In the Arctic Regions. 25 



slip from the summit of a ruck into the river, betwixt 

 two of the falls. My attempts to regain the bank 

 were, for a time, ineffectual, owing to the rocks within 

 my reach having been worn smooth by the action of 

 the water, but after I had been carried a considerable 

 distauce down the stream, I caught hold of a willow, 

 by which I held until two gentlemen of the Hudson's 

 Bay Company came in a boat to my assistance. The 

 only lad consequence of this accident was an injury 

 sustained by a very valuable chronometer, (No. 1733,) 

 belonging to Daniel Moore, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn. 

 One of the gentlemen, to whom I delivered it imme- 

 diately on landing, in his agitation let it fall, whereby 

 the minute-hand was broken, but the works were not 

 in the smallest degree injured, and the loss of the 

 hand was afterwards supplied. 



During the night the frost was severe, and at sun- 

 rise, on the 3d, the thermometer stood at 25°. After 

 Leaving our encampment at the White Fall, we 

 passed through several small lakes connected with 

 each other by narrow, deep, grassy streams, and at 

 noon arrived at the Painted Stone. Numbers of 

 musk-rats frequent these streams, and we observed, 

 in the course of the morning, many of their mud- 

 houses rising in a conical form to the height of two 

 or three feet above the grass of the swamps in which 

 the\ ate built. 



