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



adapted for the winter residence and support of an exploring 

 party; 2ndly, it does not fliU into an inlet, having Melville 

 Peninsula on the one side and land running far to the north 

 on the other, but into a gulf to the westward of that inlet, in 

 which the far northern land lies on the right instead of the 

 left hand ; 3rdly, it has not three portages between it and the 

 Great Slave Lake. It is evident, therefore, that it is in the 

 name alone that there is any similarity between the river for 

 which the exploring party sought, and that which they found ; 

 and it is equally evident that in the paper read before the Geo- 

 graphical Society it is the Fish River, and not the Great Fish 

 River, which is there described. In confirmation, there ap- 

 pears in the official narrative of the expedition in search of 

 Captain Sir John Ross, published in 1836, the engraved 

 chart of a copper Indian, wherein the position, trending and 

 separation by three portages of the Fish River from Great 

 Slave Lake will be found exactly to correspond with the chart 

 published in the Royal Geographical Society's Journal. We 

 have the testimony, moreover, of Dr. Richardson, that the 

 Fish River is well known to the fur traders, and that they 

 travel to it from the Athabasca in four days ; and we have the 

 further testimony of the fur trader, Roderic Macleod, who ac- 

 companied the exploring party. Additionally, George Sinclair, 

 one of the most able men attached to the expedition in search 

 of Captain Sir John Ross and his party, and more recently to 

 that of Messrs. Dease and Simpson, while on an excursion 

 for provision, crossed the tributary to the Great Fish River, 

 said by the Chipewyan chief, the Comrade de Mandeville, 

 to take its rise near the head waters of the Fish River. That 

 tributary was seen by him trending in a direct course for the 

 Great Fish River through a well-wooded country, and afford- 

 ing everything necessary for a winter establishment. 



Surely after such testimony we can no longer doubt the ex- 

 istence of the Fish River; that it takes its rise in a well- 

 wooded district, and that it flows parallel with the Great Fish 

 River to the Polar Sea. The facts I have recorded, the ex- 

 treme accuracy of the Indians regarding the Great Fish River, 

 too well known to need repeating here, the northerly trending 

 of the eastern boundary of the estuary into which the Great 

 Fish River falls, the southerly trending of North Somerset, 

 all combine to induce me to put implicit belief in the original 

 paper laid before the Geographical Society, that the Fish 

 River falls into an extensive gulf, whose west side is bounded 

 by a promontory running far to the north, and its east side 

 by Melville Peninsula; and that finally that gulf will be found 

 to be identical with Regent's Inlet. That the Fish River 



