VOYAGE TO THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 47 



ence of a river; which, from copper abounding near 

 it, had got the name of the Copper-mine River. We 

 read much about this river in Mr. Dobbs's publica- 

 tions, and he considers the Indian accounts of it as 

 favourable to his system. The Company being de- 

 sirous of examining the matter with precision, ordered 

 their Governor of Prince of Wales's Fort, to send a 

 proper person to travel by land, under the escort of 

 some trusty Northern Indians, with orders to pro- 

 ceed to this famous river, to take an accurate survey 

 of its course, and to trace it to the sea, into which it 

 empties itself. Mr. Hearne, a young gentleman in 

 their service, who, having been an officer in the 

 navy, was well qualified to make observations for fix- 

 ing the longitude and latitude, and make drawings of 

 the country he shall pass through, and of the river 

 which he was to examine, was appointed for this 

 service. 



Accordingly, he set out from Fort Prince of Wales, 

 on Churchill River, in latitude 58 50', on the 7th 

 of December, 17?0 ; and the whole of his proceed- 

 ings, from time to time, are faithfully preserved in 

 his written Journal. The publication of this would 

 not be an unacceptable present to the world, as it 

 draws a plain artless picture of the savage modes of 

 life, the scanty means of subsistence, and indeed of 

 the singular wretchedness, in every respect, of the 

 various tribes, who, without fixed habitations, pass 

 their miserable lives, roving throughout the dreary 

 deserts, and over the frozen lakes of the immense 

 track of continent through which Mr. Hearne passed, 

 and which he may be said to have added to the geo- 

 graphy of the globe. His general course was to the 

 north-west. In the month of June, 1771, being then 

 at a place called Conge catha wha Chaga, he. had, to 

 use his own words, two good observations, both by 

 meridian and double altitude s, the mean of which de- 

 termines this place to be in latitude 68 46' north, and. 



