8 PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 



good boat carpenters, were to be engaged in this 

 country, — and part in Canada, — men who should 

 be inured to fatigue, and well accustomed to the 

 duties they would have to perform. From 

 Montreal it was proposed that the ordinary 

 route of the fur traders should be followed by 

 the Ottawa, French River, the Great Lakes, 

 Lake Winnipeg, &c. to Great Slave Lake ; from 

 whence Indians were to be employed as guides 

 and hunters to accompany the party to the 

 banks of the Thlew-ee-choh-desseth, or Great 

 Fish River, which, according to the testimony of 

 the Indians, lay to the eastward of the Lake, and 

 might be approached by an intervening chain of 

 smaller lakes and portages. The winter resi- 

 dence, for which, from a reference to Hearne's 

 Journey, it seemed so well adapted, was to be 

 there established ; and in the mean while a de- 

 tachment of eight men, well armed, was to pro- 

 ceed in advance with me, without loss of time, to 

 explore the river in a light canoe. As it neces- 

 sarily flowed through the barren lands which are 

 of nearly equal elevation with the country north 

 of Fort Enterprise, it was to be expected that its 

 course, like the descent of the Coppermine river, 

 would be interrupted by rapids or cascades ; 

 and these the canoe excursion would enable me 

 to survey, so that, on my return to the winter 

 establishment, we might construct boats com- 

 bining the qualities requisite for both the river 



