356 SIMPSON'S EXPLORATIONS— ISZ^-^^. 



tonian Prize," the highest reward of literary merit then given in that univer- 

 sity. And the determination, which had enabled him to carry off the highest 

 honour of his university in the year in which he attained his majority, had 

 evidently not yet deserted him ; for, having read mathematics with care and 

 profit for a few months, he started on the 1st December to walk from Red 

 River Settlement to Athabasca Lake, a distance of J 277 miles, which he 

 accomplished in sixty-two days. Twenty miles a day for two months must 

 be regarded as remarkable walking, when it is remembered that the route 

 layover a rugged and trackless waste, that the journey was performed in the 

 depth of winter, that the party nightly bivouacked on the snow, and that 

 Simpson himself invariably "raised the road" — i.e., led on in advance to 

 mark the track, a duty so fatiguing that it is usually taken for only an hour 

 at a time by the different members of a travelling party alternately. Of the 

 nature of this astonishing march, some idea may be formed from the fol- 

 lowing record, in Simpson's narrative, of one day's journey : " We were now 

 (23d December) at the commencement of a plain twenty miles in breadth, 

 which my guide required daylight to cross ; we therefore breakfasted and 

 started at seven o'clock. The wind blew strongly from the westward, and 

 to face it, where there was not even a shrub or blade of grass to break 

 its force, with a temperature of at least -40°, was a serious undertaking. 

 Muffling up our faces With shawls, pieces of blanket, and leather, in such a 

 manner as to leave only the eyes exposed, we braved the blast. Each eyelash 

 was speedily bedizened with a heavy crop of icicles, and we were obliged 

 every now and then to turn our backs to the wind and thaw off these ob- 

 structions with our half-frozen fingers. Early in the afternoon we reached 

 what are called the Cross Woods, where we were glad to make the best 

 lodging we could for the night, there being another wide prairie on the oppo- 

 site side. Notwithstanding every precaution, two of the men were injured 

 by the cold — one, a half-breed from Fort Pelly, who afterwards, at Carlton, 

 lamented his inability to dance in consequence of his frozen heels. Neither 

 bird nor beast was seen during the day, the intense cold having driven all 

 living things but ourselves to the shelter of the woods." 



On the 1st February, Simpson arrived at Fort Chipewyan on Athabasca 

 Lake. The construction of two boats for the voyage down to the Polar Sea 

 was at once proceeded with. By the close of May, the boats — light clinker- 

 built craft of twenty-four feet keel, and six feet beam, and each carrying two 

 lug sails — ^were finished, and were named " Castor" and " Pollux." In these 

 the expedition started from Fort Chipewyan on the 1st June, on its descent 

 to the sea, and arrived on the 10th at Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake. 

 Fort Simpson was reached on the 28th, and Fort Norman on the 1st July, 

 Here, according to his instructions, Simpson sent away a party of four of 

 his men to ascend Bear Lake River to Great Bear Lake, and to erect winter 



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