NORTHERN OCEAN 187 



Having finished this business, we set out on our return, 1771. 

 and walked about twelve miles to the South by East, when we^"^' 

 stopped and took a little sleep, which was the first time that 

 any of us had closed our eyes from the fifteenth instant, and 

 it was now six o'clock in the morning of the eighteenth. 

 Here the Indians killed a musk-ox, but the moss being very 

 wet, we could not make a fire, so that we were obliged to eat 

 the meat raw, which was' intolerable, as it happened to be an 

 old beast. 



Before I proceed farther on my return, it may not be 

 improper to give some account of the river, and the country 

 adjacent ; its productions, and the animals which constantly 

 inhabit those dreary regions, as well as those that only 

 migrate thither in Summer, in order to breed and rear their 

 young, unmolested by man. That I may do this to better 



Esquimaux, we had no doubt of this being the place. This rapid is a sort of 

 shelving cascade, about three hundred yards in length, having a descent of 

 from ten to fifteen feet. It is bounded on each side by high walls of red sand- 

 stone, upon which rests a series of lofty green hills. The surrounding scenery 

 was accurately delineated in a sketch taken by Mr. Hood" ("First Journey," 



PP- 349-350). 



In 1838 Thomas Simpson determined the latitude of Bloody Falls as 

 67° 42' 52" (" Narrative of Discoveries,'' Thomas Simpson, p. 261). 



Sir John'Richardson revisited the lower part of the Coppermine River in 

 1826, and again in 1848, and he knew it better than any other white man. 

 Speaking of Hearne, he says : " His description of the lower part of the 

 Coppermine River is evidently that of one who has been on the spot." 



" He appears to have fallen on the Coppermine River first at the Sandstone 

 rapids of Franklin, and to have traced it to Bloody Falls ; but as, contrarj^ to 

 his usual practice, he under-rates the distance from thence to the coast, we are 

 led to conclude that he did not actually go down to the sea, but was content to 

 view it from the top of the hill which overhangs the falls ; and, indeed, it is 

 not very probable that he could have induced the Indians, over whom he had 

 little influence, to accompany him on his survey, after they had completed the 

 massacre which was the object of their long and laborious journey ; nor, had 

 he gone actually to the mouth of the river, would he have mentioned marks of 

 a tide fourteen feet high" (Back, pp. 1 47-1 51). 



Hearne's^description of the occurrence of the timber on the banks of the 

 river, is particularly accurate, and I am inclined to give him credit for having 

 been at or near the mouth of the river, even though his statement in regard to 

 the rise and fall of the tide is inaccurate.] 



