1849. DESCENDS THE COPPERMINE. 121 



have crossed the river without being more than ankle deep 

 in water. 



" During five days that we were detained here, we were 

 occupied repairing the injuries received by the boat, shoot- 

 ing deer to save our pemican, and making observations 

 when the weather would permit. The result of three 

 meridian observations of the sun gave mean latitude 67° 

 07' 20" N., and the mean variation from five sets of 

 azimuths on different days (the extremes being 49° 38', 

 and 51° 55') was 50° 37' 48" E. On the 28th the dwarf 

 birch was observed to be in leaf, and the leaf-buds of the 

 willows began to develope. In the afternoon of the same 

 day the river was thought sufficiently open to permit us 

 to descend it for some distance among the driving ice ; 

 but after proceeding six miles, we found the stream again 

 blocked up. We were so often and so long detained by in- 

 terruptions of this kind, that it was the 11th of July before 

 we arrived at the Bloody Fall, having been fourteen days 

 in doing the work of one. Notwithstanding the inefficiency 

 of our steersman James Hope (one of Dease and Simpson's 

 men), we ran all the rapids, including the Escape, without 

 shipping much water, and with all the cargo in the boat. 



" Hitherto deer had been so numerous that we could 

 easily have shot enough for the maintenance of a party 

 double or treble our numbers. Here they had become 

 more scarce and shy, which could be only accounted for 

 by the proximity of the Eskimos, no recent traces of whom 

 could however be seen. From the fall to the sea the ice 

 remained fixed until the 13th, when it cleared away, a 

 circumstance that was very soon indicated by the numbers 

 of fish which appeared below the fall. With the aid of 

 Halkett's air-boat, which had been brought from a hill 

 some miles distant, where it had been left last season, a 



