86 
Owing to the long absence of Capt. John Ross of the Victory, in 
the northern seas, a relief and exploring expedition was organized under 
the command of Capt. Back, who intended reaching the north coast of 
America by descending the Great Fish River. This was supposed to 
flow in a north east direction, and reach the sea at no great distance 
from the longitude in which Parry's ship, " Fury," had been abandoned 
in 1824. It was known that Ross would endeavour to reach this spot 
and take some of the store of provisions piled up on the beach. Capt. 
Back, therefore, in 1833 reached Slave Lake, and advanced by Artillery 
and Clinton Golden Lakes to Aylmer Lake, and made an examination of 
the head waters of the Fish River. He then returned to the wooded 
country to winter. At the eastern end of Slave Lake he built his 
winter quarters, and called the house Fort Reliance. 
On March 26th intelligence reached him of the return of Ross, so 
that the expedition now was for exploration only. 
Early in the spring a start was made, and during the summer he 
successfully descended the river to the sea, and by fall had returned to 
his former winter quarters, where he passed the winter of 1834-5, and 
then returned to England. 
One result of the explorations of Dr. Ross on the shores of the 
Gulf of Boothia in 1853-4, was the obtaining of relics of the Franklin 
expedition from ihe Esquimaux, with the information that some at least 
of the party had reached the mainland, near the mouth of the Fish 
River, though they probably all perished in that vicinity. England at 
that time was engaged in the war in the Crimea, and could not at once 
fit out a relief expedition, but asked the Hudson Bay Co. to undertake 
and fit out an expedition to descend the Fish River, and search the 
coast in the vicinity of its mouth. This expedition was under the 
direction of Messrs. Anderson and Stuart, officers of the Company, who, 
in 1855, made the descent of the river, but were only partly successful 
in finding traces of the party, and returned to Fort Resolution the same 
season. 
The next traveller giving any account of this district is Mr. Pike, 
as already noticed above. 
During the season of 1889 Mr. Tike made a very interesting trip 
northward, to a large lake lying to the westward of Aylmer Lake, to 
