"SUPPLY" OOMIAK ABANDONED. 457 



bosom of the Mackenzie, six or seven miles to the westward of Point 

 Separation. 



"At 12.30," writes PuUen, concluding the narrative of his explorations 

 for 1849, " we landed on Point Separation, and opened Sir John Richard- 

 son's cache, in which were deposited a large case of pemmican, and a note 

 dated July 31st, 1848 ; with these I placed three small cases (equal to the 

 large one in weight), and a note of my proceedings — closed all up again, and 

 proceeded, crossing to the right bank, and commenced tracking up the river. 

 Sir John's note gave me to understand that we were to go on to Fort Simp- 

 son and winter on the Great Slave Lake, and that Fort Good Hope might 

 be reached by tracking in five days. Until our arrival at the Peel station 

 (Fort M'Pherson), I had been labouring under the idea that it would take 

 us only a day and a half, for this time was specified in my- orders. After 

 these proceedings, we stepped out with a good will over a shingly beach ; 

 but how long the men would be able to keep up the pace they were now at 

 was a subject of anxious speculation to me. I did not expect a long con- 

 tinuance of it, as the work is of a nature to which they were utterly unac- 

 customed ; and, besides, they were equipped with heavy sea-boots, an article 

 quite unsuitable for walking in during any long period. On the morning of 

 the 11th, I determined on abandoning the ' Supply ' (oomiak), as she was 

 impeding our progress very much. Sorry I was to do so, for I had. hoped 

 to carry her to England as a specimen of the naval architecture of the 

 western Eskimos, and for the good service she had rendered us. But there 

 was no help for it, and I had yet to learn that we could take none of our 

 boats much farther with us, as they were not adapted for the river work. The 

 ' Supply ' was certainly a great drag on the trackers, who were beginning 

 to feel the work terribly, for the beach frequently and for long distances 

 no longer consisted now of light shingle, as we had first found it, but was 

 composed of heavy round stones, which were the source of continued an- 

 noyance and of frequent heavy falls to the sailors as they marched on in 

 their cumbrous boots. The skin of the oomiak was stripped ofi", cut into 

 three pieces, and, together with other stores, stowed in the ' Logan,' making 

 her lie very deep in the water, particularly when nine men got into her, 

 but then she was lighter on the line, and we certainly got on faster ; and 

 as a strong breeze now sprang up and continued all day, our distance from 

 our destined goal was considerably shortened by evening, when we stopped 

 to encamp. While the wind continued, we dared not keep any distance from 

 the shore, for fear of serious consequence to our boat in her loaded state, for 

 the strong breeze against the downward current raised a sea quite heavy 

 enough to overwhelm a much larger craft than ours, and not a little alarmed 

 our pilot (an Orkneyman), who styled it ' very wrothy.' This we might 

 have avoided, certainly, if we had left the skin of the ' Supply ' behind ; but. 

 9 3 m 



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