees west, where it openeth southerly more and more, until it come under the tropic of cancer; and so runneth into mare del sur, at the least degrees more in breadth there than it was where it first began; otherwise i could as well imagine this passage to be more unlikely than the voyage to moscovy, and more impossible than it for the far situation and continuance thereof in the frosty clime: as now i can affirm it to be very possible and most likely in comparison thereof, for that it neither coasteth so far north as the moscovian passage doth, neither is this strait so long as that, before it bow down southerly towards the sun again. the second argument concludeth nothing. ptolemy knew not what was above degrees south beyond the equinoctial line, he was ignorant of all passages northward from the elevation of degrees, he knew no ocean sea beyond asia, yet have the portuguese trended the cape of good hope at the south point of africa, and travelled to japan, an island in the east ocean, between asia and america; our merchants in the time of king edward the sixth discovered the moscovian passage farther north than thule, and showed greenland not to be continent with lapland and norway: the like our north-western travellers have done, declaring by their navigation that way the ignorance of all cosmographers that either do join greenland with america, or continue the west indies with that frosty region under the north pole. as for virgil, he sang according to the knowledge of men in his time, as another poet did of the hot zone. quarum quae media est, non est habitabilis aestu. imagining, as most men then did, zonam torridam, the hot zone, to be altogether dishabited for heat, though presently we know many famous and worthy kingdoms and cities in that part of the earth, and the island of s. thomas near ethiopia, and the wealthy islands for the which chiefly all these voyages are taken in hand, to be inhabited even under the equinoctial line. to answer the third objection, besides cabot and all other travellers' navigations, the only credit of master frobisher may suffice, who lately, through all these islands of ice and mountains of snow, passed that way, even beyond the gulf that tumbleth down from the north, and in some places, though he drew one inch thick ice, as he returning in august did, came home safely again. the fourth argument is altogether frivolous and vain, for neither is there any isthmus or strait of land between america and asia, nor can these two lands jointly be one continent. the first part of my answer is manifestly allowed by homer, whom that excellent geographer, strabo, followeth, yielding him in this faculty the prize. the author of that book likewise _on the universe_ to alexander, attributed unto aristotle, is of the same opinion that homer and strabo be of, in two or three places. dionysius, in his _periegesis_, hath this verse, "so doeth the ocean sea run round about the world:" speaking only of europe, africa, and asia, as then asia was travelled and known. with these doctors may you join pomponius mela, pliny, pius, in his description of asia. all the which writers do no less confirm the whole eastern side of asia to be compassed about with the sea; then plato doth affirm in is _timaeus_, under the name atlantis, the west indies to be an island, as in a special discourse thereof r. eden writeth, agreeable unto the sentence of proclus, marsilius ficinus, and others. out of plato it is gathered that america is an island. homer, strabo, aristotle, dionysius, mela, pliny, pius, affirm the continent of asia, africa, and europe, to be environed with the ocean. i may therefore boldly say (though later intelligences thereof had we none at all) that asia and the west indies be not tied together by any isthmus or strait of land, contrary to the opinion of some new cosmographers, by whom doubtfully this matter hath been brought in controversy. and thus much for the first part of my answer unto the fourth objection. the second part, namely, that america and asia cannot be one continent, may thus be proved:--"the most rivers take down that way their course, where the earth is most hollow and deep," writeth aristotle; and the sea (saith he in the same place), as it goeth further, so is it found deeper. into what gulf do the moscovian rivers onega, dwina, ob, pour out their streams? northward out of moscovy into the sea. which way doth that sea strike? the south is main land, the eastern coast waxeth more and more shallow: from the north, either naturally, because that part of the earth is higher, or of necessity, for that the forcible influence of some northern stars causeth the earth there to shake off the sea, as some philosophers do think; or, finally, for the great store of waters engendered in that frosty and cold climate, that the banks are not able to hold them. from the north, i say, continually falleth down great abundance of water; so this north-eastern current must at the length abruptly bow toward us south on the west side of finmark and norway, or else strike down south-west above greenland, or betwixt greenland and iceland, into the north-west strait we speak of, as of congruence it doth, if you mark the situation of that region, and by the report of master frobisher experience teacheth us. and, master frobisher, the further he travelled in the former passage, as he told me, the deeper always he found the sea. lay you now the sum hereof together, the rivers run where the channels are most hollow, the sea in taking his course waxeth deeper, the sea waters fall continually from the north southward, the north-eastern current striketh down into the strait we speak of and is there augmented with whole mountains of ice and snow falling down furiously out from the land under the north pole. where store of water is, there is it a thing impossible to want sea; where sea not only doth not want, but waxeth deeper, there can be discovered no land. finally, whence i pray you came the contrary tide, that master frobisher met withal, after that he had sailed no small way in that passage, if there be any isthmus or strait of land betwixt the aforesaid north-western gulf and mare del sur, to join asia and america together? that conclusion arrived at in the schools, "whatsoever land doth neither appertain unto africa, nor to europe, is part of asia," was meant of the parts of the world then known, and so is it of right to be understood. the fifth objection requireth for answer wisdom and policy in the traveller to win the barbarians' favour by some good means; and so to arm and strengthen himself, that when he shall have the repulse in one coast, he may safely travel to another, commodiously taking his convenient times, and discreetly making choice of them with whom he will thoroughly deal. to force a violent entry would for us englishmen be very hard, considering the strength and valour of so great a nation, far distant from us, and the attempt thereof might be most perilous unto the doers, unless their park were very good. touching their laws against strangers, you shall read nevertheless in the same relations of galeotto perera, that the cathaian king is wont to grant free access unto all foreigners that trade into his country for merchandise, and a place of liberty for them to remain in; as the moors had, until such time as they had brought the loutea or lieutenant of that coast to be a circumcised saracen: wherefore some of them were put to the sword, the rest were scattered abroad; at fuquien, a great city in china, certain of them are yet this day to be seen. as for the japanese, they be most desirous to be acquainted with strangers. the portuguese, though they were straitly handled there at the first, yet in the end they found great favour at the prince's hands, insomuch that the loutea or president that misused them was therefore put to death. the rude indian canoe voyageth in those seas, the portuguese, the saracens, and moors travel continually up and down that reach from japan to china, from china to malacca, from malacca to the moluccas, and shall an englishman better appointed than any of them all (that i say no more of our navy) fear to sail in that ocean? what seat at all do want piracy? what navigation is there void of peril? to the last argument our travellers need not to seek their return by the north-east, neither shall they be constrained, except they list, either to attempt magellan's strait at the south-west, or to be in danger of the portuguese on the south-east; they may return by the north-west, that same way they do go forth, as experience hath showed. the reason alleged for proof of the contrary may be disposed after this manner: and first, it may be called in controversy, whether any current continually be forced by the motion of primum mobile, round about the world or no; for learned men do diversely handle that question. the natural course of all waters is downward, wherefore of congruence they fall that way where they find the earth most low and deep: in respect whereof, it was erst said, the seas do strike from the northern lands southerly. violently the seas are tossed and troubled divers ways with the winds, increased and diminished by the course of the moon, hoisted up and down through the sundry operations of the sun and the stars: finally, some be of opinion that the seas be carried in part violently about the world, after the daily motion of the highest movable heaven, in like manner as the elements of air and fire, with the rest of the heavenly spheres, are from the east unto the west. and this they do call their eastern current, or levant stream. some such current may not be denied to be of great force in the hot zone, for the nearness thereof unto the centre of the sun, and blustering eastern winds violently driving the seas westward; howbeit in the temperate climes the sun being farther off, and the winds more diverse, blowing as much from the north, the west, and south, as from the east, this rule doth not effectually withhold us from travelling eastwards, neither be we kept ever back by the aforesaid levant winds and stream. but in magellan strait we are violently driven back westward, ergo through the north-western strait or anian frith shall we not be able to return eastward: it followeth not. the first, for that the north-western strait hath more sea room at the least by one hundred english miles than magellan's strait hath, the only want whereof causeth all narrow passages generally to be most violent. so would i say in the anian gulf, if it were so narrow as don diego and zalterius have painted it out, any return that way to be full of difficulties, in respect of such straitness thereof, not for the nearness of the sun or eastern winds, violently forcing that way any levant stream; but in that place there is more sea room by many degrees, if the cards of cabot and gemma frisius, and that which tramezine imprinted, be true. and hitherto reasons see i none at all, but that i may as well give credit unto their doings as to any of the rest. it must be _peregrinationis historia_, that is, true reports of skilful travellers, as ptolemy writeth, that in such controversies of geography must put us out of doubt. ortellius, in his universal tables, in his particular maps of the west indies, of all asia, of the northern kingdoms, of the east indies; mercator in some of his globes and general maps of the world, moletius in his universal table of the globe divided, in his sea-card and particular tables of the east indies zanterius and don diego with fernando bertely, and others, do so much differ both from gemma frisius and cabot among themselves, and in divers places from themselves, concerning the divers situation and sundry limits of america, that one may not so rashly as truly surmise these men either to be ignorant in those points touching the aforesaid region, or that the maps they have given out unto the world were collected only by them, and never of their own drawing. the first voyage of master martin frobisher _to the north-west for the search of the passage or strait to china_, _written by christopher hall_, _and made in the year of our lord _. upon monday, the thirteenth of may, the barque _gabriel_ was launched at redriffe, and upon the twenty-seventh day following she sailed from redriffe to ratcliffe. the seventh of june being thursday, the two barques, viz., the _gabriel_ and the _michael_, and our pinnace, set sail at ratcliffe, and bare down to deptford, and there we anchored. the cause was, that our pinnace burst her bowsprit and foremast aboard of a ship that rowed at deptford, else we meant to have passed that day by the court, then at greenwich. the eighth day being friday, about twelve o'clock, we weighed at deptford and set sail all three of us and bare down by the court, where we shot off our ordinance, and made the best show we could; her majesty beholding the same commended it, and bade us farewell with shaking her hand at us out of the window. afterwards she sent a gentleman aboard of us, who declared that her majesty had good liking of our doings, and thanked us for it, and also willed our captain to come the next day to the court to take his leave of her. the same day, towards night, master secretary woolley came aboard of us, and declared to the company that her majesty had appointed him to give them charge to be obedient, and diligent to their captain and governors in all things, and wished us happy success. the ninth day about noon, the wind being westerly, having our anchors aboard ready to set sail to depart, we wanted some of our company, and therefore stayed and moored them again. sunday, the tenth of june, we set sail from blackwall at a south-west and by west sun, the wind being at north-north-west, and sailed to gravesend, and anchored there at a west-north-west sun, the wind being as before. the twelfth day, being over against gravesend, by the castle or blockhouse, we observed the latitude, which was degrees minutes, and in that place the variation of the compass is degrees and a half. this day we departed from gravesend at a west-south-west sun, the wind at north and by east a fair gale, and sailed to the west part of tilbury hope, and so turned down the hope, and at a west sun the wind came to the east-south-east, and we anchored in seven fathoms, being low water. [here there follows an abstract of the ship's log, showing the navigation until the th of july, when they had sight of land supposed to be labrador.] july th. from to , leagues: from . to , leagues: from to , north and by west, leagues, but very foggy; from thence to of the clock in the morning little wind, but at the clearing up of the fog we had sight of land, which i supposed to be labrador, with great store of ice about the land; i ran in towards it, and sounded, but could get no land at fathoms, and the ice being so thick i could not get to the shore, and so lay off and came clear of the ice. upon monday we came within a mile of the shore, and sought a harbour; all the sound was full of ice, and our boat rowing ashore could get no ground at fathom, within a cable's length of the shore; then we sailed east-north-east along the shore, for so the land lieth, and the current is there great, setting north-east and south-west; and if we could have gotten anchor ground we would have seen with what force it had run, but i judge a ship may drive a league and a half in one hour with that tide. this day, at four of the clock in the morning, being fair and clear, we had sight of a headland as we judged bearing from us north and by east, and we sailed north-east and by north to that land, and when we came thither we could not get to the land for ice, for the ice stretched along the coast, so that we could not come to the land by leagues. wednesday, the first of august, it calmed, and in the afternoon i caused my boat to be hoisted out, being hard by a great island of ice, and i and four men rowed to that ice, and sounded within two cables' length of it, and had fathoms and little stones, and after that sounded again within a minion's shot, and had ground at fathoms, and fair sand. we sounded the next day a quarter of a mile from it, and had fathoms rough ground, and at that present being aboard, that great island of ice fell one part from another, making a noise as if a great cliff had fallen into the sea. and at of the clock i sounded again, and had fathoms, and small black stones, and little white stones like pearls. the tide here did set to the shore. we sailed this day south-south-east ofward, and laid it a tric. the next day was calm and thick, with a great sea. the next day we sailed south and by east two leagues, and at of the clock in the forenoon we cast about to the eastward. the sixth day it cleared, and we ran north-west into the shore to get a harbour, and being towards night, we notwithstanding kept at sea. the seventh day we plied room with the shore, but being near it it waxed thick, and we bare off again. the eighth day we bended in towards the shore again. the ninth day we sounded, but could get no ground at fathoms. the weather was calm. the tenth i took four men and myself, and rode to shore, to an island one league from the main, and there the flood setteth south-west along the shore, and it floweth as near as i could judge so too. i could not tarry to prove it, because the ship was a great way from me, and i feared a fog; but when i came ashore it was low water. i went to the top of the islands and before i came back it was hied a foot water, and so without tarrying i came aboard. the eleventh we found our latitude to be degrees and minutes, and this day entered the strait. the twelfth we set sail towards an island called the gabriel's island, which was leagues then from us. we espied a sound, and bare with it, and came to a sandy bay, where we came to an anchor, the land bearing east-south-east of us, and there we rode all night in fathom water. it floweth there at a south-east moon; we called it prior's sound, being from the gabriel's island leagues. the fourteenth we weighed and ran into another sound, where we anchored in fathoms water, fair sand, and black ooze, and there caulked our ship, being weak from the gunwales upward, and took in fresh water. the fifteenth day we weighed, and sailed to prior's bay, being a mile from thence. the sixteenth day was calm, and we rode still without ice, but presently within two hours it was frozen round about the ship, a quarter of an inch thick, and that bay very fair and calm. the seventeenth day we weighed, and came to thomas william's island. the eighteenth day we sailed north-north-west and anchored again in fathoms, and caught ooze under bircher's island, which is from the former island leagues. the nineteenth day in the morning, being calm, and no wind, the captain and i took our boat, with eight men in her, to row us ashore, to see if there were there any people, or no, and going to the top of the island, we had sight of seven boats, which came rowing from the east side toward that island; whereupon we returned aboard again. at length we sent our boat, with five men in her, to see whither they rowed, and so with a white cloth brought one of their boats with their men along the shore, rowing after our boat, till such time as they saw our ship, and then they rowed ashore. then i went on shore myself, and gave every of them a threaden point, and brought one of them aboard of me, where he did eat and drink, and then carried him on shore again. whereupon all the rest came aboard with their boats, being nineteen persons, and they spake, but we understood them not. they be like to tartars, with long black hair, broad faces, and flat noses, and tawny in colour, wearing seal skins, and so do the women, not differing in the fashion, but the women are marked in the face with blue streaks down the cheeks and round about the eyes. their boats are made all of seal skins, with a keel of wood within the skin: the proportion of them is like a spanish shallop, save only they be flat in the bottom and sharp at both ends. the twentieth day we weighed, and went to the east side of this island, and i and the captain, with four men more, went on shore, and there we saw their houses, and the people espying us, came rowing towards our boat, whereupon we plied to our boat; and we being in our boat and they ashore, they called to us, and we rowed to them, and one of their company came into our boat, and we carried him aboard, and gave him a bell and a knife; so the captain and i willed five of our men to set him ashore at a rock, and not among the company which they came from, but their wilfulness was such that they would go to them, and so were taken themselves and our boat lost. the next day in the morning we stood in near the shore and shot off a fauconet, and sounded our trumpet, but we could hear nothing of our men. this sound we called the five men's sound, and plied out of it, but anchored again in fathoms and ooze; and riding there all night, in the morning the snow lay a foot thick upon our hatches. the two-and-twentieth day in the morning we weighed, and went again to the place where we lost our men and our boat. we had sight of fourteen boats, and some came near to us, but we could learn nothing of our men. among the rest, we enticed one in a boat to our ship's side with a bell; and in giving him the bell we took him and his boat, and so kept him, and so rowed down to thomas william's island, and there anchored all night. the twenty-sixth day we weighed to come homeward, and by twelve of the clock at noon we were thwart of trumpet's island. the next day we came thwart of gabriel's island, and at eight of the clock at night we had the cape labrador west from us ten leagues. the twenty-eighth day we went our course south-east. we sailed south-east and by east, twenty-two leagues. the first day of september, in the morning, we had sight of the land of friesland, being eight leagues from us, but we could not come nearer it for the monstrous ice that lay about it. from this day till the sixth of this month we ran along iceland, and had the south part of it at eight of the clock east from us ten leagues. the seventh day of this month we had a very terrible storm, by force whereof one of our men was blown into the sea out of our waste, but he caught hold of the foresail sheet, and there held till the captain plucked him again into the ship. the twenty-fifth day of this month we had sight of the island of orkney, which was then east from us. the first day of october we had sight of the sheld, and so sailed along the coast, and anchored at yarmouth, and the next day we came into harwich. the language of the people of meta incognita. argotteyt, a hand. attegay, a coat. cangnawe, a nose. polleuetagay, a knife. arered, an eye. accaskay, a ship. keiotot, a tooth. coblone, a thumb. mutchatet, the head. teckkere, the foremost finger. chewat, an ear. ketteckle, the middle finger. comagaye, a leg. mekellacane, the fourth finger. atoniagay, a foot. callagay, a pair of breeches. yachethronc, the little finger. the second voyage of master martin frobisher, _made to the west and north-west regions in the year _, _with a description of the country and people_, _written by dionise settle_. on whit sunday, being the sixth-and-twentieth day of may, in the year of our lord god , captain frobisher departed from blackwall--with one of the queen's majesty's ships called the _aid_, of nine score ton or thereabout, and two other little barques likewise, the one called the _gabriel_, whereof master fenton, a gentleman of my lord of warwick's, was captain; and the other the _michael_, whereof master york, a gentleman of my lord admiral's, was captain, accompanied with seven score gentlemen, soldiers, and sailors, well furnished with victuals and other provisions necessary for one half year--on this, his second year, for the further discovering of the passage to cathay and other countries thereunto adjacent, by west and north-west navigations, which passage or way is supposed to be on the north and north-west parts of america, and the said america to be an island environed with the sea, where through our merchants might have course and recourse with their merchandise from these our northernmost parts of europe, to those oriental coasts of asia in much shorter time and with greater benefit than any others, to their no little commodity and profit that do or shall traffic the same. our said captain and general of this present voyage and company, having the year before, with two little pinnaces to his great danger, and no small commendations, given a worthy attempt towards the performance thereof, is also pressed when occasion shall be ministered to the benefit of his prince and native country--to adventure himself further therein. as for this second voyage, it seemeth sufficient that he hath better explored and searched the commodities of those people and countries, with sufficient commodity unto the adventurers, which, in his first voyage the year before, he had found out. upon which considerations the day and year before expressed, he departed from blackwall to harwich, where making an accomplishment of things necessary, the last of may we hoisted up sails, and with a merry wind the th of june we arrived at the islands called orchades, or vulgarly orkney, being in number thirty, subject and adjacent to scotland, where we made provision of fresh water, in the doing whereof our general licensed the gentlemen and soldiers, for their recreation, to go on shore. at our landing the people fled from their poor cottages with shrieks and alarms, to warn their neighbours of enemies, but by gentle persuasions we reclaimed them to their houses. it seemeth they are often frighted with pirates, or some other enemies, that move them to such sudden fear. their houses are very simply builded with pebble stone, without any chimneys, the fire being made in the midst thereof. the good man, wife, children, and other of their family, eat and sleep on the one side of the house, and their cattle on the other, very beastly and rudely in respect of civilisation. they are destitute of wood, their fire is turf and cow shardes. they have corn, bigge, and oats, with which they pay their king's rent to the maintenance of his house. they take great quantity of fish, which they dry in the wind and sun; they dress their meat very filthily, and eat it without salt. their apparel is after the nudest sort of scotland. their money is all base. their church and religion is reformed according to the scots. the fishermen of england can better declare the dispositions of those people than i, wherefore i remit other their usages to their reports, as yearly repairers thither in their courses to and from iceland for fish. we departed here hence the th of june, and followed our course between west and north-west until the th of july, all which time we had no night, but that easily, and without any impediment, we had, when we were so disposed, the fruition of our books, and other pleasures to pass away the time, a thing of no small moment to such as wander in unknown seas and long navigations, especially when both the winds and raging surges do pass their common and wonted course. this benefit endureth in those parts not six weeks, whilst the sun is near the tropic of cancer, but where the pole is raised to or degrees it continueth the longer. all along these seas, after we were six days sailing from orkney, we met, floating in the sea, great fir trees, which, as we judged, were, with the fury of great floods, rooted up, and so driven into the sea. iceland hath almost no other wood nor fuel but such as they take up upon their coasts. it seemeth that these trees are driven from some part of the newfoundland, with the current that setteth from the west to the east. the th of july we came within the making of friesland. from this shore, ten or twelve leagues, we met great islands of ice of half a mile, some more, some less in compass, showing above the sea thirty or forty fathoms, and as we supposed fast on ground, where, with our lead, we could scarce sound the bottom for depth. here, in place of odoriferous and fragrant smells of sweet gums and pleasant notes of musical birds, which other countries in more temperate zones do yield, we tasted the most boisterous boreal blasts, mixed with snow and hail, in the months of june and july, nothing inferior to our untemperate winter: a sudden alteration, and especially in a place of parallel, where the pole is not elevated above degrees, at which height other countries more to the north, yea unto degrees, show themselves more temperate than this doth. all along this coast ice lieth as a continual bulwark, and so defendeth the country, that those which would land there incur great danger. our general, three days together, attempted with the ship boat to have gone on shore, which, for that without great danger he could not accomplish, he deferred it until a more convenient time. all along the coast lie very high mountains, covered with snow, except in such places where, through the steepness of the mountains, of force it must needs fall. four days coasting along this land we found no sign of habitation. little birds which we judged to have lost the shore, by reason of thick fogs which that country is much subject unto, came flying to our ships, which causeth us to suppose that the country is both more tolerable and also habitable within than the outward shore maketh show or signification. from hence we departed the th of july, and the th of the same we came with the making of land, which land our general the year before had named the queen's forehand, being an island, as we judge, lying near the supposed continent with america, and on the other side, opposite to the same, one other island, called halles isle, after the name of the master of the ship, near adjacent to the firm land, supposed continent with asia. between the which two islands there is a large entrance or strait, called frobisher's strait, after the name of our general, the first finder thereof. this said strait is supposed to have passage into the sea of sur, which i leave unknown as yet. it seemeth that either here, or not far hence, the sea should have more large entrance than in other parts within the frozen or untemperate zone, and that some contrary tide, either from the east or west, with main force casteth out that great quantity of ice which cometh floating from this coast, even unto friesland, causing that country to seem more untemperate than others much more northerly than the same. i cannot judge that any temperature under the pole, being the time of the sun's northern declination, half a year together, and one whole day (considering that the sun's elevation surmounteth not twenty-three degrees and thirty minutes), can have power to dissolve such monstrous and huge ice, comparable to great mountains, except by some other force, as by swift currents and tides, with the help of the said day of half a year. before we came within the making of these lands, we tasted cold storms, insomuch that it seemed we had changed with winter, if the length of the days had not removed us from that opinion. at our first coming, the straits seemed to be shut up with a long mure of ice, which gave no little cause of discomfort unto us all; but our general (to whose diligence, imminent dangers and difficult attempts seemed nothing in respect of his willing mind for the commodity of his prince and country), with two little pinnaces prepared of purpose, passed twice through them to the east shore, and the islands thereunto adjacent; and the ship, with the two barques, lay off and on something farther into the sea from the danger of the ice. whilst he was searching the country near the shore, some of the people of the country showed themselves, leaping and dancing, with strange shrieks and cries, which gave no little admiration to our men. our general, desirous to allure them unto him by fair means, caused knives and other things to be proffered unto them, which they would not take at our hands; but being laid on the ground, and the party going away, they came and took up, leaving something of theirs to countervail the same. at the length, two them, leaving their weapons, came down to our general and master, who did the like to them, commanding the company to stay, and went unto them, who, after certain dumb signs and mute congratulations, began to lay hands upon them, but they deliverly escaped, and ran to their bows and arrows and came fiercely upon them, not respecting the rest of our company, which were ready for their defence, but with their arrows hurt divers of them. we took the one, and the other escaped. whilst our general was busied in searching the country, and those islands adjacent on the east shore, the ships and barques, having great care not to put far into the sea from him, for that he had small store of victuals, were forced to abide in a cruel tempest, chancing in the night amongst and in the thickest of the ice, which was so monstrous that even the least of a thousand had been of force sufficient to have shivered our ship and barques into small portions, if god (who in all necessities hath care upon the infirmity of man) had not provided for this our extremity a sufficient remedy, through the light of the night, whereby we might well discern to flee from such imminent dangers, which we avoided within fourteen bourdes in one watch, the space of four hours. if we had not incurred this danger amongst these monstrous islands of ice, we should have lost our general and master, and the most of our best sailors, which were on the shore destitute of victuals; but by the valour of our master gunner, master jackman and andrew dier, the master's mates, men expert both in navigation and other good qualities, we were all content to incur the dangers afore rehearsed, before we would, with our own safety, run into the seas, to the destruction of our said general and his company. the day following, being the th of july, our captain returned to the ship with good news of great riches, which showed itself in the bowels of those barren mountains, wherewith we were all satisfied. a sudden mutation. the one part of us being almost swallowed up the night before, with cruel neptune's force, and the rest on shore, taking thought for their greedy paunches how to find the way to newfoundland; at one moment we were racked with joy, forgetting both where we were and what we had suffered. behold the glory of man: to-night contemning riches, and rather looking for death than otherwise, and to-morrow devising how to satisfy his greedy appetite with gold. within four days after we had been at the entrance of the straits, the north-west and west winds dispersed the ice into the sea, and made us a large entrance into the straits, that without impediment, on the th july, we entered them; and the th thereof our general and master, with great diligence, sought out and sounded the west shore, and found out a fair harbour for the ship and barques to ride in, and named it after our master's mate, jackman's sound, and brought the ship, barques, and all their company to safe anchor, except one man which died by god's visitation. at our first arrival, after the ship rode at anchor, general, with such company as could well be spared from the ships, in marching order entered the land, having special care by exhortations that at our entrance thereinto we should all with one voice, kneeling upon our knees, chiefly thank god for our safe arrival; secondly, beseech him that it would please his divine majesty long to continue our queen, for whom he, and all the rest of our company, in this order took possession of the country; and thirdly, that by our christian study and endeavour, those barbarous people, trained up in paganry and infidelity, might be reduced to the knowledge of true religion, and to the hope of salvation in christ our redeemer, with other words very apt to signify his willing mind and affection towards his prince and country, whereby all suspicion of an undutiful subject may credibly be judged to be utterly exempted from his mind. all the rest of the gentlemen, and others, deserve worthily herein their due praise and commendation. these things in order accomplished, our general commanded all the company to be obedient in things needful for our own safeguard to master fenton, master yorke, and master beast, his lieutenant, while he was occupied in other necessary affairs concerning our coming thither. after this order we marched through the country, with ensign displayed, so far as was thought needful, and now and then heaped up stones on high mountains and other places, in token of possession, as likewise to signify unto such as hereafter may chance to arrive there that possession is taken in the behalf of some other prince by those which first found out the country. whose maketh navigation to these countries hath not only extreme winds and furious seas to encounter withal, but also many monstrous and great islands of ice: a thing both rare, wonderful, and greatly to be regarded. we were forced sundry times, while the ship did ride here at anchor, to have continual watch, with boats and men ready with hawsers, to knit fast unto such ice which with the ebb and flood were tossed to and fro in the harbour, and with force of oars to hail them away, for endangering the ship. our general certain days searched this supposed continent with america, and not finding the commodity to answer his expectations, after he had made trial thereof, he departed thence, with two little barques, and men sufficient, to the east shore, being he supposed continent of asia, and left the ship, with most of the gentlemen soldiers and sailors, until such time as he either thought good to send or come for them. the stones on this supposed continent with america be altogether sparkled and glister in the sun like gold; so likewise doth the sand in the bright water, yet they verify the old proverb, "all is not gold that glistereth." on this west shore we found a dead fish floating, which had in his nose a horn, straight and torquet, of length two yards lacking two inches, being broken in the top, where we might perceive it hollow, into which some of our sailors putting spiders they presently died. i saw not the trial hereof, but it was reported unto me of a truth, by the virtue whereof we supposed it to be the sea unicorn. after our general had found out good harbour for the ship and barques to anchor in, and also such store of gold ore as he thought himself satisfied withal, he returned to the _michael_, whereof master yorke aforesaid was captain, accompanied with our master and his mate, who coasting along the west shore, not far from whence the ship rode, they perceived a fair harbour, and willing to sound the same, at the entrance thereof they espied two tents of seal skins, unto which the captain, our said master, and other company resorted. at the sight of our men the people fled into the mountains; nevertheless, they went to their tents, where, leaving certain trifles of ours as glasses, bells, knives, and such like things, they departed, not taking anything of theirs except one dog. they did in like manner leave behind them a letter, pen, ink, and paper, whereby our men whom the captain lost the year before, and in that people's custody, might (if any of them were alive) be advertised of our presence and being there. on the same day, after consultation, all the gentlemen, and others likewise that could be spared from the ship, under the conduct and leading of master philpot (unto whom, in our general's absence, and his lieutenant, master beast, all the rest were obedient), went ashore, determining to see if by fair means we could either allure them to familiarity, or otherwise take some of them, and so attain to some knowledge of those men whom our general lost the year before. at our coming back again to the place where their tents were before, they had removed their tents farther into the said bay or sound, where they might, if they were driven from the land, flee with their boats into the sea. we, parting ourselves into two companies, and compassing a mountain, came suddenly upon them by land, who, espying us, without any tarrying fled to their boats, leaving the most part of their oars behind them for haste, and rowed down the bay, where our two pinnaces met them and drove them to shore. but if they had had all their oars, so swift are they in rowing, it had been lost time to have chased them. when they were landed they fiercely assaulted our men with their bows and arrows, who wounded three of them with our arrows, and perceiving themselves thus hurt they desperately leaped off the rocks into the sea and drowned themselves; which if they had not done but had submitted themselves, or if by any means we could have taken alive (being their enemies as they judged), we would both have saved them, and also have sought remedy to cure their wounds received at our hands. but they, altogether void of humanity, and ignorant what mercy meaneth, in extremities look for no other than death, and perceiving that they should fall into our hands, thus miserably by drowning rather desired death than otherwise to be saved by us. the rest, perceiving their fellows in this distress, fled into the high mountains. two women, not being so apt to escape as the men were, the one for her age, and the other being encumbered with a young child, we took. the old wretch, whom divers of our sailors supposed to be either a devil or a witch, had her buskins plucked off to see if she were cloven-footed, and for her ugly hue and deformity we let her go; the young woman and the child we brought away. we named the place where they were slain bloody point, and the bay or harbour yorke's sound, after the name of one of the captains of the two barques. having this knowledge both of their fierceness and cruelty, and perceiving that fair means as yet is not able to allure them to familiarity, we disposed ourselves, contrary to our inclination, something to be cruel, returned to their tents, and made a spoil of the same, where we found an old shirt, a doublet, a girdle, and also shoes of our men, whom we lost the year before; on nothing else unto them belonging could we set our eyes. their riches are not gold, silver, or precious drapery, but their said tents and boats made of the skins of red deer and seal skins, also dogs like unto wolves, but for the most part black, with other trifles, more to be wondered at for their strangeness than for any other commodity needful for our use. thus returning to our ship the rd of august, we departed from the west shore, supposed firm with america, after we had anchored there thirteen days, and so the th thereof we came to our general on the east shore, and anchored in a fair harbour named anne warwick's sound, and to which is annexed an island, both named after the countess of warwick--anne warwick's sound and isle. in this isle our general thought good for this voyage to freight both the ships and barques with such stone or gold mineral as he judged to countervail the charges of his first and this his second navigation to these countries, with sufficient interest to the venturers whereby they might both be satisfied for this time and also in time to come (if it please god and our prince) to expect a much more benefit out of the bowels of those septentrional parallels, which long time hath concealed itself till at this present, through the wonderful diligence and great danger of our general and others, god is contented with the revealing thereof. it riseth so abundantly, that from the beginning of august to the nd thereof (every man following the diligence of our general) we raised above ground ton, which we judged a reasonable freight for the ship and two barques in the said anne warwick's isle. in the meantime of our abode here some of the country people came to show themselves unto us sundry times from the main shore, near adjacent to the said isle. our general, desirous to have some news of his men whom he lost the year before, with some company with him repaired with the ship boat to commune or sign with them for familiarity, whereunto he is persuaded to bring them. they at the first show made tokens that three of his five men were alive, and desired pen, ink, and paper, and that within three or four days they would return, and, as we judged, bring those of our men which were living with them. they also made signs or tokens of their king, whom they called cacough, and how he was carried on men's shoulders, and a man far surmounting any of our company in bigness and stature. with these tokens and signs of writing, pen, ink, and paper were delivered them, which they would not take at our hands, but being laid upon the shore, and the party gone away, they took up; which likewise they do when they desire anything for change of theirs, laying for that which is left so much as they think will countervail the same, and not coming near together. it seemeth they have been used to this trade or traffic with some other people adjoining, or not far distant from their country. after four days some of them showed themselves upon the firm land, but not where they were before. our general, very glad thereof, supposing to hear of our men, went from the island with the boat and sufficient company with him. they seemed very glad, and allured him about a certain point of the land, behind which they might perceive a company of the crafty villains to lie lurking, whom our general would not deal withal, for that he knew not what company they were, so with few signs dismissed them and returned to his company. another time, as our said general was coasting the country with two little pinnaces, whereby at our return he might make the better relation thereof, three of the crafty villains with a white skin allured us to them. once again our general, for that he hoped to hear of his men, went towards them; at our coming near the shore whereon they were we might perceive a number of them lie hidden behind great stones, and those three in sight labouring by all means possible that some would come on land; and perceiving we made no haste, by words nor friendly signs, which they used by clapping their hands, and being without weapon, and but three in sight, they sought further means to provoke us thereunto. one alone laid flesh on the shore, which we took up with the boat-hook as necessary victuals for the relieving of the man, woman, and child whom we had taken, for that as yet they could not digest our meat; whereby they perceived themselves deceived of their expectation for all their crafty allurements. yet once again to make, as it were, a full show of their crafty natures and subtle sleights, to the intent thereby to have entrapped and taken some of our men, one of them counterfeited himself impotent and lame of his legs, who seemed to descend to the water's side with great difficulty, and to cover his craft the more one of his fellows came down with him, and in such places where he seemed unable to pass, he took him on his shoulders, set him by the water's side, and departed from him, leaving him, as it should seem, all alone; who, playing his counterfeit pageant very well, thought thereby to provoke some of us to come on shore, not fearing but that one of us might make our party good with a lame man. our general, having compassion of his impotency, thought good, if it were possible, to cure him thereof; wherefore he caused a soldier to shoot at him with his calever, which grazed before his face. the counterfeit villain deliverly fled without any impediment at all, and got him to his bow and arrows, and the rest from their lurking holes with their weapons, bows, arrows, slings, and darts. our general caused some calevers to be shot off at them, whereby, some being hurt, they might hereafter stand in more fear of us. this was all the answer for this time we could have of our men, or of our general's letter. their crafty dealing at these three several times being thus manifest unto us, may plainly show their disposition in other things to be correspondent. we judged that they used these stratagems thereby to have caught some of us for the delivering of the man, woman, and child, whom we had taken. they are men of a large corporature, and good proportion; their colour is not much unlike the sunburnt countryman, who laboureth daily in sun for his living. they wear their hair something long, and cut before either with stone or knife, very disorderly. their women wear their hair long, knit up with two loops, showing forth on either side of their faces, and the rest faltered upon a knot. also, some of their women tint their faces proportionally, as chin, cheeks, and forehead and the wrists of their hands, whereupon they lay a colour which continueth dark azurine. they eat their meat all raw, both flesh, fish, and fowl, or something parboiled with blood, and a little water, which they drink. for lack of water, they will eat ice that is hard frozen as pleasantly as we will do sugar-candy, or other sugar. if they, for necessity's sake, stand in need of the premises, such grass as the country yieldeth they pluck up and eat, not daintily, or saladwise, to allure their stomachs to appetite, but for necessity's sake, without either salt, oils, or washing, like brute beasts devouring the same. they neither use table, stool, or table-cloth for comeliness: but when they are imbrued with blood, knuckle deep, and their knives in like sort, they use their tongues as apt instruments to lick them clean; in doing whereof they are assured to lose none of their victuals. they keep certain dogs, not much unlike wolves, which they yoke together, as we do oxen and horses, to a sled or trail, and so carry their necessaries over the ice and snow, from place to place, as the captain, whom we have, made perfect signs. and when those dogs are not apt for the same use, or when with hunger they are constrained for lack of other victuals, they eat them, so that they are as needful for them, in respect of their bigness, as our oxen are for us. they apparel themselves in the skins of such beasts as they kill, sewed together with the sinews of them. all the fowl which they kill they skin, and make thereof one kind of garment or other to defend them from the cold. they make their apparel with hoods and tails, which tails they give, when they think to gratify any friendship shown unto them; a great sign of friendship with them. the men have them not so syde as the women. the men and women wear their hose close to their legs, from the waist to the knee, without any open before, as well the one kind as the other. upon their legs they wear hose of leather, with the fur side inward, two or three pair on at once, and especially the women. in those hose they put their knives, needles, and other things needful to bear about. they put a bone within their hose, which reacheth from the foot to the knee, whereupon they draw their said hose, and so in place of garters they are holden from falling down about their feet. they dress their skins very soft and supple with the hair on. in cold weather or winter they wear the fur side inward, and in summer outward. other apparel they have none but the said skins. those beasts, fishes, and fowls which they kill are their meat, drink, apparel, houses, bedding, hose, shoes, thread, and sails for their boats, with many other necessaries, whereof they stand in need, and almost all their riches. the houses are tents made of seal skins, pitched up with four fir quarters, four-square, meeting at the top, and the skins sewed together with sinews, and laid thereupon; they are so pitched up, that the entrance into them is always south, or against the sun. they have other sort of houses, which we found not to be inhabited, which are raised with stones and whalebones, and a skin laid over them to withstand the rain, or other weather; the entrance of them being not much unlike an oven's mouth, whereunto, i think, they resort for a time to fish, hunt, and fowl, and so leave them until the next time they come thither again. their weapons are bows, arrows, darts, and slings. their bows are of wood, of a yard long, sinewed on the back with firm sinews, not glued to, but fast girded and tied on. their bow strings are likewise sinews. their arrows are three pieces, nocked with bone and ended with bone; with those two ends, and the wood in the midst, they pass not in length half a yard, or little more. they are feathered with two feathers, the pen end being cut away, and the feathers laid upon the arrow with the broad side to the wood, insomuch, that they seem, when they are tied on, to have four feathers. they have likewise three sorts of heads to those arrows; one sort of stone or iron, proportioned like to a heart; the second sort of bone much like unto a stopt head, with a hook on the same, the third sort of bone likewise, made sharp at both sides, and sharp pointed. they are not made very fast, but lightly tied to, or else set in a nocke, that, upon small occasion, the arrow leaveth these heads behind them; they are of small force except they be very near when they shoot. their darts are made of two sorts: the one with many forks of bones in the fore end, and likewise in the midst; their proportions are not much unlike our toasting-irons, but longer; these they cast out of an instrument of wood very readily. the other sort is greater than the first aforesaid, with a long bone made sharp on both sides, not much unlike a rapier, which i take to be their most hurtful weapon. they have two sorts of boats made of leather, set out on the inner side with quarters of wood, artificially tied together with thongs of the same; the greater sort are not much unlike our wherries, wherein sixteen or twenty men may sit; they have for a sail dressed the guts of such beasts as they kill, very fine and thin, which they sew together; the other boat is but for one man to sit and row in, with one oar. their order of fishing, hunting, and fowling, are with these said weapons; but in what sort or how they use them we have no perfect knowledge as yet. i can suppose their abode or habitation not to be here, for that neither their houses nor apparel are of such force to withstand the extremity of cold that the country seemeth to be infected withal; neither do i see any sign likely to perform the same. those houses, or rather dens, which stand there, have no sign of footway, or anything else trodden, which is one of the chiefest tokens of habitation. and those tents, which they bring with them, when they have sufficiently hunted and fished, they remove to other places; and when they have sufficiently stored them of such victuals as the country yieldeth, or bringeth forth, they return to their winter stations or habitations. this conjecture do i make for the infertility which i perceive to be in that country. they have some iron, whereof they make arrow-heads, knives, and other little instruments, to work their boats, bows, arrows, and darts withal, which are very unapt to do anything withal, but with great labour. it seemeth that they have conversation with some other people, of whom for exchange they should receive the same. they are greatly delighted with anything that is bright or giveth a sound. what knowledge they have of god, or what idol they adore, we have no perfect intelligence. i think them rather _anthropophagi_, or devourers of man's flesh, than otherwise; that there is no flesh or fish which they find dead (smell it never so filthily), but they will eat it as they find it without any other dressing. a loathsome thing, either to the beholders or the hearers. there is no manner of creeping beast hurtful, except some spiders (which as many affirm are signs of great store of gold), and also certain stinging gnats, which bite so fiercely that the place where they bite shortly after swelleth, and itcheth very sore. they make signs of certain people that wear bright plates of gold in their foreheads and other places of their bodies. the countries on both sides the straits lie very high, with rough stony mountains, and great quantity of snow thereon. there is very little plain ground, and no grass except a little, which is much like unto moss that groweth on soft ground, such as we get turfs in. there is no wood at all. to be brief, there is nothing fit or profitable for the use of man which that country with root yieldeth or bringeth forth; howbeit there is great quantity of deer, whose skins are like unto asses, their heads or horns do far exceed, as well in length as also in breadth, any in these our parts or countries: their feet likewise are as great as our oxen's, which we measure to be seven or eight inches in breadth. there are also hares, wolves, fishing bears, and sea-fowl of sundry sorts. as the country is barren and unfertile, so are they rude, and of no capacity to culture the same to any perfection; but are contented by their hunting, fishing, and fowling, with raw flesh and warm blood, to satisfy their greedy paunches, which is their only glory. there is great likelihood of earthquakes or thunder, for there are huge and monstrous mountains, whose greatest substance are stones, and those stones so shapen with some extraordinary means, that one is separated from another, which is discordant from all other quarries. there are no rivers or running springs, but such as through the heat of the sun, with such water as descendeth from the mountains and hills, whereon great drifts of snow do lie, are engendered. it argueth also that there should be none; for that the earth, which with the extremity of the winter is so frozen within, that that water which should have recourse within the same to maintain springs hath not his motion, whereof great waters have their origin, as by experience is seen otherwhere. such valleys as are capable to receive the water, that in the summer time, by the operation of the sun, descendeth from great abundance of snow, which continually lieth on the mountains, and hath no passage, sinketh into the earth, and so vanisheth away, without any runnel above the earth, by which occasion or continual standing of the said water the earth is opened and the great frost yieldeth to the force thereof, which in other places, four or five fathoms within the ground, for lack of the said moisture, the earth even in the very summer time is frozen, and so combineth the stones together, that scarcely instruments with great force can unknit them. also, where the water in those valleys can have no such passage away, by the continuance of time in such order as is before rehearsed, the yearly descent from the mountains filleth them full, that at the lowest bank of the same they fall into the next valley, and so continue as fishing ponds, in summer time full of water, and in the winter hard frozen, as by scars that remain thereof in summer may easily be perceived; so that the heat of summer is nothing comparable or of force to dissolve the extremity of cold that cometh in winter. nevertheless, i am assured, that below the force of the frost, within the earth, the waters have recourse, and empty themselves out of sight into the sea, which, through the extremity of the frost, are constrained to do the same; by which occasion, the earth within is kept the warmer, and springs have their recourse, which is the only nutriment of gold and minerals within the same. there is much to be said of the commodities of these countries, which are couched within the bowels of the earth, which i let pass till more perfect trial be made thereof. thus conjecturing, till time, with the earnest industry of our general and others (who, by all diligence, remain pressed to explore the truth of that which is unexplored, as he hath to his everlasting praise found out that which is like to yield an innumerable benefit to his prince and country), offer further trial, i conclude. the rd august, after we had satisfied our minds with freight sufficient for our vessels, though not our covetous desires, with such knowledge of the country, people, and other commodities as are before rehearsed, the th thereof we departed there hence: the th of september we fell with the land's end of england, and so to milford haven, from whence our general rowed to the court for order to what port or haven to conduct the ship. we lost our two barques in the way homeward, the one the th of august, the other the st of the same month, by occasion of great tempest and fog; howbeit, god restored the one to bristol, and the other making his course by scotland to yarmouth. in this voyage we lost two men, one in the way by god's visitation, and the other homeward, cast overboard with a surge of the sea. i could declare unto the readers the latitude and longitude of such places and regions as we have been at, but not altogether so perfectly as our masters and others, with many circumstances of tempests and other accidents incident to seafaring men, which seem not altogether strange, but i let them pass to their reports as men most apt to set forth and declare the same. i have also left the names of the countries on both the shores untouched for lack of understanding the people's language, as also for sundry respects not needful as yet to be declared. countries new explored, where commodity is to be looked for, do better accord with a new name given by the explorers than an uncertain name by a doubtful author. our general named sundry islands, mountains, capes, and harbours after the names of divers noblemen, and other gentlemen his friends, as well on the one shore as also on the other. the third and last voyage into meta incognita, _made by master martin frobisher_, _in the year_ , _written by thomas ellis_. these are to let you know, that upon the th may, the _thomas allen_, being vice-admiral, whose captain was master yorke; master gibbes, master; master christopher hall, pilot, accompanied with the rear-admiral, named the _hopewell_, whose captain was master henry carew, the master andrew dier, and certain other ships, came to gravesend, where we anchored, and abode the coming of certain other of our fleet, which were not yet come. the th of the same month, our fleet being now come together, and all things pressed in a readiness, the wind favouring and tide serving, we being of sails in number eight, weighed anchors, and hoisted our sails towards harwich, to meet with our admiral and the residue, which then and there abode our arrival, where we safely arrived the th thereof; finding there our admiral, whom we, with the discharge of certain pieces, saluted (according to order and duty), and were welcomed with the like courtesy, which being finished we landed, where our general continued mustering his soldiers and miners, and setting things in order appertaining to the voyage, until the last of the said month of may, which day we hoisted our sails, and committing ourselves to the conducting of almighty god, we set forward toward the west country, in such lucky wise and good success, that by the th june we passed the dursies, being the utmost part of ireland, to the westward. and here it were not much amiss, nor far from our purpose, if i should a little discourse and speak of our adventures and chances by the way, as our landing at plymouth, as also the meeting of certain poor men, which were robbed and spoiled of all that they had by pirates and rovers; amongst whom was a man of bristol, on whom our general used his liberality, and sent him away with letters into england. but because such things are impertinent to the matter, i will return (without any more mentioning of the same) to that from which i have digressed and swerved, i mean our ships, now sailing on the surging seas, sometimes passing at pleasure with a wished eastern wind, sometimes hindered of our course again by the western blasts, until the th day of the foresaid month of june, on which day in the morning we fell in with friesland, which is a very high and cragged land, and was almost clean covered with snow, so that we might see nought but craggy rocks and the tops of high and huge hills, sometimes (and for the most part) all covered with foggy mists. there might we also perceive the great isles of ice lying on the seas like mountains, some small, some big, of sundry kinds of shapes, and such a number of them, that we could not come near the shore for them. thus sailing along the coast, at the last we saw a place somewhat void of ice, where our general (accompanied with certain other) went ashore, where they saw certain tents made of beasts' skins, and boats much like unto theirs of meta incognita. the tents were furnished with flesh, fish, skins, and other trifles: amongst the which was found a box of nails, whereby we did conjecture that they had either artificers amongst them, or else a traffic with some other nation. the men ran away, so that we could have no conference or communication with them. our general (because he would have them no more to flee, but rather encouraged to stay through his courteous dealing) gave commandment that his men should take nothing away with them, saving only a couple of white dogs, for which he left pins, points, knives, and other trifling things, and departed, without taking or hurting anything, and so came aboard, and hoisted sails and passed forwards. but being scarce out of the sight thereof, there fell such a fog and hideous mist that we could not see one another; whereupon we struck our drums, and sounded our trumpets to the end we might keep together; and so continued all that day and night, till the next day, that the mist brake up; so that we might easily perceive all the ships thus sailing together all that day, until the next day, being the nd of the same, on which day we saw an infinite number of ice, from the which we cast about to shun the danger thereof. but one of our small barques named the _michael_, whose captain was master kinderslie, the master, bartholomew bull, lost our company, insomuch that we could not obtain the sight of her many days after, of whom i mean to speak further anon, when occasion shall be ministered, and opportunity served. thus we continued on our course until the nd of july, on which day we fell with the queen's foreland, where we saw so much ice, that we thought it impossible to get into the straits, yet at the last we gave the adventure, and entered the ice. being in amongst it, we saw the _michael_, of whom i spake before, accompanied with the, _judith_, whose captain was master fenton, the master, charles jackman, bearing into the aforesaid ice, far distant from us, who in a storm that fell that present night (whereof i will at large, god willing, discourse hereafter), were severed from us, and being in, wandered up and down the straits amongst the ice, many days in great peril, till at the last (by the providence of god) they came safely to harbour in their wished port in the countess of warwick's sound the th july aforesaid, ten days before any of the other ships; who going on shore, found where the people of the country had been, and had hid their provision in great heaps of stone, being both of flesh and fish, which they had killed, whereof we also found great store in other places after our arrival. they found also divers engines, as bows, slings, and darts. they found likewise certain pieces of the pinnace which our general left there the year before; which pinnace he had sunk, minding to have it again the next year. now, seeing i have entreated so much of the _judith_ and the _michael_, i will return to the rest of the other ships, and will speak a little of the storm which fell, with the mishaps that we had, the night that we put into the ice, whereof i made mention before. at the first entry into the ice, in the mouth of the straits, our passage was very narrow and difficult; but being once gotten in, we had a fair, open place without any ice for the most part; being a league in compass, the ice being round about us, and enclosing us, as it were, within the pales of a park. in which place (because it was almost night) we minded to take in our sails and lie a hull all that night. but the storm so increased, and the waves began to mount aloft, which brought the ice so near us, and coming in so fast upon us, that we were fain to bear in and out, where ye might espy an open place. thus the ice coming on us so fast we were in great danger, looking every hour for death, and thus passed we on in that great danger, seeing both ourselves and the rest of our ships so troubled and tossed amongst the ice, that it would make the strongest-heart to relent. at the last, the barque _dionyse_, being but a weak ship, and bruised afore amongst the ice, being so leak that she no longer could carry above water, sank without saving any of the goods which were in her: the sight so abashed the whole fleet, that we thought verily we should have tasted of the same sauce. but nevertheless, we seeing them in such danger, manned our boats, and saved all the men, in such wise that not one perished. (god be thanked.) the storm still increased and the ice enclosed us, that we were fain to take down top and topmasts; for the ice had so environed us, that we could see neither land nor sea as far as we could ken; so that we were fain to cut our cables to hang overboard for fenders, somewhat to ease the ship's sides from the great and dreary strokes of the ice; some with capstan bars, some fending off with oars, some with planks of two inches thick, which were broken immediately with the force of the ice, some going out upon the ice, to bear it off with their shoulders from the ships. but the rigorousness of the tempest was such, and the force of the ice so great, that not only they burst and spoiled the foresaid provision, but likewise so raised the sides of the ships that it was pitiful to behold, and caused the hearts of many to faint. thus continued we all that dismal and lamentable night, plunged in this perplexity, looking for instant death; but our god (who never leaveth them destitute which faithfully call upon him), although he often punisheth for amendment's sake, in the morning caused the winds to cease, and the fog, which all that night lay on the face of the water, to clear, so that we might perceive about a mile from us a certain place clear from any ice, to the which with an easy breath of wind, which our god sent us, we bent ourselves, and furthermore he provided better for us than we deserved, or hoped for; for when we were in the foresaid clear place, he sent us a fresh gale at west, or at west-south-west, which set us clear without all the ice. and further he added more, for he sent us so pleasant a day, as the like we had not of a long time before, as after punishment consolation. thus we joyful whites, being at liberty, took in all our sails, and lay a hull, praising god for our deliverance, and stayed to gather together our fleet; which once being done, we seeing that none of them had any great hurt, neither any of them wanted, saving only they of whom i spake before, and the ship which was lost, then at the last we hoisted our sails, and lay bulting off and on, till such time as it would please god to take away the ice, that we might get into the straits. as we thus lay off and on, we came by a marvellous huge mountain of ice, which surpassed all the rest that ever we saw, for we judged it to be near four score fathoms above water, and we thought it to be aground for anything that we could perceive, being there nine score fathoms deep, and of compass about half a mile. also the fifth of july there fell a hideous fog and mist, that continued till the nineteenth of the same, so that one ship could not see another. therefore we were fain to bear a small sail, and to observe the time, but there ran such a current of tide, that it set us to the north-west of the queen's forehand, the back side of all the straits, where (through the contagious fog having no sight either of sun or star) we scarce knew where we were. in this fog the th july we lost the company of the _vice-admiral_, the _anne francis_, the _busse of bridgewater_, and the _francis of foy_. the sixteenth day, one of our small barques, named the _gabriel_, was sent by our general to bear in with the land, to descry it, where, being on land, they met with the people of the country, which seemed very humane and civilised, and offered to traffic with our men, proffering them fowls and skins for knives and other trifles, whose courtesy caused us to think that they had small conversation with the other of the straits. then we bare back again, to go with the queen's forehand, and the th day we came by two islands, whereon we went on shore, and found where the people had been, but we saw none of them. this day we were again in the ice, and like to be in as great peril as we were at the first. for through the darkness and obscurity of the foggy mist we were almost run on rocks and islands before we saw them: but god (even miraculously) provided for us, opening the fogs that we might see clearly, both where and in what danger we presently were, and also the way to escape; or else, without fail we had ruinously run upon the rocks. when we knew perfectly our instant case, we cast about to get again on sea board, which (god be thanked) by might we obtained, and praised god. the clear continued scarce an hour, but the fog fell again as thick as ever it was. then the _rear-admiral_ and the _bear_ got themselves clear without danger of ice and rocks, struck their sails and lay a hull, staying to have the rest of the fleet come forth, which as yet had not found the right way to clear themselves from the danger of rocks and ice, until the next morning, at what time the _rear-admiral_ discharged certain warning pieces, to give notice that she had escaped, and that the rest (by following of her) might set themselves free, which they did that day. then having gathered ourselves together, we proceeded on our purposed voyage, bearing off, and keeping ourselves distant from the coast, until the th day of july, at which time the fogs brake up and dispersed, so that we might plainly and clearly behold the pleasant air which had so long been taken from us by the obscurity of the foggy mists; and, after that time, we were not much encumbered therewith until we had left the confines of the country. then we, espying a fair sound, supposed it to go into the straits, between the queen's foreland and jackman's sound, which proved as we imagined. for our general sent forth again the _gabriel_ to discover it, who passed through with much difficulty, for there ran such an extreme current of a tide, with so horrible a gulf, that with a fresh gale of wind they were scarce able to stem it, yet at the length with great travel they passed it, and came to the straits, where they met with the _thomas allen_, the _thomas of ipswich_, and the _busse of bridgewater_, who all together adventured to bear into the ice again, to see if they could obtain their wished port. but they were so encumbered, that with much difficulty they were able to get out again, yet at the last they escaping the _thomas allen_ and the _gabriel_, bear in with the western shore, where they found harbour, and they moored their ships until the th of august, at which time they came to us, in the countess of warwick's sound. the _thomas of ipswich_ caught a great leak, which caused her to cast again to sea board, and so was mended. we sailed along still by the coast until we came to the queen's forehand, at the point whereof we met with part of the gulf aforesaid, which place or gulf (as some of our masters do credibly report) doth flow nine hours and ebbs but three. at that point we discovered certain lands southward, which neither time nor opportunity would serve to search. then being come to the mouth of the straits, we met with the _anne francis_, who had lain bulting up and down ever since her departure alone, never finding any of her company. we met then also the _francis of foy_, with whom again we intended to venture and get in, but the ice was yet so thick, that we were compelled again to retire and get us on sea board. there fell also the same day, being the th july, such a horrible snow, that it lay a foot thick upon the hatches, which froze as fast as it fell. we had also at other times divers cruel storms, both snow and hail, which manifestly declared the distemperature of the country: yet for all that we were so many times repulsed and put back from our purpose, knowing that lingering delay was not profitable for us, but hurtful to our voyage, we mutually consented to our valiant general once again to give the onset. the th day, therefore, of the same july we assayed, and with little trouble (god be praised) we passed the dangers by daylight. then night falling on the face of the earth, we hulled in the clear, till the cheerful light of the day had chased away the noisome darkness of the night, at which the we set forward toward our wished port; by the th day we obtained our expected desire, where we found the _judith_ and the _michael_, which brought no small joy unto the general, and great consolation to the heavy hearts of those wearied wights. the th day of july we brought our ships into the countess of warwick's sound, and moored them, namely these ships, the _admiral_, the _rear-admiral_, the _francis of foy_, the _bear_, _armenel_, the _salomon_, and the _busse of bridgewater_, which being done, our general commanded us all to come ashore upon the countess island, where he set his miners to work upon the mine, giving charge with expedition to despatch with their lading. our general himself, accompanied with his gentleman, divers times made roads into sundry parts of the country, as well to find new mines as also to find out and see the people of the country. he found out one mine, upon an island by bear's sound, and named it the countess of sussex island. one other was found in winter's fornace, with divers others, to which the ships were sent sunderly to be laden. in the same roads he met with divers of the people of the country at sundry times, as once at a place called david's sound, who shot at our men, and very desperately gave them the onset, being not above three or four in number, there being of our countrymen above a dozen; but seeing themselves not able to prevail, they took themselves to flight, whom our men pursued, but being not used to such craggy cliffs, they soon lost the sight of them, and so in vain returned. we also saw them at bear's sound, both by sea and land, in great companies; but they would at all times keep the water between them and us. and if any of our ships chanced to be in the sound (as they came divers times), because the harbour was not very good, the ship laded, and departed again; then so long as any ships were in sight, the people would not be seen. but when as they perceived the ships to be gone, they would not only show themselves standing upon high cliffs, and call us to come over unto them, but also would come in their boats very near to us, as it were to brag at us; whereof our general, having advertisement, sent for the captain and gentlemen of the ships to accompany and attend upon him, with the captain also of the _anne francis_, who was but the night before come unto us. for they and the fleet-boat, having lost us the th day, in the great snow, put into a harbour in the queen's forehand, where they found good ore, wherewith they laded themselves, and came to seek the general; so that now we had all our ships, saving one barque, which was lost, and the _thomas of ipswich_ who (compelled by what fury i know not) forsook our company, and returned home without lading. our general, accompanied with his gentlemen (of whom i spake), came altogether to the countess of sussex island, near to bear's sound, where he manned out certain pinnaces and went over to the people, who, perceiving his arrival, fled away with all speed, and in haste left certain darts and other engines behind them which we found, but the people we could not find. the next morning our general, perceiving certain of them in boat upon the sea, gave chase to them in a pinnace under sail, with a fresh gale of wind, but could by no means come near unto them, for the longer he sailed the farther off he was from them, which well showed their cunning and activity. thus time wearing away, and the day of our departure approaching, our general commanded to lade with all expedition, that we might be again on sea board with our ship; for whilst we were in the country we were in continual danger of freezing in, for often snow and hail, often the water was so much frozen and congealed in the night, that in the morning we could scarce row our boats or pinnaces, especially in dier's sound, which is a calm and still water, which caused our general to make the more haste, so that by the th day of august we were all laden, and made all things ready to depart. but before i proceed any further herein, to show what fortune befell at our departure, i will turn my pen a little to master captain fenton, and those gentlemen which should have inhabited all the year in those countries, whose valiant minds were much to be commended, that neither fear of force, nor the cruel nipping storms of the raging winter, neither the intemperature of so unhealthful a country, neither the savageness of the people, neither the sight and show of such and so many strange meteors, neither the desire to return to their native soil, neither regard of friends, neither care of possessions and inheritances, finally, not the love of life (a thing of all other most sweet), neither the terror of dreadful death itself, might seem to be of sufficient force to withdraw their prowess, or to restrain from that purpose, thereby to have profited their country; but that with most willing hearts, venturous minds, stout stomachs, and singular manhood, they were content there to have tarried for the time, among a barbarous and uncivilised people, infidels and miscreants, to have made their dwelling, not terrified with the manifold and imminent dangers which they were like to run into; and seeing before their eyes so many casualties, whereto their life was subject, the least whereof would have made a milksop thersites astonished and utterly discomfited; being, i say, thus minded and purposed, they deserved special commendation, for, doubtless, they had done as they intended, if luck had not withstood their willingness, and if that fortune had not so frowned upon their intents. for the bark _dionyse_, which was lost, had in her much of their house, which was prepared and should have been builded for them, with many other implements. also the _thomas of ipswich_, which had most of their provision in her, came not into the straits at all, neither did we see her since the day we were separated in the great snow (of which i spake before). for these causes, having not their house nor yet provision, they were disappointed of their pretence to tarry, and therefore laded their ships and so came away with us. but before we took shipping, we builded a little house in the countess of warwick's island, and garnished it with many kinds of trifles, as pins, points, laces, glasses, combs, babes on horseback and on foot, with innumerable other such fancies and toys, thereby to allure and entice the people to some familiarity against other years. thus having finished all things we departed the country (as i said before); but because the _busse_ had not lading enough in her, she put into bear's sound to take a little more. in the meanwhile, the _admiral_, and the rest without the sea, stayed for her. and that night fell such an outrageous tempest, beating on our ships with such vehement rigour that anchor and cable availed nought, for we were driven on rocks and islands of ice, insomuch that had not the great goodness of god been miraculously showed to us, we had been cast away every man. this danger was more doubtful and terrible than any that preceded or went before, for there was not any one ship (i think) that escaped without damage. some lost anchor, and also gables, some boats, some pinnaces, some anchor, gables, boats, and pinnaces. this boisterous storm so severed us one from another, that one ship knew not what was become of another. the _admiral_ knew not where to find the _vice-admiral_ or _rear-admiral_, or any other ship of our company. our general, being on land in bear's sound, could not come to his ship, but was compelled to go aboard the _gabriel_, where he continued all the way homewards, for the boisterous blasts continued so extremely, and so long a time, that it sent us homeward (which was god's favour towards us), will we, nill we, in such haste, as not any one of us were able to keep in company of other, but were separated. and if by chance any one ship did overtake other by swiftness of sail, or met (as they often did), yet was the rigour of the wind so hideous, that they could not continue company together the space of one whole night. thus our journey outward was not so pleasant, but our coming thither, entering the coasts and country by narrow straits, perilous ice, and swift tides, our times of abode there in snow and storms, and our departure from thence, the rd of august, with dangerous blustering winds and tempest's, which that night arose, was as uncomfortable, separating us so, as we sailed, that not any of us met together until the th of september, which day we fell on the english coasts, between scilly and the land's end, and passed the channel, until our arrival in the river thames. the report of thomas wiars, _passenger in the_ "_emmanuel_," _otherwise called the_ "_busse of bridgewater_," _wherein james leeche was master_, _one of the ships in the last voyage of master martin frobisher_, , _concerning the discovery of the great island in their way homeward_, _the_ _th of september_. the _busse of bridgewater_ was left in bear's sound, at meta incognita, the nd day of september, behind the fleet, in some distress, through much wind riding near the lee shore, and forced there to ride it out upon the hazard of her cables and anchors, which were all aground but two. the rd of september being fair weather, and the wind north-north-west, she set sail, and departed thence and fell with friesland, on he th day of september, at six of the clock at night, and then they set off from the south-west point of friesland, the wind being at east and east-south-east; but that night the wind veered southerly, and shifted oftentimes that night. but on the th day, in the morning, the wind at west-north-west, fair weather, they steered south-east and by south, and continued that course until the th day of september, when about o'clock before noon they descried a land, which was from them about five leagues, and the southernmost part of it was south-east-by-east from them, and the northernmost next north-north-east, or north-east. the master accounted that friesland, the south-east point of it, was from him at that instant, when he first descried this new island, north-west-by-north fifty leagues. they account this island to be twenty-five leagues long, and the longest way of it south-east and north-west. the southern part of it is in the latitude of fifty-seven degrees and one second part, or thereabout. they continued in sight of it from the twelfth day at eleven of the clock till the thirteenth day three of the clock in the afternoon, when they left it; and the last part they saw of it bare from them north-west-by-north. there appeared two harbours upon that coast, the greatest of them seven leagues to the northwards of the southernmost point, the other but four leagues. there was very much ice near the same land, and also twenty or thirty leagues from it, for they were not clear of ice till the th day of september, afternoon. they plied their voyage homeward, and fell with the west part of ireland, about galway, and had first sight of it on the th day of september. the first voyage of master john davis, _undertaken in june_, , _for the discovery of the north-west passage_, _written by john james marchant_, _servant to the worshipful master william sanderson_. certain honourable personages and worthy gentlemen of the court and country, with divers worshipful merchants of london and of the west countrie, moved with desire to advance god's glory, and to seek the good of their native country, consulting together of the likelihood of the discovery of the north-west passage, which heretofore had been attempted, but unhappily given over by accidents unlooked for, which turned the enterprisers from their principal purpose, resolved, after good deliberation, to put down their adventures, to provide for necessary shipping, and a fit man to be chief conductor of this so hard an enterprise. the setting forth of this action was committed by the adventurers especially to the care of master william sanderson, merchant of london, who was so forward therein, that besides his travel, which was not small, he became the greatest adventurer with his purse, and commended unto the rest of the company one master john davis, a man very well grounded in the principles of the art of navigation, for captain and chief pilot of this exploit. thus, therefore, all things being put in a readiness, we departed from dartmouth the th of june towards the discovery of the aforesaid north-west passage with two barques, the one being of fifty tons, named the _sunshine_, of london, and the other being thirty-five tons, named the _moonshine_, of dartmouth. in the _sunshine_ we had twenty-three persons, whose names are these following: master john davis, captain; william eston, master; richard pope, master's mate; john jane, merchant; henry davie, gunner; william crosse, boatswain; john bagge, walter arthur, luke adams, robert coxworthie, john ellis, john kelly, edward helman, william dicke, andrew maddocke, thomas hill, robert wats, carpenter, william russell, christopher gorney, boy; james cole, francis ridley, john russel, robert cornish, musicians. the _moonshine_ had nineteen persons, william bruton, captain; john ellis, master; the rest mariners. the th of june the captain and the master drew out a proportion for the continuance of our victuals. the th day, the wind being at south-west and west-south-west, we put in for falmouth, where we remained until the th. the th the wind blew at north, and being fair weather we departed. the th, with contrary wind, we were forced to put into scilly. the th we departed thence, having the wind north and by east, moderate and fair weather. the th we were driven back again, and were constrained to arrive at new grimsby, at scilly; here the wind remained contrary twelve days, and in that space the captain, the master, and i went about all the islands, and the captain did plan out and describe the situation of all the islands, rocks, and harbours to the exact use of navigation, with lines and scale thereunto convenient. the th, in god's name, we departed, the wind being easterly, but calm. the th very foggy. the th foggy. the st of july we saw great store of porpoises, the master called for a harping-iron, and shot twice or thrice; sometimes he missed, and at last shot one and struck him in the side, and wound him into the ship; when we had him aboard, the master said it was a darley head. the nd we had some of the fish boiled, and it did eat as sweet as any mutton. the rd we had more in sight, and the master went to shoot at them, but they were so great, that they burst our irons, and we lost both fish, irons, pastime, and all; yet, nevertheless, the master shot at them with a pike, and had well-nigh gotten one, but he was so strong, that he burst off the bars of the pike and went away. then he took the boat-hook, and hit one with that; but all would not prevail, so at length we let them alone. the th we saw a very great whale, and every day after we saw whales continually. the th, th, and th we saw great store of whales. the th of july we fell into a great whirling and brustling of a tide, setting to the northward; and sailing about half a league we came into a very calm sea, which bent to the south-south-west. here we heard a mighty great roaring of the sea, as if it had been the breach of some shore, the air being so foggy and full of thick mist, that we could not see the one ship from the other, being a very small distance asunder; so the captain and the master, being in distrust how the tide might set them, caused the _moonshine_ to hoist out her boat and to sound, but they could not find ground in three hundred fathoms and better. then the captain, master, and i went towards the breach to see what it should be, giving charge to our gunners that at every blast they should shoot off a musket shot, to the intent we might keep ourselves from losing them; then coming near to the breach, we met many islands of ice floating, which had quickly compassed us about. then we went upon some of them, and did perceive that all the roaring which we heard was caused only by the rolling of this ice together. our company seeing us not to return according to our appointment, left off shooting muskets and began to shoot falconets, for they feared some mishap had befallen us; but before night we came aboard again, with our boat laden with ice, which made very good fresh water. then we bent our course toward the north, hoping by that means to double the land. the th, as we sailed along the coast, the fog brake up, and we discovered the land, which was the most deformed, rocky, and mountainous land that ever we saw, the first sight whereof did show as if it had been in form of a sugar loaf, standing to our sight above the clouds, for that it did show over the fog like a white liste in the sky, the tops altogether covered with snow, and the shore beset with ice a league off into the sea, making such irksome noise as that it seemed to be the true pattern of desolation, and after the same our captain named it the land of desolation. the st the wind came northerly and overblew, so that we were constrained to bend our course south again, for we perceived that we were run into a very deep bay, where we were almost compassed with ice, for we saw very much towards the north-north-east, west, and south-west; and this day and this night we cleared ourselves of the ice, running south-south-west along the shore. upon thursday, being the nd of this month, about three of the clock in the morning, we hoisted out our boat, and the captain, with six sailors, went towards the shore, thinking to find a landing-place, for the night before we did perceive the coast to be void of ice to our judgment; and the same night we were all persuaded that we had seen a canoe rowing along the shore, but afterwards we fell in some doubt of it, but we had no great reason so to do. the captain, rowing towards the shore, willed the master to bear in with the land after him; and before he came near the shore, by the space of a league, or about two miles, he found so much ice that he could not get to land by any means. here our mariners put to their lines to see if they could get any fish, because there were so many seals upon the coast, and the birds did beat upon the water, but all was in vain: the water about this coast was very black and thick, like to a filthy standing pool; we sounded, and had ground in fathoms. while the captain was rowing to the shore our men saw woods upon the rocks, like to the rocks of newfoundland, but i could not discern them; yet it might be so very well, for we had wood floating upon the coast every day, and the _moonshine_ took up a tree at sea not far from the coast, being sixty foot of length and fourteen handfuls about, having the root upon it. after, the captain came aboard, the weather being very calm and fair, we bent our course toward the south with intent to double the land. the rd we coasted the land which did lie east-north-east and west-south-west. the th, the wind being very fair at east, we coasted the land, which did lie east and west, not being able to come near the shore by reason of the great quantity of ice. at this place, because the weather was somewhat cold by reason of the ice, and the better to encourage our men, their allowance was increased. the captain and the master took order that every mess, being five persons, should have half a pound of bread and a can of beer every morning to breakfast. the weather was not very cold, but the air was moderate, like to our april weather in england. when the wind came from the land or the ice it was somewhat cold, but when it came off the sea it was very hot. the th of this month we departed from sight of this land at six of the clock in the morning, directing our course to the north-westward, hoping in god's mercy to find our desired passage, and so continued above four days. the th of july we discovered land in degrees minutes of latitude, bearing north-east from us. the wind being contrary to go to the north-westward, we bear in with this land to take some view of it, being utterly void of the pester of ice, and very temperate. coming near the coast we found many fair sounds and good roads for shipping, and many great inlets into the land, whereby we judged this land to be a great number of islands standing together. here, having moored our barque in good order, we went on shore upon a small island to seek for water and wood. upon this island we did perceive that there had been people, for we found a small shoe and pieces of leather sewed with sinews and a piece of fur, and wool like to beaver. then we went upon another island on the other side of our ships, and the captain, the master, and i, being got up to the top of a high rock, the people of the country having espied us made a lamentable noise, as we thought, with great outcries and screechings; we, hearing them, thought it had been the howling of wolves. at last i halloed again, and they likewise cried; then we, perceiving where they stood--some on the shore, and one rowing in a canoe about a small island fast by them--we made a great noise, partly to allure them to us and partly to warn our company of them. whereupon master bruton and the master of his ship, with others of their company, made great haste towards us, and brought our musicians with them from our ship, purposing either by force to rescue us, if needs should so require, or with courtesy to allure the people. when they came unto us we caused our musicians to play, ourselves dancing and making many signs of friendship. at length there came ten canoes from the other islands, and two of them came so near the shore where we were that they talked with us, the other being in their boats a pretty way off. their pronunciation was very hollow through the throat, and their speech such as we could not understand, only we allured them by friendly embracings and signs of courtesy. at length one of them, pointing up to the sun with his hand, would presently strike his breast so hard that we might hear the blow. this he did many times before he would any way trust us. then john ellis, the master of the _moonshine_, was appointed to use his best policy to gain their friendship, who shook his breast and pointed to the sun after their order, which when he had divers times done they began to trust him, and one of them came on shore, to whom we threw our caps, stockings, and gloves, and such other things as then we had about us, playing with our music, and making signs of joy, and dancing. so the night coming we bade them farewell, and went aboard our barques. the next morning, being the th of july, there came thirty-seven canoes rowing by our ships calling to us to come on shore; we not making any great haste unto them, one of them went up to the top of the rock, and leaped and danced as they had done the day before, showing us a seal skin, and another thing made like a timbrel, which he did beat upon with a stick, making a noise like a small drum. whereupon we manned our boats and came to them, they all staying in their canoes. we came to the water's side, where they were, and after we had sworn by the sun after their fashion they did trust us. so i shook hands with one of them, and he kissed my hand, and we were very familiar with them. we were in so great credit with them upon this single acquaintance that we could have anything they had. we bought five canoes of them; we bought their clothes from their backs, which were all made of seal skins and birds' skins; their buskins, their hose, their gloves, all being commonly sewed and well dressed, so that we were fully persuaded that they have divers artificers among them. we had a pair of buskins of them full of fine wool like beaver. their apparel for heat was made of birds' skins with their feathers on them. we saw among them leather dressed like glover's leather, and thick thongs like white leather of good length. we had of their darts and oars, and found in them that they would by no means displease us, but would give us whatsoever we asked of them, and would be satisfied with whatsoever we gave them. they took great care one of another, for when we had bought their boats then two other would come, and carry him away between them that had sold us his. they are a very tractable people, void of craft or double dealing, and easy to be brought to any civility or good order, but we judged them to be idolaters, and to worship the sun. during the time of our abode among these islands we found reasonable quantity of wood, both fir, spruce, and juniper; which, whether it came floating any great distance to these places where we found it, or whether it grew in some great islands near the same place by us not yet discovered, we know not. but we judge that it groweth there farther into the land than we were, because the people had great store of darts and oars which they made none account of, but gave them to us for small trifles as points and pieces of paper. we saw about this coast marvellous great abundance of seals sculling together like sculls of small fish. we found no fresh water among these islands, but only snow-water, whereof we found great pools. the cliffs were all of such ore as master frobisher brought from meta incognita. we had divers shewes of study or moscovie glass, shining not altogether unlike to crystal. we found an herb growing upon the rocks whose fruit was sweet, full of red juice, and the ripe ones were like currants. we found also birch and willow growing like shrubs low to the ground. these people have great store of furs as we judged. they made shows unto us the th of this present, which was the second time of our being with them, after they perceived we would have skins and furs, that they would go into the country and come again the next day with such things as they had; but this night the wind coming fair the captain and the master would by no means detract the purpose our discovery. and so the last of this month, about four of the clock in the morning, in god's name we set sail, and were all that day becalmed upon the coast. the st of august we had a fair wind, and so proceeded towards the north-west for our discovery. the th of august we discovered land in degrees minutes of latitude altogether void from the pester of ice; we anchored in a very fair road, under a very brave mount, the cliffs whereof were as orient as gold. this mount was named mount raleigh; the road where our ships lay at anchor was called totnes road; the sound which did compass the mount was named exeter sound; the foreland towards the north was called dier's cape; the foreland towards the south was named cape walsingham. so soon as we were come to an anchor in totnes road under mount raleigh we espied four white bears at the foot of the mount. we, supposing them to be goats or wolves, manned our boats and went towards them, but when we came near the shore we found them to be white bears of a monstrous bigness; we, being desirous of fresh victual and the sport, began to assault them, and i being on land, one of them came down the hill right against me. my piece was charged with hail-shot and a bullet; i discharged my piece and shot him in the neck; he roared a little, and took the water straight, making small account of his hurt. then we followed him with our boat, and killed him with boars' spears, and two more that night. we found nothing in their maws, but we judged by their dung that they fed upon grass, because it appeared in all respects like the dung of a horse, wherein we might very plainly see the very straws. the th we went on shore to another bear, which lay all night upon the top of an island under mount raleigh, and when we came up to him he lay fast asleep. i levelled at his head, and the stone of my piece gave no fire; with that he looked up and laid down his head again; then i shot, being charged with two bullets, and struck him in the head; he, being but amazed, fell backwards, whereupon we ran all upon him with boar spears and thrust him in the body, yet for all that he gripped away our boar spears and went towards the water, and as he was going down he came back again. then our master shot his boar spear and struck him in the head, and made him to take the water, and swim into a cove fast by, where we killed him and brought him aboard. the breadth of his fore foot from one side to the other was fourteen inches over. they were very fat, so as we were constrained to cast the fat away. we saw a raven upon mount raleigh. we found withies, also, growing low like shrubs, and flowers like primroses in the said place. the coast is very mountainous, altogether without wood, grass, or earth, and is only huge mountains of stone, but the bravest stone that ever we saw. the air was very moderate in this country. the th we departed from mount raleigh, coasting along the shore which lieth south-south-west and east-north-east. the th our men fell in dislike of their allowance because it was so small as they thought. whereupon we made a new proportion, every mess, being five to a mess, should have four pound of bread a day, twelve wine quarts of beer, six new land fishes, and the flesh days a gin of pease more; so we restrained them from their butter and cheese. the th we came to the most southerly cape of this land, which we named the cape of god's mercy, as being the place of our first entrance for the discovery. the weather being very foggy we coasted this north land; at length when it brake up we perceived that we were shot into a very fair entrance or passage, being in some places twenty leagues broad and in some thirty, altogether void of any pester of ice, the weather very tolerable, and the water of the very colour, nature, and quality of the main ocean, which gave us the greater hope of our passage. having sailed north-west sixty leagues in this entrance, we discovered certain islands standing in the midst thereof, having open passages on both sides. whereupon our ships divided themselves, the one sailing on the north side, the other on the south side of the said isles, where we stayed five days, having the wind at south-east, very foggy, and foul weather. the th we went on shore and found signs of people, for we found stones laid up together like a wall, and saw the skull of a man or a woman. the th we heard dogs howl on the shore, which we thought had been wolves, and therefore we went on shore to kill them. when we came on land the dogs came presently to our boat very gently, yet we thought they came to prey upon us, and therefore we shot at them and killed two, and about the neck of one of them we found a leathern collar, whereupon we thought them to be tame dogs. there were twenty dogs like mastiffs, with pricked ears and long bushed tails; we found a bone in the pizels of their dogs. then we went farther and found two sleds made like ours in england. the one was made of fir, spruce, and oaken boards, sawn like inch boards; the other was made all of whalebone, and there hung on the tops of the sleds three heads of beasts which they had killed. we saw here larks, ravens, and partridges. the th we went on shore, and in a little thing made like an oven with stones i found many small trifles, as a small canoe made of wood, a piece of wood made like an image, a bird made of bone, beads having small holes in one end of them to hang about their necks, and other small things. the coast was very barbarous, without wood or grass. the rocks were very fair, like marble, full of veins of divers colours. we found a seal which was killed not long before, being flayed and hid under stones. our captain and master searched still for probabilities of the passage, and first found that this place was all islands with great sounds passing between them. secondly, the water remained of one colour with the main ocean without altering. thirdly, we saw to the west of those isles three or four whales in a scull, which they judged to come from a westerly sea, because to the eastward we saw not any whale. also, as we were rowing into a very great sound lying south-west from whence these whales came, upon the sudden there came a violent countercheck of a tide from the south-west against the flood which we came with, not knowing from whence it was maintained. fifthly, in sailing leagues within the mouth of this entrance we had sounding in fathoms, fair, grey, oozy sand, and the farther we run into the westwards the deeper was the water, so that hard aboard the shore among these isles we could not have ground in fathoms. lastly, it did ebb and flow six or seven fathom up and down, the flood coming from divers parts, so as we could not perceive the chief maintenance thereof. the th and th our captain and master determined what was best to do, both for the safe guard of their credits and satisfy of the adventurers, and resolved if the weather brake up to make further search. the th, the wind came directly against us, so they altered their purpose, and reasoned both for proceeding and returning. the st, the wind being north-west, we departed from these islands, and as we coasted the south shore we saw many fair sounds, whereby we were persuaded that it was no firm land but islands. the rd of this month the wind came south-east, very stormy and foul weather. so we were constrained to seek harbour upon the south coast of this entrance, where we fell into a very fair sound, and anchored in fathoms of green, oozy sand, where we went on shore, where we had manifest signs of people, where they had made their fire, and laid stones like a wall. in this place we saw four very fair falcons, and master bruton took from one of them his prey, which we judged by the wings and legs to be a snipe, for the head was eaten off. the th, in the afternoon, the wind coming somewhat fair, we departed from this road, purposing by god's grace to return for england. the th we departed from sight of the north land of this entrance, directing our course homewards, until the th of the next month. the th september we fell with the land of desolation, thinking to go on shore, but we could get never a good harbour. that night we put to sea again thinking to search it the next day; but this night arose a very great storm, and separated our ships so that we lost the sight of the _moonshine_. the th about noon (having tried all the night before with a goose wing) we set sail, and within two hours after we had sight of the _moonshine_ again. this day we departed from this land. the th of this month we fell with sight of england. this night we had a marvellous storm, and lost the _moonshine_. the th september we came into dartmouth, where we found the _moonshine_, being come in not two hours before. the second voyage attempted by master john davis, _with others_, _for the discovery of the north-west passage_, _in anno_ . the th day of may i departed from the port of dartmouth for the discovery of the north-west passage with a ship of a tons, named the _mermaid_; a barque of tons, named the _sunshine_; a barque of tons named the _moonlight_; and a pinnace of tons named the _north star_. and the th june i discovered land, in the latitude of degrees, and in longitude from the meridian of london westward degrees, mightily pestered with ice and snow, so that there was no hope of landing; the ice lay in some places leagues, in some , and in some leagues off the shore, so that we were constrained to bear into degrees to double the same, and to recover a free sea, which through god's favourable mercy we at length obtained. the nine-and-twentieth day of june, after many tempestuous storms, we again discovered land in longitude from the meridian of london degrees minutes, and in latitude being east from us, into which course, since it pleased god by contrary winds to force us, i thought it very necessary to bear in with it, and there to set up our pinnace, provided in the _mermaid_ to be our scout for this discovery, and so much the rather, because the year before i had been in the same place and found it very convenient for such a purpose, well stored with float wood, and possessed by a people of tractable conversation; so that the nine-and-twentieth of this month we arrived within the isles which lay before this land, lying north-north-west and south-south-east we know not how far. this land is very high and mountainous, having before it on the west side a mighty company of isles full of fair sounds and harbours. this land was very little troubled with snow, and the sea altogether void of ice. the ships being within the sounds we sent our boats to search for shallow water, where we might anchor, which in this place is very hard to find; and as the boat went sounding and searching, the people of the country having espied them, came in their canoes towards them with many shouts and cries; but after they had espied in the boat some of our company that were the year before here with us, they presently rowed to the boat and took hold in the oar, and hung about the boat with such comfortable joy as would require a long discourse to be uttered; they came with the boats to our ships, making signs that they knew all those that the year before had been with them. after i perceived their joy and small fear of us, myself with the merchants and others of the company went ashore, bearing with me twenty knives. i had no sooner landed, but they leapt out of their canoes and came running to me and the rest, and embraced us with many signs of hearty welcome. at this present there were eighteen of them, and to each of them i gave a knife; they offered skins to me for reward, but i made signs that it was not sold, but given them of courtesy, and so dismissed them for that time, with signs that they should return again after certain hours. the next day, with all possible speed, the pinnace was landed upon an isle there to be finished to serve our purpose for the discovery, which isle was so convenient for that purpose, as that we were very well able to defend ourselves against many enemies. during the time that the pinnace was there setting up, the people came continually unto us, sometimes a hundred canoes at a time, sometimes forty, fifty, more and less as occasion served. they brought with them seal skins, stags' skins, white hares, seal fish, salmon peel, small cod, dry caplin, with other fish and birds such as the country did yield. myself, still desirous to have a farther search of this place, sent one of the ship boats to one part of the land, and myself went to another part to search for the habitation of this people, with straight commandment that there should be no injury offered to any of the people, neither any one shot. the boats that went from me found the tents of the people made with seal skins set up upon timber, wherein they found great store of dried caplin, being a little fish no bigger than a pilchard. they found bags of train oil, many little images cut in wood, seal skins in tan tubs with many other such trifles, whereof they diminished nothing. they also found ten miles within the snowy mountains a plain champion country, with earth and grass, such as our moory and waste grounds of england are. they went up into a river (which in the narrowest place is two leagues broad) about ten leagues, finding it still to continue they knew not how far; but i with my company took another river, which although at the first it offered a large inlet, yet it proved but a deep bay, the end whereof in four hours i attained, and there leaving the boat well manned, went with the rest of my company three or four miles into the country, but found nothing, nor saw anything, save only gripes, ravens, and small birds, as lark and linnet. the rd of july i manned my boat, and went with fifty canoes attending upon me up into another sound, where the people by signs willed me to go, hoping to find their habitation; at length they made signs that i should go into a warm place to sleep, at which place i went on shore, and ascended the top of high hill to see into the country, but perceiving my labour vain, i returned again to my boat, the people still following me and my company very diligent to attend us, and to help us up the rocks, and likewise down; at length i was desirous to have our men leap with them, which was done, but our men did overleap them; from leaping they went to wrestling; we found them strong and nimble, and to have skill in wrestling, for they cast some of our men that were good wrestlers. the th of july we launched our pinnace, and had forty of the people to help us, which they did very willingly. at this time our men again wrestled with them, and found them as before, strong and skilful. this th of july, the master of the _mermaid_ went to certain islands to store himself with wood, where he found a grave with divers buried in it, only covered with seal skins, having a cross laid over them. the people are of good stature, well in body proportioned, with small, slender hands and feet, with broad visages, and small eyes, wide mouths, the most part unbearded, great lips, and close toothed. their custom is, as often as they go from us, still at their return, to make a new truce, in this sort: holding his hand up to the sun, with a loud voice crieth "ylyaoute," and striketh his breast, with like signs being promised safety, he giveth credit. these people are much given to bleed, and therefore stop their noses with deer hair or the hair of an elan. they are idolaters, and have images great store, which they wear about them, and in their boats, which we suppose they worship. they are witches, and have many kinds of enchantments, which they often used, but to small purpose, thanks be to god. being among them at shore, the th of july, one of them, making a long oration, began to kindle a fire, in this manner: he took a piece of a board, wherein was a hole half through; unto that hole he puts the end of a round stick, like unto a bed staff, wetting the end thereof in train, and in fashion of a turner, with a piece of leather, by his violent motion doth very speedily produce fire; which done, with turfs he made a fire, into which, with many words and strange gestures, he put divers things which we suppose to be a sacrifice. myself and divers of my company standing by, they were desirous to have me go into the smoke; i willed them likewise to stand in the smoke, in which they by no means would do. i then took one of them, and thrust him into the smoke, and willed one of my company to tread out the fire, and to spurn it into the sea, which was done to show them that we did contemn their sorcery. these people are very simple in all their conversation, but marvellous thievish, especially for iron, which they have in great account. they began through our lenity to show their vile nature; they began to cut our cables; they cut away the _moonlight's_ boat from her stern; they cut our cloth where it lay to air, though we did carefully look unto it, they stole our oars, a calliver, a boat's spear, a sword, with divers other things, whereat the company and masters being grieved, for our better security desired me to dissolve this new friendship, and to leave the company of these thievish miscreants; whereupon there was a calliver shot among them, and immediately upon the same a falcon, which strange noise did sore amaze them, so that with speed they departed; notwithstanding, their simplicity is such, that within ten hours after they came again to us to entreat peace; which, being promised, we again fell into a great league. they brought us seal skins and salmon peel, but, seeing iron, they could in nowise forbear stealing; which, when i perceived it, did but minister unto me an occasion of laughter to see their simplicity, and willed that in no case they should be any more hardly used, but that our own company should be the more vigilant to keep their things, supposing it to be very hard in so short time to make them know their evils. they eat all their meat raw, they live most upon fish, they drink salt water, and eat grass and ice with delight; they are never out of the water, but live in the nature of fishes, but only when dead sleep taketh them, and then under a warm rock, laying his boat upon the land, he lieth down to sleep. their weapons are all darts, but some of them have bow and arrows and slings. they make nets to take their fish of the fin of a whale; they do all their things very artfully, and it should seem that these simple, thievish islanders have war with those of the main, for many of them are sore wounded, which wounds they received upon the main land, as by signs they gave us to understand. we had among them copper ore, black copper, and red copper; they pronounce their language very hollow, and deep in the throat; these words following we learned from them:-- kesinyoh, eat some. mysacoah, wash it. madlycoyte, music. lethicksaneg, a seal-skin. aginyoh, go, fetch. canyglow, kiss me. yliaoute, i mean no harm. ugnera, my son. ponameg, a boat. acu, shot. conah, leap. aba, fallen down. maatuke, fish. icune, come hither. sambah, below. awennye, yonder. maconmeg, will you have this? nugo, no. cocah, go to him. tucktodo, a fog. paaotyck, an oar. lechiksah, a skin. asanock, a dart. maccoah, a dart. sawygmeg, a knife. sugnacoon, a coat. uderah, a nose. gounah, come down. aoh, iron. sasobneg, a bracelet. blete, an eye. ugnake, a tongue. unvicke, give it. ataneg, a meal. tuckloak, a stag or elan. macuah, a beard. panygmah, a needle. pignagogah, a thread. aob, the sea. quoysah, give it to me. the th of july, being very desirous to search the habitation of this country, i went myself with our new pinnace into the body of the land, thinking it to be a firm continent, and passing up a very large river a great flaw of wind took me, whereby we were constrained to seek succour for that night, which being had, i landed with the most part of my company, and went to the top of a high mountain, hoping from thence to see into the country; but the mountains were so many and so mighty as that my purpose prevailed not, whereupon i again returned to my pinnace, and willing divers of my company to gather mussels for my supper, whereof in this place there was great store, myself having espied a very strange sight, especially to me, that never before saw the like, which was a mighty whirlwind, taking up the water in very great quantity, furiously mounting it into the air, which whirlwind was not for a puff or blast, but continual for the space of three hours, with very little intermission, which since it was in the course that i should pass, we were constrained that night to take up our lodging under the rocks. the next morning, the storm being broken up, we went forward in our attempt, and sailed into a mighty great river, directly into the body of the land, and in brief found it to be no firm land, but huge, waste, and desert isles with mighty sounds and inlets passing between sea and sea. whereupon we returned towards our ships, and landing to stop a flood, we found the burial of these miscreants; we found of their fish in bags, plaices, and caplin dried, of which we took only one bag and departed. the th of this month we came to our ships, where we found the people desirous in their fashion of friendship and barter: our mariners complained heavily against the people, and said that my lenity and friendly using of them gave them stomach to mischief, for "they have stolen an anchor from us. they have cut our cable very dangerously, they have cut our boats from our stern, and now, since your departure, with slings they spare us not with stones of half a pound weight. and will you still endure these injuries? it is a shame to bear them." i desired them to be content, and said i doubted not but all should be well. the th of this month i went to the shore, the people following me in their canoes; i tolled them on shore, and used them with much courtesy, and then departed aboard, they following me and my company. i gave some of them bracelets, and caused seven or eight of them to come aboard, which they did willingly; and some of them went into the top of our ship, and thus courteously using them i let them depart. the sun was no sooner down but they began to practise their devilish nature, and with slings threw stones very fiercely into the _moonlight_ and struck one of her men, the boatswain, that he overthrew withal: whereat being moved, i changed my courtesy and grew to hatred; myself in my own boat well manned with shot, and the barques boat likewise pursued them, and gave them divers shot, but to small purpose, by reason of their swift rowing; so small content we returned. the th of this month there came five of them to make a new truce; the master of the _admiral_ came to me to show me of their coming, and desired to have them taken and kept as prisoners until we had his anchor again; but when he saw that the chief ring-leader and master of mischief was one of the five, then was vehement to execute his purpose, so it was determined to take him; he came crying "yliaout," and striking his breast offered a pair of gloves to sell; the master offered him a knife for them: so two of them came to us; the one was not touched, but the other was soon captive among us; then we pointed to him and his fellows for our anchor, which being had we made signs that he should he set at liberty within one hour that he came aboard; the wind came fair, whereupon we weighed and set sail, and so brought the fellow with us. one of his fellows still following our ship close aboard, talked with him, and made a kind of lamentation, we still using him well, with "yliaout," which was the common course of courtesy. at length this fellow aboard us spoke four or five words unto the other and clapped his two hands upon his face, whereupon the other doing the like, departed, as we supposed, with heavy cheer. we judged the covering of his face with his hands, and bowing of his body down, signified his death. at length he became a pleasant companion among us. i gave him a new suit of frieze after the english fashion, because i saw he could not endure the cold, of which he was very joyful; he trimmed up his darts, and all his fishing tools, and would make oakum, and set his hand to a rope's end upon occasion. he lived with the dry caplin that i took when i was searching in the pinnace, and did eat dry new land fish. all this while, god be thanked, our people were in very good health, only one young man excepted, who died at sea the th of this month, and the th, according to the order of the sea, with praise given to god by service, was cast overboard. the th of this month, being in the latitude of degrees minutes, we fell upon a most mighty and strange quantity of ice, in one entire mass, so big as that we knew not the limits thereof, and being withal so very high, in form of a land, with bays and capes, and like high cliff land as that we supposed it to be land, and therefore sent our pinnace off to discover it; but at her return we were certainly informed that it was only ice, which bred great admiration to us all, considering the huge quantity thereof incredible to be reported in truth as it was, and therefore i omit to speak any further thereof. this only, i think that the like before was never seen, and in this place we had very stickle and strong currents. we coasted this mighty mass of ice until the th of july, finding it a mighty bar to our purpose: the air in this time was so contagious, and the sea so pestered with ice, as that all hope was banished of proceeding; for the th of july all our shrouds, ropes, and sails were so frozen, and encompassed with ice, only by a gross fog, as seemed to be more than strange, since the last year i found this sea free and navigable, without impediments. our men through this extremity began to grow sick and feeble, and withal hopeless of good success; whereupon, very orderly, with good discretion they entreated me to regard the state of this business, and withal advised me that in conscience i ought to regard the safety of mine own life with the preservation of theirs, and that i should not, through my overboldness, leave their widows and fatherless children to give me bitter curses. this matter in conscience did greatly move me to regard their estates, yet considering the excellency of the business, if it might be obtained, the great hope of certainty by the last year's discovery, and that there was yet a third way not put in practice, i thought it would grow to my disgrace if this action by my negligence should grow into discredit: whereupon seeking help from god, the fountain of all mercies, it pleased his divine majesty to move my heart to prosecute that which i hope shall be to his glory, and to the contentation of every christian mind. whereupon, falling into consideration that the _mermaid_, albeit a very strong and sufficient ship, yet by reason of her burden not so convenient and nimble as a smaller barque, especially in such desperate hazards; further, having in account how great charge to the adventurers, being at livres the month, and that in doubtful service, all the premises considered, with divers other things, i determined to furnish the _moonlight_ with revictualing and sufficient men, and to proceed in this action as god should direct me; whereupon i altered our course from the ice, and bore east-south-east to the cover of the next shore, where this thing might be performed; so with favourable wind it pleased god that the st of august we discovered the land in latitude degrees minutes, and in longitude from the meridian of london degrees, void of trouble, without snow or ice. the nd of august we harboured ourselves in a very excellent good road, where with all speed we graved the _moonlight_, and revictualled her; we searched this country with our pinnace while the barque was trimming, which william eston did: he found all this land to be only islands, with a sea on the east, a sea on the west, and a sea on the north. in this place we found it very hot, and we were very much troubled with a fly which is called mosquito, for they did sting grievously. the people of this place at our first coming in caught a seal, and, with bladders fast tied to him sent him in to us with the flood, so as he came right with our ships, which we took as a friendly present from them. the th of august i went with the two masters and others to the top of a hill, and by the way william eston espied three canoes lying under a rock, and went unto them: there were in them skins, darts, with divers superstitious toys, whereof we diminished no thing, but left upon every boat a silk point, a bullet of lead, and a pin. the next day, being the th of august, the people came unto us without fear, and did barter with us for skins, as the other people did: they differ not from the other, neither in their canoes nor apparel, yet is their pronunciation more plain than the others, and nothing hollow in the throat. our miscreant aboard of us kept himself close, and made show that he would fain have another companion. thus being provided, i departed from this land the th of august at six of the clock in the morning, where i left the _mermaid_ at anchor; the th sailing west about leagues we discovered land, being in latitude degrees minutes: this land is leagues from the other from whence we came. this th day, from nine o'clock at night till three o'clock in the morning, we anchored by an island of ice leagues off the shore, being moored to the ice. the th day, at three o'clock in the morning, we departed from this land to the south, and the th of august we discovered land north-west from us in the morning, being a very fair promontory, in latitude degrees, having no land on the south. here we had great hope of a through passage. this day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we again discovered land south-west and by south from us, where at night we were becalmed. the th of this month at noon, by observation, we were in degrees minutes. from the th day at noon until the th at noon, by precise ordinary care, we had sailed fifteen leagues south and by west, yet by art and more exact observation we found our course to be south-west, so that we plainly perceived a great current striking to the west. this land is nothing in sight but isles, which increaseth our hope. this th of august, at six o'clock in the afternoon, it began to snow, and so continued all night, with foul weather and much wind, so that we were constrained to lie at hull all night, five leagues off the shore: in the morning, being the th of august, the fog and storm breaking up, we bore in with the land, and at nine o'clock in the morning we anchored in a very fair and safe road and locket for all weathers. at ten o'clock i went on shore to the top of a very high hill, where i perceived that this land was islands; at four o'clock in the afternoon we weighed anchor, having a fair north-north-east wind, with very fair weather; at six o'clock we were clear without the land, and so shaped our course to the south, to discover the coast whereby the passage may be through god's mercy found. we coasted this land till the th day of august, finding it still to continue towards the south, from the latitude of to degrees; we found marvellous great store of birds, gulls and mews, incredible to be reported, whereupon being calm weather we lay one glass upon the lee to prove for fish, in which space we caught one hundred of cod, although we were but badly provided for fishing, not being our purpose. this th, having great distrust of the weather, we arrived in a very fair harbour in the latitude of degrees, and sailed ten leagues in the same, being two leagues broad, with very fair woods on both sides; in this place we continued until the st of september, in which time we had two very great storms. i landed, and went six miles by guess into the country, and found that the woods were fir, pine-apple, alder, yew, withy, and birch; here we saw a black bear; this place yieldeth great store of birds, as pheasant, partridge, barbary hens, or the like, wild geese, ducks, blackbirds, jays, thrushes, with other kinds of small birds. of the partridge and pheasant we killed great store with bow and arrows in this place; at the harbour-mouth we found great store of cod. the st of september at ten o'clock we set sail, and coasted the shore with very fair weather. the third day being calm, at noon we struck sail, and let fall a cadge anchor to prove whether we could take any fish, being in latitude degrees minutes, in which place we found great abundance of cod, so that the hook was no sooner overboard but presently a fish was taken. it was the largest and best refet fish that ever i saw, and divers fishermen that were with me said that they never saw a more suaule, or better skull of fish in their lives, yet had they seen great abundance. the th of september, at o'clock in the afternoon, we anchored in a very good road among great store of isles, the country low land, pleasant, and very full of fair woods. to the north of this place eight leagues we had a perfect hope of the passage, finding a mighty great sea passing between two lands west. the south land to our judgment being nothing but isles, we greatly desired to go into this sea, but the wind was directly against us. we anchored in four fathom fine sand. in this place is fowl and fish mighty store. the th of september, having a fair north-north-west wind, having trimmed our barque, we purposed to depart, and sent five of our sailors, young men, ashore to an island to fetch certain fish which we purposed to weather, and therefore left it all night covered upon the isle; the brutish people of this country lay secretly lurking in the wood, and upon the sudden assaulted our men, which when we perceived, we presently let slip our cables upon the halse, and under our foresail bore into the shore, and with all expedition discharged a double musket upon them twice, at the noise whereof they fled; notwithstanding, to our very great grief, two of our men were slain with their arrows, and two grievously wounded, of whom, at this present, we stand in very great doubt; only one escaped by swimming, with an arrow shot through his arm. these wicked miscreants never offered parley or speech, but presently executed their cursed fury. this present evening it pleased god farther to increase our sorrows with a mighty tempestuous storm, the wind being north-north-east, which lasted unto the th of this month very extreme. we unrigged our ship, and purposed to cut-down our masts; the cable of our shut anchor broke, so that we only expected to be driven on shore amongst these cannibals for their prey. yet in this deep distress the mighty mercy of god, when hope was past, gave us succour, and sent us a fair lee, so as we recovered our anchor again, and new-moored our ship; where we saw that god manifestly delivered us, for the strains of one of our cables were broken; we only rode by an old junk. thus being freshly moored, a new storm arose, the wind being west-north-west, very forcible, which lasted unto the th day at night. the th day, with a fair west-north-west wind, we departed with trust in god's mercy, shaping our course for england, and arrived in the west country in the beginning of october. * * * * * _master davis being arrived_, _wrote his letter to master william sanderson of london_, _concerning his voyage_, _as followeth_. sir,--the _sunshine_ came into dartmouth the th of this month: she hath been at iceland, and from thence to greenland, and so to estotiland, from thence to desolation, and to our merchants, where she made trade with the people, staying in the country twenty days. they have brought home seal-skins, and half skins and pieces of skins. i stand in great doubt of the pinnace; god be merciful unto the poor men and preserve them if it be his blessed will. i have now full experience of much of the north-west part of the world, and have brought the passage to that certainty, as that i am sure it must be in one of four places, or else not at all. and further, i can assure you upon the peril of my life, that this voyage may be performed without further charge, nay, with certain profit to the adventurers, if i may have but your favour in the action. surely it shall cost me all my hope of welfare and my portion of sandridge, but i will, by god's mercy, see an end of these businesses. i hope i shall find favour with you to see your card. i pray god it be so true as the card shall be which i will bring to you, and i hope in god that your skill in navigation shall be gainful unto you, although at the first it hath not proved so. and thus with my most humble commendations i commit you to god, desiring no longer to live than i shall be yours most faithfully to command. from this th of october, . yours with my heart, body and life to command, john davis. * * * * * _the relation of the course which the_ "_sunshine_," _a barque of fifty tons_, _and the_ "_north star_," _a small pinnace_, _being two vessels of the fleet of master john davis_, _held after he had sent them from him to discover the passage between greenland and iceland_. _written by henry morgan_, _servant to master william sanderson of london_. the th day of may, , we departed out of dartmouth haven four sails, to wit, the _mermaid_, the _sunshine_, the _moonshine_, and the _north star_. in the _sunshine_ were sixteen men, whose names were these: richard pope, master; mark carter, master's mate; henry morgan, purser; george draward, john mandie, hugh broken, philip jane, hugh hempson, richard borden, john filpe, andrew madocke, william wolcome, robert wagge, carpenter, john bruskome, william ashe, simon ellis. our course was west-north-west the th and th days; and the ninth day in the morning we were on head of the tarrose of scilly. thus coasting along the south part of ireland, the th day we were on the head of the dorses, and our course was south-south-west until six of the clock the th day. the th day our course was north-west. we remained in the company of the _mermaid_ and the _moonshine_ until we came to the latitude of degrees, and there it seemed best to our general, master davis, to divide his fleet, himself sailing to the north-west, and to direct the _sunshine_, wherein i was, and the pinnace called the _north star_, to seek a passage northward between greenland and iceland to the latitude of degrees, if land did not let us. so the th day of june we departed from them, and the th of the same we came to a firm land of ice, which we coasted along the th, the th, and the th days of june; and the th day at six of the clock at night we saw land, which was very high, which afterwards we knew to be iceland, and the th day we harboured there, and found many people; the land lieth east and by north in degrees. their commodities were green fish and iceland lings and stock fish, and a fish which is called catfish, of all which they had great store. they had also kine, sheep, and horses, and hay for their cattle and for their horses. we saw also of their dogs. their dwelling-houses were made on both sides with stones, and wood laid across over them, which was covered over with turfs of earth, and they are flat on the tops, and many of these stood hard by the shore. their boats were made with wood, and iron all along the keel like our english boats; and they had nails for to nail them withal, and fish-hooks, and other things for to catch fish as we have here in england. they had also brazen kettles, and girdles and purses made of leather, and knops on them of copper, and hatchets, and other small tools as necessary as we have. they dry their fish in the sun; and when they are dry they pack them up in the top of their houses. if we would go thither to fishing more than we do, we should make it a very good voyage, for we got a hundred green fishes in one morning. we found here two englishmen with a ship, which came out of england about easter day of this present year, ; and one of them came aboard of us and brought us two lambs. the englishman's name was master john royden, of ipswich, merchant; he was bound for london with his ship. and this is the sum of that which i observed in iceland. we departed from iceland the th day of june, in the morning, and our course was north-west; and saw on the coast two small barques going to a harbour; we went not to them, but saw them afar off. thus we continued our course unto the end of this month. the rd day of july we were in between two firm lands of ice, and passed in between them all that day until it was night, and then the master turned back again, and so away we went towards greenland. and the th day of july we did see greenland, and it was very high, and it looked very blue; but we could not come to harbour in the land because we were hindered by a firm land, as it were, of ice, which was along the shore's side; but we were within three leagues of the land, coasting the same divers days together. the th day of july we saw the place which our captain, master john davis, the year before had named the land of desolation, where we could not go on shore for ice. the th day we were likewise troubled with ice, and went in amongst it at three of the clock in the morning. after we had cleared ourselves thereof we ranged all along the coast of desolation until the end of the aforesaid month. the rd day of august we came in sight of gilbert's sound in the latitude of degrees minutes, which was the place where we were appointed to meet our general and the rest of our fleet. here we came to a harbour at six of the clock at night. the th day, in the morning, the master went on shore with ten of his men, and they brought us four of the people rowing in their boats, aboard of the ship. and in the afternoon i went on shore with six of our men, and there came to us seven of them when we were on land. we found on shore three dead people, and two of them had their staves lying by them, and their old skins wrapped about them, and the other had nothing lying by, wherefore we thought it was a woman. we also saw their houses, near the seaside, which were made with pieces of wood on both sides, and crossed over with poles and then covered over with earth. we found foxes running upon the hills. as for the place, it is broken land all the way that we went, and full of broken islands. the st of august the master sent the boat on shore for wood, with six of his men, and there were one-and-thirty of the people of the country, which went on shore to them, and they went about to kill them as we thought, for they shot their darts towards them, and we that were aboard the ship did see them go on shore to our men, whereupon the master sent the pinnace after them; and when they saw the pinnace coming towards them they turned back, and the master of the pinnace did shoot off a culliver to them the same time, but hurt none of them, for his meaning was only to put them in fear. divers times they did wave us on shore to play with them at the football, and some of our company went on shore to play with them, and our men did cast them down as soon as they did come to strike the ball. and thus much of that which we did see and do in that harbour where we arrived first. the rd day we departed from the merchants where we had been first, and our course from thence was south and by west, and the wind was north-east, and we ran that day and night about five or six leagues until we came to another harbour. the th, about eleven of the clock in the forenoon, we entered into the aforesaid new harbour, and as we came in we did see dogs running upon the islands. when we were come in, there came to us four of the people which were with us before in the other harbour; and where we rowed we had sandy ground. we saw no wood growing, but found small pieces of wood upon the islands, and some small pieces of sweet wood among the same. we found great harts' horns, but could see none of the stags where we went, but we found their footings. as for the bones which we received of the savages, i cannot tell of what beasts they be. the stones that we found in the country were black, and some white; as i think, they be of no value; nevertheless i have brought examples of them to you. the th of august we departed from this harbour towards england, and the wind took us contrary, so that we were fain to go to another harbour the same day at eleven of the clock. and there came to us thirty-nine of the people and brought us thirteen seal-skins, and after we received these skins of them the master sent the carpenter to change one of our boats which we had bought of them before; and they would have taken the boat from him perforce, and when they saw they could not take it from us they shot with their darts at us, and struck one of our men with one of their darts, and john filpe shot one of them in the breast with an arrow. and they came to us again, and four of our men went into the ship boat, and they shot with their darts at our men; but our men took one of their people in his boat, into the ship boat, and he hurt one of them with his knife, but we killed three of them in their boats, two of them were hurt with arrows in the breast, and he that was aboard our boat was shot with an arrow, and hurt with a sword, and beaten with staves, whom our men cast overboard; but the people caught him and carried him on shore upon their boats, and the other two also, and so departed from us. and three of them went on shore hard by us where they had their dogs, and those three came away from their dogs, and presently one of their dogs came swimming towards us hard aboard the ship, whereupon our master caused the gunner to shoot off one of the great pieces--towards the people, and so the dog turned back to land, and within an hour after there came of the people hard aboard the ship, but they would not come to us as they did before. the st of august we departed from gilbert's sound for england, and when we came out of the harbour there came after us seventeen of the people looking which way we went. the nd of september we lost sight of the land at twelve of the clock at noon. the rd day at night we lost sight of the _north star_, our pinnace, in a very great storm, and lay a-hull tarrying for them the th day, but could hear no more of them. thus we shaped our course the th day south-south-east, and sailing unto the th of the said month, we came in sight of cape clear in ireland. the th day we entered into our own channel. the nd of october we had sight of the isle of wight. the rd we coasted all along the shore, and the th and th. the th of the said month of october we came into the river of thames as high as ratcliffe in safety, god be thanked! the third voyage north-westward, made by john davis, _gentleman_, _as chief captain and pilot general for the discovery of a passage to the isles of the molucca_, _or the coast of china_, _in the year_ . _written by john janes_, _servant to the aforesaid master william sanderson_. may.--the th of this present month, about midnight, we weighed our anchors, set sail and departed from dartmouth with two barques and a clincher, the one named the _elizabeth_, of dartmouth, the other the _sunshine_, of london, and the clincher called the _ellin_, of london; thus, in god's name, we set forwards with wind at north-east, a good fresh gale. about three hours after our departure, the night being somewhat thick with darkness, we had lost the pinnace. the captain, imagining that the men had run away with her, willed the master of the _sunshine_ to stand to seawards and see if we could descry them, we bearing in with the shore for plymouth. at length we descried her, bore with her, and demanded what the cause was; they answered that the tiller of their helm was burst, so shaping our course west-south-west, we went forward, hoping that a hard beginning would make a good ending; yet some of us were doubtful of it, failing in reckoning that she was a clincher; nevertheless, we put our trust in god. the st we met with the _red lion_ of london, which came from the coast of spain, which was afraid that we had been men-of-war; but we hailed them, and after a little conference we desired the master to carry our letters for london, directed to my uncle sanderson, who promised us safe delivery. and after we had heaved them a lead and a line, whereunto we had made fast our letters, before they could get them into the ship they fell into the sea, and so all our labour and theirs also was lost; notwithstanding, they promised to certify our departure at london, and so we departed, and the same day we had sight of scilly. the nd the wind was at north-east by east, with fair weather, and so the rd and th the like. the th we laid our ships on the lee for the _sunshine_, who was a-rummaging for a leak; they had strokes at the pump in a watch, with the wind at north-west. the th and th we had fair weather, but this th the pinnace's foremast was blown overboard. the th the _elizabeth_ towed the pinnace, which was so much bragged of by the owner's report before we came out of england, but at sea she was like a cart drawn with oxen. sometimes we towed her, because she could not sail for scant wind. the st day our captain asked if the pinnace were staunch. peerson answered that she was as sound and staunch as a cup. this made us something glad when we saw she would brook the sea, and was not leaky. _june_.--the first six days we had fair weather; after that for five days we had fog and rain, the wind being south. the th we had clear weather. the mariners in the _sunshine_ and the master could not agree; the mariners would go on their voyage a-fishing, because the year began to waste; the master would not depart till he had the company of the _elizabeth_, whereupon the master told our captain that he was afraid his men would shape some contrary course while he was asleep, and so he should lose us. at length, after much talk and many threatenings, they were content to bring us to the land which we looked for daily. the th we had fog and rain. the th day we discovered land at five of the clock in the morning, being very great and high mountains, the tops of the hills being covered with snow. here the wind was variable, sometimes north-east, east-north-east, and east by north; but we imagined ourselves to be or leagues off from the shore. the th we had reasonably clear weather. the th we came to an anchor about four or five of the clock in the afternoon. the people came presently to us, after the old manner, with crying "il y a oute," and showed us seal-skins. the th we began to set up the pinnace that peerson framed at dartmouth, with the boards which he brought from london. the th, peerson and the carpenters of the ships began to set on the planks. the th, as we went about an island, were found black pumice stones, and salt kerned on the rocks, very white and glistering. this day, also, the master of the _sunshine_ took one of the people, a very strong, lusty young fellow. the th, about two of the clock in the morning, the savages came to the island where our pinnace was built ready to be launched, and tore the two upper strakes and carried them away, only for the love of the iron in the boards. while they were about this practice, we manned the _elizabeth's_ boat to go ashore to them. our men, being either afraid or amazed, were so long before they came to shore, that our captain willed them to stay, and made the gunner give fire to a saker, and laid the piece level with the boat, which the savages had turned on the one side because we could not hurt them with our arrows, and made the boat their bulwark against the arrows which we shot at them. our gunner, having made all things ready, gave fire to the piece, and fearing to hurt any of the people, and regarding the owner's profit, thought belike he would save a saker's shot, doubting we should have occasion to fight with men-of-war, and so shot off the saker without a bullet, we looking still when the savages that were hurt should run away without legs; at length we could perceive never a man hurt, but all having their legs, could carry away their bodies. we had no sooner shot off the piece but the master of the _sunshine_ manned his boat, and came rowing towards the island, the very sight of whom made each of them take that he had gotten, and fly away as fast as they could to another island about two miles off, where they took the nails out of the timber, and left the wood on the isle. when we came on shore, and saw how they had spoiled the boat, after much debating of the matter, we agreed that the _elizabeth_ should have her to fish withal; whereupon she was presently carried aboard and stowed. now after this trouble, being resolved to depart with the first wind, there fell out another matter worse than all the rest, and that was in this manner: john churchyard, one whom our captain had appointed as pilot in the pinnace, came to our captain and master bruton, and told them that the good ship which we must all hazard our lives in had three hundred strokes at one time as she rode in the harbour. this disquieted us all greatly, and many doubted to go in her. at length our captain, by whom we were all to be governed, determined rather to end his life with credit than to return with infamy and disgrace; and so, being all agreed, we purposed to live and die together, and committed ourselves to the ship. now the st, having brought all our things aboard, about eleven or twelve of the clock at night we set sail and departed from those isles, which lie in degrees of latitude, our ships being now all at sea, and we shaping our course to go coasting the land to the northwards, upon the eastern shore, which we called the shore of our merchants, because there we met with people which traffic with us; but here we were not without doubt of our ship. the nd and rd we had close fog and rain. the th, being in degrees and minutes, we had great store of whales, and a kind of sea-birds which the mariners call cortinous. this day, about six of the clock at night, we espied two of the country people at sea, thinking at the first they had been two great seals, until we saw their oars, glistering with the sun. they came rowing towards us as fast as they could, and when they came within hearing they held up their oars and cried "il y a oute," making many signs, and at last they came to us, giving us birds for bracelets, and of them i had a dart with a bone in it, or a piece of unicorn's horn, as i did judge. this dart he made store of, but when he saw a knife he let it go, being more desirous of the knife than of his dart. these people continued rowing after our ship the space of three hours. the th, in the morning, at seven of the clock, we descried thirty savages rowing after us, being by judgment ten leagues off from the shore. they brought us salmon peels, birds, and caplin, and we gave them pins, needles, bracelets, nails, knives, bells, looking-glasses, and other small trifles; and for a knife, a nail, or a bracelet, which they call ponigmah, they would sell their boat, coats, or anything they had, although they were far from the shore. we had but few skins of them, about twenty; but they made signs to us that if we would go to the shore, we should have more store of chicsanege. they stayed with us till eleven of the clock, at which time we went to prayer, and they departed from us. the th was cloudy, the wind being at south. the th fair, with the same wind. the th and th were foggy, with clouds. the th day we took the height, and found ourselves in degrees and minutes of latitude, both at noon and at night, the sun being five degrees above the horizon. at midnight the compass set to the variation of degrees to the westward. now having coasted the land which we called london coast from the st of this present till the th, the sea open all to the westwards and northwards, the land on starboard side east from us, the wind shifted to the north, whereupon we left that shore, naming the same hope sanderson, and shaped our course west, and ran forty leagues and better without the sight of any land. _july_.--the nd we fell in with a mighty bank of ice west from us, lying north and south, which bank we would gladly have doubled out to the northwards, but the wind would not suffer us, so that we were fain to coast it to the southwards, hoping to double it out that we might have run so far west till we had found land, or else to have been thoroughly resolved of our pretended purpose. the rd we fell in with the ice again, and putting off from it we sought to the northwards, but the wind crossed us. the th was foggy, so was the th; also with much wind at north. the th being very clear, we put our barque with oars through a gap in the ice, seeing the sea free on the west side, as we thought, which falling out otherwise, caused us to return after we had stayed there between the ice. the th and the th, about midnight, by god's help we recovered the open sea, the weather being fair and calm; and so was the th. the th we coasted the ice. the th was foggy, but calm. the th we coasted again the ice, having the wind at west-north-west. the th, bearing off from the ice, we determined to go with the shore, and come to an anchor, and to stay five or six days for the dissolving of the ice, hoping that the sea from continually beating it, and the sun with the extreme force of heat, which it had always shining upon it, would make a quick despatch, that we might have a further search upon the western shore. now when we were come to the eastern coast, the water something deep, and some of our company fearful withal, we durst not come to an anchor, but bore off into sea again. the poor people, seeing us go away again, came rowing after us into the sea, the waves being somewhat lofty. we trucked with them for a few skins and darts, and gave them beads, nails, needles, and cards, they pointing to the shore as though they would show us great friendship; but we, little regarding their courtesy, gave them the gentle farewell, and so departed. the th we had the wind at south. the th there was some fault either in the barque or the set of some current, for we were driven six points out of our course. the th we fell in with the bank of ice, west from us. the th and th were foggy. the th, at one o'clock afternoon, we had sight of the land which we called mount raleigh, and at twelve of the clock at night we were athwart the straits which we discovered the first year. the th we traversed in the mouth of the strait, the wind being at west with fair and clear weather. the st and nd we coasted the northern coast of the straits. the rd, having sailed leagues north-west into the straits at two o'clock afternoon, we anchored among many isles in the bottom of the gulf, naming the same the earl of cumberland's isles, where, riding at anchor, a whale passed by our ship and went west in among the isles. here the compass set at degrees westward variation. the th we departed, shaping our course south-east to recover the sea. the th we were becalmed in the bottom of the gulf, the air being extremely hot. master bruton and some of the mariners went on shore to course dogs, where they found many graves, and trains spilt on the ground, the dogs being so fat that they were scant able to run. the th we had a pretty storm, the wind being at south-east. the th and th were fair. the th we were clear out of the straits, having coasted the south shore, and this day at noon we were in degrees of latitude. the th in the afternoon we coasted a bank of ice which lay on the shore, and passed by a great bank or inlet which lay between and degrees of latitude, which we called lumley's inlet. we had oftentimes, as we sailed along the coast, great roots, the water as it were whirling and overfalling, as if it were the fall of some great water through a bridge. the st as we sailed by a headland, which we named warwick's forehand, we fell into one of those overfalls with a fresh gale of wind, and bearing all our sails, we looking upon an island of ice between us and the shore, had thought that our barque did make no way, which caused us to take marks on the shore. at length we perceived ourselves to go very fast, and the island of ice which we saw before was carried very forcibly with the set of the current faster than our ship went. this day and night we passed by a very great gulf, the water whirling and roaring as it were the meeting of tides. _august_.--the st, having coasted a bank of ice which was driven out at the mouth of this gulf, we fell in with the southernmost cape of the gulf, which we named chidlie's cape, which lay in degrees and minutes of latitude. the nd and rd were calm and foggy, so were the th, th, and th. the th was fair and calm, so was the th, with a little gale in the morning. the th was fair, and we had a little gale at night. the th we had a frisking gale at west-north-west; the th fair. the th we saw five deer on the top of an island, called by us darcie's island. and we hoisted out our boat, and went ashore to them, thinking to have killed some of them. but when we came on shore and had coursed them twice about the island they took the sea, and swain towards islands distant from that three leagues. when we perceived that they had taken the sea, we gave them over, because our boat was so small that it could not carry us and row after them, they swam so fast; but one of them was as big as a good pretty cow, and very fat; their feet as big as ox-feet. here upon this island i killed with my piece a grey hare. the th in the morning we saw three or four white bears, but durst not go on shore unto them for lack of a good boat. this day we struck a rock seeking for a harbour, and received a leak, and this day we were in degrees of latitude. the th we stopped our leak in a storm not very outrageous at noon. the th, being almost in degrees of latitude, and not finding our ships, nor (according to their promise) being any mark, token, or beacon, which we willed to set up, and they protested to do so upon every headland, sea, island, or cape, within leagues every way off from their fishing place, which our captain appointed to be between and degrees--this th, i say, we shaped our course homeward for england, having in our ship but little wood, and half a hogshead of fresh water. our men were very willing to depart, and no man more forward than peerson, for he feared to be put out of his office of stewardship; he was so insatiate that the allowance of two men was scant sufficient to fill his greedy appetite; but because every man was so willing to depart, and considering our want, i doubted the matter very much, fearing that the seething of our men's victuals in salt water would breed diseases, and being but few (yet too many for the room, if any should be sick), and likely that all the rest might be infected therewith, we consented to return for our own country, and so we had the th there with the wind at south-west. the th we met a ship at sea, and as far as we could judge it was a biscayan; we thought she went a-fishing for whales, for in degrees or thereabout we saw very many. the th was fair with a good gale at west. the th fair also, but with much wind at west and by south. and thus, after much variable weather and change of winds, we arrived the th of september in dartmouth, anno , giving thanks to god for our safe arrival. * * * * * _a letter of the said master john davis_, _written to master sanderson of london_, _concerning his fore-written voyage_. good master sanderson,--with god's great mercy i have made my safe return in health with all my company, and have sailed leagues farther than my determination at my departure. i have been in degrees, finding the sea all open, and leagues between laud and land; the passage is most certain, the execution most easy, as at my coming you shall fully know. yesterday, the th of september, i landed all weary, therefore i pray you pardon my shortness. sandridge, this th of september, anno . yours equal as mine own, which by trial you shall best know, john davis. the great probability of a north west passage. [illustration: _a_ general map _of_ _the discoveries of_ admiral de fonte, exhibiting _the great probability of a_ north-west passage by thomas jefferys, _geographer to the king._ ] the great probability of a north west passage: deduced from observations on the letter of admiral de fonte, who sailed from the _callao_ of _lima_ on the discovery of a communication between the south sea and the atlantic ocean; and to intercept some navigators from _boston_ in _new england_, whom he met with, then in search of a north west passage. proving the authenticity of the admiral's letter. with three explanatory maps. st. a copy of an authentic _spanish_ map of _america_, published in . d. the discoveries made in _hudson_'s bay, by capt. _smith_, in and . d. a general map of the discoveries of admiral _de fonte_. by thomas jefferys, geographer to the king. with an appendix. containing the account of a discovery of part of the coast and inland country of labrador, made in . the whole intended for the advancement of trade and commerce. london: printed for thomas jefferys, at charing cross. mdcclxviii. to the right honourable wills earl of hillsborough, _&c._ _&c._ _&c._ one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state, first lord commissioner of trade and plantations, one of his majesty's most honourable privy council, and f.r.s. the discovery of a north-west passage having deserved the particular attention of that great minister of state sir _francis walsingham_, with the approbation of the greatest princess of that age, i presumed to ask the permission to inscribe the following sheets, on the same subject, to your lordship, wrote with no view of setting any further expeditions on foot, or with respect to any particular system, but as a candid and impartial enquiry, to shew the great probability there is of a north-west passage. the importance of the subject, treated with the greatest regard to truth, are the only pretensions i have to merit your patronage. your lordship will appear, to the latest posterity, in the amiable light of being zealous for the glory of his majesty, the honour of the nation, for promoting the commercial interests, the happiness of his majesty's subjects in general, and of those in _america_ in particular. i therefore have the most grateful sense of your benevolence and humanity in condescending to grant me this favour, as it will be known for part of that time that i had the honour to be your lordship's most humble and obedient servant, the author. the preface. the opinion of there being a north-west passage between the _atlantic_ and _southern ocean_ hath continued for more than two centuries; and though the attempts made to discover this passage have not been attended with the desired success, yet in consequence of such attempts great advantages have been received, not by the merchant only but by the men of science. it must be a satisfaction to the adventurer, though disappointed in his principal design, that his labours have contributed to the improvement of science, and the advancement of commerce. there was a generosity with respect to the discovery of a north-west passage, or a respect to the great abilities of those who promoted the various undertakings for making such discovery, to the crown which patronized them, and the estates of the kingdom who promised a most munificent reward to such who should compleat such discovery, that those who were of a contrary opinion treated the subject with a becoming decency. but the censures that have been of late made by our countrymen, and more particularly by foreigners, our ancestors have been treated as so many fools, or infatuated persons, busied to compleat an impracticable and a merely chimerical project, and are accused by a foreign geographer to have proceeded so far as to forge a fictitious account under the title of a letter of admiral _de fonte_. that the iniquity of the _english_ writers is not such (neither was ever known to be such) nor, was it in their inclination, could they so easily deceive the world; and the falshood of this assertion could be no otherway made apparent than by considering such letter with a just criticism, and examining the circumstances relating thereto. though the present age may not pay much regard to these censures, yet if they are passed unnoticed, might hereafter be considered as truths unanswerable at the time those censures were made. therefore to do justice to the character of our ancestors, to the present age in which such great encouragement hath been given to these undertakings, and that posterity might not be deceived, were motives (had they been duly considered without a regard to the importance of the subject) which might incite an abler pen to have undertaken to vindicate the authenticity of _de fonte_'s letter. as for a long time nothing of this kind appeared, nor could i hear that any thing was undertaken of this sort, by any person to whom i could freely communicate my sentiments, and the informations which i had collected on this subject, as the discovery of a north-west passage hath been the object of my attention for some years, considered myself under the disagreeable necessity of becoming an author in an age of such refined sentiments, expressed in the greatest purity of language: but if i have succeeded in the greater matters, i hope to be excused in the lesser. i have inserted the letter of _de fonte_, as first published in the _monthly miscellany_, or _memoirs of the curious_, in _april_ and _june_ , very scarce or in very few hands; not only as i thought it consistent with my work, but that the curious would be glad to have a copy of such letter exactly in the same manner in which it was first published, to keep in their collections. as to the observations respecting the circumstances of the letter of _de fonte_, the manner by which it was attained, its being a copy of such letter which the editors procured to be translated from the _spanish_, and as to such matters as are to be collected from the title of such letter, and from the letter in support of its authenticity, i submit those observations to superior judgments: if confuted, and it appears i have misapprehended the matter, am not tenacious of my opinion, but shall receive the conviction with pleasure, being entirely consistent with my design, which is, that the truth may be discovered, whether this account is authentick or not. in my remarks of the letter i have endeavoured to distinguish what was genuine, from what hath been since added by other hands; have made an exact calculation of the courses; have considered the circumstances of such letter, giving the reasons of the conduct that was used in the various parts of the voyage, and shewing the regularity and consistency there is through the whole, and without anachronisms or contradictions as hath been objected, part of which i was the better enabled to do from some experience which i have had in affairs of this sort. i must observe, the calculations were made without any regard had to the situation of _hudson_'s or _baffin_'s bay; but begun at the _callao_ of _lima_, and pursued as the account directs from the westward: and it was an agreeable surprize to find what an agreement there was as to the parts which, by such courses, it appeared that the admiral and his captain were in, consistent with the purpose they were sent on, and the proximity of where they were to _hudson_'s and _baffin_'s bay. to state particularly all the objections which have been made to this account, i thought would have greatly increased the bulk of the work. there is no material objection which i have any where met with, but is here considered. also to have added all the authorities which i have collected and made use of, would have made it more prolix; so have contented myself with only giving such quotations as appeared absolutely necessary to insert and then to mention the authors particularly. i think i have not perverted the meaning, or forced the sense, of any author made use of, to serve my purpose. to shew the probability of a passage, have traced the opinions relating to it from the time such opinions were first received; and also determined where it was always supposed to be or in what part such passage was: have considered the various evidence that there is relating to such passage; and proposed what appears to be the properest method at present for prosecuting the discovery. there are three maps, all of which appeared necessary for the better understanding this account. the one contains part of _asia_ and the _russian_ discoveries on the coast of _america_; the expedition of _de fonte_, and clears up that seeming inconsistency of the _tartarian_ and _southern ocean_ being contiguous in that part of _america_, from the authority of the _japanese_ map of _kempfer_, which must be of some repute, as it is so agreeable to the _russian_ discoveries: if true in that part, there is no reason to suppose but it is in like manner true as to the other part which is introduced into this map. this map exhibits the streight that _de fuca_ went up, the communication which there may be supposed agreeable to the lights which the accounts afford us between the sea at the back of _hudson_'s bay with that bay, or with the _north sea_ by _hudson_'s streights, or through _cumberland_ isles. there is also added a second map, to shew what expectations may be had of a passage from _hudson_'s bay, according to the discoveries made in the year . the third map is an exact copy from that published in the _monarquia indiana de torquemada_, in which the sea coast of _america_ is exhibited in a different manner from what it usually was in the maps of that time, compleated by the cosmographers of _philip_ the third. the work itself is in few hands, and the map, as far as appears, hath been only published in that book, is now again published, as it illustrates this work, and may be otherwise agreeable to the curious; having a desire not to omit any thing which would render the work compleat, or that would be acceptable to the publick. i have used uncommon pains to be informed as to what could be any way serviceable to render this work more compleat; and must make this publick acknowledgement, as to the gentlemen of the _british museum_, who, with great politeness and affability, gave me all the assistances in their power to find if the copy from which the translation was made was in their possession, which after an accurate search for some weeks it did not appear to be, and also their assistance as to any other matters which i supposed would be of service. i cannot pass by mr. _jefferys_'s care and exactness in executing the maps, whose care and fidelity to the publick not to impose any thing that is spurious, but what he hath an apparent and real authority for, is perhaps not sufficiently known. the voyage, an extract from which is added by way of appendix, was made from _philadelphia_, in a schooner of about sixty tons, and fifteen persons aboard, fitted out on a subscription of the merchants of _maryland_, _pennsylvania_, _new york_, and _boston_, on a generous plan, agreeable to proposals made them, with no view of any monopoly which they opposed, not to interfere with the _hudson_'s bay trade, or to carry on a clandestine trade with the natives of _greenland_, but to discover a north-west passage, and explore the _labrador_ coast, at that time supposed to be locked up under a pretended right, and not frequented by the subjects of _england_, but a successful trade carried on by the _french_; to open a trade there, to improve the fishery and the whaling on these coasts, cultivate a friendship with the natives, and make them serviceable in a political way: which design of theirs of a publick nature, open and generous, was in a great measure defeated by private persons interfering, whose views were more contracted. they did not succeed the first year as to their attempt in discovering a north-west passage, as it was a great year for ice; that it would be late in the year before the western part of _hudson_'s bay could be attained to, and then impossible to explore the _labrador_ that year, therefore the first part of the design was dropped, and the _labrador_ was explored. the next year a second attempt was made as to a passage; but three of the people who went beyond the place appointed by their orders, and inadvertently to look for a mine, samples of which had been carried home the year before, and this at the instigation of a private person before they set out from home, without the privity of the commander, were killed by the _eskemaux_, and the boat taken from them. after which accident, with some disagreeable circumstances consequent thereon amongst the schooner's company, and after an experiment made of their disinclination to proceed on any further discovery, it was thought most prudent to return. this short account is given by the person who commanded in this affair, to prevent any misrepresentation hereafter of what was done on these voyages. contents. page letter of admiral _de fonte_ as published in _april_ ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- _june_ observations _on the title affixed_, &c. the reason of this work. the translation made from a copy of the letter. title and the copy of the letter wrote in the _spanish_ language. copiest assured there was such an expedition as this of admiral _de fonte_ an account of this expedition not published in _spain_. the consequence of such expedition not being published the knowledge or certainty of this expedition from journals only mons. _de lisle_ his account of a journal. this account by mons. _de lisle_ defended this translation of _de fonte_'s letter how considered when first published. don _francisco seyxas y lovera_ his account of a voyage of _thomas peche_ observations on that account the tradition of there being a passage between the _atlantic_ and _southern ocean_ credible accounts received from various persons relating thereto not to be discredited. _indians_, their account of the situation of such streight how to be considered the reasons why we cannot obtain a particular information as to the original letter of _de fonte_ evidence relating to this account of _de fonte_, which distance of time or other accidents could not deface, yet remains no authenticated account of the equipment of the fleet to be expected from _new spain_ this account of _de fonte_ authentick, and no forgery. the editors published this account as authentick the reflection that this account is a forgery of some _englishman_ obviated the design in publishing this translation. the purpose of _de fonte_'s writing this letter not understood by the editors the editors unjustly reproached with a want of integrity. the censures as to the inauthenticity of this account of _de fonte_ not founded on facts. invalidity of the objection that no original hath been produced. the suspicion of the account being a deceit or forgery from whence. the original letter was in the _spanish_ language observations as to the name _bartholomew de fonte_ _de fonte_ was a man of family the _spanish_ marine not in so low a condition as they were under a necessity to apply to _portugal_ for sea officers to supply the principal posts. what is to be understood of _de fonte_ being president of _chili_ remarks _on the letter of admiral_ de fonte. the advice of the attempt from _boston_, in what manner transmitted from _old spain_ to the viceroys. the appellation of industrious navigators conformable to the characters of the persons concerned. the court of _spain_ knew that the attempt was to be by _hudson_'s bay. this attempt particularly commanded the attention of the court of _spain_ as to the computation by the years of the reign of king _charles_. the times mentioned in the letter do not refer to the times the voyage was set out on. there was sufficient time to equip the four ships how the design of this attempt might come to the knowledge of the court of _spain_. reasons why both viceroys should be informed _de fonte_ received his orders from _old spain_. wrote his letter to the court of _spain_. _de fonte_ and the viceroys did not receive their orders from the same persons what is the purpose of the introductory part of this letter. the names of the ships agreeable to the _spanish_ manner. _from_ callao _to_ st. helena. observations as to the computation of course and distance in the voyage of _de fonte_ from whence _de fonte_ takes his departure. as to the distance between the _callao_ of _lima_ and _st. helena_, no fault in the impression. an account of the latitude and longitude made use of, which agrees with _de fonte_'s voyage. remarks as to the expression, anchored in the port of _st. helena_ within the cape an interpolation of what is not in the original letter. observations as to the taking the betumen aboard. an error as to latitude corrected an error as to the course corrected. _from_ st. helena _to the river_ st. jago. observations as to _de fonte_ taking fresh provision aboard at the river _st. jago_ a comment or spurious interpolation. the course _de fonte_ sailed from the river _st. jago_. _from_ st. jago _to_ realejo. a proof that glosses and comments have been added to the original text the latitude not mentioned in the original letter of _de fonte_. the times that _de fonte_ is sailing between the respective ports from the _callao_ to _realejo_ no objection to the authenticity of this account. boats provided for _de fonte_ before he arrived at _realejo_ _from_ realejo _to the port of_ salagua. observations as to the islands of _chiametla_. ---- ---- ---- port of _salagua_. ---- ---- ---- master and mariners an interpolation or comment added. the translator not exact as to his translation. remark as to the information _de fonte_ received as to the tide at the head of the bay of _california_ _pennelossa_ appointed to discover whether _california_ was an island. the account given of _pennelossa_, as to his descent, not in the original letter. _from the port of_ salagua _to the_ archipelagus _of_ st. lazarus _and_ rio los reyes. _de fonte_ leaves _pennelossa_ within the shoals of _chiametla_ course corrected. remark as to cape _abel_. ---- as to the weather and the time he was running eight hundred and sixty leagues a neglect as to inserting a course. computation of longitude altered the course _de fonte_ steered, he accounts as to the land being in a latitude and longitude agreeable to the late _russian_ discoveries. acts with great judgment as a seaman. the agreement of the table of latitude and longitude with the _russian_ discoveries. and the _suesta del estrech d'anian_ not laid down on a vague calculation former authorities for it. so named by the _spaniards_. a superior entrance to that of _martin aguilar_ and of _de fuca_. the _archipelago_ of _st. lazarus_, properly so named by _de fonte_. a north-east part of the _south sea_ that _de fonte_ passed up his instructions were to fall in with the islands which formed the _archipelago_, and not the main land. _rio los reyes_, in what longitude. a further proof that his course was to the eastward _proceedings of admiral_ de fonte _after his arrival at_ rio de los reyes. the translation very inaccurate in this part. the date of the d of _june_ an error. _de fonte_ dispatches one of his captains to _bernarda_ with orders. jesuits had been in those parts, from whose accounts the instructions were formed remarks as to the orders sent _bernarda_. de fonte _sails up_ rio de los reyes. _de fonte_ sets out on his part of the expedition was at the entrance of _los reyes_ the th of _june_. observed the tides in _los reyes_ and _haro_. precaution to be used in going up the river. an additional note as to the jesuits. observations as to the jesuits. knew not of a streight could not publish their mission without leave. de fonte _arrives at_ conosset. receives a letter from _bernarda_ dated th of _june_ the d of _june_ was not the time _bernarda_ received his dispatches. the letter is an answer to the dispatches he received from _de fonte_. remarks on the letter. alters the course directed by _de fonte_. assures _de fonte_ he will do what was possible, and is under no apprehension as to a want of provisions the name of _haro_, and of the lake _velasco_, a particular compliment. this letter of _de fonte_ wrote in _spanish_. _description of_ rio de los reyes _and lake_ belle. _de fonte_ not inactive from the th to the d of _june_ very particular in his account. shews how far the tides came to from westward. de fonte _leaves his ships before the town of_ conosset. the time _de fonte_ had staid at _conosset_ was before acquainted with the practicability of _bernarda_ sending a letter. how the letter from _bernarda_ was sent. _de fonte_ waited to receive the letter before he proceeded. _parmentiers_, whom he was. _frenchmen_ were admitted into _peru_. reasons for the jesuits coming into these parts without passing the intermediate country _parmentiers_ had been before in these parts. his motive for going into those parts, and surveying the river _parmentiers_ the people captain _tchinkow_ met with, no objection to the character of the _indians_ in these parts. _parmentiers_ not a general interpreter voyages had been made to these parts. an omission in the translator. _a description of the river_ parmentiers, _lake_ de fonte, _and the adjacent country._ the form of the letter again observed by the translator lake _de fonte_, so named in compliment to the family he was of. lake _de fonte_ a salt water lake. a comparison of the country with other parts. why _de fonte_ stopped at the island south of the lake de fonte _sails out of the east north-east end of the lake_ de fonte, _and passes the streight of_ ronquillo. an additional comment. _de fonte_'s observation as to the country altering for the worse. a purposed silence as to the part come into after passing the streight of _ronquillo_. de fonte _arrives at the_ indian _town, and receives an account of the ship._ a further instance of _parmentiers_ having been in these parts _de fonte_ had been on the inquiry. _the proceedings of_ de fonte _after meeting with the ship._ the reason of the ship's company retiring to the woods _de fonte_ had particularly provided himself with some _englishmen_. _shapley_, the navigator of the ship, first waits on the admiral. particulars as to _shapley_. a disappointment of the intelligence the author hoped to attain a tradition amongst the antient people of there having been such a voyage. _major gibbons_, an account of him _seimar gibbons_, a mistake of the translator _massachusets_, the largest colony in _new england_ at that time. the ship fitted out from _boston_. remarks on _de fonte_'s address to _major gibbons_, and conduct on this occasion. _de fonte_ only mentions what is immediately necessary for the court to know the _boston_ ship returned before _de fonte_ left those parts. a remarkable anecdote from the ecclesiastical history of _new england_. the circumstances of which account agree with this voyage a further tradition as to _major gibbons_. that the persons met by _groseliers_ were not _major gibbons_ and his company. de fonte _returns to_ conosset. the various courses, distances, _&c._ from _rio de los reyes_ to the sea to the eastward of _ronquillo_ the prudent conduct observed in the absence of the admiral de fonte _receives a letter from_ bernarda. the latitude and longitude of _conibasset_, &c. observations as to the messenger who carried the first letter from _bernarda_. observations as to the messenger with the second letter the various courses, distances, _&c._ that _bernarda_ went. the probability of sending a seaman over land to _baffin_'s bay. remarks on the report made by the seaman _bernarda_ going up the _tartarian sea_ is agreeable to the _japanese_ map. a parallel drawn between _conosset_ and port _nelson_. the physical obstacles considered _bernarda_'s observations as to the parts he had been in. whether the parts about _baffin_'s bay were inhabited an objection as to the affability of the inhabitants further considered. as to the dispatch used by _indians_ in carrying expresses. _bernarda_ directed by the jesuits as to the harbour where he meets _de fonte_. _de fonte_ sent a chart with his letter _miguel venegas_, a _mexican_ jesuit, his observation as to the account of _de fonte_'s voyage, _&c._ the design with which his work was published. arguments for putting into immediate execution what he recommends _don cortez_ informs the king of _spain_ that there is a streight on the coast of the _baccaloos_. attempts made by _cortez_ what is comprehended under the name of _florida_. king of _portugal_ sends _gasper corterealis_ on discovery. the name _labrador_, what it means. _promonterum cortereale_, what part so named. _hudson_'s streights named the river of _three brothers_ or _anian_. when the finding a streight to northward became a matter of particular attention of the _spaniards_ undertaken by the emperor. by _philip_ the second. by _philip_ the third, and the reasons the opinions of _geographers_ as to the north part of _america_. how the maps were constructed at that time unacquainted with what _cortez_ knew of the streight instanced by the voyage of _alarcon_ that the land was thought to extend farther to northward than afterwards supposed by the voyage of _juan roderique de cabrillo_ _vizcaino_, his voyage, and the discovery of _aguilar_. _spaniards_ never meant by the streights of _anian_, _beerings_ streight remarks on the deficiency of the _spanish_ records. uncertainty of attaining any evidence from such records. father _kimo_'s map of _california_ altered by geographers the objection of _venegas_ as to the authenticity of _de fonte_'s account considered misrepresents the title of the letter doth not deny but that there was such a person as _de fonte_. the _jesuits_ and _parmentiers_ having been before in these parts not improbable master and mariners mentioned by _de fonte_, a probable account. whence the tide came at the head of the gulph of _california_ _de fonte_ retires, command taken by admiral _cassanate_. _seyxas y lovera_, the authority of his account defended _venegas_ omits some accounts for want of necessary authenticity. most of the discoveries are reported to be made by ships from the _moluccas_ what ships from the _moluccas_ or _philippines_ were forced to do in case of bad weather. the probability of a discovery made by a ship from the _philippines_ or _moluccas_. the people of the _philippine_ islands those who most talked of a passage. _salvatierra_, his account of a north-west passage discovered this account gained credit was the foundation of _frobisher_'s expedition. _thomas cowles_, his account defended _juan de fuca_, his account remarks on that account expeditions which the court of _spain_ order correspond in time with the attempts for discovery from _england_ the discovery of the coast of _california_ for a harbour for the _aquapulco_ ship not the sole design reasons that induced _aguilar_ to think the opening where he was was the streight of _anian_ observation on the preceding accounts. have no certain account of what expeditions were in those parts an exact survey of those coasts not known to have been made until the year . the streight of _anian_ at present acknowledged the first discoverers gave faithful accounts. reasons for _de fonte_'s account being true accounts of voyages not being to be obtained no just objection to their authenticity. as to the inference in _de fonte_'s letter of there being no north-west passage the proximity of the _western ocean_ supposed by all discoverers observations on the northern parts of _america_ being intermixed with waters. the objection as to the distance between the _ocean_ and the _sea_ at the back of _hudson_'s bay reasons why a passage hath not been discovered. a great channel to westward by which the ice and land waters are vented. accounts of _de fonte_, _de fuca_, and _chacke_, agree _indians_ mentioned by _de fonte_ and those by _de fuca_ not the same. why _de fonte_ did not pass up the north-east part of the _south sea_ the persons who were in those parts got no information of a streight the representation of the _jesuits_ the foundation of _de fonte_'s instructions. the court of _spain_ not of the same opinion with _de fonte_ or the jesuits on his return there is a sea to westward of _hudson_'s bay _joseph le france_, his account considered agrees with the account of _de fonte_ and _de fuca_ improbability of the _tete plat_ inhabiting near the ocean which way the _boston_ ship made the passage, uncertain. whether through _hudson_'s bay observations as to _chesterfield_'s inlet. as to _pistol_ bay and _cumberland_ isles a quotation from _seyxas y lovera_. observations thereon observations as to its having been the constant opinion that there was a north-west passage the great degree of credibility there is from the circumstances of _de fonte_'s voyage. what foundation those who argue against a north-west passage have for their argument where the passage is supposed, and an explanation of the map remarks as to expeditions to be made purposely for the discovery. the inconveniencies which attended on former expeditions. prevented for the future by a discovery of the coast of _labrador_. the advantageous consequences of that attempt method to be pursued in making the discovery. appendix. fall in with the coast of _labrador_ stand more to southward. tokens of the land meet with the _eskemaux_. enter a harbour the country described. people sent to the head of the harbour report they had seen a house a more particular account. the report of persons sent to survey the country. proceed on a further discovery enter up an inlet. prevented proceeding in the schooner by falls proceed in a boat, meet with falls. description of the country. sail out of the inlet and go to northward see smokes and go in pursuit of the natives proceed up a third inlet. see smokes again. enter a fourth inlet. meet with a _snow_ from _england_ the captain of the _snow_, his account and other particulars. observations as to the _eskemaux_ _snow_ had joined company with a _sloop_ from _rhode island_. an account of where the _eskemaux_ trade _eskemaux_ come along-side _schooner_ leaves the _snow_. _eskemaux_ come aboard the schooner mate of _snow_ comes aboard the _schooner_, and his account why mentioned the trade in these parts could only be established by the regulations of the _government_. _eskemaux_ coming to trade with the schooner intercepted. the inlet searched pass into three other inlets. an account of them and the country. reasons for leaving off the discovery _fishing bank_ sought for and discovered. an island of ice of a surprising magnitude and depth. memoirs for the curious. [sidenote: april .] _a letter from admiral_ bartholomew de fonte, _then admiral of_ new spain _and_ peru, _and now prince of_ chili; _giving an account of the most material transactions in a journal of his from the calo of_ lima _in_ peru, _on his discoveries, to find out if there was any north west passage from the_ atlantick _ocean into the south and tartarian sea._ the viceroys of _new spain_ and _peru_, having advice from the court of _spain_, that the several attempts of the _english_, both in the reigns of queen _elizabeth_, king _james_, and of capt. _hudson_ and capt. _james_, in the d, d and th years of king _charles_, was in the th year of the said king _charles_, a. d. , undertaken from some industrious navigators from _boston_ in _new england_, upon which i admiral _de fonte_ received orders from _spain_ and the viceroys to equip four ships of force, and being ready we put to sea the d of _april_ , from the calo of _lima_, i admiral _bartholomew de fonte_ in the ship _st spiritus_, the vice-admiral _don diego pennelossa_, in the ship _st lucia_, _pedro de bonardæ_, in the ship _rosaria_, _philip de ronquillo_ in the _king philip_. the th of _april_ at in the afternoon, we had the length of _st helen_, two hundred leagues on the _north_ side of the bay of _guajaquil_, in degrees of _south_ lat. and anchored in the port _st helena_, within the cape, where each ship's company took in a quantity of _betumen_, called vulgarly _tar_, of a dark colour with a cast of green, an excellent remedy against the scurvy and dropsie, and is used as tar for shipping, but we took it in for medicine; it boils out of the earth, and is there plenty. the _ th_ we pass'd the equinoctial by cape _del passao_, the _ th_ cape _st francisco_, in one degree and seven minutes of latitude north from the equator, and anchor'd in the mouth of the [ ]river _st jago_, where with a sea-net we catch'd abundance of good fish; and several of each ship's company went ashoar, and kill'd some goats and swine, which are there wild and in plenty; and others bought of some natives, dozen of _turkey_ cocks and hens, ducks, and much excellent fruit, at a village two _spanish_ leagues, six mile and a half, up the river _st jago_, on the larboard side or the left hand. the river is navigable for small vessels from the sea, about _spanish_ leagues _south east_, about half way to the fair city of _quita_, in minutes of _south_ latitude, a city that is very rich. the _ th_ of _april_ we sailed from the river _st jago_ to the port and town _raleo_, leagues w. n. w. a little westerly, in about degrees min. of n. latitude, leaving mount _st miguel_ on the larboard side, and point _cazamina_ on the starboard side. the port of _raleo_ is a safe port, is covered from the sea by the islands _ampallo_ and _mangreza_, both well inhabited with native _indians_, and other small islands. [ ]_raleo_ is but miles over land from the head of the lake _nigaragua_, that falls into the north sea in degrees of north latitude, near the corn or pearl islands. here at the town of _raleo_, where is abundance of excellent close grain'd timber, a reddish cedar, and all materials for building shipping; we bought long well sail'd shallops, built express for sailing and riding at anchor and rowing, about tuns each, of foot keel. the _ th_, we sailed from _raleo_ for the port of _saragua_, or rather of _salagua_, within the islands and shoals of _chamily_, and the port is often call'd by the _spaniards_ after that name; in degrees minutes of north latitude, leagues north west and by west, a little westerly from _raleo_. from the town of _saragua_, a little east of _chamily_ at _saragua_, and from _compostilo_ in the neighbourhood of this port, we took in a master and six mariners accustomed to trade with the natives on the east side of _california_ for pearl; the natives catch'd on a bank in degrees of latitude north from the _baxos st juan_, in degrees of north latitude leagues n. n. e. from cape st _lucas_, the south east point of _california_. the master admiral _de fonte_ had hir'd, with his vessel and mariners, who had informed the admiral, that leagues north from cape st _lucas_, a flood from the north, met the south flood, and that he was sure it must be an island, and _don diego pennelossa_ (sisters son of [ ]_don lewis de haro_) a young nobleman of great knowledge and address in cosmography and navigation, and undertook to discover whether _california_ was an island or not; for before it was not known whether it was an island or a _peninsula_; with his ship and the shallops they brought at _raleo_, and the master and mariners they hir'd at _salagua_, but admiral _de fonte_ with the other ships sailed from them within the islands _chamily_ the _ th_ of _may_ . and having the length of cape _abel_, on the w. s. w. side of _california_ in degrees of n. latitude, leagues n. w. and w. from the isles _chamily_; the wind sprung up at s. s. e. a steady gale, that from the _ th_ of _may_ to the _ th_ of _june_, he had sail'd to the river _los reyes_ in degrees of n. latitude, not having occasion to lower a topsail, in sailing leagues n. n. w. leagues from port _abel_ to cape blanco, leagues to _rio los reyes_, all the time most pleasant weather, and sailed about leagues in crooked channels, amongst islands named the [ ]_archipelagus de st lazarus_; where his ships boats sail'd a mile a head, sounding to see what water, rocks and sands there was. the d of _june_, admiral _fonte_ dispatched one of his captains to _pedro de barnarda_, to sail up a fair river, a gentle stream and deep water, went first n. and n. e. n. and n. w. into a large lake full of islands, and one very large _peninsula_ full of inhabitants, a friendly honest people in this lake; he named lake _valasco_, where captain _barnarda_ left his ship; nor all up the river was less than , , , and fathom water, both the rivers and lakes abounding with salmon trouts, and very large white pearch, some of two foot long; and with large _indian_ boats, by them called _periagos_, made of two large trees and foot long. capt. _barnarda_ first sailed from his ships in the lake _valasco_, one hundred and forty leagues west, and then e. n. e. to degrees of latitude. admiral _de fonte_, after he had dispatch'd captain _barnarda_ on the discovery of the north and east part of the _tartarian_ sea, the admiral sail'd up a very navigable river, which he named _rio los reyes_, that run nearest north east, but on several points of the compass leagues at low water, in a fair navigable channel, not less than or fathom water. it flow'd in both rivers near the same water, in the river _los reyes_, foot full and change of the moon; a s. s. e. moon made high water. it flow'd in the river _de haro_ foot and a half full and change. they had two [ ]jesuits with them that had been on their mission to the degrees of north latitude, and had made curious observations. the admiral _de fonte_ received a letter from captain _barnarda_, dated the th of _june_, . that he had left his ship in the lake _valasco_, betwixt the island _barnarda_ and the peninsula _conibasset_, a very safe port; it went down a river from the lake, falls, leagues, and fell into the _tartarian_ sea in degrees, with the pater jesuits and natives in three of their boats, and of his _spanish_ seamen; that the land trended away north east; that they should want no provisions, the country abounding with venison of sorts, and the sea and rivers with excellent fish (bread, salt, oyl and brandy they carry'd with them) that he should do what was possible. the admiral, when he received the letter from captain _barnarda_, was arrived at an _indian_ town called _conosset_, on the south-side the lake _belle_, where the two pater jesuits on their mission had been two years; a pleasant place. the admiral with his two ships, enter'd the lake the d of _june_, an hour before high water, and there was no fall or catract, and or fathom water, and and generally in the lake _belle_, there is a little fall of water till half flood, and an hour and quarter before high water the flood begins to set gently into the lake _belle_; the river is fresh at leagues distance from the mouth, or entrance of the river _los reyes_. the river and lake abounds with salmon, salmon-trouts, pikes, perch and mullets, and two other sorts of fish peculiar to that river, admirable good, and lake _belle_; also abounds with all those sorts of fish large and delicate: and admiral _de fonte_ says, the mullets catch'd in _rios reyes_ and lake _belle_, are much delicater than are to be found, he believes, in any part of the world. the rest shall be incerted in our next. [ ] _eighty leagues n. n. w. and leagues e. and by s._ [ ] _the great ships that are built in_ new spain _are built in_ raleo. [ ] don lewis de haro _was great minister of_ spain. [ ] _so named by_ de fonte, _he being the first that made that discovery._ [ ] _one of those that went with capt._ barnarda _on his discovery._ memoirs for the curious. [sidenote: june .] _the remainder of admiral_ bartholomew de fonte'_s letter; giving an account of the most material transactions in a journal of his from the calo of_ lima _in_ peru, _on his discoveries to find out if there was any north west passage from the_ atlantick _ocean into the south and tartarian sea; which for want of room we could not possibly avoid postponing._ [sidenote: _see the memoirs for april , and you'll find the beginning of this curious discovery._] we concluded with giving an account of a letter from capt. _barnarda_, dated the th of _june_, . on his discovery in the lake _valasco_. the first of _july_ , admiral _de fonte_ sailed from the rest of his ships in the lake _belle_, in a good port cover'd by a fine island, before the town _conosset_ from thence to a river i named _parmentiers_, in honour of my industrious judicious comrade, mr _parmentiers_, who had most exactly mark'd every thing in and about that river; we pass'd falls, in all foot, perpendicular from its sourse out of _belle_; it falls into the large lake i named lake _de fonte_, at which place we arrived the th of _july_. this lake is leagues long and broad, the length is e. n. e. and w. s. w. to or , in some places fathom deep; the lake abounds with excellent cod and ling, very large and well fed, there are several very large islands and small ones; they are covered with shrubby woods, the moss grows or foot long, with which the moose, a very large sort of deer, are fat with in the winter, and other lesser deer, as fallow, _&c._ there are abundance of wild cherries, strawberries, hurtleberries, and wild currants, and also of wild fowl heath cocks and hens, likewise partridges and turkeys, and sea fowl in great plenty on the south side: the lake is a very large fruitful island, had a great many inhabitants, and very excellent timber, as oaks, ashes, elm and fur-trees, very large and tall. the th of _july_ we sailed out of the e. n. e. end of the lake _de fonte_, and pass'd a lake i named _estricho de ronquillo_, leagues long, or leagues broad, , , and fathom of water; we pass'd this strait in hours, having a stout gale of wind and whole ebb. as we sailed more easterly, the country grew very sensibly worse, as it is in the north and south parts of _america_, from to the extream parts north or south, the west differs not only in fertility but in temperature of air, at least degrees, and it is warmer on the west side than on the east, as the best _spanish_ discoverers found it, whose business it was in the time of the emperor _charles_ the v. to _philip_ the iii. as is noted by _aloares_ and a _costa_ and _mariana_, &c. the th we came to an _indian_ town, and the _indians_ told our interpreter mr _parmentiers_, that a little way from us lay a great ship where there had never been one before; we sailed to them, and found only one man advanced in years, and a youth; the man was the greatest man in the mechanical parts of the mathematicks i had ever met with; my second mate was an _english_ man, an excellent seaman, as was my gunner, who had been taken prisoners at _campechy_, as well as the master's son; they told me the ship was of _new england_, from a town called _boston_. the owner and the whole ships company came on board the th, and the navigator of the ship, capt. _shapley_, told me, his owner was a fine gentleman, and major general of the largest colony in _new england_, called the _maltechusets_; so i received him like a gentleman, and told him, my commission was to make prize of any people seeking a north west or west passage into the south sea but i would look upon them as merchants trading with the natives for bevers, otters, and other furs and skins, and so for a small present of provisions i had no need on, i gave him my diamond ring, which cost me pieces of eight, (which the modest gentleman received with difficulty) and having given the brave navigator, capt. _shapley_ for his fine charts and journals, pieces of eight, and the owner of the ship, _seimor gibbons_ a quarter cask of good _peruan_ wine, and the seamen each pieces of eight, the th of _august_, with as much wind as we could fly before, and a currant, we arrived at the first fall of the river _parmentiers_, the th of _august_, leagues, and was on the south side of the lake _belle_ on board our ships the th of _august_, before the fine town _conosset_, where we found all things well; and the honest natives of _conosset_ had in our absence treated our people with great humanity, and capt. _de ronquillo_ answer'd their civility and justice. the th of _august_ an _indian_ brought me a letter to _conosset_ on the lake _belle_, from capt. _barnarda_, dated the th of _august_, where he sent me word he was returned from his cold expedition, and did assure me there was no communication out of the _spanish_ or _atlantick_ sea, by _davis_ strait; for the natives had conducted one of his seamen to the head of _davis_ strait, which terminated in a fresh lake of about mile in circumference, in the th degree of north latitude; and that there was prodigious mountains north of it, besides the north west from that lake, the ice was so fix'd, that from the shore to fathom water, for ought he knew from the creation; for mankind knew little of the wonderful works of god, especially near the north and south poles; he writ further, that he had sailed from _basset_ island north east, and east north east, and north east and by east, to the th degree of latitude, and then the land trended north, and the ice rested on the land. i received afterwards a second letter from capt. _barnarda_, dated from _minhanset_, informing me, that he made the port of _arena_, leagues up the river _los reyes_ on the th of _august_, where he waited my commands. i having store of good salt provisions, of venison and fish, that capt. _de ronquillo_ had salted (by my order) in my absence, and hogsheads of _indian_ wheat or mais, sailed the d of _september_ . accompanied with many of the honest natives of _conosset_, and the th of _september_ in the morning about , was at an anchor betwixt _arena_ and _mynhanset_, in the river _los reyes_, sailing down that river to the north east part of the south sea; after that returned home, having found that there was no passage into the south sea by that they call the north west passage. the chart will make this much more demonstrable. _tho the style of the foregoing piece is not altogether so polite, (being writ like a man, whose livelihood depended on another way) but with abundance of experience and a traveller, yet there are so many curious, and hitherto unknown discoveries, that it was thought worthy a place in these_ memoirs; _and 'tis humbly presum'd it will not be unacceptable to those who have either been in those parts, or will give themselves the trouble of reviewing the chart._ observations on _the title affixed, and on other circumstances relating to the letter of admiral_ de fonte, _shewing the authenticity of that letter, and of the account therein contained._ observations have been made by several geographers of different nations on the letter of admiral _de fonte_, to shew that such letter is not deserving of credit, is to be thought of as a mere fiction or romance, and is a forgery composed by some person to serve a particular purpose. but it will appear, as we proceed in a more particular consideration of the title and circumstances relative to the letter of admiral _de fonte_ than hath been hitherto used, and from the following remarks on the subject of such letter[ ], that those observations made by the geographers have many of them no just foundation, the rest afford not a sufficient evidence to invalidate the authenticity of that letter, and of the account it contains. [ ] memoires et observations geographiques et critiques sur la situation de pays septientrionaux, &c. a lausanne, .--pa. , &c. it is only from a copy of the letter of _de fonte_ that the translation hath been made, which is now published, as is plain from a title being affixed, _a letter from admiral_ bartholomew de fonte, _then admiral of_ new spain _and_ peru, _and now prince of_ chili. as _prince_ is never used in this sense with us, it is apparently a literal translation of the _spanish_ word _principe_, consequently this title was wrote in the _spanish_ language, and we cannot otherwise conclude but in the same language with the letter. from this and other defects of the like sort, which will be noticed as we proceed in our observations, the translator must be acquitted from all suspicion of being any way concerned in this pretended forgery. by the copiest affixing this title, it is evident he was well assured that there had been such an expedition. the anecdotes, as to the vice-admiral _pennelossa_, in the body of the letter, what is therein mentioned as to the jesuits, evidence that a minute and particular inquiry was made by the copiest; that he had thoroughly informed himself of every particular of this affair; that he was assured that the account by him copied contained the most material transactions in a journal of _de fonte_'s, and that _de fonte_ was then, probably from his advanced age, in the service of the government in another station. this expedition not being solely to intercept the navigators from _boston_, but also to discover whether there was a passage in those parts thro' which the _english_ expected to make a passage, _viz._ by the back part of _virginia_, by _hudson_'s or by _baffin_'s bay; it was an undertaking which required that the person who had the conducting of it should not only be a man of good understanding, but a judicious and experienced seaman. the time required to attain such qualifications implies, that _de fonte_ must have been of a mature age when he went on this command; and _de fonte_ being alive at the time that the copy was taken, it must have been taken within twenty years, or in a less time after such expedition, as the copiest speaks of _pennelossa_ as a young nobleman. the copiest therefore could not be imposed on, as his inquiries were made in such a time, either with respect to the persons concerned, or with respect to the letter not being a genuine account of the voyage. a person might be so circumstanced as to attain the favour of copying such letter, induced by some private motive, without an intention of making it publick, as publications were not at that time so frequent as of late days; neither is it less probable that a copy so taken may, in process of time, come into other hands and then be published. mr. _gage_ observes, in his dedication to lord _fairfax_, 'the reason of his publishing a new survey of the _west indies_ to be, because that nothing had been written of these parts for these hundred years last past, which is almost ever since from the first conquest thereof by the _spaniards_, who are contented to lose the honour of that wealth and felicity, which they have since purchased by their great endeavours, so that they may enjoy the safety of retaining what they have formerly gotten in peace and security.' and though _de fonte_ declares that there was no north-west passage, yet that there should be no publication of the account of the voyage is consistent with this established maxim. the north-west passage he mentions is not to be understood, in an unlimited sense, for a passage between the _atlantick_ and western ocean to the northward, but the meaning is confined to that passage expected by _hudson_'s bay: for _de fonte_ says, that he was to make a prize of _any seeking a north-west or west passage_[ ]; by the latter he meant where _pennelossa_ was sent to search; and _bernarda_ says, there was no communication out of the _spanish_ or _atlantick_ sea, by _davis_ streight; and there was an extent of coast which _de fonte_ only ran along, and had, but at times, a distant view of; and as to the jesuits, by whatever means they got into those parts, it is evident they had not seen all the intermediate country. therefore tho' the court of _spain_ was satisfied that the passage was not where _de fonte_ had searched; yet there might be a passage where he had not searched, and publishing this account of the voyage would be an assistance to the adventurers, as it would confine them in their searches to those other parts which were cursorily passed by _de fonte_, and where perhaps they might succeed: or this account particularly describing the northern and western part of _america_, not hitherto known, would be of great service to rovers, who had already found their way into those seas, by directing them to the coast and harbours, and giving them an account of a country where they could retire to with tolerable security from any interruption from the _spaniards_, a good climate, hospitable people, and a plenty of provisions to be had; circumstances which might enable them to continue their cruizing in those seas much longer than without such lights as they would receive from this account they would be enabled to do. [ ] vide letter. it is well known that the _spaniards_ claimed all to the northward as their dominion, which they intended in due time to acquire the possession of, and the publication might give an insight to the _english_; settlers in _america_ to be beforehand with them in attaining a settlement in those parts. their attempt to intercept the _english_ subjects, when made publick to the world, would have given umbrage to the court and people of _england_, which the _spaniards_ would not unnecessarily, and especially at a time when they had their hands full of a war with the _french_, who had also incited the _catalonians_ to rebel, and had joined them with their troops. the _spaniards_ were, at the same time, endeavouring to recover the dominions of _portugal_. and _de fonte_ had respect to the critical situation their affairs were in, even before he set out on his voyage, hence his political behaviour when he met with the navigators from _boston_, committed no act of hostility, yet made use of the most effective means to prevent their proceeding further. as no publication was permitted of this expedition, this therefore could come but to the knowledge only of a very few persons in _old spain_. such a singular transaction being soon, from their attention to other matters, and their ministry soon after entirely changed, no more talked of, unless it should have been revived by something of the like nature again happening on the part of the _english_. as no attempt was made by the _english_ for almost a century, this transaction, in that time, fell into oblivion. at the time such attempt was renewed, then the _spaniards_ were better acquainted with the purpose of our settling in _america_, they had altered their designs of extending their own possessions, there was also another power who might pretend that such passage, if made, was part in their dominion, so obstruct our free proceeding and interrupt our settling; the _spaniards_ therefore having no immediate occasion for any researches back to the records to acquaint themselves as to the practicability or impracticability of our attempts, or to take directions for their own proceedings, the remembrance of this expedition continued dormant. in _new spain_, the fitting four ships to go on discovery, as such undertakings had been very frequent, it would not engage any extraordinary attention of the publick there; it often happened that what was done on such voyages was kept a secret. the more curious and inquisitive persons would attain but an imperfect account, by inquiry from the people on board the ships, as the ships were divided, and they would receive no satisfactory information of what was most material, and the principal object of their inquiry by those who went in the boats, as seamen delighting in stories often tell what they neither heard or saw. the consequences of the voyage not known, because not understood, a weak tradition of this expedition would remain to posterity; and the only knowledge or certainty to be acquired, as to this expedition, would be from journals accidentally preserved, of some persons who had gone the voyage. mons. _de lisle_ gives us an extract of a letter from mons. _antonio de ulloa_, wrote from _aranguer_ the th of _june_ in the year [ ], to mons. _bouguer e le mounier_, to answer the queries they had made on the subject of the letter of admiral _de fuente_. that curious and able _spanish_ officer sent them in answer, that in the year he commanded a ship of war the _rose_, in the south sea; he had on board him a lieutenant of the vessel named _don manuel morel_, an antient seaman, who shewed him a manuscript; _mons. ulloa_ forgot the author's name, but believes it to be _barthelemi de fuentes_, the author in that manuscript reported, that in consequence of an order which he had received from the then viceroy of _peru_, that he had been to the northward of _california_, to discover whether there was a passage by which there was a communication between the north and south sea; but having reached a certain northern latitude, which _mons. ulloa_ did not recollect, and having found nothing that indicated such passage, he returned to the port of _callao_, &c. _mons. ulloa_ adds, he had a copy of such relation, but he lost it when he was taken by the _english_ on his return from _america_. [ ] novelles cartes des decovertes de l'amiral de fonte, et autres navigateurs, &c. par de lisle. paris .--p. . it is evident, from this account being seen in , it is not the same from which the translation is made which we now have, that being published in . and as _mons. de lisle_ asserts, that the letter is conformable with what _mons. ulloa_ said at _paris_ three years before, with this difference only, that he said positively at that time, that the relation which he had seen at _peru_, and of which he had taken a copy, was of admiral _de fonte_, this manuscript, which contained the account of the voyage, may rather be supposed to be a relation, or journal kept by some person, who was aboard admiral _de fonte_'s ship, a friend or ancestor of _morel_, than a copy the same with this letter, as it only mentioned the purport of the voyage, seems not to have the particular circumstances as to intercepting the _boston_ men. this account is an evidence so far in favour of this letter, as it proves that this letter is not the only account that there is of this voyage, and that another account was seen and copied at _peru_ many years after this letter was published in _england_. but if it be supposed that it is one and the same account, and that from the _english_, it would not have been accepted of and kept by _morel_, and shewed as a curiosity, unless he was satisfied that it was a true genuine account of such voyage, and as to which he would naturally inquire, being on the spot, where he might probably be informed, and unless he was at a certainty that what that account contained was true, would he have produced the manuscript, or permitted his captain to take a copy of it as genuine; yet we may with greater probability suppose, that this manuscript which _morel_ had was no translation from the _english_, but in itself an original. mons. _ulloa_ speaking of _morel_ as an antient seaman, cannot mean that he was in the expedition of _de fonte_, only implies his being acquainted with some one who was, with whom, from his course of years, he might have sailed, and attained this journal. what is said in the letter of mons. _ulloa_, that he forgot the name of the author of the manuscript, but believes it was _bartelemi de fuentes_, that the author of that manuscript gave an account of. it must be considered, that when mons. _ulloa_ wrote he was in _old spain_, many years after he had seen the account, and three years after he was at _paris_; and though he genteelly answers the inquiries sent him, agreeable to his conversation at _paris_, yet does not express himself so positively as when at _paris_, as in the letter he only believes it to be _bartelemi de fonte_. _mons. ulloa_ would sooner not have answered the letter than deny what he had formerly said; and if mons. _de lisle_ had advanced that for which he had no proper authority, both as a gentleman and an officer he would not have submitted to such a falshood: but from mons. _ulloa_ being tender in the account, being of a matter which might not make any great impression on him at the time he received it, ten years since, out of his hands, and three years after he was at _paris_, this account is more worthy of credit, and he might be more cautious, now he was to give it under his hand, to soften the reproach of his countrymen for his not acting like a true _spaniard_, in being so communicative in this matter. the account which mons. _de lisle_ hath given, was with a permission of mons. _ulloa_ to make use of his name, as the letter mons. _ulloa_ sent testifies. where mons. _de lisle_ hath not the liberty to mention the name of his author, he only says, that there was a person equally curious, and as well instructed in the affair as mons. _de ulloa_, who assured him positively that there was such a relation. though mons. _de lisle_ had a particular system to support, yet, at the same time, he had a great publick character to preserve. mons. _bougier_, _mounier_, and _ulloa_, were living at the time he gave this account to the publick; they would be asked as to what they knew of the affair; and a more particular inquiry would be made of mons. _de lisle_, as to the information he received from the nameless person; and as there were several of his countrymen who did not adopt his system, a trip in this affair, as to the evidence he brings in support of the authority of this account of _de fonte_, would have given them an advantage which they would not have neglected, and have done justice to the publick, by letting them know there was little of truth in this account; but as no reflections have appeared, we have no reason to question the veracity of mons. _de lisle_ in this relation, on any surmises of strangers, on no better authority than meer opinion, without a single reason produced in support of what they insinuate. this letter, when published in , was considered only as an account that was curious; was looked on as of no importance, and did not engage the attention of the publick until the discovery of the north-west passage became the topick of common conversation, and would have lain, without having any further notice taken of it, had not the attempts to discover a north-west passage been revived. it is from their being produced in a proper season, that accounts of this sort become permanent, assisting in some favourite design, being thus useful they are preserved from obscurity and oblivion. we have an account, the author captain _don francisco de seixas_, a captain in the _spanish_ navy, and is frequently quoted by the _spanish_ writers, though he is little known amongst us.--he says, p. . '_thomas peche_, an _englishman_, having been at sea twenty-eight years, and made eight voyages to the _east-indies_ and _china_ during sixteen years of that time, spent the other twelve in trading and piracies in the _west-indies_, from whence he returned to _england_ in ; and, after continuing there four years, in , with other companions, fitted out at the port of _bristol_ one ship of five hundred tons, with forty-four guns, and two light frigates of one hundred and fifty tons, and in each eighteen guns, giving out that he was bound on a trading voyage to the _canaries_; whence they bore away with the three vessels, and went through the streight _le maire_, with two hundred and seventy men, which he carried directly to trade at the _moluccas_ and _philippinas_. 'and after continuing in those parts twenty-six months and some days, it appearing to the said _thomas peche_ that from the _philippinas_ he could return to _england_ in a shorter time by the streight of _anian_ than by the east or streight _magellan_, he determined to pass this rout with his large ship, and one small one, the other having lost company by bad weather, or worse design in those who commanded it. 'and having, as he says, sailed one hundred and twenty leagues within the streights of _anian_, relates, that as the month of _october_ was far advanced, in which the northerly winds reign much, and drove the waters from the north to the south, that the currents of the said streight of _anian_ were such, and so strong, that had they continued longer they must, without doubt, have been lost; wherefore, finding it necessary to return back, sailing along the coast of _california_ (after having sailed out of the channel of _anian_) and those of _new spain_ and _peru_, he went through the streight of _magellan_ into the north sea in sixteen hundred and seventy-seven, with the vessels and much riches, great part whereof was of a _spanish_ vessel which they took on the coast of _lugan_.' wherefore passing over all the rest of what the author says in his voyage, only mentioning what regarded the currents, he relates, that when he entered into the streight of _anian_ he found, from cape _mendocino_ in _california_, for above twenty leagues within the channel, the currents set to the n. e. all which and much more the curious will find in the voyage of the said _thomas peche_, which in sixteen hundred and seventy-nine was printed in _french_ and _english_, in many parts of _holland_, _france_, and _england_, in less than twenty sheets quarto: and (he adds) further i can affirm, that i have seen the author many times in the year eighty-two, three and four in _holland_, who had along with him a _spanish_ mestize born in the _philippinas_, together with a _chinese_. it can scarce be imagined the whole is without foundation, though no such voyage is at present to be come at, _seyxas_ publishing his work soon after the publication by _peche_, to which he particularly refers, seems to obviate all doubt of his sincerity; and there are too many circumstances, which are collateral evidence, mentioned, to imagine he could be entirely deceived. he published his work at _madrid_ in sixteen hundred and eighty-eight, dedicated to the king, as president in his royal council of the _indies_, and to the marquis _de les velez_; the work intituled, _theatro naval hydrographico de los fluxos_, &c. this account was received as a true and faithful relation of a voyage performed, as it was published in various languages; yet the want of this account is a particular, some reason for exception with us, that we cannot receive it as a certainty. and we are more suspicious as to the truth of any accounts that we have received relating to the north-west part of _america_, than to any other part of the globe. our opinion being in a great measure influenced by the system we embrace, as, whether there is a north-west passage, or not? and for this reason only, no part of the globe hath more engaged the attention of the geographers, and with respect to which they had more different opinions. those whose opinion it was that _asia_ and _america_ were contiguous, had, for many years, their opinion rejected, but now confirmed to be true by the _russian_ discoveries; and we may conclude they had a good authority for what they advanced, which was not transmitted down to us, as they had such an assurance of what they had advanced, as they supposed there could never be the least doubt of it. those who advanced that there was passage between the _atlantick_ and southern ocean, by a streight in the northern and western parts of _america_, and very likely on a good authority, have their opinion opposed, all accounts of voyagers treated as fabulous, and for the same reason that the opinion of _asia_ and _america_ being contiguous was rejected, as they could produce nothing further for it than tradition, and as to which the tradition now appears to have had its foundation in truth. soon after _america_ was discovered, and the _spaniards_ had settled in _new spain_, the report of there being a streight prevailed, the truth of this report hath not been disproved, and we have no just reason to reject this tradition for positive assertions which are produced without any evidence, but that our attempts have not succeeded. which is an inference deduced from a false principle, for our not having had the expected success hitherto, doth not imply that we may not succeed hereafter, as we proceed in our future attempts; and all that hath been said, as to there being no north-west passage, is not adequate to the tradition of there being such a passage. this tradition is also supported by a few accounts, which we reject too absolutely. these accounts are given by various persons, at different times, without any concern, connection, or even acquaintance the one with the other; which accounts shew that the opinion of their being such a streight prevailed. these accounts were given by foreigners; we could not receive them from any other, as we did not frequent those seas, and at present have no ready access to them. and as it was but occasionally that any persons went into those parts, it is but by a few persons only we could receive any information respecting thereto. nor could we attain such information as we have in another manner, than from what our own countrymen accidentally picked up, as a regular publication of such account was not permitted, and as some thought themselves interested to keep the most material part a secret, in hopes to turn it to advantage, by being employed, or receiving a gratuity for their discovery. and allowances should be made, without declaring a person immediately too credulous, who reports what he hears only in conversation from another; he may, in such conversation, omit many circumstances which it would have been necessary for him to be informed of, in order to give that satisfaction to others to whom he reports this information, which he himself received of the truth of what was related to him at the time of the conversation. and we have no reason to censure those as too credulous who have published these accounts, until we get a more perfect information as to the north-west parts of _america_, which at present remain unknown. a dispute arises as to the situation of such a streight; and accounts given by _indians_ are produced to prove that the streight cannot be in such a part, where it is supposed to be so far to the southward as to have its entrance from the south sea, in latitude ; whereas, on a little examination, it would appear that those _indians_, whose accounts are produced, are almost equal strangers as to those parts with the _europeans_. they do not seek inhospitable countries, where there is little produce, no plenty of fuel, great and frequent waters, mountains and swamps, having no inducement from trade or on account of war, as they would not go into those parts to seek their enemy, whom, with less hazard and a greater certainty of finding them, they could attack when returned from their summer hunting and fishing to their retirements, where they live more comfortably than in those parts into which, by necessity, they are obliged to go on account of the chace, as they could not otherwise subsist themselves and families. and on due examination it will appear all the accounts we have from the _indians_ are erroneously made use of, to evince that there is no streight in the part that is contended for. instead of too severe a censure on the credulity of others, we should be cautious that our diffidence does not lead us into an unreasonable incredulity, and prevent our using such testimony as is presented to us so candidly as we ought to do, and prevent our getting a true insight into an affair of such importance; and the utmost that can be said of it is, that it is a point yet undetermined, whether there is a north-west passage or not. as to the original letter of _de fonte_, we interest ourselves in the important matter it contains, and therefore become more suspicious and diffident, as to its authenticity, than upon a due use of our reason it will appear that we ought to be. as we have no reason, as is apparent from what hath been said, that the original letter should ever come to our hands; and if it appear, as we proceed, that it is rather to be attributed to inevitable accidents, than there not having been such a letter, that we cannot attain any particular information respecting thereto. if it is considered that we have a publication of such letter, the deficiencies in which are not, as it will appear, any other than the errors of the translator and printer. that there are a great many concurring circumstances in support of and conformable with what the letter contains. and the account is composed of such particulars as exceed the industry and ingenuity of those who employ their fancy in composing ingenious fictions. these various branches of evidence cannot be rejected, if we make a fair judgment in this matter: there must be a prepossession from common fame, a prejudice from a prior opinion, or an interest and design to support a particular system, that prevents our accepting of it, as a probability next to a certainty, of this being a true account; and there is only wanting, to our receiving it absolutely as such, that the copy be produced from which the translation was made, or a full and compleat evidence as to what is become of such copy. why we cannot obtain a particular information as to the original letter of _de fonte_, appears from the account, which shews that the court of _spain_ had a secret intelligence of this undertaking. and as that court would not openly declare that they had such an information, or how they intended to defeat the design, the orders sent, and consequently the account of the execution of those orders, and whatever related thereto, would be _secret_ papers, and as such kept in a manner that few persons would have a free access; and by those few who had, as the publick business did not require it, might never be taken in hand, unless they accidentally catched the eye of some who was particularly curious. thus neglected, in a century of time it might not be known, if the subject was revived, where they were deposited, and being so few in number would take up but a small space, which might make it difficult to find them. the politeness and civility which prevail in this age, will not admit of such a complaisance to curious inquirers as to gratify them in that, which, in policy, from good reasons of state, might as well be omitted. there are instances of late discoveries being made, as to the whole of which, from particular views, as it is said, the curious have not been gratified. and if this expedition of _de fonte_ was remembered, and the papers relating thereto could be brought to light, it might immediately encourage us to proceed on making a further attempt for the discovery of a north-west passage, therefore we can have no reason to expect the court of _spain_ would assist us with what might determine us to a proceeding at which they must take umbrage, as we are now become the only power who share _north america_ with them, from the advantages that such a discovery would give us in case of a future rupture between the two crowns; though our present intention is to increase our commerce, by opening a trade to _japan_, and carrying on a trade in a more advantageous manner to _china_. we cannot be assured, if full permission was given to find these papers, and more particular pains and application used, than is customary with people in publick offices, when the occasion of the search being to little other purpose than satisfying curiosity, whether such search might not be rendered unsuccessful, by such papers being burnt amongst many other state papers, in the fire in the _escurial_, the common depository for state papers at that time. if we consider the changes that have happened, as to the succession to the crown of _spain_, the changes in the ministry, foreigners introduced into their ministry, there must have been many particulars, not only of this but of other kinds, which they are not at present acquainted with, the ministry having no occasion to give themselves any concern about them. _don olivarez_, who was the minister at this time, was known to do his business by juntos of particular people, as the resolutions of government thereby remained an inviolable secret, which was not always the case when the business was managed by publick councils. they also gave their advice in a particular manner, by written billets, which were handed to the king, that every thing was conducted in a very mysterious manner during the time that he was in the ministry, contrary to the former practice, and which was also disused afterwards. if inquiry hath been made by the most intelligent amongst the _spaniards_ as to this expedition, and the commands of the monarch to make discovery of these papers, and the orders relating thereto, have been duly executed, but they cannot be found. the reasons are apparent, the voyage being scarce spoke of at the time, went soon out of remembrance, and whatever may be in private hands relating thereto, is not immediately recollected by the possessors, and the originals, if not secreted or mislaid, are burnt in the _escurial_ in the year , the usual residence of the court, and therefore where this letter may be supposed to be received and lodged. for the evidence relative to this account, which the distance of time or other accidents could not deface, yet remains. if _de fonte_ was governor or president of _chili_, from the nature of his office it must appear, amongst some records or instruments of writing, and we accordingly are informed, that there was a person in that office named _fuente_, which is synonymous. that we have not more minute particulars, is by reason that the account is from those parts where we have not a free and ready access to make our enquiries, and from a people, excepting a few individuals, who are not very communicative to foreigners. but where we have not laboured under the like disadvantage, we have found that there was one _gibbons_, also _shapley_, persons exactly circumstanced as the letter mentions, upon the authority of records, the tradition of antient men, in those parts where they had lived, and also other accounts, supporting the authenticity of this letter, as will be shewn when we proceed to consider of the subject of the letter. there is therefore just reason to conclude, was it possible to have the like pains taken in _new spain_ or _peru_, we might meet with particulars respecting this matter, which would put the truth of this account out of all doubt; and any failure in the inquiries there, may be owing to their not having been made with an equal industry, and which it is not in our power to procure in those parts so distant and inaccessable. the circumstances of the inhabitants of _boston_, and the neighbouring provinces, during this period of time since the expedition of _de fonte_, have been very different, they have not been subjected to the like fatal accidents with the people of _lima_, and that neighbourhood, who several times have had their city laid in ruins, and almost entirely depopulated by earthquakes, particularly in _april_ , and in the year . the buildings becoming an entire heap of ruins, and many people perishing, must lessen the force of tradition, and affect, in some sort, the publick records; and if the marine office was at the _calloa_ of _lima_, the _calloa_ having been twice overwhelmed by the sea, then there is no reason to expect from _new spain_ an authenticated account of the equipment of this fleet under the command of admiral _de fonte_. those who argue against the authenticity of this account, must admit that he was a person of capacity and abilities who composed it, and should assign us some reason, if a fiction, why a sensible person should undertake it, as there could be no inducement either in point of reputation or profit: for, if a fiction, it is neither entertaining or instructive. neither can any political motive be urged for this undertaking, as the subject must then have been treated in a manner entirely different; so managed as to shew that a north-west passage was absolutely impracticable, and to let nothing be introduced that would afford the least incitement to adventurers to come into those parts. but it is apparent, that in this account the facts are related in a plain and simple manner, without any violation of truth, as they are related without any consideration of their consequences. the representations made, as to the tides, as to the different sorts of fish that came into the waters from westward and eastward, would have been an encouragement to a further trial as to a north-west passage, had such account been published; and if the phænomena as to the tides, and the difference as to the fish, was not from its communicating with the _south sea_, and the attempt had proved successless as to the discovery of a north-west passage, yet to countervail, in some measure, that disappointment, there was a prospect of a lucrative trade, in all appearance to be carried on in those western parts where _de fonte_ is represented to have been in, with greater convenience than that which had been carried on by the _boston_ people from the east before and at this time in _hudson_'s bay, and the _english_ might be invited, if successful in their trading, to make a settlement, an event which the _spaniards_ were apprehensive of, and earnestly desirous to prevent. these are defects which the capacity and abilities of the author would not permit him to run into, if he was writing a fictitious account, as he must easily see that such representations to destroy the notion of a north-west passage, and prevent the _english_ settling there, were absolutely contrary to his purpose. to give a greater plausibility to a fictitious tale, the scene may be laid in distant parts, by this means introducing, more securely, names and characters of persons as real who never were; and though this account mentions persons who lived at a great distance, and in an obscure part, yet there were such persons as the account mentions. also the period of time when this voyage was performed, so corresponds with their transactions, as the author could fix on no other period so agreeing with the circumstance of major _gibbons_ being so long, and at that very time, absent from home; and his absence can be attributed to no other cause than his being out on a voyage. here is more plainness and consistency than is usual in fiction, with such a variety of particulars, and so circumstanced, as would perplex the most pregnant fancy to invent, which can be no way so naturally accounted for as by admitting that the letter contains a genuine account of a voyage made by admiral _de fonte_, not a forgery to support political views; or that it is the production of a sporting fancy to contrast some other performance, or in order to expose the credulous to publick ridicule. the editors of this letter, whose business it was to know whether this account was authentick, gave an entire credit to it as being authentick, not only as they assured the publick in a general way, and with respect to all their pieces that they should publish, that they would only exhibit such as were of unquestionable authority, but by their annexing an advertisement to the letter, have given us a particular assurance of the account being authentick; and we have just reason to conclude they _could_ have given us that further satisfaction we now desire; but what they have done was thought by them sufficient, as they had no idea of the _importance_ of the subject. they comprehended not further of this account, _than that it contained many curious and unknown discoveries; and they humbly presumed_, being strangers to any further merit that it had, _that it would not, on that account, be unacceptable to the publick_. had this letter been published at a time a north-west passage was under consideration of the publick, there might be some suspicion that the editors had some further design. but as to a north-west passage after the voyage of captain _james_, and after the discovery was entrusted to a company, and no success consequent, it was generally received, many years before this letter was published, that to find such a passage was a thing impracticable. the opinion of there being such a passage was treated as a chimera: and the affair of a north-west passage lay in a state of silence and oblivion near thirty years after the publication was made. we may observe, that there is no art in the composition of this advertisement; it was inserted by men of honour and veracity, who had no other intention in publishing these memoirs than the advancement of science; who, from their general knowledge, could not be imposed on, and cannot, from their known characters, be supposed to have a design to impose on others. and what further or other evidence than that which they have given could be expected from the editors, unless they had been acquainted with the importance which the letter now appears to be of? it was all that was at that time necessary, as they did not expect that there would be any invidious imputation of forgery, for then they would have vindicated it from all suspicion in a more particular manner than they have done. they thought it a sufficient proof of its authenticity their receiving it into their collection. as to that mean reflection that this account is a forgery of some _englishman_, it is thoroughly obviated if we consider on what a foundation such a supposition must be grounded, which is, that some _englishman_ composed this account, translated it into _spanish_, though there were but few and very indifferent linguists at that time in _england_, to be again translated by the editors, the better to impose on them and the publick. the publick is a name which comprehends many persons of curiosity and sagacity, for whom chiefly these memoirs were published; and by these persons, as well as by all others, the account was received at that time as genuine, without the least suspicion of there being any fraud or imposture. the principal object or design of the publication was, that the account contained a discovery made of those parts, as to the knowledge of which the geographers were at that time very deficient; and the editors being satisfied as to the authenticity, all they thought necessary was to give a translation of the letter. and, from their avocations to their own private affairs, did not consider it in so minute a manner as it required, as is plain from their apology made as to the stile of the letter, not being _altogether so polite, being wrote like a man whose livelihood depended on another way, and with an abundance of experience_. whereas the politeness of stile would have been an absolute objection as to the authenticity of the account. that as it was a letter wrote by admiral _de fonte_ to lay before the court of _spain_, what had passed in the course of the voyage, though _de fonte_ might express himself in proper and well chosen terms, yet he was to use a stile that was natural and simple. on the several lights in which the editors have been considered, as to the part which they undertook, it must appear that they are unjustly reproached with want of integrity; they acted consistently, having no occasion to say more with respect to this account than they have done. their neglect was not from want of penetration or design. their genuine characters were such as they could not suppose it would be ever suspected, that they could have any inducement to impose a spurious account on the publick. those who censure this account of _de fonte_ as a cheat and a forgery imposed by some one on the world, have produced no evidence from facts, or urged any thing to shew the improbability of this account; as to the argument they so strongly insist on that the original was never produced, it is highly improbable that the original ever should be produced in these parts; and there is a uniformity in the circumstance that a copy only came to the hands of the editors, which turns the argument against the objectors. the suspicion of there being any deceit or forgery, hath arose from there having been different systems advanced by geographers respecting these parts: those in whose system this account is not adopted have been the occasion of such suspicions being raised, and have given some countenance to such their suspicions from the imperfect manner in which this account hath been exhibited; though that is not to be attributed to the account in its genuine dress, but as broken and disfigured by the translator and printer. the glosses and comments added by the person who took the copy, and those added by the translator in explanation of the text, are inserted in the same character, and without any distinction from the text, and those by the translator ignorantly introduced. marginal notes are inserted as part of the narration; courses are omitted; others mistaken from the translator's inattention to the _spanish_ compass; dates misplaced by the printer: the translator also deviates from the mode of expression, and renders, in an inaccurate, confused and obscure manner, a very material part in this account. many of these faults we may attribute to precipitation, from the translator wanting due time to study the letter, occasioned by a persecution of the printer, who pressed him to finish that the printer might compleat his monthly number, and, from the same necessity, the immediate publication, it may be that the faults of the press are so many. such numerous defects make it evident that this account could never have been originally constructed in this manner; and it is on these defects only that they rely, or from which their principal arguments are drawn to invalidate the authenticity of this account. they might have perceived that a relation, so mutilated and impaired, must have had a more uniform or regular shape at one time or other: and the editors, in their index, when the year's numbers were compleated, stile it _an original and very entertaining letter of admiral de fonte_, by which they mean for the curious; and by stiling it an original, they are not only to be understood that it was never before published, but also that it was wrote by _de fonte_; which implies that they had a _spanish_ account, and of which, as being consistent with their purpose, they gave only a translation: also the impression of the first part, being so uncorrect and full of faults, the second part more correct, and the mode of expression resumed, shews that the first composition is not their own, but that it is a translation which the editors have given us. the defects and imperfections of which being pointed out, we shall comprehend what little reason there is to dispute the authenticity of this account, from the disfigurements which have prevented our seeing it in its proper shape, and for suspecting those persons to be authors of the fiction who meant well; but their fault consisted in their inattention to the translator, who did not therefore give a successful conclusion to their good design, as by rendering the account obscure and unintelligible, he afforded matter for cavil and dispute as to this account of the voyage, whether credible or not, and which a just translation would have confirmed to be true. as to the name _bartholomew de fonte_, we may observe that when the translator can render the names in the _spanish_ by _english_ names which are answerable thereto, he doth not insert the _spanish_ names, but the _english_. thus, as to the ships, he calls one the king _philip_; but when they cannot be rendered by a resembling denomination in the _english_, and the name hath its original from the _latin_, he passes by the new name, or as it is wrote in the _spanish_, and gives us the antient name, or according to the latin _st. spiritus_, _st. lucia_, _rosaria_, for _de espiritu santo_, _santa lucia_, _del rosaria_. hath rendered _bartholomew de fonte_, _philip de ronquillo_ both in _english_ and _latin_. from which management of the translator, in giving the name according to the _latin_ and not giving it as it hath been transformed or changed agreeable to the _spanish_ orthography, there is just reason to conclude the name which is here rendered _fonte_, was _fuente_ or _fuentes_ in the original. but if it was wrote _fonte_, it was in the provincial dialect, different from the manner of writing the good writers introduced, which did not immediately prevail in all parts alike, but was gradually received. for instance, they wrote _fuenterabia_ in _castile_, when the _biscayners_ continued to write _fonterabia_; and it is as often spelt the one way as the other in our books and maps. _fuente_ and _fuentes_ are not of one termination. _fonte_ or _fuente_, in the titles of the _marquis aguila de fuente_, so in _de fuente de almexi_, is of the singular number, or the title is taken from the water of _almexi_. but _fuentes_, in the titles of the _marquis de fuentes_, and in _conde fuentes de valde pero_, or of _don pedro enriques conde de fuentes_, expresses a plural number, which the translator, through his indifference as to the subject which he was employed to translate, might not observe. _don pedro enriques conde de fuentes_ was raised to the honour of being a grandee by _philip_ the third, in the year , in respect to his great services in the wars; was descended from a branch of that illustrious family the _enriques_. nine of which family were successively admirals of _castile_; and the ninth, _don joan alonso enriques_, was in that high post at the time of this expedition. there were intermarriages between the families of _enriques_ and _valasco_; and _don pedro_ was succeeded in his estate and title by _don luis de haro_, of the principal house of _valasco_, and son-in-law to _don olivarez_. these circumstances considered, we have a further reason to suspect that the name _de fonte_ is not duly rendered by the translator, as there is a consistency in a relation of the _conde de fuentes_ being advanced to be admiral of _new spain_ and _peru_, which coincides with what is reported from _new spain_, of the name being _fuentes_ of the person who was president of _chili_. it was also apparent that _de fonte_ was a man of family, from those who took the respective commands under him. _pennelossa_, of whom more particular mention is made in the letter: _philip de ronquillo_, seemingly allied to _john de ronquillo_, who did considerable service in the year , and was governor of the _philippine_ islands. there was also _ronquillo_ a judge, sent to reduce the insurgents at the city of _segovia_, in the time of the civil wars in _spain_. _pedro de bonardæ_, who is afterwards called captain _barnarda_: of him we must have the least to say; and we could not expect to be any way successful in our inquiries from this inaccuracy. he seems not to have had so distinguished an alliance as the others, and employed on this expedition on the account of his abilities, being allotted to a service not like that of _pennelossa_, or _ronquillo_, disagreeable in respect to the climate, fatiguing and hazardous. that he was a gentleman by his descent, is evident from his being named _de bonardæ_. the _spanish_ fleet was but in a mean condition at the conclusion of the ministry of the duke of _lerma_; but when an expedition was set out to recover _st. salvador_ in the year , was much improved; the _portuguese_ had twenty-six sail, but the _spanish_ fleet were now numerous. it doth not appear that the fleets from _lisbon_, when _portugal_ was under the crown of _spain_, were sent otherwhere than to the _east indies_, _brazil_, and the perlieus; and those from _old spain_, that sailed from _cadiz_, went to _new spain_, and the islands under that dominion. in the year , when sir _francis drake_ took _cadiz_, he burnt the fleet that was lying there bound for _mexico_; and mr. _gage_, in the year , sailed with a fleet of sixteen sail, all for _mexico_, and to the _west indies_ seventeen sail, besides eight galleons for a convoy, all under two _spanish_ admirals. the inconsistency that _de fonte_, a _portugueze_, should be in such a post as _admiral of new spain_, a great objection to the authenticity of this account, is removed by the observations that have been made as to the name _de fonte_, by which it appears that he was not a _portugueze_, and their having sea commanders, _spaniards_ by birth, with whom they could supply the principal posts in the marine, without being under the necessity of applying to _portugal_ for persons qualified to fill those stations. as to _de fonte_ being afterwards president of _chili_, it is meant of the _audience of chili_, subordinate to the _viceroy of peru_. remarks on the letter of admiral de fonte. the viceroys of _new spain_ and _peru_, having advice from the court of _spain_, and not from _the court_ and the _council of spain_; which latter is the common form of expression used in any matter which had been under the consideration of the _supreme council of the indies_, implies that such advice must have proceeded from the secret council, or from the king through his minister, that the design of the equipment of the four ships, and the attempt of the industrious navigators from _boston_ might remain a secret. the appellation of industrious navigators was conformable to the characters of _gibbons_ and _shapley_. sir _thomas button_, in the extract which there is from his journal, gives _gibbons_ a great eulogium as to his being an able navigator; and this was the character of _shapley_ amongst his cotemporaries. the court of _spain_ knew that this attempt to discover a passage between the _atlantick_ and the _western ocean_, was intended by the northward and westward; and though they allude to all the attempts to make such discovery which had been at any time made, by mentioning the several reigns in which any such attempts were made, yet they hint more particularly, that they expect this attempt will be by _hudson_'s bay, as they mention expresly in their advice the two voyages of _hudson_ and _james_. for what is here said, _that the several attempts_, &c. is a recital from the advice sent by the court to the viceroys, or from the orders that _de fonte_ received. this expedition from _boston_ particularly commanded the attention of the court of _spain_, as captain _james_ had not absolutely denied there was a north-west passage; and _fox_, though not mentioned here, had published an account in , by which he had positively declared that there was a north-west passage; and sir _thomas button_, who kept his journal a secret, was very confident of a passage, and is said to have satisfied king _james_ the first. the death of his patron _prince henry_ prevented his being fitted out again. _gibbons_, his intimate, had made the voyage with him: afterwards had made a second attempt by himself, but lost his season by being detained in the ice. and now, though a married man, had a family, a person in trust and power where he resided, engages in a third attempt from _boston_. _the second, third, and fourth year of the reign of king charles_ refers solely to the voyage of captain _james_; to the time he was engaging friends to fit him out; and the time when such voyage was concluded on. as the _english_ used the _julian_, and the _spaniards_ the _gregorian_ account, these transactions which refer to captain _james_'s expedition, could not be made to coalesce as to the time, from the difference there was between these two computations, in any other manner than by putting the year of the king of _england_'s reign. as king _charles_ began his reign the th of _march_ , two days after the commencement of the year, according to the _julian_ account, and the second year of his reign would not begin until the th of _march_ , two days also after that year commenced, but according to the _gregorian_ account, the year began in _january_; from the st of _january_ to the th of _march_, the year , according to the _gregorian_ account, would correspond with the first year of the reign of king _charles_. as to this expedition from _boston_, it is mentioned to be in the year , and in the fourteenth year of the reign of king _charles_; but the year , according to the _julian_ account, is the fifteenth year of that king's reign; but according to the _gregorian_ account, the year corresponds from _january_ to _march_ with the fourteenth year of that king's reign. the times mentioned in this letter do not refer to the times when the voyages were actually set out on, but when undertaken or resolved on, as it is expressed in the letter, _undertaken_ by some industrious navigators from _boston_. captain _james_ did not sail until the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-one, not getting the king's protection early enough in one thousand six hundred and thirty, to proceed that year, or in the fourth year of the king's reign. that is, he did not get it early enough in spring to be ready by the latter end of _march_, as he must have been to proceed that year; so the fourth year of the king well agrees with this proceeding. and _de fonte_ did not sail until one thousand six hundred and forty, which was a year after the court of _spain_ had received intelligence of such undertaking from _boston_. which they would use the first opportunity to transmit to _new spain_; _de fonte_ therefore had at least six months for the equipment of the four ships to go on this expedition; a time sufficient, in so fine a climate, and every thing that was necessary to be done was enforced by orders of the crown. had this equipment been executed in a much smaller space of time, there would have been nothing so admirable in it: therefore the objection, as to the impossibility that ships should be fitted between the time the court received this information, and their sailing, drops to the ground. it is not any way strange that this design, as it appears to have been, was made known to the court of _spain_ the year before that it was set out on; as that court entertained a continual jealousy of these undertakings, as is apparent from their sending vessels to intercept _davis_; their having informations as to captain _james_'s voyage also, and the consequences of it, as may be collected from this letter. major general _gibbons_, if he had not the king's protection, yet he had friends at the court of _england_ who made application for him to be captain of the fort at _boston_, and one of the council, the latter end of the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-eight, or in the beginning of the year one thousand six hundred and thirty-nine. that the most secret affairs of the court were at that time betrayed, i believe will be admitted, and the secret of his designed attempt might be known, by his applying for leave of absence from his post during the time that he should be engaged in this undertaking. or the persons with whom he corresponded in _england_ might be apprized of his intended voyage, as he could not, at that time of day, be supplied with every thing that was necessary thereto in _america_; and as he intended to trade, he would be for procuring his goods from _england_. by some of these means probably his design perspired, and was secretly and unexpectedly, transmitted to the court of _spain_. there are several reasons to be assigned why both viceroys should be informed, not only the viceroy of _peru_, in whose district the ships were to be fitted, but the viceroy of _new spain_ also. that if a passage was made by any other way than where the ships were to be stationed to intercept the _boston_ men, or they accidentally passed such ships, the viceroys might order a look-out also to be kept. and such a provision being made, it would be scarce possible, if a passage was obtained, that the _boston_ people should get clear out of those seas, and not fall into the hands of the _spaniards_. another reason is, that such particulars as _de fonte_ was to put in for on the coast of _mexico_ might be ready, that _de fonte_ might not meet with the least delay, as such delay might occasion the disappointment of his design. the letter proceeds, 'upon which, i admiral _de fonte_, received orders from _spain_ and the viceroys to equip four ships of force.' these words, _upon which_, i understand not to allude to the advice given the viceroys, but refer to the attempt intended from _boston_, and as to which he had received his orders from _spain_. but from the viceroys he received orders only as to the equipment of the four ships, as orders of that nature would regularly proceed from them. if it was otherwise, and he had also received his orders from them, containing instructions as to the conduct of his voyage, he would have made his report to the viceroys as to the manner in which he had conducted his voyage, and they would have reported it to the court. _de fonte_ mentioning the viceroys so simply and plainly, without any respectful or distinguishing additions, is an instance that this letter was wrote to the court of _spain_, it not being proper, in a letter so addressed, to mention the viceroys in any other manner; and as it is also evident from the expression, _i admiral de fonte_, that he did not write this letter in his private capacity, but as an admiral, therefore this letter could not be otherwhere addressed than to such court, to transmit an account how he had executed these orders, which he had received immediately from _spain_. _de fonte_ mentioning that the advice which the viceroys received was from the court of _spain_, and that the orders he received were from _spain_, carries a distinction with it as though the advice and the orders were not transmitted from the same persons. those who transmitted the advice to the viceroys were not seemingly in the secret, as to the particular orders or instructions which were sent to _de fonte_, as to the manner in which he was to conduct his voyage. it was the province of the admiral of _castile_, who was stiled captain general of the sea, who was subject to no controul but the king's, to issue all orders relative to maritime affairs, and therefore _de fonte_'s orders might come from him. or otherwise these orders were immediately transmitted by the _conde de olivarez_, who was on ill terms with the admiral, and regarded no forms, under the sanction of the favour he had with the king, whom he influenced to authorize all his measures. it is also consistent with the conduct of _don olivarez_ that this affair should be managed in this manner, who was always mysterious, confided in his own judgment, singular in his manners, and therefore was called a lover of projects, and supposed a meer visionary in some of them. he did not want for persons of the greatest abilities to assist him, and the accuracy with which the orders are composed that were sent to _de fonte_, (as may be collected from the manner in which the voyage is conducted, and in which it cannot be supposed _de fonte_ was left to his discretion) is an instance there had been no want of the assistance of able, sagacious and experienced persons in the composing of such orders and instructions. the design of this introductory part is to shew the proceedings in this affair previous to his voyage; that the advice was received, and the orders subsequent were obeyed; and it is drawn with peculiar care and a conciseness which would be censured in a voyage writer, but is used with the greatest propriety on this occasion. the names of the ships are agreeable to the manner that the _spaniards_ name theirs; and by ships of force is not meant either their caracks or galeons, but country ships, which the equipment seems to imply, made defensible against any attacks of the natives, and to have nothing to fear from the _boston_ men, and these ends could be obtained in vessels which had no great draught of water, as the rivers they were to pass up and the lakes required, and of a tonnage suitable to those northern seas, therefore _de fonte_ only expresses their names, and their commanders, says nothing of their rates. _de fonte_, in his course from the _callao_ of _lima_, and in all his subsequent courses through the voyage, computes his distance after the marine manner, from that land from where he takes his departure to the land made when he enters a harbour, or the termination of the land which makes such harbour to seaward; and here takes his departure from the extreme part of the _callao_ of _lima_, which is in the latitude ° ´ s. longitude ° ´ w. and from which to _st. helena_, being north of the bay of _guiaguil_, in lat. ° ´ s. long. ° ´ w. is two hundred leagues; and there is no fault in the impression, as hath been supposed. though these words, _on the north side of the bay_ of _guiaguil_ seem to be an interpolation. the distance said to be run between the _callao_ of _lima_ and _st. helena_ is not reconcileable with the accounts published by _dampier_, _wood rogers_, or the accounts in general, excepting with a copy of a _spanish_ manuscript, of the latitudes and longitudes of the most noted places in the _south seas_, corrected from the latest observations, by _manuel monz. prieto_, professor of arts in _peru_, whose computation of longitude is from the meridian of _paris_; but he fixes _lima_ at full eighty degrees. i use _prieto_'s tables in this, and principally in all my subsequent computations, though _de fonte_ no where mentions the longitude in this letter, as he only regards the difference of the meridian of _lima_. and it by no means invalidates but favours the authenticity of this account, that _de fonte_ differs in his computation from the _english_ and _french_ accounts at, and after those times, which also differ from each other, as they only ranged along the coasts of those seas, judged of their distances according to their journals, and must have made many vague observations, as to the latitude of places, by inspection of the land from sea, and which land they might not certainly know. their best directions they got from manuscript journals, or sea waggoners, composed for their own use by coasters. but the navigating of the king's ships were better provided for in this respect; and we may well suppose that _de fonte_ was not, on this occasion, deficient in artists well versed in the theory as well as the practice of navigation, and under this character of an artist we may consider _parmentiers_. the truth, as to the latitude, once fixed is not variable by time; and in this respect _de fonte_ and _prieto_ must agree, though a century between the time of their computations. the expression, 'anchored in the port of _st. helena_ (in _spanish_, _santa elena_) _within the cape_,' hath something more particular in it than appears on a transient view. the point of _st. helena_ is thus described in the sailing directions in the _atlas maritimus_, published in . 'the point itself is high, but as you come nearer in there is a lower point runs out sharpening towards the sea. and there are two distinct anchorages within this port, one within the lower point, here vessels ride without shelter, and amongst banks and shoals. under the high land, there is the other anchorage, deep water, and secure riding.' under this high land, being called the port within the cape, is a distinction which i do not find made by the voyage writers, or in any other of the sailing directions for these parts that i have seen; and _de fonte_ particularly mentions, as it may be supposed, being in conformity with his instructions. _de fonte_ taking in the _betumen_ must have been in pursuance of his instructions, and there provided for him by order of the viceroy. that which follows, called vulgarly tar, _&c._ seems to be an interpolation, or additional comment, though not distinguished as such; and it may be observed here is a different mode of expression, and a want of that conciseness which apparently precedes. if with these words took _a quantity of betumen_, we connect _on the th we passed the equinoctial_, then that conciseness and simplicity of the narration is preserved. it is inconsistent that _de fonte_ should inform the court, that it was not for want of tar that he put into this port, and that he did not procure this _betumen_ to use instead of tar, but to make use of it as medicine. the taking the _betumen_ aboard sufficiently intimated his compliance with his instructions. the expression, _we took it in for medicine_, hath something particular in it, seems to be a note or memorandum added by some person who made the voyage, to instruct a friend for whom he made, or to whom he gave, a copy of this letter. the one degree seven minutes of latitude is misplaced, cape _st. francisco_ being by no geographers or voyage writers placed in that latitude; the one degree seven minutes is the latitude of the river _st. jago_, and which _prieto_ lays down in one degree eight minutes. as to the courses and distances eighty leagues n. n. w. and twenty-five leagues e. and by s. which were placed in the margin in the first edition, but are since crept into the text. n. n. w. is a course entirely contrary, and instead of one there is two courses, north and north east, and which two courses are consistent with the e. and by s. course twenty-five leagues, as that course will then terminate in the latitude and longitude of the river _jago_. this error of north west for north east may be accounted for by remarking, that in the _spanish_ compass north east and north west are rendered _nord este_ and _nord oeste_: the omission of the _o_ in _este_ is a fault which may be committed even by a careful transcriber, or may be a mistake in the translator, for want of due attention to the compass. in the passage from _st. helena_ he would keep the coast aboard, for the benefit of a fair and fresh wind, and which he would have without any interruption from the land breezes, and by standing n. w. to clear the islands of _solango_ and _paita_, and then stand north easterly would form a north course of one hundred and thirty-two miles, or forty-four leagues, and then be off cape _passao_, in n. lat. ´. long. ° ´ w. and well in with such cape, as it is evident he was from the expression in the letter by the cape _del passao_ with a north east course, thirty-six leagues, they would be in lat. ° ´ north, long. ° ´, and so have passed cape _francisco_, n. lat. ´, long. ° ´, and with an east and by south course twenty-five leagues, would be in the lat. ° ´, long. ° ´, the latitude and longitude of the river _st. jago_. there was not such a provision country, it appears from later accounts, on any part of the coast between this and _lima_; nor could the ships be any where brought up with greater safety: _st. helena_ is described as a poor and barren part of the country. the health of his people, liable to scorbutick disorders in the northern climates whither he was going, was an object that must be attended to, in order that the voyage should meet with the desired success. therefore after the _betumen_, he recruits what he had consumed of his fresh provision in his run from _lima_, and lays in a great additional store, as is apparent if we consider that their consumption in this respect is not proportionable to ours, from their mode of dressing it. and we may judge from having so great a quantity of fowl ready, with goats and hogs, the people had received orders to be thus provided against the ships arrival; the sailors would be a great assistance in curing the provisions, the flesh as well as the fish, and would do it in the most suitable manner for the sea service; a number of hands, gave an expedition so as the provisions would not be spoiled by the heat of the sun; and his victualling detained _de fonte_ four days. _six miles and a half, or the left hand the river is navigable for small vessels_, and all that follows seems by way of comment, and to be a spurious interpolation, as also, _which are there wild and in plenty_. 'the th of _april_ we sailed from the river of _st. jago_ to the port and town _raleo_, leagues w. n. w. a little westerly, in about degrees min. of n. latitude, leaving mount _st. miguel_, &c.' the point of _yeaxos_, or the _sandy strand_, in lat. ° ´, long. ° ´, which covers the port of _raleo_ (or _realejo_) is three hundred and twenty leagues from the river _st. jago_; but the course n. ° ´ w. or n. w. almost a quarter west, and by the expression _a little_ westerly, the w. n. w. seems to mean, he steered first west from the river _st. jago_, until he made the high land, and then north-west, a little westerly. between mount _miguel_ and point _cazarnina_ (rightly _caravina_) is the entrance in the bay of _amapalla_, which is to the northward of the port of _realejo_; therefore the leaving mount _st. miguel_ on the larboard, _&c._ being an absolute contradiction to _de fonte_ entering the port of _realejo_, is an interpolation and not inserted by the person who wrote the letter, but a comment very injudiciously added by way of explanation. from this circumstance the truth of my assertion appears, as to there being glosses and comments added to the original text, and that i had good reason to believe several places in the preceding part of this account to be interpolations added by way of comment. the great ships that are built in _new spain_ are built in _raleo_ is disposed in the margin in the first edition; but in all the subsequent editions hath crept into the text. we may suppose the w. n. w. course hath crept into the text in the first edition to make room for this comment, as may be judged from the course between _st. helena_ and _st. jago_ being placed in the margin: and there is an apparent reason for the course and distances being so placed, for when inserted in the text, they interrupt the attention; and as the courses and distances were all that was necessary to be mentioned, the latitudes have been since added by some injudicious person.--the latitude of _passao_, of cape _st. francisco_, is not mentioned, and the latitude of _raleo_ is wrong, which the course and distance shews, and its latitude is in most maps agreeable to the course and distance here given. the run, allowing _de fonte_ eight days, would be but one hundred miles in twenty-four hours, which is very moderate going. nor can there be any objection, as to the truth of this account, from the time that _de fonte_ is sailing between the _callao_ of _lima_ to _st. helena_, from _st. helena_ to _st. jago_. all that belongs to the original letter i take to be this, the th of _april_ we sailed from the river _st. jago_ to the port and town of _raleo_; here we bought (which probably might as well be rendered procured) four long well-sailed shallops, built express for sailing, riding at anchor, _&c._ the leagues w. n. w. a little westerly, i suppose to have been placed in the margin. it cannot be supposed that boats so fitted, and four of them, could be procured in so small a time as _de fonte_ staid here, it implies they were previously provided before that he arrived, to be ready at the arrival of the ships. 'the _ th_ we sailed from _raleo_ for the port of _saragua_, or rather of _salagua_, within the islands and shoals of _chamily_, leagues n. w. and by west, a little westerly from _raleo_. from the town of _saragua_, a little east of _chamily_ at _saragua_, and from _compostilo_ in the neighbourhood of this port, we took in a master and six mariners accustomed to trade with the natives for pearl the natives catched on a bank in degrees of latitude north from the _baxos_ of _st. juan_ in degrees of north latitude, leagues n. n. e. from cape _saint lucas_, the south-east point of _california_.' the point of _yeaxos_ is laid down in lat. deg. min. long. deg. min. and with a course north-west and by west, a little westerly, distance four hundred and eighty leagues, _de fonte_ would be at the islands of _chiametlas_, in lat. deg. min. long. deg. min. the port of _saragua_, or rather of _salagua_ (which is properly _zuelagua_) is thus described. 'the mount of _sant jago_ is in the port of _zuelagua_. there are two very good harbours which have good anchoring ground, and will hold a great many ships, by reason they are great and are called the _calletas_. on the north-west side of the said bay is another very good port, which is called likewise the port of _zuelagua_. you will find in it a river of fresh water, and several plantations. at the sea side is a pathway that leads to the town of _zuelagua_, being four and a half miles from the port within land. between the port of _zuelagua_ and the white ferrelon (or rock) is a very good port, in which you are land-locked from all winds.' from this description it is easy to comprehend what is _de fonte_'s meaning as to the port of _zuelagua_, where he took in his master and mariners on the north-west side of the bay, and which he expresses by, at _saragua_ a little east of _chamily_; and which master and mariners were not promiscuously taken, but were chosen men, as they were taken both from _zuelagua_ and _compostilo_, in the neighbourhood of the port. _zuelagua_ seems originally the city which was called _xalisco_; but from its unhealthy situation, _compostilo_ was built more within land; yet the former continuing to be a port, some inhabitants remained there. the islands and shoals of _chiametla_, which the translation renders _chamily_, which is a name given to islands south of cape _corientes_. but the distinction is the islands to northward of cape _corientes_ are called _chiametla_, those to southward _chametla_ and _camilli_. _prieto_ agrees with _de fonte_'s account first mentioning the islands of _chiametlas_ in lat. . . long. . . and then _el mal pays y mal outradu_. this master and mariners were accustomed to trade with the natives for pearl, which the natives catched on a bank in nineteen degrees of latitude, being north from the _baxos of st. juan_, or the bank of _st. john_, which is in twenty-four degrees of north latitude, and twenty leagues north north-east from cape _saint lucas_, the south-east point of _california_; and this account _de fonte_ had either from themselves, or the character that was sent with them, to shew the most proper persons had been provided to answer the purpose for which they were procured. and all that belongs to the text is, which the natives catched on a bank north from the _baxos st. juan_, twenty leagues n. n. e. from cape _st. lucas_. 'the master admiral _de fonte_ had hired, with his vessel and mariners, who had informed the admiral that, leagues north from cape _st. lucas_, a flood from the north met the south flood, and that he was sure it must be an island, and _don diego pennelossa_ undertook to discover whether it was an island or not, with his ship and the four shallops they bought at _raleo_, and the master and mariners they hired at _zuelagua_.' here the thread of the letter is broke, and the translator proceeds as with a common narrative of a voyage. the master might be easily deceived as to the tide, as time hath shewn in many instances as to other persons having been deceived in like manner in other parts. that we have no account of what was the event of this expedition _pennelossa_, who had undertaken the charge, being no more to join _de fonte_, as it was unnecessary and to no purpose, _pennelossa_ would return first and send his account to court. _de fonte_ could in this case do no further than shew he had sent him on this service, it must be supposed, agreeable to his instructions. which, from the boats brought from _realejo_, (and must be of a particular constructure, the like of which were not to be any where else on the coast) and the master and mariners hired here, it is evident, was before proposed, that _pennelossa_ should go on this part of the expedition, not on the master's declaring that there was a tide from the northward, and so _california_ an island. this was only mentioned by _de fonte_, to shew what intelligence he had got in this affair. the account given of _pennelossa_ could be evidently no part of the letter. what is said as to his descent, his being a nobleman, his address to cosmography, and the undertaking of this discovery, must evidence as already said, whoever inserted the account was satisfied as to their being such a person so accomplished, and who aspired to undertake this part of the expedition. a discovery of these parts would carry, at this time particularly, great reputation and honour with it, and by this opportunity to intercept persons on a design so prejudicial to the interests of the court of _spain_ in those parts, as it was then thought, had _pennelossa_ succeeded; he would have had no small share of merit; or if he did not succeed, the merit of the attempt would be accounted of, and not unjustly, it would be a means of his promotion through the connections he had, as they would urge he did not pursue those sciences for speculation only, but to carry them into practice for the service of his country. and according to the regulations don _olivarez_ had made, there was no preferment but what was in consequence of service. sister's son of _don lewis de haro_, and a young nobleman, expresses as of the time present, when the copy was taken from which we have the publication; and _don haro, prime minister of spain_, was a gloss added by another hand. neither is _don luis de haro_ the person here meant, for he does not seem to have been of an age to have had a sister who could be mother to _don pennelossa_; but _don lopez de haro_ is the person meant, _marquis de carpio_, the father of _don luis_, who was at that time gentleman of the chamber to the king, and afterwards prime minister, and must be understood the son of his wife's sister, who was a daughter of _olivarez_, married to the _marquis de valderiabano_. 'but admiral _de fonte_, with the other three ships, sailed from them within the islands of _chamilly_ the th _may_ , and having the length of cape _abel_ on the w. s. w. side of _california_, in degrees of n. latitude, leagues n. w. and w. from the isles _chamilly_; the wind sprung up at s. s. e. a steady gale, that from the _ th_ of _may_ to the _ th_ of _june_ he had sailed to the river _los reys_, in degrees of north latitude, not having occasion to lower a topsail, in sailing leagues n. n. w. leagues from port _abel_ to cape _blanco_, leagues to _rio los reyes_, all the time most pleasant weather, and sailed about leagues in crooked channels, amongst islands named the _archipelagus de st. lazarus_; where his ships boats always sailed a mile a-head, sounding to see what water, rocks, and sands, there was.' _de fonte_ and _pennelossa_ both put out to sea together; but as their courses were various, one to the westward of _california_, and the other to enter the gulf. they parted within the shoals of _chiametla_ the tenth of _may_ ; and _de fonte_ attaining the length of _cape abel_ in latitude , one hundred and sixty leagues north north-west and west from the isles of _chiametla_, he then meets with a fair wind from south south-east. by the latitude of cape _abel_, and the distance run, it is apparent that the islands _chiametla_ mentioned, are the islands here meant. _de fonte_, after running one hundred and sixty leagues from the isles of _chiametla_, in lat. deg. min. and long. deg. min. attaining the length of cape _abel_ in latitude , his course could not be north-west and west, but north-west by west westerly, or ° ´. _and_, instead of, _by_, may be supposed an error of the press. dr. _heylin_ mentions a convenient haven named _st. abad_, who wrote near these times. but it is _christabel_, or _christeval_, the name of a cape the extremity of the land, which forms a harbour or port of the same name _christabel_. _prieto_ mentions no place on the main land but the three islands of _casonas_, which lie off at sea, so more to westward than this cape. they are in lat. deg. long. deg. min. the longitude of cape _abel_ i make in deg. min. and he lays down the point of _madelena_ in deg. min. and the long. deg. min. which seems to be the northermost land of such harbour. by _de fonte_ mentioning the latitude of this cape, and not any other, he may be supposed to take from hence a new departure, as was usual with the _spaniards_ when they came to this length in these seas, so _prieto_ mentions _las bajas de los abraja, primier meridiano_. lat. ° ´. long. deg. min. from _lima_. _de fonte_ in his run from _chiametla_ met with contrary winds; but when the length of cape _abel_, he had wind and weather rather unexpected in those parts; and the spring not being much advanced, he rather expected to have been, at times, under his courses, which is meant by the expression afterwards used, that he never had occasion to lower a topsail, and is conformable with its being a steady gale, or did not overblow. as the run to _los reys_ terminated the fourteenth of _june_, _de fonte_, for the whole eight hundred and sixty leagues, sailed after the rate of forty-five leagues in twenty-four hours, which is consistent with and agreeable to the seamens common experience, when favoured with such wind and weather. amongst the islands would have the assistance of the floods, and wind enough to stem the ebbs. the computation of the eight hundred and sixty-six leagues is four hundred and ten leagues to cape _blanquial_, to which there is a course assigned north north-west; and as to four hundred and fifty-six leagues to _rio los reys_, no courses are added, which we may assign to the courses being originally in the margin, when one was introduced into the copy the other was neglected. and we have just reason to suspect the carelessness here, as it is first called _cape abel_, then _port abel_, and the river _los reys_ in degrees, and afterwards _rio los reys_, as tho' they were distinct and separate. with the n. n. w. course _rio los reys_ could not be in the latitude _de fonte_ mentions. _port abel_, latitude , long. ° ´, and the _callao_ of _lima_, being laid down longitude west from the first meridian of _fero_, and hitherto we have carried on our computation of longitude from _paris_, we shall hereafter compute from _fero_ and _london_; and cape _christabel_ we compute ° ´ from the meridian of _fero_, or ° ´ from the meridian of _london_. the course four hundred and ten leagues north north-west, _de fonte_ made cape _blanquial_ in latitude , longitude from _london_ ° ´, from the meridian of _fero_ ° ´, to northward and westward of the entrance of _martin aquilar_. sufficient observations have not been made to determine by the geographers as to the true latitudes and longitudes of these places, and, until they attain more perfect informations, must disagree. the course from _blanquial_ is not inserted, but is to be determined by the distance two hundred and sixty leagues, ending in latitude at _rio los reys_. _de fonte_ had, during the whole time between _abel_ and _los reys_, the wind in his favour. therefore his course must have been to the northward of the east; and if he run two hundred and sixty leagues, with a course east ° north, he would make deg. min. latitude, and deg. min. longitude. to correspond with which _de fonte_ must, for the one hundred and ninety-six leagues, made his course north deg. west, which would determine in latitude deg. min. and in long. deg. min. from _london_, in deg. min. west from _fero_. _de fonte_ would then be about thirty leagues from the land, agreeable to the _russian_ discoveries, tho' this voyage was made so many years before that attempt; a great evidence of the authenticity of this account. his conduct also in this case was necessary, consistent with the character of a good seaman, not to make the coast direct, or immediately engage with this _archipelago_, to which he was a stranger, and in parts unknown, or where he had no sailing directions but to form such course as gradually to fall in with the land, and, as the wind was, if he saw occasion, could at any time stand off. _de fonte_ by this course, agreeable to the latitude of the _suesta del estrech d'anian_, which is laid down by _prieto_ in latitude , would be to the southern part of the entrance into such _archipelago_, had he been northward, as the wind was, he would have regained it with great difficulty and loss of time. as this table of _prieto_ was composed before the _russian_ discoveries, and this land, the _suesta del estrech d'anian_, is computed in longitude deg. min. computing _lima_ at deg. answerable to deg. min. east longitude from _fero_, it is a little singular that these accounts should agree so well, as to the longitude of this part of _america_; is an instance that _prieto_ did not proceed upon vague calculations; had acquired a more exact account than could be even supposed in these unfrequented parts, and in his care and exactness, as to the more known parts, we have no reason to doubt but he hath laid down the latitude and longitude of the _suesta del estrech de anian_, with the greatest certainty that he could attain to. i shall not controvert it whether these are the proper streights of _anian_. this entrance was commonly called amongst the navigators into those parts by that name, as is evident from former accounts; and _hornius_, from his maps, which may be seen in _purchase_, lays it down in the same manner. my intention is answered in producing an authority from the _spaniards_ of _new spain_, that there is an entrance here agreeable to the account in this letter; also, in all appearance, a superior entrance to that of _martin aguilar_, which _prieto_ doth not expresly mention; neither could he properly; but inserts cape _escondido_ in lat. , and cape _blanquial_ in lat. , an intermediate distance of one hundred and twenty miles. again mentions the port of _salagua_ in lat. , and then the port of _salado_ in lat. ; in which interspace the entrance of _de fuca_ is supposed to be. by the name _archipelago_, _de fonte_, who would give the name with propriety, expresses it to be a sea; and on his return says, he sailed down the river _los reys_ to the north-east _part_ of the _south sea_; after that returned home. where the word _part_, properly speaking, or to use the word as it really imports, can be no otherwise understood than as an arm or branch of the _south sea_. had he steered eight hundred and sixty-six leagues north north-west, he must necessarily have traversed the courses of those brave discoverers capt. _beering_ and _tschirikow_, which were from lat. in _asia_, to lat. and in _america_, and who were not interrupted by any such islands. capt. _tschirikow_ positively says, the coast was without islands where he was in lat. ; by capt. _beering_'s account in lat. , the islands lay only _along_ the coast; and _de fonte_ in his account mentions, that he sailed in crooked channels, amongst islands. these various descriptions shew that these accounts relate to various parts. as _de fonte_ could not, in the whole extent between _asia_ and _america_, meet with such islands, and yet was under a necessity to pass up crooked channels, with no small hazard, as the boats being a-head express, his course must have been to the eastward of where captain _tschirikow_ fell in with the land, and for the distance of the two hundred and thirty leagues before _de fonte_ came to a river, to _los reyes_, was then passing up the north-east part of the _south sea_, as he terms it, and in some part of which there were islands, which he names the _archipelagus of st. lazarus_. there is a singularity of expression in the letter, _where_ his boats always sailed a-head, the word _where_ limits the islands to a certain space, and that they were not extended the whole two hundred and thirty leagues, which is consistent with the expedition he made, as otherwise the ships must have often shortened sail, and it could not be avoided, and must have frequently brought up at night. as _de fonte_ did neither make the south or north shore of this streight, the most comprehensive way of expressing himself was to say, he passed up these islands, by which those who had composed his instructions well knew the parts he meant. it must be considered _de fonte_ was not as to this part on discovery, the whole would be pointed out to him by his instructions, which being to fall in with the islands, or entrance in such a latitude, to mention either the north or south limit of the entrance would be improper; whereas the contrary was the case as to cape _st. helena_, _francisco_, _passao_, and cape _abel_, as his instructions were express, as to the making these lands. as _de fonte_ made a true course east ° north, subtract the longitude deg. min. from the longitude deg. min. from _london_, and from the deg. min. from _fero_. the entrance to the river _los reys_ lies in lat. deg. long. deg. min. from _london_, and deg. min. west from _fero_. and that his course was now easterly is plain from the subsequent words of the letter, _as they sailed more easterly_. it was also confident with the purpose they were sent on, to meet a vessel from _boston_. 'the d of _june_ admiral _de fonte_ dispatched one of his captains to _pedro de barnarda_, to sail up a fair river, a gentle stream, and deep water, went first n. and n. e. n. and n. w. into a large lake full of islands, and one very large _peninsula_ full of inhabitants, a friendly honest people in this lake, he named lake _valasco_, where captain _barnarda_ left his ship; nor all up the river was less than , , , , and fathom water, both the rivers and lakes abounding with salmon trouts, and very large white perch, some of two foot long; and with three large _indian_ boats, by them called _periagos_, made of two large trees or foot long. capt. _barnarda_ first sailed from his ships in the lake _valasco_, one hundred and forty leagues west, and then e. n. e. to degrees of latitude. admiral _de fonte_, after he had dispatched capt. _barnarda_ on the discovery of the north and east part of the _tartarian sea_.' we may suppose, from the manner in which this part was managed, that there was a great necessity to get the translation finished in any manner. as the difficulties of the translation increased, the design of this account being only amusement, the translator thought it would answer the purpose to give the account in gross. the date, the d _june_, is an apparent error, by reason _de fonte_ did not enter into lake _belle_, as will be shewn hereafter, until that time. admiral _de fonte_ dispatched one of his captains to _pedro de barnarda_, to sail up a fair river, gentle stream, and deep water. then the translation breaks off abruptly, and the translator renders the following part as an account of _bernarda_'s voyage, not observing how just a connection there is with _de fonte_ dispatching one of his captains to _bernarda_; and what follows being the orders sent by him, and the instructions for _bernarda_; instead of being _bernarda_'s account of his expedition, and not observing how consistent it is with being a summary recital of those instructions these words are which follow, admiral _de fonte_, after he had dispatched captain _bernarda_ on the discovery, _&c._ as to his dispatching one of his captains, he must be supposed to have besides the captain of the ship he was in, also one called an admiral's captain. the instructions were of such consequence, that a less person might not be so properly employed, nor consistent with the respect due to _bernarda_. _de fonte_ and _bernarda_ were strangers here; but these parts had been already discovered, as it is expresly said that _two pater jesuits_ had been here two years, and made observations as far as the latitude . from their discoveries we may conclude, that these instructions were formed which _bernarda_ received, and those of the whole course of the voyage; and it was necessary that _de fonte_ should not only mention that he had dispatched _bernarda_, but should also, with the brevity due to a letter, mention the orders with which he dispatched him. and further from what is expressed in those orders, as to the river, the course and soundings, what fish were in the river and lake, the road or harbour which was to be found in the lake, the temper and disposition of the inhabitants, it evidently appears that there had been a prior discovery of these parts, and observations made of every thing worthy of consideration, and necessary also at this time to be mentioned to _bernarda_. to let him know that his ship could pass up the river, would find a harbour in the lake, he had nothing to fear from the natives, and would meet with provisions. there leaving his ship he might be furnished with _periagos_ to proceed. and i understand his directions to steer first north and north-east, then north and north-west, that he might make no mistake by pursuing or entering into any other openings which might present themselves in his course up, and which from their appearance might perplex him, as to which of them he was to enter; no uncommon thing, as those who have been to northward on like undertakings will allow. 'the admiral sailed up a very navigable river, which he named _rio los reys_, that run nearest n. e. but on several points of the compass leagues, at low water, in a fair navigable channel, not less than or fathom water. it flowed on both rivers near the same water, in the river _los reys_, feet full and change of the moon; a s. s. e. moon made high water. it flowed in the river _haro_, feet and a half full and change. they had two jesuits with them, that had been on their mission to degrees of north latitude, and had made curious observations.' _de fonte_, having dispatched _bernarda_, sets out on his part of the expedition, and proceeds up the river _los reys_, at the entrance of which he had arrived the fourteenth of _june_. during his stay, until _bernarda_ was dispatched and sailed, he seems to have taken an accurate account of the tides in both rivers. the distance up the river was more than sixty leagues, and though a good navigable channel, yet would require a great precaution in his proceeding with the two ships; tide times and the night would make it necessary for him to bring too; for had he touched the ground with either of them, the delay that might have followed on such accident, might have defeated this part of the undertaking, and the most important, and which, therefore, was allotted to him to execute. their having had two jesuits with them seems an additional note. that two jesuits should be sent into those parts to make observations, is but consistent with the general practice of the jesuits to go on missions into all parts of the globe, engaged by a special vow, not injoined any other order, to be always ready to go and preach whithersoever they shall be sent. these jesuits are by no means a singular instance of the people of that order being great adventurers, when we consider those who ventured to the _philippinas_ and _japan_, enforced by the vow, puffed up with the vanity of popular applause, the favour of the president, and the hope of being acceptable to the rest of the order on their return from such mission, expecting by such mission to add to the wealth or reputation of the order. the effect of this mission seems to have been they had acquired the favour of the natives. had made some observations of the country, but principally to northward, as to which they seem not to have got a perfect account; though they did a great deal for the time, the unseasonableness of the winter, and the melting weather in the spring considered; nor is it strange they should not get a perfect account, in a country so intermixed with waters, which hide themselves in their courses between inaccessible mountains; and in many places where they are to be come at, are deceitful in their appearance, as to what they really are, whether lakes, gulphs of the sea, or inlets. as they proceeded to the northward, they thought it the part that principally claimed their observation. were of opinion as to the northward, that it was part of the continent of _new spain_, or they would not have lead _de fonte_ to _los reys_, but caused him to proceed up that streight which separated the part they had been in from _new spain_. as to this mission not being known to the publick, these jesuits must have been sent from _europe_ into _new spain_; and they would so far regard their obedience to the pope, as to pay due respect to the king of _spain_'s authority, in observing the established maxim of the time, as to keep their discoveries a secret from the publick or other nations. and as to all missionaries who went into _new spain_, the king of _spain_ hath a power to call them to account, by the pope's permission, though not permitted in _old spain_ to meddle with ecclesiastical affairs, or ecclesiastical men. 'a letter from captain _barnarda_, dated the th of _june_ , that he had left his ship in the lake _valasco_, betwixt the islands _barnarda_ and the peninsula _conibasset_, a very safe port; it went down the river from the lake falls, leagues, and fell into the _tartarian_ sea in deg. with the pater jesuits, and natives, in three of their boats, and of his _spanish_ seamen; that the land trended away north east; that they should want no provision, the country abounding with venison of three sorts, and the sea and rivers with excellent fish (bread, salt, oil, and brandy they carried with them) that he should do what was possible. the admiral, when he received the letter from captain _barnarda_, was arrived at an _indian_ town called _conosset_, on the south side lake _belle_, where the two pater jesuits on their mission had been two years; a pleasant place. the admiral, with his two ships, enter'd the lake the d of _june_.' the letter from _bernarda_ being dated the th of _june_, it is impossible he should finish all that business in four days, which he gives _de fonte_ an account of: this also confirms its being a mistake as to the d of _june_, being the time he received his dispatches. it might well take _bernarda_ from the fourteenth of _june_ to the twenty-seventh to receive his dispatches, to pass up the river, and to the peninsula in lake _valasco_, procure the natives, who were not under his command, get all things fitted, and set out. and what this letter contains, makes it evident it could be no account of his voyage that was before-mentioned. this letter is apparently an answer to the dispatches _bernarda_ received from _de fonte_. he mentions, that he had left his ship, agreeable to orders, and in a safe port; gives an account how he was equipped to proceed; the number of the persons he had with him; that he had thirty-six of the natives, which is conformable to the character given of them, a friendly honest people, and shews the influence of the jesuits. these natives, by joining in the expedition, were hostages for the good behaviour of the others towards his people left behind, and an assurance to _bernarda_ for the security of his ship left at the port, were of great use as pilots as to the coast, and also in sailing and managing their _periagos_. their having these _periagos_ implies they had a country abounding with waters; and it was their usual way of passing from one part to another, time and experience had made them expert in the management of them; and by shifting from one part to the other as the seasons required for hunting or fishing, and by excursions out of their own country either for war or curiosity, as is the nature of _indians_, they were become acquainted not only with the inland waters, but also the sea coasts. _de fonte_ had ordered captain _bernarda_ that he should sail one hundred and fifty leagues west (but is rather to be believed a mistake from not understanding the compass, _oeste_ and _este_ being so similar) and then four hundred and thirty-six leagues east north east to degrees of latitude. in answer to which _bernarda_ here mentions, that from the lake _valasco_ there was a river in which there was three falls, eighty leagues in distance, and fell into the _tartarian sea_, in latitude ; that the land trended away north east, and that he would do what was possible. by which expression it is plain, that he did not pursue the exact course that _de fonte_ directed; probably that course was pointed out to _bernarda_ by which the jesuits had travelled to latitude , but pursued a course more immediate and direct to attain to latitude , the back of _baffin_'s bay, as to which the natives had informed him; and that though he did not pursue the course directed by _de fonte_, which he found not to be so consistent with the design he was sent on, yet he would do all that was possible to answer that design. and the expression also implies, that he was sensible he should meet with difficulties, which he might expect from the climate, the ice, and the fatigue; but as to the article of provisions, was in no fear on that account. as to what is mentioned as to venison of three sorts, they were the small deer, the moose, and the elk, all which are in the northern parts about _hudson_'s bay, and the _labrador_ coast. the name of _haro_ given to the river is a particular compliment to _don haro_, who was the head of the houses of _valasco_; and the name of _valasco_, in compliment to the other houses, of that family. which respect shewn by _de fonte_ seems to indicate a particular connection with, or his being related to that family, as already mentioned. _valasco_, as here wrote, with a _va_, as those families did write it at that time, and one of that family, who was constable of _castile_, in his titles is named _john ferdinandes de vallasco_, constable of _castilia_, &c. now lord of the houses of _vallasco_, &c. and by the orthography in the letter being so conformable with that which was used at that time, and not with a _ve_ as at present, we have very good reason to suppose, that the letter was not only wrote in _spanish_, but also by _de fonte_ on his return from his voyage. don _ferdinandez_ was living in , and succeeded by his son, in his title and honour of constable of _castile_, _don bernardino_, who was living at the time of the voyage. 'the admiral entered the lake an hour before high water, and there was no fall or cataract, and and fathom water, and and fathom water generally in the lake _belle_. there is a little fall of water half flood, and an hour and quarter before high water the flood begins to set gently into lake _belle_: the river is fresh at leagues distance from the mouth or entrance of the river _los reyes_. the river and lake abounds with salmon, salmon trouts, pikes, perch and mullets, and two other sorts of fish peculiar to that river, admirable good; and lake _belle_ also abounds with all those sorts of fish large and delicate: and admiral _de fonte_ also says, the mullets catched in _rios reyes_ and lake _belle_, are much delicater than are to be found, he believes, in any part of the world.' _de fonte_ was not inactive from the th to the d of _june_. various courses, contrary winds, waiting for the tides at times; from the circumstance of the tide as to lake _belle_, that there is a fall until half flood, and it is an hour and quarter only before high water that the flood makes in, evidences that there was a current against him; and it is further evident, as on his return he was but two days running from _conosset_ to the entrance of the river _los reyes_. _de fonte_ is very particular in his account, being now to take a survey of the parts through which a passage was expected, and in which parts he now was. he mentions the trial of the tides at _los reyes_ and _haro_; gives a particular account of the navigation up _los reyes_, and to lake _belle_; that it was fresh water after they were sixty miles up the river; and what is no immaterial circumstance in this affair, shews how far the waters from westward flowed up, which he instances in the account of the fish. that such as came out of the sea into the land or fresh waters to spawn at those seasons, and afterwards return to the sea, went no further than lake _belle_; for here he found the mother fish, as he describes them, large and delicate, superior to those in the river, and indulges his fancy, so delicate as, he believes, they are not to be exceeded in any other part of the world. _de fonte_, in his orders to _bernarda_, shewed it was fresh water in part of _haro_, and in the lake _conibasset_, from the salmon and perch, in which he means sea perch, which come into fresh waters at this season of the year. 'the first of _july_ , admiral _de fonte_ sailed from the rest of his ships in the lake _belle_, in a good port, covered by a fine island, before the town of _conosset_, from thence to a river i named _parmentiers_, in honour of my industrious judicious comrade mr. _parmentiers_, who had most exactly marked every thing in and about that river.' we now proceed to consider the remainder of admiral _de fonte_'s letter, which was published in _june_ . admiral _de fonte_, when he received the letter from capt. _bernarda_, was arrived at an _indian_ town called _conosset_, in the lake _belle_; and as he entered such lake the twenty-second, probably arrived at the town the same day; staid eight days, and then sailed the first of _july_. that _bernarda_ should write, as to the situation of his affairs, must have been before concerted between them, they having been informed by the jesuits or _parmentiers_, that it was practicable for _bernarda_ to send such message, that the admiral might know whether _bernarda_ had met with any accident as to his ship, or any other obstacle to his proceeding, as he might assist him from those ships companies then with the admiral. how the letter was conveyed is not expressed; probably by a seaman with an _indian_ guide (the distance between the admiral and _bernarda_, at this time, will be considered hereafter) who would use all possible expedition both by land and water: had the advantage of very short nights. _de fonte_ would not proceed until he received this account, though ready as soon as he received it. as _de fonte_ sailed on the first of _july_, that account must have come to his hand the thirtieth of _june_. the ships being secure in a good harbour, and the command left with _ronquillo_, the admiral proceeds to the river _parmentiers_, so named in honour of mons. _parmentiers_, whom he stiles his comrade, and commends his industry and judgment in the survey of such river, and the parts adjacent. from his being stiled his comrade, he was in no command, as he could not have a commission without having been bred in the service, and a native of _spain_. therefore being a person immediately necessary for to have on this occasion, he is introduced under the character of a friend and companion. mr. _gage_ mentions, chap. xv. of his new survey of the _west indies_, one _thomas rocalono_, a _frenchman_, a prior of the cloister of _cemitlan_, who, with himself, was the only stranger in that country, by which he means in that part where he was; and it implies there being others in other parts, which falsifies the assertion that no _frenchman_ was ever admitted in _peru_. the countries of _quivira_ and _anian_ were represented, at that time, to be barren or desolate; as is also evident from the description of the inhabitants eating raw flesh, drinking blood, and in all respects suitable to the character of the _eskemaux indians_, who by choice, not necessity, make use of such diet when out a hunting or travelling, which expresses those parts to be very inhospitable, and where the _indians_ only frequent at certain seasons, in pursuit of the wild game, and for fishing. and _cibola_ is represented as a country which hath a cultivation, where the _indians_ constantly live, and seem a different people from those of _quivira_ and _anian_. this is agreeable to the accounts given at that time, which is sufficient to shew that the jesuits could not expect that they should be able, or would undertake to pass through such a country as _quivira_ and _anian_ in pursuit of their discoveries to northward; therefore must have taken some opportunity of being conveyed there, which could only be by some persons who had been on these coasts, and had, through necessity, interest, or curiosity, passed up these waters, and surveyed the adjacent country in pursuit of something which might turn out to their private emolument: nor were such attempts unprecedented, even on our parts, though the hazards were much greater. the private trade carried on by the people from _boston_, in _hudson_'s bay, before there was a grant to the company; which trading might not have come to the knowledge of the people in _england_, or been known to the publick for a series of years, had it not been for an accident which happened to captain _gillam_, who thereupon made a discovery of this trade. nor is there the least improbability but that _parmentiers_ had, on some occasion, introduced himself into these parts, had invited the jesuits to a mission there, who, on other missions, had undertaken what hath been much more hazardous, and succeeded. there were sufficient motives for that undertaking; the northern bounds were then unknown, so that they could not affirm _america_ to be continent, nor certainly to be an island distinguished from the old world. this is the account mr. _gage_ gives us, chap. xiii. and mentioning that he will not write, as many do, by relation and hearsay, but by more sure intelligence, insight and experience. he says _quivira_ is seated on the most western part of _america_, just over against _tartary_; from whence, being not much distant, some suppose that the inhabitants came into this new world. the west side of _america_, if it be not continent with _tartary_, it yet disjoined by a small streight. here then was a sufficient matter to encourage a mission of this sort, and to keep a progress to the eastward, or in _america_, with the discoveries that were going on by the missionars sent to _japan_; and there was a propriety in this being done, as the coasts of both were supposed to be at no great distance from each other: and this was expresly the purpose of their mission, as it is said they had been to latitude , and made curious observations, on which account they were with _bernarda_. as _parmentiers_ went to the eastward with _de fonte_, who must have had a different motive from them for coming into those parts, he must have had his own private emolument in view, his better success in which depended on his secrecy, as he thereby prevented others from interfering; which consideration would prevail with him, as with all traders, superior to any satisfaction the publick might have from his informations; and as trade would be carried on most successfully where the inhabitants were more numerous, we find he had found his way to eastward, apparently the most populous, as the jesuits had gone to the northward and westward, principally as most consistent with their plan; tho' _conosset_ was where the jesuits had been first introduced, where their courteous behaviour and management of the natives, would be of advantage to _parmentiers_. in searching for the most popular and inhabited part of the country, he would become acquainted with the geography of those parts necessarily, depths of water, shoals, tides, which his own preservation, and the better conducting of himself would naturally lead him to observe; but there might be a more particular reason for his observation of the river _parmentiers_, and of all the parts about it; and therefore he had been so exact as to the falls, which were the obstruction of the ship navigation through to the eastern sea, that lay beyond the streights of _ronquillo_, for his own private advantage; by opening a new and extensive trade, he would have greatly promoted it if he had found this communication practicable for ships of burthen. the people that captain _tchirikow_ met with on the coast is no objection to the character given of those within land in this letter, as it is from experience known that the _eskemaux_, who are along the coast of the _labrador_, are cruel and thievish; but that _indians_ of a different disposition live within land. as to _parmentiers_ being the general interpreter for all, he is not said to be so. he would, for the benefit it would be to him in his trade, endeavour to learn the language, and would of course acquire something of it unavoidably, as he frequented amongst the _indians_: and it must be observed, though there are many different nations, and there is a difference in dialect, yet there is a language which all those nations will understand, called the council language. that voyages had been made to these parts more than once is evident, as the jesuits staid there two years, therefore did not return with the same opportunity by which they came there, but another; and it is probable that there had been a voyage prior to that, which had encouraged them to undertake this mission. in what manner _de fonte_ proceeded, the boats and number of persons he had with him, the translator hath omitted. it is mentioned, that _de fonte_ sailed from the rest of his ships; the river _parmentiers_ hath falls of thirty-two feet perpendicular height from its source to where it issues into lake _de fonte_; so again, on the south side lake _belle_ on board our ships; and had it been with his ship, his inference that there was no north-west passage would have been unjust, as his meeting with this ship the vessel from _boston_, would have effectually proved the contrary. 'we passed eight falls, in all foot, perpendicular from its source out of lake _belle_; it falls into the large lake i named lake _de fonte_, at which place we arrived the th of _july_. this lake is leagues long, and broad; the length is east north east, and west south west, to twenty or thirty, in some places sixty fathom deep; the lake abounds with excellent cod and ling, very large and well fed; there are several very large islands, and ten small ones; they are covered with shrubby woods; the moss grows six or seven foot long, with which the moose, a very large sort of deer, are fat with in the winter, and other lesser deer, as fallow, _&c._ there are abundance of wild cherries, strawberries, hurtleberries, and wild currants; and also of wild fowls, heath cocks and hens; likewise partridges and turkeys; and sea fowl in great plenty. on the south side the lake is a very large fruitful island, had a great many inhabitants, and very excellent timber, as oaks, ashes, elm and fir trees, very large and tall.' we here again see the form of the letter, _de fonte_ expressing himself, as in the first part of the letter, _i named parmentiers_, _my industrious_; and there are other instances. the river _parmentiers_, which is the communication by which the waters of lake _belle_ are conveyed into the lake _de fonte_, so named we may suppose not in compliment to himself, which would be absurd, but of his family, as the expression is, _i named lake de fonte_, though it almost deserves the name of a mediterranean sea; but from having a superior water near it, with which it communicated, _de fonte_ calls it a lake. it is not a casual naming of places, or waters, as _hudson_'s bay, given to that great mediterranean sea, and continued, but the names of the waters he passed through, would be given with exactness and propriety. in the lake _de fonte_ there was a great depth of water, also banks, as there is said to be in some parts twenty or thirty fathom water, as is also evident from the cod and ling there, and which instance it to be a salt water lake. it was the season when these fish come to the northward to spawn. the shrubby wood on the islands, the moss for the subsistence of the deer hanging on the trees, the wild cherries and other fruits ripening at that season of the year, are all corresponding tokens of his being advanced to the north-east part of _america_, is agreeable in all the above respects to the country northward and westward in _canada_, about the river _st. lawrence_, to the interior parts of the country of _labrador_, in lat. ; but as you proceed further to northward, the high rocky mountains, which in this part are only confined to the coast, then extend more inland, increase in their height, and in lat. ° and °, the whole country, as far as _baffin_'s bay, seems to consist only of ridges of barren mountains, interspersed with waters; and the progress of the productions, as to trees and plants, gradually decreases from a more flourishing to an inferior sort, as you proceed to northward; in lat. , on the western side of _hudson_'s bay to the northward of _seal_ river, there is no wood, only grass and a small shrub of about a foot in heighth, which continues, as far as it is known to westward, and a thin soil, with a hard rocky stone just below the surface, and very frequently there are large ponds of standing water. _de fonte_ seems to have made a stop at the island at the south of lake _de fonte_, to take refreshment, and make inquiry as to the _boston_ ship, it being out of his course, or on any other account to go there. 'the th of _july_ we sailed out of the east north-east end of the lake _de fonte_, and passed a lake i named the _estricho de ronquillo_, thirty-four leagues long, two or three leagues broad, twenty, twenty-six and twenty-eight fathom of water; we passed this streight in ten hours, having a stout gale of wind, and a whole ebb. as we sailed more easterly the country grew very sensibly worse.' what follows, 'as it is in the north and south parts of _america_,' appears to me an additional comment. _de fonte_ mentions, as he went more easterly the country grew worse; from which it may be supposed he found the alteration to begin when he was come to the eastern part of the lake, and more so, as he passed the streights of _ronquillo_. where the streight of _ronquillo_ terminated _de fonte_ makes no mention; gives us no account of the soundings or tides; but his silence here, and the preceding circumstances, sufficiently prove that he thought himself then in some branch of the _atlantick ocean_. and it is to be observed there is the same affected silence here as to the part he was come into, as when he had left the western ocean and entered the north-east part of the _south sea_ to pass up to _los reys_. 'the th we came to an _indian_ town, and the _indians_ told our interpreter mons. _parmentiers_, that a little way from us lay a great ship, where there never had been one before.' the _indian_ telling the interpreter _parmentiers_, which expresses a kind of acquaintance made between them, and _de fonte_'s passing out of the lake into the sea, coming to a town, and _parmentiers_ knowing the language, is an evidence of _parmentiers_' having been there before. and we may suppose, that from the time they left the river _parmentiers_, _de fonte_ had been on the inquiry, it being now time to expect the people from _boston_; and what the _indian_ told him was in pursuance of such inquiry. 'we sailed to them, and found only one man advanced in years, and a youth; the man was the greatest man in the mechanical parts of the mathematicks, i had ever met with; my second mate was an _englishman_, an excellent seaman, as was my gunner, who had been taken prisoners at _campechy_, as well as the master's son; they told me the ship was of _new england_, from a town called _boston_. the owner and the whole ship's company came on board the thirtieth; and the navigator of the ship, captain _shapley_, told me, his owner was a fine gentleman, and _major general_ of the largest colony in _new england_, called the _maltechusets_; so i received him like a gentleman, and told him my commission was to make a prize of any people seeking a north-west or west passage into the _south sea_; but i would look on them as merchants trading with the natives for bevers, otters and other furs and skins, and so for a small present of provisions i had no need on, i gave him my diamond ring, which cost me twelve hundred pieces of eight (which the modest gentleman received with difficulty) and having given the brave navigator _captain shapley_, for his fine charts and journals, a thousand pieces of eight, and the owner of the ship, _seimor gibbons_, a quarter cask of good _peruan_ wine, and the ten seamen, each twenty pieces of eight, the sixth of _august_, with as much wind as we could fly before and a current, we arrived at the first fall of the river _parmentiers_.' _de fonte_ makes no delay, but immediately proceeds as the case required; finds an old man aboard, the man (as being a great mechanick might be very useful on such an expedition) and a youth, might venture to stay, their age would plead as to any severity that might be intended by _de fonte_; and through the fear of which severity the others retired into the woods, where they could manage without being sensible of those difficulties which _europeans_ apprehend. to leave the ship without any one aboard, _de fonte_ could of course have taken her as being deserted; and by their retirement into the woods, his pursuit of them there would have alarmed the _indians_, and more especially if he had attempted any severity, it might have been fatal to him and his company, from the resistance they might have met with, not only from the _boston_ people, but the _indians_ assisting them, as they would have considered it as an insult, an exercise of power which they would apprehend he had no right to use in those parts, as to a people who were trading with them, and been the occasion that the _spaniards_ would have been no more received as friends in those parts. _de fonte_ had particularly provided himself with some _englishmen_, who, by a friendly converse with the people from _boston_, might endeavour to learn their secrets, and prepare them the better by what they would be instructed to tell them to come to a compliance with the admiral's intentions. the result of this affair _de fonte_ only mentions; but they would not have staid away so long, would have returned sooner aboard, had they only left the ship on account of trade. trade was only a secondary object, the discovery was the principal, and they would not have staid in one place, at this season, had they not been necessitated through a fear of _de fonte_ so to do. it may be supposed the _englishmen_ who were with _de fonte_, two of whom were from _campechy_, and the other become catholick, as he was married to the master's daughter, they would not act either with much sincerity or truth as to their own countrymen, but managed with the old man to bring the owner, navigator, and rest of the crew aboard. on their return the navigator of the ship was the first who waited on the admiral, and he calls him captain _shapley_, his name _nicholas shapley_, who was famous as a navigator, for his knowledge in the mathematicks and other branches of science, that the common people supposed he dealt in the magick art, and had the name given him of _old nick_, not by the people of _boston_, but by a set of libertines as they termed them, and who had separated from the people of _boston_, and gone to live by themselves at _piscatua_, where he was settled at a place called _kittery_, in the province of _main_; the name of _kittery_ given by his brother _alexander shapley_, to a tract of land he had settled on there; and they write the name _shapley_ exactly in the manner in which it is wrote in the letter. the brother _alexander_ was a cotemporary at _oxford_ with captain _james_, who went on discovery, and his acquaintance. the descendants of _alexander_, a genteel people, were not many years since living at _kittery_; but _nicholas shapley_ retired to _new london_, where he had a son that was living in the year one thousand seven hundred and fifty-two, a fisherman. the family at _kittery_ were very shy as to giving any information as to what they knew in this affair, upon an application by the author of these observations, or looking into _alexander_'s papers, as an officious person had got beforehand, and discouraged them from giving any gratification of this sort, under pretence, if their papers were seen, it might give some insight into a lawsuit depending between the branches of the family, or expected to be commenced; and that there was a great reward for the discovery of a north-west passage, which, if the account was attained from them they would be intitled to a part, which by this means they would be deprived of. jealousies of this kind raised by a pretended, at least an ignorant friend, against the application of a stranger, who assured them he was superior to any trick of that sort, and would give them any satisfaction in his power as they should propose, occasioned a disappointment. the son of captain _nicholas_, upon an application made by the author likewise, had nothing but his father's sea chest, in which, there were once a great many papers, and which his mother, the wife of captain _nicholas_, made a great account of; but the son being an illiterate man, had made use of them in the family as waste paper. i have mentioned him as illiterate, but he was a well meaning man, and he had heard his mother talk something about such an affair; but i shall not lay a stress upon the account he gave, as he may be supposed prompted by the earnest manner of the inquiry to give grateful answers, in expectation of a reward. the number of settlers in all _piscatua_, the province of _main_ included, did not at that time exceed four hundred people, but is now become a well settled country; yet there was amongst the antient people about _kittery_, a tradition of captain _nicholas_ having been on such a voyage, and as to which, on proper application to persons who have influence, and will make due inquiry, it appears to me the publick will receive a farther satisfaction than they may at present expect. a considerable merchant who lived at _falmouth_ in _piscatua_, a man of character, no way biassed for or against a north-west passage, but as he is since dead, i may take the liberty to say, married a daughter of his late excellency governor _weymouth_, mentioned an anecdote respecting his father, who was a very antient man: that when the dispute was between the late governor _dobbs_ and captain _middleton_, he said, why do they make such a fuzz about this affair, our _old nick_ (meaning captain _shapley_) was through there? and this antient gentleman had been an intimate of captain _shapley_'s. early in the year before this voyage major general _gibbons_ went with others over to _piscatua_, to have a conference about church matters; and mr. _alexander shapley_ was one on the part of the settlers in _piscatua_, and who had but returned from _england_ the fall before. at this meeting, probably, they fixed on the time and manner of executing the design, which they had before concerted. this whole affair was concerted in an obscure part, the affair not known to the people of _boston_, as it was more to the purpose of those who undertook it to keep it a secret; and probably major _gibbons_ was more inclined it should be so, as he had before met with two disappointments. the characters of the persons were such, as by whom it is very reasonable to suppose such an expedition might be undertaken. mr. _alexander shapley_ was a merchant, a lively, active, enterprising man; sufficient to this purpose hath been said of his brother: and we may add to the character of major general _gibbons_, it was said of him, that he was much of a gentleman, a brave, social and friendly man, had the latter end of the year a commission to be captain of the fort, was one of the council, also concerned in church matters, as appears from records. but during the time that this voyage was making, that worthy pastor of _boston_ and great antiquarian mr. _prince_, who, from a generous disposition to get at the truth, used extraordinary industry in this affair, by searching the records in the old church there in the year , could not find his hand set to any thing, or any matters relating to major general _gibbons_, tho' he found papers signed by him frequently before, and other transactions in which he is mentioned to be concerned, also after the time of this voyage, and the only objection that he could find was, that the wife of major general _gibbons_ must have had a seven months child, if he went on such voyage, as it was a custom in the church of _boston_, at that time, that the child should be brought to be baptized the _sunday_ after it was born; and by the register it appears that this was the case, according to the time that it must be supposed he returned. the name was _edward gibbons_; and _seimor_ is a mistake of the translator, not observing that as _de fonte_ respectfully stiles _shapley_ captain, he would not mention the owner by his christian name only, a fine gentleman and a major general, but stiles him agreeable thereto after the _spanish_ manner _sennor_; and this mistake of the translator, as to the name, and not observing that the _major general_ and the owner were one and the same person, shews that the translator and editors knew nothing of the persons mentioned. what is said of the largest colony in _new england_, called the _maltechusets_: the dominions of _new england_ consisted, at that time, of the colonies of _plymouth_, _massachusets_, and _connecticut_, of which _massachusets_ was the largest, as _new hampshire_, _piscatua_, and the province of _main_, were under its jurisdiction: and it is a little remarkable that the admiral should call it the _maltechusets_; he apprehended it a mistake, though so exact as to the names _shapley_ and _gibbons_; seems to have given the alteration agreeable to his own ideas, and that it must have reference to _malta_. the old man told them the ship was of _new england_, from the town called _boston_, which was the only place where they could fit out properly or conveniently, the part where _shapley_ lived consisting only of a few scattered houses, and as it was very frequent from _boston_ to make voyages to the northward, their true design for further discoveries might remain a secret to all but themselves. _de fonte_'s address to _gibbons_ as the owner, represented so on this occasion to serve the purpose, though the vessel seems to have been _alexander shapley_'s, implies that he understood, or took the advantage on finding they had been trading with the _indians_, that they had two purposes in their undertaking, to discover a passage, and to trade. as to the first, _de fonte_ tells him he had an order to make a _prize of any people seeking a west or north-west passage_, speaking in general terms, not of them only, so concealing the advice he had received as to their particular undertaking of this discovery; nor could it be peculiarly understood as to the subjects of _england_, for the _danes_ also, to their immortal honour, had before attempted the same discovery; and in consequence let him know that the part he was in was of the dominions of the crown of _spain_, as his commission could be of no force beyond the extent of that dominion. _de fonte_'s address likewise implied, that as he would consider them only as traders, that he would not make prisoners of them on that account; but expected after this adventure that others would learn to keep nearer home, for fear of falling into a like accident, and meeting not with the same favourable treatment. nevertheless he takes effectual measures to embarrass them on their return, and obliges them to stay no longer in those parts, as he takes from them what _de fonte_ calls a small present of provisions, which he had no need on, but he knew they might, and as to which, the affair of provisions, he gave such an attention to, through the course of his voyage; and though small what he accepted in respect to the subsistance of those he had with him, yet as the sequel will shew, was afterwards the occasion of infinite distress to the _boston_ people. the gift in return, which is pompously mentioned at twelve hundred pieces of eight, when we consider the price things bore of this sort where he purchased it, in _peru_, as he estimates by pieces of eight, the manner of valuation in those parts, would not be to _gibbons_ a hundred pounds sterling; and the present to the seamen must be considered as in lieu of these provisions; and by this means of mutual presents countenanced what was absolutely extorted by force, as was the case with _shapley_, as to his charts and journals, which he would not have parted with, but constrained through fear; and by his _english_ seamen _de fonte_ could let them know that the provisions, charts, and journals would be acceptable. he executed his design in this manner, that if the _boston_ people returned there could be no proper foundation for the court of _england_ to take umbrage at his proceeding. the generosity of _de fonte_ so exceeding what their present and the charts and journals could be worth, would be considered as to make them some satisfaction for their disappointment; for the fears they had been put into, and their being detained there; the gift of wine, might be from a respect to _major general gibbons_, as an officer, whom _de fonte_ stiles modest, tho' he might perceive it to be the effect of his uneasiness on being thus intercepted. in all other respects, what he gave was a debt which the crown of _spain_ would pay, would be considered as money advanced in their service; a sum of no consideration with them, as he had met with these people, procured their charts by which they got into the secret, by what way they had advanced so far, and probably very particular charts and journals of the other voyagers whom _gibbons_ was acquainted with; and he would endeavour to be furnished with all materials which he could probably procure before that he set out. it would be greatly commended by the court of _spain_ the artful management of _de fonte_ in distressing these people, and not with a seeming intention, and giving an absolute discouragement to other adventurers, who would be afraid of falling into the _spaniards_ hands, whom it would be supposed constantly frequented those parts. _de fonte_ only mentions the issue of this affair, what would be immediately necessary for the court to know; he mentions no intervening circumstances, nor what time there was between their examination and the presents, whether he or they sailed first, but it must be supposed they were more than a day together, and that _de fonte_ would see them out of those parts, as, if they had staid longer, they might probably have supplied themselves well with provisions, and proceeded further; but as they were circumstanced, they would be put under a necessity to set out for home, would be glad to leave him the first opportunity; and as _de fonte_ seems to be waiting for a wind, which he had the sixth of _august_, and it had in the interim been fair for the _boston_ people, they were certainly gone before that _de fonte_ set out on his return. in the ecclesiastical history of _new england_, by the reverend _cotton mather_, published at _london_ in , in folio, in his account of wonderful sea deliverances, book the sixth, is _the wonderful story of major gibbons_. 'among remarkable _sea deliverances_, no less than three several writers have published that wherein major _edward gibbons_ was concerned. a vessel bound from _boston_ to some other parts of _america_, was, through the continuance of contrary winds, kept so long at sea, that the people aboard were in extreme straits for want of provision, and seeing that nothing here below could afford them any relief, they looked upwards unto heaven, in humble and fervent supplications. the winds continuing still as they were, one of the company made a sorrowful motion that they should, by a _lot_, single out _one_ to die, and by death to satisfy the ravenous hunger of the rest. after many a doleful and fearful debate upon this motion, they came to a result, that _it must be done_! the _lot_ is cast; one of the company is taken; but where is the executioner that shall do the terrible office upon a poor innocent? it is a death now to think who shall act this bloody part in the tragedy: but before they fall upon this involuntary and unnatural execution, they once more went unto their zealous _prayers_; and, behold, while they were calling upon god, he answered them, for there leaped a mighty fish into their boat, which, to their double joy, not only quieted their outrageous hunger, but also gave them some token of a further deliverance: however, the fish is quickly eaten; the horrible _famine_ returns, the horrible distress is renewed; a black despair again seizes their spirits: for another morsel they come to a second _lot_, which fell upon another person; but still they cannot find an executioner: they once again fall to their importunate prayers; and, behold, a second answer from above; a great bird lights, and fixes itself on the mast; one of the men spies it, and there it stands until he took it by the wing with his hand. this was a second _life from the dead_. this fowl, with the omen of a further deliverance in it, was a sweet feast unto them. still their disappointments follow them; they can see no land; they know not where they are: irresistable hunger once more pinches them: they have no hope to be saved but by _a third miracle_: they return to another _lot_; but before they go to the heart-breaking talk of slaying the person under _designation_, they repeat their addresses unto the god of heaven, their former _friend in adversity_; and now they look and look again, but there is nothing: their devotions are concluded, and nothing appears; yet they hoped, yet they staid, yet they lingered: at last one of them spies a ship, which put a new hope and life into them all: they bear up with their ship; they man their longboat; they go to board the vessel, and are admitted. it proves a _french_ pyrate: major _gibbons_ petitions for a little bread, and offers all for it; but the commander was one who had formerly received considerable kindnesses of major _gibbons_ at _boston_, and now replied chearfully, major _gibbons_, not an hair of you, or your company, shall _perish if it lies in my power to_ preserve _you_. accordingly he supplied their necessities, and they made a comfortable end of their voyage.' there are nine other accounts, in each of which the places the persons were bound to are particularly mentioned. in this account (the design being only to shew the wonderful deliverance of _gibbons_) dr. _mather_ could not mention the place to which the voyage had been made in any other manner, than _to some other parts of america_, which hath an exact correspondence with the voyage in which major _gibbons_ was intercepted by _de fonte_; for that voyage was properly to several parts, not being to one particular part of _america_; which parts were, at that time, nameless. it is said further, that their misfortune was occasioned by contrary winds. _de fonte_ had a fair wind from the sixth of _august_ to the fifth of _september_, and for a longer time, so contrary to the _boston_ ship; afterwards they had the wind again contrary, when they came into the ocean, being north-west or to westward of it, as they could see no land; the land expected to be seen may be supposed the land of _newfoundland_, or they were to eastward and southward of the gulph of _st. lawrence_: and which account of the weather is agreeable to the time of the year that they were there, the latter end of _september_, or beginning of _october_, being the equinoctial gales. also as to the fish which must have been a sturgeon, which fish frequently jump into boats; and shews, as the boat was out, that they had then moderate weather, but contrary; though a hard gale succeeded, as one of the birds of passage, which are also then going to southward, was blown off the coast and tired, rested on the mast. far be it from me to reckon these as mere accidents, and not the assistances of the almighty, but a relief which the almighty sent them by contingencies which are natural: and as to the ship, which was a _french_ pirate, she had probably come with a fresh wind out of the gulph of _st. lawrence_, and standing to eastward of _sables_ to clear that island and _nautuchet_, for which she had a fair wind; and it is said the commander had an acquaintance with major _gibbons_, and received favours from him at _boston_; but i must add an anecdote, to shew that there might also be another reason assigned, which would not be suitable to be published with that account; _alexander shapley_ had used to hold a correspondence with these kind of gentry, as is evident from a severe censure on him on that account, recorded in the council book at _boston_. it was a _ship_ that major _gibbons_ was in when intercepted by _de fonte_; and this account also mentions a ship. after the death of _major gibbons_, his family, according to the account of a very ancient gentlewoman at _boston_, removed to _bermuda_; which lady, who was near ninety years of age, had some traditional account of the _major_ having been such a voyage to discover a new way to the _east indies_, and suffered much from the snow and ice, went through a great many hardships, and, she said, she thought it was from _boston_ that he set out. the persons discovered by mons. _groseliers_, at what he calls an _english_ settlement, near port _nelson_, as it is now termed, were _benjamin_ the son of captain _zachary gillam_, and some others, from _boston_, who were the same year taken to _canada_, whose journal of that voyage the author hath seen, and this circumstance is mentioned in it, which persons have been mistaken for major _gibbons_ and his company. 'we arrived at the river _parmentiers_ the th of _august_ leagues, and was on the south side lake _belle_ on board our ships the th of _august_, before the fine town _conosset_, where we found all things well, and the honest natives of _conosset_ had, in our absence, treated our people with great humanity, and capt. _de ronquillo_ answered their civility and justice.' we have been before told, that the admiral went sixty leagues up _los reyes_, which i take to be the whole distance between the entrance of _los reyes_ to _conosset_ in lake _belle_; and if we transpose the above words, 'arrived at _parmentiers_ the eleventh of _august_, and was on the south side lake _belle_ eighty-six leagues on board our ships the sixteenth of _august_,' then we have the distances respecting every part of _de fonte_'s course thro' land, from _los reyes_ to _conosset_ sixty leagues, from _conosset_ to lake _de fonte_ _eighty-six leagues_, from the entrance of lake _de fonte_ to the streight of _ronquillo_ one hundred and sixty leagues, from the entrance of the streight of _ronquillo_ to the sea thirty-six leagues. the time that _de fonte_ was passing down the river of _parmentiers_, and the time he took to return, are equal, which is plainly owing to his being obliged to wait the tides for getting over the falls both ways. the sixth of _july_ they had entered the lake _de fonte_, and by the fifteenth were through the streights of _ronquillo_, and at the _indian_ town the seventeenth, so they were eleven days from their entrance into the lake _de fonte_; but in their return the same way only five, favoured by a strong current which the wind occasioned to set into the lake, and having as much wind as they could fly before, and now came directly back; whereas in their passage out they had made some delays. the course to _conosset_ being nearest north-east, i compute it to be in lat. deg. long. ° ´ from _london_. the entrance of lake _de fonte_ (supposing the course of the river _parmentiers_ and from _conosset_ east north east) in lat. ° ´. long. °. the entrance of the streights of _ronquillo_ east north east, in lat. deg. min. long. deg. min. the course through the streights to enter the sea north by east, such entrance to be in lat. deg. min. long. deg. min. which course must be consistent with _de fonte_'s account that a strong current set in, as by this course such current must be accelerated, if it set to the southward, by the wind from the northward, or if it was from the southward, would be opposed in going to the northward. _de fonte_ proceeds to give an account of the good estate in which he found all things on his return; mentions the honesty and humanity of the natives, and the prudent conduct of captain _ronquillo_, who answered their civility and justice. for they had, during the time of _de fonte_'s absence, procured, by dealing with the natives, store of good provisions to salt, venison, fish; also one hundred hogsheads of _indian_ maiz; besides the service this would be of on their return, procured pursuant to _de fonte_'s order, it employed the people, with the other necessary work about the ships after so long a run, and kept them from brangling with the natives. the natives were also employed to their interest, which preserved them in good humour; and a justice in dealing preserved their friendship. 'the th of _august_ an _indian_ brought me a letter to _conosset_, on the lake _belle_, from captain _bernarda_, dated the th of _august_, where he sent me word he was returned from his cold expedition, and did assure me there was no communication out of the _spanish_ or _atlantick_ sea, by _davis_ streight; for the natives had conducted one of his seamen to the head of _davis_ streight, which terminated in a fresh lake, of about mile in circumference, in the th degree of north latitude; and that there was prodigious mountains north of it, besides the north-west from that lake the ice was so fixed, that from the shore to fathom of water, for ought he knew from the creation; for mankind knew little of the wonderful works of god, near the north and south poles: he writ further, that he had sailed from _basset_ island north east, and east north east, and north east and by east, to the th degree of latitude, and the land trended north, and the ice rested on the land.' the orders _bernarda_ received were to sail up a river north and north east, north and north west, which river i suppose to have emptied itself near to _los reyes_ into the south-east part of the _south sea_; and it is not uncommon, in _america_, that two great rivers should have their entrances contiguous to each other; and i suppose _conabasset_, afterwards called _basset_, to be in lat. deg. min. to the westward of _los reyes_ in long. deg. min. from _london_. the course up the river _haro_ north deg. west; and as _conosset_ is laid down in lat. deg. long. deg. min. the distance from _basset_ to _conosset_ is one hundred and seventy-seven miles; the course north deg. west. the letter by the first messenger was dated the th of _june_, and is received the fourth day, as he could not come a direct course, we may suppose he travelled fifty miles a day, which is an extraordinary allowance, the greatest part by water, and light most of the night. we know he would go part by water in lake _belle_, and lake _belle_ issuing its waters both by _los reyes_ and the river _parmentiers_, must receive some considerable influx of waters by which it is formed, as well as to give a constant supply of the waters that issue from it, and which must be principally or only from the northward, for it cannot be supposed to receive its waters from the southward, and discharge them there again, and which the messenger would make use of as soon as possible, and come down stream. the second messenger, who is expresly mentioned to be an _indian_, is nine days a coming. but _bernarda_ mentions nothing as to his ship or people in this account, only says he is returned from his cold expedition, therefore probably he sent away the _indian_ as soon as he could after he entered the river, which ran into the _tartarian_ sea, in lat. . if this was the case, we may suppose that the waters which came into the lake _belle_ head a great way up in the country. _bernarda_ had directions, after he left lake _valasco_, to sail one hundred and forty leagues west, and then four hundred and thirty leagues north east by east to seventy-seven degrees of latitude. _bernarda_, in his letter of the th of _june_ observes, there was a river eighty leagues in length, not comprehended in his instructions or orders, and emptied itself in the _tartarian_ sea; and says, in his letter of the th of _august_, that he sailed from the island _basset_ north-east; with that course, when he entered the _tartarian_ sea, in latitude , his longitude would be deg. he then begins the course _de fonte_ directed him, one hundred and forty leagues east north east; and he mentions on his return he had steered that course, keeping the land aboard. so that _west_ and the land trending _north east_, are mistakes in the publication in _april_; but the mentioning how the land trended, shews he was then entering the sea; for to talk of land, with respect to a river, is absurd; and with the course and distance he steered would be in lat. deg. min. and long. deg. from _london_: then he steers four hundred and thirty-six leagues north east and by east, and that brings him into latitude deg. long. deg. from _london_. but the land trending north, and with ice, which would be dangerous for the _periagos_; and as the land trended north, where he was appearing to him to be the nearest part he could attain to to go to the head of _davis_ streight; and as to the distance over land, and the propriety of sending a messenger, the _indians_ would inform him; he sends a seaman over with an _indian_ to take a survey of the head of such streights, by us called _baffin_'s bay; which name was not at that time generally received. which seaman reports, that it terminated in the eightieth degree of latitude, in a lake of about thirty miles in circumference, with prodigious mountains north of it, which indeed formed that lake, or is a sound, as that of sir _james lancaster_ and of _alderman jones_; and along the shore, from the lake north-west, the ice was fixed, lying a great distance out, which was very consistent with there being no inlets there, the waters from which would have set it off. the distance that the _indian_ and sailor travelled would not exceed fifty miles; and their mentioning the high mountains to northward imply, that they were in a more level country where they were to take this view. light all night, the snow off the ground, and the heighth of summer there. it is no vain conjecture to suppose that the journey was practicable, even if performed all the way by land, and much easier, which is not the least improbable, if they had an opportunity of making part of it by water. _bernarda_ proceeding thus far in the _tartarian_ sea, and entering in latitude , is no way contradictory to the _russian_ discoveries; and by the _tartarian_ sea is meant, the sea which washes the northern coasts of _tartary_, and is supposed to extend round the pole. those discoveries are agreeable to the _japanese_ map, as to the north-east parts of _asia_, and north-west parts of _america_, brought over by _kemper_, and in which map there is expressed a branch of the _tartarian_ sea or gulph, extending to the southward, agreeable to this account of _de fonte_. who calls it, with respect to _asia_, the north and east part of the _tartarian_ sea. which compared with what _de fonte_ says, as to sailing down the river to the north-east part of the _south sea_, these expressions cast a mutual light on each other, and that the _archipelagus of saint lazarus_ is a gulph or branch of the sea, in the like manner. places which are in one and the same latitude, have not an equal degree of heat or cold, or are equally fertile or barren, the difference in these respects chiefly consists in their situation. the country of _labrador_, which is to eastward of _hudson_'s _bay_, in latitude , almost as high a latitude as port _nelson_, is a country capable of being improved by agriculture, and would supply all the necessaries of life, though intermixed with rugged and craggy mountains. the winter's not so severe as in the more southern parts of _hudson_'s _bay_, as the earth is not froze there, as it is in the same and lower latitudes about that bay: also people have wintered in the _labrador_, wearing only their usual cloathing: therefore drawing a parallel between port _nelson_ and _conosset_, as to the infertility of one, therefore the other being in the same latitude, could not produce maiz to supply _ronquillo_, is an objection which hath no foundation in it. the higher the latitude the quicker is the vegetation; and as _indian corn_ or _maiz_ may be planted and gathered in three months in lower latitudes, it may be in an equal or less time in higher latitudes, in a good soil. as to port _nelson_, or _york fort_, in _hudson_'s _bay_, it is a low country through which two large rivers pass, with the bay in front, and nothing is certainly known of the more inland parts. the physical obstacles that are produced against our giving credit to this account of _de fonte_, from the depth of the falls at the entrance of lake _belle_ in the river _parmentiers_, and from the river _bernarda_ passed up, are, from not understanding what is expressed by the word falls amongst the _americans_. they mean by a fall wherever there is the least declivity of the water; and the fall of thirty-two feet in the river _parmentiers_, doth not mean a perpendicular fall, as the objector would have it understood, however ridiculous to suppose it, but eight gradual descents, from the beginning of which to the extremity of the last there was a difference of thirty-two feet, and which became level or even at the time of high water. what _bernarda_ says as to his cold expedition, a person used to the climate of _peru_ might justly say so, of the nights and evenings and mornings, at that time of the year, in the latitude of seventy-nine, though temperate in latitude fifty-six; and the whole disposition of the country, the immense high lands, their barren and desert aspect, in places their summits covered with perpetual snow, the ice fixed to the shores, sheets of floating ice in the waters, the immense islands, frequently seeing whales, sea-horse, and a great variety of the inhabitants of those waters, which do not frequent the southern parts: the whole a scene so different from the verdure and delights of the plains about _lima_, and from the pleasing views that present themselves on running along the coasts of _peru_, _bernarda_ might well be affected with such scene as to express himself, that mankind knew little of the wonderful works of god, especially near the north and the south poles. but he was not so ignorant as to report, that he saw mountains of ice on the land, as well as in the sea, though he might see them forming between points of land, which jetted out into the sea; and such a column of ice would appear to him as something very curious. that these parts were inhabited does not appear, for it was a native of _conibasset_ that conducted the seaman over the land; and, at that season of the year, the fresh waters are thawed, no snow on the low and level lands, only on the extreme summits of the hills. what is objected as to the affability of the inhabitants, that it is not consistent with the character of the _indians_. hospitality is the characteristick of the _indians_ towards strangers, until such time as they are prejudiced from some ill treatment; and by the account given by sir _francis drake_, as to the _indians_ of _california_, and by the _spaniards_ who surveyed the western coasts, and the islands lying off, they are represented in general as a kind, tractable people, and of a docile temper. as to the dispatch used by _indians_ in carrying expresses, or their runners as they term them, to carry messages from one nation to another, they will gird themselves up with the rhind of trees, and keep going incessantly great distances with a surprising agility night and day, taking little either of sleep or other refreshments, and keep a direct course, and in the night steer either by the moon or stars. nor is there any thing miraculous in these journeys, which the expresses performed, either as to distance or as to time, especially as they passed through a country abounding with waters, and which country being inhabited they could be supplied with canoes, or they would find floats at the places where they usually pass the waters. _bernarda_ meeting _de fonte_ at a port up the river _rio los reyes_, shews he had persons aboard who could direct him there, therefore must have been previously there; and they can be supposed to be no other than the jesuits, which is a further proof of the jesuits having been before in these parts. it was consistent that the ships should join and return home together. from where _bernarda_ came to with his ship was one hundred and twenty miles to _conosset_: his letter from thence was dated the th of _august_, and _de fonte_ sailed the second of _september_: it may be supposed the letter came to hand the first of _september_, which is four days, and the express had now all the way by water, and mostly against stream. _de fonte_, to shew that he had preserved the affection of the natives, mentions that he was accompanied with them; and they were of assistance to him in the pilotage down the river. _de fonte_ adds, he had sent a chart with the letter, which is misunderstood, as if such chart had come to the hands of the editors; _which will make this much more demonstrative_, were words added by them; but it was usual in all the naval expeditions to have persons aboard whom they called _cosmographers_, to take draughts of places, and compose their charts, and at that time a very reputable employment. _miguel venegas_, a _mexican_ jesuit, published at _madrid_ in , a natural and civil history of _california_; a translation of which was published in _london_ in , in two volumes; and vol. i. p. , says, 'to this �ra (the last voyage he mentions was in ) belongs the contents of a paper published at _london_, under the title of the narrative of _bartholomew de fuentes_, commander in chief of the navy in _new spain_ and _peru_, and president of _chili_, giving an account of the most remarkable transactions and adventures in this voyage, for the discovery of a passage from the _south sea_, to that of the north in the northern hemisphere, by order of the viceroy of _peru_ in the year . this writing contains several accounts relating to _california_; but without entering into long disputes, let it suffice to say, that little credit is to be given to this narrative. for the same reason we have before omitted the accounts of voyages made from the _south sea_ to the north round beyond _california_, and those of a contrary direction, of which an account is given by captain _seixas_ and _lobero_, in _theatro naval_, in _spanish_ and _french_; and particularly of that _spaniard_ who is supposed, in three months, to have come from _puerto de navidad_ and _cabo corientes_ to _lisbon_. these and other accounts dispersed in different books, we designedly omit, as they want the necessary authenticity.' this work was published with a design to induce the court of _spain_ to a further conquest of, an intire reduction of, and the full settling of _california_, as of the utmost importance to religion and the state; and one of the arguments is, for their immediate putting what he recommends in execution, the repeated attempts of the _english_ to find a passage into the _south sea_. and observes, 'should they one day succeed in this, why may not the _english_ come down through their conquests, and even make themselves masters of _new mexico_, _&c._' which implies, that he did not look on such an attempt as void of all hopes of success; and he again says, 'whoever is acquainted with the present disposition of the _english_ nation, and has heard with what zeal and ardour the project for a north-west passage has been espoused by many considerable persons, will be convinced that the scheme is not romantick, and it would not be surprizing if the execution of it should one day come under deliberation.' thus artfully hints, should the scheme come under deliberation, the event would be to be feared; and though he ascribes his opinion of its not being romantick, is, to many considerable persons having espoused the scheme, yet he tacitly applies to their own knowledge, to what the court of _spain_ knows as to this passage. he then proceeds, 'if this should ever happen,' the deliberation, 'what would be the condition of our possessions?' the deliberation would, from consequences that would follow on such a deliberation, endanger our possessions. _don cortez_ informed the king, by a letter of the th of _october_ , that he was building two ships, to get a knowledge of the coast yet undiscovered between the river of _panaco_ and _florida_, and from thence to the northern coast of the said country of _florida_, as far as the _baccaloo_, 'it being certain, as he expresses himself, that on that coast is a streight running into the _south sea_'--'god grant that the squadron may compass the end for which it is designed, namely, to discover the streight, which i am fully persuaded they will do, because in the royal concerns of your majesty nothing can be concealed; and no diligence or necessaries shall be wanting in me to effect it.' again, 'i hereby inform your majesty, that by the intelligence i have received of the countries on the upper coast of the sending the ships along, it will be attended with great advantage to me, and no less to your majesty. but acquainted as i am with your majesty's desire of knowing this streight, and likewise of the great service it would be to your royal crown.' vol. i. p. . agreeable to this letter several attempts were made by sea to discover whether _florida_ was part of the continent, or separated by a streight; but whether _cortez_ pursued his design by searching between _florida_ along the coast of _baccaloos_, _newfoundland_, and the _terra de labrador_, for a streight, by which there was a passage from the _north_ to the _south sea_ is uncertain. _florida_ comprehended the country from the cape of _labrador_ to the cape _de los martires_, or of _martyrs_, opposite to the island of _cuba_. from thence to the streights of _magellan_ was called _peruan part_. the king of _portugal_, with a view of finding a shorter passage to those parts of the _indies_, which he had discovered, than by the cape of _good hope_, sent, in the year fifteen hundred, _gasper de corte real_ to the north of _america_, who landed on the _terra de labrador_; also gave his name to a promontory on that coast which he called _promonterium corteriale_. the name of _labrador_ implies a fertile country, and given in distinction from the high barren mountainous country to northward, which _gasper_ discovered in latitude sixty, and to the southward of it. but this distinction seems to have been soon lost, and the name of _labrador_ is now given to the whole coast. from the knowledge we have of these parts we may conclude, that the _promonterium corteriale_ was what we at present name _cape chidley_, and the islands _de demonios_, where _gasper_ lost a vessel, those islands now named _button_'s islands; and it was _hudson_'s streights to which he gave the name of the river of the _three brothers_, though the reason of his giving that name is not known to us. we may perceive from this account of _gasper_'s voyage, who did not proceed to westward to make a passage, but coasted down the main land, the accounts of their being a _portuguese_ who made a voyage through the streights of _anian_, calling a promontory after his name _promonterium corteriale_, hath had some foundation in truth; and in what is said by _frisius_, an antient geographer, calling it the streights of _three brothers_, or _anian_ (which that word imports) because three brothers had passed through a streight from the _north_ to the _south sea_. it is also apparent that the name of _anian_ was first given by _gasper corterialis_ (for some particular reason unknown to us) to that part, which is now _hudson_'s streights. though in time this became a proper name to express a streight by which there is a passage from the _north_ to the _south sea_, and is contended for to be the proper name of the streight that divides _asia_ from _america_, by which there is a communication with the _tartarian_ and _southern ocean_. after a discovery of these coasts had been made to northward, the following year the king of _portugal_ sent _americus vespusino_ to southward, to discover the land there. _cortez_'s designs seem to have their foundation in these expeditions of the _portuguese_; but it was not until after the year , that the _south sea_ was discovered, and the _portugueze_ had discovered the _moluccas_, that the finding a streight to the northward, by which a passage might be made to the _south sea_, became a matter of particular attention, and was the first and principal object of _cortez_'s attention after he had become master of the capital of _mexico_ in ; and this opinion of a passage to northward continued during the reign of _charles_ the fifth. who in the year sent from _old spain_ to discover a passage to the _moluccas_ by the north of _america_, without success; but _esteven gomez_, who was sent on that expedition, brought some _indians_ home with him. then in the year _charles_ the fifth wrote to _cortez_, in answer to his letters, and orders him to send the ships at _zacapila_ to discover a passage from _new spain_ to the _moluccas_. from this time, the year , the opinion of there being a streight was generally received, though on what foundation does not appear. it was certainly on some better reason than _gasper_'s discoveries; and a consideration of the importance such a passage would be of to the king of _spain_ with respect to the _spice_ islands. it is not consistent with the characters of the emperor _charles_ the fifth, and of _cortez_, when there were so many other solid projects to pursue and this was preferred, to suppose that they should go, at that time, on a meer visionary scheme. the same opinion of a passage to northward prevailed in the time of _philip_ the second, and in the year he sent orders to the viceroy of _mexico_ for discovering and making settlements in proper parts of _california_, and one reason assigned was, 'there was much talk about the streight of _anian_, through which the _south sea_ was said to communicate with that of the _north_, near _newfoundland_; and should the _english_ find out a practicable passage on that side, our dominions, which then included all _portuguese india_, would be no longer secure, all the coast from _acapulco_ to _culiacan_ being quite defenceless, and from _culiacan_ northward, not one single settlement was made on the whole coast.' hist. cal. v. i. p. . that now not only the opinion of there being a streight prevailed, but it was also fixed as to the part, and had the name of _anian_. the opinion of a passage still existed in the reign of _philip_ the third; and the same political motives induced him to order the conquest of _california_ to be undertaken with all possible expedition; and one reason assigned is, 'his majesty also found among other papers a narrative delivered by some foreigners to his father, giving an account of many remarkable particulars which they saw in that country, when driven thither by stress of weather from the coast of _newfoundland_; adding, they had passed from the _north sea_ to the _south_, by the streight of _anian_, which lies beyond cape _mendocino_; and that they had arrived at a populous and opulent city, walled and well fortified, the inhabitants living under a regular policy, and were a sensible and courteous people; with many other particulars well worth a further enquiry.' it must be considered this is given us in the history of _california_, v. ii. p. , from the _monarchia indiana_ of _juan torquemada_, a learned _franciscan_, published at _madrid_ in , and republished in , vol. i. p. , that a paper of this sort was found in the cabinet of _philip_ the second, was thought deserving the attention of _philip_ the third. however the matter of it is represented here, for nothing could be published but what was first perused and altered, so as to make it consistent with the interest of holy church, the state, or good manners, before it was licensed, such paper must have contained some material intelligence as to a passage; and if is said to have contained _some remarkable particulars_. neither would the work have been licensed, if what is related as to their having been such a paper, had not been true. _torquemada_, vol. i. p. , quotes _francisco lopez de gomara_, deemed a careful writer, and author of the history of the _indies_. who says the snowy mountains are in forty degrees, and the furthermost land that is laid down in our maps; but the coast runs to the northward until it comes to form an island by the _labrador_, or as separated from _greenland_; and this extremity of the land is five hundred and ten leagues in length. as to what is said as to the latitude of forty degrees in this quotation from _gomara_, _torquemada_ hath prefixed a map to his work, _agreeable_ to that formed by the king's cosmographers, in which he hath made the most western and northern part of the land in almost forty-seven degrees, and then the land trends to the eastward, and the _serras nevadas_ are represented to extend a great length along the coast, and to latitude degrees. mentions, vol. i. p. , the royal cosmographers do not insert any thing in their charts of the sea coasts but what they have upon oath, or from creditable persons; and 'they make a supputation in the northern parts of islands, which do not lie near or contiguous to the lands of _europe_; as to which islands, not long since discovered, the one is called _iceland_, the other _greenland_, which are the bounds, limits, or marks, that divide the land of the _indies_ from any other part howsoever situated or disposed;' afterwards observes, which islands are not far from the _labrador_; from which it is plain he calls _america_ an island. and this is agreeable to what _acosta_ says, in the sense which i understand him, that _quivira_ and _anian_ extend to the western extremity of _america_; and that the extremity of the kingdom of _anian_ to the north extends under the _polar_ or _artick_ circle, and, if the sea did not prevent it, would be found to join the countries of _tartary_ and _china_; and the streight of _anian_ takes its course through the northern region, under the polar circle, towards _greenland_, _iceland_, _england_, and to the northern parts of _spain_. by _greenland_ i understand the land to northward, which is the north part of _hudson_'s streights, and _cumberland_ isles; and that this streight should determine here is agreeable to what _cortez_ says he would send to search as far as the _baccallaos_, (which was a name given by _cabot_ in ) for the streight by which he expected a passage from the _north_ to the _south sea_. by _iceland_ is meant, as is apparent from a view of such map hereunto annexed, the land to northward of cape _farewel_, or the _proper greenland_. _gomara_ mentions these islands had not been long discovered. it is apparent from the map, that they had a very imperfect account of these discoveries, which were made by _frobisher_ and _davis_, who also were far from being exact in their computations of the longitude. in this map prefixed to _torquemada_'s work, and here annexed, the southern part of _newfoundland_ is laid down in lat. , nine degrees more to the northward than it ought to be, for which reason the _labrador_, _greenland_, and _iceland_, are placed much further to northward than they ought to be placed, and are made to extend beyond the polar circle. it is from this supposition of _newfoundland_ being in so high a latitude that _acosta_ says, _the streight of anian_ takes its course through the northern region under the polar circle towards _greenland_ and _iceland_. in the same map the extremest point of _california_, answerable to cape _st. lucas_, is laid down in longitude degrees from the meridian of _ferro_, and the extremity of the land to westward a cape to northward of cape _fortunes_, but to which no name is given, and in latitude , is placed in degrees from the meridian of _ferro_; the difference of longitude is degrees. this map, published by _torquemada_, was constructed before the year , therefore prior to a map published in _holland_ in , under the title of _nova totius orbis descriptio_, prefixed to the voyage of _george spilbergen_, in which the errors of _torquemada_'s map, as to the situation of _newfoundland_, and the places to northward are corrected; yet great errors are committed as to the parts to westward of _america_, making eighty-five degrees of longitude between cape _st. lucas_ and the extremity of the land to westward and northward in lat. ; and ninety-five degrees between cape _st. lucas_ and the extremity of the land nearest to _asia_. the reason of this difference is plain, they both err with respect to those parts, of which they had not authenticated accounts. [illustration: map of the americas. _the_ original _from which this_ map _is copied was published in by the authority of_ philip iv. king of spain, _in the ^(st) edition of_ torquemadas monarquia indiana _vol. ._] _cortez_ wrote to the emperor that he had sent people on discovery, both by land and water, it was not designed that their discoveries should be communicated, as _cortez_ intended to turn them to his own private advantage. but when _mendoza_ fitted out two armaments, one by land under the command of _coronado_, and the other by sea under _alarcon_; _alarcon_ was ordered to latitude , to join the land forces, and to make a survey of the coast, and see if there was a passage or a communication by water through those countries which _coronado_ was to discover and subdue, with the _south sea_. as to _coronado_, the _franciscans_ had been before in those parts, and they gave information and direction as to his part of the expedition; but as to the part that _alarcon_ had, on what information he was ordered to go to latitude , and what probability there was that it was possible for him to find such passage, and join the land forces, does not appear. but from his not finding such passage, not joining the land forces, and proceeding no further than the lat. , though his reason for not going further is, that the land then trended to the northward, which he supposed would put him further off from the army, whom he knew were in ten days march of him, and the excuse of sickness and ill condition of his vessels, occasioned him to return before his time; yet his conduct threw the whole disgrace of the ill success of that expedition on _alarcon_, both with the emperor and the viceroy: and what he wrote to the emperor was not attended to. he wrote to the emperor, 'that it was for him only, and not in subordination to the viceroy, that he had conquered, discovered, and entered on the _californias_, and all those lands on the coasts of the _south sea_; that he had learnt that some of those lands were not far from the coasts of _grand china_; that there was but a small navigation to the _spice_ islands, which he knew was wished for at that time; that it engaged all his thoughts, and was his most ardent desire to undertake such navigation.' _torquem._ vol. i. p. . on _alarcon_'s return _juan rodrique de cabrillo_ was fitted out, who went as far as lat. . sickness, want of provisions, and his ships not being of sufficient strength for those northern seas, obliged him to return, though he was designed to go further to northward. the ships returning from the _philippines_, which was also an expedition in the time of viceroyship of _mendoza_, fell in with the land in lat. , and found it all to be _terra firma_, from a cape there, which they named _mendocino_ to the port of _la navidad_. in _vizcaino_ went, and then the discovery was made by _martin de aguilar_; and _torquemada_ tells us, vol. i. lib. . p. . that if there had not been, only fourteen healthy persons when they were at cape _blanco_, they were resolved to pass thro' the streight, which they named _anian_, and which streight is said to be there; and p. , speaking of the entrance of _martin aguilar_, it is understood to be a river, by which you may pass to a great city, which the _hollanders_ discovered coming through the streight, which is the streight of _anian_, and which city, he says, was named _quivira_. these voyages, and we have accounts of no others, could not have furnished the cosmographers the principal materials for composing their map, and it must have been agreeable to those materials, besides the accounts of these voyages sent to _old spain_, that they set down the utmost limits of the western coast to be in the longitude of decrees from the meridian of _ferro_. therefore it was their opinion at that time that one hundred and thirty-five degrees was near the difference of longitude of the entrance of the streight of _anian_ in the _south sea_, accounting the longitude from the meridian of _ferro_. for which reason the _spaniards_ can never be understood to mean by the streight of _anian_ the streight which separates _asia_ and _america_, now named _beering_'s _streight_, and by which there is a communication between the sea of _tartary_, or the _frozen ocean_, and the _south sea_. it is something remarkable, and supports what hath been before said as to deficiency of the _spanish_ records, what jesuit _venegas_, the author of the history of _california_, says, vol. ii. p. , 'i was extremely desirous of finding capt. _sebastian vizcaino_'s narrative, and the representations of the council to his majesty _philip_ the third, especially the maps, plans, charts of his voyage and discoveries, in order to communicate the whole to the publick. accordingly at my request search was made in the secretary's office of the council of the _indies_: but in this intention of being serviceable to the publick i have been disappointed.' and he again observes, on the governor of _cinaloa_ being ordered to pass over and take a survey of the coasts, islands, bays, creeks, and the disposition of the ground of _california_, in the year , vol. i. p. , 'there would have been little occasion, says he, for this preparatory survey, after so many others which had been continually making for above a century, had the reports, narratives, charts, draughts and maps, which were made, or should have been made, by so many discoveries still continued in being. but these are the effects of a want of a proper care in preserving papers, a fault to be regretted by persons in power, to whom they would be of service in the conduct of affairs, and by private persons, on the account of their interest, or as entertainments of a commendable curiosity.'--'but by the loss of some papers, either thro' a change in the government, or irregularity in the records, the whole advantage of an expedition is lost.' from this declaration by one who being a jesuit, and of _mexico_, composing a work entirely for the publick service, under the direction of the jesuits; by their influence could attain the sight of any papers which were thought interesting as to the work he was composing; and his last reflection is not confined to the records of _old spain_ only; it is apparent what uncertainty there is of attaining any evidence from such records, as to the discoveries made in the first century after the conquest of _mexico_, and for a long time after. the narrative of _vizcaino_'s voyage, and every thing thereto relating, as to any remaining records might have become disputable, had not _torquemada_ collected it, and published it amongst other accounts; yet what _torquemada_ hath preserved is but imperfect, as is apparent from a journal of that voyage, preserved in a private hand at _manilla_, and a sight of large extracts from which the author hath been favoured by a gentleman in _london_. it is owing to what _torquemada_ and some others have collected of the accounts which the religious were the authors of, that the publick have the accounts of those parts; but such voyages and accounts as have not met with the same means of being preserved, the publick, from such neglect, know nothing of them. it is plain from _gomara_'s account, also from _acosta_'s, that great discoveries had been made in these parts, but as to many of such discoveries, by whom is not known; and _venegas_ says, vol. i. p. , the river _santo thome_ was discovered in the year ; 'and tho' i do not find, says he, in the narratives of that expedition (of admiral _otondo_) that _otondo_ ever went ashore only to visit the harbours of the eastern coast and the gulph; yet from the ardent curiosity of father _kino_, and the great concern he had in the affairs of _california_, i cannot think that he should be mistaken in any particular relating to the discovery: that father _kino_, both in his large manuscript map, and likewise in the lesser impression, places the river of _santo thome_ as rising between the th and th degrees of n. latitude, and, after crossing the whole peninsula, discharging itself into the _south sea_, in the th deg. and forming at its mouth a large harbour, which he calls _puerto de anno nuevo_, being discovered in the year . on both sides the river are christian villages, as is evident from their names; _santiago_, _santo innocentes_, _&c._ yet, in the accounts of that time, i do not meet with any intelligence of this discovery; to which i must add, that in the subsequent relations no mention is made of any such river, settlements or harbours, though even little brooks, are taken notice of.' and he observes many other difficulties occur about this coast. this harbour made by the river _santo thome_, is evidently that which _de fonte_ and others call _christabel_. some settlements had been made there, as these names were given, but either deserted from the barrenness of the country, or had been only frequented by those who went out private adventurers, in order to trade with the natives. but as to which river, settlements and harbour, were not the names preserved by father _kino_, it would not have been known that any persons had been in those interior parts of _california_, or that there were such river and harbour. father _kino_ looked upon it as a thing so well known, as he had no occasion to defend himself, by giving the reason of his inserting those names to protect himself from the reproach of posterity. and _venegas_ before tells us, that as to the discoveries which had been made for a century passed, the papers were lost. between the year sixteen hundred and eighty-five, and the time of _venegas_'s publication, though in the year sixteen hundred and eighty-five, it was well known that there was such a river as _st. thome_, this river is exploded out of the maps by the geographers, on account of the uncertainty; not duly considering that there was as full a proof as could be required with respect to so unfrequented a part. the account being from a person whose business it was to make observations there, who had been so laborious and accurate as to discover, what had been so long desired to be known, whether _california_ was an island or not, as to which he was believed; and the truth hath been confirmed by later observations of what he had reported, that it was not an island. therefore there was no foundation for any uncertainty in this case, the same as with respect to the letter of _de fonte_, owing to the neglect of a proper enquiry into the circumstances relating to it, by such an inquiry the uncertainty would have been removed. what hath been said is to shew that the argument on which so great a stress is laid, that there is no account of this voyage amongst the _spanish_ records, is an argument of no weight against the authenticity of this account; and that as a publication of this voyage was not permitted, an account of such voyage could not be perpetuated by the religious, the only probable means at that time of preferring it from oblivion. as it was intended what was the effect of this expedition should be kept a secret, it is not consistent there should be many written accounts of it; the officers concerned would be cautious of letting transcripts be made from their journals; and it may be attributed to an extraordinary accident, rather than to what could be expected, that a copy of the letter of _de fonte_ should ever come into the possession of the _english_. these observations being previously made, we are better enabled to consider, what we have before inserted, the objection of _venegas_ for not inserting this account of _de fonte_, as being of little credit; but he seems rather to wish that we would be of his opinion, than to imagine that he could convince us by any arguments; therefore excuses himself as to the length of the dispute he might be engaged in. his manner of expressing himself with respect to this disappointment in the secretary's office, shews he hath a manner of address that his words will admit of a further constructive meaning than what is set down. the principal object of his writing is to incite the court of _spain_ to prepare in time against the ill consequences of the _english_ making a discovery of a passage; and he is to be understood, that it is not only his opinion that the finding of such a passage is practicable, but he apprehends it is of the opinion of the court also. declares, that such opinion hath prevailed from the first settling of _mexico_, and that there really is a passage in such a manner as a person who published an account of this sort would be permitted to express himself, to have it pass the approbation of the licenser; and does not desire to suppress the account of _de fonte_, as it is an absolute contradiction to what he would infer, there being a passage, and in such letter it is declared there is no north-west passage. for he must have had further and better authorities for his assertions of there being a passage than such, as that single assertion would prevail against. but desired to suppress this account, as it was an account which he knew it was more consistent with the designs of the court, it should be continued in oblivion than revived. mentions it therefore as the _contents of a_ paper published in _london_, which contained a narrative of little credit; and to give the better authority to what he says, as he could not trust to the opinion that might be had of such account on a fair representation of the title; to support the character he gave of it, therefore uses art, misrepresenting such title; says it was _by order of the viceroy of_ peru, _in the year_ , and _giving an account of the most material transactions and adventures in this voyage_. was the letter so entituled, the _transactions_ and _adventures_ of a commander in chief of the navy, in _new spain_, he would not be singular in his opinion, but it would be understood by every one as a romance, and not deserving of credit. this misrepresentation is intentionally done; for if he never saw the letter, or had not a right account of it, on what authority could he assert it was of little credit; and that it would engage him in a long dispute, a dispute which his sagacity would point out to him how to determine in a very few lines, by proving that there was no such person as _de fonte_, admiral of _new spain_; which it was in his power to do had it been the case. but what he mentions is so far from a denial of there being such a person admiral of _new spain_, that he gives us the name, and sets forth the character _de fonte_ was in, in a more proper manner than we have it expressed in the title of the letter. _bartholomew de fuentes, commander in chief of the navy in new spain and peru, and president of chili_; and he is to be understood not to mean that there was no such person, but that the narrative is not credible as to any such voyage having been made by admiral _de fonte_. by a schedule of the king of _spain_ in to the governor of the _philippines_, _vizcaino_ was to be again fitted out to discover a harbour on the western coast of _california_, for the reception of the _aquapulco_ ship; but the death of _vizcaino_ prevented that design being carried into execution; as the court had found so many disappointments, and such ill success in these undertakings, they did not think proper to entrust it to any other person in the _philippines_ or _new spain_. and _venegas_ says, hist of _cal._ vol. i. p. . 'during the succeeding nine years inconsiderable voyages only were made to _california_, and these rather to fish for pearls, or procure them by barter, than to make any settlement, and therefore they have been thought below any separate account, especially as in the subsequent royal commissions they are only mentioned in general without any circumstances.' though commissions were given to go into these parts, without any account remaining to whom, and on what particular occasion; it is not to be doubted as in all commissions of this nature they would be under an obligation to make a report to the court, and it is not to be understood that these commissions were continued for nine years only; and therefore what hath been said as to _parmentiers_ and the jesuits, their having been in these parts, is not the least improbable. by these commissions they were not confined to the gulph of _california_, is evident from father _kino_, as already mentioned, giving names in his map to villages, or occasional settlements rather, on the river _santo thome_: and he says, p. , what made father _kino_ desirous of discovering whether _california_ was an island or not, 'that all the moderns had placed it as an island, there being extant also some journals of mariners, according to which they went round _california_ through a streight, and gave the parts and places through which they passed their own names.' it appears from this account they were permitted, by these commissions, to rove about, though not to make settlements, induced by their private advantage, and the advantage to the government was from their discoveries. also vol. i. p. , he mentions, 'that a great many private persons, from the coast of _culiacan_ and _chametla_, made trips in small boats to the coast of _california_, either to fish for pearls, or purchase them of the _indians_;' which is agreeable to _de fonte_'s account of the master and mariners he procured at _zalagua_ and _compostilo_. we may also observe what the missionaries say, as to the tides at the head of the bay, which still adds to the authenticity of this account. 'in those parts the tide shifts every six hours; the flood, with a frightful impetuosity, rises from three to seven fathoms, overflowing the flat country for some leagues, and the ebb necessarily returns with the same dangerous violence.--however the pilot went on shore in the pinnace, at several parts, in order to make a complete drawing of it for his chart; was equally convinced that this cape was the extremity of the gulph of _california_, and that the waters beyond it were those of the river _colorado_.' therefore it was, from the exact observation of the tide which this pilot took so much pains to make, an unsettled point from whence the tide proceeded. which, at the time of _de fonte_'s expedition, was said to come from the northward, agreeable to the then prevailing opinion of _california_ being an island. according to the usual practice, though the true cause of a phænomena is unknown, to quote that phænomena that favours a system which there is a desire to establish as a truth, not only in support of but to confirm such system, as to render the truth of it unquestionable. after _vizcaino_'s death, and though the court of _spain_ was disappointed as to finding able and sufficient persons in _new spain_ whom they could intrust, yet adventures were made by private persons, at their own expence, both for discovery and settlements; yet these could not be undertaken without the permission of his majesty, who had taken it into his own hand to grant such commissions, and mostly required a voyage to _old spain_ to attain them; and the next expedition that was made, at the crown's expence, was conducted by an admiral from _old spain_, who arrived in _new spain_ in , admiral _cassanate_, with full power and necessaries to equip a fleet, and make settlements in _california_; and he sailed on such expedition in . by which it is apparent that there were ships at that time in _new spain_ proper for such expeditions. as he came into these parts within three years after _de fonte_'s expedition, and took the command as admiral of _new spain_ when he arrived, it is to be supposed the expedition _cassanate_ was sent on was too fatiguing for _de fonte_, who was therefore retired to his government of _chili_. in the year admiral _cassanate_, in reward for his services, being after the same manner promoted to the government of _chili_, _de fonte_ must be dead at that time. this circumstance fixes the period in which the copy of this letter was taken. as what _venegas_ says as to the account (which account hath been before mentioned) given by _seyxas y lovera_, as to its wanting the necessary authenticity. besides the usual licences, wherein the licencers declare there is nothing contrary to good manners, and besides being dedicated to the king in his royal and supreme council of the _indies_, _seyxas_'s book hath the licence and approbation of the professor of divinity in the university of _alcara_, preacher to the king, and principal of a college of jesuits in _madrid_. hath also the approbation and licence of the professor of erudition and mathematicks in the imperial college of the company of the jesuits at _madrid_. what unfavourable opinion soever we may entertain of the principles of these persons, we must have such an opinion of their prudence, that they would not sign their approbation to a book while it contained an unnecessary lie, which could be easily expunged, or until they were satisfied as to the authenticity of this account which _seyxas_ gives of _peche_'s voyage, having been published in various places. and it is indisputable from the countenance his book received, he was looked on at that time as a deserving honest man. _venegas_ designedly omits other accounts dispersed in various books for want of necessary authenticity; but it is not to be understood that he absolutely denies that such accounts are true. neither is there so great an improbability in such discoveries having been made, as some of these accounts mention, as is imagined, when such accounts are duly considered. we have already mentioned one account which engaged the attention of the king of _spain_, therefore must have been of some authority. there is another account (unless it be the same account differently represented) of a ship that, to the northward of cape _blanco_, on the coast of _california_, passed through the streight into the _north sea_, and to _old spain_, which was also made known to the king of _spain_, mentioned by _torquemada_, vol. i. p. . most of the discoveries are reported to have been made by ships coming from the _moluccas_, or from the _philippine_ islands to the eastward, and which have met with bad weather. and what, in those times, ships were necessitated to do, if there was a continuance of hard gales of wind, we may learn from the schedule of _philip_ the third, history of _california_, vol. i. p. , after mentioning a harbour found by _vizcaino_, on the western coast of _california_, adds, 'and lies very convenient for ships returning from the _philippine_ islands to put into, and thus, in case of storms, avoid the necessity of making for _japan_, as they have several times done, and expended great sums of money. besides, they usually have sight of the coast of _china_, which is an additional benefit, as knowing where they are, they will not as formerly, in case of bad weather, make for _japan_, or those islands, as the same winds which would carry them thither, bring them into this harbour. again, p. , considering how much it concerns the security of ships coming from those islands, in a voyage of no less than leagues, on a wide and tempestuous sea, that they should be provided with a port where they might put in and furnish themselves with water, wood, and provisions: that the said port of _monterey_ lies in degrees, nearly about half way the voyage.' a ship flying before the wind, and the people steering her towards the coast of _america_, to avoid _japan_ and the islands, making a cape land on the coast of _california_, would run for what they supposed a harbour, and the bad weather continuing might proceed up the bay or opening they were then in, to meet with the inhabitants, in order to obtain refreshments, and to learn where they were, by which means find a passage. as ships were distressed in hard gales of wind, in the manner the schedule mentions, there is no improbability of a passage being first accidentally discovered by a single ship coming from sea with a leading wind into a large opening, in expectation of a harbour, though such discovery hath not been made by ships intentionally sent along shore for that purpose. it is to be observed, the people of the _philippine_ islands are those who most talked of a passage: they informed _peche_ and others; and it is easily accounted for why they should do so: for if the _portugueze_ made the discovery in a ship from the _moluccas_, there was a constant intercourse between them and the people of the _philippines_; and whether the discovery was made by the _spaniards_ or _portugueze_, some of the company who were aboard such ship as had passed through the streight from the _south_ to the _north sea_, would return to the _moluccas_ or the _philippines_; and others would meet their acquaintance from thence in _portugal_ or _old spain_; who would take pleasure in relating to them the accounts of their voyage, and which they who heard those accounts would be equally fond of communicating to others, especially when they returned back to the _indies_. by which means it would be known that there had been such a discovery; and it would be out of the power of the king of _spain_ or _portugal_ to prevent its being so far known, but could prevent the account of such discovery being published, or the particulars communicated to foreigners. in the year _salvatierra_, a gentleman of _spain_, who had accidentally landed in _ireland_ from the _west indies_, gave an account of a passage having been made by one _andrew urdanietta_, and by the circumstances of that account it was about the year or . this _urdanietta_ was a friar, was with and greatly assisted _andrew miguel lopez de legaspi_ in the expedition to the _philippine_ islands in the year , and was called the celebrated religious _andrew de urdanietta_. his being thus employed, and so serviceable in this expedition to the _philippine_ islands, as he is said to have been, implies, that he had a prior knowledge of those parts, and must have been there before; and the character that _salvatierra_ gave of him to sir _hugh sydney_, then lord deputy of _ireland_, and sir _humphrey gilbert_, was, that he was the greatest discoverer by sea that was in that age. _salvatierra_ said that _a north-west passage_ was constantly believed to be in _america_ navigable; and that _urdanietta_ had shewed him at _mexico_ eight years before _salvatierra_ arrived in _ireland_, a chart made from his own observations in a voyage in which he came from _mare del zur_ into _germany_, through this north-west passage, wherein such passage was expressed, agreeing with _ortelius_'s map: that _urdanietta_ had told the king of _portugal_ of it as he came there from _germany_ in his return home; but the king earnestly intreated him not to discover this secret to any nation: _for that_ (said he) _if_ england _had once a knowledge and experience of it, it would greatly hinder the king of_ spain _and me_. and _salvatierra_ was himself persuaded of a passage by the friar _urdanietta_, and by the common opinion of the _spaniards_ inhabiting _america_. it was this account with some other that gained the attention of the greatest men of that age to pursue the discovery of a north-west passage. neither would _dudley_, _walsingham_, or sir _humphrey gilbert_, and other honourable persons about the court, be deceived with fictitious stories, and pursue a phantom. could the great abilities and penetration of a _walsingham_ be defective in this respect, which was so perfect in all other respects, as to be the admiration of the present age. those who condemn this account, and some other accounts of this sort, have not considered, that upon a slight surmise or suspicion only they put their judgments in competition with and in contradiction to the judgments of those great men, who embraced no opinion as to any matter but what was founded in reason, and all the circumstances relating to which they had first fully considered, and which opinion they adhered to. as to a north-west passage, making a distinction between the disappointments as to the effecting the discovery of a passage, and the probability there was of their being such passage. the king of _spain_ was equally successless as to the execution, and at the same time as much assured of the practicability of making it; for which reason secretary _walsingham_ was concerned at his death, as the attention of the publick was drawn to a _north-east_ passage, by which nothing more was proposed than a trade to _cathæy_ or _china_, and that a north-west passage was neglected on the part of the _english_. it was an opinion received in _england_ in the year , or earlier, that there was such a passage; and before the _philippines_ were settled by the _spaniards_. soon after the discovery of _urdanietta_, _frobisher_, who set out in , is said to have projected his design, and made an application for fifteen years before. did not succeed in the city probably, as they might not see any certain advantage; but when he applied to the court he succeeded. on what plan he went is also evident, to find an entrance to northward of the _labrador_; for when he fell in with the south-west part of _greenland_, it was supposed by him to be the _labrador_ coast. there is another account on the oath of _thomas cowles_ of _bedmester_, taken the th of _april_ , at a time when oaths were considered by all people as solemn and sacred obligations to declare the truth. he says that six years before, he heard a _portugueze_ read a book which he set out six years before in print in the _portugal_ tongue, declaring that he, _martin chacke_, had found, now twelve years past, a way from the _portugal indies_ through the gulph of _newfoundland_, which he thought to be in latitude ° of the north pole, by means that he being in the said _indies_ with four ships of great burthen, and he himself being in a small ship of eighty ton, far driven from the company of the other four ships with a west wind; after that he had passed along by a great number of islands, which were in the gulph of the said _newfoundland_, and after that he overshot the gulph, he set no more sight on any other land, until he fell in with the north-west part of _ireland_; and from thence he took his course homeward, and by that means came to _lisbon_ four or five weeks before the other ships. but the books were afterwards called in by the king's order. this passage was made about ten years after that of _urdanietta_; and it is probable _chacke_ was encouraged to proceed through such passage, from the report or an account which he had heard of such passage having been before made. it is evident he met with some difficulties in such passage which delayed him, as the ships were at _lisbon_ so soon after him, and as he expresses that he was far driven from the other four ships he left them in a low latitude, and being got to the northward, without any expectation of rejoining them, proceeded intentionally to make his voyage by the passage; which he would not have done to the hazard of losing his vessel and cargo, for he was not on discovery, but returning to _lisbon_ in company with other loaden vessels, from whom he was separated, unless he had been assured that what he undertook was practicable, and a passage had been made by some vessel before that time. this account was received as a truth by the principal people of the kingdom, who certainly made a due enquiry as to the character of the person who made the affidavit with respect to his capacity, there would be a proper precaution also, at the time of administering such affidavit, that it was exact and only what he knew positively as to this matter, tho' there might be other circumstances which he was not so positive in. and as this account was at that time believed, it must have been on better reasons than can be at present urged by any one to call the veracity of this account in question. _juan de fuca_ (the account is from _purchase_ and _north-west fox_) was an ancient pilot, who had been in the _west india_ of _spain_ for near forty years, and had sailed as mariner and pilot to many places thereof in service of the _spaniards_. he was pilot of three small ships which the _viceroy_ of _mexico_ sent from thence, armed with a hundred soldiers, under a _spaniard_ captain, to discover the streights of _anian_ along the coast of the _south sea_, and to fortify in that streight, to resist the passage of the _english_ nation, but by reason of a mutiny which happened amongst the soldiers, for some ill practices of the captain, the voyage was overset, and they returned to _new spain_. the viceroy sent _de fuca_ out again in , with a small caravel and pinnace, armed with mariners only, for the discovery of the said streights. finding the land to trend north and north-east, with a broad inlet between and , he entered it, and sailing therein more than twenty days, found the land trending still, sometimes north-west, sometimes north-east, and also south-eastward, far broader sea than at the said entrance; and passed by diverse islands in that entrance. he went upon land in several places, and saw some people on land, clad in beasts skins; and that the land was very fruitful, and rich of gold and silver, and pearls, and other things like _nova hispania_. being entered thus far in the said streight, and come into the _north sea_ already, and finding the sea wide enough every where, and to be about thirty or forty leagues wide in the streight where he entered; he thought he had well discharged his office, and done the thing he was sent to do; and that he not being armed to resist the force of the savage people, that might happen to assault him, therefore set sail and returned to _nova hispania_, where he arrived at _aquapulco, anno _, hoping to be well rewarded by the viceroy for his voyage so performed. the viceroy received him kindly, and gave him promises; but after an expectation of two years the viceroy wished him to go to _spain_, where the king would reward him; and he accordingly went. he was well received at court; but after long suit could get no reward to his content, so stole away and came to _italy_, to live amongst his kindred in his own country, being very old, a _greek_ by birth, born in the island of _sepholonica_, and his proper name _apostollos valerianos_. _de fuca_ went first to _leghorn_, then to _florence_, where he met one _john dowlass_, an _englishman_, a famous mariner, ready coming for _venice_, to be a pilot for a _venetian_ ship to _england_; they went in company to _venice_. _dowlass_ being acquainted with mr. _lock_, at least a considerable merchant if not a consul there; gave him an account of this _de fuca_, and introduced him to mr. _lock_, who gave mr. _lock_ the preceding account; and made a proposal, if queen _elizabeth_ would make up the loss which he had sustained aboard the _aquapulco_ ship taken by captain _cavendish_, which was to the value of sixty thousand ducats, he would go to _england_, and serve her majesty to discover the _north-west passage_ into the _south sea_, and engage his life for the performance, with a ship of forty tons and a pinnace. they had two several meetings on this occasion; and _lock_, at _de fuca_'s request, wrote to the old lord _treasurer cecil_, sir _walter rawleigh_, and mr. _richard hackluit_, the cosmographer, desiring a hundred pounds for to pay his passage to _england_. his friends wrote _lock_ word, the action was very well liked, if the money could be procured. as no great expectations were to be had from this answer, _de fuca_ left _venice_ in a fortnight after, pursued his design of going to _greece_, and there died. there is nothing in this relation but what is very natural and simple. _de fuca_'s demand was excessive, for which reason, probably, as a man who over-rated his services, he was not rewarded by the _viceroy_ or the _king_; yet the _viceroy_ availed himself of him, by sending him to court to give an account of his voyage, which he might be ordered to do, as another expedition was desired, and a representation for that purpose made by the viceroy _luis velasco_, as is mentioned in the schedule of the king. history of _california_, p. . it did not appear that he could certainly perform what he undertook, concluding he was in the _north sea_, from such sea returned back to _new spain_, therefore had not acquired a knowledge of the entrance into the streights from the eastward; which was the difficulty that obstructed this discovery on the part of the _english_, and had been so much sought after, but unsuccessfully. his age was also a very material objection, that he would scarce be able to bear the fatigue of such a voyage, his desire to undertake which immediately proceeded from his avarice: nor was it confident that the hundred pounds should be sent over to bring him to _england_, if the other part of the terms could not be complied with; which seems to be the meaning of the expression, the action is well liked of if the money could be procured. and _de fuca_, whose motive for proposing this undertaking, was to be satisfied for his loss by captain _cavendish_, would not have altered his design of going into his own country, and proceeded to _england_, unless he was assured of his being so gratified on a performance of what he undertook. _dowlass_, who was a good mariner, as he travelled with him, and kept his company, would have had particular and frequent conversation with _de fuca_, and who, as a mariner, was more capable of finding out if his account was true, and was thoroughly satisfied it was so, as he spoke to mr. _lock_ about him. neither _lock_ nor _dowlass_ could have any sinister views, but only animated by a publick spirit to do their country so acceptable a service, which it was thought to be in _england_, as it is said the action is well liked of. as to _de fuca_ being taken prisoner by captain _cavendish_, and how did he escape out of the hands of the _english_? when the ship was taken all the people were put ashore on the coast of _california_, the goods were taken out, and then the ship was set a fire, which burnt to the water mark, the wreck floated ashore, they erected jury-masts in her, and fortunately got to _aquapulco_. _de fuca_ says, the cause he thought of the ill reward he had of the _spaniards_ was, that they understood very well the _english_ nation had now given over all their voyages for the discovery of a _north-west passage_, wherefore they feared not them to come any more that way into the _south sea_; and therefore they needed not his service therein any more: which is so far agreeable to the accounts of those times, that, after the death of sir _francis walsingham_, the discovery of a north-west passage had no patron at court; and sir _francis_ had particularly interested himself in procuring _davis_ to go on his last expedition. the discovery was not re-assumed until the year , by the _muscovy_ company, who had never engaged as a company in this discovery; but having made some successless attempts, as to the north-east passage, fitted out capt. _george weymouth_ for the discovery of a north-west passage, which it is observable was the same year with _vizcaino_'s expedition. and it is observable the next expedition for the discovery of a north-west passage, was not until the year , when mr. _john knight_ was fitted out; and the same year the king of _spain_ orders _vizcaino_ on a third expedition, but _vizcaino_ died, though in the interim _vizcaino_ had been to _old spain_, to make application to make a fresh attempt, at his own expence, and he could not obtain permission of his majesty. as the expeditions which the court of _spain_ order peremptorily to be undertaken, correspond as to the time with those from _england_, shews a jealousy on the part of the king of _spain_ that the _english_ might succeed as to a passage through the streights. and though it is mentioned as the principal design in the expeditions by order of the king of _spain_, is the discovery of a harbour for the _aquapulco_ ship, the publick understood there was yet a farther design, and as much may be collected from the king of _spain_'s schedule in . count _de monterey_, 'by pursuing the discovery intended by _don luis de velasco_, wrote to me concerning, and was of opinion that small vessels from the harbour of _aquapulco_ were the fittest; and that in the discovery might be included the coasts and bays of the gulph of _california_, and of the fishery, to which, in my letter of the th of _september_ , i ordered to be answered, that the discovery, and making draughts, with observations of that coast, and the bays along it, having appeared to me _highly convenient_, it was my will he should immediately put it in execution, without troubling himself about _california_, unless occasionally--and _sebastian vizcaino_ carefully informed himself of these _indians_, and many others, whom he discovered along the coast for above eight hundred leagues; and they all told him, that up the country there were large towns, silver, and gold; whence he is inclined to believe that great riches may be discovered, especially as, in some parts of the land, veins of metal are to be seen; and that the time of their summer being known, a farther discovery might be made of them by _going within_ the country, and that the remainder of it may be discovered along the coast, as it reaches beyond degrees, the limits specified to the said _sebastian vizcaino_ in his instructions.' though these orders were received in _mexico_ in , no voyage was set out on until , the time that _weymouth_ sailed, then probably enforced by additional orders from the court of _spain_. the expedition which was overturned by the mutiny of the soldiers, seems to have been about the time of captain _davis_'s expedition; for _de fuca_ says, after the voyage was so ill ended, the viceroy set him out again in , which implies a distance of time between the first and second voyage. the instructions _vizcaino_ had in the first voyage were given by the viceroy, for it was the viceroy who appointed him, and were formed according to the opinion that the land beyond forty-two degrees took a course to westward and southward of west. and the maps were constructed agreeable thereto, therefore the king says, '_vizcaino_ had represented to him that the coast, as far as degrees, lies north-west and south-east, and that in the two other degrees, which makes up the degrees, it lies north and south,' and, as before mentioned, says, 'and that the remainder of it may be discovered along the coasts, as it reaches beyond degrees, the limits specified to the said _sebastian vizcaino_ in his instructions.' therefore when _martin aguilar_ got to degrees and found an opening, he concluded, as the coast was represented to be terminated to the northward, by the maps and charts in use, that this must be the desired streights; and therefore said on their return, 'they should have performed a great deal more, had their health not failed them; for it is certain that only fourteen persons enjoyed it at _cape blanco_. the general and those that were with him had a mind to go through the streight, which they call of _anian_, and is said to be thereabouts. it had been entered by the foreign ship, who gave intelligence of it to the king, describing its situation, and how through that passage one might reach the _north sea_, and then sail back to _spain_, along _newfoundland_ and the islands of _baccalaos_, to bring an account of the whole to his majesty.' _torquemada_, vol. i. p. . but it is very plain the king had another information of this matter, and as to the extent of the land to northward. _luis de velasco_ was the viceroy in whose time the expedition of _de fuca_ was; and the expedition of _vizcaino_ was under the direction of the count _de monterey_, who was either not informed of what had been done by _de fuca_, or might not think _de fuca_'s account of sufficient authority to justify him, the viceroy, in drawing his instructions agreeable thereto; contrary to the general opinion of the cosmographers at that time, and the description they gave of the coasts in their maps. it must appear from what hath been said that there are no such great improbabilities in the accounts of _salvatierre_, _chacke_, or _de fuca_, as hath been represented. it is also evident that the _english_ had great expectations of succeeding; and the court of _spain_ had great apprehensions we should meet with success, and be enabled to attain a passage by the streight of _anian_ into the _south sea_; for which there must have been some reasonable foundation both on the part of the one and the other. the _english_ were first induced to attempt the discovery of such a passage, from the accounts which they had from _spain_ of there being such a passage. the court of _spain_ entertained, as hath been shewn, an opinion of there being such a passage from the time they conquered _mexico_; and, agreeable to what _torquemada_ says, had a certain account of it, or at least an account which appeared to the king to be authentick. what that account really contained we do not know, nor was it consistent that it should be made publick; therefore what is said as to the particulars of it are but conjecture, and representations upon reports, for which the reporters could have no real authority. as _vizcaino_ regretted being prevented, by the sickness of his people that he could not go round the world, and have carried home to _old spain_ his account of his expedition. this firm persuasion that he should have accomplished his passage to _old spain_, by the streight of _anian_, must have been from some information which he had received before he set out, that such passage was practicable: neither is it mentioned as if he proposed making a discovery of it, but as of a thing before done. it was the opinion of all those who were with him, that it was practicable; which is agreeable to what _salvatierra_ informed sir _hugh sydney_, and sir _humphrey gilbert_, that a _north-west passage from us to_ cathay _was constantly believed in_ america _navigable_. _vizcaino_, who is represented as a commander of great conduct and discretion (and which the account of his voyage expresses him to have been) would not have attempted to make a passage thro' such streights, to the hazard, perhaps entire loss, of the king's ships, and what he had before done rendered of no effect, unless he had a discretionary power either to pass to _old spain_ by these streights, or return to _aquapulco_. after the expedition of _knight_ failed, and _vizcaino_ died, we hear of no other expeditions at the expence of or by the positive order of the court of _spain_ until that of admiral _cassanate_, who went the third year after the expedition of _de fonte_, to make a survey of the coast of _california_; yet we have no reason to conclude there were no other expeditions, but it is rather to be supposed that, after the _english_ had proceeded in their discoveries as far as _hudson_'s bay, the court of _spain_ thought it necessary, and found an effectual way of keeping their expeditions, both in respect to their equipment and what was done on such expeditions a secret, by sending officers from _old spain_ to conduct them, and as to which the religious would not think themselves at liberty to make any publication without the permission of the court. having no intercourse by trade with those parts, we cannot be acquainted with what is transacted in those parts, any further than what the _spanish_ writers are permitted to inform us, and the imperfect and uncertain intelligence of those who have been cruizing in those seas. the _spanish_ nation have been particularly cautious of keeping the knowledge of their coast secret: neither was it known, in the year , that an exact survey was made of those coasts until _pasco thomas_ annexed to his account of lord _anson_'s expedition, published in , a copy of a manuscript, which manuscript contained an account of the latitudes and longitudes of all the most noted places in the _south sea_, corrected from the latest observations by _manuel monz prieto_, professor of arts in _peru_, and are composed with as much precision and exactness, as tables of that sort are usually made; but when these coasts were surveyed to the northward, to attain a knowledge of which was formerly attended with such immense difficulty; and to what purpose and what trade is carried on there, we are at present entire strangers to. it is by accident only that we have this account; and if the _spanish_ nation have used this precaution, with respect to the knowledge of their coasts, undoubtedly they would use the same caution with respect to giving us any insight as to how we might find a more ready access to such coasts by a _north-west_ passage. the point of _sueste del estrech d'anian_, inserted in such tables, shews the opinion of the streights is far from being exploded; but it is acknowledged by the geographers of _peru_ and _new spain_, at the present time, that there are such streights. the naming the _south point_ of the _streight_ implies there is land to the northward, as to which it doth not seem to be consistent with the purpose of the person who composed this table to take any notice, but that there is such land is confirmed by the _russian_ discoveries. the extent of _america_ to northward and westward, that _america_ and _asia_ were contiguous and only separated by a streight, that _california_ was an island, that a _passage_ by the _north-east_ was practicable, have been by later _geographers_ treated as _chimeras_, contrary to the earliest accounts, and the reports of the first discoverers, and which, by later accounts, the consequence of actual observations are found to be true. there was a simplicity and honour in the people of that age; there was no motive for telling the lie, that they faithfully reported the discoveries they made, and if a falshood was discovered it might be dangerous in the consequences; their voyages were not lucrative jobs, in hopes of a repetition of which they formed their accounts accordingly. there was no particular system to support, for the parts they went to were entirely unknown, that a reward and reputation should be procured through a prevailing interest to such as spoke in favour of the system. while those to whose fidelity and assiduity alone it would be owing that such discoveries were made, though repeated endeavours were used to render the undertaking ineffectual; and through whose means alone the truth would be made known to the publick; should be ill spoken of, accused of bribery, discountenanced, and the whole merit ascribed to, where it would be least deserved, and, in truth, where there could not be the least pretension. nevertheless the reward given would be an instance of a generous regard in those who had power to bestow of rewarding merit, though they were inevitably deceived as to the proper persons to whom such reward should have been given. no authorities have been produced from tradition or history which oppose the probability of there being a north-west passage, or the reality of this account of _de fonte_, which the more we examine the less there appears to be of a falsity, the circumstances of it so consistent and united, and there are so many extra circumstances which concur with that account, that we cannot but admit to be an incontestable truth. we have not had a full account of the voyages and expeditions of the _spaniards_ in _new spain_, as some of them have not been permitted to be published. _venegas_ particularly mentions, vol. i. p. , and in other parts, there are also accounts of voyages made to other parts of the world, which are only preserved in the collections of the curious, and it is known but to few persons that such voyages were ever made. there are some voyages which are mentioned to have been made, but cannot, after the most diligent inquiries, be procured; yet it is no just objection to the authenticity of such voyages, or as to their not having been made. what the first discoverers represented as to the extent of _america_, its being contiguous to _asia_, as to _california_, and as to a north-east passage, being in all respects found to be true, there is the greatest reason to believe that there is a north-west passage; and it is consistent with that precaution which the _spanish_ nation have made use of, that we should not have any authentick accounts relating to such passage, which they were desirous of discovering as a shorter way to the _spice_ islands and the _indies_. but when the king of _portugal_ and _spain_ came to an agreement as to the _moluccas_, the principal reason for making such discovery was determined, and it became their mutual interest that it should not be known that there was such a passage. their continued silence with respect to such passage, implies they are acquainted with there being such a passage, though not to an exactness. it cannot imply they are dubious, when we consider the number of circumstances there are already mentioned, which express the contrary. there are circumstances in _de fonte_'s account which shew the inference of there being no _north-west passage_ is not just, though just as far as it appeared to _de fonte_, as the river _parmentiers_ was not navigable for shipping. one circumstance is, that in the river _haro_, and lake _velasco_, there were salmon trouts and large white perch; also in _los reyes_ and lake _belle_, but in lake _de fonte_ excellent cod and ling; which are fish that always abide in the salt water, the others come out of the salt water into the fresh waters to spawn. which _de fonte_ would account for that they came into the lake _de fonte_ from the _north sea_, and when he passed the streight of _ronquillo_, supposed himself to be in that sea, or from the intelligence that he obtained from _shapley_ that he was in a gulph or branch of it. another circumstance, as it flowed in the river _los reyes_ twenty-two feet, and in _haro_ twenty-four, and but a small tide went into lake _belle_, _de fonte_ concluded that the western tide terminated there, and that as the waters rose to such a heighth at the entrance of those rivers, that it was a gulph he was in which confined these waters and occasioned their rise at such entrances of the rivers. that the tides in _parmentiers_, lake _de fonte_, and the streights of _ronquillo_, were from the _north sea_. but by later observations of the rise of the tides, a tide cannot proceed from _hudson_'s bay to that sea where _shapley_ was met by _de fonte_, than through the streights of _ronquillo_ into the great lake of _de fonte_, and afterwards to rise so high in the river _parmentiers_. neither can such a tide proceed through the broken land to northwards of _hudson_'s streights, named _cumberland_ isles (formerly _estotland_) and which extend as far as latitude ; for it is evident the strength of such tides is spent in _hudson_'s bay and _baffin_'s bay: for at the bottom of _hudson_'s bay it flowed but two feet, at the bottom of _fretum davis_ or _baffin_'s bay, but one foot. which is agreeable to the opinion of all the discoverers of that time, as to the eastern tide from the proportion that the great spaces or seas which were to receive it bore to the inlets by which it came in, that the force of such tide must be consumed in such seas, and therefore expected to meet with a tide from westward, which counterchecked the eastern tide. on the other hand, if we consider this tide to be from the western ocean, such tide forced through various entrances up a streight as that of _de fuca_, must enter the sea where _shapley_ was met, with great impetuosity; rise in heighth proportionable to the width in all openings that there are to receive it. as it is the tide round _greenland_, and that which comes from the southward along the coast of _labrador_, being both received in those indraughts of _hudson_'s streights, and the broken lands of _cumberland_ isles, which causes the rise of the tides there. it may be supposed that the _north-east_ part of the _south sea_, and the streight of _de fuca_, received the tides which set to eastward along the western main from _beering_'s streights, and the tide which comes from the southward along the coast of _california_. that the tide is not from the _tartarian sea_, in lake _de fonte_, _&c._ is evident from _bernarda_'s account, who shews there is no communication with that sea and the sea that _shapley_ was met in. as to the cod and ling in lake _de fonte_, or as to salmon, it is not known that there are either cod, ling or salmon in _hudson_'s bay: neither have there been found shoals or banks to which the cod could repair; nor is it known that any cod have been catched beyond latitude ; an article to which _davis_ was particularly attentive: therefore it is not probable that they should come from the _north sea_ through _hudson_'s bay to lake _de fonte_. _de fonte_ mentions shoals in the north-east part of the _south sea_, which he passed up. and in _vizcaino_'s voyage there is an account that, off the island _geronymo_ on the coast of _california_, the ships companies supplied themselves with cod and ling; which shews there are cod and ling in those seas. it was reasonable for _de fonte_ to suppose that the cod and ling came from the eastward from the _baccaloos_, neither could he otherwise suppose, as the contrary is only known from observations made much later than that time. _fox_ had advanced in , when he published the account of his voyage, that there was a free and open communication of the western ocean with _hudson_'s bay: which was looked on as an incontestable fact until the voyage of captain _middleton_. what _fox_ said was consistent with the opinion which all the discoverers had of the proximity of the western ocean; who therefore judged of the probability of their success in the parts they went into, from the course of the tides, which if there was no western tide there was no passage. this probably prevented that success, as to a discovery of a passage, which through their assiduity might otherwise have been obtained, had they not paid such a regard to the tides, but made a due survey of the inlets and openings of the coast, which on their not finding that a western tide came from thence they deserted, which was also the case as to captain _moor_ in the search of _pistol bay_ as called, to southward of lord _southwell_'s isles, there was no western tide; therefore a compleat discovery of that part was not made. it is to be considered that the northern and eastern parts of _america_, are more intermixed with waters than the parts to southward are, being a high mountainous country. the mountains chiefly consisting of a brown rocky substance, not penetrable by the melting snows or spring rains, which therefore run off into the levels and valleys, and form inland seas, great lakes, and inlets, which vent their waters into the ocean, necessary for carrying off that great quantity and vast bodies of ice which are formed in the winter in those parts, not to be dissolved, as the greater part is which is formed to the southward, by the influence of the sun. the northern and westward part of _america_ is also mountainous, and high ridges of mountains were seen from the head of _wager_ bay on the opposite shore of what appeared to be a lake; therefore there must be lakes and seas to westward, reservoirs for the melting snows and rains, also some outlet or channel to carry off the great quantities of ice also formed in those parts; and with which _barnarda_'s account is consistent, and the greatest reservoir and discharge seems to be to the northward by that north-east part of the _tartarian sea_. the lake _velasco_, lake _belle_, lake _de fonte_, may be all supposed to proceed from the same cause, the melting snows and rains, receive the ice from the waters which run into them, which, from the strength of the currents and tides, is soon shot from the shores of such lakes, broken to pieces and carried off into some passage or inlet into the _south sea_; and such a vent or channel to carry off such bodies of ice must necessarily be, agreeable to what is known by observation in other parts. the objection of the great distance it is between the ocean and the sea at the back of _hudson_'s bay, and where _shapley_ was met, will appear of no validity when we consider the distance between the streights of _gibraltar_ and the northern part of the _black sea_. between the entrance of the _sound_ to the entrance of the _white sea_, between which there is communication of waters, or very nearly so. and from point _comfort_ in _hudson_'s bay to alderman _smith_'s sound in _baffin_'s bay, between which there is a communication of waters without entering into the _ocean_ or _davis_ streights. from lake _superior_ to the streights of _belle isle_ at the back of _newfoundland_, or to _cape breton_, is near forty degrees of longitude, or equal to leagues. and lake _superior_ hath a communication with _hudson_'s bay. this great afflux of waters form such meanders and labyrinths, as it is impossible to say whether there is a communication of waters, or whether the waters are divided by smaller or larger tracts or slips of land, without an absolute survey. the lands so double or fold one within the other, that unless you get a proper sight of such lands so as to distinguish this, to discover the opening that is between them, there is an appearance of a continuance of the land, and consequently of a termination of the waters. so long as the tide argument prevailed it was not thought necessary to be so accurate in the searches. a sight of the land trending a course contrary to that course which the discoverers were to pursue to make a passage, and the tide coming from the eastward, rendered a search any further in those parts unnecessary: and it may be owing to the great impropriety of adopting a particular system, more than to any other cause, that the discovery of a north-west passage was not made by those brave industrious discoverers, who in a series succeeded each other from _frobisher_ to _james_ and _fox_. this seems to be certain, that there must be one great channel, as _hudson_'s streights are to eastward, also to westward though intricate by which the waters to westward pass into the _south sea_, and as that to northward, the north-east part of the _tartarian sea_. we already know there is not a communication by _hudson_'s bay, thro' any inlet by which the waters do come in there or sufficient for that purpose; neither round the head of _repulse_ bay, for then the current would have been met coming from westward. therefore such channel must be to southward and westward, consistent with _de fuca_'s account of a streight, in some such manner as is represented in the map annexed. which account also agreeable to that of _peche_. _de fuca_ says, he sailed twenty-six days up such streight before he entered the sea; that the streight grew wider before he entered the sea. if we allow him fifteen leagues a day, from the entrance of such streights out of the _south sea_ to where he entered the sea, by him supposed the _north sea_, the distance is leagues. as he mentions that he found it wide enough every where, this expression shews that he did not suppose himself in the ocean, but in a gulph of the ocean. and _martin chacke_ expresses himself, that after he overshot the _gulph_, he set no more sight on any other land. therefore the distance is agreeable to that distance which _de fuca_ must have gone to come into that sea where _de fonte_ met _shapley_; the description that he saw both shores, makes a consistency also in those accounts. before _de fonte_'s expedition, _hudson_'s bay had been discovered, yet that discovery made no alteration as to the accounts of _de fuca_ and _chacke_, as _fox_ said beyond lat. , round that land there was incontestably a communication with the western ocean. here is an agreement in three accounts, by separate persons at a distance of time, who had no intelligence of what had been done by each other; for _chacke_ was a _portugueze_; and as _de fuca_ had made his report to the viceroy of _new spain_ of what he had done, and what he had done seems to be mostly accounted of by himself, therefore no regard might be had to it in drawing _de fonte_'s instructions: all which three accounts agree in there being a sea to westward of _hudson_'s bay. _de fuca_ mentions he was ashore; saw marks of gold and silver; marquisates the same which was made such an account of after _frobisher_'s return from his first voyage, and from which it may be inferred it was a barren mountainous country which _de fuca_ passed through. he was afraid of the natives, who were clad in beast skins; and from whose behaviour he must have had some apprehension that they would cut him off, as he mentions that he was not armed against them. _de fonte_ is very express as to the civil behaviour of those _indians_ he met with, so contrary to the character of those whom _de fuca_ saw. therefore those whom _de fuca_ saw were the _eskemaux_, who frequent the mountainous and desolate parts, and near to the salt waters where they can catch fish, also the seal and the whale, from which they get many conveniencies besides what is necessary for their subsistance; who are mentioned to be also on other parts of the coast of _california_; are represented as a fierce and barbarous people, who hold no treaty or amity with their neighbours, who are always in fear of them. that _de fonte_ should not pass up the north-east part of the _south sea_, but go through land, must have been, that the north-east part of the _south sea_ was represented as a gulph, not a streight, from some observations made prior to that expedition, as to which the observers might be deceived, by its taking a southerly course through some inlet or opening obscured by islands, or the entrance narrow, that they concluded it only to be some small branch which soon terminated; having, at the same time, a large open channel before them, which they finding afterwards surrounded with land, concluded there was no communication with any other waters, but that they had seen the extremity of these waters to eastward. that these waters took a course through that desert mountainous country, until they joined with the waters of the streights that _de fuca_ came up, the people of _conosset_ might not be able to give a just account of, as they lived so far to northward and eastward. though they, as the natives of _conibasset_ also came occasionally into the north-east part of the _south sea_; the one mostly frequented to northward and eastward, the other to northward and westward, as is apparent from _de fonte_'s account; where they had level and fruitful tracts, as they produced so much maiz; a hunting country, as there were three sorts of deer; also fish in their waters. whereas the country on the opposite shore of the north-east part of the _south sea_, as is apparent from being the resort of the _eskemaux_, would be rugged, rocky, and remarkably barren, with little intermixtures of level and fruitful spots. therefore the people of _conosset_, or _conibasset_, would have no inducements to go into those parts. may be supposed the opposite coast was the limits of their enemy's country, with whom if they went to war, and knew that the waters of the north-east part of the _south sea_ did communicate to southward with other waters; yet it cannot be imagined that they went up those waters so far in their enemy's country of so wild a disposition, where they were always in danger of being surprized, as to know whether those waters joined with the sea in which _shapley_ was met. might also be jealous if the jesuits, or _parmentiers_, or others who came there, were very particular in their enquiries, that they intended to go and reside amongst their enemies, which, as the nature of _indians_ is, would cause them to be on the reserve, and slack in their informations, as to those parts. that those persons who were in those parts before this expedition of _de fonte_, got no information of this streight, or of the waters, as to the course of them to southward, there must be a considerable main land to southward of lake _belle_ and lake _de fonte_, as is expressed in the map, and as to the sea to eastward, that part of it which was to southward of _ronquillo_, no more would be apprehended of it, being unacquainted as to the streight, than that it was a part of that sea contiguous to _hudson_'s bay; and it not being known at that time but the tides came from the eastward, would have no reason to infer, from the sea running to southward, that it communicated with a streight there. to take away the improbability of what is here advanced, we should reflect what assurances former discoverers gave, that had but the season permitted to proceed, they should certainly have made a passage; though when an attempt was again made they found their mistake; and from observations then made, they saw good reason to have a different opinion as to the nature of the passage from what they had before, and very reasonable, as their searches were made in parts entirely unknown; and as to the appearance of the land, the course of the waters, and the set of the tides, the most judicious might be deceived. the _spanish_ nation had not been able to make out a passage by their various attempts, agreeable to the accounts of private persons, which probably might give an opportunity for the representations of the jesuits to be attended to, who would urge every argument in behalf of their discovery, and endeavour to invalidate the former accounts as to a passage; which by that time, from the ill success as to discovering a passage, might not be at that time so much thought of; and as difference in time produces a change in opinions, whatever makes for the reigning opinion is adopted, as every thing that is contradictory is depreciated. the arguments for the opinion which prevailed before for a navigable passage might be treated as fallacious and insignificant, and the instructions for the expedition of _de fonte_ might be drawn agreeable to the jesuits plan, whom it is evident knew nothing of a streight, but considered the land of _america_ as one continued continent to latitude . and whatever weight this conjecture may have, it is apparent from the consideration of _de fonte_'s letter, that the instructions were drawn from the information of some who had been before in those parts: and by whom can it be supposed more properly that the court received the information which they had than from the jesuits, whose understanding and character would admit them to a free converse with the minister on a less occasion than they would now have, to give an account of those parts they had been in. the _court_ of _spain_ does not seem, from the proceedings, to be of the same opinion with the _jesuits_, or _de fonte_ after his return. as the governor of _cinoloa_ is immediately ordered to take a survey of the coasts and harbours of _california_. and the next year admiral _cassanate_ is sent from _old spain_; and it is probable the court was not of the opinion of the _jesuits_ when they gave this information, but formed the instructions for _de fonte_ agreeable thereto. as the most expedient method, at that time, for intercepting the people from _boston_, was to go the way they gave an account of with the boats through land, as the ships might meet with difficulties and delays in passing up the streights, also ran great hazard; the _boston_ ship might pass them unperceived. whereas, on the plan which was pursued, if they heard by the natives that the _boston_ ship had passed, and taken her course further to southward or westward, _de fonte_ would have repaired aboard his ship, proceeded down _los reyes_, and with the diligence which he would have made use of, fell in with the _boston_ ship either in such _north-east_ part of the _south sea_, or on the coast of _california_, leaving orders for _barnardo_ how to act in this respect on his return. from which conduct, and the look-out that was kept on the coast of _mexico_ and _peru_, it would have been also impossible for the _boston_ people, unacquainted with these parts, and not expecting such a diligence was used to intercept them, to have made a successful voyage. that there is a sea to the westward of _hudson_'s bay is reported by the _indians_, and is represented to have ice in it like _hudson_'s bay. governor _dobbs_, in his account of the countries adjoining to _hudson_'s bay (p. .) mentions from _joseph le france_, that their savages reported that in the bottom of the northern bay there is a streight, they can easily discover land on the other side: they had never gone to the end of that streight. they say there is ice there all the year, which is drove by the wind, sometimes one way sometimes another. the _indians_, who are called _northern indians_, having their habitations to north-west of _churchill_, mention a sea to the westward of them, and which is from _churchill_ factory in _hudson_'s bay twenty-five days journey, not a direct course, but from the round they are obliged to take. they speak of the _eskemaux indians_ to eastward of them, but never give an account of any other nations to northward or westward of them. mr. _scroggs_, who was sent out by the _hudson_'s bay company in , had two northern _indians_, whom he carried with him, when he was in about lat. . knew the country very well, and had a great desire to go home, saying they were but two or three days journey from their family. and the northern _indians_ who were with captain _middleton_, were desirous of his going near the shore, between lat. deg. and . in lat. ° and ´, captain _middleton_ put two of the _indians_ ashore, who were desirous of returning to their own country. and the author saw an _indian_, whose daughter had married a northern _indian_ and been home with her, direct his own son to sketch out on a board with a burnt stick, the coast of that sea, which his son did, and the father afterwards took and corrected it where he said the son had mistook. governor _dobbs_, in the account mentioned p. , mentions, 'that _joseph le france_ was acquainted with an _indian_, who lived at some distance from _nelson_ river in _hudson_'s bay, who, about years before that time, went to war against a nation living northward on the western ocean of _america_. when they went they carried their families with them, and hunted and fished from place to place for two winters and one summer, having left their country in autumn, and in _april_ following came to the sea side, on the western coast, where they immediately made their canoes. at some little distance they saw an island, which was about a league and a half long when the tide was out, or water fell, they had no water betwixt them and the island, but when it rose it covered all the passage betwixt them and the island, as high up as the woods upon the shore. there they left their wives and children, and old men, to conduct them home and provide them with provisions, by hunting and shooting for them on the road; and he, with thirty warriors, went in quest of their enemies the _tete plat_. after they parted with their families they came to a streight, which they passed in their canoes. the sea coast lay almost east and west; for he said the sun rose upon his right hand, and at noon it was almost behind him as he passed the streight, and always set in the sea. after passing the streight they coasted along the shore three months, going into the country or woods as they went along to hunt for provisions. he said they saw a great many large black fish spouting up water in the sea. after they had coasted for near three months, they saw the footsteps of some men on the sand; then judged they were near their enemies, quitted their canoes, went five days through the woods to the banks of a river, found their enemy's town, made an attack, the enemy rallied and put them to flight.' then proceeds, 'upon which they fled to the woods, and from thence made their escape to their canoes before their enemies overtook them, and after a great deal of fatigue got to the streight; and, after getting over, they all died one after the other, except this old man, of fatigue and famine, leaving him alone to travel to his own country, which took him up about a year's time.' when he reached the river _sakie_ he met his friends again, who relieved him. the _indians_ that this antient _indian_ went to war against, (and this _indian_ was living at _york fort_ in _hudson_'s bay in ) are mentioned to be the _tete plat_, or _plascotez de chicus_. the part which they inhabit is variously laid down by the geographers; by some in lat. , long. east from _ferro_, which is the extremest longitude that their country is laid down in. mons. _de lisle_ and others place them in lat. , and long. east from _ferro_, so their true situation is uncertain. yet it is apparent that they do not live near to or on the coast of the _south sea_, or western ocean. for what _joseph le france_ in this account, and so of all _indians_, meant by the word sea is any mass or collection of salt waters which have a tide. p. , in the same work, giving an account of the _indians_ passing down to _york fort_. 'the river _de terre rouge_, and from that place they descend gradually to the sea.' by which _joseph le france_ means _hudson_'s bay. governor _dobbs_ mentioning the western ocean of _america_ is a mistake, which he was led into as having a consistency with the system which he had adopted. these warriors left their own country in autumn, are said to have lived near _port nelson_ or _york fort_, and were at the sea side in _april_. their not being sooner is not to be attributed to the length of the journey but to the season of the year. the old _indian_ was a year returning to his own country; but he was fatigued and almost famished, so labouring under a great debility, and had his food to seek in whatever manner he could procure it. the winter also came on soon after his return from the enemy. they were on the western side of the land, which separates _hudson_'s bay from that sea, where they saw so great a tide. afterwards passed a streight, which streight lay north and south. the sea they came from and the sea they passed into after such streight, laid east and west. they continually kept the western shore, as that was the side on which their enemy lived; and though they were so long as three months in their passage, they were obliged to go every day ashore to hunt, being thirty in company, required a pretty considerable subsistance. their canoes can bear no serge or wave when the wind blows, therefore are obliged to keep close to the shore, and must go to the bottom of each bay. this account agrees both with that of _de fonte_ and _de fuca_. the sea they imbarked on was that at the back of _hudson_'s bay, and the streight might be formed by some island, or both the shores approach each other, tho' the account is not sufficiently intelligible to make any description of it in the map. _de fuca_ says the streight grew wider when he entered such sea, which seems to imply it had been narrow. and the _indians_, as before-mentioned, said there was a streight, and they can perceive the land on the other side. _de fuca_ also mentions he went ashore, and found the land fruitful, and rich of gold and silver and pearls, and other things, like _nova hispania_. which shews it was a mixed country; for a fruitful country and a produce of gold and silver is not a description compatible with one and the same part. the one we may suppose the description of the parts nearer the ocean, the other of the parts where the _tete plat_ live: but the old _indian_ seems also to make a distinction; for he says they went to hunt in the country and the woods. when they had passed the streight, they came into the broader part of the streight of _anian_, which appeared to them to be a sea. as to the place of their imbarkation, they would be directed by where they could procure birch to make their canoes. the true situation of the part they went to, nor where they imbarked is not to be determined with any certainty; but it doth not carry the least probability that they went to war with a people more than a thousand miles distant. it is scarce probable they had ever heard the name of the inhabitants of those parts, much more so acquainted with their situation as to be able to form a plan of going to conquer them. there must have been some particular cause for their going to war with a people so far off; what that was it would be difficult to imagine; if it was only to shew their prowess, they must have had enemies nearer home, against whom there was a greater probability of succeeding. neither could it be at that distance, as they had one continued scene of fatigue until they reached the streights; their hearts broken by reason of the disappointment, the heat of summer, no venturing ashore but for a very short time, either for food or refreshment, as they expected the conquerors to follow them with canoes, it would have been impossible for them to have reached the streight. if they had a hundred leagues a direct course until they attained the place of their imbarkation, and by going round the bays, might be near twice that distance, the current also against them, it would be sufficient, stout young fellows, and full of blood as they were, for what they underwent to be fatal to them. it is evident the streight was not far from where they imbarked, and the relation seems to express it so, as they had such a fatigue in attaining to it. allowing the _tete plat_ to be in long. degrees from _london_, and the true course was w. s. w. or e. n. e. on their return, with a distance of a hundred leagues, they would alter their latitude miles, and make miles departure, which, with miles to a degree, would make the place of their imbarkation to be in longitude from _london_, about the longitude of _ronquillo_. as to the latitude where the _tete plat indians_ live, and as to the longitude it is but conjecture; there is such a discordancy and contradiction in the maps, there is such uncertainty, that the north-west and west parts beyond _hudson_'s bay in the latitude of _churchill_, seem to be entirely unknown. but this is to be observed, and which has been my direction in these observations, the _northern indians_ and the _home indians_ about the factory of _york_ fort, mention these _tete plat indians_, and speak of them as their enemies, therefore they cannot be at so great a distance as the western ocean, neither further than where i have supposed their country to be. for as the time the _indians_ were going there three months, that is not to be considered so much with respect to the distance, as they would choose a proper season, when there were the fewest _indians_ in the towns, and were mostly engaged abroad in their summer hunting. perhaps there are no people who plan better in the partizan way, and execute with more success. they fix the time they intend to make their attack before they set out, then proceed easily and gradually towards their enemy's country, allowing a sufficiency of time in which they may recover any accident by which they might be delayed, as unseasonable weather, difficulty and disappointments as to procuring subsistance, or any indisposition, that they go to action in their full strength and vigour; as an _indian_ who conducts an expedition would be as much contemned for want of prudence, on his return to the towns, as he would for his want of conduct in leading his people to an attack, and when the enemy was too powerful not bringing them off without the loss of a scalp. in either of which cases the young people, who observe freely the most exact discipline, and implicitly obey what he orders, would not go any more to war with him. which way the _boston_ ship made this passage is uncertain. _gibbons_ was acquainted with _bylot_, was shipmate with him in sir _thomas button_'s voyage. _bylot_ was also with _gibbons_ the time he lost his season, by being detained in the ice. _bylot_ made an expedition for discovery of a passage in the year , on sir _thomas button_ having at a trial of a tide off the island of _nottingham_, in _hudson_'s streights, found it came from the north-west, and to be from an opening at the back of _cary_'s _swans-nest_, this tide he went in pursuit of; and was as far up as lat. deg. min. then supposed where he was was nothing but a bay, but could not (he had gone up the east) return down the west shore. whether _gibbons_ took his information from _bylot_, and pursued his plan, is uncertain, and found his way round the head of _repulse_ bay. he was also acquainted with what _fox_ had done, who went into lat. deg. min. so further than _bylot_, who did not return down the western shore; but his people being indisposed, and not finding a north-west tide, he hastened home. these parts, therefore, were not properly searched, the conclusion drawn for there not being a passage there, being that the tide came from the eastward. or whether _gibbons_ went through _hudson_'s bay is equally uncertain. the undiscovered parts of which bay, or the openings that were not determined in the expedition in the year , are in a map hereto annexed. but the termination of _chesterfield_'s or _bowden_'s inlet hath been since searched by the direction of the _hudson_'s bay company, and a plan made of it, which i have not seen. their design was to go as far up such inlet until it terminated, or there was a passage into another water. but as it is terminated by land, and if there is no inlet or opening left on the north or south shore unsearched, or a survey taken from the heights, by which they could be satisfied there was no communication with any other waters by which there could be a passage, it is to be concluded that _chesterfield_ inlet is no streight or passage as was expected, and it appeared to be as far as the _californias_ boat went up, according to the report made at that time. the people who had been in the boat belonging to the _california_, when the ship was going up _wager_ bay, where, from the depth of the water, the breadth between both shores, the high mountainous land, there was great reason to believe there was a streight or passage: those people declared, if there was a streight they were assured that _chesterfield_ inlet was a streight also. there remains then to be searched for the discovery of a passage, the opening called _pistol bay_, in _hudson_'s bay. that part which _bylot_ and _fox_ left undetermined, along the coast to southward of _baffins_ bay called _cumberland_ isles, which entirely consists of large inlets and broken lands. we may be too premature in our conclusions as to the impracticability of such a passage from the high latitude and the shortness of the season, as we have the instance of the _boston_ ship, which was so far advanced in the sea to westward of _hudson_'s bay in the month of _august_; and some time would be taken up in finding out the way. the strong tides that set in, and the current when to westward, which there is apparently in the other sea, may give an expedition that may compensate against the shortness of the season. it is but a short time that would be required to pass that part of the passage which lies in those high latitudes, as the course would be soon altered to the southward. [illustration: map of the _discoveries_ made in the north west parts _of_ hudsons bay. by cap^t. smith in & .] _seyxas y lovera_, in his _theatro naval hydrographico_, in the seventh chapter, p. , says, 'north-east of _america_ there is the coast of _greenland_, from sixty to sixty-eight degrees, where there is to the east the entrance of the streight of _frobisher_. north-west in the different islands which compose the northern parts of _america_, there is the entrance of the streight of _hudson_, where the _north sea_ communicates with the _south sea_, passing out of the entrance of the streight of _anian_, which runs north-east and south-west to the northward of the island of _california_, which streight is hid by great gulphs on the part that is north of _america_, which contain such great islands, as _cumberland_ (or _estoliland_) that are more than one hundred leagues in length from north-east to south-west, and their extremity from east to west more than seventy leagues.'--page . 'some hold it for certain that you can sail from _spain_ to _china_ through those streights, or to _japan_, or to the lands of _eso_, in three months. as says also doctor _pedro de syria_; but it is the opinion of _d. t. v. y._ author of the history of the _imperial_ states of the world, that he holds it for uncertain whether there is such streight by which you can pass from the _north_ to the _south sea_.--p. . there were some of the subjects of the king of _france_, who offered themselves, if they could get his majesty's licence, to perform that voyage in four months; entering the _canal de hudson_ from out of the ocean, with a course north-west or west north-west, taking always a sight of the coast at noon, they should attain to the height of the _arctic_ circle, or one degree more, as in making that voyage they will be favoured in that part by the currents and winds from the east and south-east, and afterwards in their passage by the streight of _anian_, the winds and currents would be from the north.--it is said that some strangers (on what occasion is not said) have gone that rout; and that there is in the archives of the admiralty of _lisbon_, and of the _contratacion at seville_, a copy of such rout; what i here observe is the same with what _don francisco de san millan_ observes, from which or from the copy of which rout to be seen in various languages, or the disposition of the said streights, he holds it for certain that there is such a course, and relates, that a _hollander_, on the evidence of a _spaniard_ who was aboard his ship, from the north of _california_, forced by the winds from south-west, attained to sixty-six degrees north-east, afterwards took a course east, and east south-east, came into fifty-eight degrees, when he entered the _north sea_ to northward of _terra nova_, from thence to _scotland_, and from _scotland_ to _lisbon_, in less than three months from the port of _nativadad_ to _lisbon_, of which voyage he makes no doubt.' and _seyxas_ observes, he hath seen many other accounts of voyages made from _holland_, also from _england_, to the _south sea_ in three or four months, which he much doubts, from the shortness of the time; also as in the _spanish_ historians they have an account of what passes in the several parts of the _south sea_, in _cathay_, and _china_, and no such thing is to be found in the _bibliotheca_ of the licentiate _antonio de leon_, which sets forth all the discoveries and voyages which have been made from any region from the year in _america_. it is plain from the account of _seyxas_, he doth not determine absolutely for a passage, but that there is a passage is his opinion. his chief objection is to the accounts from the brevity of the time in which the voyages were said to be performed, and there being no account in a careful writer of the discoveries made in those parts. he doth not confine the passage to _hudson_'s bay, as i understand him, but to the streight and the other openings to northward through _cumberland_ isles, and that they go up into as high a latitude as the _arctic_ circle. which is agreeable to _acosta_'s account, and gives a further explanation to his meaning than i have already done. as to which isles, and to the northward and eastward of _cary_'s _swans-nest_, it is apparent, from the perusal of the voyages, there hath been no certain account on a compleat discovery as to those parts. what he says as to the voyage of the _hollander_, it must be observed it was while _holland_ was under the _spanish_ government in the reign of _philip_ the second, and seems to be the same voyage, of which mention hath been made that an account was found amongst the papers of that prince. it hath been shewn to have been the constant opinion of there being a north-west passage, from the time soon after which the _south sea_ was discovered near the western part of _america_, and that this opinion was adopted by the greatest men not only in the time they lived, but whose eminence and great abilities are revered by the present age. that there is a sea to westward of _hudson_'s bay, there hath been given the concurrent testimony of _indians_; and of navigators and _indians_ that there is a streight which unites such sea with the western ocean. the voyage which lead us into these considerations, hath so many circumstances relating to it, which, now they have been considered, shew the greatest probability of its being authentick; which carry with them as much the evidence of a fact, afford as great a degree of credibility as we have for any transaction done a long time since, which hath not been of a publick nature and transacted in the face of the world, so as to fall under the notice of every one, though under the disadvantage that the intent on one part must have been to have it concealed and buried in oblivion. transacted also by persons in a private part of the world, who only spoke of it amongst their friends at home, being themselves strangers to what they had effected, and made little account of their voyage. besides the chagrin of their disappointment, and the illnatured reflections it might subject them to, they might think it also best not to communicate it to the publick, as it might encourage others to the like undertaking, and so they fall into the hands of the _spaniards_, not only at the hazard of their ship, but their lives, or at least subject them to many hardships such as they had sustained to no purpose. therefore they thought proper to say little about their discovery, as it might only be a means of entrapping some brave adventurers, who might be animated by their example to a like undertaking. these would be and were, by its being so little published on their parts, (and no accounts of it in _england_, which shews their friends were under an injunction not to make it publick) the resolutions of such sensible and sagacious men as _gibbons_ and _shapley_ were agreeable to which they acted. all which circumstances considered, what degree of evidence can be required more than hath been given to authenticate this account of _de fonte_? those who argue against a north-west passage have no better foundation for their arguments, than that there is no tide from westward. which is arguing only for the truth of a system, and hath nothing to do with the reality of a passage, and in all probability hath been the principal occasion that a passage hath not been compleated: for a different course of the land, and no tide from westward, concluded any further searches in such part, but on a due survey made of the map, as the tide will enter up the streight of _de fuca_, and probably other contiguous entrances which are not yet known, besides the north-east branch of the _south sea_, which we suppose to join with such streight; the tide would fill that sea on the back of _hudson_'s bay, and the openings but be checked to the northward by the current; and may be hindered from coming into _hudson_'s bay through the inlet from causes not known, or there being great indraughts on the opposite shore, which may take off the force of the tide, and cause it to come but a small way up such inlet. there is reason to believe the proper passage is up the streight of _de fuca_, therefore that is the proper streight of _anian_, as _de fonte_ proceeded no further than _los reyes_, and declared there was no north-west passage; but the north-east part of the _south sea_ hath a communication, as is expressed in the map, in describing which a certainty cannot be expected, or an exactness but what may be contradicted if a discovery be made. the design of the map, besides what relates to the expedition of _de fonte_, is to shew there is a streight, called the streight of _de fuca_. a sea at the head of that streight, at the back of _hudson_'s bay, from which sea there is a passage either by an inlet into _hudson_'s bay, or by a streight at the head of _repulse_ bay, and so to northward of _hudson_'s bay; from which streight there is a passage into the _north sea_, either to eastward of the land of _cary_'s _swans-nest_ into _hudson_'s streight, or by _cumberland_ isles, and expressed in the map in the manner that the respective accounts represent, according to our understanding of them, with a submission to correction and superior judgment. but an absolute contradiction without invalidating the accounts on which such map is constructed, or to say there is no north-west passage, which it is impossible should be determined until a search is made in the parts which remain to be searched, are no objections, are only opinions, without any authority to support them, which time must rectify. to make an expedition to discover whether there is a passage by those parts which remain unsearched, purposely from _england_, is what i think an honest, disinterested, or impartial person cannot recommend, as such expeditions might be repeated with great expence, and the event uncertain. the government gave their assistance, and the generosity of the merchants hath been sufficiently experienced, both in _england_ and _america_: therefore it becomes every one whose intention it is solely that such a beneficial service should be done to avoid proposing what, might, in the consequence, be an unnecessary expence to government, and abuse the generosity of the merchants. the ships which went on these expeditions, after they left the _orkneys_, had no place to put into, neither could they there wood or water, or conveniently repair a damage. if they met with a delay in passing _hudson_'s streights, they were obliged, from the small part of the season that was remaining, to go to the _hudson_'s bay factories to winter; that they might have the more time the next year; were obliged to go to the factories earlier than they were necessitated on account of the weather, in order to get their ships laid up, and every other convenience for wintering prepared before that the winter set in. the _hudson_'s bay company, jealous of a design to interfere with their trade, probably their fears not ill grounded, the consequence was, there was no cordiality between the factors and the captains. the ships people, by wintering, suffered in their health, great wages going on, a consumption of provisions, a spirit of discontent and opposition amongst the inferior officers, which obstructed the success of the next summer. to obviate all which in any future proceedings, a discovery was undertaken on the coast of _labrador_, to find harbours on that coast which ships; could repair to if necessary on their voyage out, or to repair to on their return, which they could be at sooner than at the factories, stay longer on discovery, and return the same year to _england_. how well this attempt answered the design, may be collected from the extract from a journal of a voyage hereunto annexed, performed in the year , giving an account of the coast of _labrador_. as what is now to be done in the discovery of a passage in _hudson_'s bay may be effected in a summer, and if there is the desired success, an inlet found by which there is a passage into the sea adjacent out of that bay, the vessel which makes such discovery, and all ships at their return by such inlet, will have no occasion to go to the southern part of the bay, it will be out of their course, but proceed through the streights to _labrador_, there wood and water, get fresh fish, and other refreshments; can repair any damage either as to their masts, or their hull, and return the same year to _england_ by the common tract of the _newfoundland_ ships, and not to go to the _orkneys_. that there was a good fishing bank, a coast convenient for carrying on a fishery, a fur trade, also for whalebone and oil with the _eskemaux indians_, was a discovery the consequence of that attempt from _america_. to take the benefit of which discovery seems now to be the intention of the publick. and a survey of such coast being ordered to be made by the government, if such survey is extended so far as to those parts, in which as already mentioned such passage must be, and without it is so far extended, the design of attaining a true geographical account of the northern coasts of _america_ would be incompleat. by this means it must be known whether there is such a passage, the probability of which is unquestionable. also by such survey a better account will be got which way the whales take their courses, and consequently where it is best to go in pursuit of them. also as to those _eskemaux_ who frequent to northward of _hudson_'s streights, where they retire to, and a proper place be found to keep a fair with them. as these _eskemaux_ as well as those on _greenland_ side, who have not come into those parts any long duration of time, being the same kind of _indians_ with those in the _south sea_, and as they transport themselves and families from one part to another by water, it seems highly probable that it is by such a passage or streight that they have got so far to eastward. this discovery of a passage can be made without any additional expence, wove in with other services, as was in the discoveries which were ordered to be made by the king of _spain_ on the coasts of _california_. the propriety of a vessel to make such a survey, and the abilities and fidelity of the persons will be undoubtedly taken care for. the run from _labrador_, let it be from any harbour, will be but small to any where, where it is necessary to make the survey. the persons sent will go fresh out of harbour, whereas, with a run from the _orkneys_, the people are fatigued; will now be refreshed as if they had not come from _europe_. will be out from such harbour but a few weeks, in a fine season of the year, no way debilitated by the scurvy, and in a few summers will be enabled to compleat their survey of that coast; using such an assiduity as they proceed as not to leave any part on supposition or trust, but being assured where any inlet or opening determines. a person who understands _eskemaux_, and one or more _eskemaux_ to be procured, would be of service as pilots, and to give an account of the adjacent country. and there is no vessel (it is mentioned as perhaps it is not so very well known) so proper and serviceable for this long-shore work as a marble-head schooner, about sixty tons, fortified as to the ice, and would be at all times a useful tender, and a proper boat if necessary to be left at the _labrador_. what would give due force to such expeditions, would be the commodore of the man of war being so near, under whose eye the whole would be done, who would direct their fitting out, receive their report on their return, order a review if necessary, and be the occasion of that due subordination and obedience both of officers and men, which it is often very difficult to effect on such voyages. merit will then be distinguished, and the credulity of the persons at home will not be imposed on, and no discouragement of those who distinguish themselves in the execution of such laudable attempts. such a passage being discovered, and the sea entered to westward of _hudson_'s bay, the manner of proceeding afterwards must be left to superior judgment. appendix. an account of part of the coast and inland part of the labrador: being an extract from a journal of a voyage made from _philadelphia_ in . the coast of _labrador_ to northward of the latitude of deg. min. is represented by captain _benjamin gillam_ (an extract of whose journal the author had) as a perilous coast, and without any inlets; therefore the design was to fall in with the land to southward of that latitude, which was attempted _august_ the d; a thick fog, but expected when more in with the land to have clear weather. they saw ice at times the whole day, and in the evening found themselves imbayed in a body of ice, and plainly perceiving points of rocks amongst the ice, stood out again during the whole night for a clear sea, which they fortunately obtained the next morning. it was then proposed to stand yet more southward, to make the land in latitude °, and search the inlet of _davis_. from the d to the th had various weather, the air temperate, calms and light winds, thick fogs for some days, the latter part of the time haizey, with rain, which was succeeded the th of _august_ with a hard gale of wind that moderated on the th, and clear weather: saw rockweed, some kelp, land birds, a number of large islands of ice, but no flat ice; concluded in the afternoon that they saw the looming of the land in lat. deg. min. long. deg. min. at eight at night had soundings fathom, at ten at night fathom. _august_ the th, fine pleasant weather; at eight o'clock had fathom soundings, and at ten made the land, bearing w. by s. ten leagues. many islands of ice, but the wind contrary for _davis_'s inlet, stood towards another opening which promised a good harbour; but not being able to attain it before night, stood on and off until the next morning, fine pleasant weather; and _august_ the th, by four in the morning, were in with the land. a whaleboat, with proper hands, was sent to sound a-head, and find a harbour. soon after a cry was heard from an island to northward; there appeared to be five persons. some rings, knives, scissors, and iron hoop, being taken by the people into the boat, after rowing about a league they entered into a small harbour, near the place where the five persons were first seen, but who had retired. entering the harbour they saw shallops built after the _newfoundland_ manner, at anchor, with buoys and cables, a mast, a square yard athwart, with a sail bent, a tilt made of seal skins abaft. these boats were tarred, that summer's work. upon the sight of these boats a doubt arose whether they were _indians_ whom they had seen, or some unfortunate shipwrecked people. when the boat got further into the harbour two _eskemaux indians_ came off, the one a man in years, the other a young man. the elder man had a small black beard. the elder man being presented with a ring, immediately put it on his finger; the young man did the same when one was presented him. both declined accepting pieces of iron hoop, a very agreeable present to the _eskemaux_ on the western side _hudson_'s bay. they knew what fire-arms were, which they saw in the boat: also asked for some pork, which they saw, and had been taken into the boat for fear the schooner and the boat should be separated; and, on the boatsmen not having a knife immediately ready, they produced a knife apiece; and the elder man used the word _capitaine_ in his address; had a complaisance in his behaviour. from these circumstances it was plain they carried on a trade with the _french_; tho' the latest _french_ authors represented them as a savage people, who would never have any commerce with them. and a motive for this undertaking was from an opinion, that no trade had been carried on in these parts, either by _europeans_ or _americans_, the printed accounts and common report both agreed in this. it was apparent to whom these boats belonged; and there were more than twenty _eskemaux_ ashore, of various sexes and ages, who kept shaking of old cloaths for sale; and the elder man pressed the people in the boat very much to come ashore, also to bring the schooner to an anchor, which was standing on and off; but as the day advanced, the situation the schooner was in, being many small islands about, and a fine opening which promised a good harbour in the main land, they declined the invitation; and there was an _eskemaux_ ready with a large coil of whalebone, seemingly for the boat to warp in to a small cove and make fast with. these civilities were acknowledged by a present being sent to those ashore, and after shewing where they intended for, the boat returned aboard the schooner. the people on board the schooner, as they advanced towards the inlet where they expected a harbour, hoisted their ensign, which was very large, and fired two swivels by way of salute; soon after the _eskemaux_ displayed on the rocks a large white ensign, on a high pole; and when there was occasion to lower the schooner's colours, the _eskemaux_ lowered theirs; the schooner's colours being again hoisted, they hoisted theirs; but a squall of sleet and rain came on, which prevented their having a further sight of each other. at six in the evening the schooner was anchored in a convenient harbour, a level shore, with high rocky land, bare in spots, the other parts covered with a good herbage and large groves of trees, firs, spruce, and pine. an evening gun was fired to give the natives notice where the schooner was, and also a good watch was set. _august_ the th, at day, they fired a swivel aboard the schooner, and displayed their colours as a signal for trade; and a party went ashore to ascend the heighths. the largest trees did not exceed ten inches diameter, and fifty feet in heighth; many runs of excellent water, ponds in level spots; the country had an agreeable aspect, a plentiful herbage, the flowers were now blown, the berries not ripened, and the _angelica_, of which there was great quantity, not seeded. they had a very laborious walk before they attained the desired summit; the musquetoes very troublesome. being on an extraordinary eminence they saw the north and south point of the main land, or two capes which form a bay, the northermost was computed to be something to the northward of latitude , and the southermost in latitude . the shore high and bold, to northward a number of reefs of rocks lying out a great way into the sea, in the southern part of the bay many islands and two inlets. sixty islands of ice of large dimensions in sight. in the ascending this heighth, saw many moose deer paths, tracts of other animals; and in the ponds trouts of about ten inches in length. on the shores few fowl but ducks, and a plenty of muscles. the weather very warm and pleasant. the schooner's people found a barrel, a hogshead stave, and a piece of hewed wood, on which it was conjectured that this was no unfrequented harbour. the next morning, the th of _august_, the boat was sent to carry two persons to the head of the harbour, that they might travel to a mountain about ten miles off, to take a view of the inland part of the country. when the boat returned, the people brought word they had seen the ruins of a timber house. the boat was again manned to go and take a survey of it; and it appeared to have been a house built for some persons to winter in, of logs joined together, part standing, with a chimney of brick and stone entire. the house consisted of three rooms, a log tent near, and a pit dug in which they seemed to have buried their beer. the ground cleared at a distance round: the woods burnt, several hogsheads and barrels, and seemingly a great waste of biscuit, pork, salt fish, and other provisions, which seemed as if those who had been here had retired with great precipitation; neither had been long gone, as there were fresh feet marks on the strand, and some trees lately hewn. the marks on the cask shewed that the people were from _london_; and it was supposed that as the _eskemaux_ had not come to trade, there had been a fray between the _eskemaux_ and these people; and when they considered the compleat manner in which the boats were equipped and rigged, doubted whether the _eskemaux_ had not overpowered them, and had some of the people with them. the great earnestness with which the elder of the _eskemaux_ made signs for the people in the boat to go ashore, seemed to be with a particular design: therefore it was thought prudent to be very careful in the watch at night, to strike the bell every half hour, to keep a continual walk on deck, and call _all is well_, that the _eskemaux_ might hear, if they should intend a surprize, that the people aboard were on their guard. the morning of the th they run up to the head of the harbour with the schooner, to wood and water, there being plenty of wood ready cut, and a place conveniently dammed up to confine a fine stream of excellent water which came from the heighths. there was then found several pieces of printed books, in _german_ and _english_, the _english moravian_ hymns. peas, beans, turnips, and radishes planted, which seemed as if they would come to no great perfection, and judged to have been sowed about three weeks. the wooding and watering was finished by ten at night, but with no small trouble on account of the musquetoes, though great smoaks made to keep them off. the two persons who had been sent to view the inland country returned in the morning, after having spent a rainy night in the woods; gave an account that they had been forced to go round several small lakes, which made the way longer than expected; and the mountain was very steep and rugged: saw several large spots of excellent meadow: the timber much the same as that on the shores of the harbour: that they saw two inlets to northward, extending a great way into the land: that it was only the branch of an inlet that the vessel was at anchor in; but they saw the termination of the inlet to be in large ponds. the th of _august_ the schooner was to return to her first anchorage, with an intention to search the inlets to northward; but the wind proved contrary, and a hard gale, though the weather pleasant. the th the wind moderated, and the schooner returned to her former anchorage; but the wind did not serve to quit the harbour until the th in the afternoon; the interval of time had been filled up in brewing spruce beer, and doing other necessary work with respect to the sails and rigging. at six in the evening was close in with the island, where they had seen the _eskemaux_, but now gone. it was not until the st, by reason of calms and currents, that they attained to the inlet to northward. those who had been sent out with the boat to sound a-head, had seen on the shore an _eskemaux_ encampment, from which they were but very lately retired, and brought from thence a piece of a jawbone of a spermaceti whale, which was cut with a hatchet. it was plain from that the _eskemaux_ were supplied with iron tools: they also found a piece of an earthen jar. they judged there had been about eleven tents. the d of _august_, in the morning, the ship's company catched some cod; they were but small, but fine full fish. the whaleboat was sent up with some hands, to sound and find a harbour: and three persons went on shore to a high summit, about four miles off, to view the country: saw in their way many tracts of deer, a deep soil, good grass, and met with several large level spots, with ponds of water; thick groves of timber, and a plentiful herbage. the country, from this summit, appeared to consist of ridges and mountains; and as the weather changed from fine and pleasant, to thick and hazey, they saw the clouds settle on several ridges of the mountain, near them, as also on the heighth where they were, and under them. and when they returned the people on board said they had had some smart showers of rain, which those who had been on the heighth were not sensible of. in the afternoon they proceeded with the schooner to a harbour which those who had been sent out with the whaleboat had discovered, an extraordinary fine harbour; and it may be here observed in general, that most of the harbours are very fine ones. there are many of them, and not far the one from the other. there were on the shore, in many places, the remainder of _eskemaux_ encampments, but some time since they had been there. timbers of boats, on the shores, which were much decayed, had laid long in the weather; in the carpenter's opinion the boats they had belonged to must have been built fifteen or twenty years, seemed to be the timbers of such boats as had been seen with the _eskemaux_. the succeeding day there was such weather as they could not proceed; the day after, the th, run up the inlet about eight leagues from the harbour, which was about eighteen leagues from the entrance of the inlet. as they proceeded they found the country more level, thick woods, intermixed with birch trees, and both shores afforded a pleasant verdure. they could not proceed further with the schooner, by reason of falls; which, being surveyed the next day, might be passed with the schooner, but with some difficulty. therefore early in the morning of the th, at a proper time of tide, when the falls were level, a party went in a whaleboat, with a small boat in tow loaded with provisions, bedding, and a sail for a tent, to explore the head of the inlet. the furthest they could get with the boat was about five leagues, being intercepted by impassable falls, about feet in length, and forty feet their perpendicular height, though of gradual descent. the fall rocks, but the bank of the northern shore, which was steep, was a kind of marl, without any mixture of stone; and no frozen earth here, or in any other part, usual in _hudson_'s bay, as was proved by repeated experiments: therefore it may be concluded that this is a more temperate climate in winter than in any part about _hudson_'s bay, in the same or lower latitudes. from the first falls to the second there were large levels along shore, the mountains at a considerable distance within land, especially those on the north side. the mountains and shores thick cloathed with pine, spruce, birch, and alder, much larger and of better growth than those trees nearer the sea coast; some pines measured twenty-five inches in diameter. in a pond, on the north shore, saw two beaver houses, and there were plenty of beaver marks, as dams, trees barked and felled by them. the water was fresh between the first and second falls. poles of _indian_ tents in many places along shore, lodgments only for single families, tied together with strips of deer skin, and no encampments after the _eskemaux_ manner, shewed that a different _indians_ from the _eskemaux_ resorted into this part. the whole country had a pleasant appearance; but as they came near to the upper falls, the verdure of the woods, barren points of rocks that exalted themselves, terminating the view, the disposition of the woods which had all the regularity of art, joined to the freedom of nature, the gloom of the evening, the slow steady course of the water, and the echoes of the rumbling fall, afforded such a scene as affected even those that rowed; and they said, it was the pleasantest place they had ever seen. on a level point, beautifully green, situated at a small distance from an opening in the woods, and in full view of and hearing of the falls, there were the poles of an _indian_ tent, which, from the ashes scarce cold, a breast-bone of a wild goose, with some little meat on it that had been broiled, pieces of birch bark left, seemed to have been not long deserted, and the situation was such as expressed the late inhabitants to have the softest sensations. in coming up the inlet they had found where there had been a small fire made, as supposed, to dress victuals, but put out or covered with turf, a usual practice amongst southern _indians_ to conceal the smoke, when they suppose the enemy is near. the boats were securely harboured, a tent erected, with a good fire before it, and the people rested securely all night. the next day, _august_ the th, two persons were detached to a summit, in appearance about twelve miles off, others went and hung strings of beads, combs, knives, and other peltry, on the trees, some at a mile, and others at a further distance, from where they kept their camp all day, to invite the _indians_ to a converse with them; but no _indians_ were seen, nor any thing meddled with. those who had walked to take the view from the summit, saw the water above the falls extend a great distance into the country, but not the termination of it, passing through meadow lands of large dimensions, and by the foot of small rising land, they saw a large high ridge of blue mountains at a great distance, running north and south, which was supposed to be the bounds of the new discovered sea in _hudson_'s bay: saw several other ridges of land, but seemingly more level than those to seaward; passed over in travelling several spots of excellent soil, the timber of good size and growth. there was a great plenty of grass and herbage; walked a great way in an _indian_ path, and saw several marked trees, as is practised amongst the southern _indians_. they returned in the evening, much fatigued with the heat of the sun, and swelled with the bites of musquetoes, and a small black fly, like those in _england_ called a midge. those that staid at the encampment were also much plagued with these insects. the latitude of the upper falls was deg. min. near the imaginary line that bounded the _english_ and _french_ limits in these parts; and it being supposed that the two inlets, seen from the height above the harbour where they first anchored, would terminate in the _french_ limits; they therefore had declined making any search there, and proceeded to search the inlet to northward. the next morning they set out to return to the schooner, with a design to search the other inlet to northward, seen from the mountain at the back of the first harbour, but not seen since by reason of a high ridge of mountains, as it was supposed, that covered it. in the night there had been a sharp frost, and early in the morning a thick fog. about ten in the morning they were returned to the schooner. several of the people, contrary to the written instructions which were left, had rambled from the vessel, got on the heights, rolled down the _indian_ marks, which are stones that they put up one on another on the knolls and summits of hills, to direct them in their journeying; a proceeding which was highly dissatisfactory to the commander, considering the disposition which it was found the natives were in, and whom, with the greatest industry, they could not get a sight of. the people had shot some few fowl, which were plentier in this inlet than any where that they had seen, but very shy and wild. they sailed that afternoon to the harbour which they were at when they first entered this inlet. _august_ the th they sailed out of this inlet to go to the northward, keeping within a ledge of islands, as they might pass no part of the coast unsearched. met with some difficulties amongst the shoals and rocks; but about four in the afternoon were clear of all, and plyed to windward to enter the third or more northern inlet, which they had now open. saw at the head of a pretty deep cove, on the south side in that inlet, a strong smoke arise, and that immediately answered by a lesser smoke on the northern side of the inlet. the smoke on the northern side the inlet continued towering and freshening; on seeing which they immediately steered for the cove, supposing the smoke to be made by the natives as a signal for trade; but were delayed entering by the tide of ebb. at sunset were surprised with a squall of wind, which came on in a moment, and the schooner in extreme danger of being ashore on the rocks. a hard gale succeeded, but they fortunately attained a harbour, which had been before discovered by the boat, and rode secure. the st of _august_, the weather being moderate, two persons went over the heights to the head of the cove, in pursuit of the natives; and three persons went in a boat to the head of the cove, with some trading goods, and to pass the two who walked, over the water if it ran up into the country, and the natives should be on the opposite shore; but after rowing up about two leagues they found a termination of the water, landed and ascended the heights, where they found a very large plain, without ponds, and a fine soil, which they passed over and descended into a valley, thick groves, good grass, and large ponds. here they met with a bear; which one of the people firing too precipitately missed. several bears had been seen before, some foxes, many tracts of wolves, both on the shores and inland, and in one place otter paths. three of the people were sent to return with the boat aboard, and two set out to go up a mountain which promised a good sight of the country, and seemed possible that they might attain to the summit of it, and return to the schooner that night; but were deceived by the height of the mountain as to the distance they were from it. in the ascent they found great declivities and hollows in the sides of the mountain, the rocks rent in a most surprising manner, having rents or fissures in them from thirty to seventy feet in depth; some tremendous to look down, and not above two or three feet in breadth. the dogs that were with them would not, after looking down, jump over them, but howled and took a sweep round. in the levels and hollows on the side there lay great heaps of fallen rock. some stones or solid pieces of ten or fifteen tons weight, besides innumerable lesser pieces. and found a patch of snow in one of the hollows, about forty feet in breadth, and fourteen feet in perpendicular height, frozen solid, and seemed of the same consistence with the islands of ice. the persons, though constantly labouring, did not attain to the top of the mountain until about half an hour before sunset, where they found a thin air, and a fresh sharp cold wind; though below, and in their ascent, they had experienced pleasant warm weather, and little wind. from the mountain they perceived a smoke, about ten miles off more inland, the usual practice of the _indians_ in the evenings, when they form their camps, to make a fire to dress their provisions, and to be by all night; and it was then suspected that they were flying more inland, and that the smokes seen the night before were signals from one party to another to retire on seeing the schooner, supposing us enemies. it was too late that night to return to the head of the cove, therefore encamped that night on the side of the mountain in the woods, near to a level spot without the least unevenness of above six hundred feet in breadth, and three hundred over, exactly resembling a pavement without any fissure or opening in it. the next day got to the head of the cove, near twelve miles from the mountain; on a signal made the boat fetched them aboard, where the people expressed in their countenances a universal joy at seeing their commander safe returned, which was a great satisfaction to him, as it was an instance more sincerely expressed than by formal words addressed to him, that they looked on their security to depend on his preservation. the wind was contrary to their getting out of the harbour that afternoon; but the boats were employed in seeking the best channel for the schooner to go out at. the morning of _september_ the d, the wind proved favourable, and that evening they got a good way up the third inlet. when they were some way up the inlet, they discovered a smoke upon an island at the entrance of the inlet, and, when at anchor, a smoke also on the north shore. therefore by day-light, _september_ the d, the time when smokes are most discernable and looked out for by the _indians_, a person was sent to fire the brush on an eminence ashore, to answer that smoke seen on the north shore the night before. then the schooner proceeded up the inlet, and by ten o'clock was come to the extremity of it, which terminated in a bay of very deep water, surrounded by very steep mountains, with groves of trees on them; but they found a good anchorage in a cove, and an excellent harbour. the heights being ascended, it was perceived there was a narrow streight out of this inlet, which communicated with ponds. and that there was a fourth inlet to northward, and which extended further to westward than the inlet which the vessel was now in, and about four miles off, beyond the hills there appeared a towering smoke, upon the sight of which the persons who went to take the view returned aboard to get some provisions, and a parcel of trading goods, and set out again with an intention to seek the natives, and spend the night amongst them. the boat put them ashore where it was thought most convenient and nearest place to the smoke, but it proved otherwise; for after travelling about three miles they fell in with a chain of ponds, which they were forced to go round. hot sultry weather, the woods thick, without the least breath of wind, infinite number of musquetoes and midges. but by being thus to go round the ponds, had the satisfaction of seeing several beavers dams made to keep out the tide waters. they saw a continuance of the smoke, and shaped a course for it; but when on the heights perceived that the smoke was on an island about two miles off the shore in the fourth inlet, therefore returned to the vessel that night. the th of _september_, in the morning, they towed out of the harbour they were in, the wind soon after sprung up, and by night they go out of the inlet, and anchored amongst some islands, just at the entrance of the fourth inlet. the next morning, _september_ the th, entered the fourth inlet; but being becalmed a small time catched above fifty cod, much such as they had before taken. by twelve o'clock were abreast of the island where they had seen the smoke on the d, and which was four leagues from the entrance: could perceive no natives, but several fires, and that there had been a great burning of the brush; soon after saw a snow lying at an anchor, which hoisted _english_ colours, and fired a gun. they hoisted the colours aboard the schooner, fired a swivel, and bore away for the snow. the wind was fresh, and, as the schooner was entering the harbour, two people came running over the rocks, hailed, but it could not be well understood what they said; but it was a friendly precaution as to some rocks which lay off there. the snow's people then took to their boat, and made a trip to view the schooner as she was coming to an anchor, and then returned aboard. a whaleboat was hoisted out, and a person sent in it to go aboard the snow, and know where she was from, and to let the captain know they would be glad to see him aboard the schooner. the person sent, and capt. _elijah goff_ the commander of the snow, returned aboard in a short time; and the particulars of what the captain related were, that the snow was fitted out by mr. _nesbit_, a merchant in _london_: that he, the present captain, had been the year before mate of the same vessel on this coast: that she was then fitted out by _bell, nesbit_ and company; the intended voyage kept a great secret. they had, the year before as a captain, a _dane_ who had used the _greenland_ trade, and could talk the _eskemaux_ language. that the snow had been at _newfoundland_, and afterwards came on the _labrador_ coast; but being strangers to the coast, and the captain very obstinate, the vessel was several times in danger, which raised a mutiny amongst the people, who had formed a resolution of seizing the ship, and bearing away for _newfoundland_; which mutiny was appeased, and the people consented to go to the _labrador_, where they harboured _july_ the th, in the same harbour which the schooner first entered this year. they brought with them four of the _unitas fratrum_, or _moravian_ brethren, who were to remain during the winter, to attain an acquaintance with the natives, and lay a foundation of trade: that the house, the ruins of which the discoverer saw, was built for the residence of these brethren; and, being compleated by the beginning of _september_, the snow left them in possession of it, and set out to make discoveries, and pursue a trade to northward: that they had some trade in _nesbit_'s harbour, the name they had given to the harbour where the house was, and also on the coast before they arrived at the harbour: that when they went to northward; in about lat. ° ´ off the islands, amongst which the schooner had harboured the preceding night, some _eskemaux_ came aboard, and told the _dane_ captain there were some trading boats come from the northward, with plenty of trade, and advised the captain to come where they were. the captain asked, why they would not come along side? the _eskemaux_ said, it was dangerous on account of the surf. the captain and six others went in the ship's boat, with a quantity of goods to trade, but had no fire arms with them, though advised to take them; but the captain said, no, they were very honest fellows. captain _goff_ saw the boat go round an island, upon which there was a number of natives; but the island hindered him from having any further sight of the boat. after the boat had been gone about an hour, he saw one or two of the _eskemaux_ with his glass peep over the rocks; but never after saw any more of the boat, the snow's people, or the _eskemaux_. that the snow lay at a league distance from the island; he had no other boat, one being left with the _moravian_ brethren. capt. _goff_ waited three days, and then returned with the snow to the harbour where the house was. the snow being short of hands, he took the _moravian_ brethren aboard, leaving a quantity of provisions sufficient to subsist the unhappy people who were missing should they come there, until his return. they put the key of the house and a letter in a hole of a tree; but on his return this year found the house in ruins, the casks and hogsheads broke to pieces, and the key and letter gone. that what was sowed there was by way of experiment. capt. _goff_ judged that the _eskemaux_ traded with the _french_, as their fishgiggs, knives, and boats, were _french_; and the _eskemaux_ told them there was a settlement of twenty _europeans_ to southward, which they supposed to be somewhere to southward of lat. , the latitude of the cape they had named cape _harrison_, which is the southermost cape that forms the bay in which is _nesbit_'s harbour, and the high saddleback land within, which is first seen off at sea they named _st. john_'s. he said that one of the _eskemaux_ offered a quantity of whalebone for a cutlass, which they are very fond of; the _danish_ captain insisted on having more, the _eskemaux_ answered, if he would not take it that capt. _saleroo_ would; alluding, as supposed, to the captain or factor at the _french_ settlement. the boats the _eskemaux_ had were _french_: they spoke many _french_ words. and the women worked the boats, turned them to windward, and were very expert in the management of them. the account given by the master who went in the schooner's boat to fish for cod (capt. _goff_ not having yet got any) to the people in the boat was, that mr. _nesbit_ was only, in this case, an agent or factor for the _moravian_ brethren, who aimed at a settlement in these parts, and to attain a propriety by a prior possession, but that no propriety would be allowed of by our government: that petitions had been flung into the board of trade for patents for the _labrador_, but were rejected, and a free trade would be permitted to all the subjects of _great britain_; which open trade was the original design on which this discovery was undertaken by the people in _america_; the execution of which was not only interrupted by private persons stealing the scheme, and being before hand, but hath been a great hindrance to the fisheries being carried on in those parts, a trade established with the inland _indians_ and the _eskemaux_, and further advantages which will be known, on our being better acquainted with those parts. for as to this severity of the _eskemaux_, inexcusably barbarous, yet there were some provocations which might have been avoided, and which incited those _eskemaux_ to this act, whose hatred and revenge, the character of most _indians_, are rouzed at the slightest causes. it appears from a journal of the boatswain, wherein he makes a valuation of the trade, that they had bought a hundred weight of whalebone for six-pence. the _eskemaux_ were also treated with great contempt and rudeness. a person aboard had bought a pair of _eskemaux_ boots; and carrying them into his cabbin, an _eskemaux_ followed claiming the boots as his, saying that he who sold them had no right to sell them; and the buyer settled the matter by presenting a pistol at his head. on which the _eskemaux_ cried out in the _french_, _tout_, _comerado_, and retired. capt. _goff_ came this year in hopes to recover the people who were missing with the boat, and to make a further essay as to the trade, but brought no settlers with him, intended immediately for the coast, which he could not attain to on account of the ice, and went to _trinity_ bay in _newfoundland_, where he staid some time. sailed from thence the th of _june_; the d of _july_ saw _french_ ships in the streights of _belle isle_, retarded by the ice; and the th of _july_ joined capt. _taylor_ in a sloop of about tons, fitted out from _rhode island_ to go in pursuit of a _north-west passage_; and if not successful to come down on the coast of _labrador_. capt. _goff_ said he had learned by capt. _taylor_ that the _philadelphia_ schooner would be out, and he should have suspected this to be her, but she entered the inlet so readily, and came up with that boldness as could not but think that the schooner was a _french_ vessel acquainted with the coast; and he had received orders to avoid any harbour in which a _french_ ship should appear. capt. _taylor_ had seen a large _french_ sloop in latitude , and to the northward three hundred _eskemaux_, who had nothing to trade but their old cloaths, and who were going further to northward, but were hindered by the ice. capt. _goff_ and _taylor_, who had entered into an agreement to associate, were eight days grappled to the ice, and did not arrive at _nesbit_'s harbour until the th of _july_. but had traded with some of the _eskemaux_ before, though for small matters, and had some of these _eskemaux_ aboard for three successive days, who then left them, and came no more aboard the vessels. capt. _goff_ suspected, though he had altered his dress, that they had then recollected him. the st of _august_ they sailed from _nesbit_'s harbour, and attained to this inlet where he now was; and on the th sailed to the northward, when capt. _taylor_ left him; and on the th returned here again. that the smoke which the persons saw on the island when they travelled over land, and which the schooner passed that day, was made by his order, but that he had not made any other smoke, and this was for a direction for his longboat, gone to the northward to trade, and to signify to capt. _taylor_ his being in the harbour, whose return he expected. capt. _goff_ said he had been in no inlet but _nesbit_'s harbour, and in this where the snow was; and that capt. _taylor_, in the snow's longboat, had searched the head of this inlet, shewed a draught of the coast, which was defective, as he knew nothing of the intermediate inlets. had no account of the inland country; of there being any beaver or other furs to be acquired there; or of there being any mines, of which the schooner's people had seen many instances, and had collected some ore. capt. _goff_ had two _dutch_ draughts of the coast, made from late surveys; but they were very inaccurate, the views taken from sea, and there the land appeared close and continued; the inlets, excepting that in which they now were, appearing like small bays, their entrance being covered by islands. they had, this year, found the corpse of one of those who went in the boat, stripped and lying on an island. it being rainy weather, and the wind contrary to the schooner's going up the inlet, they were detained, and on _september_ the th the snow's longboat returned, after having been out fourteen days, with some whalebone, and a quantity of _eskemaux_ cloathing, which being examined to find out if the _eskemaux_ wore furs, there was only seen a small slip of otter skin on one of the frocks. and capt. _goff_, being asked, said he never saw any furs amongst them. it is pretty evident the _eskemaux_ only pass along this coast, to go and trade with the _eskemaux_ in _hudson_'s streights, and occasionally put in as weather or other occasions may make it necessary, which keeps the native or inland _indians_ from the coast, as they are their enemies. the _eskemaux_ go up to latitude , or further north; there leave their great boats, pass a small neck of land, taking their canoes with them, and then go into another water which communicates with _hudson_'s streights. carry their return of trade into _eskemaux_ bay, where they live in winter; and the _french_ made considerable returns to _old france_, by the whalebone and oil procured from these people. and this account is agreeable to the best information that could be procured. while the schooner's people were viewing the cloaths, word was brought that the _eskemaux_ were coming, who may be heard shouting almost before that they can be discerned, the schooner's people repaired aboard. on the colours aboard the snow being hoisted, the schooner's people displayed theirs; but the snow being the nearest, and the snow's people so urged the _eskemaux_ to come along-side them, that they were afraid to pass. the _eskemaux_ had no large boats with them, only their canoes, three of which came afterwards along-side the schooner. it was perceived that none of the leading people were in the canoes; they exposed no marks or shew of any trade they had, which was usual for them to lay on the outside their canoes; nevertheless they were presented with rings. it was some time before they began to trade with the snow's people, and then it was carried on in a very peremptory manner. the people in the schooner, a light wind springing up, weighed anchor, with a design to proceed up the inlet, expecting to be followed by the _eskemaux_, when they saw that they were not associates with the snow's people, so to have a future opportunity of trading with them. it was also consistent with the design they had of searching this inlet, the first opportunity that offered. they took their leave of capt. _goff_ as they passed, and when advanced further beat their drum. the _eskemaux_ quitted the snow and came after the schooner. the fire arms were all primed and in order aboard the schooner, but concealed; each man had his station; and they were ordered to treat the _eskemaux_ as men, and to behave to them in an orderly manner; no hallooing, jumping, or wrestling with them when they came aboard; not to refuse some of the _eskemaux_ to come aboard, and let others, as there were but nine canoes in all. as the _eskemaux_ came along-side the schooner, they were presented each with a biscuit, a person standing in the main chains with a basket of biscuit for that purpose. then they aboard the schooner shewed a kettle, a hatchet, and some other things, which seemed much to please the _eskemaux_. one of them attempting to get into the schooner, two of the people helped him in: he was received civilly on the quarter-deck; the trading box shewed him, a spoon, a knife, and a comb with which he touched his hair and seemed desirous of, were given him. other _eskemaux_ were by this time aboard. they were presented with fish-hooks, small knives, combs, and a king _george_'s shilling apiece, which they carefully put into their sleeves. in the interim the _eskemaux_ who came first aboard was gone to the side, and called to another yet in the canoe under the title of _capitaine_. the _eskemaux_ so called to immediately came aboard, saluted the commander with three congees, and kissed each cheek. he was presented with a spoon and a knife. being shewn the goods, appeared very desirous of a file, offering old cloaths for it. but the commander signified he would not trade for old cloaths, but _shoeeock_ (which is whalebone in their language) or skins; and the latter he denoted to the _capitaine_ by a piece of white bear skin that the _capitaine_ had brought in his hand. the _capitaine_ expressed by his action that he had not either bone or skins: he was then presented with the file; was shewed a matchcoat, which he surveyed very accurately; signed to the commander if he was not come round from the south-west, meaning, as supposed, from _quebeck_ or the gulph of _st. lawrence_. afterwards took the commander under his arm, and shewed a desire of going into the cabbin, which was complied with. he passed the door first, and sat down in as regular a manner as any _european_, having first accurately looked about him; but there were no fire-arms in sight. refused wine, drank spruce beer; was shewed a sample of all the kind of goods, with which he seemed well pleased; and it was signified to him that there was plenty of them. while in the cabbin the other _eskemaux_ who were on deck, called to their _capitaine_, they were invited down. three of the _eskemaux_ came, but it was observable the _capitaine_ covered the goods with a woollen cloth, which lay on the table. they were presented with beef and pudding, which they took, and returned on deck. the _eskemaux capitaine_ put the goods into the box himself very honestly, and seeming to admire a small brass-handled penknife, it was presented to him. he then returned on deck, pointed to the sun, lowered his hand a little, then made a sign of sleeping by shutting his eyes, and laying his hand to his cheek, and shewed with his hand to have the schooner to come to an anchor just above. by which it was understood that a little after that time the next day he would be there with trade. the schooner, being by this time opposite to a narrow passage or streight formed by islands, through which the _eskemaux_ had come into this inlet, the _capitaine_ ordered his people into their canoes, and retired with a congee himself, after repeating the commander's name, to see if he had it right, and which he had been very industrious to learn while he was in the cabbin. the commander attended him to the side; and seeing in his canoe a war-bow and arrows, which are of a curious construction, pressed him to let him have them, though the same thing as asking a man to part with the sword he wore. the _capitaine_, by signs, shewed he could not part with it, and seemed to express it with great reluctance that he could not. this circumstance, and their having no women with them, caused the schooner's people to think they looked upon themselves, when they set out, as coming amongst their enemies. the drum was beat until they were out of sight; and the _capitaine_, just before he lost sight of the schooner by being shut in by the islands, pointed to the sun, and the anchoring place. the _eskemaux_, while aboard, behaved with great decency and silence; though at first they began to jump and halloo, as they had done aboard the snow; but finding the people of the schooner not so disposed, soon left off. soon after the schooner was anchored in an excellent harbour, the snow's boat came along-side, with the first mate and agent. they were asked to mess; and it being enquired of them how far they had been with the longboat in the last trip, said to latitude ° ´: had seen no _eskemaux_, but within a few days, though they had been out fourteen days. the mate said, that he had chased a trading boat, with two _eskemaux_ in it, who had endeavoured to avoid them, and dodged amongst the islands; but he came up with them as though he had been a privateer's boat; run bolt aboard them, and so frightened the _eskemaux_ that they fell on their knees, cried out, _tout comerado_, and they would have given him all they had. he said they took out the whalebone, which he brought aboard, about a hundred and fifty weight, and paid them for it as much as he saw the captain give. he saw other _eskemaux_ at times ashore, where they invited him, but would not venture; and fired a blunderbuss, charged with thirteen bullets, over them, which caused some of them to fall down, others to bow. some _eskemaux_ came along-side, and traded their cloaths; but with great fear, crying out, _tout comerado_, as he had four men armed standing in the bow of the boat. said that those _eskemaux_ had, who were just gone from the schooner, the peoples cloaths who had been trepanned the last year, particularly a brown waistcoat, which had had white buttons on it, and a white great-coat. the great-coat meant was a _french_ matchcoat, which the _eskemaux_ captain had on, made up in a frock according to the manner that they wear them. the supposed brown jacket was a _french_ brown cloth, and there were two _eskemaux_ who had them. the mate said the schooner's people had talked of some inlets; but no answer was made, on which he declared there was no inlet between _nesbit_'s harbour and where they then were, nor any inlet to northward between that and latitude ° ´. after making some enquiries, as to what the schooner's people further intended, quitted, and made for the streight the _eskemaux_ had passed through. this is mentioned as an instance of what caution should be used, as to the choice of persons sent on expeditions to explore unfrequented or unknown parts, as the adventurers may be sufferers, and the reason of their being so a secret, and thereon pronounce decisively no advantages are to be made, thus deprived of what might be greatly to their private emolument in time under a proper conduct, and to the benefit of the publick. and there is a further misfortune attending an improper choice, which every social and generous man will consider. that according to the impressions that _indians_ receive on the first acquaintance, a lasting friendship may be expected, or an enmity and jealousy very difficult to remove, who, in the interim, will execute their revenge; not on those who gave the offence, but on all indiscriminately of the same complexion, when an opportunity offers. reasons would be unnecessarily urged in support of what experience proves, and of which there have been several melancholy examples on this coast. by a privateer from _new york_, some years since, the first offence was given; those who have gone since have done nothing to mollify or abate this enmity and revenge. there could be no expectation of a reconciliation with these _indians_, to the great improvement of commerce in various branches, but by the measures taken, the sending some of his majesty's ships into these parts to explore and get a knowledge of the coast; and the commanders to establish a regulation, which will be a satisfaction and encouragement to every fair trader; and where the trade long since might have been brought to some perfection, had it not been from the little dirty avarice of those employed by private adventurers, who hindered the original design having a due effect; and by interfering the one with the other, to their mutual prejudice, they prevented those returns on their voyages which might have been otherwise made. the consequence was, all future attempts were dropt, and it was indeed rendered almost impossible that any fresh undertakings should meet with success, by the difficulties flung in the way on account of the natives, but which will now be effectually removed by the government giving their assistance. the next morning three people were sent from the schooner to go on the heights, to discover the water the _eskemaux_ had gone into, and to see if the _eskemaux_ were coming. the account brought back was, that there was seen an _indian_ trading boat or shallop under sail, which presently tacked and stood towards four other shallops. they all lowered sail, and the _eskemaux_ seemed to be consulting together. soon after the people saw the snow's longboat coming, the shallops hoisted sail, then went one canoe, afterwards two more, to the snow's longboat, while the shallops crouded away. the schooner's people, after this time, had no opportunity of seeing the _eskemaux_; and attributed their coming no more to their fear of meeting the longboat, or the bad weather, it being wet and blustering for the several succeeding days. but they learned, after the schooner had returned to _philadelphia_, that those in the snow's longboat followed the shallops, came up with them, and took what they had. the reason is apparent for their not coming to the schooner as they had no trade, and as they might have a suspicion that the schooner's people had a connivance with those in the boat, especially as they might see the three people from the schooner standing on the heights. the commander searched the head of this inlet, the shores of which were the most barren of any that had yet been seen, from the sea to the head of it, about nine leagues. upon their return they found the snow gone; they then went through the streight by which they saw the _eskemaux_ pass to explore that water. from this the discoverer passed between islands, without going out to sea into a second inlet; and from that to a third from where he had met the snow, and the seventh from _nesbit_'s harbour. and the seventh or last inlet ran a north and westerly course, and terminated the furthest inland, or had the most western longitude of any of the inlets; and its head about fifteen leagues from the sea. these last three inlets to seaward are separated by very large islands, and have islands lying off directly athwart their entrance, so that it is difficult to discover, when within these islands, that there is any outlet to the sea. the islands have little wood on them, and are mostly barren rock; but the main land much as in the other parts, only the inland more level. the blue ridge of mountains appeared plainer than from any other part. the latitude of the furthest inlet about . having explored these respective waters and adjacent country, and _davis_'s inlet, consequently, though it is difficult to which properly to affix the name; and the autumn being far advanced, as was apparent from the birch leaves becoming yellow, the berries frost-bit, the pines and spruce turning brown, severe gales, snow and sleet at times, and excessive cold on the high land; so as nothing further could be carried on with any spirit, but excessive fatigue, and the health of the people, as well preserved as on first setting out, would be now impaired, with no certain prospect of doing any thing further that was material, sufficient harbours having been found; on the th of _september_ they set out on their return. leaving the land favoured with pleasant weather, an opportunity waited for to make an accurate survey of the fishing bank, and to find the distance it lay from the land, which from the soundings on making the land, the seeing the islands of ice aground, and the account of _davis_, was known to be there, and named by him _walsingham_'s bank, after the true patriot and generous patron of a discovery of a north-west passage. sounding about a league from land, with one hundred and fifty fathom of line, had no ground. at about six leagues from land, twenty-five fathoms afterwards various soundings, and catched a great many cod, large and full fed, reckoned by the people aboard, to be very extraordinary fish, some of whom from _boston_ followed the employ of fishing for cod. the bank was concluded to be about nine leagues broad, and ninety fathom soundings on the going off it, on the eastern side; and it was concluded, on a pretty good assurance, that it reaches from lat. to lat. , if not further; but the weather proving boisterous, as they ran to the southward, could not continue their soundings. the schooner sounded with a hundred and fifty fathom of line, close by an island of ice, of a surprising magnitude, between the bank and the shore, which was aground, and they did not get soundings. finis. errata. page . l. . de fuentes. the, _read_ de fuentes, the. . l. . de fonte's, _read_ de fonte's account. . l. . don ronquillo, _read_ don pennelossa. . l. . from, _read_ in. . l. . to the southward, _read_ to the northward. . l. . it, _read_ this mission. . l. . as that worthy, _read_ that worthy. . l. . new spain, _read_ florida. l. . florida, _read_ peruan part. . l. . is consistent, _read_ is not consistent. . l. . rivers and harbours, _read_ river and harbour. . l. . in the year , _read_ until the year . . l. . between the sea, _read_ the ocean and the sea. . l. . nigh summit, _read_ high summit. directions for placing the maps. map of _de fonte_'s discoveries, in front. map of _new spain_, from _torquemada_, page . map of the discoveries in _hudson_'s bay, page . just published, in quarto, very proper to be bound with this book, i. voyages from asia to america, made by the _russians_ for completing the discoveries of the north-west coast of _america_. translated from the _high dutch_ of m. muller, of the royal academy of _petersburgh_. illustrated with maps. the second edition. ii. the history of kamtschatka and the kurilski islands, with the countries adjacent. illustrated with maps and cuts. published at _petersburgh_ in the _russian_ language, by order of her imperial majesty; and translated into _english_ by james grieve, m.d. * * * * * transcriber's notes the sidenotes april and june were printed at the beginning of each page of the chapter in the original. this duplication has been removed. the corrections in the errata list have been implemented, the first of which is on page , not . hyphenation has been standardised. obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. other variations in spelling, punctuation and accents are as in the original. italics are represented thus _italic_. the long s has been replaced throughout.