14 Journal of a Voyage through the 



packages that had come in the canoes of M. Le Roux, 

 We were saluted on our departure with some vollies of 

 email arms, which we returned, and steered South by West 

 straight across the bay, which is here no more than two 

 miles and a half broad, but, from the accounts of the na- 

 tives, it is fifteen leagues in depth, with a much greater 

 breadth in several parts, and full of islands. I sounded in 

 the course of the traverse and found six fathoms with a, 

 sandy bottom. Here, the land has a very different appear- 

 ance from that on which we have been since we entered the 

 lake. Till we arrived here there was one continued view 

 of high hills and islands of solid rock, whose surface was 

 occasionally enlivened with moss, shrubs, and a few scat- 

 tered trees, of a very stinted growth from an insufficiency 

 of soil to nourish them. But, notwithstanding their bar- 

 ren appearance, almost every part of them produces berries 

 of various kinds, such as cranberries, juniper-berries, 

 raspberries, partridge-berries, gooseberries, and the path- 

 agomenan, which is something like a raspberry; it grows 

 on a small stalk about a foot and a half high, in wet, mossy 

 spots. These fruits are in great abundance, though they 

 are not to be found in the same places, but in situations 

 and aspects suited to their peculiar natures. 



The land which borders the lake in this part is loose and 

 sandy, but is well covered with wood, composed of trees 

 of a larger growth: it gradually rises from the shore, and 

 at some distance forms a ridge of high land running along 

 the coast, thick with wood and a rocky summit rising 

 above it. 



We steered South- South- East nine miles, when we 

 were very much interrupted by drifting ice, and with 

 some difficulty reached an island, where we landed at seven* 

 I immediately proceeded to the further part of it, in order 

 to discover if there was any probability of our being able 

 to get from thence in the course of the day. It is about 

 five miles in circumference, and I was very much surpris- 

 ed to find that the greater part of the wood with which it 

 was formerly covered, had been cut down within twelve 

 or fifteen years, and that the remaining stumps were be- 

 come altogether rotten. On making inquiry concerning 

 the cause of this extraordinary circumstance, the English 

 Chief informed me, that several winters ago, many of the 

 Slave Indians inhabited the islands that were scattered 

 over the bay, as the surrounding waters abound with fish. 



