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*.
Our observations place Fort Providence in latitude 62° 17' 1.9" N.,
longitude 114° 9' 28" W .; the variation of the compass is 33° 35'
55" E., and dip of the needle 86° 38'. 02". 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 Eiver. It has
been erected for the convenience of the Copper and Dog-Rib Indians,
* The folio-wing 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.
C a n a d i a n V o y a g e r s .
Joseph Peltier, Joseph Forcier,
Matthew Pelonquin, dit Crédit, Ignace Perrault,
Solomon Belanger,
Joseph Benoit,
Joseph Gagné,
Pierre Dumas,.
Pierre St. Germain,
Francois Samaiidré,
Gabriel Beauparlant,
Vincenza Fontano,
Registe Vaillant,
I n t e r p r e t e r s .
Jean Baptiste Adam,
Jean Baptiste Parent,
Jean Baptiste Belanger,
Jean Baptiste Belleau,
Emanuel Goumoyee,
Michel Teroahaute . an
Iroquois.
Chipewyan Bois Brûlés.
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 hot
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 redish 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 berrybearing
plants.
On the afternoon of the 2d 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 fine 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