Dr. King on the Fish River of the Polar Sea. 413 



confirmation, a sketch of the country between the Great Slave 

 Lake and the Fish River, wherein is accurately laid down the 

 three portages interrupting the water communication, is pub- 

 lished in the official narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition 

 in search of Captain Sir John Ross and his party. We are 

 further informed in the same narrative, that the Indian guide 

 Mauffly repeatedly, while on duty, pointed out well-known 

 routes to the river, not only from Great Slave Lake, but from 

 Lakes Aylmer and Clinton Colden. It does not appear that 

 Captain Sir John Franklin had made up his mind upon the 

 subject when the river and its trendings were under anxious 

 consideration at the time of the contemplated journey in 1833, 

 in search of the lost travellers, but by a written communica- 

 tion in 1836 he informed the Royal Geographical Society* 

 that he did not believe the river fell into the Arctic Sea. 

 " The river," he says, " does not, it is imagined, flow to the 

 northward, but to the eastward, and probably falls into the 

 sea in Knapp's Bay, or between the Chesterfield and Wager 

 Inlets. I doubt," he continues, " the finding of fuel on the 

 banks of the river or near the source of it, as I always under- 

 stood that part of the country to be destitute of wood. I much 

 doubt also the possibility of a party getting a sufficient quan- 

 tity of fish in any river in that quarter to support it during a 

 winter." 



The existence of a river running from the vicinity of Great 

 Slave Lake into Regent's Inlet is of such vast importance in 

 a geographical, and as far as the Hudson's Bay Company is 

 concerned, in a commercial point of view, that it is necessary 

 to well weigh Captain Sir John Franklin's doubts as a test of 

 their value. It is necessary, however, to remove an impres- 

 sion, pretty generally prevalent, that the exploring party in 

 search of Captain Sir John Ross and his party discovered the 

 river of which it went in search. This is not the case; for it 

 was portrayed as falling into the sea of Regent's Inlet, having 

 on the one side Melville Peninsula, and on the other a high 

 promontory running far to the north (the land of North So- 

 merset?), as being well adapted for the winter residence and 

 support of an exploring party, the country in its vicinity 

 abounding in animals and the lakes in fish, and that source 

 separated from Great Slave Lake by three portages. But 

 these are not the features of the river discovered by the ex- 

 ploring party; on the contrary, they are just the reverse; for 

 in the first place not a particle of wood grows either at its 

 source or throughout its whole length, and therefore it is not 



* Sir John Franklin's report here referred to will be found in Dr. King's 

 former communication, Phil. Mag. S. 3. vol. xx. p. 488. 



