112 . ACROSS THE SUB-ARCTICSCOPr CA Aare 
west branch few rapids and no lakes exist between the 
confluence and the woodland district, which is perhaps 
in the vicinity of Great Slave or Clinton Golden Lake. 
Lakes occurring on the course of a river act as catch- 
basins to prevent the further passage of drift-wood. 
According to information obtained from the Eskimo, 
some distance up this river there were great numbers of 
his people engaged in: the building of kyacks. We 
would have been pleased to visit them, but deeming it 
unwise at this late season to go out of our way, we 
pulled on with the stream, which was now double its 
former strength and flowing again to the northward. 
Many geese were seen about the low grassy shores 
and islands, upon one of which latter camp was pitched 
on the evening of the 25th, and a great blazing, roaring 
fire of drift-wood kindled. 
It was hoped that henceforward for some time this 
supply of fuel might continue, for of late we had been 
entirely without fire for warming purposes. The miser- 
able smudges made of moss or ground birch mixed with 
deer tallow or sprinkled with alcohol were useful for 
the purpose of cooking our venison, but for nothing else. 
From camp on the morning of the 26th, for a distance 
of four or five miles, the river still flowed toward the 
Arctic, but in latitude 64° 41’ north it swerved around 
to the east, and then the south-east, and bore us down 
to the western extremity of a magnificent body of 
water, which has been named Aberdeen Lake, in honor 
of their Excellencies Lord and Lady Aberdeen. It was 
a lovely calm evening when the track of our canoes first 
rippled the waters of this lake, and as we landed at a 
bluff point on the north shore and from it gazed to the 
