xlviii 
INTRODUCTION. 
Copper-mine River; and was not a little Unprized to find 
it differ lb much, from the defcriptions given of it by the 
natives at the fort; for, inftead of being likely to be navi¬ 
gable for a fhip, it is, at this part, fcarcely navigable for an 
Indian canoe; three falls being in fight, at one view, and 
being choaked up with flroals and ftony ridges. 
Here Mr. Hearne began his furvey of the river. This he 
continued till he arrived at its mouth, near which his 
Northern Indians maflacred twenty-one Efquimaux, whom 
they lurprized in their tents. We lhall give Mr. Hearne’s 
account of his arrival at the fea, in his own words : 44 After 
a the Indians had plundered the tents of the Efquimaux of 
44 all the copper, &:c. they were then again ready to aflifl 
44 me in making an end to the furvey-; the fea then in fight 
44 from the North Welf by Well to the North Eaft, dillant 
44 about eight miles. It was then about five in the morning 
44 of the 17th, when I again proceeded to furvey the river to 
44 the mouth, Hill found, in every refpedt, no ways likely, 
44 or a poffibility of being made navigable, being full of 
44 fhoals and falls; and, at the entrance, the river emptying 
44 itlelf over a dry flat of the Ihore. For the tide was then 
44 out, and leemed, by the edges of the ice, to flow about 
44 twelve or fourteen feet, which will only reach a little 
44 within the river’s mouth. That being the cafe, the wa- 
64 ter in the river had not the leail brackilh tafte. But I am 
44 fure of its being the fea, or fome part thereof, by the 
44 quantity of whale-bone and feal-fkins the Efquimaux had 
44 at their tents; as alfo the number of feals which I faw 
44 upon the ice. The fea, at the river’s mouth, was full 
44 of iflands and fhoals, as far as I could fee, by the aflift- 
44 a nee of a pocket telefcope; and the ice was not yet broken 
44 up> only thawed away about three quarters of a mile 
- from 
