JOURNEY TO THE NORTHERN OCEAN 253 



for more than two days — Kill several deer — The Indians method of 

 preserving the flesh without the assistance of salt — See several Indians 

 that were going to Knapfs Bay — Game of all kinds remarkably plenti- 

 ful — Arrive at the Factory. 



A FTER expending some days in hunting beaver, we 1772. 

 / % proceeded to cross the Athapuscow Lake; but as-'^^"^'^* 

 J. m. we had lost much time in hunting deer and beaver, 

 which were very plentiful on some of the islands, it was the 

 ninth of January before we arrived on the South side. 9tb. 



This lake, from the best information which I could get 

 from the natives, is about one hundred and twenty leagues 

 long from East to West, and twenty wide from North to 

 South. The point where we crossed it is said to be the 

 narrowest. It is full of islands ; most of which are clothed 

 with fine tall poplars, birch, and pines, and are well stocked 

 with Indian deer. On some of the large islands we also found 

 several beaver ; but this must be understood only of such 

 islands as had large ponds in them ; for not one beaver-house 

 was to be seen on the margin of any of them.^ 



The lake is stored with great quantities of very fine fish ; 

 particularly between the islands, which in some [249] parts are 



\} Great Slave Lake is 288 miles long from east to west, very irregular in 

 width, and its area is about 10,400 square miles, being the fifth in size among 

 the great lakes of America. However, no reasonably complete survey has yet 

 been made of it. The place where he crossed it from north to south is on the 

 regular Indian route through the Simpson Islands. A fish peculiar to this lake 

 is the inconnu (see p. 254, note 2), which does not ascend the McKenzie River 

 above the rapids at Fort Smith, and is not found in Athabasca Lake, so that if 

 any confirmation were needed of the identity of his lake with Great Slave Lake, 

 Hearne's reference to this fish would in itself be quite convincing. Hearne was 

 the first white man to visit this lake, for it was not till 1785, between thirteen 

 and fourteen years after his visit, that the traders of the North-West Company 

 from Montreal reached and built a trading-post on it, east of the mouth of the 

 Slave River. On Peter Pond's map of 1785, republished by L. J. Burpee, in his 

 " Search for the Western Sea," 1908, page 182, the following interesting note is 

 written across the space N.E. of Great Slave Lake : " Orchipoins Country et 

 Road to Churchill," showing clearly that Pond knew of the trade carried on by 

 the northern Indians with the Hudson's Bay Company at Churchill.] 



