2o6 . Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [vol. ix 



"The Company avoid all they can making Discoveries to north- 

 ward of^^ Churchill, — 



"But tho' they are fully informed of a fine copper mine on a navi- 

 gable arm of the sea north-westward of Whale Cove, and the Indians 

 have offered to carry their Sloops to it, yet their fear of discovering the 

 passage puts bounds to their avarice, and prevents their going to the mine, 

 which by all accounts is very rich; yet those who have been at Whale 

 Cove own, that from thence northwards is all broken land, and that after 

 passing some islands, they from the hills see the sea open, leading to the 

 westward ; — 



"Churchill River, in Lat. 59° a noble river, navigable for 150 leagues, 

 and after passing the falls, navigable again to far distant countries, 

 abounding in mines of Copper." 



"Scroggs, in his journey northward in 1722 had two Northern In- 

 dians with him, who had wintered at Churchill, and told him of a rich 

 copper mine somewhere in that country, upon the shore, near the sur- 

 face of the earth, and they could direct the sloop so near it, as to lay her 

 side to it, and be soon loaden with it; they had brought some pieces of 

 copper from it to Churchill, that made it evident there was a mine there- 

 abouts. " 



About the same time an acrid discussion was carried on between 

 Arthur Dobbs, and Captain Christopher Middleton, Captain of the 

 "Furnace" as to the honesty of the latter in endeavouring to find a 

 north-west passage in 1 741-2, and while the main points in the discussion 

 are of little interest, the disputants published four books which contain 

 some useful information about Hudson's Bay and the adjoining country. 

 The quotation from Captain Middleton published on p. 203 is from one 

 of these books. The following references to the Coppermine River also 

 occur in them. 



Edward Thompson, Surgeon (of the Furnace) is quoted as stating: 



*" Likewise, the two Indians gave us an Account of a river or straits, 

 salt-water and deep, a great number of large black fish, spouting up the 

 water, and that they were five days in crossing it, and that there was a 

 copper mine upon the side of this river or strait, and by the best accounts 

 I could gather from them, it was somewhere hereabouts; and when we 

 left Brook Cobham, and sailed to the north-eastward, they told us, that 

 that was not the way to the copper mine, but were going from it. " 



And also: 



♦1" These two Indians left their wives and families, and came on 

 board entirely to show us the copper mine before mentioned. " 



• A Vindication, 1743, p. 186. 

 •1 Op. cit. p. 189. 



