204 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1 77 1. Soon after we had left the Coppermine, there came on a 



•^"^" thick fog with rain, and at intervals heavy showers of snow. 

 This kind of weather continued for some days ; and at times 

 it was so thick, that we were obliged to stop for several hours 

 together, as we were unable to see our way, and the road was 

 remarkably rocky and intricate. 



22d. At three o'clock in the morning of the twenty-second, 

 Matonabbee's brother and one of the Copper Indians, who 

 had been first dispatched ahead from Congecathawhachaga, 

 overtook us. During their absence they had not discovered 

 any Indians who could have been serviceable to my expedition. 

 They had, however, been at the Copper River, and seeing 

 some marks set up there to direct them to return, they had 

 made the best of their way, and had not slept from the time 

 they left the river till they joined us, though the distance was 

 not less than a hundred miles. When they arrived we were 

 asleep, but we soon awakened, and began to proceed on our 

 journey. That day we walked forty-two miles ; and in our 

 way passed Buffalo Lake : at night, we put up about the middle 

 of the Stony Mountains. The weather was excessively hot 

 and sultry. 



23d. [i 84] On the twenty-third, the weather continued much the 

 same as on the preceding day. Early in the morning we set 

 out, and walked forty-five miles the first day, during which 

 the Indians killed several fine fat buck deer. 



24th. About one o'clock in the morning of the twenty-fourth, 

 we stopped and took a little refreshment, as we had also done 

 about noon the preceding day ; but the Indians had been so 

 long from their wives and families, that they promised not to 

 sleep till they saw them, especially as we were then in sight of 

 the hills of Congecathawhachaga,^ where we had left the last of 



[^ The party had thus reached Congecathawhachaga on the morning of the 

 seventh day after leaving Bloody Falls or the mouth of the Coppermine River, 

 the distance in a direct line being about one hundred and sixty miles. If they 

 travelled in a direct line they averaged twenty-five miles a day, but the windings 

 of the journey would add something to this distance.] 



