NORTHERN OCEAN 127 



met [87] with in great abundance in scattered herds ; so 1771- 

 that my companions killed as many as they pleased with 

 their guns. 



We still continued our course to the West and West by April. 

 South, and on the eighth of April, arrived at a small Lake, 

 called Thelewey-aza-yeth ; ^ but with what propriety it is so 

 called I cannot discover, for the meaning of Thelewey-aza- 

 yeth is Little Fish Hill : probably so called from a high hill 

 which stands on a long point near the West end of the Lake. 

 On an island in this Lake we pitched our tents, and the 

 Indians finding deer very numerous, determined to stay here 

 some time, in order to dry and pound meat to take with us ; 

 for they well knew, by the season of the year, that the deer 

 were then drawing out to the barren ground, and as the 

 Indians proposed to walk due North on our leaving the Lake, 

 it was uncertain when we should again meet with any more. 

 As several Indians had during the Winter joined our party, 

 our number had now increased to seven tents, which in the 

 whole contained not less than seventy persons. 



Agreeably to the Indians' proposals we remained at 

 Thelewey-aza-yeth ten days ; during which time my com- 

 panions were busily employed (at their intervals from hunting) 

 in preparing small staves of birch-wood, about one and a 

 quarter inch square, and seven or eight feet long. These 

 serve as tent-poles all the Summer, [88] while on the barren 

 ground ; and as the fall advances, are converted into snow- 



[^ The exact position of this lake (Thelewey-aza-yeth) has not yet been 

 determined. In the text it is given in latitude 6i° 30' north, longitude 19° 

 west of Prince of Wales Fort, while on the map it is placed in latitude 61° 15' 

 and 19° 30' west of Prince of Wales Fort, or one hundred and fifty miles west of 

 Wholdiah Lake. The direction travelled from the crossing of Wholdiah Lake 

 is shown as a little south of west, and as the south end of the latter lake is in 

 latitude 60° 20', it is reasonable to suppose that Thelewey-aza-yeth Lake is at least 

 a degree farther south than it is shown on the map, and, judging from the 

 known approximate position of Hill Island Lake, which he crossed on his way 

 back from the Coppermine, it is much farther east than the position assigned to 

 it on the map. 



