and three quarters wide. Its banks are of moderate height, sandy,
and well wooded.
July 24.—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 113° 25' 36”, and variation 27 25 14 N., and
the latitude 60° 54' 52” N., 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
smallpr 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. M'Cleod, of the North-West
Company, to furnish us with four hundred pounds of dried provisions.
Mr. M‘Vicar, 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 61° 11'8"N.; longitude 113° 51' 37" W., being two
hundred and sixty statute miles distant from Fort Chipewyan, by
the river course. The variation of the compass is 25° 40' 47" 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 mus-
quitoes here were still a serious annoyance to us, but less numerous
than before. They were is some degree replaced by a small sand-fly,
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.