CHAPTER VIII.
Transactions at Fort Enterprise—Mr. Back’s Narrative of his Journey to Chipewyan and
Return.
September. D u r i n g 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 reserved for the Appendix.
The men continued to work diligently at the house, and by the
30th 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 33f°, but
Voyage to Hudson’s Bay in the Dobbs and California.
the thermometer had sunk as low as 16°, and on one occasion rose
to 53-
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 6th 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
faggots, we spent a cheerful evening before the invigorating blaze.
The change was peculiarly beneficial to Dr. Richardson, who, haying,
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