6 Journal of a Voyage through the 



sage, but has since been carried away. The course of 

 this river is meandering, and tends to the North, and in 

 about ten miles falls into the Slave Lake, where we arriv- 

 ed at nine in the morning, when we found a great change 

 in the weather, as it was become extremely cold. The 

 lake was entirely covered with ice, and did not seem, in 

 any degree, to have given way, but near the shore. The 

 gnats and niusquitoes, which were very troublesome during 

 our passage along the river, did not venture to accompany 

 us to this colder region. 



The banks of the river, both above and below the rapids, 

 <&rere on both sides covered with the various kinds of wood 

 common to this country ; particularly the Western side ; 

 the land being lower and consisting of a rich, black soil. 

 This artificial ground is carried down by the stream, and 

 rests upon drift wood, so as to be eight or ten feet deep. 

 The eastern banks are more elevated, and the soil a yeU 

 low clay, mixed with gravel j so that the trees are neither 

 feo large or numerous as on the opposite shore. The 

 ground was not thawed above fourteen inches in depth J 

 notwithstanding the leaf was at its full growth ; while along 

 the lake there was scarcely any appearance of verdure. 



The Indians informed me, that, at a very small distance 

 from either bank of the river, are very extensive plains^ 

 frequented by large herds of buffaloes ; while the moose 

 and rein-deer keep in the woods that border on it. The 

 beavers, which are in great numbers, build their habitations 

 In the small lakes and rivers, as, in the larger streams, 

 the ice carries every thing along with it, during the spring. 

 The mud-banks in the river are covered with wild fowl ; 

 and we this morning killed two swans, ten geese, and one 

 beaver, without suffering the delay of an hour ; so that we 

 might have soon filled the canoe with them, if that had 

 been our object. x 



From the small river we steered East, along the inside 

 of a long sand-bank, covered with drift wood and enlivened 

 by a few willows, which stretches on as far as the houses 

 erected by Messrs. Grant and Le Roux, in 1786. Wd 

 often ran aground, as for five successive miles the depth 

 of the water no where exceeded three feet. There we 

 found our people, who had arrived early in the morning, 

 and whom we had not seen since the preceding Sunday. 

 We now unloaded the canoe, and pitched our tents, as 

 there was every appearance that we should be obliged to* 



