Chap. X. FRANKLIN AND RICHARDSON'S JOURNEY. 353 



fact, electricity regards neither time nor space. 

 How many impossibilities would ordinary people 

 meet with in the agencies of electricity, galvan- 

 ism, and magnetism ; one or all of which may 

 almost be looked on as the life aud soul of the 

 material of our world ; daily manifesting the truth, 

 that " we are yet only on the threshold of disco- 

 very," — Sir Humphry Davy's words, uttered but a 

 short time before his death. 



To return, after this digression, to our voyagers. 

 As soon as the number of people to be employed 

 was completed, consisting of sixteen Canadian 

 voyagers, their English attendant, John Hepburn, 

 two interpreters to be received at the Great Slave 

 Lake, and one Chipewyan woman, and their 

 provisions shipped, they all embarked on the 18th 

 of July, in high glee-, and the crews of the three 

 canoes commenced a lively paddling song on quit- 

 ting the shore, which was continued till out of sight 

 of the house. On the 24th they reached Moose- 

 deer Island, a post of the North- West Company, 

 and engaged Pierre St. Germain as interpreter 

 for the Copper Indians. On the 28th they arrived 

 at Fort Providence, situated on the north-eastern 

 side of Great Slave Lake. They found here Mr. 

 Wentzel and the second interpreter, Jean Baptiste 

 Adam. The duties allotted to the former were, the 

 management of the Indians, the superintendence of 

 the Canadian voyagers, the obtaining and distribut- 



2 A 



