activity on their recent passage to this place, by discharging those
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 85° 23' 42", and the
difference produced by reversing the face of the instrument was
6° 2' 10". 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 11T 18' 20" W., its latitude was observed to be
58° 42' 38" N ., and the variation of the compass 22° 49' 32" 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. BEI]SrG 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 23d, 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 24th 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