THE ESKIMO PEOPLE. 469 



reached Fort Chepewyan. From this post the boats proceeded north by 

 Slave River, and the explorers entered Great Slave Lake on the morning of 

 the 17th, and arrived at Fort Resolution before mid-day. The expedition 

 reached Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie River, on the 22d July, and Fort 

 Norman on the 26th. On the 31st, the expedition stopped at Point Separa- 

 tion, where Richardson made a cache, of a case of pemmican, to be used in 

 case of necessity by the boat expedition of the "Plover," under Pullen. 

 " We dug the pit," says Richardson, " at the distance of ten feet from the 

 best grown tree on the point, and placed in it, along with the pemmican, 

 a bottle containing a memorandum of the objects of the expedition, and 

 such information respecting the Company's post as I judged would be useful 

 to the boat party of the ' Plover,' should they reach this river. The lower 

 branches of the tree were lopped off, a part of its trunk denuded of bark, and 

 a broad arrow painted thereon with red paint." As we have seen in the 

 preceding chapter, the cache was discovered, and the pemmican obtained by 

 those for whom it was intended. 



The actual work of Richardson's expedition only commenced after his 

 boats had reached the mouth of the Mackenzie, and having arrived at the 

 estuary of that great river, he endeavoured to stimulate his crews " to an 

 active look-out, by promising ten pounds to the first man who should an- 

 nounce the discovery ships." The actual searching voyage eastward along 

 the Arctic coasts was commenced early on the morning of the 3d August. 

 On that day a large number of Eskimos came off from shore in their kayaks 

 and oomiaks. They were predatory and mischievous as usual, and would 

 have been dangerous had they not been overawed by the levelled muskets of 

 the Europeans. On being examined respecting the discovery ships, they one 

 and all denied having ever seen any white people, or heard of any vessels having 

 been on their coasts. Richardson's description of the Eskimos is graphic, 

 brief, and well-informed. Its insertion here may save recapitulation at 

 another time : " The Eskimos are essentially a littoral people, and inhabit 

 nearly five thousand miles of sea-board, from the Straits of Belleisle to the 

 Peninsula of Alaska, not taking into the measurement the various indenta- 

 tions of the coast line, nor including West and East Greenland, in which 

 latter locality they make their nearest approach to the western coasts of the 

 old world. Throughout the linear range here indicated, there is no material 

 change in their language, nor any variation beyond what would be esteemed 

 in England a mere provincialism. Albert (Richardson's interpreter), who 

 was born on the East Main, or western shore of James's Bay, had no great 

 difficulty in understanding and making himself understood by the Eskimos 

 of the estuary of the Mackenzie, though by the nearest coast line the dis- 

 tance between the two localities is at least two thousand five hundred miles. 

 Traces of their encampments have been discovered as far north in the New 



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