2S3 JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



interpreters and the most experienced voyagers, 

 who declared that they would prove inadequate 

 to the conveyance of the party, and that much 

 time would be lost in the attempt. The men, in 

 fact, did not believe that this was the Copper- 

 Mine River, and so little confidence had they in 

 our reckoning, and so much had they bewildered 

 themselves on the march, that some of them as- 

 serted it was Hood's River, and others that it 

 was the Bethe-tessy, (a river which rises from a 

 lake to the northward of Rum Lake, and holds a 

 course to the sea parallel to that of the Copper- 

 Mine.) In short, their despondency had return- 

 ed, and they all despaired of seeing Fort Enter- 

 prise again. However, the steady assurances of 

 the officers, that we were actually on the banks of 

 the Copper- Mine River, and that the distance to 

 Fort Enterprise did not exceed forty miles, made 

 some impression upon them, which was increased 

 upon our finding some bear-berry plants (arbutus 

 urn ursij, which is reported by the Indians not to 

 grow to the eastward of that river. Then they 

 deplored their folly and impatience in breaking 

 the canoe, being all of opinion, that had it not 

 been so completely demolished on the 2.3d; it 

 might have been repaired suIBciently to take the 

 party over. We again closely interrogated Peltier 

 and VaiUant as to its state, with the intention of 



