NORTHERN OCEAN 293 



Deer now began to be not quite so plentiful as they had 1772. 

 been, though we met with enough for present use, which-'""*' 

 was all we wanted, each person having as much dried meat 

 as he could conveniently carry, besides his furrs and other 

 necessary baggage. 



Early in the morning of the twenty-sixth we arrived at 26th. 

 Seal River;* but the wind blowing right up it, made [301] so 

 great a sea, that we were obliged to wait near ten hours before 

 we could venture to cross it in our little canoes. [302] In the 

 afternoon the weather grew more moderate, so that we were 

 enabled to ferry over the river ; after which we resumed our 

 journey, and at night pitched our tents in some tufts of 

 willows in sight of the woods of Po-co-thee-kis-co River, 



* Mr. Jeremie is very incorrect in his account of the situation of this 

 River, and its course. It is not easy to guess, whether the Copper or Dog- 

 ribbed Indians be the nation he calls Platscotez de Chiens : if it be the former, 

 he is much mistaken ; for they have abundance of beaver, and other animals 

 of the furr kind, in their country : and if the latter, he is equally wrong to 

 assert that they have copper-mines in their country ; for neither copper nor 

 any other kind of metal is in use among them. 



Mr. Jeremie was not too modest when he said, (see Dobb's Account of 

 Hudson's Bay, p. 19,) "he could not say any thing posi'tively in going farther 

 North;" for in my opinion he never was so far North or West as he 

 pretends, otherwise he would have been more correct in his description of 

 those parts. 



The Strait he mentions is undoubtedly no other than what is now called 

 Chesterfield's Inlet, which, in some late and cold seasons, is not clear of ice 

 the whole Summer : for I will affirm, that no Indian, either Northern or 

 Southern, ever saw either Wager Water or Repulse Bay, except the two men 

 who accompanied Captain Middleton ; and though those men were selected 

 from some hundreds for their universal knowledge of those parts, yet they 

 knew nothing of the coast so far North as Marble Island. 



As a farther proof, that no Indians, except the Esquimaux, ever frequent 

 such high latitudes, unless at a great distance from the sea, I must here 

 mention, that so late as the year 1763, when Captain Christopher went to 

 survey Chesterfield's Inlet, though he was furnished with the most intelligent 

 and experienced Northern Indians that could be found, they did not know an 

 inch of the land to the North of Whale Cove. 



Mr. Jeremie is also as much mistaken in what he says concerning Churchill 

 River, as he was in the direction of Seal River ; for he says that no woods were 

 found but in some islands which lie about ten or twelve miles up the river. At 



