136 BEAR LAKE RIVER. June, 



land immediately with some articles from the store 

 at Fort Norman. They did come back nine days 

 afterwards, and passed onwards to Fort Confidence ; 

 and we learnt in the sequel that the Mackenzie did 

 not break up at Fort Simpson till the 23d of May, 

 being fifteen days later than Mr. M'Pherson had 

 known it to do during twenty years' residence on 

 its banks. 



We remained waiting nearly a month for the 

 barge, having with us Mitchell and Brodie, with 

 the two Fort Franklin fishermen, Hector Morrison 

 and Narcisse Tremble. Our diet consisted of trout, 

 white fish, Bear-lake herring and geese, the latter 

 being Mr. Bell's contribution to the common stock. 

 Of Fort Franklin the only vestige remaining was 

 the foundation of a chimney stack ; and the fishing 

 hut not being large enough to hold us all, we bi- 

 vouacked under the shelter of a boat's sail, as a 

 substitute for a tent. When the water had run off 

 the surface of the ice on the lake, so that we could 

 transport our effects across it without wetting 

 them, we moved to the banks of Bear Lake River ; 

 being glad to quit the vicinity of the hut, which, 

 like all fishing quarters, became extremely dis- 

 agreeable as soon as the accumulated impurities 

 of the winter were revealed to view by the wasting 

 of the snow. The marshy places or dry sandy 

 banks first became bare, but many wreaths of 



