122 TIIK ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



"June 4th. Saturday. At 3 a.m. Messrs Sutherland, Tomison 

 and Swain arrived in 16 canoes & 1 boat with 212 bundles of furs and 

 60 bags of Pimmican also 2 kegs of Fatt." 



"June 5th. Sunday. At 8 a.m. Messrs. Rod. McKenzie & Finley 

 arrived in a light canoe from the Athapescow, they have been only 17 

 days on their passage. At 1 p.m. they again embarked for the great 

 carrying place, their loaded canoes they expect here in about 14 days." 



The name of the Canadian who had been killed was not given in 

 Fidler's Journal, but it is probable that it was Robert Thompson who 

 had been a successful fur trader in the country north of Cumberland 

 House for some years previous to that time, and who is known to have 

 been killed l)y an Indian some time during the winter (f 1795-6. 



Mr. Wm. Tomison, who was the "Chief Inland" for the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, remained at Cumberland House for most of that summer. 

 At the same time Mr. Porter was in charge of the adjoining Trading 

 Post of the North West Company. 



On the 27th of September, 1796, Fidler left Cumberland House, 

 where he had spent the summer, and embarked up the Saskatchewan 

 for his old home at Buckingham House, where he arrived on the 19th 

 of October and where he spent the following winter, with the exception 

 of a short trip which he made to visit his friend George Sutherland at 

 Edmonton. While here his salary was raised to £30 a year. 



Mr. McDonald was in charge of the adjoining Trading Post of the 

 North- West Company, which was known as Fort George, and Fidler 

 keeps a record of the White men and Indians who visited both his own 

 post and that of his rival. 



During the winter boats were built for carrying out the furs that 

 had been collected both here and at Edmonton. 



The winter was an exceedingly cold one, possibly the coldest that 

 has ever been known in North- Western Canada, and in the spring of 

 1797 the ice, which usually breaks up in Lake Winnipeg about the First 

 of June, was still solid on parts of the north end of that Lake on the 

 First of July. 



On the 19th of May, 1797, Fidler embarked from Buckingham House 

 for York Factory, which he reached about the middle of July, and from 

 which place he got back to Cumberland House on the 20th of September. 



This post was to be his home for the next two years, but we know 

 little about his life, except such brief remarks as are found in his meteor- 

 ological journal. In the records at York Factory for these years he is 

 entered in the list of employees as a trader at a salary of £50 a year. 

 In the year 1799 it had been determined, if possible, to compete with 

 the North-West Company on the upper waters of the Churchill River 

 and on the Athabasca and Mackenzie Rivers, and instructions were 



