58 INTRODUCTION 



puscow country), there is undoubtedly a greater scarcity of 

 vegetable productions than at the Company's most Northern 

 Settlement ; and to the Eastward of the woods, on the barren 

 grounds, whether hills or vallies, there is a total want of 

 herbage except moss, on which the deer feed ; a few dwarf 

 willows creep among the moss ; some wish-a-capucca and a 

 little grass may be seen here and there, but the latter is 

 scarcely sufficient to serve the geese and other birds of passage 

 during their short stay in those parts, though they are always 

 in a state of migration, except when they are breeding and in a 

 moulting state. 



In consequence of my complying with the Company's request, 

 and undertaking this Journey, it is natural to suppose that 

 every necessary arrangement was made for the easier keeping of 

 my reckoning, &c., under the many inconveniences I must be 

 unavoidably obliged to labour in such an expedition. I drew 

 a Map on a large skin of parchment, that contained twelve 

 degrees of latitude [xliv] North, and thirty degrees of longi- 

 tude West, of Churchill Factory, and sketched all the West 

 coast of the Bay on it, but left the interior parts blank, to be 

 filled up during my Journey. I also prepared detached pieces 

 on a much larger scale for every degree of latitude and 

 longitude contained in the large Map. On those detached pieces 

 I pricked off my daily courses and distance, and entered all 

 lakes and rivers, &c., that I met with ; endeavouring, by 

 a strict enquiry of the natives, to find out the communication 

 of one river with another, as also their connections with the 

 many lakes with which that country abounds : and when 

 opportunity offered, having corrected them by observations, 

 I entered them in the general Map. These and several other 

 necessary preparations, for the easier, readier, and more cor- 

 rectly keeping my Journal and Chart, were also adopted ; but 

 as to myself, little was required to be done, as the nature of 

 travelling long journies in those countries will never admit 

 of carrying even the most common article of clothing ; so 



