2o6 The Ottawa Naturalist. 



seeing white men or obtaining supplies from others until the 

 close of the season of open water. 



Early in July we began the ascent of Chipman river, with- 

 out anything to guide us but the determination to keep con- 

 stantly forcing our way up the stream until we had reached its 

 source. To give you some idea of the difficulties of travelling 

 in this way, I may mention that we spent the whole of one 

 valuable day searching the shores of a small lake, and at last we 

 found the river that we wished to ascend onl)' four miles, or one 

 hour's travel, from where we had entered it. On the shores of 

 Selwyn Lake, at the head of the river, we met a small band of In- 

 dians, but they declared that they knew nothing about the country 

 -further north, except that it was swarming with cannibal Eskimos 

 who would certainly eat us. This may seem very ridiculous to us, 

 but it was very dispiriting to our Indian canoe-men, some of 

 whom immediately endeavoured to leave us. 



From the north end of Selwyn Lake we crossed the height 

 of'land, here an almost level plain, to the shore of Daly Lake, 

 and our search for its outlet began. When the river was found 

 we determined to follow it, if possible, wherever the current 

 would take us, whether to the Arctic Ocean or to Hudson Bay. 

 The Chippewyans had told us that a river called Telzoa (or 

 wide shallow) river flowed northward from this lake to To' bon 

 Lake, that their fathers used to travel down it as far as that 

 lake, but that its character was unknown to them. 



We descended this river for 700 miles, often with many 

 misgivings, and with many precious days lost in search of our 

 course, until, on the second of September, we reached the head of 

 Chesterfield Inlet where some of the old explorers of last century, 

 in search of a north-west passage, had been before us. We had 

 accomplished what we had started out to do, and had surveyed 

 a line through the very middle of the unknown region. Thence 

 we travelled down and surveyed Chesterfield Inlet and the west 

 shore of Hudson Bay as far as Fort Churchill, where we arrived, 

 very much exhausted, on the i6th of October. 



On the following spring I was again sent northward to 

 further explore the same region, and this time I was accom- 



