the leader had been joined by several families of old people, and that
the daily consumption of provision at the Indian tents was com
sequently 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 2nd some patches of sandy ground near th,e house were cleared
of snow. On the 7th the sides of the hills began to appear bare,
and on the 8th 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 9th the approach of spring was still more agreeably corn
firmed 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 five 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 calyptrae of some of the jungermannise
already visible.
On the 11th 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 sept 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 circumO
snt atnhcee s1. 4th a robin ( turdusmi gratorius) appeared; th.is .bir.d i&
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 erecca,) which fives 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 54°, usually about the 12th of April;
at FortChipewyan, in latitude 59°, on the 25th of April.; at Slave
Lake; in latitude 61°, on.the 1st of May;, and at Fort Enterprise,
in latitude 64° 28', on the 12th or 14th of the same month.
On the 16th a minor chief amongst the Copper Indians, attended
by his son, arrived from Fort Providence, to consult Dr. Richardson.
H e was affected, with snow-blindness, which was soon relieved, by
the: dropping of a little laudanum into his eyes twice a day. Most