CHAP. i. THE MOUTH OF THE MOISIE RIVER. 3 



Mr. J. F. Gaudet and Mr. Edward Caley were appointed 

 by the Crown Lands' Department of the Canadian 

 Government to accompany me as surveyors. I also took 

 with me from Quebec five French-Canadian voyageurs, 

 and the following requisites for the exploration : 



Four birch-bark canoes, from fifteen to eighteen feet 

 in length. 



500 pounds of smoked bacon. 



800 pounds of flour. 



200 pounds of biscuit. 



2000 rations of pressed vegetables. 







50 pounds of tea. 



25 pounds of tobacco. 



Salt, pepper, pickles, &c. 



Surveying instruments, barometers, thermometers, &c. ; 

 a plentiful supply of ammunition, fishing-tackle, nets, and 

 a few portable non-essentials. 



These provisions were reserved for use in the country 

 beyond the rapids of the Moisie, about fourteen miles 

 from its mouth, as it was my intention to subsist on what 

 we could procure at the fishing station on the coast, 

 until thrown upon our own resources in the uninhabited 

 region. 



We spent two or three days at the mouth of the Moisie 

 in preparing canoes for the journey, collecting information, 

 and in procuring the services of Indians and guides. 



The description given of the portages by the Montagnais, 

 who were accustomed to pass up the Moisie to their 

 hunting-grounds on the table land of the Labrador Penin- 

 sula, was very discouraging. Indeed, some of these 

 people, who had just descended the river from the interior. 



