ON THE LOWEE DUBAWNT 



During the whole of the 25th our course continued to be 

 westerly and north-westerly, and because of this we began to 

 feel anxious. We had now passed the latitude of Baker Lake, 

 whither, according to information obtained from, the Eskimos, 

 we were expecting the river to take us. Instead of drawing 

 nearer to it, we were heading away toward the Back or Great 

 Eish River, which discharges its waters into the Arctic Ocean, 

 and which was, on our present course, distant only two days' 

 journey. 



Towards evening, however, a marked change was observed 

 in the character of the river. The banks grew lower and con- 

 sisted of soft, coarse-grained sandstone. The water became 

 shallow and the channel broadened out into a little lake, con- 

 taining numerous shoals and low islands of sand. Just be- 

 yond this, much to our surprise and pleasure, we suddenly 

 came upon abundance of drift-wood — ^not little sticks of wil- 

 low or ground birch, but the trunks of trees six or eight inches 

 in diameter, as heavy as two men could carry. 'No growing 

 trees were to be seen in the district, nor had we seen any 

 during the previous three or four hundred miles of our 

 journey. At first, therefore, the occurrence of the wood 

 seemed unaccountable, but the theory soon suggested ■ itself 

 that we must be close to the confluence of some other stream 

 flowing through a wooded country. No other could account 

 for its existence in this remote region, and accordingly this 

 theory was borne out by the discovery, within a short distance, 

 of a river as large as the Dubawnt, flowing in from the west- 

 ward and with it mingling its dark-colored waters. 



The abundance and condition of the drift-wood, which was 

 not badly battered, would indicate that upon the west branch* 

 few rapids and no lakes exist between the confluence and the 



*Since the original publication of this book the author has had 

 the pleasure and satisfaction of exploring this " west branch," now 

 named the Thelon River, an exceedingly fine and interesting stream, 

 and of discovering a timbered area of one hundred and seventy- 

 miles in length along the river valley. 



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