Copper Indians, with their families who had supported themselves
with the bow and arrow since last autumn, not having visited Fort
Providence for more than a year; and so successful had they been, that
they were enabled to supply us with upwards of seventy pounds of
dried meat, and six moose skins fit for making shoes, which were the
more valuable as we were apprehensive of being barefooted before the
journey could be completed. The evening was sultry, and the
musquitoes appeared in great numbers. The distance made to-day
was twenty-five miles.
On the following morning we went down to these Indians, and
delivered to them notes on the North-West Company, for the meat
and skins they had furnished; and we had then the mortification of
learning, that not having people to carry a considerable quantity of
pounded meat, which they had intended for us, they had left it upon
the Bear Lake Portage. They promised, however to get it conveyed
to the banks of this river before we could return, and we rewarded
them with a present of knives and files.
After re-embarking we continued to descend the river, which was
now contracted between lofty banks to about one hundred and
twenty yards wide; the current was very strong. At eleven we
came to a rapid which had been the theme of discourse with the
Indians for many days, and which they had described to us as impassable
in canoes. The river here descends for three quarters of a
mile, in a deep, but narrow and crooked, channel, which it has cut
through the foot of a hill of five hundred or six hundred feet high.
It is confined between perpendicular cliffs, resembling stone walls,
varying in height from eighty to one hundred and fifty feet, on
which lies a mass of fine sand. The body of the river pent within
this narrow chasm, dashed furiously round the projecting rocky
columns, and discharged itself at the northern extremity in a Sheet
of foam. The canoes, after being lightened of part of their cargoes,
ran through this defile without sustaining any injury. Accurate
sketches of this interesting scene were taken by Messrs.. Back and
Hood. Soon after passing this rapid, we perceived the hunters
running up the east, side of the river,, to prevent us from disturbing
a herd of musk oxen, which they had observed grazing on the
opposite bank; we put them across and they succeeded in killing six,
upon which we: encamped for the purpose of drying the meat. The
country below the Rocky Defile Rapid consists of sandy plains;
broken by small conical eminences also of sand; and bounded to the
westward by a, continuation of the mountain chain, which we had
crossed at the Bear Lake Portage ; and to the eastward and northward.
at the distance of twelve miles, by the Copper Mountains,
which Mr. Hearne visited. The plains are crowned by several
clumps of moderately large spruces, about thirty feet high.
This evening the Indians made a large fire, as a signal to the
Hook’s party that we had passed the terrific rapid in safety.
The position of our encampment was ascertained to- be, latitude
6.1° 1' 10" N., longitude 116° 2!7' 28" W., variation of the compass 41°
11' 43? E.,. dip of the needle 81° 31' 18''..
Some thunder showers retarded the drying of the meat,, and our
embarkation was delayed till the next day. The hunters were sent
forward to hunt at the Copper Mountains, under the superintendence
of Adam, the interpreter, who received strict injunctions not to
permit them to make any large fires, lest they should alarm straggling
parties of the: Esquimaux.
The musquitoes were now very numerous and annoying, but we
eonsoledi ourselves with the hope that their season would be short.
On the 11th we started at three. A. M.,, and as the guide had
represented the river below our encampment to be full of shoals,
some of the men were directed to walk along the shore, but they
were assailed so violently by the musquitoes, as to be compelled to
embark very soon; and we afterwards passed over the shallow parts
8 X 2