OF THE POLAR SEA. 



301 



drying of meat for summer use, the bringing of fresh meat to the 

 fort, and the procuring a sufficient quantity of the resin of the 

 spruce-fir, or as it is termed by the voyagers gum, for repairing the 

 canoes previous to starting, and during the voyage. By my desire, 

 he had promised payment to the Indian women who should bring 

 in any of the latter article, and had sent several of our own men to 

 the woods to search for it. At this time I communicated to Mr. 

 Wentzel the mode in which I meant to conduct the journey of the 

 approaching summer. Upon our arrival at the sea, I proposed to 

 reduce the party to what would be sufficient to man two canoes, in 

 order to lessen the consumption of provisions during our voyage, or 

 journey along the coast; and as Mr. Wentzel had expressed a desire 

 of proceeding no further than the mouth of the Copper-Mine Eiver, 

 which was seconded by the Indians, who wished him to return with 

 them, I readily relieved his anxiety on this subject ; the more so as 

 I thought he might render greater service to us by making deposits 

 of provision at certain points, than by accompanying us, through 

 a country which was unknown to him, and amongst a people with 

 whom he was totally unacquainted. My intentions were explained 

 to him in detail, but they were of course to be modified by the 

 circumstances that might occur. 



On the 14th a robin appeared; this bird is considered by the 

 natives as the infallible precursor of warm weather. Ducks and 

 geese were also seen in numbers, and the rein-deer advanced to 

 the northward. The merganser, which preys upon small fish, was 





the first of the duck tribe that appeared ; next came the teal, 

 creccaj which lives upon small insects that abound in the waters 

 at this season ; and lastly the goose, which feeds upon berries and 

 herbage. Geese appear at Cumberland House, in latitude 54°, usually 

 about the 12th of April ; at Fort Chipewyan, in latitude 59°, on the 

 25 th of April; at Slave Lake, in latitude 61°, on the 1st of May; and 



