igii] The Coppermine Country 203 



Thus the French traders, who travelled so far through the northern 

 country and have told us so much about it, were the first to give us in- 

 formation about this region which still seems so remote and difficult of 

 access. 



After York Factory and the other trading posts on Hudson Bay 

 were handed back by the French to the English and to the Hudson's 

 Bay Company, those in control of this latter company immediately be- 

 gan to look for the great mine of copper, from which the Esquimaux 

 and Indians derived their supply of the metal, and as early as July 171 7 

 they sent out Richard Norton, a boy about seventeen years of age, who 

 had shown a great aptitude for learning the Chippewyan Indian language, 

 with two of these Indians. No account of Norton's journey has ever been 

 published, but from the remarks of Captain Middleton and Arthur Dobbs 

 it would appear that he spent about a year travelling with the Indians, 

 and there is a possibility that he went as far north as the Coppermine 

 River itself. At all events, judging from the reports brought back by 

 him and from the reports of the northern Indians, Captain Christopher 

 Middleton, F.R.S., writing in 1743, makes the following remarks: — 



"All the Indians I have ever conversed with, who were at the Copper- 

 mine, agree in this; that they were two Summers going thither, pointing 

 towards the north-west and Sun-setting, when at Churchill; and that 

 where this mine is, the sun, at a certain season .of the year, keeps run- 

 ning round the Horizon several times together, without setting. Now 

 we know from the Principles of Cosmography, that this cannot be true 

 of any place, whose latitude is less than 67 or 68 degrees, even allowing 

 for the effects of refraction; and if the credibility of the testimony of 

 these simple Indians be called in question, I can mention that of Mr. 

 Norton, who was Governor at Churchill above twenty years, and had 

 travelled almost a year north-westward by land with this country 

 Indians. This gentleman has often affirmed the same thing of the sun; 

 and that in his whole journey he met with no Salt River, nor tree, nor 

 shrub, but only moss; and that he and his retinue were reduced to such 

 extremity as to eat moss several days; having nothing else that could 

 serve them for sustenance but their leather breeches, which they eat up 

 also. Now it will appear, from a just trigonometrical computation, 

 that Churchill being in latitude 59°, and the mine In latitude 67°, and the 

 bearing N.W., the difference of longitude between Churchill and the mine 

 is 17° 45' (actually 11° 30'). But Wager River's entrance being in 

 latitude 65° 20', and 10 degrees of longitude east of Churchill, the dif- 

 ference of longitude between the mouth of the river and the mine is 27° 

 45', and their distance in the arc qf a great circle, or their nearest dis- 

 tance, no less than 700 miles. (Actual distance 900 miles.) From what 



