2?orth-West Continent of America, 



67 



which had just begun to fly. The English Chief was very 

 much irritated against one of his young men : that jealousy 

 occasioned this uneasiness, and that it was not without 

 very sufficient cause, was all I could discover. For the 

 last two or three days we had eaten the liquorice-root, of 

 which there is great abundance on the banks of the river. 

 We found it a powerful astringent. 



Friday 31. The rain was continual throughout the 

 night, and did not subside till nine this morning, when we 

 renewed our progress. The wind and weather the same 

 as yesterday. About three in the afternoon it cleared up, 

 and the wind died away, when it became warm. At five 

 the wind veered to the East, and brought cold along with 

 it. There were plenty of hurtle berries, raspberries, and 

 a berry called Poire, which grows in the greatest abund- 

 ance. We were very much impeded in our way by shoals 

 of sand and small stones, which render the water shallow 

 at' a distance from the shore. In other places the bank of 

 the river is lofty ; it is formed of black earth and sand, 

 and, as it is continually falling, displayed to us, in some 

 parts, a face of solid ice, to within a foot of the surface. 

 We finished this day's voyage at a quarter before eight, 

 and in the course of it killed seven geese. 



We now had recourse to our corn, for we had only con- 

 sumed three days of our original provision since we began 

 to mount the current. It w as my intention to have as- 

 cended the river on the South side from the last rapid, to 

 discover if there were any rivers of consequence that flow 

 from the Westward : but the sand-banks were so numerous, 

 and the current so strong, that I was compelled to traverse 

 to the opposite side, where the eddy currents are very 

 frequent, which gave us an opportunity of setting ournets> 

 and making much more head-way. 



