OF THE POLAR SEA. 319 
of’ the first delineation, The latter was elder 
brother to Akaitcho, and he said that he had ac- 
companied Mr. Hearne on: his journey, and 
though very young at the time, still remembered 
many of the circumstances, and particularly the 
massacre committed by the Indians on the Es- 
quimaux. | : 
They pointed out another lake to the south- 
ward of the river, about three days’ journey dis- 
tant from it, on which the chief proposed the 
next winter’s establishment should be formed, as 
the rein-deer would pass there in the autumn 
and spring. Its waters contained fish, and-there 
was a sufficiency of wood for building as well as 
for the winter’s consumption. These.were im- 
portant considerations, and determined me in pur- 
suing the route they now proposed. They could 
not inform us what time we should take in reach- 
ing the lake, until they saw our manner of tra- 
velling in the large canoes, but they supposed 
we might be about twenty days, in which case I 
entertained the hope that if we could then pro- 
cure provision we should have time to descend 
the Copper-Mine River for a considerable: dis- 
tance if not to the sea itself, and return to the lake 
before the winter set in. 
It may here be proper to mention that it had 
been my original plan to descend the Mackenzie's 
