282 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1772. female relation of mine had been there, she should have been 

 ^" ■ served in the same manner. 



Deer being plentiful, we remained at this place ten days, 

 in order to dry and prepare a quantity of the flesh and fat to 

 carry with us ; as this was the last time the Indians expected 

 to see such plenty until they met them again on the barren 

 ground. During our stay here, the Indians completed the 

 wood-work for their canoes, and procured all their Summer 

 tent-poles, &c. ; and while we were employed in this necessary 

 business, the thaw was so great that the bare ground began 

 to appear in many places, and the ice in the rivers, where the 

 water was shallow and the current rapid, began to break up ; 

 so that we were in daily expectation of seeing geese, ducks, 

 and other birds of passage. 



25ih. On the twenty-fifth, the weather being cool and favourable 

 for travelling, we once more set out, and that [287] day walked 

 twenty miles to the Eastward ; as some of the women had not 

 joined us, we did not move on the two following days. 



28ih. On the twenty-eighth, having once more mustered all our 

 forces, early in the morning we set out, and the next day 

 passed by Thleweyaza Yeth,^ the place at which we had pre- 

 pared wood-work for canoes in the Spring one thousand seven 

 hundred and seventy-one. 



May. As the morning of the first of May was exceedingly fine 

 ' and pleasant, with a light air from the South, and a great thaw, 

 we walked eight or nine miles to the East by North, when a 

 heavy fall of snow came on, which was followed, or indeed 

 more properly accompanied, by a hard gale of wind from the 

 North West. At the time the bad weather began, we were on 

 the top of a high barren hill, a considerable distance from any 



[* The latitude of this lake had been determined by Hearne as 61° 30' north, 

 as previously stated on p. 127, and he had placed it on his map in latitude 

 61° 15' north. In making the journey to the Coppermine River and back to 

 the lake, he had occupied a httle more than a year, having left it on April iSth, 

 1771, and returned to it on April 29th, 1772.] 



