FRANKLIN'S FIRST LANu rfXPELTTION. 121 



sixteen Canadian voyageurs, interpreters, &c., left Fort 

 Chipewyan in July, 1820, for Fort Enterprise, on Win- 

 ter Lake, more than five hundred miles distant. Here, 

 after walking eighty miles to get a look at the Copper- 

 mine, they wintered, while Mr. (now Sir George) Back 

 returned on foot to Fort Chipewyan, to expedite the 

 transit of stores required for the next year's operations. 

 At the end of five months he rejoined his companions, 

 after a journey wldch put his powers of endurance to a 

 severe test. 



Some interesting instances of Indian generosity are 

 recorded in tho report of Back's long and perilous jour- 

 ney. " One of the women caught a fine pike, by making 

 a hole in the ice, which she gave to us ; the Indians 

 positively reiust-d to partake of it, from the idea (as we 

 afterwards learned) that we should not have sufficient 

 for ourselves. ' We are accustomed to starvation/ said 

 they, ' but you are not/ 



Back, in this dreadful journey, was not only exposed 

 to starvation ami the extremity of cold, but also to 

 the danger of perishing in some of the lakes which the 

 had to cross on foot. On a narrow branch of the Slave 

 Lake he fell through the ice, but escaped without 

 injury ; on another occasion the ice bent so that it 

 required the utmost speed to avoid falling through 

 where it gave way, as it seems to have done at every 

 step he took. In short, it was little less than miracu- 

 lous, considering the season and the severity of the 

 winter, that he ever returned safe ; which, however, he 

 had the good fortune to do on the lYth of March, when 

 he arrived at Fort Enterprise, where, he says, " I had 

 the pleasure of meeting my friends all in good health, 

 after an absence of nearly five months, during which 

 time I had travelled eleven hundred and four miles on 

 snow-ghees, and had no other covering, at night, in the 



