196 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1771. and dispatch as is done with stones at Churchill River. By 



■"^ ^' their account the hills were entirely composed of that metal, 



all in handy lumps, like [174] a heap of pebbles. But their 



account differed so much from the truth, that I and almost all 



thick hed of dark, purplish-red felspar rock, similar to that observed at the 

 Rocky Defile (page 527), and associated, as at that place, with a rock composed 

 principally of light red felspar and quartz, but which is probably a species of 

 red secondary granite. At the Bloody Fall, the felspar rock is covered to the 

 depth of six or seven hundred feet with a bed of greyish white, and rather 

 tenacious clay, which being deeply intersected with ravines, forms steep hills. 

 Nearer the sea, the river is bounded by very steep cliffs of yellowish-white 

 sand ; and on the sea-coast, the above-mentioned red granite reappears on the 

 west bank of the river, forming a rugged ridge about two hundred and fifty feet 

 high " (" First Journey," pp. 528-530). 



Sir John Franklin makes the following reference to the Copper Mountains, 

 which he visited in July 1821 : 



"We rejoined our hunters at the foot of the Copper Mountains, and found 

 they had killed three musk-oxen. This circumstance determined us on encamp- 

 ing to dry the meat, as there was wood at the spot. We availed ourselves 

 of this delay to visit the Copper Mountains in search of specimens of the ore, 

 agreeably to my instructions ; and a party of twenty-one persons, consisting of 

 the officers, some of the voyagers, and all the Indians, set off on that excursion. 

 We travelled for nine hours over a considerable space of ground, but found only 

 a few small pieces of native copper. The range we ascended was on the west 

 side of the river, extending W.N.W. and E.S.E. The mountains varied in 

 height from twelve to fifteen hundred feet. The uniformity of the mountains is 

 interrupted by narrow valleys, traversed by small streams. The best specimens 

 of metal we procured were among the stones in these valleys, and it was in such 

 situations that our guides desired us to search most carefully. It would appear, 

 that when the Indians see any sparry substance projecting above the surface, 

 they dig there ; but they have no other rule to direct them, and have never 

 found the metal in its original repository. Our guides reported that they had 

 found copper in large pieces in every part of this range, for two days' walk to 

 the north-west, and that the Esquimaux come hither to search for it. The 

 annual visits which the Copper Indians were accustomed to make to these 

 mountains, when most of their weapons and utensils were made of copper, have 

 been discontinued since they have been enabled to obtain a supply of ice-chisels 

 and other instruments of iron by the establishment of trading posts near their 

 hunting grounds. That none of those who accompanied us had visited them 

 for many years was evident, from their ignorance of the spots most abundant 

 in metal. 



" The impracticability of navigating the river upwards from the sea, and the 

 want of wood for forming an establishment, would prove insuperable objections 

 to rendering the collection of copper at this part worthy of mercantile specula- 

 tion" (" First Journey," p. 34°- 0-] 



