ferocious aspect. Mr. Back and I were too much occupied in preparing
for our departure on the following day to join this excursion.
The position of Cumberland House, by our observations, is, latitude
53° 56' 40" N .; longitude 102° 16' 41" W , by the chronometers;
variations 17° 17' 29" E ,; dip of the needle, 83° 12' 50". The whole
of the travelling distance between York Factory and Cumberland
House is about six hundred and ninety miles. CHAPTER III.
Dr. Richardson’s Residence at Cumberland-House— His Account of the Cree Indians.
January 19. FROM the departure of Messrs. Franklin and Back, on
the 19th of January, for Chipewyan, until the opening of the navigation
in the spring, the occurrences connected with the Expedition
were so much in the ordinary routine of a winter’s residence at
Fort Cumberland, that they may be, perhaps, appropriately blended
with the following general but brief account of that district and its
inhabitants.
Cumberland House was originally built by Hearne, a year or two
after his return from the Copper-mine River, and has ever since been
considered by the Hudson’s Bay Company as a post of considerable
importance. Previous to that time, the natives carried their furs
down to the shores of Hudson's Bay, or disposed of them nearer
home to the French Canadian traders, who visited this part of the
country as early as the year 1697.
The Cumberland House district, extending about one hundred
and fifty miles from east to west along the banks of the Saskatchawan,
and about as far from north to south, comprehends on a rough calculation,
upwards of twenty thousand square miles, and is frequented
at present by about one hundred and twenty Indian hunters. Of
these a few have several wives, but the majority only one; and, as
some are unmarried, we shall not err greatly in considering the
number of married women as only slightly exceeding that of the