﻿318 COPPERMINE RIVER. Sept. 



being again duly arranged, we resumed the march, 

 and in a short time gained the summit of the 

 ridge dividing the valley of the Richardson from 

 that of the Coppermine. The latter was clothed 

 with snow, the climate being seemingly more severe, 

 though the distance between the streams is so 

 small. The plain which lay at our feet, between 

 the ridge and the Coppermine, is so much inter- 

 sected by small lakes, that we chose the driest 

 line of march, rather than the most direct, to avoid 

 the necessity of fording the lakes, or losing ground 

 by rounding them. At three o'clock we reached 

 the banks of the river, three or four miles above 

 Bloody Fall ; and, having found a sufficiency of 

 wood, made a good fire, which of late had been a 

 very rare luxury. Many deer, Hutchin's and snow 

 geese were seen ; and, Mr. Rae having killed nine 

 or ten of the latter, we enj oyed an excellent supper. 

 The country within the influence of the sea- 

 breezes which come from the icy surface of Coro- 

 nation Gulf, has the barren aspect and poor climate 

 of the tundras of the Siberian arctic region. The 

 moister tracts, where the soil is clayey, retain 

 so much ice-cold water in the short summer, that 

 a sparing vegetation exists only in the hassocks, 

 which bear, among the Chepewyan tribes, the name 

 of " women's heads," and render the footing of 

 pedestrians insecure and dangerous. " You may 



