OF THE POLAR SEA. 345 
on a small stream, running towards the north- 
west, which carried us to the lake, where Akait- 
cho proposed that we should pass the winter. 
The officers ascended several of the loftiest hills 
in the course of the day, prompted by a natural 
anxiety to examine the spot which was to be 
their residence for many months. The prospect, 
however, was not then the most agreeable, as the 
borders of the lake seemed to be scantily fur- 
nished with wood, and that of a kind too small 
for the purposes of building. 
We perceived the smoke of a distant fire which 
the Indians suppose had been made by some of 
~ the Dog-ribbed tribe, who occasionally visit this 
part of the country. 
Embarking at seven next morning, we paddled 
to the western extremity of the lake, and there 
found a small river, which flows out of it to the 
S.W. To avoid a strong rapid at its commence- 
ment, we made a portage, and then crossed to 
the north bank of the river, where the Indians 
recommended that the winter establishment 
should be erected, and we soon found that the 
situation they had chosen possessed all the ad- 
vantages we could have desired. The trees 
were numerous, and of a far greater size than 
we had supposed them to be yesterday. Some 
of the pines being thirty or forty feet high, and two 
feét in diameter at the root. We determined on 
